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

A Weekend at Savage's

  Hey guys, even though its Thursday,  I want to talk about my weekend. It was, in a few words, mindblowingly awesome. Started off on Friday... I won Homecoming King. I WON HOMECOMING KING!!!! Now, I know that this is tooting my own horn, but here's the thing- I fully did not expect to get it. I convinced myself that others were better suited for it, and I had no chance of doing it. I was shocked by it, and ( long time readers may know) I struggled with the idea of acceptance by others. This was a major coup for me. I still am happy. And the OTHER thing that happened was that Saturday night I went up to my home ( WTCSR,people, c'mon!) and took part in a deep and meaningful ceremony. I obtained the rank of Vigil in the Order of the Arrow.This is equivilant to the Eagle award in normal Boy Scouts. For those of you who know the ceremony, you can attest to it. For those of you who don't know, I'm not telling you. Incidentally, that would be most of you. That experience changed me as a person, I feel like. I can attest that I am a different person. Its interseting how little we take time to appreciate the little things in life. I am going to try and fill this blog up more later. For now, signing off.