Non-feature film review: Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart.

I have heard of Bela Fleck, my bro-in-law is a big fan of his jazz/folk band. It's hard to categorize the music, but it's good. So I picked up this DVD at the library.

Bela Fleck, a banjo player, goes to Africa to bring the banjo back to its roots. It is commonly only seen by Americans as a Southern bluegrass instrument. And I admit that is how I've viewed it as well.

This film features many African musicians and native instruments. Also, this will sound obvious, but the music is very non-Western. My ear is not trained to be able to follow the melody or harmony of the songs. But of course Bela Fleck was able to improvise and play great music on top of the traditional tunes.

I think it's pretty interesting overall, and it's educational, and it's not too long.

Here is the web site for the documentary: http://www.throwdownyourheart.com

Movie Review: Terms of Endearment (1983)

This won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1983!

Funny story - I make it my policy to not read anything about the Best Picture winner that I'm about to see. This includes the back cover or anything on the Internet. So the cover shows a picture of two women smiling. I said I was in the mood for a light-hearted movie, and it seemed to fit the description.
And it kind of started out that way. It set the stage by introducing two stubborn women, mother (Shirley MacLaine) and daughter (Debra Winger). Then there is a lot of family angst, with the daughter having children, and then moving away from her mother in Texas to Des Moines, Iowa. The husband (Jeff Daniels!) starts cheating on his wife even when they have 3 kids, and then the wife starts cheating on the husband with a guy who would later be on the TV show Third Rock from the Sun. Meanwhile, the mother is attracted to a wild next door neighbor (Jack Nicholson!) who is a former cosmonaut. The story with the mother and neighbor is really fun, and is the best part of the movie for me. I was smiling quite widely and laughed out loud.

But I never really got into the story of the daughter, maybe not identifying with her very well, so it was not really a tear jerker for me at the end, which everyone else seems to think it should be. And since this was a huge part of the 2.5 hour movie, that is why I felt like I was enduring the movie at some spots.

But overall it's a compelling movie. If you are a fan of these actors that I mentioned, you should see it.

Restaurant Review: Sweet Tomatoes

Sweet Tomatoes is a salad bar restaurant about a mile from my new workplace. So Courtney wanted to go there with me. And we went.

I was not too happy about paying $8+ for a salad bar, because I knew that the higher price was due to all of the breads and glutenous desserts that are made available. However, it was the freshest and tastiest salad I've had. So I would go again.

The clientele was made up of many middle aged women that I imagined were taking a break from Christmas shopping, but also some professionals from the area like myself. It was pretty well decorated - the carpet was a red tomatoes design, which Courtney said must be especially made for the restaurant, since no one else would want carpet with tomatoes on them.

We left a small tip as well since they had a person very actively taking the dishes and trays.

I felt that the salad bar was lacking in the fruit area. The only fruit there was freshly cut pineapple. So I'm not sure I understand that.

Restaurant Review: Macaroni Grill

My company took my department out to lunch, and it was about 20 people. I find it pretty funny that my new company is only slightly bigger than my last one. I love small companies! My company is really a combination of two companies, so if you add them in, and then you add the administrative and management, and you have a total of around 50 employees. My previous company has ranged from 15-35.

Anyway, they took us to Macaroni Grill, which is one of the nicest restaurants I've been to in a while. They brought me a nutritional facts booklet, but the gluten free sheet had no entrees on it. It was really weird. It listed the salad dressings and side salads, and ice cream basically. That is pretty annoying. I actually have a coworker that also doesn't eat wheat, and he recommended the Simple Salmon. It was decent.

I drank about three glasses of lemonade, which was really good. The service was great. The restaurant was packed, but the food still came out decently on time and was warm.

I had previously gone there on my first ever "date", when a girl asked me to WPA (Women Pay All) Dance during my freshman year of high school. That evening was also my first kiss, which was on the cheek as I was dropped off at my house. After a couple years of WPA's I got the courage to ask someone out to Homecoming dance on my junior year.

An interesting side note is that I'm Facebook friends with almost every possible date or love interest I have ever had.

This has been the strangest restaurant review ever, hasn't it?

Best of 2009: Books

Unfortunately, I only read 12 books this year, about a third of the number of complete books that I usually read. I did read almost as many pages probably, but have either read longer books, or haven't completed them. Next year I will focus on the top 12 books that I really want to read, instead of random books.

So...DISCLAIMERS ASIDE

Here is my take on the books I read in 2009. Click on the titles for my original reviews

BEST BOOKS OF 2009

The winner:

The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas

A captivating tale in the historical context of Christ crucifixion and the years afterward in the Roman Empire.


Runner up:

The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged)

This lengthy book drags in the middle and end, but the beginning is really awesome! It seems a bit crazy to not name this book as the winner of my award, but it's just my gut feeling.


Third:

A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren

It's interesting to have fiction and nonfiction all in one book. Through fictional characters and situations, the author teaches us about changes in the culture and how that affects Christianity.

Fourth:

The Obama Nation

I don't know if it's because I wasn't paying attention, but I didn't know a thing about Obama until I read this book. A still widely unknown fact is that he was a friend and follower of communist teachers. It's not just scare tactics out there, folks - there is a lot of historical truth to the things people are saying.

Fifth:

True Faced

About learning to live out your life in grace. It was good, but I liked the four I just listed better.


SO-SO BOOKS OF 2009

Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand

He was a great man, and had a powerful testimony. It's an interesting read.

The Inner Game of Work

I kind of liked it when I read it, but I haven't applied any of the ideas in the past year. The methods are overall unhelpful.

48 Days to the Work You Love, by Dan Miller

This has nothing to do with 48 days of anything, so I'm not sure why they called it that. It just has some thoughts about work and finding work. It's difficult for career books to apply to my situation. They write the books to be able to apply to any career.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict, by Mitchell Bard

I'm all for the cause of Israel, but this book is very biased for Israel, and is all about Israel. My point is that I was disappointed that this wasn't reflected in the title or back cover of the book when I bought it. Also, it has nothing to do with being a complete idiot, because this is a smart person book!


BAD BOOKS OF 2009:

Experiencing Prayer With Jesus, Henry and Norman blackaby

The most egotistic, "I have it all together" book I've ever read, teaching you formulas on how to pray as well as the authors can.


BOOKLETS THAT WEREN'T REALLY BOOKS:

2 contents, 2 realities, by Francis Schaeffer

Didn't make a ton of sense.

The Little Brown Book of Corporate Advancement

My guide to brown-nosing in office sports and cubicle land!

BOOKS I FLIPPED THROUGH

I only include books if I read them completely, but I read most chapters of the following books:

No More Mondays, by Dan Miller
Your Pregnancy for the Expectant Father
The Meaning of Life, Readings in Philosphy
Eat to Live

Book Review: True Faced

This book was recommended to me, and really reflects what I've been learning about myself. This book is about the two paths that we can take in our lives - one leads to the room of Good Intentions, where people try to please God and reach perfection by our actions. The other path leads to the Room of Grace, where people are free to share their weaknesses and know that they are already pleasing God.

Now this subject is a little to personal for the Internet, but let's just say I've spent a lot of time in the room of Good Intentions, but am now learning to live in the Room of Grace.

If you are curious to hear more, just ask!

Restaurant Review: Granite City Brewery

I went here for work for a client lunch. And it was the first time I met any of the employees at the client I've been working on for a couple of months. We met halfway between their Leavenworth office and our Overland Park office, and Granite City Brewery is in the Legends area in Kansas City KS.

I had a salad that was absolutely awful. It was a Chop Salad with Chicken tossed in Italian Vinaigrette. Actually, it was just the Italian Vinaigrette that was the bad part. I didn't know "tossed" would be "soaked and saturated".

The salad was presented in the most creative possible fashion. It was a tower, which reminded me of the sculpture in Close Encounters.

But yeah, an awful salad.

Tis the Season to Eat

I have three restaurant reviews to write

Granite City Brewery
Macaroni Grill ( I went when I was 15, enough time has elapsed to make it "new"!)
Sweet Tomatoes

The first two were for corporate holiday lunches.

Best of November 2009

Pic of the month:

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time:None

Best Book I Read: None

Best online video I watched for the First time: Distraxion


Bobby Mcferrin improvisation with Richard Bona

Movie Review: Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

At first, I had trouble accepting this musical, because it was very unusual. But in the end, it gets my respect, and it can't be compared to other musicals. The ending in Fiddler is very sad, as the Jews are forced from their homes. The other sad ending in musicals is West Side Story, but that is not as sad. The Sound of Music has some sadness to it, but is overall happy. Other than that, most musicals are happy.

In Fiddler, a family with five daughters lives in poverty. And the three oldest fall in love and get married all in the wrong way, breaking with tradition, in increasing measure. That is interesting, although somewhat repetitive. I was actually thankful that the father rejected the last engagement (which was to a Gentile), because it broke the repetition of the movie, where he would give in and bless the marriages. Although it was sad that he treated his daughter as though she was dead.

The music is catchy, although there are a few bad songs, which is normal for musicals. There are a few gems of songs - Matchmaker, If I Were a Rich Man, and "Tradition". The acting was good.

And I appreciate the emotion of the movie. In some areas, it failed to seem real, with the fake snow, or acting/dancing, or whatever. But at some points I was deeply touched by what was happening. I think film is the best way to communicate injustice, because characters are developed and I love them, and then when injustice happens to them, it affects me. Wheras, if injustice happens in a newspaper in real life, I am disconnected from the people, and not affected emotionally. I feel ashamed to live in a world where people treat each other in the way depicted in Fiddler on the Roof. And these are events that really happened, and these types of things still happen.

Restaurant Review: Five Guys Burgers

Went here with some work guys. An official Friday lunch with my coworkers will be an opportunity to experience new restaurants.

Many signs in the place tell about the health precautions that the restaurant has taken. I copied them from the web site:

Did you know...

* Zero Artificial Trans Fats
* Zero Gluten, except for our buns
* Two Mystery Shops are done each week at every location
* 38,409,200 lbs. of potatoes were used in our stores in 2008
* Millions of dollars given back to store level employees every year!



I appreciate the GF mention.

And it's one of those places where patrons learn to share the "small" fries, because there are too many for one person. Another quirk is that the "junior" hamburger is really a normal hamburger. And the"normal" hamburger has two beef patties. The only items on the menu are burgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and fries. It makes it easy to decide what to order.

It was really tasty. About as good as a bunless burger gets. I am definitely going there again!

Movie Review: Gandhi (1982)

Gandhi won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1982. It took a while to get the motivation watch this, because it is over 3 hours long. We split it between two nights. Thankfully there was a nice clean break with the word "Intermission" displayed on the screen.

I thought it would be boring, because it was going to be about a foreign, old, frail, softspoken man. But in reality, Gandhi was portrayed as very bold, wise, witty, and loving, and also well versed in culture outside of India. He was very able to be a Westerner, and wear suits, as were the rest of India's leaders, and he did this for a while. But he chose to identify with India, and that's why we wore the loin cloth and traditional Indian garb.

The nonviolent resistance that he led was actually very bold. It directly attacked injustice, not with weapons, but with noncompliance. Gandhi got thrown in jail several times, and it made the persecutors look very immoral and very bad. The fact that England massacred many nonviolent protestors made England look even more bad. In the end, an England that thought they were good, were proved to be bad, and that is why they gave India her independence.

I hadn't previously known about the Muslim vs. Hindu divisions that continued even after India got her independence. And this made Gandhi really upset.

The movie powerfully portrays the assassination of Gandhi.

There is a funeral scene that shows 400,000 people, and this is a record. This is the day before CGI (computer generated imagery), and it is predicted that this many people will not show up in a movie scene ever again. Gandhi beat out E.T. for Best Picture.

Ben Kingsley won an Oscar for Best Actor, and it is well deserved. He is half-Indian, and a British citizen.

The movie was set into motion in the 60's when Richard Atteborough was asked to direct it. But no studio would produce the movie, and they had to raise money for 20 years to make it. Richard Atteborough appears as the old professor on Jurassic Park, and is Santa Claus in the Miracle on 34th Street. He won Best Director for Gandhi.

Also features Martin Sheen and Candace Bergen.

In short, this is an amazing movie. Even though it is over 3 hours long, it was interesting the entire time, and that is an accomplishment.