TV Tuesday

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

Downton Abbey

Slight spoiler alert!

We finished season one and plan on starting season two tonight. Aside from the homosexual scenes (which were maybe 30 seconds in nature, and totally unneeded) this film is truly a masterpiece. Fantastic stories, perfect cast and a ton of fun. British television is much different than what we desire and feed on here in the US, and that is a good thing. A diet of serious, period dramas is a great addition to the fast food TV served here in the US. We (my wife and I) highly recommend it, and do beware of the homosexuality. I was chastised by a friend for not warning of the "man love", so consider yourself warned.

How I Met Your Mother

I know we are late to this show, but we started watching it this weekend and have found a nice filler show. I have to admit that I thought the show was hilarious the first 10 episodes, and then the characters started getting to me. The humor is definitely sophomoric, and there are some side splitting jokes and scenes playing out, but after watching Big Bang Theory, there is nothing on television that compares to it, and How I Met Your Mother doesn't hold up. My wife is enjoying the show and watches episode after episode, but I'm not hooked. In fact, I cleaned up after dinner last night and washed some dishes instead of watching it. It's a show I can sit down and watch with her and probably crack a few smiles, but it's not a must watch and I don't plan on catching it all.

I dig this show, but I can't stand Sarah Jones as Detective Rebecca Madsen. She isn't very good in the lead role. It's probably not fair that I compare her to Stana Katic in Castle, Anna Torv in Fringe or Yvonne Strahovski in Chuck. All three of those ladies are prime, grade A lead ladies. Sarah Jones doesn't carry the show like she should. In the last episode (3) I was hoping she would be shot and the show could focus on Sam Neill and Jorge Garcia as the leads. I'm sticking with it hoping she will improve, but it is bad enough that it is distracting to me. She's a pretty lady, but her line delivery and her physical abilities are poor. She doesn't bring any emotion to her scenes and so far I haven't connected with her like I did with the ladies mentioned above. I pull for them to succeed and love their performances, but here I think she was miscast. Only time will tell. I'll catch episode 4 tonight!

I'll also be catching up on four episodes of Once Upon a Time, several episodes of Grimm and then will be starting Boss (with Kelsey Grammer) via Netflix. Lots of great TV...what r you watching?

That's crazy...

2012-01-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

It's been a weird last few weeks interacting with other youth pastors and friends about my blog. I've pretty much been scolded, told I was an idol worshiper, that I should resign from youth ministry, and that I should gut check my salvation. Yep, allover the fact that I buy movies and go to the theater.

At first it really bothered me. These guys don't know me personally. They are really acquaintances at most, and many are only "friends" via Facebook, who I met at camp or an event at some point and wanted to stay in touch. And I have to ask myself, why do they really care?

There is no hiding behind the fact that I am a major movie fan. It has replaced my passion for sports and has become a way to relax, escape and enjoy some down time. However, it is also a source of intellectual stimulation, a session of exercising creativity and imagination, and honestly is one of the best classrooms available. It's a hobby that I appreciate and invest time and money in. I even have a movie themed room in our home where it's basically our den of movie watching and video game playing. Yes, there are movie posters on the wall and a few other movie themed pictures hanging as well, but I wouldn't say it is my idol factory as one guy put it.

I wanted to be defensive about it. I wanted to point out that two of the guys just took out major loans in buying brand new trucks, ranging from my research at around $48,000 each. I won't spend that in a lifetime of movie watching or buying. Another flies all over country watching every game his NFL team plays in. Again, I find that quite a bit excessive in time and cost, but have never sent him an email condemning this. I really wanted to put on the gloves and bloody some lips and defend myself against these guys.

Instead, I asked those closest to me if they thought this hobby was a problem and hindrance on my life. None of them said yes. And that settled it for me.

It's easy to hurl accusations via social media sites. Especially when these guys are basing everything off of what I blog about and post via Twitter and Facebook. The problem is they are only seeing a tiny portion of my life. So, I basically shared with them that they had two options: 1) They can chill out. 2) They can drop me from Facebook and quit following me on Twitter, but I wasn't going to change just for them.

One guy lambasted me for guiding my youth group through recent movies while neglecting the gospel. Really?

If he had EVER attended one of our Bible studies I doubt he would hear many references to movies. If at all. I am a straight up, unapologetic Bible teaching, gospel preaching fool. That's what our Bible studies consist of, and I have no doubt that if he was to approach our students or volunteer leaders they would ALL confirm this.

Movies are a fun part of my life. But they aren't my life. Yes, my blog leans heavily that way and probably still will. The blog is another hobby that I enjoy keeping up with. There is the occasional rant (like this) or a well thought out blog about my Christian faith or youth ministry. It's mosaic in nature, hence the title of the blog. It is what it is, but I'm not making any of these guys come and read it.

I also decided to look at my spending on movies. I went to 20 movies last year, paying for only 12 of them, and all of them at matinee prices. So 12 x 6= $72. I bought 8 movies at full Blu-ray prices of $25= $200 - $150 in gift cards used= $50. So far a grand total of $122. I also bought quite a few movies during Black Friday weekend at a stellar rate of $2 each for a total of $40. My rentals from Landall's Box Office and Redbox equaled a total of roughly $64. We subscribe to Netflix for a total of $240 for the year (we don't have cable or satellite). So, all together, I spent $466 total in movie viewing. Not a bad amount seeing that $240 of that is for our television through Netflix, while the average person spends close to $1000 alone on cable.

I'm sure these guys would say something like, well that $466 would be better used for missions...yeah, well so would that $48,000. My total expenditures in movies is less than one month's worth of their truck payments.

All this to say that my lesson learned through this is don't judge a guy by his Facebook statuses. If that were true, yes, I would be a very shallow person. But I don't base my life around Facebook and neither should you. Those who dwell with me in the flesh and blood outside of the Internet are those I count on to keep me humble and grounded. They are the ones I invest my life in and care about the most. They are the ones that know me best and that I listen to. And they know that while I enjoy movies, they don't compare to Jesus, my family, friends or church family.

But I do enjoy them a whole lot!

Mosaic Mind

TV Tuesday

That's crazy...