A Singular Lord of the Rings Experience in Scotland

I have much to write about my trip to England.  The past two weeks has been a whirlwind of history, travel, minor culture shock, and reassurace that “no, it’s not an impending accident; they DO drive on that side of the road.”

One of the highlights was a stop at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where my wife and I saw Charles Ross’s One Man Lord of the Rings show.  What follows is my review of the show, which hopefully will be posted soon on OneRing.net…

A Singular Lord of the Rings Experience in Scotland

Greg Pyne aka Fool of a Took

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Friday, August 14^th, 2009

While spending part of my holiday in Scotland, I had the privilege of seeing Charles Ross perform his One Man Lord of the Rings show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a performance consisting of all three movies by one single, highly motivated individual. “40 characters. 3 masterworks. 3600 seconds.  One Man to do it all.”

And he did.

Charles Ross is better known for his One Man Star Wars show (http://www.onemanstarwars.com), which has garnered acclaim from Spin magazine, Conan O’Brien, and The New York Times among others.  He has performed the show over a 1000 times across the globe.  Perhaps he never thought that another mega trilogy would come along that would have the same impact as Star Wars.

Then along came Rings.

I was happy just to sit down to anything related to LOTR, but I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical.  When Ross walked on to a bare stage (actually just a patch of ground around a makeshift amphitheater) wearing a jumpsuit- no costumes or props, not even a ring- an ever so slight “Hmm” crossed my lips.  Could he actually…

My thoughts were interrupted as Ross launched into Fellowship of the Ring.  I sat entranced, enthralled.  His impression of each character was dead on, from Gandalf’s gruff voice to Legolas’s airy exposition (each statement by Legolas including a motion indicating the brushing of Orlando’s blonde tresses).  His segue from scene to scene was flawless, and the dialogue between characters was seamless. With unique body language and sound effects, it was not hard to visualize the scene taking place.  Each jump, run, arch, stumble, clutch, reach, and pose struck seemed to paint the scene as Ross’s energy pulled us along the condensed narrative.  He paused only for a drink of water between movies, changing the lyrics to the end credits song to explain how thirsty he was.   Fellowship. Sip.  Two Towers.  Sip.  Return of the King. Sip.  On with the show.

Ross weaved in humor throughout.  My wife and I were left crying with laughter as he impersonated Denethor, with arched eyebrows and his two arms acting at both sides of his head in a V-shape indicating Denethor’s long hair.  As Denethor orders Pippin to sing in his chamber, Ross portrays Pippin as gagging his way through his song as he watches Denethor stuff his face with food.

Other highlights included his portrayal of Gollum: Andy Serkis could have a voice double if he needed one in Charles Ross.

Ross ended his show to loud applause and then talked to the audience about how he developed the show and his love for both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I had a chance to speak with him after the show, and we touched on how a work like Lord of the Rings inspires creativity: you want to add to the magic of the books, by adaptation or commentary, or you are inspired to create a unique work of your own.  His love for Lord of the Rings is a clear homage to Tolkien and the movies.

And hey, if the apocalypse hits, killing all the electricity on the planet, and we’re reduced down to sticks and stones and campfires again: there’s still two great trilogies to see.  Just find Charles Ross.

Greg Pyne, aka Fool of a Took

http://hobbitmeals.wordpress.com/

http://wanderingtree.wordpress.com/

Check out Charles Ross at

http://www.onemanlotr.com/

http://www.onemanstarwars.com/

Jazz vs. Zombies!

Prevented myself from buying Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, not because I dislike Don Miller, but due to the impetus of needing to buy something to assuaged my consumerist mindset, which as of late, with serious work to procrastinate on and illusionary time enough to justify that procrastination, has led me by the collar and wallet to indulged in a variety of purchases, from iTunes downloads to coffee (and coffee and more coffee) and beer (and beer and more beer), café lunches that seem economical until you put them all together, and a small vacuum cleaner.

Therefore, although Miller’s name has come up a number of times as a necessary read in the realm of the “new church movement,” “postmodern theology,” or whatever you want to call it, I tried to hold myself in check and avoid plopping down $15 for the book, which will probably turn into a necessary $7.50 my wife and I will need in England next week.

Still, I couldn’t stop myself, so I justified my need to buy by making a purchase for someone else, namely my wife, in the form of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a book I’ll probably end up reading anyway.

Oh, the joy of wish-washy principles!  

School vs. Funky Hip-Hop? Funky Hip-Hop.

Both Vista and iTunes are screwing up at the moment, requiring numerous shutdowns, restarts, and reboots, which ultimately provide an apt metaphor for my mind over the last two weeks, so I don’t begrudge it entirely.

Over on Peter Rollins.net, which, along with several other blogs, I finally bookmarked onto Google Reader, I came across Peter raving over Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, a funky hip-hop duo from ________________ (England?- to be honest, I don’t know.  Although I tagged over to their blog, I was too excited to download Angles off iTunes).

Here’s the video for Letter From God.  Fantastic stuff.  In the meantime, kitchen table is cluttered with schoolwork asking “Are you going to complete this syllabus anytime soon?  Will you dare include a statement urging your students to stay focused when you just two hours to drink coffee and jump from blog to blog with the agitated frequency of a cricket on crack?”

My schoolwork has eyes, and they are narrowed in disapproval.

Into “The Other”

I’ve spent my summer indulging in my love for Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and other Tolkien lore.  Tolkien’s words stay with you long after reading, like the scent of your grandfather’s cologne, and coming back to the book means simply settling down once again to the comfort of an old friend.  I don’t really get “sucked into” the books, per se- it’s almost like rejoining the journey.

So it was a pleasant surprise to pick up a book at Border’s the other day and get sucked right into The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose.  Seriously- I sat at the café and read about 80 pages while my coffee got cold.  An English major with an interest in journalism at Brown University- purported to be one of the most liberal universities in the US- decides to get the “full story” and registers as a student at Liberty University, a right wing evangelical college founded by the late Jerry Falwell.

Now, I consider myself a recovering Christian- coming back to the faith after years of absence determined to engage with a living faith that says “come and see,” rather than “do it or go to hell.”  In other words- someone who cringes at the thought of institutions like Liberty who have science professors on staff teaching creationism.  And not intelligent design, mind you- what some consider a more moderate approach to creationism- this is hardcore “fitting dinosaurs on the Ark” creationism.  Yeesh.

It’s easy to get caught up in the spectacle of extremes in American Christianity.  And when they butt heads, it’s quite a show (thinking of Doug Pagitt’s interaction with the Way of the Master dudes).  But I have to realize as a spectator, I’m just as guilty for indulging in the reactionary sideshow as those who perpetrate it.

Roose’s book humanizes the caricatures of the religious right and puts a real face on an otherwise stereotyped school.  He doesn’t condone the views he finds reprehensible –one student didn’t like interracial dating because “it just isn’t right”- but he doesn’t throw the student under the bus, either.  He carefully and thoughtfully reflects, often with piercingly humorous insights, on the people he encounters.  And he engages and reflects on his own spiritual journey in the process.

Christians are once again starting to ask themselves “What does it mean to be Christian?” and I find hope in the tension that question brings to every facet of Christianity across the globe.  This book doesn’t have answers, but like a good book, it raises more questions along those lines.

Currently Reading:How (Not) To Speak of God by Peter Rollins

I waited eagerly for the delivery of How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins in my mailbox (I still have this childish anticipation for things coming in the mail, which is why I’m pretty much addicted to Amazon.com).  The book has been around for a few years, so I am just now getting to something that should have been on my “to read” list long ago.  Rollins essentially uses postmodern theory to reassess the state of Western Christianity, and then transcends that postmodern idea and its own limitations to offer a new vision of Christianity for the Church.  Rollins sees the “embryonic” stage of this new vision in the emerging church.

What I’m already loving about this book is Peter’s reevaluation of the understanding of God that Christian mystics explored in the medieval period.  These mystics seem swept under the rug in favor of the scholastic theology and rational interpretation of scripture that emerged from the Age of Reason (actually from the medieval period as well: including Duns Scotus and St. Thomas Aquinas).  Mystics such as Meister Eckhart and St. Francis of Assisi challenged the contemporary understanding of God, but rather than denying it, immersed themselves completely in it.

Anyway, I have just started the book, and there are already a few great gems to ponder.  Consider this insight from Chapter One in which Rollins uses the analogy of a painting and a parable to show possibility/impossibility of knowing (read: revealing, revelation) God.

When we ask ourselves the meaning of [artwork], we are immediately involved in an act of interpretation which is influenced by what we bring to the painting.  In a similar way, the revelation of God should be compared to a parable that speaks out of an excess of meaning.  This means that revelation offers a wealth of meaning that will be able to speak in different ways to those with ears to hear.  The parable is given to us, but at the same time its full wealth of meaning will never be fully mined.  It is not reducible to some clear, singular, scientific formula but rather gives rise to a multitude of commentaries.  In opposition to this, many Christian communities view the stories and parables of the Bible as raw material to be translated into a single, understandable meaning rather than experience as infinitely rich treasures that can speak to us in a plurality of ways.  Hence revelation ought not to be thought of either as that which makes God known or as that which leaves God unknown, but rather as the overpowering light that renders God known as unknown (How (Not) to Speak of God, 16).

Religions for Peace

At times I am frustrated by the lack of unity I see across the globe.  Groups like these give me hope:

Here’s the link

The Harvest: Migrant Children’s Rights

Shine Global’s new film The Harvest seems to be a continuation of Edward Murrow’s Harvest of Shame.  Both works center on the plight of the children of the migrant working poor.  View the trailer and a complete description of the film below:

Harvest

The Story of the Children Who Work to Feed America.

More than 40 years ago, Edward R. Murrow’s HARVEST OF SHAME revealed the plight of desperately poor migrant workers in America, many of whom labored long hours for less than a dollar a day. Shockingly, little has changed during the past five decades.

A migrant family today earns on average less than $12,500 a year ‘ far below the poverty level. To survive, many parents are forced remove children from school to work in the fields: as a result, nearly 2/3 dropout of school permanently.

HARVEST tells the story of three of the more than 500,000 children of these migrant farm workers between the ages of 5 and 14. Although most of them are American citizens who work hard to feed us, they do so under the legal and social services radar and lack the protections that all other American children enjoy.

The Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibits minors from working in hazardous occupations, and children under 14 from working under any circumstances, does not apply to child farm workers, who labor 10 to 12 hour days in sweltering temperatures. Pesticides are a constant threat, causing even more severe skin irritations and respiratory problems than those suffered by adults. Child farm workers are also far more likely to develop cancers in adulthood than others their age. Accidents are another serious threat, and 20% of all farm work fatalities are minors.

Despite the rigors of their lives, however, these children have ambitions. Many aspire to graduate from high school and go on to college and meaningful lives beyond the fields.

Cinematographer/Director U Roberto (Robin) Romano documents these young workers, who with their families travel across the US following the harvest, working throughout the spring, summer and early fall. He continues filming the children as they finally return to school in early November, struggle to catch up, only to be forced to leave school again the following April.

The children’s narratives drive the film. We will watch them interact with families and friends, listening closely as they share their hopes and dreams, confess their disappointments, and reveal their everyday lives. HARVEST will take viewers into America’s backyard to confront the uncomfortable truth that the very food we eat is supplied in large measure by youngsters who are themselves underfed and overworked.

Producer, Director and Cinematographer ‘ U Roberto (Robin) Romano

Producer – Rory O’Connor

Composer ‘ David Amram

Executive Producers ‘ Rory O’Connor, Albie Hecht and Susan MacLaury

HARVEST will be shot in high definition video. Principal photography began in Minnesota and North Dakota in June 2007, and will continue in Washington, DC and Northern California, Texas, Florida and New York through the 2008 harvest. Post-production will begin in early winter 2009, with the anticipated completion of the film by late Spring 2009.

U Roberto (Robin) Robin Romano is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer whose film projects include DEATH OF A SLAVE BOY and GLOBALIZATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS. STOLEN CHILDHOODS, which he co-directed and shot, was the first theatrically released feature documentary on global child labor and has contributed to the development and sustainment of many organizations, including Rugmark, the international campaign that advises consumers how to avoid buying rugs made by child laborers.

Documentary filmmaker and journalist Rory O’Connor is co-founder and president of the international media firm Globalvision, Inc. and The Global Center, an affiliated non-profit educational foundation. O’Connor’s television and film work has garnered much professional recognition, including a George Polk Award, a Writer’s Guild Award, two Emmys, an Iris, and a Cine Gold Eagle. He also oversees the not-for-profit media watchdog site MediaChannel.org, and is Editorial Director of the social news network NewsTrust.net.

A Few Thoughts on Snares

I have a rigid interior clock that does not usually deviate from its rhythm.  Therefore, when I found myself wide awake at 6 this morning, it gave me pause.  Seriously, I get up at 7:03 every day.  That’s right: 7:03.  Why my body has started to register minutes as opposed to “oh, the sun’s up.  let’s rise, shall we?” is beyond me, and if I start thinking about it too much, I’ll probably come to the conclusion that my body somehow knows it has less time on this earth than I think, and then I’ll REALLY start freaking out.  Oops.  Too late.

I felt a bit of grace through this early rising, however: like I was being given a chance to take some time to quiet a mind that’s been rather stressed the past few weeks.  So I went out to our library room and meditated for a bit, watching the sun slowly start to rise, turning the sky from a hazy azure to pink, then orange.  I picked up my Bible and prepared to settle my mind further in lectio divina, or meditated reading.  It’s a slow, rhythmical reading of Scripture where you allow the words to just unfold within you, and when a word or a phrase catches  your attention, you take time to dwell on it, to meditate on its application to your life in that moment, in that place.

The Psalms are a great for this, because the Psalmists run the whole gamut of human emotion, from anger to fear to hatred to love to joy to praise to despair to pride to humility.  It’s all there.  Many people are turned off by the Psalms because of this.  This is supposed to be the “word of God?”  All this hatred and violence?  What gives?  But the Psalms show this relationship between God and man where man has a voice as well, and aren’t there times when all of us feel hatred and joy, love and despair- sometimes even in prayer?  But I digress…

I read Psalm 124, one of David’s “songs of ascents.”  Part of the Psalm reads:

Praise be to the Lord,

who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

We have escaped like a bird

out of the fowler’s snare;

the snare has been broken,

and we have escaped.

When I read this, an image began forming in my mind of that bird in the snare.  I sensed the panic, its heart racing, the recognition, instinctively, that this hindrance to flight was very very very wrong.  The panic increases when all attempts to escape just seem to trap it even more.  Remaining still is not an option, that way lies open only to death.

Then I began to think about what happens when someone tries to help the bird.  All too often, the bird struggles even more.

I began to think of what a snare is meant to do: it’s such a simple device that causes so much pain and hurt.  The reason?  It lets its victim work with it.  It depends on the struggling of its victim to achieve its end result, which is often quite gruesome.  Here’s a description by Rosemary Groom, from her blog at Wildlife Direct:

Snares are hard to find and thus hard to control. Snares are wasteful – poachers often set them and then fail to check them, resulting in the death of animals which end up just rotting in the bush. Finally, snares are inhumane. Animals are caught in snares when they put their head, or a limb through the wire noose, which then pulls tight as the animal attempts to escape. The animal then dies through asphyxiation or through dehydration. In many cases, animals manage to break the snares, leaving them to walk around with a cutting ligature on a limb, or dragging a broken branch to which the snare was attached.

A lion caught in a snare – an unnecessary waste

Even when the snare is broken, it can still cause pain if the animal carries it around, or can’t get completely free.

So why did my eyes open a little wider pondering all this?    For one, it seemed as if the Psalmist was recognizing the pain when he writes “the snare was broken.”  For some of us, spiritually, this can be a painful process.  We panic, we struggle- even when someone is trying to help us.  The struggle may even occur after we have escaped- the memory of a painful event can stick with us, sometimes overwhelming us again, until it seems like we are right back in the heart of the snare.

“And we have escaped” reads like a sigh of relief.  One can imagine the bird spreading its wings, finding use for them again, in essence realizing once again, instinctively, that it can do what it was meant to do, and be who it was meant to be.

I pray the Lord releases us each and every day, that we may truly be who we are meant to be, in His eyes.

Free Bird: Fractal Art

The Dangers of Bible-Thumpin’

A great post on Scripture and how it is used (and abused) by Christians.  Here’s to all the “Second Christians” out there.

“Sunday:” Why do we go to Church?

Interesting that I am attending two significantly different churches at the moment: Emmanuel Episcopal, a low church Epsicopalian congregation, and Discovery Church, a contemporary worship, non-denominational church.  Both have a significantly different approach to liturgy, but this week, at Discovery’s Young Professionals Group (a focus group for Christians in their 30s), and during Father Malcolm’s homily at Emmanuel, the two converged on the subject of the relevancy of church in our lives as Christians.  Is church something you just “do” once a week, out of habit or expectation?  How do we live and love Christ with our whole heart when it just boils down to empty ritual after a while?

Father Malcolm emphasized our liturgy in the Episcopal Church as a “means, not an end.”  They are there to ground us in the ineffable mystery of God, to bring us closer to the Divine in a physcial, methodical way.  Unless we carry within us that desire to be closer to God, it is empty, and bereft of meaning.  In a similar way, if we do not carry that desire with us beyond the walls of the church, if we do not try to see Christ in all things and in every person, then our live as Christians become empty as well.

At Discovery, we had the opportunity to watch and discuss Rob Bell’s Nooma video “Sunday.”  Below I’ve nicked part one and two of the episode from Youtube: