Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
Thinking on Death and What One Leaves Behind
My grandmother passed away recently. She was a great woman who helped raise me and my cousins when we were children, and she has continued to touch my life even after I grew up and didn’t have as much interaction with her as I did then. After a five year battle with cancer, she passed away having seen all her sisters, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. She leaves behind a legacy that will continue on for a long time to come.
When she planned her funeral, she made it very traditional. She knew exactly what she wanted and had the services carried out in the way that she saw fit. So she went out on her own terms even as she planned them. We even had a laugh at the graveside when we realized that she was late to her own funeral as she and we had said that she would be. She was buried like many people are, and now, there will be a grave that we will visit every year like we do the rest of my grandparents and relatives that have gone on.
However, I find this problematic on so many levels as this sets up a shrine that many will go to to remember her. This is the notion that always makes me a little antsy and causes me to have scruples about what I want when I ultimately go through that process that we all have to. I will tell you that I don’t want people to feel obligated to go to a place and visit me. I don’t want anything like this. I want people to remember me in the small things: a kiss we shared, a laugh, a song we sang too loudly in the car, a judgmental look, whatever it may be. I want it to creep up on them and for them to find themselves suddenly taken with it. Now, this doesn’t mean that I want people to cry (although I know that some might… I’m pretty sure that one of my sisters would if she read this right now), but if that’s the way one reacts, then, they should do it then.
But why I’m writing this now, other than trying to find some catharsis in my grandmother’s loss, is that a student video from Dorian Lebherz & Daniel Titz, two film students, came across my Facebook feed. It is a student directed advertisement for Johnnie Walker Whisky, but it is a beautiful thing. The sentiment is beautiful and is captured in the direction and acting within it. However, the most beautiful part might be the poem voiced-over the entire piece, a poem written by Dorian Lebherz & Daniel Titz and John Reilly:
“Walking the roads of our youth
through the land of our childhood, our home and our truth
Be near me, guide me
always stay beside me so i can be free, free
Lets roam this place
familiar and vast
our playground of green frames, our past
We were wanderers
never lost, always home
When every place was fenceless
and time was endless
our ways were always the same
Cool my demons and walk with me brother
until our roads lead us away from each other
and if your heart’s full of sorrow, keep walking, don’t rest
and promise me from heart to chest
to never let your memories die, never
I will always be alive and by your side,
in your mind
I’m free”
As I write this now, I find myself crying a little, which is big if you know me. There is just something here that touches on everything that I’m thinking and feeling right now. So I hope this doesn’t bum you out too much, but this is just lovely.
The Song in My Head: “Young Love” by Eli Lieb
So this song has been in my head for a while now. I can’t even explain why, but it’s so damn catchy. And the idea that “this love is getting dangerous” is one that I can understand quite well. So enjoy.
Playlist of the Week
While only a few songs, these are these particular ones are on repeat on a playlist right now.
“Secret”–Huntington
“La La La”–Naughty Boy feat. Sam Smith
“Collide”–Howie Day
“Some Nights”–Fun
“Hard Out Here”–Lily Allen
The Song in My Head: “Fuck You” by Lily Allen
This song is brilliant on so many levels. And because of a rough day, I think that it might be my anthem for tonight. So enjoy. Also, have I mentioned that Lily Allen is my spirit animal?
The Song in My Head: “First Time He Kissed a Boy”
I found this song today. It popped up in my YouTube feed, and I clicked into it. It’s from Danish band Kadie Elder. And its message is comes from the turmoil that is teenage years in the lives of young men and women. They move from the “first time he kissed a boy” to lead us into what comes next. The idea behind the song is simple, but for me, it sends a positive message.
Growing up in the rural South where being gay / trans / bi is oftentimes looked down on and even seen as a black mark on persons, I think we need a little more of the understanding and positive message inherent here to push the hate and bigotry out of the way. Enjoy the song and the video.
Songs in My Head: “All I Want” performed by Stevie McCrorie
Ever since I heard Stevie McCrorie on “The Voice UK,” I fell in love with his voice because of its rawness and sincerity. There’s just something about the way in which he interprets songs that makes me really feel what it is that he is going for if that makes sense to anyone out there in blogland.
His cover of “All I Want,” originally performed by Kodaline, is probably one of my favorites that he does. I hope you enjoy.
Song in My Head Today: “We Don’t Belong Together” by Luke Sital-Singh
I recently found Luke Sital-Singh thanks to an episode of The Flash on the CW (Netflix binge FTW). After falling in love with “Benediction,” I decided to download the rest of the album and quickly found myself entranced by his clear, powerful vocals and the folk-pop style that he has. Needless to say, I am listening to The Fire Inside, his 2014 album, on repeat and hoping that he’ll be touring at some point… but I digress.
“We Don’t Belong Together” is a song of contradictions and pleas that clearly expose a hope for connection between two people who “don’t belong together.” A love song of sorts, the disparity between what the song seems and the underlying message of disconnection plays with the mind even as the driving tune pleads the case that “Yea you feel alone / But we can feel alone together.”
Enjoy.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past Opens tomorrow, and guess who’s excited? I freely admit that I let my nerd flag wave when it comes to the X-Men. They are my favorite. Here, you see the shirt that I will be wearing when I watch it tomorrow night. Look forward to my post on the movie soon. 🙂
Till then.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Sunday, I was having a conversation with friends about the recent collecting of X-Men costumes from DOFP into the Smithsonian. We were contemplating why they would do this even before the movie had been released. The conclusion I came to was that this comic arc is one of the most famous within the X-Men franchise both on film and in the comics, especially. While the decision to put them in this prestigious museum seems a little strange, I think that it makes sense in this way. However, this collecting does not keep me from being a little apprehensive about the upcoming film and wondering what the theater will hold for me as I watch the film Friday.
The Good:
Bryan Singer coming back to direct the film leaves me with hope that he will be kind to the comic book mythos and the dynamic of the team as he aptly showed in X2.
The Days of Future Past story arc also makes me hopeful because it is so compelling that it seems like it would be very difficult to mess up.
The Magnetos and Xaviers are wonderful all the way around. I love Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender. All are extremely talented and bring it when it comes to these characters.
Peter Dinklage gives us the potential for a compelling villain as his acting on Game of Thrones and other movies / television show us. He is great and hopefully will bring something to the character of Trask, instead of being the flat character we have seen in previous movies (yes, Trask has been there but not in a prominent way).
The Apprehensions:
Large casts scare the crap out of me. While Singer has been shown to handle expansive amounts of people before, I walk into any large ensemble movie with a hint of skepticism and preparedness.
Certain cast members have never done anything for me, and they are being brought back into this one… Yes, I’m looking at Storm and Rogue, whom I love mind you, but the performances from Berry and Paquin leave much to be desired. Yeah…
The Wolverine-centric nature that the narrative is seeming to follow. I understand that they have to have a character that can span time as Kitty Pride did in the original (long story about the actual DOFP story arc), but as most of you know, I’ve never been a fan of Wolverine because his character just seems flat to me as far what he is. I find him to be one of the least interesting characters within their world. As such, I always cringe a little when he is the focal character… Although, I do really love Jackman as the character.
My final worry is that this will be a setup movie purely for X-Men: Apocalypse. While I have been wanting them to bring Apocalypse into the franchise for a while (and hopefully Mr. Sinister as well because yeah… *fanboy squee here*), I don’t want them to shortchange this story to build toward the next. If they do, I will be sad.
Overall, I hope that the movie does great because I always want everything that involves these my favorite comic book characters to do well. I am holding out hope that this will capture both the energy of the First Class franchise while calling us back to the powerful storytelling that the original movie series had for us (apart from X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Last Stand which we hope were a collective hallucination that never occurred). Here’s hoping. You’ll all have to tell me what you think about it when you see it. I’ll be sure to let you guys know. 🙂
