The Dangers of Patriotism

First off, this article is titled “The Dangers of Patriotism” because we are currently in the context of an upcoming election, but it could just as easily be titled “The Dangers of Narcissism” or “The Dangers of Overconfidence” or a similar extra-contextual synonym. Secondly, if you’ve watched Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, you’ve probably seen a monologue with a similar message to the one in this article. That’s because my article is highly influenced by that monologue. In order to save you some time I’ve embedded the video at the bottom of the page so you may watch that video instead of read the article if you’d like. I won’t be offended. Thirdly, this article get's a little ranty because I'm passionate about this and I wanted my thoughts to be mostly unfiltered. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s explore this idea.

Before we talk about what is wrong with patriotism, we first need to define patriotism. Patriotism is defined as the devoted love, support and defense of one’s country; national loyalty. For the sake of this article I will extend that definition to mean unwavering support of one’s country. Now I am not about to argue that having pride in one’s country is a bad thing. I think there is a place for that kind of pride, and indeed it is necessary for improving one’s country. The word patriotism might be a little misleading, as it carries too positive a connotation; nationalism may be a better word. Whatever you choose to call it, this idea of unwavering support in one's country results in an over-inflated impression of that country.

You know what? I’m gonna drop this objective not-naming-names strategy people normally use for thoughtful posts, cause it’s counterproductive to my point. When our forefathers (sorry Russian readers, I know there’s a couple of you. This is written with US readers as the main audience, but feel free to continue reading and let me know if you agree from an international standpoint) first started the United States it was the greatest country in the world. We were the first major country to explore civil freedoms. We brought democracy back as a government structure after the Greeks developed it. We competed with our peers to lead the world in education and scientific advancement. And while our country has had some (i.e. many) dark times (slavery, civil inequality, witch hunts, Hollywood blacklisting, the list goes on for a while), we had for two centuries sought to improve ourselves so that we were the greatest country. The rest of the world looked to us as the leading power in the world. Our president was considered the most powerful man in the world. And yet, here we are.

Rather than repeat the statistics in the video or list my own I’ll link you to this website. Basically, what that website will tell you is the United States is not number one in pretty much any of the categories that count. I hope that is sufficient evidence for you that our country may have been the greatest country but certainly is not now.

This brings me to my point on patriotism/nationalism. We became the greatest country in the world, and then we said, “Holy crap! We’re the best. We did it guys, we won the human race.” And we never moved on. We kept this state of mind that we were the best country in the world. We have no competition and thus have no reason to improve. And because of this idea that we implanted in all our minds and the minds of our children that we are the best, we stopped improving. We got too comfortable and we got greedy. We tanked our economy. Now we’re trillions of dollars in debt. We are constantly cutting programs in our education. One of our presidential candidates is contemplating cutting funding to the only democratic television network our country has. Other countries laugh at our health care system. Our middle class is rapidly disintegrating. And we've pretty much cut all funding to NASA.

I’m going to cut off my rant there, because I want this article to maintain some sort of cohesiveness. But we allowed ourselves to become comfortable with the idea of being the greatest and stopped doing what it is that makes a people great: striving for greatness. Thus this idea of patriotism, this unwavering devotion to our country, in which recognizing the accomplishment of another country is an unforgivable sin, forces us to ignore progress other countries make, effectively crippling our ability to compete with our global peers.

We should strive for greatness. As a species, we humans have a constant desire to be the best, to be bettering ourselves. And we should, for only through that can our world improve. And by extension our countries should be competing to be the best, because through that competition we can improve ourselves, our peers will improve themselves and the whole world will slowly improve. But if we refuse to acknowledge the achievements of our peers we allow ourselves to fall into cycles of constantly patting ourselves on the back for being the best despite a complete lack of evidence to support that claim. We must put aside our pride, our nationalism, our patriotism in order to improve ourselves.

Note: One way you can work towards improving your country is by voting in the upcoming election. I don’t care who you vote for, just vote. Because that very act of being involved is an improvement over inaction. So yeah. Vote. Participate in the world around you, including your government. If you aren't registered to vote go here and register. It seriously takes two minutes. I did it the other day. You have till the 22 to register. Please do.

A Post, but not a Good One

Hello everybody! I just wanted to add this post in for a couple of reasons. One to thank you all a whole freaking bunch again because Ramblings of a Cinephile has just passed 2000 views. Thank you guys so much. It means a lot to me that you keep coming back and reading my posts and that you guys actually like them. I literally cried in a corner today out of happiness. Literally? No not literally, that's pathetic, jeez. (I'm saving all my corner cries for when Amy and Rory leave Doctor Who midseason. that will be a truly sad day.) But anyway thank you guys so much. Anyway to reward you I'm going to warn you about Resident Evil: Retribution. Pretty soon my review will show up on SidewalkOnline and I'll link over to it when that happens (it's happened), but in the meantime, just take my brief word for it, don't see it. it's not worth it, no matter your expectations, it will not meet them.
Ok. That's it. Thank you for your patronage. I'm gonna go play Borderlands 2 now.

Movies That Will Probably be Good but Have Yet to Come Out - Part 3, or The Final Installment

The Hobbit – December 14

This film should not require an explanation as to why I am excited or think it will be good. But I’ll give one anyway. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy was one of the most impressive projects creatively, narratologically, and technically that Hollywood has produced in recent memory. It was not only an extremely entertaining example of the epic Hollywood blockbuster that our society so craves, but also an exceedingly well-told story across three films. The most recent installment in the franchise, Return of the King, is tied with Titanic and Ben-Hur for the most Oscar wins of any film. I can’t help but expect Jackson to produce (and write and direct) something amazing for Tolkein’s prequel to Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit. Additionally, this is the first major studio film to be shot in 48 fps and I am curious to see what sort of effect that will have on the medium. Also Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) plays a dragon and Watson (Martin Freeman) plays Bilbo. Should be a fun ride.

Les Miserables – December 14

If you haven’t seen the Liam Neeson adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel yet, stop reading this and go watch it.

I’ll wait.

Done? It was pretty awesome right? Well that same story has also been adapted into a Broadway Musical that is widely regarded as one of the best musicals ever made. And that musical has been adapted into this film. It has a crazy cast, many with Broadway musical backgrounds: Hugh Jackman as the ex-criminal Jean Valjean, Russel Crowe as Inspector Javert, Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thenardier, Sacha Baron Cohen as Thernardier, and Anne Hathaway as Fantine. Ho. Ly. Crap. And then, on top of all of that, Tom Hooper directed it. You may know him as the director of 2010 best picture/best director winner The King’s Speech. If you don’t, stop reading this and go watch it. The rest of this list will still be here when you get back. (Quick bit of trivia regarding this movie, all of the musical numbers are recorded on set, not in a studio.)

This is 40 – December 21

Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up was one of the most surprising movies I’ve ever seen. Not because it was particularly plot twisty, but because it wasn’t just a raunchy sex comedy like I expected. I mean, it was a raunchy sex comedy, but there was a lot more to it, such as realistic, sympathetic characters dealing with life’s harsh realities and learning to accept responsibility for one’s actions. This is 40 follows the lives of a few of the characters from Knocked Up, Pete (Paul Rudd), Debbie (Leslie Mann), and Jason (Jason Segel) in particular. Since Knocked Up, Apatow has proven himself a talented modern story teller time and time again and I look forward to his return these character’s lives in what will hopefully be an equally touching and hilarious film as Knocked Up was.

Django Unchained – December 28

I like Quentin Tarantino. A lot. He’s clever, intelligent, hilarious, and knows how to direct actors in such a way as to get a completely unnatural and yet totally believable performance every time he steps behind the camera. Django Unchained features some of Tarntino’s favorite actors returning, both Samuel LMF Jackson and Christoph Waltz are back, and some exciting new comers, Jamie Foxx is premiering in the Tarantinoverse in this film and, whom I personally am most excited for performance-wise in this film, Leonardo DiCaprio who, based on some of his previous roles, seems to me to have been born to be directed by Tarantino and should have been introduced to the verse a long time ago. This film looks like it’ll be a killer good time and I will definitely have a review of it over on SidewalkOnline come this December.

BONUS! Seven Psychopaths - October 12

Ok not really a “bonus” so much as I missed this one in an earlier post so I figured I’d tag it on here. But this movie looks hilarious and has, again, a stellar cast: Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, and Woody Harrelson. It’s the first project writer/director Martin McDonagh has worked on since 2008’s In Bruges, which was brilliantly and sadistically hilarious. If you haven’t seen In Bruges you should. Seven Psychopaths revolves around the accidental kidnapping of a gangster’s Shih Tzu, and every aspect of it looks hilarious. Just watch the trailer.

Do you agree? Disagree? Did I miss anything? There aren't anymore installments. This is it. If there is anything I missed or you just have something to say, whether pertaining to this post or not, please comment in the comment section right below this. Seriously. It's right down there. I need your comments. I'm so lonely in my apartment with five other people...

Movies That Will Probably Be Good But Have Yet to Come Out This Year Part 1

So I’ve been taking a look at all my recent posts and realized that despite being a cinephile, see this blog’s name, I haven’t written a post about a film that wasn’t a link to a movie review I wrote for SidewalkOnline Magazine (my latest, Dark Knight Rises, here) in like…hella days. I’ve been doing some pretty thought provoking and deep stuff lately and, while that’s nice, I thought I’d like to post something else. Something about movies. And since summer’s coming to a close and the blockbuster season with it, I thought I’d give you guys a couple examples of movies that are still coming that I think will be worth watching. So without further ado (which I really say too often, if you know of anything else I can say that means pretty much the same thing let me know in the comments, it’d be much appreciated. [Also when I say “without further ado” it’s almost always followed by more ado. Maybe I should try and work around that. But I digress]), welcome to my three installment article Movies That’ll Probably be Good That Have Yet to Come Out This Year (MTPbGTHYtCOTY-rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it?).

Lawless – August 29

This film about a depression-era bootlegging gang (moonshine, not pirated movies) who runs into trouble with a corrupt deputy (Guy Pearce) who wants a cut of the profits in return for his ‘ignorance’ of their operation stars Shia Lebouf and Tom Hardy as the brothers leading the gang and features Gary Oldman as the leader of a rival gang. With a round of such phenomenal actors and relatively new talents John Hillcoat and Nick Cave directing and writing respectively this movie promises to be at least an entertaining film if not one that will skillfully combine the thought-provoking quality of an independent film with the good-old fashioned gang warfare violence characteristic of older studio films, though this is a Weinstein Company film so very much in the indie realm. That image on the left is the poster and below is the redband trailer: please be aware the trailer does contain violence and nudity.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower – September 21

Point 1: This film is written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, who also wrote the novel the film is based on. So if ever a film could be adapted into a book well, this is the way to do it. Point 2: This is Emma Watson’s second performance since the conclusion of the Harry Potter franchise. That in and of itself is enough to make it worth considering. Plus Paul Rudd is in it. Who doesn’t love Paul Rudd and his adorably-too-short-for-his-body arms? After the primary inclusion of point 1 combined with point 2 and Paul Rudd, the film adaptation of this beloved novel should be considered worth a viewing.

Looper – September 28

Honestly I can’t tell if this is an indie film or a studio pic so I’m just not gonna categorize it like that. Regardless, its stellar cast and intriguing plot make this film one to look forward to. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an assassin who kills targets sent back in time to his location in order to effectively make the assassination untraceable. Until one day future JGL (played in this film by Bruce Willis) drops out of space as JGL’s next target, after which, for lack of a better term, shit goes down. The film looks like an interesting exploration of the sci-fi/action genre combo, and while it doesn’t appear like it will address much in the way of time travel conceptually, it should still prove an interesting and fun flick. It’s written and directed by Rian Johnson, who wrote and directed Brick, which, though I haven’t gotten to it myself, is supposed to be a phenomenal film.

Taken 2 – October 5

And now we come to the first studio film on the list (or possibly second again I’m really not sure about Looper). Taken 2 follows Taken’s plot pretty obviously. Liam Neeson killed tons of Albanian’s in order to save his daughter, and now the father of one the guys Neeson killed wants revenge. Now Liam Neeson and his wife Jean Grey (or Famke Jannsen, however you want to look at her) have been taken and Neeson has to enlist his daughter’s help in order to escape. Here’s what it boils down to: Neeson killed a bunch of people pretty awesomely in Taken. In Taken 2 that promises to happen again. Also the script is written By Luc Besson, who you probably know as the guy who wrote The Fifth Element and Leon:The Professional. I would mention the director, but it made me not want to see the movie when I looked him up. So see it for Liam Neeson being an old Irish badass.

Cloud Atlas – October 26

I can’t explain this film. The plot is way too confusing based on the trailer to glean anything. But regardless it looks cool. It has a stellar cast with so many famous actors in it that I’m just going to recommend you click the link in the subheading so that you can see them rather than me listing them and linking to each of their imdb profiles individually. Also it’s a Wachowskis film. And I love the Wachowskis. The Matrix, V for Vendetta, I even like Speed Racer pretty well. This movie looks neat. And if you watch any of the trailers in this installment, watch this one, because without it you won’t be able to comprehend why this movie looks so good. Though I’ve seen it twice now and I’m not sure I understand.

Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Do you have movies you think I missed (keep in mind there's two more installments coming)? Am I completely moronic for including one of these? Do you have anyrequests for articles? Or movie reviews? Please tell me in the comments below so we can discuss it. I'd like to hear from my readers. 

The Source of Great Human Cities

Have you ever been somewhere – visited a city you’d never been to, stayed the night in a little town on the way to your ultimate destination, or even just seen a picture of a place you want to go to and immediately fallen in love with it – just knew you belonged to that place and that place belonged to you in a sort of symbiotic relationship that makes even the deepest of love stories seem tame by comparison?

Me neither.

I’ve always wanted it to happen. I have this romanticized idea that one day I’ll just up and leave Irvine and move to some wonderful city whose culture will compliment my personality perfectly and inspire me to write some great American classic like The Great Gatsby, The Godfather, or Ferris Beuler’s Day Off. I want there to be this perfect place, a place meant for me, like my soul-mate, but a city. And I always expect it to be somewhere else. New York, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, Venice, Hamburg. Cause each of those places has this legendary charm. Your great people come from great cities. Or at least get there eventually.

But I live in Sunny Southern California; I’ve been to Manhattan; I stayed for a week in Connecticut; I drove all the way across the country, from Ukiah, CA to Orlando, FL, seeing amazing cities like San Antonio and New Orleans; I’ve walked the streets of Seattle at one in the morning. I’ve been to all four corners of the country and most places in between and the closest I got to falling in love with a city was when I was stranded for three days in Mississippi. After we left New Orleans it was getting dark and as we hit the Louisiana-Mississippi border it started raining. And after about five more minutes driving in Mississippi it started pouring. Well, pouring actually isn’t the best word for it. Torrential-downpour-of-some-domestic-animal-way-larger-than-cats-or-dogs is much more accurate terminology for this particular storm. Anyway, we were driving through this storm when we realized we needed gas so we pulled of the freeway. And my friend who was driving, who I shall not name, but you know who you are, took the off ramp at a speed that was entirely unnecessarily fast and then, as the inevitable stop sign suddenly leapt into sight, he slammed on his break in a puddle whose depth must have rivaled that of some man-made lakes. We lost traction, spun out, hit a curb, and a wheel broke off the car – OFF the car.

We waited for hours for a tow truck driver, who arrived at the same time as a cop. Now we hadn’t been drinking or anything, but we were all young, clearly from out of state, my other friend (whom you can see peeing in a cave here) was vomiting all over the side of the road as a result of sucking some bug poison off his fingers in an attempt to cleanse them of some post-car crash Pringles dust, and our car was lying in a ditch on the side of the road, and so I definitely expected a breathalyzer test or something for all of us, never mind who was driving. Nothing. The cop didn’t even ask. Not if we were drinking, not to see our licenses. Nothing. All he, the tow truck driver, and a hundred people who drove past our wrecked vehicle while we were waiting for the tow truck driver, did was ask if we needed help. Throughout our entire three day stretch in Mississippi, which was not a particularly attractive place (old run down buildings, air so humid a landshark was not just a horrible, impossible nightmare, but something that was in all likelihood possible, and just ridiculously hot) every single person we met was friendly to us. It was as if they actually trusted us. And the environment was amazing. We spent hours and hours just sitting at the mechanic’s shop chatting with the secretary. Random people who worked there offered to go out of their way to drive us to our hotel. We were treated like we were fellow people. Not some sort of foreign entity that is not to be trusted, as I found was the case in nearly every other city I’ve been to, with the single exception of the small town I grew up in. What made Biloxi, Mississippi bearable, and indeed enjoyable, was not some artistic culture that encouraged me to create, but just people treating other people like people.

 In Irvine, which must be the most unoriginal, least creative place I’ve ever been, I have been far more productive as a writer than I have ever been previous, due to the people around me who enjoy my writing and online communities like Nerdfighteria that encourage me to think and try and improve our world through that thinking. And while I absolutely hate Irvine for its architecture, city planning, culture, and corporatization, I think the reason that I dislike Irvine most is because people are afraid of each other here. We don’t talk to strangers here. We don’t help other people here. And I’m part of the problem because I don’t actively fight against it. Louis C.K. pointed it out best I think in his show Louie in regard to his friend’s cousin asking a homeless person if he needed help with the comment “No, no, he needs you desperately, that’s not the point. We just don’t do that here.”

I believe that the ‘city soul-mate’ doesn’t exist. Cities aren’t great because they’re inherently great. Cities are great because people allow them to be great. The best place I’ve ever been was just that because the people there treated everyone else like people. If we can begin to treat each other like we are all the same. Like we all have the same problems, think the same thoughts, and are just as human as the indeterminate “they” are, then I think we can make any city great. It’s not about finding places that foster a loving environment; it’s about creating that environment ourselves. My friend Alliey described this phenomenon as “we are all alone together.”

In conclusion, though I desperately hope I get out of Irvine after college cause I hate it for more reasons than the one I have just discussed pretty thoroughly, I don’t believe I will ever just find a place that will make me happy, cause places don’t make people happy. People make people happy. And I think we can move onto a world where everyone feels as welcome as they do in Biloxi, Mississippi if we just remember that everyone else is just like us: looking for a place where they are accepted for who they are and for someone who will love them just because they simply are. 

A (Hopefully) Thoughtful Response to Angry Atheists

So I recently was perusing facebook, cause it’s summer and I don’t really have anything to do, and while I was on facebook I saw a post that made me an odd mixture of angry, sad, and aroused (Not sexually! My gosh, in like an ‘I want to do something about that’ kind of way - you people and your sexual deviancies.) Anyway the post was one of those really long essay posts entitled Why Atheists are Angry. Rather than directly quoting it or screen capping it, I’ll just summarize in order to save space. The essay-post lists several really tragic occurrences, such as the pregnancy of a young girl due to her father’s sexual abuse (and the church’s subsequent excommunication of her due to her abortion of the child, even though she would have likely died had she gone through with the birth), the Catholic Church’s money laundering, the criminalization of atheism in foreign countries, the one that makes me the saddest: the persecution of a girl trying to separate church and state by a group of children and adults who call themselves Christians, as well as many others.

The reason I had such a strong emotional reaction to this particular post wasn’t because it demonized Christians, because far too often those who call themselves followers of Christ have earned their own demonization. No I was so profoundly affected by this tirade because it missed the major problem consistent throughout these issues: the fault of man. All of the problems listed in the essay-post are absolutely tragic. And they make me angry too. However, this is not an issue inherent in the religion itself, just like how terrorism is not a problem inherent in Islam and immorality is not a problem inherent in atheists and agnostics. The problem here stems from a human tendency to value rules and preconceived definitions as a constant more than we do the situation or the person rules are meant to protect. This is a tendency known as legalism. It is why certain laws persist even though they’re silly and it is why often times conservative Christians are cold and careless. It is horrible and it assumes that everyone can live a perfect life, even though no evidence has ever existed that suggests humans can live mistakeless lives. I do not defend what these people do and in fact condemn them just as much as the person who posted the essay-post.

However, to blame such problems on religion excuses them as results of religion exclusively and not on human fault. These problems stem from a human failure to be consistently compassionate to those who need it. And the only way to improve such a failure is to make the decision yourself to stop. To stand up for what is right and work towards a better world. To suggest that horrible travesties such as these, which are admittedly performed in the name of religion, are caused by religion supposes two things detrimental to the improvement of our world. The first supposition is that without religion these things would not happen. This shows a fundamental lack of knowledge as to the horrible things that have been done in the name of things completely separate from religion, such as greed (which though often experienced by religious people is not a requirement for religion, see Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc). If it were not for our human penchant for greed we wouldn’t even be in the war in which we are currently participating. The second supposition is that all religious people perform these atrocities or ignore them happening. There have been a number of religious people have done very little other than improve this world, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa to name just a couple. Many effective charities, such as Jewish World Watch and Islamic Relief, were founded by religious people or operate based on religious beliefs.

In conclusion my point with this post isn’t to defend religious people over nonreligious people. But just to warn that blaming religion for many of the atrocities committed across the world is missing the problem. The problem isn’t in religion. It’s in us. And the only way it can be stopped is if those of us who see these atrocities and get angry actual do something about it. Improving our world isn’t dependent on abolishing belief systems that have both guided people towards evil acts and towards good acts, but in we as humans fighting these atrocities and actual focusing on something greater than ourselves. Think about it. 

Do you agree? Disagree? Have questions? Tell me or ask them in the comments!

(Oh yeah and by the far less solemn way, I wrote a review of The Five Year Engagement for SidewalkOnline Magazine right here)

Movie Review: Prometheus

So I wrote a review for Prometheus for SideWalk Online, where I am a guest writer and movie critic. Go check it out please!
 http://www.sidewalkonline.com/2012/06/movie-review-prometheus/
Also, since I couldn't embed it on that post for some reason, here's the trailer:

Travel Blog/Thoughts From Places: Fort Bragg and Lakeport

So I recently went back to my home town of Ukiah (located in smoky Mendocino County [heheh, get it? Cause Mendocino County has a lot of pot in it…]) for a week and a half. And while it used to be where I live, it is now a place I vacation at since I’ve been officially living as an independent adult in Southern California for three years. So I figured why not let Ramblings of a Cinephile become a travel blog for a day? So this week you’ll get to see what my home town is like-aren’t you excited? - Actually I just went through my photographs and I don’t have any pictures of Ukiah…because I lived there for a long time. However, I do have pictures of Fort Bragg and Lakeport, so instead I’ll tell you about my day trips to those places!

Fort Bragg

Wednesday June 20, 2012

It’s a day like any other summer day in Ukiah. And by that I mean it’s as hot as whatever circle of Hell is really hot, which is most of them. I think. I haven’t read Dante’s Inferno yet. Anyway it’s a smoltering (a word I just made up by the way) day like any other so my friends and I decide to go to the cool haven that is the coastal town of Fort Bragg for the day. We arrive in Fort Bragg around four p.m. after getting lost on some abandoned logging trails in Brook Trails. Now just passed Fort Bragg is a coastal beach called Ten Mile Beach.

Ten Mile Beach...from afar

And just passed Ten Mile Beach is a small patch of beach with the nicest sand I’ve found north of Monterey. My friends and I hung out there for a while, playing with sticks and sand and stuff. You know - fun, adult stuff.

I don't know those people. I hope they don't mind that
they're on the internet. Cause they're here to stay.

The driftwood graveyard

I peed in that cave.

My friend peeing in his own cave.

Here he is happy about being done.

Sarah peed in this cave. 

No one peed in this cave, cause it was kinda wet.
But I thought you guys should get to see all the caves.

I don't know what they are, but they are so cool

Feet.

The logman cometh

We had more fun than you would expect college kids
to have putting that stick in the sand.

"Hey dude wanna go to party?"
"Nope having too much fun putting this stick in the sand"

We ate at McDonald's entirely to order happy meals
and get the Pokemon toy that came with it.

Lakeport

Thursday, June 21, 2012

My sister owes me lunch so I make her buy me food at this awesome pizza place called Main Street Pizza (which I plan to review later this week), which is located in the only good city in one of the worst counties in Northern California: Lake County. Sorry people from Lake County, but you know it’s true. Anyway while we’re there we meet up with our mutual friend with whom we proceed to wander around downtown Lakeport.  

One of my favorite places in Lakeport is this huge used bookstore.
That one on the right is it. 

And this is the Iguana that lives there.

This is what remained of my pizza when it occurred to me to photograph it for the blog.

This is where Pillsbury Dough Boys are sent when they
become Pillsbury Dough Men. Kinda like Penn State.
OH! (Sorry about that...thought it was better than a Michael Jackson
or Catholic Church joke though.)

Thoughts From These Places

Thinking back on the trip I can’t help but ponder what it is that makes something like playing in sand or going through thrift stores fun. Is it the physical activity? The process by which our brain releases endorphins causing some sort of elation? I think that’s a portion of it. However, I believe it runs deeper than that. Because it wasn’t the act of shoving a stick into some sand and creating a weird archway or the joy of eating McDonald’s hamburgers, because that really isn’t a joy at all and I prefer when my stomach doesn’t rebel against my body. I enjoyed that time because I was doing it with good friends. I don’t know if this is a universally acknowledged truth, but I know for me fun stems from being around people I love and who love me back. Furthermore, I know one of my friends has been unhappy  with her life where she is living now, not because the area itself is bad (if the pictures make any case at all it is in fact to the contrary), but because she doesn’t have the people she loves most with her there. We humans are naturally social creatures I think, and even for introverts, like myself and probably most of you reading this, human contact, whether physical or emotional, is important in our enjoyment of this journey we call life. Cause we all need the human touch. 

WOLDBP Post 2 - Spider Charles Jock and Flex Seal

For post two of the Week-of-Legitimate-Daily-Blog-Posts, or WOLDBP for short (I know, catchy initialism isn’t it?), I figured I would give you readers insight into the way my mind works through a writing exercise. Previous to writing this post I was working on the introduction to an essay for my Drama class. This following is a stream of consciousness representative of the things I thought about while writing (please note that not one of my thoughts are about the paper, a sign summer break has truly started even though I’m not quite done with school).

     Oh hey, check it out. There’s a spider on my ceiling. Walking directly towards me. Crap that thing is gonna jump on my head. Oh hey wait - it’s turning. To the left, it’s still turning to the left. It’s kinda constantly turning left. And the fan is turning with it. Well it’s probably not turning with it, but you know…self. Awkwardly talking to myself in my brain. Still doing it – stop it. So wait, why is the spider turning with the fan? It’s probably because the spinning shadows are confusing the spider’s sense of direction, making it think that it has to move in a circle matching the circular pattern of the shadows.

     Well that’s boring. Maybe it’s because the spider is a humanitarian. Wait spiders can’t be humanitarians cause they’re not human. A spidertarian? No, an arachnitarian. He’s very concerned with problems in spider society. He’s probably doing an AIDSwalk. He’s doing laps in order to raise money to prevent the spread of spider AIDS. He’s like a little humanitarian spider Charles Jock. Well that’s not fair to Charles Jock, he could be a humanitarian; I didn’t ask him. I guess he could be some sort of disguised spider, but that seems unlikely, though he did have really long legs. But anyway yeah, that’s better than the sciency one.

     Jeez, I hate when memes get used in like real life. Memes are an internet thing and they should stay there. Stupid comedy central using the Fry thing to advertise for Futurama. Why do I care so much? I feel like it takes away from the internet community. It detracts from the –

     OH SHIT! The spider is gone. Spider Charles Jock is no longer on the ceiling. GAAAHHGHH! What was that tickling my leg? Oh my gosh it’s all up in my pants. I should take them off so I can get SCJ off of me. It’s probably not poisonous but I don’t wanna deal with the big bump that comes with that thing chewing on my leg. Oh hey it’s gone. I really need to start working on a blog post for today.

     I don’t even know what this commercial is for. What’s a flex seal? Is that like a gymnastics seal - a seal with amazing reflexive powers? He can twist and dodge away from all the evil seal clubbers. And at night he dons a mask and uses his amazing abilities to protect baby seals everywhere from the constant threat of seal clubbers.

Not this kind of Seal Clubbing

This kind of Seal Clubbing

      That’d be a good thing to post about. Maybe I’ll write my post about the adventures of Flex Seal. Or maybe just the random shit I think about. Yeah, that last one. It sounds like it’d take less effort. I’m tired.

[RXYUPQY3BUFB] Please ignore the code inside the brackets. It’s a publicity thing. It’s not important. In fact it isn’t real. It’s all a dream.

Paper Towns - the Full Review

So I have two updates for you guys. The first one is that I’m on vacation from school for a week, and so that I don’t spend the whole time watching reruns of Friends and old vlogbrothers videos, I’m going to update ramblingsofacinephile every day. And each posting will be a full legitimate post, not the random plugs for halfgiant that I’ve been giving you. So I’d much appreciate it if you give me suggestions for posts in the comments, because coming up with a new idea every day is hard. The second update is that despite having already started my journey through Paper Towns as a review series, I have to cut it short because I wound up reading the rest of the book in one sitting. As a result I’m just going to write a full review of the book as my first post of the week. Here is the review:

The Summary:

Paper Towns is a novel written by John Green in three parts and a prologue. The prologue has been extensively covered here, so I won’t go into it too much in this review. The first part however is mainly concerned with a brief nocturnal adventure with our protagonist Quentin Jacobsen, also referred to as Q, and his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo shows up in Q’s bedroom one night and whisks him away to help her get revenge against her cheating boyfriend and Margo’s friends who didn’t enlighten her as to her boyfriend’s licentious actions. This adventure is a fun one that draws the reader into the lives of these characters and allows us to see Q’s feelings for Margo develop. And yet, just as we become intrigued with discovering who Margo has grown up to be, the night is over and Margo leaves town, supposedly never to be seen again. Thus concludes the first part of the book.

The second part is concerned mostly with Q’s attempts to find Margo based on a string of loosely connected clues Margo leaves behind for Q to investigate. This part of the book is mostly comprised of Q’s stream of consciousness ponderings, which provide insight into the way Q sees the world. Furthermore, the segment consists of lots of setting development, introducing us to Q’s parents and showing us the everyday facets of Q’s life. The primary effect of this setting development is that we the readers get to see what it is that shapes Q as a human being: the way he sees the world, how he spends his free time, and what he truly values (which oftentimes is just as selfish as you’d expect from a teenager: Q often focuses on things that satisfy his own desires far more than they do his friends’ and hopes to see one of his classmates take off her clothes). After Q has thoroughly investigated Margo’s clues, and thus the little bit of her soul Margo allows Q to see, the second segment concludes with Q discovering where Margo has escaped to and undergoing his own adventure to find her.

To avoid spoilers I will not go into details on the third segment of the book. I will just inform you that it is highly entertaining and I read it straight through from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m.

The Spoiler Free Assessment:

Now I was already familiar with John Green before reading this book via his vlogbrothers youtube channel, which did give me a level of referential enjoyment you can only get by having watched John Green talk for several hours. However, I had no clue what to expect upon reading this book, as I had never seen any of Green’s writing beforehand. That being said I was extensively surprised at how well written Paper Towns is. It being a young adult novel, I assumed it would be moderately well written, as it had won a couple awards, but probably nothing particularly special. But no, Green manages to consistently impress with his snappy and witty dialogue as well as his use of internal monologue, on which the novel (particularly the second section) relies heavily. These two things work together seemingly effortlessly to create vastly complex characters and relationships between those characters. Q and his friends feel as if they have been friends for years and Q’s relationship with Margo seems as if the two are rekindling an old companionship. Furthermore, Green paints an environment that matches seamlessly with the characters living in it. Q and his parents’ relationship helps to clarify why Q is the way he is; the paper quality of Orlando helps to explain Margo’s desperation to leave. Additionally, all the characters serve some purpose in the novel. No one is useless. Every character works together to reveal what I believe John Green is trying to say with this novel. And that is that people are complex. And limiting people to single facets of understanding endangers that person’s understanding of himself or herself and works against allowing people to be who they truly are. Q’s constant inner monologue wondering why Margo is the way she is paints her to be this supernatural girl beyond human understanding in Q’s mind, when she is in fact a complex person with feelings and fears and fervor just like Q. Every aspect of the book works to reveal that every character, even basic archetypes like ‘school bully’ and ‘popular hot girl’ are far more than the simplistic shadows they are often portrayed as. A novel in which all the parts work together so seamlessly to convey a message as powerfully as Paper Towns does is, in my opinion, the very definition of an excellent novel.

Five stars out of Five

Things to Think About While Reading:

Rather than end with a spoiler-filled nitty gritty section like I did with my Hunger Games review, I’m going to tie this novel to two other pieces I couldn’t help but think about while reading Paper Towns. The first is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, which was fresh in my mind from having to read it for an English class. I couldn’t help but be constantly reminded of Basil’s understanding of Dorian limiting who Dorian could be by Q’s limited understanding of Margo. In both cases, that limited understanding results in creation of an impossibly perfect ideal that leaves no room for human flaw, effectively dehumanizing the character. And while I probably can’t go into the comparison too much without writing a whole essay, it is definitely an interesting comparison to think about while reading this novel (which I wholeheartedly recommend you do). The other thing Green’s novel reminded me of, particularly his exploration of the idea that certain people bring out aspects of other people that wouldn’t otherwise be there, thus increasing the complexity of said person, is a quote from the book The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis that basically states that a person brings out parts of another person’s personality that would not otherwise exist, suggesting that the specific complexities of human beings is highly dependent on the way they interact with each other. That was interesting to think about in conjunction to Green’s book because it deepened the question, “what then happens when instead of bringing out more complexity we attempt to simplify?”

My Favorite Quote:

“I understand now that I can’t be her and she can’t be me. Maybe Whitman had a gift I don’t have. But as for me: I must ask the wounded man where he is hurt, because I cannot become the wounded man. The only wounded man I can be is me.” –John Green pg 298 of Paper Towns

500 Views!!!

Ramblings of a Cinephile has just hit 500 views!!!! And it is all thanks to you guys. Thank you so much for making my blog moderately successful. To show my appreciation please enjoy this picture of me sleeping from last year.

There you go. We're even.

Anyway thank you guys so much. As a reward if you have any requests as far as something you want me to write on, write a story about, or make a video of me doing something then I will do that. Leave requests in the comments. I have finished the first part of Paper Towns, and I will get my next step in my journey through Paper Towns uploaded probably by Thursday or Friday since I'm swamped with essays right now.

Please enjoy these gifs of Robert Downey Jr. as a cat

An Unnecessarily Serious(?) Analysis and Critique of "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction

(Lyrics taken from  http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/onedirection/whatmakesyoubeautiful.html)

[Verse 1]

[Liam]

You're insecure,

Don't know what for,

You're turning heads when you walk through the door,

Don't need make-up,

To cover up,

Being the way that you are is enough,

Analysis:

There is girl who suffers from self-esteem issues. However, Liam asserts this does not mean she doesn’t have value. She can be beautiful by just being herself. She doesn’t need to change her appearance or personality, as implied by the verb “are”, a conjugation of “to be,” which implies that the way she acts or presents herself is enough to be beautiful.

[Bridge]

[Harry]

Everyone else in the room can see it,

Everyone else but you,

Analysis:

Just because she is unaware of her beauty does not mean that other people do not see her beauty.

[Chorus]

[All]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Analysis:

The girl in question is radiantly and uniquely beautiful. Though she suffers from self-esteem problems she has a certain level of personality present in her hair flipping. However her shy smiling at the ground betrays her body image issues and lack of confidence. She is unaware that she is beautiful.

If only you saw what I can see,

You'll understand why I want you so desperately,

Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh oh,

That's what makes you beautiful

The speaker sees a beauty in this girl that she herself cannot see. And if she could understand what he sees then she would not have her self-esteem issues. However, her beauty appears to stem from her humility, implying that this beauty is not entirely physical, though the vagueness of the line still allows for that.

[Verse 2]

[Zayn]

So c-come on,

You got it wrong,

To prove I'm right,

I put it in a song,

I don't know why,

You're being shy,

And turn away when I look into your eye eye eyes,

Her self-esteem issues are a failure for her to understand her own beauty. However, this man seems to think that by singing a thought he makes it true. This is a logical fallacy so intense it brings the rest of his argument into question. Putting that aside for now though, he ends this rather week stanza with a declaration of his bafflement at the girl’s self-esteem issues. Perhaps he is ignorant to societal standards.

[Bridge]

[Harry]

Everyone else in the room can see it,

Everyone else but you,

The repetition of this line calls attention to the importance of the fact that everyone else is aware of her beauty, even if the girl is not.

[Chorus]

[All]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

If only you saw what I can see,

You'll understand why I want you so desperately,

Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh oh,

That's what makes you beautiful

See previous chorus analysis.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

Na Na Na Na Na Na [x2]

I believe this sequence serves to fill up extra time in the song, but may also serve to be a repeated denial of the girl’s self-esteem issues in the hope that she will begin to see her inherent beauty.

[Middle 8]

[Harry]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

[All]

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

[Chorus]

[All]

Baby you light up my world like nobody else,

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,

But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful ([Zayn:] Oh),

If only you saw what I can see,

You'll understand why I want you so desperately ([Harry:] Desperately),

Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,

You don't know,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh oh,

You don't know you're beautiful,

Oh oh,

[Harry]

That's what makes you beautiful

Rather than repeat my previous analysis of the last paragraphs, I will summarize my critique now. Though this song suffers from a few weak points, such as vague points and the entire stanza sung by Zayn, it has many strong point and appears to be working to encourage girls to not fear that they may be being judged as ugly or invaluable and instead to focus on their inherent beauty, which could well stem from a physical beauty or from an inner beauty. The overall message and theme of this song is a positive one. Girls, don’t live your life in constant fear of judgment or being called “ugly.” You are beautiful whether you know it or not.

In conclusion,I think this song has a pretty decent message, one that girls need to hear more often in a world populated by Usher and LMFAO. Also, though I try my hardest not to enjoy this song, it's too catchy for me not to like it. Here's a link to my favorite covers so far, as well as the original.