Baggas' Blog

Managed to get out to the movies succesfully for the first time in quite a while last night, and saw District 9. This excellent film derives from the old premise of aliens come to earth, spaceship hovers over a major city etc etc, but with some major variations on that theme. The major variation is that the aliens aren’t powerful super-intelligent invaders, rather they become impoverished refugees, mistreated and discriminated against by humans, and forced to live in a ghetto slum shanty town camp (couldn’t decide which word was best there so why not use em all?). And the second major twist, which makes the first one even more poignant, is that the spaceship is not hovering over New York or LA or some other big American city like most of these movies – rather it is set in Johannesburg, South Africa. Setting this movie in the continent of refugee camps, and in the nation of apartheid helps give the movie a strong underlying element of cutting social commentary. It’s not exactly subtle, but neither is it overplayed. We are presented with a selection of characters with a diverse range of biases and bigotry, including the flawed hero, but we are left to make our own judgements on the characters and the story. The documentary style presentation helps with presenting a range of perspectives. Special effects are well done, with the CGI blending seamlessly with the squalid African refugee camp conditions. This is a fantastic movie. Nice to see a “blockbuster” action movie which stimulates some serious thought and discussion, and coming from South Africa instead of Hollywood (although Peter Jackson of LOTR fame is a producer). Definitely worth watching, as long as you’re not too squeamish.

Here’s a trailer for it. I picked this one, because I thought the other one (number2 ) gave too much away..

Greetings from sunny tropical Queensland, where aside from missing my wife and kids I am suffering from serious guitar withdrawals. I can’t find any station on my TV where I am staying except ‘Max’ and have had the radio in my hire car alternating between my iPod, some new CDs I got, and the local country FM station (Kix – the Best Country in the World!) – why doesn’t Perth have a country music station?? seriously one of the worst things about Perth… anyway I digress… so yeh, I’m listening to lots of interesting music but have no guitar to play – very frustrating!

I seriously think that the airlines should allow guitarists to take one guitar in addition to their usual baggage allowance.. would make for a much happier, more melodic travel experience. How bout it, QANTAS?

When I got my first Fender from Nashville I flew with it half way back around the world to Perth, but at that point I was able to just count it as one of the kid’s pieces of baggage. Sadly I have no kid with me this time so no baggage allowance to co-opt. I shall have to think of some cunning plan to bring a guitar for my next 2 week trip here…

I did visit one of the local ACC churches here on Sunday : here’s my ‘mystery worshipper’ review. Smallish church but the music was good. Lots of energy courtesy of the excellent young guy who was worship leading and the youth who were moshing in the first couple of rows. The band was simple – they didn’t play any super complicated licks (except the bass solo in Salvation is here), but they were really tight and it was a nice mix (my only complaint would have been I couldn’t hear the girl plying lead guitar). Overall I took out of it that you can have a really quality sound without doing anything too complicated if you have a tight band who knows the songs, a good mix, and a dynamic worship leader who can really take the music in the right direction. I liked that they also (in a couple of songs) left space for people to worship freely, although even that was fairly brief and the worship leader had his finger on the pulse and the band followed him diligently. So nice to have a great worship experience away from home. I think it is valuable for us as worship leaders and musicians to visit other churches from time to time and get a feel for what others are doing.

Anyway I should turn out the lights… getting late here in Qld and I have another day of biostatistics awaiting me tomorrow (actually make it today now… zero hours). Just one last plug if you want to listen to some classic music – I just watched the movie ‘The Boat that Rocked’ – not bad for a laugh.. think Austin Powers meets Titanic and you’ll be on the right track. I can’t say I can recommend it as a good wholesome Christian movie (don’t say I didn’t warn you) but if you want a fun movie with some awesome old 60′s music… check it out.

And on that note I’m signing off. Keep on rockin’

This movie has kinda crept up on us without a lot of buzz or hype – the new CGI Star Wars movie which will be released on August 14th in Australia (one day before America). I first saw the preview in the cinema just a couple of weeks ago but before that hadn’t heard anything about it. Apparently this will be the lead in to a new series on Cartoon Network.

Here’s the preview which I just found at Hello Internet. As Ben points out it’s a bit strange seeing Lucasfilm and Star Wars with a Warner Bros intro instead of 20th century fox

Went and saw the 4th instalment in this series yesterday with my brothers and dad. Don’t have time to write a full review but my advice is that if you even mildly enjoyed the other movies, you should definitely go see this one. It recaptures the whole vibe and feel of the series well, and the storyline and action sequences are what we should expect from the team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. They include plenty of in-jokes and references to their other movies – and not just the Indiana Jones ones – even Close Encounters and Star Wars get a look in. Harrison Ford does well, slipping back into the character like into a comfortable old suit. And they manage his advancing age very smoothly – at no point does the age factor seem stupid or unbelievable.  So go see it – a  fun and nostalgic way to spend a couple of hours.

Now we’re just waiting for the Lego Indiana Jones computer game to be released. Owen especially can’t wait to see that one…

Along similar lines to my last entry about wild west cowboys to be blamed for legalism in 20th century evangelical/fundamentalist churches, one of my favourite bloggers Fred the slacktivist weighs in with his take on C.S. Lewis’ book Prince Caspian :

I haven’t seen Prince Caspian yet, but since it was the “No. 1 Movie” this weekend, let’s revisit what that wonderful little book was about:

Prince Caspian is about beer.

He then goes on to quote Lewis from Mere Christianity discussing this very issue of legalism, especially relating to alcohol. And Lewis, as you may or may not know, enjoyed his beer. Fred’s interpretation of Prince Caspian is that the bad guys (Telmarines) represent excessively legalistic “anti-beer Christians” and the mission of the Pevensie children is to help Caspian and Aslan restore joy and wildness to the land.

It’s a long long time since I’ve read the book, and I’m also yet to see the movie (not sure when it comes out here in Australia) but it’s an interesting take on a classic children’s book. I’ll have to try and revisit it sometime soon.

You can read Fred’s post here.

We watched a couple of movies over the weekend, both of which I quite enjoyed, although for different reasons. I’ll just mention them briefly and you can check them out if you want.

Into the Wild was the first one. This is a true story of a young guy named Chris who, upon college graduation, decides to leave his troubled family life behind and disappear, living life as a “supertramp.” Ultimately he finishes up living a solitary existence in an abandoned bus in the wilds of Alaska, but on the way we share in his journeys across America and the people and places he encounters. As the story progresses we learn more of the back story of his home life that led to him doing this, and also of the anguish of those he left behind. This is a brilliant movie – one of the best I’ve seen in a long while. Amazing scenery combined with fantastic performances as the odd-ball characters that Chris encounters along the way. It is a classic road movie but with an emotional intensity and depth few road movies can match. Nevertheless it’s added further fuel to my burning desire to get out and travel again, particularly to America – I just can’t wait to get back over there!

The icing on the cake of this already excellent movie is the wonderful soundtrack by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder – a bunch of original acoustic folky songs that fit perfectly with this film. I got this soundtrack (from iTunes ironically) last year before my last trip to Africa and have been looking forward to seeing the movie ever since.

Briefly, the other movie we watched was Run, Fatboy, Run! This is an English take on a romantic comedy formula you’ve probably seen at least half a dozen times before. You know, the one where the slightly screwed up nice guy who goes for regular visits with his child meets the new boyfriend of the child’s mum, who he is still carrying a torch for. The new guy is always “perfect” on paper – wealthy, good looking, great job, apparently good with kids. And then the rest of the movie shows how the dad works at keeping his kid, regaining the love of the mother, and generally proving that he’s at heart a better man than Mr Perfect. Run fatboy, run takes that tested formula and delivers it in the manner of the standard British comedy, set in London with a range of colourful supporting characters. Simon Pegg does a good job as Dennis, the main character, and he’s well supported by a good cast including Hank Azaria who plays the American interloper Mr Perfect (“Whit”). Interestingly, this movie was directed by David Schwimmer (who I assume is the same guy as Ross from Friends?), yet it still retains that British film-making feel. It’s a predictable movie, but still worth watching for a bit of fun.