Les Misérables

Back in the day, lets say 1862 Victor Hugo wrote a novel called Les Misérables. Fast forward to 1985 and this widely known novel becomes a musical. It is in fact one of my favorite musicals. It has been showing on stages worldwide for the better part of 21 years now. A few years ago there was a movie of Les Misérables released that was nothing more than a concert style, in costume, performance of the musical. The version of CATS that went straight to video was better than that. Listening to it was beautiful. Watching it however, was one of the most boring things I've ever experienced. So my question is when is it going to be that we finally get so see a movie-musical of this show.

Other shows of comparable popularity have already been done such as The Phantom Of The Opera and Rent. They have done quite well in the box office and even better as DVDs. I know that movies have been made adapting Les Misérables to the screen but none of them have been the musical. So I'm just curious as to why not make a "major" motion picture. I'm reminded of field of dreams, "If you build it they will come."

Coaches Meeting

Last night I had a meeting with my prospective assistant coach for the oncoming basketball season. It went rather smooth which was great because I was stressing out about it a little earlier in the week. As I've stated before Upwards Basketball is a Christian program and is a ministry tool. The man I spoke with is one of the parents of the players on my team, and he is also a Mormon. I was very worried that he might try to interfere with the devotionals during practice. basically I just informed him that one of the responsibilities of being head coach was to give the devotionals. When he said that was fine with him my stress just kinda left me. So no big deal there, and now my team is set. Go Grizzlies!!

A new season around the corner

That's right folks, Upward Basketball is right around the corner. This will be my second year as a head coach for the program. It's hosted by my church again this year and we have 300+ kids signed up and sorted into teams. For those of you who don't know about the program it is a youth ministry done at churches around the country. The primary focus is not on basketball itself but on the basics of Christianity and trying to lead these children to a relationship with The Lord. Awards are given to players at each practice for memory verses and after each game for performance.

The thing I love about this program is that each individual player is evaluated and then assigned to a team. The coaches are then given a roster and a handbook that covers devotions, coaching, and player substitution among other things. Each child gets to start the game at some point during the season on a rotational schedule. In addition no child sits the pine for more than 6 minutes. No longer is it about picking your friends to play with you and the least skilled player rides the pine for the entire game barring injuries. It's finally time to have fair play and you get this with the program.

Game day is a great experience for the kids. They are introduced via MC on the microphone with some "inspirational" music playing. Their big entrance is behind a curtain that they burst through and flowing fog rolling at their feet. That alone makes game day special for them. we do a few warm up shots and then all of the players are gathered in the center of the court for matching up with their assigned person to guard and then a prayer done by the referees. Then the coaches hit the side lines and the game continues until the end.

Post game takes place in the locker room where the kids get some water or Gatorade and talk about the game with the coaches. Then each player is awarded a star for their performance that day. Watching these kids get their awards and congratulate each other is a real treat for me. The positive sportsmanship toward the guys that did great and even the guys that messed up is wonderful.

I can't wait for this season to start in January. I have a meeting with my assistant coach tonight so we can figure out what we want to cover and review the devotionals. Then its just a few short weeks until the first practice. I can't wait (are you getting the point that I'm excited about this).

Regardless I've got to pay the rent so I had best get back to work.

http://www.upward.org/

Joe.

Getting to the point.

I have never kept a journal, never thought of myself as a good writer, nor have I ever gotten the point of blogs. Finally this morning while chatting with R online i asked her for her web address for her blog. I hadn't read it in several weeks. Upon viewing her blog and just talking to her at random it hit me. The point of a blog is rather simple (hence my inability to understand it right off), it is to discuss, rant, or devulge whatever you want to. You aren't going to read this in order to find out every detail of my life since I won't be posting all of that. I will be using it to simple share thoughts about anything I would sit down and talk to you about in the coffee shop. Which explains the theme of the page. I hope that someone gets something out of what I write and possibly even responds to it via comment or email. I welcome the feedback good or bad. hopefully once I figure out how I want the page to look I will be able to spruce it up a bit and get some more thoughts down.