Saturday, January 17, 2009
Meaning of Life
In the January 2009 issue of Esquire, there is a section where a cross-section of Americans are interviewed and asked to impart various bits of wisdom from life. The people interviewed ranged from Clint Eastwood to Bill Richardson to composer/pianist Phillip Glass.
A while back I was composing a list of life lessons to help celebrate a friends fortieth birthday. That list previously appeared in this space. After reading the issue of Esquire, I went back and re-read my list and then thought of some new ones I would add.
So without further ado.
The act of writing for the screen and writing for the page is so completely different. In essence, writing a screenplay is like composing a piece of music. You have to make sure it flows. In a way, making a film is like building a house. The house has to have a foundation. But it’s what you do when you move in and customize the house that makes it desirable to live in. With a film, you have to have a solid script. But don’t just photograph the script or you just end up with a photographed play.
Everyone has rhythm regardless of whether or not they can dance. I can dance and I try to bring a certain level of rhythm to everything I do. I don’t know whether or not Martin Scorsese can dance. But every single one of his films has a sense of rhythm. So try to bring a sense of rhythm to everything you do. To me that makes a lot more sense than “whistle while you work”.
You can trace most everything good from a cultural stand point of today back to the blues. Everything from rock and roll to hip-hop to great cinema to wonderful literature.
There is a difference between culture and pop ephemera.
There are more reference points between Punk, hip-hop and old time country than most people realize. Punk grew out of young frustration with corporate America/Britain and a shitty economy. Early country drew from many of the same points as did the blues. Hip-hop and punk share many of the same frustrations. Johnny Cash was in essence one of the first rappers in terms of lyrical content.
If I had known when I graduated from high school that I wanted to be a filmmaker I would have headed directly for film school, even though my parents would NOT have been thrilled with the idea at all.
If Ray Charles came along today, no record label would sign him.
“Time of Your Life” is a good song. But it’s sort of an anomaly in the Green Day canon. In essence, it’s the Green Day song for people who don’t like Green Day.
Uwe Boll is the director for people who don’t get Michael Bay.
Proposition 8 is an example of taking power out of the hands of individuals and putting it in the hands of a group. Passing it is taking a dangerous step toward loss of individual and personal freedom. Of course, that’s the Libertarian in me.
That Kenny Rogers lyric that advises card gamblers you have to “know when to hold em, know when to fold em” can easily be applied to relationships.
I always loved to learn. But I didn’t like school aside from a few classes. So I don’t subscribe to the “we don’t need no education” philosophy. We ALL need education. But school far too often gets in the way of actual education. You learn a lot more from life experience.
Technically I would be considered a part of Gen Y as I was born right in the middle of it. But in reality, I see myself as more of a late arriving Gen Xer. Or better yet, as not belonging to any pre-established group at all. I tend to look at people as individuals, not as members of groups. Schools far too often try to put people in groups.
It is possible to love someone as a friend and not want to lose them as a friend and still love them romantically and long for them on that level.
In the January 2009 issue of Esquire, there is a section where a cross-section of Americans are interviewed and asked to impart various bits of wisdom from life. The people interviewed ranged from Clint Eastwood to Bill Richardson to composer/pianist Phillip Glass.
A while back I was composing a list of life lessons to help celebrate a friends fortieth birthday. That list previously appeared in this space. After reading the issue of Esquire, I went back and re-read my list and then thought of some new ones I would add.
So without further ado.
The act of writing for the screen and writing for the page is so completely different. In essence, writing a screenplay is like composing a piece of music. You have to make sure it flows. In a way, making a film is like building a house. The house has to have a foundation. But it’s what you do when you move in and customize the house that makes it desirable to live in. With a film, you have to have a solid script. But don’t just photograph the script or you just end up with a photographed play.
Everyone has rhythm regardless of whether or not they can dance. I can dance and I try to bring a certain level of rhythm to everything I do. I don’t know whether or not Martin Scorsese can dance. But every single one of his films has a sense of rhythm. So try to bring a sense of rhythm to everything you do. To me that makes a lot more sense than “whistle while you work”.
You can trace most everything good from a cultural stand point of today back to the blues. Everything from rock and roll to hip-hop to great cinema to wonderful literature.
There is a difference between culture and pop ephemera.
There are more reference points between Punk, hip-hop and old time country than most people realize. Punk grew out of young frustration with corporate America/Britain and a shitty economy. Early country drew from many of the same points as did the blues. Hip-hop and punk share many of the same frustrations. Johnny Cash was in essence one of the first rappers in terms of lyrical content.
If I had known when I graduated from high school that I wanted to be a filmmaker I would have headed directly for film school, even though my parents would NOT have been thrilled with the idea at all.
If Ray Charles came along today, no record label would sign him.
“Time of Your Life” is a good song. But it’s sort of an anomaly in the Green Day canon. In essence, it’s the Green Day song for people who don’t like Green Day.
Uwe Boll is the director for people who don’t get Michael Bay.
Proposition 8 is an example of taking power out of the hands of individuals and putting it in the hands of a group. Passing it is taking a dangerous step toward loss of individual and personal freedom. Of course, that’s the Libertarian in me.
That Kenny Rogers lyric that advises card gamblers you have to “know when to hold em, know when to fold em” can easily be applied to relationships.
I always loved to learn. But I didn’t like school aside from a few classes. So I don’t subscribe to the “we don’t need no education” philosophy. We ALL need education. But school far too often gets in the way of actual education. You learn a lot more from life experience.
Technically I would be considered a part of Gen Y as I was born right in the middle of it. But in reality, I see myself as more of a late arriving Gen Xer. Or better yet, as not belonging to any pre-established group at all. I tend to look at people as individuals, not as members of groups. Schools far too often try to put people in groups.
It is possible to love someone as a friend and not want to lose them as a friend and still love them romantically and long for them on that level.
