January 2008 - Posts
As far as unqualified voters go, I lead the way – at least when it comes to the Oscars.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the annual contest that pits actor against actor, movie against movie. I, too, can get caught up in the hype with Oscar parties, contests and pools to predetermine who and what will win.
Problem is, all my guesses are virtually uneducated, based more on popularity than skill. I do eventually get around to watching the movies that have been nominated, but not usually when they’re still in theaters and certainly not before the Oscars are awarded. I’m generally a once-a-month movie-goer, preferring instead to rent a movie and watch it at home at my own convenience. Need to get a glass of water? Hit the pause. Phone rings? Pause again. Want to make dinner and get the kids settled? There’s nothing like popping a DVD in close to midnight for a late-night viewing.
So when it comes to picking my choices for the Oscars, it’s a popularity contest of sorts, based on my movie-going experiences of the past – which makes the Best Actor contest this year virtually impossible. George Clooney, Viggo Mortensen, Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones. How do you choose? George Clooney has certainly had some winners in the past, yet how do you ignore Johnny Depp’s stellar career (21 Jump Street excluded)?
Then there’s the Best Actress pool: Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Marion Cotillard, Laura Linney and Ellen Page. That one’s a little easier – although having never heard of Ellen Page prior to this year’s contest I was convinced of her ability by the people I chatted with at Wehrenberg Theater this week.
As far as Best Picture, it’s anyone’s guess. In addition to being a stay-at-home viewer, I’m also a like-all-kinds movie watcher – so the differing styles in this year’s selection does me no good in making my picks.
It’s probably a good thing the folks at the Oscars don’t call me for my vote.
It's too cold. It's so cold, I'm wearing a scarf indoors and I don't feel like a hipster. That's cold. I think it also helps that I'm wearing long underwear.
I am a bit of a movie snob. Not enough of a movie snob to have a set of matching Godard towels in my bathroom or anything (although now that I think of it, that would be delightful!), but I'm enough of one to judge a movie unfavorably without ever having seen it. And when it comes to the movie "The Bucket List," I only had to sit through a few minutes of movie previews to know that seeing that movie is not something I need to do before I die.
That's cold.
And, like any good snob, for any wine and cheese you have, I have a slightly older-- and to the discerning palette, better-- version I can recommend.
I give you,
Ikiru, a movie by acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa about a man who learns he has terminal stomach cancer and embarks on a quest to thwart a tangled web of bureaucracy in order to build a playground for children.
I know you probably hate subtitles, and grainy black and white movies, but watch it anyway. If the swingset scene doesn't make you burst into tears and vow to volunteer somewhere the next day, then I don't know man, I just don't know.
As a side benefit, this movie is in the public domain, so unlike most things on the internet, you won't have to feel guilty about enjoying it.
As for bucket lists, I've had several dreams where I've died recently. This morning, for instance, I dreamt that I was attending some sort of class in a restaurant, and for some reason, for this class I was holding an incredibly poisonous snake and I ending up dropping it on the ground.
You can imagine how that one ended up.
But dreams about death are really no preparation for the real deal. The disconcerting feeling of waking up after dreaming about your death aside, it is hard to really grasp that there will be an end to this life. I mean a real end. Not one where you wake up afterwards and ask what class would possibly have you holding a poisonous snake in a restaurant.
There are two likely possibilities that this finallity of death raises, and both of them somewhat invalidate the motivation for making a list of things to do before you die. Either there is an afterlife, in which case you probably won’t care that you never got to take your picture with Bruce Willis or skydive naked or bake the greatest cake that was ever baked by anyone ever; or there is no after life, in which case you won’t be able to care about anything.
(I'll allow for a small chance that there is an afterlife where you may regret things that you haven't done, but I'm not really sure how that would even work. It would just be like a lame continuation of this life.)
This is why I’ve always found the idea of a bucket list a little bit silly, as it posits you looking back on your life after death and being disappointed at something left undone. Instead of asking “What do I want to do before I die?” isn't a better question to ask, "What should I be doing right now?" Or "What do I want to accomplish in my life?" Too much attention is paid to the final moment when so many exist between now and then, even if that moment is coming sooner than we think.
(Besides, I have a strong aversion to lists. They just end up making me feel guilty for not fulfilling them)
I would argue that it is less important to look at life from the perspective of death, than to look at it with a real sense of urgency, living every moment to the height of its potential. Carpe diem, live in the moment, the whole nine yards.
With that said, I shall now go surf the internet and drink my third cup of coffee this morning.
At least it's warm.
"Are you from here?"
I'm too tired to ask people about their favorite show tunes. I know this because I don't notice the bus pull up next to me and open its doors. I also know this because I don't immediately know the answer to the question being asked to me by a red-haired man who is standing just inside the bus.
"Excuse me, are you from here?" he asks again.
"I, uh, no. I am not. Why are you asking?"
"Well we're from Bemidji, MN, and we wanted to know if there was any music store in town where you can buy a harmonica."
I blink, and it seems to take a long time. I tell him I'm sorry but I don't know of where one can acquire a harmonica in the city of Marion. The bus from Bemidji continues on its quest.
This is the Supernova Show Choir Competition at Linn Mar high school, and I have been dispatched by my editors to find out the answer to this question:
"What is your favorite Show tune, and why?"
It seems like a simple enough question, but it seemed to be met by some resistance when I asked people about it. Whenever I asked the question, people would squint and pause for a few moments, as if they were rolling the question over in their minds.
"Show tunes...show tunes? How can I possibly answer this question in a way that will make me look good?"
I think the difficult part of that question lies in the reality that there is no way to answer that question and look good doing it. Although "Rent" and "Wicked" seemed to be the most popular musicals for those that I asked, I must admit to being a traditionalist. Give me some "Singing in the Rain" or "Music Man," and I'll be happy. Also, cheesiness aside, I think "West Side Story" is genuinely a good movie.
Go ahead and judge me.
Speaking of West Wide Story, one of the interesting things about attending a show choir competition is mingling with hordes of pre-teens who are dressed in matching outfits. They were like street gangs, but with shinier shirts.
I waited to buy food behind a team of yellow-clad youths from "Happiness, Inc." a team from Cedar Rapids Kennedy, and ate luke-warm pizza while sitting with the members of "Studio 2008" out of Urbandale. Later "Infinity," out of Des Moines Lincoln, sang a rendition of "Tainted Love" that while good, was neither tainted or like love.
Later, as I was roaming the halls looking for people to interview, I saw two young girls, identically dressed, with their hair filled with curlers, walking by and sharing one pair of headphones between two heads-- a sight that was so ridiculous that it transcended reality and was instantly transfigured into myth.
Did I mention I was tired?
My favorite team, however, was Vocalmotive, out of the aforementioned Bemidji, MN. Apparently there is such a dearth of serious show-choir competition in Northern Minnesota that the team takes to the road, competing in high-class venues in Wisconsin and Iowa-- where, and this is again news to me, show choir is a much bigger deal. For travelling ten hours by bus to get here, Vocalmotive gets my "Spirit of the Show" award, which I made up just now, and is worth just as much as that would suggest.
On a side note, I also like Bemidji, MN, because I have never met someone from there who didn't introduce him or herself as being from "Bemidjiminnesota." A stream of words accompanied by a wide and friendly, Midwestern grin.
But I digress. Good luck at your competition in Orlando, Vocalmotive!
It was really hard to walk away from the Iowa caucuses. There was so much enthusiasm, so much energy and so much passion that I really wanted to take my coat off and participate. But I couldn’t.
As journalists, we’re not supposed to caucus. It was that way at my former newspaper and it’s that way here – and I would assume it’s that way at newspapers across the state. As objective providers of what’s going on, we lose some of that objectivity when we wear our political passions on our sleeves. I completely understand and agree with that assessment – as a journalist, I would not feel comfortable sitting among hundreds of caucus-goers and airing my opinion.
That said, congratulations to the literally hundreds of thousands of Iowans who did go out. Whether your candidate came out on top or straggled near the bottom, you can count yourselves among the proud who showed the rest of the nation just why it is Iowa is first – and why organizers will fight to keep that title.
I’ll admit I wasn’t completely sure why it was important for us to remain first. Would it really matter if we were first, 17th or 32nd? I didn’t think so. Then I had a friend who is better-versed than I am in all things politics explain a few things to me.
If Iowa weren’t first, there likely wouldn’t have been the millions of dollars spent on advertising here. A lead candidate would have been named somewhere else, and Iowa would be just another Midwest state with a few voters and caucus-goers who really paid attention.
If Iowa weren’t first, and this is taken directly from my friend, Mike Huckabee would probably not have been able to do what he was able to do here. Say California or New York or even New Hampshire would have been first. Would Huckabee have been able to cajole with the regular folk, thereby competing with his dollar-tossing competitor in a far more personable way? Probably not.
It’s not over yet. Iowa’s status as first in the nation could still be in jeopardy for the 2012 elections. But if this year’s caucus bears any weight, I’m guessing we get at least one more crack.