Steve's Blog
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"Shine A Light" vs. "U23D"
2008 has thus far been a good year for concert movies. Myley Cyrus, U2, and the Rolling Stones have all seen wide-release in our theaters. I got in on the very last showing of U23D before it rocketed out of the Rave Theater just one week after opening a few weeks ago. I also caught a matinee showing of "Shine A Light" this week. I can’t resist a comparison of these two epic rock concert movies. First the similarities. Both movies featured rock icons in a vibrant, live setting. The sound and cinematography for both were phenomenal, as expected. Each movie gave us a feeling of being able to hear, touch, and smell two of the largest grossing concert bands of the last several decades. That’s where the similarities stop. Scorcese takes us up close and personal, maybe too much so. The lines on Mick and Keith’s face are frighteningly clear and contribute to the sheer amazement that Jagger is able to run, gyrate, and spontaniously impersonate zoo animals virtually non-stop for two hours. The setting of the concert is the classic Beacon Theater in New York and serves as a formal contradiction to the raunchiness of the Stones music. A huge brass section and several A-list guest singers tame the simple raw energy of the Stones and make them more palatable for an audience that might be attending the Beacon Theater on the night of a Clinton Foundation Benefit concert. But make no mistake about it. This movie is about the band. The footage of Mick and Keith is almost non-stop, with only passing shots of the star-struck young hotties lining the front rows of the stage. The concert ignites with the opening of "Jumpin’ Jack Flash" but 2 hours later, I was ready for the band to take a break and maybe work in an EKG. Worth the 7 matinee bucks for sure, but way too much, too close, too long. U23D relies not on Martin Scorcese, but National Geographic and 3D cinematography. The setting was radically different. A huge stage dominated by 8-story digital light projection, mulitple ramps into the audience and more people than Joel Osteen ever dreamed of. No back stage footage here, or occasional interview clips such as Scorsese used for "Shine A Light." Only buck naked U2 and a mesmerizing audience. Unlike "Shine A Light’, it is the audience that dominates the U23D experience. The audience was Argentinan, young, and looked like they were there for more than a tribute to an aging rock band. They were engaged, unified, and alive. I felt at several points that the audience and the band were celebrating something that transcended the music and Bono’s oddly charismatic personality. There was something in the words, something in the air, that needed no cameos from Christina Aquillera. True, "Pride" and "Sunday, Bloody, Sunday" tend to inspire more unity and social action than "Brown Sugar" and "Satisfaction." But there was something intangibly different between the two concert films. U23D may have been filmed in 3D but it added a fourth dimension as well. Maybe it was the fact that it was filmed in Argentina in a huge stadium rather than a New York opera house. Or maybe it was the spiritual, communal, inclusive nature of the music. Either way, I caught my self almost spilling my popcorn to reach out and touch Bono’s 3D hand and wishing "U23D" had the 2 hour plus running time that "Shine A Light" had. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Stones man and comparing the two bands may be like comparing apples and oranges. Still, one hour and 20 minutes of U2’s apples seemed like an appetizer while I’d had enough oranges 45 minutes into "Shine A Light." -
Aslan vs King Kong: The Battle of Divine Movie Animals
Aslan vs. King Kong: The Battle of Divine Movie Animals
For no apparent reason, I’ve recently begun an obsession with King Kong. Not so much King Long, the nearly 4 hour epic movie from a couple of years ago. But rather an interest in the character of King Kong himself. A "buy two, get one free," DVD special at Barnes and Nobles, came at just the right time of my obsession and landed me more King Kong footage than ought to be legal. I think my fascination with the great gorilla comes from the fact that I never realized what a theological creature he really is. After the capture of Kong, Jeff Bridges, in the 1976 version, dramatically confesses that they have taken away that which the island feared, in fact, they had taken away their god. King Kong clearly embodies much of what humanity understands God to be. He is all-powerful, violent, and must be appeased by sacrifice. Yet he has a compassionate, vulnerable side and most of his violence is done in an effort to protect the one he loves. I’ve since been thinking theologically about other movie animals. Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia is the obvious contender for the title of movie animal god. He is strong, beautiful, and even-tempered. He gives himself sacrificially to save his kingdom, but in some ways remains above the human condition, and is not as vulnerable as Kong. There’s no way that in future Narnia sequels, we’ll see Aslan being shot down by airplanes on the Empire State Building, and certainly he won’t be falling in love with Lucy or Susan. Still both characters put us in touch with the Divine in some powerful way. One portrays an invincible, kingly Lion, who rescues us from evil, the other portrays a passionate, jealous, Kingly Gorilla, who himself is affected by and even falls victim to human evil. Jesus apparently had no problem with animal metaphors for God, he himself is referred to as a lamb, a lion, and even a female chicken. Who knows what unexpected movie animals will offer the next key to our understanding of the Divine?
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The Last of the Southern Ladies:
Much attention is given to endangered species as they grow near extinction. Money is raised, laws are passed, and safe havens are created. But one rare breed took a giant step towards extinction this past week. Yet the world was silent.. Dorothy Howard, or "Lala" as we called her, turned her eyes toward heaven. Lala was part of of a dying breed: the true, old school Southern Ladies.
From the day she was born into her well-to-do Arkansas family in 1914, Lala was and remained a classy lady. Always polite, always dressed to the hilt, always gracious, always Southern. I remember marveling at the way Lala could wipe the tuna off her mouth when I was a kid. She grasped the napkin just right, and gracefully applied it to each corner of her mouth, somehow managing to smile while the excess tuna disappeared. Lala was always quick with a smile, and a tuna sandwich. She loved to socialize, to read cheap romance novels, to watch Laurence Welk until he died, then moved on to Matlock. She loved to spoil her grandchildren, sneaking me coffee at night, taking me to the dime store to buy me a toy, and playing cards with me past 9 p.m. When I was 14, she patiently remained calm as drove Homer’s El Camino frighteningly close to a ditch before Homer rescued the steering wheel. When I turned 16, she declared me a man as she handed me her diamond-studded keychain and told me it was time for me to take her cadillac and go get the barbeques by myself. Lala’s house was immaculate, her hair perfect. I never saw her swear, drink, whine, get mad, or break a nail.
In my mind Lala was perfect for years, despite the fact she once told me that Robert E. Lee never really surrendered in the Civil War. He was just taking out his handkerchief to blow his nose or something. Fortunately, I later began to see Lala’s humanity. I remembered discovering that she was a closet smoker when I was about 12. I saw lipstick-stained flitered cigarettes in my grandfather’s ashtray. I had to quiz Homer about it. He failed to cover for Lala and wisely denied that he’d ever worn lipstick prior to a smoke. He knew that would have been more traumatic on a 12 year old than discovering that his grandmother occasionally liked to light up.
Lala’s humanity appeared again just last year. I listened carefully to the backseat discussion on our way to Nick’s Barbeque in Carlisle. Lala shocked us when she began to scold my 13 year-old, daughter, Jenna, for only having one boyfriend. "That gets too old," she said, as she recounted how she was asked to stop being a Little Sis in one of Ouachita’s fraternities. She was de-pinned because she was simultaneously dating another boy from a rival fraternity. Lala enjoyed her Thursday hair appointments at the beauty shop, her bridge club, her sunday school class, and lunch out with the Lonoke Golden Girls. And she never stopped talking about the love of her life, Burney. Lala was a princpled woman and she stuck to her principles. Whether it was how a lady should conduct herself at home and at a social event, or her refusal to call Mom anything but "Dorothy Margaret" even 50 years after everyone else called her Dot. Lala was not one to compromise, even refusing to eat canned green beans on her death bed. Lala looked prim and proper but her soul was strong. She witnessed the death of her soul-mate and lover to a sudden heart-attack at age 55, survived her second spouse’s death, Homer, 25 years later, and then endured the nightmare of losing her own son, Burney, last year. Through it all, Lala maintained her faith in God and her poise. The same poise that earned her the title of Miss Talullah not once but twice. The same poise that charmed and won the respect of everyone in Lonoke for 50 years. The same poise that made her the amazing woman that she was, "Ms. Howard, Mom, Dorothy, and to me Lala." Today, we witness the closing of a chapter in Lala’s life. But it feels like we are experiencing the closing of a chapter in Lonoke, in Arkansas, and in the South. But most of all, we are experiencing the closing of a chapter in your life and mine, a chapter of our lives filled with a classy lady, a good friend, a wonderful mom, a sweet nursing home resident, and a grandmother who made me smile, laugh, shake my head, and always love. God bless you Lala.
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A War-Drunk Bush asks for Another Round
I struggle to keep from taking my shoe off and throwing it at the critical care unit TV set that hovered above me this morning. This day marked the 5th anniversary of our war in Iraq. To watch President Bush in action on such an auspicious day is more than a mind or body can absorb. It took a few minutes to get passed the new dose of Grecian formula 16 that tarnished his once silver hair. The new color? Something akin to the auto primer I would see on the 72 camaro’s that cruised the streets of my neighborhood in high school. Add just a splash of a green not found in nature, and Bush’s do is complete.
Once I got past the hair, I was hit with the awkward stammering of a would be simple sentence that halted George in his tracks because it included such similar words and "here", "there", and "where" used dangerously close together. My concentration skills survived this embarrassing eternal 12 seconds only to get hit with the nuanced illustration that Bush boldy stoled from Bin Laden himself. "If there is a strong horse, and a weak horse, you will always choose the strong horse" Bush quoted. "But we intend to show Bin Laden that we are the strong horse." A line as powerful as this has to followed by the pause-for-applause that Bush loves and he didn’t let me down on this one.
Despite the constant interruptions of clumsiness, embarrassment, and pity, Bush remarks hit home. God, what a great war this has been. We’ve done great, the Iraqis have done great. It’s all good. No specific mention of ANY soldier’s loss of life, only a heroic anecdote about a soldier who lost his leg in one tour and went back for another one. I guess that’s the kind of commitment Bush wants us to have. So what if we’ve lost 4000 soldiers. Let’s just slap on a war prosthesis and head back for another 5 years and 4000 lives. To watch Bush in this speech was painful because I felt like I was watching a jaundiced alcoholic on his death bed, with his sclerosed liver, begging for just one more drink. A sad day, a sad war, a sad President, and a sad Steve.