is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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B.O.L.O.G.N.A.
B.O.L.O.G.N.A.
Just got back from an Oscars party at Adam and Julia�s. It was fun, the ballots and competing for prizes, etc., and the yelling at the television, and drinking booze, and laughing and all. And also there was a poker game going on in the other room for those who got bored with the awards. A fun time was had by all. I got there late because I got sucked (in the very best way, �that�s what she said�) into watching The Fellowship of the Rings at around 3pm with Jeff and Caroleen, who also brought me a magically delicious BURRITO, and then it was pouring rain and I found it oh-so-hard to get a cab company to send a cab to come and get me in the ratty old alley south of market that hosts the Beattymatt. Jeff offered to lend me the truck but I really wanted to be able to drink more than a glass of wine once I got to the party, so I refused. So I was late and everyone was, like, 3 Mojitos and 8 glasses of wine ahead of me. That was OK because I brought a bottle of Prosecco and pretty much drank the whole thing, and then kept going.
I love movies that tell stories about people (or hobbits, or elves or dwarves) having to bear powers or duties they never chose, nor would have chosen, but yet bearing them magnificently. That�s what a large part of a meaningful life is, especially if you care about more than your own self-interest. And that is why I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy, movie-style. I like books of the sort, too, but most of my book-time is spent with philosophy and political theory, where I am drawn to the same themes, but in a different register.
Thinking about the Oscars, a few things occur to me. Hustle and Flow is a movie worth seeing. On the one hand it�s all about pimps and hos, and in particular pimps making a living off of hos, but it�s also about how hard life is for a lot of people, and how they deal with it, and how dealing with it always involves dreams of more than just dealing with it. And it involves lies. Lying to self, lying to kids about what�s possible in life. And along the way the movie�s about how the love-relationships we have with each other as human beings are, no matter how complicated and twisted they sometimes are, what makes it all worthwhile. So it isn�t just a movie about pimps making money off of hos. Though that is definitely part of what that movie is about. (Also, Terrence Howard is HOTT.)
Often when I have to pet Hans Blix (TCNTUNWI) while he eats, he also expects me to talk to him, I mean EXPECTS IT, like he stands there and looks up at me until I talk to him while petting, so sometimes I�ll just sing whatever song comes into my head to him, and sometimes that song is: �you know it�s hard out here for a pimp�.� And that is always funny, in that context. It is somehow satisfying to me that THAT is the song that won the oscar this year, and that Queen Latifah got to present it, and sing its title when she did.
Also, the movie Crash (also with TERRENCE HOWARD), I thought that movie was excellent and complicated and good in all the right ways. (I reviewed it last year when I saw it.) Adam and Julia HATED IT. And no one else had seen it, so they were all poisoned against it before I got to the house. That struck me as unfortunate, given that it is about how random hatred of other people poisons our personal lives daily here in the US of A. I suppose I could feel vindicated by its win in the best film category. But such wins are meaningless to me, though I�m glad that the film will have the monetary gains that come with such a win, as well as the increased audience.
And then there�s Brokeback Mountain, which I just saw on Friday. A good movie. Slow, restrained (very Ang Lee, whom I suppose deserved to win the best director category, though I kind of wanted George Clooney to win). It was a movie about love that just happened to be homosexual love, rather than a movie about homosexuality that just happened to be about love. Really, it was a movie about how difficult love often is, especially when two people fall in love who shouldn�t be in love for whatever reason. Say one or both are already married or in other relationships. The stories of such meetings multiply and spiral outward. People fall in love at the wrong time all the time, and their lives are transformed for better and worse by such experiences. That is what the movie is about, though it is also about homophobia and the danger someone who loves someone he �shouldn�t� love faces at all times. It was a sweet story, and sad, and not really all that sexy, mostly just sweet and sad, and good.
Every love story should just be a love story and people should love it for its focus on the so-humanly important subject of love and forget about the gender or �sex� of the lovers in question. Who can�t recognize love when they see it? Who would actively try to remove it from their sight when it is already so imperiled as a thing here in this human-made world? Two idealist questions that I will cling to despite their idealism.
That�s all for now. There are other good movies that won and did not win this year, as always. Perhaps I�ll speak of them later. Good night! Good luck.
12:18 a.m. - March 06, 2006
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