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Across the Universe

 

I very rarely buy movies – I’ll watch ’em once and forget about them for years. But I’ve been trying to get over Across the Universe for about six months now. I don’t know what it is – and I won’t bother to try and put it into words, I strongly recommend experiencing it for yourself.

On a very basic level, it’s a musical with a storyline inspired by 34 Beatles songs. But, despite my admitted love of the Beatles, this movie’s quality comes from its organic, original aspects. It uses the 1960s as a backdrop, but does not strive to authentically recreate the decade. Instead, Across the Universe takes events of the past to reach out to the viewer of the present, whoever they may be and whatever experiences they have to relate with the movie.

Historically, it touches on everything without painting the sixties in a partisan perspective. The movie addresses the highs and lows: race riots, generational struggles for identity, the concept of true love, the concept of “free” love, the pains of war, the hypocritical radicalism in resistance of war… It is a piece on everyone’s experience during such a transformational era.

In a personal regard, Across the Universe makes me react with a sudden urge to explore my own life, passions, and perspectives. Watching a movie that starts with the uncomfortable question of “What defines a person: who you are, what you do, or how you do it?”, then follows several characters with differing passions try to coexist and keep their differences from clashing with each other, and then finally throws all distraction aside, proclaming, “All you need is love” gives me a kind of reality check. I have to wonder if what I’m doing today is the right thing to get me where I want to be – and much more importantly, if what I’m doing today is helping me love others on a very personal level.

It’s also a very different movie than most contemporary American cinema today- it’s not a linear story that strictly follows the “establishment-rising action-climax-falling action-resolution” formula. Most of the actors are unknown to the world at large, making the film even more personal and less about watching established stars in the same old roles.

So give it a shot- I don’t want to say “this is a great movie because it’s entertaining to watch,” or that I agreed with its overall message or anything. I like it so much because of the reactions and introspection that it triggers.

Stuff

You gotta fight for your right… To be emo?

Apparently Mexican riot police have been deployed to several areas to protect citizens from anti-emo riots and demonstrations. And apparently there is a heated cultural controversy over….
Whether or not people should be emo.

Does this make you feel like losing all faith in humanity? I know it tempts me to.

Having front-page headlines on dead strippers and the Iraq death toll on page 8 was one thing. But I haven’t felt this ashamed of my species since it cast more votes for an American Idol than the leader of the free world. If the kind of pants you wear or way you comb your hair is something worth rioting over, real current problems like war, disease, and hunger do not, I want off this planet, please.

God

Incompatibilities

I am beginning to notice a couple of annoying personality traits I have:

  1. I have a tendency to be prideful, arrogant, controlling, and overly confident in my own work.
  2. I react with strong negativity towards others who are prideful, arrogant, controlling, or overly confident in their own work.

Reconciling the two is obviously difficult. I know that part of the solution comes in humbling myself and opening myself to others’ ideas… But when that happens, how do I protect myself from those who don’t do the same?

A lot of my life has been about recognizing that because everyone is imperfect and makes mistakes, we should try to find the best solutions to protect ourselves from our own mistakes so that we can live in relative peace with one another, even when we disagree over what is wrong or right.  Recently, I have been feeling more like there is a more obvious standard of right and wrong that can be derived from observation and logic. I recognize the slippery slope that puts me on, and I’m not sure if this change was brought about by an unchecked hardening of my own ego, or by “maturing” or something else completely.

While this definitely has implications in the spheres of politics and culture, I think that the place where it really hits home for me is in the spiritual realm. I have directly witnessed a pretty wide range of spiritual opinions, from “All roads lead to heaven,” to “there is no such thing as good or evil or God,” to “[Monotheistic religion] is the only true religion, all others are false and evil because they aren’t ours, and the world will only be at peace once it is a global theocracy under our control.”

Part of me is troubled by the apparent majority of people who adopt their religious, political, or cultural perspective because of their circumstances rather than a conscious logical evaluation of each alternative. I go to Christian churches, but I don’t know if I would had I been born in, say, Indonesia. Statistically, most people tend to vote for the same parties that their parents voted for. This doesn’t tell us which (or if) one is “wrong” or “right,” but people on either side fully believe in their decisions, and thus rifts are caused between people of different ideals – even though they would likely change their tune had they been born into different circumstances.

This might be my ego talking, so please treat it with the obligatory grain of salt, but I would like to think that I’ve done things a bit differently. Maybe it’s just been because I am the product of multiple divorced households with vastly different perspectives, but I think I’ve put a lot more thought into my choices where most just go in agreement with their peers and predecessors.  But even in this, I am unsure of myself – surely, my decisions are still influenced by “circumstance over logic” at an undetectable, subconscious level.

It hurts most when I see people with whom I have something in common, but were not there because of an educated decision. It is saddening to realize that people are most influenced by misinformation and personality smears in politics, or to see churchgoers who improperly use faith as an excuse to abandon the biblically commanded logic and questioning that protects them from false prophets and heretical teachings. While these people happen to have some views in common with me, there is really nothing different between them and the people they disagree with.

And amongst all of this, I am still plagued by the nagging feeling that I am being far too arrogant to think that I am above all of this – that I myself am guilty of the very same things I accuse others of doing. Part of me says, “Just worry about yourself and let others do the same,” and another part says, “Just because you’re being arrogant doesn’t mean you aren’t right!”

In all of this, my faith is the one thing that I do not doubt. I believe without doubt that God will not lead me astray, and that he is in control while we are all so messed up. I’m not sure of much beyond that, but I at least have the confidence that whatever reaction I have to these big questions, much wiser hands than my own are on the wheel.

School

Study Abroad?

I went to the CSU Study Abroad fair today- got me very excited about the possibility of going to Spain sometime.

My thoughts, in completely random order:

  • When should I go? I’m a second-year student taking 100-level and 300-level classes at the same time. I don’t want to go too late when I can’t take anything that applies to my major.
  • I really need to bring my GPA up. If I do well this semester, I’ll be good for most schools, but the most interesting one is more selective and I probably can’t even get into before 2009.
  • Where to go? Barcelona seems the most interesting, except that I’m more interested in mainstream Spain than I am in Catalonia. Granada also seems really cool. Maybe Madrid.
  • LA SAGRADA FAMILIA.
  • How long? People say I should go for a longer amount of time, but that would mean harder housing arrangements while I’m gone, taking a long time away from the band, et cetera.
  • So long to graduating without debt!

So yeah. It’s very exciting to think about- I’ll be meeting with advisors and people in the study abroad department to figure out what fits me best.

Any advice on España? I am interested in any that you may have. 🙂