it is my pleasure to once again post these videos by my friend leo chen. i’ve looked for videos to retell the story of easter online and have only found stuff with printed words hurtling at you through the screen. this series produced by leo still moves me in new ways each time i watch them. individually they are insightful and quirky. as an arc, they are layered and profound.

enjoy and meditate with me on the promise of a new day and age.

winter means more independent than blockbuster fare though i’ve been spending most of my time catching up on indie releases from late 2009 than from early 2010.

usually: no indie here. just blockbuster.

what can i say that hasn’t been said about this movie? and who needs me to say anything? who hasn’t seen this yet? if you admit that you haven’t, people look at you like you’re backwards. …like you just said that you still use an outhouse instead of indoor plumbing. jeremiah stone is going to respond to queries with “no avatar. but i do own an outhouse.” even osama bin laden has seen avatar. mr. stone said mr. qaeda probably saw it in cave-max.

we waited for real imax or classic imax at the lincoln center amc.  if we’re going to see it, we want the deluxe experience so that we only have to see it once. a few imposter imax’s(smaller screens)have cropped up in the city and around the country. but at our genuine imax,  it had been sold out since it came out including 2 or 3a screenings! we discovered from imax-philes that it is one of the biggest imax’s in the world with one that rivals it existing in australia. these nerds drove all the way from western pennsylvania to catch it at our local theatre that we frequent. even after so long, the rush was fierce: i got these tickets on a monday for a saturday evening showing and they were sold out before thursday.

so…the movie.

incredible visuals. average to eh story.

i don’t need to see it again. it didn’t do that much for me beyond the spectacle. theresa was bored but also said it was pretty. but 3d tv’s may sway my mind in the future.

(the future, conan?)

i’ve spent months collecting as much of this campaign that has been released featuring the most interesting man in the world. after establishing his persona, the ads turned to words of wisdom from his lips.

here’s his perspective on grooming. it’s a rare print ad!

i’m posting a series of articles by nicholas kristof of the new york times as he tries to bring light to the issue of congo. if you are reading this on facebook, please go to the original post for a video that likely won’t import. if you are the praying kind, please join me in lifting up the needs of follow human beings. if you are in a position to do something else in addition, please consider your position in such a time as this.

as believers, we are entering the season of lent where we reflect on what it means that jesus moved into the neighborhood to serve a dying world. he calls us to do the same. mr. kristof has found a story that embodies this call in the life of lisa shannon. i do not know if she is a believer or not, but i would hope to find more believers living like this.

From ‘Oprah’ to Building a Sisterhood in Congo

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Five years ago, Lisa Shannon watched “Oprah” and learned about the savage, forgotten war here in eastern Congo, played out in massacres and mass rape. That show transformed Lisa’s life, costing her a good business, a beloved fiancé, and a comfortable home in Portland, Ore. — but giving her a chance to save lives in Congo.

I found myself stepping with Lisa into a shack here. It was night, there was no electricity, and a tropical rainstorm was turning the shantytown into a field of mud and streams. Lisa had come to visit a woman she calls her sister, Generose Namburho, a 40-year-old nurse.

Generose’s story is numbingly familiar: extremist Hutu militiamen invaded her home one night, killed her husband and prepared to rape her. Then, because she shouted in an attempt to warn her neighbors, they hacked off her leg above the knee with a machete.

As Generose lay bleeding near her husband’s corpse, the soldiers cut up the amputated leg, cooked the pieces on the kitchen fire, and ordered her children to eat their mother’s flesh. One son, a 12-year-old, refused. “If you kill me, kill me,” he told the soldiers, as his mother remembers it. “But I will not eat a part of my mother.”

So they shot him dead. The murder is one of Generose’s last memories before she blacked out, waking up days later in the hospital where she had worked.

That’s where Lisa enters the story. After seeing the Oprah show on the Congo war, Lisa began to read more about it, learning that it is the most lethal conflict since World War II. More than five million had already died as of the last peer-reviewed mortality estimate in 2007.

Everybody told her that the atrocities continued because nobody cared. Lisa, who is now 34, was appalled and decided to show that she cared. She asked friends to sponsor her for a solo 30-mile fund-raising run for Congolese women.

That led her to establish Run for Congo Women, which has held fund-raising runs in 10 American states and three foreign countries. The money goes to support sponsorships of Congolese women through a group called Women for Women International.

But in her passion, Lisa neglected the stock photo business that she and her fiancé ran together. Finally, he signaled to her that she had to choose — and she chose Congo.

One of the Congolese women (“sisters”) whom Lisa sponsored with her fund-raising was Generose. Lisa’s letters and monthly checks of $27 began arriving just in time.

“God sent me Lisa to release me,” Generose told me fervently, as the rain pounded the roof, and she then compared Lisa to an angel and to Jesus Christ.

Scrunching up in embarrassment in the darkened room, Lisa fended off deification. She noted that many impoverished Congolese families have taken in orphans. “They’ve lost everything,” she said, “but they take children in when they can’t even feed their own properly. I’ve been so inspired by them. I’ve tried to restructure my life to emulate them.”

It’s true. While for years world leaders have mostly looked the other way, while our friend Rwanda has helped perpetuate this war, while Congo’s president has refused to arrest a general wanted by the International Criminal Court, while global companies have accepted tin, coltan and other minerals produced by warlords — amid all this irresponsibility, many ordinary Congolese have stepped forward to share the nothing they have with their neighbors.

So Lisa is right that Generose and so many others here are awe-inspiring. Lisa tells her story in a moving book, “A Thousand Sisters,” that is set to be published in April. Congo is now her obsession, and she is volunteering full time on the cause as she lives off the declining royalties from her old stock photos.

She earns psychic pay when she sees a woman here who named her daughter Lisa. After we visited Congolese Lisa, I asked American Lisa about the toll of her Congo obsession — the lost business, man and home they had shared.

“Technically, I had a good life before, but I wasn’t very happy,” she mused. “Now I feel I have much more of a sense of meaning.”

Maybe that’s why I gravitate toward Lisa’s story. In a land where so many “responsible” leaders eschew responsibility, Lisa has gone out of her way to assume responsibility and try to make a difference. Along with an unbelievable cast of plucky Congolese survivors such as Generose, she evokes hope.

On this visit to Congo, Lisa is organizing a Run for Congo Women right here in Bukavu, for Feb. 28, with Congolese rape survivors participating. You can sponsor them at www.runforCongowomen.org. And one of those participating in the run, hobbling along on crutches and her one leg, will be Generose.

this is my other wife. sorta.

you probably only know theresa as the tom boy, dress like a boy, frumpy grump. that’s the side she wants to project to you. that’s her clark kent.

but this is the girl i get to see at home! rarely do you see this in the outside world. you get a glimpse of  this in zoe’s. look at those angelina jolie lips! perfect smooth creamy skin. and a girl hairstyle!

what makes her really super is how she cares for zoe…..nursing, changing, clothing, calming, putting zoe down for naps and now making baby food; sample menu for zoe: mango rice with chicken and carrots.

the days of leography have come to an end..as promised, a new column is here!

for the next year, we will explore different permutations of patty to honor our friend, patty. like with leo…we have enough to start but not to finish…as of yet! so submit your best and favorite patties…..

two weeks ago, we called her peppermint patty

last week, we called her paddy wagon

this week, we will call our friend, hamburger patty.

what’s your favorite patty?

we’ve been touring with the boys….and eating well…here are some of the places we went in the early fall…and love.

to the delight of my korean friends from college, i now eat korean food almost daily and have had korean food in all the major gathering places for koreans including chicago, new york, md/va area and los angeles. i have also been to korea and had korean-korean food….so it is with confidence that i can say the best korean bbq is found in of course korea but tied for first would have to be los angeles. price wise, it is a steal and that might put it over the top in terms of value.

taste is the game. and for us park’s bbq is the place for the best meats and best marinades. with the pictures of stars and celebrities that line the walls, it seems like the cultural elite agree with us. seek it out.

we make a trip once a year here when we are in the la area for our big family meal and is a highlight in our family life. we like pork belly, la kalbi, the lean beef cuts and anything kobe.

i would suspect that its a bit expensive but we rarely get to pay as there are a few nuclear  families fighting for the bill. but i’m sure its still worth it.

also on the wall at parks……

we also went to this seafood bbq place near knottsberry farm but neglected to write down the name of the place….anybody recognize this amazing pre fixe package?

it is my pleasure to once again post these videos by my friend leo chen. i’ve looked for videos to retell the story of easter online and have only found stuff with printed words hurtling at you through the screen. this series produced by leo still moves me in new ways each time i watch them. individually they are insightful and quirky. as an arc, they are layered and profound.

enjoy and meditate with me on the promise of a new day and age.

winter means more independent than blockbuster fare though i’ve been spending most of my time catching up on indie releases from late 2009 than from early 2010.

not many would consider this indie fare because of the recognizability and the commercial success but the sentiments and elements are there. for those who protest, i ask if you thought everything wrapped up nice and neat with the story lines? i argue that its open ended as anyone’s story, fiction or non-fiction.

the movie features george clooney as himself. really and not really. single, cool, calculated, compassionate on his terms, sexy, fun, clever, oceans 11, globe trotter. his job is to fire people so that the workers do not go postal on the real bosses. along the way, he has to train an idealistic intern for the job and maybe even in life. also, a mirror image female foil serves as a mirror for george as the three of time philosophize about what is worth living for.

its also a travel, road trippy type movie which is a plus.

brilliant. i want to watch this again as soon as i can for the great humor, dialogue and sharp dissection of post modern life in 2010. it has a message without being preachy. its hopeful and heartbreaking in the same breath. it might make you squirm a bit and serve as your ghost of christmas future. maybe that’s why it was released around the holidays.

i would like to own this one day so that i can watch this over and over again.. theresa thought it was awesome. the hype about it being a new classic is real.

i’ve spent months collecting as much of this campaign that has been released featuring the most interesting man in the world. after establishing his persona, the ads turned to words of wisdom from his lips.

here’s his perspective on rollerblading. facebook folks will likely need to go to the original post.