The Darjeeling Limited - A Review

I just watched a movie. It was called "The Darjeeling Limited." I'm going to attempt to summarize it here and give my opinion. Wow, I haven't written anything in a long time and it feels like my brain is a swing-set that has been sitting out in the rain for 3 months and then left to dry and rust. So here it is; squeaky swings and all. I write mostly as an attempt to understand what the heck I just watched.

The movie opens with a strange short film set in Paris. However, I'd like to think of it more of an additional scene rather than a short film because it played out like a scene and only made sense in light of part II. Normally, I would think that a short film with it's own title (Hotel Chevalier) would at least have some sort of self-encompassing storyline. This short film would have none of it. In this short film, we witness a character, obviously disillusioned, sitting alone in his hotel. He's watching old movies and getting grilled cheese sandwiches via room service. His lack of expression and monotone voice tell a story of their own. Then he gets a phone call. A lady friend is coming for a surprise visit. We soon find out that there had been a previous romance with her. And we soon find out that this is why he is disillusioned. She has obviously hurt him in some way and this is likely the reason for his self-imposed exile to a hotel room in Paris where he listens to cheesy, obscure music about how great Paris is.

And that is the end of the film. Not very telling. Nor even suspenseful.

On to part II; the real movie I went to see; The Darjeeling Limited. I figure any movie with a train staged in India must be interesting. The story begins as three brothers, Jack, Peter, and oh gosh I forgot the other guy's name... Owen Wilson, are setting off on a journey together in India. They haven't seen each other in a while. They all have separate lives and you get the impression that they don't really want to be together anyway. But there's some sort of mission to be accomplished. One wants to connect to God, one wants get away from his reality at home, and one just wants to have sex.

Owen Wilson has planned out the entire journey with the help of his assistant, Brennan, who provides a daily itinerary for the trip in India. As they continue on their journey, they each make very weak attempts to accomplish their goals. But their apparent lack of follow-through only haunt them the whole time. The three stooges make these guys look like geniuses. They soon decide it's not worth the trouble. Except for one small detail that Owen didn't tell them. The reason he has invited them to India in the first place to visit their estranged mother whom they haven't seen in a very long time and who has also exiled herself to a foreign country. Only she didn't even go to her husband's funeral back in the States.

The mother is the most interesting character in the movie. She has moved to this mountain in India to be a Catholic missionary. When her sons ask her why she didn't even come home for the funeral, she simply states "These people need me." Brilliantly, her son looks at her and says that there are other people that need her as well. The motivations of this woman are obviously flawed. She has left behind her sons and husband to "help" these Indian people. Her attempt at help is no help at all. It's an escape for her. She has left the people most dear to her own heart to help these people she knows nothing of. Her life has become a formal expression of faith and love amid an attempt to escape. She has left her reality to create a new one. Yet her care for her sons is still apparent during their visit.

And in a way, the sons are seeing a reflection of themselves. They have each attempted their own escapes at reality in different ways. One has done it through moving away to a foreign country, one by attempting suicide on a motorcycle and one through a relationship.

But all are failed attempts. Reality bites in spite of, and sometimes because of, attempted escapes. And each have the scars to show. Each attempt at escape only resulted in further scaring; in Owen's case quite literally. Even their attempt at this spiritual journey has only made the reality more real. And, in the end, this is what they come to realize.

At the end, they throw away their symbolic luggage of idealism and jump on the train of reality. And just as you realize it, each of the characters in the movie pass by you. Each in their own train car of life with their own realities. But their all on the same train headed in the same direction. They all have different realities, different stories, different setting, but they all have a common destination. "What is it?" you ask. I don't know. I'll have to watch it and again to figure it out. Maybe we're not supposed to know.

Oh, and that short film that opened the movie? Well, the character, Jack, who is prone to writing short stories, decides to write this woman out of his life. With his new insight, he's aware that it wasn't the woman that hurt him. It was his escapism and the woman was just a means of bursting his bubble.

Living Large

I just figured out that Matt is the most comfortable person-in-his-own-skin on this little vacation. Here's why... Jamie is the only female here. But at least she's married. I am the only single person here. But at least I'm not female. Matt is neither the only one of his gender, nor is he female, nor is he single; therefore he's enjoying the good life.

Chickens

Fish

Check out this incredibleness. - Kyle

New York, NY

I just returned from a glorious trip to NY. If you've ever moved away from a place and then gone back after a long hiatus, then you know that things can change and the locale can become a very different place. New York is not like that. It literally seemed like I'd never left. Of course, I stayed in my old apartment and visited with friends, so not much had changed in that regard. On the other hand, I was able to just enjoy it without having to drown in sea of commuting and busyness and work. That was real nice. The video camera was taken with as well as the point-and-shoot digital camera.

On Friday evening we went to a rooftop film festival presented by IFC. The scene was very New York. It was (obviously) on the rooftop of a building, a high school at that, and skyline was visible from every vantage point on the roof. And all the movies were independent films about life in the city. It was the New York-est activity you could possibly imagine. A bunch of hipsters on a rooftop in NY, watching independent films about NY with an intermission featuring a rapper from East Africa. Check out more info here.

Here are a few more pictures. I made it a point to take some time to do some photography and whatnot. I particularly sought out graffiti this time around.

A Hike

Make pictures from hike in the Cuyamaca Mountain ranges of the Southern California. Many burned trees, lots of burned vegetation and new ones too. Hiking mode.... Full speed ahead. Turn your records on.

In Evil Long I Took Delight - John Newton

"In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agony and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never to my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.

A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayst live.”

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too."

Check it....

My Latest Vid

Hey Folks,

Check out my newest video. I made it for our upcoming church retreat. Feedback is welcome (if anybody even reads this freaking blog).

Here's the video.

High Strung Guitar - Nashville Tuning

I learned a nifty new thing recently as I perused the web. Let me just say that it was more than a discovery. It was life-changing... It was life-changing because I had held a grudge against Derek Webb for years after he played a song on a the guitar that I couldn't figure out. If you know me, you know that I can play virtually any song by ear so when someone (like Derek Webb) comes along and plays a song and I can't figure out how he's playing it, my entire self-worth is quickly flushed down the toilet.

What Derek Webb had done was very simple and I have forgiven him now that I know he didn't mean anything against me personally. He was, in fact, just trying to make a song sound cool. It was nothing against me.

Derek used a guitar tuning technique called the "high strung guitar" or, as it has come to be known, "Nashville tuning." All that means it that you replace the top 4 strings (E,A,D,G) with a string an octave higher. That would be the strings that you would normally double up with on a 12-string guitar. Except, in this case, you're doing it on a six-string. It gives the guitar a really light sound that is great for reducing those annoying middle frequencies when you're recording. And you can also play a standard tuned guitar in a different channel which would give the sound of a 12-string but in stereo if you put the channels hard left and hard right.

What ends up happening is that you have only one string that is wound (the low E), all other strings are steel. And you have to get lighter gauge strings of course since you're tuning an octave higher (basically just the gauges of a top four strings of your octave 12-string EADG). Oh, and I've been playing "Piece of Glass" all week on my newly high-strung guitar and feeling quite the equal of Derek Webb, even superior to him.

Tim's Chips

If you've never tried Tim's Cascade-Style Potato Chips, you should go out and buy some... now.

They're really good and thick, or, as the package states it, "Extra thick and crunchy." They make 'em hearty up there in the Northwest.

I just called their headquarters to tell Tim how much I liked his chips. But when I asked for Tim the receptionist said he had retired two years ago. She said he still stops in every now and again to check up on everyone in the office and the factory and knows everyone by their first name. I forgot to ask her what Tim's favorite flavor was but she volunteered that hers was garlic and parmesean. However, it should be noted that they have recently discontinued this flavor.

Video Chat

I realized this week that I am able to do video chat when I plug my video-camera into the computer. I thought you had to have a webcam or something.

In other news, Macs are great computers and everyone should own one. Their computers actually work. And when you want to do something on the computer, it allows you to do it without an error or needing to shut down. I don't know why Microsoft never thought of that idea.

Watch this video...

The Google

Large Angeles

I am new to the blog. Just like I am new to the Google.

I went to Los Angeles this weekend. My friend, Mark, was in town... A former roommate from NY who now lives in Ohio but is looking at schools in CA. LA: It's a magical land filled with a lot of people and cars and hills and buildings and palm trees and houses stuck in places that only a tornado could otherwise create.

I made some pictures for to share with you. I hope you like. I like.

It's Christmas, Let's Be Glad