Monday Out on the Mall

After lunch with OKCalvin yesterday, Amy and I sauntered over to the US Botanic Garden for a bit to look at flowers, cacti, and ferns. We also viewed Russian paintings at the Smithsonian International Gallery, checked out Cai Guo-Qiang’s Traveler (see below), and stopped for mocha at the Castle before Amy had to head back home to NJ. ‘Twas a great day for it all.

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Here’s us at the Botanic Garden, resting in the shade of a banana tree.

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The Castle, seen from the Sackler Gallery ground floor level.

(My cheeks are getting fat, aren’t they?)

Awash in a Porcelain Flood

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At the Sackler Gallery, Cai Guo-Qiang’s “Traveler” sits: the weathered wooden frame of an old Japanese boat, flooded with broken shards of porcelain plates and statues of the Buddhist goddess Guanyin. It’s a fascinating exhibit: the sheer quantity of shattered porcelain flows over the decayed timber like sea foam, speaking to the viewer of a spirit broken and a faith lost to time. Or something.

Lunch with OKCalvin

Today was a real treat, as I took today off from work so Amy and I could meet up with OKCalvin and his family for lunch at Air and Space. The DC spring-break-and-field-trip crowd was fairly thick, but we managed to get a seat, and over gyros and hot dogs we talked about theology, aeronautics, pastoring, families, the rolling prairies of Oklahoma, other bloggers, and Soviet moon suits.

Here’s us with aforementioned Soviet moon suit:

Da Vinci Code Roundup

It’s come to my attention that the Vatican has finally gotten down to saying something about The Da Vinci Code. Somewhat late and needless, I think, considering that the issue is already in the process of being beaten to death.

The most frequent defense of Da Vinci Code I’ve seen is that “it’s just a work of fiction,” therefore its various slams against church and art history aren’t meant to be taken seriously. The gist of the problem, however, is that Dan Brown starts with sensationalized fantasies and known hoaxes advocated by a minority of historical revisionists. He then casually attempts to pass off these fringe conspiracy theories and hoaxes as the “factual” foundation upon which his story rests. Dan Brown still insists that Da Vinci Code merely attempts to put forward these revisionist histories as a kind of “open mind” exercise, but if that’s so, then the fact that parts of the book still come off as more of an anti-Catholic propaganda hack piece is testament to the fact that he’s simply a bad writer.

More links on the matter:

I hear that a cinematization of “The Da Vinci Code” is in the works. I predict it will have as much impact on Christianity as did The Seventh Sign, Dogma, Stigmata, and Saved, i.e. a few more people quoting the “Lost Gospel of Thomas” (snarfle) and trying to pass off their entertainment-induced religious “education” as being of more worth than an authentic canon and centuries of tradition and literature. The hype will last a couple of years at most, at which point the self-obsolescent nature of pop culture will kick in and cause these pretensions to spirituality to fade into obscurity — till the next big anti-church book or movie comes along. Just goes to show that the gates of hell still haven’t prevailed.

I Know That Heart of Yours Will Come to See That You Barong With Me

Kudos to kababayan Accordion Guy on his commitment to the barong for his much anticipated hitch-up. The barong is also my outfit of choice for classy coat-and-tie events; there’s no formalwear quite like it: cool, breathable, easy to wear, without any complicated knots or color schemes to worry about. As an added bonus, the people around you can rest assured that you carry no concealed weapons on your person.

See Joey’s entry for links on the traditional Filipino barong, plus pictures of him wearing it. And here’s a photo of me in my barong, among lifelong buddies at Martin’s wedding in 2002:

Me in barong among friends in suits

Also previously mentioned here. It’s pronounced “buh-WRONG.”

SpankGranny Goes WordPress

Raffy has moved to WordPress after his old install of Movabletype was shut down due to the comment spam server load issue. I’ve stuck with Movable Type thus far because it’s been the best solution to work with my heavily customized templates — and I prefer publishing static files — but I do heartily recommend WordPress if you want a quick, easy, extensible out-of-the-box weblog package. If your Cpanel web host offers Fantastico — as Affordablehost does — then WordPress is just a one-click install away.

Porkins

Some people think Star Wars is about Luke Skywalker and the battle of the Rebel Alliance against the evil forces of the Dark Side and the Empire. Others think that the Star Wars saga is the story of Anakin “Darth Vader” Skywalker, his fall to the Dark Side, and his eventual redemption at the hands of his son.

But there are a select few who know the truth, that the saga revolves around the brief life and fiery death of but one man. That man is none other than Jek Porkins, Red Six.

“Red Six standing by.”

“I’m right with you, Red Three.”

“I’ve got a problem here.”

“I can handle it!”

We know what happened next, but lest you believe Porkins died with his X-Wing, take heart, PORKINS LIVES!!!

yBrownpau

Dear whoever registered “brownpau” on Yahoo in 1998:

Can I have the name? You don’t seem to be using it anyway. Before 360 launches, ideally? Pretty please?