09.03.2011 reading. listening. watching. playing.

reading: "finished jesus for president" by shane claiborne and starting "following the equator or more tramps abroad" by mark twain.

listening: Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes, Fantastic Mr Fox OST, Akron Family Set Em Wild, Set Em Free, Refused "The Shape of Punk to Come", The Kinks "Ultimate Collection, Sufjan Steven's "All Delighted People" and "The Age of Adz", The Rolling Stones "Greatest Hits".

watching: human planet series, have heart final show, continuing twin peaks. (on deck for movies: che pt.1 & pt. 2, kings speech, exit through the gift shop, and waiting for superman)

playing: age of empires iii and sudoku

it's been a long time since i updated this blog but hope to keep up with it. i will start off going backwards on my list. so recently i have been playing, in my free time, age of empires iii which has been a nice relaxing distraction at nights to just start building and conquering. i have also been enhancing my brain with countless sudoku games.

i have started watching bbc's human planet series and have only watch the first two episodes and i have a few things to say about this series: 1) it has been difficult for me to get my brain around the fact that it is about people since as people, we relate the most with other people so seeing a series about people instead of nature or animals it's more of a personal connection. 2) going off of number one, it is weird to see these cultures all over the world wearing nike shirts, yankees hats, etc. just one of those things that i don't want to see, i want to see people wearing clothes that they traditionally wear or something non-american. 3) bbc is trying something new here in dealing with subtitles and i applaud their new direction but there are a couple parts that i don't enjoy about it when certain texts pulse out towards you to emphasize but i really enjoy the placements of them, more on the eye line than at the bottom of the screen.

I recently watched Have Heart's final show as a band on youtube which it is a 7 part video show and it is amazing! if you love hardcore music and you haven't heard of Have Heart, please please please check them out, they are great. I sadly never got to see them perform so this was quite the treat for me and it is made really well with good camera shots (even though the shots get a little repetitive at times but it's a hardcore show) and pretty decent audio. Just seeing and hearing the band play with smiles and talk about some of their songs and beliefs are awesome! it gave me goosebumps. *WARNING* may contain adult language.

when i finish twin peaks i will do a write up on it but i am close to finishing it. having my new laptop i am able to now watch movies so the movies on deck will be watched soon and talked about.

as for music, i want to highlight just a couple. fleet foxes came out with a great album and ep and i have been really hesitant about their new album but their release of "helplessness blues" has reconfirmed to me how talented and wonderful they are with the gift of music. please take a listen on their facebook. i enjoy every soundtrack for wes anderson's movies and i finally got fantastic mr fox and yes i like it. the other new music i want to talk about is refused's "the shape of punk to come", i need to give it more of a listen but the title is very bold to say that this new album will change the shape of punk for the future is bold but spot on. they do a great job at taking punk hardcore to a new level. *warning* adult language. they know how to rock.

i want to talk more about shane claiborne's "jesus for president" which i just finished reading. this is my first book i have read by mr claiborne and i really enjoy his presentation with lots of pictures, clippings, Bible verses, quotes, and what-not. he goes through the first section to talk about the old testament and explain a lot of the stories and traditions so common people like myself can understand what and why the israelites were doing the things they were doing. put a lot of good things into perspective. this book basically was to remind christians that we aren't not trying to make the government like jesus, but we ourselves need to be like jesus and live out the commands and practices of christ.  my thoughts, after reading this, about pacifism and violence has changed drastically and i have been trying to put them into practice even with my competitive and aggressive personality. shane challenges us to be creative with our ways of rebelling against government or politics and to be involved not to just get in a thought process that nothing can be changed when we can help people who are hungry by giving them food, or people without clothes to clothe them. we need to get out mind out of the stagnant thinking that the government needs to be christian, granted it would be helpful but politics are a confusing, messy, and difficult place to participate in. christ wants us to be political! the book is broken up into sections and a section that i really enjoyed is entitled "when the empire got baptized", it goes all the way back to the early church and to the present. it shows just how messed up things get when politics and religion get mixed, granted in high school i learned that it was a great thing when constantine made christianity the official religion or when explorers came to the new world with "missionaries" using their "religion" to exploit people and their resources or use religion to start wars. christianity and christ's teachings call us to love one another and to turn the other cheek, looking back at history (and i use history loosely since we can even look back a few years) and see how we have declared wars in the name of God and christianity. it is truly sad. the last section is inspiring sharing stories of people who have and/or are living out the christian political imagination. we can start right now, in the town/cities we are in right now, with the jobs we have right now. we need to get creative. we need to keep following christ's example. we need to be active.