Alpha and Omega

In a very weird occurrence, my 2008 golf season ended the same way it began. Literally. I walked the same course, played with 2 of the same people, shot the same score, and grew more and more disgusted about the same problems in my game.

I was fortunate to play with my brother-in-law who is a phenomenal mental golfer. He played "awful" and shot an 85. I haven't broken 90 in almost three years. His drive fades a tad to the right putting a tree between him and the green (he's still in the fairway) and he says "Crap, now I'll have to hook a 3-iron between to trees and avoid the sand trap." Meanwhile, my drive almost hit a passing car 250 yards away. To the left. Of the out of bounds stake. Which is 150 yards left. of the fairway. Which doglegs right. I am actually further away from the hole than when I was on the tee box.

Regardless of my inability to slow down my swing, which every single person who's ever seen me play recommends I do, I still enjoy golf greatly. I won the longest drive at a tournament earlier. I finished 3 feet short of the prize at the same tournament last year. This year's winner was a 345 yard blast, that had a slightly left trajectory rolled into the rough and then back out into the fairway. I had the longest drive out of 245 golfers. I won a piece of paper that said "Longest Drive" on it. I really just wanted gas money.

Anyway, my brother-in-law had mentioned during our round that he read my blog, but was curious as to why I named it "Alien Resurrection." That was a pretty lame Alien movie. I laughed hard and told him that was a much better name thatn what it actually was. I could have named it Alien Resurrection and devoted the entire blog to disappointing movie sequels. It would have been immensely more interesting. My first posts could have been about Matrix 3, Temple of Doom, Star Wars Prequels, The Mask 2, Batman Returns.... The list just goes on.

Speaking of movies, my list is growing exponentially re: holiday movies I want to see in the theatre. I've heard American Gangster is phenomenal. I am anxious to see that, Sweeney Todd, Lions for Lambs, No Country for Old Men, Beowulf, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, The Golden Compass, I Am Legend, National Treasure 2, and Charlie Wilson's War.

I took an Intro to Film class in college. One of the most interesting topics we discussed was the Triangle of Movie Making (a loose term). It discussed how movies inevitably dealth with three aspects: business, technology, and art. Any movie could easily be controlled by just one aspect at the expense of the others. For example:

Business - Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3
Technology - Star Wars Prequels
Art - Good Night, Good Luck

A moderately successful movie will emphasize two of the three aspects. A movie that can somehow combine all three is something truly special: Gladiator, Empire Strikes Back, The Matrix, The Godfather Part II, etc.

I had a smiliar concept to this before I took the class, where I distinguished between movies, film, and cinema. To me, a movie was something that was enjoyable to watch, whether eating popcorn, or to get a good laugh, or to escape from the dullness of everyday life for 90 minutes. A film was something that cared about preaching or being an artistic message of the director conveyed through a moving camera. Cinema was the enjoyable experience of watching the two blend together.

I hope there is much cinema on my holiday list above, and not any movies or films. There is little else I enjoy more than slipping away into a movie theater for 2 hours. The rest of the world fades away and I can be entertained amongst strangers who will laugh and cry with me while we are told a story out of (more or less) an expensive illustrated picture book.

-G