The Ventriloquist

The Ventriloquist - a short film about a man and his puppet that he may depend on too much for social interaction. If you have a spare ten minutes it's worth watching. It is a first place winner of the United States division of the Jameson First Shot international film competition, created for the purpose of discovering talented screenwriters. Kevin Spacey's production company helped create the competition, and he had this to say about it:

"I want to give talented people out there a shot at reaching their goals for the first time. Jack Lemmon once said to me – ‘If you’re doing well, send the elevator back down’. I’ve done incredibly well and it’s because the material I found early in my career was from first-time writers, first-time directors, first-time playwrights. If it weren’t for that talent I wouldn’t have a career. So if one person gets a break then the competition has been successful."

Kindness

via forward-the-smile

The Oh Hellos

I know that my few and far between blog posts are about music a lot of the times, but I can't help it. Music is one of my favorite things to write about. It's simple and inspiring. I love it when a friend, family member, or blog introduces me to a new band that they are enjoying. For me it's an exciting feeling, like when you open a really cool present that wasn't on your list. If blogging about an artist can give that same feeling to someone then these posts will be worth it. So as I sit in my room on this cold Saturday, recharging my introverted-run battery, I've decided to write about The Oh Hellos.

While looking at pins of The Head and the Heart song lyrics, I came across lyrics for The Oh Hellos. The words caught my attention, as did their name. So I began a search on YouTube and clicked on the first video I saw. It was called "Hello My Old Heart". Okay I guess these guys like the word "Hello".  It happened after the first 40 or so seconds--that stirring, little kid feeling of opening a present crept its way in.



First impression of The Oh Hellos; a Mumford and Sons sound, mixed with Of Monsters and Men, and much more Christian lyrics. When listening through their album "Through the Deep, Dark Valley" the first time, I immediately had to listen through again while simultaneously reading the lyrics. Starting with the upbeat tune Second Child, Restless Child:

see, I was born a restless child/
and I could hear the world outside calling me/
and heaven knows how hard I tried/
but the devil whispered lies I believed

These were the lyrics that made me think that The Oh Hellos may be Christian. My favorite band is of course Mumford and Sons, and to me their best songs are the ones that acknowledge faith. So needless to say, the fact that these guys have lyrics about Christianity is a good thing to me. It is the uplifting, folk sound that grabbed my attention, but it's the lyrics that keep bringing me back to The Oh Hellos. The next song on the album, Wishing Well, reminded me of elements from the popular Prodigal Son bible story. It talks about taking from the father and wasting it away. And then on to the song I Was Wrong:

I knew you'd never forgive me/
but I was wrong
and I'm so, so sorry

The song sings about taking from the rotting tree, a reference I believe to be of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. It then ends with the above lyrics about forgiveness. As the title "Through the Deep, Dark Valley" alludes to, this album is about overcoming the negative influences in our world and striving for good. I Have Made Mistakes, one of the album's standouts, talks about learning from our bad experiences.

and the sun, it does not cause us to grow/
it is the rain that will strength your soul/
and it will make you whole

There is so much truth and honesty in the lyrics of The Oh Hellos that it makes them hard to ignore. They sing about out how flawed we are, but how we can find strength through faith, as that will always be there for us. This is more elegantly put in the albums concluding song The Valley (Reprise):

we were born in the valley of the dead and the wicked/
where our father's father fell to the crimes he'd committed/
we were young when we heard you call our names in the silence/

still you lead me, never leave me/
never leave me

The album starts out by asking the question "will you lead me? ". By the end, we know their answer.

That's what I got from an afternoon of listening to "Through the Deep, Dark Valley". Listen to the album in its entirety below and see what you think.

Thanks for the refreshing music, The Oh Hellos! 

Best 2014 Super Bowl Commercial

In my opinion Coke had the best commercial this year with it's America is Beautiful. I have to admit, part of the reason I'm picking it as the best is due to the controversy it has sparked over the song "America the Beautiful" being sang in multiple languages. It didn't take long when watching this commercial to figure out that it was going to upset people. It's been two days since the Super Bowl and this ad is still being talked about. That in itself proves that Coke has succeeded in my book. Isn't there a saying that no publicity is bad publicity? Sure some people are claiming that they will never drink Coke again, but I bet that number pales in comparison to the number of those that were so touched to hear their native language on this Super Bowl ad that they go out and buy Coke.

Just the idea that people are upset over this ad is quite ridiculous to me. For one "America the Beautiful" is not even our national anthem. Secondly, the United States doesn't have an official national language. According to my sociology professor, when the constitution was being written there was a discussion on whether we should have an official language or not. It turns out that it was debated and turned down by a total of seven votes. Even more interesting, the language that was being voted on was German... If anything this commercial reminded me of how proud I am to live in America, a country full of culture and diversity. This country was founded on immigration, so what is the problem with honoring that history?

On a more lighthearted note, my runner-up commercials would have to be the Radio Shack (link) or Doritos (link) ad.

p.s. I picked Seattle to win over Denver.