A Titanic Error?

OK. It's been too long since a post. Good reason, I swear. I have been busy doing the work that I love. More on that next blog post.

For now:

While I was at work researching great examples of love, I, of course, came across that great love story of the 90's--Titanic.

This seemed like a ready example that many people could identify with. This movie moved millions of people across the world to go the theaters again and again, form fan clubs, and shed tears. Great. Easy story for me to share...until I realized I have NEVER seen this movie. I don't even know the plot points (other than that the ship goes down and Leonardo DiCaprio probably dies).

So, I turned to my bestie, Tai, hoping she could give me the low-down on this great love story:


The fact is, I never wanted to see it as a teenager, as a sort of act of rebellion against all things blatantly pop culture. I now listen to Britney Spears with barely a hint of shame.

So the question is, now that I am over my adolescent distaste for trite should I bother with this movie and Netflix it?

Logorama

If you have ten minutes, check out this Oscar-nominated short film by by Francois Alaux and Herve de Crecy.

It portrays a world consisting entirely of familiar logos and mascots. Unreal in and of itself, but it is also a "gritty" crime story.

BRILL-ers!

Movie I Want To See: Lemonade

Thanks, Nomes, for sharing this with me. I think had heard something about it, but now this trailer makes me want to see it.



When Shane lost his job, my friend, Mark (who is a veteran copywriter), told me that we should both get used to times of unemployment, that especially in the ad world, it is fairly common, not a big deal, not a reflection of a person's work, and that you eventually learn to enjoy those lulls as pseudo-vacations while you find the next job.

The very prospect terrifies me. I can't imagine being let go/fired/downsized.

I have been fired exactly once, from a job that I hated, resented, had no passion for, and dragged myself to everyday. I would put on a plastic smile, robotically do my work, and think about how I could be doing something that was really challenging. I was a waiter in a caviar restaurant. I generally had two tables a night of the most annoying patrons in Beverly Hills. Even so, being fired from that job was incredibly humiliating and shocking. It was difficult not to see it as a reflection of my personal worth and work. Ironically, it happened on the exact night I was planning on quitting anyway.

I am so glad I have found planning, and I am knocking wood that anytime I have to leave an agency, it is to find a more amazing opportunity somewhere else.

Off the Grid in New Mexico**

I lost total track of time in Santa Fe. On Thursday, I had to ask Shane five times what the day was, and each time I fumbled toward panic at the thought that the week was almost over. I felt completely disconnected from school work, from email, blogs, news, etc. And I loved it.

My cell phone was largely unused last week; my unlimited texting largely neglected. I just didn't care. I know I used the internet at evenings to check email and facebook, but I honestly can't remember a single thing I looked at. I was far more interested in the people I was spending time with. Had I not had any internet access in New Mexico, I think my time there would have unraveled with equal satisfaction and pleasure. It was just so unnecessary.

We were at this wonderful natural spring spa, and Shane commented with chagrin on two girls texting away on their phones, oblivious to the beautiful cliffs and restorative waters. I conjectured then, and do so now, that we will reach a point when people will want to chuck technological "connectivity" in favor of REAL experiences with REAL people. In person.

If we look at history, there is always a backlash, a pendular swing from one extreme to another. I am sure this inundation of electronics and media will abate. Perhaps we see the beginning of this in the popular appeal of more interactive video games like Wii. Or maybe people will finally realize the whole point of having tech tools IS to spend more time with family, and they will stop being shackled by their electronics.

What I do know is that it was a refreshing reminder to see some people who don't live in a slick, urban, post-2.0 world and to be in the company of people who are so engaging and delightful, that I could totally forget my own tech addiction.

That being said, I was reading some Jon Steel on the train, and I am ready to sink my creative teeth into some juicy stuff, and for that . . . I will have to open my Mac.

*A full report on Spring Break is pending.

*On a side note, this is like the name of a really great little indie movie Off the Map. It's a fave of my friend, Daniel.

Kane-licious*

It has been sitting on my desk in an envelope for past three months: Citizen Kane. In truth, it has been sitting on the back shelf of my to-do list for the past 10 years. Any time discussion has turned to this movie, I have endeavored to silently but perceptively nod my head, lest my carefully crafted veneer of intellectualism be pierced.

Well, I have finally watched this movie, heralded by some as the greatest movie ever made. To which I say . . . meh.

Which is kind of what I expected from what I have heard from everyone else all of these years. I also turn to what I expected would be my explanation for why Citizen Kane is such a big deal, which is, that like many genre-defining works, it did what no one else had done up to that point. In truth, I can see how Citizen Kane has pretty much defined modern film-making. It's editing style, narrative/cinematic devices, and complex themes are still employed in movies today.

My beef with Citizen Kane is that, well, at certain points it seemed like a wonderfully crafted, artistic film and, for the most part, it seemed like a popular movie. The over-the-top music and some of the acting really contributed to this.

I will say that it did leave me thinking. Because one of the prevailing themes is that Kane lived his life basically striving to force others to love him on his terms. After the movie was over, and Shane and I sat in the dark, I wondered why this was true for this character.

A big part of the movie is the mystery of Rosebud, and at the end we realize it was the name of his childhood sled and are reminded of his beginnings being torn away from his parents (which was kind of no-duh. I mean, the dude was holding a snow globe at the end of his life and then at a very emotional turning point. You gotta figure it had to do with that fateful snowy day. I figured it was all about that from the get-go).

In thinking about this life-defining moment in Kane's life, it makes perfect sense that he would always want to make people love him on his terms. Torn away from his parents and "raised" by a banker, he would, of course, yearn for love, using that as a measure of self-worth. What is perhaps interesting is that he would never again want to enter into a relationship where he wasn't running the show. As a child, he implicitly trusted the love and acceptance of his parents (even if it was a less-than-ideal home). Why would he ever trust that again? They were the ones he gave him up.

By being the one in control, determining the measures of a successful relationship on his own, being always in the position of the benefactor without making meaningful, emotionally-vulnerable sacrifices, he ensures that he will never again be in a position of potential abandonment.

What interests me more is how this is generalizable to many more people. Perhaps men more than women, but nonetheless a dynamic I believe I have perceived in many relationships.

Anyway, I can now return the damned thing and cancel my Blockbuster Online account (their version of Netflix) and quit paying $10 a month to have a movie sit on my desk.

*inspired by a convo with Noemi on truly awful copy-writing.

Rachel Getting Married

On Saturday, Travis (one of my dearest friends) and I decided to catch up over Mexican food and watch Rachel Getting Married.

Great movie, if you haven't seen it. Anne Hathaway does a knock-out job of playing a complicated, slightly unloveable recovering addict. The movie, as a whole, does a really great job of capturing the complexity and tension that riddles so many family gatherings.

The previews were also amazing. I am a dork, I hate missing previews, but, seriously, every preview in this movie was for a film I now really want to see.

In particular, Arnuad Desplechin's A Christmas Tale.




And the incredibly visually stunning Waltz with Bashir.




**Also, Gavin Newsom (current SF mayor, perhaps future CA governor) was in line with us to buy movie tickets. My giddy celebrity spot for the weekend.

***Sorry I have seriously fallen behind on blogging. When your life gets super busy (and thus bloggable) you never have time to blog! I am leaving out a lot of fun stuff, but lets just start over from here on out.