Hummmm!

Well I'll post just to see if it's alive, dead or the other.I never post on this because of 1. I'm stupid and offer no value to anyhting and 2. i spelled the f***ing name wrong( see one). Hey Marlboro Man I will NOT send you the Garden State DVD, you will have to come here and ransom it. I like nothing right now no movies, music, people, job. I have nothing to say about any of it either, I just want to play street fighter with the Marlboro Man but he lives in the state of Oregon (hippies and weed)(and I wish I was there). I do want to see the new Tim Burton movie Corspe's Bride, I did like the Life Aquatic. I heard the new New Pronographers and Kanye West, but not the new Death Cab for Cutie. I get a fun magazine form the Marlboro Man, I never thanked him for it(thanks). I bought a Danzig album, then decide to not eat meat( not beacuse of Danzig). I started a clothing company and I sold 1 shirt and 4 hand bags. Okay I sold more shirts but gave away all the stickers. I started a mustace club but then realized that I can not join it.(still). I went to a bunch of hardcore shows like I was XsceneX. I made my parents and sister move away, not really but damn now I have to take vacation to go see them. Well I ran outta things to say.

Garden State - Movie Review

I just watched this on dvd and I really didn’t expect much. Although I knew their was a buzz about this movie being incredible, all my friends that had seen it, hated it or just didn’t see why anybody else thought it was so great. Well, lo and behold, I am one of those who think its great.

As I was watching the film I couldn’t help feeling like I was watching something similar to Hal Ashby’s "Harold and Maude". Not in the story line, just in the general feel and camera shots. The scenes weren’t generally sparse like "Harold and Maude" where there are a lot of scenes of big open rooms with just a table, two chairs, and carefully chosen pictures on the wall, though there were some. Most of the scenes in Garden State were cluttered with stuff on the wall or on desks. And the lighting is a lot darker than in Harold and Maude. But there were so many wide shots where the characters are carefully framed, I got to believe Harold and Maude had to be a big influence. So not quite Harold and Maude, but in a way in which I can’t clearly explain, similar to Harold and Maude. Maybe like this. Wes Anderson would be something like Hal Ashby’s son because his films are so similar it almost seems like plagiarism sometimes and Zack Braff would be something like Hal Ashby’s distant cousin. Little hints of Hal Ashby but mostly doing his own thing.

I loved the opening shots in LA because it is the exact opposite in Swingers where LA is described as "the sun shines here everyday. Its like manifest destiny". Garden State’s LA is cloudy, smoggy, and cold. The traffic isn’t portrayed as a sad joke where ones anger builds up to a rage, it is just sad. Zach Braff’s character Andrew lives in a sparse white room with only a bed and a cell phone. Garden State’s LA is simply drab and unappealing. It is the LA that people actually live in, not the romantic notion portrayed by most films.

I haven’t seen a lot of films with Natalie Portman in it, but as far as I know this is the best performance she has ever given. She seemed like a real person. A real person that is slightly annoying and probably too cute for my liking but a real person. I just don’t think I have ever seen her in a role where she is actually excited and full of life, but it might just be her role in star wars that is my basis of comparison and that probably isn’t saying much.

There are great little stories that seem to be true whenever you leave your hometown and come back years later. There is that friend that ends up being a cop who of all people should not be the one who becomes a cop. There is that person that killed themselves that when you find out about it leaves you amazed but unaffected since you really didn’t know the person anyway. Little details like those make this movie so terrific.

Andrew has a looks are deceiving type friend with Mark played by Peter Sarsgaard. You assume he is a bit of a loser whose life really isn’t going anywhere and doesn’t care that it’s not. He steals jewelry from the people he buries. But a good part of the movie is taking Andrew on a journey to give him a going away gift. He takes back knives that he never purchased to get some money. He uses that money to buy a tank of something I forgot for a hotel employee who lets people peep on people having sex in the hotel’s rooms. The hotel employee then tells him where to go to find the item he is looking for. All very shady, but in him is a simple desire to do something good for a friend. A diamond in the ruff.

There is a romantic relationship that forms between Andrew and Sam that was done incredibly well. It seems that in a lot of movies, action movies in particular, people fall in love in a matter of days, and we all stare at the screen and say to ourselves, "yeah, right!" This has to be the best film to my recollection that has people falling in love in a period of four days where I stare at the screen satisfied and say to myself, "Yeah, I can buy this." When the film ends I completely believed two people had met whom would likely go on to spend the rest of their lives together.

It seemed some people didn’t like this movie because it became a romantic comedy. A road that a lot of folk pass up on just because of the words "romantic comedy". But I don’t think this is what Garden State is about. It’s about a heavily medicated fella who both comes back home after 9 years for his mother’s funeral and gives up the meds before the trip. At 26, after 17 years of being medicated he decides he is gong to start living. Significant and strange things simply just must happen. The relationship between Natalie Portman’s character Sam and Andrew is really just another side story. The real story is how Andrew is changing. It is Andrew answering the question posed at the end of the film, "What do we do now?"

Favorite quote: "Don’t tease me about my hobbies, I don’t tease you about being an asshole."

So Joey and Daniel, if you don't want this movie send it my way becasue I would love to add it to my collection!

Saved! - Movie Review

So I have finished watching Saved! It has put me through a variety of emotions. In full disclosure I am a Christian. I am what some have labeled as a freestyle Christian (FreeX). A Christian who doesn’t like to be considered part of the religious right or Christian coalition, not that some good hasn’t come from those things, but not very much to my liking. A Christian who believes he stands for all the bible teaches to the best of his knowledge knowing full well that it is very likely he is wrong on many stances. A christian who thinks abortion and the practice of homosexuality is not what God desires for mankind, yet was against this war we wage most recently from almost day one. So hopefully that paints a picture of my worldview. I make no claims for caviar’s perspective on what I have just mentioned.

Back to Saved! When I first started watching it, I found it quite difficult. It seemed like ten minutes of mocking what I stood for and my family. My family being the wide assortment of Christians that populates this globe that I both agree with and also those I find downright embarrassing. They are my family too. We all have them. They are in every family. The ones you have to visit during Christmas and pray you don’t have to have any long conversations with. No matter how much you dread it, they remain family. Then the rest of the movie I found to be quite stimulating. I didn’t always see eye to eye with the director’s point of view, but it made me think, and I felt it was quite an honest portrayal of a Christian who has gotten pregnant out of wedlock. Towards the end I lost much of the common ground that had been established. And at the very end I found myself hopeful. Hopeful that after the movie ends and the characters go on to live their lives they might come to a better understanding of themselves and let God have a more honest place in their lives sans all the Christian lingo.

As far out as being convinced that God wants you cure someone of being gay by having sex with him may be, I understand how Mary, played by Jena Malone, can think that. When you are a teenager surrounded by a Christian bubble with both little access to a world outside of Christianity and a Christian community that gives you only cute Christian sayings with little rational knowledge of what being a Christian ought to be, the bizarre will likely come out.

There are things that Christians will find to be falsely representative of their faith and there will be opinions that Christians will not agree with. You will see things that are embarrassing about the Christian community. You will see Christians who are accepting of those different from them and you will see the opposite. You will see a Christian woman go through a pregnancy out of wedlock and go along with her as she tries to discover who she is and how God fits in. Sometimes she does the right thing and sometimes she makes mistakes. It reminds me of my life as a Christian teenager. Sometimes I made good decisions and sometimes I made poor ones. I was simply doing the best I could with what I knew. It is easy to throw stones at this movie because she might not make a decision that a Christian ought to make, but you know what they say about those who throw stones.

One of my favorite scenes and there are several is when Mary finds out that she is pregnant and begins cursing at large cross on church. There are so many honest emotions seen going through her. Anger, bitterness, resentment, and the one that stood out the most to me, a desire for help. I have never seen this in a film. Typically when a Christian makes a mistake, a film will go out of its way to show this person as a hypocrite. This film showed us as flawed human beings. Which is exactly what we are. Flawed human beings saved by God’s amazing grace, both trying to find our way in this world and do our best to please the One who has saved us.

At the end of the movie you see Mary, her child, her friends, and perhaps feel that God is in that room too. What she says sums up all that I have been saying, “…what would Jesus do? I don’t know. But in the meantime, we will be trying to figure it out together.”

Should Christians watch this movie? Yes. Is it difficult to watch? Yes. You might see some things that will convict you. You may see things that convict the way you react to those who are not Christians. I think that most Christians will be convicted on how they treat other Christians. Watch this film and you might just see a bit of yourself.

Favorite quote: At the Emmanuel shooting range where their motto is “…an eye for an eye” Hilary Faye says, “I’m saving myself for marriage, and I will use force if necessary.”

Grammy Whammy

Okay did you watch, most likely not; the Grammys posted the second lowest ratings on record. Oh my gosh no way, you mean no one wanted to hear that frickin black eyed peas song again, no more of that love for Maroon 5? You think America would want to see some music on t.v. seeing as real world and road rules is that MTV seems to be playing. They actually had to start a another channel just to play videos on a music channel, they should change the original MTV from Music television to "those horribly embarrassing things you did for minum wage in front of most of America"television. I want my royalties on that when they do wise up and change names, thanks in advance. I choose not to watch the Grammys simply for the fact that its not my bag of music and could care less who wins what, I know what I like and buy it and support it they don't need my vote or much less some crappy sitcom or phony award to get more people to listen to them. Don't get me wrong I want them to succeed and to continue to make music for my consumption and believe me I consume ( the new Breather Resist is very good ,thanks guys), but the Grammys is different its ego stroking for those who have already succeeded. They don't highlight all those great albums that the band went broke recording, or that import that didn't score a top ten hit. No they highlight the bands they have been jamming down our throats all year; baseball games, commercials, radio, magazines, shopping you would have to live in a closet not to know one song by one of these artists. They produce we consume, you all remember when nsync was winning grammys right, of course you do who's collection is complete with out those gems.... They really won! Shoot I should quit typing and go buy some music written by the record label and sung by the face or faces they choose to be big this year. Oh but no I won't quit because as I was sitting there Friday night with the t.v. on in other room I overheard a commercial the grammys and it boasted the reunion of the Clash featuring Elvis Costello and Bruce Sprinsteen. Yep BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, the guy who pulled in to win, the guy who was born in the USA. Yes this man would be singing "I'm so bored with the USA", London's Burning, and "when Ivan met Gi Joe" okay the last would be funny, but the rest the rest is just wrong. What, did they give out free crack before the meeting when they picked names, I imagine they just put random names in hat and whoever came out first was playing. It could have been great some young band that was actually influenced by the clash could fill in for their deceased hero, but no they picked the Boss! Man I think they lost it and with it my viewing numbers I took in another great "desperate housewives" instead, thanks again guys.

Thunderstruck

so that happened