Jude's Barbershop

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Last weekend I decided to venture outside my comfort zone and try a new barbershop. I was at work when a co-worker mentioned to me about his experience at Jude’s Barbershop. After listening to him explain his experience and the cost of the cut, I decided to give it a try. As I entered the store I was shocked to see flat screen TV’s at every station with college football on all of them. The walls were completely covered with pictures and movie clips directed towards the male gender. Another thing I noticed was they had a video game system set up for waiting customers to play.
After signing in at the front desk I waited for about 20 minutes for the next barber. When she was ready I sat down in her chair and was asked what kind of hair cut I wanted. I told the lady what I wanted and she proceeded to cut my hair while I watched a great football game. While cutting my hair she offered me a free massage and an after cut wash and rinse. This was the first time I had ever been offered those types of services at a barbershop. After she had finished with the cut and explained everything to me about all the services I was given my bill. To my surprise I only ended up spending $17 and was given a coupon for 10% off on my next visit. Upon leaving the Jude’s I decided to check into the number of locations they have in the West Michigan area. They have 13 different locations all over the West side of Michigan. They also have more plans for expansion and the barber that was cutting my hair told me that every store she has worked at has pulled in a large amount of cliental. After the service I received and the friendly guy atmosphere I would highly recommend to any guy to check out Jude’s for their next hair cut.

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Perks of Being a Wallflower: Seeing the Kingdom

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            The movie Perks of Being a Wallflower was aflawless tale of overcoming the empire. It is the story of a young man namedCharlie starting his first year of high school. Trauma and the loss of his bestfriend do not make this an easy journey for Charlie; he spends the beginning ofthe year alone until he meets Patrick and Sam who welcome him to “the island ofmisfit toys”.  This film reinforces therepeated message of the Bible: caring for others. It is human nature to needothers, after all no man is an island. Throughout the movie, the characters cryout for the kingdom as they try to escape the suffering of the empire. This is evidentwhen Charlie and Sam ask why the people they love allow people to treat thembadly, to which a teacher responds that people accept the love they think theydeserve. We all accept what big corporations, advertisers, the “matrix” tell usis true rather than search for more—the kingdom.The origin of evil and sin is beingnumb to the pain of others. Charlie is tormented at school (call him names, riphis book, etc.), Patrick is harassed for his sexual orientation, Sam is used byguys, and the list goes on. As Christians, we are called to help each other;yet, the people in Charlie’s life are continually hurt by the system of theempire. However, the film does not leave us feeling as if the grasp of theempire is inescapable; it leaves us with hope. Charlie struggled throughout themovie, but with the support of his friends, he becomes a stronger person. Atthe end of the film, we are left with the feeling that there is hope in theworld, hope for moving toward the kingdom of God. Redemption comes from community. ThoughCharlie and his friends have troubled pasts and continue to struggle throughlife, their friendship helps them. Twice while with friends, Charlie speaks ofbeing infinite. I think this is code for the kingdom. The kingdom exists insidethe turmoil of the empire and, with the support of his friends, Charlie stumbleson the path towards the kingdom. He becomes infinite through the kingdom. Charliesubverts the ruling authority by leaving the comfort of the empire. During thescene where Charlie is in the hospital, the doctor asks Charlie to let her helphim and Charlie agrees. He leaves the denial of the empire in order to face thetruth and uncover the path to the kingdom.
1)      Howcan we help others subvert the empire?
2)      Doyou think that there is still hope in the world?

Cultural Artifact 2 | The Words

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This weekend I watched The Words, originally shown atSundance Film Festival; a romantic, mysterious and suspenseful drama about ayoung writer by the name of Rory Jansen, played by Bradley Cooper, who finallyachieves his life goal of finally writing a book that a printing house willpublish. The only catch is that he didn't write it; instead he found it hiddeninside of an old briefcase that he finds in an old antique shop. As his eminencerises and his novel skyrockets in the bestselling ladder, the truth haunts himwhen the elderly, original writer confronts his actions.Typically I'm not one for romantic movies, given that they’reunrealistic and entail foreseen events that are idealized for the 21^stcentury couple. Instead, The Wordscaptures problems that every writer, publishing house, suffering relationshipand distressed pasts undergo. Redemption plays a glacial role in this movie. Lying and guilttransform into content, demanding viewer interaction with the morals involved.Through layers of history interpretation, the culture of the two faded intomore of a “let it be” mentality between Rory and the nameless “old man” (theoriginal writer), played by JeremyIrons. The old man at first comes off as threatening, like Christianity seemsto most people, but with time and workability, the words he was writing, forthe woman he loved counted for the both of them, for both of their losses. Ibelieve that this movie connects with the class because of the cultural pull-stringsthat the empire inhibits upon us to steal anything that is inspirational to us andcall it our own, instead of making things our own for God’s kingdom, as Crouchasserts in chapter one, page 25 of CultureMaking, “Culture is not just what human beings make of the world, it is notjust the way human beings make sense of the world; it is in fact part of the world that every human beinghas to make something of.”

1. Does enlightenment sometimes provide irrational decisions?2. In The Words, Rory had gone months with writer's block and printing houses denying him the approval of publishing his work. Why do we sometimes feel entitled to sin when things seem impossible?

Cultural Artifact 2: PSY's 6th Album (6 甲)

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For my second cultural artifact, I chose a Koreanalbum that includes 2012’s hottest song, Gagnamstyle:Psy’s 6甲 (6^th album). InJuly 2012, Artist Psy introduced the album after two gap years of his previousalbum. The album brought great expectation as five tracks of the total sixtracks were featured by five top Korean singers. The album and artist receivedits greatest attention, especially when Gangnamstylebecame a world famous song. Although all the songs were written in Korean,this link contains translated lyrics of the tracks for your betterunderstanding: http://www.nomorelyrics.net/psy-lyrics.html.I especially have decided to listen to Psy’ 6 album because its worldwidepopularity might blind listeners to judge apocalyptic meaning correctly.
All of the Psy’s track included “love” asits components. Songs like “Passionate Goodbye,” “What Would Have Been,” “NeverSay Goodbye,” and even “Gangnamstyle” described relationship from variousaspects. Listening to the songs and reading the lyrics, I realized that thealbum is signifying relationship and love as essential purpose of human beings.In the song “Never Say Goodbye,” for example, a relationship is descripted asongoing process of life that will always coexist with humanity (“Comedies and tragedies are all plays thathave an end, life is just an instance of those. Out of my remainingdays, I'm the youngest today. So I'm leaving to somewhere again”). Whileone of the Kingdom’s qualities definitely includes healthy relationship, someof the tracks (such as Gangnamstyle) explicitlyencourage the listeners to consider relationship based of appearances, sexualappeals, and shallowness. Ultimately, the album is both depicting and conveyingthat humans are born to belong to another sex for vacancy in relationship. Asthis relationship compromises content for most of the album’s songs, it showshow a life can be devoted to follow the empire’s concept of relationship in oursecular world.

Secular world, or the Empire, has been explicitlyrevealed in this album. Gangnamstyle isstill being loved by people around the world, reaching over one billion viewerson Youtube. However, the message that lies behind the song implies of standardsof cool guys and girls in a glittering city like Gangnam, where all the richand authoritative Koreans dwell. This sexually appealing song defines “beauty”and “sexiness.” Like the qualities stressed in the Empire, the song valuessexuality, wealth, toughness, playfulness, and irrationality of men and women.Unlike the Kingdom where beauty is found just as we are, it is polished throughvarious additional false attachments. “My first cigarette was electrifying, myfirst kiss was sweet, my first sex was intense,” arefew verses from “Seventy Seven 101.” These verses convey that enjoyment in lifecomes from what the world considers as fun. Immature listeners would absorb thelyrics and take it for themselves. In these songs, God’s Kingdom cannot befound even unfortunately.
In the song of “Blue Frog,” finally there is someappearance of God’s Kingdom. The song basically discusses of being different inthe restricted and generalized society: “I’mnot wrong, I’m just different. If you say it’s a problem, then it’s aproblem.” This verse encouragespeople to not conform to the society norms but develop ourselves according towhat has given to us. In another perspective though, the song also manifestpostmodernism that is ruling our generation, as it claims that right and wrongdepends on one’s judgment.
The album might have created regarding theseconcepts to appeal to general social norm, which reflects majority of theempire’s values. Whether the artist’s intention was to discourage or encouragethe listeners to pursue the Empire, the album has certainly impacted fragileaudience to loose judgment and discernment as it is popular in our world.
sexually appealing, sets the standard thatwhat is beauty and sexually appealing has to be wealthy, talks about beautyquality of men and women.
Gangnamstylewas thrilled all around the world with its secular danceand appeals. “what is being regarded as ‘popular’ andtransforming our lives?”
For audiences that are unable to makecertain judgments on a cultural artifact, should this album be available to allpeople? Or where should the responsibility of guiding immature audience towrongful thoughts lie to? 

She's The Man

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Adapted from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, She's The Man is one of my personal favorite films. A teen romantic-comedy, She's The Man is the story about a girl named Viola, played by Amanda Bynes, who's girl soccer team got cut at her high school. Therefore she pretends to be her twin brother, at the rival high school he attends and joins the soccer team. Throughout the film with the complications of almost blowing her cover, cat-fights in the bathroom, to falling for her roomate, She's The Man is a funny movie.

However as She's The Man is not a 'Christian' film, this artifact talks about evil in the empire about the sexual hierarchy. The film may not address the issue directly but it is implied. As mentioned before Viola becomes upset at the fact that her high school cut her soccer team. When Viola finds out she adresses the issue to the men's soccer coach and comes up with the idea of allowing the girls to try out for the soccer team. Hearing the idea, the soccer coach laughs and mocks the girls and saying that girls can't do anything boys can and that boys are just better than females. This scene then goes with what  Walsh and Keesmaat were trying to explain in chapter 11. Even though it says in the bible that women should be 'under' her husband, the woman is also to be set free of the hierarchy of the empire. Even though I may sound like a feminist by this point, even though I am not, I believe that there should be an equality treatment to both sexes. Some may be upset at the fact that a woman can throw a football better than a guy or that a guy can knit a scarf better than a girl, but despite the 'abnormal' examples, that doesn't mean that we should treat each other poorly. Instead we should be happy and encourage one another.



Even though women may or may not be able to do everything a male can, why do you think that women should or should not be limited to what they can do?

How important is communication?

Weird is the new normal

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The Bachelorette is movie directed and written by LeslyeHeadland. It is a comic twist of what the reality of an Americanhas become to be. The movie centers in three friends that have been asked to bebridesmaids of the “last member of their clique” in high school. Reagan (aperfectionist and jealous friend), Gena (a sarcastic rebel) and Katie (anot-very-book-smart girl) while mocking Becky (the soon-to-be-wife)for being aplus-size, they break the wedding dress hours previous to the ceremony whichleads them to go through a series of “adventures” involving drugs, sex andlove. The movie shows that the empire has been controlling us in a way that makesus believe that if we do the “right things” – go to school , have an education,be beautiful in the societal limits, be a size 00… we will find someone to getmarried; even though, that is obviously not how you find someone to love. Even thoughthe movie itself was the typical American movie where the characters do allthese "messed up" things to fix something they did wrong, it makes you reflex onhow people have been influencing you in a way that you say to yourself, “youare not perfect, you need to be more perfect or else you’ll end up alone.” Not onlydoes the empire encourage us to distortion the beauty that God has gifted us,but also to make the not-right-things “the norm”. For example, the movie portrays sexbefore marriage as a completely normal thing, Why? Because in the twenty firstcentury fornication is being practiced by many, even Christians; majority wins,right?  Also, even though the charactersdid drugs, no real police men were found addressing the problem. Although themessages: love always wins; everyone is beautiful the way they are; there arestill gentlemen in the world, but also “jerks”; if a door closes, there isalways a window opened, etc. were developed, other issues of the real world were shown asnormal things , although they are really important and sensitiveproblems (sex before marriage, adultery, abortion, swearing, stealing,prostitution, racism, etc.) But there is a catch, even though the empire wants to monopolize our imagination (believing either that there is only one way to serve God and that Christians should act a certain-determined way or that there is no God and we are "free" to do whatever we want to) we should always remember that God wants us to use our "weird" imagination to glorify His name in different ways according to the talents He has given us -which are all different.
As I said before, the actual message of the storyis good, but do you think that because of that all the other “bad things” canbe justified? Do you feel like society has been pressuring to be a certain way?Knowing this, would you keep being influenced by narrow-minded standards? 
trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aXt6qV4WoAreview: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20620160,00.html