The film project

As I feel a little better I'm reading more and watching films less, but I thought I might just mention another six I have seen recently.

 

1. 1967 The Producers

2. 1968 The Boston strangler

3. 1991 The Fisher king

4. 2006 Employee of the month

5. 2009 Georgia O'Keeffe

6. 2011 The adjustment bureau

 

I was aware of The Producers but had not watched it through. It is the mildly amusing story of two men who think they can make money by producing a flop musical. Just when they think they have managed it the thing (Spring time for Hitler) turns out to be a success. It works well, unlike the much less amusing Employee of the month which would be okay as a half hour sitcom but not  feature film. The Boston Strangler is an interesting period piece with a stellar role from Tony Curtis. I'd never heard of Georgia O'Keeffe, though I recognised the paintings. This made for TV bi-opic starring Jeremy Irons illustrates well the sheer impossibility of living happily outside God's law. I had seen The adjustment bureau (Emily Blunt, Matt Damon) in the cinema when it was released but had forgotten all about it. Tackling the ever present topic of predestination and free will, it struggles to come up with a rationale. What a blessing to have a Calvinistic understanding of such matters. Perhaps the best of this particular bunch was The Fisher King with Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams. it is too long and needs drastic cutting down but if you persevere it makes a bold attempt to tackle difficult subject matter. Terry Gilliam's Pythonesque paw prints are all over it.

 

10 Premier League managers sacked this season

With the recent sacking of Tim Sherwood at Spurs and Pep Mel at West Brom I believe 12 managers have gone this season. Here are 10 others:

 

1. Paolo Di Canio - Sunderland

2. Ian Holloway - Crystal Palace*

3. Martin Jol - Fulham
4. Steve Clarke - West Brom
5. André Villas-Boas - Tottenham
6. Malky Mackay - Cardiff City

7. Michael Laudrup - Swansea City
8. Rene Meulensteen - Fulham

9. Chris Hughton - Norwich City
10. David Moyes - Manchester United

(Resigned apparently - so put Sherwood or Mel in his place)

Romans 8

Derek Thomas has written an excellent little book on that vital chapter Romans 8. These were originally sermons but they have been lightly re-edited for reading and cover the ground in a most readable and spiritually nourishing way. With quotes from Calvin, Owen, some of our great hymns and other excellent sources the book moves through the material a few verses at a time with confidence and clarity in a way that any Christian could benefit from. I read my copy on kindle but the book is available in other formats. The book is called How the gospel brings us all the way home.

The Disappearing spoon

The Disappearing spoon and other true tales from the periodic table by Sam Kean is an award winning book of popular science, looking at the periodic table. It's not the first such book I have read and although I did not understand all of it by any means, I find the whole story fascinating. Sam Kean is a typically atheistic scientist and so he cannot see how it all points to God but it seemed to me that any with eyes to see it must be strengthened in their faith by considering the knowledge such books contain. The disappearing spoon, of course, is made of gallium. See here. In the original Godzilla the missile that kills the monster is tipped with cadmium, which is explained here too. As for why Gandhi hated iodine, another fact touted on the book's cover - see here to learn how Gandhi's influence means that to this day many Indians suffer iodine deficiencies. Fascinating book, well wortha read.

Lord's Day May 11 2014

By God's grace I was able to get along to church again last Lord's Day. All the novelty of the previous week was gone and so it was  something of an effort. I slept all afternoon to make sure I was up for the evening service. Robert was preaching in Bradford and Andrew in Cambridgeshire but Garry Williams (Director of the John Owen Centre) kindly came in the morning and in the evening Adrian Diaper (former LTS student now pastoring in Rickstones, Essex). Both had interesting things to say - Garry on Christ the Shepherd (from Mark 6:6b-44) and Adrian on the resurrection focusing on the opening of Revelation (and 1 Peter). Neither was keen on firstly, secondly, thirdly, which I love but they were easy to listen to and made challenging and apt points to believer and unbeliever alike. One of our deacons led in the morning. We were slightly down on numbers perhaps but not noticeably. One unusual feature of the day was the arrival, morning and evening (and at our tea together at 5 pm), of 10 Romanians (Roma may be). They have hardly any English and have come in search of work, having nowhere to live or anything much more than the clothes they stand in. They appear to be Pentecostal Christians of some sort. Free movement of persons may all sound very dandy on paper but it creates a host of problems. It is hard to see what we can do to help them. Thankfully a Romanian speaker in the congregation was able with Garry to get across the gist of the sermon at the end of the morning meeting.

Walk on by

This is a sad but a great song. I think the piano does it. Recorded late 63 it came out in 64. Written by Bacharach and David it is sung by the inimitable Dionne Warwick.

Sycamore Row

So not having read a John Grisham for a while I enjoyed the latest, Sycamore Row, on Kindle. Typically, while not being great literature, it is interesting, well told and very enjoyable. Grisham has a knack of assembling the right number of characters, fixing them on your mind and interesting you in their story. Wealth is always in the background and plenty of coffee is drunk and food consumed - how much that lures you in I'm not sure. For me there are also constant references to church life and this time the whole matter of forgiveness is raised (Grisham is some sort of Baptist). There are also occasional statistical sound bites too, like the number of lynchings in America. The man's a genius.

Flowers of the dead red sea

We went last night to the Rosemary Branch pub and theatre to see Rhodri performing in Ed Thomas's Flowers of the dead red sea. There is another performance tonight and it follows performances in Aber and will be followed by one on Cardiff Saturday night (Richard Burton Theatre). It features two men working in an abattoir and talking. The action is regularly broken up by the experience of junk falling from the sky. Rhodri and Matt Christmas act it out very well. There is some black comedy and interest is sustained throughout. It is not a particularly Welsh play I thought though the men are South Walians (Joe and Mock, short perhaps for Morgan) and there are references to Tom Jones and to the language. The drowning theme is a very Welsh one too when you think of reservoirs. The over arching theme, however, is late twentieth century western European angst in the absurdist manner. I have long been cynical about absurdist theatre so I was not best placed to appreciate it. As a teenager I avoided pubs but once again I found myself in one (Eleri and I had a very nice meal) to see one of my sons perform (Dylan would gig in pubs in his rock band years). They are much nicer now smoking is banned.

Will Young

I'm not sure how this song wormed its way into my collection but it is really brilliant. I can't make head or tail of the video, which they say is based on Fahrenheit 451.

Dr Lloyd-Jones

Here's a nice Lloyd-Jones link.
Also this.

Free ebook on Isaac Watts

Until the end of the month the e-version of Douglas Bond's book The poetic wonder of Isaac Watts in the Long line of godly men profile series is available. Check it out here.

Lloyd-Jones Grandfather

I am looking for tips at the moment. Whether you are or not you might enjoy this post from Christopher Catherwood about his gransha. Link here.

Lord's Day May 4 2014

What a great day it was Sunday to be back in church in Childs Hill after such a  long lay off. We had a good turn out both morning and evening, partly due to visitors. I chose a good day, I guess, as we started with communion, went on with the main service and I felt able to stay for coffee and birthday cake for a five year old in our congregation. Everyone was pleased to see me, I guess, and some were pleasantly surprised. It was also good to see the new windows in the parlour - I must be the last member to see them, a great improvement. Robert preached well from Luke on what follows the Lord's Supper.

The evening meeting with Andrew Hill preaching from Matthew 7 was also really good. It was evangelistic but good for every Christian to here too I was quite tired by then so I left quite soon. We'd had relatives with us for the day, which was also great.

Great Artists with Tim Marlow

I have been catching up recently on Tim Marlow's series (now over 10 years old) on Great Artists. These are under half an hour introductions to various artists that I have been accessing by recording shows on Channel 5 in the middle of the night.
I have now seen

Series 1 - Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Series 2 - El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velásquez, Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, J M W Turner, ...

I'm not sure if I've seen the one on Vincent Van Gogh.

I believe there is another series - on Schiele, Cassatt, Rodin, Whistler, Delacroix, David, Goya, Stubbs,  Caravaggio, Holbein and Piero della Francesca.

More films watched

I'm not completely vegging out here but I have been watching a few more films. Not such a  good selection this time, perhaps. They were

 

1. 1962 To kill a mockingbird

2. 1968 If …

3. 1985 Cocoon

4. 1993 Journey to the centre of the earth

5. 1995 Bradybunch movie

6. 2006 Touch the top of the world

 

I watched the Bradybunch movie out of curiosity. The Bradys were a composite family with six kids who had a show in the seventies. In the 1995 film they are just as cheesily nice and seventies as in the series, it seems. It's a feel good movie I guess but decidedly weird. I recognised Shelley Long but not Gary Cole or any of the other actors. Gregory Peck took the lead in the award winning monochrome To Kill a Mockingbord, a good aide memoir after reading the book. Very good. If ... was nothing to do with the Kipling poem but an increasingly surreal take on rebellion by pupils at an old-fashioned English public school. Very much of its time, it was Malcolm MacDowell's first feature film and understandably had an 'X' certificate at the time. Curiously, the film switches from polychrome to monochrome at certain points. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to this. Touch the top of the world was a biopic about Erik Weihenmeyer, the first blind man to climb Everest. Footage of the climb is interlaced with the backstory in this made for TV story of inspiration. Sadly, those words 2made for TV" will tell you all you need to know.

The other two films were sci-fi, perhaps my least favourite genre (after musicals and action films). The Jules Verne novel Journey to the centre of the earth gets remade every few years. This was a "made for TV" effort. Enough said. Cocoon, on the other hand, although the whole thing is, of course, hokum, was an opportunity to explore some interesting themes such as ageing and eternal life. When the grandfather tells his grandson of a wonderful world of no pain or death one immediately thought of heaven. However, the two would never be together there. Not a great message. I recognised some of the actors including Steve Guttenberg.