This is a post on a movie. I feel the need to post on eternal sunshine for two reasons: (1) it was a stinkin' awesome flick, and (2) this post will hopefully prompt sir donovan to put up his own post about it. I saw it with him about two weeks ago and he's been promising to post about it ever since. Still no dice...
So as I was saying, this is a post on a movie. I drove down to the good old Tivoli with Evan and heard a great script. I saw great acting. There was also a great script. And I saw some keen photography. And did I mention the script? Charlie Kaufman was able to convince me that lead characters Joel and Clementine represented something bold and universal about the human condition. My affections, intellect, and ethics walked away shaken but stimulated. (Not to mention my poor, underdeveloped aesthetic grid.)
Can someone tell me why this movie worked on so many levels? I mean, it's kinda special when a soundtrack and a plot generally help one another out in a movie. BUT this?! This movie matched its incredible script (Kaufman) with lead roles (Winslett and Carey), a soundtrack, a supporting cast, and cinematography that blew me away. The directing was also very fine -- not what carried the movie, but certainly an enabler of all those other variables. How does that happen? What made all those disparate elements gel together?
Well, anyway. Go see it. Some people mess around in the movie, so be prepared for sensitive people to be disappointed. Still, it's a fine piece of art.
...and now for a more positive posting.
Melissa, I love your emails. In your last one you brought up the telling issue of guy-gal relationships. Boy meets girl, right? Boy treats girl in very special way. Girl is confused but they beomce friends. Boy treats others in very special ways, too. Girl is angry. Boy doesn't understand. Girl tries to be a better friend, then gets angry at herself. Boy keeps on not understanding. Girl grows. Welcome to life! I see you growing in cross-gender understanding on a curve that's much steeper than my own.
More condemningly, I suppose, I see myself in all the dumb boys that hang around you. Let me tell you something that you might not understand. I think you're being a good friend to these guys, but not just because you're patient and longsuffering and forgiving. I think you're a good friend because believe it or not, they're growing too. You're there for them, reminding them that girls are not all "out to get them." You're normalizing the female gender! HAHAHAHA!
Ok, moving on. You also said you're writing an ode to me, just because I read your emails. (The ones you call "emo trips.") What? You write odes? And read kid poetry? You are freaking amazing. Your talents for surprising and loving the people around you with interests like those knock me out of my chair. Every time.
I can't wait to see you, Moo-diddy.
Shalom.
Isn't it funny how we tend to criticize those things in others which we see most clearly in ourselves? What's really gonna bake your noodle later on is whether I would have written this rant if somebody else hadn't ranted first.
So the latest copy of The Drone was sitting on the desk in Founders 3rd lobby. I grabbed one. I read it. I was embarrassed. I mean, the thing I admire most about satire is the knowing just how to highlight just the right things to make people think differently than they had before. It's a very delicate thing that I love.
There was nothing delicate about the Drone. No offense, but it looked as if freshmen had written it - the very talented but very narrow and cynical "I don't need this school cuz I'm a higher critic of LIFE" kind of person. Now listen, I know at least two of the guys who are behind the Drone, and I think they're great. I really do. In fact, I found myself desperately wishing that they had passed it off to someone else. Someone please tell me that the Drone is working under new management than last time I checked!
"...written by and for Covenant's proletariat" be damned -- excuse me, darned. I think it's about time folks stopped painting the college with a broad institutional brush and started recognizing the variety and complexity of the decisions Covenant employees have to make. Take Barb Michal for example.
I also happen to think that it's about time folks started treating the English language like a valuable and intruiging co-worker in the labor of communication rather than a back-alley whore to be paid in exchange for a one-time pass at making a statement. Take the huge cover article about the end terminus of the Covenant Student Body's GI tract. Were we TRYING to sound like 5th graders? Who knows? Maybe we contracted that article out to a group of kids on a playground somewhere.
Lastly, I've had enough of people taking their talent and giftedness for granted. I quite confidently assert that the level of writing talent I see all over our campus (AND off-campus, by the way) is rarely reflected in our student publications. Rarely, IF EVER. Come on, kids. Use those brains. Why waste your time beating the dead, dead horse of our chapel program? Ok, ok, ok, I know you're not the first and that you never had any real role models for constructive criticism in the public forum. Heck, if Don Graham had received some affirmation and constructive feedback on all his work for the chapel program, we might actually have kept this amazing man on staff a little while longer. I'm glad he's leaving for Ireland because I think they will at least be happy to have him over there...
But now I'm generalizing. It's a curse, really. I read one copy of the Drone and I start pulling in all the ways that our student body has behaved like spoiked high schoolers from rich neighborhoods with nice cars. I am not without sin in this regard. But I am willing to slap up a post. At least this way I can assuage my conscience and go on not taking any real action. Good grief, I need to stop. I'm not anti-Drone. I'm PRO-DRONE. That's why I'm all riled up. I think the capacity tragically exceeds the production. Step it up, boys. Show some respect and step it up.
...good thing my comment buttons are all broken.