With Age Comes Wisdom

I sit here at church writing this blog between sermons, reflecting on how I was late this morning and never want to be so again after the lecture I received. I'm also quite aware that this Tuesday will be my 23rd birthday. Every year before this, my family has done something rather elaborate, even in recent years when I start to expect less from my birthdays.

I really don't need a huge party to celebrate the fact that I'm turning 23. Not that I'm not looking forward to it, but I feel as if it's no major milestone. I've discovered that it's easier to appreciate what you have for your birthdays. That and I don't really think that it's fair that on the year my mom doesn't receive any presents on her birthday except a nice hike through the mountains, that I should expect anything more.

This Tuesday night, I'm going with the family to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Exactly what a filmmaker should expect, to go see a movie on his birthday. I can't wait. Perhaps I'll rewatch "The Goblet of Fire" some night to refresh myself on the story. As for gifts, the only thing I could use is some payoff from my dad for what I owe him for the computer. Other than that, I have a long list of "for fun" items that I really don't need or expect from anyone. Because what I would really like for my birthday is to be with my family and have everything be alright with them.

Amen.

Jaimetud To The Rescue, formerly titled “How I went over to my neighbor’s house this morning and came back a rich man.”

So I went across the street this morning to talk with a neighbor about using her kids for a ketchup commercial and we set up a time for practicing later this afternoon. But before I left, she asked me to take a look at her computer, which her kids have royally destroyed with Ad-ware. I sat down and installed some programs on her computer that should help take care of the problem, such as Ad-Aware and later I will install Spybot. Then she tells me that she should invite me over more often to fix up the computer, gives me 30 bucks and I’m on my way. So technically, I came over with a proposition and left with a budget. How funny is that?

I’m Listening

I’m listening because I don’t want any “ I told you so’s” jumping left and right on the political spectrum if something happens of this three years down the line.

Way to Go, Bruce!

I just got back from watching “Live Free or Die Hard” a few hours ago. It’s been a long work day, the production for Gangster’s Guilt is coming to a close, my dad and I have an extentsion that we’ve been building on the house that’ll keep going till probably past this winter and we’ve had two free movie tickets from donating blood eating a hole in our pockets for a few months now. So “Live Free and Die Hard” it was, and a darn good choice it was, it was.

For the record, I’m no big “Die Hard” movie buff. I haven’t seen “Die Hard,” I’ve only seen most of “Die Hard 2” and haven’t seen “Die Hard With a Vengeance.” I have, however, seen Bruce Willis in action in many of his other movies such as “Pulp Fiction,” “Hudson Hawk,” “Mercury Rising” “Twelve Monkeys,” “The Fifth Element,” and “The Whole Nine Yards” so let’s just say I’m a fan. And I was not disappointed. Matter of fact, I’d like to see the rest of the movies now.

So what am I really here to blog about? Let me just say that there was more than just a message to the movie. Something my Cinema Studies teacher might refer to as a symptomatic meaning, or a meaning within a culture that wouldn’t make much sense outside of it. A message for the American public. Consider the following: The movie was released close to July 4th, a holiday which means a lot for us Americans. The movie was made in a time when our country is in a war on terror which it could still be fighting twenty years from now and hardly any other Hollywood movie gives props to it’s country for even trying to do the right thing. The “Live Free” part of the title doesn’t have much to do with the movie’s plot. Bruce Willis is an actor who supports mostly Republican presidential candidates, supports the troops and all that jazz. You can probably see where I’m going here.

The clincher is that Bruce drives the message home halfway through the movie when John McClane and his sidekick, Matt, are driving to the powerhouse and John explains why he does what he does. He divorced his wife, his daughters don’t call him, he doesn’t think of himself as a hero and he doesn’t even like being a cop very much. He just does what he does because he’s the only one who’ll do it. Coming from John McClane, it’s another day in the life, but coming from Bruce Willis, it takes on a new meaning. Here’s a simile for ya:

The United States entered the Iraq War with little to no support from it’s allies, some of which even got caught up in a nasty Blood-For-Oil scandal in the UN. We did so because we thought it was the right thing to do and we were the only ones to do it. Only unlike John McClane, we try to be heroes. So when John McClane tells it like it is, I do believe he’s talking to us. This is why even though I’m not the one to judge this movie in comparison to other “Die Hards,” I do believe that everyone who can should go see this movie. It’s good to see a Hollywood movie that doesn’t push a far left agenda, undermine troops efforts in Iraq or bash the government for whatever reason they can find. Just good solid action and plenty of popcorn.

Yippee Ki Yay, motherf***er

You’re Kidding Me

On this fabulous national holiday, I would like to take this time to disturb you all with an image I’ve just discovered on the Internet. This is not a hoax. Do not attempt to adjust your monitor.

Is Hollywood deliberately TRYING to come out with these bad ideas, or what? Here comes trouble, indeed.

Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Extremeness

So I like to look up certain actors and actresses every once in a while to see what they’re up to in their careers. Bruce Campbell, the man famous for playing Ash in the Evil Dead trilogy and a number of other roles you may have seen before, is one of said actors. He’s one of the actors who helped elevate the shotgun from defense weapon to boomstick status. So I thought “What’s he up to lately?” and decided I’d look up his filmography. Looks like he’s got a project coming up called “Vacation,” which may want a title change sooner or later. I kinda thought at first that it might be a remake of Chevy Chase’s “Vacation,” but the summary for the movie is something VERY different:

Bryce (Campbell), an aging Jewish banker who still fancies himself as a surfer, ends up trapped with his lap dancer girlfriend (Moor) in a shabby, Middle Eastern beach resort after an apocalyptic solar storm destroys the west, forcing the luckless Americans to come to terms with a medieval, year zero environment and a hostile culture that holds them responsible for the world's pain.

Whoah! Hold the phone! You mean to tell me that Bruce Campbell is starring in a movie which portrays Muslim extremists as Muslim extremists? Ho-Lee COW! The entire universe has just come to a halt! The very fabric of time and space has just become ruptured and a swarm of killer meteors have been detected on the outer rims of our solar system heading for Hollywood, San Francisco, and every State University in America! The world as we know it is about to see the creation of a movie that paints Middle Eastern Muslim extremists in a bad light. How can this be possible? Why, it’s almost as if the inspiration for such an idea came from a certain group of very real, evil people!

Folks, I’m not an idiot on these matters, m’kay? I’ve been looking at the modern relationship between Muslims and Jews and it is a SAD, sad state of affairs. If you think the American right is as bad as Nazi Germany, just take a look at Iran and every other Middle Eastern country that has Muslim rule. There’s plenty of violence and bigotry towards Jews AND Christians alike. They teach their kids jihad at a very young age and enforce their beliefs with the exact same kind of anti-Jewish propaganda the Nazis used during and before WWII. If you don’t believe me on this, then there’s an excellent documentary that you need to see entitled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against The West.”

So where does this leave us with “Vacation?” According to the IMDB, it appears to be within the genres of Action, Horror, Sci-Fi and Thriller. With Campbell attached, this probably means that we can expect anything between massive guns to Muslims using evil Qurans to summon the demon spirit of Mohammed to possess the bodies of the infidels. Sounds like it could be fun.

What also seems interesting is that it appears to be being produced in the UK, not in the United States. During World War II, the United States was notorious for creating pro-war propaganda shorts to encourage their people to support the war against the Germans. During the Cold War, the focus was on the Russians and making them out to be the bad guys in every James Bond movie made and several others. Even up until the 80s, the commies made cameos in our movies to remind us what a bunch of psychos they were. Now that we’re at war with Islamic extremists, the only three movies I can think of that portray them in a bad light that AREN’T documentaries are “The Path To 9/11”, “United 93” and maybe “World Trade Center” (I never saw it, so I wouldn’t know.)

You see the trend that I’m getting at here? Hollywood is AFRAID to make a movie like this. They’re afraid because they might offend Muslims worldwide and cause a chain of events that would result in massive, violent riots. Well you know what I say to that? Screw’em. London has seen Al-Qaeda and Muslim extremist violence acts one after the other for years now. Remember the London train bombing? Now they’ve got the Glasgow bombing on their hands with angry flaming men throwing punches and shouting “Allah.” They don’t seem to be afraid of making a movie that bashes Muslims over there, and you know what? I salute them.

Can’t wait to see if the movie makes it over here. Imagine the controversy this one is gonna stir up. ^_^

Cramnesty

Ladies and Gentlemen. Today we are here to commemorate the short life of our not so good friend Amnesty.

Amnesty was not born in any town in any country in any hospital. Instead, she was born as an idea. As Amnesty, she has lived many lives in many governments. She was a proponent for many movements both good and bad.

As we all know, not too long ago, Amnesty was reborn by two unlikely parents. Her father was George W. Bush, a president who’s decisions have been constantly under attack and her mother was the American Left, Bush’s polar opposite. Upon giving birth to Amnesty, they found the one thing they could agree on, but used her for a disagreeable cause.

Amnesty was born in a time when the desire for her power was thought best to be given to those who didn’t deserve her gift. She was born into a storm where the only way out was down and the puppeteers at her strings had no idea that her mission was futile. After many months of attempted life, Amnesty was killed on the floor of the U.S. Congress by the sound of a thousand angry telephones.

As an idea, Amnesty has the opportunity that no living being has: the opportunity to be born again and used for a better purpose. For that, we can only pray that her return is used wisely. But until then… Screw it. I’ma headin’ out to the county fair to celebrate with fireworks.

Happy Fourth of July, y’all!