Star Trek: Beyond and Independence Day: Resurrection

Two science fiction movies began to get attention in the past couple of days.

Fans have long been waiting for and jumping on bits of internet gossip surrounding a sequel to the 1996 science fiction action film, Independence Day. Rumors were flying in recent months about the cast. A recent article by Deadline: Hollywood claims that two scripts were written for the Independence Day sequel. One that would include Will Smith reprising his role as Steven Hiller and one that would not. When Smith decided not to take the role, they had a backup ready to roll.

This first trailer doesn't give a lot of information, other than the aliens are returning (may have stayed around anyway - based on the graveyard scene), David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) has been preparing for this for some time by refitting Earth defenses from the wreckage of the last attack, and President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) is pretty haggard. I'm looking forward to this film, as I thoroughly enjoyed the original.

The trailer for the newest installment in the J.J. Abrams parallel timeline, reboot Star Trek series dropped today as well. Abrams is not directing this time, however. We have Justin Lin who is best-known for his work on 3 of the Fast and the Furious films. Star Trek: Beyond's first trailer shows quite a bit of story line and lets us see what happens when, as Eric Deggans puts it, the final frontier pushes back. Unlike some, I have really enjoyed this re imagining of the Star Trek franchise, mostly due to the essential unity in character. While their lives may have been different, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest all have essentially the same character traits and personalities that made the original show and movies what they were. I'm looking forward to this one as well.

2015 Bookroll

I took most of the year and read a single series by genre-jumper F. Paul Wilson. I ran across his Repairman Jack series near the end of 2014 (around the time Agnes was born) and was enthralled. Wilson wrote 20+ books around this central character and an epic adventure spanning millennia. He refers to it as The Secret History of the World. The idea intrigued me. His core material was the five-volume Adversary Cycle, one of which introduced Jack as a character. He then began filling in the gaps and writing more Jack books and other short stories that touched on the events of and themes of the core conflict between Rasalom and Glaeken. To that end, I spent much of the year engrossed in that long narrative. It was a lot of fun. If you enjoy mystery books with a central character (think Jack Ryan or Jack Reacher), you might want to try these out. I recommend reading the order from the Secret History of the World, linked above. 

Cold City - Jacks's first adventure begins

The Keep - set in WW2, this spin on the vampire will surprise you

Dark City - continuing Jack's progression to Repairman extraordinaire

Fear City - the conclusion of the early Jack years, finishes with a bang

The Tomb - the first Jack novel from the Adversary Cycle and the appearance of the Rakoshi

Legacies - Jack helps out an estate conflict and learns about free power

Reborn - The third Adversary cycle book chronicles the rebirth of Rasalom, thought to have been killed at the end of the Keep. 

Aftershock and Others - has a few stories that relate to the Secret History

Conspiracies - UFO hunters, Nichola Tesla, and a hole that leads to nowhere

All the Rage - a new drug made from Rakosh blood wreaks havoc in New York and Jack's own life

Hosts - When Jack's sister shows up in New York needing help, the reunion gets tricky when she calls on Jack accidentally. 

The Haunted Air - a house with a supernatural past is now the home of two "mediums." How will their little scheme play out when a real ghost shows up?

Gateways - When Jack's dad is the victim of a hit and run, he rushes to South Florida to help. Trouble follows him, or is it already there. 

Crisscross - The main story advances as a missing persons case for Jack. All the while a global conspiracy is hiding inside a Scientology-like church organization. 

Infernal - When Jack's brother needs help, Jacks ends up taking a trip to Puerto Rico. What he finds puts all he loves in danger. 

Harbingers - After rescuing a friends niece from some ritualistic weirdos, Jack runs afoul of a group of highly trained vigilantes, related to the twins he saw go down the hole in Monroe a few years ago. 

Bloodline - Jack's special talents may be more than coincidence. It might be in his blood to feel the Otherness. 

By the Sword - the appearance of mythical samurai sword keeps the events of the Secret History rushing toward their conclusion, especially when Glaeken shows up. 

Ground Zero - What if the terror attacks of 9/11 were orchestrated to bring about Rasalom's return?

The Touch - the third Adversary book follows a doctor who can heal with a touch. But it costs him too. 

Reprisal - The fourth Adversary book takes place in North Carolina and follows disgraced priest Bill Ryan as he is hounded by Rasalom, who will stop at nothing to even the score.

Fatal Error - Why would you want to crash the internet? To eliminate the noosphere, of course. 

The Dark at the End - While Jack can't engage Rasalom directly, his continued friendships with Weezy and Eddie reveal some interesting discoveries back in their childhood home. 

Nightworld - When holes begin to appear and things from the other side begin to emerge, you know the time has come to finish the Adversary Cycle and end the Jack storyline too. 

I also read most of The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler. 

I attended a lecture series by Brian Godawa with my fifteen-year old and read through some of his book, Hollywood Worldviews. 

I managed a read through Kevin DeYoung's book, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? 

As the year draws to a close, I am reading a few items. I'm re-reading Donald Kagan's The Peloponnesian War. I'm about halfway through One Shot, by Lee Child (the Jack Reacher book that formed the backbone of the Jack Reacher movie starring Tom Cruise). 

Grandpa's stamp of approval?

On Facebook, I follow a lot of folks from in and around the Reformed tradition. Some of them have stepped into the waters Anglicanism, following the issues around Federal Vision and whatnot. Recently, I saw the following on a Facebook post, " A good way to test whether your worship music is keeping the 5th commandment: would your grandpa know any of it?"

Now, I understand the argument that our worship music, and the rest of our worship, should be appropriate. What I don't get is the disdain for and ridicule of development and innovation. What seems to be advocated here is a chronological standard on music. If it isn't music (lyrics are not distinguished - so the poster must include tune, instrumentation, etc.) your grandpa would know then you are in danger of violating the 5th commandment.

Was the canon of music sealed along with that of Scripture? If so, where is the sheet music? I know no one who would suggest such a thing. There are those who insist that the Psalms are the only songs worthy of singing in public worship. But then these same individuals typically use music to accompany the Psalms that was written in the 16th and 17th centuries. How did this music get the "grandpa" stamp of approval?

As an aside - those who insist on singing the Psalms don't sing them as found in the Old Covenant text, but as reworded and rethought with references to the church and Christ.

Indeed, how does anything get the "grandpa" seal of approval? One quick glance at history will show the elders typically resist any change or innovation to the status quo.

Imagine if we applied this same 5th commandment test to a host of other issues. How about agriculture? If we applied this test rigorously we would not have any machines for agriculture because the medieval world seriously resisted the industrial revolution. How about science? We all know how strenuously the "grandpa's" of the world reacted to the learning of Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe, and Kepler.

Now I understand that all this begs the question of how we should think about and allow innovation. I don't have a good answer for this, which I'm sure seriously violates the "grandpa" principle. I'm just being a troublemaker. I'm pointing out the flaws in another system without proposing any alternatives or even endorsing an existing alternative. I have no rebuttal for this, as it is completely true.
I'm hoping that I'm not the only one thinking this way and that I'm not the only one turning this over in his mind. Maybe with a few of us carefully dissecting the issue, we can come to a thoughtful response.