May the Schwartz be with you!

Still recovering from the awesomeness that was The Dark Knight, but rest assured, a lengthy Batman-only post is coming. Gotta love the exhaustion that follows a week of hard work. It's a satisfying feeling--thank goodness it's the weekend!

Top Five...Dark Helmet quotes from Spaceballs:

"Before you die there is something you should know about us, Lone Star."
"What?"
"I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate."
"What's that make us?"
"Absolutely nothing! Which is what you are about to become."

"Say goodbye to your two best friends, and I don't mean your pals in the Winnebago."

"You have the ring, and I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. Let's see how well you handle it."

"AH, BUCKLE THIS! Ludicrous speed--GO!"

"So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb."

"No, no, no. Go past this. Pass this part. In fact, never play this again."

"No you fool, we're following orders. We were told to comb the desert so we're combing it."

More than five, but he's just too funny! More to come.

Coming clean

I lied, kind of dug myself into a hole...there is no Part 2. I thought I'd have some dramatic finale, an appropriate way to sum up the last few years of my life in blog form while also offering a look at the present. What I've found is that things are way too kinetic right now to offer an honest take on things. If Sarah Connor is right and there's "no fate but what we make," then I'll just keep on keeping on and try to update this thing along the way.

Top Five...Things I love most about The Dark Knight so far:

1. The viral marketing campaign that's taken place the last year-and-a-half
2. Joker-isms from the trailers ("...better class of criminal..." / "You'll see, I'll show you" / "And here...we...go.")
3. The opening prologue (bank heist), also known as the 6 minutes shown in front of I Am Legend-IMAX back in December
4. The fact my favorite critic James Berardinelli gave it four stars (hasn't given that out since 2006)
5. The soundtrack, by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard

Hold on to your butts! --Part 1

I am 23 years old, and some days I feel like I'm back in junior high. Aren't I supposed to be older than this? Wiser? Not as juvenile? I have things in my life I need to work on; some large and important (money), some small and inconsequential (laundry). But I think the root of these basic flaws lies in the fact that I, like so many humans, am striving to find that something more. Whether you define 'more' as a person, a situation, a job--that's up to you.

In the past, instead of feeling empowered to pursue this missing puzzle piece in my life, I felt empty and lazy. I became cornered into a nonchalant philosophy that did me no good. I became inconsistent and unreliable. I started relationships with people that I didn’t care about and didn’t want to care about. I was wasting time.

I was drifting. Watching the world evolve around me and not feeling fulfilled enough to know that I was a part of it. I wanted nothing more than to be the person that I know I am. To share love, kindness, goodness with the world around me. But the world is also dark, and cold. And that kind of intimidation pushed my true feelings and yearnings into suppression, leaving me more emotionally distant than I let on. I kept going through the motions with people that deserved better, all the while settling for one more night with not enough sleep; one more trip to McDonalds for the “convenience” of a dollar menu item.

This stagnant lifestyle came to a head a few months ago. One of my favorite things to do when I need to collect myself is taking a night drive. There's something calming to me about just hitting the highway and cruising for awhile. Totally alone with my thoughts, or finding solace in whatever music I set my iPod to play. Instead of taking that night drive, I drove around the neighborhood for all of ten minutes, during which I convinced myself that the price of gas had taken that ability away from me.

Lester Burnham once said that "it's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself."

What I did in that moment truly surprised me. It's one thing to talk to others about turning to God, to tell your friends how you always pray, etc. It's something else entirely when the rubber meets the road, and you can turn to the things of the world as a solution to your problems/frustration/negativity, or you can turn to Door #2, which obviously requires a lot more faith. I started talking to God again, like I used to...like I did in junior high. The rest, as they say, is history.

Lately I've been legitimately trying to keep my life in line with what He wants. I get the feeling he knows I'm trying, too...because when I've most needed help, when I've most been looking for a swift kick in the pants, when I've most needed a push to get somewhere--He's shown me the door, cracked open the window, and gave me the shovel to dig myself out. Now, months later, I'm here in a city I love, working at something challenging but enjoyable for me.

And then out of nowhere, right as I start to get comfy--He takes a 2x4 to my face and leaves me questioning so much. I feel completely flabbergasted, totally overwhelmed, yet strangely determined all at once.

You'll understand why when you read Part 2.

"...I will find you!"

Every now and then I go through a phase where I don't listen to music, per say. Rather, I pop in a recently burned CD, or turn to an iPod playlist, and enjoy some of my favorite film composers' best works. Recently, I've been overcome with Randy Edelman's score for Last of the Mohicans (Promontory--the epic from the end "fight") and Zimmer/Howard's score for The Dark Knight. Music in film has the ability to aid or hinder it...a powerful score adds insight and emotional resonance. I'll let some famous directors comment more eloquently than I could:

Q: In what way does music best enhance film?

"Too broad a question. Let's just say it covers a multitude of sins." -Woody Allen

"The best soundtrack music by-passes your mind and goes straight to your soul. It sort of trips something in your brain, you know you're being transported." -Cameron Crowe

"By revealing something that is not dealt with in the rest of the movie. It should be treated as another leading characters." -Sidney Lumet

"In the obvious way: Music or its absence is the soul of the film." -Fernando Meirelles

"Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there's a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they're put together. It's been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that's true." -Martin Scorsese

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Top Five...Film composers of the last 25 years: (some of my favorite scores in parenthesis)

1. Thomas Newman (Road to Perdition, Finding Nemo, Meet Joe Black, The Shawshank Redemption, Pay it Forward, Cinderella Man, so many others)
2. John Williams (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan)
3. Hans Zimmer (Crimson Tide, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator)
4. James Newton Howard (Shyamalan movies, King Kong, The Dark Knight
5. Danny Elfman (Batman, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man)

Honorable Mentions:
-James Horner (Titanic, Glory, Braveheart)
-Michael Kamen (Band of Brothers, The Iron Giant, Mr. Holland's Opus)
-Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings, Se7en, Silence of the Lambs)
-Ennio Morricone (The Mission, The Untouchables)
-Nick Cave, Clint Mansell (Jesse James, Smokin' Aces)

Folie a deux...a madness shared by two

Folie à deux

Pronunciation: \fȯ-lē-ä-ˈdœ, ˌfä-lē-ˌä-ˈdə(r)\

Function: noun

Etymology: French, literally, double madness

Date: circa 1892

Definition: The presence of the same or similar delusional ideas in two persons closely associated with one another.

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This rare psychotic disorder is the only feasible way I can describe yesterday's Wimbledon final. The latest edition of Federer/Nadal will no doubt he hyped as a "changing of the guard," a sure sign the world's greatest tennis player has reached the back nine of his career. I don't care about all that, to be honest. Having grown up on Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi playing well into their 30s, both Federer and Nadal are still very young, and certainly in their prime.

What blew my mind, melted my face off, left me drooling, etc was the ebb and flow of this match; the rollercoaster effect, if you will. Nadal stormed out of the gates to take a commanding (and demoralizing) two set lead on the 5-time defending champion. Nadal looked crisp, was hitting the big shots, and generally not making many mistakes...and then the rains came. To heighten the suspense, keep in mind that up to this point, Roger hadn't lost a match at the All England Club since Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" was #1 and the first "Spider-Man" had just come out. That he had not dropped a set in the tournament until facing Nadal is the status quo for Roger, always overlooked, but incredibly impressive.

Federer came out after the first rain delay looking like the world's #1 player. Rafa hadn't given up, nor was he resting on his comfy lead--he was simply being outplayed (albeit barely). Before you could blink, Federer had evened things up 2-2 after consecutive tiebreakers. The fifth set was exhausting (longest Wimbledon final ever, difficult (the lighting became a factor), and thrilling. Both men fought heroically, as displayed by their 8-8 fifth set finale. In the end, you can point to Nadal's youth and quick adaptation to grass to explain his win, or focus on Federer converting only 1 out of 13 break chances to justify his loss.

All I know is that at the end of the day, this is up there with the following matches as being truly special to me:

• Sampras/Agassi - 1995 US Open
  
• Sampras/Federer - 2000 Wimbledon
• Sampras/Agassi - 2001-2002 US Open
  
• Sampras/Roddick - 2002 US Open
• Federer/Roddick - 2004 Wimbledon
• Federer/Nadal - 2007-2008 Wimbledon
  

"You'll see, I'll show you."

I'm running out of adjectives to describe my giddiness for The Dark Knight. It's becoming hard for me now to not just assume/expect that this movie is going to be spectacular. They say a picture's worth a thousand words...