Sunday, August 31, 2008

Random Things

Well I haven't updated in a wile, so I thought I would post something light.

One of my passions in life is film. I watch a lot of movies, especially since arriving in Texas (Its too hot to go outside). So I thought I would go through a list of some films I watched recently.

Speed Racer: 6.5/10
Originally I thought this movie was going to absolute abysmal crap. I refused to watch it in theatres because of my snap judgment. But I have to concede the movie was good. Don't get me wrong, it was not any breakthrough in film, but it was good. It was aimed towards kids and as a kid movie it was good. It managed to hold a cartoon feel which I enjoyed. It had some likable side characters and it was an overall feelgood throwback to childhood.

Star Wars The Clone Wars: 6/10
I think a lot of people are being much too harsh on this movie. It was made for 2 reasons, to get a new generation of youngsters hooked on the Star Wars franchise and to help George Lucas pay for his gold plated toilet paper. It was not made for the 40 year old fanboys. I am sorry but you guys are creepy move on. That being said, the movie was decent. It was enjoyable and kind of made me feel bad for Storm Troopers. I never thought of them as people in the other movies. In the end Star Wars TCW was a fun kids movie and I look forward to the Saturday morning spinoff that inevitably awaits.


Forgetting Sarah Marshal: 6.5/10
It had its laugh but overall it was not up to par with Apatow's other hits. Also, did I really have to see Jason Segel's dick?


The Dark Knight: 10/10
It doesn't need to be explained. If you've seen it you know. If not, go see it.


Wall-E: 9.9/10
Best Animated movie of all time. There was real emotion, a good plot, lovable characters, a message. I really only took off a tenth of a point because of ^.


Pineapple Express: 7.5/10
It was funny. I laughed through the duration of the movie. The movie itself was not fantastic, but the odd quirky humor made it great. Danny McBride who played Red is one of the best things to happen to comedy. Check him out as Rico in Hot Rod and Cody in Tropic Thunder.


Tropic Thunder: 8/10
Easily Ben Stiller's best movie in years. The best directing of his career. The storyline was silly but good. The characters were hysterical. Robert Downy Jr. has revived his career.


What Happens in Vegas: 5/10
The movie really reminded me of The Breakup, in that it wasn't good. Some funny moments though.

Baby Moma: 6/10
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are the funniest women in America. If the plot was not asinine this could have been a hit. I'm willing to bet these two will have a huge comedic success soon enough.

Hellboy II: 8.5/10
I just love the visuals Del Toro is second to none in that realm. I enjoyed the plot. I love the character.


Stay tuned for more friends!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Hitting the Road





Well people, I am hitting the road Saturday at 3a.m. I am off to Grad School in Texas. This is going to be a huge change for me. I have never lived outside of New England for longer than a month or so. I am not too sure what to expect, but I am excited. A major change has been needed for far too long. So, after Friday you will be reading the rants of a Texan (in heart, not so much residency).

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Last Men










Why do you do what you do?

It seems like a very simple question doesn't it? Why do you eat? Because I am hungry. Why do you breath? Because I like to live. Why do you run? Because I enjoy the sensation. It goes on and on, and we usually have an explanation for most things we do. But my question to you, faithful reader, is why do you do everything (anything)? What makes you wake up in the morning and go to work? What makes you interact with people you despise? What makes you read, or watch television, or go to the park? Well what?

I use to know this kid I thought was a friend. But before we went our separate ways I asked him why it was he did what he did. This kid was the atypical northeast young adult. Late teens/early twenties, tech savvy, did not believe in God, studying to be a doctor, etc. Undoubtedly a smart kid, but not in the ways that really matter. When I asked him this question he had no idea what I meant. Understandable, it’s a confusing question really. I explained to him that people have reasons for their actions. Sometimes the reasons aren't exactly apparent, but there is always some cause for the effect. I told him that some people live their lives according to faith. Those people believed in eternal life. So they tried to live according to their scriptures in order to achieve the next life. Other people believed in love. They felt that in life what truly mattered was finding the one person that fits with them. I gave him a list of such reasons for living. And at the end, he simply said “I don’t know”.

“I don’t know”. I find that scarier than most anything I have ever seen. How can you not know why you are alive? Well, that is unfair. I guess none of us know exactly why we are alive, but how can you not have a belief as such? How can you get up in the morning not having any reason to do so? Have we evolved past the physical hedonism that has run rampant in recent decades? Have we evolved to a mental/existential hedonism?

If we have no reason or thought behind our actions and our motives what are we? I think Nietzsche described us as his last man, because I really don’t think that kid I knew was alone. I think most people just accept the system for what it is. Well, I am supposed to graduate high school and then go to college. Oh, and after college I get a job, get married, and have 2.3 children. At 65 I retire and at 77 I die. The plan is all fine and dandy if you tell me why. Man has to shoot for the stars. I am paraphrasing Nietzsche from Thus Spoke Zarathustra (and poorly might I add, because I don’t have a copy handy), but he says that the last man has stopped shooting for the stars. The last man doesn’t look past the terrestrial earth. Hell, he can’t even lift his eyes. When man isn’t shooting for the stars then there is no change. Things become stagnant and fester. All the bad qualities we posses begin to compound on top of themselves and we become a hopeless cause.

When we sit back and just live life for the sake of living it we really are doing a disservice to ourselves. Man needs goals and a reason for being. It doesn’t matter really what they are, but with goals, desires, and dreams comes change. With change comes something new and brilliant.




Thanks for reading!
CJB

Monday, August 4, 2008

Not so Silly

“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”
C.S. Lewis


What are America’s morals?

In the past the people of America were driven to do Good because of their firmly held beliefs of God and religion. Our Constitution (or more accurately the 1st Amendment) gives us the right to practice what religion we want. But let’s face it folks we grew up a Christian nation. Our beliefs, our ideals, our laws, etc. are all due to Christian influence. You can argue against it if you want, but it is true.

Our nation has reached a point in its development which most closely resembles late adolescence/early adulthood. We have suffered an identity crisis. We have rejected the faiths our fathers. We have turned to sex and drugs in hopes of discovering some truths.

You don’t believe me? In the 1960’s & 70’s America shed its ties to tradition and faith. Drug use and sexual freedom grew into popular culture. Artists, actors, musicians, athletes were all shown giving way to such practices and eventually a great faction of the population joined in.

Is there anything wrong with such practices? Inherently? No. Man has been altering his state of consciousness for thousands of years. He has not fallen off the evolutionary track because of it. As for sex, the act of procreation has been going on longer than man has even existed, and it could be argued that it is the single most important task man has.

But when such acts are unregulated and free to the masses trouble ensues. Sexual liberation is leading to the breakdown of society, yet few can see this. No, I am not going to sit here and claim that you are evil and Satan because you have sex. So calm down. Take a deep breath and walk with me. From the time of the sexual revolution sex has evolved in a way that few could have foreseen. Sex in our culture today is a conquest. It is not uncommon to hear of twenty year olds who have had dozens of partners. So, what is wrong with this? Well the problem is the goal of sex has changed. In Christianity the goal of sex was not to achieve an orgasm, it was to create life. The goal of the act was to create a living breathing child. Thus, that child has meaning of existence because the act had meaning. But culture has deemed that the importance of sex is the orgasm. Ephemeral pleasure, if you will. The creation of life is a secondary effect of the act. In fact, it is even considered to be an unwanted effect at time. With the birth control industries being billion dollar industries how can one argue against that? The fact alone that abortions have increased exponentially proves that the outcome of sex isn’t that itty bitty fetus.

So what’s the point Craig? Well folks just like when the act had meaning the child’s existence had meaning, it holds true that if the act is meaningless the outcome is meaningless. When parents to be are forced into relationships they do not want to be in, when they are forced to raise a child they do not want (nor have the qualifications to do so) trouble ensues. The parent deep down inside has a resentment towards that child. They resent that they are being forced out of the ephemeral culture that gave them meaning for so long. They resent that they are bound by tradition that they no longer believe in. Overall they are incapable of truly loving that child. (I am in no way arguing that there is no such thing as a good parent in this circumstance, just that such parents are rare). Children have quite powerful empathic perceptions too. They feed off of love. And when it is not there a small quiet void grows where the love one shares with ones family should be. Later on in life this man will try to fill the void, most likely with drugs and physical pleasures.

In the husband-wife relationship mentioned earlier there are also problems. Because the only love ever known by the two was ephemeral lust, a lasting relationship of understanding, respect, and Love was never formed. The entire basis of their relationship is the accidental outcome of a meaningless act. On top of that the resentment the parent has toward the child is also exchanged between the parents. Each silently blames the other for trapping them in the existence they don’t want to be part of. In the end they will most likely divorce. Explaining why the Divorce rate has increased dramatically since the 1950’s (some statistics say that it is as much as five times as high now. Predicting one in two marriages will end in divorce). It is accepted as fact throughout the branch of psychology that divorce shapes the child adversely. The already present void the child feels grows and the cycle is not just continued, but accelerated.
So now we have a culture of people looking to fill a missing piece of themselves. In the past religion was meant to fill this void, but religion has been discarded by pop-America. So where do we turn? Well some of us turn to drugs. Some go for the caffeine and it helps them. Some go for the booze. Some for Marijuana. Some to the harder stuff. But most of us go for the prescription medicine. Right now in America over 60% (SIXTY PERCENT!) of people are on one form of anti-depressants. That’s not even including pain killers, medications for ADD/ADHD, sleep prescriptions, etc, etc.

As the family breaks down, each generation will lose more and more of what the previous generations had. Each generation will turn to new things to fill the void in their lives. We will lose that which gave us strength and depth. We will no longer pursue what past cultures thought important like art, music, literature, poetry, and philosophy. Instead we will spend our time and effort on thinking of ways to feel good and not die. The healthcare and defense industries are two of the largest in America. We look at doctors as heroes, but for what? They can not make us live forever. They just delay the inevitable. Most other American endeavors are guided towards material/ ephemeral possession by distracting us from ourselves. What use was the Furby to the world? How does the Mall of America compare to Notre Dame? How will future generations look at as when they find out that more people could recite Miley Cyrus lyrics than Shakespeare’s plays?

Maybe the time has come that Christianity is dead in America. Maybe some semblance of it can be resurrected. I do not know. What I do know is that as Americans we have lost that which guided us. We no longer have the value systems that our fore fathers held so dear. Instead we have a void and a mission to fill that. I say to you my reader that the answer does not lay in the material life of popular culture. The void is much too deep to be soothed by an iPhone. No the holes in our hearts can only be filled by something bigger than us, like family or like religion. How we find these again I do not know and alas is the cause of my own unhappiness.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Things I hate and the reasons I hate them:

1) People protesting the Olympics.
You have had your entire life to protest China's actions. You could boycott the Nike Shocks made there, or not buy the Apple laptop you desire so much, quit drinking Coke, or stop wearing those Fruit of the Loom undies you like so much. No, the fact of the matter is you don't actually care about Tibet or China's atrocities. You are jumping on the most recent fad, and in doing so you are not hindering China's strength only mocking the efforts of American athletes who have made it their life goal to succeed in this venue.

2) BMW, Lexus, Mercedes
Get over it, it’s just a car.

3) People who claim The Dark Knight/The Godfather sucks
You’re an idiot and don't deserve life. The Godfather is the greatest movie of all time. The Dark Knight has proved to the world that superhero movies can actually be Oscar worthy films.

4) Young Liberals-Democrats/Hippies
Let me say first I do not hate true democrats. The Democratic Party has many great people, ideals, and causes. What I do hate are the people who get sucked into fads (in much the same way I hate the Olympic protesters). When I am present in a group of my peers I am almost always outnumbered 10:1 politically speaking. There are almost always numerous outbursts of "Bush sucks" or "Fuck Bush". I ask them why they hate Bush and the answer 95% of the time is simply "The guys an idiot". It’s fine if you hate Bush. Really it is. Most Republicans hate him. He has sullied our good name. But people, if you don't have a reason you end up sounding foolish. "He lied to us" works, so does "he brought us into an economic recession". But the fact of the matter is most of these people are just saying it because they heard that Kanye West hates Bush. I recently spoke with a girl that was head of her Young Democrats group at a local University. I asked her why she was voting for Obama. She said because she liked him. I asked her why she liked him, and she could not give me an answer. Vote for who you like people, but know something about them when you do! Similar to these people are the neo-hippies. They wear tie-dye shirts. They have dirty hair, I mean dread locks. They smoke weed and do drugs. Are they hippies? No. Sorry. You are just stoners. The Hippie movement actually had a goal. Even if it was idealistic and mostly unsuccessful, they had a point. These neo-hippies have two goals; get high and play guitar hero.

5) Oil Companies
Does this need an explanation?

6) AM Radio
Some of the stations are alright, but come on people, I can't deal with static!

7) Starbucks
Atmosphere. People. Employees. Product. It needs to end.

8) The people responsible for Remember the Spartans, Disaster Movie, Date Movie, etc.
Did you know film use to be an art? Its true. I read that before I was alive there was this movement to put poetry in these moving images. Really! I swear. I heard that directors like Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and Charlie Chaplin (yes the silent guy with the mustache, watch The Great Dictator) could make viewers feel true emotions. I heard that some actors would even turn down a role they didn't like, regardless of the pay offered.

That is it for now. Thanks for reading!

Friday, August 1, 2008

First!

So faithful readers this is my first step into the world of blogging. I suppose I am setting this up now for I am bored and have nothing better to do than this. That is not entirely true, but it will suffice for my explanation.

I have opinions on most everything and I plan on having random articles (rants?) about whatever pisses me off, disgusts me, impresses me, etc. I doubt many people will read it, but I hope it will be a nice way to vent, and at the very least give my friends something to do whilst they are bored.

This being my first entry I think I will start off a little light.

Why does everyone suck at driving? I mean don’t get me wrong, I know that there are some good drivers out there but about 85% of people should not have their license. I drive into Boston every morning so I see the worst of the worst on a daily basis. It is horrible.

What we competent drivers who know the true rules of the road need to do is team up. We need to unite our efforts and teach the fools a few lessons.

1) Merging: It is not a battle of machismo to see who backs down first. There is an actual method to it people!! If you are one of the two lanes merging, what you do is alternate cars. So, car from Lane A, then car from Lane B. I know it is a crazy concept but if we could just manage to do that I would get to work in 20 minutes instead of an hour and five.

2) Blinkers: (This may be strictly a Mass rule) When the person puts their blinker on to come into your lane don’t speed up. I do not know why you do it mister F-150, but really? Is there a need? Will my being in front of you really delay your trip so much that you are willing to kill the both of us?

3) The “passing/fast” lane: Is for going fast. If you are driving the speed limit, pass the person you need to then get the hell out of the fast lane.

4) Cops/accidents: When you see an accident ask yourself one question. Do they need help? If yes, by all means pull over and assist. If no, GO! Don’t sit there and gawk causing hours of traffic miles back. Furthermore, if you see a cop on the side of the road, you aren’t tricking him by slamming on the break to go the speed limit. As long as you aren’t driving like a knucklehead you should be fine.

5) Courteous: If you can safely help someone out while driving do it. i.e. letting a person turn onto the road in front of you. If you are going 60mph down 24 south and stop suddenly to let the onramp people on you are probably going to kill a person. (I am looking at you black Nissan with RI plates.)

Well people those are my rules and my first rant. Comment away and let me know what you think. I may be back today with something else, but more than likely tomorrow!