More Than One Lesson

Every few years, I take a step back, examine my taste in film and television, and realize how much it’s evolved. As a child, my favorite films and stories incorporated aspects of adventure, fantasy, and science fiction. As a teenager, my fascination with the juvenile humor found in raunchy comedies was a point in my life I now find quite embarrassing. I never get rid of the movies I collect, so I can take a look at my DVD collection (featuring some movies I never intend to watch again) and can see the changes.

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Some things in life go together wonderfully: mashed potatoes and gravy, pizza and soda, peas and carrots, etc. On the other hand, there are those things which are mutually exclusive – where you cannot have one as well as the other. No matter how hard you try to balance the two of them, they are going to continue to divide your loyalties until one of them obtains your entire devotion.

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In this episode, Tyler and Josh discuss Brian Dannelly’s Struck by Lightning and Jake Kasdan’s Orange County.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:44- Intro, The Paul Goebel Show, minisodes
00:05:00- Comment Policy
00:12:30- Will Gray
00:15:50- Struck by Lightning
01:32:35- Orange County
01:50:30- Episode wrap-up

I experienced something this year after reading the Oscar nominees that I haven’t experienced since I don’t remember when: concurrence.  For as long as I’ve been (perhaps foolishly) watching the Oscars, I can’t remember a year in which my response was so even-keeled, so contemplative and – dare I say  it? – so agreeable with what the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences had arbitrarily decreed as the highest quality cinema to have been released in 2012.

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A few months ago, musician and friend-of-the-show Will Gray found that he had a tumor in his sinus, and that it was cancerous.  He has had surgery to remove the tumor in his sinus, but will be undergoing both chemotherapy and radiation.

The friends and family of Will and his wife, Angie, have come together to help them with meals, rides to the hospital, and financial assistance.  However, this is not going to be a quick process.

So, we at More Than One Lesson ask that you please donate to help Will and Angie.  They are insured, but Will is unable to work, so they need all the help they can get.  You can find out more by going to the website below.

Thank you.

CLICK HERE TO HELP WILL

In this episode, Tyler and Josh discuss James Gunn’s Super and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:45- Intro, newsletter, The Podcast Awards, The Unemployed Mind, For The Title
00:07:55- Super
00:52:05- Taxi Driver
01:15:35- Episode wrap-up, Struck by Lightning, Sermon Recommendation- The One Resolution You Need to Make

Every January 1st, I think of all the movies that are now 10 years old.  Doing so used to make me feel old and out of touch, but these days I’ve found it to be an interesting examination of changing culture and tastes.  It’s fascinating to see which movies remain in the collective mind and which have faded.  It was particularly interesting to think about it this year, as 2003 marked the beginning of a new blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean franchise while capping off the successful Lord of the Rings film series… only to have it resurrect ten years later in the form of The Hobbit.

It has also been interesting to see how my personal tastes have changed.  Some of these movies were my favorites at the time, but have faded, while others I found to not be particularly interesting, but now love.  Perhaps this is the case with you, too.

So, as of now, the following movies are now ten years old:

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In this episode, Reed Lackey returns to discuss Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year.  I’m the guy who has the radio in his car set to the station that plays Christmas carols 24/7, the guy who enjoys stringing up half-burnt out multicolor bulbs in 20 degree weather, the guy who devotes more care to dressing up the presents he bought than he does to dressing himself.  Yes, if Christmas were a drink, I’d proceed to get blackout drunk as soon as Santa closed out the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24^th and wallow in holiday delirium tremens all day December 26^th.

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It may be part of growing up. It may be part of living in a big city. It may be due to changes in the culture. But whatever the reason, I more and more regularly hear people talking about why they don’t like Christmas. To some, it’s much ado about nothing. To others it’s an altar to materialism. Some see Christmas as an out-of-date tradition; as corny as “Frosty the Snowman.” And from a certain perspective, they’re right.

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