I'm not sure if Lisa still has this up on her Facebook page - but she did have a someecard about Jesse Spano taking caffeine pills as her profile pic. If anyone is unfamiliar with this episode of Saved By the Bell, I pity you.
Anyway, the reason why I bring that up is because Jesse took caffeine pills because there was so much she wanted to accomplish and not enough time in the day to do it all. I'm in that place right now. I'm really hating work; I just want hang out with friends, sit around and write back and forth to you guys, watch movies, surf the web, etc.
There's so much to address. I don't know where to start.
I guess the first thing that I want to say is that the reason why I apologize so much is because I usually apologize to people for the littlest of things. When I play soccer, I apologize to people for giving a bad pass. It's just somehow very ingrained in me. So there's that, but then there's also the fact that I felt for a moment that I viciously attacked your religion, John. I'm glad you don't see it that way or you can understand what I really meant, but those posts could be viewed as fighting words and I don't want to fight with you or offend you at all. Again, I buy into hippie shit and choose love and respect over hate and anger. Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. I'm also used to religious people being very uptight. You take down a poster of a Christmas tree and suddenly there's a war on Christmas. Jeff is right - this is America where Christians are in control (you can't even get elected president if you're not one). For them to paint themselves as victims will always piss me off. And mainly Christian conservatives pull that stuff - the Fox News team to be more specific.
So unless you're a Christian Conservative, John, I will patronize you and call you one of the "good Christians." I know it sounds pejorative, but that's how I feel. Or, if you were someone like that fucking douche in Norway - someone who lets his religious beliefs destroy/harm the lives of other people. But since there is no warrant out for your arrest at this time, I think it's safe to assume that you're not one of those Christians either. Those are the two "crazies" categories in my mind.
Sure you might believe some or all of the Bible to be literally true. If that's the case, all I can say is, "I can't understand that." Like Jeff said, believing in a lot of the stuff from the Bible is like believing that Harry Potter is real. I will say that I took a class on the Bible in college - it was a fun class and I really enjoyed it. I also found out that the Bible is pretty fucked up. If anyone knows the story of Lot, you know what I'm talking about. But I am not so completely turned off to Christianity and I don't hate people for believing in God. I just know that I don't but I can accept the beliefs of others.
I'm really enjoying my time here in film/rant/motion picture club. Thanks for those kind words, Brandon. I just hope that in the future I can provide more for the film aspect of the club. I enjoy the other stuff definitely, but I do have a goal of learning more about film and its history. I love classics and have seen the most talked about ones, but I definitely want to see more. I know I'm sorta wasting my time by going through the 90s and 80s first - but I really want to complete those years and move onto bigger and better things.
I'm with Jeff and Ben in that I don't care for gore. Al Gore, on the other hand, I can't get enough of! Often it's too gimicky in the way that 3-D is. Each year someone tries to up the ante. Soon Human Centipede will be considered tame. It's such a waste of time. But sure, it isn't always like that. Some gore I can deal with just fine, but mostly it ain't my thing, baby.
John, I completely agree with you in that I don't want to keep talking about non-movie topics every single post. That's not what I'm here to do. I didn't come here to shake things up and turn this into religion/politics club. And I'm glad we agree on the story aspect of The Passion. I feel we've found some common ground, even if took a while for me to get focused. But whatever, all the other stuff was fun, too. I enjoyed everything about it (especially now that I know you are unoffendable).
Brandon, thanks again, man. Sorry my Dashboard Confessional-lovin', emo brother had to ruin your dinner.
I just want to take the time to announce to everyone that the Howard brothers are very playful characters. 95% of the time we are straight-jocular and the other five percent of the time we worship Satan. That's another point I want to make, too. Some Christians assume that if someone doesn't believe in God, he/she believes in Satan. That red bastard is just as fictional to me as God is.
Anyways, I'm with you on squash tasting like shit. I want to go on record and stand up for asparagus, though. That stuff is delicious.
I'm positive Birth of a Nation has more to offer than I assume it does. I don't think that makes you a racist. Because I know you to be a very tolerant man, Brandon, I know that it makes you an admirer/lover of film. If I were to screen the movie at the high school that I sub at and the kids liked it, it would be 100% due to racism - those little racist shits. But yeah, I'm not afraid of that - it's not as if I feel that if I watch it I might secretly like it and it would make me question whether I'm truly tolerant. I don't know, that kind of blatant stuff just feels very horrific to me. I'm just not ready for it yet.
And I don't mean to sound as if the Marx Brothers were racist. Clearly they lived during a time (as Griffith did) when certain things that we know to be offensive now were the norm then. I'm just saying that - I believe it's Duck Soup - where Groucho has a slightly offensive joke where the punchline is "the darkies" - something to that effect. Not sure if you've seen A Day at the Races, but there is a slightly offensive dance sequence in that. It's nothing that would make you view them in negative way - certainly not the case for me, but the point is that there are people that I love (the Marx Brothers) who have done some controversial things and so I don't want to completely dismiss Birth of a Nation of Griffith. Again, Griffith is a huge figure in terms of film history. I can't ignore that fact.
With the atheist carrying out a religious killing example - I was really just trying to say...when was the last time an atheist killed a Christian or a Muslim because of that Christian or Muslim's beliefs? Even though I think you misunderstood me (or perhaps you were just joking), I'm glad you called it an oxymoron, though, and you aren't one of those people who think they're really clever by announcing that atheism is a "religion."
Atheists apologize for their violence, man. I had to give your singer a hug after we stopped playing. True story. Peace and love, man. I love hippies and I'd love to get a drumming circle going with Alex. haha.
I felt like I had more to say, but maybe after we all watch Black Death, we'll have more to argue about. Tree of Life this weekend. I can't wait.
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