General Musings

Since I have been gone for a while, and don't have anything particularly interesting to post, here are a few things that are on my mind/happened to me lately.

• First, and sadly probably most exciting, a middle aged man called me a "greedy bastard" from his pickup truck yesterday. No matter how true that may be, he was a complete stranger and has no right making such assumptions without ever seeing just how greedy or bastardly I can be.
• I'm very excited to see the new movie Elizabeth:The Golden Age. I can't remember the last time I went to the theater to see a movie, and it always seems like a fun novel thing to me. I need to get out more.
• I broke a very solemn vow I made to myself this weekend and watched Evan Almighty with my mother this weekend. Every time I see my her she brings up the movie, as a sort of insinuation that she wants me to watch it with her. So I broke down and watched it with her. Not bad, but I lost interest and fell asleep well before half way in.
• Along with the movie, I discovered a new decadent delight, Ben and Jerry's Crème Brûlé ice cream. A completely intense experience.
• After some heavy coercing and a guilt trip by my grandfather, I accompanied my parents to church on Sunday. The first time since Christmas at least, and quite possibly the last. Just when I thought I had survived the worst of the service, the pastor pulls out the "anointing oils" and "praying chair" and turned the quiet little church into something off of the Cornerstone Broadcasting Network. Suffice it to say, I do not plan on going back for quite sometime, and my mother is well aware of that fact.
• Work is still currently nonexistent for me, and it appears it will stay that way for quite a while.
• My new favorite seasonal beer is Penn Brewery's Oktoberfest, thanks to a fellow alchy out of work colleague.
• I'm currently watching the Law & Order SVU where Mark Paul Gosselaar is "gay for pay".
  

I think that's enough droning for now. More updates soon.

Best For Bear Bottoms

As I sit here, pissed that I let myself get sucked into a predictable abc family movie starring Julia Stiles and her mediocre acting abilities, I am reminded that it's time for me to bitch some more about commercials that disgust me. The culprit this time, like my earlier rant about Air Wick, deals with personal and home hygiene: Charmin. All of the Charmin commercials with the animated shitting bears have always chapped my hide a bit. (I do enjoy their slogan though, "Best for Bear Bottoms" Hmm...sounds like a Craigslist I once responded to...) I believe it is because of the sheer tactlessness guised as cute humor. In the newest installment, we see Mother Bear chasing her cub with a broom and vacuum sweeping all of the toilet paper residue off his butt. The new product ensures less toilet paper on your ass. What a claim! I personally can't think of many other less pleasant things to hear about during prime time. BUT, because it's a cute bear, we can secretly relate and thank Jesus we don't have to worry about paper ass again. Another cute new one is of two bears running on the beach with worried faces. One red, the other blue. Then, two outhouses come into view. Again, one red, one blue. The doors open to find two Charmin products inside. The red is extra strong toilet paper, while the other is gentle and soft. The two then run into their respective port-a-potties, alluding to just what kind of shit they are about to take. Oh, and Handel's "Alleluia Chorus" is playing the whole time in the background. (Please note title of this version)
Some people choose to focus on gay-bashing Snickers commercials, or racy Super Bowl ads, but I seem to direct my hatred towards animated bathroom humor.

Why do people think this is cute?

All The Same But Different

Moved by the recommendations of several people (mostly strangers) I recently rented the 2006 Alejandro González Iñárritu film Babel. I had wanted to see the film for a while, mostly because one of my favorite actors, Gael García Bernal , is in the cast. (I later found out however, his role is pretty minor and doesn't get much screen time, but he's there nonetheless.) I'm not going to pretend to be a movie critic and go on about the intricacies of the plot, but I will say that Babel is a very well directed and cast "think film" that will leave you going "Huh...".

The plot takes you through four seemingly unrelated interweaving plots all around the world from Morocco, to Tokyo, Mexico and the US. It begins with an American couple, played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette, who are vacationing in Morocco when tragedy strikes. Jump to Tokyo and follow a teenage girl carrying more baggage and personal challenges than a normal teenager should. Then cross the Mexican border to a traditional wedding and an untraditional return to the states. All four different plots could be created into a movie all on their own, and it can be hard at times to understand why we are seeing all these scenes in one DVD. However, González Iñárritu melds them beautifully.

The resounding theme to take away from this movie is how similar everyone in the world is despite being so very different. Another consistent theme is the need for communication and shows just how many barriers there are to complicate communication, either spoken or emotional.

The title, which is so ingenious in my opinion, comes from the Hebrew verb balal which means to confuse or confound. Also, according to the Bible, this is where everyone ended up after the great flood. Long story short, they decided to build a tower to Heaven, God got real pissed at them for this, and made everyone speak a different language as a punishment. (Temper, Temper...) This is also where we get our word babble. Anyway, because no one could understand each other, they scattered all over the world, which is why we have so many different languages today. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the evolution of several languages which were spread by nomads and conquerers. Oh wait, evolution of anything is just a made up theory.

If you get the chance, NetFlix Babel. You may have to watch it more than once, and you may have to think, but it's worth the two hours of your life.