Forever Grateful

There are few things better than an evening with friends. 

I had the great fortune to go to a college where I met so many good people and made so many good friends that I don't know if life can get any better than that.  But college ended (as it always does) and the lot of us have scattered across several states and it's rather rare for us to see each other anymore--we who had been so close and practically inseparable. 

But what is taken away is occasionally given back--even if it's just for a short while.  So I was able to spend this evening with three very good friends from my college days; talking and laughing and playing games and generally behaving as if no time at all had passed since we saw each other last.  It didn't matter that our lives had moved on in different directions and with varying successes.  We were still friends, and that's all that mattered.

And I almost won our game of Risk.  Boo-yah!

I Saw Mommy Kissing Robin Hood

Our brains often try to make connections between disparate ideas and events.  I think it's our way of making order out of chaos: of establishing some sort of understanding of the strange and infinite world we live in.

We'll be walking down a street and swear that the person we just saw was an exact twin of someone we knew from High School.  Of course, they're the same exact age as when we last saw them:--but that only means they've miraculously discovered the font of youth, right?

(or its like the time I swear I saw Matt Damon's younger self/cousin at a concert in Boston.  Remember?)

Or it's the feeling of deja vu we get--this happened already, didn't it?

Or it's the feeling of deja vu we get--this happened already, didn't it?

:D

Or maybe sometimes it's two different pieces of music that we swear sound more alike than they should: like Love Goes On from Disney's Robin Hood (listen below) and the Christmas favorite 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.' (also below)

You don't believe me do you?  I'm hurt.  Really hurt.  :)

Humor me for just a moment. 

Did you listen?  Is that not uncanny?

Or perhaps my brain is just struggling to make the world make sense.

Although it's a bit strange it would try to make the world make sense in this way.

Eh.  That's my brain.  :)

Children of Dune

(as I was writing that, I kept wanting to write 'Children of Doom' instead.  Has a bit of something, doesn't it?  It would either be a heartbreaking drama about bad life decisions, or a very strange sequel to the Doom movie.  hee)

Back on topic.

More of my time has been sucked away into the black hole that is a television mini-series!  Yay!  (I find it hard to seriously object to the time-sucking when the aforementioned mini-series has a very young James McAvoy)

How is this not excellent?

This is the first time I ever saw McAvoy act (or knew he existed) and it was only two years later that Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe came out.  I remember hearing the casting choice for him as Tumnus and my first instinct was--'but he's young!' while my second reaction was 'But he's good.' 

Honestly, my favorite parts of that movie include him and little Georgie Henley.  They made that movie special and magical and non-creepy.  I have friends who say that in the old BBC version they always got a child molester vibe off of Tumnus.  I say grrr to them in reply, but they do have a slight point.  (go here if you want to hear me talk about the BBC Narnia)

Back to Children of Dune.  (Doom!)  It's the continuation of the Dune miniseries that was produced in 2000, and while it has a higher budget it doesn't have all the same actors and actresses who played the same roles, so that's a bit of a bummer.  But the important people are still the same, and we get a couple of new faces who do credit to their characters. 

For the readers of the Frank Herbert books (the few, the proud) the Children of Dune mini-series is actually the combination of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.  As such it glosses over a lot of material but still manages to get the essence of the story.

It's been 8 years since I first saw CoD.  I had just watched an all day marathon of Dune that Sci-Fi had run, and at the end of it there was the first part of the CoD series.  I was entranced.  The story, the characters--it was all amazingly intertwined and complex.  I had to wait for the rest of the series to come out over the next two weeks (only a three part series) and let me tell you, that was some difficult waiting.  Possibly because I tend to get wrapped up in a story.

For this reason I love this modern age of ours.  We have Netflix and instant viewing etc etc etc so we have the opportunity to watch tv shows all the way through instead of having to wait week by week with the agony of possibly missing an episode and never being able to see it again.  Yay!

What can I say about CoD?  Well, it only really works if you've seen Dune--at least, in my opinion.  The music is beautiful (I own the soundtrack) and perfect and most of the acting hovers above the acceptable line, with only a couple occasional hilarious dips below.  ('So I tell you to summon wooorrms!')  And McAvoy is talented so therefore all is well.

But if any of you are at all inspired by my recommendations to watch it, keep in mind the fact that my Suspenders of Disbelief are very large and sturdy and that I like to approach everything I watch with a mind towards enjoying it in the way it was intended to be enjoyed.  (the following examples are not intended to be a commentary on the Dune or CoD series) Flimsy scenery?  Just use a bit more imagination (like in the Theater).  Bad SFX?  Use more imagination.  Bad script?  The story is still good.  Bad acting?  Well--that's less forgivable.  But if everyone is having a good time who cares?  I watch movies and tv shows to enjoy them, not to get all angry about how they aren't perfect.


A very happy Birthing Day to Haley Joel Osment (you're all grown up!) and Max Von Sydow (you grew up a long time ago!).  Many happy returns.

My childhood is crying in a corner

There's been a bit of talk recently about how much Michael Bay has been or is about to destroy people's childhoods.  What with the utter ruination that the Transformer movies became--and with the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot--Bay's got fans of all ages up in arms and in a rage. 

Personally my feeling was always, 'What's that got to do with me?'  I never watched either series growing up, but as a fan of other things I felt their pain.  It's a hard day when Hollywood takes an interest in your nostalgia and tries to make it 'better.'

I've got news for you, Hollywood.  You can't make nostalgia better.  That's why it's nostalgia.

'a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.' (thank you dictionary.com)

You can't make that better.  Nostalgia is a longing for the way things were, not the new and improved revised editions. 

But why should I care about what Michael Bay is doing, right?  It's no skin off my childhood's nose.  Right?

Wrong.

Very wrong.

Lets rewind my life by a few hours.  I've just had a whim.  I know it's a whim I'll likely regret--I know where it'll lead--but I also know I'll enjoy it in a shiny 'ooh the pretty lights' sort of way.

I made the decision to watch Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.

I know, I know, bad decision.  I'll admit that.  I knew it was going to be bad.  Everyone around the world has said how bad it was.  But I'm a bit of a completionist and I'd watched the other two, so....

It was bad.  That's nothing new.  It was bad from the first thirty seconds.  All right, it takes a special bit of bad to ruin a movie in the first thirty seconds, but all right.  I knew it would be bad.  Time passes.  Robots explode.  Buildings explode.  A world explodes.  There's bad acting.  More bad acting.  Bad plot devices.  Bad slo-mo.  Bad everything. 

But in the middle of all that, there's a ray of happy fun.  I suddenly hear the voice of Leonard Nimoy out of Sentinel Prime.  I'd probably known that he was in this ages ago, but I'd forgotten that fact so it was a happy discovery.  I love Leonard Nimoy.  Leonard Nimoy was part of my childhood.  I can do the Vulcan salute.  I'm a born Trekkie.  Leonard Nimoy deserves to take over the world!  Well, what do you know?  He is!  All right, it's a bit of a bummer he's the bad guy, but still.  Leonard Nimoy!

And then it hits.  Then Michael Bay does something so unforgivable that I will now join in with the legions of outraged fans around the world and place his name on my hate-pedestal.  He joins Mosquitoes, Fox (curse you!), and Jar-Jar Binks.  Things I will hate in perpetuity till the end of time. 

Because do you know what Michael Bay did?  He wasn't content with ruining only one strata of childhood nostalgia at a time, oh no.  He went for the big leagues: he went for the big double. 

He made Leonard Nimoy say one line too many.  And I'm betting he did it for a lark, because it was so funny, because it was Leonard Nimoy! and it's a famous line after all.  Into Sentinel Prime's mouth and with Leonard Nimoy's voice Michael Bay ruined my childhood with one line:

'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.'

Or the one.  (what trekkie can allow that line to go unfinished?)

What that line stands for--what that line means--is a great big ball of epic that can't be contained by any one movie or person or galaxy.  That line is everything!  Everything!

And Michael Bay put it in Transformer's 3 in the mouth of a traitor.

Weep, humanity.  Weep. 

And while you're at it break out your torches and pitchforks.  We've got a visit to pay.  Because there's nothing scarier than a bunch of crazed weeping geeks waving torches and pitchforks.  In Michael Bay's bed room.




(and Happy Birthday Nathan Fillion!  You're alive!  I think this is something we can all celebrate!)

The Black Stallion

This was one of my favorite childhood movies.  Some of you might better recognize it from the book by Walter Farley, and having read and watched both, there are few differences.  Well, one major one, but other than that...moving on...

What is so wonderful about this movie is that there's hardly any talking in it.  And there doesn't need to be.

Boy gets shipwrecked on island with wild horse.  Boy befriends Horse.  They get rescued.

That's half the movie right there, and the movie is two hours long.  And aside from the first ten minutes, there's no talking for that entire stretch of time.  Just beautiful music and amazing scenery and well chosen scenes to demonstrate the passage of time and the Boy's success in surviving alone.  And his befriending a wild Horse. 

!Horse!

The second half of the movie is the return to civilization and the Boy's desire to train his Horse to race.  Again, much of this is accomplished with very little talking. 

In fact, if this movie were a person, I'd have to call it laconic. 

But it's not boring!  I swear it isn't!  It managed to hold me enthralled as a child more times than I can count.  I loved this movie.  It was beautiful and interesting and it still is!  I just rewatched it and I loved it all over again!  Perhaps with a bit more appreciation for the filmmaking process and the difficulty of training a horse to respond to commands from a movie trainer.

But for anyone who had a favorite movie from childhood who watches it again years later, isn't it strange to see our protagonists look so young?  'Cause when I watched this when I was a kid, Boy looked so old!  Or at least, old enough.  Now he looks like he's 9, or maybe a small 11. 

'sigh.'

But maybe my love for this movie was unusual for a child.  I did love a lot of strange movies when I was growing up, and a couple of them were 3 or so hours long.  Ben-Hur!  The Ten Commandments! 

But if any of you are brave enough to dip back into childhood and watch a truly well-made movie about a boy and his horse, watch The Black Stallion.  It is probably the artsiest movie I love, and I don't care.  :)