Twice
(I thought there was no use cross posting notes from facebook but then I remembered there is so I'm gonna. You may choose to ignore. Will also start cross posting again on myspace so I can link it from my twitter. Synergy my friends - synergy).
In the past couple of weeks I've seen a little over a dozen films. Some of you who have yet to get to know me so well may be surprised, but fact is I like movies. I like the way the different arts mesh together into a super-creation and the way it pulls me out of my world and inspires me or at the very least quiets down the static for a short while. And sometimes when my voice is hoarse and flimsy, hearing someone else's is just what I need. It is like eggnog for the soul.
One film that stood out in particular is the moderately successful indie flick "Once". The story is of a street musician in Ireland who circumstantially crosses paths for what seems like a fleeting moment with a struggling young Czech woman. The characters have no names, and their tale has no beginning or end. It is no whirlwind romance, tear jerking tragedy or hilarious slapstick. It is life. It is a snapshot of everyone, anyone, at any time, with a beautiful and poignant soundtrack composed of original songs by first and last time actors (it is "once" after all) Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
The name of the film "once" refers to a phenomenon us artists know too well. It is the broken record playing that "once" I get this and that done, or "once" I save this much money, or "once" I catch a break, I'll do it. "It" is moving to New York or LA to pursue a full time acting career. It is going to the studio to record your music. It is going to more auditions, it is sending your manuscript out to publishing companies or literary magazines, it is putting up an exhibit of your art. And that once, once you unleash it, it infiltrates every other area of your life. Suddenly you'll go back to school "once" things at work calm down, and you'll tell the man you secretly love how you feel about him "once" the moment is right, and you'll have kids "once" you get settled in your life. And as that once spreads like an infectious disease, you wake up to find that life has passed you by and you're stuck at a job that has you shitting dust, and the person you just wanted a moment with is now having lots of moments with someone else, and you're too old, or too anything to really pursue your passions.
And before I get too depressed by my own writing to remember what my point was, I should remind you that it is never convenient to overcome your fear of change. It is like a bone in your throat and the more you try to swallow it, or even swallow around it, the more painful it becomes, digging into you so hard that you have difficulty breathing. Hesitation is evolution's way of telling us there are mountain lions outside of our caves, and I concur that without it you can get hurt or at the very least be slapped with a nice page straight out of the DSM IV. But hestitation is nothing more than the gag reflex when you take stick your hand down your throat to remove that bone. It's unpleasant but it passes.
She asked me one time what is the one thing that I can say 'once I have that' I'll be happy. I looked at her baffled. There is no one thing. There will always be something else. So we either find happiness in our own lives, or start doing the things that make us happy. Anything else is not living, just cheating death, and even that not very well. The word is an illusion, a siren call that will find you shipwrecked and drowning. It is always time and now it is my time to do the things that complete me. Well... that is once I figure out what they are
In the past couple of weeks I've seen a little over a dozen films. Some of you who have yet to get to know me so well may be surprised, but fact is I like movies. I like the way the different arts mesh together into a super-creation and the way it pulls me out of my world and inspires me or at the very least quiets down the static for a short while. And sometimes when my voice is hoarse and flimsy, hearing someone else's is just what I need. It is like eggnog for the soul.
One film that stood out in particular is the moderately successful indie flick "Once". The story is of a street musician in Ireland who circumstantially crosses paths for what seems like a fleeting moment with a struggling young Czech woman. The characters have no names, and their tale has no beginning or end. It is no whirlwind romance, tear jerking tragedy or hilarious slapstick. It is life. It is a snapshot of everyone, anyone, at any time, with a beautiful and poignant soundtrack composed of original songs by first and last time actors (it is "once" after all) Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
The name of the film "once" refers to a phenomenon us artists know too well. It is the broken record playing that "once" I get this and that done, or "once" I save this much money, or "once" I catch a break, I'll do it. "It" is moving to New York or LA to pursue a full time acting career. It is going to the studio to record your music. It is going to more auditions, it is sending your manuscript out to publishing companies or literary magazines, it is putting up an exhibit of your art. And that once, once you unleash it, it infiltrates every other area of your life. Suddenly you'll go back to school "once" things at work calm down, and you'll tell the man you secretly love how you feel about him "once" the moment is right, and you'll have kids "once" you get settled in your life. And as that once spreads like an infectious disease, you wake up to find that life has passed you by and you're stuck at a job that has you shitting dust, and the person you just wanted a moment with is now having lots of moments with someone else, and you're too old, or too anything to really pursue your passions.
And before I get too depressed by my own writing to remember what my point was, I should remind you that it is never convenient to overcome your fear of change. It is like a bone in your throat and the more you try to swallow it, or even swallow around it, the more painful it becomes, digging into you so hard that you have difficulty breathing. Hesitation is evolution's way of telling us there are mountain lions outside of our caves, and I concur that without it you can get hurt or at the very least be slapped with a nice page straight out of the DSM IV. But hestitation is nothing more than the gag reflex when you take stick your hand down your throat to remove that bone. It's unpleasant but it passes.
She asked me one time what is the one thing that I can say 'once I have that' I'll be happy. I looked at her baffled. There is no one thing. There will always be something else. So we either find happiness in our own lives, or start doing the things that make us happy. Anything else is not living, just cheating death, and even that not very well. The word is an illusion, a siren call that will find you shipwrecked and drowning. It is always time and now it is my time to do the things that complete me. Well... that is once I figure out what they are