BOOK REVIEW - "BASIL OF BAKER STREET" (THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE BOOK 1) BY EVE TITUS

 

When I saw the release of Disney's movie "The Great Mouse Detective" in '85, I saw a story that interested me. I didn't realize that this book was of the series "The Great Mouse Detective", and that the first story was written by Eve Titus the year before I was born. 

So, I finally watched the movie 40 years after it came out, and read "Basil of Baker Street," which had been around for 68 years. I enjoyed both. Several of the plot points of this story appeared in the movie, such as the main characters masquerading as a boat captain and his mate.

I would recommend this to children, regardless of whether the childhood is the first one or not. By the way, the first five books were written by Eve Titus between 1958 and 1982, and Cathy Hapka revived it with three new stories from 2018-2020.

BOOK REVIEW - "LETTERS OF PAUL IN 30 DAYS" BY TREVIN WAX

 This is part of a collection by Trevin Wax, Vice President of resources and marketing at the North American Mission Board, and a regular columnist for the Gospel Coalition. Others include "The Life of Jesus in 30 Days" and "Psalms in 30 Days."

This book is divided into Morning, Midday, and Evening readings for 30 days. Each includes a reading from Paul's epistles, but they also include other things. The Gloria Patra and the Lord's Prayer are included in each reading, meaning you're reading those portions 3 times a day, 90 times in the reading. Some of the other readings are from Scripture, but you also have the Apostle's and Nicene Creeds, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Reforming Catholic Confession, in addition to quotes from church fathers and other Christians from the past.  

When reviewing "The Life of Jesus in 30 Days," I started out by saying, "Definitely the best liturgical book written by a Southern Baptist I've read." Well, this is tied with it. I highly recommend it. This is a good way to have an organized devotional time. 

MEDIA REVIEW - CLASSICAL DESTINATIONS: AN ARMCHAIR GUIDE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC BY SIMON CALLOW

 

Classical Destinations: An Armchair Guide to Classical Music is available in three forms of media: Video (I believe it started as a PBS TV show), book, and music CD. I believe there are three seasons, and what I'm reviewing is season 1.

The format of the video and book is looking at various European cities and the classical composers that came from that area. The scenery is beautiful in both formats, and the CD is also enjoyable.

For those who want a nice overview like this, you'll enjoy it. It's pleasing to the eyes and informational. However, I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Reasons?

• This series focused more on the history and being a travelog than on the artists. I, on the other hand, wanted more focus on the composers.
• Related to above, the book lacks an index. Thus, I had to dig through the book to find out about the artists I was most interested in.
• Also, when I looked at the menu, I found the episode I most wanted to see on the first of two DVDs was the 7th of 7, dealing with Praugue and one of my favorite composers, Dvorak. But starting with the 2nd episode, the numbers are off, and instead of being on Prague, the 7th episode dealt with Venice, which was program #6 accordig to the guide.

None of those diminished from the quality of the product. If you saw the series on PBS, you'll enjoy having at least one of the formats. And the book would make a great coffee table book.

ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE IN ART - GOOD, BAD, NEUTRAL?

Post by author and videogame enthusiast Joanne Maciejeski, posted by Readrise.

I've heard about AI for a few years. I've heard the debate if there is demonic activity involved with it. Then, I went to a denominational convention and meet a couple of gentlemen promoting AI. My favorite is the quote in the photo above.

In the past year, though, I've seen more entries into my corner of the world. On one side, I see the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board promote their AI programs on Facebook (for those who don't know, both groups are Southern Baptist). On the other end is the task of figuring what is real and what isn't. There are pictures that you know are not real. In music, I've seen artists who have a new recording out every week, making me suspicious if it is AI (I've learned some is). 

At this point, I'll put the issues of whether Christians should use it or if there's negative spiritual activity there on the shelf for someone else to deal with. This blog is primarily on whether Christians should support AI art (including music and writing) or not.

One of my favorite Pod Casts, Rock 4 Him, have stated they will have no part with Artificial Intelligence, promoting only real artists. I applaud that concewrn. On another PodCast, Lithoscry with Glenn Remsen, he interviewed the grou KillDevil Theory, who used AI to help on the video. They commented that the AI leaned toward using nudity, so they had to keep an eye on what they were doing.

You probably know that I have lists each year of my favorite songs and books. I haven't seen any evidence of AI in books I read, but I have noticed a few groups that have so much stuff coming out, I'm suspicious. I looked up a couple of the bands I questioned, and AI notivied me those projects were AI. I'm already going through songs for this year's list, and caught two AI bands and took them off. Unfortunately, the first song I heard by one of the groups made it onto my top songs last year. I'm debatint on editing the group, four months late removing the AI band, and adding one group whose spot on the list was stolen by AI.

About a week ago, there was a discussion in Christian Rock and Metal, about whether we should listen to AI music. I asked three of the responders for permission to share their comments, which is below. 

Davon Edelinski - "Depends. Do you view worship as a consumable product, or a meaningful expression of your soul before God?

If Christians themselves don't understand the importance of an actual human soul in creating and performing worship music, then we might as well call it a day and stop even trying with this Gospel thing. I find it truly disheartening to see people calling AI-generated thing the same as an artist being formed by influences." 

Katie E Slater - "If you understood what AI did, it should be automatically known to be wrong to do. AI “trains” by stealing real bands/artists work. Any vocals or musical instruments are not “creations of AI”…..they are stolen from others. Stealing is a sin. Therefore it’s wrong. People who say it’s a “tool” for “artists” are 95% of the time lying. A tool is different from what is almost always happening. A tool is something one uses to help tweak things, not become the whole process.On top of that, no computer should be topping charts over real artists. And AI is also going to play a part within the next 5 to 10 years of government overreach/control/survaliance.

David Schmidt - "I’m not into AI for creative endeavours for a few reasons. One is that AI just uses what’s already in existence. So all you can ever get is something that sounds like what has come before. Plus the reason outlined by others here - taking others work. I’d rather encourage those who are creating. Keep looking - you’ll find bands you like that are real people."

Interesting topic. I'd love to see what you all think. No

 

BOOK REVIEW - FACE TO FACE VOLUMES ONE AND TWO BY KENNETH BOA

 I was at a prayer-for-missions training back in '13 (called "School of Prayer for All Nations), and we were given a copy of Face to Face Volume 1. While I haven't come up with an island list of books, definitely Volume 1 and possibly Volume 2 would be on the list.

"Face to Face Volume One: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship" is my favorite devotional book. It is desired for a 90 day reading. Each of the three months have 31 readings. The goal of that is that you have something to read each day.

Each of those days are divided into 8 parts of prayer: 

1. Adoration (praise to God).
2. Confession of sin
3. Renewal
4. Petition (includes a paragraph for deeper prayer, with seven variations).
5. Intercession (includes a paragraph for deeper prayer, with seven variations).
6. Affirmation.
7. Thanksgiving. 
8. Closing Prayer.

 Each of these sections include usually two passages (sometimes three). I love it because it is focused on praying Scripture, which Boa uses his own translation for, worded for it to be a prayer from us to God.

Of course, this gave me interest in "Face to Face Volume Two: Praying The Scriptures for Spiritual Growth." It has several similarities - being designed for 3 months, and being solely Scripture. However, this volume is more focused on Spiritual character. The readings are divided into 5 areas:

1. The Attributes of God.
2. The Works of God.
3. My Relationship to God.
4. The Character I Want to Cultivate.
5. My Relationship to Others.

The readings for Volume 1 are longer than Volume 2: 3-4 pages and 2-3 pages respectively (probably because of the number of sections). There are a lot of verses (probably the majority) that are in both Volumes. 

These can be read separately (Volume 1 for the first three months, Volume two for the next quarter). Recently I read Volume 1 in the morning and Volume 2 in the evening. 

I usually end a review on whether I recommend the book or not. If it isn't obvious, I highly recommend both Volumes, and especially the first.

ARE THE NO KINGS RALLIES JUST A WARM-UP? PLUS, AN UPCOMING SERIES THAT IS NOT COMPLETELY UNRELATED.

King David Playing the Harp by Gerard van Honthorst

You may have heard of the "No Kings" protests. They seem to think that President Trump is acting like King Trump. I personally believe its because he's doing what he said he'd do (politicians aren't supposed to do that, are they?) 

The biggest issues that are driving that are the views on illegal immigration and transsexuallism. Sorry, but mind translates these respectively as condoning law-breaking and as telling God He goofed in creating us. 

Before I go further, I don't consider myself a MAGA fan; I might even identify more with the label "Deplorable." I have questions on how Iran is being handled or some of his other policies. Like every other President between Washington and whoever we elect in 2228 (no, not a typo) he has both good and bad points. 

In reality, both major parties act like they're monarchs. We currently have a country divided, with both sides wanting their rights protected to the point it removes protection of the rights of their opponents. My opinion, but are any No-Kings crowd ready to stand up for me not using the right pronouns or not wanting my taxes to pay for Planned Parenthood or make sure that we keep the bad guys from crossing our border?

It hit me, though. The reality is President Trump is just a President, not a King, and answerable to the true King of all the earth, Jesus of Nazareth. Former VP candidate Sen. Tim Kaine argued that he felt better with rights coming from the Government preferable to being given by a creator. Could it be that a lot of our leaders as well as a good portion of U.S. citizens want to be accountable only to themselves and not the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Yes, I ended on a question. I'm not sure I've got the answer. Do you have it? Please let me know.

But now, I'll look at my plans for the blog. Yes, it's mostly reviews and a few opinion pieces like this one, and I'm not finding time to do interviews. But I do have in my mind a series. It's inspired by a comment the Southern Baptist University's Presiden Al Mohler said on The Briefing, that many believe creating art requires transgression, both in their work and in their lifestyle. It crosses over into my interest in the arts, which is a major reason for me starting this blog, and thoughts on heroes (super and otherwise). So I'm going to hopefully have that possibly in May, or maybe in June or July (no later than that). 

Let me know what you think. I'm looking forward to writing the series, and hope you are to reading it as well.

MOVIE REVIEW - DIXNEY PIXAR "THE INCREDIBLES" AND "INCREDIBLES 2"

I'll confess - I haven't been interested in most Pixar films. So far, I've only watched three, two of which I thoroughly enjoyed, the third not so much ("Finding Nemo"). In case you can't guess, the two I liked were "The Incredibles" and "Incredibles 2."

"The Incredibles" came out in 2005, the same year as "The Fantastic Four," which was interesting because three of the Incredibles had power matches with the FF (super strength, elasticity, and invisibility). However, the two movies had nothing in common. The Incredibles not only has the action you'd expect from a superhero movie, but it also deals with family issues, plus some good philosophy: ... I was going to give a quote, but that would have spoiled it.

Fourteen years later, Disney/Pixar released "Incredibles 2." It had big shoes to fill, and succeeded, keeping the charm that was in the original. There are hints of being a formula movie comparing the plots, but they both have their unique emphasis. And most of the time, the original is better and more enjoyable than the sequel, but this is an exception.

One difference between these movies are that they're rated PG, no "13" added to it. The Marvel and DC movies are always rated PG-13, with a couple pushing the envelope for an R rating. One possible reason "the Incredibles" movies earned the straight PG is because it is aimed to be a movie that parents can feel comfortable bringing the whole family to. Now, as you'd expect, there are things that are aimed more at adults in both films, but if I had kids I would gladly watch the film with them. 

I thoroughly recommend both movies.