I got home this evening already in a mood. I could feel the mood coming at about 4:00 PM still at work. I finished off the day fine, and when I came home I threw in a pizza to cook while I showered, home alone. Before the pizza was even finished I already knew I needed to do something with someone, and preferably watch a movie. What about my friends? Hadn't I just talked to Kirk about watching a movie? I'll call him. I'm sure he would have except that he was already going to a friend's birthday party. I wished him well and stared at the pizza baking in the oven. I called Nathan, whose last movie, I still hadn't even seen! No answer. What about my family? It would especially be great if I could watch a movie with Chasey, but I love all of my family. It should be noted that before I even got home I thought of RJ whom I thought of last post, thinking, RJ will be sad that I didn't mention him and perhaps a little left out, silly RJ, of course I love him and am thinking of him, these were just random unfinished thoughts of a few people. Anyway, I knew he was gone to Saskatchewan so I couldn't hang out with him. His car and his missing person at my house were evidence to support this when I arrived home. How delightful for me that Faye answered the phone and said, you should ask Chasey, he's bored, I have to do homework. Well sad for Faye needing to get homework done - I mean cheers that she's doing it, but sad that she's so burnt out of excessive school. I packed my things, because I thought, I should just sleep over since I'm working on my car with my Dad in the morning anyway. I included my journal, my premarital book, and hoped to do a lectio divina. I set off and swore when I reached Barlowe Trail upon realizing that I'd forgotten my speaker which is slightly necessary to install before you can put the door panel back on.
I talked with my Mom for 5 minutes or so when I got home, because I like her, and then I went down to Chasey's room. I got to see his newly acquired acoustic bass, and hear about his first gig with his new band. They played an X92.9 night at the Blind Beggar, and apparently got a very good crowd reaction. Chasey wanted to ask my Dad if he wanted to watch the movie with us (what a stand-up-kind-a-guy that Chasey). I was wary of his reaction since he tends to opt, rather vocally, for more entertainment-driven movies and I wanted to watch Magnolia...
He decided he wanted to watch it with us even though I warned him, and so we put it into the player only to find out: This must be Andy's movie; it doesn't work. Silly DVD coding regionality nonsense.
Well, apparently the movie store at Village Square is cheap. Good. Let's go there. So off we go. Chasey drove, and as he commented, it was a first for him to drive me around. We spent too long looking for movies (it's always too long) but it felt better because I was with other people and both Chasey and Dad have seen lots of movies that I have been interested in but didn't see. Thus, I enjoyed just hearing about their satisfaction with a great many movies. Anyway, I started to wind up and put the pressure on picking the movies. Ah yes movies, with an s. You see it's $3 to rent 1 movie for a week, but it's $6 to rent 3 movies for a week. A no brainer of course...
So we came home with The Weatherman, Punch Drunk Love, and of course Magnolia. Remind me to make sure I actually get to see The Weatherman with them since it was my pick...
We returned home where my Mom had fallen asleep on the couch. My Dad made popcorn while Chasey showed me the mass Christmas family photos that Jono took. They were stellar, but WHERE WERE THE TRADITIONAL NOLAN AND CHASEY PHOTOS??? I mean, they were stellar, thanks Jono!!! :)
I got to see Samantha's grad photos too and can I say WOW? Yeah, 30 stylish, fantastic, Samantha looking wonderful photos to choose from. There wasn't a bad one in the bunch. Write to your Calgary Board of Ed rep and thank them for firing Johnsten's, and then tell Sam how photogenic she is and how great her smile is.
So then we sat down for the 3 hour movie. It was odd, there was ridiculous amounts of swearing, an old couple having sex and yet again I enjoyed the Paul Thomas Anderson film.
First of all, if you're going to make quirky, layered, thematic, subtle yet intense, slow, movies, you have to make them with a great deal of style so that they're still intriguing and enjoyable to watch. It was. Lots of really cool camera work, soundtrack integration, raining cats and dogs and frogs. And ah yes, the oodles and oodles and still more noodles of connections and motifs and issues raised in the film.
At the end my Dad gave me one of his looks and asked, "why did Andy like this movie so much?"
So I told him. And then I proceeded to explain why I agreed with Andy. Which is really to say that this movie is supposed to make you think. What struck you? What stuck out? What impacted you? And to be fair, I had to share what stuck out for me. Which is hard with such a layered movie, because you need time to sort that all out. But I thought out loud. And it was a turning point. Funny thing about watching a movie about 'coincidences' and connections because earlier, God had brought up again that I was to have our family have a forum on alcohol. I still haven't done it. But I'm shooting for April 19th now. I'd talked to my Mom about it again in our 5 minute chat, but as we started discussing the movie, I felt God pointing out that this was a little preview.
So I asked my Dad what stood out to him, and he had LOTS of interesting things to say, he impressed me once again, with how much he picks up that I miss, and Chasey shared, and my Mom shared and it was all very natural and interesting and personal and I loved every second of it.
Twist
More and more I find myself searching for the depth in movies that I looked for before, but can appreciate to a greater extent now with a tiny bit more maturity. After watching Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, and Magnolia, and being hit with all of the brainwork and soul-searching that follows, it made me return to God repeatedly going on about me and music. I'm supposed to be writing out my goals in music, in a similar way to what my guitar teacher had me do so many years ago. Small goals, big goals, long term, practical, dreams, all of it.
God's talked to me about making music that will have an effect on the spiritual.
Watching movies like these makes me think of how art can be that way - no it's not quite the same. But I think my goal is to go for it. To see it through. To see how making 'prophetic' music turns out. Which seems simple but is quite a turn from my natural tendency to make excellence my highest (and hardest) goal in music.
And I have to keep writing. Not out of obligation although this is something else God's talked to me about. Writing helps me establish things. Keep writing. OK. My eyes will understand tonight.
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