Batman Begins might be drowned out by the noise of this summer’s overproduced cookie-cutter blockbusters, but I don’t think it cares. Compared to the previous four Batman films, this one is less flashy, more serious, more focused, more introspective, and more philosophical. It is how Batman is supposed to be. It is the truest, most …
I write to clarify my thoughts and commit them as final. I write to make linear the abstract, segmented, incomprehensible parts of my mind. I write to play with words, to run them through my fingers and see how they reshape themselves when thrown in a different way. I write to simplify my convictions. If …
THE POWER OF FOURby Tom Hanks Not long ago I was reading about the problem of gridlock on the freeways of Southern California — the traffic jams which cripple the city, stranding millions and laying waste to time, energy, and the environment. Gridlock is as serious and as impenetrable a problem as any we face, …
Now that the last installment of the Star Wars prequels is in the theaters, I’d like to comment on a missed opportunity. Something that was promised in the Empire Strikes Back but never delivered. If you compare Yoda to Gandalf, you might know where I’m going with this. There’s a scene in Lord of the …
It was August 1997 and I was making myself sick. If you’ve ever been around me after feeding me milk chocolate, you know what I’m talking about. I get into a Cornholio-type babbling tirade where my mouth actually runs as fast as my mind. It doesn’t get out of control to the point of slap-upside-the-head-to-shut-you-up …
Some years ago, my friend, after having learned how much I try to avoid work but still manage to make some decent money, told me about Robert Heinlein’s snippet story, The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail (it’s in the book Time Enough for Love). I’ve started reading the story but haven’t finished it …
One nice thing about spirituality books is that they don’t have too many pages, so it’s easy for me to finish reading them. They’re also easy to read before falling asleep. Here are some I highly recommend: Books by the Dalai Lama: The Art of Happiness Ethics for the New Millennium Live in a Better …
I keep a notepad in the kitchen. Here are some blurbs written there: If it’s worth doing, it’s worth giving meaning to. Hold a higher standard for yourself more than anyone holds for you, and you will never be in doubt. I have reawakened. My art has reawakened. Achievement overcomes regret. Quick wit, not temper. …
When you think you have finishedwith your family, your quiet but unshifting lifeof servitude and patience and predictabilitywhen you are ready to leave you come to me and bring your adventurous souland zeal for the fantasticbecause it is here, what you long forin rolling waves of icicle sharp waterthat lead to broken but impenetrable island …
there’s no soundtrack when you close the door to your office,when the fluorescent lamp stops buzzing abovewhen you only notice that it had been buzzing all daywhen it finally stops, when it shuts downalong with the copier and the computerswhen sunset begins to take over the roomand you’re happy to at least go home without …
My ego began early, as soon as I was born an only child. Before I could speak, I already knew that there was a mold, it was broken after I was born, the whole town knew about it, and that was that. Growing up, I could pretty much have everything I wanted, as long as …
Cool “Things” I don’t know what a lot of current “things” are called. I notice that cool people talk about “things” during conversations, and the way they talk about these “things” sounds cool. Since I don’t make a ton of money, I don’t really buy as many “things” anymore, and since I don’t want to …
It’s 5:37am, I can’t sleep and will try to write an impromptu poem. Here I go… there is an instant sleep between two doubtsgoing quiet, resting for a second, lookingfor words that define why yes is a yesand maybe is excruciating you feel for it and realize that it isn’t the right direction and for …
After making a good deal of money during the dot-com explosion, I realized, as many have already, that I wasn’t any happier. Not that I was sad in the first place, but money didn’t add to my happiness. The acquiring of things didn’t solve problems. And then today a friend forwarded me this amazing blog: …
This could be part 2 of “Why I’m Happy”: – I don’t play chess in my brain anymore. Like trying to forecast what might happen if I do this, or I do that, or what other people may think if I do this or I do that. I’ve decided that I know what is right …
Friends and Funerals and Passing the Age of Personal Drama I’ve noticed recently that the older I get, the less friends I seem to think I have. But in reality, I have more friends than ever. They just don’t call attention to themselves like they used to. Because we are past the age of personal …
People who don’t know me past ten years ago think I’m buddha. Not the svelte Siddhartha buddha, but more like the porcelain chubby fellow whose stomach you rub so you can win at slots or lotto. They think that I’ve laughed all my life, that everything’s been pretty much happy with me in an orange …
Yes, I’m a Star Wars geek. But no, I didn’t like Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. I try not to think about them the same way that I try not to think about Harrison Ford’s Hollywood Homicide movie. But I did like Revenge of the Sith a lot. I went back to see …
It’s been such a long time that I had almost forgotten why I liked the original Star Wars, why I was drawn to those movies. Why I still want to watch the original trilogy, why I like them far better than current movies that have a thousand times better special effects. Star Wars, The Empire …
The Girl On the Bridge (La Fille Sur le Pont)French film with subtitles, saw it on the Sundance Channel late night. As soon as Gabor meets Adele on the bridge, I was hooked. “I’m at the end of my rope,” she says. “You’re too young to even have a rope,” he says. www.itconversations.comMy iPod is …