Saturday, March 10, 2007

Birthdays Come & Go

So here I am 34. Yesterday another 24 hours went by marked by the remembrance of a birthdate March 9, 1973. I was born in the 70s how swanky & trippy is that - when music loud, proud, & birthed forms like disco, rock anthems, some really bad country, reggae, and of course punk (because rock n roll hadn't gotten too mainstream).

Then came the 80s - when neon lights determined the clothing (not sure where mesh, pleather, or acid wash came from) we wore, when hair got not only long but big & spiky thanks to hairspray (which we all know is what really is responsible for Global Warming & the hole in the ozone), thankfully we experienced U2 amidst the rebirth of pop crap music, some glimmers of hope in hard rock (VH), and of course Tom Petty! The 90s were marked for me personally by U2's Achtung Baby & Nirvana/Pearl Jam and other forms of alternative rock which eventually became mainstream, so in the 00s we've had to go back to New Wave, Punk, etc.

Music styles come and go - as do birthdays apparently. Thank God for Johnny Cash - who once said, "All music is God's music." The question I have is - what is music? I know Dylan, Cash, U2, Petty, & other greats belong in that category but there is a lot of undeserving dribble out there that claim they are worthy of titles like musicians.

So to mark my birthday - we (Wendy & yours truly) went out for some Italian food & came home to watch Stranger Than Fiction. Wow! From my perspective - best movie I've seen this year...amazing script, amazing acting (yep Will Ferrell can act in this one!), and amazing soundtrack (Spoon, etc)! I even uttered out loud my utter profundity at one scene - getting a poke in the ribs from my lovely wife (with child). So yeah - here's a shout out - see this movie if you have any love of quirky scripts that bite you back! Ironically, 34 sure doesn't feel a whole lot different from 33, just another number to quantify stuff. The bigger questions are what is this year going to bring, what adventures will I face, what will I learn & experience?

3 comments:

Keira said...

Stranger Than Fiction is a fantastic movie. One of my favorite recent ones, in fact.

Garth said...

Cool - I'm glad you've seen it. I was at Costco last week and had the movie in my hand but thought hmmm...will this be any good? Unfortunately Will Farrell (although a very funny man) sometimes makes some really bad movies and so I wasn't going to risk it and I decided I'd just rent it instead. I wish I would've bought it - he definitely was the perfect actor for the role and in my eyes actually became a full-on actor!

Keira said...

Yeah, I almost didn't go see it because I had very little respect for Will Farrell. But my love for Emma Thompson enticed me and she did not let me down. And I was pleasantly surprised by Farrell.
Oh, and Dustin Hoffman was hysterical!