Author: Michael Brown

Lady in the Water–A Review

lady_in_the_water_ver2.jpgBoy, the things a guy’s got to go through to tell a bedtime story these days.

If you’re director M. Night Shyamalan, it means that first you part ways with long-time partner Disney after they excoriate your latest project, Lady in the Water. Then when the film is produced and released by Warner Brothers, it means you must run a gauntlet of cynical and surly critics, the same ones that mercilessly panned your signature film, The Sixth Sense, when it debuted (plus every movie you’ve released since). While Shyamalan seems somewhat hurt and nonplussed by all the fuss (listen here to his comments from an NPR interview broadcast the day before the movie’s release), he remains confident that his vision will be accepted by both his longtime, core fans and moviegoers at large.… Read the rest

Pre Lives, But Not in This Body

What a relief! In the comments from yesterday’s post, I mentioned that I went on a cleaning frenzy recently and threw away my Nike Air Max ’96s that I wore in the Rocket City Marathon back in 1997. After reminiscing about all my “old school” shoes, I began to have second thoughts and wondered if I was going to have to make a trip to the landfill to dig them out.IMG_0071.JPG

Good news–I found them! After 21 plus years of marriage, Eyegal knows that I often make rash decisions like that and figured that I would regret it and had put them in the garage instead of the trash can.… Read the rest

Name…That…Shooooe!

After coming clean on my shoe addiction, I’m ripping off a page from everybody’s favorite Catfish Queen reject Nancy French and having my first contest at Ocular Fusion.

(Cue the audience to shout) Name…That…Shooooe! (cue wild, audience applause and generic game show music)

That’s right, the first person to correctly ID the following shoe will receive, courtesy of yours truly, a signed copy of Doug Mendenhall’s new book, How Jesus Ended Up in the Food Court: Seventy-Seven Devotional Thoughts You Never Thought About Before.

Here’s the picture. Remember, I’m looking for the exact name of this Nike classic:

nikeoregonwaffle-01 2.jpg

It’s really not that hard; there are sufficient clues scattered here and there that should lead you toward the correct answer.… Read the rest

Revenge of a Shoe Nerd

“Where do I buy the Nike shoes?”
-Tom Hanks as Victor Navorski, The Terminal

Hello. My name is Mike the Eyeguy, and I am a shoe nerd.

There, I said it, it’s out in the open now. I no longer have to hide the fact that ever since I was a bushy-haired boy growing up in the 1970s, I’ve been obsessed with athletic shoes of all brands, colors and sports. I’ve worn just about all of them at one time or another: Keds, PF Flyers (remember how they made you run faster and jump higher?), Converse All Star Chuck Taylor canvas high tops (black, red and sky blue–back before I knew that color was associated with the evil Tar Heels), Puma “Suedes” (often referred to as “Clydes” after Walt Frazier, famous point guard for the N.Y.… Read the rest

Buy, Take Up and Read

According to Augustine, the key point in his conversion came when he heard the sing-song voice of a little girl telling him to “tolle lege” or “take up and read.” The book she was referring to was The Bible, and when Augustine obeyed, his eyes fell upon Romans 13 and the rest is, as they say, history.

Now comes another otherworldly voice offering a good piece of advice– “Buy, take up and read.”
dougs book.jpg

This time the book is entitled How Jesus Ended Up in the Food Court: Seventy-Seven Devotional Thoughts You Never Thought About Before by my good friend Doug Mendenhall.… Read the rest

A Front Porch View

Summer Storms.jpg

I’ve been grabbing some much needed and overdue front porch time in my homestate of Virginia this week. The view above is from a couple of nights ago as a late evening thunderstorm rolled into the valley where I grew up. That particular storm blew the roof off the Virginia Transportation Museum in downtown Roanoke. I know that probably didn’t make the A.P. wire, but it sure got the attention of folks around here.

Besides sitting on the front porch taking in an eyeful of Blue Ridge Mountains, here are a few of my other favorite things to do when I’m in Virginia:… Read the rest

Cubera Nights

USS_Cubera;0834702.jpg.jpgIt was fitting that my Father’s Day gift arrived in a small, Priority Mail shipping container. The Navy ballcap emblazoned with “USS Cubera, SS-347″ barely fit inside its tight, cardboard quarters. The snugness reminded me of the way her crew must have felt, tightly sealed inside the smothering, steel hull of the Balao Class fast-attack submarine as she patrolled the waters of the Caribbean and the Atlantic during the Cold War, her eyes ever open for any sign of danger from Mother Bear.

And of course, the cap reminded me of my father, which, I suppose, was the whole point.… Read the rest

The Head Butt Heard ‘Round the World

Zidane head butt.jpgIt’s been a week since the “head butt heard ’round the world,” and the repercussions of Zinedene Zidane’s shot to the chest of Marco Materazzi continue to ricochet wildly throughout the internet.

Zidane has issued an apology (of sorts) for his outburst which arguably cost France the World Cup. For his part, Materazzi has reassured us that he would never dream of insulting someone’s mother. No, according to the Italian defender the insult that provoked Zidane was merely a garden variety one that is tossed around the pitch on a routine basis, implying, of course, that the French midfielder and captain overreacted.… Read the rest

Near the Foothills of the Ozarks

harding.jpg

I’ll be headed west today to pay a call on my alma mater, Harding University (Hail!).

Number One Son has been there attending Honors Symposium the last two weeks, hopefully staying out of too much trouble while bulking up the ol’ grey matter. When I first heard about Honors Symposium I thought it was some sort of “boot camp for the brain,” but when I talked to the parents of previous attendees, I realized it was much more than that.

It’s actually a two-week session of interesting interdisciplinary classes with catchy titles like, “Designer Genes: Technology and the Creation of the Western Dystopia,” and “The Bain of Cobain,” punctuated with service projects, camping, field trips, rock climbing and generally just hanging out with some very cool kids from around the country.… Read the rest

Eyeguy in the Sky

When I started Ocular Fusion 2.0 a couple of months ago, I gave you all fair warning that the retina in my header really works. Well, I wasn’t, as we say in these parts, “just whistling Dixie.”

Behold:

City of Children, Ensenada, Mexico.jpg

Ok, maybe I did have a little help from the folks at Google Earth, but what you’re seeing is a nice satellite image of the City of Children in Ensenada, Mexico. Eyegal and Number Two Son have trekked there this week as a part of a missionary group from our church. Number Two is busy with some building projects, teaching VBS, playing soccer (an indispensable part of any mission effort) and generally enjoying hanging out with the kids there.… Read the rest

Congratulazioni Azzurri!

It will certainly not go down as “one for the ages,” the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy. There were stretches of brilliant soccer on display to be sure, but also long periods of timid, lackluster, even disjointed parrying punctuated with injuries, both genuine and theatrical.

In the end, it was Fabio Grosso, the diving and rolling bane of the Socceroos, the man with the magic touch that broke the back of a fine German squad, who stepped to the line during shots from the mark with the hopes of Italy on his shoulders and the eyes of the world watching his every move.… Read the rest

Italy v. France, World Cup 2006 Final–Live

Based on what I’ve seen from the singing of the respective national anthems, the Italians seem to be coming out with a little more spirit. Gattuso, in particular, is on another level with his eyes closed like that–could be trouble for Zidane. It seems fewer of the French know the words. Zidane wasn’t singing at all–he seemed to be already playing the game in his head.

Ok, it’s time for kickoff…

2:00 Checking Henry’s pupils? The commentators have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.

4:37 Henry’s back, good. Oh, hold the phone, a PK already!

6:30 Well, whadaya think? Looks like there was contact there, but that much?… Read the rest

World Cup 2006-Live With the Eyeguy!

I’ll be blogging live with my reactions and thoughts during the final match this afternoon between France and Italy. I’ve never blogged live during a sporting event before, but I’ve seen others do it and it looks like fun so I’m going to give it a whirl. Expect a lot of typos, and hopefully, a lot of Gooooooooooals!

Here’s some good reading while you’re all waiting with bated breath for me to start: First, a great match preview (complete with a cool diagram of starting lineups) from USA Today, and second (and third), a couple of good background articles from Slate: The True Story of American Soccer and Among the Brainiacs–The Intellectual Classes Descend on Soccer.… Read the rest

Allez, les Vieux!

For most international soccer players, age 30 usually marks the beginning of the twilight years. Harbingers of things-not-so-pleasant-to-come are everywhere–the lost step, the extra breaths to full recovery, the stiffness in the lower back upon rising, sweat which forms thick like morning dew on foreheads marked by nascent, faint furrows.

Yet World Cup 2006 has seen its share of such long-in-the-tooth “oldsters” who have created space and opportunity around the hard challenges of men 10 years their junior: Zidane, Figo, Del Piero, Reyna, McBride, Barthez and Keller, to name just a few. They’ve all seen better years, but they still have the heart and courage to lay what’s left on the line for squad and country and have shown that if thirty is not the beginning, it surely is not the end either.… Read the rest