This once-a-year event is designed to equip and encourage the far-flung virtual staff of Hollywood Jesus -- as well as others who support ministry through and to popular culture. $75 for other fully-registered attendees (day rates and student/pastor discounts available). See Hollywood Jesus for event schedule and registration details.

All events will be held at the facilities of the HCDA, 316 South 3rd Street, in downtown Renton -- just 15 minutes from Sea-Tac International Airport and less than half an hour from downtown Seattle.

Scheduled speakers include David Bruce, Jeffrey Overstreet, Peter Chattaway, and Greg and Jenn Wright.

Wow--that's tempting, but I'm out of vacation days. Maybe next year!

Just a reminder that Peter and Jeffrey will be in Seattle tomorrow, Dec. 29, speaking at this event. David Bruce and I, among others of interest, will also be on hand over the weekend for those local to the Seattle area.

The Complete Schedule

I'm looking forward to it!

I might sound a little funny. I'm knocked flat with a head cold today, and sipping cocktails of Alka Seltzer cold medicine and Airborne, with occasional snacks of Zicam.

Is Nathaniel coming to this? I thought he was...

Oh, man, you too? I had a headache all day yesterday, and it got in the way of my preparations. I hope I can remember to bring my Tylenols.

Yes, Nate will be on hand too -- I'm pretty sure.

And aren't we all going to be in good shape? I'm typing this from Virginia Mason, where Jenn has just been in for emergency outpatient surgery to have her infected Hickman port removed. Now we're waiting for a PICC line to be placed... So Jenn's out of circulation for the weekend.

I had a grand time today in my three short hours at the HJAG conference today. Great to see Peter Chattaway, Nate Bell, Greg Wright, and David Bruce... as always. And it was great to meet some of the other HJ reviewers whose writing I've read over the years.

Thanks, David and Greg, for letting me in on the fun.

I so wish I could have partcipated more. Unfortunatley, this is the busiest holiday season of my life, and I had to get back to the Herculean task of revising Cyndere's Midnight by January 14. And I had a head cold that made my own conversations sound like they were occurring in the next room....

I had a grand time, too -- and Jeff, if it's any consolation, I didn't pick up any "head cold" vibes from your voice. Though you were clearly itching to get back to your editing.

Greg and David, I wish there was a way to meet more than once or twice a year. Greg, I loved your company when you were there, and David, thanks for lunch.

Nate, it was great to meet you in person. I'll definitely drop you a line next time I'm in L.A. (which probably won't be for months and months...). If you ever come to Vancouver, let me know!

Ditto. I had a ball. Jeff's and Peter's presentations were loads of fun. You guys really ought to put together a curriculum for a film class. I'd probably audit it.

Thanks for everyone's participation! With the relaxed and yet completely packed schedule of the event, I was reminded that I now live at a completely different pace than I used to -- and I'm not a young man anymore... I was completely whupped by the time things wrapped up in the week hours on New Year's Day. (Of course, it didn't help that I logged over 250 miles of driving over those three days just bouncing back and forth between the conference and the hospital. Jenn was completely bummed about missing the whole thing.)

The "week" hours? Wee, or weak?

As for "completely different paces" ... this isn't entirely related to this particular thread, but I'm getting a weird feeling now as I see all the top ten lists posted by my single and/or childless (and/or, in a few cases, so old their children are already teenagers or adults fending for themselves) friends and colleagues. There once was a time when I would have seen two or three films a day, during the holiday season, just to catch up. But now, with toddlers, a pregnant wife, and a new home in the suburbs far from the arthouse theatres ... well, let's just say that it was a bit annoying to discover late last night, after the kids had gone to bed, that the only two films in Surrey that I had not yet seen were P.S. I Love You and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, whereas what I REALLY want to see of course is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Orphanage, Margot at the Wedding or I'm Not There, all of which are stuck way out in Vancouver proper. (And I wasn't in the mood for a long drive last night. As it is, I slept through the last 15-20 minutes of the film that I did see here in Surrey.)

And so, to bring this back on-topic, I thank you again, Greg, for putting me in a hotel next-door to a theatre that was showing one of the films on my checklist -- a film that, at this point, is indeed playing only in a single Vancouver theatre, and nowhere in the suburbs.

Well, that was decidedly Freudian! It just SEEMED interminable given my usual 9 PM bedtime, and given that I was still having to get up at 4:30 despite the delayed bedtime...


Well, I'm getting that weird feeling now, too, as I've become more purely an editor than a reviewer. I'm seeing more films than I have in probably fifteen years -- but they're not the films I WANT or OUGHT to see. And there are just not enough hours in the week to see the rest...


Oh yes, certainly -- that was one of the factors in choosing that hotel! Sadly, Renton isn't exactly as enlightened as the University District -- but a real theater is still a real theater.