I chatted with Larry the Cucumber

That's right, last night I sat next to Mike Nawrocki, known to most people as a writer/director and co-founder of VeggieTales®. I ran into him at the Hard Rock Cafe' here at CBA-Atlanta. Incidentally he's the voice of Larry the Cucumber.

Big Idea® (the company that produces "VeggieTales") had a really horrible year last year, going bankrupt but were thankfully picked up by another company (Creative Media). They made some bad business decisions and also got screwed over in a lawsuit by a Marxist Feminazi female judge from Texas. Let's hear it for female judges screwing over creative upstart Christian companies that actually are successfully making something creative! She was probably on her period...

But from talking with Mike, I understand that the company that bought them is really cool and is investing alot into VeggieTales®. They will be moving their offices to Nashville (from Chicago-land) and already have 4 or 5 projects lined up for the next couple of years.

It was neat talking to him, about animation, business, the Chicago Cubs, etc—smart stuff. Rather than doing what most people who know of VeggieTales® must do when they meet the creators (sing a butchered version of "The Hairbrush Song" or ask them to talk like vegetables or something). Both Mike and his partner Phil Vischer attended Crown College back in the mid-80's, so there was even a Minnesota connection there. Incidentally, they both got kicked out of Crown College for not attending chapel enough, hahahaha.

I did do my impression of a character I have for them called "Harry Carrot", so I did make somewhat of an ass of myself (hey, it's ME!). Incidentally "Harry Carrot" talks like a certain famous Chicago Cubs broadcaster...

But they were all cool, and Mike even gave me his business card and I gave him mine, so who knows, maybe I'll finally fulfill one of my lifetime dreams of doing voice-over/impression work!

Emergent Church?

I'm hearing alot about the "emergent church" or the "emerging generation." It's proponents like to use big strange words like "holistic" and "missional" and downplay words like "evangelical" and, I don't know, "Christian" and "Biblical."

Not that I accuse the Emergent® big-wigs of anything untoward. I don't doubt the sincerity of their faith or the assuredness of their salvation, it's that I'm simply cautious of this whole movement in the church right now to be "relevant" and "holistic" and all those other silly words. Are we being "relevant" at the expense of being evangelical? I guess this had been the question since the 1st Nicean council so it's nothing really new...

"Evangelical" itself seems to be a dirty word among the emergent crowd...

Additionally, I have had my doubts about some of the leaders of these "emerging" churches at least here locally. Outside of church, as I have covertly observed, some of them are, well to put it bluntly, total assholes. And I mean that in the most honorable way possible...

I'm all for making Christianity "relevant" to the world, working to reconcile among the denominations, using art and poetry to worship God and draw people to him. That's all fine and dandy. But are we losing something in our quest to make Christianity popular? Is Christianity really supposed to be "popular"? Is the very symbol of our faith, the cross, not offensive to the world?
Did Paul not tell us that the "world will hate you..."?

These are questions that all the poetry readings, interpretive dances and trendy couch venues are ill-equipped to answer...

You are the Navigator®™!

Well, the 1986 Disney classic "Flight of the Navigator" has finally been released to DVD. I recently had the privilage to re-watch it and let me tell you, it's as good as you remember it.

If you haven't seen it, it's the tale of a young man named David Freeman who is taken on a time-traveling voyage via alien spacecraft. He zips from 1978 to "present day" 1986. The catch is that he HASN'T AGED A DAY. As the authorities try to unravel the mystery, David is led to his TRUE DESTINY (which I won't spoil here). All of the stuff before David's triuphant christening as the NAVIGATOR happens in the first 30 minutes of the movie.

I forgot just how short it is, barely clocking in at 90 minutes (including credits) it breezes from one fantastical sequence to the next. I wanted to see more development between David and his Older/Younger 1986 Edition brother, more scenes involving David and the evil NASA scientists, and maybe even a tender moment between David and RALF (Sarah Jessica Parker's pet robot!)

Oh well, when you're a kid watching this you don't care about things like "character development" and "subtext" and "plot". You just want to see a cool morphing spaceship.

As a kid my favorite line from the movie (by far) was when David and Max (the alien spaceships sentient robot captain) fly past the Golden Gate Bridge. Max (voiced by a pre-pervert Paul Reubens) quips "Rice-a-roni® the San Francisco Treat. Ha Ha." Listening to that line now, I find it utterly lame, but as a 8 year old kid watching this on the Wonderful World of Disney (where it aired approxamately 350,000 times between January 1987 and November 1990) I thought it was the single funniest thing ever said anywhere.

My one complaint is the DVD's utter lack of extra material. Don't patronize me, "English and Spanish Subtitles" are NOT a special feature, nor are "Scene Selections" or "Motion Menus". This is like calling the cigarette lighter in your Honda a "Value-add-on."

Reagan-the most liberal conservative?

With Reagan's passing and the increased coverage of his legacy dominating many a newspaper and internet site, I've been doing some of my own research on our 40th President's accomplishments and achievements. I've been reading speeches, brief bios and synopsis, as well as watching video clips of his public apperances and remarks.

What's striking to me is how calm and rational the man was. He was a conservative in the strongest sense of the world; a "speak softly but carry a big stick" type if there ever was one. He believed in a strong military, free markets and social conservatism. Yet his approach was soft, calm and rational, which are words the media rarely uses to describe hardline right-wingers.

Here's a man who called the Soviet Union for what it was-an "Evil Empire." He demanded that the 2nd largest Super Power "tear down this wall." He fought off communist aggressors in South America, and did all he could to quell the expansion of the most despotic, wicked socioeconomic system ever devised. Yet he, a supposed crazy dangerous conservative, did more for nuclear disarmament with the INF treaty than any President before or since.

Liberals even liked him. The didn't vote for him or support any of his policies but couldn't bring themselves to hate the Gipper. In retrospect now they'll say the "never liked him", but who cares what @$$holes like Greg Palast think?

Our current President would be wise to learn from Reagan. I think W and Ron have a lot in common. They both have had to lead their citizenry through a very complicated and tricky war (what did Clinton have? Kosovo?) and they both have been, I think, largely misunderstood.

W needs to learn to give Americans the larger perspective here. Reagan didn't simply call the USSR our "enemy" or "the other superpower that we disagree with" or even "a bad place to live", no he called them "an evil empire".

What we are dealing with in the middle east is not "diverse cultures" or "an alternative lifestyle", it's people who have no qualms about cutting the heads off civilians. Reagan would have seen that distinction and made it clear from the beginning.

It's pretty clear...

...that the Minnesota Twins couldn't beat a Little League team right now. They are being absolutely schooled by 17 year old KC pitchers, and *gasp* guys like Mark Hendrickson and some fruit named "Wechter" from the Devil Rays.

The Twins played horribly in the first half last year, and it was a catalyst named Shannon Stewart who saved the season for the Twins. He's hurt right now, and maybe that's why the Twins aren't getting any hits.

I am about ready to give up on the Koskie/Mientikiewicz/Guzman Twins and look to the future for the Mauer/Mourneau/Restovich Twins. Our current Twins are certainly good and have been good for the past 3 years. But let's face it, they are good enough to have a winning season and maybe win their division but that's about it. This is clearly not a World Series team. Or even the kind of dominating team Devil Ray or Royal players should fear.

A World Series caliber team would score 8 runs of Devil Ray pitching in the first 5 innings. This team can barely manage 2.

So go to the Dome to see Mauer. Even if the Twins lose every game from here on out, Mauer is worth your $14 Upper Club ticket.