It has recently come to my attention that there is a major problem facing our world and our future and I cannot allow it continue without addressing it. (Uh-oh, he’s about to get preachy, run for cover…)
About a year ago Entertainment Weekly ran an article entitled “Do The Beatles Still Matter?” As soon as I saw the article I became furious. The Bible was printing sacrilege. Any magazine that would even bother to print such a stupid, inane, completely and absolutely ridiculous article wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. I stopped just short of canceling my subscription then and there, but I still have yet to fully forgive them for even ASKING such a question (even though the article did ultimately come to the only conclusion one could possibly come to on the matter). When I was finally able to bring myself to read such garbage, I found that it focused on the fact that a lot of young people today don’t listen to The Beatles, aren’t familiar with them, or even worse, weren’t fans. Now many of the people interviewed or quoted said they liked Good Charlotte or Avril Lavigne or some such music, so while still very troubling, I was able to deal with it by writing it off as just another example of the dumbing down of youth culture and MTV related ignorance. That got me started on my “the country is going down the shitter, people are idiots, our educational system is a complete failure” internal tirade, but it was okay, because “surely they will learn when they grow up” I thought. I didn’t know the Beatles when I was 14 either. “Give them a few years.” I mean all the people I know now love The Beatles. I mean, they have good taste in music so surely they must…
(Blood pressure slowly beginning to rise)
I first started noticing suspicious things last semester. As I was moving from my “big fan” phase to “obsessive to a potentially unhealthy degree” phase, my sensitivity to all things Beatles became heightened. And therefore little things that might previously have gone unnoticed struck me as odd. Like when I mentioned "Doctor Robert" in an RA staff meeting and no one had any idea what I was talking about. Or when jokes about being the walrus or doing it in the road were met with puzzled expressions. I become somewhat concerned, so I stared flat out asking people “are you a Beatles fan?” And the responses I got were worse than I could have possibly imagined. (Brace yourself…) By and large PEOPLE DIDN’T REALLY KNOW THE BEATLES.
(Blood pressure reaching dangerous levels)
I honestly cannot conceive of how this is possible. People I know and care about, most of my friends, people whose opinions on matters of taste I had even trusted, people I had (God forbid) even listened to music recommendations from DIDN’T KNOW THE BEATLES! Or if they did know them they “weren’t huge fans”!! I felt beyond betrayed. I mean I had taken music opinions from these people! It was like knowing someone for years and then one day finding out they are actually only a very life-like cyborg. I mean if you don’t like The Beatles I fail to see how you are technically “alive” per say. So I must do my part to remedy this situation now.
Not to be preachy (far too late for that) but if you don’t like The Beatles then all of your opinions on music and, well, any art at all, are completely invalid. I cannot stress this strongly enough. It is very simple: If you don’t like The Beatles then you don’t like music. Bottom line. This is so incredibly not debatable that Lincoln and/or Douglas couldn’t even make an argument on its behalf. To say you like music and are not a huge Beatles fan is like saying you like reading but don’t really care for sentences. The Beatles are what music is built on. They ARE music. (Well duh, but you get my deeper point…). It goes even deeper than that though. There are a few things that exist in the world that are so great, examples of such great genius that it seems almost inconceivable that they could have been created by the human mind. I think I could put the short list at the works of Shakespeare, Beethoven, the threesome scene in Wild Things, and The Beatles. I mean listen to "Day in the Life" or "Dear Prudence" or The White Album or hell, almost anything they ever wrote, and there’s just no way to describe how incredible it is. It exemplifies the line in American Beauty “Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it.” Their music hits you in places you didn’t even know existed. The fact that IT exists gives you hope. The fact that four real people from a small town in England were able to create something like the music of the Beatles gives you hope in all of humanity. If human beings can create something that transcendent, that genius, that indescribable, then there’s nothing humanity can’t do. To not embrace The Beatles is to not embrace life. There are certainly statements that I feel must be true if you want to claim to lead a valid, fulfilling, and worthwhile existence: “I participate in the inhaling of oxygen and the exhaling of carbon dioxide” “I’m not a big fan of genocide” and “I like the Beatles”. If you cant truthfully say these statements then you should give you life to someone who could make better use of it.
So by now you either get the point or you are illiterate, in which case might I ask what you are doing here. And all if all this impassioned rhetoric does nothing else (well besides make me seem a little mentally unstable) I hope that it at least makes you consider giving the Beatles a deeper listen. Despite what P. Diddy would have you believe, this is an issue that is more important to your life, and our life as a society, than voting. Because no matter who is president or what happens in world affairs, we will all always have The Beatles. They are unversal and eternal they are our shared soundtrack. And so when I find myself in times of trouble, and have nothing to believe in anymore, I know that, unlike John, I believe in Beatles, and no matter what, just knowing that, I can always say: “it’s alright”.
Top 3 & 1/2 of the Week:
1.) Steve Martin
2.) Wilco - "Jesus, Etc."
3.) Jim White - "Static on the Radio"
3 & 1/2.) Your Mom
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Marymount Musings
And now for something more light and frivolous like you’ve come to expect from yours truly…
(Warning: As if the title didn’t give it away, this entry is not intended for anyone who does not attend Marymount Manhattan College. So if your IQ is over 90 or you like hunting, fishing, or math you should find your reading material from other sources. Perhaps James Joyce.)
As a tour guide I consider myself an expert on all things Marymount, and also much cooler than you. So while we all have thoughts on the place we call school, mine are better than yours. Because I write mine down and post them on the internet…And at Marymount, doing that something like that is considered cool…
(I have come to the realization that I use ellipses far too often. If only there was something else I could use that would have the same effect…)
Most Common Phrases Overheard at Marymount:
1.) “Richard Niles”
2.) “I cant talk right now, I have coke up my nose”
3.) (Usually said by a girl to a straight male) “There are NO straight guys at this school! None. Anywhere. Not One. If only there was just one single straight guy at this whole godforsaken school I would be, like, so all over that. But there’s not. Life sucks. I’m going home to shoot myself now…”
3 & 1/2.) “Wow this Java City coffee is so good. And such friendly service too!”
Best Men’s Bathrooms:
1.) 3rd Floor Main - Convenient yet largely unknown so you always have it to yourself. Plus there’s a water fountain right outside. Plus it’s close to the cafeteria so it makes purging after lunch convenient.
2.) 2nd Floor of the Library - Way out of the way, but the all-stall set up is kinda cool as you can avoid those awkward “I’m standing next to my professor peeing I should say something to them but don’t know what to talk about plus I’m only gonna be here a few seconds” moments.
3.) 5th Floor Main – The large size and privacy of the rooms are nice but the line is always a mile long and the cleaning lady inevitably always has to start cleaning it the moment you start your business, whatever business that might be. Which then raises the question of, since it is cleaned like 20 times a day, how come there are never any paper towels in the dispensers?
3 & 1/2.) 4th floor Nugent- I swear I saw this bathroom in my high school
*So some people might have noticed in past years that we had a fallout shelter in the basement in past years. This summer it magically one day disappeared, or at least the sign did. So my question is, what genius decided that this finally was the appropriate time to get rid of the fallout shelter?
*So luckily Ill be long gone, but when Jason Koth leaves the Student Services Center, we’re all screwed aren’t we?
*I think I speak for everyone when I say, “that 8th floor sure is stylish”.
Top 3 & ½ Things You Can Do That Will Earn You a Nasty Look From Me:
1.) Talk on your cell phone in the library
2.) Use the elevator to travel less than 3 floors
3.) Be a freshman
3 & ½.) Commit genocide
Most Common Shows playing on the TV in the Nuge:
1.) Judge Joe Brown
2.) Judge Judy
3.) Judge Hatchett
3 & ½.) The Parkers
*One time this summer there was a sign up in the basement that said “Nugent this way” with an arrow pointing people the way to the Nugent building. Someone wrote “Ted” above the “Nugent” so the sign for a few days read “Ted Nugent this way”. It was funny. I laughed every time I saw it. I guess you had to be there…
*I like how we claim to be so diverse and yet has anyone seen the new color scheme of the 4th floor of the Nugent? On a related note: they really need to hand out sunglasses when the elevators doors open on that floor. Its just a little overwhelming is all.
(Warning: As if the title didn’t give it away, this entry is not intended for anyone who does not attend Marymount Manhattan College. So if your IQ is over 90 or you like hunting, fishing, or math you should find your reading material from other sources. Perhaps James Joyce.)
As a tour guide I consider myself an expert on all things Marymount, and also much cooler than you. So while we all have thoughts on the place we call school, mine are better than yours. Because I write mine down and post them on the internet…And at Marymount, doing that something like that is considered cool…
(I have come to the realization that I use ellipses far too often. If only there was something else I could use that would have the same effect…)
Most Common Phrases Overheard at Marymount:
1.) “Richard Niles”
2.) “I cant talk right now, I have coke up my nose”
3.) (Usually said by a girl to a straight male) “There are NO straight guys at this school! None. Anywhere. Not One. If only there was just one single straight guy at this whole godforsaken school I would be, like, so all over that. But there’s not. Life sucks. I’m going home to shoot myself now…”
3 & 1/2.) “Wow this Java City coffee is so good. And such friendly service too!”
Best Men’s Bathrooms:
1.) 3rd Floor Main - Convenient yet largely unknown so you always have it to yourself. Plus there’s a water fountain right outside. Plus it’s close to the cafeteria so it makes purging after lunch convenient.
2.) 2nd Floor of the Library - Way out of the way, but the all-stall set up is kinda cool as you can avoid those awkward “I’m standing next to my professor peeing I should say something to them but don’t know what to talk about plus I’m only gonna be here a few seconds” moments.
3.) 5th Floor Main – The large size and privacy of the rooms are nice but the line is always a mile long and the cleaning lady inevitably always has to start cleaning it the moment you start your business, whatever business that might be. Which then raises the question of, since it is cleaned like 20 times a day, how come there are never any paper towels in the dispensers?
3 & 1/2.) 4th floor Nugent- I swear I saw this bathroom in my high school
*So some people might have noticed in past years that we had a fallout shelter in the basement in past years. This summer it magically one day disappeared, or at least the sign did. So my question is, what genius decided that this finally was the appropriate time to get rid of the fallout shelter?
*So luckily Ill be long gone, but when Jason Koth leaves the Student Services Center, we’re all screwed aren’t we?
*I think I speak for everyone when I say, “that 8th floor sure is stylish”.
Top 3 & ½ Things You Can Do That Will Earn You a Nasty Look From Me:
1.) Talk on your cell phone in the library
2.) Use the elevator to travel less than 3 floors
3.) Be a freshman
3 & ½.) Commit genocide
Most Common Shows playing on the TV in the Nuge:
1.) Judge Joe Brown
2.) Judge Judy
3.) Judge Hatchett
3 & ½.) The Parkers
*One time this summer there was a sign up in the basement that said “Nugent this way” with an arrow pointing people the way to the Nugent building. Someone wrote “Ted” above the “Nugent” so the sign for a few days read “Ted Nugent this way”. It was funny. I laughed every time I saw it. I guess you had to be there…
*I like how we claim to be so diverse and yet has anyone seen the new color scheme of the 4th floor of the Nugent? On a related note: they really need to hand out sunglasses when the elevators doors open on that floor. Its just a little overwhelming is all.
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Lloyd Dobler is Dead (?)
On the frame around my computer monitor there is a picture of John Cusack as the greatest movie character of all time, Lloyd Dobler, with his arm around Diane Cort (played by Ione Skye, but you already knew that). They are in his car and he has his arm tentatively around the back of her neck. She has her head leaned back and is in mid laugh as he stares at her with a grin on his face and a bemused wondering glow in his eyes.
On the TV above my head, John Cusack is Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. He is shouting to his ex-girlfriend Catherine Zeta-Jones “Charlie you fucking bitch, lets work it out”.
I think the question needs to be asked: What happened to you John Cusack?
You could say it was the 90’s. You could say it was life and age and its attendant cynicism. You could say it was the fact that Charlie is no Diane Cort. You could say a lot of things, but in the end what you’re left with is the reality that symbolically, Lloyd Dobler has aged into Rob Gordon, a narcissistic, depressed, burnout record-store owner who hates his job, his life, and has a love life no one would envy. Age and time have taken their toll on him unkindly. Charming innocence begat hardened cynicism. His optimism and lack of fear have dissipated into a protective shell of self-absorption. He is angry, frustrated and insecure.
So I guess you could say ultimately, that seems about right.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have for years wondered why I don’t like High Fidelity. Well “don’t like” isn’t really accurate. I do enjoy it, but not like I should. It should, on paper, be my favorite movie ever. It features guys who work in a record store and obsess over music and making lists. They are neurotic and consumed with pop culture. The movie features great writing based on great source material from Nick Hornby (who I love) and has tons of quotable lines. The art of making mix tapes is discussed at length. Jack Black features prominently in a breakout role that is my Blockbuster employee daydream fantasies come to life, in terms of customer relations (ie- he berates their bad taste, mocks them, and tells them to fuck off). It should be by all measures a Top 5 All Time Favorite Movie. But it’s not even close. I don’t know if it’s even Top 100.
Say Anything on the other hand, I should by all measures not be enthusiastic about. It has dated very badly. It’s cheesy, almost to a fault. It has an entirely unnecessary subplot about Diane’s Dad that receives way too much attention. It features unbelievable and unrealistic characters and some really not very good acting, to put it nicely. And the entire central conceit of the movie- that Diane Cort is some sort of unattainable goddess-like figure who lives in another world from Lloyd is completely unbelievable and ridiculous (partially the fault of the casting director, but whatever…). And yet. If Good Will Hunting had never been made, Say Anything could very well make a strong case as my favorite movie of all time.
So how and why is this?
On paper, it would seem the opposite would be true- the movie I find only passable I should love, and the movie I love I should laughably reject.
This of course says something about paper.
It also says something about the purpose of movies and why we watch them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t know about you, but I am surrounded by real life. It’s all I ever see. I’m surrounded by real life every day. Then I come home and I turn on my TV and there it is. I pop in my new Ashlee Simpson CD and I hear my life contained in her words (okay I lied about that last part). Point is, I’ve got enough life without having to pay to see it in a movie theater. In fact movies are usually the place I go when I want to escape life. That’s maybe the biggest function they serve.
Now I can hear your arguments already - he’s saying we should support mindless junk, realistic movies are bad, blah blah blah, but just stick with me here. Stop me if I start sounding like an “AFI 100 Years…100 whatever” special, but movies are there to let us escape for a few hours, to let us experience a little magic before ending and dumping us back into reality. If you don’t think this need for fantasy, this need for escapism, this need for release and for hope is one of our basic human needs, then tell that to your dreams.
The ones you have when you’re asleep, not the ones you wrote about in your college admissions essays.
Now this isn’t to say we should support mindless escapism, because for the most part mindless escapism is just that, mindless. And if your mind isn’t into it then it isn’t exactly escaping very far is it?
So then what about a movie like Lost in Translation? That is a realistic rumination on real life and not some escapist fantasy.
Au contraire, unless unbeknownst to me you are an aging movie star in a midlife crisis or a newlywed questioning your marriage while accompanying your husband on a photo shoot in Tokyo.
"But that movie seems so like my life, or at least like a life I can relate to", you say (or at least I did, and do). Well yes that’s the point now isn’t it. To create a world that seems so like life that it draws you in and allows you to (key word alert) escape into the reality of the situation; to present you with universal feelings and themes while making them seem so personal; these are the goals of movies, and really of all art. Its like how we all feel that we ARE Hamlet, or that that song was written about OUR lives.
The point is we don’t want to see REAL life in the movies; we want to see some version of life other than the real one. And THIS (getting us back on topic finally) is why Say Anything is a classic and High Fidelity leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
High Fidelity gives us an unlikable main character that displays some of the worst characteristics in all of us. His life seems far too familiar, his sad situations all too real, and he ends the movie not much better off than when he started. Where is the hope, the escape, the fantasy, and most importantly the heart in all of this?
(As aside note: isn’t High Fidelity really the movie Cameron Crowe should have made instead of Singles? I know the source novel hadn’t been written yet, but still, this is a movie that just cries out Cameron Crowe and deals with the same themes as Singles: disillusioned, narcissistic 20-somethings, music, and relationships in the 90’s. With the infusion of heart Cameron would have given it we might have really had something great. Plus then Singles would have never happened. Of course in my book that’s already the case…)
Say Anything on the other hand, gives us all of these missing things and then some. It’s the life we want and hope for and believe exists, unlike the life High Fidelity shows us, which is the life that DOES exist. Call it an example of the Dirty Dancing phenomenon, call it trite wish fulfillment, call it whatever you like, but the readers (and writers) of Entertainment Weekly call it the #1 modern romance movie and I just call it a damn good film.
You can also call it being lied to, or being given false hope, but I want my movies to lie to me; that’s what we pay them for.
In a world where “dare” is far preferable to “truth” we all want to be lied to.
We don’t want to see the guy that played Lloyd Dobler failing in relationships and burned out by life. We don’t want to see him buying things that are “sold or processed”. We don’t want to know that his spirit is dead in today’s world.
We want the lie.
We want hope.
We want “Say Anything…”
Top 3 & ½ of the Week:
1.) Shakespeare (the playwright)
2.) Rilo Kiley
3.) Frou Frou – “Let Go”
3 & ½.) Shakespeare (the bookstore)
On the TV above my head, John Cusack is Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. He is shouting to his ex-girlfriend Catherine Zeta-Jones “Charlie you fucking bitch, lets work it out”.
I think the question needs to be asked: What happened to you John Cusack?
You could say it was the 90’s. You could say it was life and age and its attendant cynicism. You could say it was the fact that Charlie is no Diane Cort. You could say a lot of things, but in the end what you’re left with is the reality that symbolically, Lloyd Dobler has aged into Rob Gordon, a narcissistic, depressed, burnout record-store owner who hates his job, his life, and has a love life no one would envy. Age and time have taken their toll on him unkindly. Charming innocence begat hardened cynicism. His optimism and lack of fear have dissipated into a protective shell of self-absorption. He is angry, frustrated and insecure.
So I guess you could say ultimately, that seems about right.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have for years wondered why I don’t like High Fidelity. Well “don’t like” isn’t really accurate. I do enjoy it, but not like I should. It should, on paper, be my favorite movie ever. It features guys who work in a record store and obsess over music and making lists. They are neurotic and consumed with pop culture. The movie features great writing based on great source material from Nick Hornby (who I love) and has tons of quotable lines. The art of making mix tapes is discussed at length. Jack Black features prominently in a breakout role that is my Blockbuster employee daydream fantasies come to life, in terms of customer relations (ie- he berates their bad taste, mocks them, and tells them to fuck off). It should be by all measures a Top 5 All Time Favorite Movie. But it’s not even close. I don’t know if it’s even Top 100.
Say Anything on the other hand, I should by all measures not be enthusiastic about. It has dated very badly. It’s cheesy, almost to a fault. It has an entirely unnecessary subplot about Diane’s Dad that receives way too much attention. It features unbelievable and unrealistic characters and some really not very good acting, to put it nicely. And the entire central conceit of the movie- that Diane Cort is some sort of unattainable goddess-like figure who lives in another world from Lloyd is completely unbelievable and ridiculous (partially the fault of the casting director, but whatever…). And yet. If Good Will Hunting had never been made, Say Anything could very well make a strong case as my favorite movie of all time.
So how and why is this?
On paper, it would seem the opposite would be true- the movie I find only passable I should love, and the movie I love I should laughably reject.
This of course says something about paper.
It also says something about the purpose of movies and why we watch them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t know about you, but I am surrounded by real life. It’s all I ever see. I’m surrounded by real life every day. Then I come home and I turn on my TV and there it is. I pop in my new Ashlee Simpson CD and I hear my life contained in her words (okay I lied about that last part). Point is, I’ve got enough life without having to pay to see it in a movie theater. In fact movies are usually the place I go when I want to escape life. That’s maybe the biggest function they serve.
Now I can hear your arguments already - he’s saying we should support mindless junk, realistic movies are bad, blah blah blah, but just stick with me here. Stop me if I start sounding like an “AFI 100 Years…100 whatever” special, but movies are there to let us escape for a few hours, to let us experience a little magic before ending and dumping us back into reality. If you don’t think this need for fantasy, this need for escapism, this need for release and for hope is one of our basic human needs, then tell that to your dreams.
The ones you have when you’re asleep, not the ones you wrote about in your college admissions essays.
Now this isn’t to say we should support mindless escapism, because for the most part mindless escapism is just that, mindless. And if your mind isn’t into it then it isn’t exactly escaping very far is it?
So then what about a movie like Lost in Translation? That is a realistic rumination on real life and not some escapist fantasy.
Au contraire, unless unbeknownst to me you are an aging movie star in a midlife crisis or a newlywed questioning your marriage while accompanying your husband on a photo shoot in Tokyo.
"But that movie seems so like my life, or at least like a life I can relate to", you say (or at least I did, and do). Well yes that’s the point now isn’t it. To create a world that seems so like life that it draws you in and allows you to (key word alert) escape into the reality of the situation; to present you with universal feelings and themes while making them seem so personal; these are the goals of movies, and really of all art. Its like how we all feel that we ARE Hamlet, or that that song was written about OUR lives.
The point is we don’t want to see REAL life in the movies; we want to see some version of life other than the real one. And THIS (getting us back on topic finally) is why Say Anything is a classic and High Fidelity leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
High Fidelity gives us an unlikable main character that displays some of the worst characteristics in all of us. His life seems far too familiar, his sad situations all too real, and he ends the movie not much better off than when he started. Where is the hope, the escape, the fantasy, and most importantly the heart in all of this?
(As aside note: isn’t High Fidelity really the movie Cameron Crowe should have made instead of Singles? I know the source novel hadn’t been written yet, but still, this is a movie that just cries out Cameron Crowe and deals with the same themes as Singles: disillusioned, narcissistic 20-somethings, music, and relationships in the 90’s. With the infusion of heart Cameron would have given it we might have really had something great. Plus then Singles would have never happened. Of course in my book that’s already the case…)
Say Anything on the other hand, gives us all of these missing things and then some. It’s the life we want and hope for and believe exists, unlike the life High Fidelity shows us, which is the life that DOES exist. Call it an example of the Dirty Dancing phenomenon, call it trite wish fulfillment, call it whatever you like, but the readers (and writers) of Entertainment Weekly call it the #1 modern romance movie and I just call it a damn good film.
You can also call it being lied to, or being given false hope, but I want my movies to lie to me; that’s what we pay them for.
In a world where “dare” is far preferable to “truth” we all want to be lied to.
We don’t want to see the guy that played Lloyd Dobler failing in relationships and burned out by life. We don’t want to see him buying things that are “sold or processed”. We don’t want to know that his spirit is dead in today’s world.
We want the lie.
We want hope.
We want “Say Anything…”
Top 3 & ½ of the Week:
1.) Shakespeare (the playwright)
2.) Rilo Kiley
3.) Frou Frou – “Let Go”
3 & ½.) Shakespeare (the bookstore)
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