ONE (Dependent on None)

Up yours Mac, I'm the Doc
Shangfu on the mic baby boy can't I rock?
Ever since sandwich(?) they can't see my bandwidth
There's only a few cats I ain't been to the band with
You'll never know just who I show up with
The love is strong, the coffee we sip on
Can't go wrong when the music is the common bond
The savage beast can't even compete
9th grade I wanted to be EST
Fight over Michelle against steady beat
Live the glamorous life with cool Seger to start off pop-art like Biz Markie

Jim and I mix it like Jeff Cash and Mizz that was '87, for those thats 21

Don't have to use my hands or a gun, I'ma be one, dependent on none

...what an opportunity cost is.

A dark sedan pulls into a gas station parking lot, a lot like any other, you know, the one with the broken pump that you always seem to pull up to, a bag on it that reads "try another one idiot". Except attached to this gas station is a coffee shop, a coffe shop that shouldn't be there, one put primarily on this Earth for people to drive by and say to themself "really? a cafe THERE?". A couple in their mid 30's gets out of the car parked within poorly painted lines and enter the shop. They order their drinks of the caffinated category and sit alone in the corner.

Claire: [Smiling wide]: I knew this was a good idea, once I saw the sign for Emerald City I knew we'd have to go back to where we first met.
Mark: [Grinning slightly]: You know, I'd be a millionaire if I never met you.
Claire: [from smiling to somber and looking down]: That's not what you're supposed to say in a situation like that.
Mark: [Serious]: no, I mean I'd be a millionaire if I never met you.
Claire: [looking pissed]: You're  jerk!
Mark: Remember that day, the day we first met, in this dingy cafe, on a hot Friday four years ago? You were sitting right over there [points across the room], wearing that blue blouse you wore the first time you met my parents.
Claire: you're still a jerk.
Mark: [laughing, smiling] Well what I never told you was, every day for two years I walked into that gas station on my lunch break and bought a lottery ticket, same numbers. 7, 14. 25, 42, 53, 11. But on that day when I walked in and saw you through that tiny hallway between the station and the cafe, I knew if I didn't go over to you right away there'd be a chance I'd never get that opportunity.
Claire: and?
Mark: and on that day, July 25th, 1983, 7,14,25,42,53,11 was the winning ticket, it would have won 36.4 million dollars.
[Claire's mouth drops open, she does not respond]
Mark: What I am trying to say...is opportunity cost. The thing that I gave up in pursuit of something else. I gave up 36.4 million dollars to be with you.
Claire: What am I supposed to say to something like that?! I'm sorry?!
Mark: [grins] Don't apologize, I took a risk every day for two years buying a ticket, but on July 25th I took a different risk.
Claire: [Still in shock] Well was it worth it?
Mark: put it this way, you're the only winning ticket I need.
Claire: [laughs hard] At least you wont forget our anniversary!

...what a choice means.

Most people don't think about choices, two paths ahead, one was taken and that's that. But I recommend to sit back one day and attempt to reflect on as many choices you've made in your life, and think about how some of them may have changed your life forever. If you'd made the decision to wear blue, maybe she wouldn't have noticed you and you wouldn't have the white picket fence with three kids and a sedan. If you'd worn red, maybe you'd have met someone else and have a docket of court papers discussing custody and alimony. I'd like to think that the majority of choices we make are in fact insignificant molecules on the course of time, of life. Instead I think there are a collection of tiny choices that ultimately lead to the life changing choices, stay or go, live or die, run or fight. These choices in my eyes are unseen to even the trained eye, and that through our own subconscious our fates are sealed. I'll give you an example, lay one out for you, one from my own personal collection of weirdness and irrationality, a spinning vortex of hot mess that eventually plays its way out to a nice flat pile of...well hot mess.
Spring 2002, I go with a friend to his older brothers college for a weekend. Being 16 and easily coaxed into doing pretty much anything I decide to go and pary into another dimension, two days, probably only like 8 beers and a speeding ticket later, I am back at home saying to myself, "that was the best time in my life, that's where I'm going to college".
Fast forward a year and a half, walking on campus past the admissions office I see a sign "want to get paid to give campus tours? See Admissions". I joined up, got the job and worked there on a hardcore level for three years. Graduated, started working Admissions elsewhere, and for the past 4 years, thats what I've been doing and plan to do for a good while.
So is it safe to say if I never went to that party I'd not be in college admissions? Or if that party was at Framingham, or Bridgewater, I wouldn't have seen that sign and I'd probably be doing nothing close to Higher Education Administration. All because of one college party, I began on a path towards my career. Ever make a decision for all the wrong reasons that seems to have panned out?

..the Eels are a good band.

Nope, I didn't mean the Eagles, like our beloved Dude, I hate the Eagles. What I don't hate is a good indie song, and in my eyes this is a great definition of one. A weird drum machine type background, decent rythym, solid lyrics and a sound that makes it impossible not to groove to. So without further ado, for your listening pleasure, The Eels - Love of the Loveless

...here are a couple good films.

I'm not usually into film noir, especially not ones that have come out in the past thirty years, but I do fancy myself a movie fan, so I give them all a shot. Anyway over the last two years I came across two movies I have come to enjoy so I figured I'd pass them along:

1: Assassination of a high school president (2008):



A straight to DVD movie with Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton? Yep. That happened. Not because the movie blew and distributors didn't want to show it, in fact it did very well at Sundance. Instead the company that made the movie went bankrupt. It grossed something like fifty thousand dollars, which means it's likely you didn't see it. I'll let you in on the scoop, leave you wanting, then the next time it's on Starz Comedy you'll think twice before switching it over to Cake Boss.

A sophomore, Bobby Funke (Funky as he comes to be known), writes for the school paper at a richy richy private school in a town near you. He has aspirations and all the qualities of a film noir protagonist, the calm but tough attitude, and he always seems to know what to say. Principal K (Willis) uncovers one day that precious cargo has gone missing, SAT exams, and this former desert storm high school administrator ain't takin' nothin' from anybody. Then Bobby is approached by the typical hollywood movie hot popular chick and asked to recover the tests because the hot popular one (Barton) knows she aced it. Bobby uses all his investigative skills to uncover the class president as the likely suspect and pins him for the crime. He is immediately catapulted to stardom, parties, popularity, and he might even get the girl. However an unfolding of events reveals that maybe Funky has pinned the wrong douche, and sets on a course to find out the truth. He wont like what he comes up with, but it's good shit.

You'd think a film like this would be lame, because well, it sounds pretty lame, but in fact if you know what film noir is, it is actually done quite well in my opinion. But what do I know?

2. Brick (2005)



Joseph Gordon Levitt, before he went all Dicaprio in that film you may have heard that I can't think of right now, was in a limited released movie. He's really the only well known actor in this, another guy (who plays Tug) is in that new movie 11:11, which will be good too. Yet another film noir, detective story, an epic search for the truth in the seedy LA burbs where drugs, popularity, and money rule over all.

Levitt plays Brenden, a junior or senior at a high school somewhere in LA. He used to date this chick but before summer she split to go get loaded on H with this stoner monkey Dode. School starts in the fall and Brenden is contacted by his former love and she sounds in trouble that seems to involve a Brick of H. In an effort to find out what is going on Brenden rarely goes to class and snoops around looking for her. They eventually meet up and she makes it sound like nothing. The next day she's dead in a drainage tunnel, Brenden finds her and begins his quest to find out who did it. It takes him infiltrating a drug, ring, beating up football players, stoners and dealers, but he finds out whos behind it all, and its not who you think.

You'll like em, netflix em, look for em on Demand, trust me, if you don't...oh well.