because I’m not special
I just discovered More, by Mark Osborne, even though it was released in 1998. The claymation is expressive, striking, and a bit psychedelic at times. The film criticizes consumerism and postmodern values in six brief minutes, which is quite a feat, in my opinion.
Viewing is free, so I’m declaring this a must-see. Watch More.
The Switchfoot concert is definitely one of the highlights of my summer! I never thought that they’d come here, but they did and I’m glad for it! I got to the Commodore at noon to make sure that I’d get a good spot at the concert. It was a very uneventful two-and-a-half hour wait, except when Alicia and Emma came to visit. They brought me some Stuff By Duff stickers from the Cinderella promo and I promised that I’d try to get Switchfoot to sign it for them, just for fun!
Finally, at 3:30pm, the opening band came on. I have no clue what they’re called or what their music is about, but they seemed to play well together. They have a general hard rock sound, and their lead singer is really loud and screamy. I think they did around eight songs. The lead singer totally lied when he said that we were their “best crowd ever”, seeing how we barely responded, but it was a nice gesture, I guess.
Finally, at around 4:40pm, Switchfoot took the set and started off with “Ammunition”, followed by “Adding to the Noise”. I can’t remember the order of the set after that, but it was good. “Gone” and “The Loser” were two of my favourites because they’re such fun concert songs. They played some new songs too! I think the first new one was either “Star” or “Circles”, and the second was something like “Happiness is a Yuppie Word”. Or maybe it was “Happy is a Yuppie Word”? Somebody help me out here. They played for an hour, ending with “Meant to Live”, but did “Dare You To Move” as an encore. At the end, Jerome threw his guitar pick out at the crowd. I grabbed at it and caught it! I was so surprised because I never get such good luck with things like these!
Afterwards, I bought a “I Like Switchfoot” t-shirt, which I’ve been eyeing on their online site for a while. I hung out with my friends for a bit, then found out that the band members were coming out from the dressing room! So yes, Emma and Alicia, I got them to sign the Stuff For Duff stickers. When I asked Jon for his signature, he didn’t even know that he was signing a piece of Hilary Duff merchandise. But when Tim signed:
“Hilary Duff?”
“Um… yeah.”
“Haha, that’s hilarious! Awesome.”
People said Chad and Andrew were out giving autographs too, but I never saw them. Too bad. I also regret not bringing my camera, but a lot of my friends took pictures with the band, so that’s good enough for me.
Talking to the band members afterwards was the best part of the concert, because they’re such nice people. I like them because they’re not big-headed or anything, just people who play good music. I’m glad I got the chance to see them in concert finally! I hope they come back during their next tour.
DyingChurch.com recently wrote a post called “The Writing on the Wall, describing how pastors are stepping down from their positions and moving out of the church, taking their ministry to the streets.
Although not all Christians will agree me with, I think that it’s a great idea. Churches with large numbers have the ongoing problem of maintaining interaction with the members on a personal basis. Despite the fact that my own church isn’t that large, I do feel unnoticed at times, albeit mainly due to my insecurity. And as the church grows, it only gets harder to cope with the loneliness.
Pastors are now leaving the church and holding “house churches” - small, intimate places, where believers get to know each other much more personally. As far as I know, this is the “emerging church” movement that has been taking place across the world in the past few years.
Proclaiming the gospel from street corners and going door-to-door are methods that just don’t seem to work very effectively in the developed world. Nowadays, people are too closed to strangers, and for good reason. There are too many hidden agendas to consider when confronting a stranger - “Is he trying to get me into his car?”, “Does he have a knife behind his back?”, “Why does their religion make them do this?”, etc. The most effective method of evangelism is for Christians to take their actions seriously and to live a Christ-like life. (Side note: I need to remind myself of this more often.) Interest is piqued when people see the difference in a Christian’s life and the conversion process begins there.
Bringing a person to church can be very difficult, even if they have some interest in Christianity. There’s just something about going to church that seems so foreign and intimidating to many of those who don’t regularly attend. For example, I know that if I were to go to a Buddhist temple, I’d feel apprehensive about what I should or shouldn’t do, whether there are Buddhist-only rituals that I should abstain from, etc. But if I went for coffee with a trusted Buddhist friend and asked him questions about his faith, I’d feel much more comfortable and relaxed. In the same way, to some people, dropping by a small “house church” where a few friends meet together, can be less intimidating than a huge service.
In any event, a pastor at the pulpit is limited with respect to his reach into the world. That’s why the church needs to meet people in their own environment, instead of waiting for the people to come to church.
At the same time, it’s not like I believe that the conventional church should be abolished or that it is no longer applicable. It has its place and remains an important part of Christianity. Conventional churches with an emphasis on small groups can be very similar to the aforementioned, but I’d love to see home churches, like those in 100 A.D., become more prominent in this postmodern world.
However, I’m still open to debate about this issue, so feel free to attack my argument if you like. 
For World Blog Haiku Day. It’s really deep, people.
It is time to switch
To a pretty Powerbook
No more wasting time
Although I am not a fan of action movies, I have to admit that I really liked Spider-Man 2. My enjoyment of the movie was helped by the fact that I don’t often watch anything of the action genre, so all the fight scenes and CGI work seemed really fresh to me. It also reminded me why I loved watching superhero shows as a child. There’s just something uplifting about watching an amazing hero defeating evil and saving lives. The emotional struggle that Peter Parker goes through really connected me with him and made me want him to succeed even more. Or maybe I’m just a cornball.
There was one unintentionally funny segment when Peter was shown dramatically walking across a roof. His walk is really strange. If not strange, it’s certainly not the slightly-undone tie, jacket over the shoulder, Abercrombie-and-Fitch saunter down the street in the rain. If he was in our mini school class, he just might oust Victor for the Most Distinctive Walk prize.
I took the Hastings 10 Express to get home from the theatre. Most people hadn’t heard of this bus before, so they thought it was just a regular Hastings 10 bus, but it turns out that it provides regular service up to Main and Hastings, then it’s nonstop to Kootenay Loop. Funny how Translink decided to unload their passengers one of the worst intersections in Vancouver. At Main and Hastings, the driver announced that there would be no more stops until the loop, so people got off and transferred to a regular Hastings 10. Once the driver pulled out from the curb, I looked around and realized that I was the only passenger left in the bus. It was great! I can now say that, after Spider-Man 2, I was chaffeured by the world’s largest tacky limousine.
You are currently browsing the Regular K weblog archives for the month July, 2004.
