Okay, so after a year or so hiatus- in which many things happened, which I will go over in a second- I decided to start blogging again to chronicle college. Don't know how long it will last. Blogger changed its layout, so a little weirded out. During this year, to reacap, I met a girl, started going out, went to prom with her, and then parted amicably. I also saw the Avengers ( twice) and The Dark Knight Rises ( Three Times). I set a new record in Swim and was Senior Staff at Wah Tut Ca Scout Reservation. Now I am here, at UMASS Amherst Van Meter Room 418 ready to start life as a college freshman. Its going to be great. Gonna do more updating later, but this is it for now.

After the Fact- Loss, Confusion, Where to go from Here.

Hey all.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas season. I did, Santa was very kind to me. As I started writing this post, I was going to write about something personal to me, and then I realized that a tragedy had struck another person. Just now I realized that writing about it would ber incredible insensitive- so I will say only this, that to lose someone very close to you would and does hurt more than I can even fathom. I deflated a bit when I read the obituary, hoping it wasn't true. But I think it is, and my heart goes out to my friend. And now, that revelation will make my following seem shallow and self serving. but I don't know who to vent to- except the souless internet.

My problem is I have met a very nice person, and I don't know how to proceed. Two disclosures right now- I feel like an ass writing this after learning about death, and eagle-eyed readers will know who I am talking about. I met this person, adn we were so similar, it was almost eerie in a sixth sense way. But also eerie, good. Here was a person who I could confide in, knowing they had the same problems as me. It was great, how simpatico we were. Here's the thing- by current society standards of the teenage group, we are already an "item'. We should be going out, beign steady, hell, I should have kissed her by now. Is this a case of me being too nervous, and I should have just taken the plunge, trust my instincts? Or is it perfectly okay to be more than friends, but not in a romantic sense? Additonally, how does new technology play into this? I want to send her a request on facebook to make it 'facebook offish' but is that really necessary for a relationship? Oh, look, honey, this is the anniversary of our facebook notification of being together! Even as I type them, the words sound stupid to me. I have no clue, other than the fact that I hope I don't mess it up.

Christmasy Season? Why not all Year Round?

So, I am directly procrastinating under the eye of my cookie-making mom, and I dedcided to do a blog post about something OTHER than the latest action movie. I decided to write about something that was on my mind. I have always struggled with the idea of me being nice than everyone. I would rather talk with people adn understand them, which seems contrary to the idea of 'full steam ahead' mememe focus that is pervasice. Sure, people still help out and volunteer, but in day to day interactions people seem to be involved in fast fast fast, focus on my problems which are huge, not like others, no one understands me, I'm gonna solo it. But two incidents recently reinforced the need for me to nice, and made me realize that being nice is always worth it. Two people which I am involved with periphally recently highlighted this idea. Lets call them Mrs. A and Ms. B. Mrs. A was involved in something that she wasn't aware of. It caused laughter at my table and almost a sense of pity. But no one stepped up and helped her out. I stepped up, and helped remedy the situation. ( Not to toot my own horn). She ended up in tears. But here's the thing. The people who sat with me did nothing and laughted at the pain caused by the revelation, and then said that I was a good guy for doing that. But, whats so good about doing what I would want someone to do in my place, if I was in that situation? The fact that I did was was supposed to be done in the best way possible, and got lauded for it, leaves me baffled. The other situation, with Ms. B, is happier. She was really nervous about a performance she had to do, and I just did what was natural. Reassurance was needed, reassurance was given, and everything turned out ok. But she was so thankful, it hammered home the point that niceness can give.

I guess what I'm saying is, why do people go out of their way to be angry and bitter, when they can be uplifting and positive with the same amount of energy? I know, people have asked this question for ions, and results are varied.  But what possible reason do we have to spend more energy to be angry at everyone? Sure, the worlds a hard place, and it doesn't seem to be a nice place. But why do people have to spend even more energy to be angry and make it  a worse off place? Both Mrs. A and Ms. B were really happy that I was what I take for granted. What does that say abou the state of the world as a whole? As before, I have no solutions. I have no ideas. I jsut have my thoughts, sticking them to the wall, as before.

Muppetmania!

Okay, before you go any further, know that I am a Muppet fan. Raised on Sesame Street and later the Muppet Show, these icons have been my compainions since childhood. So when I say that this was the only movie I was looking forward too this season, I want you to know the full weight of my statement. I loved it so much, I went to see it twice. In the same weekend. This weekend. The first time, not to discourage the lovely Miss Jackie Jarnigan, was by far the best. The screening was perfect, the chairs were comfortable, I was with friends. The cool thing was that there was young people ( younger than me) and old people ( 50's and up) and they all found common ground in this movie. I heard more laughing during this than I have heard during the other comedies I have seen. And to all those nay-sayers who say that it will never be equal to the original Muppets, with all due respect to Jim Henson, this may even be BETTER than the original Muppets. The spirit was gleefully preserved, and there were so many celebrity cameos it was like Scene It: Famous People Addition. But you can tell everyone was having a blast. And the Muppets humor was skillfully preserved and withstood the test of time. In fact, a large part of how this movie plays is the idea that the world has moved on from our felt-y friends. It opens with Jason Segal playing Gary, and his brother Walter, a new Muppet. Gary is dating Amy Adams -playing Mary- and the trio decide to go to LA to see the sights, including, natch, Muppet Studios. When they discover that the studio is old and run down, along with oil beneath the land that a greedy Chris Cooper oil baron wants, they reunite the Muppets to put on , as Kermit so umbly puts it, "One Last Show." For students of the Muppet Show, comparisons galore and tounge in cheek tributes to themselves. I love the fact that they break the fourth wall just enough to be funny. We know they are aware of us as movie goers watching, and they know that we know they know that. ( Man, I have always wanted to write something like that). The result is a delightfully witty and funny vehicle to watch. I particualry like when Statler and Waldorf say the following.
Statler: " Well, it also says here that if the Muppets can raise  10 million dollars before this contract expires, they own the studio and the Muppet name."
Waldorf: " Did we just reveal a major plot point to the audience?"
Stalter: " I hope so, maybe half of them will get it!"
Waldorf: " That implies half of them are still awake!"
And the montage effect, when the characters are fully aware of it, is funny as all get out. My favorite moment in the montage was when my ( quite possibly) favorite Muppet, Sam The Eagle, is shown hosting a show called "Everything Sucks" and the crawl reads " Young people... the French...Every other national country." Its a strech, but it works for what we know of Sam the Eagle.
There are only three things I didn't like in this film, but they were of the minor plot points and of reallly no concern whatsoever.
The first is Kermit, but I could not tell that he was voiced by someone other than Jim Henson. It was that perfect. He just seemed a little more ready to give up in previous excursions. I counted three times when Kermit said something like " It can't be done" Kermit never gives up, but if he does, he keeps being cheerful in some way. This one seems just a little sad (der) than usual. But, it adds depth to the character, more than he had, and it is particuarly moving to see him ponder it, shrug, and put on a smile to do the Muppet Show Opening once again. I didn't like how the ending was structured. ( SPOLIER ALERT) For a time, it made it look like Evil had won. Being the Muppets, thats not the case, but still. The words The End flash before the actual end of the movie. To tie up threads, they go into the credits. That it works great is not the point, just a little tickle in the throat of an otherwise healthy and robust movie. I give this movie an A, my highest grade so far... screw it, this once, something can be perfect.

A+



As a Final note, to the enduring power of the Muppets, everyone was singing along in the theater to Rainbow Connection. You can't get that nowadays, and it makes me confident the Muppets will survive long after me.

With Those lights, You could Power a Small Vegas.

 Well hello, out there, cyberspace. I read a little blurb that said to get readers, you need to make posts for more than once a week. The best results are daily. To that I say....mmmmnope, have better things to do. So anywho, I had a really good Veterans Day weekend. Equal parts manual labor, fun, and making an indelible impression on others. So I just got back from seeing Trans- Siberian Orchestra, as a bit of family fun. I have to say, I was impressed. More like blown away by the power of it. And by blown away, I mean just that. Using some calculations I made up on the fly, and a basis of electricity consumption that has no root in any reality whatsoever, I figured that the power used to produce this show with all the effects could have powered a small city for something like six months. It was that intense. There were lights as big as me, lights across the stage, and lights in the air. Bear in mind, that they set this up constantly. So all of this stuff is portable. Thats not even the best part. Most bands wait to release phosphorus and smoke and fire as the grand finale. Nope. These guys did it in a midshow song. And it just got bigger from there. The stage was dominated by three pairs of triangles made up of trusses, one inside the other. These triangles could raise, lower, tilt, all independent of each other. At various times they were used to simulate a vauge Christmas tree, the mouth of a beast, and free floating light platforms. ( Hey, they can't all be something ) Easily the coolest part however was a system of trusses that allowed the band members to walk in the air over the audience. It was high up, and you thought that all the lights were attached to it. Nope. It lowered down and allowed them to walk on it, and then it raised itself up a little bit so as to have them suspended in space.  There was also fire, and let me point out that this is the only band that I encountered that used fire as a percussive instrument. At one point, there was fire on the stage, but I felt really hot...only to see that there was fire( planned) behind me. It was neat. The only qualm I had was that I sat on a floding chair for the entire show, and the arena was hot. I will write more( hopefully) later as I am currently being sked to vacate the premise of the computer.
Have a good week, and you stay classy now.

Oh God, I'm becoming commercialized.

While writing this, I realized one thing- my blog is increasingly only movie reviews. Part of me is like GASP! I  must change this, so as to not conform to the other thousands of bloggers out there! ( Picture it in a really breathy voice) and the other is like Eh, screw it, just write the review. Much obliged, apathy. Much obliged.
           I just got back from watching Real Steel, staring Hugh Jackman. I wanted to see this movie for a long time, and it was worth it. Even though this ground has been trampled to death, I just want to rehash some of the key points.
Hugh Jackman is an ass for the first third of the movie. Like, if he wasn't a boxer and I wasn't a pacifist wimp, I'd beat him up. That bad. The kind of guy who seems nice but if you spend more than 24 hours in his company, he's an ass. However, the movie does a really good job of portraying the underdog, both as robots and humans. Its clear that he's supposed to be a likeable underdog, even when he is an ass.
The kid, Dakota Goyo was superbly cast. This is one of the first movies that I said to myself " Hmm, I could see this guy as his father, and this kid as his own. "
The technical design and art were awesome. I loved the visuals. The music wasn't too bad either. Scratch that, the music was great. I found myslef listening to the music to the fight scene and it transformed that scene into something even better. ( Thank you Grooveshark)
Now, I went to see this with my best friend, who convienently went to transformers three with me. Note to self: pick something other than robot movies to watch with this guy.
He pointed out it was very similar to that movie, as in we had to sit through an hour and a half to watch robots pummel each other.

I didn't like a few things in this movie. Hugh Jackman takes so long to find love, that I nearly gave up on him. I didn't like the smug, prissy arsitocratich Witch with a captial B who owned Zeus, the hoity-toity all powerful reigning champion. She is just plain straight up mean. I did not like the anger Jackman displayed at the son for a while, and I  was not happy by a montage that made up part of the closing scene. Instead of all five brutally trying bouts, it was round one, roundtwo/three/four and then five. Didn't work for me. Everyone kept drawing comparisons to Rocky, but as I have never seen the movie, I can't compare.


On a related note, last night I watched Cool Hand Luke, you know, one of those classic movies that you never get around to watch. Well, I did, and for the first part, I couldn't get what the fuss was about. About midway through, when the famous egg-eating contest is held, then the movie really started tickin'. I didn't like how long it took Luke to escape, and I didn't like the casual cruelty of the Captain at the end, when he takes him to the prison hospital, and it is almost certain he dies. I liked all the truths being spoken by Paul Newman, such as " Calling it a job don't make it right." I can see why he is such an icon. Maybe some of the reasons I didn't like it was because of the testosterone fueled extravaganza that modern movies have become.  Certainly riveting though.


Overall, both movies get an A-. Real Steel was a Rocky'/Rockem' Sockem' Robots mashup, but all the same it had a poignant heart rarely found in movies these days. Cool Hand Luke needs more incubation in the mind to fully appreciate it, but I have no doubt that it will be like a fine wine- getting better with age.

The Ides of March in Amherst.

Okay, so I realized that I had not written in this blog in a while, and also realized I wanted to procrastinate. So, here is my recap of my Weekend at Amherst and the Ides of March that I recently saw. Both were quite excellent, but in different ways.
So I got to hang out with Zach Durand this weekend at UMASS Amherst. For those of you who know me, you know how much of an influence Zach has had on me. This was an awesome experience. I realized something- he is not much different than me. I put him on a pedestal, and, to a lesser degree, college ( COLLEGE!) and going there was gratifying to see that we have a lot in common, and pedestals are not needed. We got in, went to Southwest dining hall, met Chapman( Great dude, knew him for like 10 minutes) and then went back to the frat house he lived at. A party was starting to go on, but neither of us liked that stuff, so we built a fire ( YEAH BOY SCOUTING!) and just chilled. Then we went to see the movie- more later- and came back to the party. We went and checked up on someone who got into a fracas, and it was intense, but in the vaguely unsettleing way. Seeing how people cared for each other, and the possibility to get hurt was magnified by many things made me swear to myself right then and there- I am becoming an EMT to help my friends out when they are in need. No greater test of friendship there can be. Then we hung out some more and we watched Stripes. If you have not seen this Bill Murray flick, get up and go watch it. NOW. I'll wait, seeing I was you a few hours ago. Then we went to bed at 3:00, woke up at 10:30 and had breakfast with the best darn homefries I ever had. Pretty good if I do say so myself.
                                                      Now for the movie. It was good, for a last minute pic of what to go see to avoid the party. I had heard a lot about it, and George Clooney and Ryan Gosling were expertly cast. This was a way more expressive movie than I am used to. A lot of the shots were of characters or objects, and the camera just focuses on the realization dawning on the fact as the music played. I particuarly loved the shot of Ryan Gosling breaking down in a car with rain pouring down the windshield. Half his face is clear, but they eyes are overshadowed by the pounding rain. I think the ideas present in this movie were superb. What use is loyalty when loyalty can be traded and downgraded? How do we maintain optimisim in the system when we see the compromises and nitty gritty of the way the system is in place? I love the part when Ryan Goslings character is suckerpunched by his boss. All I could think of was his advice given not five minutes earlier to an intern- " When you screw up, you lose the right to play. Permanantly" Its great, because he himself does not heed this advice that he gave out in a dark time. He cannont comprehent that he is booted off becasue of hubris, and ego. The end leaves a bit to be desired, too much like the "Does the top keep spinning, or not?" ending of Inception? But overall, the characters are superb. I love the jaded newspaper reporter who plys them for information, acting all buddy buddy. BUt when the crap hits the fan, she says " We were never friends. You give me information so I write nice things about you. Don't delude yourself further" But one of the last things she says to Ryan Gosling's charater is "C'mon, arn't we friends? Haven't we always been friends?" I think this movie was superbly done. I would welcome any other George Clooney directed movie such as this one.

Peace out, now I got to go do work to the sounds of Sandstorm.
Sounds exciting.
Ben