Interstellar

Hello, my dears… I am sitting enjoying a perfect noon breeze at the river and pondering the last movie I watched late last night. It was Interstellar directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed Inception and the latest Batman trilogy with actor Christian Bale cast as Batman. 

If there are two things that Christopher Nolan is good at, it is 

1. creating thought provoking material
2. leaving you with a question. 

I had no idea until I watched it what this movie was about, I only recognized the recently released blu-ray cover image. 

It Begins with the Earth dying: the crops are slowly failing one by one… We have advanced technologically, and yet now we have lost our ability to create organic food/farm. Former astronaut, Cooper (Mattew McConaughey) leaves NASA to return to his father-in-laws farm with his two children to run it. While having a discussion on the porch, Cooper states, “Well, we used to look up to the sky and wonder at our place in the stars… Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”

I don’t know how to describe this movie to you… it is about finding other planets to call home… it is about love… it is about science and quantum physics and a spiritual force “they” that seems to somehow be everywhere. … it 

It is probably not everyones cup of tea…. It leaves you grasping at details, the script is littered with scientific probability- all Christopher Nolan trademarks… Another difference feeling wise between this and Inception is the pace of the movie. Interstellar drags- it patiently-methodically takes one step after another towards its’ conclusion- slow and steady. Partly this is because the plot of the movie twists time and space- with relativity and spanning decades in certain parts where only minutes and hours passed elsewhere. As a bigger picture- it is pure genius… and pure torture. How true that both go hand in hand. 

I can’t really talk much about the plot, without giving a lot of it away, so I will let you attempt to watch it… But I will leave you with the largest thing I took away from this movie. 

I watched this movie with my recently married cousin, who is an avid movie lover like myself. He has an awesome tv and sound system all set up in their cozy new apartment and I sat down not sure what to expect from this movie. But as the minutes ticked by and I fell deeper and deeper in love with it, I realized something profound, that may sound so simple but to me has taken me till now to get… 

I always thought that I could make people love something if I loved it… Isn’t that a universal struggle? The wanting to be understood and of others acceptance of our lives and our tastes?  

This movie is really wonderful. I love it. I want to buy it for everyone so they can watch it and see and appreciate all the beauty in it that I see and feel in it… But I realized… we aren’t all on the same path… we are all at different points of our lives…. we all have things-books-people-movies-places that are speaking to each and everyone of us individually at this time in our life… And no matter how much this movie means to me, someone else may not be able to appreciate it because they are at a different point in their own life story… And for once I am in Love with That… That being points and places that other people including you dear reader will experience this feeling- this emotion of passion and wonder-especially(!) not for this same movie and for similar things- but for  opposite things and anything and something else right now in your life that speaks to your soul like this movie did to mine. 

I want to tell you to enjoy every  moment of that- whatever it is that fills you with wonder and amazement… Whatever makes you feel inspired and makes your mind come alive- go after that- It  is a beautiful and amazing feeling- gravity can cross time and space- and so can love. It never goes away. It is always there…. a wormhole- a sphere in this 2D image of time, keeping us grounded and connected to what matters in our lives. 

Never stop looking to the stars my loves. 

Sincerely, 

Read Riding Hood 

Christmas and The Interview

Hello my dears,

It is a new year! A whole year to fill with blog posts, or at least the whole year full of opportunity to fill it with posts. ... I digress... per the norm.

I hope all of your holidays were enjoyable; mine actually were. This Christmas was one of the best I've ever had. Usually I spend my holidays lost between wanting to love and loathe them. The holidays usually are just a reminder to me of how "un-picture-perfect" my life has always been. The holidays always just pointed out to me just how different I have celebrated them compared to others.

And looking at them now, I see that has been my ingratitude for all that I have.

I have never spent a Thanksgiving or Christmas without food. I have never gone without presents.

Maybe I have had some weird family moments, but honestly, who hasn't?

Maybe I didn't grow up with Santa Claus, or Rudolph, or magic......

But that's o.k.

Because I did grow up with love. And I am grateful for that. Love is everything. Truly it is. I wish love for you all.

I meant to get on here and talk to you about this recent debacle over the movie The Interview, and per the norm got distracted talking about something corny.

Well, I finally watched The Interview in its' entirety. I must say, it had some funny moments. It definitely had some stupid moments. It is just another Seth Rogen, James Franco comedy/drame/bromance movie. I read some people thought this movie actually shed a positive light on Kim Jong un, but I think those people probably fell asleep about an hour and twenty minutes into the movie right before Mr. un showed his true colors... Because [SPOILER ALERT] YES, they portrayed him as an evil dictator in the end.
And I couldn't help but also feel as if Seth Rogen and James Franco were trying to make their own personal statement about the news media and propaganda and giving the people "what they want."

That all being said. I can see how this film is controversial- but I do believe in freedom of speech. And this is just a movie. If people are going to begin saying we should not publicate movies like this, I have to ask why they still allow the book Mein Kampf to be published? That book is voiced by one of the most evil men in history, Adolf Hiltler. We still publish his book, but we debate whether to release a satire comedy, because it is controversial?......I think priorities need to be set. Seriously.

Now...  from a movie goers perspective, this movie was funny, slow at times... I thought the Lord of the Rings comparisons were very dry and only saved by the over eccentric acting of James Franco and the sincere acting of Seth Rogen. [SPOILER ALERT] The Lord of the Rings humor finally did come together somewhat at the end when Seth Rogen loses his fingers at the end like Frodo.... But if Seth was Samwise.. Then shouldn't have James lost his fingers... not Seth?.... lol just saying.....  Anyway....

It was weird, controversial (see how I keep using that politically correct word there) and comical and stupid... and just a movie. I would not recommend this for everyone. If you want to support the "freedom of speech" I would suggest renting it off youtube etc. It is not for children. It is not a "family" movie. It does have graphic violence. But if you enjoy Seth Rogen and/or James Franco, you will probably get some entertainment out of watching this. I did.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I hope you all have a beautiful rest of you weekend. I am going to try to.. and I plan to watch something less controversial, something more light hearted... like the Muppets or something.

much love my dears,

Read Riding Hood