This being the internet and all I know I’m required to share my feelings on Where The Wild Things Are. Other people will, I'm sure, be able to write more articulately about its quality. My basic thoughts were - it’s wonderful and magical and thrilling and all that stuff. But you already knew that. There are some other things I’d like to focus on instead. Like:
-Holy shit, that’s exactly what it’s like to be a 9-year old boy! The movie I mean. I know that was Spike and Dave’s (we're on a first name basis) goal in making it, and wow, well done gentlemen. If aliens landed and wanted to know what the experience of being a nine year old human boy is like then that movie would be all they would need. So interesting to know that the feelings and experiences I had at that age were pretty universal. And also that in retrospect I was a bit of a brat.
-I don’t understand the charges that it was too “hipstery”. I didn’t see that at all. Although I have to say I don’t remember that scene where Max goes to the Grizzly Bear concert in McCarren Park from the book.
-Sure enough, at my showing there were plenty parents with kids walking out less than halfway through. And people have already taken to the internet to complain that their kids were bored/scared/hated it. Well no shit. Clearly it’s not a movie for kids. Have you seen any of the trailers? Do you know anything about the people involved with it? Yes, it’s based on what is ostensibly a children’s book, but there is enough very strong evidence out there that this film adaptation was not going to be for kids that unless you are a complete moron then you should have known not to take them. (Unless you have like, you know, really awesome kids.) But we saw this phenomenon this summer with Bruno too. People who walk out of a movie they should have never been at in the first place. And then afterwards getting upset with that movie, when what they should really be getting mad at is their own willful ignorance. It’s like if you really wanted a banana but instead you decided to get an orange because, well, hey, it’s a fruit, it must taste like a banana, and then asking for your money back when your orange doesn’t infact taste like a banana. You don’t get to complain, when the basis for your complaint is that you’re a moron. It’s not the orange’s fault that it doesn’t taste like a banana. It tried to warn you by being orange, and, you know, shaped nothing like a banana. So it’s actually your fault for ignoring the basic facts of the fruit at hand.
Look, I understand not wanting to go into a movie with too much information or any preconceived notions. And I’ve felt burned and let down by plenty of movies I paid to see in theaters. Even actively loathed a couple. But ultimately, if you’re walking out a movie it’s probably not the movie’s fault; it’s probably yours.
-If there’s not a music store in Williamsburg called “Max Records” within 10 years then I will be very shocked and disappointed.
-I could (and someday will) write a lot about the experience of working with kids. But the main thing in the film that struck me as being incredibly authentic to the experience of being a kid is the incredible power of their imaginations. You could take almost anyone between the ages of 5-10 and put them in a completely empty room and they would find some way to entertain themselves. They see the possibilities in things. In everything. To us "grownups" a stick is a stick. To them, a stick can be a sword, a strange mutant creature, a dear friend, or anything at all really.
When I was in elementary school I participated in a competition called Odyssey of the Mind. Part of the competition was something called the “spontaneous competition” in which someone would name an everyday object and then your team would have four minutes to come up with as many potential uses for that item as possible. I remember one year the item was a light bulb. My team came up with something like 50 different responses in our four minutes. And we weren’t even one of the best teams that year. Coming out of Where the Wild Things Are I was reminded of that competition and I tried to see how many responses I could come up with on my own as a seemingly wiser 27 year old. I couldn’t come up with any uses for a light bulb other than “light a room”. Not a single other thing. I vividly remember our “coach” back in those days saying, “enjoy the power of your imaginations now because when you get older you won’t be able to do things like this anymore. You won’t be able to see all these possibilities.” I remember it so vividly because it seemed like such an absurd statement. If I can come up with 40 uses for a light bulb as a 10 year old then wouldn’t I be able to come up with 100 of them as a 30 year old? Turns out the only possibility I couldn’t see was the possibility that knowing more would ensure that I would be able to see less.
Sometimes I worry that our constantly wired culture will hurt the development of kids’ imaginations, but I think ultimately imagination is something so innate to children that nothing can harm it. Except for age.
- I don’t know about you but I got really invested in the James Gandolfini character. I was really engrossed in his storyline and I couldn’t wait to see what would ultimately happen to him in the end. Then right when I was about to find ou
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Referendum
Usually spending large amounts of time reading random things on the internet makes my soul hurt. But occasionally it leads you to something great like this piece from the New York Times last month (propers to the always excellent Boxing Metropolis). It’s called “The Referendum” by Tim Kreider and you might have already read it as its been circulating the internet for a while now. But even if you have, I urge you to go read it again. It’s that good. Not only is it one of the best written things I’ve read this year, but it perfectly articulates so many things that I’ve been thinking about and feeling recently. There’s really nothing I can possible add to make it any better.
But I’ve never let that stop me before, so why start now?
Not to violate the basic rules I set up for this blog, but "The Referedum" has inspired me to get personal for a moment and talk about something that has everything to do with me and nothing to do, even in a tangential way, with pop culture or politics. I don’t know what it says about me that I can so personally relate to the struggles of a guy in his 40s, but I know that the ideas he addresses pretty closely tie into the three big lessons/ideas I'll take from this year.
1.) We are too closely connected
Shocking I know that I would have some issue with modern technology, but I really think human beings aren’t meant to be as closely connected as the internet now makes us. There are people I’ve never met in real life that I feel intimately connected to. I could write books about the lives of people I’ve met less than a handful of times. And with so much information about others at our finger tips it’s easy to write entire stories about the lives of others by simply filling in some blanks. The only problem is, those blanks are often massive gaping holes and the things we fill them with are pure invention. But we allow these stories we create to have the weight of fact and to have an actual affect on our being. But for every facebook or blog post about that Broadway play someone got cast in, or that piece they got published in The New York Times, or that summer they spent in the south of France, there are hundreds of posts they didn’t write about that audition they waited at for eight hours only to not even be seen, or that article they spent weeks working on that they never wound up feeling remotely good about, or those six months they spent living off unemployment checks. People mention the good and occasionally the mundane, but rarely the bad. But yet since we have a wealth of information seemingly available to us, those things that get mentioned take on the air of total truth. It seems like we have the whole story because we have 200 pages of the book, but in truth the book is thousands of pages long. And we were never meant to have that many pages in the first place. It’s dangerous and we‘re not evolved enough to handle it.
2.) People want to justify their life choices
Mr. Kreider’s main thesis is that there are so many choices available to us that we’re always wondering about the road not taken. The choices we didn’t make. That way of thinking can be overwhelming and lead to a deep existential crisis so we try as hard as we can to justify the choices we make as the correct ones. The superior ones. That’s why so many married people encourage others to get married, or so many people with kids talk about how great having kids is, or why I’m always trying to convince people that moving to LA is great idea that they should really consider. But that doesn’t mean getting married is really something everyone should do, or that having kids is a great thing, or moving to LA is a good idea. It doesn’t mean they’re not, it just means that most advice people give and most things people say are really as much about them as they are about you. We’re all self-interested beings and that’s not bad or good, it’s just human. So take everything with a grain of salt be tenacious with your questioning of all things. Listen to others but at the end of the day trust yourself and the choices you make. Your opinion is the only one that matters.
3.) You can’t compare yourself to others
When I was in high school there were few things I loved more than “Everyone’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”. You know, the graduation speech full of little bits of advice that Baz Luhrmann set to music? It might, on an subjective level, seem cheesy, but still to this day rarely a week passes that one of its truisms doesn’t enter my thinking. (Lately “live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard” has really been resonating with me)
Anyway, since my high school days the part that I’ve liked the most has been “don’t waste your time on jealousy / sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind / but the race is long and in the end it’s only with yourself.” I could have just saved myself about 200 words and simply said that since I think that’s the essence of what Mr. Kriedler is saying. But I think the other two points I’ve mentioned are also relevant. It’s all one.
It’s too easy now to get caught up in wondering about other people’s journeys, but we’ll never enjoy our own lives if we don’t enjoy our own paths. (Look at me auditioning for the next Baz Luhrmann scored advice “song”…)
As this year is winding down I’ve been really reflecting on the lessons that it has taught and what I’ll take away from it. And then something like "The Referendum" comes along and really speaks to the heart of what this year has been about for me. So thanks for indulging me in this little slice of self-seriousness. I’ll get back to trivial bullshit again next.
But until then - don’t forget to wear sunscreen.
But I’ve never let that stop me before, so why start now?
Not to violate the basic rules I set up for this blog, but "The Referedum" has inspired me to get personal for a moment and talk about something that has everything to do with me and nothing to do, even in a tangential way, with pop culture or politics. I don’t know what it says about me that I can so personally relate to the struggles of a guy in his 40s, but I know that the ideas he addresses pretty closely tie into the three big lessons/ideas I'll take from this year.
1.) We are too closely connected
Shocking I know that I would have some issue with modern technology, but I really think human beings aren’t meant to be as closely connected as the internet now makes us. There are people I’ve never met in real life that I feel intimately connected to. I could write books about the lives of people I’ve met less than a handful of times. And with so much information about others at our finger tips it’s easy to write entire stories about the lives of others by simply filling in some blanks. The only problem is, those blanks are often massive gaping holes and the things we fill them with are pure invention. But we allow these stories we create to have the weight of fact and to have an actual affect on our being. But for every facebook or blog post about that Broadway play someone got cast in, or that piece they got published in The New York Times, or that summer they spent in the south of France, there are hundreds of posts they didn’t write about that audition they waited at for eight hours only to not even be seen, or that article they spent weeks working on that they never wound up feeling remotely good about, or those six months they spent living off unemployment checks. People mention the good and occasionally the mundane, but rarely the bad. But yet since we have a wealth of information seemingly available to us, those things that get mentioned take on the air of total truth. It seems like we have the whole story because we have 200 pages of the book, but in truth the book is thousands of pages long. And we were never meant to have that many pages in the first place. It’s dangerous and we‘re not evolved enough to handle it.
2.) People want to justify their life choices
Mr. Kreider’s main thesis is that there are so many choices available to us that we’re always wondering about the road not taken. The choices we didn’t make. That way of thinking can be overwhelming and lead to a deep existential crisis so we try as hard as we can to justify the choices we make as the correct ones. The superior ones. That’s why so many married people encourage others to get married, or so many people with kids talk about how great having kids is, or why I’m always trying to convince people that moving to LA is great idea that they should really consider. But that doesn’t mean getting married is really something everyone should do, or that having kids is a great thing, or moving to LA is a good idea. It doesn’t mean they’re not, it just means that most advice people give and most things people say are really as much about them as they are about you. We’re all self-interested beings and that’s not bad or good, it’s just human. So take everything with a grain of salt be tenacious with your questioning of all things. Listen to others but at the end of the day trust yourself and the choices you make. Your opinion is the only one that matters.
3.) You can’t compare yourself to others
When I was in high school there were few things I loved more than “Everyone’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”. You know, the graduation speech full of little bits of advice that Baz Luhrmann set to music? It might, on an subjective level, seem cheesy, but still to this day rarely a week passes that one of its truisms doesn’t enter my thinking. (Lately “live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard” has really been resonating with me)
Anyway, since my high school days the part that I’ve liked the most has been “don’t waste your time on jealousy / sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind / but the race is long and in the end it’s only with yourself.” I could have just saved myself about 200 words and simply said that since I think that’s the essence of what Mr. Kriedler is saying. But I think the other two points I’ve mentioned are also relevant. It’s all one.
It’s too easy now to get caught up in wondering about other people’s journeys, but we’ll never enjoy our own lives if we don’t enjoy our own paths. (Look at me auditioning for the next Baz Luhrmann scored advice “song”…)
As this year is winding down I’ve been really reflecting on the lessons that it has taught and what I’ll take away from it. And then something like "The Referendum" comes along and really speaks to the heart of what this year has been about for me. So thanks for indulging me in this little slice of self-seriousness. I’ll get back to trivial bullshit again next.
But until then - don’t forget to wear sunscreen.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Things I Don't Understand
The expression “have your cake and eat it too”
Why would someone have a cake and not eat it? Has anyone ever ordered a cake so they could just look at it? Am I missing something here?
(And while we’re on the topic of strange expressions: Why do people say “kill two birds with one stone” like it’s a good thing? I mean why are we killing birds at all, let alone murdering them two at a time with rocks? That’s just cruel.)
Why there have been so many missed opportunities for synergy recently
-In the New York mayoral race I’m sure the candidates have things like “views on the issues” and “plans for the city”, but all I care about is the fact that none of them (to my knowledge) has made the song “Run This Town” a key element of their campaign. This is indefensible. Seriously at this point whoever is the first to use that song in a campaign ad or at a personal appearance has my vote. If no one uses it then I’m not voting. Simple as that. Now get to work, because through a strange loophole in the law my vote counts as 1,000 votes.
-Now that the book can be officially closed on the summer of ’09 it must be asked – how did we have a summer in which one of the most popular movies and one of the most popular songs were both about waking up hung over in Las Vegas and yet neither of them had anything to do with the other? Katy Perry’s CD came out like a year ago so that was plenty of time for the makers of The Hangover to incorporate “Waking Up In Vegas” into the movie in some way or at least add it to the soundtrack. It’s completely incomprehensible to me that this wasn’t done. I mean the song sounds like it was written for the movie. If they had commissioned Katy Perry to write a song specifically for the film there’s no way she could have done a better job. The fact that the music video isn’t one of those cheesy videos that features clips from the film amazes me. Whenever I hear the songs I can picture that video in my mind. How does it not exist? What kind of world is this? What, did Katy Perry and/or the makers of The Hangover have too much integrity? Did they not want to sell out? Someone explain this to me.
-The Noble Prize winners have been announced this week and none of the announcements have been accompanied by the playing of the song “Boom Boom Pow”? I mean wouldn’t any declaration of human greatness sound better if backed by that song? What expresses excellence in one’s field quite like a song with the lyrics “I’m on the supersonic boom/ Yall hear that spaceship zoom/ When when I step inside the room/ Them girls go apeshit, uh”? I mean the way he repeats the word “when” for no reason and then is unable to come with one more word at the end that rhymes with “room” – it’s genius. That is some good shit right there. Also, I may be confused as to the meaning of the word “good”.
The Parks and Recreation haters
Explain yourselves
Why I continue to watch Entourage
Our relationship is getting really abusive at this point. Next season I’m really expecting an episode entitled “Andy Stokan, Go Fuck Yourself”. And even then I think I would still keep watching. I haven’t been “involved” with something this bad since that time I dated Kirsten Dunst. I think next season I should just hit myself with a hammer once a week for 30 minutes until my brain starts hemorrhaging. It would be time better spent.
This
The David Letterman “Outrage”
Oh my God someone in the entertainment field was unfaithful to their significant other! A man in a position of power had a consensual sexual relationship with one of his subordinates! A clearly self-loathing and deeply insure person engaged in self-destructive behavior! Wow, I’m shocked. And, um, outraged or something? Seriously, how is any of this a big story? And how does the fact the he has made tons of jokes about infidelity over the years affect this in any way. That doesn’t make him a hypocrite, it makes him a comedian who was doing his job and will surely continue to do so. As Craig Ferguson said, "If we are now holding late-night talk show hosts to the same moral accountability as we hold politicians or clergymen, I'm out." And so am I. So back off and go back to being outraged about Jon and Kate or whatever. Because that shit is outrageous. Right? (I’m actually asking. Because I don’t know. They make my eyes bleed.)
Why would someone have a cake and not eat it? Has anyone ever ordered a cake so they could just look at it? Am I missing something here?
(And while we’re on the topic of strange expressions: Why do people say “kill two birds with one stone” like it’s a good thing? I mean why are we killing birds at all, let alone murdering them two at a time with rocks? That’s just cruel.)
Why there have been so many missed opportunities for synergy recently
-In the New York mayoral race I’m sure the candidates have things like “views on the issues” and “plans for the city”, but all I care about is the fact that none of them (to my knowledge) has made the song “Run This Town” a key element of their campaign. This is indefensible. Seriously at this point whoever is the first to use that song in a campaign ad or at a personal appearance has my vote. If no one uses it then I’m not voting. Simple as that. Now get to work, because through a strange loophole in the law my vote counts as 1,000 votes.
-Now that the book can be officially closed on the summer of ’09 it must be asked – how did we have a summer in which one of the most popular movies and one of the most popular songs were both about waking up hung over in Las Vegas and yet neither of them had anything to do with the other? Katy Perry’s CD came out like a year ago so that was plenty of time for the makers of The Hangover to incorporate “Waking Up In Vegas” into the movie in some way or at least add it to the soundtrack. It’s completely incomprehensible to me that this wasn’t done. I mean the song sounds like it was written for the movie. If they had commissioned Katy Perry to write a song specifically for the film there’s no way she could have done a better job. The fact that the music video isn’t one of those cheesy videos that features clips from the film amazes me. Whenever I hear the songs I can picture that video in my mind. How does it not exist? What kind of world is this? What, did Katy Perry and/or the makers of The Hangover have too much integrity? Did they not want to sell out? Someone explain this to me.
-The Noble Prize winners have been announced this week and none of the announcements have been accompanied by the playing of the song “Boom Boom Pow”? I mean wouldn’t any declaration of human greatness sound better if backed by that song? What expresses excellence in one’s field quite like a song with the lyrics “I’m on the supersonic boom/ Yall hear that spaceship zoom/ When when I step inside the room/ Them girls go apeshit, uh”? I mean the way he repeats the word “when” for no reason and then is unable to come with one more word at the end that rhymes with “room” – it’s genius. That is some good shit right there. Also, I may be confused as to the meaning of the word “good”.
The Parks and Recreation haters
Explain yourselves
Why I continue to watch Entourage
Our relationship is getting really abusive at this point. Next season I’m really expecting an episode entitled “Andy Stokan, Go Fuck Yourself”. And even then I think I would still keep watching. I haven’t been “involved” with something this bad since that time I dated Kirsten Dunst. I think next season I should just hit myself with a hammer once a week for 30 minutes until my brain starts hemorrhaging. It would be time better spent.
This
The David Letterman “Outrage”
Oh my God someone in the entertainment field was unfaithful to their significant other! A man in a position of power had a consensual sexual relationship with one of his subordinates! A clearly self-loathing and deeply insure person engaged in self-destructive behavior! Wow, I’m shocked. And, um, outraged or something? Seriously, how is any of this a big story? And how does the fact the he has made tons of jokes about infidelity over the years affect this in any way. That doesn’t make him a hypocrite, it makes him a comedian who was doing his job and will surely continue to do so. As Craig Ferguson said, "If we are now holding late-night talk show hosts to the same moral accountability as we hold politicians or clergymen, I'm out." And so am I. So back off and go back to being outraged about Jon and Kate or whatever. Because that shit is outrageous. Right? (I’m actually asking. Because I don’t know. They make my eyes bleed.)
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