Worry is a useless emotion. Experience has surely taught you by now that something always comes up – and you seem to be one of those people who, no matter how far they fall, always seem to land on their feet.
Meow.
This is from my friend Thomas. For some reason, it's so ridiculous and so hilarious.
Yesterday was one of the best days ever and reminded me of all the reasons I live in Vancouver and how far I've changed as a person from when I didn't live in Van. Awww, shucks, I know. haha
The concept of "it's only dramatic if you make it dramatic" has stopped evading me, which is nice. haha
So, my roommates and I were having this discussion tonight about films as escapism and films as entertainment and social commentary, etc. It's a tough subject to discuss because it there's so much ground to cover and so many facets that I don't think we quite were able to reach anything without it getting heated. Sure, it's tough to discuss anything with J since he gets very worked up and though he is good at listening, I sometimes wonder if he's just waiting for me to finish so he can give his own opinion on it all. Fair enough. I also feel sort of shite in that I may have insulted him by calling him elitist but I don't think I'm really in the wrong from the point of view of what he wants from music and movies and what I want from them. For him, I feel they must have a point while I just want to enjoy and avoid real life because let's be honest, there's enough shitty stuff going on without me having to deal with it in fiction as well. Let me explain though...
This started as a discussion after watching the movie Wanted. J picked out the film but not two minutes in started to make fun of it. Granted, he chose it so that he could but it bothers me because I can't feel like I can just sit down and enjoy campy movies like that if someone is constantly tearing it apart. Sure, it isn't winning any Oscars soon but who cares? It's entertainment and escapism. We all know I love these so-called "B Movies" though I like to think of it more as I won't not watch anything. Yes, there have been movies that are just so terrible and awful and painful that I'll turn them off and I do avoid reallllly crap movies but it's like food - I'll try anything once. I don't mind shitty acting, I love sappy crappy movies because I'm not watching them to be educated, I'm watching them to be entertained. I watch them for the Happy Ending, the Disney Ending. I understand the idea of "What happens after the credits roll?" I actually recently read an article about Ryan Gosling and he has this great quote:
"The knight slays the dragon and then lives happily ever after with the princess in the castle," he says, "but when they've moved in together, they have to share a bathroom. How do you keep love alive in a domestic situation? What is it about that that dismantles love?"
Sometimes it would be nice to see what happens after the end. It would probably suck in a lot of rom coms because yeah, they rarely know each other. Maybe it would work out, probably it wouldn't. It'd be neat but then movies would never end or would you rather they ended with the couple screaming at each other over whose turn it was to clean the bathroom? Probably not. So let them ride off into the sunset. After that is someone else's problem.
Sometimes I don't want to know. Sometimes I've had a shit day and I want to come home and just enjoy the fact that yeah, the guy gets the girl, Nicholas Cage can, in fact, jump Eleanor over those cops, Jake Gyllenhaal can outrun that air so cold that it'll kill him. Who cares. It's a movie. It's to escape. It doesn't always have to have a point. Like candy. :)
J's argument was that by cranking out tons of these movies, Hollywood has shifted the money to make such films happen, leaving many others out in the cold. Others that have something important to be said, something important to share. Okay, sure, I guess. But there are those that do and most of the time, if I want to go watch something to see what it's really like to live somewhere and to experience the realism of it, I would go find a documentary on it and I don't feel like at this time in society's obsession with real stories, there wouldn't be one. Sure, sometimes you have to dig for them, but they're there. And no, they're not always the one to go to the cinemas and to have a 300 thousand dollar budget (okay, almost never) but that's not why people go to the big theatre. They go for the experience, they go for the entertainment. Okay, they need to be educated on issues, etc. That is not Hollywood's job. Someone in the education system is failling. Okay, Hollywood should wield their power for good and be able to bring these issues to the public but I dunno. I think there's a time and a place and with documentaries becoming such a popular avenue, why not use them? Because movies don't always get it right, are rarely objective, and I don't really enjoy getting messages shoved down my throat when I really just wanted to relax and enjoy some time off from life.
Unfortunately, the first example that comes to mind is the film, The Book of Eli. I say unfortunately because J was the one to choose this movie and it ended up being awful just like I thought. Denzel Washington is kickass and all but when I found out that the book he was protecting - the "sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind" - was actually the Bible, I was angry.
But I forget. Not everyone thinks like me, not everyone acts like me. I forget sometimes that it's hard to remember that. I want to believe that people will do the right thing most of the time, that people will think for themselves, that people are brought up in a way that they are informed or if they aren't, they will get themselves informed but it doesn't happen that way. I like movies as escapism because I find other avenues to educate myself to the world's issues. I don't need someone to tell me how to think about them, just give me the facts. I can go to newspapers, books, the web (debatable, I know), documentaries (also debatable sometimes), experience. No one's going to be 100% all the time so why can't I just enjoy James McAvoy and Skeletor (Angelina Jolie) curve bullets and play capture the flag on a moving train without it being scoffed at?
The second point of the evening was music and I forget about that too. Because sure, little 14 year olds should not be singing about being proud to be a slut but then who is allowing them to listen to this music and why don't they have the confidence to be able to know that it's not real or a good idea? I feel like someone's failed if that happens... Sure, when I was a kid, this music wasn't around (I think I missed the Backstreet Boys/NSync/Britney mayhem by maybe a year?) but I don't think I'd be out trying drugs and trying to sleep with my 19 year old boyfriend when I'm 12... mostly because I don't know if I was ever left unsupervised at all til I was about 18. I didn't live a completely sheltered life but I was raised to think for myself and make my own decisions on life...
I dunno. Maybe I'm just full of it but I don't think so.
Aaaanyway, awesome song I'm addicted to.
Quote of the Day:
"The Great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact." - Thomas H. Huxley
