So I managed to get my hands on a copy of a little movie called Church Ball. For those of you who have not heard of this movie (and I would assume this means pretty much everyone who doesn't live in Utah valley) let me just start by saying that this movie is part of this weird new thing coming out of Utah where they make movies that are primarily intended for Mormon audiences. Made-for-Mormon movies, if you will. This one's from the people who brought us LDS blockbusters such as Singles Ward, The RM, and The Home Teachers, Halestorn Entertainment. Apparently their biggest budget yet. Apparently, Gary Coleman lives in Utah now, so he might be considered local. Coincidentally, Kareem-Abdul Jabar II (the OG's son) plays Gary Coleman's son in this movie. Interested yet? Yyyeah.
So Mormon movies... this in itself is not that strange of a thing, as there is an audience for this type of picture, and Mormons (being notoriously picky about the kinds of entertainment they consume [remember the scandal about edited versions of Titanic they were selling on VHS?]) enjoy a certain type of entertainment. There has been kind of a boom in Mormons in the movies within the past couple of years, the most notable example being the whole John Haeder-Napoleon Dynamite connection, also the dude who wrote Nacho Libre, etc. and so it's no surprise that Mormons are coming out of the woodwork to make their own movies that will be predominantly marketed to audiences in Utah.
What is strange is that now they are getting bigger-name, non-Mormon actors to be in movies that have their Mormon focus slightly obscured. For example, in Church Ball, although any Mormon who watches it could immediately tell that the movie is made by Mormons, there are no explicit references to Mormonism. They never say that the movie takes place in a predominantly Mormon area, or that the basketball is being played at Mormon churches (but I mean, come on, what other churches actually build basketball courts inside their churches?) While they never really come out and say that it's a Mormon movie, a large percentage of the jokes would only be understood by Mormons, and a Mormon watching this movie would easily find hundreds of reasons why the movie is made for and by Mormons.
But here's what's weird. They seem to have replaced the word "Mormon" with "Christian" in the dialogue. They say things like "This gym is full of Christians" when clearly what they mean is that the gym is full of Mormons. Whatever, I mean, same diff. It seems like they are trying to make this movie marketable to the wider Christian audiences.
And why not? The story is fundamentally not one that applies only to Mormons. The movie is full of themes of persistence, faith, seeking a perfect faith among imperfect people, revitalizing dwindling faith, reconciling the American notion of maleness with basic Christian values, and not losing your temper while playing basketball.
My question is how do these non-Mormon actors feel about being in made-for-Mormon or made-for-Christian movies? I mean, we all know that Kirk Cameron and Mr. T. have been in some pretty cool made-for-Christian movies (old friend Maggie Rosenbloom was an avid collector of this genre), but we also know that they are confirmed Christians, and we also know that they haven't really had a lot of work in regular movies or TV for a while now (although I hear Mr T's new reality show is pretty cool), so perhaps they are taking what they can get.
So I'm sure the real question on everyone's mind is, does this movie suck or what? The first time I saw it, I thought it was great. The second time I watched it, I thought it was the worst thing I had ever seen. The third time I watched it was with a panel of trusted non-Mormons. After an intense night of Cranium Turbo, I suggested as a joke to the remaining dudes that we watch Church Ball. Everyone was like "yeah, ok." In addition to certified Mo-Mos Torlando and Jordan Butler, regular dudes Mike Bridavsky, Andrew Restrepo and Jon Anderson surprisingly did not think it was a bad idea to watch this movie, probably because it had Gary Coleman in it. To my surprise, they did not hate it, and laughed at most of the jokes (the only joke they didn't get was when the ladies were fighting over who got do the Visiting Teaching lesson, but maybe that was just because it wasn't funny). The next day at Club Kirkwood, Andrew came up to me and said that he wanted to watch it again, this time listening to the commentary. Yeah. Wha? Probably drunk. Probably awesome. Mike Bridavsky said that it was the movie equivalent of an Arby's commercial. You can take these reactions to mean whatever you want. Mostly I am confused by this movie, but that's cool, ya know.
Monday, October 01, 2007
A Church of Basketball
Elf Earz
P.S. Once again, I am totally loving yet another new My Chemical Romance video.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Roasted Red Pepper with Goat Cheese
There's a new chip in town. I dunno. I couldn't really taste the goat cheese at all. Seemed like a good idea, but it basically tastes like fancier version of ketchup chips from Canada. It's all relative though. Even bad chips are good, especially if they're hand cooked in a kettle. Probably won't buy again. If Kettle salt and vinegar are available instead, it's kinda like what's the point.
Love,
Mike, 29
p.s. does anyone else do this nerd thing? I'm trying to put a little social in my social bookmarking.
Theo & Me
Have you ever had a question about life that you felt would best be answered by Theo from The Cosby Show? Sure, we all have. Mad props to Kari Jorgensen for giving me a book called Theo & Me by Malcolm Jamal Warner (a.k.a. Theo Huxtable). It is full of gems of wisdom. Much of the book's content consists of answers to questions that Malcolm's fans have asked him in fan mail. Here are a few of my favorite fan mail excerpts:
In case you don't remember why Theo Huxtable was worthy of all this fan mail:
Itty Ditty
My song from the Rapscallionz + Volmar + Parenthetical Girls show on 11/21/06.
Here:
Get stupid. Shoot an arrow like cupid. Use a word that don't mean nothing, like "looptid."
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I'm looking forward to having lots of time to think about things I like to think about. What will I do when I finally have time to do all the things I have been wanting to do? Probably pick up some new hobby that won't do nobody no good, like POGs. I was really into POGs during the winter of 1992, or 1993 I forget. I battled my cousins for the coveted "Elf Boy" POG.
I think I am ready to take blogging to the next level. I am ready to go pro. I need to start being more concerned about my blogging career. My dream would be to keep doing exactly this, but do it for like VH1 and get paid about $25K a year. Imagine how retarded it would be if this was all I had to worry about. It's like basically finals week for me, and yet all I want to do is write about cooking and bath temperatures and capsule hotels and board games. Is there something wrong?
My life is not particularly interesting, and yet, I really feel like I have a story to tell. I feel like what I experience, and the ways that I look at things have a lot of value. Isn't that messed up?! I know! The other day I watched this NOVA movie about a guy who had his brain messed up in an accident, and he would look at his mom and dad and say that they were impostors, they looked just like them, but that they were not really his mom and dad. As I was watching this, I thought to myself, "that's weird, I feel kind of like that sometimes." Have you ever had someone do something that is seems so out of character that you have to just wonder if it is the real them you are talking to? Like, you are begging for that person to return to their body and start being the person that you thought they were? Man, it's weird. It sucks!
Then there is the other side of that, which is that I realize how emotionally dense I can be. Like, I fail to see the value in things that are very obviously valuable and important. I am looking at the real thing, and it looks real, but something about it just seems fake or weird or impostorish. I guess what I am saying is that it's hard to feel good about good things all the good time. But then other times things feel gooder. In the end, the guy's brain HEALED ITSELF. This guy, his name was David, his parents tricked him into recognizing them as the real things. For example, they discovered that he would never suspect they were impostors if they called him on the phone, for some reason. So they did that, and other things, and eventually he got better, and they showed him hanging out with his parents and they looked like they were having a pretty good time.
There was also a guy on this NOVA thing who was missing an arm but who felt pain in the missing arm. Like, he claimed to feel pain in his hand, even though the hand was gone. They're called phantom limbs, and you might have one without even knowing it! I kind of related to that too. I don't have any missing limbs, but I feel like stuff that was once there and now is not is still kind of there and needs attention. They said that the brain requires stimulation in all areas that you are used to having stimulation, and that when you lose the nerves that are associated with that part of the brain's stimulation, the brain starts to create its own stimulation. Can you believe it?! I know! I think this is maybe why I have dreams where I am on my mission again. Or other dreams in which things are like they used to be in some way.
Also, there were snacks at the NOVA viewing. Mike & Ike, M&M's (peanut and regular), pretzel rods, Gardetto's Snack-En's, Hot Tamales, and I can't remember what else, a bunch of stuff I am forgetting. You were supposed to put them in cups. The M&M's were good when eaten with the pretzel rods. I did that a lot.
Best Package EVER
Scandalous title, I know. But holy carp! After getting home from Thanksgiving, I found a box at my door. A package from the awesomest dude in the universe, former roommate, former Jimmy John's co-worker and swell guy, Matt Meehan.
Matt is living in Germany right now, and I had told him that I liked Bionade ("the unique non-alcoholic refreshment drink for wellness and fitness"). Well, Matt sent some Bionade, as well as a cornucopia of German candy awesomeness. Matt is a fellow connisseur of weird candy (for example, we once finished entire servings of Bomvaso in a bowling alley), so he really came through with this stuff. Behold!
The mighty Bionade!
A collage of exotic deliciousness! Anyone for some Schoko-Bananen? There are plenty!
The weird stuff! LOOKO-LOOK COLASPAGHETTI!?!?!? Yesssssssss!
Little Kinders everywhere.
Matt even left a note explaining everything. Too bad it's like kind of unreadable. Somebody buy me a scanner, ok?
Come over and eat this stuff with me. I will write more later.
Thanks MEEHAN!!!
Pppaging Pppatrick!
Thankfulness
Doers of the world, I am thankful for all that you do. It's a wonderful time to be alive.
Thankfulness goes out to all the befrienders. Thankfulness to the walkers and the runners. To the forgivers and the forgivees. To the creators and the builders. Those little dudes on Fraggle Rock, what were their names? They worked so hard, and then their stuff just constantly got destroyed.
