Becoming a THE

Tonight I think I'll start off and end with talking about something near and dear to my heart, and that's people.  More importantly it is the people that I am close to.  Over the past month I got the chance to spend time with some of my favorite people in the history of the world, and over this time period there has been something that has just been sort of building in me, and I knew I was going to write about it in some way or another, and tonight I just figured I would write so that all you might know exactly how I feel.

There has been this thing sort of building in me lately.  It's something that maybe a lot of people go through at one point or another in their lives or maybe I'm the only crazy person that has this kind of stuff happening to him, my therapist says it's something about child abandonment issues. Just kidding I don't go to a therapist, I mean I don't need somebody else to tell me I'm crazy. But anyway I digress, so I've been having this "what does it all mean?" "where is my place in this world?" kind of moments lately and just this overall feeling of what am I doing.  And over the past month spending time with my favorite people has lead me to realize something about myself.

I'm an IS, and at some point, and I'm not saying today or tomorrow, but someday I know that I want to be a part of a THE.  I know that sentence is really confusing so let me explain this to you and you all be the judge and tell me what you think. 

When I go out or I'm at a party or I'm just meeting people for the first time somebody will normally introduce me by saying, "hey, this IS Brandon, or this IS Ponder." Which is cool perfectly understandable because I am and IS.  But what I'm telling all of you tonight is that I can't wait until the point the I'm a part of a THE. As in "hey, let me introduce you to THE Ponders." Because in the past month or so I've seen first hand just how special it is to be a part of a THE.

I know this sounds really weird, believe me I know what the things that come out of my head sound like, but on this one I'm so serious.  And you need to know not everyone can be a THE.  Just because you're in a relationship or you're a part of a family unit it doesn't mean that you are automatically a THE. 

I know it all sounds crazy but you just don't know about this stuff first hand like I do.  But if you did you would know exactly what I'm talking about.  If you had a chance to spend a Saturday with THE Nievars watching college football and yelling at the tv trying to will Pittsburg to beat Notre Dame you would. Or if you were lucky enough to spend a two and a half hour meal with THE Hagedorns listening to them going back and forth trying to keep up and get some of the worst service ever you'd know. Or spend an evening with THE hoopers eating homemade tacos talking about books and movies and cutting a new demo in the studio you would. Or is you had the chance to have a few too many beers and crash at THE Merrells and get the chance to see them lovingly go back and forth with each other you would know just what I'm talking about.

And I just want to thank these people because they seem to without even knowing they did teach me a very valuable lesson. Because as awesome as my life is now, and believe me it is and even though I do complain I'm thankful for every breath I get to take.  I have to admit to myself that I am looking forward to the time when I can become a part of a THE.  Just an entirely random thought I know, but I figured what the hell, why not share it with all of you.

Cloud Atlas

This weekend I went to the movies. I know surprise, surprise. For those of you that know me, I mean really know me you'll know that this is pretty much my weekend schedule.  Get off work on Friday, go to the liquor store, maybe get a bottle of SoCo, or maybe just some imported beers go home fire up the netflix queue and watch something that I've never seen before.  Bicycle Thief, Chinatown, Pycho, Shakespeare in Love for the tenth time. And that's just Friday by the way.

This time of year happens to be my favorite, because it's oscar season.  It's the time of the year when all the great movies start rolling out and all the theaters here in Oklahoma become increasingly empty, so not only do I get to see great movies I get to see them in a theater all by my lonesome.  Now I know to most of you out there that sounds incredibly weird, but for me that's the closest thing the therapy I'll ever need.  And what was my form of therapy this last weekend? What movie do you all get to hear me go on and on about?  That movie was none other than Cloud Atlas.

It has taken me a few days to even really begin to talk about this movie, because really it has a lot of big ideas and it is quite complex, but not at all in a bad way.  If there were more filmmakers taking risks like this and making these types of movies, well maybe movies wouldn't be becoming more and more of the extinct nature. I mean almost every single time I walk into a theater I am blown away by somebody else's vision.  

The sad thing about a movie like Cloud Atlas is that even though there really are all these basic concepts and stories going on throughout the story itself seems so complex and overwhelming that people just won't go out there and see it. And really that's just a shame.  It really is to bad that we live in a world where people literally need to be slapped in the face with and idea to understand it and want to see it.  I mean if the movie was named Chase scenes and Car explosions I'm sure everyone would want to go see it.  Or if Channing Tatum took his shirt off in the preview perhaps. 

The thing that is great about this movie for me is that it's this epic movie with so much basic human sentiment throughout.  I have been know to be a big fan of those human emotional moments.  This movie is exciting, it's funny, it's action packed, it's personal, it's sweet, it's daring, it's thoughtful, it's insightful, all rolled into one and does it ever pack a punch.  

I am almost certain that come oscar time this movie will be nominated for all sorts of technical awards, from make-up, to special effects, to editing, and even score which for me was so very beautiful it was one of my favorite parts about the whole movie. But let me tell you that the acting in this movie is top notch and should not go unnoticed.  I mean Tom Hanks is in it so really that is just a no brainer as far as I'm concerned, I mean this man makes a living out of being anybody that you need him to be. I believe him 100 percent in every single role that he has ever played in, and it this movie like all the other actors within the movie he plays so many roles.

With movies like this sometimes I will admit that they can be a little heavy handed and they can bog you down with so many ideas that can be so heavy for you to think about that by the time the movie is over you just leave the theater with a headache.  Movies like The Fountain, or Tree of Life, or even The Master which I saw this year automatically come to mind.  Don't get me wrong, because I personally love all there of the movies that I just mentioned, and I think that they are all Masterpieces in their own right. But I will also admit that right off the bat among first viewing of them all I didn't quite get them, they were all made by much smarter men than me.

Cloud Atlas is not like that at all, sure it's complex and you have to pay attention to what you are watching, but there is so much humor and lightheartedness in this movie that it isn't very hard to do so.  You don't feel as if you are getting hit over the head with all these big ideas at all.  Quite frankly it wasn't until after the movie was over with that all of the complexity of the movie came back to me and made me think for a little while. I must say that I absolutely loved it and that I think that everyone should go out and see it.  So instead of going out this weekend and watching Paranormal Activity 4 or watching Alex Cross go out and watch Cloud Atlas, it is a can't miss I promise you, and if it does miss for you Bite Me!

Polititcal Post

"To find something, anything, a great truth or a lost pair of glasses, you must first believe there would be some advantage in finding it. I found something a long time ago, and have held on to it for grim death ever since. I owe my success in life to it; it put me where I am today. This principle: What you don't know, won;t hurt you. They called it idealism in a book I read." 

   These are the opening lines to a movie that I rather enjoy. Although it was somewhat panned by critics when it came out, I say F*%# them and watch it anyway.  And in honor of tomorrow election I decided to watch it tonight.  It's call ALL THE KING'S MEN.  Granted the things in the movie have nothing to do with the election that is going on tomorrow, but I recommend it all the same.  

   I'll tell you right now I am the last person that will ever get political on people, and I love the stuff.  I love talking about politics and listening to people talk about politics, hell I love arguing about politics.  But with all that said I rarely ever get into any of these confrontation that I use to get into in my formative years.  I know that not everyone is political minded and most people these days it just seems like they don't even care. And I start to say to myself today that I respect that. I say to myself, "Hey, that's their right. They don't want to care about politics, they don't want to vote more power to them." 

   It is at this exact point that I begin to get a upset with myself.  I know for a fact that I have become complacent.  I use to have this fire burning in my, and not just about politics, about all sorts of things, but it feels like at some point I just let my own fire burn out.  But not anymore. It is not okay to not be political, it is not okay to not vote.  My entire generation is nothing more that a bunch of money grubbing, self involved, assholes.  I mean year after year I have to listen to analyst talk about how younger people DON'T get out and vote and how they can't be counted on to.  And I want to think that isn't true, but I know that it is.  And why is that the case.

   We just don't care. Even though it does effect us, we all think that it doesn't effect us.  I had a thought today when I was listening to yet another twenty something that I know tell me that they aren't registered to vote, and how they don't see how it matters one way or another.  The thought that came to me is a thought that comes to me often these days.  And maybe it's just because I'm getting older but it is something that always seems the clear up those gray areas that seem to come about from time to time.  And that thought that I am talking about is what would my grandfather think? 

   Most of the time that single thought scares the shit out of me. And it is that thought that brings me to my point.  My whole god damned generation hasn't had to fight for a damn thing.  I mean really fight and struggle for something.  There was a time in this country when a person with my skin color wouldn't be allowed to vote, a time when a person of my skin color wasn't even thought of as a person at all. There was a time when women couldn't be allowed to vote. And my grandfather lived in this time period, and he struggled through this time period, so how in the hell could I look at myself in the mirror with good conscience and not vote, and not care about the political process.

   I know that at this moment I am up on my soap box and there are those of you out there that are going to read this and not give two shits about it, but really and honestly I just hope that's not the case. Because all of this does matter. It matters a great deal to the people that have come before us and really and honestly even if you don't know it right now, it matters to those that will come long after us. I think I'm done now, I'm sorry if this was a waste of your time, but I really and truly hope that it wasn't.  

   But I guess I'll leave you with this last little bit from the All The King's Men, you're welcome Coop,  "If you don't vote, you don't matter!"