I was driving to work the other day listening to my mp3 player when the John Williams masterpiece, ‘Theme From Superman’ comes on. It’s an amazing piece of work and immediately conjures the Christopher Reeve films. As human actors go, he nailed it. But then I started thinking about all the superhero movies I’ve seen. If you know me, you know I geek out over anything superhero-related. I see a cardboard display in the theatre and I’m psyched. I love that superhero movies had this huge resurgence in the early 00s.
So mentally, in my head, I’m listing the top five superhero movie moments. Not whole movies. That’s an important distinction. A horrible superhero movie could have a spectacular scene in it and make this list. You’ll see what I mean. Also, YouTube yanks these videos down as fast as it can, so don’t be surprised if the video doesn’t play anymore or if there isn’t even any video.
#5 – The team is born. ‘Mystery Men’ is seriously underrated as a superhero flick. It’s a great film. The superhero tryouts are a great moment. Every crackpot and their brother shows up to join the group. ‘PMS Avenger. I only work four days a month. Is there a problem with that?’
#4 – ‘I’m Batman.’ Micheal Keaton was a great pick for Batman. A lot of people thought he couldn’t pull it off, but he did it well. Early in Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’, Keaton hangs a crook over the edge and instructs him to tell all his friends about the new vigilante. When the crook asks, ‘who are you?’, Keaton delivers THE line: ‘I’m Batman!’ Yes, you are.
#3 – Stop that train. In ‘Spider-Man 2′, Doc Ock destroys the controls of a train. Spider-Man works desperately to stop and ultimately succeeds. As he’s falling unconscious after, the people of New York catch him and bring him in. Good stuff.
#2 – Leaving these cards. When Warner Bros relaunched the Batman franchise after Clooney and Schumacher destroyed it, I was hopeful. They delivered. ‘Batman Begins’ REDEFINED the superhero film and put it right up there with boring-ass dramas as real theatrical fare. This scene is from the end. Lt. Gordon shows Batman a card from a new villain on the scene. He flips it and it’s a joker. My wife will vouch for me; I literally jumped in my seat with glee.
#1 – Lois Lane rescued. Let’s make this clear. The ending of ‘Superman’ is RIDICULOUS and STUPID. This scene, however, is awesome. I get teared up watching it. I don’t even care that you know that.
Wow, did 2009 suck for you as much as it did for me?
It was…just…awful. I can’t wait for it to be over. There were points (and still are) where I feel like I just didn’t want to keep pushing. Give me an electric blanket and a bathtub full of water. But I got these two little people counting on me to not screw it up.
So, yes, 2009 was awful. I realize we aren’t at the end yet, but we’re close. I’m moderately comfortable that I will accomplish all three of my New Years Resolutions. Of course, we do still have December, so maybe I’m a idiot for saying anything this early.
Whatever. What happens, happens.
You know what I need. I need you to give me a shout-out. Right here, right now. Leave a comment. It can be as little as four words, ‘I feel ya, dude’ or three paragraphs (Becca). Just give me a push. If you ever planned on commenting here on this blog, make it this post.
So, I think I mentioned this before, but Facebook is like crack. And lately, I’ve been worried that it may spill over into work. And I can’t afford to be Facebook fired. But I figured out a way to nip it in the bud.
Click this image for hilarity!
The biggest timesucks, in general, for me, are Facebook, GMail and Twitter. So I went to those three services and changed the passwords to severe random sequences of numbers, letters and punctuation. Then I wrote the passwords on a folder that stays at home. Now, there is no way I can log in from work. Adding the GMail to the group is the real genius. Otherwise, I could simply reset my password. But now, I can’t even get to GMail at work.
This should work great. I’m actually proud of myself.
Simple, like catching rain in rain barrels.
I’ve talked before about how Facebook is changing the way we hold on to relationships. Where our parents would meet different people throughout their lives and friends would come and go, Facebook allows you to keep up with people from nearly every part of your life. It’s new and exciting, but sometimes confusing to navigate.
Take, for example, my time in Texas. I lived on-base in the dorms, but I had some friends who lived off-base in Fort Worth apartments. I used to hang with this one couple whom I considered good friends. In fact, the wife of that couple introduced me to my first grown-up girlfriend. (I had a couple girlfriends in high school, but really, they were weak relationships at best.) So, recently, I reconnected with the wife (now moved on to another husband) and she’s on Facebook. It’s cool catching up.
Inevitably, the ex-girlfriend comes up. We gloss over it, but the reality is that she and I met at the wrong time. It was an amazing time. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. But life worked out a different and great way with my wife. But now she (my friend from Texas) has friended the ex on Facebook. I’m a little worried. The ex and I haven’t talked in years. Right before I got married, I attempted to get in touch with her. (Not for a booty call, jerks.) Now the possibility exists that she could contact me. That scares me. And yet, I would really like to talk to her.
Which brings me to the point of this post. Why do we, as humans, try so hard to distance ourselves from the people we get so close to after it goes bad? You’d think we’d work harder to mend those relationships back to a friendship. You invest so much time and effort and then because something doesn’t work out right, you cut it off completely. Seems like a giant waste.
What do you think? How have your relations with your ex-girlfriends or ex-boyfriends ended? Did you become friends later? Share it in the comments!
Here’s some food for thought. Thirty years from now:
Linkin Park will be touring, doing state fairs and casinos. They will have some of the original members, but none of those original members will be Mike Shinoda or Chester Bennington.
