A Ghost of Mist Was On the Field
Not much to report. Yet. But here's to crossing my fingers and saying that maybe I will have something to talk about soon.
It's Good Friday today. Living with an Italian family, that means a fish dinner, church, and my own desire to see The Passion of the Christ a second time. Not exactly the kind of flick you can just pop in any old weekend. But it's one of those things that I just want to feel. I care little for the particulars, but at the core, that depiction speaks directly to me. And though I forget it now and then and stumble as I go, it's still very much the center of my life.
Everyone check in on Marcy's weblog on Monday. Just do it—no questions, see?
It's Good Friday today. Living with an Italian family, that means a fish dinner, church, and my own desire to see The Passion of the Christ a second time. Not exactly the kind of flick you can just pop in any old weekend. But it's one of those things that I just want to feel. I care little for the particulars, but at the core, that depiction speaks directly to me. And though I forget it now and then and stumble as I go, it's still very much the center of my life.
Everyone check in on Marcy's weblog on Monday. Just do it—no questions, see?
posted by Jeff LaSala at 8:27 AM
18 Comments:
Hubby and I saw The Passion in the theater, but I honestly haven't had the emotional strength to watch it again since. It's like watching 9/11 footage...it just hurts too much.
Being Catholic, my weekend will be much the same as yours...but substitute Veggie Tales for Mel Gibson, heh.
Happy Easter!
Marcy: Actually, I WISH. We're giving the Veggie Tales Easter DVD to other people, and we don't get to see it ourselves... :(
Ed: I hear you. But I don't consider that movie stand-alone. If it was, and we knew nothing about the Jesus story prior to viewing it, yes, it certainly wouldn't convey a coherent message.
But in my opinion, it's not depicted/directed that way. It assumes the viewer already knows a good deal about this story, real or imagined, or at least the crux. And in that case, it works. For me.
I go into a movie like this with an attachment already to the principles at hand. Everyone will see something like that movie--or perhaps even something like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe--and their preconceived ideas will certainly affect their opinion of the subject matter. No way around that!
Dramatic change of subject . . . so, when's the next installment of Escapee?
Thanks for asking, Kam! It's coming, but the last couple of weeks have been rather hefty on the dayjob work, and even in the writing department. I hope to have one this week or next, but frankly it's been rather difficult to concentrate!
I've not see PotC so can't say anything about that. But what I CAN say is that Veggie Tales blows.
But that's coming from an animation fan. I can't stand cut-rate CG, be it talking green and red blobs that are supposed to somehow represent vegetables, or hastily rendered anime star battles.
I don't like the idea that because children have no cultivated taste, that we can throw a low-quality product at them. I know they don't CARE about that, but we SHOULD!
Teletubies and its ilk gets away with quality control murder, and I really think that they are horrible products for children. If I have kids, I don't think they're getting TV time until they can pay for cable.
Maybe it's a bit harsh, but I don't want kids to be subject to inappropriate imagery and audio, and I think that includes quality as well. The reason you don't want impressionable minds to see images of sex and violence before they're ready are because you don't want them to be jarred by them or to emulate them. So... do you want your kids to grow up with a shitty taste in art and music too? Do you want them to accept the lowest common denominator? I think that those ideas come through in poor quality programming for children.
Oh, I also can say with conviction that Escapee is great and new episodese are in demand! I have a lot of "lurkers" on my site, who don't comment on the "Station", but they do email me, and ask me "Hey, where's Escapee?" and "Don't leave us hanging!" and such.
So, you're in demand, pal. There are fans. And you know how they get.
Regarding Veggie Tales, Josh, I'll have to respectfully disagree. If it were geared towards adults, then I'd be all for improving the animation quality, but I really don't think it matters that much for children. And content-wise, I'm all fine with it. I enjoy some of it myself.
Regarding Escapee...yeah, I know! I'll get to it!
Although I find the content in Veggie Tales to be pretty crap, that's not my issue with the franchise.
The animation is crappy, and the fact that you say you "don't think it matters that much" is pretty much an endorsement of poor quality. That's exactly the kind of thinking that gets shitty presidents elected. If you set your kid up to be alright with eating shit, he'll want to eat shit, and then probably have some sort of sexual shit-eating fetish later on. If you allow companies to profit from crappy work, then they have no incentive to make good work.
Aren't you disappointed that so many people like such terrible authors and read derivative, cookie-cutter books with no plot, poor characterization, and unfathomably bad cover art? Doesn't it pain you a little bit when you see people lovingly clutching there Diane Steeles? Do you want your kid reading that drivel?
So then, why would you set them up to be okay with mediocrity?
Oooookay.
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Deny it. Deny the standards of animation are low.
People are ill-informed, and apparently that makes it "okay". It's "okay" to say D&D players are satanists, right? Because people don't understand what they're talking about, right? So why is ignorance an excuse?
Also, I think I meant "Danielle Steele".
I suppose we should all drop with whatever nonsense we're doing (living day to date) to petition, protest, DEMAND higher quality animation and/or breakfaster cereal?
I know you've got your political opinions, Josh--and it would surprise you to know that most of them probably match some of my own (though your intensity is a few dozen notches above mine)--but sometimes there are better things to do in life than get worked up. Or better things to get worked up about.
And I'm certainly not interested in spending my time picking fights with hardcore ignorant Christian churches, trying to convince them that D&D players aren't satanists.
If I ever get a fantasy novel published, I'll be doing everything in my power to prevent my grandmother from realizing what it's actually about. She's 81 now; I'm not going to worry about what her church is telling her, despite her numerous pleadings for me to give up D&D.
You do what you do, I do what I do. Not only do I enjoy animation and illustration, but I would truly like to see higher qualities of those thing introduced into the mainstream public eye. Believe it or not, that actually is something important to me that I feel could actually be accomplished.
And so I choose to be offended be horribly wrought artwork, especially when I, having used several animation programs over the years (one of which is used for Veggie Tales), understand that cheaper cartoons than VeggieTales actually have better computer animation. What they are pawning off as the "style" of the cartoon is just laziness.
I'm offended when people make money off of sub-standard products, that's all. You can find great moral messages in GOOD childrens animation.
Is it wrong to enjoy these discussions from the side lines?
Ed, pass me the popcorn!
Harley: yes, it is, you strife-loving bastard.
By the way, I spit in the popcorn! ;)
Don't get me STARTED on popcorn!
Haha. I've based four years of a website on heated discussions and overly-strong opinions- and love bringing it to other people's web journals!
INTERNET!
ENVELOPES!
It's like the geek version of Springer.
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