Search by my Username....Micheal_W

Well Hello my Friends! It’s good to see you again; well I wish I could see you. Well, tomorrow I will see you, well at least two of you, and that is exciting. I wish everyday could be as exciting as tomorrow. Not only do I have a totally radical youth event happening, but two of my best friends are coming to visit me from the land of Calgary, which is totally awesome and mind blowing. My earnest prayer is that they arrive safely.

To be honest with you I tried to write the update earlier in the evening, but felt totally uninspired and felt like I was writing mush, I so I left the computer and engaged in a very intellectually stimulating time of watching professional wrestling. Now you can debate the pros and cons of watching wrestling with me later, because later on, I did something more intellectually stimulating and I want to talk about it now.

I literally, just finished watching the film “Cold Mountain”. The truth is, I enjoy watching films, and even more so I like watching films that are nominated for Oscars. I also enjoy watching movies that are not nominated for Oscars, but hey, that’s not within the context of my tale so I shall continue on course. I had low expectations for this film. Nicole Kidman, who I find very attractive, is not someone who I believe to be an amazing actress. She’s alright, but she’s no Scarlett Johansson. Jude Law, I have no feelings about him one way or the other, and Rene Zelwegger, I’ve had a crush on since Jerry Maguire, but anyway, the point is, I didn’t think it was going to be all that great for one reason or another. You know what, I really liked it! There was a fantastic array of stunning visual images, dialogue and monologues were very good, and the story itself was pretty good too. So overall, out of 10 I would give it an 8, or maybe an 8.5. Now, let me explain where the film lost marks in my books. It was not cameo appearances by the lovely Jenna Malone or the lovely Natalie Portman, in fact, if anything those two raised the marks this film got. Where I had a problem was the two scenes of brazen sexuality and blatant nudity. I am not the kind of person who thinks that sex is evil, or that nudity can’t even be art, but it was not this way in this film. If a scene of nudity can add to a films beauty, then I will accept and appreciate it for what it is. (See Braveheart), but if a scene of nudity and brazen sexuality is used in such a way that does not advance the plot in a necessary way, or is used in a way that is simply to glorify the soft core porn that it is, I don’t like it. It seems that this is happening in every film that I enjoy these days. “The Royal Tenenbaums”, “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”, “Gangs of New York”, “Cold Mountain”, “Lost in Translation”, and the list goes on and on. This really makes me sad because the nudity or sexuality is used in such degrading and pointless ways, that in fact it takes away from the film more then anything else. (The Royal Tenenbaums and Lost in Translation especially) I wish that the film industry could stick to making great films without sticking random shots of soft core porn into their movies so that they will sell 1000 extra tickets to 15 year old boys looking for some boobies! I would have bought Cold Mountain had it not been for the ridiculous sex scene in it. How is a Christian supposed to live a life of purity and be able to watch high quality films at the same time, I’m beginning to think it’s impossible. So if there are any directors, producers, writers of films reading this, think twice before you put smut in your film, because people like me are getting sick of you ruining your masterpieces with unnecessary filth.

Whew, quite the rant!
I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending of the movie either, (if you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about, if you haven’t you probably have no idea) I could see myself appreciating it, but I was really engaged with the film, and so the ending frustrated me, which is a good thing, because when a film can really engage you and cause you to feel emotions (not emoticons), that’s a very good thing.

The last thing to do, before I possibly play some video games, and go to bed is reveal to you the song of the day. This isn’t easy, because although I did listen to music today, my mind was so engaged by Donald Miller’s book “Blue Like Jazz” and then this film that a song has not engaged me today. That doesn’t mean I won’t come up with a song of the day though! Today’s song of the day is “Apparitions” by Matthew Good Band. When I was a young lad, the album that this song comes from was one of the first I ever bought. I bought it largely thanks to the power that this song had in my life. It re-introduced me to the world of Matthew Good (as I had heard some of his previous music and enjoyed it) and it’s a world I have been in ever since. I own all his albums, one t-shirt, have seen him in concert 3 times and have even met the man. In my opinion he is the best Canadian Artist, and certainly the best Canadian song-writer…currently…not of all time, though I still rank him high in that category. Anyway, I love the song, and I love the man, I love his music, and if you have the desire or means, I think you should check out “Apparitions”, if you don’t like it, I give you free reign to verbally abuse me, but you also have to check into a mental hospital, because you’d really have to be insane not to love this song. Anyway, until next time, keep on being alive, because if you don’t, I’ll be sad.
Love Mike