My Own Little World

Over the summer, I decided to finally watch The Office , one of the most beloved sitcoms of my generation. I watched it for two reasons: first, so I could understand all the references my friends made to the show; second, so I could relate better to a girl I was very interested in (update: it worked). To be honest, though, I really did not like the show at all that first time through. I found a lot of the characters very grating and a lot of the comedy racy at best and offensive at worst. Yet, for some reason, whenever I thought back to the show, those weren't my gut reactions. Instead, I thought of the great prank war between Dwight and Jim. I thought of the wonderful romance between Jim and Pam. I thought of the character arc that Michael has and how transformed he was by his time at Dunder-Mifflin. Those kind of thoughts don't come for shows I liked better "on paper" than The Office , so I decided to take another crack at it to see if I liked it better. And y...

Let's wind the clock back just a few weeks to the 89th Academy Awards ceremony. My girlfriend and I were watching them, having seen the front runner for Best Picture,   La La Land , and desperately wanting it to win. For two minutes and thirty-eight seconds, it did. Then, chaos ensued. In an unprecedented gaff, the wrong card was handed to Warren Beatty and he announced the wrong film as the winner. In its place was Moonlight , a low-budget indie film based on an unpublished play that chronicles the life of a gay black man in the projects of Miami. Nobody saw this coming, including us. I'm not going to lie: I was a little devastated that one of my favorite films of all time, let alone last year, did not win Best Picture. That being said, the fact that Moonlight  won Best Picture made me want to see it more than I already did, so I made a point of seeing it over spring break. And it was brutal. I usually don't struggle with giving films scores and ranking them, but Moonl...

Hey all. It's been a while since I've talked about my life, so here I am with just some tidbits: For spring break, I went home, watched over two seasons of The Office  and lots and lots of movies. I also recorded some music with my good friend Sarah Simmons that will be released later this year, so stay tuned for that. On the whole, though, spring break was a much-needed period of rest and relaxation after a hectic semester to date.  As far as Lifesong (my traveling worship band) is concerned, we have had a very busy schedule. Pretty much every weekend is spent with that bunch of hooligans leading worship at either churches or youth retreats. It's been a ton of fun this year, but it is extremely tiring, especially on weekends when we have retreats. I wouldn't trade the experience for almost anything, though, and that keeps me going from week to week.  Felicia's great. And awesome. That is all.  School itself is fine. I have some classes that I really enjoy an...

A little over a year ago, Marvel released one of the first R-rated comic book films: Deadpool . It's huge box office returns changed the game for the genre, allowing studios to realize that their audiences were not just OK with their favorite characters being placed in more extreme films -- they actually welcomed the change. Fast forward to today, and Marvel is taking another stab at the R-rated comic book film with Logan . Unlike Deadpool 's attempts to parody and make light of the superhero genre, however, Logan  aims for the skies and tries to transcend the genre's limitations entirely. Instead of seeing itself as confined to any sort of box, it tries to be an "indie superhero film," for lack of better phrasing. It goes for a small-scale character-driven drama with some bursts of action along the way. And you know what? It works perfectly.  This is the perfect film to send Hugh Jackman's portrayal of the Wolverine riding off into the sunset b...