No, seriously. What are you on?

I decided to write this with the intent of posing a legit question to film critic Armond White. Something along these lines…. Dear sir, with an open mind and willingness to believe you, I’d simply like to ask why do your movie reviews so often differ with the vast majority? Surely it must be statistically impossible for you to just happen to go against the norm nearly every single time. Quite simply, it seems intentional, how do you respond? After reading his negative review of The Social Network, where he is one of only 3 negative reviews out of 122, its clear the specificity of this film requires I focus on it alone and save the question for another time.

White dislikes The Social Network for, as he puts it, the glamorization of the disconnect that the internet creates. My first thought was glamorization is in the eye of the beholder, perhaps he just sees it as glamorizing. But what follows has scarcely no reference to the film at all. His review is actually judgement upon the character of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and how his creation enabled millions of other “nerds” to clutter up the media world with their obnoxious, uneducated opinions and movie fandom.

Not content to stop at just a review of the film, he continues with this lovely article where he continues to assail “geeks” and “nerds” as the downfall of the once proud industry of film criticism. He hates that the “established professional film critics” are being taken to task by uneducated, unqualified film fans. He refers to them as frat boys. I find this ironic, since frat boys is a metaphor usually reserved for industries that behave like exclusive clubs. Like I don’t know um… film critics.

I cannot explain his other reviews, and am no longer interested in doing so. I can say very clearly that his objection to The Social Network seems 100% based in feeling unappreciated as brilliant writer of film criticism. He was right about one thing. The movie does glamorize the internet. The awesome internet which ultimately gives voices to the millions of people whose opinions, as it turns out, actually matter. Mr. White, if you are as you say, part of dying breed, then I can only say natural selection is working perfectly.

I’ll See you again, on this side or the other.

Monday night I heard the news that former Gamecock star receiver Kenny McKinley had killed himself. I certainly didn’t know him. I only ever attended two games he played in. But it still hit me very hard. Next will come the “Why’s” followed by the fights between people who call it selfish and “the easy way out” and the ones that understand depression and pain. Then what I hope to see will be people taking depression more seriously. A high-profile suicide for a person so commonly known for being upbeat and happy, will hopefully help to shed light on the fact that it can happen to anyone.

My other hope is continued research into the damage that playing football is doing to players’ brains. This another example in a string of suicides or strange behavior that lead to death of football players in recent years, and in each case the player was found to have had significant football related head injuries. I have played, watched and loved football all of my life, but I’d drop it in hot minute if its found to be causing this kind of thing.
Good luck K-Mac, I hope you find peace.

When I first got the magazine, the Beatles were on the cover. The Beatles!

Its been one year since I purchased the fancy remastered version of The Beatles White album. What would follow became one of my most ambitious projects ever.

Get Back: I saw all of the hubbub about The Beatles catalog being re-released on super cleaned-up digitally remastered blah blah fancypants cds on 9-9-9. This along with the The Beatles Rock Band video game created a little The Beatles mini-renaissance. I always considered myself to be a The Beatles fan. While reading about the new discs, I realized I actually had never owned any of their albums, just a bunch of compilations and greatest hits collections. So with a Wal-Mart gift card burning a hole in my pocket, I thought, maybe I’ll buy one.

The White Album: That was plenty famous and a double album, so it had a lot of songs. In movies, people always mention The White Album. Plus it had While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Back in the USSR which I already loved. Then it had a whole bunch of stuff I’d never heard. I was surprised at how little of The Beatles catalog I was actually familiar with. So I killed this CD. I listened to on straight repeat in the car and on the iPod for 2 weeks straight. It was fan-friggin-tastic. I couldn’t believe how good these songs are that I’d never even heard of.
Project The Beatles expert: Then I decided that I wanted to be a The Beatles Expert. If the songs I’d never heard of on this album were this good, then I want to hear the rest. I resolved to listen to one new album each month for the next year. (I combined their first two albums into one month to make it fit neatly into a single year) The goal, know every The Beatles Album as well as if I’d been listening to them since the 60’s.

And In The End: A Year later I know every last one them. I would say without hesitation that I am an absolute expert on The Beatles, at least with regard to their albums and songs. That was fun. Because no project can truly be complete without making a ridiculous nerd list of some sort to mark its completion, I am now in the process of ranking the 200+ The Beatles songs in order of well some sort of hybrid list of what I think is the best/my favorite. I will begin counting them down from worst to best in the weeks to come.

No one worries about upsetting a droid.

For years, Gamecock fans have debated the value of the “Moral Victory.”  Watching us match teams like Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama stride for stride for 3 quarters only to have them pull away in the end is a time-honored tradition with us.  Equally so is the great debate over whether we should take those games and feel good about how we played or become miserable and sour over losing to anyone. Still debating.

There is another tradition at South Carolina that is just a prevalent. The “Moral Defeat.”  This one occurs nearly every year, and often more than once.  A game that comes along either as the first or third of the season, and in more recent years as late as November.  These games where a victory is virtually assured and yet we manage to make it much more difficult than it need be.  These are games that we win and walk out of the stadium feeling miserable. “If we play like that next week against Georgia, they’ll kill us,” is an often heard reaction.

Sadly these games end up being pretty accurate indicators of how good we REALLY are. Typically they signify the coming of the “Second half-collapse” that comes when our schedule gets tougher.
So I am happy to say, that last night’s victory over Southern Miss felt great! A Moral Victory to go with our actual victory. We looked good, we played good, and in the end I’ll say, “If we play like that against Georgia, I think we’ll win!”  Sweet Candy.

err…what was I saying?

If you read the lofty goals in the previous post, you were no doubt dissappointed by the months and months of little activity here. Or, in other words, the fact that I completely forgot about doing this. In the 8 months since I made that post, I have played exactly NO guitar and visted ZERO President’s graves. I did have a second baby, a daughter named Scarlett. I have also continued teaching Luke how to be a man of substance at least, if not exactly teaching him about following through on plans.

So I’m once again, setting forth on my goal of becoming a blogger. 

Seriously, I’ll be back again soon, with something important to say.

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world… is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”

And now begins 2010. The year we are supposed to make contact.  So  in keeping with that tagline, I will begin this new blog.  Its purpose, not yet fully defined, is typically aimed at making public my thoughts on art, sports, life, entertainment and to make general observations on the world and blah blah blah.  Mostly, however,it is to document the various adventures and projects, some silly and some sublime, which I gleefully pursue.

My The Beatles immersion project is now in its 5th month.  My ongoing quest to visit the gravesite of every dead president is continuing nicely. My attempt to learn to play the guitar is shaping up well. My first feature-length film is coming soon. The continued teaching and raising of my 16 month old son is going well, and the preparing for the arrival of baby #2 is about to get underway. 

All this for 2010. And I’m even going to try to read some books this year. Whoa!

Ultimately, this blog is the beginning of a skill refining project that I have put on my list of resolutions. To become a better writer/communicator, and to hone my media skills. 

So…there’s that. No more introductions, tomorrow we write something that matters.