Arrrrgh! It’s Talk like a Pirate Day! September 19, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Movies, The Cultural Conversation, Culture and Faith , add a commentToday marks International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD), a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy), of Corvallis, Oregon, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with “Hello,” but with “Ahoy, me hearty!” The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy. In part a send-up of the “Golden Age of Piracy,” tech culture has absorbed pirate symbology and made it a kind of comical meme, much like LOLcats or “Don’t tase me, bro!“.
Search Engine Land prepared a short list of tech and online companies participating in Pirate Day:
- Google, through its Google Pirate Search feature.
- Friendfeed has a commemorative logo honoring the holiday.
- Search Engine Roundtable prepared a special theme.
- Dogpile’s mascot dressed up like a pirate.
Other Derivative Sites:
- Tom Smith has written and recorded the song “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” the quasi-official anthem of the holiday.[10]
- In the Nintendo DS version of The Sims 2, in-game characters celebrate “Talk Like A Pirate Day” on September 19, in which a special quest is released, involving a pirate quiz.
- The holiday is observed by the followers of the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who consider pirates to be divine beings.[11]
- In the online game Lord of the Rings Online, in-game characters can celebrate “Talk Like a Pirate Day” with a special quest, involving a shipwreck. Quest rewards include a pirate-type hat.
- World of Warcraft now celebrates “Pirate’s Day”, an anniversary thought up by two of the in game characters called “Ol’ Chumbucket” and “Cap’n Slappy” (a reference to the creators of Talk Like a Pirate Day). Talking to the in game character ‘Dread Captain DeMeza’ will provide your character with a pirate costume that lasts for 12 hours. Characters can also see commoners in the major cities dressed as pirates who will also provide your character with a pirate costume.
- In the online game Kingdom of Loathing, players can celebrate “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. Phrases such as “Arr” are occasionally added to the end of sentences in chat, as well as during random encounters with pirates.
VeggieTales Trailer and Questions: The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything January 11, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Fatherhood, Breaking News, Family, Movies, The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City , add a comment“The children’s franchise delivers an entertaining spoof as the vegetables find the heroes in themselves.” — LA TIMES
“Most Entertaining” - Hollywood Reporter
“Pirates imparts the Bible-inspired storytelling parents and kids have come to expect from VeggieTales in a less obvious but as-fun-as-always package.” - Christianity Today
DISCUSSION STARTERS:
Here are some questions from Christianity Today’s review to begin dialogue with your children once you have seen the movie:
1. Why do you think George, Elliot and Sedgewick feel that “guys like us will never be more than cabin boys”? Are some people just not cut out to be heroes? Why or why not? What do you think it means to be a hero?
2. If Elliot, Sedgewick and George are supposed to be normal people like us in the story, who does the King represent? Why do you think that?
3. Could the pirates have been victorious without the King? Why or why not? List the ways the King helps them throughout the movie. What do you think this movie says about your ability to do good things without God?
4. Each of the three main characters has a weakness that holds him back. What is a weakness that you feel holds you back? Why would God allow humans to have weaknesses like this to struggle with? Read 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. What does this mean? How do you see this illustrated in the movie?
Check out the trailers for this movie that opens today!
Trailers featuring the creators, Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki:
And the official movie trailer from Universal Studios :
Silver Surfer as Christ Figure June 17, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Movies, The Cultural Conversation , add a comment
Just got home from seeing the latest summer blockbuster, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer that has been brought to the big screen by Stan Lee and 20th Century Fox. It was an excellent movie with incredible special effects and a strong Christ figure in the Silver Surfer. The good story line comes from the comic books (although no face for Galactus?). The cinemaphotography was superb. This blockbuster is supposed to have done nearly $60 million this opening weekend. It will be interesting to see how it does. As of Sunday night, it had more than 4, 700 ratings and an average fan rating of “B” at Yahoo Movies. What do you think?
Wikipedia tells us that “the Silver Surfer is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero created in 1966 by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby. They created a character, Norrin Radd, who was a young astronomer of the planet Zenn-La. In order to save his homeworld from destruction by a fearsome cosmic entity known as Galactus, Norrin made a bargain with the being, pledging himself to serve as its herald. Imbued in return with a small portion of Galactus’ Power Cosmic,[1] Norrin acquired great powers, a silvery appearance, and a surfboard-like vehicle — all modeled after a childhood fantasy of his. Known from then on as the Silver Surfer, Norrin began to roam the cosmos searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels finally took him to Earth, the Surfer came face to face with the Fantastic Four, a team of powerful superheroes that helped him to rediscover his nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was punished in return with everlasting exile there.[2]
Writer/editor Stan Lee, Kirby’s “Fantastic Four” collaborator, loved the character. “I felt that he had to represent more than the typical comic-book hero,” he wrote later. Lee gave the Surfer his own book (without Kirby) and made the character a noble philosopher and Christ figure, trapped on Earth, suffering for mankind’s sins, even doing battle with a Satan stand-in called Mephisto.
Check it out!
Free Media Sources March 31, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Movies, Tech Tips , 1 comment so farAt Park Community Church, a contemporary, non-denominational church of about 1,250 urbanites (20-45 year old) in Chicago, we are always looking to find the right way to express ourselves in our 8 minutes with God daily devotionals, in HTML emails, on our website and in print. Many times, we search and search for the right image to express the related content. The following is a great post by Gina Trapani at Life Hacker who lists out six great places you can find legally-republishable content on the web to impress the boss with a great multimedia presentation.
As the internet has evolved, so have the amount of free media available for you to use. Thanks to organizations like Creative Commons, licenses like the GNU Free Documentation License, and the public domain, there are tons of photos, songs, movies and documents freely available for you to download and republish without fear of the copyright police.
1. Creative Commons search interface
Video, music, images and documents
Creative Commons’ recently released tabbed search interface looks up CC-licensed photos from Flickr, any file type on Yahoo! and Google, and videos on Blip.TV. Very convenient. (Before you go publishing, be sure to check exactly which CC license that perfect photo carries - whether or not it can be modified, used for commercial purposes, or should include attribution.)
2. Wikimedia
Video, music, images, documents
User-edited Wikimedia Commons contains over 700,000 pieces of freely available, modifiable (even for commercial purposes) media that’s categorized and tagged by users. Need a photo of Chicago for your blog? Type Category:Chicago into the Wikimedia search box. (more…)
Nativity Story: No Ordinary Joe December 1, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Movies , 1 comment so far
The Nativity Story See trailer
Opens Today, Dec 1
Rated: PG (some violence)
Running Time: 1:42
Principal Cast:
Mary - Keisha Castle-Hughes
Joseph - Oscar Isaac
Anna - Hiam Abbass
Joaquim - Shaun Toub
King Herod - Ciaran Hinds
Elizabeth - Shohreh Aghdashloo
Today, we took our whole staff to see The Nativity Story, starring Keisha Castle-Hughes as Mary and Oscar Isaac as Joseph. My instant review is that it is faithful to the Biblical story, given that there is not a lot of scriptural text to work with in making the film. I agreed with Peter Chattaway of Christianity Today who said ” Castle-Hughes was a bit of a blank”.
Overall, I felt the strongest character was Joseph, who faced a cultural uncomfortable situation, (pregnant fiancée), yet continually showed us that he would do the right thing and make the right decision, in leading and guiding his family. In this film, Joseph is freed to show us the struggles that he faced – no whitewashing of the strain he felt in his home village and the sense of betrayal by Mary. Yet he shows us a sense of humor on the journey.
I think this was brilliantly filmed in Morocco, Italy, Nazareth and France and served as an authentic story-telling of the Nativity story when the God of the universe stepped into our reality and allowed His son to be born of a human mother.
Free Movie Downloads This Saturday! December 1, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Movies , add a commentTip of the Hat to Tech Crunch, who gives us a timely headsup on some free movies downloads for the Christmas season this Saturday:
AOL Video has decided to spread some holiday cheer by giving away over 30 free movie downloads for one day only on Saturday.
Several of the titles are, appropriately, Christmas movies such as National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Jack Frost, but there will be some non-spirited ones available such as Spiderman 2 as well. The free offering begins at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time and customers are limited to one movie per person, but not one per computer.
Normally, movie downloads from AOL Video are priced from $9.99 to $19.99 per title. We reviewed AOL Video in October and found it to be lacking in selection and high in price compared to the other movie downloading services. But on Saturday, we would argue that it will be one of the better ones. After all, who can argue with free?
VHS: Say It Ain’t So November 30, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Movies, Technology , add a comment
VHS, long the format of choice for home entertainment, is now all but forgotten, and most retailers are not stocking VHS tapes in the lucrative Christmas selling season. The format had been expected to survive until January, but high-def formats and next-generation videogame consoles hastened its final decline. I spent much of my hard-earned money in the late 80’s and 90’s renting VHS tapes — so I shed a tear at this news. The more interesting point in this news is the velocity fo technological change. While the VHS format lasted for 25 years — it is unclear how long the DVD will last….Wal-Mart, who accounts for a staggering 40% of all DVD’s sold in America, is betting on movie downloads over the internet and is investing heavily to ensure it is a major player. Who thinks we will be playing taps for DVD’s in the next 5 years? (more…)
Hollywood Prayers October 19, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Movies , add a commentThe words “prayer” and “Hollywood” aren’t often seen in the same sentence, but prayer for Hollywood’s leaders will be very much on the minds of attendees of the 3rd Annual National Media Prayer Breakfast on November 3rd in Los Angeles, California. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend, joining celebrities, top producers, directors and decision-makers to pray for the 700 most powerful and influential media professionals in the world. Established in 2004, the National Media Prayer Breakfast (NMPB) was designed to mobilize spiritual support for leaders of global media, and reinforce the value of faith in media and entertainment.
Cecile B. DeMille once said, “I have found the greatest power in the world is the power of prayer.” If so, this “greatest power in the world” could be utilized to encourage and to support some of the most powerful people in the world. “The message to Hollywood’s elite is that there are millions of Christians who (more…)
Fox Faith October 2, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentCheck out the NY Times article chronicling the latest in Hollywood’s attempts to cash in on the Christian film-going audience. In this article, NYT reports that 20th Century Fox has unveiled a new division, FoxFaith, that will release up to a dozen religious-oriented films each year: “Many of the films, with budgets ranging from about $3 million to $20 million each, will be released straight to DVD. But the studio said that at least six a year would be released nationally in theaters by an independent distributor working with Fox, starting on Oct. 6 with Love’s Abiding Joy, a western based on the novel by the Christian writer Janette Oke about a couple facing the trials of life on the American frontier.” “What we’re trying to do is create great movies that are story-driven, that happen to tap into Christian values,” said Simon Swart, the general manager of Fox’s North American home entertainment division. “The genesis of the FoxFaith banner is that it’s a Good Housekeeping seal, a marketing umbrella for these pictures, so that people can have confidence the movies won’t violate their core beliefs.”
The article also reports that the new division is the “biggest concerted effort by a major (more…)
The Mall Church - Good Idea? August 10, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Church, Methods & Strategies , add a commentAs the Executive Pastor for a good-sized church in Chicago and a serial entrepreneur (see About Steve), I am always searching for different ways people are using to present the Gospel…to get the message of God’s love through His son Jesus Christ.I now see that there is a church which is being started at a mall in San Jose CA……Now, that is unique. Not too surprisingly, its called “MallChurch“. Here is their blog. I guess the strategy is to embrace our insatiable consumerism, and then figure out ways to work with it. (more…)
Download Movies to DVD Burner July 19, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Movies, Technology , add a commentI am a big movie buff and when I hear of advancements in technology benefitting the consumer, I am the first to jump for joy. Today was a good day, with online movie seller CinemaNow unveiling a new service that allows customers to download a movie from the Internet and copy it onto a DVD that can be played on any standard DVD player.
The new, legal download-to-burn service marks a major step for Hollywood as its movie and television studios seek to offer movies and TV shows to consumers via the Web for playback on TVs and portable DVD players. The studios see digital movie downloads as generating new revenues from old titles. The service is expected to grow, and over the long term some industry watchers believe downloads could replace renters and retailers such as Blockbuster Inc and Netflix Inc in the $24 billion home DVD business.
Check out the CNET story
