more ODD oddcoupling...

I have a massive headache so we'll see how far I actually get into
this before I quit for the night, but we sat down with some "Friday
Pizza" from Safeway (because I was craving pepperoni) and rootbeer
tonight to watch the second debate. I missed the vice presidential
debate the other night because of church, but being as big a political
junkie as I am, I couldn't bear the thought of missing another debate.

When I got out of high school and started working at the public access
station, I think I became even more of a political junkie than I HAD
been because we would do extensive local election coverage culminating
in live election results on the air. There's always something electric
about live television, and everything that went into getting the
election night show on the air from running to city halls to find out
where the results are, to coordinating candidates to interviews, to
communicating with the field locations made for a lot of excitement.

I still remember the 1997 election night. I didn't need to be at the
station right away that night so I had the chance to go and see
Sixpence None the Richer do a little acoustic set at a local bookstore
and pick up their album that had just come out on Steve Taylor's
SQUINT label. They were in the midst of flying from Columbus (I think)
on a whirlwind promotional tour. I found this from a press release on
rec.music.christian

During the first week of Sixpence None the Richer's album release, the band
embarked on a 6 day, 12 city promotional tour, making appearances at Christian
retail outlets, radio stations and colleges. Cities visited included Chicago,
Minneapolis, Green Bay, Columbus (Ohio), Chattanooga, Atlanta and Dallas, among
others.

"I'd always wanted to ride in a Lear Jet, so it was quite a thrill flying with
the band to six cities in the first two days," reflects Taylor, who joined the
group for the tour's intense launch. "Whether it was meeting 80 people
in-store for a 6:30 'Breakfast with Sixpence,' or joining the band in taking
listener calls at radio, it's evident that Sixpence's fans are loyal and they
are many."

Before they played the show, I seem to remember that they had dinner
at the Old Chicago on the other side of the mall. Almost a year later,
while in Chicago on a trip to bring my sister to school, I'd see them
play the coffee shop of a Borders and then have dinner a table away
from them after meeting up with my friends Beki and Randy. They
weren't big yet then, but it was coming. A few months prior to the
Chicago show, they actually led me to get into my first show at the
Fine Line Music Cafe (a club that was VERY 21+ and which I had gotten
thrown out of when I was 15 and trying to get into an Over the Rhine
show by convincing them that I was a Russian Immigrant. Don't knock
it, the girl I was with actually WAS a Russian immigrant. Pulling out
my permit though wasn't a smart move) My friend Terry was the guy to
go to for portable sound equipment so we dragged a system out to the
mall of america to do an instore at Sam Goody and then Pegtop (my
friend Terry's band) opened for them that night at the Fine Line. I
was psyched that no one carded me.

But back to the night in November of 97. By early November in
Minnesota, the nights can be especially crisp. That night was no
exception. 20 or 30 people gathered for the short set and we all
bought CDs to take with us. I remember being a bit confused by the
fact that the main artwork for the CD was actually on the back of the
disc, but that was something Squint tried doing to give more room for
artwork. I was in charge of the graphics that election night, so after
everything was done that night (1-2am?) I was chugging away listening
to the Sixpence disc at my desk finishing up everything I needed to
do. I don't think at that point I had my BLAZING FAST blue and white
G3 400 yet, so I was probably designing on a 233 beige G3 and doing
some sort of weird conversion so that I could load all of the graphics
into Scala on an even MORE ancient Amiga. Anyway, the gist of the
story is that on top of the adrenaline of doing live election night
coverage, you had a cool little concert mixed on top of things ( I
feel a little bit like Tony in the 24 Hour Party People
movie.

So tonight we were watching the debate. It goes without saying that
everyone on Echo thought that Bush was HORRENDOUS and SCARY and VILE
and EVIL which still bothers me a bit I guess, I don't understand the
shrillness, but that's a post for another day. But I thought Bush did
a nice job. He wasn't flashy, but he kept his facial expression to
himself and point after point I thought he was fairly solid. I
appreciated seeing him take pictures with people in the audience after
the debate. He looked genuinely happy to be with the people that were
there. Kerry on the other hand was talking to Theresa and Charley
Gibson, not really doing any interacting at all. I think that that
simple observation very clearly defines who these two candidates are.
Bush for all the vile stuff thrown at him, still really loves to talk
to people and kerry doesn't want to talk to anyone who can't do
something for him.

How do I tie this into The Rookie though? A few simple things...

1) Both the debate and the movie featured prominent Texans
2) Both president Bush and the movie have a tie to the Texas Rangers
(Jimmy Morris pitches his first game for the Devil Rays against the
Rangers)
and
3) I'll paraphrase because I don't completely remember the quote, but
it was something along the lines of "Sometimes we have to give up the
things we wish for to do the things we were meant for" I don't know
that Bush really wished to be in the presidency, but I think it was
something he was meant for. This could get me into trouble with a lot
of people, but like I wrote in my posting a day or so ago, I think
Bush is one of those people who didn't get any choice in the matter.
He was chosen to be in the presidency for some greater purpose. Maybe
that was in making the right response to September 11th, maybe it
wasn't. I don't know that I'd go any farther than that, lest I stray
into Christimericanism (Is that a new word?)but I think there's a
reason why Bush is where he is.

At points, Morris really didn't want to get into the majors, going to
Fort Worth would have been the safe move, and he thought that that's
what he was supposed to do, but it could be construed from the movie
that he was "meant" to be in the big leagues. Like I started to say
above, Bush would probably rather be on his ranch mountain biking and
chopping down wood, but sometimes bigger things need to be
accomplished and once they're done, he'll have time for the small
things.

I think that's about as close as I'll get in trying to make
connections. The Rookie was definitely worth our $5, and I can
understand why my friend Zech makes it required viewing before the
baseball season starts every year, but I don't think I'd rank it at
the top of my favorite baseball movies. Maybe top 5. I think my
favorite baseball movie is still Field of Dreams. I remember seeing it
with my dad at Roseville 4 (the cheap little discount theatre I grew
up going to with the amazingly comfortable yet ancinet rocking theatre
seats) and tearing up a bit when Costner's character meets his dad on
the field. Major League (which I remember being so excited to see once
again at Roseville 4 because I was underage) would rank up there too.
I'm not saying it's a GOOD movie, but in the hierarchy of baseball
movies it's right up there. Another Roseville 4 baseball movie that
needs to rank somewhere would be The Sandlot, but I don't know if that
would make the top five.

I haven't really gotten into baseball since I've been out in Colorado.
Keeping up with the Twinkies isn't as easy as flipping on CCO and the
Rockies haven't exactly been a team to keep your eye out for. But
watching the Rookie tonight reminded me what I love about the game,
even if I did suck at it when I played. I might need to rent For the
Love of the Game some time soon to see how well it holds up. Yes, I
DID see that one at Roseville 4 with my dad as well. I'm blathering on
and it's 12:30 here, so I should wrap this stream of consciousness
post up, but I promise I'll post more later.


-Brian the headachey.

A Picture Share!

Never got around to posting this shot of my 16 y.o. friend Marcus. I'm still not entirely sure why he shaved like that...strange

the morning's playlist...

right now, I'm listening to this unofficial Joan of Arcadia 1st season
soundtrack that someone compiled and released on bittorrent. It's
actually a pretty decent collection, Damien Rice, Fountain's of Wayne,
Howie Day, Chantal Kreviazuk... just pretty mellow stuff for the most
part, which fits the gray day outside today. One of the things I
haven't gotten used to here in Colorado are the days where the clouds
are so low that the delineation between fog and clouds is lost. Today
on my way to work, the air force academy was completely obscured by
clouds that had descended. You could see the road from the bottom of
the valley driving up into the cloud with the mountains peeking out
above. Kind of pretty, but surreal at the same time.

I could come up with some grand life statement about the clouds
obscuring the current, but not obscuring the past and our dreams of
the future, but no... i'll just say that clouds are intriguing, and
they get in the way. Some fridays, I meet my friends Dave and Cam for
breakfast at this great little restaraunt in Colorado Springs called
the Omelette Parlor. Between 6 and 7 all their omelettes are half off,
so in the interest of being cheap, we show up at the crack of dawn to
wolf down giant plates of omelettey goodness. But the reason I mention
this at all is that sometimes, driving down to Colorado Springs proper
at 5:45, you can see the sun rising on the valley that we live above
between us and the air force academy, and you can see that clouds have
obscured all of it, giving the allusion that you're floating above the
clouds. It's nice.

Anyway, back to work. I've got too much to accomplish today.

Deus Te Amat, and I do too

Oddcoupling in a different vein

Ang and I had a bit of a different oddcoupling tonight, Friday night's Joan of Arcadia (which we missed because we were at film society watching City of God ) and Spiderman 2 .

I was just remarking to Angela that I envy Spiderman. I think deepdown there's a part of every kid that wishes they could grow up and do these amazing things. Knowing they can't, they live vicariously through their comic books and movies and video games. I think that City of Heroes might be as popular as it is because of that. Someday, when virtual reality really becomes reality vs. the vaporware that it continues to be, City of Heroes could become a much more interesting game, but until then, I know that even though I envy Spidey, I will never BE Spidey, if only because I can barely even ride a roller coaster at Six Flags without feeling the motion sickness kick in. I am human and fear (no, fear really isn't the right word) that I always will be.

I'm losing where i was trying to go with this because Angela is watching TV in the background and it's making me lose my train of thought. What's the connecting thread? I think there's actually a substantially strong one. Both Joan and Peter Parker didn't choose to be who they are. Both try to be who they aren't and bad things happen, both have to come back and realize what they need to be. I'm interested in seeing where Joan goes this season. Last season, as she struggled with trying to figure out where God was taking her, or guiding her to do, she didn't really struggle with it that much. There was a superficial struggle, but nothing concrete and set in stone. Joan faces an Augustinian struggle. Before Augustine, the church was full of the supernatural. The supernatural was accepted. It was anticipated. It was a vibrant part of the church. Augustine steps in... (although in all fairness to Augustine, it wasn't just him... but the whole Roman way of thinking) Logic is all the rage and silly things like Leviathan and the Nephilum must be struck from the record because if it's not tangible, it must not be real. Now, Joan struggles with just that. Is this a tangible thing that's happening to her? Is God ACTUALLY talking to her or is it something that means she's crazy? She'd like to think it's her being crazy, but God introduces her to someone who truly is crazy and shows how the insanity is destructive and not constructive. Knowing that she has the option of being sane and still believing that God could speak to her she has to deal with whether she can actually do this task she's been charged with or not.

The problem we find is that there's really no choice. Linda, my boss, talks about how "many are called, but few are chosen." Traditionally, it's been translated to mean that many people are called to the faith but there are only a few who choose to follow. Linda comes at it from a different path. Many are called, many are saved. But God in whatever infinite wisdom has specific tasks that need to be done by specific people for reasons that are unknown to anyone but him and those are going to be done no matter what this person does, even if they have to come kicking and screaming. One could imagine that Spiderman and Joan are stuck in the same situation. For unknown reasons they've been charged with changing the world in real and tangible ways. They can struggle against it all they want, but at the end of the day, they're still going to be dragged kicking and screaming towards doing the right thing.

Aunt May talks about giving up dreams in order to do the right thing and be a hero. Maybe that's true. But I get the sense that the 'A' plan that God has for us if we chase after him, or if we're dragged kicking and screaming, has the potential to be so much greater than any dreams we could potentially have.

In any case, I don't know where my thoughts are wandering off to, and maybe as the ideas roll around my head, I'll come back and expound some more, but even though I know that Spiderman and Joan of Arcadia are fiction... I can't not think that there's some tangible bit of truth that we can glean from their respective dilemnas. I know that some people have reacted negatively to what Linda calls "red people" saying that God calls everyone and that by saying that there are certain people that God is ESPECIALLY calling, it elevates them and turns Christianity into some kind of hierarchy. "You're more Christian than I am! YEAH RIGHT YOU ARE! Get off your podium!" Maybe there's some truth to that, but maybe there isn't. Linda mentions that one of the ways you know you're red is that you're too Christian for your secular friends and too secular for your Christian friends. I can see that. I feel that all the time. But I'm blathering. More thoughts as I think them through.

In the words of my friend Ian Punnett

Deus Te Amat (and I do too)
Bri

A Picture Share!

Why didn't anyone tell me that Target makes generic dr.pepper now...or for that matter why it's actually pretty good. Hmmmm

A Picture Share!

Hanging out at Six Flags... Angela poses