So I just found out that Bret McKenzie (from Flight of the Concords fame) was/is the Music Supervisor for the new Muppets movie and he wrote and/or produced all of the music for the film. Now I want to see it that much more!

I kind of want to go to space one day ...

Let's go to Panama!

Even though I really don't like heights, this video mesmerizes me.
I was on edge the entire time!

"First, wrap yourself into the fabric by spinning around with your arms out. Then, once you’ve completely entangled yourself, do a flying pirouette into the air, arch your back and fling yourself onto the bed. If you’ve done it right, the net will hold your weight for a moment and you can swing in the air, like a ******* monkey. Repeat. For an hour.
 Also, it goes without saying, you should dismantle all of the lamps in the room, spread crackers on the floor, spill some milk on the bed and then promptly fall asleep."

Christine Gilbert in The Proper Use of a Mosquito Net

(according to her son Cole)

Challenge: make me one of these.

Remember how, in The Matrix, they froze Neo in mid air and then the camera actually panned around him, no CGI? Well they did that by building what was essentially a semi circle of cameras around him and then taking a frame from each camera. It was all video of the same subject, just different angles.

Well now RipCurl is doing the same thing with 30 GoPro cameras and surfing. Insane.
Check out a photo of the array after the video

Check out that array! 

Photo found here.

"When we confess our sins before a brother-Christian, we are mortifying the pride of the flesh and delivering it up to shame and death through Christ."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.289

And that is the last of my quotes from The Cost of Discpleship. The book made me think hard about a lot of things and I'm really glad I read it, but it wasn't easy! As I said in an earlier post, if you're not up for a huge read, I'd still recommend at least reading the chapters on "Costly Grace" and "The Visible Community."

Let me know what you think!

I want this to be my life.

"The community of saints is not an 'ideal' community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance. No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness (which has nothing to do with self-forgiveness). It is a community of men and women who have genuinely encountered the precious grace of God, and who walk worthily of the gospel by not casting that grace recklessly away."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.287

Stopmotion watercolour skateboarding. What else do you need on a Monday?

"The Christian should receive praise from authority. If instead of praise he incurs punishment and persecution, what fault is that of his? After all, he was not looking for praise when he did that which brought him punishment, nor did he do good for fear of punishment. If he meets with suffering instead of praise, his conscience is clear in the sight of God and he has nothing to dear. After all, he has not brought shame or discredit on the Church. He obeys the power, not for material profit, but "for conscience' sake" ... That is why the government cannot hurt the Christian's conscience even if it makes a mistake. The Christian is still free and has nothing to fear, and he can still pay the State its due by suffering innocently. He knows that when all is said and done, the sovereign power belongs to God and not to the State, which is only his minister."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.263

The US needs to make ads like this!

"This isn’t a story about how girls are evil or how love is bad, this is a story about how I learned something and I’m not saying this thing is true or not, I’m just saying it’s what I learned. I told you something. It was just for you and you told everybody. So I learned cut out the middle man, make it all for everybody, always. Everybody can’t turn around and tell everybody, everybody already knows, I told them. But this means there isn’t a place in my life for you or someone like you. Is it sad? Sure. But it’s a sadness I chose. I wish I could say this was a story about how I got on the bus a boy and got off a man more cynical, hardened, and mature and shit. But that’s not true. The truth is I got on the bus a boy. And I never got off the bus. I still haven’t"

- Donald Glover in That Power*

*Just a heads up, the song does contain explicit content, but it also talks about some interesting things which is why I posted it. I just wanted to warn you.

"the world exercises dominion by force and Christ and Christians conquer by service."

 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.261

First animated short that I've enjoyed in a long time.

"to renounce rebellion and revolution is the most appropriate way of expressing our conviction that the Christian hope is not set on this world, but on Christ and his kingdom."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.260

"If the world despises one of the brethren, the Christian will love and serve him. If the world does him violence, the Christian will succour and comfort him. If the world dishonours and insults him, the Christian will sacrifice his own honour to cover the brother's shame. Where the world seeks gain, the Christian will renounce it. Where the world exploits, he will dispossess himself, and where the world oppresses, he will stoop down and raise up the oppressed. If the world refuses justice, the Christian will pursue mercy, and if the world takes refuge in lies, he will open his mouth for the dumb, and bear testimony to the truth."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.258

Oh New Zealand, this is why I love you.

"Wherever Christians live together, conversing and dealing with one another, there is the Church, there they are in Christ."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.257

My last wedding highlight video of the year!
I still love weddings, but I'm ready for a break!

"(I)f we grant the baptized brother the right to the gifts of salvation, but refuse him the gifts necessary to earthly life or knowingly leave him in material need and distress, we are holding up the gifts of salvation to ridicule and behaving as liars."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.256

EXCELLENT use of transitions in this one
Oh yeah, and it's in Italy which is another place I'm dying to go!

"Those who are still afraid of men have no fear of God, and those who have fear of God have ceased to be afraid of men."

 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.218

Interesting, the different views on prayer.

These two forms of inequality (financial and social) exist in modern America. They are related but different. Over the past few months, attention has shifted almost exclusively to (financial) Inequality.

That’s because the protesters and media people who cover them tend to live in or near the big cities, where the top 1 percent is so evident. That’s because the liberal arts majors like to express their disdain for the shallow business and finance majors who make all the money. That’s because it is easier to talk about the inequality of stock options than it is to talk about inequalities of family structure, child rearing patterns and educational attainment. That’s because many people are wedded to the notion that our problems are caused by an oppressive privileged class that perpetually keeps its boot stomped on the neck of the common man.

But the fact is that (social) Inequality is much more important. The zooming wealth of the top 1 percent is a problem, but it’s not nearly as big a problem as the tens of millions of Americans who have dropped out of high school or college. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the 40 percent of children who are born out of wedlock. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the nation’s stagnant human capital, its stagnant social mobility and the disorganized social fabric for the bottom 50 percent.

- David Brooks in The Wrong Equality 

for the NY Times Opinion Pages

Allons! The road is before us!

It is safe - I have tried it - my own feet have tried it well - be not detain'd!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd!

Let the tools remain in the workshop! Let the money remain unearn'd!

Let the school stand! Mind not the cry of the teacher!

Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! Let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Comerado, I give you my hand!

I give you my love more precious than money,

I give you myself before preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"

- Walk Whitman's Song of the Open Road

This is how I want to charge my phone!

"People say you have to travel to see the world. Sometimes I think that if you just stay in one place and keep your eyes open, you're going to see just about all tha tyou can handle."

- Paul Auster in Smoke

The editing and use of sound in this blows my mind!