March 2, 2008

• Semi-Pro, Running, and Death

  We went to see Semi-Pro last night and if you haven’t heard already, it wasn’t good. It was too dirty and not funny. I am a tolerant man, and I can handle a certain amount of off-color jokes in a movie, but this was embarrassing. I felt embarrassed to be watching it and embarrassed for Will Ferrell. There was way too much unfunny, and it’s not a good showing for his only project in a year. For a couple of years right after ELF he came out with 2-3 movies a year, but this is his only movie since last year’s disappointing (but not horrible) Blades of Glory. I still like Will Ferrell, and I think there is a good place for him (can you say Stranger Than Fiction?), but it is do-overs of previous box office flops. It almost seems like he went back to remake BOG due to it’s dismal showing at the box office, but came up with an even less funny movie. Ugh. Let’s please not start a trend here. I’m hopeful for a better and brighter future. But for now, save your money.

  I just wanted to clarify something in regards to my last post. Please understand that I’m not complaining or trying to justify any kind of slacking on my part. I’m also not trying to gather your sympathy. I have just observed a new tendency of mine to completely compartmentalize my life–and I think it has been working–I just find it odd. When I’m in San Diego, I live & breathe Midway (attn: new church name coming…more on that later). We come down here in a whirlwind, hold a slew of rehearsals, pour ourselves into building up people and changing lives, and then we go home to Covina (soon to be Burbank). Once we get home–after a good 2 hour drive to de-tox and debrief the weekend–life switches to L.A. mode. The kids have school, I have Associate Registraring to do, Christy takes care of the home (quite well, I might add) and emails go a-flying. I communicate quite efficiently with emails, and I am able to track my progress in planning for church with an amazing resource I just fell in love with at the beginning of this year: www.planningcenteronline.com This site took a little bit of setting up, but now houses and tracks all my songs, people, and worship services for church. I send out fancy emails via this web app to let people know they are scheduled–and they can go to the website to see the worship set for the next week and check out the music. It’s amazing. I don’t hardly need pens and paper, I just put it on the web, and it’s DONE. I love it.

  All that to say–even though I’m busy doing all of that stuff–I enjoy it. I enjoy the struggle to stay on top of everything. I enjoy the challenge to achieve excellence all the time. I enjoy being around hundreds of people every week that I can learn from, and that can learn from me (I’m truly an extrovert). I enjoy the built-in family time in the car on the long drives to and from San Diego, and the way it feels like a vacation every weekend. I enjoy feeling like the big toe of my foot is in the door of the film music industry, and feeling like I’ve learned the skills to successfully navigate through the jungle of this business. I enjoy the friends I’ve made and the prospect of making new friends. It’s great. I really can’t complain. I think that I would only be in danger of burning out if I stopped enjoying what I’m doing–but right now I’m not at that point…stay tuned.

  Marathon update: On March 2nd, 3.6 billion people will be running the L.A. Marathon (OK, my numbers could be a little bit off). I will be resting up for my Monday run…because the marathon I’m running isn’t until November.
  Today the training group from the UG REG office at APU (I think we’re calling ourselves “The Reggies”. I’m not sold on it yet) ran our longest run yet–5 miles. I didn’t make it the whole way, but I made it farther than I had ever made it without stopping since we started training a few weeks ago. I feel good about it. Plus, even though I walked a bit, I still ended up making pretty good time. And, the running is getting easier, which is encouraging. I had a really bad run this past week and really wanted to give up. It was one of those days I felt like God never really intended man to run anywhere…

  I’m working on a special university project at APU–one that only an elite group of people have been selected to participate in (I say “elite” very loosely). My boss and I are both involved, and we’re going to start up a live blog of the activities over this next year while we go through the project. This will mostly interest my coworkers since they are the ones still “in the trenches” while we are off working on the project– a project that will affect them greatly in the future. More details soon…

  Christy and I were asked by a friend from our old church in Covina to sing at a funeral today at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.
  Funerals have classically been a non-event for Daniel. The last funeral I went to was several years ago (seven or eight) for my grandma. I think at that point I was much too young and immature about the concept of death to really internalize what was going on. I really just participated with little personal reflection or any time to grieve for the loss of my grandma–which was someone who was highly involved in my years as a young person. I was very close to my grandma for several years of my childhood–but I think I had been distanced from her due to time away at college or something. But nonetheless, during my grandma’s funeral–and the one or so funerals that I’ve partially attended since then–I really felt no emotional response or connection. I was like Data after turning off his emotion chip (think Star Trek: First Contact)–I was a robot. Even my wife mentioned it in her attempt to be comforting. For a reason which I cannot explain, I just didn’t ever process it. It is weird, I know. I’m a little bit of a Tin Man.

  But today, at a funeral for someone I had never met (my aforementioned friend’s mother), I partook properly in the funeral event. This was a classy, beautiful funeral, held at the Old North Church at Forest Lawn. The church is a replica of the original Old North Church in Boston, MA, famous because it was the place that Robert Newman climbed the steeple to light two lamps signaling Paul Revere that the British were invading Lexington by sea, not by land (“One if by land, two if by sea”). You should check out the story cause it’s pretty cool (but back to my emotional break through).
  So the service was simple and straightforward. Christy and I sang three songs interspersed throughout the service, the pastor officiating spoke for about 10 minutes, and the three children got up one at a time to share memories of their mother. That’s the part that struck me.
  There was something simply beautiful about the emotional response of these three kids reflecting on their mom–a mom that seemed to be quite a remarkable lady.  I was moved by their thoughts and recollections–and I can’t begin to know why–I just was.
  So, I guess I’m not a Cylon after all…(that’s robot, for you non-Battlestar Gallactica geeks).

  • 12:33 am
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