How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV… the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home… I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office… and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.

That quote from Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air covers Ryan Bingham’s entire philosophy of living. All of his possessions are in the luggage on wheels and the wallet in his suitcoat. He carries dozens of keycards for hotels, car rental companies, airlines, etc. He lives on the road and in the sky. Ryan’s family accuses him of self-isolation. Ryan counters “I’m not isolated, I’m surrounded.” But it becomes fairly clear that the random people Ryan encounters in planes and airports aren’t enough. Without even realizing it, he’s seeking relationships. Community. He meets Alex, a fellow constant traveler with similar philosophies, and they form a sexual connection. But that isn’t enough for Ryan, and it’s a joy to watch him realize that. I won’t go into where the relationship goes, and there’s so much more to this film I didn’t bring up, but I love the way this film depicts the difference between living in isolation and living in community. The final scene of the film is filled with interviews of people Ryan has “fired” telling how they made it through the ordeal. Each of them depended on their family and friends to get them through it. That’s what we need. God made us to be together, not alone.

Vertigo
Beautiful Day
New Year’s Day
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own (I was reminded how consistently good Bono’s voice is here)
Love And Peace Or Else (the following stretch of songs was pretty incredible and flowed perfectly)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In The Name of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
encore
The Fly
With or Without You
credits
Yahweh

And, as I stated in the last post, it seems that these 3-d concert films are going to become new trend (If U2, the Stones, and Scorcese do it, the rest of the world is sure to follow). I surely hope so.

Yeah. Oh Snap.

Click for the full-size shot of the poster

Right now, I’m definitely wanting to go see Be Kind Rewind, the new Michel Gondry film starring Jack Black and Mos Def. Gondry is without a doubt the most visually imaginative director in the business, so I’m excited about this one. Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it. However, if I decide to go to the 4:50 show of Be Kind Rewind at Downtown West (Knoxville’s arthouse theater), I can go to a 1:40 show of U2 3D at the Pinnacle at Turkey Creek. Now, seriously…a U2 concert in 3D IMAX?!?! Yeah, I gotta check that out. So, I’m gonna try and do both after I grab some lunch (maybe Moe’s, Shane’s Rib Shack, ooh or maybe Bonefish)

Enjoy

P.S. – I still maintain that Rowlf would make a way better Jules than Fozzie Bear.

P.S.S – Sorry if this post gave you complete pop culture/hyperlink overload

Honestly, this was a decent movie. It was cute, and women from everywhere will be flocking to Nancy Meyer’s latest. I, however, only wish that more time could’ve been spent with Iris, Miles, and Arthur, here in America. They were a charming trio, one that I would’ve liked to hang out with and here tales about old Hollywood.

As a last note, this movie further solidifies the fact that I am in love with Kate Winslet.

Good night, and good luck.

I just watched Fellowship…Now, listen. I have to be honest. I cried like a little girl when Boromir died…during that whole exchange between Boromir and Aragorn. I feel so…weird. I mean…I’ve seen the movie HOW many times now? And that scene has never hit me like it just did. But dang…it did.