I haven’t blogged about an issue in a long time, but the controversy over The Golden Compass is really intriguing me. The religious right is up in arms over a fantasy film that they say promotes anti-religious thinking. But yet, when a fantasy film comes out that they say they can relate to…The Chronicles Of Narnia…they are all for it. We live in a free world…to an extent. Why should Christian-geared films (of which I personaly still don’t see how Narnia is) be embraced, while non-Christian films be boycotted? That only shows that The Golden Compass has a very good point…the religious right wants total control over everyone with no room for free-thinking of any kind. The fact that they are afraid that after seeing the movie, parents will buy the books for their kids shows that as well. Gods forbid, that our children actually pick up a book, read it, and enjoy it. Gods forbid, our children actually learn that there is more than one way to think and believe.
My family saw Narnia in the theaters and loved it…and we now own the DVD. My boys have no idea that film has Christian overtones…and neither did I until I read the articles about it at the time…and I even read the book when I was younger! I’m planning on taking them to see The Golden Compass, and I’m sure my boys will love it…and have no idea that it has “anti-religious” overtones to it. The way I see it, it is like any other movie out there…a fight between good and evil. And if it shows that an all-controlling government is “evil”, no matter what religious affilliation, then that’s alright with me…as I’m one who thinks that any all-controlling body is not a good one.
All in all, it looks like a great fantasy film and one I won’t hesitate to take my kids to.

Just rented The Wicker Man (remake) on PPV. I had read a few reviews that stated it was the “best Pagan movie ever made” and that it “potrayed ancient pagan ways accurately”. I don’t know why anyone would claim this movie is an accurate portrayal of ancient pagan ways. Lady Summersisle (the leading lady in a closed-off matriarchal society) happens to mention that her Celtic ancestors had to flee in order to get away from the male dominance. Being of the modern Celtic Reconstructionism faith, I would have to disagree with her completely about her so-called “ancestors”. The Celts happened to be the one culture that, for the most part, actually saw women as equals with men, not subservient to them. From what I’ve researched, the ancient Celts never left their homes to venture to the west (the Americas).

(Spoiler Warning: Do Not Read Below If You Haven’t Seen The Movie)
This movie is about “ancient rituals” in a community of women who make men subservient to them. Rituals that include sacrifice, but wrongly portray the truth of it. Yes, human sacrifices were a part of the ancient ways. Did the Celts sacrifice children? NO. Did they lure in outsiders to the tribe and sacrifice them? NO. Criminals of the tribe were sacrificed first…and volunteers second…at least in the Celtic culture, which seems to be the base culture for the movie.

Bottom line, this move was a good suspense/thriller, but a horrible portrayal of anything remotely accurate to the ancient and/or modern pagan ways. It reminded me of a fundamentalist cult…the ones we should all be leery of. If non-Pagans didn’t see Pagans in a bad light before, they just might after watching this movie.

Last night my sis-in-law and I had our girl’s night out…while her hubby watched the boys. (BTW, the boys and I have been visiting her since Monday the 26th.) We went to see King Kong and then went out to a late dinner (like at 10:30 in the evening…lol!). After we ate (I had a yummy Phily steak sandwich and french fries) we stopped over at Safeway to get a few New Year’s supplies. Got home just after midnight.

King Kong was an awesome movie. I don’t remember too much about the original, but this new version seems to match what I do remember of it pretty well. The CGI was fantastic! One of the great action scenes was when Kong took on 3 t-rex’s while hanging on to Ann. It was great! Still a very sad movie….what happens when men get greedy and can’t leave nature well enough alone. It was well worth the 3 hours of sitting in a theater.

Hubby and I took the boys to see Narnia this evening. Awesome movie! My 9 year old loved it…and my 3 year old fell asleep…LOL! Yes, we took our youngest…he sat through the 3rd Harry Potter when it came out (and watches all 3 of those DVD’s over and over) so we figured he’d sit though this. He did for the most part then fell asleep right before Aslan’s sacrifice.

Great movie though, with awesome CGI! I loved it from a fantasy viewpoint. As a child not having had a religious up-bringing, when I read the book, I had no idea it was metaphorical for Jesus/Satan. I have read many online articles in the past few weeks about the underlaying Christian view….so when I watched it, I could totally pick it out. But it kept the fantasy context of magic and that I liked. When Aslan explained to the girls how he came back, he accredited it to the magic of the stone table. And sure enough, there were what looked like runes written on the side. And the fawns would normally be looked at as demons in the Christian view, but they are portrayed as a goodly forest people. So though it was Christian in a big way, I wouldn’t say it was all Christian. All in all, I enjoyed it as a great fantasy story!

Well, The Chronicles of Narnia comes to theaters soon (I can’t wait to see it) and most Christians are loving the idea that a movie with Christian undertones is on it’s way. But, is it really all Christian? Mr. Peter Chattaway doesn’t seem to think so. There are many pagan elements running through the Christian theme of the story.

Presumably, the centaurs and fauns will look more or less like the mythological creatures depicted in ancient Greco-Roman art. But will, say, Mr Tumnus regale Lucy with stories of how the Roman god Bacchus filled the streams with wine when he feasted with the forest people?

And Catholic critic Stephen D. Greydanus stated that

the Narnia stories are doubly apologetic. On the one hand, they introduce the non-Christian reader to stories with a Christian sensibility. But they also constitute an intriguing defense of pagan mythology — a defense that may not be welcome in some modern churches.

As the author of Mere Christianity himself might say, the Narnian stories are Christian, but they are not merely that.

The Paganism of Narnia

For our anniversary, my hubby and I went out to dinner and saw the 4th Harry Potter movie last night (Tuesday). Can we say awesome?!
The one thing that bugged me was how much was cut from the book. Some of it was changed a bit to account for the cut parts so it made sense. But other than that…I loved it!
I gotta give the director props for the graveyard scene…it was done exactly how I imagined it. And the dragon and mermaids were just awesome! Great movie!

Ok, so I watched Lost of course…had to get my fix after 2 weeks of reruns. Another wonderful episode. I went to the message board as usual and read what peoples’ theories are. I must say, my mind has been changed about who shot Shannon. I was sure it was Ana Lucia, but it seems that we are looking at 2 different scenes in 2 different parts of the jungle. In the scene where Sayid is holding Shannon (after she falls to the ground in a faint after she is shot) there is a person standing to the right of the screen with a gun in his/her left hand…arm down at their side. When we see Ana Lucia after the shooting scene, her arms are still up and she is still in firing position. It really doen’t look like she shot Shannon after all. http://lost-media.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimagepopup&pid=50806&fullsize=1

And while on the board, I stumbled upon these gems. I must say, the first one is very strange…I guesss it was a promo that aired in the UK but not here in the US. The other 2 are music videos that I thought were put together well.
Lost promo: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2584887319101866590&q=title%3Alost
Lost music video about Kate: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5282721032185687123&q=lost
Lost music video about Kate and Sawyer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2116923261284480105&q=lost

Well, it’s been a while since I blogged, hasn’t? I guess I’ve just been busy. Been trying to catch up on sig tag requests (which I sort of did, but have more piling up daily), and making more tags…Halloween ones now. Then web competitions for site of the year started last week and after not competing in a month, I have been getting back into the groove again. That goes for another two weeks. If you wanna vote and help me up my score, view my site, Witchy Ways, and vote here.
I’ve been looking at Amazon.com lately…wanna get a few books with my babysitting money. (That sounds so jr. high schoolish…LOL.) There’s lots of ancient celtic books that look really interesting (I’ve been interested in studying history…mostly the celts), plus some herbal and general Pagan books.

Tonight…well, last night now…LOL…’J’ and I went out to dinner at Applebee’s and then saw Just Like Heaven. It was a pretty cute movie…sad, funny, romantic. I liked it and so did ‘J’….he actually said “that was a good chick-flick”.

In the news….hear about that earthquake in Asia?? Wow! Earlier the death toll was at 2,000. I just checked the news and it’s at 18,000! Read the full story here. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

Ahhh…it’s nice to sit down at the computer and not sweat as I type. Cooler weather is upon us and it feels good. Autumn is only a few days away (Mabon…or the Autumn Equinox…is the week), but it has been considerably cooler than normal at this time of year. I don’t mind…LOL! I’m not partial to the heat of summer.

My 9 year old, ‘G’, has his first major field trip this week. Wednesday and Thursday his grade is going to Leadership Camp. It’s his first overnight school trip. And then Friday is an inservice day, so this should be a fun week for him!

Between all the other stuff I’m busy with, I’m finally about half-way through the 5th Harry Potter book. Good stuff, I tell you…..with a character, like in the other books, that is rather annoying…but more than that, one that is despisable. I found out just how much when I was reading the other night. Ooo, she irks me!
Oh! And there was a link on the message board I frequent to a trailer to the 4th Harry Potter movie coming out in November! It’s a longer one that I hadn’t seen before. I am so going to see this movie!

Yikes, it’s been a little while since I posted! Well, there’s a reason for that…kind of an obsession really. ‘J’ has been wanting to try the online computer game, EverQuest for a while now. Well, he didn’t get anything on his birthday last month since we had no money, so a week ago we went down to CompUSA and found EverQuest II, the deluxe DVD edition. So we bought it. As I watched him make up his character, I became interested in it. So I made up a character and have been playing ever since. I guess you could say I got hooked! I have never really been into playing computer games (but was an avid console game player before we got the computer). My character’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself….a Wood Elf Scout/Rouge.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I have also made a few new siggie tags and keepin’ busy filling requests.