Tonight Allison, I, and Housemate Kris watched a brilliant movie from the good 'ol days (read: 1998) that you may have heard of entitled Can't Hardly Wait.
In case you live under a rock or were born after 1990, this was one of many late-nineties movies where the nerdy, yet heartfelt, love-struck white dude gets to finally make out with the super hot girl in the last scene. Another one of my favorites would come out a year later: She's All That, where they switch it around and the girl is the dork, but other than that it's pretty much the same movie. And I still love it.
There's a classic scene in the middle of Can't Hardly Wait when William (another, more different nerd) performs Paradise City. Behold:
The brilliance of this scene is, of course, that William goes from outcast to extreme super-lovin' stud in the time-span of a Guns 'N' Roses song. Housemate Kris says he calls this the Beck Principle -- if you do anything long enough and with enough gusto (e.g. dance like a fool to a song by a hair band, and/or, be Beck), eventually it, and you, will become "cool." In this method, "coolness" has more to do with simple longevity and stamina than it does with actually being cool.
This actually works pretty well for me, because I've never known what the hell "cool" was anyway (and if you had a picture of me from '98, you'd know that's true).
So I suppose I'll just keep doing what I do.
So thank you Beck. And William. Rock on my friends -- rock on. And Ethan Embry, you kiss that girl.
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Despite the fact that this was hugely popular in 2007 (I have no idea why I never heard of it) and, also, the fact that I'm pretty sure it's actually some kind of prairie dog and not a chipmunk, I still think it's a perfect way to start 2008!
Happy Dramatic New Year!
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Morgan Spurlock, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite people, recently released a new film called "What Would Jesus Buy?"
From the movie's website:
"What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!"I haven't had a chance to see the film yet (unbelievably, it's not currently playing in Los Angeles -- Iowa City and Lawrence, KS, but not L.A.), but the more innundated I become with marketing which insists Christmas=Debt, the more I'm drawn to a different message. I also came across this interview with the Reverend Billy himself. In the interview, I found this part to be especially interesting:
INTERVIEWER: Do you consider yourself a religious or spiritual person now? REVEREND BILLY: I've just kind of moved beyond calling myself labels. I think a part of resisting consumerism and giving people the example of resisting consumerism is to stop imitating products. That's why we don't get any money from foundations. Are we political? Are we religious? Are we artistic? Those are three labels that would come to us from the foundation world. Well, the political foundations think we are clowns. And the artistic foundations think we are political. And the religious foundations think we are atheists. So the thing that makes us powerful to people is also the thing that makes it hard to define.Related Reading: Creative Cures for the Common Christmas (by Shane Claiborne) //
Now, you may not be as big of a dork as I am, or subscribe to Dictionary.com's Word of the Day (yeah, so!?), but you too can improve your vocabulary -- and help the world at the same time!
Enjoy!
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