Friday, November 14, 2008
Commenting
Also, for anyone who does in fact read this blog, please feel free to comment. I am anxious to hear your reactions, whether they go to substance, writing style, or anything else. And I'm sorry that you can't comment anonymously, but don't worry, attaching your name isn't going to incite any sort of retaliation.
Blogging & Self-Importance; Daniel Craig as Bond
According to some of my best friends, using a blog simply to chronicle the day-to-day events in one's life indicates self-importance. Because I fear that may be true, and because I did not create this blog in order to track my daily life, I will do my best to stay away from those types of posts. I suppose the reason my last post came off that way is that I felt I needed to explain my prolonged absence from this forum. Now that I am posting more regularly, however, no such need exists.
Instead, I thought I would write today about my excitement for the Quantum of Solace release today. For whatever reason, I never really got into Bond movies growing up. I suppose the reason for this is that my father was not all that much of a Bond fan, and thus never showed me the old films growing up (this, in my opinion, evidences the remarkable degree to which the things to which people are exposed growing up is a function of their parents interests -- e.g., I have never seen an Indiana Jones film because my parents didn't care for them).
I was first introduced to Bond in the nineties. Whenever the Pierce Brosnan films were released, I watched them; I suppose the popularity of the Goldeneye video game piqued my interest. While I saw the films, I did not find them all that entertaining; Brosnan, as suave as he may have been, was not all that convincing as a special agent who interacted with and killed some of the world's most dangerous villains. His success luring attractive women was persuasive; however, the more important aspect of Bond -- his special-agent prowess -- left something to be desired.
This stands in stark contrast to Daniel Craig's Bond in Casino Royale. He had the badass routine down to a T. From the first scene of the film, in which he chases a man through an African town, battling the enemy atop an industrial crane and eventually disposing of him, to the way he endured the infamous (at least to any male) scene in which he was repeatedly struck in the jewels with some sort of orb on the end of a rope, he was quite convincing. More importantly, as opposed to Brosnan, whose romantic pursuits seemed to be the crux of the character, Craig's female interactions flow from his badass-ness. Sure, he may lack the smooth game that Brosnan had, but what seems to make him attractive to women is his brusque, badass mentaility rather than his charisma.
This, in my opinion, is a much more convincing Bond character. I won't go so far as to make a normative statement about what Bond should be, for I admittedly can't speak to the Connery or other previous versions of Bond. But when combined with his elegant, modern style (perfectly tailored, simple black Armani tuxes and suits over crisp, slim white dress shirts; sweet Tom Ford aviators; etc.) and the fact that he's super jacked, Craig much more closely embodies a character that grown men boyishly imagine themselves being: an ass-kicking, world-saving, vixen-enticing badass. It is for this reason that I am more pumped to see Quantum of Solace than any movie I have seen in a while.
Instead, I thought I would write today about my excitement for the Quantum of Solace release today. For whatever reason, I never really got into Bond movies growing up. I suppose the reason for this is that my father was not all that much of a Bond fan, and thus never showed me the old films growing up (this, in my opinion, evidences the remarkable degree to which the things to which people are exposed growing up is a function of their parents interests -- e.g., I have never seen an Indiana Jones film because my parents didn't care for them).
I was first introduced to Bond in the nineties. Whenever the Pierce Brosnan films were released, I watched them; I suppose the popularity of the Goldeneye video game piqued my interest. While I saw the films, I did not find them all that entertaining; Brosnan, as suave as he may have been, was not all that convincing as a special agent who interacted with and killed some of the world's most dangerous villains. His success luring attractive women was persuasive; however, the more important aspect of Bond -- his special-agent prowess -- left something to be desired.
This stands in stark contrast to Daniel Craig's Bond in Casino Royale. He had the badass routine down to a T. From the first scene of the film, in which he chases a man through an African town, battling the enemy atop an industrial crane and eventually disposing of him, to the way he endured the infamous (at least to any male) scene in which he was repeatedly struck in the jewels with some sort of orb on the end of a rope, he was quite convincing. More importantly, as opposed to Brosnan, whose romantic pursuits seemed to be the crux of the character, Craig's female interactions flow from his badass-ness. Sure, he may lack the smooth game that Brosnan had, but what seems to make him attractive to women is his brusque, badass mentaility rather than his charisma.
This, in my opinion, is a much more convincing Bond character. I won't go so far as to make a normative statement about what Bond should be, for I admittedly can't speak to the Connery or other previous versions of Bond. But when combined with his elegant, modern style (perfectly tailored, simple black Armani tuxes and suits over crisp, slim white dress shirts; sweet Tom Ford aviators; etc.) and the fact that he's super jacked, Craig much more closely embodies a character that grown men boyishly imagine themselves being: an ass-kicking, world-saving, vixen-enticing badass. It is for this reason that I am more pumped to see Quantum of Solace than any movie I have seen in a while.
Monday, November 10, 2008
I need to post more often.
Well yet another couple of months have passed since I last posted. For that I apologize. I guess I'll have to chalk it up to being busy, although I know that is probably the most tired excuse one can give. The old law school saying has certainly rung true for me thus far though: "The first year they scare you to death; the second year they work you to death; and the third year they bore you to death." Hopefully the final element won't prove true; I intend to take some pretty cool classes and clinics my third year. Additionally, I intend to defend, along with my buddy Elliot, my IU Law beer pong title, since no league seems to me materializing this year. Perhaps it'll be like the Ryder Cup, or the World Baseball Classic, taking place only every other year, but all that much more important when it does go down. But I digress...
The aforementioned "working to death" part for me has included countless hours preparing for, traveling to, and attempting to win people over at interviews; what seems like a year of my life checking citations and quoting Bluebook rules (incidental bonus: partial mastery of the Chicago Manual of Style); trying to be at least halfway prepared for my classes; and finally, in the few hours that remained, attempting to learn the moot court case well enough so as not to embarrass myself at oral argument. This crazy schedule caused me to spend multiple ENTIRE pre-finals weekends in the library, something I had managed to avoid even during 1L.
Looking on the bright side, my frantic fall did land me a job: I'll be heading to Allen & Overy in New York next summer. I'm pretty excited about my choice, and I feel really lucky to have gotten the opportunity, especially in this economy. A&O has not only the sophisticated international corporate practice for which I was looking, but its NYC office had a much smaller entering class size (15-20) than some of the larger shops I was considering (80-90). The people were really cool too, which is always nice.
Anyway, with journal responsibilities all but done for the semester, and moot court fall arguments over (and likely definitively over -- fairly confident I'm not advancing), and the job wrapped up, this weekend I suddenly realized that I actually had some free time. Sure enough, however, things will quickly pick back up, for study group meetings commence later this week. Nonetheless, I resolve to post more often, not because anyone will likely read this, but because I enjoy writing at my leisure and about things of my choosing. Perhaps I will chronicle some of the few fun things I have gotten to do this fall; perhaps I will write about how the BCS dodged a huge bullet (if not a missile) with the Penn State loss over the weekend (thank you, Hakweyes). Rest assured I will not get overtly political. Until I decide my next topic, cheers.
The aforementioned "working to death" part for me has included countless hours preparing for, traveling to, and attempting to win people over at interviews; what seems like a year of my life checking citations and quoting Bluebook rules (incidental bonus: partial mastery of the Chicago Manual of Style); trying to be at least halfway prepared for my classes; and finally, in the few hours that remained, attempting to learn the moot court case well enough so as not to embarrass myself at oral argument. This crazy schedule caused me to spend multiple ENTIRE pre-finals weekends in the library, something I had managed to avoid even during 1L.
Looking on the bright side, my frantic fall did land me a job: I'll be heading to Allen & Overy in New York next summer. I'm pretty excited about my choice, and I feel really lucky to have gotten the opportunity, especially in this economy. A&O has not only the sophisticated international corporate practice for which I was looking, but its NYC office had a much smaller entering class size (15-20) than some of the larger shops I was considering (80-90). The people were really cool too, which is always nice.
Anyway, with journal responsibilities all but done for the semester, and moot court fall arguments over (and likely definitively over -- fairly confident I'm not advancing), and the job wrapped up, this weekend I suddenly realized that I actually had some free time. Sure enough, however, things will quickly pick back up, for study group meetings commence later this week. Nonetheless, I resolve to post more often, not because anyone will likely read this, but because I enjoy writing at my leisure and about things of my choosing. Perhaps I will chronicle some of the few fun things I have gotten to do this fall; perhaps I will write about how the BCS dodged a huge bullet (if not a missile) with the Penn State loss over the weekend (thank you, Hakweyes). Rest assured I will not get overtly political. Until I decide my next topic, cheers.
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