A walk in the dark

There are times when it's good to be alone with your thoughts. There are others when it is not. Like tonight. Perhaps it was a sense of deja vu. I was walking home alone on a dark stretch of road when my wind began to wander.

When I was in university I had the almost perversely incredible opportunity to travel to the Far East. I was naive, wide-eyed and filled with the unbridled ambition of youth. I was alone in Hong Kong, without any of the comforts of home. I was smart. A risk taker. And an adventurer. Who the fuck voluntarily chooses to go to Hong Kong? I'd already hiked the Andes for g-d's sake. I might be the next Christopher Columbus. I remember one night, purposely breaking from my circle of friends there, and finding my way to one of my favourite places, the Kowloon promenade, overlooking the majesty of the South China Sea, the skyline of downtown Hong Kong rising from it like a modern-day Atlantis. As the warm, salt-scented breeze coarsed through my hair, and the sea trembled beneath me, I was filled with a feeling of omnipotence, unlimited power. The world was my oyster, and nothing could stop me. It almost felt like my soul opened up and inhaled all that was positive and good in the world.

Those are, as an example, good times to be alone with your thoughts.

Then there are times when it's not. Where instead of opportunities lie roadblocks, and instead of achievements lie failures. I think the art to leading a happy life is to temper the inspiration found in both. To ignore the bad thoughts is folly, akin to applying a band-aid to a flesh wound. And to revel in the positive thoughts can lead to disappointment.

I sound like a fortune-cookie writer tonight - I apologize, but I felt like I finally needed to write an honest post.

If 9/11 was caused by a giant monster....

.........Godzilla meets the Blair Witch Project.......The O.C. meets Independence Day....likely how "Cloverfield" was pitched to movie execs by "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams (ok with perhaps the exception of the last one). If you ever dreamed of making movies when you were 10 years old, this was the movie you thought of making. Giant (and I mean GIANT) monster goes on the rampage in New York City. Thousands flee, drama ensues, G.I. Joe is brought in to save the day. Frame it with an anguished love story and voila! Now picture this movie filmed from the point of view of one of the participants in said drama (with better than average filming ability...barely) and you have "Cloverfield".

What they managed to do on a relatively shoestring budget ($25M reportedly) is pretty incredible. It runs just under 90 minutes (including titles), and feels a bit like a theme-park ride. i.e. Where's the monster? This is a monster ride, and I know he's going to jump out at me very soon, but damn it I can't see him and I know he's going to scare me! DAMN there he is! Shit I knew it! Fuck that was scary! Then there is the lull as you float on a wooden log through idle forests and enjoy the scenery of deer and playful, water-shooting elephants...before plummeting 20 feet to your doom. That in a nutshell is the movie, except there is no idle forest and little rest in between the moments of genuine terror.

I will not ruin the ending but I will say I ended up feeling nauseous from the hand-help camera movements. I enjoyed it, I liked the gimmick, but I would recommend taking some sea-sickness pills before you watch.

Cheers.

Live from ...it's Sunday night!

Again with the Sunday night/Monday morning post. And this time it's 1:30am. My life seems to be caught in a loop. The days, weeks and months rush by and I think an outsider, if given a videotape of my life, would have trouble differentiating one week from the next. I mean even I would be hard pressed to tell you 5 things from this week that I did differently from the last. I don't think I'm alone - we all get stuck in routines. Psychology tells us these routines are a part of normalcy. That without them the thousands of stimuli that we are subjected to daily would drive us to the looney bin. Maybe the alternative is true as well - that a life full of routine could land us in the same location. So this morning - take a different route to work. Say hi to a person you wouldn't normally say hi to. Drink tea instead of coffee. Buy a different paper. Do math exercises while eating your toast. Change it up slightly and feel the difference.

Break the routine or the routine will break you. (nice huh? that should be in a screenplay somewhere...could have come straight out of Fight Club.)

cheers. p.s. leave your mark.