That's Bucky

From a recent Get Fuzzy comic:

"You question authority, eh?"
"No, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort."

A Strange Conglomeration

I've never read the book (and so can offer no opinion on it), but I have finally watched the movie Eragon. When the movie initially came out the previews intrigued me; later, I heard a review for the movie that described it as LotR redone badly; still later on, I picked up the book in a bookstore, read the back cover and the first couple pages, and wasn't interested enough to choose that particular book over something else.

Well, someone else decided to go ahead and rent it, and as I somehow neglected to not still be sick and unable to go to work, I went ahead and joined the viewing last night. I can happily say that Eragon is the worst fantasy movie I have ever had the privilege of viewing, though it would make a great MST3K. (To be fair, I must also admit that I haven't seen all that many fantasy movies, as I usually only view them after someone else has recommended them to me.) The filming of the movie, if not the story itself, involved a large helping of LotR with a bit of Star Wars and Harry Potter (movie, not book) thrown in for fun, all mashed together and melted down in a way that would have made a much better parody of popular fantasy than a new movie.

Most of this has little reflection on the book's author, as he probably had no say whatsoever in the way the characters looked, various creatures were designed on film, or anything else to do with the appearance of the movie. To his (and possibly the book's) credit, the actual storyline itself when dissected from the filming of it is fairly original and likely more coherent and captivating than the movie, judging by what any other movie tends to make of its preceding book. In fact, the sheer indescribability of the movie's awfulness may have convinced me to pick up the book someday, if only to do the author the favor of not judging his writing based on someone else's wish to recreate his own favorite movies rather than direct a new one. If anyone has beaten me to reading it, feel free to leave comments to encourage or discourage this event.. I already have a fairly large pile of books already waiting for me in my room.

Christ Is Risen!

A blessed Easter to you all, late in writing it though I am. Perhaps this shows exactly how little use for a computer (or time to use one) I have had since Palm Sunday. Whether or not it's demonstrable of my time (I've been rather lax on posting anyway), I had a very beautiful and enjoyable, if cold, Easter. I'll never get over how wonderful it is to share this celebration with so many family and friends... and to have any number of little ones thrown into the mix, running around and enjoying themselves!

We had multiple (two is multiple) parties, one on Saturday in which I colored a single egg and ate delicious cinnamon rolls, and another on Sunday for which I contributed to the dinner in the form of two bunny shaped cakes that successfully came out looking just like every good bunny that's had a disagreement or two with a dog over the state of its life ought to look (next year I'll try for the uneventfully raised pet store variety). Should I feel a need, I've got ingredients for other types of candy and chocolaty things to fill myself with (or just hold onto and make for the next big gathering... minus, I suppose, the chocolate eggs).

The choir sang Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and also last Tuesday for a Seder meal which wasn't, in fact, so much of a meal. They discussed the symbolism (and tasted some of it), and included portions of the ceremony such as the four questions (had I done a Good Friday post it would have been entitled Why Is This Night Different From Every Other Night, partly inspired by my own thoughts on the subject and helped along a great deal by the movie The Passion), but overall left out the majority of the actual ceremony (even the majority of the Christianized version of it I've participated in most years). The simple and out of context explanation, aside from being metaphorically interesting in places, did nothing to bring across the beauty and meaning that the meal still holds for us today. To celebrate a Christianized Seder is to see where we as Christians come from and, when viewed with an understanding not only of the events the Jewish people recognize but also in light of Christ's birth, death, and Resurrection, there is if anything an even deeper meaning to words and rituals involved.

Anyway, the choir sang many different times, and my voice lasted (surprisingly, as I began to get sick mid-week) through most of the Easter Sunday Mass, though it entirely departed me in the midst of the Gloria to my own surprise when I realized I could no longer hear myself as well as that of the person I was sharing music with, who I caught looking over in curiosity as to why I wasn't singing. It lasted long enough for me to be a cantor at the Vigil Saturday night - something that, now, I almost shy away from mentioning, in the awkwardness of bragging of my own accomplishments when talking above all about celebrating Christ's Resurrection - I'd shy away, but that it holds special meaning for me, to be able to stand on my anniversary (Yes! It's my anniversary!) and say, "Look, see the new life God has given me. He rose from the dead and has given me new life also, and I am free, I can stand without fear before the people and sing my praises to God." Anyone who has known me more than a few months can, I am sure, picture the time when such an accomplishment would have required physically dragging me up to the podium, turning the microphone volume on high, and waiting to see whether I dared whisper anything into it before racing for my life out the doors. Yet in this celebration of His life I have proof of the life he has given me also; and I think I am not amis in being pleased to see what he has done, and in sharing a part of it.

Of course, my voice has yet to fully return, having been gone all the rest of Sunday, even more fully all day Monday, and now only partially recovered into Tuesday evening.. but it does provide a good excuse for avoiding work at SuperBigEvilPlace, so I'm really not complaining. It can wait a day or two yet.

I did, also, obtain an Easter basket with a bit of candy and a "You can't scare me, I'm a nanny!" mug, and two bouquets of flowers sent from home, both with which I'm very pleased and one that's giving my room a quite pleasant smell at the moment. (It still remains to be seen whether there are candy sales when I bother returning to work again. But I'm fairly well stocked up - and even made it to the vigil reception in time to grab a large slab of frosting with some cake attached. So, either way, I'll survive.)

The Donkey

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.

-- G. K. Chesterton