Dr. Seuss on Revising Collegiate Essays--a spoof.

So, recently I've been on a "childhood throwback" kick. Specifically speaking, I've been re-engaging the part of my brain which used to run around constantly as a little kid repeating and repeating the immortal words of Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. I'd particularly enjoyed rediscovering my favorite...The Lorax. Well, on a whim, I decided to be a wiseass and change my FB profile picture to a portrait of the Lorax standing on a stump--complete with status update: "Ben Dawkins is the Lorax...He speaks for the trees."









Well, in order to find said Lorax portrait, I used GoogleImage search, which by the by, is awesome. When I found my perfect picture:

Well, in order to save this picture, I was taken to a webpage belonging to Jay Wentworth, an interdisciplinary professor at Appalachian State and a scholar of the Beat Generation. Attached to this webpage was a spoof based on the Lorax. It's nowhere near as long, but it's a funny little poem that made me laugh about all of the English teachers I had in school and how crazy revision made me.

Here it is:

He was shortish.

And oldish.

And brownish.

And mossy.

And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy.

"Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze,

"I am the Wentworth. I speak for the Beats. I speak for the Beats, for the Beats are old or dead.

And I'm asking you, sir, by the skin on my head--

he was very upset and he shouted and puffed--

"Do this paper over for this draft is too rough!"

And then I got mad. I got terribly mad.

I yelled at the Wentworth, "Now listen here, Dad!

All you do is yap-yap and say, 'Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!'

Well, I have my rights, sir, and

I'm telling you I intend to go on doing just what I do!

And, for your information, you Wentworth, I'm figgering on writering
and WRITERING
and WRITERING
and WRITERING,

turning out MORE Papers just like this one and when I finish it, it's going to be DONE!"

The Wentworth said nothing. Just gave me a glance... just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance...

as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.

And I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he heisted himself and took leave of

this place through the door to his office, without leaving a trace.

And all that the Wentworth left here in this mess was a small scratch of writing, with one word...

Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn't guess. That was long , long ago

But each day since that day

I've sat here and worried and worried away.

Through the years, while my books have fallen apart,

I've worried about it with all of my heart.

"But now ," says the Soph-mler,

"Now that you're here, the word of the Wentworth seems perfectly clear.

UNLESS I care, care about my Paper a whole lot,

I'm not going to write better. I'm not."

"SO... write your papers over. Write your pen dry.

Create multiple drafts and work til you cry.

Invest no ego and don't shy away from teachers that hack.

Then the Wentworth and all his Beat buddies may all come back."

Note: Apologies to Dr. Suess © Copyright 1997 Alex Howard

That's right, kids...it's a Crime Drama!

So, if you're going to watch TV these days and actually see programming that isn't a silly reality show playing out some ridiculous concept, you're going to be picking and choosing from a lot of crime and medical dramas.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good crime or medical drama. The reason they're so popular is because drama is built naturally into the situation. Life, death, freedom, serial murderers...this is why it's all you hear on the news. Unfortunately in today's society, humanitarian efforts and the ordinary but commendable achievements of normal citizens aren't considered particularly newsworthy.

Which brings me to a few issues with the crime drama:

First of all, the flagging marriage. I know it's a tough job (and marital problems are also drama-making), but wouldn't it be TEN TIMES HARDER to have a well-adjusted, happily married detective who is actually succeeding at making it all work. Wouldn't it make his detective work a little harder and perhaps create some tension at the workplace if the hero wasn't willing to just drop anything and everything and ignore everyone he cares for to solve a case?

Here's another: cops hanging out at a diner, getting the call, and rushing out to their cars. I'm sure this is a little slice of real life, but it's been cliché since Chips. I mean, really! I think the directors for that show wanted at least one shot in every episode where a motorcycle is driven quickly out of a gravel parking lot sending dust and rocks everywhere.

This one has become really common thanks to CSI and it's children. The Morgue. There are two things about the morgue I'd like to comment on. First, newbie in the morgue. This can play out one of two ways. First, he gets sick. Yes, we know that this happens. It isn't particularly interesting, and if you're going to waste 18 minutes of my television hour with commercials, let's just assume I know that sometimes, people get sick when they're first exposed to autopsies. Second, it seems that the coroner in a lot of these dramas has been plucked right out of James Bond. He stands there smugly and unravels THE ENTIRE PLOT! This always makes me laugh because I'm expecting the body to escape from the sharks with the laser beams on their foreheads and foil the evil coroner's plan of world domination. Another similar issue: cops and doctors. It goes one of two ways...in medical dramas, cops give just enough information to develop the plot and then keep out of the way. In police dramas, it's basically the opposite. I know a few cops, and they have some pretty strong opinions about the physical state of some of the victims...they seem to be prone to argument to me! And the paramedics and EMTs I know have told me many stories where they have gotten into it with police officers at crime scenes. More drama? Perhaps, but we don't see it developed all that much.

Good Cop, Bad Cop...Is there anyone who doesn't understand this? Good! Then let's have something different in the interrogation room. How about two good cops? That would be more difficult to pull off. Suspect tries to manipulate two good cops but because they are also good cops as well as being "non macho jackasses," they use psychology to get the information they need. There's some of this going on in The Mentalist, which, by the by, is an interesting new crime drama. Monk works better for me in the "ridiculously observant" department, but having a protagonist who used to pretend to be a psychic isn't half-bad. Another take on this issue: How about bad cop/bad cop? This has to happen...probably more often than we'd like to think. There's some of this stuff going on in movies, but it's gone out of the forefront a bit. Why not bring it back? It gives us the opportunity to show out hero's moral fortitude when he yells at the bad/bad team who just beat a confession out of some lowlife that "This is not the way we do things!"

And now, lawyers. I'm sure there have to be criminal defense lawyers who aren't slick-haired evil faced shysters. There HAVE TO BE! I roll my eyes every time I see the suave defense lawyer spouting the same script every time "My client has no comment...blah, blah, blah...you shouldn't have talked to my client without me present...blah, blah, blah." Why not a lawyer on a cop drama who is an advocate for his client? Like he's supposed to be! I understand that we only really see the chase and the collar in most crime dramas, except L&O.

Speaking of chases...car chases. These are especially overplayed in crime drama movies, but I know there has to be a more interesting way to do this. They're driving fast...I get it. Innocent people could get hurt...I get it.

And finally, my favorite crime drama cliché...When the plot starts to suck, send in somebody with a gun. The shootout is just as overplayed as the car chase, and the main reason, I think, is that we are very rarely personally invested in all of the people involved in the shootout. With the proliferation of special PI and CSI types as the main characters, the actual action of police work is left to subordinate characters who in all honesty, we really don't know that well. So, we end up with another shoot out...perhaps one of the good guys gets shot...in the shoulder. And finally, the baddies either get shot in the chest or tackled in some way by the protagonist (who's not supposed to get involved in the shootout, btw...due to being completely underqualified and typically...NOT ALLOWED TO) and ends up being taken away with no more than a few scrapes.


But of course, it's important to remember...there are only so many ways to tell a story, so it becomes VERY VERY difficult to avoid situations like these. But, perhaps, since there are teams of writers involved in the production of these programs...they should try a lot harder. Once the general public gets tired of medical and cop dramas...then reality shows will continue to encroach. That nonsense has to stop. I don't care who ends up with the Bachelor. I don't care if Debbie decides to eat the really big bug. Give us more exciting, well-written TV. We have to have something better to talk about around the water cooler than the lastest Idol cut.


TUNE OF THE DAY:

Rockapella - Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

Monday through Friday at 5...I was introduced to the fun of the mystery by Carmen San Diego. I was always pulling for those kids. They never seemed to be able to find Tanzania on that big map of Africa, though. Watch your back--any super criminal who "stole the beans from Lima" has to be followed closely.

Lost in Translation, or "But some fear thing after death"

As I get older, my humor seems to be getting more and more absurd. I'm sure many of you will agree. I was sitting in the coffeehouse yesterday playing with Babelfish, and I decided to translate a few simple phrases into Japanese...because I think the characters look cool. Then, on a lark, I decided to translate those characters back into English. The result was comic gold. The idioms and syntax of different languages being what they are, when something is re-translated it comes out wildly absurd...and definitely tickles my funny bone. I'm sure other people have tried this as well, but I get the feeling I'm going to have a lot of fun with it. So, I decided to post a few literary gems...Lost in Translation.

First...Hamlet

Because of a certain or because it is not, that is question;
' Whether or not; In order the topping lift of a nobler tis inhuman good fortune and the arrow or the arm to take with the heart which suffers vis-a-vis the sea of trouble,
and finish those with in the opposite direction.
In order to die, in order to sleep; Above this;
And as for us as for that meat of mental agony and thousand natural impacts which finish with the sleep which is said the successor
- the ' So it is; From tis consummation heart wish' Because it is;
D. in order to die, in order to sleep; In order to sleep, in order to look at perchance dream.
Ay and there' For with the sleep of s friction and death whether perhaps,
any dream comes, when mixing from the coil where we do not escape this death separated,
we must give pause. There' s point that disaster of such long life is made,
someone for the sake of whether it withstands the rod,
time scorns, Th' oppressor' The wrongdoing of s, man' which you brag;
contumely of s and intense it is painful, law' of the love which is scorned;
It repulses the haughty attitude of the lag and the office of s,
th' The patient advantage; When perhaps, the acquisition which does not have value,
him him himself that quietus which is made using naked bodkin?
Someone the fardels [ku] [ma], and in order the sweat to groan under the life which becomes fatigued, but some fear thing after the death,
the unknown national traveler from bourn does not reset, is perplexed will,
and on the other hand there are no we whom it makes those sicknesses withstand which we have in us, you have known besides the fact that to, from growing?
Therefore conscience our all cowardly people are made,
and in this way, hue sicklied of original product of decision o' It is;
Being warped, it turns the flow obtaining - casting ones whose thought is thin and, and large pitch and with this point of enterprise of the time, and lose the name of behavior.

Next, Woody Allen's opening to Annie Hall

It's an old joke. Well, the Catskill Mountains two resources of the elderly women of [cough] and a 'Day of the "boy, this place, but says the food is really great, another one" Yeah I was aware that, say such a small part. " Well, that is how life feels in nature. The loneliness, misery and pain and misery and full, it is much too early on. Is, for me, the other important joke is usually the result of GURUCHOMARUKUSU. However, I originally Freud "appears to wit, I think it is related to the unconscious." And goes like this, and I paraphrase, uh: I, like my membership I would prefer not to belong to a club like that. That's a joke in terms of significant relationships with adult women in my life. Also, I know the hearts that have been strange recently - 'cause, I was 40. And I was in danger of life or something, I do not know, um, I'm going and I think aging is not worried. If one of the letters I, I, um, well, I'm on some hair loss. Probably the worst thing you can tell me thatÕs. I, um, I think it will be much better in my hands before, you know, and I think, hair loss, strong type, like you, and opposed to say Yeah, gray, for example, identify . You know 'I have two of both low. 'My deduction is the saliva of his mouth, dribbling a SA迷U crowd to the cafeteria and bring a shopping bag, screaming about socialism. Annie and I were disbanded. And I, if I can not get my mind around it now, I know in my heart, sifting of work to keep me, examine my life, here So, come to understand that the screw. You know, the one before us, in love, you know. And, and I was morose type I was not in my character is not depressed. I, I, I uh, you, I'm quite happy with as a child, I guess. I fed the first two in Brooklyn during World War ...

He seems even more neurotic this way, doesn't he?


And now, Poetry!

Robert Frost...

The two roads in a yellow wood, branches
Sorry I could not travel and
And a single traveler, I have long standing
I only saw up and down a single In bushes, bending it;

Then, just like this, it took another
Claims that, probably better
It is covered with grass, wear a hope;
As it is passed there
Is actually about the same, and wear them

Morning and put the same
The light is still a step in the black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Get to know how to yet I need to come back if I have questions.

I sighed, and indicated that this Hence some age and age:
Two roads, wood, and I jump,
I travel a little is taken
It has all the difference.


"Yet I need to come back if I have questions." Don't we all.

Langston Hughes

Well, son, I tell me:
My life is not a crystal stair.
To do this,
I did have a tack And debris,
The board is torn
And the location of the carpet on the floor -- Bear.
However, all the time
I'se a climbin 'and,
And reachin 'landin,
And turnin 'corners,
And sometimes' is done in the dark
Here, in the light.
To turn against the boy is.
If not, set to step down '
If the cause is hard gently.
Do not fall now --
I'se done yet, honey,
I'se still climbin ',
Crystal Stairs is not my life.

Now, this next one should be very weird...Allan Ginsberg, "Howl" (first section...it'd be too long otherwise)

I was destroyed in the heart of the best of my generation
Madness, starving hysterical, naked
At dawn, dragged through the town black
To correct the outrage, see
Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
The process is connected to the generator of the stars
Work at night,
Second Saturday of high poverty and tatters and hollow,
Smoking in the supernatural darkness
Cold-water flats floating to the top of the city,
Contemplative jazz

Whoa.



And finally, Song Lyrics!

"Sesame Street"

Sunny Day Sweepin 'distance of the cloud
The air here is sweet for me
Can you tell me how to get the
How Sesame Street is a
Come and play
All of A, [OK] to Neighbors are friendly
We are satisfied that the
Can you tell me how to get
How Sesame Street is a

This is a magic carpet ride
I opened the door to all
People like you are happy to --
People like happy people
How beautiful

Sunny Day
Sweepin 'distance of the cloud
The air here is sweet for me
Can you tell me how to get the
How Sesame Street is the ...
How Sesame Street is a
How to ...


Try to sing it...I dare you. Twisted.

Now, a Michael Jackson lyric. I had to... "Smooth Criminal"

To, as he came to the window
I heard that it reaches its climax
He came to her apartment
He left the bloodstains on the carpet
She is under the table Orchid
He was please she did not see
So the orchids in her bedroom
He strikes her down was her doom
Are you OK Annie?
To do this, okay Annie
The Annie OK Are you OK Annie?
To do this, okay Annie
The Annie OK Are you OK Annie?
To do so, Are you OK Annie?
You, Annie, are you okay?
Are you OK Annie?
To do this, okay Annie, you OK, Annie? (Are you OK Annie?)
It is good for you
(Can you tell me?) (The signs in the window)
(It is here that he struck out - Annie Crescendo)
In your apartment (he) (He left the bloodstains on the carpet)
(Later, in the room) Lan (Your down strikes) and (It) was your doom
Are you OK Annie?
To do so, Are you OK Annie?
Annie [OK] What are you?
Are you OK Annie?
To do so, Are you OK Annie?
Annie [OK] What are you?
Are you OK Annie?
To do so, Are you OK Annie?
Annie [OK] What are you?
You have suffered a You have been hit - V is a smooth criminal

Doc Broadway

So, did you ever see the movie Doc Hollywood with Michael J. Fox? If you haven't, basically, here's the rundown: Hotshot doctor Michael J. Fox has just finished his residency and travels across the country to start at a high-priced platic surgery practice. On the way, he runs over a white picket fence belonging to the judge in (if I remember correctly) Grady, South Carolina. To work off his fine, he his ordered to practice medicine in the local clinic. Hilarity and poignant "finding oneself" drama ensues.

Well, I seem to find myself in a similar situation as of late.

For those of you just tuning in, I recently started a directing gig in the small town of Sandersville, GA. Not including auditions (which I really don't, because I was only in town for a couple of hours each time), this is day three of the Sandersville Experience.

So, here I am. Doc Broadway. Charged with putting on Beauty and the Beast, which, for those playing the home game, is a pretty major production.

Now, before starting my short stay in Sandersville, I thought I knew what a small town was. After all, I grew up in Conyers, and we were pretty sure that we were living in a small southern town.

And we were wrong.

Yesterday, I walked through pretty much all of Sandersville. I actually have to walk further to get where I need to go in Athens...that is, when I'm not driving. A census estimate has Sandersville's population hovering around 6,000 (according to epodunk.com...no, I'm not making that site up), and it seems, a vast portion of that population has been alerted to the presence of a director in the area.

So, this young musician/actor/director from Conyers, Rome, and Athens GA is being hailed as a "big city" fellow.

Whoa...

We've had two rehearsals so far (a read-through, and a first sing of a couple of the chorus numbers), and it's looking very promising. I'm going to have to fasten my "patient Ben" hat pretty securely, but I can tell already that we're going to have an exciting show on our hands.

But first, I'm going to have to figure out just how I'm going to do the small town thing. More on this to come as I have a few more experiences, but here are a few to tide you over til' then:

• I'm living in a house built in 1897. I'm afraid to touch anything for fear of destroying it. For those of you who know me well..."accident prone" doesn't even begin to cover it.
• I've heard the name "Sherman" spoken through gritted teeth several times since I've been here.
• I've heard the expression "Oh, my stars!" more times in the past 48 hours than I have in my entire life.
• I was at the Waffle House the other night (only thing open after rehearsals...the whole world seems to shut down), and another patron couldn't eat his bacon...so he gave it to me.
• I've set up office hours in the only coffee house in the area. Mercifully, they have wireless internet so I can keep up with the world. On my second day showing up here, I was greeted as a regular.
• Yesterday, I had to buy a 3-to-2 prong plug adapter. There are no 3 prong outlets in this house. Oh, and the adapter cost 75 cents. In Athens, a diet Dr. Pepper costs $1.39.
• Everybody says hello. I'm called "Sir" by everyone I talk to, and whenever I hear the name "Mr. Dawkins," I'm looking around for my Dad.

It's a different kind of life I'm living right now. But, I'll be back in Athens on the weekends...getting my fill of air conditioning and businesses open past 9.

But don't worry...I have a little case for DVDs. I'll keep myself entertained.

TUNE OF THE DAY:

John Denver - Thank God I'm A Country Boy

Mercy...I am so not a country boy. Perhaps I should learn a little more how to be one if I'm going to get along fine here. But, let me tell you, you haven't lived til' you've heard colloquial French spoken with a major southern drawl. "Bahn--Jer!"

GRADBlog

I'm finished. It's done. Complete. Over. Fin. The Master's degree is finally nicely wrapped up, and yet another chapter of my educational life (well, life in general) is now done.

Ben Dawkins, Master of Music. It sounds like a bit too much, doesn't it? Bachelor of Arts makes sense. Even Doctor of Musical Arts has a certain "real world" ring to it. But, Master of Music? That's what it's going to say on my degree. What it should say is, "This is to certify that Benjamin C. Dawkins now knows significantly more about music than he used to." Or, perhaps more in a more honest appendage to this statement, "Moreover, he realizes how many aspects of music he has absolutely no clue about." Because that last little bit is definitely true--in the past three years, not counting lessons and ensembles (which are a different layer of complex education in and of themselves), I've taken 14 pretty serious classes on music in the last 3 years. It may not seem like a lot, but it definitely is.

It's funny to think about how little I knew about music when I arrived at the university. I'd taken one baby theory course, zero lit, zero history. My musical training consisted of years of ensembles, choruses, and musicals. I didn't know diddly squat about opera, but by the end of the first year, I had so many opera recordings and spent so many hours reading, listening, and watching that I was in a different planet. Becoming a real Classical musician was an awe-inspiring, pride-swallowing, mind-numbing, hyphenated descriptor-requiring experience. Those classes changed the way I listened to music. An interesting aspect of my grad student life as opposed to some of the other music students I spent hours in classes with, I heard very often, "We're studying music in such painstaking detail that when I go home, I can't stand to put any music on anymore." Meanwhile, I had the opposite experience. I was listening to music hours on hours of every day. Absolute immersion. After all, music is one of the most pervasive factors in our culture, but one thing we don't acknowledge often about music is that it is a foreign language, in almost every way. Now, I hear function, non-harmonic tones, form, derivation. It really is a different world.

It wasn't just the music in my life that changed. I learned quite a few things about myself these past 3 years. Here goes:

• I've learned that I can live reasonably happily in a living room crammed full of gear for upwards of four months. When people heard that I was living this way my first semester in Athens, they thought the world had come to an end...creature of comfort that I am.
• I've learned that I don't need a heated home. I definitely prefer one...but I don't need it. For that first year-and-a-half in Athens...no heat.
• I've learned that I am the worst "do-nothing" vacation person ever. I have to have something to do. When I don't have 6 projects to complete at once, life seems to move at a crawl. It never did that before.
• Another music one: I've learned that I can enjoy some weird music. Now, I don't necessarily mean the crazy 20th century atonal stuff (although I am learning to appreciate it)...I'm talking weird electronic, noise music (I'm not being facetious--it actually is referred to as noise), and in the last year, I've even taken part in some of this crazy music making.
• I've learned that being a performer is 1 part performance, 9 parts wait in a room for hours playing cards until its time to go into a big ballroom and perform.
• I've learned that it is very difficult keeping in touch with people while working on an advanced degree. It feels sometimes that a vast percentage of college was spent just hanging out, basically living with the people you had bonded with. I live in Athens only a few miles away from some of those people I spent countless hours with...I see them only a few times a year. It's sad, and it's definitely my fault.
• I've learned that most everybody gets married in their mid-twenties. I've been to so many weddings in the past 5 years that I can't even figure it. It's even crazier now that I'm singing at a lot of weddings...The older I get, the fewer single men there are to catch the damn garter. Although it seems that the melee surrounding the catching of the bouquet just gets more and more violent. I've caught (completely against my will) 5 garters. Five. One just sort of landed on me. One I actually caught. With the other 3, I was simply the closest single man to the garter when it hit the floor, followed by a sharp whisper, "Dude, for the love of God, help me out here. Pick it up."
• I've learned that the purchase of homes and the having of babies marks a huge psychological step into "adult demeanor." I'm not saying that some of these people are any less the goofy kids I knew...but I hear them talking about things like insurance, mortgages, the frequency and color of baby poop. Things definitely change.
• I've learned that after living in Rome and going to Berry...The UGA and Athens experience was a massive culture-shock. I had never lived in a world where the entire town shut down for a football game. I had also never had beer spilled on me in public. This happens reasonably frequently now. Even in the Applebees. I had also never suspected that a vehicle in my line of sight was being operated by a drunk driver. Now, I can be pretty sure. I also never saw anyone actually get arrested in real time. Now, I see it just about every time I'm downtown.
• In Rome, if I was at a party, it's likely I knew almost everybody. In Athens, I know almost no one.
• In Athens, I learned that even with a "Walk" crosswalk light...you cross the street at risk of life and limb.
• In Rome, parking was the easiest thing on the planet. In Athens, parking is a nightmare even in the summer.
• I've learned that when you're pursuing an advanced degree, you don't get the "What are you going to do with that?" question that you'd get in undergrad.

And there are many, many more. It's funny to look back over a significant period of my life and see how much has changed. It is 5 years since I finished college, 8 since high school. I've started getting the "Wow, you're getting old" comments at birthdays, and I no longer ignore commercials that offer savings on car insurance. It's definitely funny.

And now, on to the next chapter. Doctorate. This one will be pretty wild; I can already tell.

And of course, I'll be here to tell you all about it.

TUNE OF THE DAY:

Vitamin C- Graduation Song

I decided to post a link to the most horrendous graduation song I could possibly find. The first time I heard this song, tears welled up in my eyes from laughing at how ridiculous it is. And later on, music theory made me laugh at it harder when I realized (also thanks to Rob Paravonian) that they relied on the falling fifths progression for this one.

REAL TUNE OF THE DAY:

Rachmaninoff had big hands

You didn't think I was actually going to leave you with Vitamin C, did you? Well, here is something to scratch the "That's Awesome!" itch you might be feeling. A little demonstration of how someone with smaller hands might play those massive Rachmaninoff chords.

Movie Blog!

In a world where Prime Time television was king, one man must fight to survive...


So, it was going to happen eventually, and I'm pretty sure its going to happen fairly often around here...It's MovieBlog! So, here's the deal: I am a moderate collector of DVDs--


*cough, cough*


Alright, Greer, I know. I am a pretty big collector of DVDs--


*loud throat clearing, perhaps masking the word "bullshit"*


Ok, fine! I'll admit it...I am addicted to collecting DVDs. I have a problem. I cannot quit anytime I want. And I will not be going to meetings because it feels too good and I have not yet hit rock bottom. And I won't hit rock bottom, because I'm impervious to the pitfalls of having too many DVDs.

Here are the pitfalls:

1. Space: After about 200 DVDs, finding a place to put them becomes a bit of a hassle. I used to use tall DVD racks, which took a large portion of my living room wall in Rome. Now I use large media books. Lots of them.

2. What to watch? This problem may be unique to the massive DVD collections, and my friends who remember the days the DVDs were actually out in the open on display will remember this...There are so many movies that you can't figure out what to watch! You see something you'd like, but you're ambivalent about it because you think if you look long enough, something will jump out of you that needs watching.

3. Borrowing and lending: This has gotten way easier. Before, it was difficult to keep up with who had what, but not to worry! From my business class days in undergrad, I have learned to use Microsoft Access to create a DVD database! It has everything, and I also have set up a box to click if a DVD is "checked out" and who has it. This also helps with #2 because now I can browse on my computer screen without having to actually go through pages upon pages of movies. That's right, I made a database for my movies. I'm a total nerd. Notice I didn't say a geek because I can't fix anything technical that breaks down, but I can still enjoy the many benefits.


Anywho, there's the background. So, amidst talk of music and various things that interest me, I think I'm also going to post entries every now and then that highlight a movie I've watched lately. Oh, and as a sidebar--I don't really watch TV. If there's an interesting TV show that I catch at some point, I'll just get it on DVD. Why should I have to make sure that I'm at the same place at 9 o'clock on thursdays, week after week? I'm a rebel. An outlaw. And I watch when I want.


So, *Dah, Ta-DA!* Time for MOVIEBLOG!


This weeks movie:


Groundhog Day! That's right--I love this movie. Instead of being another romantic comedy--it's also this crazy existential trip through a weird time loophole that has an angry, acerbic Phil Connors living the same day over and over...for eons and eons.

I think the "eons and eons" aspect is what people may miss only seeing this movie once. There's this implied sense that Phil has been in this time warp for thousands of years. It doesn't really come out and say it in the script, but you can see these really incredible changes in the way he deals with the things around him. The same people, the same weather, the same events...forever.

An interesting fact: Originally, the script opens right smack in the middle of the curse, with Phil somehow knowing exactly what's going to happen all day long. Then. the films flashes back to February 1, the day before the curse. I guess the filmmakers thought that would be a little too avant garde for a general release romantic comedy, so they keep it pretty sequential.

I'm not going to spoil it--all I have to say to you, dear reader, is go rent it. It's an extremely funny movie that imparts a worthwhile message about happiness, making the most of time, and respect for holidays in which rodents predict the weather. I know I learned my lesson.

Which brings us to:

TUNE(s) OF THE WEEK!!!!

This week, I'm going to post links to 2 pieces of music prominently featured in Groundhog Day.

the first:

Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, 18th variation
Rachmaninoff

This is a piece you've undoubtedly heard at least snippets of before. It's become a bit of a classical background cliché, which is too bad because it really is a haunting melody. If you feel like a real treat, hunker down and listen to the whole Rhapsody (It's available for listening on YouTube). Rach's writing for piano and orchestra is insane and definitely worth your time to check out.

and the second:

Ray Charles - You Don't Know Me

Also featured in Groundhog Day, Ray Charles' hit accents Phil's plaintive attempts at love. I think this is a tremendous song, and Ray's soulful voice sends it straight home unlike many of the covers of this tune. There's a feeling of "just get to know me, and you'll see."

Enjoy, friends. Until next time!