Life As an Afterschool Special

42-39 OSU

I enjoy a good football game. I really do. In fact, in my hometown after three years of writing for the local paper, more people remember and comment on the one article I wrote about my last home football game than any other piece I have written. Then again, I grew up in Michigan, and football in is their blood. (Don’t let the Lions season fool you… we do football in Michigan)

After high school I went to Ohio State and wrote for the Lantern before I transferred to North Central. I chose Ohio State out of loyalty to my father and my mother’s family, who are all from Columbus. I remember opening the letter and discovering that I was accepted at OSU. Everyone was very excited, but they were more excited that I would have first pick at football tickets to OSU games than by the prospects of my academic career. And I did go to a few football games. I even took my little brother to a game on my 19th birthday. I wore the jerseys and painted my face and had more scarlet and grey clothing that I ever needed. I remember my first Christmas as an OSU student I bought every person in both my families OSU gear. Go team.

Even now I like a good football game. And I LOVE a man who loves football. I think it’s because men who love football and are excited by a team are loyal and passionate. (You have to be passionate and loyal to follow a team with a 2/7 record. LIONS). I like football because I like loyalty.

Which brings me to my guandry. It’d be that time of year. Oh yes, this weekend is THE game. Which game is that you ask? The Ohio State/Michigan game. Hands down the best game of the big ten every season. And the game that every person in Ohio and Michigan look forward to. I don’t know a single person from Ohio or Michigan who doesn’t hype “the game”. There might as well not be a season… just that one game and everyone would be satisfied. Columbus is going to be INSANE this weekend. It always is on “the game” day.

So who do I cheer for? Michigan? My hometown? Land of the Blue and Gold (which were also my high school colors). The state where my mom and my dad and my sisters all cheer and root for the boys in blue? Or do I go with Ohio State? The good ol buckeyes? The land of my ancestors. Where they bleed scarlet and grey?

The truth is… I like a good game. I like a close game. And while I usually cheer for OSU (it’s true, scarlet and grey is in my blood) I don’t really care who wins. I think its just good football. And that makes us all winners. (and that was such a cheesy line)

So… I know I will be this Saturday. Cheering… for the game.

I went to school for Journalism and wrote for the newspaper in both Highschool and College, but I tend to stay away from “reporting” or actual reviews. I have always been a better story teller and editorialist, and I tend to stuggle with just the “who what when where” because I focus so much on the “whys”. I always have. Some people are “thinkers”, but I always have and always will be a “feeler”. And that is how I write.

I havent really ever reviewed a movie on my blog before… but with a bunch of my friends writing reviews of various sorts for The Corner Table I was inspired get out of my box and try something different. I thought I would reach inside and find the journalist as as opposed to the writer and offer up a review of the movie I watched last night.

I have many many friends who have encouraged me to watch Elizabethtown over the past year, and while I have had the best of intentions to follow through I usually get sidetracked at the rental store by something newer. Last night I finally rented the movie, and I am so glad I did. Elizabethtown is now on my top ten favorite movies list.

Writer-director Cameron Crowe has given us slices of the American pie with some hits and some misses. (Think Jerry McGuire, Almost Famous, Vanillia Sky) He has the amazing gift of creating interesting, deeply flawed and introspective characters, and through his characters’ eyes, we get to see some very unique world views. Elizabethtown is no exception.

In Elizabethtown, Drew Baylor (Bloom) is a hotshot shoe designer whose design just costs the company almost a billion dollars. Oh yes. A billion. Fired and humiliated by what he calls a “fiasco” and not just “failure,” Drew is about to kill himself when his sister (Greer) calls and tells him his father has died while visiting his hometown, Elizabethtown, KY. Drew promises his mother (Sarandon) that he would bring his father home.

On the flight to Kentucky, the defeated Drew meets a perky, observant flight attendant, Claire (Dunst). Claire seems to have a way of seeing through Drew even though he tries so desperately to hide his pain. As Drew arrives in Elizabethtown and prepares for the burial of his father, he begins to come to terms both with death and with life. A cast of colorful characters teach him to love, and above all else, to live. One of my favorite lines in the movie is spoken by Claire who tells Drew to get into the deep beautiful melancholy of everything that’s happened. The movies resounding theme is that even when life is painful, there is beauty in life and in love.

I think what I liked most about this film is that you can see a little piece of yourself in each character. You identify with loss and grief and hope and frustration and denial. You see how subtly complex each character is, and how the surface is a only a shadow of the character beneath. I identified most with Dunsts character. I found so many similars between her actions, her speech, her attitude and mine. Maybe its because I’m one of a kind ;o) or maybe it’s because I understand what is like to spend so much time helping other people and yet feel like maybe I’m fooling everybody in the process.

The love story between Drew and Claire is well written. I loved the hours of phone conversation and watching them “peak” on the phone. The glimpses between the deep and thought provoking conversation and the silly banter gave the relationship warmth and depth. Bloom and Dunst exude a chemistry that works here, and you have to have to hold onto hope that somehow their paths will cross again and again.

Along with a good story line, Crowe is also very gifted in creating moods using just the right kind of music. The soundtrack to Elizabethtown is at the same time mellow and joyful. One of the strengths of this film is the use of music to capture emotion and move the story along. From Drews ringtone “I cant get next to you” to the “Free Bird” tribute to his father, the music is impeccably timed and perfectly fit. I will buy this soundtrack.

Truthfully, I can understand why Elizabethtown recieved mixed reviews. It pulls out all the stops to try to make us cry and laugh at the same time. Sometimes the film feels manipulative, but sometimes genuine. And we pretty much know where the story is heading. Even so, it’s really about the journey, isn’t it?

And if that is the case, Elizabethtown is an amazing ride.

(How’d I do? First review!) .

America is one of the few countries where people have the right and the ability to instigate change through voting, lobbying, petitioning, and running for office.

If you don’t use your voice, you lose the right to complain.

The blues come over me
I pack it up and go
The blues come over me
I catch the wind and blow

The blues come in a whisper
And make you scream and shout
And you’ll do most anything
Just to let them out

I may think i’m happy
I may think i’m free
Nothing don’t mean nothing
When the blues come over me

The blues come up behind
The blues wait up ahead
The blues ask why you are born
If you just end up dead

The blues, talking about the blues
The blues, oh the blues, the blues
Talking about the blues
When the blues come over me
Talking about the blues
I have to go away
The blues, the blues
When the blues come over me
I have to pack it up and go

BB King ~ The blues come over me

speaking of my cubicle… it’s all in a box now…. and I am unemployed.

Yeah, I got the dirty down I just lost my job and now I dont know what I am going to do with my life stinkin bluuuuuues.

She’s got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I’d stare too long
I’d probably break down and cry
~ Guns and Roses Sweet Child of Mine

(I am not sure what that song has to do with this post, but I like it)

Random thought of the day…

I love my desk at work.

its like pop culture threw up on my cubicle.