“80% of success in life is showing up”
If you watch movies as much as I do, and like me, have a profound knowledge of useless pop culture information - in this case biographical tidbits concerning notable auteurs - you will probably recognize the quote I’m using for my first entry’s title. If you don’t recognize the quote, however, I will not keep you in the dark. My blogs don’t roll that way. I am invoking the clever and insightful words of Woody Allen. I hope that by the conclusion of this entry, this quote will justify my intent to start a blog that will certainly have no clear or cohesive editorial philosopy.
Before I go any futher, and talk about what my blog is, and is not, I need to address something for everybody’s peace of mind: Woody Allen did eventually marry his stepdaughter. What’s more, Oprah did once boldy say that Mr. Allen was one celebrity she’d never have as a guest on her prolific, heartfelt, and deeply inspiring talk show. If asked about my thoughts on the whole “marrying the step daughter thing” I’d probably have to side with The Oprah on this one. I guess there’s a first time for everything, as, I don’t often find myself seeing eye to eye with The Oprah.
Now that we’ve moved passed the obvious, and you all know I don’t condone the personal marital choices of Woddy Allen, I think we can move into “the specifics” and admit that the guy has made a few slam dunk movies. Even if the new ones are a bit clunky - to that point that Matchpoint has a scene in which the establishing shot is the cover of “Crime and Punishment” (assumedly an anticipation of the film’s conclusion with a murder) - I still maintain that the old ones - continuing my use of sport and colloquial metaphors - knock conventional cinema out of the park.
All that being said, it pains me to admit that even if I really wanted to say that I was a fan before his movies were raped and pillaged by the bourgeois numbskulls, popular culture cinema giant, and pipe-bomb-wielding anarchists, I can’t; wasn’t alive then; wasn’t conscious of any media apart from things that gave me milk and hugs. The same can be said about my interest in The Smiths. Particularly my inquiries about Morrissey being a wanker. Like, I can’t retrospectively look at The Smiths and say I was there before they were hip. Rather, I can only study from a distance, and safely say that Morrissey is a wanker (even if The Smiths wrote a catchy tune or two in their day).
Either way, hopefully this tangent has helped cleared the air-waves of any animosity towards, and controversy about, daughter marrying. I admit, I might’ve opened another can of worms with the notion that Morrissey is, and sings like, a wanker. But leaving this can of worms to another day and another entry, I will now abandon my lengthy tangent, and keep with the theme of my now explained title.
According to Mr. Allen, I’ve accomplished 80% of success in the blog industry for “showing up” with my invested, albeit sarcastic, opinions. Now I leave the other 20% to you, “the masses” as it were, to actually read what I write and respond with your opinions. Yeah, this blog will have no clear focus. I like it that way.
4 years ago • Notes