I rarely try and debate politics. This is for a few reasons. The first of which, people are way too assholish (making up words here) when it comes to their particular beliefs. Secondly, I find that people that lean left or right are nearly impossible to sway (I might be one of those people--but I'm not sure).
I also never try and put my political opinions of Facebook. The same is said about a few other very socially touchy subjects (religion to name another). So if you're reading this, and you got the link from Facebook, I'm opening this up to debate if you want...although, I don't want anything to get too serious that you walk away hating me, or I hating you.
With that said...why are so many people having a stroke over building an Islamic Mosque near Ground Zero in New York City? I suppose an argument could be made if the Mosque was being built on the land where the World Trade Centers used to stand. That argument would work (in my opinion) if you were only going to allow a World Trade Center monument to be built in it's place (which I think is the plan). But the idea that people are angry that a Mosque is going up two blocks away seems odd.
I'm not sure why people are so angry about this, quite frankly, it seems irrational. The Islamic religion is based on the belief that the key to happiness is through love and knowledge through personal experiences. Yet, I wonder why it seems that people feel that this is such a terrible thing to have happen in New York City? It seems like an American thing to do...freedom of religion right?
Michael Bloomberg had a great quote today, "In rushing into those burning buildings, not one asked, 'What god do you pray to? What beliefs do you hold? We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting."
Am I really supposed to believe that if this were going to be a synagogue or church, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and everyone else that opposes this would be OK?
Sorry, had the thought, wanted to type it out. That's about all the political debate I can muster.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Blockbuster Summer
My first thoughts when thinking about summer time always involve sweating, baseball, and movies. Supposed blockbusters spawn like fungus on the locker room floor every year. During the summer of 2003, my dad and I went to a movie every week. We would usually go to the Brooklyn Center Regal 20 theaters and get the 2 Large sodas and Large popcorn combo (and by large popcorn, I mean fucking water tower sized bucket). The theater would give you free refills on all Large sized products and we never had a problem finishing our sodas, but the popcorn--that was our white whale. Well, that was the goal heading into "Bad Boys 2" towards the end of July. Our goal was to try and finish the tub of popcorn and get a refill--note, eating any of the refill was not part of our plan, but we wanted the refill on general principal.
Well, we picked one hell of a movie to try this feat during. "Bad Boys 2" clocked in at roughly two and a half hours and we finished that popcorn and I proudly walked to the counter with my head held high. I expected the person at the snack counter to maybe throw some confetti in the air and blow a noisemaker...after all...big tub of popcorn. Alas, there was no great congratulations. The kid filled the tub up and didn't give two shits.
Anyhow, as far as summer movies go, that's a memory that will be hard to top. My dad and I never went to a lot of ball games growing up (we're both Cubs fans and neither of us found the Metrodome to enticing), but we hit the theaters a ton back in the day...in a way, it was out ballpark.
Another summer that comes to mind was the Summer of 2007, when my future wife and I attended a midnight screening of "The Simpsons Movie" and seemed to go to a new movie every other week. To me, this is an important part of the summer tradition. This summer however, has been about as ugly looking as possible. It has however, been the summer of the free movie. I have come into free passes to three movies over the last six weeks and truth be told, two out of the three movies have been pretty much "meh" ("Solitary Man" and "Cyrus"). This all changed a few days ago when the lady and I received passes to an advanced screening of "Inception".
For those of you who are unaware of "Inception", allow me to post a trailer of the movie before you continue on...
I'm worried about getting carried away with my opinion of the film but I'm having trouble finding the words to explain how great of an experience this film is. I haven't gone to enough advanced screenings to know if it's standard practice for the entire theater to applaud at the film's conclusion or not, or if everyone was as blown away as I was. Either way, there was a giddy vibe among the people in the lobby as the movie let out. I've begun reading reviews online and "Inception" seems to be getting nearly flawless reviews.
I've always been a sucker for movies that can successfully pull off one of three things: dreams, Armageddon (surprisingly "Armageddon" failed wildly at this) and afterlife. I find that theses are three of the most difficult aspects to portray on the big screen. It was one of the reasons I was so interested in seeing "The Lovely Bones"--a large portion of the film is a young girl walking around Peter Jackson's idea of the afterlife and "Cloverfield" (because you really felt like you were in the middle of a shit-storm that was going to kill everyone) . Well, Christopher Nolen's portrayal of dreams is one of the more impressive cinematic achievements I have ever witnessed. I loved this film about as much as I possibly could love a movie. The special effects gave me that "holy shit" reaction that I haven't had since I saw "The Matrix" in 1999.
In a summer of mediocre "blockbusters", "Inception" finally brought back that excitement that was missing in theaters this summer. There was nothing inherently exciting about "The A-Team", "Iron Man 2", or "Knight and Day"--there is no sense of originality.
"Moving pictures got us through to September."
Well, we picked one hell of a movie to try this feat during. "Bad Boys 2" clocked in at roughly two and a half hours and we finished that popcorn and I proudly walked to the counter with my head held high. I expected the person at the snack counter to maybe throw some confetti in the air and blow a noisemaker...after all...big tub of popcorn. Alas, there was no great congratulations. The kid filled the tub up and didn't give two shits.
Anyhow, as far as summer movies go, that's a memory that will be hard to top. My dad and I never went to a lot of ball games growing up (we're both Cubs fans and neither of us found the Metrodome to enticing), but we hit the theaters a ton back in the day...in a way, it was out ballpark.
Another summer that comes to mind was the Summer of 2007, when my future wife and I attended a midnight screening of "The Simpsons Movie" and seemed to go to a new movie every other week. To me, this is an important part of the summer tradition. This summer however, has been about as ugly looking as possible. It has however, been the summer of the free movie. I have come into free passes to three movies over the last six weeks and truth be told, two out of the three movies have been pretty much "meh" ("Solitary Man" and "Cyrus"). This all changed a few days ago when the lady and I received passes to an advanced screening of "Inception".
For those of you who are unaware of "Inception", allow me to post a trailer of the movie before you continue on...
I'm worried about getting carried away with my opinion of the film but I'm having trouble finding the words to explain how great of an experience this film is. I haven't gone to enough advanced screenings to know if it's standard practice for the entire theater to applaud at the film's conclusion or not, or if everyone was as blown away as I was. Either way, there was a giddy vibe among the people in the lobby as the movie let out. I've begun reading reviews online and "Inception" seems to be getting nearly flawless reviews.
I've always been a sucker for movies that can successfully pull off one of three things: dreams, Armageddon (surprisingly "Armageddon" failed wildly at this) and afterlife. I find that theses are three of the most difficult aspects to portray on the big screen. It was one of the reasons I was so interested in seeing "The Lovely Bones"--a large portion of the film is a young girl walking around Peter Jackson's idea of the afterlife and "Cloverfield" (because you really felt like you were in the middle of a shit-storm that was going to kill everyone) . Well, Christopher Nolen's portrayal of dreams is one of the more impressive cinematic achievements I have ever witnessed. I loved this film about as much as I possibly could love a movie. The special effects gave me that "holy shit" reaction that I haven't had since I saw "The Matrix" in 1999.
In a summer of mediocre "blockbusters", "Inception" finally brought back that excitement that was missing in theaters this summer. There was nothing inherently exciting about "The A-Team", "Iron Man 2", or "Knight and Day"--there is no sense of originality.
"Moving pictures got us through to September."
Starting Again
I haven't written on this site in seven months and I'm ok with that. The fact that I don't have a massive following shows me that the rest of the world is, indeed, ok with that as well.
Overall, life has been moving pretty fast since 2010 began. To start, I find myself just over two months away from my wedding, an event that seemed so far in the future when I proposed in March of 2009. I've also begun and completed my second full semester in my return to the University of Minnesota. I started out the school year on academic probation thanks to three unspectacular semesters that culminated in the same five month span that saw planes fly into the World Trade Centers, Michael Jordan's return to the NBA with Washington, and the last time I stepped foot in a fraternity house (so yes, I had been out of school for a long fucking time). So, I worked my ass off for the last year or so and now find myself pulling down grades that seemed improbable back in 2001. Needless to say, this is a good thing.
Anyhow, school is back in session in just over a month and a half and who knows if I'll have the time to write on this site every day, but I'm really going to try and make an effort to do it. Be it sports, movies, music, and life...here's to another run and effort at blogging.
Overall, life has been moving pretty fast since 2010 began. To start, I find myself just over two months away from my wedding, an event that seemed so far in the future when I proposed in March of 2009. I've also begun and completed my second full semester in my return to the University of Minnesota. I started out the school year on academic probation thanks to three unspectacular semesters that culminated in the same five month span that saw planes fly into the World Trade Centers, Michael Jordan's return to the NBA with Washington, and the last time I stepped foot in a fraternity house (so yes, I had been out of school for a long fucking time). So, I worked my ass off for the last year or so and now find myself pulling down grades that seemed improbable back in 2001. Needless to say, this is a good thing.
Anyhow, school is back in session in just over a month and a half and who knows if I'll have the time to write on this site every day, but I'm really going to try and make an effort to do it. Be it sports, movies, music, and life...here's to another run and effort at blogging.
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