5 Links: The Old News Edition
With a whole one-twelfth of the year out of the way, it’s possible you haven’t been keeping up with what’s been going on beyond a handful of tech announcements, giant blue aliens, award nominations, and wild speculating if the next Apple product would revolutionize the world or just collect in the cut-out bins in a few years. If that’s the case, here’s what you missed — just in case you spent the last few days wondering if you really wanted an oversized iPod Touch for twice the price.
- The game Monopoly was released 75 years ago, and even now it still costs just $50 to bail yourself out of jail. It’s had a ton of updates and variations throughout the years. There’s even a game for the socially-conscious called Anti-Monopoly where the goal is to break up all of those corporations. Later on this year we’ll see a new version of the board, and we’ll also see an end to the money. That’s right: no more putting the little sister in charge of banking and no more hiding $500 bills under the table when bargaining for a property you really need. It’s all debit/credit cards and a computer this time. Plus, the board is circular and the game pieces are plastic, not pewter. Gizmodo has a theory:
In the monopoly wars, I’m imagining there will be two camps, not four. there will be people who are OK with the circular board and the switch to digital currency, and people who are fine with neither—the purists and the pragmatists. There will be a middle ground in this fight, but it will be drenched in blood.
They’ve tried computerized Monopoly in the past: Around the mid-80s there an add-on called Monopoly Playmaster that attempted to put most of the big decisions in the hands of a computer. It seems to have gotten some pretty negative reviews (it was an obvious attempt to get Monopoly into the video game age), but our family used it for over a decade when playing; it kept things moving and when kids are involved that’s usually a good thing. Here’s an overall description and a positive review.
- If for some reason you missed out on Hoodwinked a few years ago, keep an eye out for it either on sale or for a rental if kids are involved. It’s a very silly take on the story of Little Red Riding Hood — sort of like Shrek but without the over-reliance on referential humor. It only did modestly well in the US, but overseas it make back its small budget tenfold. Part of that is because it looks cheap, and in the age of Pixar and Dreamworks the movie appeared to be stuck in the early ’90s with regard to the quality of its CGI. This is kind of a shame since the voice actors contribute quite bit, and the music done by Ben Folds and John Mark Painter (of the duo Fleming and John; Fleming also gets a song) is very catchy.
There’s a sequel on the way, but unfortunately it seems to have been yanked from its January schedule without explanation. Peter Chattaway has more, but it seems Burger King had kids meals out promoting the movie that may not even be seen anytime soon. (Extra note: Hoodwinked’s writer/director Cory Edwards used to host a Christian Music music video countdown television show back in the 1990’s.)
- Phil Vischer, best known as co-creator of Veggie Tales, has kept himself busy ever since his former company Big Idea went bankrupt and he resigned. These days he’s getting himself involved in a thing called Jelly Telly, an attempt to make an online media destination for kids. So far it has videos (puppets, although much in the vein of Veggie Tales) and a few games — although it appears it will be a subscription site. Phil talked to Books & Culture a while back about Jelly Telly, Veggie Tales, and learning how to deal with both a skeptical entertainment industry and a skeptical church audience. He seems a little cautious:
The movies inspired by the Narnia stories and the Lord of the Rings are also tough test cases. How many Narnias are there? How easy is it to come up with another Lord of the Rings? It’s not. There’s Tolkien and Lewis and then everybody else. Besides, Narnia had a 50-year history of engagement with fans—and a grandfather-clause evangelical exception for the use of fantasy and magic. You can’t get away with that today. Now, if we go to another fantasy world, we need to find Jesus there—literally.
That is why for some evangelicals, the Harry Potter books are seen as being straight from the pit. Even if Rowling says she’s employing Christian themes, forget it. How do you write a Christian fantasy today? I have no idea. I don’t know that you can. I think we’ve killed it. I think we are so concerned with how oppressed our worldview is and so defensive that we’ve painted ourselves into a corner. And thus, we can’t tell the kind of stories that Lewis or Chesterton would have told to share the gospel. It’s kind of depressing, frankly.
Incidentally, if you have never read Phil’s thoughts on what happened with Big Idea and how it went from one being a major success to bankrupt in very little time, you should really read his take on the issue. There’s a lot to digest, and it’s certainly not all pretty, but it contains some very good lessons.
- I keep forgetting to mention The Mockingbird Blog, and I need to break that habit. They do a good job of discussing movies, music, and TV in the context of faith with the tendency to find the positive. For example, they’ve been doing a series called “The Gospel According To Pixar,” and most recently they’ve talked about Finding Nemo:
Remember the scene where Marlin (Nemo’s dad, played by Albert Brooks) and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) are trapped in the mouth of the whale? Aside from the obvious Jonah parallels, there is a lot of good stuff goin’ on in that whale’s belly. First of all, Marlin tries to get out of the whale’s mouth by pushing through the baleen plates (the toothbrush bristle-like stuff they have instead of teeth). See, he’s trying by his own effort. He can’t do it. He fails. His own effort fails him.
- The Grammy Awards were aired the other night, and here are the winners. I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention, but I was kind of curious to see who won for Traditional Gospel Album. Ashley Cleveland was nominated this year, and here’s why:
Her album of traditional gospel covers called God Don’t Never Change is worth tracking down if you get the chance. She’s got a terrific voice and an appreciation for the old gospel numbers, and while she didn’t win this time her previous album took home a Rock/Gospel Grammy. Check out her site for a free download or two.
