@echo: Once

If one were to see a modern day musical, what would it look like? And more importantly, would it work? In the case of Once, winner of the Audience Award at both the Dublin International and Sundance film festivals, the answer is a resounding "yes". Real world acting, great music and a solid storyline have made this film an audience favorite.

Guy and Girl (as their credits name them) of Once meet in the alleys of Ireland. He busks in the evening and repairs vacuums by day; she works odd jobs, like selling flowers on the street, to support her struggling family. They form a musical kinship as their lives, and especially their relationships, are in repair. Girl starts to complement Guy’s music like Lisa Hannigan does for Damien Rice.

We watch as layers of each's character are revealed to each other, and watch as they become more comfortable with each other. Gal makes Guy believe he is good at what he does, and they commit to making a demo of Guy’s music. They spend a weekend in a studio recording the rhythm and lyrics borne from their everyday lament.

The ending, foreshadowed in the title but not appreciated until it takes place, was trying at first. You might have entered the movie expecting the predictable and then, when you don't get it, feel jaded. But as you sit and listen to the credits, you realize that, Yes, that’s the way it needed to end.

Many scenes are shot with a hand camera, but it never becomes annoying. This sets the mood and strips the would-be pomp, making you really feel as if you are there. The movie is like good indie music video, but with real characters and real dialogue.

Both Guy and Girl have music flowing through their veins in real life. In fact, they wrote just about all the music for the film themselves. Girl is played by Markéta Irglová, a Czech musician and songwriter. She has been into music since she was seven, learning piano and playing tunes by ear. Glen Hansard, Guy, is known as the front man for the a popular Irish rock band The Frames. John Carney, former bassist of The Frames, wrote and produced Once. Both Hansard and Irglová have a certain texture to their voice which helps to convey emotion in the film - whether brokenness, anger, or determination.

Even though the movie is well-written and well-executed, it takes a moment to adjust for the multiple full-length song scenes. But this is a musical, and it should (and can) be enjoyed as such. Apart from the abundance of Irish F-bombs, it’s the cleanest R-rated movie you can ask for. It also proves that you can have good story, drama, and movie-making without the Hollywood budget.

Once is a peculiar love story that is focused not on romance, but on the beauty of music and connection even when life is unattractive and confused.

- review assistance from James and Naomi -

s|ice: My Meckel and Me - On the Next Oprah

If you hadn’t heard, a few weeks ago I was in the hospital for 3 days or so. I had stomach issues which I can only liken to what I would expect contractions or labor pains to be. At first the doctor thought it was appendicitis, luckily the surgeon looked at a CT scan and said nope and joked seriously about it being a water chestnut [which I had earlier that day for lunch]. Still not being sure they wanted to do some exploratory surgery which was postponed due to feeling fine [though the morphine drip the night before was glorious]. Another test later and the doc said it’s a blockage due to a meckel. Go figure.


Naomi and I watched Jesus Camp recently. I had mixed and conflicting feelings on both the subject matter and the “documentation” style. Spiritual voyeurism is a term that came to mind; freedom, brainwashing, world views are some others. The whole topic of Jesus and American politics is important to say the least but the way Christian’s do and don’t deal with it is annoying at best. I deny the phrases about returning America back to God as a Christian nation, though I pray for the Gospel to be breathed into this nation. America was/is based off of Judeo-Christian ethics but we would never say, unless we had bad theology, that ethics make a person a follower of Christ [and yes, followers of Christ need to be more ethical]. There was a great podcast on the Veritas Forum from Ron Sider about a more complete Gospel. Derek Webb’s new album Ringing Bell, has a few things to say about politics… and here are two quotes from a Book Review on THE AGE OF ABUNDANCE somewhat dealing with politics and such:

…contrary to those under the spell of the romantic delusion, not all limitations on choice are the enemies of freedom.

Is liberty valuable because it promotes virtuous behavior? Or is liberty merely necessary because, given that there are deep disagreements about what virtuous behavior is, we must agree to leave one another a lot of social space to do as we please, or we shall not have social peace?

Naomi and I went to see Waitress for a date night a few weeks back. It was pretty heart wrenching for me personally. There were a ton of messed up relationships in so many different ways and, for whatever reason, I had to cry over the loneliness aspect of the movie. He sets the lonely in families; sets the prisoners free to sing. Statistically in America, two in four marriages don't last and half of the marriages that do stay together are not "happy" ones... and i think recently it's been observed that atheistic marriages are "healthier" than Christian ones. As a side note, in all the social messiness through-out Waitress there was still a good underlying pro-life message.

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis has been my latest finished work, reading wise. Overall I think the previous paperback, Out of a Silent Plant, was more adventurous. I didn’t enjoy the first quarter of Peralandra but the rest of if, for the most part, was fantastic. I was emotionally attached to feelings of fear, death, and philosophical conflict. The parts on temptation are worth the read alone. I’m starting to appreciate fantasy and fiction more and more thanks to Lewis.

On a side note of that subject, Madeleine L'Engle spoke about fantasy, fact, and truth on the Veritas Forum. The basic idea is that fact isn’t always truth and fantasy isn’t always false. Some of the concepts she spoke about were too out there for me but I understood and agreed to a degree some of what she said. I remember being more connected with the fantasy scene in Narnia when Aslan is killed than with the “realistic” crucifixion scene in The Passion. Oh ,how we need Disciples of Christ with scholarly minds, poetic hearts and humble hands… I hope my path of holistic growing takes me there.

s|ice: In Other News

Adam has got me hooked on a radio show lately called This American Life. For the most part, the stories are entertaining if not psychologically fascinating from an observational point of view. You might not always like what you here but the quality and variety of the show will make you listen and think. You can listen to them online for free here; below are some episodes to check out if you want to download [right-click, Save As...] and listen later.

290 - Godless America
American history in question and a Christian that finds her faith and then loses God.
77 - Pray
Christian lingo, sensationalists[?], and pray affecting an atheist.
188-Kid Logic
They really do say the darnedest things.
304-Heretics
FYI - There is no hell.
317-Unconditional Love
Could you love someone that tried to kill you?
286-Mind Games
What just happened?
328-What I Learned from Television
Good for both cultural observation and anti-stereotypes.
104-Music Lessons
David Sedaris and Anne Lamott.

Babel - I hear it's like Crash, which I've never seen, but on a global scale. Brad Pitt does a good job while not beating up or blowing up something. The Japanese scenes made me feel small in my worldview. As the native tongue was used, that's right, some subtitles are needed, I started to wonder how it would feel to be in a city of a million people and yet not be able to be understood or understand what others where saying. Beware of the crude flash scenes.

Ollabelle - James introduced me to this new band, which is a compilation of some individual artists. I would label it Neo-Gospel-Soul with a dash of Jazz and a hint of Funk. There first self titles album is pretty rockin', in a traditional newness kind of way, while the second release, Riverside Battle Songs, is a bit more melancholy.

If you haven't heard, Naomi and I started a MySpace band site which you can find us at www.myspace.com/undertheoak. We'll be playing a semi-show in May which makes me kind of nervous but should be fun. James will be helping us out with that. Also, a few friends and I have started a small, group blog in which we write a short essay once a month. Check it out at silhouette-words.blogspot.com.