#027: "I say deliver me from Swedish furniture!"

The other day my wife found a blog. This blogger created a post that was a tour of her living room, and invited everyone else to create a similar post and link to it from her post. There were like 400 women who linked to pictures of their living rooms. I couldn't resist clicking on some of them. Then once I had started I couldn't freaking stop. I was overcome with this very strange feeling. Every time I clicked on a link I saw more and more pictures of these rooms filled with meaningless shit, knick-knacks cluttering living rooms all over the country. These women actually went to a store and gave away money in order to obtain these "cute" decorative vases, pictures, figurines, etc... And not just a couple things... tons of it. It was everywhere. They looked at a magazine picture and bought all that stuff for their own house. How is this creative? Then, they felt so proud of what they had done they posted pictures of it, so other women could comment about how "cute" it all was. After awhile of looking at these pictures I started to feel sick. I wanted to collect all of my own crap and burn it in a pile in the back yard. I wanted to eliminate everything from my life that wasn't necessary for me to continue breathing. This feeling that was coming over me seemed vaguely familiar. I can remember feeling this way at a younger age. Then it hit me... You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f***king khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. Yes, that is Fight Club and it is one of my all-time favorite movies. I haven't seen it for several years, and judging by all the kitschy decor in my house, I need to watch it ASAP. I am not saying we all need to live our lives with nothing... but we could all probably get along with a little less. Here are some applicable quotes from one of my favorite movies...

Tyler Durden: Do you know what a duvet is?
Narrator: It's a comforter...
Tyler Durden: It's a blanket. Just a blanket. Now why do guys like you and me know what a duvet is? Is this essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. What are we then?
Narrator: ...Consumers?
Tyler Durden: Right. We are consumers. We're the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.
Narrator: Martha Stewart.
Tyler Durden: Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha's polishing the brass on the Titanic. It's all going down, man. So fuck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns.


Narrator: It's just, when you buy furniture, you tell yourself, that's it. That's the last sofa I'm gonna need. Whatever else happens, I've got that sofa problem handled.

Narrator: Look, nobody takes this more seriously than me. That condo was my life, okay? I loved every stick of furniture in that place. That was not just a bunch of stuff that got destroyed, it was ME!

Narrator: Was it ticking?
Airport Security Officer: Actually throwers don't worry about ticking 'cause modern bombs don't tick.
Narrator: Sorry, throwers?
Airport Security Officer: Baggage handlers. But, when a suitcase vibrates, then the throwers gotta call the police.
Narrator: My suitcase was vibrating?
Airport Security Officer: Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor, but every once in a while...
[whispering]
Airport Security Officer: it's a dildo. Of course it's company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article a dildo, never your dildo.
Narrator: I don't own...

Tyler Durden: Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!

Tyler Durden: Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

Tyler Durden: It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

Tyler Durden: I say let me never be complete. I say let me never be content. I say deliver me from Swedish furniture. I say deliver me from clever art. I say deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth. I say you have to give up. I say evolve and let the chips fall where they may.

#026: 28 Weeks Later

If you don't already know, I am a wimp when it comes to horror movies.  I have avoided 28 Weeks Later because I knew it was a scary movie, but I have heard a lot of good things about it.  I noticed it was on our movie channel, so I decided to go ahead and DVR it, thinking one day I might get up the balls to watch it.  I was feeling brave the other night so I decided to go ahead and start it up.  From the beginning I could tell I was going to like this movie. It was scary enough to get me amped up, but it wasn't so bad that I wanted to turn it off. The movie kept me entertained the whole way through, and the gore never got too bad. There were a couple scenes that made me cringe, but it was an enjoyable disgust. The thing I liked most about this film is how it contrasted the character's actions throughout the movie. It starts out with a couple trapped in a house that is being invaded by the baddies. The husband makes the tough decision to make a run for it and leave his wife to fend for herself. You can't help but think what a dick he is at the time. However, the rest of the movie people aren't willing to make that sacrificial decision, and it leads to continued pain and death for millions of others. When I think about it, this movies had a lot of deeper themes, and it is probably worth another viewing.

 I really enjoyed it, even though I am not a fan of scary movies. Most of the tension wasn't created because I was waiting for a zombie to jump out at me. It really made me consider how I would react in this extreme situation. Would I even have the composure, or foot speed, to stay alive for more than 5 minutes? The scenes where the military is first trying to contain the re-emerging threat were great. It was compelling to watch, and crazy to think about how the good guys suddenly became the bad guys, but were really still the good guys. There were so many shades of gray in this movie, which you wouldn't think possible in a zombie movie. Most people have probably already seen it, the film has been out for a couple years. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it. It is a well done horror film that offers more content than just a few scares. If you have seen it let me know what you thought. I would be interested to know what your reaction was, or if you even thought about it as much as I did.
-deric

Checking In

I am being a slacker. I watched Doubt last week and I still haven't finished writing a post about it. It's not that I have a ton to write, I just haven't taken the time to do it yet. I really don't have any excuses either. It has rained every day for the past 8 days, so its not like I have been outside doing stuff. I only watched one movie this past weekend, Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Angelina Jolie. It wasn't anything like I expected, which turned out to be a good thing. It piqued my interest more than I thought it would, but I still can't say I enjoyed the movie. It was alright, but nothing special. Right now I have The Wrestler in a red Netflix envelope at my house. I hope to watch that this week. Surely I will find it worthy of dedicating a post to it. However, I don't know when I will be writing. This weekend is the Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, so I will be spending quite a bit of time there. This year Floyd Landis will be riding in the race. He won the 2006 Tour de France, but had the title taken away when he was found to be doping. He had been suspended from competition until just a couple months ago. It will be cool to see him race in person. I am excited about it.
Things seem to be slowing down with good DVD releases lately. I still have quite a few movies I want to see, but not too many that I am really looking forward to. I guess Paul Blart: Mall Cop is coming out later this month, so I can look forward to that. If you have any recommendations for me, let me know so I can add them to my list.
-deric