After the long wait for Avatar the first thing most people ask about it is “Did it live up to the hype?” In my personal opinion: It did, and then some.
Watching Avatar, I felt (pardon the expression) like a kid again. It reminded me how wonderful movies can be. Mike said that when a kid stood up in front of him in the theater it startled him, he had forgotten he was in a theater watching a movie he was so immersed.
Such has been my experience with James Cameron all through my childhood. To me, Cameron movies are similar to Pixar movies in that i don’t personally think there is a bad one. Some are better than others in my opinion, but all of them are great. Let me try to countdown his majors:
6. Titanic A movie’s success isn’t necessarily a judge of it’s quality, but Titanic is actually a dang good movie. It has awesome elements of action, adventure, romance and even some darker more frightening moments.
5. True Lies Outside of the Terminator films, True Lies has got to be not just the ultimate Arnold movie, but the quintessential shoot ‘em up, explosion action movie.
4. The Abyss Watch the director’s cut. It’s an amazingly unique and ambitious movie (most of it takes place under water).
3. The Terminator The one that started it all is darker and scarier than the rest of them.
2. Aliens Instead of trying to recreate what Ridley Scott did with his claustrophobic and horrifying original, Jim turns the sequel into a densely layered horror adventure with marines, big guns, lots of Xenomorphs, and of course: the queen!
1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day One of the greatest movie experiences of my life so far and arguably the greatest movie sequel ever made.
Having only seen it once and all the other movies a whole mess of times, I’m not sure where Avatar fits into the countdown yet. My first impression is that it could very well be right in the front, maybe even number 2? Time will tell. But it was certainly one of the best experiences i’ve had at the movies. Seeing it in imax 3D made it the most awe inspiring and immersive time i’ve had at the movies for sure.
Eddie Pola and George Wyle were right; it is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. Like many others, it’s always been my favorite and I strive to really wring every pine smelling drop out of the brief window of celebration. Myself being a Christian, Jesus Christ isn’t a component of my life, but rather the identifying characteristic by which everything “me” revolves around. That said, many of the secular elements of the Christmas celebration are among my favorites, and I’m perfectly happy with this. To me, Christmas is in fact the celebration of Jesus’ birth, but more so, the celebration of Jesus! His life, His ministry and what it means that God was here in the flesh. Broader Christmas themes like peace on earth and good will toward men make perfect sense when you’re celebrating Jesus. I’m not one to hold any contempt for a Christmas tree or Santa Claus on a can of Coca-Cola. Although not directly linked to Jesus’ birth, I love everything that comes with the holidays: cookies, wreaths, reindeer, the grinch, etc.
Most churches have an alternative to a Halloween celebration, usually a “Fall Festival” or in Drew’s case they have “Hallelujah Night”. Essentially this is how Christmas ended up on December, 25th. We aren’t remotely sure about the exact birth date of Jesus of Nazareth. Although there is some small speculation that it could have possibly happened on or around Christmas time, the general consensus is that we don’t know for sure. We do know that there were several holiday celebrations (Pagan or otherwise) taking place during what is now the Christmas holiday season, so it made sense for the Church to set an “official” date to celebrate JC’s birthday during an otherwise secular celebration time. So, in 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25th.
There seem to be two popular misconceptions about why Christmas is when it is. One is that Jesus was actually born on December 25th, and the other is that Christmas is solely based on a Pagan holiday (like other Christian holidays) and otherwise wouldn’t exist at all. Both of these are bunk.
History lessons aside, here’s another thing that’s bunk: Christians up in arms about the way the world treats Christmas. I know of people who won’t shop at Old Navy because an employee wished them a happy holiday instead of a merry Christmas. This seems absurd to me… Do you shop at Old Navy for the evangelism and Christian moral ethics or do you shop there to buy some dang fleece pajamas? It’s no secret that the American Christian church has long forgotten that the Bible tells us that Christianity will always be a small and persecuted minority, for some reason we are dead set on people (Christian or non-Christian) doing things our way and our way only.
A few years ago, I posted something on the Showbread website and signed it “Happy Holidays!” Our mailbox was quickly flooded with angry emails from Christians who couldn’t bear to think we had become so sinful. I was completely ignorant to the whole “Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas” controversy that was going on. My simple response was that Christmas IS, by definition, A HOLIDAY. And so is New Year’s Day. By acknowledging Christmas as a day of festivity when people typically don’t go to work, I wasn’t removing Jesus from the celebration or setting out to blend all world religions. My advice is to wish people a merry Christmas, wish them happy holidays, wish them a good day, say whatever kind thing you like. When people pass me on the street and say “Hello!” I don’t slap them in the face with a pamphlet and start screaming about why they should have said “God Bless You.”
And can we stop embarrassing ourselves with all this “Anti-Xmas” stuff? The “X” in Xmas is from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of Χριστός (Christ in Greek). The term Xmas was, historically, never intended to exclude or “cross out” the Christ in Christmas. X has been a greek abbreviation for Christ all through history.
I have a couple of points: One is that there isn’t a dang thing wrong with saying “Happy Holidays” if you’re a Christian and you simply want to wish someone a happy holiday season. My other point is that as Christians, it isn’t our job to police the way other people observe or don’t observe Christmas. We certainly don’t have to support something we feel isn’t right to support, but what are our expectations? Should we not shop at our local grocery store if they hang a decoration of Santa or Frosty instead of a Nativity scene? I’m not really expecting Christian celebration from a secular neutral media or marketplace, and that’s fine, I’m celebrating Jesus no matter what. I certainly won’t insist it should be done my way, even if I do believe in my way with all my heart. I will insist on Jesus by deeds done in humility and the heart of a servant, THIS is how I will show Jesus and celebrate His birth, not by boycotting Wal-Mart or Disney for wishing me a happy holiday.
If you want to decorate a tree or leave cookies for Santa or watch Home Alone then by all means go nuts! I know I am. And in the midst of the hot chocolate and jingle bell rock, I will celebrate Jesus above all else, making him the center of celebration rather than an aspect. Rudolph is an aspect, Ernest Saves Christmas is a detail, Jesus is the celebration. O’ come let us adore Him!
Bringing Showbread to Europe has been a dream of ours for as long as the band has been around. Over the years there have been countless emails from European Showbread fans beckoning us overseas, and rumors of a more open-minded audience have been more than encouraging. After several false starts and failed attempts, we packed our bags and headed to Germany for the Christmas Rock Night festival on December 3rd. We booked some extra shows and made a 10-day event out of it. Before we ever left, all but one of the extra shows fell through.
I hate flying. Being in a band, doing mission work and having a 3-year long distance relationship with my wife before we were married has riddled me with dozens of flying experiences… The same goes with most of the other band members actually. I’m not afraid of flying, but I can’t stand it. Airports are tedious and boring, flying is cramped and mind numbing and then there’s connections, layovers, security, make believe “orange” threat levels, etc. etc.
Anyway, we flew out. The trip there was fine. We get off the plane after 24 hours of travel and already we’re confused in the German airport. We somehow manage to pass baggage claim leaving us with the only option of going back through security to get our bags. Our first discourse with a German was with an airport staff member who called us “Six idiots” and let us back through. We’re thinking about changing our band name to this.
The festival experience was wonderful. Many awesome, encouraging Showbread fans with many kind things to say. Got to see our friends in Children 18:3 and Maylene. Performing was great. Different from festivals in the states in the sense that it seemed as if maybe people were there in the spirit of fun and acceptance rather than fashion and musical trends.
The trouble began in conversation. Any time we’d mention that we had a show in London the next day, people laughed at us. “This is not happening”, they’d say in Dutch accents. “I am thinking this is not possible.” We realized we couldn’t get in touch with the promoter or get to the show.
We headed back to the airport in the hopes of changing our tickets or getting some standby flights back home. As it turned out, this wasn’t going to happen. Travelocity wanted to charge us (get ready for it) $27,000 to change our tickets to an earlier flight. No I am not kidding, this is the actual number they gave us.
“They know we don’t want to buy the plane right?” Drew asked. “We just want to rent a seat.”
Having already lost a bit of money on the trip and with no shows, no transportation and no lodging, it seemed as if spending the next few days in the airport was the only possibility. After buying a few hours of internet access at the airport (why in the world do they have to charge you for that?) and spending some money trying to haggle with Travelocity, we were down another 80 bucks or so. We checked ourselves into a hotel attached to the airport.
The next few days were spent mostly reading, sleeping and ichatting with the wives. The free hotel breakfast was served at 3am and was essentially a bowl of apples. Every night we ate at McDonald’s (it was in the airport and was the only way to get full for cheap). We rode a train into the city and decided things weren’t so bad, we’d made the best of it.
After getting no sleep, the morning had finally come to fly home. Our first connection flight within Germany was severely behind, but the captain promised all the connecting airlines had been informed and that no one would miss their flights. We landed around the time our connecting flight was supposed to depart. The six of us running through the airport with arms full of luggage and guitars, we made it to the gate while people were still boarding the plane… yet, for some reason, even after mike yelled at the lady, they wouldn’t let us on. The very kind and helpful woman (I am saying all these things sarcastically…. Except woman, she really was a woman) who denied us access told us our only option was going back to ticketing and then through security again. We scrambled around the airport for another couple of hours, missing another couple of flights before Patrick waited in line at a help desk for an hour and we were all rebooked for a flight into the states. The new schedule however, left us spending the night at JFK airport in New York and missing our ride the next day in Atlanta.
The night at JFK was a tough one. The marble floor was harder than you’d think even for marble and somehow held a temperature that must have been several below zero. It felt like sleeping on slabs of ice. None of us had any bedding save a couple of pillows, so with no sleep in over 48 hours, freezing in NY was no fun.
Once back in Georgia we discovered one of our bags full of merch and Garrett’s luggage had turned up missing. Another few hours in the airport and we finally had all of our crap.
The journey’s conclusion took place at the home of our new friend’s Chad and Tina. These two and their roommate were some of the most generous, servant hearted folks we’ve ever met. We found ourselves well rested and well fed before we played the last Showbread show of 2009 in Atlanta and headed home.
Before we left their home, Chad and Tina encouraged our ministry and us. Jesus always has a way of ending a frustrating time with a very specific and purposeful reminder of our purpose. It never fails.
Now Showbread heads into the future… wait and see what’s coming.
After the long wait for Avatar the first thing most people ask about it is “Did it live up to the hype?” In my personal opinion: It did, and then some.
