The Artist... My pick for BEST PIC!

It’s that time of year again, and although the announcement of the nominees were made yesterday, I wanted to give you my unadulterated picks BEFORE I get influenced by what different people might be saying… So here’s my picks according to my gut feeling, and I’ll keep this one relatively short and sweet – let me know what picks you may agree or disagree with and for whatever reason… Here goes:

Best Picture: The Artist (my favorite movie of 2011…)

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

Best Actor: George Clooney for Descendants

Best Actress: Meryl Streep for Iron Lady (although I want VIOLA DAVIS to win for THE HELP)

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer for Beginners

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer for The Help

Best Animated Film: Rango (where is TINTIN?)

Best Foreign Film: A Separation

Best Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants

What’s your thoughts on this years nominees? Are your picks similar? different?

OK so I didn’t get to see all the movies I wanted to see this year (I missed Tintin, The Beaver, Ides of March, Lincoln Lawyer and Moneyball, but will get to them eventually… and Hugo, Machine Gun Preacher and The Artist are still not out here in Singapore). But of the ones I did see here are my favorites.

Here’s some things I noticed this year:

• This is probably the first year a Pixar movie hasn’t made my top 10 for a LONG time (Cars 2 was meh…)
• (Is this the year of the dark comedy? Everything Must Go? Crazy Stupid Love? Win Win? 50/50?)

• I don’t know about you, but I thought the summers movies were pretty weak this year, with the exception of X Men First Class, Super 8, Fast and Furious 5 (yeah I said it) and Planet of the Apes (which I know many people weren’t expecting much from) the movies this summer were pretty average if not slightly above.

Again, just like my list of Top 10 albums these are not in any order, and yes there are others that I could name here as honorable mentions like Everything Must Go, 50/50, Drive, X-Men First Class and yes, Fast and Furious 5, but I’d be glad to hear of anything I missed in this years list:

MIDNIGHT in PARIS - Woody Allen’s best movie in YEARS – great screenplay, and the romanticism of Paris in the 1920′s lures you into this gem of a movie. Great performances from the Owen Wilson led cast, but the city of  Paris is the star – she never looked so stunning…

WARRIOR – Best fight movie in a very long time. Tom Hardy solidifies his place as an actor that our generation will be remembered for, whilst Joel Edgerton knocks it out of the part, and Nick Nolte gives one of the best supporting performances of the year. Well worth a look.

THE HELP - Two of my favorite actresses at the moment light up the screen (Emma Stone and Viola Davis) and although this one gets heavy in parts, I don’t think the laughing and crying ratio has ever been this broad in a movie. I truly did laugh out loud and, yes, audibly cry.

WIN WIN - Paul Giamatti has always been one of my favorite actors, but I must say, in this one, it’s the understated performance of Alex Shaffer that makes this one well worth viewing. Much like the aforementioned Everything Must Go, it’s the understated manner of execution that makes it well worth a watch.

SUPER 8 I am a fan of anything that JJ Abrams touches, so when I heard he was doing this with Spielberg, I couldn’t wait to see it. This movie definitely hearkens to my childhood – a definite shout out to that 1980′s fan of family sci-fi/fantasy in me. The 80′s was the final era where kids and their friends could run around everywhere on adventures – I think in this day in age for reasons of safety, the only one doing that now is Dora and her monkey friend. If you didn’t grow up in that era, I don’t think you’d enjoy this movie as much as I did. Oh and that train scene needs to be seen with loud speakers and a decent screen!

RISE of the PLANET OF THE APES - This movie crept up on me like a good sucker punch, then knocked me out until next week. Andy Serkis nailed Caesar, and if Midnight in Paris made Paris look stunning, this one made San Francisco look like one of the scariest places ever! No-one expected it to be this great, the epitome of going into a movie with low expectations and coming out knowing you’d seen a near classic. My summer movie of the year.

TREE of LIFE – I’d love to meet Terrence Malick, and although I’ve not necessarily been a fan of his films overall (I wasn’t ready for “Thin Red Line” before watching it, so came out a little bewildered only to watch it again much later and appreciate it more within it’s intended context), I’m definitely an avid admirer of his cinematography and his approach to the eternal themes underlying his movies. Tree of Life is probably his best movie to date if not his most ambitious, with strong performances (especially from probably the actor of the year, Brad Pitt) and a precise delve into the topic of the life (Everyone gets involved here from dinosaurs to Sean Penn!). This one is either one you’re going to love, or hate.

SOURCE CODE – Initially thought that this was going to be your run of the mill Groundhog Action Day type movie… Boy was I wrong… This is the ride movie of the year…

PRESS PAUSE PLAY - This documentary was so well presented for me as an insight into the relationship of creativity and the media age we live in here in 2011. This is a subject close to my heart and was the topic of many conversations I had with creatives this year… Why aren’t people as hungry today? Thought provoking…

What were your top 10 movies of the year? Which on my list shouldn’t be there? What should?

Although Jesus Culture released "Awakening" and Bethel also released "Be Lifted High" earlier this year, it was this project in particular that got regular repeated play with me. Plus "Love Came Down" and "Worthy is the Lamb" are two of my favorite Brian Johnson songs, that this time get the full treatment (Wasn't Love Came Down a gem of an album last year!?). A great year in general for Bethel's worship ministry.

(Oh and btw, can I say that Jay Z and Kanye’s “Watch the Throne” was the most overrated album of the year – haha!)

Here’s what I was playing this year (apart from ALL THE WAY by ENCS MUSIC of course… haha!)

(Please note that the albums mentioned are rated purely according to musical and experiential taste as I listen to the projects. By saying these albums are great, I’m not subscribing to every one of these artists worldview necessarily.)

Raphael Sadeeq still knows how to bring it, and this to me is his best project to date. Just solid soulfulness throughout…

He ain't lost it at all, in fact I'm surprised more people didn't pick up on the new project. At 70 years old, Paul Simon still writes genius tender yet aware commentaries for our era.

This will be and should be on every top 3 list for best album of 2011. This was her year, and this is a classic album. Beautifully raw on every level, with everything perfectly placed.

This one got regular play in my car throughout this year. Great handling of tough subject matter (i.e. where's God when it hurts) lyrically, and no-one can touch Kirk's vocal production. Thankful for this album.

"Ghosts Upon the Earth" is a great experience from beginning to end and is everything I look for in an album - a thorough project that drips of genius musically yet stays cohesive as a story from beginning to end. A logical step up from my favorite worship album of the last 3 years "Beautiful Things".

Although it seemed Black Thought's lyrical prowess was not at it's regular peak on this particular project (don't get me wrong his worst is often better then most MC's best in my opinion) it was pure sonic bliss from beginning to end much to the credit of the industry's favorite drummer Questlove. The album plays out a gangsters life almost Benjamin Button style - starting from the end of his life to his birth, whilst thematically using the backdrop kind of like a hip-hop Ecclesiastes: that all in this life is fleeting...

Coldplay, like the Roots make a welcome return to the concept album, and this one generally put more smiles on faces than most darker albums this year.

My favorite Samoan MC reps Christ hard and this is his best album to date. This one had heads nodding to some of the most consistent theological rhymes ever written. Oh and did I mention T-Dot is Samoan? Had me mumbling "Dum Dum diddy" for half of this year...

One of the best and most underrated lyricists in all of hip hop, Braille comes out of the dark on this one. If last years classic, "Weapon Aid" represented the raw pain that Brian Winchester was going through at the time, then "Native Lungs" represents his journey towards restoration. Great production and great to see DJ Revolution and DJ Rob Swift doing their thing on this too... Hip Hop needs more artists like Braille (download it FREE on http://humblebeast.com)

The heart behind ALL THE WAY

We're the ALL THE WAY generation

After experiences and conversations that were similarly themed with books like “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan and “Radical” by David Platt, I felt heavily on my heart to begin to write songs that would inspire people back to the cross of Christ, where Christianity has it’s roots and culmination.

THE CROSS: His extravagant love for us… His relentless pursuit to glorify the Father… His heart for the broken, as he became broken… His desire for us to go deeper in Him… and us finding our purpose in worshiping Him. These are some of the themes that we chewed on for over a year, meditating on relevant scripture.

At the heart of it all came the catch phrase:

Because He went ALL THE WAY for us… We will go ALL THE WAY for Him…

Collaboration 

One of the things I most enjoyed working on this album as opposed to our last project, “ABOVE” (2009) was the growth in collaboration within our worship and creative team. Everything from the arrangements to the artwork was collaborative. We spent two months in intense rehearsals, where enhancements would be made. What often would be presented initially as shells of songs with bare melody/lyrics would come out sounding astoundingly multidimensional. We were all brimming with excitement!

It was great to collaborate with other songwriters like my good friends Mhel Benito, Rhea Gonzales, Mike Blanding and of course, my singer/songwriter sister Alarice Thio. Then to have my brother IlyMark Maniano as music director, and the band affectionately yet unofficially known as The Elevators helping with the musical arrangements, there was a deep sense of God glorification happening. Add to this the wonderful contributions of our great engineer Kevin Foo, and of course our mix-master Josh Telford at Grove Studios in Sydney and this album kept feeling like God’s project, because none of us single-handedly could take credit for it.

When you listen to it, it’s hard to put your finger on it genre-wise. For instance, listen to the song “Who Will Go” – our “Great Commission song”. Alarice’s beautiful melodic voice blended with my hard-recited rap lyrics. For some reason it works – I think it’s a Holy Spirit thing.

The launch with Citipointe Live at Cornerstone Community Church

The collaborative nature of ALL THE WAY did not end with the production of the album – we launched ALL THE WAY at Cornerstone Community Church here in Singapore which was a huge blessing to us. So thankful for Pastor Yang and his team for making us feel so welcome in their newly restored auditorium.

With Citipointe Live singing both versions of "You Reign"

To top it all off, we had our good friends from Brisbane, Australia: Citipointe Live come and launch the album alongside us. What an honor it was to have them come alongside us and help us give this project the lift off we felt necessary! Shout out to Aaron and Becky Lucas and the whole Citipointe Live fam… (They really are like family to us!)

You can get ALL THE WAY at any Christian Bookstore through Integrity Music, or online at Amazon or iTunes online globally. 

Worship is more than music...

"We welcome you... JESUS!"

Don’t forget to get your FREE TICKETS to our ALBUM Launch on 18th November by CLICKING HERE!

ENJOY – hope you’re blessed: 

As ENCS Music (my worship team at our church here in Singapore) are in the studio recording the new album “All the Way” this month, I felt led to get the team to read Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 6 and the first 4 chapters of Revelation, looking at a few of the similarities in those particular passages of the encounter of the supernatural presence of God.

The Four Beings

Ezekiel 1

I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, ⁵ and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man, ⁶ but each of them had four faces and four wings. ⁷ Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. ⁸ Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man. All four of them had faces and wings, ⁹ and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.

¹⁰ Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. ¹¹ Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward; each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two wings covering its body. ¹² Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. ¹³ The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. ¹⁴ The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.

Revelation 4

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷ The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸ Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.

I’m fascinated at the choices of animal that God chose to reveal in this encounter that the exiled Ezekiel and the imprisoned John had. The lion, the ox, the man and the flying eagle – in both the Old Testament encounter and New Testament. Why were these animal faces looked upon in particular as being the faces that these worshiping winged creatures had. I checked out a few commentaries, and I enjoyed what I found.

The Lion - Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commented that the lion is a representation of the ROYALTY aspect of the enthroned Jesus. This can also be seen as a precursor from Ezekiel’s perspective and a confirmation from John’s perspective of the gospels (although the gospels were not necessarily confirmed from a canonical perspective at the time of the writing of Revelation). So if the animals were the four gospels, the lion with be Matthew – whose emphasis is the royalty and the identity of Christ as the foretold coming Messiah.

When compared to the four sub-camps of Israelites that left Egyptian slavery, the symbol of Judah camp was the lion.

The Ox - The hard-working goaded animal who plows the ground work for seed to be sown. Most gospel scholars will tell you that Mark served as the foundational text for the other two septuagint gospels, Matthew and Luke.

The camp of Ephraim was the one with the symbol of the ox, and Ephraim camp would be opposite facing the camp of Judah. A reminder that although royal in identity, there was still hard foundational work to be done for the Israelites in plowing new ground.

The Man - Luke referred to Jesus as the “Son of Man” and drawing from Ezekiel’s reference. It was here also in the gospel of Luke that we find the detailed depiction of Jesus as the man, in his suffering and in his relationships with those around him. The camp of Reuben was the one that would have the man as the emblem, and would be situated south of the tabernacle. To be “south” in the Genesis allegory, was to be “down” not just geographically, but also subservient in relation to the Tabernacle, which symbolized the meeting place of God at that time.

The Eagle - and not just any eagle, but a soaring eagle. John was that gospel, with his high picture of Christology, pointing primarily at the divine nature of Christ, and featuring the 7 miracles and 7 “I am” statements of Christ. The tribe of Dan was the tribe represented with the Eagle crest, and was of course situated north of the tabernacle, signifying the opposite side of man, being the nature of the God whose ways are far higher than ours.

There’s much more in the symbolism of this imagery, but I feel it necessary to highlight, that it is within the context of worship and communion that we encounter these creatures. These too are clues as to how God should be viewed in Jesus Christ, that he is indeed the majestic Lion of Judah who devours injustice, yet at the same time he is like the Ox who has laid the groundwork for our salvation through the cross. Jesus is like the Eagle who is the embodiment of Heavenly truth, yet at the same time Man who is able to empathize with the suffering – because He has been there…

I just watched the above video featuring my favorite female Gospel singer Kim Burrell. Now even if you’re not a fan of the genre of Gospel music, there’s so much going on in this video, especially as she introduces her friend, Whitney Houston. I’m sure everyone reading this knows at least slices of what Whitney has been through…

Here’s 3 things I noticed watching this, that I felt like God whispered to me:

1) Whitney, although she didn’t miss a note, she doesn’t have the power in her voice that she used to. A massive note to a musician and a pastor like me, that the instrument of my voice is temporal, and to thank him for his grace.

2) Whitney is thankful for the friend that she was blessed to have in Kim Burrell – (watch from 4:40) This was massive to me – that Whitney is acknowledging the love that Kim Burrell showed her as a friend through her hard times. LORD let me be the friend that you desire me to be to those who are in need of your love – non-judgmental, ready to present the Gospel message of  love and liberation through my life.

3) Whitney seems to recognize that the LORD is her source of restoration. By God’s grace we can experience true restoration and victory in Him – come to him!

Speaking of restoration, I can’t wait for this new album from Da TRUTH, and watching this video of his own story of restoration between he and his wife Nicole is proof of God’s beautiful love:

Here’s a video of one of his new songs from his new album, that speaks of that restoration too – THANK GOD and EXPERIENCE HIS RESTORING LOVE TODAY!

Uncle Andrew and I having a laugh after I split my pants at our staff photoshoot... He always knew how to turn tragedy into triumph...

In Samoan culture, the term “Uncle” is probably used a little more liberally than most cultures, used to acknowledge older male family members, and possibly friends of family. But not usually any more than that. So it was to my surprise in Singapore when every taxi driver, every older food stall attendant, and every male 20 years older than me became “Uncle”. I wasn’t used to it.

Andrew Soon is my pastor, Larry Matsuwaki’s father-in-law. He is known affectionately as Uncle Andrew in our church. And I can honestly say, that he wasn’t just an uncle to me because he was older. He was an uncle to me in every sense of the word, just like any family uncle I have back home. He passed on to be with our God on Saturday August 27th 2011. I’m telling ya, that apart from my family members, I’ve not had the loss of such a presence of a human being so sorely missed as my champion, Uncle Andrew…

Here’s what I’ll miss mostly about Him:

His Humor

For those of you who know me, know that I love to laugh, and humor is so vital. This is probably the quality that he possessed that reminded me most of my own father – His ability to make people laugh. I told the staff at ENCS that Uncle Andrew is the only Singaporean to ever have made me laugh to the point of rolling on the floor. There was and is no-one funnier – No one had the knack of monologuing like Uncle Andrew – NO ONE. Which leads me directly to:

His Story-Telling Abilities

With such vivid sharp perception he took you into his multi-lingual opinionated world in High Definition and 3D. And his adventures were global, from stories of airport adventures in Canada, to healing adventures in Sri Lanka, to missionary adventures in China and Indonesia. No one told a story like Uncle Andrew, complete with sound effects, Singlish quips and body movement re-enactments.

His Street Knowledge

No one knew where to find any kind of good deal like Uncle Andrew did. From food to household supplies to moving trucks to builders to mechanics, Uncle Andrew had contacts for days throughout Singapore. His file-o-fax is a national treasure. And talk about an ability to bargain!

His sporting abilities

Uncle Andrew ran rings around me and other contemporaries on the badminton court. I played him a couple of times, and with him not even trying, he made me look like Mr Bean on the court.

His Servitude

If you knew Uncle Andrew you’d know that he embodied the Christ like servant-leader. Nuff said.

His Passion for Christ

Uncle Andrew is one of the strongest evangelists and faith-men I know in South East Asia. At a time when most people are winding up, Uncle Andrew was preaching the gospel and making disciples to the end. Even in his hospital wards in his last days, Uncle Andrew would tell of his relationship with Jesus to anyone who would listen, and some of his ward-mates would become followers of Christ because Uncle Andrew preached to them. That’s finishing strong. It was always a joy to me looking up from the floor of Vivo City GV Max as I lead worship and see Uncle Andrew in the back row with his tear filled eyes and hands lifted to his God in worship – because Uncle Andrew was a true worshiper.

We miss you so much Uncle Andrew, and are so thankful to God, and to the Soon family for sharing Uncle Andrew with us. As we say in Samoan – “Manuia le malaga” (have a blessed journey (to Heaven))

So how do I end this 40 day spree of blogging? By talking about sustaining what I have learnt.

I know that it could be a blog about praying more, reading Scripture more, even one about intimacy with God. Those are all valid.

But this time around I want to end, by talking about sustaining what I do for God, because if there is anything, I want to finish this race well. (Again making reference to the end of 2 Timothy and 1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

For me, this lies in that which is conceived during my lifetime, and especially in this season of my life, I know a lot of it has to do with sustained creativity.

_____________________________________

I’m reading “Untitled: Thoughts on the Creative Process” by Blaine Hogan. For those of you who don’t know who he is, you might remember a presentation he did at Global Leadership Summit last year:

He mentions in his book, about the battle to break through the haunting sense of the blank page. Whether life, or making your dreams happen – here’s a video intro to some of the thoughts addressed in the book:

It’s kind of a beautiful way to end this 40 day blogging spree… of which I hope to keep momentum: to hear of someone who has taken their ideas and made them a reality. Here’s a few pointers he gives:

1) See potential in the blank page… It doesn’t have to be haunting.

2) Write something down – get disciplined in making regular entries, and setting aside time to work at whatever it might be.

3) Meaningful work always has constraints: whether budgets, deadlines or resource limitations.

4) Solving interesting problems or “landing planes” brings excitement to life. It’ll always be hard, but it should also be fun.

5) Stop associating the excuse of disorganization as a trait of creativity. Good stewardship of creativity requires organization.

6) Being eccentric doesn’t necessarily make you creative.

There’s so much that I’m learning just being halfway through the book, but I did want to say, that through making a commitment to plough through writing daily, I think that discipline is more important to me than discomfort. In fact, I know that the discomfort is usually the best state for me to be in to produce, and I’m learning to embrace productive “awkwardness” as an ally. I’d like to invite you to do the same, as we tread through the next 40 days…

Thanks for riding with me…