Did Ya Rock Out?

Quick survey question: did you watch Al Gore's Live Earth concerts this weekend? I'm a huge music fan and usually try to catch these festivals but caught nary a second of this one. Nor did I hear of anyone else who watched it. For these reasons, I find it difficult to believe that 2 billion people watched it happen. I couldn't find it on the TV, and we have a pretty decent cable selection. And we're to believe that a third of the world watched it?

This sounds like a spin-job, trying to sell that global warming is the most important issue . . . well, in the world.

I didn't feel the funk.

Reds Hot

A little baseball talk this evening. Non-interested parties can skip this one. So the Reds sweep a series for the first time since July of last year. That's hard to believe, but not really. Subtract the quick start last year and this whole decade's been forgettable. We had a good conversation about the ball club before church tonight, maybe you can chime in.

First, David Weathers gives up three straight hits with two outs in the ninth to blow the lead. Tye, who was at the game, thought it was bush for fans to boo him; I read a sports writer's blog tonight who felt the same way, claiming that Weathers has been the MVP this year. I would counter that being the team's MVP in the worst season in 50 years isn't much to write home about. I do think Weathers is a decent pitcher, but isn't closer material. I still say that blowing Harang's gem, he deserved to get booed.

Second, they have to see if they can pull a some trades here quick. Dunn, Hatteberg, and Lohse should all be dealt. I already picked up Joey Votto in my fantasy baseball league anticipating his call up.

Finally, let's not let the Pete Mackanin love-fest get out of control. He's a definite interim, a good stop-gap guy. I'm beginning to think that Bob Castellini is going to get Joe Girardi [as well as Paul O'Neil?!?!?]. That would be huge. The only thing keeping me going is that this team isn't really that far away from contending in the NL Central. If they can get a little chemistry, next year could be very good.

Did I miss anything else, Reds fans?

Eat It

I'll admit: I made a point of tuning in yesterday to to watch Nathan Hot Dogs' Gluttony-fest 2007.  I've noted before my fascination with this competition, but this year's might have been the most interesting yet. On one side you had the legend, Kobayashi. On the other, the upstart American Joey Chestnut. Chestnut claimed his first victory over Kobayashi earlier this year, but yesterday was the Super Bowl of competitive eating. And Kobayashi nursing a sore jaw had me worried. But we all received the match-up we were waiting for: they both shattered world records, with Chestnut prevailing. This result will jettison the sport into a higher stratosphere.

At least you think so if you were listening to the commentators.

The only thing about the event that really left me scratching my head was some of the things the play-by-play guys said. They couldn't be serious, but since they weren't joking throughout the competition dialogue, you can't be sure.

First, they offered that yesterday's event, "could be the greatest moment in American sports history." Alright, we all get excited so we can let that slide. But another statement was even better: “Google the word ‘hero’ tomorrow, and you’ll get Abe Lincoln and Joey Chestnut.” Well, I actually tried that, and neither of their names showed up. Sucks for Lincoln, I guess.

Memo to hot dog contest announcers: allow the sport to stand on its own merit; don't over-hype it. Competitive eating doesn't need a Don King or Flavor Flav person selling the sport the event, hyping it beyond belief. Things will work out just fine if you let the eaters do the talking . . . or something like that.

What's in a hot dog, anyway?

My Evil Daughter

A belated Kaelyn story for you: A week ago, on Kelly's work in the office, Kaelyn and I were playing around all throughout the house. At the top of our stairwell we've added a metal kiddie gate to prevent her from doing a face dive down the stairs. So now, Kaelyn is fascinated with this gate and likes to stand in the middle of it while it's open [with adult supervision, obviously]. Usually Kelly does this with her, but we were having a good time with it.

As we were playing there Kaelyn would look me in the eye and cross her foot past the gate towards the stairs; she would then tap her foot a few times and then pull it back. Then she would bend over and take her finger and tap the carpet on the other side of the gate, all while looking at me. She repeated that, foot then hand, over and over again. It was cute and I thought nothing of it.

So the next day, when Kelly was home, we were up on the stairs by the gate repeating the scene; Kaelyn was doing the hand and foot thing while grinning at me. But when Kelly notices this, she firmly says, "no!" and Kaelyn got a guilty look. Apparently Kelly has repeatedly told Kaelyn that she isn't allowed to touch the carpet on the other side of the gate. So the day before, when she was looking at me while crossing the line, she knew that she was breaking one of mommy's rules. She was just seeing how far she would get before I stopped her.

Now you know I love my daughter but I think this shows again that, even at a young age, there is an inclination to do wrong. I've been thinking a lot about rebellion lately; not overthrowing the government, mind you, but how it seems to be an almost natural response to authority. Is obedience figuring out how to suppress our rebellion? Just thinking out loud here, but this anecdote would fit well into the conversation.

And I was holding out hope for a perfect child . . .

Foreknowledge

Just sitting here this afternoon looking over tonight's message with the Reds game in the background as ambient noise. When the 4th inning started they were leading 5-4. A half inning later and they're losing 8-5.

I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet but I would venture to say that Jerry Narron will be fired soon.

Management has no choice.

UPDATE: The truth will set you free . . . for a new job.

Even Worse Almighty

A few days ago I wrote about the aggressive marketing campaign the producers of the movie Evan Almighty has targeted at churches. What still bothers me about this is that the film itself is decent enough to stand on its own merits. But they pushed hard, nonetheless, to try to recoup the $250million they dropped into production and marketing. Something must have worked, as it was the #1 movie last weekend, but I think the results were still a little disappointing. To keep the movie fresh in churches' minds they sent out an advertising email this week. I was privy to be a recipient and found some of it laughable. Here's the main part of the email:

If you didn't know, the producers took advantage of an idea that Steve Sjogren made popular among evangelical churches and encouraged random acts of kindness [actually, they reworked it to fit into the "ARK" acronym, calling them "acts of random kindness"]. Notice how they use this to push the movie:

If you haven't yet seen Evan Almighty, then do an act of random kindness for yourself and your congregation . . . go see Evan Almighty today!

Ex-squeeze me? Baking powder? What did they just say?

So in this new age of church/movie cross promotion we encourage good deeds: give out water bottles, feed the poor, visit the elderly, stuff like that. But an even greater act of kindness would be to go watch a movie. Incredibly selfless ministry. I've been ministering this way since I was but a lad [by this standard, I'd say watching Mr Wrong was akin to a missions trip]. As a Biblical scholar I can vouch that somewhere in the Scriptures a commandment reads, "Be ye kind: consumeth."

Also, if I plan on going to a movie after an email prompt, is it really "random"? Just wondering.

And how does this random act benefit my congregation? Does it help them to know that their pastor had the opportunity to go to the movies this week? Is there a correlation between my popcorn consumption and tithing?

I have yet to receive my random act of kindness reminder to go see the new Die Hard movie. Still I think I'll go.

Remember, I'm doing it for my church.

Wouldn't It Be Funny . . .

. . . in light of this wall-to-wall iPhone coverage if, at 5:59pm EST this evening, Jesus came back to earth to signal the end of the world? Spending the last day of your life waiting in line would be . . . well, hell, I guess. It would make for some interesting Judgement Day conversations:

St Peter: So what you been up to, buddy?

iPhone Customer: Not much, just waiting in line all week to be the first to get a new iPhone.

St Peter: Yeah, I heard about those things. They're supposed to be pretty nice.

iPhone Customer: Dude, you have no idea: iPod, video, internet, phone, all in one. It's awesome. I just couldn't live without it.

St Peter: True that. When I was being crucified upside-down I was thinking, "Boy, this is a raw deal, but it's cool. Who would want to live in a world without the iPhone, anyway."

iPhone Customer: See, now I think you're mocking me.

St Peter: Oh, I am. But you know what really sucks?

iPhone Customer: What's that?

St Peter: The only place where you can get AT&T's coverage in the afterlife is in hell.

iPhone Customer: Son of A . . .

St Peter: Excuse me?

iPhone Customer: Um, nothing.

St Peter: I thought so.

An iPhone Thought

I'm not getting one because I'm cheap, but I can't remember this much hype over one product. Even if the iPhone doesn't conquer the world, I think it will end up transforming the cell phone industry. I found this local news story fascinating, as it describes how businesses are reacting to the iPhone. One quote in particular from an executive was intriguing:

"At this juncture we're not planning on testing the iPhone, but that could change depending on the acceptance of the phone."

So if it's popular, they'll get it. Way to be a visionary. Similarly, must feel good to be Verizon who passed over the opportunity to be the phone carrier of the project.

Honestly, my gut says the Apple's not gonna claim the market they think they will. But this could become a watershed event that will change they way we interact with computers.

Time will tell.

From Westside To Wall Street

Cornhole made page one of the Wall Street Journal today. Just another step towards total world domination. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say "Cornhole" then it means 1) you're not from Cincinnati and 2) you're probably shocked by my potty talk. It's a bean-bag tossing game that's going national, if not global [look for it in the 2012 Olympics]. Legend says that Cornhole was a Westside creation.

If you're not from Cincy, have you heard of Cornhole? And you transplants from the Queen City, do people in your new locale know about it?

The Beautiful Game

I recently read a friend’s thought’s on soccer, who was down on the sport. Noting the recent riot in Argentina and how television ratings suck for US's Major League Soccer, he held that soccer would never get a foothold here in the states. As a soccer apologist, I’m called once again into action.

First, about the riot and similar violence: all these actions are indefensible, but is it much different than Raiders fans throwing urine or cities rioting when their team wins a championship? You ever wonder why we hear so many of these stories concerning soccer from around the world? It's because the game is played all over throughout year; there are hundreds of professional leagues [not counting semi-pro leagues] on six continents. I'm sure if you were to take into account the number of embarrassing incidents in proportion to how many games are played, this kind of stuff would look miniscule. In fact, I'd bet that if you pulled the averages of these incidents happening among American sports, you'd find comparable results.

About the television ratings, he is right. The MLS is being watched less than the WNBA. But here's the deal: it's second rate athletics. America's professional league lacks the talent of the world's best. And bringing in Beckham and Posh ain't going to help much. But if you pay attention to World Cup ratings, you'll see that there is a US audience, but it's a selective audience; they're not going to watch crap because it's their sport. We live less than two hours from a MLS franchise and only attended one game, almost ten years ago.

But here's the thing about soccer that makes the world love it: the game is fluid. I'll give basketball the same credit; the game has a consistent flow to it. Why do you think basketball has blown up in foreign markets while baseball and football struggle? Because in those sports, the game action is choppy.  An average NFL game only contains like 15 minutes of playing time. Subtract all the 1-3 yard running plays and it gets worse. And as for baseball, it now seems it was invented to be boring.

Now I say all this as a huge sports fan who loves college and pro sports, despite all their shortcomings. We have to be honest about the entertainment we're watching [especially when the Spelling Bee gets better ratings than most sports championships]: a lot of the stuff we like is boring. But soccer is easy to hate on, especially when soccer fans do a bad job of defending their passion for the sport.

Look, I wish that people could get into soccer here but I'm also a realist: the American public [along with their ADD] are incapable of embracing soccer. It's as if it's anti-American. And that's fine. But that doesn't mean the sport lacks merit.

And We're Back

The whole Echo Church web presence is back. Had a little server issue since late last night, but it's settled now and life is cheery. What's crazy is that despite having a good amount of bandwidth, we're getting closer to our monthly limit again. It still comes down to more people downloading our teaching podcasts. There are consistently more people listening to the mp3 then are actually in the service. Not sure what that means but maybe, like someone has been pushing me, we need to evaluate new ways to take better advantage of our podcasting presence.

Speak The Truth

I guess this post could be a follow up to my disclaimer, but I felt like writing this. I'm reminded of the episode of Friends where Phoebe is singing her songs to a bunch of young children at the library. Her songs are little too revealing for her little listeners which frightens their parents [here's an example]. After being banned from the library the kids seek her out at the coffee shop wanting to hear "the singing lady that tells the truth" Moral of the story: kids appreciate when you're honest about the realities in the world. I've discovered that while many people are just like those kids, there are some who would prefer to still hear innocuous, happy, childish songs that make you smile without making you think about the life.

I guess I'm trying to work this metaphor to introduce this idea: there's a prevailing [yet erroneous] thought that if you, as a Christian, criticize someone another Christian then you're not being Christ-like at all. This is balderdash [been wanting to use that word and even worked it into my sermon Sunday]. Just because we all like Jesus doesn't mean you get a free pass when you do/say something that's questionable. I would expect the very same treatment from others concerning my dumb moves/words. and have received it. That's why, despite a few problems, I still leave commenting open here on the blog; it gives you a chance to chime in and disagree.*

I say this to explain stuff you have read and will read here at Beit Carr that you think is divisive. I'm not trying to be mean, but I'll attack ideas that deserve criticism. Politeness is a Western value or, perhaps more accurately, a value among those nations that speak English; it is not necessarily a Biblical value. Other societies can engage in spirited dialogue, agree to disagree, and let it go at the end of the day. Maybe if we Americans learned to do that a little better no one would watch Fox News.

So thanks for taking the time to read stuff from "the blogging man that tells the truth." Or at least "tries to tell the truth."

*I do, however, find commenting back and forth to be an exercise far more exhausting than blogging. So if I ever stop following up a conversation here, it's probably not that I've given up my thoughts but more likely that I'm tired of the exchange. If you really disagree with me to the point of online arguing, I'd suggest starting a blog of your own. It's much fun.

About The Reds

I have a clergy pass that affords me free admission to every home game [sans the Indians series]. How many games have I seen in person this year? One.

In fairness, they show practically every game on cable now and the team was really bad really early. And it isn't getting any better. After tonight's loss they are nineteen games below .500, 15.5 games out of first place, and currently hold the worst record in MLB.

I'm trying to look for something to be positive about but I'm at a loss.

31 days until Bengals training camp.

Bad Decisions

The double murder-suicide involving WWE wrestler Chris Benoit is indeed sad and shocking. But more puzzling are a few reactions the WWE made as a result of this tragedy. First, the WWE decides to air a tribute show of Benoit last night, effectively spending three hours of television time to honor a murderer. You might be inclined to cut them some slack since they only had four hours to make the decision, but by that time there was already talk of foul play, so wouldn't you assume the worst?

Then, the police discovered steroids in the Benoit home, allowing for rampant speculation that he was using. The WWE tried t be proactive and denounce any assumptions the media is allowing the general public to make. It seems like an extremely defensive posture to take during this time.

So twice when they should've remained silent they made statements that did nothing to cause additional problems. I'd suspect that if it's proven that Benoit was using the drugs that Congress might get involved and investigate the WWE.

UPDATE: This story keeps getting stranger and stranger as it seems the Wikipedia entry on Benoit was changed to reflect the killing 14 hours before it even occured. Scary.

The End Is In Sight

Finished up my final essays yesterday after spending a few hours in the Xavier library. Then, after my class last night, I knew I'd have to revise some of my thoughts to fit in the new content the professor added. So now I just have to brush up for my oral final. Never did that in over forty graduate hours, but it should be fun.

By 6:00 tomorrow night I'll be smiling at the thought of ten days to read what I want.

Quiet Around Here?

I have my first final this Wednesday, a few essays and an oral exam. For some reason, I'm sorta looking forward to the orals. I like to think that I can BS talk my way through any situation. Never, though, has my grade depended on it.

I'll try to post some short tidbits during the next few days, but nothing to deep.

How We View Tragedy

In light of this horrible story of the little girl who had her feet severed in a ride at Kentucky Kingdom yesterday, I asked Kelly what she thought it would be like at Kings Island today with their similar ride; I couldn't imagine anyone could possibly want to ride it. Well, apparently KI decided to shut down their ride to run some inspections on it to ensure safety. An accident like this is a one-in-a-million thing but these things always seem to hit home. I guess it's because we forget how truly chaotic this world is. When we hear about an unbelievable story like this we personalize it, wondering what if it had been us or a loved one. So even though we don't know the person and weren't even there, it becomes very real to us. We then take an accounting of our lives and the risks we take, keeping those tragic images in the back of our minds as a grim reminder of our mortality.

And time rolls on.

And by next week, we've forgotten this story and resume our daily routine.

At least, until the next tragedy hits.

We Are Whores

Finally Evan Almighty comes out today and hopefully this will mean the end of the tidal wave of Christian-oriented advertising. From free screenings for pastors to service project tie-ins to free downloads of video clips for sermons, they've gone all out for this one. For some reason this makes me feel even more icky than Passion of the Christ campaign. What this has proven is that we Christians will bite hook, line, and sinker when someone trying to make a buck comes calling. Note Christianity Today, a popular evangelical magazine, which chose to sell the cover of their magazine as advertising for the movie. Sure, they used small letters in the upper right corner to label it "advertising" [noble move] but how many people will be duped into thinking it's a ringing endorsement of the movie?

It'll be interesting to see how much Evan Almighty grosses as a result of all this. Since The Passion, this direct-to-the-church marketing hasn't been successful. But The Passion was somewhat revolutionary; it was Mel Gibson [who had a better reputation then], with the Passion narrative, attempting to market to an overlooked segment of the population. Since then, Hollywood got lazy, thinking they could throw anything out there, tell Christians it's wholesome, and see a return. They paid a price for that lethargy as movies like Bobby Jones and The Nativity Story failed.

Evan Almighty is the hardest they've tried thus far. If this works, we're going to witness an onslaught of this kind of marketing.

So answer the question: is it better to get wholesome entertainment at the price of prostituting ourselves or to have to endure the same old depraved crap Hollywood puts out that Christians will refuse to see? OR, do we just have to be selective about what we watch and not allow Hollywood to view Christians as a marketing demographic.

Something to chew on.

Sitting In Panera . . .

. . . getting some work done while listening to some Bon Jovi. Then I smirk as Jon Bon blasts out the phrase,

"I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all."

Truer words have never been spoken.

Yikes [locally speaking]

They're considering allowing people to bring dogs to fountain square downtown. Of course, everyone has an opinion including this gem in this morning's Enquirer. This guy writes to the editor saying,

A few articles have come up about whether dogs should be allowed on Fountain Square. If dogs are not allowed on the square, then we certainly should not permit homeless bums on the square either. Who wants somebody in their face begging them for money while you're trying to have a nice lunch or a night out on the town? my dogs are cleaner, more behaved and will not be asking you for spare change.

Humanitarian of the year, folks. And, no, your dog might not ask for money but . . . what's he doing to my leg? Definitely better behaved, though.

Unfortunately, dude was from the westside.