Last week I visited my old church home. When I designed the worship space for this church in 1985, I was envisioned to soon be filled and overflowing. When the new facility opened it seated 3,500 people (counting the balcony). 2,500 in the round on the main level and another 1,000 up stairs. When new, attendance ran 1,500 a week including 800 from the bus program. There were 27 buses in use. Twice a year at special events the building was full. It was a successful and growing church that the Tulsa area knew much about.
Last Sunday was another story. The attendance is now 100!
The church facility and 35 acres has been to the school district for the site of elementary campus.
The Church family will relocate to a private school campus where they will rent space.
When I first saw the preview for "Love the Coopers" I thought it to be a Christmas fluff movie: fun, shallow and entertaining. I kept putting it off for the bigger movies. Yesterday, we went to see it and: It is NOT Fluff! This well written movie of the Cooper family coming home for Christmas. Four generations under one roof and a story for every family member. It is an all-star cast. The stories include first kiss, sibling rivalry, potential divorce, dead-end jobs, no jobs, and not having a good relationship. All this has elements of fun mixed with reality and angst.
It gives anyone much to consider.
2014 movie #54 I give it *** 1/2 stars out of five.
"There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life's point of no return."
When Holiday movies arrive there is something for everyone.
The Hunger Games series came to an end in a way similar to Harry Potter: Divide the last book into two parts. "Mockingly part 2" is just that. Since I read the books a few years back, the last movie was a little fresher even though I knew the result. It was a good enough movie but glad its over.
2015 movie #52 I give it **1/2 stars
We took our granddaughter to see "The Good Dinosaur" and although it is a kid's movie (meaning the Dad dinosaur dies like Lion King) the story is for adults. At the beginning of the story a giant meteor is heading for the earth but misses, leaving the dinosaurs alive. the premise is that the dinosaurs take the human role and the human, a little boy named Spot, takes on the animal(dog) role. From there the movie is basically a western with varmints, rustlers, and cattle drives. Not sure if this was inventive or lazy!
I've see two movie in the last week. One movie was "Spectre" the latest James Bond flick and the other was "Burnt".
Since high school when me and my two friends stood in a two block line at the Circle Theater in Tulsa to see "Goldfinger" on Christmas night, I have seen them all. From "Doctor No" to "Spectre"; from good James Bonds to bad ones, form cartoon-like stories to intense ones like the current Daniel Craig ones. Along comes "Spectre" and James Bond is BURNT OUT. It is an okay story with the super villain that wants to control the world and there is a Bond girl and he still drinks martinis. But as Mr. Craig has said to the press, he wants out. It shows in the movie. It is a good popcorn movie but not memorable.
As a movie I give it **1/2 stars. 2015 Movie #50
"Burnt" on the other hand was very good. Iy may be because I like food movies and Bradley Cooper, but it came at a time that I needed a movie about someone who screwed up and is trying to re-build their place in the business. The chef, Cooper, is a guy who grew to be one a the top chefs in Paris but wasted it away with booze, drugs and arrogance. We don't see this part but get the drift quickly. We watch the labor and sweat while he gets rid of demons and changes into the person he could be.
Great Movie but you will leave wanting to cook something. Great cast as well.
I discovered George Barris at 9 years old. My brother bought hot rod magazines in the 1950's and I would look at them. The custom cars and street rods fascinated me and led me to model cars. Which in turn led me to building my own custom "model" cars using the kits that I could buy. Soon I was buying parts and parts of kits directly from the factory and my fate as a designer had began.
George Barris was known as the King of custom cars. My hero. Almost every car that you have seen in TV shows and many movies were designed by him. From the Batmobile to General Lee; From the A-team van to the Munster's coach; he was the man.
By high school had had almost 100 cars on display in my bedroom. This talent served my well in College where I used a model 18-wheeler in my thesis project.
No more talk. Here are the things that inspired me.
I was looking at USA Today on line and they had two features that surprised me. They have video story to show. The first was a list of the 20 most undependable cars and the second video was the 10 companies that would go out of business in 2016.
In the first about undependable cars, Ford vehicles were mentioned three times. Once the video was over a "Ford" commercial played.
In the second they mentioned that KMart may discontinue Sears in 2016. Yes followed by a add for Sears!
In a Table Talk in worship Sunday I told about reading a story in Richard Beck's blog where he told about a session of his prison ministry where he was talking about God's Love for us. One of the inmates raised their hand and asked, "How can I believe that God loves us when no one in my life has ever told me that they loved me? My father never told me he loved me. My mother never told me that."
Last week Mike Gundy, Head football coach at Oklahoma State University, was asked about how he helped his players cope with the OSU Homecoming accident. It was also mentioned that OSU has dealt with two plane crashes of the basketball program in the past three years. He said that former Basketball Coach Eddie Sutton gave him the best advice that he follows daily. Eddie told him that the most important things that he could do for his players was to tell them that he loves them EVERY DAY.
