Friday, May 05, 2006

Cars, Pedestrians and My Name is Earl!

I hope you all had a grand Cinco de Mayo!! Otherwise known as Cinco de Drinko! I didn’t drink I just made some tasty tostadas (I forgot to buy tortillas for burritos). Either way they were extremely tasty!

I managed to do something different this afternoon. I didn’t head straight to the park like I swore I would instead I came home, had lunch and checked my email; it was completely empty as usual. Then I decided to head over to the library area and from there I walked to Sellwood and then back. The total trip was a little over 3 and a half miles. It was a nice walk. Sellwood has some nice looking cafes and coffee houses; I stopped in one and sat down to write with a large iced Mocha. The name of the place was Twin Paradox and it is open pretty late most days, which is always good to know. The walk did exactly what I hoped it would it started some new thoughts and I want to share this one with you.

One of my favorite shows on television is ‘My Name is Earl’. It is a great show that to me channels the spirit of that comedy gem ‘Raising Arizona’, I love this show. I was thinking about the opening where Earl gets hit by a car, after winning the lottery, and ends up in the hospital without the winning ticket. In the hospital he learns about Karma by watching Carson Daly talk about Karma and he decides to stop being a petty crook and to turn his life around by doing good things for people he wronged. He makes a list of his misdeeds and the show is all about him dedicating his life to setting right the wrong he caused and that is when the winning lottery ticket returns to him to help him accomplish his new goal. Anyway it is the car hitting him that started me thinking about things. I have always found people getting hit by cars on television and movies to be extremely humorous; even when it is not meant to be funny. The most glaring example of this happened in college. The show in question was ‘Felicity’. Ok sure go ahead and laugh it up. Yes, I saw an episode of ‘Felicity’. I was actually mooching food from some sorority girl and they started watching ‘Felicity’. Which brings up another point, college was where I learned that girls always have food. They might not have a television or a radio but they always have food. Where as single guys seem to have the gadgets and condiments but no actual food. That is one of the many reasons why guys need women…. I am still hazy on what the ladies get out of it. OK, back to the story I was heating up their leftovers from some restaurant when the show started. Trying out my good manners I decided to stay and socialize while I ate their food. So I tucked into watch the show. Felicity was being flirted with by some dumb guy that all the girls thought was charming because he was earnestly trying to win her over. In the scene I sat down for he is walking with her and finally gets a yes to a date and dramatically walks backward away from her right into an oncoming bus. Ok wait a minute let me stop laughing; the scene in my head still makes me laugh. Anyway I was laughing so hard that I was asked to leave and was not invited back for a couple weeks. The next example was very similar to this one. It was in the movie ‘Meet Joe Black’ starring Brad Pitt. The first part is this guy (Brad Pitt) flirting with this gorgeous girl (Claire Forlani). I am not sure but I think she was charmed by the guy and they part ways when Brad gets hit by a car and if I remember correctly he ricochets into another car and bounces off that one too; it was spectacular! It was like he had been turned into a pinball! I saw that scene and I was in tears of laughter. I do not remember the rest of the movie so you can see what I was thinking about while I was watching it; Brad Pitt as the human pinball. I mean how many times do you get to see people like Brad Pitt hit by a car? It was a beautiful thing! Other Examples include ‘The Craft’, ‘City of Angels’ and several other shows and movies. They have this happen as if it’s a common occurrence. What I find amazing is how many romance shows have some charming guy pulverized by a car after the girl gets interested. In my opinion it says a lot about women… or maybe it doesn’t. Either way I know it says a lot about me when I find these dramatic scenes and horrible scenarios so dang funny. It is kind of like when you are supposed to be quiet in church and all you want to do is giggle or like when you were a kid and you were being scolded and you try to be contrite but all you want to do is laugh. It is inappropriate but I would not change that reaction for the world. Before I leave you just picture with me: Brad Pitt bouncing off the hood of a car….. Leonardo DiCaprio as a human ice cube in ‘Titanic’. Ok the last one has nothing to do with a car but you have to admit that it gives you a smile to think of that scene.

Or not…


PS. Thanks for signing the Guest List Dad!

No comments: