Things Movies Have Taught Me

While I was typing up that last post on the greatest sports movies of all time I realized that a lot of these movies (and others) have taught me some valuable life lessons.  Below are some lessons I have learned through movies.  (Of course a lot of this learning was passed on from my parents or learned from my own experiences, but the movies helped hammer home the points..  Also, some of these are maybe less 'educational' and more 'inspirational', but I want this post to have some substance.)

A Bronx Tale 
Calogero 'C' Anello: Sonny and my father always said that when I get older I would understand. Well, I finally did. I learned something from these two men. I learned to give love and get love unconditionally. You just have to accept people for what they are, and I learned the greatest gift of all. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever.

Sonny: Alright, listen to me. You pull up right where she lives, right? Before you get outta the car, you lock both doors. Then, get outta the car, you walk over to her. You bring her over to the car. Dig out the key, put it in the lock and open the door for her. Then you let her get in. Then you close the door. Then you walk around the back of the car and look through the rear window. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button so that you can get in: dump her.
Calogero 'C' Anello: Just like that?
Sonny: Listen to me, kid. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button so that you can get in, that means she's a selfish broad and all you're seeing is the tip of the iceberg. You dump her and you dump her fast.

Sonny: You gotta do what your heart tells you to do. Let me tell you somethin' right now. You're only allowed three great women in your lifetime. They come along like the great fighters, every ten years. Rocky Marciano. Sugar Ray Robinson. Joe Louis. Sometimes you get 'em all at once.

Bull Durham
Crash Davis: Did you hit me with your right hand or did you hit me with your left? Huh? Did you hit me with your right hand or did you hit me with your LEFT?
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: My left.
Crash Davis: Good! That's good; when you get in a fight with a drunk you don't hit him with your pitching hand. God, I can't keep giving you these free lessons so quit screwin' around and help me up.

Rocky
Rocky Balboa: You hang out with nice people, you get nice friends. You hang out with smart people, you get smart friends. You hang out with yo-yo people, you get yo-yo friends. It's simple mathematics.

Rudy
Fortune: You're 5 foot nothin', 100 and nothin', and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football players in the land for 2 years. And you're gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don't have to prove nothin' to nobody but yourself. And after what you've gone through, if you haven't done that by now, it ain't gonna never happen. Now go on back.

Ferris Bueller
Ferris Bueller: Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Stand By Me
Gordie: Do you think I'm weird?
Chris: Definitely.
Gordie: No man, seriously. Am I weird?
Chris: Yeah, but so what? Everybody's weird.

PCU
Droz: What's this? You're wearing the shirt of the band you're going to see? Don't be that guy.

Swingers
Art Imitates Life

Back to the Future
Goldie Wilson: [rushes up to George] Say! What do you let those boys push you around like that for?
George McFly: Well, they're bigger than me.
Goldie Wilson: Stand tall, boy. Have some respect for yourself. Don't you know if you let people walk over you now, they'll be walking over you for the rest of your life! Look at me. You think I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in this slop house?
Lou: Watch it, Goldie!
Goldie Wilson: No, sir! I'm gonna make something of myself. I'm going to Night School. And one day I'm gonna *be* somebody!
Marty McFly: That's right! He's gonna be mayor.
Goldie Wilson: Yeah, I'm gonna...
[smiles, one of his front teeth is gold]
Goldie Wilson: Mayor! Now *that's* a good idea! I can run for mayor.
Lou: A colored mayor, that'll be the day.
Goldie Wilson: You wait and see, Mr. Carruthers. I *will* be mayor! I'll be the most powerful man in Hill Valley. And I'm gonna clean up this town.
Lou: Good. You can start by sweeping the floor.
[hands Goldie a broom]
Goldie Wilson: [stands tall with a hand over his heart] Mayor Goldie Wilson. Like the sound of that.
[collects George's dishes]

 
These were the ones that were on the top of my head.  I'm sure more will come to me and they'll be a part 2 to this post.  In the mean time, please feel free to share with me.

Greatest Sports Movies of All Time

Sports movies are a combination of two of my favorite things – sports and movies. Add in an attractive female or two and you’ve hit the trifecta.

With that said, below are my top 10 sports movies of all time.

10) Cool Runnings (1993)
Loosely based on the true story of the Jamaican bobsled team that entered the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. Heartwarming and funny.

9) Major League (1989)
A group of misfits come together to form a winning team - with a few comedic moments along the way.

8) Remember the Titans (2000)
This movie tells a poignant true story of race relations, all-the-while keeping itself grounded in football.

7) Miracle (2004)
I’m sure you’ve been inundated with this movie over the past week or so watching the Olympics. But, did you know this was a remake of the also well-done Miracle On Ice (starring Steve Guttenberg).

6) Slap Shot (1977)
The familiar script, misfits come together to form a winning team – with a few comedic moments along the way, takes the form of a hockey movie. Excellent.

5) Rudy (1993)
Sean Astin may be one of the greatest actors of our generation. If you don’t get chills at the last scene, you’re dead to me.

4) Rocky/Rocky IV (1976/1985)
The dispute forever lives about which of these is the best Rocky film, but whichever you choose, there is no doubt that this underdog story tops most. There is even less doubt that Eye of The Tiger has become THE inspirational song. Nothing makes a sports movie like the training montage.

3) Goal! (2005)
This movie never received much notoriety in the US and in fact I only learned of it during a trip to China, but it’s AWESOME. From the hardship of illegally entering the US and risking everything Santiago Munez strives to fulfill a dream he once had given up.

2) Youngblood (1986)
Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze and Cynthia Gibb. In search of his NHL dream Dean Youngblood has to overcome a lot of obstacles and a little hazing along the way.

1) Necessary Roughness (1991)
Scott Bakula, Sinbad, Rob Schneider, Kathy Ireland. I know this isn’t a consensus favorite, but this is my list and I think this movie is classic.


Honorable Mentions (In no particular order. Yeah, there are a lot on this list, but if you haven’t seen some of these, then I’m doing you a favor) – Caddyshack, The Cutting Edge (a guiltless pleasure), Field of Dreams, White Men Can’t Jump, Hoosiers, Searching for Bobby Fischer (chess is as much a sport as Nascar), The Mighty Ducks, The Natural, Everyone’s Hero, Cinderella Man, Jerry Maguire, Bull Durham, Happy Gilmore, Brian’s Song, Dodgeball, Invincible, Kingpin, The Hustler, The Color of Money, Bend It Like Beckham, Green Street Hooligans (less about ‘soccer’ then the fanatics who love it, but great none-the-less), Side Out, Days of Thunder, Debbie Does Dallas (just thought I’d sneak that one in), A League of Their Own, The Karate Kid, The Bad News Bears, Airborne, Endless Summer 2, The Power of One (another movie where the sport –boxing- is a tool to tell a much more important story), The Sandlot.

Thoughts?  Feel free to tell me what I missed or why I'm an idiot or what your favorite quotes are, etc..  In fact, I encourage discussions.

Kitty Update 3

It's been a while since I posted about our friend Emma. 

Currently she is in a foster home where they are watching her and making sure she is adjusting to life.  She has over 2000 'fans' on facebook and has recieved support and donations from all types of sources.  There are currently several applications in process for her adoption and she looks to be on her way to a new life with loving parents. 

For more updates please check out her facebook page.  There are videos and pictures and tons of updates for you.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/New-York-NY/Emma-her-long-journey-back/231516941351?ref=ts

Thank you all again for your support.

If there are other causes that The Gift can get behind please feel free to send me a note and I'll be glad to get involved as best I can.

Words I Love

As a 'writer' (yeah, I'm calling myself a writer, what about it?), I enjoy words. I don't mean it in the way a math geek dresses as a number for Halloween or the way an engineer has to take apart everything he owns just to put it back together. I'm not obsessive and I don't think about them when I lie in bed at night, but I like words.

While it's true tattoos and piercing are a form of expression there is nothing easier and sometimes harder than words to express oneself. 

Not to be cliche, but words can be more painful than piercings and more everlasting than tattoos. There may be nothing greater than having that person you love most in the world say "I love you" and there may be nothing more painful than having that same person tell you "it's over". 

Just to be clear, I fully believe that there are times when one is at a loss for words or there are just 'no words to describe...'  And I believe that words without context or emotion are meaningless..  But, that's not the point here.

What is the point you ask?  Well, basically I just needed a lead-in to this post..

Below are some words that I think are awesome (in no particular order).

• Purgatory - Any condition or place of temporary punishment, suffering, expiation, or the like.  (A place I'll probably end up after my time on this earth is up..  There is something about this word that I like.  I have no idea why.)
• Schenectady - A city in 'upstate' New York. (It's just fun to say.) 
• Convoluted - Complicated; intricately involved: a convoluted way of describing a simple device.  (I feel like life is often all too convoluted and is enjoyed much more in its simplest form.)  
• Succinct - Expressed in few words; concise; terse.  (One word that says 'get to the point'.)
• Pride - A high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. (This word says more with less than any other that I know.)
• Awkward - Hard to deal with; difficult; requiring skill, tact, or the like: an awkward situation; an awkward customer. (Maybe my favorite word of all time.  It's aWkWard to say, and to spell.  It's a word that describe itself.)

* All definitions taken from dictionary.com

Duece Duece

OK.  SERIOUSLY..  I don't want to harp, but......If you're going to say that a post is 'poop' please at least leave an Anonymous comment as to why. 

It's totally cool if you don't like a post and I am totally open to criticism (constructive is better, of course), but let me know why you don't like it. 

For example, on the latest post 'Friend Zone' someone has said it was 'poop'.  Why?  Is the content uninteresting or do you disagree with the perspective I have taken or the insights I am sharing.  Do you have experiences to share?  Are you the exception to the rule?  Are you one of those old 'friends' of mine that are foremost in this article???  (either the ones from when I was that naive shmuck, or the ones from when I knew better and flipped the script.)  Do you want to rekindle the 'friendship' or express feelings of your own that have been pent up for years??

If you have insight to share with me, and/or my audience, please don't hold out.  This blog can only be improved by readers comments.

(and to you, yes you, who are thinking of clicking 'poop' on this post, just know that its cliche and not as clever or funny as you think.)

Thank you,

The Gift   

Friend Zone

Well, it appears my run with Ego TV has come to an end.  I guess it's not official (no one has told me as much), but my latest article was submitted over 2-weeks ago and as of yet has still not been posted.  I am not taking it too hard because, as anyone who has frequented their website knows, our general content doesn't really mesh (I'm less 'adult-male, pop-culture' focused).  I did broaden my article topics and it was definitely a learning experience.  Hopefully Ego TV has a few more fans thanks to my writing and maybe some of you saw my stuff over there and have become regular readers of The Gift and The Goods. 

Below is my most recent submission.  Again, not sure it's right for this blog, but I already wrote it, and for the world to miss out would be a shame.  Hopefully you'll like it.

The Friend Zone
Written by “The Gift”

When a guy sees a girl he immediately classifies her – not his type, dateable (the kind of girl he can take home to mom) or f#&kable (hit it and quit it). Shallow as it is, a guy generally won’t even talk to a girl if she doesn’t fit one of those latter two categories. By association, a guy and girl can never really be friends – because he’ll always want more.

For many young and/or naïve men, being friends seems like a good way to develop a relationship with a woman. For the rest of us, we’ll enjoy a laugh at your expense.

What you’re thinking: I’ll get to know this girl. I’ll be there for her; offer my shoulder to cry on if she needs it. I’ll prove myself. I’ll form a bond with her that will eventually work into a relationship.

What she’s thinking: I have a guy who will tell me how beautiful I am, make me feel good about myself, kill spiders for me and listen to me vent about other guys, AND I don’t have to sleep with him.

Your Out: You have at max three hangouts in order to make a move – go for a kiss, ask her out, etc. After that, you’re doomed to the Friend Zone.

Once you’re in the Friend Zone you have only one option. Be bold. I’m not talking about confessing your undying love. In fact, it’s just the opposite. You need to find someone else, pull-away, change the relationship. If you can make her miss you, make her angry, or make her jealous, you may have a chance. You need to force her to feel things for you that she hasn’t before.

I know you’re thinking you can wait it out or just tell her how you feel, but these are sucker moves. Let me tell you why.

Wait it out: So she’s dating other guys and you’re pining. Even if things don’t work out with the other guy, your jealousy will eat at you. And it will show. And once she knows she has you, she doesn’t want you.

Tell her how you feel: Girls want a challenge. She already knows she has you, and your confession only proves her point. She hasn’t developed those feelings for you and she won’t just because you tell her you’d ‘give her the world’ or ‘that no one has ever loved a girl as much as you love her’. You know the expression “you don’t know what you had until you’ve lost it”? Learn it.

If you’re afraid of losing the friendship it’s most likely doomed anyway. Your pent up feelings and jealousy will eventually cause you to alienate yourself or alienate her. Over time that friendship will fade away into nothing and all you’ll be left with are regrets about what might have been.

Your best bet: State your intentions up front. You don’t have to act on them right away, but let her know within those first few hang-outs that she should be evaluating you on the dateability scale. Again, I don’t suggest confessing your undying love. Be subtle initially. Drop little indications of your feelings; compliment her. Then you can get more bold. Tell her you think she’s attractive and that the friendship thing won’t be enough. Tell her you’re willing to put in the time as a friend, but that eventually she’s gonna have to either take a chance on you or on losing you. Make her think about you in a sexual/romantic way. Make her wonder who you really are. Don’t be ‘safe’.

Rilo Kiley / Joey The Rat

Back in college I went with some friends to a concert of the relatively unknown band Ozma (tickets were $7 so even though I didn't know the band I figured what the hell).  Ozma (who have sinced toured with Weezer) turned out to be pretty awesome.  I highly recommend their album 'Rock and Roll Part Three'.

This post, however, is not about Ozma.  This post is about the band which opened for Ozma on that fateful day.  This band was Rilo Kiley - another band I had never heard of. 

Rilo Kiley's music was OK.  They were a good live act, and they have a few songs worthy of a download, but it wasn't the music that caught my attention.  It was the face of the guitarist that was like seeing a ghost.  Can you recognize the face on the left?

Maybe you'll have better luck recognizing the face on the right?

Yes, that is the same face. 

The kid who once played Joey 'The Rat' on Boy Meets World [starring Ben Savage] has joined up with another former child star (Jenny Lewis - Troop Beverly Hills and The Wiz [maybe not coincidentally staring Fred Savage]) to create Rilo Kiley.

Maybe you all don't find this interesting, but it was to me..  Afterall, I spent the majority of my television watching childhood with Cory, Shawn and Topanga. 

-Thank you Dan S. for inviting me to that concert years ago.

Expert Opinion

Now that the football season has concluded (congratulations to the New Orleans Saints) I would like to take a minute to address the so-called 'experts'.

I understand that sports are a tricky business and that assessing talent and the outcome of games can be very challenging.  It is for this reason that professional scouts are highly paid and face tremendous issues in job security.  It is for this reason that gambling on sporting events is possible - if outcomes were guaranteed there would be no vegas odds.

With that said, the so-called media experts (from this point on I'll refer to them as simply as 'experts' - for the sake of ease, despite the misnomer) should be held responsible for their words.  How often has an expert predicted the outcome of a game wrong?  Can we take the superbowl for example where the Indianapolis Colts were the heavy favorite of 'experts' everywhere? 

My issue of course is not with 'experts' predicting the outcome of singular games wrong.  No, my issue is much greater.  It's in the way they talk about players and teams and games and hold no responsibility for what they say. 

In the corporate world, if someone is off on their yearly forecast they have to answer to someone.  Why don't sports 'experts'?  Why are they not accountable? 

When the Houston Texans drafted Mario Williams over Reggie Bush and Vince Young in the 2006 NFL Draft, the team was lamb-basted by the media.  The scouts, the coaches and the ownership were harshly ripped for not taking the flashy Reggie Bush or hometown favorite Vince Young, but instead taking a nobody named Mario Williams.  Yet, while Reggie Bush has failed to live up to his hype (he won a Super Bowl Championship last night, but I didn't see him do much), and Vince Young has already had a stint on suicide watch, Mario Williams has done nothing but been elected to the Pro Bowl twice and help sure up a previously abyssmal defense.

Still has anyone heard one of these 'experts' stand-up and admit they were wrong?  Apologize to the scouts of the Texans, to the ownership, to the fans who had to endure the mass ridicule? 

Do I expect 'experts' to really know everything?  Of course not.  Do I expect them to be right all of the time?  No.  But, I think when they are wrong they should be held accountable.  Maybe we should stop calling them 'experts' and start calling them what they are - 'highly paid commentators whose guesses are no better than the rest of us'.

Domestic Problems - Beautiful Girl

This song is just really beautiful (for lack of a better word) and seems so genuine that it can't help but get into my soul just a little. Let me know if you enjoy it.

(Disclaimer: I don't think this live version sounds as good as the album version, but I couldn't find that online to embed here.)

Lyrics | Domestic Problems lyrics - Beautiful Girl lyrics


Thanks to John F. for introducing me to Domestic Problems almost 10 years ago.

Friends with Talent - Writing

I like marketing.  I like sharing what I love with others.  I also like my friends. 

When my friends do cool things I want others to take note.  This is one of those times. 

http://storiesforchildrenmagazine.org/MuchasSmooches.aspx

Dave Symonds is a good friend of mine and a very talented writer (who focuses on children's books, poems, and the like).  This is his first published piece. 
You will be seeing Dave's work on here from time to time, but I also suspect you'll see it on bookshelves in Barnes and Noble in not to long. 

* If anyone has any publishing connections or tips please send them my way.

(This is my 100th post - are you all still enjoying?)

FUNemployment

I didn't write it, but this is pretty interesting.  Especially for those of us wondering where our next paycheck is coming from.

5 Things More Likely Than You Having A Job