The Firestarter Rides Again... Again.

Some things never die.

A friend of mine recently had as his facebook status message, "Is it possible for old acquaintances to be forgot since the creation of facebook?" or something like that. It was a reaction to the new phenomenon of stalking people you used to know on facebook to, let's face it, see how they look now. Okay, I'm kidding around (although, admit it, you've done it, too.) But I have been contacted by several people that I went to high school with that I lierally haven't seen in 15 years. Here's the funny thing; if you're thinking of stalking anyone you went to high school with 15 years later because you want to know what they are doing, I'll save you the trouble. Nobody's doing much of anything. If they were, you probably would have heard about it already. If you truly wish to reconnect with people you may have lost touch with, then by all means, facebook away. If you're just curious to see who is doing better or worse than you, then don't worry yourself. We're all in the same boat.

However, despite my grousing, it is also kind of cool when you can hook up with old friends. I was recently contacted by an old friend who wondered how he could obtain a copy of Dursin the Firestarter, the film we all shot back in high school. Now, I use the term "film" loosely, but it was feature length, and I must say, I've seen a lot worse. Considering we were about twelve kids, a VHS video camera and a couple cans of hair spray. One day, we thought it would be fun to burn some GI Joe figures and film it, and thus, a legacy was born.

The logline would be something like "a crazy man is accidentally imbued with the ability to shoot flames from his hands, and uses his powers for evil." And that was pretty much the plot of our first seven-minute short, with about five minutes involving said burning of action figures. Then they kicked me (Dursin the Firestarter, natch) into the a lake and I was done. Thing is, people really dug it, so we made another, where I returned, burned more figures, until I was run over by the good guys. We started to make other movies, but got bored so we figured we'd go for a trilogy. this one was longer, but was still basically me pretending to shoot fire and burn action figures (Boy, I could have made a fortune on eBay with them) until the good guys finally kill me dead.

While word spread around Abington High that some of my friends and I were doing this, more people wanted to see what was going on. We submitted to public opinion and made Dursin IV, set in the future where Dursin is the ruler of his own country. Wow, a plot. I don't even think we burned many figures in this one. In fact, I think Dursin even had some kind of mind-control powers. Anyway, it was still silly, but somehow we stretched it to last around 45-minutes, even throwing in the origin of Dursin, although what it actually entailed escapes me. I'm sure someone will help me on that.

Finally, after our other films failed to live up, we decided to shoot one more Dursin movie, this one combining elements of the four previous ones to make the definitive version. It grew and grew, mostly because my friend John had actual vision and ideas. This one still involved a guy shooting fire out of his hands, but we also had an all-powerful orb being studied by the army, a foreign power hoping to recruit Dursin as their emperor, and our first-ever onscreen kiss. of course, it was still pretty bad, but the imagination is there, even if the acting and budget was not (I distinctly remember several members of the crew piling into a station wagon to drive to the local school to film a scene, and everyone throwing in some change to pay for the gas to get there. We bought just over $2.00.)

It's all about perspective. I mean, when you consider the fact that Joel Schumacher had millions of dollars to make Batman & Robin, and we couldn't pay for gas (and this was with 1993 prices), and we still made a better movie, then you have to wonder where the true creative vision really is. And honestly, I never forgot the good times making that thing (in the pre-Youtube era, we were only doing it for the fun of it.), but to be asked about it on facebook 15 years later, and to be asked where my old friends can get a copy, well... that's not something I would have ever predicted. So I bemoan facebook, but it will say it does also giveth.

The Walking Montage

You've all seen it on those prime-time soaps. It usually comes at the very end of the show. After all the events of the episode, after the various characters have had their inner struggle or differences of opinions with each other neatly wrapped up, they walk somewhere, usually home through snowy or rainy city streets. Occasionally they are already home, or wherever they were going, but they are, of course, alone to illustrate how the events of the episode have taken their toll. and there is music, usually a song by some hot, young artist that will be eventually found on the show's soundtrack. I think Ally McBeal actually started it way back when (David E. Kelly was the master of the Walking Montage), but everyone does it now.

Including me. I find myself hearing songs in my head (like Aimee Mann or something slow and meaningful) as I walk home some days, or when I listen to my iTunes library while at home with a drink, I get this ridiculous feeling like the characters in those ridiculous shows that I'm in the middle of my very own Walking Montage, and I wonder what the other characters on my show are doing. The funny thing they are probably doing nothing, much like their imaginary TV counterparts. Since when did walking home brooding make up a scene, anyway?

And that's just it. For most of 2008, I think I walked through my Montage, brooding, and then moved on to the next episode, with the show never really changing from week to week, season to season. Yes, I realize that life is not like these TV shows, but on The Matt Dursin Show, the story of my life, of which I am the star, the same rules apply. Some of the characters may be written out or get their own spin-off show , but I remain constant, like Dr. House or Chuck. The show simply can't exist without me, and it's not an ensemble cast, and there will be no Dursin: New York or Dursin: S.V.U. This is it for me. So, I do the best I can, week to week, season to season. It just seems like, in the end, the storylines start to all run together and the ratings never change.

So, my goal in 2009 is to maybe get picked up by another network (I'm pulling for HBO), maybe hire a new writing team, and hopefully, bring in a very attractive, talented actress for some guest spots. Until then, we all walk on, brooding.

Ohhh yeaahhh!

Weeks ago, I spent gads of money that I really didn't have on a Nintendo Wii. Certainly, as a single man who loves his toys, I do not regret this purchase, but since I had very little money after buying it, purchasing games it play on it was difficult. Once my arms started to cramp up from all the Wii Sports, I decided to figure out how to hook the thing up to he internets, because I had heard you could download "classic" games and play them as new. I used the quotes there because, to me, "classic" refers to things that are really old, like mummies or Clint Eastwood. It shoudn't refer to anything that came about in my lifetime.

My first downloads were slightly underwhelming. Back in the day, I thought Balloon Fight and Super-Contra were the height of entertainment (remember, there was no internet porn!) Now, they were kind of childish. I don't know what i was expecting from twenty-year old video games, but I guess the years had colored my memory. Urged by a friend to download Super Mario Bros. ("You have to get that one! It was THE game!"), I remembered why I actively hated most games as a child. I was a rather impatient little shit, and if I could not succeed at the thing instantly, I was likely to throw some kind of tantrum. I have learned that, while my tantrums are not as pronounced, the attitude is the same twenty years later.

Then I found it. In the list of Wii downloads, one of my all-time favorites: Earthworm Jim. A game I spent hours on. A game I could play. A game I actually enjoyed. And it was just as I remembered, maybe because it was only 14 years ago instead of twenty. And I was in college. And I was more mature, less likely to destroy things if I lost. And I was still good at it. Of course, I don't know how I ever got along in the game without Google, but, still...

** Actually, I think it's a whole other blog post on how the little secrets in all these games got all over the country, even the world, without people being able to just type "Earthworm Jim cheats" into a search engine. I know there were magazines and stuff, but I never had one, and I never knew anyone who did, but someone I knew knew someone and word got around somehow. isn't that kinda cool when you think about it? **

And while Jim has helped me feel better about my Wii purchase, it still leaves me pondering why I had to go out and spend all this money on the latest technology when I primarily use it to play games that are over a decade old. I could have probably went on eBay and bought a Sega for fifty bucks. For that matter, I'm 32, so why do I need to play games in the first place? Shouldn't I be, y'know, doing something with my life?

I've heard people say that, because my generation is the first one in awhile that didn't grow up with a major war or depression to screw up our childhood, that we're the entitled generation, that we feel it's okay to play games and sports and read comics and watch cartoons and do numerous other things that responsible adults need not do anymore. And because modern technology (that our generation has developed probably to fulfill these childish needs) makes it so simple to do, that we are probably more screwed up emotionally than we would be if we had a war.

In Thunder Road (possibly my favorite song), Bruce Springsteen wrote, "So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore," the real joke being that Bruce was only 24 when he wrote that. On Storytellers, he quantified the line by saying, "The Vietnam War has just ended. Nobody was that young anymore." Unfortunately, I'm a generation removed from Springsteen. Fortunately, I am that young anymore. My generation didn't have to grow up, and so we didn't. And I'm wondering if we ever will.