Movies are one of my favorite things. There is little better than sitting down in front of a terrific film with a good friend or two and some hot popcorn. Of all the movies I've seen, there have been a few that have stuck with me. Some of them have made me think and examine the way I look at the world. Some have inspired me and spurred me on toward a myriad of possible futures. Some have had that rare ability to reach inside and stir my soul. Some have shown me men of profound character, and have shown me what it is that makes a man virtuous. Finally, some have just been brilliantly entertaining diversions for times when I've just want to be whisked away from reality for a little while. Here is the list, with the rottentomatoes aggregate ratings in brackets, so you can all see how mainstream I am.
Blair’s 25 Favorite Movies
1. Chariots of Fire (92%)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (98%)
3. Casablanca (97%)
4. Star Wars (94%)
5. The Lion King (92%)
6. The Wrath of Khan (96%)
7. Without Limits (76%)
8. Gladiator (78%)
9. Lord of the Rings* (95%)
10. Return of the Jedi (80%)
11. The Matrix (88%)
12. The Silence of the Lambs (97%)
13. Prefontaine (73%)
14. The Emperor’s Club (51%)
15. Spaceballs (50%)
16. Kill Bill* (85%)
17. Goldeneye (83%)
18. Raiders of the Lost Ark (97%)
19. Air Force One (77%)
20. The Last Waltz (97%)
21. Dodgeball (69%)
22. Wedding Crashers (75%)
23. Good Night, and Good Luck (94%)
24. V for Vendetta (76%)
25. Generations (48%)
* These two were multiple films, but intended to be viewed as a whole, therefore I have included them as such
Honorable Mentions: Top Gun, The Notebook, Terminator 2, The Last Crusade, A Beautiful Mind, Desperado, Hearts in Atlantis, Hidalgo, Jurassic Park, Braveheart and Predator
Monday, August 21, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Golden Heart
This song is absolutely amazing. In the space of three months, it has gone from being the unknown title track on my newest CD, to being one of my favorite songs from that album, to being one of those songs I get obsessed with and listen to 24/7, to grabbing a spot on my Top 25 of the 90's list, to making the jump onto my Top 25 all-time, to rising to #6 on that same list. It is by far the newest (to me) of the songs in my top 10, and after listening to it non-stop for three months it still grabs me, it still makes me want to sing along, it still conveys a feeling of tremendous passion and elegance and it still takes me away. To Carolina if you will.
I am strongly considering moving it up from #6, but to crack the top 5 it will have to contend with five songs I have loved since junior high, five songs which mean an awful lot to me.
1. Timeless Love, is, at least for now, untouchable at the top of my list. It is my favorite song by my favorite artist, and every time I listen to it (approaching 800 plays on my computer alone) I can still feel the tremendous emotion in the song, especially in the live version, where you can just hear Burton pouring everything he has into his voice and his piano. For a long time, I thought Timeless Love was about two people who loved each other, and yet by circumstance were torn apart. To me, they were apart, but still in love. Then one day I sent the file over to Jackie so she could listen to it. She remarked that the song was terribly sad. I had never seen it that way before. When I went to see Burton live, I found out that Jackie was right. I knew it the instant he started talking about the song. You could tell that he truly feels everything he sings about in those lyrics. He said, "I haven't played this song in a long time. We got it out especially for this tour." There was something in his voice just then, maybe I was imagining it, but it seemed to me just a hint of...anguish in his voice. I thought..maybe, just maybe it's the one I want to hear. He continued, "This song is about a girl in Winnipeg who broke my heart a long time ago." Then I knew. It was indeed my favorite song of all. Then Burton said, "Is she here tonight? Is she here? (Pause) I guess not." That was the bit that hit home. He sounded so hopeful, so excited when it occured to him that this girl, who had broken his heart forty years before, might have come to see him play. Anyway, I sang along as loud as I wanted, and that, singing along with Burton Cummings to Timeless Love, was one of those elusive moments of perfection. Since then Timeless Love has made more sense to me, and I have understood why it is my very favorite song. It is a testament to tremendous happiness and undying love even in the face of crushing despair. Despite everything, love prevails over darkness. That's why.
2. Carolina in my Mind is the ultimate escape song. It is #2 on my list because I think it is James Taylor's most beautiful song, masterfully crafted and sung and no matter where I am or what is going on, it takes me away to my Carolina. The song provides me tremedous clarity, bacause in times of stress or disappointment it reminds me of my perfect world, the world I imagine and strive toward. It reminds me of what I am working towards. The imagery in the song is stunning, I really can see the silver sunshine on dark winter nights. "Watch her watch the morning come, a silver tear appearing now.." gives me a crystal clear image of something I hope to see in the future. The song describes itself beautifully with the line, "Whisper something soft and kind.." That's what it does. It's a whisper reminding you what you consider most valuable.
3. My Own Way to Rock reaches #3 because it is very much a song that defines me. I remember reading the "500 Greatest Songs" article in Rolling Stone a while back, and noticing something in the way they described The Who's My Generation. The words they used were "The Who's immortal fuck-off to their elders". In the same way, My Own Way to Rock is my answer to people who think they know how to run my life better than I do. I welcome debate, criticism and suggestions, and honestly do take them into consideration, but at the end I will be the one to decide how I live my life. Some people won't like it but I don't care. If I want to write melodramatic garbage in this blog then I will. If I don't want to do something, then I won't. If I want to believe in something then I will. And as the song says, "I've got my own way to rock, I've got my own way to roll, and when you're walkin' that walk it's good for your soul". That's the main thing that got this song to #3, but there are some other contributing factors as well. Again, Burton outdoes himself in this song. The way he sings it, the drawn out syllables, the random piano stuff, the added sentences that don't make sense, it all speaks to someone who's having a lot of fun singing this song. Even the album version has the feel of a live version to it. That sheer passion never fails to produce a smile from me. Finally, the song includes perhaps my favorite piano solo in all of music (Its only challengers coming at the end of Bob Seger's The Fire Inside and from a couple other Burton songs). The skill is incredible, and when I saw it live and he drew it out (It's a tad short in the album version) it was simply amazing.
4. Something in the Way She Moves is at #4 because it was the first song I can remember that really meant something to me. I think I was about 10 years old, not even close to the age where girls became cool, and the James Taylor Greatest Hits CD was in the CD player of my dad's car. I remember listening to it and thinking, even then, that's the kind of girl I'm going to marry. The line, "It isn't what she's got to say, but how she thinks, the way she's been. To me the words are nice the way they sound.." was the line that stuck with me. Ironically, I didn't much like Carolina in My Mind at the time, I would always skip from this song, Track 1, to Fire and Rain, Track 3, and miss Carolina, Track 2. This song was my favorite James Taylor and my favorite love song for most of junior high, and I will always hold it in the highest regard.
5. Truly, Madly, Deeply is #5 because it is the purest love song I know. If you were to ask me what love is, I couldn't give you a better answer than Savage Garden does in this song. It is #1 on my Top 25 Love Songs, as it should be. I think that when I meet a girl who is accurately described by this song, that'll be the girl I want to marry. As long as she's cool with it. lol.
So, as you can see, Golden Heart has some work to do if it's going to crack the top 5. I think the key is that I couldn't yet tell you what it is exactly that I love about Golden Heart. I know some things, but I couldn't give you a definative answer as I have done with the current top 5. I think it will take more time to do that. Then maybe it will have a chance of getting somewhere between 2 and 5. It's a great song, but I can't see it having the strength to dislodge Timeless Love. I'll finish with the lyrics, as I usually do when the post title is a song title.
Golden Heart
She was swinging by the bangles in a main street store
A while before we met
The most dangerous angles that you ever saw
She spied her amulet
And she took a loop of leather for around her neck
And that was then the start
The most dangerous lady on her quarter deck
She found her Golden Heart
You found your Golden Heart
Then we swirled around each other, and the thread was spun
To some Arcadian band
I would stop it from swinging like a pendulum
Just to hold time in my hand
And you shot me with a cannonball of history
A long forgotten art
I'd be turning it over as our words ran free
I'd hold your Golden Heart
I'd hold your Golden Heart
Nothing in the world prepared me for your heart, your heart
Nothing in the world that I love more your heart, your heart
Your Golden Heart
And every time I'm thinking of you from a distant shore
And all the time I sleep
I will have a reminder that my baby wore
A part of you to keep
And I'll send you all my promises across the sea
And while we are apart
I will carry the wonder that you gave to me
I'll wear your Golden Heart
I'll wear your Golden Heart
Nothing in the world prepared me for your heart, your heart
Nothing in the world that I love more your heart, your heart
Your Golden Heart
I am strongly considering moving it up from #6, but to crack the top 5 it will have to contend with five songs I have loved since junior high, five songs which mean an awful lot to me.
1. Timeless Love, is, at least for now, untouchable at the top of my list. It is my favorite song by my favorite artist, and every time I listen to it (approaching 800 plays on my computer alone) I can still feel the tremendous emotion in the song, especially in the live version, where you can just hear Burton pouring everything he has into his voice and his piano. For a long time, I thought Timeless Love was about two people who loved each other, and yet by circumstance were torn apart. To me, they were apart, but still in love. Then one day I sent the file over to Jackie so she could listen to it. She remarked that the song was terribly sad. I had never seen it that way before. When I went to see Burton live, I found out that Jackie was right. I knew it the instant he started talking about the song. You could tell that he truly feels everything he sings about in those lyrics. He said, "I haven't played this song in a long time. We got it out especially for this tour." There was something in his voice just then, maybe I was imagining it, but it seemed to me just a hint of...anguish in his voice. I thought..maybe, just maybe it's the one I want to hear. He continued, "This song is about a girl in Winnipeg who broke my heart a long time ago." Then I knew. It was indeed my favorite song of all. Then Burton said, "Is she here tonight? Is she here? (Pause) I guess not." That was the bit that hit home. He sounded so hopeful, so excited when it occured to him that this girl, who had broken his heart forty years before, might have come to see him play. Anyway, I sang along as loud as I wanted, and that, singing along with Burton Cummings to Timeless Love, was one of those elusive moments of perfection. Since then Timeless Love has made more sense to me, and I have understood why it is my very favorite song. It is a testament to tremendous happiness and undying love even in the face of crushing despair. Despite everything, love prevails over darkness. That's why.
2. Carolina in my Mind is the ultimate escape song. It is #2 on my list because I think it is James Taylor's most beautiful song, masterfully crafted and sung and no matter where I am or what is going on, it takes me away to my Carolina. The song provides me tremedous clarity, bacause in times of stress or disappointment it reminds me of my perfect world, the world I imagine and strive toward. It reminds me of what I am working towards. The imagery in the song is stunning, I really can see the silver sunshine on dark winter nights. "Watch her watch the morning come, a silver tear appearing now.." gives me a crystal clear image of something I hope to see in the future. The song describes itself beautifully with the line, "Whisper something soft and kind.." That's what it does. It's a whisper reminding you what you consider most valuable.
3. My Own Way to Rock reaches #3 because it is very much a song that defines me. I remember reading the "500 Greatest Songs" article in Rolling Stone a while back, and noticing something in the way they described The Who's My Generation. The words they used were "The Who's immortal fuck-off to their elders". In the same way, My Own Way to Rock is my answer to people who think they know how to run my life better than I do. I welcome debate, criticism and suggestions, and honestly do take them into consideration, but at the end I will be the one to decide how I live my life. Some people won't like it but I don't care. If I want to write melodramatic garbage in this blog then I will. If I don't want to do something, then I won't. If I want to believe in something then I will. And as the song says, "I've got my own way to rock, I've got my own way to roll, and when you're walkin' that walk it's good for your soul". That's the main thing that got this song to #3, but there are some other contributing factors as well. Again, Burton outdoes himself in this song. The way he sings it, the drawn out syllables, the random piano stuff, the added sentences that don't make sense, it all speaks to someone who's having a lot of fun singing this song. Even the album version has the feel of a live version to it. That sheer passion never fails to produce a smile from me. Finally, the song includes perhaps my favorite piano solo in all of music (Its only challengers coming at the end of Bob Seger's The Fire Inside and from a couple other Burton songs). The skill is incredible, and when I saw it live and he drew it out (It's a tad short in the album version) it was simply amazing.
4. Something in the Way She Moves is at #4 because it was the first song I can remember that really meant something to me. I think I was about 10 years old, not even close to the age where girls became cool, and the James Taylor Greatest Hits CD was in the CD player of my dad's car. I remember listening to it and thinking, even then, that's the kind of girl I'm going to marry. The line, "It isn't what she's got to say, but how she thinks, the way she's been. To me the words are nice the way they sound.." was the line that stuck with me. Ironically, I didn't much like Carolina in My Mind at the time, I would always skip from this song, Track 1, to Fire and Rain, Track 3, and miss Carolina, Track 2. This song was my favorite James Taylor and my favorite love song for most of junior high, and I will always hold it in the highest regard.
5. Truly, Madly, Deeply is #5 because it is the purest love song I know. If you were to ask me what love is, I couldn't give you a better answer than Savage Garden does in this song. It is #1 on my Top 25 Love Songs, as it should be. I think that when I meet a girl who is accurately described by this song, that'll be the girl I want to marry. As long as she's cool with it. lol.
So, as you can see, Golden Heart has some work to do if it's going to crack the top 5. I think the key is that I couldn't yet tell you what it is exactly that I love about Golden Heart. I know some things, but I couldn't give you a definative answer as I have done with the current top 5. I think it will take more time to do that. Then maybe it will have a chance of getting somewhere between 2 and 5. It's a great song, but I can't see it having the strength to dislodge Timeless Love. I'll finish with the lyrics, as I usually do when the post title is a song title.
Golden Heart
She was swinging by the bangles in a main street store
A while before we met
The most dangerous angles that you ever saw
She spied her amulet
And she took a loop of leather for around her neck
And that was then the start
The most dangerous lady on her quarter deck
She found her Golden Heart
You found your Golden Heart
Then we swirled around each other, and the thread was spun
To some Arcadian band
I would stop it from swinging like a pendulum
Just to hold time in my hand
And you shot me with a cannonball of history
A long forgotten art
I'd be turning it over as our words ran free
I'd hold your Golden Heart
I'd hold your Golden Heart
Nothing in the world prepared me for your heart, your heart
Nothing in the world that I love more your heart, your heart
Your Golden Heart
And every time I'm thinking of you from a distant shore
And all the time I sleep
I will have a reminder that my baby wore
A part of you to keep
And I'll send you all my promises across the sea
And while we are apart
I will carry the wonder that you gave to me
I'll wear your Golden Heart
I'll wear your Golden Heart
Nothing in the world prepared me for your heart, your heart
Nothing in the world that I love more your heart, your heart
Your Golden Heart
Monday, August 14, 2006
Introspection
Having written my last three posts on very big issues, I felt like it was a good time to go back and write a more personal post. Personal post. That's a little bit of a paradox, isn't it? I am, and have been for the last several years, a very open person. The way I think demands that I rationalize my beliefs and actions. Consequently, I have no qualms about telling people almost anything they want to know. If I can rationalize something to myself I should be able to rationalize it to others, and therefore my life is pretty much an open book. I also realize that debate is perhaps the best way to refine your own beliefs, identify flaws in your reasoning, and to make yourself a better person. My great hope for the last three posts I have written is that someone will read them and challenge me on aspects of them. The ensuing debate would be tremendously valuable to me. However, recently I have been wondering whether I am a little too open. I have realized that anyone, even someone who doesn't know me, could carefully read my facebook profile and this blog, both of which are publicly and universally available, and they could really understand who I am. Not just superficially either, but the real Blair. A total stranger could get a sense of who I am at my core. I feel as if other people have this exterior persona, the thing that I see from my friends, the things they write on their facebook profiles, their interests and what they do, their personality etc. But almost all of them, and in my closer friends I see hints, have this carefully guarded "core self" that they rarely show to anyone. It contains their emotions and motivations, and what they truly believe. I don't think I have that. Actually that isn't true, I do have it, but the range of what it encompasses is very small, there are only a very few topics on which I would deflect questions and avoid discussions. My "core self" will never be shown to anyone except the woman I love. Therefore, I think I a missing a layer. I am missing the layer containing beliefs, thoughts and emotions which many people keep reasonably private, sharing perhaps only with a couple trusted family members or best friends. I know this middle layer exists, from conversations I have had with people. Trent has it, Lyndsey has it and Larissa had it. Those three are the best examples because in those cases I felt like I've seen a little bit of it, just the very tip of the iceberg before the vault slammed shut. In other cases too, I have been able to tell that the wall exists, even with people I know less well. I have seen it in many of my friends, but didn't realize what it was until I observed it crystal-clear in Hayleigh. I am not sure whether this wall is a "middle layer" as I have guessed, a section revealed to a very few but still distinct from people's deepest selves, or whether the deepest selves of others just encompass a much wider range and are perhaps a little more easily accessable than mine. The latter hypothesis is given credence by the examples of Amit and Vincci, both of whom I believe have an ethos more similar to mine. In both cases, however, I think what they keep hidden is more, if only slightly, than what I do. The question that comes out of this is this: Do I need to be a little more introspective and keep my inner motivations a little more secret? The reason I think this might be advantageous is that it keeps people guessing. There has to be effort in order to discover who I really am. It keeps others involved and you aren't as boring that way. You can seem more spontaneous, because people are less able to discern your motivations. It gives you a bit on an air of mystery, and gives others the feeling that if they want to be privy to your secrets they will have to earn it.It also protects you in some instances. Bassil said something to me about this once, and for all his faults, this was something that made me think a little bit. He was referring to a situation in which I got burned, and was pretty upset about it. So what did I do? I told the person who had hurt me exactly what I felt. Everything. I let her have it. Bassil was of the mind that I should not have told her, and that telling her conveyed an image of weakness and emotional fragility which in turn caused me long-run problems. Although I don't agree entirely with him on this, he does raise a few good points. I will have to think more about this topic, but I feel like I may try to be a little more introspective in the next little while and see if I like the results.
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