It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here, but I haven’t been idle! In November, I went to the Philippines and visited two orhpanages over there. It was really a blessing to see what God is doing in the Philippines and the different ministries and ways of impacting kids.

Over the holiday period, I’ve been making some YouTube videos of songs, trying to make them a bit more professional by recording the sound properly in my studio at the same time as recording the video and then syncing them together. The result is way better than my previous videos!!!

I’m also working on a YouTube show that will hopefully come to fruition if I can really make some good content for it, so stay tuned for that later this year!!! I hope you all have an awesome 2012! Bless yas :)

Here’s some of the songs I’ve recorded recently, both originals and covers:

Death is inconsistent with the very nature of God. God does not die! It’s not something He does any more than a farmer wears a leotard. As surely as Helen Clark would never wear a skirt, it is simply not in the nature of an Almighty God to submit to death. I have pondered over this many times and marveled at how God would volunteer His own life. He didn’t have to do it. He isn’t supposed to die.

But then I realized: neither were we. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God and prior to being condemned (in Genesis 3) to return to dust they were free to eat from the Tree of Life. Provided that they didn’t so much as lick a single piece of fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were free to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They were intended for immortality.

God is a God of restoration. Although God has had to deal drastically with the human race before, especially in the time of Noah, He has never indicated that He desires to eventually ditch this universe and go with Plan B. In the beginning, God created the heavens, the earth and mankind as they should be and by sending Jesus, He gave His own life to make certain that at the end of the age, His beautiful design will be restored. He is not going to retreat into heaven with whatever He can salvage from the rubble of this earth on judgment day.

Our God is mighty! Our God is loving! And He has secured the restoration of all of His creation, including mankind, by sending Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

The film contained many insights into Billy’s career and personal life, and the story of his ultimate early death was definitely a reminder to eat healthy! No matter how politically correct this world becomes, being overweight does eventually kill you before your time, that won’t change.

It was certainly good to see some old timey faces again (thinking Pio, Richard Long, Judy Bailey) and learn a bit about how race relations used to be in NZ in the mid 1900′s. It’s easy to take for granted the current ethnic situation in NZ combined with the fact that we’ve never been a slave nation. But that doesn’t mean there was never discrimination.

Not a film you have to watch at the cinema, but certainly worth watching!

Daniel Craig also made a great cowboy. Walton Goggins was a familiar cowboy face from a very similar costume in Shanghai Noon. I’m one of those annoying people who’s not happy until I’ve found out what other movies I’ve seen every familiar face in :)

The arms that came out from inside the aliens reminded me somewhat of Independence Day. Other than that I found them to be reasonably original! Like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the premise of this movie is somewhat ridiculous and its outcome somewhat predictable, but why on earth should that mean it’s not enjoyable?

If you have to pick which to see, go to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. But both are enjoyable!

I haven’t seen Planet of the Apes. I’m really fine with that. If someone tells you you need to have seen the original to enjoy this movie, they’re talking out of their ass :) It was perfectly enjoyable. Granted, you have to accept the ridiculous premise that the movie is based on, but I’ve done it for many movies before and I’ll do it before. I think movies are better that way. If things had to be realistic, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy flying Deloreans and houses that can be transported aerially by balloons, both things which I’m sure you’d agree make the world a better place!

I think my favourite actor in it was John Lithgow. James Franco was perfectly fine and Freida Pinto‘s accent wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be (though maybe that’s her normal sound?) but Lithgow’s performance fit perfectly.

The plot was great, whilst always knowing what had to come, the way we got there was interesting and the science babble added some fun details.

I’ll leave it to you whether you see this one at the cinema or on DVD, but I’d definitely call it worth a watch, despite a couple of cringing moments of ape speech and an excess of “of the”s in the title :)

A is for anak

B is for butiki

C is for champorado

D is for dahon

E is for ewan

F is for Filipino

G is for galing

H is for hati

I is for ibon

J is for Jeepney

K is for kumot

L is for Lola

M is for medyas

N is for naku

O is for ‘ospital

P is for pansit

Q is for Quezon

R is for relo

S is for salamat

T is for tahimik

U is for umaga

V is for Vigan

W is for wala

Y is for Yaya

Z is for zipper

:D

And though short and sweet, that’s pretty much what I thought of it! I will pause to dwell on the scene where Po finally is able to remember the entire event of his infancy where his mother hid him and then sacrificed herself for him, drawing the enemy in another direction, away from where he was hidden. It’s a plain and simple plot line, used in countless stories, but as surely as it reflects God’s love for us, it’ll never get boring! Jesus is the man…

I’ll also say that this film used 3D technology really well. Usually I commend 3D movies on their restraint and non-gimmickyness, but in Kung Fu Panda 2 they really went all out with the 3D and it paid off!

It takes the age old story of Rapunzel and gives it the typically cute and engaging Disney quirkiness. We all know Disney movies end happily ever after, but just how that happens certainly kept me guessing. The story was great, the animation was fantastic (being 3D animated, not cartoon) and the music up to Disney’s high standard.

I should note there was a different approach to the music this time around. Traditionally Disney animated movies take a slightly Bollywood approach to songs (i.e. you have some plot, then a mildly related song, then some more plot then another mildly related song). Tangled takes the more stage musical approach where some important scenes are played out musically in a style that would be more familiar to fans of Andrew Lloyd Weber than those of Disney. It still has a gorgeous song for a centerpiece of course, and though it’s not quite “A Whole New World”, it’s definitely one I’m gonna add to my library at my earliest convenience :)

My only regret is that I didn’t go to see it at 3D in the cinema. Apparently Disney played with the depth so that it aimed less for realism and more for awesome effect. Would have been cool to see.

This is just as well as we’re now starting to venture out of the realms of superheroes I’ve actually heard of (Superman, Batman etc…) and into ones I would label more obscure (all the comic book fans go “wha…?”). The movie was certainly green! There was no shortage of greenness in the film. Whilst not being overpowering of course. And not greenness in an environmental sense either, in case you were concerned :)

It was also good to see two New Zealand Maori actors involved. One being Temuera Morrison, who’s done a few odd jobs in international film (including Star Wars) and Taika Waititi, writer and actor in last year’s popular NZ film, Boy. His American accent was so convincing, I didn’t realise he was the actor playing his character until halfway through the film, despite the fact that I knew he was in the film and his character was a human and thus not hidden under any sort of effects.

My only complaint would be that the final battle could have been a smidge more epic, but other than that, the entire film was well balanced! The romance was present but not drawn out or too distracting from the main plot. The character flaws of the main character were convincing enough to be important in the plot, but weren’t annoying. And as usual, the 3D was great :) Another reminder that 3D is about depth into the screen, not things poking out of it (I check every movie to make sure my extra few bucks is making a worthwhile difference to the experience).

Go see it!