A New Blog

Julie and I have begun a new blog with our thoughts about what we are going through now with our unborn little girl, Magdalena Grace. I have posted the link to the right (Noah and Julie's Blog). It can be extremely therapeutic to write from the heart during difficult times. Please feel free to read from it and leave comments for us. Thanks!

This One's for You, Baby

A couple months ago, Julie and I went to experience our first 3-D concert movie, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert. Julie is a big fan of Hannah/Miley and I love seeing concerts, so we both figured it would be at least somewhat enjoyable and interesting. We weren't sure about investing $30 to go see a movie, but we knew we had no shot of ever seeing this show live and this was as close as we were going to get.

Walking in and being handed the goofy 3-D glasses reminded me of when I used to go see movies back in the 80's (yes, I am that old so feel free to insert old people jokes here) that were 3-D. I particularly remember Jaws III. Awesome!

As the movie got started, it took a while for me to get used to the 3-D as my eyes and brain needed to adjust. After adjusting, I was amazed at the effects of the camera work and how cleverly things were shot to give a fuller effect of being at a show. The movie gave many views of the show that could not have been seen in person. At times it was a bit dizzying, but overall it was very well done.

The movie also provided a good bit of behind-the-scenes footage. I found this to be the most interesting. I was impressed to see how much work goes into putting on a show of this size. Miley works very hard to rehearse well, promote her product, and perform with a tremendous amount of energy. It also showed Miley a bit nervous about a certain move and also showed her making mistakes here and there. Thinking about this later, I came to the conclusion that all of this is probably good for a lot of teens to see. They can see that what Miley is doing as a superstar requires a tremendous amount of work. Yes, she has some talent, but she also works very hard to put on a good show. It also shows that she is much more like them than they might realize and, hopefully, they can resist the temptation to worship her too much.

The funniest part of the movie was seeing clips of fathers dressed up like Miley with full make-up, wigs, and high heels and having to race each other to try to win tickets for their daughters to see the show live. It is amazing what fathers will go through for their children.

There were also some touching behind-the-scenes such as Miley teaching one of her songs to her father, Billy Ray, that she wrote for her grandfather who had passed away. We also got a short glimpse of Miley and Billy Ray practicing his hit, "Ready, Set, Don't Go", but I was disappointed that they didn't show them performing the whole song live. That is probably my favorite song of the Cyrus family (even more than "Achy Breaky Heart", if you can believe that).

I can't say that I am a big fan of Miley's music, but I did gain a bit more respect for her after seeing this show. She is a pretty good singer and will almost certainly get even better as she grows up a bit. She is also very energetic and actually puts on a pretty entertaining show, although it is clearly intended for young teens. I am impressed with her band who were very tight and did a few interesting things musically beyond what I had expected.

A part of the show included the extremely popular group called the Jonas Brothers. To me, this was the low point of the movie. I see them and think that they are just a poor version of Hanson. Hanson writes all their own music and performs it very well. I have actually seen them in concert and came away extremely impressed. The Jonas Brothers may help write some of the songs they perform, but they aren't anywhere near as musically talented as Hanson, from what I can tell. They play the crowd and the cameras well (at least two of them were actors on Broadway) but they don't play their instruments much and when they do, it isn't particularly impressive.

I really like the fact that Miley writes a lot of her own songs. That is, to me, a huge deal. Too many pop artists are simply fabrications of the enormous music industry who simply do as they are told and are promoted until they are famous. Miley is certainly promoted by Disney, but she had to earn her spot on the t.v. show that got her started, and a lot of her music has a lot of her own heart in it, as young and juvenile as it may seem to some of us.

Miley has also been a very good role model for kids today. She has kept her image clean for the most part (the Vanity Fair pictures were not nearly as scandalous as they were made out to be and she publicly apologized for the misperception) and seems to know where to draw lines. Her lyrics are not suggestive and it was refreshing to see her and her backup dancers do routines that were not oversexed, which is certainly against the trends of the day. So far, she has kept herself clean and classy, but we will have to see if she is shaving her head in a few years.

The concert movie was overall a delight. I did not feel that I wasted my money and I was certainly happy to be able to take my lovely wife to something that she would really enjoy. The movie wasn't long enough, but it was good while it lasted. Of course, for me, the best part of the whole movie was when the drummer hit his stick on the floor tom and made it bounce high in the air. The camera angle (in 3-D, mind you) was directly from above, and the stick coming right at me and then going back down right into his hand just in time to continue playing was amazing. If you or your (much) better half like Miley at all, I recommend the concert movie experience.

Edwards on Man's Pursuit

"Jesus knew that all mankind were in pursuit of happiness. He has directed them in the true way to it, and He tells them what they must become in order to be blessed and happy."

~Jonathan Edwards, "Blessed Are the Pure in Heart"