THE LOW DOWN THUS FAR

Saw the movie Avatar. Say what you will, but I loved it. It had me reminiscing about my childhood love for the movie FernGully: The Last Rainforest. I realize that in Hollywood, there are seldom, if ever, original stories. So I’ve come to accept that Avatar is one hell of a re-imagination of several stories.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I know I did, up until my family’s annual boxing day madness. Every year my uncle holds a huge boxing day party. My mum has seven brothers, so when you cram them with their extended families into one house, it gets a bit ridiculous. Anyways, the night is just eating and drinking, and I ate the one thing I swore I would never eat again (unknowingly, of course): venison. Hunted game. Deer to be exact. Did I mention most of my uncles are hicks?

Next thing you know I’m in the house feeling unnaturally warm. I go outside for some air, take about five steps before I’m so dizzy I can’t see a thing. Next thing you know I’m down for the count. Did an epic face plant in the driveway. I cut my chin all to hell, bruised it too. I also scraped my hands up pretty good. Needless to say, my jaw has been aching for days. My fainting spell, along with a whole scene in front of all my family and our closest friends where I was as white as a sheet, is going down in our family history as one of the most embarrassing moments ever. Even my grandma took a jab at me and teased me about falling down. She walks with a walker and is as old as dirt, so you get an idea of how humiliating it is.

I also got the low down on craps. I haven’t tried my hand at it as I’m not yet ‘allowed’, but I got shown the ropes by some wicked craps players. Even though it’s a dice game entirely based on luck, I swear to god some of my family has Lady Luck hovering over their shoulder because they never seem to lose. They took my parents for twenty five bucks combined. And when you consider the game is played in loonies, toonies and five dollar bills, that’s a lot of money to lose in a number of errors in judgement.

As for New Years, I’ve been mulling over my resolution. I’m not quite sure what it is, or they are, exactly, I just know I want to start off 2010 on a good note. I’m thinking I’m going to focus on school a bit more, try my hand at getting stuff done ahead of time rather than leaving it until the last minute. I think it might eliminate some of the stress I’ve felt in the past couple of months. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick to it, though. Ever find that making a resolution is so much easier than keeping it? Whoever said, “it’s easier said than done” was right on the money.

VAMPIRES A VEHICLE FOR SOCIAL COMMENTARY?

I don’t understand the obsession with vampires. There are books written about them, movies made about them and countless television shows centralized on the vampire obsession. This vampire mania is exhausting. And now there’s another movie coming out called Daybreakers. Click here to check out the trailer. While this could very well be a phenomenal movie like District 9, which uses science fiction as a vehicle to provide a social commentary on racism and segregation, it’s also likely that it could just be a bad movie. I watched the trailer and besides the typified, conflicted protagonist, Daybreakers might meet the standards set by District 9.

There’s a chance this movie won’t be wrapped up in vampire cliches 0r an overrated story line, and that it’ll give an eye-opening portrayal of an abusive consumer culture. Essentially, the story is that the human race is on the brink of extinction because the majority of the population, being vampire, has recklessly consumed the resources available to them. Sound like anyone we know?

I’m hoping this movie will give an alternative perspective on the effects of consumerism and neglecting to plan ahead. In the trailer it shows the vampires looking for an alternate food source and in doing so creates the central conflict. If the movie meets the expectations set by the trailer by providing a fresh way to look at problems fueled by industrialized societies, it might just attract some of the attention District 9 did. It seems the only way in which to reach audiences and have them respond to significant problems in their own societies is to integrate the conflicts within Hollywood cinema.

Although it’s very unlikely Daybreakers will spur solutions to global conflicts such as over consumption, it will at least attract attention among fans of the film. Half the battle is getting the word out and spreading awareness. For all that Hollywood is lacking and for all the unethical philosophies it supports, the rise of high-budget films with social agendas is one of the best changes the industry has made in the recent past. Hopefully Daybreakers won’t disappoint, but cause a stir about a serious problem that us in the non-fictional world can understand. Let’s use the overdone vampire story line for something useful and interesting, not for cheap entertainment.

QUOTES: SO WHAT?

I’m a pretty ignorant quote abuser. I like to use quotes all the time and really only think about my own interpretation. A quote is riddled with personal significance and context. Quotes are words and when it comes down to it, words are all about context. Dictionaries be damned, no one word means the same to two people. So I was thinking, what makes a quote significant? Or monumentally popular? There are thousands of quotes plastered all over the internet, but what makes them seem to appear time and time again?

Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.
- James Dean

An actor who made his mark with a wildly rebellious bang on the big screen. An actor who died before his time. I’m just wondering if this quote would mean the same to me, or to you, if he hadn’t died before his time. If he hadn’t died young and beautiful, would this one sentence carry the same weight?

That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
- Emily Dickinson

Her many works have been characterized by a morbidity in the reoccurring themes she refers to, namely death and immortality. What makes this quote more memorable than her poems? It’s clearly not her signature mention of  life, death and the human condition (being that our lives are not permanent but fleeting, instead). It’s the use of a single word juxtaposed with these ideas frequented by Dickinson. Sweet. The the void between the flaw of the human condition–mortality–and the perfection in this flaw is the significance of this quote. That empty space is ours to will it with what we will; complete with the impression of our lives stamped on the value of the quote.

Just some of the inane thoughts that occupy my time.

OH ZACHARY QUINTO, YOU ARE SO HANDSOME

I am a Trekkie at heart. While I did grow up watching the original 1966 series (my parents are Star Trek lovers), I must admit I absolutely adore J.J. Abrams’ rendition. Not only was it wildly entertaining, but it featured some of the best lines of the entire running series. Not to mention, the cast did feature some all-star actors and actresses. Favourite part(s)? Anything and everything with Spock in it. No one can ever replace Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock…but Zachary Quinto is a freaking babe…and the pointed ears, crazy eyebrows and bowl cut don’t seem to make him any less attractive. I’d consider that a pretty wicked accomplishment.

I digress, though. The above image is the most epic ‘hero shot’ I have ever seen in any film. I’ve seen my fair share too…I’m not addicted to television but I do, on occasion, have sordid moments with my DVD player. This scene in the Star Trek movie made me die when I saw it in the drive-in, though. I couldn’t help but let one of those almost-shrieks of excitement slip out from between my lips. From then on, I had a very illegal and very good quality bootleg copy of this movie on my laptop until I was able to purchase it, guilt-free, I might add, from the store and watch the special features…over and over and over again. Like i said: epic. The aforementioned ‘hero shot’ is very hard to obtain nowadays, but J.J. Abrams captures it with style. As for not-so-subliminal messaging, if you haven’t seen it, please, for the love of God, go rent it from the video store.

In other random news…

• Ray LaMontagne – You Are The Best Thing
  This is a fantastic song by a totally under appreciated American musician. Even though I scour Last.fm low and high for hours in search of Canadian artists…he is one hell of a musician, American or not (I will not get started into an extensively boring and biased opinion piece on the American music industry). I am not a big fan of the Top 40 @ 4 kind of music. I like that LaMontagne infuses some jazz and soul into his work. The blending of the genres is musically savvy. He knows what’s what. Plus, I’m betting there are at least two of his songs that you will recognize when you hear them. You just never knew it was him. Like I said, under appreciated. Plus that song puts me in an unnaturally happy state of being. I dunno why, but I’m suspecting the strategically placed feel good riffs are designed to inspire happy-go-lucky feelings. Crafty LaMontagne, very crafty.
• It’s all quiet on the writing front (if you don’t understand that reference, please refer to your local video store). Instead of the sounds of bombs dropping, shells firing, there is an astounding, deafening silence. It feels like someone shut off my brain. I am severely lacking drive and motivation. I think it’s the overwhelming pressure of my first university exams and the busy time that is Christmas. C’est la vie.

• I love the tag feature of this blog. I think I’m a little tag happy, but it’s good to be informed.

And now, I have an exam to go study for. There are simply not enough hours in the day to get finished what I need to.

HI, I’M A MAC

As I gear up for a busy Christmas season of shopping and visiting family, I thought I’d post this link. I haven’t seen any new commercials for Christmas this year, but this one from last year just cracks me up. Even though these commercials are for computers–of all things–I think they’re hilarious. Gotta love ‘em.

CLICK!

As an afterthought, let me say for the first few months I wanted to hurl my MacBook out the window because nothing seemed to work right. Everything I once knew about PCs was useless when it came to using a Mac. But once you go Mac, you never go back.

Oh, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

ALL SHINY AND NEW

I have an ugly, narcissistic need to write. The Ancient Greek writers from both the Archaic and Classical Periods wrote about have a muse who inspired their great works. Similarly, Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, spoke about writers having a ‘genius’ of sorts to help us out with our literary endeavors.

There are a number of ways to look at how a writer writes, or how they are able to cohesively bring ideas together to create a work of fiction. There really is no one way, that much is clear. Every writer has a different process, one that is elusive and, at times, indescribable. I happen to do my best writing very early in the morning, or very late at night depending on how you look at it. And just like everyone else who writes, I fall into the rut of writer’s block. Which is exhausting, by the way. As much as I’d like to believe I can get help overcoming it with the aid of authors more experienced than myself, it’s only going to happen when I’m able to find the flaw in the writing or the idea. Sol Stein’s book, Stein On Writing, is like the bible for all writers. The necessities are laid out plain and clear, and he makes it clear that good writing is how you include those necessities in your own way. That makes your novel.

And the one fact that rings true about writing: it’s easier said than done. I’m my own worst critic and more than once I’ve given up on something because I’ve deemed it unworkable. My writing is lacking in almost everything and my diligence in writing is similar to my academic mentality. I procrastinate like it’s an accomplishment. I know where my faults are when it comes to my own writing, I’ve just got to fix them. On my long list of things I want to accomplish in my life, writing a novel and having it published is one of them. So this is the first step. Writing, even though it may be about nothing of literary value, and eventually sharing my work. Practice doesn’t make perfection, not with writing, but it makes for an author.

And with that, some very appropriate quotes I once heard:

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
- Thomas Mann

If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things people do.
- William Zinsser

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
- Oscar Wilde