Living in the Bubble

You know, it is weird how sometimes comedies and comedians tend to capture the real world with a blown out-of-proportion piece on what the real world is. Take for example the case and lifestyle philosophy presented in the show 30 Rock, where in one episode they start describing certain people as living "in the bubble". For those that have no seen the episode about living "in the bubble" or have never heard the idea, the bubble is a place where beautiful, handsome, and just abnormally over-respected people live their blessed life. They tend to be handed things their entire life, given opportunities that normally would not exist because they live in a superficial world where they already have good looks and so others tend to focus on them more. And the worst part about being in the bubble is that they cannot see that they are in the bubble, but instead wonder why others outside the bubble are treated differently without connecting the two. Like I said, a strange philosophy, but the bubble is actually a real world thing that happens all the time.

Maybe Watch This: Wild Cherry

Movie Poster for Wild Cherry

Tonight began much like any other night, I was bored and browsing through a long list of movies that did not seem very interesting when I came upon one that caught my eye. So I opened it and read the description about what this strangely titled movie I had never heard. Then, when all of the details satisfied my tastes in some manner or another, I decided to start watching it. 

What I learned from the description was this movie is about three female high schoolers that are apparently on some sort of list to have sex and they discover the list. So then these girls decide to seek revenge against the main character's boyfriend, because he should not be doing something so sinister as helping the main character get laid. Oh yeah, and Rob Schneider is in this movie as the dad. But what that description forgot to tell me was that the movie I was about to watch was one of those very awkward ones, a film that puts even the viewers into their own little place as they wonder what they are watching and why they cannot turn away. If that alone does not give any idea to what Wild Cherry is about, here is my full review!

Skip This: Due Date

Movie Poster for Due Date

So it was another night, another movie I was not sure I wanted to watch, and another couple of hours of my life I wish I could get back. I'll have to admit that when I first watched the theatrical trailer for this movie, I was pretty sure I would not like it, because I could already tell that Zach Galigianakis was going to play the exact same character role he did in the Hangover while Robert Downey Jr played the same character role he is known for. Add on top of that some jokes that just are not really that funny nor interesting, and I figured that was the movie. Still, I had nothing to do that night and I needed to pass the time, so I turned on Due Date with no care towards what might actually be seen and now I wish I could get my time back. If you are curious and want to know why I do not recommend this movie, then please continue reading my full review of Due Date.

Watch This: ParaNorman

Movie Poster for ParaNorman

Earlier, I received a call from my friend Jodi and she told me that she was in town nearby. So I of course left my Dad with the puppy, because my Mom was out doing her own thing, and told him that I was going to meet up with my friend! In honesty, it is not every day that a friend comes up from southern Colorado and wants to talk. I take every chance I get. Anyway, we meet up at a sandwich show and spend the next half-hour or so catching up and having a great time with her baby niece (9 months old for those that are curious). Then her sister-in-law comes and picks up her niece and we go about our day continuing to converse and have a great time.

After about an hour of hanging out in a coffee-shop / bookstore, I asked Jodi if she wanted to come home and see the puppy. She could not refuse such an offer (which I knew) and so we went back to my parent's home where we talked some more and played with the puppy. Then we came inside and decided to go and see a movie. Except nothing was really out that caught our eyes, so we decided to do a go to the theater and choose idea. What we ended up watching was ParaNorman, which was a surprising movie to say the least!

Do Not get Caught in the Political Sludge

A few days ago I received a call from one of the polling services that want to know my opinion about the current candidates for president, senate, and whatever else that they can ask me. Normally I try and dodge these calls, telling them I am not interested or I do not have time, but I was caught off guard this time because my parents handed me the phone and said it was for me. That is the last time I take a telephone from my parents without asking who I am talking to.

So this woman gets on and asks me if I want to do a short survey for the Colorado have-nots or what-nots (I honestly have no idea who she worked for, just that they were Colorado based). And right away I ask her if she can just put "I do not care" down the entire list. She tells me that she cannot do that, that I would be swaying the survey if I did do that, and that it she had "only a couple of questions that would only take a couple of minutes of my time." Ten minutes later, and a bunch of bullshit on my part being spewed out because I do not want them to know my opinion, I finally tell her I am done taking this survey. I then hung up, I mean it was not like she had be strapped down to a chair and I needed to finish the survey to escape for the day.

But the reason I bring up this incident in my life is because of the topic of the survey, which was what political crap can be said to try and sway the votes. Literally, after getting through the candidates and asking me if I was likely to vote for them (which I gave them all a solid three out of ten), this woman starts asking me if a statement would change my opinion. I am sorry, I do not wade through the political bullshit that they spew on television anymore and I never believe what I hear until I have looked up the facts for myself. So my question for her is simple, why would I want to give her answers that would support creating more of this political fudge that we all have to hear and has almost no truth concerning what the real issues are?

The Taste of Burnt

Throughout my life there have been times when I have burned my food in a toaster, on the stove, or a multitude of other ways. And although I watch the stuff I am cooking pretty closely to catch it before the food turns into a hard, blackened rock, it still happens. I do not think anyone can claim they have never burned something, so this should be quite understandable. But what I am learning is that while I burn food, I admit it and I still eat what I burned. Over the years of burning food for various reasons, I have actually come to appreciate the taste of burnt food, the taste of failure so to speak. What I am getting at is I have accepted my failure and taken it, even appreciated it. Admittedly, I will burn a bagel every now and then for that different flavor.

Yet in my lifetime, though short as the stay has been as of right now, I have started to realize that not everyone is like me when it comes to their mistakes. They burn the food and then throw it out and try again. I can understand throwing out something that you do not like, but to toss out your failure and not see the errors of your way is maddening. And maybe the whole idea of this comes from a part of me that knows there is no infinite amount of anything, that in truth everything has a quantity value to it. I cannot burn a million bagels and still feed the world, let alone my check book cannot buy a million bagels, so where do others get off thinking that they should be allowed to burn more food because they failed the first time.

I think this perspective of oh I failed I will try again without seeing if there was a mistake the first time is something we have come to just accept in America. "Oh I failed that test, I guess I'll just have to do better next time" or "Oh I burned my Poptart today, guess I'll just put another one in the toaster." It becomes a sort of pattern, an American experience per say, that you can fail in life and you do not need to live through the consequences of your failure. I think we should change that perspective. And the easiest way to go about teaching people that there is this moral dilemma between always thinking there will be more of whatever is to tell them they do not get a second chance. That you need to take your failure and see what went wrong, learn from it, enjoy the failure while it happens, and then become better from it. And instead we toss out this idea that failure is something that happened, but maybe a second time will fix it.

I would like to side note and just say I do not think this will fix all of the problems in the world, let alone all the problems in the United States. But this might be a great first-start proving ground for a lot of Americans to learn that they need to try their hardest the first time and they need to succeed. We live in a culture of people that just pitch things away the first time and do not learn from their mistakes, but we should live in a culture that examines what we have and what we want and then make the most out of what we can.

Maybe then we can all enjoy the taste of burnt. Thank you for my short political side-track today.

Maybe Watch This: The Kids are All Right

Movie Poster for The Kids are All Right

I am not going to lie and say that I love every drama out there, I do not and I do not think that is possible. Instead, I try and find the dramatic movies that make me feel like I have learned something by the end that I would not have known otherwise. And to say I have learned something by the end of the movie is not the same as saying that I felt like I knew exactly what I had learned, but there was some sort of educational evolution that happened in my head, a connecting of understandings that made me feel happy. In the past this has happened with such great films as Almost Famous (which I recently just re-watched) or Forest Gump (which was so good I went and read the book). I call these the good-feeling movies, as that is what they leave you with even if the ending is sad.

So taking a stab into the dark, I decided to watch a movie that was both recommended by a friend as good, a fact I learned after starting the film, and from the advice of an online review website. I think I have a lot more words to say about this movie then just that, as I do think this movie covers a lot of complicated topics and neither my friend nor the review I read really mentioned any of them. Here's my review of The Kids are All Right.