Transformers: Why Memory may be better than Reality.
Transformers. One of my greatest loves.
While I was a little too young for the very first iteration of Transformers toys and cartoon by Hasbro, I was around for the first round of re-runs of the show, as well as 2nd Generation (buffs of the original). I owned A LOT of transformers: 1st waves, 2nd waves, MicroMasters, Terrorcons, the Gestalts (Superion, Predaking), even the non-transforming Headmasters. When I was in Grade 8, having only been able to remember parts of the 1986 animated blockbuster movie, Transformers: The Movie, my friend Chris and I acquired our first copy of it for our own, and watched it a lot. I loved them, and they loved me.
The Greatest Story Ever Told...oh wait.
Ok, that last part is a bit over the top, but I say this all for a purpose I’ll get to in a minute
In the last few years, I’ve been getting my hands on the original cartoon’s DVD boxed sets, with the obvious intention of watching them. Was I in for a surprise! Transformers, the first cartoon, is brutal. The plot has more holes than Swiss, the voice acting is blasé at best, and the animation is re-hashed at every possible point. Like He-Man (though not THAT bad), it was a cartoon designed to push toys on stupid kids. The movie, in point of fact, was actually designed to introduce an entire new line of toys, as well as to give a semblance of why they won’t make any more Ironhide toys. Luckily, despite the first 2 seasons, that movie is still AWESOME, and the subsequent seasons had a lot more to do with storylines, with plausible introductions to new toys..er..Characters, superceding season 1 and 2′s piece of cinematographic mastery (“Hey Reflector, get over here! Yes Sir!” *Cue Reflector, done)
My point is, sometimes memory is better than reality. But, sadly, we can’t live in memory, only in reality. So take it as it is, and enjoy some really bad cartoons.
And check out Teletraan-1, the Transformers Wiki.
And the new cartoon is actually great.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 26, 2009 at 8:47 am, filed under Life and tagged memory, Nostalgia, transformers. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Dreaming.
I haven’t been sleeping well, lately.
At about 2:30ish almost every night, I wake up, and go back to sleep, and do that every 45 minutes until 6:30 when we have to get up for work/class. I’m not sure why this is happening, but a strange corrollary is that I’m remember almost all my dreams.
I’m getting a real strange feeling about this, as I’m remembering 3-4 dreams a night. ‘Experts’ say that we don’t dream in colour: that’s just wrong, because I vividly do. Technicolor! THX 5.1 DIGITAL SOUND! Full 3-D Action! This is a departure from normal, since I usually have pretty normal dreams (walking down the road, going for a picnic). These dreams, however, are fantastic armies fighting each other, fighting in the mid-east, sowing subversion in a group of lizard men while eating delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie, etc.
Generally, it is understood that dreaming is your subconscious way of dealing with your day. I’m really not sure about that anymore, as these dreams have only the most tenuous grasp on something to do with my day. My synapses are firing at full blast while sleeping, it seems.
Why is this happening? I don’t know.
Anyone got any ideas?
This entry was written by , posted on January 20, 2009 at 8:08 am, filed under Life and tagged dream, sleep. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Culture-Making
How do you see culture?
Do you see it as the zeitgeist of a community? How about a worldview, outside of a local community? or is culture merely collective civilization?
How do you make culture?
Is it based on ideas? Thoughts (there is a difference)? Images?
As Gideon Strauss says, culture is probably the most liminal and confusing word after nature. I’ve found, like Strauss, someone who has given a rather unique and hopeful view of culture. And, even better, he put it in a fairly easy-to-read book. Andy Crouch’s book, Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling, is simply stunning. I think, in the interest of space, I’m going to chop this talk into several posts, each dwelling on something different about Crouch’s work, but for now I’d like to define culture to you the way I’ll be defining culture from now until someone better comes along (not likely).
Crouch defines culture not as a set of ideas, a worldview, or anything so ethereal; culture is the amalgamation of stuff. Everything made by human hands are cultural artifacts, the building blocks of culture. Now, held within those products are ideas about worldviews, how the world should work, etc., but what’s most important is that culture is made not through pushing ideas and thoughts through to form, but by making the stuff I see on my table: iPods, candles, phones, and wallets.
Here’s a great exercise to get you thinking in this mindset. Crouch says that cultural artifacts answer 5 important questions:
- What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world is?
- What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world should be?
- What does this cultural artifact make possible?
- What does this cultural artifact make impossible, or at least very difficult?
- What new forms of culture are created in response to this artifact?
In his book, Crouch answers these questions using omelets and highways, but I encourage you to start thinking about household items in this way, to get your head around the ideas Crouch presents in his book.
Next time, we’ll talk responses to culture.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 13, 2009 at 11:19 pm, filed under Culture and tagged books, Culture, Ideas. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
A Concern.
I wasn’t sure if I should post this, since it is about someone particular and not the machine, but then I said, “Hey. My Blog. Comments are go. I’m opening myself up for conversation, to be corrected if need be.” So here goes:
The New York times just put out a piece on Marc Driscoll, from Seattle, WA’s Mars Hill Church (as opposed to Grand Rapids, MI’s Mars Hill, run by Rob Bell). Before you go any further, read the article here.
After reading the article, I have some big concerns (if the allegations are true – if they aren’t, then I apologise to Marc for some of the following I’m about to say) about Driscoll as a Christian teacher and leader.
First, the idea that “questioning is sinning” is a big one for me. I have been taught to test and discern everything that is brought to my attention through the teaching of the word, like the Bereans in Acts 17:11. For someone to tell me that to question is to sin, and that blind following is the moral and Christian thing to do, then I would tell that person that they are a dangerous person and I’m not following your cult. By blindly following another human being, you put yourself in a false freedom – you are bound not to any god, let alone the Trinity, but to one person’s teachings. There is no freedom there. You take Driscoll’s yolk, not Jesus’: That’s contrary to the Gospel.
Second, Marc Driscoll is a straight-up jackhole. Pardon my rude language, but I really believe this. I’ve been following his remarks online for years now, and I bought his Vintage Jesus book as well, and I’ve heard next to no respectful things come from his mouth about anyone that disagrees with him. For someone who espouses what should be a humbling theology like hypercalvinism, he is an arrogant jerk who seems to show no sign of good fruit in his public life. Am I the only one who sees this a major problem? I don’t care about his swearing or vulgarity, all power to him, but he seems to murder people in his heart all the time. No Grace. I don’t see love in his actions or words. That’s the deal-breaker for me.
It seems that, in an effort to get away from the hyper-sensitive love Gospel being preached in North America in many places, Driscoll has gone on passed the middle and gone to the other extreme of truth with no love. I worry mostly that Driscoll’s position of power will propogate itself in the congregation(s) under his care and ultimately result in a Christianity with little love and grace, like early Calvinism and Lutheranism during the religious wars of the 1600′s.
I guess I’m just worried that the baby is being thrown out with the bathwater.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 12, 2009 at 12:36 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Christianity, Church, Driscoll. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Quick thing.
Ok, I haven’t left yet, but I’d like everyone to know that my Emerging Church Vision Generator is in the #1 spot on Google for “church vision made simple.”
I feel pretty damn good about myself right now. Holy Crap, will those people be in for a surprise.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 6, 2009 at 12:20 pm, filed under Blog and tagged Blog, comedy, Vision. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.