I still remember how you used to roll up on our dorm room back in the day, and I'd think, damn why that fool always gotta be up in here talking? Little did I know...Thanks for always ALWAYS having my back and holding me down. thanks for letting me in and allowing me listen to everything you've got to say. (which is so wonderfully much) Thanks for being my comedic kindred spirit and partner in crime, always up for anything...for coming up with crazy shit all the time. Dont be upset she told me this, but sonia mentioned that that day said was in jail and you two bonded, you told her that sometimes i snap with something hurtful or mean, often without even knowing. I know you dont think anything of it, but I remember each and every single time because of regret and guilt. Also, know that those things would never ever happen with just anyone...only a brother. I'll never forget Cali or NY, Spanish Trails and especially this last year at Sandstone, where, if i may so myself, we kicked ass and took so many goddamn names!! Dont stay in India too long, our worlds wont function as well over here without regular doses of the Fury.
I miss you...
"Eh, Hello, Word Up, Okay?"
For those that know me they know that Three Kings is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. With Americans still occupying and dying in Iraq, everyone should watch Three Kings one more time, it puts everything in a new and very thought provoking perspective.
I also saw Far From Heaven for the first time this week and it was an interesting contrast. Far From Heaven is a '50s style melodrama, reaching "emotional truths through artifice". It allows us to view problems in today's society, such as racism and homophobia, through the prism of an old-fashioned story. Far From Heaven is refreshingly without irony, whereas Three Kings is nothing if not ironic. Both films are however, just as engaging and affecting.
No matter how many times I watch Three Kings, without fail I get chills every time I hear the opening bars of U2's "In God's Country" at the end, as Ice Cube, Mark Wahlburg, and George Clooney (I have a serious man-crush on Major Archie Gates) watch the refugees cross the border and the camera freeze frames on them as they turn. It's a perfect example of all the artistic elements of film coming together to reach the viewer on every single level. It's why I love movies.
My favorite Three Kings quotes:
"Here's your fucking stability my main man."
--Iraqi interrogator, as he pours oil down Sgt. Barlow's throat in response to Barlow's defense of the first Gulf War as necessary for global stability.
"What happened to necessity?"
"It just changed."
--Major Gates answer to Barlow as the Americans are about to make a clean break with the gold, but realize they must stay and help the rebels.
Irony: Parked by the masjid, I saw a car with a "Allah is the protector" bumper sticker. I saw the sticker first, and as I passed by it became apparent that the entire right side of the car was crumpled in, and both windows were covered in duct tape.
Striking: When innocence and pain collide to create an incredibly tragic beauty.
Endings and Beginnings, and Endings and Beginnings: (Cue Elton John's "Circle of Life") I began the summer by ending my time in Austin and finishing my college career. One of the first things I did when I got back home was attend the high school graduation of Ankhi and Nazia. About a month later my parents bought a new house, and a month after that my brother officially began a new life with his bride. There's three more weddings to go (that's four weddings, but thankfully, no funeral) and I'm about to start my new job in Chicago. It's been an interesting time.
Flicks: My personal obsession with the Goddess Salma Hayek aside, Frida was one of the more important and affecting movies I saw over the past year. Frida Kahlo's life, while short, she passed away at 46, was full of the kind of catastrophe and drama that would've made an interesting film by itself. Her survival of a trolley crash at a young age, her tumultuous marriage to Diego Rivera, her miscarriage, and her affairs with Leon Trotsky and Josephine Baker are all explored in the film. The aspect that I was most drawn to, however, was how Hayek and director Julie Taymor visually represent Kahlo's relationship with her art. In daring and inventive ways we can see how inseperably Frida's life, her imagination and her need for creative expression were intertwined. Kahlo's art is intensely emotional and raw in a very surreal way. Her paintings are instant glimpses into her sub-conscious at the moments of her most enduring pain and euphoria. In numerous scenes, the lines between Kahlo's work as a painter and her life are deliberately blurred suggesting that her art did not function merely as a reflection of her life, but that her life itself was a work of art. In an astonishing closing death scene we get the feeling that while her life may not have been happy or ideal, in many ways her art made her life possible, made it complete, and that is, for anyone, a wonderful thing.
"I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return."
Flicks addendum: I caught the last half hour or so of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing on BET the other day, and was reminded once again of the subtle power of this movie. I could go on and on about how important I think Lee is as an American filmmaker or what a poignant and timeless commentary Do the Right Thing is on race and society in America, but all that will have to wait for another time. As is my custom after seeing any movie whether for the first or ninth time, I logged onto the IMDB and read Roger Ebert's review. Fortunately, Do the Right Thing is in Ebert's top 100 films of all time, and the reviews link includes both Ebert's original review, and his essay on the importance of the film written in 2001. Ebert writes that the most remarkable thing about the movie is its fairness and empathy. Lee offers no answers and takes no sides in the racial tension depicted, all he does is ask the viewer to see things from all the characters' perspectives and understand their imperfections no matter their skin color.
I immediately made a connection to City of God, another of my favorite movies from the past year (reviewed in the May 4th pizzle entry). Just like Do the Right Thing, City of God gives us an objective look at the lives of the characters without any moralizing. There is no good and evil in the slums of Rio, just flawed people trying to survive in a brutal world. Also just like Do the Right Thing, the movie ends with just a small ray of hope that it is possible to rise above your circumstances and do some good in an imperfect world filled with contradictions. Movies such as these reflect our own lives in which right and wrong are so often muddled. All we can hope for is to do good things every once in awhile, and like Frida Kahlo, exit joyfully.
*****
"What a crazy summer"
---Sonia
"She cuts my skin and bruise my lips
She's everything to me
She tears my clothes and burns my eyes
She's all I want to see
She brings the cold and scars my soul
She's heaven sent to me
Now she's gone love burns inside me"
----BRMC
"And me, I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know its not some place you can look for, cause its not where you go. Its how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something, and if you find that moment... it lasts forever..."
----Richard, from Danny Boyle's The Beach
"It's times like these you learn to live again
it's times like these you give and give again
it's times like these you learn to love again
it's times like these time and time again
I'm a new day rising
I'm a brand new sky to hang the stars upon tonight
but I
I'm a little divided
do I stay or run away and leave it all behind "