The World Has Turned

If Future Me came to Present Me on February17, 2005 and told Present Me (who is Present Me 2010, if you follow Me) that the people that I know that are getting married would be getting married and the people that are splitting up are splitting up and the people that are having children would be having children, well, I'd think that Present Me had to lay off the booze because Future Me is obviously feeling the effects.

I'm not sure what to make of all this, really, except that life is pretty unpredictable. That's not good enough, though. I'm a pragmatist. I need to ponder why things happen. I need to over-analyze things and then apply them to my own life, even though they seemingly have nothing to do with me, apart from slightly altering the schedule of who I go drinking with. Before you judge, however, let me just say that if I did not apply other people's situations to my own life, I would really have nothing to talk or think about, other than comics. See, nothing really happens in my life.

...

I may have hit upon the problem.

Maybe I'm just getting to that age where shit starts to hit the fan (although I really thought I was well past that point.) Maybe I was too stubborn to see that while I was preaching my version of the good life, everyone else was thinking about the future. I was too busy having a good time and doing the stuff that most people do in their 20's. Future Me didn't exist back then. Even in the most remote corner of my brain.

I'm not saying I've been wrong all these years, or that I'm jealous of my friends getting married or having children (especially the ones having children. I'm still pretty firm on that one.), but perhaps a thought or two about Future Me wouldn't have been the worst idea ever. I'm not turning over a new leaf or anything, but sometimes a man does a little thinking, sitting in his one-bedroom apartment, after yet another grilled-cheese-and-Dorito dinner, with no money and nothing to spend it on, anyway. And he wonders if maybe, just maybe, the outlook could use a little tweaking.

Oscar Suckage

I recently wrote a Facebook stats message that said something about the ten best Picture nominees being about 8 too many, and that I haven't seen ten Best Pic caliber movies in the last three years. then I started to think if I've even seen that many. Then I started to think that maybe my standards for Best Picture are too high. Then my head hurt.

So, I thought I'd try and see if I could come up with ten good movies from the last three years, and skip the whole Best Picture thing (The stupid Oscars are all political, anyhow.) Granted, my viewing over that span has been limited, but that's partly because I wanted to reduce my stress level from seeing all those bad movies, and financially, it just ain't worth it to waste money on crap anymore.

But this is about good movies, so I'll try and be positive. Here goes:

I actually saw three of the Best Pic noms for the 2008 Oscars, but the one I enjoyed the most (and was actually, totally robbed) was There Will be Blood. Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favorite directors (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), and Daniel Day-Lewis is just unspeakably awesome in this role. It's interesting because not a lot actually happens, but that's where the subtlety of the performances comes in. Good writing and good acting will always triumph in the end. Eventual winner No Country for Old Men was not a bad movie, and had the good acting, but really only won because people seem to have a hard-on for the Coen Brothers. They should really stick to quirky/funny, because these slow-paced dramas are just too bland for me. And fellow nom Juno? Well, I think I've said enough about that whiney piece of fluff. My opinion, Blood should have swept.

In 2008, I saw a more good movies than I had seen in awhile. Maybe it was because a lot of comic book movies came out. Dark Knight was tops, but we also got Iron Man and Hulk. Now, obviously, those aren't best Pic quality, but really, if you're going to nominate Avatar, then you should consider DK. if they had nominated ten movies back then, maybe they would have. And besides, I did say that this is just about the good movies. And there was something for those who don't live in their parents basement as well, as Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky (and Bruuuuuce!) gave us The Wrestler.

Last year wasn't so horrible, really. I was unbelievably surprised by the re-make of Star Trek, and Quentin Tarantino served up what may be his masterpiece (so declared by Brad Pitt in the final scene) in Inglourious Basterds. And if I haven't written about Zombieland, it's only because I can't say enough good things about it. Just one of the most creative and funny movies I've ever seen. Seeeeeee iiiiiiiit!!!

Wow. That's 8 movies that I actually liked enough to purchase on DVD that came out in the last three years. I'm probably forgetting a couple, but I was out to prove a point, and I think I did. the point? Those Oscars sure do suck.

So much for being positive.

Talk About the Passion

For most people (and most probably those with children and spouses, and lives), I would be considered a time-waster. I spend the majority of my waking ours (and non-working and non-eating hours) playing Wii, drinking, reading comics and sitting in front of my computer doing any number of time-wasting activities like playing games and doing nothing of note of facebook (because, really, what of note is there to do on facebook?)

I'm not sure if these people with children and lives are jealous or not. I hope not, because I certainly wish I had more to do with myself. I just came off a Christmas break where I spent a few weeks doing absolutely nothing, and it was honestly fantastic, but looking back, to paraphrase Lennon, what have I done?

I'm not sure what I should be doing, really. Writing my memoirs? Fixing the economy? To be honest, after working all day, eating my three squares a day (and taking four shots while I'm at it) and staying barely in shape, I'm not sure what else I really need to do. And yet I know people who would probably kill for the kind of free time that I have and often take for granted. The thing is I don't really have any serious passions.

An old friend of mine collects Transformers. The old school toys, as well as the subsequent re-issues and rare imports. I find this to be kind of cool, and when I asked why Transformers, he said because his parents never bought them for him when he was a kid, and now that's he's an adult, he can buy them himself. This makes sense because I don't remember him having a real affection for Transformers as a child, at least more so than any of us. I certainly dug the show and comics and saw the 1986 animated movie (not the shitty Michael Bay version) with every adult who would take me, but I found the toys to be rather flimsy and not very intuitive. However, I once saw his collection, and saw some of these more recent re-issues of my old favorites, saw how they were not so flimsy anymore, and realized that one day he woke up and said, "I liked Transformers a lot. and I still do, dammit!", and the rest was history. And if I had the passion, this would be an excellent hobby. Pity I don't.

But like I said, I'm not really sure what exactly I'm expected to do with my time. I suppose some kind of charity or joining a gym would be productive, but I'm just not sure that's really the way I want to go. I started collecting Jokers, but that's kind of easy since he's only one guy as opposed to a whole Transformers universe. And naturally, I collect comics, but that's not really a passion. More like an embarrassing enthusiasm.

Hopefully, sometime in 2010, something will come along to rescue me from these doldrums. Until then, I suppose I can always keep drinking.