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New Ghetto Blog

Happy Blogaversary

movies

Cause I have like 2 min to blog, here’s a list of films that are on my to see list.

In no particular order:

Burn After Reading
Quantum of Solace
Rachel Getting Married
Synecdoche, New York
High School Musical 3
Rock n Rolla
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
How To Lose Friends and Alienate People

and if you missed my review of Let the Right One In you can find it here, I’ll probably go see this one again.

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Ok folks we have a winner. Thanks to those that participated. We’ll have more contests in the future, so keep on reading.

Rob Bell’s next book (fictionally) will be called “That’s what HE said!!!”

I liked this one a lot. Not only does it combine my love of The Office, but I like the theological connotations too.

Congrats to Molly. Since I know where you live I’ll send the book out soon!

Let the Right One In

Last night I got to go to a screening of “Let the Right One In“

Here was my twitter review of the movie:

review: let the right one in. vampire movie like none other, off white colors, simple framing, eerily romantic, fantastic art

You have to be brief with only 140 characters.

I almost want to tell you not to see any trailers or footage before you see this movie. I’ll link to the trailer, but STRONGLY encourage you not to watch it, I think seeing the movie with no previous knowledge about it, is the best way to go. I think the trailer paints a different picture than the actual movie and may leave you disappointed.

I must warn you though it’s a Sweedish movie, done in Sweedish, so for some of you the whole “foreign” concept may be new, but for many of you that may be incentive to go and see it.

The movie can be summed up as a sweet tale of a boy and a girl. It’s a movie about friendship and loneliness, the desire to survive and connect. I really enjoyed the art direction, yet at the same time often felt bored by it. I more so enjoyed it, but it was simple. Many of the shots had a glaze to them of the off white of the snow and dreariness of the setting. It led to simple framing and slow camera moves, but in a way these enhanced the movie more than anything else. Even though at times I became bored by them, in the end was very appreciative of the fact that something didn’t always have to be happening, as we too often find in American movies.

There’s a timeless quality to the movie. It’s set somewhere in the past, but you never can really get a sense of when things happen. This might be because of the cultural differences, but in a way it doesn’t matter too much. There is an appearance of a Rubik’s Cube, and a tape player (no CDs) so it might suggest the early to mid 80′s but more or less it’s the over all setting of the small community that the story takes place in that makes the movie what it is.

The score perfectly sets tone and mood, while always building tension and suspense. It too has a simple yet profound nature to it.

The acting is primarily between two teenagers, but the acting often is more in what is not said. The glances, the way someone reacts, or even just what is communicated through body language.

Make sure you see this film. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. If you appreciate the art in filmmaking then this is a movie for you.

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I’m not too sure of the actual US release date, so you may have to do some snooping. Expect to see it in Independent Theatres, not mainstream ones.

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One more day to try and win your free copy of Rob Bell’s newest book “Jesus Wants to Save Christians”

See how to enter in the “pages” post and leave a comment there. Good luck.

Winner will be announced Thursday, meaning you have until Wed at midnight to enter, PST.

ghetto 109

New Ghetto Blog

ghetto 108

New Ghetto Blog

pages

Here’s the thing I promised that I would post on monday, along with a few others.

First a giveaway. If you were following my tweets this weekend, you will remember that I mentioned that everyone at The National Youth Workers Convention, were given a copy of Rob Bell’s new book Jesus Wants to Save Christians. I already have one so I’m giving my copy away.

Here’s what you have to do to win the copy of the book…

Leave a comment with a made up title for Rob’s NEXT book. Funniest (by my opinion) wins a copy of the book. You have one week from now.

The other thing is that my dear friend Lilly Lewin (along with Dan Kimball (I like him too)) has a new book out. I didn’t get a chance to pick it up cause it was THAT hot off the presses. It’s called Sacred Space and it’s about experiential worship spaces and the thoughts behind them. Lilly is one of the most creative people I know and I can’t say enough about her. She has taught me invaluable things about worship and living out the gospel. Go and support her, buy her book make it a success so she has to publish a 2nd one.

Thirdly, my other friend and president of Youth Specialties, Marko has a new book. I got mine at the convention, and as Marko stated on his blog, it’s not even available outside of the conventions until Jan. It’s called Youth Ministry 3.0. I’ll get to dive into it as soon as I finish up Rob’s book (which I still have a ways to go on). The cooler thing about Marko’s book is that while he was writing it, he put portions of it up on his blog to get comments from us out in the blogosphere. If you made a comment on his blog there was a caveat that your comment could be published in his book. I was totally floored when I opened up the book and low and behold I was in it. Marko didn’t tell the people that he included in the book that he was doing so, so it was a nice surprise to find my name at the top of the page in the introduction as the first reader comment in the entire book. How cool.

I did finally get to see Marko on the last day of the convention, and we got to briefly say hi, I got him to sign my book and we promised to catch up soon. And he gave me the greatest compliment, saying “that I could have written this book” which was a true honor coming from him. I’m excited to see what Marko’s perspective about what is to come in the world of youth ministry. It should be a great read. Marko I’ll write the next one.

PS there’s a slight chance that I could have ended up in Lilly’s book as well, but not sure if I made the final cut, I didn’t get enough time to look through the sole copy she had with her. And she hadn’t looked yet either, though she told me I had made the rough cut, with a worship experience I created a few years ago. I’ll report back later on that one.

I still need to do a final WRITTEN recap of NYWC but that will come soon.

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NYWC 08 pt 5

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Good morning everyone. Today is the last day of NYWC and I’m sitting here in Chap Clark’s Seminar on a monday morning. The room is visibly tired yet, still eager for more knowledge, depth, and understanding. I will not be live-blogging this seminar. It takes too much energy and I really need a table to sit and write on, writing on my lap, hurts my back too much.

Hello to all the new readers. I know my stats spike around this time of the year. I hope you have enjoyed my coverage of NYWC and that you’ll come back sometime soon. As always feel free to comment and discuss. And I look forward to hearing from you soon.

John and I will travel back home to LA today for much needed rest and time with friends and family. I personally think there’s nothing better than taking a shower in your own shower. The temperature you want, the pressure you want, everything you are used to. Soo nice.

Really looking forward to Marko’s talk this morning. I love that guy, such a genuine and open heart.

There will be a few more things that I will share about NYWC before I put it to rest for the year.

I’ll see if John wants to do one more vlog when we get home tonight. I will do a final write up when I get home as well as the other secret post that I twittered about. (that one will be cool, at least in my opinion)

Again so if you are a new reader here, thank you for stopping by. And if you’re a faithful reader, I do this for you and truly value you and cherish you, thanks for the years of support.

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