10 Favorite Folks in the Motion Picture Industry

This is an odd segment for me, a person who regularly mocks and pesters my wife when she watches E! and reads People Magazine.  Even though I’m not into all the fashion and gossip news that keeps our TMZ culture afloat, there are people in Hollywood that I very much enjoy being entertained by.  So here goes my list as we delve into another segment of “10’s”.

1.  George Clooney - My likeness (you may even call it a man-crush) for this guy is beyond any other.  I love almost all his movies.  He always seems to pick interesting roles in well-produced movies (no one does this better).  His greatness goes beyond the bigscreen as he just seems like a great person to be around.  As the ultimate host in Hollywood, he’s the epitome of a guy’s guy that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to bring around.  On top of all that, no one else seems to be having more fun.  Favorite movie: Out of Sight

2.  Matt Damon – From the moment I first watched Good Will Hunting (still a fascinating movie over a decade later), I hope this guy would become who he is today – who’s that?  He, much like Clooney, does a great job at picking movies that are well-written, interesting, and most importantly avoid wussification…so many actors started off great and then lost their edge in exchange for winning the hearts of young girls (see Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, etc.).  Favorite movie: Rounders

3.  Brad Pitt- His name doesn’t make me want to see a movie (like the guys above), but he has played so many diverse roles it’s difficult not to recognize the man’s skill.  Beyond that, the man is so good looking even the most stubborn of men couldn’t disagree.  His choice in roles has improved greatly in the last 10 years and it has lended me the ability to slowly dismantle every arguement that ever existed against him.  Favorite movie: Fight Club.

4.  Edward Norton – Speaking of Fight Club, this guy is just an incredible actor.  Most of his roles feature characters of incredble depth and intense conflict.  Although he lacks exceptional good looks, it is rare that that I find myself not engrossed in the storylines of his roles.  Favorite movie: American History X

5.  Tina Fey – Her greatest strength is her writing.  Mean Girls is hilarious and I find myself watching it every time I come across it on TV.  Her intelligence and wit combined with her underplayed attractiveness make her not only entertaining, but also help you take her seriously…it’s always about the writing with her.  Her comedy writing skills have landed her on top of all the other women Hollywood has to offer.  Favorite movie (show): 30 Rock

6.  Jack NIcholson – Perhaps the greatest actor and without question the premiere womanizer of Tinseltown of our generation.  I’ll admit he has mailed in way too many of his roles over the past 10 years, but he’s still intriguingly entertaining just being Jack.  His name commands you to pay attention to the movie.  Favorite movie: A Few Good Men

7.  Will Smith- Watching this guy just makes me feel good about life.  He’s funny, good looking, and seems like he would make a fine family friend.  Even in his most wussifying role, Hitch, he’s terrific…my wife and I love the movie!  Besides being funny and possessing the ability to (kinda) rap, he is incredible at playing roles to perfection.  Favorite movie: The Pursuit of Happyness

8.  Leonardo DiCaprio- He started out soft as a teen bop cover boy proclaiming he was “king of the world”.  After so many great performances in movies worthy of male viewership, how could you exclude him from any top 10 list of this nature.  He has gone from being the punch line in the locker room to the guy living the bachelor’s dream (he must be hoping to top Clooney one day).  Favorite movie: The Departed

9.  Morgan Freeman – He just picks great roles and is the prototypical wise old sage on the silverscreen.  There’s not much to say other than I love his acting. Favorite movie: The Shawshank Redemption

10.  Owen Wilson – Of the newbies to the “Hollywood Elite” (Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, etc.), Owen is the only one that I can take seriously…the others guys are too concerned with being the “(fill in the blank)” guy.  Maybe he will turn out to be the biggest train wreck of all these guys, but as of now he can be humorous, but not to the point where it marks his identity.  Favorite movie: Wedding Crashers

 

Missing Chris Farley

As a pre-pubescent adolescent 7th grader behind the curve socially, I noticed my peers would make comments about “a van down by the river” and “that’s gonna leave a mark” followed by contagious laughter.  I quickly allocated all of my resource to finding out what the commotion was all about.  After a few weeks of religiously watching Saturday Night Live and half a dozen viewings of Tommy Boy later, I was in the loop.  Not only were my brainwaves malfunctioning from overexposure to a television screen, but I was now a life-long fan of Chris Farley.

I reminisce on such hilarity because I found Black Sheep playing and couldn’t tear myself away to get to bed at a decent hour.  This should be no surprise as this has become a regular habit of mine.  The comedic impact and longevity of Chris Farley is only matched by the greatest comedians in modern cinema.  He is one of only a few people that make me laugh every time I see them.  Whether it was an outtake, interview, sketch, or feature film, I was chuckling, smirking, and occasionally laughing uncontrollably.  What made him even greater was not just his ability to take over a scene, but how he made everyone alongside him funnier (think David Spade).

I arrived at school prepared to take my last final before Christmas break of my freshman year of high school and noticed that the conversations among students seemed to lack the content of geometry and physics as would be expected and replaced by the news that Chris Farley had died from a drug overdose.  None of us knew him, but we all understood that we were losing an icon of our generation.

It’s been over 10 years since his death and the comedic world hasn’t been the same since.  I sometimes wonder what he would have done if there was some intervention.  I wonder how he would have made us laugh and bring more joy to the viewing public.  These remain some of the things that we will never know, but his impact remains today.  With a new generation of people discovering his genius, the laughs continue as his timeless performances.  And for me, I’m just thankful I was there to see his short amazing run as the funniest man on earth.

Being “Authentic”

Last fall I was watching TV one evening and came across a show on Travel Channel called No Reservations featuring an older gentlemen (Anthony Bourdain) that simply went to different corners of the globe, ate interesting food, and drank like a coed on spring break while sharing his life narrative.  Fast forward 6 months and I often find myself perusing the TV guide hoping for an episode in the coming hours.  I love watching as he explores cities in ways that normal travel periodicals ignore.  But the real star of the show is the host himself.  His happy-go-lucky, tell-it-like-it-is attitude is always in plain view.  Best of all, he talks to the camera like it’s a good friend enjoying another round of drinks and reminiscing on old memories.

The authenticity and “real”ness that Bourdain brings to No Reservations is the same that is desired in youth ministers.  Everybody wants someone who is like-able, relevant, “cool”, honest, genuine, real, and authentic.  After serving in youth ministry positions for almost 4 years, I’m not fully convinced that authenticity is really as desired as much as liked for the way it reads on a job description.

Authenticity means telling the truth and being who I am.  This is in no way acceptable in the church as I have discovered when it comes staffing.  If it did, my resume would include the following:

• Loves Jesus
• Eats unhealthy
• Loves sports
• Drinks beer
• Enjoys cigars
• Occasionally lazy
• Can be quite critical
• At times selfish
• Loves most people with the exception of Christians who are always “great and happy”

If I actually put included this information on my resume, I would probably wouldn’t have to worry about a second interview.  But in the “Church, Inc.” culture that exists in many of our congregations, being anything less of Jesus makes you unqualified. 

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (of which I am a member) has a wonderful system for connecting church workers with congregations.  It is dubbed “the call process” and is exactly what it sounds like.  We believe that God calls individual church workers to a specific place for a specific time to do what they were created for in that time.  In many days past before transportation was so efficient, interviews were rarely conducted.  The search team would simply pray over the list of names they had been given by the governing church body and issue a call to ministry for the person as they were led by the Holy Spirit.  That’s it!  They prayed, listened, and followed God.

I sometimes wonder if we have become so interconnected and overloaded with information that we are no longer sensitive to the nudgings of the Holy Spirit in our calling of church workers.  In the search for the “right person” for the job, many search committees ask too much of candidate and too little of God.  And the same is true for many church workers.  In the search for the “right job” we ask too many questions about buildings, budgets, and bodies and too little of our God.  Too often both congregations and church workers are seeking something that has relatively nothing to do with God.

There’s a great saying in the LCMS that “the person does not seek the call, the call seeks the person”.  There is great beauty to this statement that suggests that we are to be authentically about God above all things.  In the discussion of interviewing I often hear comments like “they sound like a great candidate” or “they have great references”.  I can’t wait for someone to say “they don’t sound like they walk with God” or “I didn’t sense the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life”!  Not that those should become the new interview buzz-phrases, but that we would be at the very least authentic to the heart of God that judges the heart rather than appearance.

From church workers, we need to be honest about our own lives.  We aren’t perfect and are fools to try and convince anyone otherwise.  Most of us can’t stand when people gesture and position themselves to appear “great” and “happy” when we are looking.  Why should we expect a different response of anyone else?  Above any of this, we need to seek God’s desire and call for our life.

Churches need to stop looking for the perfect fit or skill set in their workers.  They need to seek the counsel of the Lord.  They need to stop exhausting themselves trying to offer every program that might appeal to everyone without taking into account who is in their midst.  Churches need to understand who they are and what God has called them to do (here’s a hint: it’s not everything the big church down the street is doing).

I think we can learn some things from Mr. Bourdain (other than how to chain-smoke and do jager bombs).  This show successfully appeals to a specific audience because it understands its identity and keeps it at the forefront of production.  We (church workers and churches) are about Christ the risen savior and we are at our best when He remains our focus.

Ever Wonder Where Ludacris’ Hoes Are?

Thank you to the folks over at Strange Maps for fulfilling my deepest queries.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Most people have a broad understanding of Bill Gates.  Most notably is that he is the richest man in the world and co-founder of Microsoft.  Without Gates, a window would solely be confined to a wooden frame and Mac users would have no culprit to put in the cross-heirs of their snobbish, technology-nerd attitude.  Bill Gates has certainly helped shape the world from the desktops I currently use for correspondence to antitrust allegations with the Department of Justice.

There are many who would like to stop me in my writing at this moment to remind everyone of his questionable business tactics and all his shortcomings.  (Here is a moment of silence for you to fill in…).  Now that we all know that Gates is indeed human, putting to death any myths of him actually being a human platform encoded with BASIC.  We are going to continue with speaking well of Mr. Gates here.  If you aren’t ready to hear good things about the man, there is a website just for you.

I don’t know the man, nor do I have a strong desire to get involved in his personal life, but I am intrigued by him.  In the last decade it appears that he undergone some soul searching and found that being the richest man in the world every year according to Forbes just isn’t that much fun when you can’t possibly spend it all.  He has set a date for his retirement from Microsoft and established a world aid organization aptly titled the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The organization, which also encompasses the wealth of Warren Buffet, is driven primarily to globally enhance health-care and reduce extreme poverty, and, in the United States, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.  This is are some pretty large goals that sound quite similar to those of Rich Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

This week it was announced that the B&MGF was giving $306 million to develop farming in poor countries.  It’s amazing in our world today where there is so much wealth in the hands of some, many more are in need of basic survival techniques such as farming.

I don’t know if Gates is a Christian and when it comes to his philanthropy, I really don’t care.  Sure, his soul is coveted by the Kingdom just like all others, but there must be something inside of him that is nudging and moving him to make such decisions concerning his wealth.  As Jesus teaches us in the gospels, it is not common for a man to just give away his wealth without expecting anything in return.

Some of you may be thinking “yeah, but he has so much money he doesn’t have to worry.”  This is true.  He probably will never be without something because it costs too much.  However, when we give money we want to make sure that it is being used for the cause the name implies.  We want the organizations we give money to be good stewards of the resources trusted to them.  The church is the same way.  Even though we are trusting God to provide for us in our giving, we would be disappointed if our church consistently managed money poorly each year.

In all of this rambling, I’m not here to make a judgement.  I’m excited to see God moving people to be selfless and generous with what they have been provided.  There is great joy in seeing people loving and caring for each other that transcends our religious beliefs and conviction because it is good.  I’m sure the B&MGF will have an effort that doesn’t pan out the way they intended at some point, but I’ll be there to encourage them in their care and love for current and future generations of the humanity.

Triumph the Insult Dog

Perhaps one of the best short runs by a comic in the past decade has been Triumph the Insult Dog (aka Robert Schimmel).  I still laugh out loud at this clip…10 minutes of gold!