Eric's Eddyfications

King James

Lebron James is turning into Michael Jordan BEFORE OUR EYES. And he does it against the Pistons, to further the irony. Wow.

Thoughts about art

We just got finished planning the year long Big Idea series and topics, and it has given me a chance to reflect a little bit on art and the church, while also looking ahead to the next year and getting excited about the coming year.

I've talked about this before, so here goes. I don't think there are really any new ideas. One of my mentors in the theatre often would say that he only had eight ideas, and he spent the best part of his career disguising them so that people wouldn't notice. I have adopted that concept as my own. I only have eight ideas, and I spend most of my time disguising my ideas so that no one will notice.

So if I have eight, what are they? I'm not really sure. I just know that I have a limit on true creativity, because there is nothing new under the sun. I am beginning to think though, that the rest of my life will be a process of starting to identify each of the eight ideas, and when I am able to accurately define them, then it will be time for me to shed this mortal coil. (not my idea - Shakespeare)

So far I can identify two. Would you like to know what they are? I thought you might. You might even be able to predict them.

So let's play a game. If you attend CCC, or consider yourself familiar enough with the art here, can you identity or try to guess which (2) ideas I have identified? I'm talking about content for church services - art that we create in the adult large group service. Those of who who have already been in on my convos and know what they are, well, I'm trusting you to let the game be played. Enjoy, results to follow on the comments page...

Eat This Book

Could not be more excited about the upcoming series "Eat This Book" - it's going to be a great three week series all about that Bible that we need to spend more time with... This weekend begins it all, and does so with the new series videos - here's a sneak preview for part one - these Sonic Commercial Parodies are awfully good, if I do say so myself... enjoy!

More and final thoughts on American Idol

Okay, so apparently I disappointed several of you with my lack of content about the finale and other thoughts regarding AI. Apparently I couldn't satisfy everyone with my brief rundown in my earlier post. Which is fine. Here's what I've been telling everyone who asks me for more! more! more!

Jordin is the archetype of what the American Idol competition is designed to be - young, very talented, hope for the future starlet who will someday be a big star if they can only get that lucky break. AI is that lucky break, and she totally fits the profile. Blake - I suppose he is certainly someone who would not have gotten discovered otherwise as well, but clearly not there because of his great singing. I'm not even sure that he was a great performer - I think he was just unique, in the same way that Taylor Hicks was unique. But not nearly as creepy.

And all the Melinda fans out there need to come to grips with one important problem that she had: She did not have the likeability factor. As much as Simon likes to talk about that, I'm amazed that he never brought it up with her. They tried to do so the second to last week when she was competing flawlessly, but they were bored with her - the judges talked about wanting more "umph" from her and to have her give that "extra somethin" - but she didn't have it - they knew that they should like her, but they didn't, and they couldn't figure out why. The real reason? She actually was a background singer. The show tried to bring her out of that shell, but it was too overpowering. She couldn't get out of it, and as a result, sounded great (and may sound great on a recording too), but wasn't particulary likeable. Don't believe me? Check out Tim Sanders, the guy who coined the phrase, and his blog about Melinda from a few weeks back.

So with Melinda out, there was no way that Blake was going to out-unique Jordin's voice. Taylor was able to out McFee McFee because he had much more charisma in his uniqueness than Blake did with his. And I was really disappointed that Blake did not try to re-arrange the finals song. If he had been that ballsy to try to transform that pop ballad into something that he could sing, then I think he might have swayed America. But without it, you've got to give it to the next Kelly Clarkson-Carrie Underwood-AI Prototype.

Them's my thoughts. Enjoy, and may the AI talk rest in peace until January...

Great Stuff

Dave has already blogged about the Big Idea 07-08 Brainstorm yesterday - today feels like a recuperation of sorts for me - all while I feel like I'm starting to get sick. Fun. Nonetheless... had some time to throw out some random thoughts...

American Idol was another great season, though the finale left something to be desired for a couple of reasons. First, they had all the build up of a Beatles medley without an appearance of Paul McCartney, which was clearly what they were if not planning on, at least probably negotiating for all the way up to gametime. My guess is that he wanted to play a new song from his new Starbucks CD and they wanted him to play "When I'm 64." No deal. The second aggravation of the evening was that my wife and I Tivo'd the episode only to find that the show went longer than the planned 2 hours, so we missed the actual announcement that Jordin had won. I caught it later here. We were not surprised however to learn that she had done so - best performance of the night might have been Blake performing with Doug E. Fresh, if only because it means that the American Idol producers actually have a cultural awareness of the hip hop beatboxing culture. If you were going to bring anyone, that was the dude.

I caught up with some podcasts today as well. The Catalyst Podcast is always entertaining, and informative, and back in February-ish they interviewed Andy Crouch. His take on Culture and the role of the church was fascinating and I strongly recommend listening to it. He has a book coming out next year, and a bunch of DVDs  (Catalyst Films Intersect/Culture) that he made along with Catalyst that you can find here.

In other news, Porchlight Music Theatre, the Chicago theatre company that I helped to form back in 1995, has finally made it. They've arrived. How do I know? On Tuesday May 29th, their original production of "The Teapot Scandals" (a show that my brother Elic appeared in this year) will be featured in one of the questions in the "American Theater" category of JEOPARDY. Watch for it! Thanks to Walter Stearns, the current Artistic Director of Porchlight, for sharing the good news...

How much would you pay to see this line up along with 999 of your closest friends: Prince, James Taylor, Dave Matthews, Billy Joel and Tom Petty. $30,000 you say? Well, you're in luck - it's only half that...

And finally, happy 30th Birthday to Star Wars - here's a fascinating look at the teachings of the films - seems to coincide often with another book that I should be reading more of...

The Big Idea - The Sequel

It's pretty rare that one of our Big Idea ideas spawns a sequel. But, here's proof that it happens: Check out the "Reconsilosec II" video made to highlight the reconciliation of teenagers for our StuCo.

If you haven't seen the "original" - here it is, made for the adults for our Christmas Chaos series:

Getting ready for the week...

Well, the week's gonna be busy...

The NEWTHING pastors are in town to gather, get together, and plan this year's BIG IDEA topics. Should be fun. I love those guys.

But the real deal is the SEASON FINALES of Heroes and American Idol. Should be a great week of television. My TIVO machine is working in overdrive. Looking forward to it.

And to whet your American Idol appetite, check out this quick overview of the previous five seasons. Nice.

Retreat - American Idle

I'm on a retreat (read more about that here) so I was unable to watch American Idol last night - how did they do? I'll be giving a full report later tonight when I get back so that the fake John Mayer can get a good night's sleep...

Rising above the fray

So now the Phoenix Suns have to do what great teams do - rise above the fray. After the unavoidable suspensions were handed down from the league, now the Suns have to win at home without Amare and Diaw - and as long as Steve Nash is still on the floor, I like our chances.

The league has backed themselves into a corner with the unbending policy. I guess that's fine, if they're comfortable living without any grey area whatsoever. I think that they have been consistent and that's probably the thing that they are so proud about that they would never consider adjusting their stance. Watching the Golden State game last night, though, it was killing me to think that those blockheads are having toddler like temper tantrums out there on the court, getting technicals, flagrant fouls, and generally behaving like babies, and they are still playing in the games - Amare and Boris move towards their fallen teammate - showing no signs of malice or intent to strike out at Horry, and they get to sit out a game. I guess it's not so consistent after all.

It won't matter. The Suns are poised to win in six, and I think they will. If they can win tonight, the rush of Amare's return will put them in a great position to win again in San Antonio. And if they don't, well, then, Horry gets to enter the game seven in Phoenix, and that would be a fun thing to watch too.

My parents get to go to the game tonight - Go Suns! Scream for us in the Midwest, Mom and Dad!

Steve Nash Superhero

The best response to the fracas from last night comes from someone who knows way too much about comic books. Go Suns!