Peace and Pulp Fiction, #AtoZchallenge and #SoCS

Peace and Pulp Fiction? What’s they’s gots in common, you might ask? Nothing that I can really see, other than they both start with P and I decided to write a quick split column with both the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt (peace/piece) and one of my favorite movies.

I couldn’t come up with anything to write about for today. Hell, I even asked Lauren’s boyfriend when he came over to pick her up. He came up with “patience” and “priorities,” but he may have just been sucking up – though I think I’m stashing both of those away for content marketing-related posts. Good kid, mostly, so far. Besides, both of those are hard to write about (well, peace is too, but not for our purposes here today) and I’ve got some thinking stuff to write through the week so my brain needs a break before it aches and snaps.

So, Peace.

My Master’s degree is an emphasis on Peace and Conflict Resolution. Weird major. Wish I had invested more of myself into, looking back. I enjoyed it. Was strange, because I came into the major with a healthy respect for the need for occasional warfare because, sometimes, peace comes from a bullet. Horrible, but, sadly true I still think. Most of the folks in the courses were from the opposite end of the spectrum – granola munching tree huggers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, particularly as I’ve shifted in that direction as I’ve gotten older.

I do think it’s a shame that too often we lionize those who emphasize violence instead of taking the longer, and almost always more successful, peaceful route. However, Bokal Harum (sp?), ISIS, etc. – sometimes there is no conflict resolution other than conflict.

The hard part is figuring out when you must resort to the one instead of focusing on the other.

Pulp Fiction.

I love this movie. Always have since the first time I saw it. Watched it stoned at the now-defunct theatre in Bethesda that served food and alcohol – now THAT was a kick ass combination. Love the soundtrack. I find it a shame that my children will never really understand how cool it was to see Travolta in Jack Rabbit Slim’s Dance Contest. I think all of the performances are great. You find yourself laughing at shit one should just not find funny – though I am a little bent in that direction already anyway. Just an awesome, well done film. I feel bad for Tarantino because I don’t know that he’ll ever recapture the sheer random funny serendipity of that film. His other movies have been good, but not even close to as great as Pulp Fiction.

And, just for fun, a few of my other favorite films. These aren’t the best films I’ve ever seen – American History X and Dallas Buyers Club are great movies, but I probably won’t ever watch them again because they’re hard. Great. Great scripts. Filming. Acting. But, man. So, favorites – not including shit I’ll watch if it’s on, like The Cutting Edge or Pacific Rim or Edge of Tomorrow (which, by the way, Emily Blunt, wowza), which aren’t favorites, but are like tasty little bon bons that I can’t stop popping in my mouth.

Bull Durham – Great sports movie and I hate baseball. Tim Robbins is great. As are Susan Sarandan and even Kevin Costner.

Jungle Book – all wisdom in life is found, I’m convinced, in The Bare Necessities. Louis Prima as Baloo = priceless. And then there’s monkeys singing, elephants marching, a tiger with fire tied to his tail, and vultures who have no plan for the day.

The Princess Bride – fighting, swordfights, true love, giants, revenge; it’s got it all you vomitous mass.

Glory –Fantastic war movie, but also great acting while still being fairly historically accurate without going Hollywood.

Saving Private Ryan – worth it for the first 20 minutes alone. The most crushing and accurate depiction of combat I think I’ve seen on the big screen. Band of Brothers is an extremely close second in that regard

Shaving Ryan’s Privates – kidding. But an actual, uh, movie title.

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Get your Golden Ticket. Umpa Loompas with wisdom that still works today. And, Gene Wilder, better than in anything except for Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, when he was in love with Daisy, the sheep. That movie is pretty good too.

The Little Mermaid – Disney’s first great movie in 20 years or so. I still giggle at the image of Sebastian’s jaw dropping when he sees Ariel with legs for the first time – I remember rewinding that over and over on tape with Kirk.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail – Coconuts. The most vicious, cruel bunny. African or European Swallows. Bring out your dead. How do you know he’s the king? He doesn’t have shit all over him.

Unforgiven – Killing a man’s a hell of a thing. You take away everything he has, and everything he’s gonna be. Great movie and western.

When Harry Met Sally — yeah, it’s a chick flick. I don’t care. Great comedy. Plus, Meg Ryan was in her super cute mode at the time.

Tootsie — Quite possibly the most well-acted and funny comedy ever. Great plot, acting, just a great, great movie.

I had visions of this one hanging together better, but then I got to cooking and to having a four pack of Dogfish Head Aprihop. Soooooooo, it is what it is.