Straight Edge Life

So I took a break on a footbridge over the river today. Today being the day that I received my official title for my house in the mail… it was so uneventful, just a plain white envelope. While I’m standing there on the bridge a guy with a shopping cart rolls up and remarks “Man, what a nice day!”. Yeah, it is a nice day. Sun is shining and the river is, thankfully, still flowing beneath my feet.

For the next hour I talk with this man about a lot of different things. We talked about how he ended up on the streets, how he ended up in Eugene, how hard it is to find work here, and how most charity comes with strings attached. It was just a normal conversation between two strangers but it put my head in perspective. He was 52. Dave is 52 and has been living on the streets for 2 and a half years.

I don’t give enough recognition to the things I am thankful for in my life. I’m a mere 30 years old and it feels at times like I’ve “made it”. Made it through divorce, the death of a parent, the loss of good friends, sickness, adversity, financial hardship and depression. But it’s not like once you’re through it, all that stuff stays away for good. I have no damn idea what’s going to happen next week let alone when I’m 49 1/2 years old. I don’t foresee myself on the streets panhandling, but I doubt that Dave did either.

I moved all my office and computer stuff over to my house today. I can’t believe that I have two friggin car loads of cpus, monitors, scanners and books. The room I’m using is perfect as an office. It’s got some big ass windows that look straight into the lush (aka jungle) yard. It’s got nice wood floors and bookshelves up to the 15 foot ceilings. I’ve got room for ALL my stuff in this office. More than enough room. Room to grow. And that’s good. Because, as big as this house is, I’m not going to have all the rooms to myself. Big house = big monthly mortgage = roommates. I’ll be taking up the rear two rooms and will rent out the middle and front room. yeah hey. I’m psyched.

Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn knocked my socks off in The Interpreter. There’s this thing that happens when Penn gets pissed off or frustrated as a part of his roles, his voice cracks and you just forget about Penn and feel the character. It’s weird because he does it in all of his roles, but it works and it always adds to the intense roles he plays. And The Interpreter is intense. It’s a politically charged story about a United Nations interpreter (Kidman) who overhears plans for the assassination of a west african leader. To make a long story short, the whole thing blossoms into an intense investigation of both Kidman and UN security with a team lead by Penn. Along the way both characters reveal pieces of their dark past and keep the audience well entertained.

This is probably the most beautiful movie I have ever seen. Literally every frame could be pulled, printed and framed on your wall.

I don’t think I need to say anything besides that. But to put it in context I’ll mention a few recent and popular chinese fu films… Hero was just gorgeous and a great Epic of a film. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was elegant and beautiful with a powerful story. Another of my favorites, Iron Monkey, was also very nice to look at and appealed to a less sophisticated audience. Basically, Iron Monkey was hella funny. It had much more comedy than Crouching Tiger, or Hero… House of Flying Daggers is just a feast for the eyes. The story and plot is not as appealing, epic or funny as the movies just mentioned, but it’s not like you’ll miss it. Even the actors. Ziyi Zhang, Takesi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau, are all very attractive. The photography, the martial arts, the art. It’s so gorgeous. I love it.

I seriously wonder why Hollywood isn’t making movies with as much visual appeal as any of these four films. It’s like going and watching the world through a master photographer’s eyes. Perhaps Hollywood puts too much emphasis on the star power and not enough on the completeness of the movie.

I’m not a huge hardcore fan anymore. It’s range is limited and it’s sound grew old for me about 3 years after high school… so like 8 years ago. So I was a bit reluctant to pick up this album. It came recommended from a friend and I am damn glad I bought it.

I spent the majority of time driving home trying to slice the cd out of it’s damn plastic sticky wrapping and didn’t get to listen to it much in the car (sadly, my best stereo) and had to listen to it at work through headphones on my powermac. The first thing about it that caught my attention was that the whole fucking thing is straight edge. Not just one or two songs, but the whole album. Every word. And not just shallow lyrics but stuff that made me feel less alone in being a straight edge guy. The struggle, the passion, the pain, the benefits and the glory of being straight edge in every song. 100% killer for content on this album.

It’s been a long time since I listened to hardcore and I’ve been listening to a lot of complex jazz lately so I’m not sure I’m qualified to rate on the music on this album. Let’s just say that for hardcore these guys are competent. It’s not dry, it’s not boring. It’s good. If you dig hardcore. It’s got enough energy to carry the album on it’s own, even if you disregard the lyrics.

Straight edge started in the hardcore realm and in many ways it still stays there. Many straight edgers are loaded with pent up energy and hardcore is a damn good expression of how we deal with it. If you can play this, or if you can mosh in a pit to this you don’t need drugs and you don’t need the headaches of those who use them.

I’m damn glad I bought this album and I have no doubt that I’ll work a few of the songs into most of my playlists. Check it out when you can. It’s damn good.

This movie was exactly what I expected it to be. It lived and breathed 100% authenticity. Authenticity to the conversion of graphic novels into movies; something that’s becoming a genre of it’s own right. And a genre that I’m coming to love more with each new movie created in this style. I’ve never been a big graphic novel guy but I can see myself becoming one very soon.

But, about the movie… it’s packed full of so many good actors that I can’t even begin to remember them all. Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba… They all play there parts well enough that the movie is superbly cohesive as you weave through the intricate plot lines of two or three simultaneous stories. The acting is great obviously, as is the photography, the sets, costuming and lighting. I really don’t have many complaints about this movie. None actually.

You might not want to take little kids to see Sin City because it casts all men as violent and sadistic killers. Either corrupt or broken. All women are portrayed as either virgin sluts or prostitutes. Either helpless or ruthless. And I think it takes a bit of perspective to manage that. But if you’re as casual about violence and sex as most american audiences are, you probably won’t even notice. I just happened to overhear a couple of Eugene girls going on about how offended they were.

But I digress… this movie is worth seeing on the big screen. If you’re a fan of graphic novels or just want to explore best that they have to offer in film, see this movie.

Do you ever wish you lead a secret life? Things, they used to be hectic. They used to be intense. Sometimes it was because I made it so, other times it was just me holding on for dear life. These days I dream of interesting things but they don’t happen very frequently. I suppose I should be putting all this downtime to good use. I should take on the responsibility of any straight edge man and better myself. Learn, become strong in mind and body and be ready for the next hell storm that comes my way. And maybe I’m doing just that. I don’t know. But life isn’t very close to the bone these days and I don’t know if because of that, the conditioning that I’m doing is just lip service. Maybe it means nothing in the real world. The hell if I know. One of the few things I’ve learned recently is not to put myself in the line of fire. Don’t go looking for trouble. Don’t trouble trouble unless trouble troubles you. Sometimes I miss a bit of excitement. But it’s not exactly the kind of thing you want to manufacture. It’s much better to set yourself up to discover it. Does that makes sense?

Well it’s nearly 1 am on the day that I will close on my house. MY house. It’s damn weird to say that out loud. This big ass 4 bedroom house that’s 3x the size that I need. It’s a deal I can’t pass up but I’ll likely sell the house in 3 years and get something much smaller. In the meantime I’ll be looking for some straight edge roommates. In Eugene? Riiiight. Well, I can dream, right?

I spent the day printing photos. I have a lot of work to do, but after my all-weekend epic of programming I just couldn’t take it anymore. Printing is entirely right brained. Programming is not. So… also cleaned my apartment in preparation for showing it to possible new tenants. I’m moving out as soon as I close on my dad’s house. Within the month or so. I really like this place, it’s a bummer to leave. Maybe someday when I’m rich I’ll rent it as a studio.

The rain is coming down really hard. It sounds good on the roof. My nerves are a bit wacky because I drank caffeine for the first time this week tonight. I’m going to be up all night. I’m not even sure if caffeine actually helps me stay awake or not, I think it’s just habit left over from college. Work will be keeping me up.

I need way more ram in my computer. I’ve spent most of tonight waiting for databases to index or tab delimited files to load. I figure if I had 6GB more ram I’d be spending way less time waiting.

Anyways… it feels good to spend the whole night alone just working. I feel pretty good about the project and my work is really appreciated by the client. Yeah it’s sort of boring, and the guy before me left the database in one serious mess. It’s a good job and I have no complaints besides the standard stuff that comes with any job.

Nights like this make me so calm. Just me, a keyboard and one very clearly focused goal. With the rain on the roof I can tune everything out and lose track of time. I love it.

The best record store in Eugene is in Springfield. Record Garden. The only place in town where when I called the guy not only knew who Champion was but also knew when their new album was due, and said he’d have Promises Kept in stock by Monday. My old standby, House of Records, has an ever shrinking hardcore and punk section, makes me sad. They’ve got a good vinyl section but I ain’t got no record player. Anyways, I’m psyched for Promises Kept. It’s my first intentional dive in to straight edge hardcore. I figure it’s about time.