Defeating A Resolution

As I mentioned at the top of the year, I have a lot of goals in 2016. One of the most important ones, (to me) was to start reading again. My goal was a total of 5 books in 2016. I'm quite happy to say, I managed to do in under 4 months!

Here's a run down on what I read and what I thought of each book.

House of Silk - Anthony Horowitz

House of Silk is the first official book in the Sherlock Holmes series since the death of the original author - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I was sceptical at first... but did Horowitz ever nail this one. He managed to capture Doyle's writing/ mystery style perfectly. The mystery itself... was unexpected. It took a pretty dark turn pretty fast in the last few pages. However, as a die hard Sherlock fan, I'm still glad I gave it a read.

House - Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker

Peretti and Dekker more or less wrote the books that defined my childhood. I stayed up really late getting absorbed in Thr3e, Blink, The Oath and The Circle Trilogy (which had 4 books in it....). More recently, I haven't been able to enjoy Dekker as much. Still love Peretti.

House was o.k. It didn't seem like a Christian book for the first 300 pages... by the time the allegory kicked in it didn't really work for me. The set up didn't line up with the payoff. After waiting years to read this... it was a bit of a let down.

Murder On The Orient Express - Agatha Christie

As you may have noticed, I like mystery/ thriller novels. This is a classic, so why not? Well, it turns out it's a classic out of a series of classics... so I kinda dropped into the middle of the main character's run as a detective! Once the mystery started, I enjoyed it. Before that I was confused as to who everyone was and  why the book was acting like I should know who they were!

Airframe - Michael Crichton

This book both made me terrified of flying and totally confident all at the same time. It's about a plane crash that shouldn't have happened and the investigation to figure out why it did. I learned a lot about air planes, most of which probably isn't true. However, if I even get into a discussion with a pilot, I may actually understand him now! The book was enjoyable. There was some strong language in it, so bare that in mind before picking this up.

The Visitation - Frank Peretti

After the disappointment of House, I decided to revisit my favourite Peretti novel. Would I still like it as much as I did as a kid?

Yes. Yes I did! It's weird... I've had a lot of life happen to me since I read this the first time. That life experience made me appreciate this book all the more. It's not a book for everyone. especially if you don't like supernatural elements. However, if you're a Peretti fan, grab this one! It's 520 page masterpiece of thrills and faith. My Christian walk is better for reading this one.

There's what lead to a successful resolution! What have you been reading? I need to get some new books!

On-Air With Manafest

New things are good and bad. 

The bad is - something has to change for it to become new. Change can be scary. But the good part is that you get something fresh. Something that you never would have experienced before hand.

Saturday nights on LIFE are changing.

We've got a new show called On-Air With Manafest. There's no hidden meaning in the title. It's literally a show hosted by Manafest.

It's also awesome.

Seriously. It is. I'm not just saying that as an employee, I'm saying it as a fan of music and radio.

Starting at 9:00, Manafest takes over for 2 hours. He plays some of his favorite songs, tells some stories and gives some insights into the life of a touring musician. 

If you are a fan of music or Manafest (or just like to be entertained), check it! You'll be glad you did.

Kingdom Bound 2013 - Day 3

Talk about a busy day! We got things rockin' and rollin' at 9:30... as in, that's when we left the hotel. DJs, as it turns out, take a lot of time to get their faces done up. 

After hanging out around the rides for a bit with some friends (which included a ride on giant moose... sorry, no pictures) it was time for the music to begin again. 

I only caught the tail end of We Are Leo. What I saw was impressive! They did their new single (listen for it Monday!) as well as another song that had a long dubstep break down. It was awesome! Plus, they had a keytar!

If all that wasn't enough, I even got to chat it up with David Duffield (lead singer). Which, lead to a photo op!

Then it was onto Shine Bright Baby. I am really loving their song "Beautiful Love"... but they're originally a punk band... so what would the live show be like? 

It turned out to be a cross of fluffy pop sounding stuff and punk rock. Was it a bad combo? Not in the least! 

Afterwards, another photo op presented itself. I couldn't say no!

Project 86 was next up. They were the loudest band I have ever heard live. It was pretty crazy. No pictures. Just imagine head banging and mohawks and you have it!

Two years ago at Kingdom Bound, I saw an up and coming band called For King and Country. They were awesome. I've loved 'em ever since. I was really excited to see them this year to see how their live show had changed. It's 10 times better!

4 sets of drums going at once, an accordion thing and a cello. Not to mention the piano and guitars. It sounds like it would be an eclectic train wreck. Instead, it was a musical masterpiece. If you ever have a chance. Check them out!

Thousand Foot Krutch was next. Man, that was intense. They did all their hits like " Let the Sparks Fly", "Be Somebody", "Falls Apart" and "Fire It Up".

Then the moment everyone had been waiting for, Newsboys. They have changed a lot since I last saw them. Now, they have huge video screens projecting the band members onto them with funky lighting effects. It made for a bright show! Plus, we got to hear 3 tracks off their new album Restart... that's not out till September!

And we get to do it all over again tomorrow with Mercy Me! Looking forward to it!

The Almost

Whenever I really love a band, I'm always scared of seeing them live. The thought of a group that brings me much joy being loose, boring or using tracks really does scare me. I'm not kidding.
The Almost is no exception. I really loved their album Monster Monster... could their live show be able to top the awesomeness they captured on the disk?

Yes. Yes it could.

I joined a buddy of mine at the 905 Venue in Whitby (Ajax/Oshawa... it's sorta confusing) on Sunday for the concert. Amazing venue for a youth group. It's in an old club so it's ideal for music, smoke machines and merch. Plus, that's where they do youth!

After a really good worship set and quick message, The Almost took the stage... wow, did they take the stage.

Unless I am mistaken, no tracks. I heard mistakes, which is very refreshing. However, they were few and far between.
Aaron Gillespie has one amazing voice. Going from singing to yelling to singing with ease. It makes for quite the dynamic... add in 3 guitars all doing different things.... well, you get the idea.

They covered instant classics like Monster Monster, Lonely Wheel and Hands as well as some stuff from their new (!) album Fear Inside Our Bones. After hearing the title track, I'm Down and Ghost, I'm more excited than ever for the April 9th release.

Afterward, got to grab a shirt and bumped into Aaron.

All in all, a really stellar night.

The Amazing Spider-Man - Review

Back in 1990 Michael Chichton wrote a book called Jurassic Park. It's a really good read (despite some language). In '93 the book became a really good movie (despite the language). The catch though, was that they were two very different beasts (pun intended). The characters, locations and story were basically the same, however there were a lot of huge differences in the plot. But, they both worked.
Sam Raimi did the same with the first 2 Spider-man films (as said in my last post, the third didn't really happen). The characters, locations and story were basically the same, but the plot and way things transpired were way different from the comics.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a re-boot of that series.
It's selling itself as a dark, gritty, untold tale, truer to the original.

It's gritty, and that's about it.

I really, really wanted to like this movie.
However, I just can't. There is no character arch to any character, and even the attempt at an arch messes up. It comes off being a little fake.
If you know the comics, you will suto be able to call the shots with the film. That said, it sorta messes it up just enough to get you mad, instead of becoming it's own thing (see Jurassic Park or Spider-Man).

The villian is also drab. You never really understand what his motivation is.... other then moving the plot along.

On the bright side -- Emma Stone is really good as Gwen Stacy. She was great in The Help and really proved her chops here. She even looks like comic book Gwen. Kinda creepy really... Andrew Garfield was good too, he pulled off the "Punky Parker" quite well.

The action choreography was good. It stayed fast while not getting too complex.

There are already two (yes, TWO) sequels in the works for this film, here's hoping for a winner in 2 years!