The Fountain

Every so often the movie-going audience is given a piece of art to make the mind think and expand upon already held beliefs. The most recent movie that has done this that comes to mind is Mulholland Drive for its sheer delivery of mystery and begs the audience to reach their own conclusions.




The Fountain is one of those movies that tends to conclude with more questions being asked than the typical audience member used to. This is probably why The Fountain didn't do well domestically in theaters.

The story follows a man, or is it three? The movie never actually tells us. This man is on a journey to save the woman he loves from death. The conflict occurs when the man's journey is to find the Tree of Life.

Built upon mythologies, the story takes place in three different time periods, 1500, 2000 and 2500. All stories are interconnected.

What I won't do is give away too much. I want you to view the movie in order to understand and think about it.

I want to share the things the movie touches on.

First, the idea that you can live forever. The movie doesn't try and beat a religious agenda over your head. I believe it tries to answer the question of death through the creation of life. "Death is the road to awe" as stated in the movie. This belief that death in fact frees us thus giving birth to more life.




I also believe that the movie touches on reincarnation, however briefly. The movie never makes it clear that whether the protagonist, Hugh Jackman, is always the same chartacter. Instead it makes the assumption that his character is the same soul driven to save his beloved in three different time periods. In the end; however, the acceptance of death is the answer.

But I think the understanding of death is also the thing people need to think about. Is the answer to death life? We fight so hard to combat death and we just end up losing. Why not embrace it instead of fearing it?




Beautifully filmed by Matthew Libatique and co-written and directed by Darren Aronofsky. This is truely a sci-fi romance. And true to all great love stories it's a tragedy with a bittersweet end. And in this instance, more questions, which for death, is the norm. ***B***

Tilapia Nachos

Here's something I just made for J-dan and Beth. So delicious.



Tilapia Nachos
Serving size: 4-5

4 - tilapia fillets
3Tb - Tbs extra virgin olive oil
4Tb- Tbs lemon juice
3 - garlic cloves
2 cups - homemade salsa (1 - 16 oz. can black beans, 1 tomato, 1, green pepper, 1/2 videlia onion; all chopped)
salt - to taste
pepper - to taste
4Tbs - flour
1 - 14 oz. bag lime salt-infused tortilla chips
1 - 8 oz. bag monteray pepper jack cheese

Begin by finely chopping the garlic cloves and sauteeing them in the olive oil. Once softened, add the lemon juice and simmer. Add 1 cup of the salsa and cook the veggies.

Coat the fillets, both front and back, with the flour and season with salt and pepper to taste. Throw the fillets in the olive oil and lemon juice sauce, let thicken.

Remove fillets onto plate, then pour the salsa and sauce onto the fillets. Break up fillet meat with fork. Serve hot.

Serve fish on lime salt-infused tortilla chips. Top with cheese. Use remaining cup of salsa for extra topping. Guacamole is also a great additional topping.

Booooring!

I am soo bored and have nothing to write about. Cool stuff, huh?



Lake Mapourika, New Zealand

Leave all this to yesterday...

So, I put in my two weeks on Thursday and I'm not the least bit sorry. True, I'll miss a hell of a lot of people there. I can't recall how many cool people I met there, but the management needs some fixing. I mean really.



I also have no one to blame but myself for my resignation. I've been too late too often and not motivated to get up and get there. I really do express myself unconsciously and I know that I've been running round and around on this wheel.



I'm looking forward to applying for new jobs and I've found two listings in CoMo that I think I may really enjoy.



This has also inspired me looking for new jobs out of state for professional jobs. It's a new revolution. It's a new day. Seize the fuck out of it.

The Queen & Notes on a Scandal

I haven't been completely deprived of movies in my life. Besides watching Dreamgirls on DVD over and over, I did manage to catch a couple of recent critical darlings.

The first movie, The Queen, is based on an original story about the royal family's reaction to Princess Diana's death. The movie follows British Prime Minister Tony Blair's relationship with Queen Elizabeth and her insistence on handling the death of "the people's princess" privately.



The movie does a good job of putting the mindset of the royals in a perspective we as an audience can relate to. However, the movie does exaggerate the level of contempt the royals had for her and the time it took for them to release a public statement. But who knows? I've heard that British people think the movie is over-the-top. American's probably take the movie as fact, or close to it.



The performances are solid and Helen Mirren does bring much humanity and humility to Queen Elizabeth. Short movie, too, which is a much needed plus in the pushing-three-hour movie run times. ***B***

The second movie is Notes on a Scandal a movie about a more recent cultural development with an added twist.



The movie follows a seasoned teacher, Judi Dench in a psychotic mess of a role (just look at the number of journals she writes), who becomes obsessed with new teacher, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett). When Dench's Barbara Covett learns that Sheba is having an affair with a fifteen year-old male student, she uses this knowledge to her advantage and manipulates Sheba to her will. The performances are, as always with these two, top notch.



Frankly, I must admit I thought the movie would be good. It's not that the story isn't intriguing or the performances enveloping, it's just that the movie fails to keep your attention and there's not really a big pay-off in the end to satisfy the audiences' need to get their revenge on Barb. It is interesting that the movie splits the audiences moral compass by sacrificing Sheba's immoral acts for thirsting for Barbara's blood. I still can't find a reason why they bring in the Barb element. Is this because the filmmakers wanted to sympathize with Sheba and couldn't find a way to do so without making Sheba a monster? Do we really need a reason to make the perpetrator a victim? Can't we simply be put into her shoes as someone who messed up her life by having an affair with a child? True this element is in this movie, but having a crazy obsessed older lesbian co-worker, who victimizes our flawed protagonist, goes a little beyond overkill. ***C***

Is my eye twitching?

The transference of affection from one co-worker to another is quite annoying and not recommended. Again, I don't understand men sometimes...

After the Gold Rush

Sitting here listening to music. This song came up on my iTunes which is set on shuffle.

True, this song is by Neil Young. But this version was introduced to me by Les and it has a particular importance because of that. Beautiful recording.



Well I dreamed I saw the knights in armor coming
Sayin' something about a queen
There were peasants singing and drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree

There was a fanfare blowing to the sun
There was floating on the breeze
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the Twentieth Century
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the Twentieth Century

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst through the sky

There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like I could cry
I was thinking about what a friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie

Thinking about what a friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie

I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colors flying
All around the chosen ones

All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed
To a new home in the sun
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed
To a new home

I just want your extra time...and your...KISS

I want to make-out really bad like. Bad.

The Trouble with Love is...

Okay, so another record needs to be straight. In my limited experience with love and relationships I haven't experienced the best partners, but I've learned a lot about what I want in a lover.

The guy I fooled around with my sophomore was way messed up for family and religious reasons. He was a Johovah's Witness. He did his whole coming out thing in college, but he went back in and started dating girls. Then I met him and he went through an existential life crisis realizing that he is gay and always will be. The thing is he was perfectly comfortable marrying a woman and spending a life together.

My first thought was: what about sex? Attraction? If you know you are gay and it feels good, why not live your life accordingly? For me to have an intimate, mature relationship that has a significant impact on my life, sex and sexual attraction must be a part of the equation.

He discribed a realtionship built on a different kind of love. This would be a love of admiration, respect and companionship.

All of those things should be in a loving relationship, but intimate relationships are also built on passion, are they not? With someone you love, you should experience all the different emotions that love can bring to you. This includes sex which is an expression of love.

Furthermore, to deny yourself of love in any of its incarnations, I believe, is the ultimate sin. We as God's creatures were meant to live a life of love. This is why I have a problem with organized religion. I feel a lot of religion (which is a good idea in theory) is built on the intolerance of those who are different and blindly following the Bible without logicial, rational analysis of it's human written words.

I think that being able to love freely and to experience love from wherever you find it is what we were given by God. This is his message for us. Granted you can twist my words against me, but I don't mean it in certain ways. This is how I feel. Especially in regard to homosexuality and its intolerance by people who argue of its sin.

I mean, how absured is it to go to hell for loving someone? That's the most rediculous thing I've heard. We as logically thinking creatures should have come to this conclusion.

"This is my religion"

"Splat!"

This particular episode of "Sex and the City" titled "Splat!" is one that I love. It's one of my favorites because it symbolizes the change in the show. The beginning of the end of the show. It features a lot of the girls in their own storylines for the majority of the episode and has some really great performances.



One thing in particular is Miranda and Carrie's fight they both have at the episode's end. During their heated exchange Miranda says to Carrie, "You can't quit your column. It's who you are." Carrie rebuttles with, "No it's not who I am, it's what I do. That's my column."



On the commentary Michael Patrick King discusses how the writers of the show all agreed that no writer would ever say that, and for Carrie to say that was hard for them to write into the show.



I couldn't agree more with the writers and King. I hope to never, never, EVER say those words about my job and ESPECIALLY about writing. I don't think I'll ever consider journalism or writing a job. It's fun. I really enjoy it and I can't believe that people can have jobs where all they do is write. I love writing and hope to do it forever. I have to enjoy my job. Bottom line.