The Omen, Children Of The Corn, Suspiria, and other ungodly horror films

It's freaky movie month here at the xhurch, and having always fancied myself a horror buff, I realized recently (while browsing an "all time best" list) that there are countless titles—many classics even—that I've never really seen.

A handful, as it turns out, I only think I've seen—an effect of having walked the Hollywood Video horror aisle umpteen times in my pre-teen years.

Fast-forward to the present and a trip to the back room at Movie Madness is all it takes to realize the oceanic depths of the genre.

But The Omen, how had I never seen The Omen.

The less you know going in the better, I say:

The Omen
Children Of The Corn
Suspiria
Pet Sematary
Jaws
The Exorcist
Rosemary's Baby
The Shining
The Thing
Let The Right One In
Phantasm

This list is no doubt a fragment.

Suspiria is a movie to see.

Energy $avings + Cold Xhurches

I'm thinking about energy savings and efficiency a lot lately. The xhurch is getting cold. But I'm just talking like 55 degrees-cold and it already feels coooold. I'm trying to imagine 40's or god-forbid, 30-anything. So I'm looking at heating it, but I gotta find a way to do it affordably. Weather-stripping and frugal usage I think will be the key. At a minimum, I'll have to heat the place enough to keep the pipes from freezing, but I also have to work, and you can't type very well in Bugaboos.

I guess the point is, that I'd kinda planned on roughing it this winter. Wearing a parka and sleeping with a scarf tied around my head, where dreams of sweet Spring would surely be dancing. Well, it's October, and while I haven't said uncle just yet, I can anticipate saying it real soon. So I called NW Natural, and they gave me a good tip. Ceiling fans. Do I have them? they asked. Why, yes. Yes I do. This will help keep the warm air from simply rising and collecting in the 3,200 cubic feet of vaulted ceiling space, 9 feet above where it's of any use to me. And so, while turning on the fans seems like a counter-intuitive thing to do in the winter time, this just may help keep me a little warmer on a budget.

Park51: Just Another Community Center, or Sly Theocratic Implement 'Victory Mosque'—You Decide!

The whole "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy has been sensationalized. I've thought to cover it here, but why stoke the fire. Plus, if I allowed every public interest story with a religious motif to obligate me, I'd be committing myself to a life of solitude and digital abandon.

That said, the recently released artist's renderings for the proposed Park51 community center (formerly, Cordoba House) have spurred my interest. What they depict is a strikingly contemporary design, featuring an irregularly-patterned, honeycomb-like facade (reportedly based on abstractions from traditional arabesque patterns), and a crystalline interior that, as the above linked AP article put it, "could be an annex to Superman's Fortress of Solitude."



But aside from the somewhat adventurous look of the proposed community center/prayer facility, I'm interested mostly by what the look has to say about the mood of the building's proprietors. Clearly its meant to signal a break from the past. But in what direction does it point? And to what extent is its modernized aesthetic merely an appeal to secular society? Essentially, how much can the immutable doctrine of Islam really be expected to change?

Here's the best of three articles I read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/03/park51-building-ground-zero-mosque

Portland churches (Killingsworth)

more at Flickr.