Geekklesia

Now that a few weeks have passed, and I have had the opportunity to see Captain America: Civil War twice, there are some thoughts that I believe are present. A number of bloggers and other critics have noted that neither Steve Rogers/Captain America nor Tony Stark/Iron Man are 100% correct in their views. Neither individuals nor institutions can be trusted to provide competent, reliable oversight for people with power. Personal responsibility: I find it interesting that in discussing the Sokovia Accords, which would limit the Avengers to act only when they had clearance from a UN panel, Steve Rogers claims to accept that in order to act he must be willing to live with the consequences. In other words, he sys he is willing to take responsibility for the results, good and bad, of his actions.   Speaking to Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, he says "This job... we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a wa...

[Please forgive the stream of consciousness aspect to this post.]  We are now just two weeks away from the release of Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens in the US. I've been reflecting on this event for a while now. I was eleven years old when the original Star Wars movie (now branded as Episode 4: A New Hope ) was released and I saw it, that first, fateful summer of 1977. Then in 1980, this was followed by Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back . A new decade, and a darker turn, with an unbelievable (at the time) reveal. In 1983, I had just finished my Junior year of High School, and my best friend at the time and I were among the first in line to see the conclusion of what is now seen as the "Original Trilogy," Episode 6: The Return of the Jedi. There was  no camping out at my little theater near Texarkana, Texas. In fact, when I pulled up, we were the first to arrive. But rather than starting the line, we went back and sat in the car. When others arrived, ...

Last week I broke my ankle slipping on some ice. Since I wasn't going anywhere for a while, I decided to catch up on a movie I hasn't seen when it first came out, but one I had heard many good things about. That movie was M. Night Shyalaman's 2000 exploration of what makes a superhero or a supervillain, Unbreakable , starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. WARNING! The below synopsis and analysis contains spoilers! My initial thoughts were that in this film, every character is in some way broken. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is dealing with a personal sacrifice he made twelve years ago that has apparently limited his future. His grief over this loss leads to a restlessness that causes his relationships with his wife and son to be broken as well. Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), unlike David, is physically broken. He has a rare condition that leads to brittle bones, which means he is highly susceptible to injury. Although deeply embittered by his condition...

I had been looking to this week for a few days. Friday is my birthday, and although my wife was scheduled to be out of town this week at a conference, she was due to return on Friday night, and we would be celebrating on Saturday, with a visit to an Irish pub in town.  While she was away, I thought about spending a little "me time" at my favorite big box book store just browsing. I should have seen it coming. First, we had been pounded two weekends previously with snowstorms which forced us to cancel many of our church activities, something I really dislike doing.  I also had to learn to shovel a precariously steep driveway at our home so that we could get out when the roads were clear enough. Not once, but twice. The second time, I didn't get as much cleared, and on Monday night (two days before my wife's trip), I slipped on a patch of ice, and went down hard. Not quite twenty years ago I severely sprained my right ankle, and thought at first that I had done the ...

( Note:  this is a review I previously recorded for The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast with Paeter Frandsen) The Western has been considered by many people as an American mythology.  It features very archetypal tropes like good versus evil and law and order versus crime and chaos.  In 2010, writer director Kevin Eslinger produced the 16 minute short film titled Nickel Children (not to be confused with the 2005 feature film The Nickel Children ), which could be variously called a steampunk or a weird western film.   The basic plot is that in the late 1800's Kansas, a young orphaned boy is held captive with other children for the pleasure of adults. The boys are forced to fight each other while the grown ups bet on the winners and losers; the girls dance with heavily made up faces to entertain the men. For a 16-minute indie film shot in only five days,  Nickel Children has a lot of promise.  The costuming...