Tuesday's Tunes: Come All Ye Faithful

O come let us adore Him!

Merry Christmas!

Song of encouragement: "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus"

I faced the unenviable task of choosing songs for worship this past Sunday morning that would compliment the theme of "Joy" for our Advent series, a task complicated by those in our congregation (and our nation as a whole) still in shock and grieving for all those affected by the tragedy in Newtown, CT. In my head, I knew that the level of participation of the congregants would run from "I'll sing anything that's put on the screen" to "I want to smash that guitar over your head for forcing me to sing these happy sounding songs when I'm anything but..." and everything in between.

I struggled to find an appropriate response song that would both point to the Lord to be our Comforter and Keeper in our time of confusion and need, as well as touch up what is the heart of this season of Advent: the expectation and preparation for Jesus' coming, and stumbled upon the hymn Come Thou Long Expected Jesus:

   

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Big monsters on the big screen

I don't know how I missed the trailer for the movie Pacific Rim in my last post, but Guillermo Del Toro is directing a giant-monster flick that is sure to look amazing given his past films:

   

I came across this trailer from MTV Geek's article "Know Your Kaiju: Preparing For The 'Pacific Rim' Giant Monster Invasion" if you're curious for more info on the movie and a bit of history on the "kaiju" phenomenon.

Trailers galore!

Some great trailers floating around this past week or so:

Star Trek Into Darkness with BBC Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch as the as-yet-unnamed-antagonist? Sign me up:


Man of Steel looks simply stunning:


And a very clever mash-up with the Street Fighter x Mega Man trailer, fan-created to celebrate anniversaries for both franchises:

TV Time

I thought I'd share some quick bullets and what I've been watching lately:

The Walking Dead: The fast pace of this past half-season has totally made up for all the time WASTED on Hershel's farm last season.  

Revolution: In my ever-failing quest in finding a Lost-like show, main protagonist Charlie is a Katniss-wannabe that makes you want to pull your hair out. We tried it for three episodes, but couldn't take it anymore. For your reading pleasure, I submit to you 23 Stupid Things Charlie Has Done on Revolution.

 
Food shows: I haven't watched any food-related shows in awhile, but recently added The Next Iron Chef and Top Chef to the DVR. I was also recommended a new show on PBS featuring David Chang and Anthony Bourdain called The Mind of a Chef.

Through Netflix, I went back and finished up season 2 of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, and I'm really glad I did! There were a lot of great twists and the plot and action was fast-paced as the show was not being renewed for another season. I'm thoroughly convinced some writers need a set finish date and that television shows should not be allowed to just linger for all eternity.  

Key and Peele: My favorite new sketch comedy show. I eagerly await each new episode, although I need to go back and watch season one. I crack up every time I think of this skit:

Zombie rom-com

Warm Bodies: It's a zombie romantic comedy...and it doesn't look bad:

Team Coco and the Walking Dead

Zombie drama The Walking Dead has been tearing it up (heh heh...) this season, and much to my delight, was featured on Conan recently:

Tuesday's tunes: Christmas Time is Here (Instrumental)

Christmas Time is Here...and that means the play count goes up on all of my Vince Guaraldi Trio tracks in iTunes :) What, no one else obsseses over their music listening stats?

*crickets*

Old Super Mario

This is the saddest/tenderest video game-based comic I have ever seen:

Old Super Mario (Tiny Cartridge)