1--Vanilla Sky: The premise of this film is just fascinating to me. Always found it intriguing. The ambiguity of the end of the film makes me want to watch it more and more, just to analyze it some more.
2--Dead Poets Society: "O Captain, My Captain," "Carpe Diem," "If we shadows have offended..." No other film has influenced me as a teacher as this one has!
3--American Beauty: Great flick with lots of wry humor. It's got a modernist twist to it, kind of reminiscent of Arthur Miller mixed with some F. Scott Fitzgerald.
4--Big Fish: Not sure why, but this is another fantastic teaser for the brain. It's full of symbolism and motifs, and the father-son theme is definitely a draw for me.
5--The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The epitome of the epic western. The soundtrack, the themes, the characterization... all pure genius.
Runners-Up:
--Tombstone
--With Honors
--Almost Famous
--A River Runs Through It
--Once Upon a Time in the West
--Godfather Trilogy (even Part III)
--Matrix (only the first one)
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Writing for the Sake of Writing
You know, I really have no clue who will be reading this blog, or if anyone will really be reading it.
It's been months since I've had anything posted here. Sometimes I feel like I'm letting someone down by not writing as much. When I think about it, I guess the one who should be disappointed in my lack of writing should be me. I doubt if anyone else has noticed. Writing never was something I used to like sharing.
So I've been busy. I'm just coming off a long wrestling season full of late nights, early mornings, and little free time. On top of that, I've have a bear of a year dealing with grading issues. When I do have free time, the only thing I want to do is have fun with my family -- definitely not isolate myself so I can write. I've got a wife who is absolutely amazing with how much she supports me and a son who is developing faster than I can keep up with him. My wife and son have so many other qualities that I can't even come close to describing them here, but that's a blog entry for another day.
All in all, I guess that this blog is not for anyone else other than myself. If I knew that I had a solid following, I'm sure I would have made time to write. If I had that pressure, I would follow through with my obligation to post regularly.
I like to write, but most of the things running through my mind these days aren't things I should be writing and posting online. Things that might offend others (politics), get me in trouble at work (professional frustrations), or reveal a little too much about how sensitive I may or may not be (getting ready for a major change).
I tried looking up some ideas for blogs on the web, but nothing really sounded that interesting. So I thought, "Why not write about not writing?"
When I write, I feel like I try too hard to sound like "a writer," which gives my notes a forced, artificial sound. I can't stand reading high school or college journalists try to sound like Dave Barry or some other witty and talented pro writer. Hell, so many of the newspaper columnists sound just like that, too. I get started on a piece and then I get sidetracked, asking myself, "What would this idea sound like to so-and-so?"
I've got 40-some notes saved on my Blackberry, but none of them are really worth posting now. Maybe some day I'll post them, but most of them have either passed their time (reactions to current events) or have completely derailed. They're good to keep around, though. Sometime down the road, maybe I'll be able to salvage some ideas for new writings. I have a half-dozen notebooks at home that are full of writings from my college years up to today. It's pretty cool to look back at them and just read the random things I wrote then.
So what will I think when I look back on this entry? Was it just a filler? Was it a rambling batch of nonsense? Does it have anything worth salvaging? We shall see, down the road.
It's been months since I've had anything posted here. Sometimes I feel like I'm letting someone down by not writing as much. When I think about it, I guess the one who should be disappointed in my lack of writing should be me. I doubt if anyone else has noticed. Writing never was something I used to like sharing.
So I've been busy. I'm just coming off a long wrestling season full of late nights, early mornings, and little free time. On top of that, I've have a bear of a year dealing with grading issues. When I do have free time, the only thing I want to do is have fun with my family -- definitely not isolate myself so I can write. I've got a wife who is absolutely amazing with how much she supports me and a son who is developing faster than I can keep up with him. My wife and son have so many other qualities that I can't even come close to describing them here, but that's a blog entry for another day.
All in all, I guess that this blog is not for anyone else other than myself. If I knew that I had a solid following, I'm sure I would have made time to write. If I had that pressure, I would follow through with my obligation to post regularly.
I like to write, but most of the things running through my mind these days aren't things I should be writing and posting online. Things that might offend others (politics), get me in trouble at work (professional frustrations), or reveal a little too much about how sensitive I may or may not be (getting ready for a major change).
I tried looking up some ideas for blogs on the web, but nothing really sounded that interesting. So I thought, "Why not write about not writing?"
When I write, I feel like I try too hard to sound like "a writer," which gives my notes a forced, artificial sound. I can't stand reading high school or college journalists try to sound like Dave Barry or some other witty and talented pro writer. Hell, so many of the newspaper columnists sound just like that, too. I get started on a piece and then I get sidetracked, asking myself, "What would this idea sound like to so-and-so?"
I've got 40-some notes saved on my Blackberry, but none of them are really worth posting now. Maybe some day I'll post them, but most of them have either passed their time (reactions to current events) or have completely derailed. They're good to keep around, though. Sometime down the road, maybe I'll be able to salvage some ideas for new writings. I have a half-dozen notebooks at home that are full of writings from my college years up to today. It's pretty cool to look back at them and just read the random things I wrote then.
So what will I think when I look back on this entry? Was it just a filler? Was it a rambling batch of nonsense? Does it have anything worth salvaging? We shall see, down the road.
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