An American Language

Yesterday, my wife used the word "humble" to me. She pronounced it "umble." Bill Day, the pulpit minister at my church, also pronounces the word this way. It occurs to me how much I HATE the word when it is pronounced that way. The pronounciation seems to be a very um-humble way to pronounce it. A very British way to pronounce it.

And that's why I hate it, not that I have any problems with the British per se. I just don't want to be them. In fact, I lectured my wife about using the pronounciation telling her, "you are not British, you are an American. Talk like an American." (Notice I didn't say "speak like an American.")

You see, it's time for us to be as proud of our unique language as we are patriotic about our unique history. I heard an interview with Don DeLillo on the radio program "Bookworm" in which he expressed his surprise and delight when he recieved a manuscript of the French translation of his novel "Underworld." He noticed that the copywrite page contained the line, "translated from the American." He noted "Not 'from the English' but 'from the American'," I thought to myself, yes, why shouldn't an American novel be translated from American? Why shouldn't the American language get credit for Hemingway, Steinbeck, Vonnegut, Faulkner, Chabon, Russo, Eugenides, and DeLillo?

Our's in an AMERICAN language, rich in its own idioms and culturally enriched paranomasia. Our language has its own grammar, it's own spelling. It's own use of the sacred and the profane. It's "color" not "colour." Not "bloody" but "goddamn." (For you folks that do your British impressions by using the word "bloody" contantly, take note of the American transliteration and think about what you're saying.)

And remember history. After being conquered by French Normans, the kings in England spoke only French for 300 years. The language survived only because the commoners refused to speak French. They wanted their own language... because it was their own national identity. It was Shakespeare and Chaucer. Our identity is Tennesse Williams and John Updike.

We are an American nation. Celebrate your American language. (Note: It isn't "One should celebrate one's language.)

These Might Explain Me

I have found two really cool sites about the two playwrites that have probably influenced my own writing the most. So, for those of you who've read my stuff and said, "where does he get this crap?" check out these guys. Actual genuises, unlike me.

Eugene Ionesco, writer of "The Bald Soprano" and "Rhinoceros" and this site on Samuel Beckett. The Beckett site is especially great, containing clips of his radio plays and photos of performances. Both sites have book shops for those of you who read.

Buddhists...God Love 'Em

Today is Christmas. The day when dozens of people celebrate the birth of Christ and Millions celebrate Turkey Dinners and the diurnal urge to kill one's family. Every year, I get totally sick of eating dishes invented by pilgrims, so this year I decided to eat something invented in Los Angelos in the 1840's. Chinese food!

I love that every Christmas, it's the one place open. the chinese joint doesn't have to worry about scheduling days off for all the little Christian kids out of town with mom and dad. They don't have to worry that Jesus might return on his 2011th birthday.

So, in honor of Christmas and in honor of the Chinese, I will write a very short play. I know that by the time both of you (that is, both my readers) reae this, Christmas will likely be over so I apologize for making you see one more holiday play...even if only in your minds eye. I shall title it "Jesus Died for Buddhists"

The Scene: A Chinese restaraunt late Christmas night. The restaraunt is moderately busy because it's the only place open. A man and his wife wait near the counter.

Chinese lady: Oh-kaey. Youh Ohda es Wehdy. (I apologize for the stereotyped way I present the accent. Imagine the very suble pronounciation of the "R," pronounced strongly enough that it deserves mention as a phoneme but not so strongly that it earns the Alpha character, or the written letter itself).
(The man and woman approach. The woman takes the bag of takeout from the Chinese lady)
Wife: Oh, thank you.
Chinese Lady: Yoe Wehcome.
Wife: And Merry Christmas (The Chinese Woman walks back into the kitchen.)
Husband: You can't say Merry Christmas to her!
Wife: Why not?
Husband: She's Bhuddist.
Wife: So?
Husband: So, Buddhists don't celebrate Christmas!
Wife: Why shouldn't they?
Husband: Because they are not Christians.
(The wife rolls her eyes dismisively and turns toward husband)
Wife: Well, if Atheists can celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, than surely Buddhists can. If for nothing else, than for the presents...

I know it doesn't have a plot and it isn't funny, but it popped into my head. A conversation that a real-life man might have with a slightly dumb wife. I know enough slightly dumb wives (mine happens to be quite intelligent) that would probably say "Merry Christmas" to lots of Chinese and never stop to think that she might be making them feel akward.

Merry Christmas to all, if that's your persuasion.

Who Likes to Laugh at Nerds?

Here are a couple of really great clips I found. This one which is also just artsy enough to be cool while also being funny. I found it through fishkite.

And of coarse my favorite... a perenial favorite for us all is star wars kid. Poor, poor Star Wars Kid! I have to wonder if something's wrong with him. But since I'm a cynical jerk, I might as well laugh at him either way.

Anyway, these help break up all the Updike I'm reading right now. (Almost halfway through the second Rabbit novel "Rabbit Redux" Makes a novel and a half in about 5 days.)

Rabbit Returneth to His Own Vomit

I finally got around to reading John Updike's 1960 novel "Rabbit, Run." It is one of those ones that all the smart kids read in college and I knew I would like if I just got around to it. Well I got around to it.

For those who don't know the book, it is the story of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, a 26 year old with a wife a kid and another on the way. Rabbit, out of the blue, decides to run off. He ends up living for four months with a prostitute in another town until his wife has the new baby, when he comes home.

Shortly after the birth of his new daughter, he and Janice (his wife) argue and he runs off again. In shame and dismay, his wife becomes very drunk and accidentally drowns the baby in the bathtub. This brings Rabbit home yet again.

The funeral proves to be more than Rabbit can handle...so, you guessed it, he runs away again. Thus ending the first of four Rabbit novels with the line, "...he runs. Ah: runs. Runs."

The very well written book makes one great statement about mankind. It is but this: we are idiots and we are not worth saving! Rabbit runs away when he realizes that his adult life is not what it might have been. He looks back on his glory days when he was a rising high school basketball star and he refuses to see that he is no longer that kid. He cannot see that being the most important thing in high school doesn't make him the most important thing in the new world. So he runs. He runs back to those days.

When he realizes that he has sinned against his wife and against his family, he returns. But he stays only until he does not get what he wants (in this case, sex... actually Rabbit's internal drive throughout the novel centers on a constant need for sex). Then, he is gone again. And the cycle repeats itself yet a third time before the book is over, when he finds out that his girlfriend in the other town is also pregnant.

Rabbit runs all over Pennsylvania trying to satisfy his own desires and, as do the rest of us, he leaves misery in his wake. Rabbit's life in an extreme example, but an example none the less, of what we all do all the time. We make ourselves all important. We become the only human with rights and we do whatever we must to make ourselves comfortable. Nina Baym was correct to include this novel in a list of book about the myth that is the American dream (in her essay "Melodramas of Beset Manhood"). We do desire the dream of being able to run from whatever holds us back in our own minds. This is what it means to be American. I may do whatever I wish, regardless of the cost incurred on those I love.

Baym calls Rabbit's actions (or perhaps Updike's telling of them) an "evocation of flight for it's own sake." I disagree. It is not for it's own sake. Rabbit does not fly simply because he can or to celebrate his freedom to fly. It is flight born out of his own selfishness. Flight because my comfort is more important that the lives of my children. As long as I don't hold the baby's head under water, I'm not guilty. As Rabbit says to his wife at the funeral, "What are you looking at me for? I didn't kill her."

God is Great and so is Audrey Tautou

"God is Great and I'm Not" (2001)

This film starring Audrey Tautou and Edouar Baer furthur proves what I have always suspected to be true. Audrey Tautou is the only thing that doesn't suck about France.

Michele (Tautou) is on a quest to find spirituality. She tries Catholicism and Buddhism and all the other "isms" when, behold, the falls in love...with a Jew. She decides that she is Jewish and becomes a better Jew than her lover or even his Israeli parents.

This movie is wonderfully funny and heart-warming and everything you want in a cold weather movie. Audrey Tautou is perfect as usual in her subtlety and delivery (though it's in French, with a little Hebrew and English sprinkled in). Edouard Baer is also adept in his performance as Francious, her lover. And he reminds me of somebody but I can't place who...

If you're not too illiterate or too American to enjoy French film, I recommend this one highly.

Wonder Who I'll Meet in Heaven

I need to slow down! I'm typing out book reviews more often than both of you check this blog!

Anyway, here is the latest: "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," by Mick Albom. My in-laws gave this book to my wife but she never read it, so I did.

It's pretty good... I like the idea that all of our lives are connected whether we have ever met or not. It's not a new theme by any means but a profound one none the less, especially in our modern culture of "I'm okay, you're okay" morality.

Oh, the sense of awesome responsibilty we have and don't know it! If we only knew that our smallest action can mean the life or death of another human being.

Anyway, if you have a spare day to read and nothing else to read, it's a good one. If you have lots of other books on the backburner, read them. This one is so-so. Good lesson though. I can go into furthur detail for anyone who desires. Just e-mail.

We are Part of an "Epic"

I have just read the small book "Epic" by John Eldredge. Eldredge is the aothor of the best selling "Wild at Heart" which has been one of the life changing books in my life, partially responsible for giving me the courage to become a police officer.

In "Epic," Eldredge compares out literary archetypes to the story which God is unravelling in creation. He makes the point that out literature is a direct parallel to the history of God and man. The story of our existence contains good vs. Evil, love and betrayal, heroes fighting against insurmountable odds, and finally redemption, good winning over evil and lovers living happily ever after...together.

It's an interesting thesis. It is one that I think might be dead on accurate. We strive to tell and retell our own stories. Or, at least, to see ourselves in the stories we love. We attempt to learn something about humanity, about life through the art that moves us.

Eldredge quotes Simone Weil, or paraphrases, in "he [God] haunts us with the memory of Eden, and he speaks through every story we've ever loved." More than once, Eldredge qoutes from Ecclesiastes, "God had put eternity in the hearts of man."

You see, we write what we write and love the stories we love because we know that they relate to the story we want to be in ourselves. We admire the hero. We feel for the lover. We root for the good guy, because we want to be in the story. Because we want to see ourselves in the characters and we see the characters in ourselves.

Because we see what we were and what we could be. Deep down, we mourn what was lost in Eden, when man was everything he could be. At the same time, we look ahead to final victory of good vs evil. To the day when we finally get to live "happily ever after" and are forever restored to our first love.

We long for the day when, finally, we will be the heroes in the greatest story ever told . When God will say "well done my good and faithful servant."

Resisting Arrest

Okay, got rant political a little. Making news right now is an Atlanta Police Officer's use of "excessive force" when arresting a violator at the Airport.

The incident began when the officer approached the car to tell the driver that she couldn't park where she was parked. The woman then backed up, striking the officer with the mirror of her car. At that time he extracted her from the car and stabalized her on the ground. She resists and it take seven officers to finally restrain her.

Lawyer claims excessive force used, because that's what lawyers do. Resisting arrest charges get dropped against the woman amid much media scrutiny. Saying that "refusal to obey an order doesn't resort to felony resisting."

Folks, that's exactly what resisting means! Granted, she wasn't physically combative at the onset, so use the city charge for resisting! (Course Atlanta may not have one)

The officer did exactly as officers are trained to do with a passive resistor by taking physical control of her. And, frankly, the only reason this is even a story is because she is a rich white woman with a high priced lawyer. If this had been a young black man in the ghetto, "excessive force" would have never been considered. Infact it would have been applauded by millions of families watching cops on Saturday 8:00, 7:00 central. I ought to know, I use this method of extraction often. God, postpone the day I have to slam a rich white person who thinks she pays my salary.

Irreverent!

My good friend and respected collegue Chris Akers has opened a blog of his own. You may get to it by clicking on the title of this entry.

"Michael Moore Hates America"

Thanks to Carol (I think that's who it was) who sent this to a buddy list I'm a member of. Click the title to go to the web page of a new documentary titled "Michael Moore Hates America." Check out the trailer!

Cool Discovery for People who Love Books

I found an interview with Don DeLillo speaking about "Underworld" which is one of my favorite books. They also have interviews with several other interviews with writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri who I am reading now. Good stuff. Click on the title of this post to go to KCRW's "bookworm" page where these interviews are done.

"The Body Artist" A Mixed Review

Okay. Just finished "The Body Artist" by Don DeLillo. The title of this blog says it. Infact, the jury is still out on whether or not I liked this book at all. I'll start with what I like, then what I don't and maybe by the end of this entry, I'll have my answer.

I love DeLillo's prose style. I have often copied it myself (quite by accident, but I have none-the-less.) He is very aggressive, plowing through the plot so quickly that he often skips elements forcing you to fill in chunks of story. And he does it skillfully so that you know what must be filled in. At the same time, he will slow down every day actions so that, suddenly, the subtext in turning on a light switch can tell a life story.

I enjoy the way his narration reads like the inner-diologue of the characters. He uses repetition and dwells on small things the way a character would in his or her mind. It comes across as being very raw, without being clumsy. This style is why DeLillo's "Underworld" id one of my favorite books.

So what does "Underworld" have that "The Body Artist" does not? In short: story. In this novella (it calls itself a novel but is only 120 pages soaking wet) the character called "Mr. Tuttle" is a retarted man with a nack for repeating phrases he hears. The stories main character Lauren is so drawn to him that she feels sexually drawn to him and motherly toward him at the same time. She has long convesations with him (much of what he says has no meaning) and she attempts to teach him. The problem is, we the readers are only shown a very small number of them. We never get to know the character of Mr. Tuttle. DeLillo has forgotten Dotty Frye's first rule; show, not tell.

Also, Lauren really doesn't go through any transition. No one changes. I was never hurt ot touched or moved at all by these characters because I never watched them grow. Therefore, I could never grow with them, closer to them.

So if I have to decide, I can only say this: I'm glad I read it but I won't miss anybody when I put this book on the graveyard of my shelf. And that is the tragedy.

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides

Sing, muse, of it taking me so long to finish reading this book! Because of my ever tightening schedule, this book took me as long to finish reading as Anna Karenina (and I started it over almost as many time) And all I can say is that it was totally worth it.

Middlesex is the story of a Greek girl who finds out a fourteen that she isn't a girl at all, but a boy. The confusion has to do with the fact that she is a hermaphrodite. In tracing the defecting gene that manifested itself in his body, the narrator tells the story of three generations of the Stephanides family (a family tree with fewer branches than it should have), through war torn Greece during the war with the Turks, into depression era Detroit, WWII, Korea, the sixties and all that decade had to offer, up to the current president who is popular because his name has only one syllable.

The appeal in the book to me was the constant terror I was in. I don't mean a Stephen Kind kind of terror that gives you nightmares about goulish monters. This is an emotional terror. The kind when one sits on the edge of one's seat knowing that he is about to be hurt, hurt because the characters are hurt. Eugenides makes you love this family, and because he is Greek, you know that some of them will die unnaturally and some will go through tremendous emotional distress. And Euginedes certainly delivers, but in a way that the reader is okay with it in the end.

The reader comes out of the book feeling as though he has gone through a journey through the life of this family. He feels he is better for it.

One of the things I have noticed about great books is that I always feel a tinge of melencholy when I close the cover for the last time. I have spent the past few months with these characters and they have become my friends (a statement of my introvertedness I know). I close the book knowing that I will likely never visit these friends again and knowing that I shall miss them. I know that I will think about them from time to time and consider picking the book up again to visit my old friends.

But, alas, a Don DeLillo novel awaits, sitting on my coffee table waiting for me to finish this blog. Stay tuned for that review.

A Short Note on Scott Peterson and Abortion

Well, one of the jurors has been dismissed for doing her own research on the case. THe judge has instructed the jury to start over again in deliberating the double murder trial of Scott Peterson....

I'm sure I'm not the first person to bring this up, but....double murder? Peterson's not only being tried for his wife's murder but also of the murder of her unborn child. That's as it should be. He robbed the child of a life it could have had.

So, where do we draw the line between murder and abortion? If a woman says, "it's my body," and aborts the baby, it's okay. If a man takes the baby's life, it's Murder I. Seriously, people, what's the difference? A dead fetus is a dead fetus! Why the double standard?

Does a mother rob her baby of life any less than a father does? All I ask for is a little consistency. Either start charging mothers for Murder when they rob a child of its life, or drop a charge against Peterson to only one count of Murder. And remember, it might be the woman's body, but its God's child. His own creation into which he alone breathes life.

Oops. I'm talking politics again...and religion.

The United States of Canada?

http://idisk.mac.com/glwebb-public/new_map.jpg Follow that URL to see a map of the proposed division between the "United States of Canada" and "Jesusland." Also, click on the Title line to read an editorial by Howard Gensler of the Philidelphia Daily News. This map is reported to have come from Michael Moore's website.

Read the editorial. You will find it fascinating. I find it disgusting. Well, Blue States, if you really do want to go join Canada, all I have to say is "Good Riddance." We here in "Jesusland" don't want a bunch of whinning sourpusses anyway.

It's no secret that we didn't much like Bill Clinton, but we never talked about moving away or making our states part of Canada. I know it's just a joke but come one! Canada reports that inquiries into immigrating to Canada have tripled since the election. New Zealand reports a similar trend.

Absolutely reprehensable! You liberals have shown yourselves to be a bunch of ten year old boys, who when they get behind in the ball game are instantly ready to take their ball and go home. Well, welcome to democracy. You don't always get to win, and if losing really makes you want to leave, then take your socialist policies and your welfare cases with you. Go have your socialized healthcare. Take Hollywood. And we'll just keep the pioneering never die attitude and spirit that made this a great country in the first place.

I say what I want because I have a Mandate

I know that it has been a little while since I posted and I desperately hope that I didn't lose everyone during my absence. Between going on vacation, the world series and the election, I have been either out of town or watching TV for the past few weeks.

I have some really sneaky stuff in the works. Some of you will be delighted, some of you will think me a villian, but all of you will want to tune in to see what it is.

Also, I am almost finished with the Pulitzer prize winning novel "Middlesex" and when I am finished I will promptly post my review.

Welcome home to Adam Williams from the desert. We are all very glad you are home safe. Especially your wife, who we all agree is too good for you. Can't wait for the paintball game to ensue!!!

Clips for "The Accuser"

Jordan Lundy, who shot and edited my film "The Accuser" has put some clips of it on the web. Check out little portions of our movie by going here: http://www.redearthdesign.com/gallery/jordan. These are meant to display Jordan's visual skill so they are not dialogue laden scenes but you get an idea.

"I'm a Scientist, I Don't Believe in Anything"

The Title of this Blog is now one of my favorite movie lines in history thanks to "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra."

For those of you who love the old creature feature horror films of the 50's, beware. For those of you who find those old movies to be like a train wreck from which you just can't divert your eyes, get ready. This irreverent parady of those old movies will have you rolling in the floor. The characters will delight, complete with the apple pie white scientist and his wife, space aliens (that strangely look just like humans and speak English), an evil scientist, a mutant, a half girl half animal, and oh....the lost skeleton himself, as they all try to find that most elusive element, atmospherion.

I hope you can fathom the terrible danger, but hey, "I guess if I didn't like danger, I wouldn't have married a man who studies rocks."

"I sleep now."

Sooner Born and Sooner Bred, I Will Vote what Switzer Said"

Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, held to be a god with a little "g," went public with his endorsement for Democratic Senatorial Candidate Brad Carson today. I guess that's okay. He can endorse who he chooses to.

What concerns me is that KFOR TV Channel 9 reports that, "his endorsement of Brad Henry (Oklahoma's Democratic Governor) two years ago was instrumental in getting him elected." It's okay that he endorsed Brad Henry. I probably would have voted for Brad Henry had I lived in Oklahoma at the time. However, it concerns me greatly that the endorsement of a washed-up football coach can be instrumental in an election.

I have doubts that he actually influenced that many people to vote for Brad Henry but, at the same time, I fear that this might be possible. Americans really are that shallow. "Any man who can beat Nebraska that many times can choose my Senator any day. After all, he knows option football, surely he knows how to run a Governor. Heck I'll vote for Switzer in the upcoming Emperor of the Universe election." Ah, yes, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks, Cheryl Crow and Barry Switzer. These are the best and the brightest. Shining stars in a dark sky. These are our countries most brilliant political minds and I shall follow them even to the ends of the earth.

"I Pronounce you; Man and Man"

In the comments section of "I'm a Christian, Leave Me Alone," a random blog user posed the question, "does gay marraige make your marraige any less valid?" For my response to the question: read the comments section of that post.

Some of you will be outraged. Some of you, delighted. Some of you will think that I'm a liberal, others will think I'm a bigot. But all will find it thought provoking, thought it be brief.

Who Do I Vote For When I Hate All These People?

It's not the presidential race that I'm worried about. To me, that's a no-brainer. I knew who I was going to vote for in Nov '04 when I voted for him four years ago. But my Senate Race here in Oklahoma has me in a cold sweat. The race got tricky for me when last week I saw a commercial trashing Democratic Candidate Brad Carson. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Brad Carson's by any means, but the problem came at the end of the commercial with one simple phrase; "I'm Tom Coburn and I approved this message." So what's the problem?

Let me set the stage. During the Republican Primaries, Coburn made it his war cry that no matter what the other candidates did, he refused to resort to negative campaigning. He produced commercials about his positive campaign strategy saying things like, "The experts say I can't win without making negative campaign ads, but I refuse to be negative." (this is a paraphrase by the way but very close to the exact quote).

I know, you're saying, "A politician lied and you're surprised?" No, I'm not surprised, but fed up. check out the candidates websites: http://www.coburnforsenate.com and http://www.bradcarson.com . The top several stories on each of their "news" sections are have titles beginning with the other candidate's name. On some point in our history, politicians stopped trying to prove that they were right for the job and just starting to say, "Hey, atleast I'm better than the other guy." We as voters have only to chose the lesser of two evils, rather than the best for the job. "I will vote for this guy, because he will destroy out country less."

Thankfully, this election will be over in a month. Then we will get a good seven month break before the campaigns for 2008 start.

cheers

Haha. Oh, Hemingway, you satirical rogue,you!

Donald Stewart, a 72 year old writer in Pompalona, Spain has hit the jackpot. He just happened to find, in a letter from Ernest Hemingway to Stewarts father, an unpublished short story by Hemingway. But the real surprise.... It's a satire.

The main character is a comical version of what was to become the Hemingway hero (those of you who reade Hemingway know what I'm talking about.) The main character, a bull fighter, kills a bull with his bare hands but loses part of his entrails in the process.

But alas excited Hemingway scholars, the story will not be published. Any Hemingway piece published must be approved by both the Hemingway Foundation and the Hemingway estate. The foundation says okay, the family says no. Bad, bad family. I want to read the story but they won't let us!!!

I'm a Christian; Leave me Alone!

The Title line of this blog links you to a news story out of San Diego discussing Proposition K in San Diego California. To give you the background, there is a war memorial in San Diego. It is a cross. This cross sits on a hill. This hill is city property. Oh, No! Seperation of curch and state, it must be torn down (thus saith a prominant San Diego Atheist who has been suing the city to have it torn down for the last 15 years.)

I am a moderate Republican and a slightly liberal Christian. It didn't bother me when the ten commandments were removed from the Alabama courthouse last year. I didn't whine about removing organized prayer from public schools. I'd rather teach my kids about God anyway, rather than some teacher. But when does it stop?

As the writer of this article points out, there are other religious sites owned by the city including Jewish synagogues and temples of eastern religions. Why, oh why Mr Athiest are you now concerned with those locations? When will they remove the Shriner images from our money. Please hurry, they bothering my sensibilities and must be removed.

I think my biggest gripe about the issue is this: does a big cross paying homage to our countries war dead make you want to be less of an athiest? Does it cause you to be intimidated into attending Christian church services? If the answer is no, which unless you, oh athiest, are an easily moved shallow person it will be, than why is it so important that you have the cross removed? Why is your comfort more important than mine anyway?

But then again, it's not about religion. It's not about politics. It's not about the constitution. It certainly isn't about honering those veterans that the cross was erected to memorialize. It's about me and my fifteen minutes of fame. God bless America!

Actor and Actress Needed

I have a script which I have been waiting a while to try to film. I am hoping to film it this winter, like January'ish. It is a three person script but I am saving one part for John Greening. I still need one actor and one actress who would be available to rehearse in the evenings a couple nights a week until January when I would begin filming. If anyone is interested e-mail me at jrspruill@yahoo.com. There is no pay but I am hoping to send the film to some smaller festivals so it's good resume work.

The Film is called "The Origina of Language" and is about two cavemen trying to invent language on to discover too late that they still cannot communicate.

Big Words = High Art? A review of "Waking Life"

"Waking Life":
A Film by Richard Linklater

Don't watch this movie. On second thought, everybody should see this movie as an example on how not to make a film. You'll see a great deal of praise for this movie such as "nothing short of Amazing," (Peter Travers,Rolling Stone) and "an amazing film that dances and vibrates with life!" (Roger Ebert,Chicago Sun-Times) but I promise you, this praise is unwarranted. This prasie comes from those who are afraid to trash it because of it's high language and faux depth. They are afraid they may be seen as un-intellegent for not "getting it." Well, I tell you, take a stand. Be not afraid to say, "not liking your lousy movie doesn't make me stupid."

The film is about a kid who is in a dream state and can't figure out how to wake up (I guess this is what it's about). It explores the idea that we may be awake when we think we are asleep and visa versa. A fun topic to think about, I myself have made a student film on this subject. The problem with this movie however is that the entire film is made up of long-winded sermons about reality and existence. The film never introduces a ....you know....plot, something that I feel is essential in good writing. This film typifies the type of "art" which attempts to claim that if a writer uses big words and talks about deep subjects he is automatically hailed as a genius. Unfortunatally, I think that view is half correct. If a writer used big words and talks about profound subjects, lots of people do account him as a genius. Untrue I tell you!!!!

Discovering new ways to present old ideas, finding a way to connect your work to an audience to make them feel and think as they never have before, this is the mark of true genius! Anyway, don't see this piece of garbage. Oh wait, see it, bask in its artistic uselessness. Try to make it through the whole film. I dare you.

If you love this movie and think I'm a retard for hating it, feel free to post a reply.

Shout out to my homies in Beantown

Sweet Action! The Redsox beat the Yankees this afternoon to clinch this series 2 games to 1. We're still 3 1/2 back. but leading in the wild-card race. The wildcard is close enough to taste. Can you say re-match! It's almost October baby!

Welcome me to the 21st century

I have been trying to get Heathe to build me a blod for a long time. I finally decided to go to Blogger and build one myself. Now I just have to talk him into sticking a link to it on my site. I decided with my job and the constant rants it inpires, the election coming up and Baseball playoffs, now would be the perfect time to start a blog.

On my blog, I will periodically list reviews of books, movies and music that I like. I will talk a little politics and religion. I may update on my life and the life of my friends (but probably not often) Anyway. Here it is. Enjoy.