RevGalBlogPals: Friday Five

1. A favorite ‘secular’ Christmas song. My favorite secular “holiday” song is Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song.”

2. Christmas song that chokes you up (maybe even in spite of yourself–the cheesier the better) “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”–especially Bing’s version, gets me every time.

3. Christmas song that makes you want to stuff your ears with chestnuts roasted on an open fire. Mariah Carey butchering “O Holy Night.”

4. The Twelve Days of Christmas: is there *any* redeeming value to that song? Discuss. Getting a group of people to sing it and collapsing in laughter around the eight maids a milking–oh yeah you’re also acting out the song as you sing.

5. A favorite Christmas album–the Charlie Brown Christmas album. 🙂

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Advent Links

December 2 marked the beginning of the Christian New Year. We are now in the season of Advent. This is the time we remember the first coming of Christ as we look toward his return. Ben Witherington and John Wright both had wonderful thoughts on their blogs about this season. I am planning on publishing a meditation during the Sundays of Advent. I am behind this week because I have been sick. So enjoy what Drs. Witherington and Wright have to say about this time of the year and pray over the challenges they give us.

Strengthen in Holiness by John Wright (Professor of Theology and Christian Scriptures at Point Loma Nazarene University).

Happy New Year! by Ben Witherington (Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary).

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RevGalBlogPals: Friday Five

1) Do you observe Advent in your church? I will be starting to attend a new church this Sunday, so I will find out. The last four churches I have attended or pastored at have observed Advent.

2) How about at home? Yes, I normally use an Advent devotional during my morning prayers and have an Advent wreath.

3) Do you have a favorite Advent text or hymn? It’s cliche but I really do like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” My favorite text is Isaiah 2:2-4: “In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

4) Why is one of the candles in the Advent wreath pink? (You may tell the truth, but I’ll like your answer better if it’s funny.) I can’t think of anything funny, so I’ll have to go with traditional answers. The pink candle was orginally the Mary candle, but we Protestants balked at that (heaven forbid we should give due reverence to the Mother of God), and now it is the joy candle.

5) What’s the funniest/kitschiest Advent calendar you’ve ever seen? Well, the most irreverant one I’ve seen had reindeer is “compromising” positions.

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More Rome Pictures

What St. Peter’s looks like when the president of Italy is visiting–we decided not to wait around to see how long he got a private tour. So we went here:

This is the Pantheon. It has the largest masonry dome in Europe at 142 feet. When Michaelangelo designed the dome for St. Peters, he made it 138 feet in deference to the Pantheon. In 608 Emperor Phocas donated the pagan temple to Pope Boniface IV, and doing so ensured that this marvelous Roman building would be preserved and maintained pretty much unaltered as the Christian church, Santa Maria ad Martyres. It is absolutely gorgeous inside. (I still need to get the indoor pics off My Hubby’s computer: his camera does much better on indoor shots than mine.)

Although my camera did come through for me on taking a picture of the dome. The tour book said not to be disappointed if it was raining and go to the Pantheon because the rain fell like a waterfall through the hole in the dome. When we left St. Peters it was raining, but the rain had stopped when we got to the Pantheon, so we didn’t get to see the waterfall.

About three (may be four) blocks from the Pantheon is Largo di Torre Argentina: this is where Julius Caesar was killed on the Ides of March.

Here is St. Peters when the Italian president isn’t visiting. The collonade was designed by Bernini to be outstretched and curving as the arms of the church reaching to embrace the faithful.

The Swiss Guard at St. Peter’s Basilica.

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RevGalBlogPals: Friday Five

Today’s Friday Five is “Nothing but tooth,” inspired by Songbird putting braces on her youngest child.

Please share your thoughts on the following:

1) The Tooth Fairy–My first thought was it would be nice if I still got a visit or two, but then I realized that would mean losing my own teeth. I’m not sure her gifts would compensate for the dental bills.

2) Flossing–something I should do.

3) Toothpaste Brands–don’t care as long as it’s mint flavored.

4) Orthodontia for Adults–necessary evil. (Yes, I’m still bitter about my wisdom teeth.)

5) Whitening products–absolutely useless–now pass me the coffee!

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Going away

The Hubby and I are going to see my family this weekend. I will resume posting on Tuesday, Sepetember 5. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend.

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Movie Review: The Illusionist

“It was the age of levitations and decapitations, of ghostly apparitions and sudden vanishings, as if the tottering Empire were revealing through the medium of its magicians its secret desire for annihilation,” writes Steven Millhauser in “Eisenheim the Illusionist,” the short story on which this movie is based. Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is an illusionist performing in turn-of-the-century Vienna. He becomes the sensation of Venice, and the crown prince (Rufus Sewell) attends one of the shows. The crown prince’s soon-to-be-fiance, the duchess Sophie (Jessica Biehl) turns out to be Eisenheim’s long lost childhood love. They renew not only their friendship but love. As Eisenheim continues to perform magic and upstage the crown prince, who must find a logical answer to every illusion, the prince determines to run Eisenheim out of town. Paul Giamatti plays Chief Inspector Uhl who gets caught between the corrupt prince and Eisenheim, who is determined not to bow before the prince, much less run from him. The scenes between Norton and Giamatti are very subtle and nuanced as are the performances by both men. Giamatti is the only narrator, and we are drawn into the story through his eyes as he balances his allegiance to the crown prince while remaining sympathetic to Eisenheim.

Inspector Uhl attends every performance Eisenheim has performed, and the illusions make Uhl and us question if they are the result of supernatural works, or if they are really illusions. As the power struggle between Eisenheim and the crown prince grows so do the stakes and the illusions. Amongst the smoke and mirrors that Eisenheim sets up we, like Uhl, must try to figure out what is real and what is not. At the climax Giamatti performs an incredible scene of pantomime, as we watch him retrace his own narration through flashbacks and come to a different conclusion. Again we are left to determine which version of the story is real and which is the illusion. The Philip Glass score is a beautiful composition that reinforces every scene in the movie—from the subtle interplays between Norton and Giamatti to the power plays and through to the mind-bending climax. At the end we are left to decide what we will believe and not believe, and what we will interpret as “real,” and what we will see as “illusion.” PG-13, 110.

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