I am Legend (story spoilers)

Over New Year's Eve/Day this year I was very sick, so I decided to read something. When I was Wal-Mart that morning, I saw the book "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson. The first thing I found was that it was written in the '50s. I also quickly found that it was a book about vampires, which was good. I hadn't seen the new movie yet, but I already knew that it wasn't about vampires. Anyway, I read the book that night and the next morning and enjoyed it very much. After doing some research, I found out that other movies had been made based on the book. The first was available for free online and it starred Vincent Price. It's called "Last Man on Earth." Of all of the movies made (there are now 4), this one is the closest to the book, partly because Matheson wrote the script under a pseudonym. The second movie is the famous Charlton Heston film "The Omega Man." Not very close to the book, but somewhat entertaining. Then we have the Will Smith version "I am Legend" and a really bad B-version called "I am Omega" with martial arts actor Mark Dacascos (of Iron Chef America fame). Neither does the book justice.

So what is the point of all of this? I'm not sure, but part of it is that movies based on history and or novels sometimes take too many liberties for me. One of the reasons that Vincent Price's version of the story is the best is that it is the only movie that leaves in two of the most important parts of the story. 1. The infected people become vampires, not zombies. 2. Not all of the infected people that the main character goes around killing have become vampires yet. To me, these are the two most important parts of the story. So, here's to Vincent Price for making a film that is almost just like the book (besides the ending).

the order of nature is overruled...

Today is the first day of the Great Fast. Tonight we will be singing the first part of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, the extended penitential hymn used the first and fifth weeks of the Fast.

There is a troparion in the Great Canon that I think about every year that I hear it. It is the Theotokion of Ode 4 on Monday:

"Thou givest birth and livest a virgin life, and in both remainest a virgin by nature. He Who is born of thee reneweth the laws of nature, and a womb giveth birth without travail. Where God willeth, the order of nature is overruled; for He doeth whatever He wisheth."

It's the last sentence that stands out to me the most, and something that I wish non-Christians could understand. That if God is the Creator of all mankind and the earth, then why should he not be able to "overrule" the order of nature?

By the Waters of Babylon

Tonight marks the third and last time until next year that we will sing Psalm 136 "By the Waters of Babylon" at Vigil. This hymn is used during Resurrectional Matins on the three Sundays preceding the Great Fast (Lent): The Sunday of the Prodigal Son, the Sunday of the Last Judgment, and Forgiveness Sunday. It is one of my favorite hymns to sing during the year. Below is a commentary from Fr. Seraphim Rose on the hymn that I found at orthodox.net.

By The Waters of Babylon
by Fr.Seraphim (Rose)

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion".

In these words of the Lenten psalm, we Orthodox Christians, the New Israel, remember that we are in exile. For Orthodox Russians, banished from Holy Russia, the Psalm has a special meaning; but all Orthodox Christians, too, live in exile in this world, longing to return to our true home, Heaven. For us the Great Fast is a session of exile ordained for us by our Mother, the Church, to keep fresh in us the memory of Zion from which we have wandered so far. We have deserved our exile and we have great need of it because of our great sinfulness. Only through the chastisement of exile, which we remember in the fasting, prayer and repentance of this season, do we remain mindful of our Zion.

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem..."

Weak and forgetful, even in the midst of the Great Fast we live as though Jerusalem did not exist for us. We fall in love with the world, our Babylon; we are seduced by the frivolous pastimes of this "strange land" and neglect the services and discipline of the Church which remind us of our true home. Worse yet, we love our very captors - for our sins hold us captive more surely than any human master - and in their service we pass in idleness the precious days of Lent when we should be preparing to meet the Rising Sun of the New Jerusalem, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is still time; we must remember our true home and weep over the sins which have exiled us from it. Let us take to heart the words of St. John of the Ladder: "Exile is separation from everything in order to keep the mind inseparable from God. An exile loves and produces continual weeping." Exiled from Paradise, we must become exiled from the world if we hope to return.

This we may do by spending these days in fasting, prayer, separation from the world, attendance at the services of the Church, in tears of repentance, in preparation for the joyful Feast that is to end this time of exile; and by bearing witness to all in this "strange land" of our remembrance of that even greater Feast that shall be when our Lord returns to take His people to the New Jerusalem, from which there shall be no more exile, for it is eternal.

March 1965

Another "Highlander" movie to pretend never happened.

I am a fan of Highlander, both the movies and the TV series. Well, not all of the movies. Like many people, I do not like the 2nd Highlander, which is just crazy. I like the fact that the 3rd Highlander movie pretended like the 2nd one never happened. Well, now there is another Highlander movie that we have to pretend like it never happened. It's called "Highlander: the Source." It is a straight to DVD movie with Adrian Paul from the TV show, who I thought was already the "one," but apparently not. Well, all 86 minutes of this 5th movie are not worth much. The plot is pretty bad, and the special effects make it really bad. You never even really find out what the source is at the end. It is one of the worst endings to a movie that I have ever seen. I was excited to see Adrian Paul back in the role at first, but now I am just sad that there is another Highlander movie to forget about. Oh well, there can be only one (or 5, I guess).

Nothing better than a Russian male choir.

If you ever talk to me about music, you'll find that I say that there's nothing better than a lot of different things. I love string orchestras, trombone choirs, full orchestras, big mixed choirs, the Greek Byzantine Choir. But I do think that a really good Russian male choir is hard to beat. Especially when they have the full range only possible with a Russian choir. Here is a pretty good example to listen to - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSa5SMANDzU

Please feel free to comment on it.

Harry Potter: Why I read.

Before I was in graduate school, I could probably count all of the books I had ever read up to that point on one hand. Pretty sad, huh? Finally, my wife convinced me to read the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I just never enjoyed reading. I'm more of a tv and movie guy, a product of the MTV era (back when they actually showed videos). Anyway, I finally gave in and read the first chapter. By the end of the week, I had read the first four Harry Potter books. I had almost doubled my whole book total for my life. From Harry Potter I moved onto Tolkien. I also finally started reading Orthodox books, lives of saints, church fathers. I also like religious/historical fiction. The point is, if it wasn't for Harry Potter, I don't know when I would have started reading, and without reading I would have no reason to buy books. I probably wouldn't be a librarian either.;)

First Blog Ever

For some reason I decided today to start a blog. If you don't know me already, I am an Orthodox Christian living in North Texas. I am a Subdeacon and a choir director at an OCA mission. I work as a reference librarian at a community college. I am married and we have a one year old daughter. I am also a martial artist.

I think I will mostly be writing about the Orthodox Church, theology, music, books, movies, and martial arts. I hope you will enjoy my little blog.