Why I Love Romanticism

G!

Between the Enlightenment
And the birth of modern
Industry, there was a period
Of about fifty years (or longer,
But times are irrelevant) where
Intellectuals felt rather than
Thought, and produced some
Of the best works of literature,
Music and art which I am still
In the process of discovering.
Romanticism, I feel, wasn't
Really concerned with the
Practical messages artists
Of beforehand or since have
Focused so insufferably on;
It was instead a movement
Of sublimity, awe, and the
Appreciation of beauty in
Itself. I care not for the
Meaning of life, so long
As mine is filled with the
Grand aesthetic beauty
That engulfs my vision;
So long as I hear these
Magnificent melodies in
My ears as I close my
Eyes and think: 'Ah, this
Is great!' Not everything
Must have meaning, the
Most attractive things of
This earth are not practical,
Yet wholly necessary.

Self-esteem

G!

I stand upon a rock;
It's a big, hard type of
Rock, maybe a granite,
And on a good day it's
The size of four minivans
Lined up two by two and
Wrapped in a bundle.
The top of the rock is
Flat, with enough room
To lie down, pace about
And jog in little circles on.
The sides of the rock are
Smooth and polished, and
Are impossible to climb.
The only way to get on my
Rock is via a rope ladder
Which I can lower and raise
At will, and this way I control
What gets onto my rock, and
What doesn't. When I stand
Upon my rock I can see for
Miles around, and what I see
Are many rocks just like the
One I stand upon, yet most of
Them are vacant at the top.
Some people might think me
Foolish, for standing atop my
Secluded rock, where there's
Only room for myself, but
I believe as firmly as the
Firmness of my rock that
Where I am is a good place,
And I'd like to stay here.

What do you stand on?

What would Herman say about sall this?

By G!

If Herman Melville were
Alive in our time I'd
Like to venture forth a
Plausible theory that
He'd have written a book
Even more sprawling than
His masterpiece Moby Dick
Which I'm in the process
Of reading. Ours is a time
Devoid of meaning but
Full of implications;
A time that assaults the
Senses but leave nothing
Behind; a time fitting
To gaze into the pro-
Found nothingness and see
Our reflection composed
Of pixels. All that used
To be sacred is now muted
And we are left with a
Feeling of loss attributed
To some source we but
Dimly decipher. Were
Herman alive today he
Would have composed
A lament on this matter
Of such proportion to equal
The volume of ten Moby
Dicks. If he found the
Whiteness of the whale
Terrifying, what terror
Would he make of the
Blackness of the computer
Monitor? What existential
void would he find gazing
Into the flickering television
Screen? How many mad
Quests would he discover
How many indestructible
Foes in place of nature?

31. Master of the Imagination

G!

I have a small
Library of movies
From my childhood
That I had seen I don't
Know how many times,
Because when you're that
Young every movie seems
New no matter how many
Times you watch it. Most
Of those movies back then
Were Pixar or Disney, and
Then there's Spirited Away,
Which I Loved like A Bug's
Life or Toy Story, but never
Understood as much as those
Other movies until I got older;
I didn't catch on to the fact that Haku
Was a dragon until well past the halfway
Mark, I didn't understand why the river spirit
Was covered in sludge, and Chihiro's memory
Of getting saved from the river was lost on me.
Still, the things I didn't understand did little to
Detract from how awesome I felt the movie was.
And now it almost feels painful when I watch
Spirited Away again, because now I understand
It all, and the movie just becomes more and more
Relevant to life. Aside from Spirited Away, I was
Not introduced to the films of Hayao Miyazaki
Until 8th grade, when I saw Howl's Moving Castle
And was blown away by it. Incredible to say, the
8th grade me still did not understand everything
That occurred in the movie (and I had already
Caught the movie fever by then), but oh it was
A magnificent experience! After that, it's another
Year of silence until I happened upon Castle in the
Sky in 10th grade, and I became determined to seek
Out all of Miyazaki's films, I could have kicked my-
Self for missing out on so many amazing movies
For so long. Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa of
The Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke
Quickly followed, as did My Neighbor Totoro and
Porco Rosso, capped off with Ponyo and The Castle
Of Cagliostro. The other films of Miyazaki's Studio
Ghibli I too had meanwhile watched in succession,
Brilliant movies like the lush Whisper of the Heart,
The quirky Pom Poko, and the very, very sad Grave
Of the Fireflies. Watching The Wind Rises last year,
The sadness I felt at the fact that Hayao Miyazaki
Had announced his retirement from filmmaking
Made the experience all the more bittersweet. One
Day, I hope to own a collection of Miyazaki's
Filmography. My favorite director of all time had
Been around all this time; it's ironic how I've only
Gotten to know him in the last 2 years. I find it
Difficult to delve into something I love so much, so
I'll do what a fanboy normally does: You should to
Watch the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and I mean all
Of them (there aren't even that many); every one of
His films is magnificent, inspired, and perfect; there
Is nothing that can be added to them to make them
Better. Beautiful scenery painted of watercolors, epic
Storytelling where everything falls into place, and
Thoroughly dynamic characters that leap off the
Animation into real life are the facts in a Miyazaki
Film. No other filmmaker of the present time had
So well utilized every aspect of the art of film, and
So immersed himself in the filmmaking process,
Than the undisputed master of imagination, my
Favorite director for all times, Hayao Miyazaki.

29. Honorary Mentions

G!

Time to face the facts: I'm running
Out of favorite directors to sing my
Praises for, and to a greater extent
I'm running out of sufficiently original
Praises too. Before I unveil my last and
Personally most revered director of all,
Here's a haphazard salute to some great
Directors I did not cover with this odd-
Numbered cycle of monologues: Robert
Altman, the salad-making rebel fighting
The Hollywood system, whose movies
Of huge ensemble casts, unorthodox
Storytelling and improvised naturalism
Are spectacular sights to behold even
If you do not like his style; Sergio Leone,
Whose spaghetti westerns represent the
Pinnacle of the genre, and also produced
Once Upon A Time In America, which I
Find to be among the saddest and most
Atrociously underrated films ever; Martin
Scorsese, who also made one hell of a sad
Movie, with Raging Bull, and is of course
Best known as the godfather of gangster
Movies (that aside, he had directed an
Excellent adaptation of The Invention of
Hugo Cabret, which does fall into the
Entertainment for all ages category), and
A stellar handler of period styles; Akira
Kurosawa, whose most reputed movies
I had watched all just this summer, and
Show the Japanese master as a pioneer
Of original, wildly influential cinematic
Tales, humanist compassion, and grand
Black-and-white photography; Ang Lee,
Versatile adapter of a rich collection of
Literary works; Michael Mann, the go-to
Director to make stylish urban thrillers;
Brian De Palma, another stylist (and the
Second most prominent user of bloody
Violence after Sam Peckinpah); and
Ingmar Bergman, Sam Mendes, Danny
Boyle, Christopher Nolan, Alan J. Pakula,
David Lean, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock,
Howard Hawks, Don Siegel, Sidney Lumet,
John Frankenheimer, Franklin J. Schaffner,
Isao Takahata, Steven McQueen, Darren
Aronofsky, Steven Soderbergh, and more
Greats I've yet to be introduced to. Of these
Fabulous directors I sang no long-winded
Praise for because I either had not seen
Enough of their films or they had not
Amassed a sufficiently wide-spanning
Filmography to be deemed consistently
Great. A great director uses the medium
Of film to communicate the language of
Art. Aside from music, film is arguably
The most expressive communication
Form there is; such a medium of
Expression cannot be bound solely
To commercial interests or mass
Appeal, and I think all great
Directors have understood
That, hence their ability to
Produced films of great
Merit, not simply because
They entertain, more
Because of what they tell.

27. The Sentimental Favorite

G!

I am thinking of Steven Spielberg
At 2 am because I had forgotten to
Write a monologue on Wednesday,
And I am trying to remember the
First Spielberg movie I ever saw,
But I can't, though I have a minor
Suspicion that it's Indiana Jones
And the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull. Steven's movies are great
Because they have a lot of heart,
Which isn't what most great film-
Makers are known for; Spielberg
Is the sentimental master, and this
Is seen in everything from E.T. to
Amistad to Saving Private Ryan to
Schindler's List. No matter how grim
Or depressing the subject matter at
Hand, Steven handles it with the kind
Of compassion mostly reserved for
Cut pets. Steven's second forte is
Wholesale entertainment. Jurassic
Park, Jaws, the Indiana Jones flicks,
Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
The genre of action adventure would
Be a lot less entertaining of Steven
Never made movies. His ventures
Into darker territory, such as Empire
Of the Sun, Minority Report, Munich,
To name a few, are equally engrossing,
But still sentimental. It seems almost
Criminal for a Steven Spielberg film
To depict the unpleasant head-on, such
As in War Horse, an execution takes
Place at the foot of a windmill, and
The firing squad shoots just as the
Sails rotate in front of the camera
To obstruct the 2 young deserters
Getting shot. Even when things get
As bloody as they do in Saving Private
Ryan, the story at the core of the movie
Is a noble and good-hearted one. With
The possible exception of Munich, Steven
Has not made a single movie where a
Trace of innocence, or optimism, is not
Preserved. All the better, because while
Great films can make us confront reality,
They too can wrap us in a reality better
Than the one we occupy, which is why
In the arsenal of great directors Steven
Spielberg will always be my
Sentimental favorite.

25. King of Style

G!

If a monologue about eclectic
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino
Were to contain a reference
To some obscure movie twice
Every sentence, only that would
Do his name any justice. He who
Is the king of homages, pastiches
And bold spins on the works of
Other directors is a fine example
Of film bluff to movie director, and
The living proof that if you've seen
Enough movies, you could probably
Make a few yourself. Quentin's hot
Streak of modern classics started
With Reservoir Dogs, an excellent
Crime caper and nod to Kubrick's
The Killing. His next film is the one
Everyone knows: Pulp Fiction, in
Which John Travolta, Samuel L.
Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce
Willis and ensemble simply ooze
With style. Despite only being
Twenty years old, the movie is
Already an icon. I'd quote one
Of the numerous famous lines
From Pulp right now, but I've
Only seen it once, sadly. I have
Also not seen Quentin's homage
To blaxploitation films: Jackie
Brown (though I did see Django
Unchained, but that one's more
Of a southern western; like with
The Coen Brothers, you're never
Sure what one genre Quentin's
Movies belong to). The two Kill
Bill movies (best seen as one whole
Martial arts epic with intermission)
Again features an over-the-top
Amount of cool, style and pure
Badassery, and affirmed Quentin's
Prowess with high velocity action
Sequences (In Reservoir Dogs and
Pulp Fiction, the violence was more
Restrained to sudden outbursts),
Something he repeated in the way
Of car chases, with Death Proof.
The first of Quentin's movies I've
Seen turned out to be his wacky
WWII thriller, Inglourious Basterds,
Which ends the war in a way only
Someone who really enjoys their
Fiction can end it, Tarantino style.
From unexpected plot twists to
Hilarious use of expletives, with
Gruesome violence and badass
Characters on the side, topped
With indelible dialogue that must
Be heard in all its blazing glory
Within the film for maximum
Enjoyment, a Quentin picture
Is a movie bluff at his glorious,
Finest two hours.