Why LOST Left You Dissatisfied

May 24th, 2010 § 6

Did LOST leave you feeling dissatisfied last night? I know it did for me.

Now I promised myself I wouldn’t write a blog post about LOST—or even give the show another thought for that matter—but like Jack Shepherd, I guess I can’t help being sucked back into the vortex. Hopefully it works out better for me in the end.

This morning it hit me why LOST was so dissatisfying.

It broke the rules.

Here’s what I mean. Whether you know it or not, you’re mentally conditioned to expect certain outcomes from a story. I’m not talking here about answering all the questions. I’m talking about predictable outcomes. Since Greek drama and Arisotlian poetics, Western stroytelling really falls into two acceptable categories: The Comedy or The Tragedy (thank God I listened in Shakespeare 101). OK there’s that messy category called tragicomedy, but no one can seem to agree on what that even means.

The simplest definition I’ve heard for comedy and tragedy go as follows: In a comedy everyone gets married. In a tragedy everyone dies.

What you don’t get to do (or shouldn’t do) is write a story where everyone dies and everyone gets married. That breaks the rules. It panders to the everyone and ends up making no one happy.

And that’s the tragedy (to use a pun) of my LOST finale experience. I’m not passionately angry or exuberantly happy. I’m nearly indifferent and definitely dissatisfied. It was a messy mismash of genres that served as a front to generate huge advertising dollars.

And let’s face it, that’s what TV is all about anyway.

So this whole LOST is proof that TV doesn’t have to suck mindset can, well…suck it. This finale made LOST suck big time for me. Because I felt like the writers just gave up and didn’t have the guts to piss a lot of people off—and make a lot of people gloriously happy—by sticking to one genre. Instead they pandered. They mishmashed religions. And they mishmashed literary genres. And they even wrote crappy dialogue. It was a horrible way to end what was such a great and innovative series.

Of course, maybe I’m more angry than I thought!

What was your reaction?

 

Pause Before You Play…

May 12th, 2010 § 4

We all know that teenage pregnancy is a big problem. However, I’m a bit mystified by this ad campaign by Candies, which appeals to teens’ inherent selfishness with the line delivered by spokesperson Bristol Palin, “Don’t let a teenage pregnancy take away your freedom. Pause before you play.”

Check out the ad:

This ad gives me the ickies.

What do you think? Does appealing to the “freedom” teenagers have without kids really work as a deterrent for teen sex and pregnancy?

Sunday Funnies: Is This Your Church?

May 9th, 2010 § 0

If we can’t laugh at ourselves…

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

The Numbers Behind Social Media

May 7th, 2010 § 1

This is a great video on the latest numbers behind Social Media. If you’re in any kind of communications or marketing position, the information here is not only valuable but will also change the way you do your job in next five years. The biggest change I see coming: More subversive campaigns that infiltrate your daily online interactions in subtle and subconscious ways. Check it out:

Your thoughts?

Are You Good at Losing?

April 29th, 2010 § 1

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin (affiliate link) for most of the day. It’s an awesome book, and you need to read it. I don’t say that about a lot of books, but I really mean it. You need to read Linchpin.

Here’s a particular quote that I loved:

Successful people are successful for one simple reason: they think about failure differently.

Successful people learn from failure, but the lesson they learn is a different one. They don’t learn that they shouldn’t have tried in the first place, and they don’t learn that they are always right and the world is wrong and they don’t learn that they are losers. They learn that the tactics they used didn’t work or that the person they used them on didn’t respond.

You become a winner because you’re good at losing.

 

Why You Should Cut Your Church Programs

April 26th, 2010 § 5

Great post by Jared Wilson over at Shrinkthechurch.com on the “Simple Church” concept. In it, Jared gives us 10 reasons to under-program the church. Here are a few that resonated most with me:

  • You can do a lot of things in a mediocre (or poor) way, or you can do a few things extremely well. Craig Groeschel has some great things to say about this subject. Also check out Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s Simple Church.
  • Over-programming dilutes actual ministry effectiveness. Because it can overextend leaders, increase administration, tax the time of church members, and sap financial and material resources from churches.
  • Over-programming leads to segmentation among ages, life stages, and affinities, which can create divisions in a church body. Certainly there are legitimate reasons for gathering according to “likenesses,” but many times increasing the number of programs means increasing the ways and frequencies of these separations. Pervasive segmentation is not good for church unity or spiritual growth.

You can read the rest of them over at Shrink The Church by clicking here.

I’ve been very intrigued by the idea of de-programing the church, so to speak, since I read Andy Stanley’s The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry (affiliate link), in which Stanley talks about having a singular mission and creating steps to the end goal rather than programs that are ends within themselves.

I encourage you to check out both Jared’s blog and Andy’s book. I think that the Simple Church movement is an important development in the US church both to focus mission and combat Christian consumerism.

What are your thoughts? Are you taking steps to revamp your church programs? If so, what are you doing?

Review: Washington Mile’s “Simple Hearts”

April 19th, 2010 § 1

My first spin of Washington Mile’s new album Simple Hearts brought to mind so many musical influences that it was hard to pin down. I heard echos of Fleet Foxes in their beautiful and spacious harmonies in songs like “Tune of the 49th”, touches of Rolling Stones’ Let it Bleed in the stripped down acoustic tracks like “Wishin’ Well” and “Have Mercy”, hints of Cold War Kids manic sounds in songs like “Purdy Waters”, a few pinches of Prince (yes, that Prince) in “The Rain is Coming”, all rounded out by Bruce Springsteen and The Killers.

And if that all sounds like it would be a mixed bag of musical confusion, I assure you…it’s not.

Even now, after a few more listens, I’m still not sure how to classify them (that’s not a bad thing). But there’s one thing I know: I like them. A lot.

This is good music for sitting out on the patio on a summer day and dropping a few cold ones. The album is well-paced and the music is lively, interesting, and fun. It’s also an album that provides satisfaction if you take the time to sit and listen to what the guys have to say.

Explorations of the post-modern ennui are found in Tune of the 49th’s refrain, “It’s on this day I was reborn. Well I’m a man of simple taste. Love my woman. Love my state. The mystery expressed in our thought. Oh, to be everything I’m not. And we try our best to make some sense.”

As are explorations of the tension between faith and modern existence in Father, Father’s chorus: “Oh Father, Father can you hear me? This is my emergency call. I’m no thief, and I’m not saint but would you please listen as I fall.”

Bottom line, Simple Hearts, is a great album that is interesting enough to give you something new each listen and straightforward enough to be part of your regular rotation.

You can order the CD online at CD Baby. P.S. I’m not getting a dime for it. I just think you should listen.

 

If Wes Anderson Directed Lord of the Rings

April 16th, 2010 § 1

Google Search Stories: Nevernudes

April 11th, 2010 § 2

Thanks to TechCrunch I’m now armed with the knowledge that you can make your own Google search stories. I was going to make my own for this post, but really nothing is better than the one the article writer made: Nevernudes.

 

Detroit: The City of Ruins

April 10th, 2010 § 2

Here’s an absolutely haunting slide show posted originally on The New York Review of Books of the many ruins that are within the Detroit MSA. Ironically, I was just talking the other day with a friend about how much the economy has devastated Detroit. These pictures really bring home the that conversation. My hear goes out for the people living there. It’s truly a depression for them.

via blogs.nybooks.com

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