On Acting Rappers and Athiestic Polar Bears...

My oldest son (Austin, 8) has turned into a voracious reader. In fact, I'm pretty sure the other day he was sitting with a book when he still had game time on the table for the day. What's more, when we hit up his teacher at Parent/Teacher conference her only concern was that he should read books at a higher level. My problem is that his reading skillz are out pacing his content level. Now maybe I'm just an over thinking, overprotective parent, but I'm already a little concerned about the 5th grade level books he's reading (nothing too bad, just some "Goosebumps" type books). His teacher says he should be reading early adolescence type books, but I checked his birth certificate again and he's not really scheduled to deal with puberty type issues til the two thousand teens. I guess I'm up for a little advice, anyone know any higher reading level, yet appropriate age level type books? And yes, I do realize this is classic parental bragging couched in a plea for help, so sue me.

Let's roll.

TV

I set my DVR to record Mitch Albom's new TV movie Sunday called "For One More Day". You may only know him for his often sappy (yet wonderfully engaging) mainstream literature (ie Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet In Heaven) but I fell in love with his writing as a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press. I would highly encourage you to check out his articles online at Freep.com and see the full breadth of his skill and emotion. Mitch has this incredible way of taking a sports story and finding the humanity and truth amongst the stats and figures. Here are his recent takes on The Detroit Tigers blockbuster trade, The Lloyd Carr resignation at U of M, and U of M running back Mike Hart. And if you prefer some Angry Mitch take a look at his ripping of Les Miles, ouch. The point is, even if you aren't a sports fan, you might be a Mitch fan.

Movies

Big news from the X-Files Movie front, as some more cast members are announced including rapper Xzibit as an FBI agent along side the classic Mulder Scully Duo. Even though it does feel like they are pulling a "Poochie" on us (10 Rollin points for the first person to ID that reference) I will withhold judgment until the movie is out. Rappers turned actors can run the continuum from Will Smith to Vanilla Ice or anywhere in between, the main thing is, NEW X-FILES MOVIE IS COMING SOON! WOO-HOO!

Music

Toby Mac and Jeremy Camp announced today that they are going to be co-headlining a tour together starting in February. This strikes me as the absolute perfect matching for a one-two punch, I honestly can't think of a single music fan who is also a Christian that wouldn't want to be at a show. They fill each others gaps incredibly well, like Rocky and Adrian but with better enunciation ("I dunno, she's got gaps, I got gaps, together we fill gaps", sorry just saw Rocky for the first time in glorious HD and it's still fresh). I can just see Jeremy telling Toby after the first show, "You complete me, Toby Mac, You complete me." Actually that just went to a really weird place, let's move on.

Game/Tech

Google announced this week that they have integrated AIM into Gmail. I tried it yesterday and it works great and now I don't feel like I'm leaving my AOL peeps behind. It's funny because I keep hearing that IMing is going away in favor of texting but I guess I just haven't gotten with the times yet.

Faith/Culture

I've been holding off talking too much here about The Golden Compass because I'm sure every one of us has gotten the email and read about it. But I will tell you that these comments by Phil Vischer (Veggie Tale guy) perfectly sum up what I would say, and by extension the article he links is the best and most even handed look I've found. Check it out.

Randomness

Find out what your Grinch name is here and if you enjoy it you can thank me, your friend Crabbymonkey Crankyshorts.