So today was awesome. I got a call about this blog from someone far away. I had written something, and it must have been the topic they were searching on their google alerts, and kapow there it was, a facebook message for me, and a cool conversation.
I totally dig that.
My friend Dr. Rent has his Law of Unintended Consequences. Today, I think I met that sort of face to face in the least fun manner I can think of. I was left sort of sitting at my desk feeling like garbage. It made me remember a scene in a movie from long ago that I truly liked.
The movie would be “As Good as it Gets” starring Helen Hunt, Jack Nicholson, and Greg Kinnear. For those of you who have not seen it, let me suggest it. It is a lovely James Brooks movie and it is truly a lot of fun. Nicholson plays a successful romance writer, who I think is OCD, or something. He might just be afraid of the world, one can never tell with this sort of stuff.
He regularly eats at the same restaurant, and has the same waitress (Hunt) and orders the same thing. One day he learns that her child is sick, and because he is sick she cannot make it to work.
So, he pays a doctor to go to her home, make a house call, and start treatment of her asthmatic son. This tremendous act of kindness, from a crazy man, is a simple act of kindness that has nothing to do with Hunt really. But, the need of Melvin to get her back at his table, so he can eat.
But, in her head Hunt thinks that something else is going on. Something far more manipulative, or something. She takes the time to go to Udalls house, in the rain, and announce that “I am not going to have sex with you.” Udall had not considered this, ever. He simply wanted his waitress back.
I remember seeing this on screen, and just cringing. The preemptive rejection of Udall, leaves nothing but a wreck of a man. And it was totally unneeded. Udall had not thought about sleeping with Hunt, or anything of that. In a move of class, he shuts the door, and goes on his way. The movie goes from there.
But, it is that act, the preemptive no, the result of a kindness, rings true to me today. I think we experience this sort of thing. Or rather, I did and do often. It is humiliating, and sort of self fulfilling. I mean I know I am not attractive, on many or any levels. Few redeeming qualities are possessed by me, and I understand that.
But, sometimes you just want to do something nice for someone you care about on some level. And sometimes the discussion that results from that kindness is just simply shitty, and humiliating. I bought someone a gift, and cracked a joke (a joke that has been funny in the past), but today the joke was less funny and I needed Helen Hunt to show up at my door and tell me she is not going to have sex with me.
I do not know why I am blogging about this. I am pretty sure this is a giant mistake, but so it goes. I do not understand this human behavior of preemptively setting a boundary that has never been approached. I feel like a dick tonight. I just do.
Okay, I have seen this movie three times in ten days. It is my number two favorite movie of all time, right behind Apocalypse Now. So, I thought I should write a little bit about it. But, I want to warn you, there is NOTHING BUT spoilers. I will write a sort of regular review, then there will be large letters saying SPOILER, and then after that, I am going to do nothing but spoilers. So, you should avoid reading that maybe.
So off we go.
A while ago the news broke that Tim Tebow was going to shoot a Super Bowl commercial for a group that at best can be described as homophobic, anti choice, anti women, and really…anti the America I want to live in. I took to twitter, facebook, and all the rest, and I decried that, and I have boycotted CBS, called for the boycott of CBS, and I have actually done pretty well with that boycott. I think that we live in a country that cannot anymore allow FAITH or whatever you want to call it, to be the blanket with which we allow bad behavior and ideas to move forward.
All through my life I have held a strong sense of faith. Deeply held faith, based on my limits. My faith has been something I have articulated in conversation through the years, and as a result felt even better about having it. But, during this time one of my heroes retired. Coach Bobby Bowden, longtime coach of the Florida State Football team stepped down after a lifetime of success. During my life I have cheered for no sports team with more passion than I cheer for FSU football. I am a full on fanboy for the teams of the school, having gone so far as to write to the coach (he wrote and called me back), bought tickets to bowl games, and visited the campus (where I got to meet Coach Bowden and Warrick Dunn). To say that FSU football is something I am a fan of, well that is an amazingly plain truth.
During this time of decrying Tim Tebow as a member of a homophobic group, I found a website the had the donations of various Florida celebs listed. It turns out that Coach Bowden was an active supporter of Republican anti choice candidates. He is also active in the group Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I was not at all ready for this. I looked at the donation list, and tried to justify it by saying that they were small donations, and maybe they were just something he and his wife did out of politeness. But, as time went on I realized that I was simply deluding myself. I was just looking to excuse something because I was a fan of the man.
I do not have answers. How do we react when we find that someone who we are a fan of does something we oppose both personally and professionally? Can we be fans of that person? Can I still be a fan of Bobby Bowden even though he gave money to people who limited an effective Family Planning Waiver (Florida has one of the WORST) and as a result harmed women and families, all the while claiming to be pro family?
How deep should fan dom run?
Is it being an apologist to say that I am fan of him as a coach and not as a man? Maybe not.
I do not agree with the anti choice rhetoric of FCA, but do they do good work in other areas?
Is it more complex than I want it to be? Maybe.
Am I still right to decry Tim Tebow for standing with homophobes? Am I still right for decrying CBS for considering ad money from something so terrible as this group?
Is injustice anywhere, injustice everywhere?
I think what I have come away with is this…I disagree with Bobby Bowden for standing with a group like FCA, or giving money to Mel Martinez. Is that different than a young man, with a career just starting, leveraging that career for a group like he is, I think it is. Bowden will fade, while the light on Tebow will grow.
When I met Bowden, we spent a good amount of time talking about commerce, and how money has seeped into college athletics. How FSU had an early role in that, establishing a relationship with Nike every early on. We also talked about God, and I told him that I was uncomfortable with that. Instead, we talked about faith, as I am more comfortable with it.
If I could talk to Bowden now, I would ask him to not give money to anti choice candidated. I would say that his position can create heat for these candidates, and that he should not do that.
I think Bowden is wrong to work with FCA. There are other groups more inclusive, more effective, more positive than FCA. I think he is wrong to give money to these candidates. There are others who have better visions for his state.
If I could talk to Tim Tebow, I would tell him that he needs to see the world as a whole world. That this homophobic group is leading him astray. They are not as innocent as they portray.
But more than that, I do not know the answer to the big question. What if we disagree with someone we are a fan of? I do not know.
So here we are again, with what seems to be a curse, or a challenge, or a guantlet thrown down. My brother in arms Rob Mentzer had made a series of lists, so I thought I should not let the moment pass. The new year and all.
A decade is a long time. So I am going to try to put these in no order at all. I do not think at least. I do not know, blogging is a lot like free form jazz. We shall just see where it takes us.
That is 11. What do you think?
My friend Rob Mentzer made a series of lists. Not wanting to be upstaged by Rob, I decided I needed to make a list of my favorite movies of the last decade. I am not going to try to tell you that these are the best movies of the last decade, because that would require a Roger Ebert like seriousness about being comprehensive, and I am going to fail in that regard.
What I noticed up front about this list, the lack of comedy. I love to laugh, and I love comedy. But, I think the Aughts were a decade of crappy comedy. Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow bastardized themselves to such a massive extent, they became uninteresting. The wave of comedy with people like Apatow, or Rogan, or whoever else was a waste of time. Even a movie like THE HANGOVER was simply a sort of rehashing of another movie from the past, Very Bad Things starring Christian Slater. Overall, I am not going to put comedy on the list, unless it is truly amazing. I thought Funny People was shocking in its highs, and might be the best thing Rogan and that crew have ever done. But, not enough to make the list.
So, off we go.
10. Million Dollar Baby. I thought the soft hands of Clint Eastwood, combined with the amazing performances of Morgan Freeman and Hillary Swank are a great combination. The ending is unrepentant in the sort of directness to that being the only option, but I respect the way Eastwood closes the story. Truly good stuff.
9. The Departed. It would be easy to say that this is just another crime story done by Scorsese but this time set in Boston. The fact that these are real people is cool. The cast is also the great thing about it. Nicholson, DeCaprio, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg…and more. They all raise their game to a high degree. And it is the first time I really got to see Ray Winston, who was a revelation.
8. Surfer, Dude. This one is clearly a personal journey choice. I think that it is on the surface a wonderful simple movie. It really is. But, I think some of the themes that it puts together, freedom and integrity, those are amazing. You combine that with surfing, and it was going to make my list.
7. The Bourne Trilogy. I do not know if it is fair to include them all as one, but it is my website. I think that they brought something different to action, the personal. And then they were consistent over three movies. So, I was a fan.
6. Requiem for a Dream. I thought the performances of this movie were exceptional. The fact that someone made a great movie out of a Selby book, that is awesome. Jared Leto delivers an amazing performance. And Darren Aronovsky is top notch.
5. Day Night Day Night. The story of a nameless girl who wants to become a suicide bomber. Hannah Arendt wrote the phrase ‘the banality of evil’ and this movie embodies it. If we are to assume that suicide bombers are evil, then the life of this one is truly banal. 48 hours. I also truly love the fact that we know NOTHING other than what the camera shows us. We never know why she is doing this, or even if she succeeds. I think it is exciting because it forced me to understand and once again see that humanity, all around me, is struggling with these concepts, and this internal life that I know nothing about. Forces are at play. At work.
4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I love westerns. I have always loved the story of Jesse James, and Robert Ford. This movie is pastoral in its scope, and the way it is shot is amazingly lingering. I loved it.
3. The Dark Knight. I do not see this showing up on a lot of peoples lists. I tend to wonder about why that is. People went nuts for the movie when it came out. It make you wonder if the response was simply based on the Heath Ledger tragedy, and if we are so ADD as a culture we do not see a lasting impact in these things. The reason I loved the movie is the fact that it placed the essential question on Batman. Will you kill? What would you do? The Joker essentially said…I am going to continue to kill and kill and kill and kill. Nothing will stop me. I am a force of nature, so Batman this is entirely up to you…will you kill me to stop me from killing? I thought LEdger was possessed, and Bale brilliant.
2. Where the Wild Things Are. This movie, like Surfer, Dude, is a personal choice. I think this movie is entirely about little boy rage, and the desire to reconnect to the primal inside of us. These are important things for me. Giant life things for me. You put that together with a book that meant everything to me, and then you really have something.
1. There Will Be Blood. If you know me than this is my second favorite movie of all time. The performance by Daniel Day Lewis is without a doubt the greatest performance I have ever seen by an actor. The story of madness, and greed, and power, and corruption is amazing. Combine that with the great western sense, the anti church theme. Well, we are going great guns.
Some of the others…
The Wrestler, The New World, SpyGame, Red Dragon, Hard Candy, The 25th Hour, Traitor, Micheal Clayton, The Kingdom, Recount, CLoverfield, Tyson, Inside Man, American Gangster
In an ironic twist of fate, I am sick the first day of 2010. I think I was sick the first day of 2009, but my journal is pretty unclear on the whole thing.
Anyway, it is exhausting to move today, so the chair has been a consistent home. I wanted to get away from television after Florida State won their bowl game. So I put in the copy of Pinks Concert video I had gotten a little bit ago.
I am a big Pink fan. I like her voice, I have seen her in concert. She works with musicians that I like (Butch Walker, Tim Armstrong), and I think that of all the pop singers out there now, she seems to be the most fun.
The DVD comes from her massive tour of Austrailia. I think it is one of the last nights of the Sydney dates. It is only about 90 minutes long, but given the scale of the production, I cannot imagine I missed something.
First off, the performer, Pink, looks and sounds amazing. She is clearly in top shape. Her voice is confident and more than able to do anything that the music calls for. She is able to loosely improvise, and have fun with the musicians. Like all big productions, this is a tightly choreographed show, but it still fills like you are seeing a live concert.
The band is top notch and tight. The back up singers remind me of the famous back up singers Madonna had for all those years. The only instruments that are prominent in the staging are the make lead guitar player, who looks to be the band leader. A female bass player, who managed to put her bass down and play a Flying V guitar for a number. And a drummer who had good rock chops, but over all this was musical theatre, and he reflected that.
The production is amazing. It incorporates the circus and Cirque du Soleil. Pink sings the songs live into a hand held mic, except for songs when she is hanging above the stage on bungee cords or Matrix style cabling. You can hear her work hard, and you can here her adlib lyrics.
The thing that really drew me to this show, and the reason I called this uplifting was the way this was shot. A good portion of this is tight shots of Pinks face, and she is funny and laughing. I think it is uplifting when co workers truly enjoy what each other is doing. You can see this especially in music, theatre, sports maybe. When the collective creative energy is soaring. You see musicians who have been together for a long time have this interesting langauge that requires NO TALKING.
It was an uplifting show. I would put it in the top ten of my all time live DVDs. But, that will be another post.
I think it was a pretty good year for movies. No really amazing performance like Daniel Day Lewis in ‘There will Be Blood’, but some good movies none the less. These are my favorites…
1. Tyson. The documentary or art film by Jame Toback is simply riveting for me. Mike Tyson is my favorite athlete of all time, regardless of his fall from grace, and to see him tear himself open like this is amazing. Simply overwhelming. I could not look away.
2. Where the Wild Things Are. This is one of those movies that had SO MUCH to live up to. The book was pivotal for me. I kept my childhood copy all through college, and Jackies son has it now. I immediately went out and got a first edition, and hopefully that will be with me forever. The story of little boy rage is so powerful, and so direct, that I was amazed by it. I think that this movie actually realizes the potential, and surpasses it. And if you do not have that little boy rage, then this movie might ring completely false to you. I hope you have a little bit left.
3. Up. I hate to steal an idea from a friend, but this is one of those movies where you just think Pixar is totally going to fail. Just to miss the mark all toghether, and they do not. They hit the mark, and the whole world is totally enjoyable.
4. Zombieland. I love Woody Harrelson, and I like the curly haired kid. And the cameo by Bill Murray was so awesome. I liked the joy of this whole thing. The senselessness of it all.
5. Sherlock Holmes. My mom and I saw this on Christmas Day. It was swashbuckling. Robert Downey Jr might be our generations most amazing talent. And, I have never, ever cared for Jude Law, in ANYTHING. But, in this he was just fine. Made me laugh even. And Rachel Mcadams is always great.
6. State of Play. This might be a bit of a shock, but it is right there. I dig Crowe, I dig Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck is pretty good as well. The story might be the last movie about the former concept of journalism, versus what journalism is now.
7. Star Trek. Pretty good stuff. Funny enough.
8. Away We Go. The guy from the office, and Mya Rudolph just are great. Maggie Gyllenhaal in her least likeable charecter ever. EVER. And she is in Madison, so that is even funnier.
9. Bad Lieutenant. So, I love Werner Herzog. I adore his work. I absolutely think him to be a visually arresting storyteller, and when he works with an actor like Nic Cage, who can when he wants to take it seriously, he can get a lot out of him. It is awesome. The iguana alone makes it stunning.
10. Moon. Rockwell gives the performance of a lifetime.
Honorable Mentions.
-Sugar. Great baseball movie
-Adventureland…dear kristin stewart…stop sucking, your playing joan jett next, take it seriously. You have talent for days…for a reminder take a look at THE CAKE EATERS, you were in it.
-The Hurt Locker…Thank you Kathryn Bigelow. Thank you to that cast.
Worst Movies…or rather stuff I hated myself for watching
-New Moon
-GI Joe
-Transformers 2…But in all fairness, I just gave up on this dog crap.
-Inglorious Basterds
-The limits of control…seriously JARMUSCH…narrative does not hurt
So, I love riding a bike. A pedal bike. This past summer my good friend Andy spent most of his summer on a bike. It was truly inspirational, and while he will simply say it was common sense, it was very cool.
I am a fat guy. But, in my former life I was an active mountain biker. I think I have a pretty good pedigree in the pedals up until about age 28. Then, I think the night life took over.
But along the way I have had a few inspirational cats come through my life. Ed Magrecke (sp), Cannondale Dean…cats who were committed to this 2 wheel lifestyle. My boys growing up…Marsh, Trowb, Henry, Kurt Lach. All amazing cyclists. I used to ride my bike to the Pub, and the Paper. And it all sort of fell away at some point. Not sure when, but this year that is going to change.
I want to buy an urban bike. A commuter, but not one of these hybrids. I sort of want a bike that will feel like the 20 inch dirt bike of my youth, and still be a common sense bike for going to work. So, I found a couple.
First off is something from Trek…
This bike is called the Trek PDX. It is in my price range, and something that I think looks good. The frame is solid, and the components are going to be good enough for me, for this first year back on the pedals.
Secondly there is this…
This is a Giant SEEK. Very similar. I have not had a chance to see one in real life, because in Wausau they are only at Builers, and I am less than excited about going there. But, the styling of this bike on the Giant Website is truly awesome.
I know these bikes seem plain, and a little simple. But, the reality is that I need to not spend a ton of money to ensure that this is something I am going to want to take on for a summer.
I think it will be.
This was an exceedingly difficult year. There was nothing that was clear cut, some friends got more famous and as such a little more disconnected, a local boy made good on the talent he possesses. And iloveghosts came out with a record. So, over all it was a surprising year. I am still of the ilk that buys CD’s, almost 100% of my CD’s came from Inner Sleeve in Wausau, Wi. If I downloaded a record, it was the full album. Like I said though, it was a strange year.
1. Blakroc, “Self Titled”. This was one of those that slept on me a bit. I had forgotten about it until about a day ago, when I had started to think about this list. But, a record made by The Black Keys and the NYC hip hop families that I care for makes it obviously the best record. The guitar ton of Dan Auerbach and the drumming of Patrick Karney, combined with the likes of RZA, ODB, Mos Def, Jim Jones and a ton of others, make it perfect. When you look at the output of Dan Auerbach in this year, it is sort of amazing. Check out this clip.
2. Street Sweeper Social Club “Self Titled”. I found these guys when they backed up Public Enemy at the Def Jam Hip Hop Honors this year. I noticed Tom Morello, and then Boots Riley was unavoidable, just a movement about him. It was great. Then I happened to be out west for the NIN/Jane’s Addiction (Janes might be the greatest live band I have ever seen) and SSSC was opening. This was a night that was magic.
3. Mandy Moore, “Amanda Leigh”. So, as most of you know I am not one for the singer songerwriter vibe. It is just not my thing. But, I am a big fan of the pop women, and great pop songs. I also think that few people write songs like Ryan Adams, and I absolutely loved the movie ‘Dedication’ this year. Lets put it all together. Ryan Adams got married to Mandy Moore. Mandy Moore starred with Billy Crudup in above said movie. So, I was paying attention when I heard Mandy put out a new record. For a good part of the year the first single off the record was my song of the year. I played it constantly. Then other great songs came along, and I was clear. But, this is one of those singer songwriter records, and it was absolutely magic. It had a confidence and a swagger about it that I just loved. Check this out.
And now we fall off a little bit.
4. Jay-Z, “The Blueprint 3″. You heard our entire podcast devoted to this record. It really was a great record, and it contained my song of the year. So, it has to be in the top 5. My song of the year.
5. Lady Gaga, “The Fame Monster”. This was one of those records that sort of just explodes. It is like a movement all to itself, and you cannot stop it no matter how hard you try. It gets inside you with this amazing vision of the world, and it never lets you go.
6. Rawkwon, “Only Built for Cuban Linx, Part II”. This I just got. Like a week ago. And it has not stopped being played, it just is a return to emceeing, and beats like the world needs. I hope hip hop follows Raekwon. He knows the way.
7. The Pains of being Pure at Heart, “The Pains of being Pure at Heart”. I do not never know what to say about this band, other than I love them.
8. Japandroids, “Post Nothing”. Again I just simply fell in love with the guitar sound. Like The Black Keys before them, it was a tone thing.
9. Lucero, “1372 Overton Park”. I think Ben Nichols is the best songwriter in the world right now. He is my Bob Dylan. He write lyrics that change my life. I have been lucky enough to see them with friends, and they are a popular band here in Wausau, and maybe they make it here for a festival or something next year. One can hope right. Lucero live is Special. Really special.
10 Meantooth Grin, “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead”. I got to witness ever part of this production. From the birth of Toms blues love, to the cancer, to the song writing, to the art, to it all. Tom is a blessed talent, and I am proud he is my friend. We sat at his house tonight, and talked about how he wants to move music forward in Wausau. I just thought, play your guitar man. Just rip.
I hope that list makes some sense to you. It was a strange year. The ipod got more dominate in my life, and I am not sure if that is a good thing.
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