That half packet of snack sized peanut butter has been my saving grace. Low blood-sugar, it's no joke! [I thought after I fished the packet out of my bike bag, after deciding that Taco Bell is not real food-- delicious, delicious junk food-- and biked past the establishment on my way to the station, I felt my mood begin to change dangerously. It happens so quickly. Thank goodness I was unable to find that packet last night!]
Before I even tucked the stray d'anjou pears in for the night, under the tissue paper I had hastily torn off their comrades-in-arms who made it into the display basket at the grocery store where I am currently employed, I I thought tonight might be night for a blog entry. Why? Oh I don't know, one spends the past eight hours daydreaming and crazy ideas just start to creep in.
I believe that I have been unjustly maligned by rumors that I have bad taste in movies and in music. Rumors! Observable fact for some. Well, the buck stops here, kiddo. I am here today, naked (not naked. never naked. the shame!) before you, to declare my love of the genre of romantic comedy, and for musical artists like Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam.
This sort of thing is totally subjective, and I will tell you, I don't like the movie Donnie Darko, or Napoleon Dynamite, I thought that Rain Man was dumb, I don't like listening to the band Pepper, or the Doors... I'm trying to remember other things that I don't like, but that seems pointless. We all have our preferences.
My sister and I used to watch Sleepless in Seattle or While You Were Sleeping everytime that we went to visit our nana when we were younger (this may have been a couple of times a month). Sleepless in Seattle is one of my favorite movies. FACT: Tom Hanks is a good actor. He is incredibly likable. He is (or was the last time I was paying attention) box office gold. I would say that he is not unlike a less virile (sorry Tom) Paul Newman of our day. Meg Ryan was the creme de la creme of female leads. Who could hold a candle to her? Julia Roberts? Pffft. Please. I am clearly not a student of film, and I have said this before, but let me say on the internet that I think in the most simplistic terms that the romantic comedies of the 1990's were created in the perfect storm of conditions for fluff. What's that? Economic prosperity? Political correctness? Less muss and fuss there. Men and women as equals at home and in the workplace, shifting dynamics that are new enough to be a part of the conversation, but established enough that Meg Ryan can play a savvy, capable journalist without it being a thing. (Come to think of it, she was a journalist in another of my favorites, When Harry Met Sally as well). Also, in some of those movies you've got some Robert Downey Jr., you've got some Sandra Bullock, you've got some other people who make some waves when they star in more serious roles.
And what is so wrong with just wanting to watch two nice people fall in love anyhow? In Sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hanks's character is just a nice man who loses his wife, whom he was madly in love with, to cancer. Her just wants to be a good dad (and is one) to his son, who is fairly well adjusted and likable considering. Meg Ryan is a nice lady who does a few crazy (and sneaky) things for love that might not fly in real life, but who cares. Bill Pullman's character is a nice guy too, they don't make him look like a jerk just because he's wrong for Meg Ryan. And now onto music... I need to go to bed.
I like Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam. I think is this fine. Their millions of fans would think this is fine. However, however... you know who you are. Their music is fun. I kinda think that's the point of music sometimes. Right? Right.
Randy Travis sings one his most famous songs, "They say time takes it's toll on a body, Makes the young girl's brown hair turn grey, But honey, I don't care, I ain't in love with your hair, And if it all fell out well I'd love you anyway." Well, that's just sweet. I'm not even a person who conducts myself in a way where I put my sexuality out there (frankly, I'm uncomfortable talking about it here), but ( I am neurotic), I do fear what I believe will be my loss of sexuality as I age.............. This is a sweet love song where someone is telling another person that there's a bond that remains after the bloom of youth has faded. This reminds me of a man who was briefly employed the first job I ever had. This man, who was older (not old) got a job in the store after he was laid off from the company he had been working for, his career, and this was a temporary paycheck. He had an anniversary coming up and he talked about how important it was to have things that you love about the person that you're married to after gravity starts doing it's work and life throws you a few curveballs.
When I was younger I feel like I used to seek out some things that made me unhappy. Sad songs, unrequited love stories, things that I thought were romantic and fitting of what life was really like, the experience of being alive, TO BE ALIVE! TO FEEL PAIN! Oh, my, oh, goodness. Well, I think that life is challenging, and I don't think that even the schmaltziest romantic comedy could ignore that. Even the terrible ones (I can't remember the name, the one where Katherine Heigel is a newsperson in Sacramento. Putrid. Terribly written, I couldn't finish it) have to deal with some conflict. However, in these movies you get optimism. Hope. Comfort food. I like it. There is that quote, "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, where you stop your story." Instead of being a story about Tom Hanks character's wife dying, or about his son going to college, or about he and Meg Ryan's character getting a divorce or one of them eventually passing away, it's about them falling in love. falling in love, which is one of the most wonderful things that a person can experience. And they don't even meet until the end, so it's all possibility, no details, no mess.
Nick was making fun of me for my sentence, "I understand canned beans" in a previous post, so I'm sure that I've left myself open to a little more ridicule here. Oh well. That's opening my mouth. Some of my favorite movies: It's a Wonderful Life, Annie Hall, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Odd Couple, The Godfather, The Notebook (yes and I forgot to say that, while I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book, yes), and etc and so on. None of these movies are terrible. They are quite enjoyable and well made. E-n-d.
p.s. my mom's favorite movie is The American President, which is another good one. If you haven't seen it, you get a progressive, yet cautious president played by Michael Douglas who delivers speeches written by Aaron Sorkin (not in the movie), and falls in love with a strong (redheaded.) lobbyist, played by Annette Benning.
No comments:
Post a Comment