October 26, 2005
Amsterdam Airport
I'm currently sitting in the KLM lounge at the Amsterdam airport, waiting for my next flight. It's about 9:00am here--around midnight in Seattle. My CEO is letting me use his connection for the moment.
Our flight to Nairobi leaves in just under two hours. Another nine-hour flight! We should arrive around 8:00pm local time.
Time to go.
October 24, 2005
Before Parting
I should be ironing. I should be packing. I'm waiting for laundry.
A couple of photos to keep you company:
The first was sunrise several weeks ago, as seen from my deck. I had forgotten that I took it. The second is the old train trestle down by the locks as evening crept in.
October 21, 2005
The Hero Within?
I think they must have misspelled my last name.
I am the Monkey King!
Actually, the Monkey King stories are among the most enjoyable Chinese opera plots for Westerners. Happy the man who watches the acrobatic feats of the Monkey King on stage!
October 19, 2005
Off Again
A week from now I will be somewhere over Africa, shortly to land in Nairobi. I'm going to Nairobi, Kenya; Kigali, Rwanda; and Lusaka, Zambia, all for work. We're going to be assessing conditions for the start-up of an indigenous eye bank to support all of East Africa. I'm going as video and photo support and documentation. The entire trip should last roughly a week and a half, with four of those days in flight to or from Africa.
People keep asking me if I'm excited. My honest answer is that my head is swimming so quickly with preparations that I haven't had much time to consider my feelings about the trip. I've been madly ordering and testing video equipment on top of my regular work responsibilities, which include preparing for a retreat that starts the day after we return from the other side of the world. Basically, I'm a little to overwhelmed to be excited. :-)
Time for work.
October 16, 2005
October 15, 2005
Webbmaster
Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken were in town last night. (alternate site for Derek) I had been telling people that theirs would be the first "concert" concert I had ever attended. I've been to symphonies, operas, wind bands, and Celtic/folk shows, and I expected this to be a big CCM concert. Well, it was remarkably like a folk show, seeing that that's how Derek tours. What's the difference between this show and other folk music concerts I've been to? This one was indoors (good thing, since it rained), and there were no chairs (good thing since the room was sold out without them).
Late Tuesday, a trio of girls from Bellingham, opened the show. When singing together, those ladies have beautiful, beautiful voices. Unfortunately, their section of the show didn't seem to have much flow or shape. Beautiful mellow song followed beautiful mellow song. It would have been nice to hear a change in direction or tone rather than only change of musical mode. One or two pieces with a little musical aggression or agitation would have highlighted their other songs nicely.
Sandra took the stage after Late Tuesday and opened her segment with a couple of rollicking country-influenced songs. The girl can sing and play the guitar! To me, it was an interesting contrast of semiprofessional and professional. Late Tuesday has a few albums to their name--possibly more than Sandra. But Sandra has a sense of presence and immediacy that makes for great performance.
After her first two songs, she called out her band. "Sweetie, are you in the building?" Derek (her husband) came running in. Apparently she had decided to skip a song for the sake of time, so he hadn't realized he was on. He picked up a twelve string guitar and was, very much, her band for the next few songs.
There was a brief pause between Sandra's set and Derek's solo set, which went the rest of the evening. Derek is an impressive, impressive guitarist who can blur the lines between strumming and picking and apparently blend the two in a single motion. A lot was going on under those hands.
And a lot has been going on in that head. He titled his most recent album I See Things Upside Down, and compared to the vocal end of evangelical Christianity, he does indeed. Based upon the songs he chose for the evening, I would say he sees much more clearly. He opened with a new song, one line of which particularly stands out:
"Jesus is not a white, middle-class Republican."
Never one to shy away from what the Church needs to hear, that song set much of the tone for the evening. Apparently he's been working through some of the same problems I've been starting on, but he gets to solve them through songs.
Overall, his show was far more thought-provoking than merely enjoyable, which, judging from my meager DVD collection, is the typical version of a night out for me. He played a variety of songs from his previous albums, along with a few from Caedmon's Call (his former band) and other singers like Bob Dylan and Woodie Guthrie.
Performance-wise, Derek has a rather odd style. I had heard talk of his famous white t-shirt, which he wore again last night, sometimes covered with a suit jacket. He's also added glasses similar to mine since the photos in his last album. His eyes were closed much of the evening, but his body, particularly his head, was really into what he was saying. The way he played the microphone almost seemed spastic at times, with quick jerks of the head to flash the sound in and out. His playing was, as I mentioned before, amazing.
Sandra came back out to help him close the evening around 11:00pm with a performance of "Lover," a song from his first album:
Like a man comes to an altar
I came into this town
With the world upon my shoulders
and promises passed down
I went into the water
My father, he was pleased
I built it and I’ll tear it down
So you will be set free
But I found thieves and salesmen
Living in my father's house
I know how they got in here
and I know how to get them out
I’m turning this place over
From floor to balcony
and then just like these doves and sheep
Oh, you will be set free
I’ve always been a lover
From before I drew a breath
Some things I loved easy
and some I loved to death
Because love's no politician
It listens carefully
Of those who come, I can't lose one
So you will be set free
But go on and take my picture
Go on and make me up
I’ll still be your defender
You’ll be my missing son
I’ll send out an army
Just to bring you back to me
Because regardless of your brother's lies
Oh, you will be set free
I am my beloved’s
and my beloved’s mine
So you bring all your history
I’ll bring the bread and wine
and we'll have us a party
Where all drinks are on me
Because as surely as the rising sun
Oh, you will be set free
***************
Derek's next album, Mockingbird, comes out on December 26. Sandra will also have a new album of old hymns with new tunes available in December.
October 8, 2005
Two of the Best
I've seen two of the best movies of the year in just over two weeks. One was stunning in its beauty, the other a fun romp. Both were remarkably imaginative. Neither featured a single frame of human flesh. Yet each could receive awards for the acting. And both will certainly have a run for Oscars.
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is easily the most beautiful film of the year, possibly of many years. It is, in my opinion, his best work since The Nightmare Before Christmas. (And yes, I know he wasn't the only director for Corpse Bride.) From the opening titles to the end of the film, the eyes are in for a feast of color, grace, and imagination. Within the first ten seconds, having seen little more than titles, I knew that I wanted to buy this movie on DVD, if for nothing other than its sheer beauty. Based on a Russian fairy tale, the Corpse Bride tells the story of Victor, his betrothed Victoria, and his unexpected, unintended, and unwanted--but legally binding--marriage to Emily, who died years before they met. Victor tries to find his way out of the mess and back to the land of the living while Victoria seeks to rescue him and avoid marriage to an evil usurper. The tale revolves around themes of loyalty, love, prejudice, and the keeping of promises to the hurt of the maker. Danny Elfman's music, while not his most original, is suitably haunting and makes me want to pick up the soundtrack. The piano is wonderful.
To fans of stop motion animation, Wallace and Gromit are among the most famous characters in the world. After all, not just anyone could revive the Wensleydale cheese industry single-handed. The trailer for The Curse of the Were-Rabbit looked singularly uninteresting, but knowing the fun of their earlier short films, I decided to forego a second viewing of Corpse Bride for the opening weekend of Were-Rabbit. I do want to see Corpse Bride again in the theater, but I am not at all disappointed by my choice today. I was concerned that Wallace and Gromit couldn't maintain their charm beyond the 20 to 30 minutes of their previous three films. My concern was baseless. 84 minutes flew by. The style and story are about as far removed from Corpse Bride as stop motion can get. (You can actually see the animators' fingerprints on the clay in several of the shots.) Were-Rabbit is, as I said earlier, an inventive romp as our heroes try to free their vegetable-mad village from the grip of not only the blossoming rabbit population but also an oversized hairy menace. Featuring a full gamut of co-director and creator Nick Park's wonderful inventions and nutty sense of humor, Were-Rabbit is an absolute delight. I doubt the Academy would ever allow it or consider it, but Gromit honestly deserves this year's award for Best Supporting Actor.
Speaking of Oscars, the thought of these movies competing against each other makes me cringe. Each deserves awards. No matter which one wins Best Animated Feature (and there's very little chance that another movie could truly compete against these two), I'll feel a tinge of disappointment for the other very worthy competitor. It's a great and rare year (and time of year) that two such marvelous stop motion films should appear. I'm truly thankful for the opportunity and privilege to have enjoyed both of them.
October 7, 2005
Good News from Far Away Places
My friend and former student from China, Don, e-mailed me today saying that he's found a job. He'll be helping with IT at Dalian's RHI. He's been working hard looking for a job and trying to get further training since graduating in June. I couldn't be happier for him.
I know you don't get to read this, Don, but I wish you all the best! Congratulations! :-)
October 1, 2005
First Troubles
My neighbors have a very nice stereo system, and they enjoy using it. I haven't had any problems with it until late this week. The walls of my apartment building are thick, so I can't hear any of their music unless I'm in the hallway heading downstairs. But I can hear their subwoofer, and that, unfortunately, seems to be in close proximity to my bedroom wall. I can't hear it in my livingroom, but the bass plays quite clearly in my bedroom (and bathroom). Bass' omnidirectional nature is always an acoustical problem.
After two mornings of very early bass waking me up, I was considering talking to them and asking them to turn it down a bit. They've always been considerate in the evening, with the music stopping or getting turned down significantly by 10:15 or so. Unfortunately, last night it started up around 11:30 and went until at least 1:30am. I got up and knocked around 11:40, but no one answered the door, despite the fact that I could hear voices talking above the rap.
I had to go to work early this morning (yes, on a Saturday--one of the few of the year), so I typed up a note, which I thought was very polite. When I got home late this afternoon, the note was taped to my door. At that point I realized I had written my own apartment number on the paper, so I though maybe they had just transferred it over, thinking someone else had taped it to the wrong door. I could hear the music playing again, so after dropping my stuff off in my apartment, I went to knock on their door to introduce myself and chat a bit, just to make sure they didn't get the wrong tone from the note and to explain it was only the bass that was bothering me.
Well, I knocked once and heard the same girl and guy as the previous night talking. They started saying some rude things and called me, in third person, something I won't repeat. The girl said, "Man, he doesn't know what he's getting into." They then pretended to have a shotgun (with some very fake shotgun pumping sounds). I knocked again, determined to ignore their shenanigans, since I was there to be nice and resolve things in person. The guy said to call 911 because the crazy guy from 302 (which is actually their apartment) was bothering them again. I stayed put, waiting for them to open the door, because surely this silliness couldn't continue. Then they threatened to call the management (and faked it). Never once did they talk to me. They simply referred to me in third person and loudly made up their stories. After two or three minutes total of waiting, I realized this was pointless and went over to a friend's house for supper.
Behavior like that makes me suspect certain things, but suspicion is no aid to neighbors. I've tried to communicate with my neighbors, but they plainly have no interest in chatting. If they continue to play their bass loudly at inappropriate times, I'll just have to talk to the management. It's certainly not what I want and should be totally unnecessary among adults.
But apparently, such is life.
The whole thought of having problems with my neighbors brought back the same feelings I had at the house. I really didn't want to come back to my apartment tonight, which is the first time I've felt that way. I didn't want to come back to potential strife. It made my stomach hurt like it hurt most of the spring and summer. Over the past two months, I had forgotten what strife felt like. I'm really hoping that I can forget the feeling again.