Your Argument Is Invalid

During some downtime at work today I was reading from about The Beatles in where an excerpt from the book Living Life Without Loving the Beatles by Gary Hall expressed the author’s general disdain for those who are considered massive Beatles fans but have no general knowledge of what good music really is, given the moniker of a Grade One.  Hall doesn’t blame these people for following a massive group like The Beatles because they just don’t know any better.
In his chapter about a Grade One and how to cope with their high opinions of the Fab Four, he nullifies an argument made in favor of The Beatles with an entirely moronic premise regarding lasagna.  Hall claims that by stating The Beatles are the best band ever because they sold millions upon millions of albums is like believing a Marks and Spencer pasta meal is better than one from a certain mom and pop café in Italy.  This mentality is beyond ridiculous.
I’m in complete agreement that record sales does not equate to quality product.  Comparing the music industry to a similarly distributed, yet differently experienced medium, just because Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace made money hand over fist does not mean it is a good movie.  In fact, it is God-awful and was drafting off of the legacy that the original trilogy had built over time.
However, to compare record sales to meal sales is an apples-to-oranges argument.  It is not hard to believe that a homemade dish of lasagna is going to be tastier than a frozen TV dinner version of the meal.  But that homemade meal doesn’t have the same outlet to sell its dish that the store-bought version does, so therefore of course it is not going to make as much money.
Yet, all bands and musicians have the same opportunity for the world to hear their music.  Sure, some lesser talented artists get better management, better recording gigs, and better publicity than others and therefore reap the benefits of more records sold than those with more music aptitude and song-writing quality, but the outlet is all the same.  Musical notes are put down on vinyl/CD/Internet download/whatever, and the entire masses have an opportunity to evaluate the music for themselves.  Good music will likely attract the most listeners and in turn generate more records from a particular group/singer.  It is a level playing field for every musician who strives for their music to be heard.
Grandma Lucella from Milan, Italy, isn’t going to stand a chance at competing with a brand name TV dinner company.  Sure, anyone who tastes her meal will undoubtedly give the thumbs up when comparing it to a Marks and Spencer product, but how can she be fairly judged when her only outlet is a small café in Milan?  It is not possible to bring every person in the world to her shop for a taste of lasagna, but Marks and Spencer do have the capability to reach the masses through neighborhood grocery stores.  So what about packaging the Italian café meal?  Then you lose the flavor of making it in-house and therefore the product is not the same.
The lasagna argument is just not the same when comparing it to music.  The Beatles certainly were lucky to hit the big time when they did and many of their songs probably came in higher on the charts because of name recognition during the middle and later parts of their group’s career, but to fairly deny The Beatles as greatest band ever is going to take a greater line of reasoning than Hall’s lasagna parable.

What To Do? What To Do?

I'm freaking out over what my last movie will be before the rapture hits tomorrow at 6 p.m. Central Standard Time.  My wife and I are planning to go to a movie in the early part of the day, so I have to figure out whether my final cinema-going experience will be remembered as following Jack Sparrow's swashbuckling adventures in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean picture or fulfilling my geek need with the comic book movie Thor.
But to be honest, it is the movie that I will be watching as the flames and earthquakes erupt to take me up to heaven.  Should I be a good Christian person and partake in a family-friendly Pixar or Disney film like Toy Story or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or should it be something I respect as a movie aficionado like The Godfather or Citizen Kane?  Of course, an entry in the James Bond franchise would certainly be suitable.  I just don't know.
I do have John Huston's gritty crime film noir The Asphalt Jungle on my DVR.  That would certainly be an acceptable bow out film.  I have about 24 hours to figure this out.  Maybe I will make a list of the final experience I want to savor when I check out of this crazy, doomed world.

The Long Search Comes To An End

Since abandoning my barber in Ennis 18 months ago and searching for a new one I think I finally found the place.  After trying out my new barber shop, which is located in my childhood town of Rendon, I found it has all the amenities I enjoy plus an additional one I didn't expect.  Besides the serviceable cut I expect from a barber for a valuable price, this particular coiffeur also offered a straight razor shave on the back of my neck, a warm towel wrapped around my head following the cut, and a brief electric massage on the upper back and neck.  It was wonderful.  The only downside I saw was the barber's a little chatty, but since the whole process took less than 15 minutes it's not that big of a deal.  I am pleased with the outcome and plan on making this my new haircut home.

The Origins Of Energy

I don’t know what made me think about this today but for some reason I asked myself the question, “If God doesn’t exist and the Big Bang Theory really is the way things started for our universe, then where did that energy come from in the first place?”
This post probably stems from the recent remark made by physicist Stephen Hawking about Heaven being a “fairy story,” but whatever the reason for my pondering it still begs the question of how our entire existence came to be if a higher power doesn’t exist.  I will not hide the fact that I believe in God, have faith that He created us, and my faith will one day result in me spending eternity in that fairy story place called Heaven.  My feelings on this subject have been tested in the past and I eventually decided I do believe what I was taught as a child in Sunday school.
As for my question about where the energy that started the Big Bang came from, I’m still asking.  Those who disbelieve creationism, not wanting to buy into the idea that the only thing Christians have to go on in trusting that God exists is faith, in actuality have to have the same form of faith.  The best answer right now to where the matter came from for the Big Bang is that it has always existed.  It may have been in a different form, but since energy can neither be created nor destroyed it has to have always been in existence, so where did it come from in the first place?  It is the same conundrum that Christians have when atheists ask where God came from. Our best answer is He has always been there.
However, the difference in our two answers is that with our faith we can trust that our answer is true and God will reveal how things began once we are in Heaven, whereas those who put their faith in science will never be able to answer that question with any certainty and will ultimately be forced to have the same amount of faith as Christians, just directed in a different direction.
And I’m not stating I am entirely against the idea that the universe began as the result of a Big Bang.  Where I differ from those who don’t believe in a higher power is that I think God instigated the Big Bang and created the energy necessary for such an event.  Again, I don’t have all the answers and am not sure where I stand on the Big Bang Theory, but what I do know is that if that is the way things began in our universe then it was God who directed the thing.

Summer Movie Preview

With the release of Thor this weekend, summer movie blockbusters have officially begun.  My wife and I have made our yearly bet as to what movie will make the most money, which with Harry Potter being a candidate and Joanna getting the first pick I am likely the loser this year.
A lot of sequels and comic book films are available to viewers this season, but there is an original idea or two out there that don’t involve robots pummeling one another or mutant/Norse God/magical ring heroes saving the planet.  I have counted 13 films my wife, 3-year-old daughter, and I will be attempting to see in the next three months, not necessarily all together as The Hangover Part II is a Daddy movie only.  First is the list of films available worth seeing.  I include Fast Five as, oddly, my wife loves that film series and swoons when she sees Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, so we will be going to the theater this Saturday for a fast cars, hot bodies watching date night.

For me:
Thor – opened May 6
The Hangover Part II – opening May 26
Super 8 – opening June 10
Green Lantern – opening June 17
Captain America: The First Avenger – opening July 22
Cowboys and Aliens – opening July 29

For my wife and me:
Fast Five – opened April 29
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – opening May 20
X-men: First Class – opening June 3
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – opening July 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II – opening July 15

For both parents and child:
Cars 2 – opening June 24
Winnie the Pooh – opening July 15

You might have noticed I have omitted Kung Fu Panda 2.  I never saw the first one and will likely wait to see this one as well.  But it is opening on May 26 if you are interested.
The film I’m probably most excited about is Harry Potter, not because I expect it to be the best of all these other blockbusters, but because it will bring to a close a story I have vested countless hours of interest in through previous movie viewings.  My most anticipated release, thinking I'll be the most entertained from them, is either Super 8 or Cowboys and Aliens.  I have a lot of trust in what J.J. Abrams does and Super 8 looks similar in style and substance to what Steven Spielberg was doing in his heyday of moviemaking.  Cowboys and Aliens is a guilty pleasure.  While the premise is stupid, I will checkout mentally and simply enjoy James Bond and Indiana Jones in the Old West kicking some alien butt.
I am afraid The Hangover Part II is going to simply rehash old jokes from the original and try to squeeze every last funny dime out of the hype that the first film created, but the previews do look entertaining enough.
Thor, X-men, Green Lantern, and Captain America are all going to be the same thing.  Christopher Nolan so far is the only one to make a comic book movie dramatic and suspenseful enough to transcend the genre it falls under.
Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers 3 have to rebound from crappy sequels, and in the case of Pirates it is two crappy sequels, but I am willing to give them a chance at redemption.
Cars 2 is questionable as it is a sequel to the weakest of all Pixar movies. While Cars is still good, it does not come close to the greatness of the Toy Story franchise or anything else the computer-animated company released in the new millennium.
While I was not a Winnie-the-Pooh fan growing up, I am excited to introduce my daughter to the characters who live in Hundred Acre Wood.