Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 184 user reviews.
All posts by Ray Ivey
Blizzard has a cool new World of Warcraft Magazine that I’d really like to order.
However, THEY don’t seem very interested in me ordering it.
The order page doesn’t work.
So I tried contacting Future, the publishing company. No one at home (middle of a business day in my time zone). No way to leave a message.
I tried contacting Future’s subscription service folks in Des Moines, Iowa. They had no idea how to contact a human at Future either.
So, Blizzard . . . I hope your magazine can somehow be a success . . . without paying subscribers.
Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 185 user reviews.
Movie Award Preview: Best Opening Credits
In this era of single-card opening credits, the art of the creative opening credits sequence is an all-but-lost art. Gone are the glory days of Richard Williams (The Pink Panther Strikes Back, Casino Royale) and the great Saul Bass: Who can forget the bold graphics that turned into Manhattan skyscrapers at the beginning of North By Northwest and West Side Story, or the sauntering cat that introduced us to Walk on the Wild Side? And the graffiti and street-sign credits at the end of West Side Story? Forget about it. In those movies, the opening sequences were delicious little miniature movies unto themselves.
Happily, there are a few filmmakers who still commission such delightful confections to open movies. There are three notable examples of this lost art this year:
In Moon, the words in the sly opening titles slid in front of and behind objects in the picture, setting up that film’s themes of claustrophobia and deceit. Clint Mansell’s haunting score added to this intriguing opening.
In An Education, Nic Benns’ snappy graphics accompanied a jazzy soundtrack, giving us an irresistible invitation to travel back in time half a century.
And Up in the Air put us up in the air, showing us a cornucopia of idealized birds-eye views of this great land we fly over.
I hope the creative opening sequence will continue to shine, even if rarely. I would miss it if it were gone forever.
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 279 user reviews.
The latest salvo in the absurd “War on Christmas” initiative from the Religious Right comes from Merry Hyatt, a 61-year old substitute teacher in Redding, California. She is attempting to force a state ballot initiative requiring public schools to expose students to overtly Christian Christmas music. Yeah, you read that correctly.
For some reason, many arrogant conservative Christians in our country don’t so much like the Constitution. They feel the Establishment Clause (which mandates the clear separation of Church and State) shouldn’t apply to THEIR religion, since it’s the “majority religion” and the (supposed) religion of our Founding Fathers.
Hyatt is appalled that her students aren’t required to sing about Jesus in public school. She’s convinced that if they sing about Jesus, all school problems will melt away.
“These kids, they need it, ” she said. “They need to see that we believe in Jesus, and He is the Prince of Peace. That’s why we are the best country on Earth.”
Really, Merry? THAT’s what makes this a great country? Not our Constitution? If that’s so, then why isn’t EVERY Christian nation “the best country on Earth”? Does think the U.S. is the ONLY nation on Earth with a Christian majority? I sure hope she isn’t teaching Social Studies!
Also note than whenever these theocrats demand that the Establishment Clause be broken, it’s ONLY for THEIR religion. Do you think Merry would be out there attempting to gather the required 464, 000 in order to force Hanukah songs to be singing public schools? How about Kwanzaa carols?
There’s a word for what Merry Hyatt is: A bully. That’s what anyone who clamors for the Tyranny of the Majority is, a bully. Is Hyatt really so clueless that she thinks the Constitution doesn’t apply to her religion, but just to all OTHER religions? More likely: she believes her God’s law supersedes the Constitution.
There’s a really effective way for Merry to make sure that children she cares about hear Christian music in school: Send those kids to a private, religious school. The fact that she thinks taxpayer dollars – that is, money collected from Hindu Californians, Jewish Californians, Sikh Californians, Muslim Californians, not to mention agnostic an atheist Californians.
Hyatt’s quote about the kids “needing” her Christian music makes clear that she doesn’t care about the constitutional issue involved here. Like so many true believers, she thinks rules shouldn’t apply to her since she’s on God’s Team. Her position is un-American. Demanding that the law insert her religion into public schools is simply an indefensible position.
All Christians should be embarrassed by this clown, and if she has any intelligent friends, they need to hand her a copy of the U.S. Constitution and encourage her to get a clue.
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 298 user reviews.
Everyone loves Nancy Drew. Well, everyone with any sense, anyway.
Are you a Mom with a daughter? Looking for a fun activity to do together? Read on . . .
Does it surprise you that moi, , rough-and-ready manly man Ray Ivey that I am, am a huge Nancy Drew fan? It shouldn’t. I do have a big sister, after all, and I grew up with the books in the house. I loved them. Of course, when I became aware of Teen Sleuth Series that was gender-appropriate, I tried it. But like many other disappointed readers I quickly learned that compared to Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys are lame, lame lame.
I also love computer games, and so I was very happy that Seattle software developers Her Interactive (“For Girls Who Aren’t Afraid of the Mouse”) began releasing Nancy Drew adventure games in the late 1990s. Since 1998, in fact, they have released twenty-one of them. The games are terrific, and I’ve long been a big fan of them.
Starting a few years ago, a new type of casual adventure games began appearing on the PC. Known as “Hidden Object” games, they are fast, fun, and yes – casual. I love them as well.
Therefore I’m very happy to report that the talented folks at Her Interactive have adapted the plucky teen sleuth for the Hidden Object Game market!
Their spin-off series is called The Nancy Drew Dossier, and I just had the pleasure of finishing the first game, Lights, Camera, Curses.
The plot is classic Nancy: There’s been trouble on a movie set! A remake of an old Egyptian epic has been plagued by mysterious accidents, and Miss Drew has been tasked with going undercover to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Upon launching the game, I immediately recognized that Her Interactive’s biggest strength – recreating that elusive yet essential “Nancy Drew Vibe” – had translated beautifully into this new, more casual format. All of the elements of the game – art, music, sound, voice work, puzzles and arcade sequences – work together to immerse the player in that irresistable atmosphere created by the original books.
The game takes the Hidden Object formula and adds a nice twist: The goal on most screens is to figure out how pairs of objects work together. This makes the hunting-and-finding chores feel less like chores and more like good detective work.
The plot, which features a greedy studio head, a flamboyant film director, a questionable production manager and a high-maintenance star, feels just right as well.
Clues are important to pay attention to, as at several points Nancy finds herself in conversations in which the player must choose the correct responses based on the information that has been available.
The game includes several fun mini-games which add a nice break from the hunt-and-find action.
Sneaking around the movie sets and production offices as Nancy Drew is a blast.
My only regret is that it took me so long to get to this game, which was released in 2008. Upon finishing it, I immediately went back to Big Fish and downloaded the second game in the series, Resorting to Danger.
I highly recommend The Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses to Mom-and-daughter teams and to anyone else who is a fan of the durably appealing teen sleuth.
Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 183 user reviews.
The 24-hour news cycle on television and the internet creates opportunities to beat stories into the ground so ruthlessly, I’m not sure I will be able to survive it.
I hereby bestow the Lance Armstrong Celebrity Burnout Award to three lucky new recipients.
1. Jon and Kate Gosselin.
I don’t care about their divorce. I don’t care about their children. I don’t care about their finances. I don’t care about their future plans. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT THEM, EVER. If I see one more headline about how Jon has decided to stop badmouthing Kate, I am going to do something desperate.
2. Brett Favre
Why do I have to hear about this clown every day? Who cares? This guy peaked around the time he appeared as himself in There’s Something About Mary. I am not interested in his feelings. Or his plans. Or how he’s doing on the team. Or how he’s cut his hair. Dear GOD. I mean, this is a man who doesn’t even know how to pronounce his own name.
Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 189 user reviews.
The author gets in trouble with me in the very first sentence by admitting his affection for Christian apologetics. Apologetics are, by their nature, non-objective and non-scientific. This book itself is an apologetic.
The next sentence is so preposterous I must quote it in its entirety:
There is an abundance of evidence for the reliability of Scripture, for the authority of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, and that the Bible accurately portrays the historical events it covers, including the earthly life of Jesus Christ.
There is so much wrong with the above sentence I hardly know where to begin. But I’ll try.
1. The Reliability of Scripture.
The reliability of scripture? Really? How much time do you have for me to list the factual inaccuracies that run all the way through the Bible? One tiny example: There was NO census in Judea under Augustus Caesar, as the Gospels claim. It didn’t happen.
Also, rabbits do not chew their cud. The Bible says they do (Leviticus 11:6).
And bats are not birds (Deuteronomy 14:11-17.
And there’s the inconvenient truth that unicorns have never existed, though God says they do in Job 39:9-12.
I could go on and on.
The Bible isn’t even internally consistent. Over and over again it gives two totally incompatible versions of the same events. For example, did Judas commit suicide by hanging or by throwing himself or by throwing himself headfirst down onto the ground? He couldn’t have done both. But the Bible tells both stories.
The inconsistency of the Bible begins in the very first chapter of its very first book. Genesis begins with two contradictory creation stories. The order of creation is very different from the first story to the second. Both cannot be true. Therefore, at least one of them is wrong. So much for the reliability of scripture.
2. The authority of the Bible as the inspired word of God.
How would you prove this?
The only way you could prove that the Bible couldn’t have been written by mere human beings is if it included information in it that the human beings of the time couldn’t have known. Is there anything in the Bible about the germ theory of disease? Thermodynamics? Geology? Nope. There isn’t a word written in the Bible that couldn’t have been written by a Bronze Age human being. Heck, as pointed out above, the Bible can’t even get simple animal science correct. I’m pretty sure the Creator of the Universe would know what a bird is and whether or not a rabbit chewed its cud.
3. The Bible accurately portrays the historical events it covers.
Really? Historians disagree, Michael. There is no historical corroboration, for example, of the enslavement of the Hebrews in Egypt, and no evidence that a large group of Hebrews wandered in the Sinai desert for forty years. None. Zip. Nada.
There evidence for the actual life of a person named Jesus is whisper-thin, and a growing number of historians consider the references in Josephus to have been inserted by apologists.
The Bible is not a history or a science book.
Coming up next: Ray reacts to the Introduction of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 226 user reviews.
Michael says:
Why I sent Ray the book? It seems apparent that we have very different beliefs in a number of different areas – politics, social policy, economics, science, belief in God and who knows what else. I read this book about a year ago and it seems like a good vehicle to initiate and stimulate a frank discussion on a host of issues.
I hope to engage you in the arena of ideas, with discussions based on reason, logic and evidence. It is my intent to start with some basic, fundamental questions. Can we know the truth about reality? Is the opposite of the truth false? Is there a creator? How did we get here? Where we go from here is anyone’s guess. I am prepared to go as long as you like.
I suppose the possibility exists that things may get emotional and/or sarcastic from time to time, but you should know that I have always considered you to be my friend, even my good friend. We have a history of good times and many laughs. I do not expect this to change, no matter how tense things might get. As a Christian man, I love you as a brother.
Frankly, I hope to change your mind and your heart about a number of things. I lead a blessed life. It has not always been this way. I am blessed for a number of reasons. I would like very much to share some of my blessings with you.
I suppose turnabout is fair play. What is your motivation for entering into this discussion with me? What do you hope to accomplish?
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 290 user reviews.
I’ve known Michael Parkman since fifth grade. That’s . . . . . forty-two years. Wow!
We both grew up in the college town of Bryan/College Station, Texas, in the shadow of Texas A&M University. We went through eight years of school together. I learned to play Hearts, a game I still frequently play and enjoy, with him. He turned me on to Styx and Elton John. I was at both of his weddings.
Our “life journeys”, to use a gag-inducing phrase, have led us both down very different paths, and we now look at the world quite differently.
Michael is a Christian, and I no do not have any religious beliefs. Recently my old friend sent me a copy of a book by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek called I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist. He wanted me to read the book. I told him I would read it under two conditions:
1) That he read the copy of Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris that I was sending him and
2) He agree to discuss both books with me on my blog.
He agreed!
SO. I will be sharing our discussion with you, Gentle Reader. It’s a story you’ll want to read backwards.
I’m creating a new category on the blog called “Ray and Michael Debate the Universe, ” which will make it easier to check out the entries.
I hope you enjoy it!
Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 264 user reviews.
I thought it was over between me and Michael.
I was convinced that his day was over. That his type of guerrilla filmmaking was passe.
It’s true that he really changed the game for commercial political documentaries. Before him there wasn’t even such a category of movie. Now there’s a dozen each year, and it’s all because of his revolutionary series of films, which include Roger and Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko and his most recent efford, Capitalism: A Love Story.
I admired all of these movies, mostly. I admire their bravery and their very provocative nature.
However, there’s always the issue of Mr. Moore himself. He’s like me: obnoxious. And while I can appreciate that, it doesn’t really help his cause or his films. Bowling For Columbine was seriously undermined by his ambush interview of Charlton Heston. And of course he’s been accused of distorting, misleading and outright lying in his movies as well.
His strident presence and juvenile stunts seem as inevitable as his pungent political points.
So lately I’ve found myself just not that motivated to see his Capitalism. Mostly because the trailers for the film show him up to his same old stupid stunts: sectioning off the front of the AIG building with police tape, attempting to make a citizen’s arrest of fat-cat CEOs, attempting to rob a bank for the good of the people, etc.
It just looked tiresome.
So, was I ever pleasantly surprised when I finally dragged myself to the movie this past weekend. I loved it. I think he’s quite brave to attack our national religion, which or course is Capitalism, NOT Christianity.
And the fact is, he really works up to the stunts you see in the trailers. And what seems silly and childish out of context in the trailers actually feels cathartic and justified in the flow of the actual movie.
I think it’s valuable to have obnoxious punks like Michael Moore. They do the heavy lifting that the rest of us SHOULD be doing: questioning the status quo, questioning our leaders, questioning our basic assumptions about how life is supposed to work. Even when Moore pisses me off, I’m glad he’s around.
He makes a particularly smart move at the very end of the movie, which — beware! — I’m going to spoil right now:
Moore’s point in the movie is that greed and big business have taken over our government. So at the film’s conclusion when he unambiguously asserts that we should abolish capitalism, what he suggests we replace it with isn’t what you expect him to say — socialism.
No. He thinks we should replace capitalism with democracy.
And I agree with him.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 168 user reviews.