FROGLEGS

Actually, calling it a past-time is a disservice to all hobbies everywhere. I HATE painting. I was talking to my Dad the other day and we shared horror stories of house painting. He said that there are few things in life that he despises more than painting… especially interior painting. It must run in the family or something.

It is, however, all consuming. Thus my complete lack of bloggage in the past week or so. Andrés and I have managed to paint the entryway, our bedroom, Andrés’s bedroom and the living room. We finally finished last night at about 10pm. No more of THAT for another couple of weeks at least. Ceilings and hallways still need to be done, lights put back up and curtains hung. This whole house-making venture is turning into the “Neverending Story”…

At least we are done for now and I have a little break to enjoy the holidays (more or less). I’m off to a prayer meeting across town in a few. I hope it turns out to be good. I don’t mean to be critical, but Spanish Evangelical prayer meetings tend to involve everything possible except… prayer.

This is fantastic. Playmobil are simply the ultimate in toys. Well, them and maybe legos and quite possibly Star Wars action figures too. Check out the rest of Jude Smith’s blog here.

Still don’t know what to get me for Christmas? This would be a good start!

Belénes are a big deal in Spain. What is a Belén? “Belén” is the Spanish word for “Bethlehem”, the city in Israel where Jesus of Nazareth was born some 2000 years ago. In most countries, we have “Nativity Scenes”, a small collection of figurines that depict the birth of Jesus Christ in a manger. Well, that is way to low profile for Spain… JUST the stable, the Holy Family and a manger? C’mon! Think BIG! Let’s do the entire city!!! That’s right, spaniards don’t just do a little nativity scene… the do the whole stinkin’ town! Thus, Spanish nativity scenes are called “Belén”(es). My friend Jesús’s Dad has a Belén that measures about 2 metres deep by 4 metres wide. It has it’s own timed electric system that makes the town go from day to night ever few minutes. The sun goes down, stars and moon come out… the lights even come on inside the homes all over Bethlehem… Wild!

Every Christmas, cities all over Spain have special “Belenista” fairs where different vendors can sell their wares to the eager belen-making masses. There you can buy everything from a guy on the can to an entire butcher’s shop (complete with battery powered butcher with swinging knife) to a blacksmith’s shop (complete with working bellows and a battery powered hammer hand). I am not exagerating, I promise. Pictures of that feria would be a whole ‘nuther album!

At any rate, a friend named José; takes a different tack to the Belén-making festivities. He rejects the consumist attitude of spending thousands of euros on an ace Belén. He came up with the ingenious idea of recycling the toys of a bygone childhood into a full blown Belén. Andrés and I had the privilege of helping in the annual set up of… that’s right: THE PLAYMOBIL BELEN!

Just in case any of your were wondering if I had abandoned “high” culture forever in favour of icky pop culture after yesterday’s post about TV gettin’ good… I thought I better let you all know that I went to an organ concert in Sevilla’s massive Gothic Cathedral last night. It was a concert of all Romantic period music composed by only Spaniards (navarran basque’s to be exact). I went with José Pablo, Andrés and Javi.

The concert was OK, not fabulous. I’ve never thought that romantic organ music was my thing and last night confirmed it. Romantic organ music is a bit to namby pamby. I like the metallica-like riffs (how else can I describe it?) of the Baroque period. I like to feel the wind flowing out of the organ as the organist crunches those phat chords that make my ears ring. Romantic music is all about frilly little arpeggios with a very soft bass undertone…. (yawn). Give me a good funeral dirge with some fugues thrown in to get my blood pumping!

Being in the Cathedral late at night was definitely interesting… too bad they had most of it blocked of with security guards… Might’ve been interesting to get “lost” and then locked in!

Somewhere along the line, TV has gotten good. I don’t know where or when, but I’ve been watching some shows that are really interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking.

Those of you that know me know that I’ve never really been a sucker for TV Series. I’ll watch the occasional episode of a funny show, but other than that, my tolerance for TV is usually pretty low. I have to say that the ONLY TV Series that I have ever watched in its entirety has been “24″ with Kiefer Sutherland. And I’ve only been able to do that due to the extraordinary generosity of Carla Trundle allowing me to borrow her DVD’s of seasons 1, 2 and 3. And even then, if friends Jim, Mark and Addi hadn’t been around to keep up the momentum of watching episode after episode… I wouldn’t have made it through a single season.

I came across a couple of series lately that (I have to be honest here) have got me hooked. The first is the new remake of “Battlestar Galactica”. I can hear you all shrieking and rending your cumulative cultural garments in repentance on my behalf. I know that you are all thinking of the pretty strange and cultish original series from 1978 that barely lasted one season. Well, it’s been reborn! And I have to say that after seeing 3 episodes… it is probably one of the best SciFi TV series I have ever seen. Instead of the constant and unrealistic optimism that overcomes every single Star Trek series ever made in the pattern of a “happily ever after” ending at least every 3 episodes… there isn’t much hope for the future in Battlestar Galactica. A machine civilization called “The Cylons” have overrun humanity and destroyed all of the population, save 49,000 souls. A ragtag fleet of survivors are forced to flee through the universe with a massive Cylon force on their heels wherever they go. The survivors only hope is to find a mythical “13th Colony of Humanity” on a “shining planet called Earth” where they might find refuge. I really like pretty much everything about the series. Retro technology (the Cylons can manipulate computers with computer viruses, so humans have to use antequated tech to overcome a highly advanced new “race” of machines) mixed with cutting edge, Really well done special effects, excellent acting (for the most part) and talk of God in all parts??? Very strange. But strangely addictive. Check it out if you want.

The second series that I’ve been watching is “Joan of Arcadia”. Most of you have probably seen it already. It’s about a girl to whom God reveals himself through the form of different random people. Very thought provoking.

Am I getting older, losing my “culture sense” or is TV getting better?

The article that was originally written for Rolling Stone about the mission in Ibiza this past summer was canned by the magazine, but it popped up at Salon.com. It was their front page, central article today. I’ve not read them much, but they do seem to be one of the premier online magazines.

You can check it out the article by clicking here

The article says that Heather and I are “vehemently anti-Bush”… which isn’t actually true. That was a misunderstanding between us and the article’s author. I think she was so used to Christians believing that Bush is the 21st century messiah that when we started talking politics she was so completely shocked that she didn’t know any other way to describe us. And to her credit, she wrote me an email this week before the article came out to see if I wanted to change that specific phrase, but I wasn’t able to get back to her until this morning. Anyway… this was my clarification to her in an email this morning:

“I wouldn’t say that we’re (or at least that I’m) anti-Bush. I think it is hard to be a follower of Jesus Christ and be “Anti” anyONE (as opposed to anything). I am, however, concerned with the way that the Republican party seems to have cornered the market on “Christian values”. They emphasise some things like right to life and sanctity of marriage, but miss some huge ones like “helping the poor and downtrodden”, showing solidarity with the millions of children (and parents/adults) without health care, telling the truth (about the Iraq War among other things) and waging unjust war…. among a ton of other things. I am ANTI that kind of hypocrisy… But I find it difficult to declare publicly that I am “anti-Bush” or anti-anyone and would rather focus on specific behaviour.”