Belief...

Have you heard John Mayer's song "Belief"? It's on his new cd Continuum and it talks about the power of belief and its impact on current issues of the time. The first time I heard it I wasn't really paying attention to the lyrics but when I started to listen I was mesmorized. It talks about the current war and how it can never be won if we are fighting to change someone else's belief system. If you really think about this concept it makes total sense. Beliefs are fundamental to your identity. They make up who you are. You can't change that in someone.

The Older I Get...

So I'm realizing that I'm starting to understand less as I grow up. Follow me here... When we are young our main objective is to have fun and to stay happy. When we're young we don't see flaws and failure, ignorance and violence, life and death. All we see is just what's there in front of us. We don't read into things. We don't over analyze. We just accept.

When we are young we want to be older. How many times did I add "and a half" to my age when asked how old I was? When I was twelve I dreamed of being thirteen and finally being a teenager, not a child. When I was fifteen I dreamed of being sixteen and driving. When I was seventeen I dreamed of being eighteen and free. And who doesn't want to be twenty-one? That might be the best birthday of all, if you can remember it!

But once you get to that age, once you get "older" you realize that you had it really good when you were younger. No responsibility, no bills, no job, no college loans... You were just that kid who saw everyone as equal. That kid whose biggest worry was not getting home in time to watch Power Rangers (don't even deny that you watched that show!). That kid who had it all and wasted all that time wishing for something else.

I suppose life is just wishing you were somewhere else, someone else, doing something else. No one is ever satisfied and if they are for a second they are too distracted by something else so it passes. I feel that as I grow older I understand less about human nature and the world.

"It will change your life..."

One of my all time favorite movies is Garden State and one of my all time favorite lines happens in a waiting room of a doctor's office. Here the Natalie Portman approaches Zach Braff with her headphones and tells him he has to hear this song because "it will change his life."

I love music, and I think most people do as well. When I first heard this line I started thinking, what songs, albums, bands etc. have changed my life? What are my influences?

For me, my favorite bands, and this is just a few because there are really too many to name, are:
Oasis, the Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, Belle and Sebastian, the Dandy Warhols...etc.
Favorite albums: What's the Story Morning Glory, Tigermilk, 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia...etc.

Sure it's easy to list the favorites but then I got to thinking, what really changed my life? What song brings me back to a defining moment in my life. Such as everytime I hear a song from John Mayer's "Room for Squares" cd, the one with "No Such Thing" and "Your Body's a Wonderland" I am taken back to my sophomore year of high school and learning how to drive. That was a big year in my life. Another album that changed my life was "Don't Believe the Truth" by Oasis. It came out around the time that I was making a lot of changes in my life. For the first time I was starting to take charge and feel like an adult. That album was there for me through all of that.

So now I pose the question to you. What changed your life?

The things that stick with you...

Have you ever seen a movie or read a book that just stuck with you long after you left the theatre or finished the book? Something just sticks with you and makes you constantly think about it at random times. This has happened to me on more than one occassion.

I recently saw the movie Atonement and it just hasn't left me. If you haven't seen it you need to. It just makes you think about the consequences of misunderstandings, of lies, and if redemption is ever a possibility. A week and a half after seeing the movie I'm still thinking about it. It's amazing how one lie can affect so many people, how a misunderstanding can escalate to so much more.

I guess, in the end, whenever I have these moments I feel as though in a way, it's changed me. Like I'm different in some way because of this. Do you ever feel that way?

Music Takes Me Back...

I have always found that music is one of the best triggers of memory. I can hear a song that I haven't heard since 3rd grade and suddenly I'm transported back to that time and a particular moment I heard that song. It amazes me just how one song can do that. I once read one of my favorite directors, Cameron Crowe talking about his film Almost Famous. The movie is semi-autobiographical and so he was talking about how he remembered that time in his life. He said something like, "I just pop in records and I'm immediately transported back to that time and place. There's no need for journals or written records of any kind. All I need is the music." I know exactly what he's talking about.

Once More, Please!

This weekend I rented the independent film Once. I had read numerous reviews about how wonderful it was and how is was the film of the year. I am usually a sceptic when it comes to these things so I decided to check it out for myself. I am happy to report that it exceeded my grandest expectations!

The film is set in Ireland and follows two people, one a heartbroken street musician trying to get a record deal, and a talented immigrant whom he meets. They begin to make music together that illustrates the progression of their relationship during this one week.

The movie itself is no major Hollywood production. It's simple. Just two people singing and walking through the streets of Ireland. It's fascinating to watch the progression of their relationship. They are two, very real, very normal people trying to express through song what they can't express through direct conversation.

This movie, to me, represents what a lot of films nowadays have lost. The story is simple but heartwrenching. It's realistic and makes you relaize this thing happens everyday. It takes a moment in time and magnifies it for the world to see. That's what the Transformers, Harry Potters, and Superbads of the industry have failed to do. Now, I'm not trying to knock these movies but what I'm trying to say is that film used to be about showing people things that happen everyday, but in the process depicting something that we don't pay attention to, that slips by unnoticed. That's what Once has achieved and I have to agree, it is definetly one of my favorite films of 2007.

Don't Judge a Movie Before You See the Advertisements!

Critics these days are absolutely ridiculous when it comes to critiquing a movie! If the story has heart they will call it "soft" and "sappy." If it is has blood and gore they will call it a "blockbuster." If it is controversial and offends any group of people they will call it a "must-see." Sometimes they don't even read the small synopsis about the movie before they go and see it. Then they make claims against the movie when it is obvious they haven't read anything about it!

A perfect example of their stupidity is the critiques I read for the new movie August Rush. The movie is about an orphaned musical prodigy who believes that if he plays his music his parents will find him and they will live happily ever after. It's a story with heart and very little controversy! However, all the critics seem to say is that it is completely unrealistic. This comes after the movie advertised itself as a drama with fairytale elements!

I swear it's like they don't even listen to the advertisements before they watch it! They just want to tear something apart because it lacks the three essentials to make it in Hollywood: sex, violence, and controversy. If it doesn't have naked women, guns blazing, and something offensive then it will be torn apart. What a sad state Hollywood is in!