The Best Star Wars

The other night, after of course watching "fanboys", Des and I decided that we really wanted to watch the Star Wars movie again as it has been at least 3 years since any such viewing had occurred. The complicated part was that we dont have any of the movies on DVD and we don't like to buy movies anymore since we have netflix. When the urge hit to watch the movies, netflix had already sent something else so we were shit out of luck. We called up some friends to borrow one of the Star Wars movies on DVD and here is where it got complicated, which one do you pick? Do you pick IV to stay true to sequential order, VI because it comes to a very satisfying conclusion, V because it is so bad ass or do you go with some of the newer chapters like III where Vadar comes of age or do you start with I hoping to make it all the way through at some point? We could only pick one and it was a difficult choice. My favorite of all time has been and will always be V: The Empire Strikes Back, but can you start there? Eventually we plan to see them all again but to get the most enjoyment I would have to pick my favorite right? To just pick one.....we struggled with this question for a long time going back and forth with different reasons to see each of the different movies. Luckily our friends were nice enough to let up borrow the original trilogy and we just started to watch them in that order. But if you had to pick just one, one movie to start, one place to begin, one Star Wars movie to watch and be completely fulfilled of that craving, which would it be?

Happy Birthday George Harrison

Everybody has their favorite Beatle and it is something to argue about because each is impressive in their own way. Also because the Beatles also did a great about of solo work in different directions the arguement can be a good one. For me it has been and will always be George Harrison who if alive, would be 67 today. I first liked George when I was growing up because all my friends liked Lennon and I didnt want to follow anybody so not knowing anyone whose favorite was George, he would be my favorite. Throughout the years some of my favorite songs have been written by George, including "something", "here comes the sun" and "while my guitar gently weeps". In each of these songs there is a dark and then a very light, hopeful prescence to the music. George was also a part of the greatest supergroup ever the Traveling Wilbury's with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. There was always something fun and hopeful in his music but an edge of darkness. He lost his wife to Eric Clapton but the two remained very close friends, that has to be some inner battle. One of the other things that I was always interested in besides the mind expanding drugs that he took, was the interest in Hinduism. I think just like mind expanding drugs, expanding your horizons in spirutual ways can be very meaningful to the human experience. It encouraged me to look outside of what is told and taught on a normal basis and to seek things that you hope to exist but may not know if they do, but that hope can be a driving force that leads to peacefullness in your own life. Everybody has their favorite Beatle and George Harrison is mine, so Happy Birthday George!!

Sunny

I love shit that can make me laugh. I am someone who enjoys some crazy strange ass stuff. I like the weird and strange aspects of life, the stuff that just doesnt make any sense or the stuff that most people get annoyed by. I have mellowed out and become much more of a homebody in my more recent years which is good for me because the stuff I used to get into for amusement was completely dilluted. There are pranks, jokes, sarcasm, shock value, witt, and slapstick types of humor which on any day I can get into. I love stand up comedy and I love funny movies as well as books. Real life has always been much funnier to me which is why shows such as "seinfeld" or my new favorite "it's always sunny in philadelphia" make me laugh much harder than any movie or tv show because they have aspects that I can identify with, even though yes, they are still made up stories most of the time, and played by actors. Recently I am completely addicted to "Sunny". It has been described as Seinfeld on crack and I would completely agree with that assessment. Honestly though these are the type of people I grew up with. They didnt take it to these extremes on a daily basis, but the personality type is dead on. Throw in the drugs and selfishness and you get a picture of my lifestyle at certain points. This show does for me what the Howard Stern radio show did for me when I was a kid. It takes the things that the world is so uptight about and blows them up tenfold to shove it right in your face, me always being very open and not enjoying the typical machine like way that our society imposes that you live, enjoy seeing that stretched for my amusement. In a perfect world I too would love to ride around in a cop car doing whatever I wanted and getting free stuff, it would be fun, nut not realistic in my life anymore. Today the consequences outweigh that type of fun for me. My favorite author Hunter S. Thompson was famous for doing crazy things that made no sense to most people but I love those acts of derrangement. I have read from writings by Johnny Depp that Hunter would go to a public place and just act all types of insane to see what people would do, his gonzo journalism was more about creating the news through doing the things that most people are afraid to do. He would ride around in his convertable with a blow up doll like it was normal. Maybe its the psychology in me but I love watching people be people and some of the best of that is when people have to be themselves in situations that they do not routinely live. Our lives our full of routine and they get fucking boring. Most people arent like me, dont think like me, and dont relate to me. To most people being weird or strange is bad thing but without any freaks there wouldnt be much entertainment in the world. Laughter is what seperates this for me. Life is full of drama and played out reality, we all live our own reality why would I want to see someone elses. I want to laugh, but I cannot be completely crazy like I used to be so I take that crazy in 20 minute doses of "Sunny", its the only thing I have ever seen that brings me to tears in that short of time, everytime. Maybe its not for you but the differences and freaks of life is what I am all about

See a milder episode from season 3 below.....

2009

What a year it was in my life. I have had some good years and some bad but am filled with alot of hope in that my favorite year has been this past one for so many reasons. The highlight of my year was getting engaged to my best friend. I never planned to marry, wanted to, or thought I would be around long enough to do so but all of that is no longer true as we are planning a wedding for 2010. Other incredible highlights for me are some of the fun moments that I have been able to have. Many of these moments occured with witnessing some awesome live music. We were able to see Paul McCartney, The Dead, Bruce Springsteen, The Avett Brothers twice, Dave Matthews 9 times, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, as well as Elton John and Billy Joel all at some unique venues such as the original site of Woodstock, Washington Redskins stadium, Washington Nationals Stadium, SPAC, Charlotte, Raliegh, Charlottesville, Va and Greensboro, NC. I love live music and had a blast at each of these shows completely sober. We also got to go to a few baseball games over the summer and fall ost noteably the 15 inning epic Yankees Red Sox game that was won by a 2 run walk off home run by Alex Rodriguez. One of the coolest things I was ever a part of was being at the first playoff game ever in the new stadium, watching CC dominate and Jeter hit a playoff home run, there is nothing like Yankee baseball. To finish off the sports for the year I was lucky enough to have a few teams of mine win it all this year, the JETS came closer than they have in years and UNC basketball won their title and the New York Yankees reached their 27th. Another major highlight was seeing friends and family more than normal. Desiree had a good graduation and party over the summer and my family from the left coast was here for that. We also spent a weekend in Charlottesville with some of our good friends and I was asked to be the best man at their wedding. I also got to see one of my closest friends when Phish was reuniting after one of their breaks.

As school winds up and I am a semester away from graduating and entering my profession I can't imagine how upcoming years will top this one. There were so many highs during 2009. I never thought I could have this kind of fun and excitement without substances or doing something illegal. I never saw any of this coming and never thought any of these things would ever really matter to me from where I started at. I get alot of hope out of that in a strange way because you just never know what is coming around the corner, it could be good, it could be bad but whatever it is I can get through it, learn something new, and face it without using chemicals. Hope fully I will write more in coming months