Friday Pop Culture Check In

Dear Loyal Reader,

Now that I have some time to actually pause and think about stuff I've been doing this thing called "enjoying myself" again. It's a new concept I know. I hear the French invented it and then the Italians perfected it. Either way, if its European its a win for me.

I know you're dying to know what I'm talking about so I'll review by medium -

Book wise -

I'm currently reading "Speaker for the Dead" at the little brother's invitation. Apparently these Ender Orson Scott Card books have been very influential on him and he wants to share. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I was originally and am looking forward to finishing. I also read "Ender's Game" for the same reason and I liked it - eventually. These are the book version of "Star Wars" to him in terms of sacredness so a good sister should maybe know what he's talking about. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I've also thoroughly been enjoying the King Killer Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. He's a newbie novelist out of Wisconsin but has written some of the most lyrically beautiful stories that I've read in a while. "The Name of the Wind" came out a few years back and my oldest brother gave a copy of it to my Dad for Christmas. The book made the family rounds and I really liked it as I mentioned before. The second book of the series came out in early March "A Wise Man's Fear" and I read it with much the same vigor. I think I literally lost a whole Saturday to it and then some. Time well spent.

Movie Wise -

I've been a bit light on the movie side of things because, well, they cost money, but I did, like any self respecting bookie babe, make time for the new Jane Eyre



It was good. I recommend it. It's not a train wreck but it's not the strongest telling either. It was deliciously true to the Gothic aspects of the novel though which I appreciated. Movie makers get a bit distracted by the love story and ignore that the fact that it's set against these dark Gothic edges. I think that canvass makes it that much more of a beautiful story and it's almost always left out but they got it this time around. They didn't cut out St. John either. He's a common causality to the editors but he survived too.

In Future Cinema News Peter Jackson released one of, I hope, many short behind the scene videos about the making of "The Hobbit". There are not words for my how much I'm looking forward to this but I will try HOWZA! MAMMM WHHHE KKKKK! LOOOKK! ITSSSAAAAAA! IttzzaahRichardArmitage iookkk kwkkwoo woww waaaaaa PeterJacksonkjfweo nndsojf onklnlkenknewljrenlkn ;nivnIloveNewZealandakjdfjkdhhHH HAHAHAAAAKKKK ohmagahgagagaghgahgah.




Music wise -

I've been informed that I have tickets to see these gargeous bright stars called "The Civil Wars" in the near future and, like always, I'm very excited. They're a group I've had a hard time not listening to. They're amazing. I wholly endorse them. Yay for some real musicianship and for genre blends. They're always the best. Much like mixed babies.



Also, GREAT NEWS! The Beastie Boys are putting out a 25th anniversary album on May 3rd and have released this new track that I have been listening to practically on loop and cannot get out of my head. They put together this hilarious promo featuring nearly every funny person alive. I might have watched 7 or 8 (teen) times. LizPAA warning - there are two "F" words for the tender-eared



TV wise -

I've been sucked into the very funny world of BBC's "Top Gear". It's a car show hosted by three middle aged perma-adolescents. It's been on the air for about 10 years and most of the series is available on Netflix's Instant Play. I love cars. I love British humor and I love informative playful approaches to things and that is what I love about this show




They go on hilarious adventures like driving to the North Pole and they periodically have Formula 1 drivers on and WOWZAH - some of these boys are quite handsome. I've picked out Jenson Button (UK)



and Mark Webber (AUS) as my favorites.



Why has Formula 1 been keeping these darling boys to themselves?! It's just not fair.

This show has also reinforced my want (read: lust) for some WAY too expensive cars. The show is great though. I have heartily laughed during every episode I've seen. Which is many. Don't ask.

Blog wise -

Hot Guys Reading Books

Enchanted Serenity of Period Films

and Best Week Ever remain places for constant giggles and happiness.

Win Blog deserves an honorable mention as well.

So yay for enjoying myself again and yay for having so much good stuff to enjoy! I hope your weekend is made up of some of the best stuff possible!

love,
your Liz

Lizzie's 2009 - Movie Edition

Its official. My family is completely made up of movie people. We like stories and we like art and we like music and movies are the perfect cross section of all of those.

I may or may not have a list in my blackberry of release dates of movies that I want to see, another list of movies that I have seen that year, and another list of movies recommended by other people that I should queue up on Netflix.

There also may or may not be versions of those lists for books, CDs restaurants, beauty products and comedians.

I like lists Okay! Don't judge. I also don't trust my memory and don't like forgetting things. I write things down. Its what I do.

*Theater releases*

The Brothers Bloom - I love love love smart movies and smart storytelling. I love caper flicks and I've had a massive crush on Adrien Brody since I saw him eating chicken fingers at the Johnny Rockets on Melrose once. All of these lovely things make up this movie. I also love movies that make you feel something without assaulting you, again deilvered with class and wit. Real wit. That's a rarity you know. It was directed by Rian Johnson (a relative new comer) but hes brilliant. It takes amazing acting/direction/editing to make the best character in the movie a completely silent one but they did it. Viva la Bang-bang

Bright Star - I was excited for this one for a while. Keats is one of my favorite poets on the planet. My senior quote was a line of "Ode on a Grecian Urn". I'm a raging geek. I know. I was an angsty profound adolescent at the time. Now I'm a silly over educated eccentric and I like it that way. I love Empire fashion and poets and chaste love stories. It was a perfect storm. Go buy it an love it today.

(500) Days of Summer - There is not a more perfect relationship movie out there than this one. It deserves every ounce of praise it got. I love Zoe Dechanel too. Not just because I've been told we look alike (which I find amazingly complimentary) but because she has the gift of coming off as genuine like the movie. Its a sweet, honest film and it was shot here in my beloved Los Angeles. My fair city isn't romanticized very often in film but it really is an enchanting city. The music was flawless, the characters are amazing, there is dancing in the park and animated birds and real tears or horror and its just an amazing bite of life.

UP! - I saw this with my Ace Gang and as the bunch of hyper intelligent and verbal girls that we are we ADORED this movie, cried through the last 20 minutes, and then proceeded to have an intense 40 min discussion about the concept of true love and relationships in the movie theater directly after the credits and shared stories about our families and lives. All of which was conjured up this movie. Its a cartoon but its that good. I'm convinced they mixed love, hummingbirds, babies laughter, daisies, saltine crackers and red balloons together one day and out popped this script and cast. I've never wanted to hug a cartoon character more than Russel. Except for maybe Appa

Star Trek - So not only have I been a Trekkie since I was a zygote, I love JJ Abrams. I think hes one of the best storytellers to come along since Lucas and when I heard the two were joining forces (Star Trek and JJ Abrams) I almost lost my hat. I was excited but scared because I knew this was either going to be mind blowingly amazing or a train wreck. There was no mediocrity option when working with a concept on the scale of Star Trek. Like, Godzilla doesn't just trip and scrape his knees up. A city gets destroyed in the process. I'm happy to report there was no city crushing. Godzilla danced Swan Lake and then made dinner. It was that good. I adore confident movies and this one was just that. It wasn't a remake. It was its own entity and it was brilliant. I've been a Chris Pine fan since Princess Diaries 2 and he was just amazing as Kirk. Kevin Smith said it right that only he could have played Kirk without doing a Shatner impression.

Theater releases that I think you should stay away from:
Year One - total Jack Black letdown. It just goes to show if you have horrible writing no amount of direction or acting can make up for it. Or bathroom comedy and heracy in this case.
I Love You Beth Cooper - I'm really glad I didn't pay for this movie or I'd be writing the studio.
Wolverine - It should have said under the title "starring Hugh Jackman's jeans" because they were the most interesting part of the whole movie. Once again - webbernet - hear me! If the writing stinks no amount of special effects or muscly arms can make a movie gel. Put the money in the writing and you'll be good.

*Netflix Exploits*

John Adams tops this list. I adore Laura Linney and John Adams is my favorite founding father. Mostly because he was always faithful to his wife. Abagail Adams is one of my heroes. As in capital "H" heroes. As in I want to name my future daughter "Abagail". I highly recommend the series and the book David McCullough wrote that inspired it.

I finally saw Wall-E and loved it. Yay for environmental treatises and yay for the Hello Dolly soundtrack.

I apparently have a lot of movie catching up to do because I hadn't seen American Beauty till this year as well. Like I've said before and I LOVE confident movies and this one defines that genre. I was speechless for about 5 min after I finished it. It was one of those moments when you get the feeling that you're in the presence of greatness. It deserved every single Oscar it walked away with. I could write blogs and blogs about how great this movie was but I'll spare you.

*TV Shows*

I'm so glad that TV has finally gotten its act together and hired some real writers and decent actors. Also, I think that DVDs have made TVs shows a bit relative. Like - I've discovered TV shows and bought the DVDs after they were canceled but they're still "my shows" that I regularly watch (re: Firefly, Arrested Development, West Wing). So considering that, along with Hulu it's a rarity that I actually view something on the day and time it airs or is even still *on* the air. I'm just not all with the TV in real time. However, there area few shows that I've discovered/been turned on to this year that I wasn't aware of before. I felt like my had my TV viewing time full with my regular LOST and 30 Rock exploits but now, thanks to the good taste of my amazing friends I've been turned on to

Glee - as a former band and choir nerd I feel an alarming connection to this show. It makes me happy and I am SO glad that music and dancing and art and expression are starting to come back into the public eye as SOMETHING IMPORTANT that needs to be funded in our schools and is essential for healthy development as an individual. Go dust off your clarinets and dancing shoes people. It's time to be ourselves again.

How I Met Your Mother - NPH is back in the saddle and that makes me happy.

Bones - I just kind of want to be her.

I don't have enough time to be this entertained but they're such good shows!

Alas - I must peel my face off of whatever relative screen it's been looking at for the last few hours and go smell a flower or something.

May 2010 be as full of wonder and bonding type media as 2009 was.

Media Corner

So I've got a bit of time on my hands but even when I don't I'm a HUGE media consumer. Music, movies and books pepper almost every corner of my life. This is what I've been the most excited about recently or am very much looking forward to.

MOVIES

So I think, Summer wise -

My favs were Star Trek, (500) Days of Summer, The Brothers Bloom, Up, Harry Potter 6, and Taking Woodstock

Honorable mentions but not favs include: Moon, The Proposal, Ice Age 3, Julie & Julia

Train wrecks would be: Year One, Transformers 2, and I Love You, Beth Cooper

And ones I missed that I still want to see are: My Life in Ruins, Food, Inc, Whatever Works, The Hurt Locker, Funny People, The Cove, Paperheart, and Ponyo

However, I was paroussing my favorite release site that includes all the indie flicks the big box ones don't and there are more amazing films coming out this holiday season. Its a great time for movies I think. A lot of indie writers are getting money and there is just a lot of talent out there right now.

What I'm looking forward to in September is -

Coco Before Chanel with the timeless Audrey Tautao from another fav Amalie









October is looking like a solid month

Where the Wild Things Are


The Invention of Lying





November starts all the Christmas Season blockbusters; Disney's Christmas Carol, The Princess and the Frog, yeah yeah yeah

but some good indies are coming out too that I'm sort of in love with already



The Boat that Rocked






And December has a crown jewel. They've recovered a lost screenplay Tennessee Williams was working on and made it and its coming out on Dec 20th!! I'm SO excited!




MUSIC

Joe Pug. I started watching this video prompted by a gmail status of a fellow musicphile. I was a bit skeptical and hes not exactly a trained voice but I was transfixed. It had been so long that I had heard such good writing so honestly sung. I'm kind of in love with the guy now. Hes coming to The Mint in Oct. I'm going. Tickets are $10. Let me know if you want to come. I'm pretty sure it will change my life. My friend who tipped me off when he saw him said it was so beautiful he almost cried. I. Cannot. Wait.



I caught a Greg Laswell set when I was in SLC this summer and he had an opener that really caught my fancy. They're called Elizabeth and the Catapult. I really liked the jazzy voice of Elizabeth and its pairing with the rockabilly band. This is their one existing official video but my favorite off the album is this Leonard Cohen cover.

Imogen Heap's new album Ellipse is constantly blowing me away (thanks Brett). This is one of my favorites

Muse's new album The Resistance came out today too. I've yet to procure it but I'm pretty excited to do so.

The Knife has been rocking my world pretty consistently lately too. Another pass along from Brett. They're rather fabulous.



BOOKS

On the literary front I've been stuck somewhere between Dr. Seuss and coloring books. I keep thinking I should read something a bit more elevated and stuff but then I think "Why? Adolescent lit is the best of both worlds. Its amazing story telling with quality multi-dimensional characters but without all of the depression, lameness and lasciviousness that is in modern "high lit". So lately read all 3 of the Howl's Moving Castle books (totally awesome and very different from the movie. Read it and love it for it's unique wonder) and have moved on to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (equally but differently awesome). I'm still deciding if I'm a daughter of Zeus or Athena... Anywho - they're super fun quick reads that I totally recommend. Rick Riordan writes like your reading your best friend's blog. I kind of love him and the premise for the whole series. I'm off to Barns and Noble right now to finish reading the third one now that I'm thinking about it.

Long live the arts and God bless YouTube!

Lizzie out

New Faces

So for FHE on Monday we all trekked out to Pasadena to see this screening of this awesome movie called Forever Strong. Its a "Remember the Titans" type feel good sports movie about the Highland Rugby team from Salt Lake City and this delinquent kid that gets changed by the coach and philosophies of the team.

It made me want to marry a rugby player and raise rugby players. The world is too small for men who aren't Men and to quote the movie "girls play soccer, wussies play football, men play Rugby". The star of this lovely film was a gentleman that I took great pleasure in watching. Its kind of rare that I'm actually attracted to an actor. Its usually more of an "Oh. Look at that random beautiful person. Good for them" kind of gig.

This guy was gorgy and taps the groupie in me. His name is Sean Feras. He's 26, a former model and just such a pleasure to look at.



I'm not a fan of the short hair but his smile could knock me out at 20 paces.



I'm typically not one for dark eyes either but there is something about this guy that I love.



And hes a notable actor. Forever Strong was really moving. I cried like 4 times.



That's him in all his moodiness as a punk kid getting sculpted by a rugby team and an amazing coach. My friend who lives in Utah says thy call him The Mission President because he turns out so many missionaries from his team. I highly recommend the movie. I plan to buy it as soon as it's available on DVD.

Top 10 Tuesday

It just sounds so fun huh?
I've decided I should do a silly list and a serious list to keep the balance in the force ya know?
So firstly - some imperative information we all can't do without:

My Top 10 Funny Movie Characters of All time
10) Ruby Rod from The 5th Element
“Why I always gotta get the broke one?”

9) Agador Spartacus from The Birdcage
“But wait! I’ve got shrimps!”

8) Bartok the Bat from Anastasia
“I’ll give her a wahhhh! And a high-yah! And then I kick her sir!”

7) Brick from Anchorman
“LOUD NOISES!!!!”

6) Dr. Evil from Austen Powers
“I’m the boss! Need the info.”

5) Jeremy the Crow from The Secret of NIMH
“Ohhhhhh!!! You’ve got a sparkly!"

4) The Ghost of Christmas Present from Mickey’s Christmas Carol
“With pistascheeeoo …. With pistachuooe…. With yogurt”

3) Carl the Friar from Van Helsing
“Actually, I'm still just a friar. I can curse all I want, dammit.”

2) Louis Tully from Ghostbusters
“OK, who brought the dog?!”

1) Emmanuel Goldstein aka Cereal Killer from Hackers
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. What? It's Corinthians one, chapter thirteen verse eleven. nnnn-duh”

Top 10 Things that have Irrevocably Changed my Life
(aside of the influence of my friends and family who change and enrich my life everyday)

10) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
9) Cell phones
8) Morten Lauridsen’s music and the album Lux Aeterna
7) The movie Braveheart
6) Dr. Alison Baker and Dr. Rocklin from the Cal Poly English Department
5) Learning how to sing
4) My Mission to Washington DC
3) Growing up as I did in Pasadena and that social education
2) The Gospel of Jesus Christ and my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon
1) My temple endowment

Cartoon Motion

So I think I still have the mind of a seven year old.

Maybe that's why I still love Hello Kitty and I still thrill a bit and feel the need to bolt when I hear the ice cream truck coming down the street and can remember every word to the theme song from the Gummy Bear, and cry at The Goonies (every single freaking time).

"This is OUR time!! These are OUR wishes!!"

I became aware of this on Tuesday this week when I went down to Seal Beach to visit my dahling friend Molly. We had been planning birthday festivities for weeks and weeks and I finally made it down there to go see Mamma Mia and dine and all that fun stuff.

Now lemme 'asplain a bit about Seal Beach in case you haven't ever been there before:

Seal Beach is awesome. Probably my favorite beach community in Los Angeles/OC. It's this little strip of city nestled right in between Huntington Beach and Long Beach and its really really unique. It's small, quiet and unassuming. Everything closes up at about 10 and the average age of a resident is like 55. Ok - so its an unofficial retirement community, but its the beach and rents are low and Molly is brilliant for moving there. Its kind of the beach town time forgot. People actually stop and chat with each other downtown. Downtown consists of a strip of stores about 4 blocks long that dead ends into the pier and they're all little places like "O'Mally's Irish Pub" and the hippie produce store. It's wonderful and old school and I just adore it.

So Mamma Mia had been a movie Molly and I had been trying to see forever and it was playing at the singular movie theater down there along with The Maltese Falcon (Yes. This place is that cool). But this theater was still the 1920's singular screen, singular house, movie theater with a stage kind of movie house. But not all glammed up like The El Capitan or The Chinese. It showed its age. Nothing was automated about this place. Our tickets were those Costco raffle tickets sold to us from a person speaking through a hole in a window, not a speaker. Every door handle and inch of paint showed its age and, lemme tell ya, it was tired. I didn't know it was a single house theater so I walked in and there were two doors, one on either side of the singular refreshment stand and was only set back about 2' from the outside door. I asked which theater it was and the very annoyed and pierced refreshment girl just said "Take your pick."

Once we settled in the very not stadium seating I took a look around. There were these attempts at modernizing on the walls of the theater that looked somewhat like a drunk 70's housewife's vision of modernism but not enough for every panel in the house, but that gave us a fantastic view of the fabric panelling that I'm positive probably saw Eisenhower win and Kennedy get shot.

Needless to say - I was instantly in love with the place. There was a covered organ off to the side of the stage with a good amount of dust on the cover and the remains of a basketball hoop above it.

It was awesome. AND we were the only ones in the theater for a long time. It was only 8 at night and as I was looking around and drinking in this rare authentic and honest establishment my stream of consciousness went a bit like this:

Oh man!!!! OhManOhManOhManOhManOhManOhManOhManOhManOhManOhMan. This place is awesome. Lookiet that!!! andthatandthatandthatandthatandthatandthatandthatandthat. I don't know why that girl looked so annoyed to work here. We are the only ones here and that ever super cooler!!!!!! Man. This place is old. I wonder whats happened here. How many people have made out in this seat?! And in how many decades! I bet they wore 3D glasses at one time too here. I bet a lot of things have happened here.

Then my glances of the place started going from wonder to slightly paranoid suspicion...

You know - old quiet places like this have histories. Kind of like old people. But quieter. ANd without so many medical needs. What if someone was killed here?! What if it happened right there on the corner of the stage??! Like what if he hit his head on the corner mid sentence and never got to finish what he was saying and now hes still here trying to finish his thought???!!! What if he comes out in the middle of the movie and we're the only ones in here??! Its going to be dark soon and this is a big room. What would I do? I think this is how scary movies start. Old movie house, only people there....

And right then this guy comes in the door. Like, there is no noise whatsoever in the room, Molly and I are talking and stuff but there are no previews, no other people, not even the sound of traffic is drifting in. Mostly because there is no traffic, but that's not my point. My point is a door opening might as well have been an atomic bomb. He was a young fit very straight looking dude. By himself. In a leather jacket. Going to go see Mamma Mia. On a Tuesday night. In Seal Beach. And he sat in the back right by the door. So it was us and Guido in the theater. Just us 3.

Oh man. Is he lost? What on earth is a guy like that doing here. Maybe hes European. European straight guys have license to like ABBA and leather jackets at the same time. Yeah, that's it. Hes not a rapist or anything. Nope. Not at all....

So the then movie started and everything was totally fine. No scary murdering rapist, no apparitions of any kind. Just wholesome awesome ABBA wonderfulness.

So yeah - my little brain managed to turn a simple movie outing into an episode of Scooby Doo in vast expanse of - oh - about 3 seconds.

So there you have it, a snap shot into my crepe papered, My Little Pony adorned interior.

But seriously, I want to go see the Maltese Falcon there. Whose in?

Flick Flicker

I love movies. Its heriditary.

They're how I escaped from hot summer days as a kid and how I deal with cold, sometimes lonely, nights now.

So consequently I love the Oscars and always have. I remember watching them every year since I was a girl. When I'm grown up and have a place and a descent television I will throw the Oscar party every year - Tracy: You have the 4th of July and I'll take Oscar night - and I just couldn't let another day go by without some Oscar recognition.

My friend had this list going and I thought in honor of Sunday's Festivities I'd disclose my Oscar sampling.

1928 - Wings, Sunrise (one for best production, other for unique and artistic)

1929 - The Broadway Melody of 1929

1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front

1931 - Cimmaron

1932 - Grand Hotel

1933 - Cavalcade

1934 - It Happened One Night

1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld

1937 - The Life of Emile Zola

1938 - You Can’t Take It With You

1939 - Gone With the Wind

1940 - Rebecca

1941 - How Green Was My Valley

1942 - Mrs. Miniver

1943 - Casablanca

1944 - Going My Way

1945 - The Lost Weekend

1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives

1947 - Gentleman’s Agreement

1948 - Hamlet

1949 - All The King’s Men

1950 - All About Eve

1951 - An American in Paris

1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth

1953 - From Here to Eternity

1954 - On the Waterfront

1955 - Marty

1956 - Around the World in Eighty Days

1957 - The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958 - Gigi

1959 - Ben-Hur

1960 - The Apartment

1961 - West Side Story

1962 - Lawrence of Arabia

1963 - Tom Jones

1964 - My Fair Lady

1965 - The Sound of Music

1966 - A Man For All Seasons

1967 - In the Heat of the Night

1968 - Oliver!

1969 - Midnight Cowboy

1970 - Patton

1971 - The French Connection

1972 - The Godfather

1973 - The Sting

1974 - The Godfather Part II

1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1976 - Rocky

1977 - Annie Hall

1978 - The Deer Hunter

1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer

1980 - Ordinary People

1981 - Chariots of Fire

1982 - Ghandi

1983 - Terms of Endearment

1984 - Amadeus

1985 - Out of Africa

1986 - Platoon

1987 - The Last Emperor

1988 - Rain Man

1989 - Driving Miss Daisy

1990 - Dances With Wolves

1991 - The Silence of the Lambs

1992 - Unforgiven

1993 - Schindler’s List

1994 - Forrest Gump

1995 - Braveheart

1996 - The English Patient

1997 - Titanic

1998 - Shakespeare in Love

1999 - American Beauty

2000 - Gladiator

2001 - A Beautiful Mind

2002 - Chicago

2003 - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

2004 - Million Dollar Baby

2005 - Crash

2006 - The Departed

2007 - No Country for Old Men

So here is my total:

Total number of films: 81

Total I’ve seen: 37 (45 %) Whoo Hoo - yay me :D

For the record:

I was a bit irrked that my girl Cate was nominated twice, deserving in both, and got snubbed. And being pregnant too. I mean - come on people! She showed up, she looked magnificent, she is one of the most talented human beings on the planet and she works harder than most of Hollywood put together. Give it up already. Geesh -

Though - I did see La Vie in Rose and was blown away by Marion, like tornado force winds blown away. She is a brilliant brilliant talent. I haven't seen Michael Clayton yet so I don't know if Tilda is, but she was Jadis (aka The White Witch) and as such will royally freak me out for the rest of my life so that made me cringe. She one of those super intense method actor/performance artist types so I'm sure it was a cognative and solid performance - and still. Cate all the way.

Heartbeats

I watched a movie once.

Amazing I know. Hard to believe but true.

It wasn't on any of the Academy's "To Watch" lists I'm sure but it wasn't horrible.

It was a bit of an estrogen filled story about mitigating bad luck and bad decisions by loving each other. There are many other stories along the same vein - and especially with southern accents and this one was no different.

Most of it was fairly forgettable but there is one dialogue that has stuck with me.

A side character of a single mother with a bunch of kids was desperately looking for a husband and one day found a guy. She thought he was the answer to prayer but it turns out it he was an abusive pedophile. Naturally the mother was beside herself with grief and regret and fear and without any answers. She comes out and sits on the front porch with the main character who is a single mother herself and had been dealt a very difficult deck and she asks

"what do I tell them when they ask why this happened to them?"

and the main character says

"you tell them that our lives can change with every breath we take.
We both know that.
And you tell them to let go of what's gone. 'Cause men like Roger Brisco never win. And tell them to hold on like hell to what they've got--
each other and a mother who would die for them...
and almost did.
You tell them we've all got meanness in us.
But we've got good in us too.
And the only thing worth livin' for is the good.
And that is why we've gotta make sure to pass it on."

I spent this weekend in Salt Lake with my two younger brothers and soon to be sister-in-law doing the last minute stuff for the wedding and doing my best to be a supportive sister. There is still a lot more to do and SO many more changes to come for me and my family. The more I inventory the schedule for the next 10 weeks or so its all I can do to not crawl up in a corner and sing primary songs to myself. And since we've officially adopted Murphy into the fold the more changes we get ready for the more changes we realize we need to make.

Jonathan is getting married

Nick is going on a mission

Chris is probably going to move back to Pasadena

I'm graduating from college

I'm applying to Grad school and desperately awaiting an answer

I might move back home to take care of my empty nested and still ill parents

I'm taking the GRE

I might be a college professor in 5 years (how freaking weird is that??!)

Good things are happening but they are also never going to be the same and I'm beginning to feel the loss.

Valuable experience and things are never easy. Being proven is not a day at the Pier.

But its always easier to talk about or watch a game than actually play one. I'm in the first quarter and feel pretty pooped.

Our lives can change with every breath we take - and that's a good thing.
It lets you love people better and your people love you more.

I guess I'm just doing my best to pass it on.

Ambiguiphile

Oscar Wilde says that "Only the shallow know themselves" implying that those of profound mind or spirit are constantly getting to know themselves and occasionally are surprised by who they are. I agree and disagree with this.

I disagree in the absoluteness he claims for those non-shallow of us. I think you can know your tendencies and know where you'd veer in certain situations but agree with him in the respect of progress -

If you're constantly and deliberately working on your character and habits there will be times of emotional critical mass where you amaze yourself. And there are also those precious moments where you know and feel that more experienced ethereal hearts and hands are guiding your actions and/or words and you get to look back with an earnest keanuesque "woah". I live for those moments frankly. Those are they hyper drive moments of character and make for the life changing journal entries.

However I content myself with little realizations about myself more often than not and I've recently learned something about me (aside that I'm allergic to dairy). I really really love defined non-definition. I love movies with ambiguous endings. I think I love the emotional tie up but not the logistical bow.

A couple of weeks ago the movie Garden State came up between Nick and myself at the gym. Apparently Mr. Zack Braff is more than the clowny dude on Scrubs. Homey had this screenplay in his pocket since high school and soundtrack list on his iPod before they even started filming. He directed the flick as well as starred in it. That's a pretty busy Scrubs clown boy. I was impressed and I had 3 people whose music sensibilities I implicitly trust recommend the soundtrack and that loved it without even seeing the movie. Holy cow. How many movies do you know whose soundtrack is so good it stands independently on its own? Think hard - I did and I didn't come up with many. So the DVD was on the $5 special at Target so I picked it up and I watched it for the first time last week. Holy. Freaking. Cow.

Awesome Flick

But not awesome in the LOTR of Transformers kind of way. Awesome in that it totally didn't resolve much of anything in this sad and angst filled life of a New Jersey boy except that he made one good choice out of a bunch of bad ones and it ends with him saying "what do you say here?" and it kind of faded into this marvelous Frou Frou song Let Go and I literally found myself more moved than I had been in months. I mean usually movies make you feel something during them and then they wrap it up nicely and you leave the theater all ready to face life after a brief brain vacation. But there are others that you feel this explosion of emotion, not in the middle but when its done. Then I reflected back to the last time I felt so much at the end of a movie and it was at the end of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" where they say "What do we do now?" "I don't know". They just know they're in love and they know its not going to be perfect and that they were OK with that. It's this totally ambiguous ending.

And I've recently learned that I LOVE IT. When it's done right. If its like The Fountain - never freaking mind, I'd rather chew glass than try to get my head around that strange space. But I can't even begin to tell you how refreshed and validated I feel about all of the undefined aspects in my own life after seeing this movie. Maybe its because my life is so full of things and people that my head doesn't completely understand but my heart does or if I just love the space that movies like that give me to get lost in my head on my way back to my car and construct the sequel. But either way they teach me something about me, like all good art should. And for that I am grateful. I know myself just a little bit better than I did yesterday and its pretty good to meet me.

Even if its piece by piece.