Virginia Is For Families

Beth and I went to the movies last evening. There are a lot of them out there that we would like to see as Oscar night approaches. Why did we choose this one? My daughter saw it and wrote a few glowing words about it.

Also some of my favorite movies mess with time in ways that drive critics crazy. Somewhere In Time was a favorite long ago when Christopher Reeve was with us. It was a magical movie with a wonderful score. Now both he and his beloved wife are gone far too early in life. Life imitating art?

And then there was Groundhog Day. I left the theater that day in a trance. What a movie! Here is the formula: mess around with time and add a romantic relationship.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Critical reviews are all over the map. Roger Ebert didn’t like it apparently because life is not like this. It goes in one direction and backing it up is just stupid.

Maybe. But I don’t care. Time goes really fast sometimes. And when I was in college and worked Friday nights on a General Motors assembly line it went really, really slow. I wanted to kill myself sometimes before it was time for lunch. It never really started to back up but it almost did!

The romantic relationship in this movie starts when Benjamin is still very old and his sweetheart is just a child. But eventually he turns into Brad Pitt Adonis and is riding around on a motorcycle looking better than James Dean and Marlon Brando all mixed up together. Or at least that is what Beth tells me. Daisy Fuller, his love interest, has grown into a beautiful young woman and they sail together out to sea. The photography is very well done and we spend a few moments thinking about our own brief moments of of love and glory.

Because they are short are they not? Time is busy messing around with us every waking moment. Here I sit with my aging sacroiliac and sagging muscles while dreams of being Brad Pitt have turned into nightmares about turning into Richard Simmons.

It’s all about dreams isn’t it? We go to the movies to dream. We dream every night. We have day dreams and forget to do our homework. Then we die and dream forever. Or maybe we wake up. I’m not sure what happens but it can’t be worse than working on a GM assembly line in college on Friday night while your girlfriend is probably out with some other dude.

All too soon Benjamin and his flower, Daisy, get down to raising a family and things start to go south. But not to Key West this time. He has visions of meeting and passing his daughter at about age ten or fifteen (it’s difficult to get an exact fix on this). So he leaves! He goes to India where they understand about these things. Because my feeling is that reincarnation is a fact of life and that’s why films that mess around with time hit home if they are well done.

Daisy ends up holding baby Brad in her arms. She is his mother. She is his lover. He is her grandfather. We pass through all these arrangements in this film.

As I sit next to my beloved and remember the day several years ago I recalled our previous life together.

Back in the beginning of the twentieth century when I was a boy and near death. She was my mother and her life would not last many more years. She was also a painter and there is a rather dark painting of a tree in Beth’s mother’s living room.

I recognize it from long ago. Art is an important part of our true lives.

And time is just the vehicle that takes us there.

For my beloved. . .

Here are some headlines out there in news land  this morning.  I can’t resist commenting on them.  Who writes these things anyway?   Some of them  are just. . .

Fed sees economic woes persisting into next year

No!! And next year is SIX WEEKS away!   No turnaround before then?  Because I know we were all hoping life was going to return to normal in time for a really great New Years Eve party.

This headline conveys nothing that we do not already know.  But worse than that it just confirms something we are trying to forget.

Paris Hilton and Benji Madden Split Up

I was saddened to learn that Paris and Benji are no longer a couple.  Ever since Benji made that beautiful movie I felt like he deserved someone who could give him the best and probably most expensive dog food available.  And I also knew that Paris worshiped him because he actually did make a great movie (something she would love to do more than anything).  What happened?

Where’s he going to go now?  The kennel just doesn’t make sense for the little guy after where he has been.  Benji we hardly knew you.  Please find a good home.   This headline doesn’t convey enough about a shocking  event.  Another perfect couple bites the dust.  So sad.

Miley Cyrus Isn’t Only Teen Star Who’s Not Dead

I was so happy to read this one. And it really does open the door to many other cheerful headlines. For instance. . . Miley Cyrus Isn’t Only Teen Star Who’s Not Blind.

And she’s not deaf either. She can hear music! Ms. Cyrus is also not living at the South Pole! So she doesn’t have to wear sixteen layers of clothes when she goes outside.  She can get away with wearing that thing her boyfriends like so much in fact.

So many possibilities.

This headline once again states the obvious although we are a lot happier to hear about it.

Brad Pitt Vs. Obsessed Fan On Oprah

I just wanna say that I’m on your side Big Guy on this one. And I understand that “deer in the headlights” look so very well. You are surrounded in this moment by women. Millions of them actually plus Oprah. Maybe the camera guy is a guy I don’t know. And this ecstatic  fan who apparently knows every inch of your body like she’s a ghost at night and seeps under your bedroom door is asking you about your tatoos.
You want to escape. I understand. But where do you go? Angelina is at home with the six  kids and she’s thinking about leaving show business and gaining a hundred pounds. Also she has plans for your next ten tatoos on the kitchen table.

No one is going to recognize you when this is over Brad. Not even you.
Not even the beaming bozette who now wants to know about the tatoo on your stomach!

I’m sorry man.  But you did it to yourself.  You should have stayed with Jennifer who is obviously just a little too sane for you.  Good luck.

This headline is alright.  But  it’s not clear the fan is “obsessed”.  Maybe she’s just a normal Brad Pitt fan.

There’s a scary thought.

Global Stocks at 5 1/2 Year Lows

Do you remember what you were doing five or so years ago?   I do.  I was having a blast.  I had fallen in love with a great girl a few years earlier and we were just getting really comfortable with our relationship.

It was a fun time.  We had enough money to go out to dinner too as did most of America.   And nobody was sitting around  the kitchen table barefoot, eating cinnabons with six kids and planning to turn me into their personal etch-a-sketch either.

Suddenly I’m not so unhappy about the global recession.  If you look at it this way maybe you won’t be either.

This headline leaves out the most important part of the article.  Five years ago we didn’t sag as much and we had more hair.  Let’s all get in a time machine and Get Back!  as the Beatles would say.

Then we can wait almost five years and take ALL our money and SHORT  the stock market.

Sounds like a plan to me.  And the headline mentions none of it.

This headline doesn’t share enough information.

I hope all of this has been helpful to you as you try to come up with good headlines for your posts.  Thank you and have a lovely day.

You too Brad.

Poor guy.