I write all that because over the past few months my love for music has been reawakened. From the ashes of loosing everything important to me 3 years ago has come the most intense period of songwriting I’ve ever experienced. In the past 3 months I’ve written 4 different completed songs, penned at least 7 lyrics and about 5 different melodies and sketches for future songs.

I’ve heard dozens of artists talk about pain and loss being the best catalyst for some of their best work and I think I’m seeing that played out in my life right now. That’s not to say what I’ve created has been remotely related to the events in my life that are acting as the fuel. In fact I tend to stay away from expressing those events in any way through the medium of music. Music is something I love so much is as if those events would poison and corrupt the beauty of the process. They may be stoking the fire but the end product is so far removed from those feelings the two seem unrelated.

Right now I have been collaborating with my good friend Rachel to help her produce a demo record to advance her musical career. She has so much talent and potential and so much talent that I can’t wait to see what is in store for her. Once that project is finished I plan to take a week or so of from work and other commitments to work on an album of my own. It will be a compilation of mostly original songs with one or two covers thrown in to bring it to full length. From there I plan to sing and peddle those songs at coffee houses, bars and street corners.

Until all that happens I have been blessed to have the opportunity to occasionally lead musical worship at my new home church, City Life Church in Burbank. It’s something that I once vowed I’d never return to and I am so glad that I’ve broken it. God has freed me from the bondage of fearing man and has infused me with a fear and awe of Jesus. Therefore I am free to worship and to lead others in worship as well.

One final thought I’d like to share with you all is regarding this blog. I’m still struggling with the fine line between sharing my thoughts and privacy. The result has been fear and lack of posting and sharing. Having spent some time “on the bench” from blogging I’m slowly going to put my self back in the game in hopes that I find that balance through trial and error. All that is to say I hope you’ll be checking back more often as I hope to be doing the same.

So here goes…

MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED!

After what seems like a million years my sister and her boyfriend are now engaged to be married! This guy called to ask my permission and before he even had the words out of his mouth I said yes and gave my enthusiastic blessing! God has done amazing things in their relationship and it is so evident that He is the center of their lives both as individuals and as a couple. I am so excited for the both of them and can’t wait to help make their wedding an amazing day!

I AM GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!

After what also seems like a million years I will now be back on the path to finish my BA Degree in Communications. I have enrolled at Regent University in Virginia via their Online Campus. As many of you know I made a promise to my Mom before she was ushered into the Loving Arms of Jesus that no matter what happened with her that I would finish my degree. One of my core requirements for this to happen was not to go into any additional debt. Through my current employer I will likely qualify for full tuition reimbursement for almost all of my classes. I am so grateful for the Lord’s provision to make that promise to my Mom a reality!

DNR MUSIC HAS BEEN “REVIVED”!

Some of you may not know but back in 2004 I and a few friends got together for the purposes of creating, playing and producing music. We called ourselves “DNR” standing for “Do Not Revive” tying into the idea that this earth is not our home and that ultimately that if faced with the decision to be “revived” into our frail earthly body or to be with Jesus forever the choice would be “Do Not Revive”. That being said, over the past few months I have been rearranging and reproducing our songs to finally put together a record to be release sometime at the beginning of next year. In the midst of that I have also teamed up the Rachel Hayes to help her produce a demo record to be release in October. Not only is she blessed with mountains of talent but she is like minded in being a light and missionary in the mainstream music industry.

I AM OFFICIALLY PART OF ANOTHER CHURCH PLANT!

In September of 2008 I started meeting with a guy named Mike Mixon. At the time he was the leader of a small group from Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley. After meeting with him for a while for Biblical Council and Discipleship, he invited me to be a part of his small group. On Wednesday nights we’d get together with about 10 other people in his cramped one bedroom apartment that he and his VERY pregnant wife were renting and on Sunday’s we’d trek out to Simi Valley to worship with the rest of Cornerstone. Around this same time Cornerstone was rethinking the difference between “going to church” and “being the church”. It took a while but eventually Mike and the Elders at Cornerstone realized that our group could better serve and worship Jesus and serve and love our community if we met as a church where we all lived and worked. To make a long story short we went from that small group of 10 people in a living room to a larger group of 50-60 people meeting in a small drama theater in the heart of Burbank each Sunday to raise the volume of praise in our city and in the world. And so a few weeks ago we officially became City Life Church Burbank. Right now I have the privilege of serving each and every Sunday on the Audio/Video Team and occasionally on the Musical Worship Team. When I first talked with Mike almost 3 years ago I never imagined that I would be doing either of those things much less be part of something as exciting as a church plant.

Well that about wraps up the updates thus far. There are a few more things on the horizon that may be update worthy but until they are here and finalized I’ll leave you all with this passage that has been crushing my fears and raising my hopes.

“10And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. 12And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17And Job died, an old man, and full of days.” Job 42:10-17 (ESV)

On Monday night I had the awesome privilege of worshiping and celebrating what God has done with some folks from the college and young adults group at my former church.

Check out the video below to get a feel for how the Lord is using that group and then read on.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I still cry every time I watch that video. We all watched it Monday night and it was a sobering reminder of just how awesome God is and how faithful He is to those that truly seek to follow after Him no matter what the cost. The folks at The Bridge (now called Fuse) abandoned the normal pew-warming, Bible-ignoring mess called Sub-Cultural-Christianity and with wreck-less abandon of the things of this world they have counted the cost to serve and love Jesus and love the lost and love each other in ways that are remarkable to the reachable and inspiring to the impassioned and convicting to the complacent.

But Monday night was not about a pat on the back, it was about change for the sake of the body of believers that call that ministry home and change that will radically impact how they see their role in the global Church and especially in their community.

Instead of meeting together every Monday as they have been doing for the past 5 years they are going to meet for an hour before the Sunday night service at their church talking and praying through various topics, attend the service together and spend the week serving and loving each other and their community. What use to be Small Groups that meet on Wednesday Nights will now be Missions Groups that will serve their community once a month as a group and will gather for corporate times of worship and reflection once a month as well. Rather than doing Small Groups the way it’s always been done, their Pastor Greg (from the video) has clearly seen the need for his flock to not merely be hearers of the word but doers as well. Pastor Greg wants to set them up to succeed at doing that, but involves changing the way things have been done and the way people have thought for the past 5 years.

Bringing about change in the flock is no easy task for one who has been called to shepherd God’s people. It involves lots and lots of prayer, Godly council from those older and wiser as well as the strength and fortitude to stand their ground when it comes to their conviction about the change being both Biblical and necessary to better serve The Master. Pastor Greg’s heart is unquestionably one that seeks after God and seeks after the well-being of those that have been entrusted to his care. Everyone at Fuse has seen his heart and so it is very evident that the changes being made are not being taken lightly nor or are they being done from some sort of selfish motive.

What is most remarkable about this change is the manner in which it was communicated to the flock. I can honestly say I’ve seen many Pastors at churches large and small fail to communicate change in a meaningful and understandable way but my brother Greg did not fail. Not only was it meaningful by arranging for people to share about their past experiences with the group, but even visitors that had never attended before understood that it was time for this flock to take their next step in their journey of faith. Pastor Greg was gentle in answering the questions that people had but he was firm in his Biblical teaching about why the change was not just necessary, but something that God desired for the group through the lens of scripture.

Today it’s easy to find good communicators with a low view of scripture or bad communicators with a high view of scripture. It is very rare in the American Church today to find someone that not only has a high view of scripture, but can communicate it in a way that contextualizes the message for their flock while still contending for the most important theological points. Pastor Greg is man that has truly been blessed by God since he first started leading Fuse 5 years ago.

All that being said, keep Fuse in your prayers as they navigate these changes over the next few weeks and months. Pray that God will calm the hearts of those that have a hard time with change and that He would enable those that are already on board with the changes to encourage those that are still struggling. Most of all pray that Fuse will continue to be a place where God’s Word is not only heard, but is lived out in the life of it’s people on a daily basis.

[22] But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. [23] For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. [24] For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. [25] But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
-James 1:22-25 ESV

[58] Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
-1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV

When I’m at work I’m always looking over my shoulder. The desk that I am at is wonderful because it faces a window but he disadvantage is that the door and the rest of the office is behind me. I listen to music all day while I’m working but because we don’t all share the same taste in music we all wear headphones. All that means is that there is a lot that can and does go on behind me and I have to physically turn my head to keep up with everything that happens throughout the day.

The problem with this is that I continually loose focus on the task at hand. The majority of the time when I am looking over my shoulder what’s going on has nothing to do with me. And usually when there is something that pertains to me I am contacted directly via email or IM. My supervisor here is VERY good about communicating what he needs from me. His expectations are clearly laid out and the project managers that I work with are pretty organized too. Right now, I could do my job without ever interacting with a live human. Between email, IM and task management tools I could conceivably sit at my desk all day and never leave except for breaks.

So why do I have so much trouble focusing on what’s in front of me and find it necessary to keep looking over my shoulder?

The honest answer is…

Sometimes it’s because I want to be useful and be a problem solver and provide resources to my co-workers. Sometimes it’s because they are working on an interesting project and I want to learn more about it. Sometimes it’s because they are learning something new and I want to learn to.

But most of the time it’s fear.

It’s fear that causes me to look over my shoulder and want to be involved with the things going on behind me.

My fear is that whatever is going on behind me will affect or derail the project that is in front of me.

The problem is, looking over my shoulder is the problem, not what’s going on behind me. Learning to trust that whatever is going on behind me is probably not my concern (and in some cases none of my business) is a hard lesson for me.

Just like it was for Lot’s wife. She was concerned with what was going on behind her in Sodom and Gomorrah and the consequences for turning around was her life.

[24] Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. [25] And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. [26] But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
-Genesis 19:26 ESV (emphasis mine)

That can be so true for any of us…

I’ve spent a lot of my life looking over my shoulder in fear of the past and in distrust of God. I wish it was easy to leave my mistakes behind and press on toward what is ahead…

[12] Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. [13] Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 3:12-14 ESV (emphasis mine)

The phrase “straining forward” is the picture of someone running a race and hurtling themselves toward the finish line in a full body burst of energy.

Unfortunately I’ve been pretty lazy running the race these past few years. I’m not even sure if I’ve been running the race so much as sitting on the sidelines watching others zoom by with all their heart, soul, mind and strength toward the finish line. To be honest I’m not even sure who put me there to begin with. After the Firestorm and loosing my Mom, it was probably me who put myself there.

At first it seemed like the right thing to do. I had no business helping others when I couldn’t even help myself. How could I point others to a God whom I had grown to distrust. How could I point someone else to a Bible I barely read (past tense) anymore because I didn’t like what it had to say about pain, suffering and persecution. It all adds up to me taking myself out of the race and letting others pass me by while I “got better.”

The problem was I spent so much time looking over my shoulder at how poorly I ran the first half of the race, that I got distracted from the rest of the race still yet to come. But something inside of me is changing and I can only describe it one way:

I am now the underdog… and I LOVE the underdogs.

Just ask anyone who’s ever been around me during a major (waste of time) sporting event and you’ll know that I always root for the team that’s suppose to loose. I root for the horse that’s not favored to win. I root for the quarterback who’s lost all his games. I root for those bums the Dodgers. I love the come-from-behind-and-kick-butt story! The formula is built into every movie ever made!

Think about it…

Look at your watch the next time you’re at a movie that’s about 2 hours long and set your watch for 75 minutes in. The hero’s plans have failed. They are isolated with no hope and things are looking really bad. Then it happens! Something gives them moral support and it strengthens their character to the point where they are willing to continue. It’s the second turning point (or plot point if you’re old fashioned) and the final conflict between the hero and their obstacle will result in total loss or total victory and resolution!

I believe I have reached the second turning point. The first was turning my life over to Christ.

The second turning point for me is realizing that I know how this race turns out. So I’m warming up and getting ready to get back out there and finish this race well. I’m stretching some old muscles that haven’t been used for a while and I’m recalling my training.

And then watch out… Because this is one runner who not be looking over their shoulder anymore.

A long time ago I first watched an amazing and timeless film called “The Wizard Of Oz.” For those of you that haven’t seen it… Oh who am I kidding if you haven’t seen it you’re a looser…

If you know the story skip ahead of the summary below, but just note that you’ll be missing some potential inside jokes.

**PLOT SUMMARY BEGIN**

Twelve-year-old orphan Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) lives in rural Kansas with her Aunt Em (Clara Blandick), Uncle Henry (Charles Grapewin), and three farm hands, Hickory (Jack Haley), Hunk (Ray Bolger), and Zeke (Bert Lahr). When irascible townswoman Miss Almira Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) is bitten by Dorothy’s dog Toto, she gets a sheriff’s order and takes Toto away to be euthanized. The dog escapes and returns to Dorothy. She runs away with Toto to protect him.

Dorothy soon encounters a fortune teller (and professional Midwestern huckster) named Professor Marvel (Frank Morgan in the first of five roles he plays in the film). He guesses Dorothy’s situation. He commands her to close her eyes so that he can tell her fortune. While her eyes are shut, Professor Marvel sneaks a look at a photo of Dorothy and Aunt Em. He tells Dorothy that Aunt Em has fallen ill from grief, causing her to rush back to the farmhouse just as a sudden tornado rolls in. Unable to join her family in the locked storm cellar, she takes shelter inside the house and is knocked unconscious by a window which comes loose.

When she first awakes she finds herself up inside the cyclone watching people, pets and a pesky witch thumbing for hitch fly by her window. When the house lands, intact, she opens the door and finds herself over the rainbow in a magical but somewhat dangerous land known as Oz. Stepping out of what was up to then a sepia-toned black-and-white film into full three-strip Technicolor, Dorothy finds herself in a strange village. Glinda, (the “Guh” is silent) the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke), arrives magically via a bubble. She informs Dorothy that she (or rather her falling house) has killed the Wicked Witch of the East.

The timid Munchkins come out of hiding to celebrate the demise of the Witch by singing a medley that includes “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead“. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton again) magically appears and tries to claim her sister’s powerful ruby slippers. However, Glinda uses her powers to transfer the slippers from the dead witch onto Dorothy’s feet and reminds the Witch of the West that her power is ineffectual in Munchkinland. The Witch vows revenge on Dorothy (uttering her famous line, “I’ll get you, my pretty. And your little dog, too!”) before leaving the same way she arrived. Glinda advises Dorothy to seek the help of the mysterious Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City however Dorothy, being a girl, has no sense of direction. Glenda advises her to simply “follow the yellow brick road” in order to find her way to the Wizard. She warns Dorothy never to remove the slippers or she will be at the mercy of the Wicked Witch.

After a musical send-off from the kindly and whimsical munchkins, Dorothy soon faces a crossroads on the yellow brick road. There she discovers a dancing and musical Scarecrow (Ray Bolger again) that hasn’t got any brains. Dorothy finds him fascinating and invites him to go off with her to see the Wizard (the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.) Her reason is because, because, because, because, because, because of the wonderful things he does.

It’s not long before the duo becomes a trio after discovering a Tin Man (Tin Woodsman to be exact) rusting in the woods. He has no heart and would give anything to feel love. Dorothy and the Scarecrow invite him to join them on the trip to see the Wizard. After a brief second run-in with the Wicked Witch, the trio finally come face to face with a large but Cowardly Lion. The Lion is also seeking something: the nerve…

The three decide to accompany Dorothy in the hope that the Wizard will also give them their desires. Along the way, they behave in ways which demonstrate that they already have the qualities they believe they lack: the Scarecrow has several good ideas, the Tin Man is kind and sympathetic, and the Lion is ready to face danger, even though he is terrified.

Their triumph is thwarted temporarily by a field of poppies, poppies that make them sleep. In a pure Deus Ex Machina plot point, Glenda steps in and causes it to snow, thus putting the poison poppies plum out of punch and allowing the weary friends to arrive at the Emerald City. After getting cleaned up they are given an audience with the Wizard of Oz, who appears as a disembodied and imposing head. In a booming voice, he states that he will consider granting their wishes if they bring him the Wicked Witch’s broomstick.

They set out for the Witch’s castle, but she detects them and dispatches her army of flying monkeys; they carry Dorothy and Toto back to her. When the Witch threatens to drown Toto, Dorothy agrees to give up the slippers, but a shower of sparks prevents their removal. While the Witch is distracted, Toto escapes. The Witch says that the shoes cannot be removed unless Dorothy dies; she leaves to ponder how to accomplish this without damaging the shoes.

Toto finds Dorothy’s friends and leads them to the castle. After ambushing some of the Winkie guards, they disguise themselves in the guards’ uniforms, enter, and free Dorothy. The Witch and her soldiers pursue and corner the group on a parapet. Then the Witch sets the Scarecrow’s arm on fire. When Dorothy throws water on her friend, she accidentally splashes the horrified Witch. To everyone’s surprise, the Witch melts away. The soldiers are delighted. Their captain (Mitchell Lewis) gives Dorothy the broomstick.

Upon their triumphant return to the Emerald City, Toto exposes the Wizard (Frank Morgan again) as a fraud, opening a curtain and revealing a non-magical man operating a giant console of wheels and levers. They are outraged, but the Wizard solves their problems with common sense and a little double talk. He explains that they already had what they had been searching for all along and only need things such as medals and diplomas to confirm it. The Wizard reveals that he too was born in Kansas and that he was brought to Oz by a runaway hot air balloon. He offers to take Dorothy home in the same balloon, leaving the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion in charge of the Emerald City.

Just before takeoff, Toto jumps out of the balloon’s basket to chase a cat. Dorothy follows him, and the wizard, unable to control the balloon, leaves without her. She is resigned to spending the rest of her life in Oz until Glinda appears and tells her that she has always had the power to return home. Glinda explains that she did not tell Dorothy at first because she needed to find out for herself that she doesn’t need to run away to find her heart’s desire. Dorothy says a tearful goodbye to her friends and then follows Glinda’s instructions, closing her eyes, tapping her heels together three times, and chanting “There’s no place like home.”

The film reverts to sepia tone and Dorothy awakens in her bedroom in Kansas, surrounded by family and friends, suggesting she was unconscious the whole time. She tells them of her journey. Aunt Em tells Dorothy that it was all a dream, but she pleads otherwise. In any case, Dorothy promises everyone that she will never leave home ever again, for she loves them all, and there’s no place like home.

**PLOT SUMMARY END**

When I first started blogging 5 years ago it was a way for me to share my feelings thoughts, announcements about things that were going on as well lessons I was learning on the yellow brick road of life. I’ve met some interesting characters along the way, encountered my share of good witches and an even more abundant supply of wicked witches and flying monkeys. The reason I chose the name “Tales From The Yellow Brick Road” is because I feel as if I am traveling down the yellow brick road just as Dorothy did only this yellow brick road leads to more than the Emerald City.

Like Dorothy, I’m longing for home… An eternal home. It’s so easy to seek comfort in this world that’s over the rainbow. Filled with pleasures of all kinds both good and bad. It’s filled with friends for encouragement and enemies for discouragement.

Unlike Dorothy some people I’ve traveled with have already been called home but until God says otherwise, I’m still stuck here in Oz. I miss them and it’s inevitable that there will be others who go home before me. They know what I will some day experience… that there’s no place like home.

I’ve done my best over the years to share what’s on my heart and be honest with what’s going on in my life. Sometimes it’s too much and I get in trouble. Sometimes it’s not enough and I get in trouble. Somewhere is a balance between sharing my life in a VERY public (and now Semi-Permanent forum) and protecting my own privacy and the privacy of those that are a part of my life. If I could, I’d try and blog every day about things that I’ve learned, thoughts that I’ve had or frustrations and setbacks that I’ve experienced. The problem is my life is linked to others in my life who wouldn’t necessarily be thrilled if I was open and honest with the world about conversations we’ve had or problems between us.

Since the beginning of the Firestorm with my former church, and intensifying after my Mom went home to be with Jesus, I have NOT had the opportunity to be completely open and honest with my feelings, the things going on in my life or the lessons I’ve been learning. In other words this blog has been mostly useless for almost 3 years.

Therefore, I’d like to pose a few questions to you, the reader/subscriber:

1. Do I shut down the blog and keep keep it online as an archive of things that once were but are no longer, thus freeing me to take up other writing projects?
2. Do I go back to the original intention of the blog and lay my life out there for everyone to see? There will be consequences, embarrassment, relief and freedom on my part but for those in my life it could be uncomfortable and even upsetting because from time to time they may end up as a subject of a post or two.
3. Do I go back to the original intention of the blog and lay my life out there for everyone to see, but password protect it and limit access to just friends and family whom I trust? This may still be uncomfortable for some but at least it won’t be out there for the entire world to see.
4. Do I continue to heavily censor myself and end up not blogging at all because I rather be silent than be restricted to only those thoughts, feelings, topics and that are deemed appropriate and Politically Correct enough for those in my life? I’d remain guarded and secretive in my posts and everyone but me will be happy.
5. What do you thing should happen with this blog?
6. Do you like one of the above suggestions?
7. Do you have your own suggestion?
8. Do you not really care what happens one way or another?

You’re feedback on this is not only essential, but it will directly affect the decision that’s made. So what that means is you’ll need to leave a comment below. You can also email me but it any emails will be posted here. A lot of you may read this through Facebook and comment there, but I’d prefer a comment below. It saves me the trouble of transferring it over here, plus I want your thoughts to influence and bounce off the other suggestions and their descendants (if any) here.

IMAGE: Google changed their logo in honor of the 71st Anniversary of the World Premiere of “The Wizard of Oz”

I don’t have any fancy well-thought-out arguments. I don’t have pages of demographics statistics dating all the way back to the 1950′s. I don’t have a personal relationship with either person involved in this dispute. I simply have my opinions and I am about to share them willingly with anyone who’s willing to read this.

Here we go…

I use to watch The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was at the helm. I actually use to stay up late sometimes with my parents and watch part of the show with them. There was always a neverending flow of dazzling young talent and sketches that would leave me and my family in tears from the laughter. In fact I still imitate and mock Carnac The Magnificent every once in a while when I’m opening an envelope.

Then along came this guy named Jay Leno… and he was different. He never pulled off the stunts or skits that Johnny could and his sense of humor was not something that appealed to me. Every once in a while I’d tune in because a particular guest was on but I was never a regular viewer.

As I got older and discovered the magic of staying up late I sometimes would catch a glimpse of this crazy red-headed guy running amuck on a poorly lit stage. It was my friend Kenny that finally solidified things for me by recommending that I spend some time getting to know Conan and the show. From the first full episode I was hooked. He had the same zany, crazy sense of humor as Carson and was willing to do the physical comedy to bring solid entertainment to the masses.

When I heard that Jay Leno would be leaving The Tonight Show and that Conan would be taking over I was thrilled! Now I didn’t have to stay up so late to catch Conan… he’d be on right after our nightly dose of gloom and doom from NBC4 News. I actually got to watch the first show of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien on Hulu minutes after it was posted and needless to say I was blown away by the amazing high-tech, art-deco set that they had put together for the new era of The Tonight Show. Since he’s taken over the show I have only missed a few episodes but I have loved and enjoyed the energy and humor he brought back to the show.

At the same time, a good friend of mine had been working on a very successful TV show that was on NBC called “Life.” As a result of Jay Leno’s decision not to go off Television but instead to take over prime time, my friend lost one of the best TV jobs that he had ever had. This did not endear me to Jay Leno at all. In a time when the economy wasn’t that great, Jay Leno’s ego and desire to build some sort of lasting legacy (he can’t be doing this for the money) put people out of work and forever changed the landscape of Primetime TV. Of course we now know that this was a huge failure for NBC and that all the money they were trying to save was lost 2-3 times over because of their decision to let an ego maniac run their TV lineup. The final nail in Leno’s coffin is the fact that instead of bowing out gracefully from TV and calling it a day, he’s trying to get his old slot back and in the process is doing the very thing he promised he didn’t want to do. He promised that he didn’t want to have another “Letterman Like” incident where the obvious incumbent was shoved aside and was then lost to a competing network that would go on to kick NBC’s butt. And he also stated openly that if his Primetime venture didn’t work out that he would walk away from it and forget it.

At least that’s how I saw it…

But then it struck me that who’s really to blame is NBC… They agreed to put Primetime shows out of work, they agreed to the experiment to begin with and from what I understand they are the dominating force behind keeping Leno at NBC. Their problem is they don’t want Jay to go to a competing network and kick their butts like they know he would.

So there you have it….

Me personally, I like Conan and I think he should be the one to stay at 11:30. I think Jay needs to abandoned his failed experiment and if he wants to go to another network, fine. And I think that NBC sucks… good thing I haven’t sent any resumes there…

1. “Elizabethtown” – The phone conversation between Will (Orlando Bloom) and Claire (Kirsten Dunst) while they each go about their lives and talk for hours on end. When they meet in person, they realize the phone was better.

2. “Seabiscuit” – When Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) is trying to get Seabiscuit to calm down and tries using a goat. The goat then is launched through the air from the stable by the horse.

3. “Lord Of The Rings” – When Merry (Dominic Monighan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) light the dragon firework at Bilbo’s (Ian Holm) birthday party. Pippin’s scream is hilarious.

4. “The Matrix” – The entire conversation between the Oracle (Gloria Foster) and Neo (Keanu Reeves). I think that was the scene the made me like the movie despite Keanu Reeves.

5. “Amadeus” – The final scene where Solieri’s (F. Murray Abraham) story and bitterness devestates the Priest (Herman Meckler) and assures the audience that Solieri belongs in the institution.

1. Vantage Point
2. 88 Minutes
3. The Dark Night
4. Juno
5. Swing Vote
6. Zodiac
7. Live Free Or Die Hard
8. The Kite Runner
9. There Will Be Blood
10. “12″

Have you seen any of these? If you have, leave a comment and let me know what you thought about them.

Script
The script was amazing. I never felt more in touch with the writing of a film before. I could feel the rhythm of the script and how it flowed from on scene to the next and how each scene connected with the story as a whole and how it opened the window to the characters themselves.

Editing
Once again there were little things in the editing that were powerful in their symboligy. A certain camera move here a cut there really pulled the whole piece together but gave you those moments to chew on.

Music
By far this is one of the best soundtracks since Lord of the Rings. The music that is intertwined with the characters and the story is sublime. It adds but does not over-flavor the film as a whole.

Acting
Amazing cast! Never once did I see Legolas in Orlando Bloom and not once did think Mary Jane with Kirsten Dunst. They WERE their characters. I had such a connection with each character through the acting skills that I just couldn’t tell that these folks really weren’t Drew and Claire.

Overall
This is more than just a coming of age, road trip or love story. It’s all three and little bit more. This is probably one of the best movies I have seen and defiantly the best movie of 2005 for me.

“I’m Fine…”