Usually Christy and I enjoy going to the theatres about once a week, but the last couple of months have seen us busier than ever.  We went to a movie sometime in October, then once more recently to see The Blind Side, and I went in the middle of the night to see Avatar on it's opening weekend...but other than that it's been slim pickens...

Until this weekend, that is.

In the last two days we saw 4 movies at the theatres.

Yes.  FOUR movies. 

Three on Saturday and one on Sunday. 

Turns out, so did a lot of folks.  This weekend was the highest grossing weekend for the box office in history--$278 million--capping off a great year for Hollywood.  2009 brought in more money than any previous year.  Records broken everywhere!

Let me tell you briefly about what we saw, and my thoughts: (in chronological order of my viewing, of course)

1) The Princess and the Frog
I'm sure the movie is great and all, but I walked out of the theatre shocked and grumpy.  We took our 8 and 6 year old boys to see it with us and there is freaking Voo Doo, demons, black magic, and "friends on the other side" (yes, more demons, I suspect).  Listen up, I'm not a prude, but my heart sank when I saw the sheer terror on my youngest boy's face when things starting getting scary.  I did not enjoy seeing him scramble to cover his eyes and close his ears when the bad guy appears on screen.  In fact, it really ticked me off.

Dear John Lasseter,
You are a genius!  Why such terrifying stuff, dude?  Why is my 1st grader watching demons chase a frog?  (SPOILER ALERT:)  Why are we singing a theme song about "friends on the other side"? Why are the demons eating the bad guy on screen? Why oh WHY did I bring my family to see this?  Yo J.L., "Up" was brilliant...possibly the best movie this year--and will be a classic for years to come--and then we get this movie...ugh, I'm disappointed...not in quality, but in content.  And I'm sad that I didn't preview it before taking my sweet, innocent boys to see it.  I'm hoping for no nightmares...OH AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S RATED "G".  A PG rating would have been more appropriate, I think, for scary/disturbing images, and dancing...ok just kidding about the dancing...haha
Sincerely,
One of your Biggest Fans

SOOoooooo I didn't like it.  But after talking through it with my wife, we decided that this wasn't so out of the ordinary for Disney.  Think back to The Little Mermaid and Ursula ("poor unfortunate souls", anyone?) or back even further to Snow White and the Witch, or Fantasia and the dance of the broomsticks?...so I suppose the dark magic isn't so new to the traditional animation genre.  I think I've been spoiled with the Pixar animation movies (Up, Toy Story, The Incredibles, and so on...) that don't deal in traditional fairy tales and don't have the "dark magic" element.  These modern stories interest me more than a re-telling of an old fairy tale...I'd much rather see a profound story about an old cranky dude and a cub scout than see one about witches, demons, and voo-doo.

But I guess that's just me. Or not??? I don't know...it's only made 67 million in two weeks, so it hasn't exactly been a box-office smash.

2) Up in the Air
George Clooney is amazing.  Make no mistake, there is a reason this guy is a mega-star, and it has to do with his TALENT.  But GC aside, the movie is fantastic.  Well written, well directed, well cast...what else is there? oh...STORY.  The story is deep...and deals with some issues that I'm sure a lot of people think about. 
4 big stars from me...I loved this one.

3) Did You Hear About the Morgans?
This one was for Christy.  She loves romantic comedies--ANY romantic comedy, even if it's totally lame.  But I'm OK with that... 
It was a decent romantic comedy, but nothing new or out-of-the-box in the story.  Take your loved one if you want to laugh a little and be slightly entertained, but it's nothing to write home about.

4) Sherlock Holmes
AWESOME take on this story and characters.  Guy Ritchie directed and brought great life to these old books.  I saw it with some friends that are old SH fans, and they were pleased with the update as well.  Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were fantastic as Holmes and Watson, and the story was intricate and mysterious...Hanz Zimmer's score didn't hurt a thing, either. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
I highly recommend it.  It's everything a holiday blockbuster should be.

And that was my weekend movie extravaganza.
Now back to work...

I'm not one to jump on the latest "THE SKY IS FALLING" trend and freak out about the everything on the news, but I think I'm going to be using my iPhone's headphones to talk on the phone from now on...

Merry Christmas!

This past weekend our church choir and orchestra put on a Broadway-style musical named The Christmas Post. 

It was completely top-notch, and Christy is responsible for that (along with the people that worked their butts off to learn their lines), and of course, the LORD.

I'm very proud of the volunteers that came together to put on this show.  It is by far the most excellent and complicated production we've ever done. 

My long online silence is due to working on this show along with the Winter Olympics and a film I helped orchestrate.  Life has been crazy lately, but good. 

...may be helpful if man is trying to focus and get a lot of work done, say, orchestrating for a movie (which happens a lot in caves).  The absence of other human beings is an aid to man's most focused work effort and the meeting of man's deadlines.

However, hypothetically, when a FE-male tries to come into man's cave to talk to man about random things of varying importance, sometimes this makes man agitated and causes man to irrationally lash out at man's mate and the mother of man's children.

And this is why man shouldn't live in caves.

(Alternate titles to this post:"Dear Uncle Mike")

This year the Burbank/SanDiego-Semsen family did something really different for Thanksgiving: we stayed home.

Many apologies to the many family and friends we could be hanging out with today, but with the amount of driving we do on a regular basis, and the extended travel we've done lately, combined with the fact that we'll be driving back to and fro San Diego many a time this Christmas season for shows and Christmas Eve services and the like...we decided that this family needed a day of rest and peace in our little Burbank home. 

And it has been AWESOME. 

The kids have been puttering around, playing with each other ever so sweetly.  Christy made her first Thanksgiving turkey (along with all the side dishes, many of them Gluten-Free-Casein-Free)...and I've probably had more quality time with my boys so far in this one day than I had in the past WEEK.  It's been great.

There are times in life when the best thing in the world is to spend a day with your friends and family, and there are certain times when you just need to take a day off with your loved ones.   And if any one of the 9 people that read this know me well, you know that I'm an extrovert and LOVE to be with people--and every other Thanksgiving and Christmas, don't worry, we'll hang.  Just not this year. 

PS--I got a little choked up today during our Thanksgiving meal prayer.   We REALLY DO have SO MUCH to be thankful for...and I hope I don't too soon forget that.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

James 1:17 (NASB)
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Quite possibly my favorite blog post from anyone, anywhere, TO DATE.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!

SO BUSTED!

What's all the fuss about?

Two things I'm nerding out on this week:

That new show V

Tuesday nights on ABC...it's killing Flash Forward (which I've stopped watching due to BORINGNESS)

And the best new Wii game out there

If you want to test the ability for your family to be kind and loving towards each other in the midst of heated situations, then you should play this game. 
All 4 players are on the screen at once, and can knock each other around (and off into pits and chasms), can carry each other, or just plain accidentally kill the other person.
It's MADNESS.
But also a lot of fun. 

I bet if I put Twilight New Moon tags on this post I'll get a lot of hits, what do you think?