Hello there reader, it’s been pretty busy with the Bradys recently. These are some things that I’d like to share with you:
I am at this present moment leaning back in the man of the house’s arm chair rubbing my satisfied belly after a joyful full English brekkie, the highlight of which were some lovely fried mushrooms – a delicacy I never imagined as a child I would find myself even touching. Growing up ‘ey!? Mental.
I am really enjoying a song by a man called Dan Black the song is ‘Wonder’ which I found on the FIFA 11 computer game. The track has a minor key mystery to begin with, moving into some clacky drums, big bassy movements, hip and with it lyrics and a major major chorus there are some lovely harmonoisatations too. Should’ve done GCSE music, darn it, wasted talent.
I rewatched The Incredibles last night, I think at the moment I would happily put myself out there and say it is my favourite film of all time, I really really really really like it. Okay!?
I thought it would be nice to share with you that I am currently wearing some great Iron Man socks which I received for Christmas from a certain resident of the real life Pontypandy (might be a different order of letters now I think). Her fiancé was preaching for us on Sunday, his evening sermon particularly moved me to more concentrated prayer for our nation to turn to God, and I was further moved to do so by a verse I read in one of those daily reading books, it’s from Psalm 44:23 “Awake, why sleepest thou, O LORD? arise, cast us not off forever.” Prayer is such a privilege. As I’m gradually growing as a Christian, I am slowly learning how essential prayer is, I find myself being drawn to him more and more, though I would not say it has become easier to pray – I do feel that I can acknowledge more than ever before the firm fact that I would crumble without my God.
To finish off would you like a YouTube music video with Thomy Yorke in it? Here you go…
So the Christmas holidays are finally upon us and I am sat in’t living room listening to the Glee cast sing the far superior version of ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ (don’t try and disagree!)
The snow is here too (not in the living room) I made the observation yesterday that if it was snowy all the time (like in Narnia) then we would be really excited to see green grass and flowers and leaves and all natureish stuff and that. So yeah, snow is awesome, it does look pretty when it rests on the branches of trees in that Christmas Cardian way, but I think the main fascination is novelty. Maybe we should make an effort to marvel in the things we see every day (like sunset, our hands, clouds, and the sea (only I can see that)).
I recieved The Incredibles on DVD from a highly generous couple, and I loved watching it again. I cite it as my favourite Pixar, partly just to be different to everyone else, but I genuinely do love it, the whole mood of the film is just stunning, so different to anything else I’ve seen. Brilliant!
Oh yeah, twas my birthday! I am now twenty one! Still sounds very young, which is a good thing I imagine. It was a great day, I was on the panel for a ‘Grill a Christian’ event at lunch time and in the evening we had our Welsh CU Carol service, the latter was a particular encouragement. Christmas is a great time to talk to people about Jesus, where they think their lives are going etc, and everyone loves to sing the odd carol (not odd carols though). After that we went to a place that offered Karaoke, I particularly enjoyed singing the Carpenters song ‘Close to You’ (Mam would be proud) and dueting on ‘Penny Lane’ with the Snufferjog.
My two favourite questions to ask people are these: ‘What did you get in your Maths GCSE?’ (if you’re a bit older it’s O-Levels, and believe it or not some people don’t do exams!) and ‘What do you have on top of your Christmas tree’ (in the same way, some people have nothing and some people find it too personal a question). But if you are to see me soon, I shall be asking you those questions! People’s answers are most commonly B and Angel or Star. My answer would be robin goch and C.
Leading on from one of those questions, I think how someone decorates their tree says a lot about what their like. For example, me and the Mrs’ tree is very colourful with mismatched decorations, and it isn’t very big. Alright I don’t know what that means, but you know what I mean… you don’t know what I mean, ah forget it.
Dad’s always been very good at preaching through the nativity, I became aware of this because more than any other passages in the Bible, when I read through the Christmas story I regularly get automatic exegesis from my Father replaying in my head (which is cool!) I also get a lot of his (mostly helpful) theories and corrections to common misconceptions for example:
Three kings – there probably weren’t three, and they weren’t kings.
Little donkey – Mary and Joseph probably couldn’t afford one.
The Stable – It doesn’t say anything about a stable, it might have been a cave, or a field.
You get the picture, some of this is helpful, but sometimes I have to hold my tongue in case I ruin Christmas. I won’t tell you what he told me about Santa.
I really love mince pies, and having been enjoying them solidly since December the first. Wife thinks I’m weird because I prefer shop bought ones to home made ones, which is not usually the case when it comes to cakes, but sorry it’s true Mr. Kipling rules this one.
I’m really getting into Sufjan Steven’s 2010 EP ‘All Delighted People’ at the moment. Very interesting stuff. Love it. It’s also led me to look into similar bands such as Soul-Junk and Danielson Famile, but they are a bit less accessible, nevertheless I have time.
This is the first year I haven’t had a chocolate Advent Calendar, my Mum sent us a picture one with lots of robin gochs on it, I bought Sibyl one with glitter and Father Christmas in a sleigh on it. But yeah, no chocolate – how crazy, what am I becoming? (A jackal?)
To start off, let’s watch Siskel & Ebert‘s review and overview of the film:
Cast your minds, (if you can) all the way to last Monday; on BBC 1 they were showing this film Broadcast News. I’d never heard of it, I don’t think it’s that famous. Granted it was before my time.
The crazy thing is that so much work and so much money must have gone into the making of this movie, and by now it’s got the late night, unadvertised slot on a British television station. I felt like I was viewing a lost treasure, despite the fact that there was probably a couple of million others watching it at the same time as me.
So what have I got to say about the film that is of even a slightest interest to you? Well watch this clip that I’ve spent ages tracking down and is a Blewog EXCLUSIVE! (Note, the reason this clip is not on YouTube is because ‘Fox Films’ kept making copyright claims against me and taking the video down, I had to go to extreme measures,)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Funny!
People in the film that are famous:
Interestingly, three members of the film’s cast have been involved in leading roles of Pixar animations:
Albert Brooks
is
Marlin, 'Finding Nemo'
Joan Cusack off of the 80's
is
Jessie, 'Toy Story 2'
Holly Hunter
is
Elastigirl, 'The Incredibles'
Other cast members of note are William Hurt who is apparently turning up in the next series of awesome law Drama ‘Damages’.
"I'm so hot it HURTS"
Oh, and a small supporting role from none other than:
"Here's Johnny!"
The film revolves around three characters (Hunter, Brooks, Hurt) who work in television news.
Other than Anchorman, this is the only film I’ve seen that deals with this area, and unlike The Legend of John Burgundy the film is not a spoof as such, but more, an accurate tribute to the way in which news is reported in America.
The questions the film asks are important ones, if you’re a news reader is it enough to just be good at reading the news and looking good? Or should a newscaster have to know exactly what he is talking about and have the intellectual capacity. This is basically what the film’s two leading males are battling over. William Hurt looks good and sounds good, but he doesn’t know that much. Whereas Albert Brooks is at times a nervous wreck, but he knows his stuff.
I think the UK’s answer comes from this man:
Looks Good, Sounds Good, Feels Good.
Apparently the events depicted in the movie closely parallel and satirize the 1984 downsizing that occurred at CBS News. Interestingly, longtime CBS Evening News producer Susan Zirinsky was a technical adviser on the film.
This is a film that I recommend fully. It receives the Blewog Stamp of Approval.
The Blewog Blog 