Whither John Hughes?...

I recently read an article that commented about the "musical wasteland" of the 1980's--and I will deal with that comment another time--and it brought to mind a single image, centered around a single song. Oddly enough, when I think of something that typifies the look and sound of the 1980's, I don't go punk, I go to high school--probably because that's when I was in high school.

If I bring up the song "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds, what do you think about? I imagine, if you are over the age of, say, 35, you think about Judd Nelson raising one fist over his head in an odd act of defiance. The closing scene in the coming-of-age 1980's classic, The Breakfast Club.

The Breakfast Club was the second movie directed by John Hughes, who had more than a small share of directorial success. Along with the aforementioned film, he also directed Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, Uncle Buck and Curly Sue. And that's it. That's his entire directorial resume. And I saw all but one of those movies, that being Curly Sue, in the theater.

That is a rather impressive list of films to have under your belt, but it's also surprising. Curly Sue, the last film that Hughes directed, came out in 1991.

Why? What happened that caused him to stop directing? It's not that he hasn't been involved at all with films; Hughes is still writing plenty of movies, including one, Drillbit Taylor, that is due out in 2008. And he has produced some others that were big hits, including the Home Alone and Beethoven series of films.

But I miss his directing style. I miss the way that he tells a story visually. And I miss the way that he blended a movie with the soundtrack. He probably wasn't the first to do so, but I always seem to link the modern music soundtrack of original songs with Hughes.

And with that, an open plea to John Hughes:

John--can I call you John?--would you please think about directing a new movie? I know that I'm not the teenager that I once was, and that you have grown some since then, too, but I think that it would be great for you to do a movie about that same generation of people today. What the teens from the 1980's are doing now. I can't think of anyone else better for the job. Thanks for listening.

In the meantime, I'll just continue to hum Simple Minds and hold a fist in the air.

Native America

Today, my wife, myself, and two of our dear friends went to the 18th Annual Cherokee County Indian Festival and Pow-Wow. Besides having a very long title, this annual event is a display of Native American arts and crafts, along with cultural education and a display of traditional Native American dancing, drumming and storytelling. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

But that's not why I'm telling you this.

My wife has issues with dead animals. Not like you think, but rather with the body parts that she leaves behind. As we were wandering the booths we saw plenty of beautiful jewelery, striking clothes, tacky clothes (don't want to deceive and make you think that EVERYTHING was nice...), some cool artwork, some tacky artwork, and even hand-crafted flutes and drums. Our friend Heather was very happy with some of the jewelery, and even suggested to her beau that the $300.00 necklace that was there would look fabulous on her; he agreed and then quickly went to the next booth. My wife, too, saw jewerly that she really liked, but it didn't evoke the same response.

What got her to respond was the coyote skin.

A full coyote pelt that was sitting out in the sun, and still had a couple of bones sticking out of the legs to keep the feet properly shaped. Her eyes got wide and she checked it out all over, just desperate to take the thing home. Unfortunately, like with Heather's would-be necklace, the price made me move on to the next booth.

But that was really just the beginning. The knowledge that there was one coyote pelt at the festival was enough to get looking for more. And, in fact, there was. The next to last booth that we checked out, the one right next to the clog-free gutter booth--what they were doing there, we don't have a clue--had a more affordable piece of coyote. So, we came home this afternoon with a coyote face and some teeth. These items now proudly sit on our mantle, awaiting a more permanant home.

Now, before anyone gets too ruffled about her taking home some dead animal parts, let me explain that she is, in fact, 1/4 Native American herself, and she holds these things in VERY high regard. In fact, while we were looking at the whole pelt the man working the booth started to explain to her the significance of the coyote, which she quickly picked up and started expounding upon greatly. Our friend, Mike, turned to me and said, "he didn't know who he was talking to, did he?"


On another front, but still animal related, there was an exhibit of many birds of prey at the festival. Hawks, kestrels, and falcons took center stage, while a parrot sat over to the side with that "hey, I'm pretty mean to pieces of fruit!" look on his face. And being a fan of not only birds of prey, but also the Atlanta Falcons, I was pretty jonesed to see the falcons there. I've seen plenty of hawks, but the falcons (and the kestrel, too) were new to me at such a close viewing.

They were beautiful animals, but I felt bad for them. It was a hot day, and one of hawks out in the sun seemed to be panting. I wanted to get them something to drink, until I saw that there were large saucers of clean water right next to them, as you can see in the photo. But still...

So, in short, it was an interesting day of both living and dead animals for us. I left with memories and some cool photos, but my wife, she brought home a face. And what more can you ask than having face in today's society?

On Good and Evil

I will start this post with the statement that I have never seen any episode of The Sopranos, nor do I plan to ever do so.

This past Sunday I went and saw Spider-Man 3. Not a great movie, but not a horrible one, either--but that's not what I want to talk about. Spoiler alert for those that haven't seen the movie.

At one point in the movie, after Peter Parker has gone "dark", he goes to confront Harry Osborne. To make it short, Pete beats the daylights outta Harry, who admitedly, isn't the nicest guy in the world and sort of brings it on himself. And after Harry has had the tar beat out of him, he tries one last-ditch attack on Pete, who turns the attack around to have a bomb blow up in Harry's face. Kinda harsh, but then it gets worse because of the attitude that Pete has as he walks off mocking Harry's pain and disfigurement. That's bad. That's really bad, and not vaguely heroic. And the worst thing that happened during the entire movie happened at that point: several people in the crowd cheered.

They were happy to see an "evil" Peter Parker attack and disfigure a man that was called Pete's best friend not half-an-hour earlier.

The other day, while listening to the radio, two of the radio personalities were discussing The Sopranos. I don't recall the exact events that led up to the statement, but one of the people in the show was referred to as not being a "nice person". The other individual stated that none of the characters on the show were nice people. They were all criminals, killers and not exactly upstanding examples of society. The first person said, "well, that's not true of Tony. He's just a regular guy." His partner sounded shocked. He again pointed out that Tony Soprano was a criminal who had killed many people. He was a killer, and not a nice person at all. But the Tony supportist was unwavering, stating that Tony was just a guy like any other, and he was just doing his job. They are the perfect example of what I want to talk about.

Only half of the people in the world get it.

There is a significant portion of the populace who see The Sopranos as "cool". It turns someone horrible--a killer in this instance--into someone that you cheer for. Someone that you think is admirable. Just a regular guy, doing his job.

I'm not saying that The Sopranos is a poorly executed show. Again, I've never seen it. But I have seen the evidence that it, and things like it--things like the movie Scarface, the Grand Theft Auto videogame series, and The Shield--have done with society. It's made the evil guy the good guy. Someone and something to cheer about.

Perhaps we've brought it on ourselves. We've let our need for sensation run rampant to the point where we need a bigger and bigger high to get the same thrill, to the point where only the bad guy is really cool enough to watch. Maybe that's it. But I really don't think that's it entirely. I've played lots of videogames. I've watched lots of movies and TV shows. I've got tons of rock-and-roll that I listen to. And yet, I don't see the light in the dark.

In truth, I just think that we've let things get out of control from a personal perspective. We all control what we do and how we let outside influences affect us. The people who are making these things are just reflecting what they see in society, not the other way around.

Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe people aren't that way. Maybe I'm mis-reading it completely. But I don't feel that way.

I'm in the half that didn't cheer Peter Parker going bad.

Deja Vu

I would swear that I posted something about this very fact not that long ago...