A Private Showing Of The Work And The Glory
I'm going to go good news/bad news/good news/bad news with this post. Let's start off with something good, shall we? Yesterday, I went to South Barrington, Illinois, to see The Work And The Glory. And, yes, I got a private showing of the movie. I was the only one in the theatre. If you haven't experienced this before in your life... add it to your list of things to do. It was amazing! I stretched out... I talked to the screen... I laughed loud... I felt like I was at home, but with an awesome screen and sound system.
Now, about the movie... I think they did a pretty good job at not completely forcing Mormon beliefs on the audience. At one point in the movie, Joseph Smith is talking about how he saw God and Jesus when he was 14 and I thought they were going to try to personify those two beings with some cheesy white dudes in white robes surrounded by white... but they didn't. To believe Joseph Smith in the movie you have to have faith... just like in real life! Seriously though, as a non-Mormon, I appreciated that the writer/director kept the movie from being ridiculous and uber religious. Additionally, the "gold Bible" that Joseph Smith is said to have translated into the Book Of Mormon is mentioned but never shown. Again, to believe Joseph Smith you have to have faith. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely some propaganda in this movie. Near the end, Tiffany Dupont's character says of the Book of Mormon "This book is not evil" and you find yourself going "Whaaa?" Also, the Christians who aren't into Mormonism are constantly painted in a negative, bigoted light. I'm sure there's some truth to the representation of what Joseph Smith encountered when he started the Mormon religion. And there are some EXCELLENT points made about how certain Christians claim to be living a loving Christian life, but they end up being as closed minded and hateful as those they speak out against.
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention how beautifully shot this movie is. The scenery is breathtaking and, during a quick cut-scene that shows Alex getting baptized, I actually said "wow" out loud.
But I'm just wasting time until I get to the good part: Alex in a movie. Alex. In. A. Movie. I found myself, in the beginning of the movie (which moves extremely slowly) wanting the other characters to shut up so I could hear Alex. Alex doesn't speak for what seemed like forever (even though it was probably only five minutes). But, when he did... it was Alex. I smiled every time he was on screen for about the first hour of the movie (by then I was too into it to notice). And, yes, he did an excellent job as Nathan Steed. It wasn't as if he was so "Alex" that I couldn't get into his character... so don't think that. When the true plot surrounding Alex and the love triangle finally unfolded, I said "This other dude doesn't have a chance. It's Alex f--king Carroll." Heehee.
He did really well and I really enjoyed his performance... and I was so proud of him. I looked through my phone after the movie was over and I found a number that claimed to be Alex's number. I thought "what the hell? why not give it a try?"... so I did. It was Alex's number all right... and he and I had almost a twenty minute conversation about what he has been up to (this movie is part of a trilogy and they're filming in Tennessee soon), what I've been up to (SC classes and writing), and possibilities for getting together while he's in Tennessee shooting. It was a great conversation and, despite what you might hear from the OTHER JPS, Alex is really humble about this whole movie thing. And I am very proud of him. I asked him for an autographed headshot... and, if I get it, I'm framing it. Heehee... I think that's funny.
Now for the first bad news. I got a letter from RCN yesterday. RCN is my cable company that somehow feels the ability to charge me around $100 per month for my cable and my internet. I would switch cable providers, but I think RCN has a monopoly on this particular apartment building. I think it's RCN or nothing... until I move (which should happen later this summer). Anyway... the letter... right. So, I got this letter from RCN saying that some of my channels were going to change and they were adding some channels! You would think that was good news, but check out what they're doing. They're adding the Fox Movie Channel and some other bullpoop channels like RCN/Plus Games (which I don't even know what that means), and they are taking away G4 Tech TV and FUSE. For those of you who don't know, those two channels are my two favorite that don't start with ESPN. G4 Tech TV is basically an entire channel devoted to video games and losers who play video games like yours truly. FUSE is the only music channel that actually plays music anymore (and they play the kind of music I like, too). Because of the changes, I would love to tell RCN to go shove it and just get the Basic channels, but that doesn't include ESPN... and a TV without ESPN is just a box. My guess is that I'll go back to watching a lot of Cartoon Network and Comedy Central... but I'm really going to miss FUSE because I won't be able to just put the TV on and have it play good music. Remember when MTV did that? That was when we were kids and didn't care about the married life of musicians whose music we don't listen to anyway.
Let's go to something that makes me happy now. Okay? Okay. So as I was checking previous comments left on my blog, I came across a comment from the woman who reviewed Basically Awesome. I think I might just include it here, as it will save me some time. Here you go: "Hey. I just read your comment about my review--and you seem like a really, really nice guy. I know what I wrote sucks and I'm really really sorry. But your friends are right--you can only go up. I think, honestly, that you guys were just not ready to be reviewed yet. When you're just starting, you deserve to have your failures (and of course everyone fails! I have seen an amazing number of companies go from awful to awesome!) out of the public eye. Please please please don't let what I write--or what anyone writes--keep you from performing. Your ensemble will get better. I promise." She's totally right about us not being ready to be reviewed... we weren't necessarily ready for the stage. And I didn't let what she wrote keep me from performing... because I'm too damn good not to (*John gets full of himself*). But before I get too full of myself, she was right: BA was, in a lot of ways, a failure. Although, show me Einstein's first postulate... show me Mozart's first attempt at writing... show me Martha Stewart's first souffle... and I'm not feeling too bad about our first attempt as a group. It was important for most of that cast to get the experience of that show. Yeah, so, I feel a little less craptacular about the review. Plus, I'm a really, really nice guy. Which some people would debate... but you're all wrong. A professional critic says I'm a nice guy, so it must be true.
I think it's about time that I weigh in on the Terri Schiavo case. Normally, I am all for the "right-to-die" person in a "right-to-die" case. This would put me on the side of the husband, Michael. But there's something about this guy that I'm not totally buying... the way it seems he's going about this, and his story that he and Terri had a talk and this is what she wanted just in case this ever happened. I don't really believe him, and I'm not buying his story. Plus I feel terrible for the parents, fighting so hard to keep her alive. Having said that, the courts have made their decision... multiple courts, multiple times have ruled in favor of the husband. The fact that Congress is trying to circumvent the power of the courts is detrimental to the entire checks-and-balances system. We cannot allow Congress and the President to be able to eradicate the power of the courts... we have the checks and balances in place for a reason. If Congress can do whatever it damn well pleases, who's to stop them from, say, starting an unjustified war? Wait... I think that already happened.
Even though I cannot stress the importance of upholding the court's decision enough, I am brought to another point: there has got to be a more humane way to allow someone to die than just taking out their feeding tube. I mean, that just seems totally cruel to me. And I understand the passive/active debate surrounding any case of euthanasia (that passively allowing someone to die is much more civilized than actively ending their life)... but, let's face it, pulling someone's feeding tube and starving them to death is a pretty active way of ending someone's life. Think about it; we kill our prisoners in a more humane and civilized way than a forced starvation. On MSNBC, there is a doctor (Sue Bailey) who says that starvation isn't painful because of a build-up of toxins which leads to a "stupor" wherein the body does not really feel pain. I am, obviously, not a doctor... but I can't imagine that this is, still, the most humane way of ending someone's life. And I say that because of how long it takes from the time the decision is made to take out the tube to the time death actually occurs. Even if I concede that there's no pain involved, isn't there something that takes less time? Yes, is the answer. So why have we decided that this is the "best" way to go about euthanizing someone?