I was posed an interesting question a few days ago by my dear friend Kacie Jackson.  "If you could only listen to three songs for the rest of your life," she asked me, "what would they be?"

I was stumped.  Mystified.  I love making lists, even difficult ones, but if I could only listen to three songs for eternity, what would I choose?

Two of them were easy.  "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby" by Counting Crows and "Kathleen" by Josh Ritter are both no-brainers for me.  I've thought a lot about #3, but I just don't know what would make the cut!  I love the song "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," so that's a definite possibility.  I keep thinking of other ones, though.  Sufjan Stevens' rendition of "Come, Thou Fount" is tempting to include as well.

I asked a group of people about this the other day and got some interesting responses.  So I would like to pose this question to you, my faithful readers.  If you could only listen to three songs for the rest of your life, what would they be?  I am anxiously awaiting your responses.  You will not be judged.

#7

Oscar nominations came out this morning!  Unfortunately, I do not think I will be able to accomplish my aforementioned resolution of watching all five Best Picture flicks (ha! i just said flicks - i should write for a magazine).  Here's the lineup of the big categories:

Best Picture: 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 

Frost/Nixon 

Milk

The Reader 

Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor: 

Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn, Milk

Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress: 

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie, Changeling

Melissa Leo, Frozen River

Meryl Streep, Doubt

Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Supporting Actor: 

Josh Brolin, Milk

Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road.

Best Supporting Actress: 

Amy Adams, Doubt

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Viola Davis, Doubt

Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler 

It looks like I will once again be an uninformed Oscar viewer.  Milk, The Reader, The Wrestler, Revolutionary Road, and Slumdog Millionaire are not playing in Alabama.  Benjamin Button is, but I already paid nine dollars once to see it and I had to leave after 45 minutes... (long story. it was not a fun night.)  and while it was good, I don't really feel like paying another 9 bucks to finish it.  Frost/Nixon is actually opening in Mobile tomorrow, so I think I will go see it this weekend - anyone want to come along?  I would also really like to see Changeling and Rachel Getting Married, but I think both of them are in that awkward between-theatres-and-DVD stage.  I have never heard of The Visitor or Frozen River.  And Vicky Cristina Barcelona is out on DVD, I'm pretty sure, and I love Woody Allen, so that one will probably be a renter soon.  

On a related note: in perusing theatre listings, I always seem to have a certain frustration.  For example, here is a sampling of movies playing here currently:  

Hotel for Dogs

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

My Bloody Valentine (3D)

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Now, I am not trying to demean these films.  For all I know, they are fantastic.  I'm sure people like them.  However, I just always wonder who decides that people in Alabama have no interest in seeing the movies that were selected by actors, directors, and critics everywhere as the absolute best offerings of the year - instead, they would rather see three-dimensional horror films or a movie about a dog hotel.  I realize that a lot of people don't view movies as a life-enriching experience, but why not?  If I want to sit in front of a screen and space out (which sometimes I do), I have 107 channels to choose from at home.  If I'm going to spend nine dollars to sit in a theatre and see something, I'd like to be able to experience one of the films I've read reviews about, movies that have made people think, movies that have changed people's lives.  

A plea to the movie-deciding-people of Alabama:  why not branch out and show something with a little more cultural and intellectual significance?  You might be surprised.  

EDIT: All of the aforementioned movies (with the exception of Milk) are now playing in Huntsville and/or Birmingham.  I stand corrected, movie-choosers.  You're doing a little better than I thought.  Just a little further.

EDIT AGAIN: Whoa.  Whoa.  I stand even further corrected.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but perhaps I should come to terms with the fact that Google is not the unerrant source of all information.  Check out these listings for tomorrow, in Mobile, on Fandango:  http://www.fandango.com/36608_movietheatershowtimes?date=1/23/2009

I have an obsessive personality: a story told in photographs

1. hair products (these are just the ones that i use.  not counting shampoo and conditioner.) 

2. kashi products

3. gray sweaters.

"let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King..."

"...and recognize that there are ties between us

all men and women, living on the earth

ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood

that we are bound together in our desire to see the world become 

a place in which our children can grow free and strong

we are bound together by the task that stands before us

and the road that lies ahead

we are bound and we are bound

there is a feeling like the clenching of a fist

there is a hunger in the center of the chest

there is a passage through the darkness and the mist

and though the body sleeps the heart will never rest.

shed a little light, oh Lord

so that we can see..."

- the one and only James Taylor.

Shed A Little Light (mp3)

please, remember me

mistakenly 

in the window of the tallest tower

call, then pass us by 

but much too high 

to see the empty road at happy hour 

gleam and resonate just like the gates around the holy kingdom 

with words like 'Lost and Found' and 'Don't Look Down'

and 'Someone Save Temptation'  

please, remember me 

as in the dream 

we had as rug-burned babies 

among the fallen trees and fast asleep

aside the lions and the ladies 

that called you what you like, and even might 

give a gift for your behavior 

a fleeting chance to see 

a trapeze swinger 

high as any savior 

...

please, remember me

finally 

and all my uphill clawing, my dear 

but if I make the pearly gates 

do my best to make a drawing 

of God and Lucifer, a boy and girl 

an angel kissin' on a sinner 

a monkey and a man, a marching band 

all around the frightened trapeze swingers

iron & wine / the trapeze swinger  

When I get my Elle magazine in the mail each month, the cover is different on the subscription edition than it is on the magazines I see in the store.  The covers in the store always feature the subject dressed in a brightly-colored dress with a big smile on her face and is covered in about a hundred headlines. The subscription cover is usually the exact opposite - dark colors, the subject is never smiling, and there's usually a single minimal headline.  I will admit that the photography is excellent and the covers are very well designed.  However, I received the February issue yesterday, it's strange how similar its cover is to the January issue.  I mean, there's something wrong when you almost can't tell the difference between Beyonce and Kate Hudson.  

jesus and scientology...

I was reading my Bible last night (resolution #6! I'm awesome!*) and I started thinking about religions.  The chapter I was reading was in Matthew, and it was talking about when Jesus began his ministry by recruiting all the fishermen he could find.  It made me think a lot about two completely unrelated things.

1. I realize that Jesus did not speak in prosaic English, but the language in the Bible is really funny if you think about it.  If someone came up to me and said "Come.  Follow me.  I will make you fishers of men."  I would think they were reciting a monologue from something.  It is probably a lot more likely that Jesus saw a fisherman, waved at them, and said something like this.  "Hey, what's up?  Want to sit down and chat?"  and then he struck up a conversation and got to know the guy.  And when the guy got to know him a little bit, he was probably thinking hey, this Jesus guy is pretty cool.  I wouldn't mind spending more time with him.  He seems like he's really got his act together.  And then Jesus said something like, "I know you have a really successful fishing career, but how would you like to come with me?  I've got a new job for you that is so much more rewarding than what you're doing.  Instead of catching fish, you'll be saving people's lives.  Are you in?"   And the fisherman couldn't say no, he was so amazed by what was happening.  I am no Bible scholar and I don't know Greek, but my guess is that's more like how things went down.

2.  Religion is a really weird thing when you think about it.  Take Christianity, for example.  The concept of an intelligent being that created the universe -- okay, that makes sense, I can see anyone believing that.  But the rest of it, the creator of the world turning his son into some perfect hybrid God-human thing two thousand years ago and sending him to be born from a virgin and letting him grow up to be a carpenter slash miracle worker slash preacher who eventually gets killed, but not really, because three days later he suspiciously is alive again, and then he gets beamed up to heaven on a cloud - this stuff is not for the faint of heart.  And maybe when you're a child, you believe it because it's what you're told in Sunday School.  But once you get old enough to really think for yourself, you either discount it all or you really, really believe it.  There has to be some pretty powerful faith behind it.  I mean, you have to believe hard enough to stake your life on it.  Which is hard to do.

Here's where I get confused.  I don't mean to pick on any particular celebrities or anything, but let's think about another religion, for example (oh, I don't know) Scientology.  The principles of this one are pretty weird as well.  Founded by this guy named L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s, it is formed around the belief that all human souls used to exist in extraterrestrial beings, but now that they are humans on earth, their goal is to pay thousands of dollars to the church in order that they can advance through the different levels of enlightenment in the hopes of one day reaching the level of "the Bridge of Total Freedom."  One of the methods of working toward this freedom is through counseling sessions known as "auditing," where the person is hooked up to electrodes for the purpose of measuring body electrical content and locating areas of concern.  It's all very complicated, and I'll let you read the Wikipedia article for yourself if you so desire.  Back to my point.  I am not objectively saying that the principles of Scientology are any more or less weird than those of Christianity.  I'll let you decide that for yourself.  

What got me really thinking last night, though, was what I said earlier: in order to call yourself a follower of Christianity or any religion, you have to have a really good reason to believe it.  You have to be willing to stake your life on it.  It becomes part of everything you are.  I know tons of Christians, including myself, who are like this.  It's a two thousand year old tradition.  What I have trouble understanding is how people feel the same way about Scientology.  Maybe I am just shortsighted.  I can understand why people would discount religion in general; after all, on first glance it does look rather silly, and as a very rational person myself I can see why someone would choose not to believe in gods or religion.  

However, I have a lot of trouble understanding how people can dedicate their lives to the study of a "religion" that was dreamed up no more than fifty years ago and requires massive financial donations in order for you to move to higher spiritual levels.  The cynic in me wants to say that they are just doing it to be trendy; I'm sure its massive celebrity following doesn't hurt the church's numbers.  Maybe that's true for a few, but I want to give people more credit than that.  After all, a small percentage of the world might be members of the Scientology church, but a much larger percentage of the world actively ridicules them and their beliefs.  (If you are picking a church to be "cool," Christianity is much more accepted in mainstream circles today.  In fact, there are plenty of trendy, flashy mega-churches that probably don't require much spiritual commitment at all.)  So what is it that draws people to this religion?  Is it the hope of becoming someday enlightened?  Is it the actual, legitimate belief that your soul once belonged to a space alien?  Are people just that desperate to believe something that they choose this?  

I don't know any Scientologists, so I will probably never fully understand this.  I'm just immensely curious.  

*1 out of 21.  Not bad!