Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Can't We All Just Get Along?

One of my least favorite things about myself is how much another person’s emotions/attitude can totally drag me down. Of course, when someone is really up, it can sometimes drag me up, so it’s not ALWAYS a bad thing. Just usually. And today.

So, keeping in mind that I’m in a not-self-inflicted bad mood, let’s have a nice little quote from Hendrix: "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will finally know peace."

Whatever, let’s move on, shall we?

I saw Shooter on Saturday with MGFM. I’d highly recommend it to everyone, but especially those of you out there who have a thing for guns…or Mark Walburg for that matter.

Shooter’s based on the novel Point of Impact , which I happen to own. I did not realize the two were one in the same until AFTER seeing the movie though. While major plot points are shifted in both time and location, the gist of the novel remains on the screen. I enjoyed the plot being moved closer to the present…what with an early scene opening with Walburg reading the 9/11 Report and the general feelings of government subterfuge especially high…but I didn’t see why they felt the need to move a lot of the plot from Arkansas to Tennessee, but what do I know? I did however LOVE how B.C. was used as a stand in. Damn, but I could spot those Canadian mountains from miles away. All in all, good, super prettily filmed pic. (As a random side note, I just found out the female lead, Kate Mara is exactly a day younger than me. Weird. Especially since I totally thought she was Isla Fisher, who…now that I mention it…I actually thought was Amy Adams. WTF is up with the cute redheads in movies lately?)

The funniest thing about seeing shooter, was the random sniper/marksman (For a nice explanation of the difference between a sniper and a marksman, go here.) info that gets thrown out…and how much of it I already knew. While I have more than a cursory knowledge of handguns and rifles, that’s not why I found myself so familiar with the terminology and artillery discussions. I mean, there’s a huge difference between hitting a target a couple hundred yards away and hitting a soup can at over a mile.

Most of you know that I spent the last year working on Atsou…but only a couple of you know that the main character’s daughter has started rattling the bars of her cage in my head. This Lead is a sniper for SIS—which most of you probably know as the MI6 of James Bond fame. She likes to shoot things, and she’s rather brilliant at it. I’m not altogether bad, but I don’t see myself getting put on a plaque next to Carlos Hathcock or my fellow Canadian, Rob Furlong, anytime soon. As such, this TNF has been doing some serious research on what makes a long-range sniper…and, more importantly, what makes a long-range sniper great. The fact that I’m retaining enough to know what the hell was going on in the movie made me happy. Yea memory!

I recently finished reading a few things…one of which I’ve been bugging myself to read for awhile. The Princess Bride is the ‘one’ in question. Everyone knows I love the movie. (In case you haven’t heard the story, oh, a million times, it’s one of the two I would consistently rent when I was home sick as a young child and both my parents worked.) I was worried about the book. In some ways, I was right to be worried. There is some useless excess from Goldman I would have been quite happy to do without. But most of what I loved is there on the pages so, for me at least, it translated well.

The funniest thing is…while reading the novel, I found myself thinking about love…and my idea of true love and life. It struck me—much in the way you’d expect to see a light bulb illuminate over a character’s head, in a cartoon—that pretty much everything I think about love…and how love should be, comes from watching that G-D movie as a child.

Hello.

Could I possibly be so sappy? Me, the chick who rolls her eyes at the majority of romantic comedies out there, I’m a hopeless romantic? The very idea makes me want to run out and shoot something. I am NOT sappy. But, I guess that doesn’t mean I’m not a hopeless romantic.

(Key word is “hopeless” here people.)

I came to the understanding a long time ago that not all boys are like Westley. They won’t always come for you. They won’t always give way to their own pride in order to allow for yours. They won’t always be skilled enough to win a swordfight, or strong enough to beat the giant, or smart enough to win the battle of wits.

Westley didn’t care that Buttercup was kinda bitchy…always ordering him around. He didn’t burn down the castle when he found out she’d become engaged to the Prince, he just talked about how, “Life is pain,” and, “anyone who says differently is selling something.” A little pessimistic, I’ll give you, but it’s a true assessment, if you think about it. Even after she tossed him down a ridiculously tall hill, Westley simply shouted, “As you wish,” and kissed her when she followed him down. He wanted nothing more in the world than her.

***sigh*** Okay. So I’m a hopeless romantic.

Remembering that there is more than one type of love…I give this to all of you that I love…
(Just not like Westley loves Buttercup…)

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardingly, without complexities or pride. So I love you because I know no other way than this..." Pablo Neruda

Quote of the Moment: (Two gems that I couldn’t pick between) “I really want to meet you…look you in the eyes…grab your ass and say, "I built you up in my head, and you didn't let me down."” & “Even if you didn't want to hug me, I would still like the hell out of you. If you told me you didn't want to hang out because there was a lizard in your vagina, that MIGHT throw me for a loop.”
Soundtrack of the Moment: My Mistake, Michelle Featherstone
TV/Movie Quote: Shooter: Bob [after a pleading FBI agent asks him to turn himself in]: “I don't think you understand, they killed my dog!”

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