Mel Gibson, Drunken Racist, Perhaps, But Quite a Filmaker

I went to a late showing of "Apocalypto" the other night. This being the latest film from Mel Gibson and his first film released since his drunken anti-Jew rant a while back.

Say what you want about Gibson the person, but Gibson the movie director is really good. This movie would not be for everyone. For one, it's completely subtitled, so if you don't like reading your movies, you may not like it. It's also pretty violent. Remember, Gibson directed "Braveheart" and "Passion of the Christ," so he tends to keep the blood flowing. It's also about the ancient Mayans, something that doesn't exactly pop up in movies very often.

The movie starts out a little slowly, and has some kind of bizarre scenes talking about mating rituals and guys laughing at another guy for eating testicles and, well, it's kind of strange. But then, the movie kicks in as soon as the bad guys come to the village. From this point on, the movie is very intense and does not let up until the final scene. And that's no joke, it remains very intense all the way through. The final third is another take on the whole "Most Dangerous Game" scenario. It's all very well done. Does it add up to much? No, it doesn't, nor does it give a whole lot of insight into the Mayan culture and all that. But as an exercise in non-stop action, it more than fits the bill.

One quibble. In one scene, one of the Mayan warriors says the "F" word. Did that word exist back then? Also, in another scene, there is a line spoken that is a very famous line of movie dialogue. Was that intentional? No one else in the theatre reacted to it, but it stuck out to me. Just kind of weird these two very contemporary moments in a movie about an ancient culture.

Dorene's Christmas Concert

Tuesday night was Dorene's Christmas concert at Warren Primary Center. This year was different because for the first time since becoming a teacher, Dorene was doing a program with elementary kids instead of middle school.

As usual, Dorene put together one heck of a program. I, of course, am a little bias but she is one of the top directors in the South Bend school corporation. But, she really puts on a great program. It's never one of the cheesy little affairs, she goes all out. This year, she received tons of accolades from her principal, who said that in the days following the program, she received a non-stop stream of visits and phone calls from parents praising the program. But of course, Dorene only puts on the best. The thing is, those accolades mean nothing to her. Of course they are nice, but it isn't what drives her. Okay, yeah, a big part of it is confidence (she knows she's good!).

This year, the 3rd and 4th graders put on a full-fledged production called "It's Christmas, Carol." It's a modern day retelling of, well, of course you know what it's about. For the lead was this little dynamo named Autumn Martin. I mean, wow, she was really, really good. Tons of lines, lots of stage movement, even a solo. She nailed every bit of it. This is one talented girl and just a delight to watch on stage. She has a little sister, Jenna, that was part of the 2nd grade choir (prior to the above production were a couple songs by the kindergarten choir and 1st/2nd grade choir).

After the production was over, the evening ended on a rather poignant note. Dorene had all those that have family serving in the military stand and be recognized (there were a lot). Then, we had a powerpoint presentation of a marine sergeant named Matt Martin who is stationed in Iraq, which was done as a tribute to all those that will be missing family members this holiday season due to military service.

You see, Matt is Autumn's dad, so he couldn't be here that night to see his little girl wow the crowd. There were pictures of him in uniform and then several photos of him with his wife and two girls. You know, sort of puts the war in a little bit more perspective when you have this kind of connection. Seeing pictures of Autumn and Jenna cuddled up to him like he's the greatest person on earth, I just pray that Matt is able to come home safely to be with his little girls someday. Autumn is just one year older than Anna, so I can relate in a big way. Initially Dorene was going to try and do a live hook-up with him, but he was to be off on a mission that day, so it wasn't possible. Like I said, puts everything in a little more perspective when you can put a face on the soldiers over in Iraq and wonder, like pretty much all of America, why they are still there and is it all worth it.

The gymnasium was packed out for the program. For the spring, Dorene will have to move the program to the high school auditorium. She's set the bar way up there now, so people will certainly come in the spring with high expectations, which Dorene will deliver on.

The Christmas Program at our Church

Yesterday, we had our children's Christmas program at church. Dorene and I directed the musical called "Touch of an Angel" (no, not the t.v. show, that's touched BY an angel). A fairly typical kids program with some light drama and upbeat songs.

It went over very well and the congregation was really appreciative of it. One of the highlights was when the shepherds came in with the "sheep." In this case, the sheep consisted of our son Cameron, and 5 other kids ranging from 1 - 4. They were supposed to crawl up the center aisle. Cameron instead did a full sprint like he was a cheetah and lept up onto the stage. The littlest one, Wesley, just sort of lagged behind and eventually got up on stage, after a few pauses to dance to the music. All in all, it was a typical small church production void of the glitter and gloss of a mega-church.

But there was another highlight which trumped the others. The first two rows were full of family members of one of the kids in the cast. The entire family is unchurched but they came out to support their daughter. The daughter is one of Anna's classmates from her previous school. We have been picking her up every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening for church. She loves coming and her parents are very open to it. They've never attended themselves, but hey, you never know. Doors get open and God can work wonderful things once the opportunity is presented.

(un)Typical Playground Talk

Anna told us she was recently talking to a couple boys during recess. The boys were saying how school was so boring. Anna then proceeded to quiz them over Latin definitions. Why she thought they might find this a fun recess activity, I have no idea. The Latin word for toes is evidently "pess." Now, of course, these being elementary school boys, they thought she said something else that they thought was naughty. Anna came home and asked us if "P-I-S-S" is a bad word. We told her that it's not a word she should use and absolutely do not tell Cameron.

We also told her to maybe stick to talking about candy and Nickelodeon on the playground.

Hey, This is Work!

Cameron has been taking horseback riding lessons for the past month. After his first couple lessons, he started bugging me about buying him a horse. He was really enjoying it and this went on a for a couple weeks, "when you gonna buy me a horse, I really want one."

However, by last week, he had changed his tune. His instructor (Julia) does what I think is a very good thing. She doesn't just saddle up the horse and let him ride. She makes him fetch the bridle, the saddle, and all the other straps needed. She has him brush the horse and clean out his hoofs. In other words, all the work that goes into getting a horse ready, Cameron has to be involved with. Julia says some instructors will just do everything for the pupil, but she believes otherwise, and I think that's a good idea. It's never a bad thing to teach a little responsibility and exactly what is involved in something like this.

So, on this day, as Cameron was climbing on a stool and struggling with both hands using the brush, he said, "Daddy, PLEASE don't buy me a horse!"