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Friday, April 11, 2014

Sam's Infinite Playlist: Seas & Summer Sand


1) Summer Mood - Best Coast
2) Let's Go Surfing - The Drums
3) Brand New Day - Kodaline
4) Surfin' U.S.A. - The Beach Boys
5) Sunshine - The Archies
6) One Way Or Another - Blondie
7) Mason Jar - Smallpools
8) Sugar, Sugar - The Archies
9) Holiday - Vampire Weekend
10) Color The Walls (Don't Stop) - Foster the People
11) Do You Want It All - Two Door Cinema Club
12) June Hymn - The Decemberists

I've been planning on putting a beach playlist together, and after my friend, Bea, asked me to, it gave me an even bigger reason to make one. My summer break started last month and wow I'm just so happy that I got through my freshman year--it was pretty long. Anyhow, here's a playlist full of songs I'd want to play when I'm at the beach or some summery place. Haha. Hope you all like the songs as much as I do.

Monday, April 7, 2014

5 Favorite On-Screen Friendships



1.) Gordie Lachance & Chris Chambers (Stand By Me)
Gordie (right): Am I weird? Chris (left): Yeah. But so what? Everybody's weird.

“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”-Gordie

"You’re going to be a great writer some day, Gordie."-Chris
These two belong to the top of my list for numerous good reasons. Gordie (Wil Wheaton) and Chris (The late River Phoenix, one of my favorite actors of all time.) These two characters just mean a lot to me, and they make me think--like really, really think. They take 'friends should be there for one another', to heart. A lot of their scenes together tend to make me really emotional, because here you have a kid (Chris) who's practically the same age as the rest of his friends, yet acts like the big brother--or father, even (which is why he's considered the leader of the four.) He really looks out for them and takes care of them. You take that certain kid and his best friend (Gordie) who's older brother (who happened to be Gordie's parent's favorite) had recently died and you create this really beautiful friendship. You could just clearly see that Chris cares so much for Gordie and really doesn't want Gordie to waste his life and talent, because Chris believes that he doesn't and won't ever have the same opportunities as Gordie. Chris has simply just given up on himself and therefore puts all his faith into Gordie, he even believes in Gordie more than Gordie's own father does. It isn't only the two of them in the movie (Stand By Me) though, all four of the boys' friendships with one another is touching--also a tad bit eccentric and hilarious. I just like that Gordie and Chris have that maturity and sincerity in theirs. The final scene gets to me every time.
     
(Skip to 0:45, to be more exact.)


2.) Forrest Gump & Liutenant Dan (Forrest Gump)

Lieutenant Dan: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?
 Forrest: I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, Sir.
  Forrest Gump might be the movie that's closest to my heart. I grew up watching it and I can't not cry every time. I've tried. When I was creating this list I had a hard time deciding whether I was going to choose Forrest (Tom Hanks) and Bubba, or Forrest and the Lieutenant (Gary Sinise). So I watched the movie (again) and felt like Forrest and Dan was more appropriate and had more impact on me. Forrest Gump is practically one of the most beautiful movies ever created--the soundtrack is perfect, the cast was perfect, acting perfect, very historically accurate--basically everything was quality. Lieutenant Dan and Forrest had a very work/professional-leveled relationship in the beginning, Dan being Forrest's Lieutenant during the Vietnamese war. Which gradually developed to knowing and seeing each other in New York (and by this time, Dan was an emotional wreck who had lost his legs, and resented Forrest for saving his life in the war, because Daniel deemed it his destiny to die there, just like his ancestors) and then finally into friends/first-mates in Forrest's shrimping business like he had promised when they saw each other in New York. Lieutenant Dan regained his will to live when he was Forrest's First-Mate--and I'd have to say that that is one of the greatest things about their friendship. He forgives Forrest and goes on with his life. After many years, at Forrest's wedding with Jenny, Lieutenant Dan comes with his fiance and his new prosthetic legs which enabled him to walk. At that point in the movie, you just realize that if it weren't for Forrest saving his life, all that wouldn't have happened to Dan.

    


3.) Daniel LaRusso & Mr. Miyagi (The Karate Kid)
 


Daniel: You're the best friend I've ever had.

Miyagi: You... pretty okay, too.
What kind of maintenance man fixes your bike, teaches you Karate, and gives you an incredibly nice car for your birthday? Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita)--that's who. Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is the luckiest (not really) guy in the world. (Fun fact: In the movie, Daniel is a high-school senior, but Ralph Macchio was actually in his early twenties when it was being filmed.) When I was younger, I used to want someone like Mr. Miyagi to go teach me how to kick-butt. With that being said, it obviously never happened. I still wish that I'd learn how to kick butt, though. I love their really different friendship and the development, you don't see this kind of friendship in movies quite often. I also really like the fact that Daniel practically became Mr. Miyagi's family. The scene where Miyagi was drunk and starts telling Daniel about his dead wife and realization dawned on Daniel and he tucks Mr. Miyagi in bed is one of my favorites. That, and the ending where Mr. Miyagi was giving Daniel this proud smug look after winning the tournament. (Also, I love how the sequel starts right from the end of the first movie.)



4) Marty McFly & Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Back to the Future)

Marty: Hey, Doc, we better back up. We don't have enough road to get up to 88. 
Doc: Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

I haven't watched the Back to the Future movies up until recently, and I have no idea how I lived without watching the movies. (I watched it when I was four or something, but that doesn't count.) I'm quite in love with the whole series right now, and how the 80's movies like The Karate Kid and Back to the Future's sequels start right where it left off.  Marty Mcfly is--like what his mom says--such a "dream boat." Really. His whole friendship with the Doc is just incredibly interesting, then again, anyone who could travel through time is interesting. I love how even when McFly had gotten told-off for being friends with someone who's as nuts as the doc, he simply shrugged it off as if he knew but didn't care. True friendship right there, folks. Let's learn from them. Think old man and teenage boy--but with a twist, I guess that's another way to describe them. They're sort-off like partners in crime, minus the crime part, and go off helping one another in journeys that I wish to have. I'd say that they need each other, after all, the Doc would've been dead in 1985 if it weren't for McFly's persistence in telling the doc about his future even when the Doc didn't want to hear about it.
    



5) C.C. & Hillary (Beaches)

Hillary: Be sure to keep in touch C.C. okay? 
 C.C.: Well sure we’re friends aren’t we?

Beaches would be the movie that I could guarantee you that I'd cry every single time I watch it, okay, mayve cry even more than when I watch Forrest Gump. The entirety of the movie is really painfully beautiful. I could still remember watching it with my mom back when I was about eight and not being able to stop crying. After you see this movie, there's absolutely no way you wouldn't bawl your eyes out every time you hear the words "Wind Beneath My Wings." Hearing the song makes it worse. Beaches, to me at the very least, is the epitome of friendships that last forever. It takes the phrase literally. Their friendship basically, was an accident, or you could also call it a coincidence. Meeting as two children who lived very oppositely, you wouldn't think their friendship would go very far, but by a string of coincidences, they do. They grow up and develop their lives, yet, the two were still there for one another. It's amazing how you see the whole magical thing happen, from when they met, to so many other things including a birth of a child and a death. The song that young C.C. (played by Bette Midler, who's songs I love,) had sang as a child had me hooked for months, and I adored the level of her relationship with Hillary (played by Barbara Hershey.) The ending is honestly one of the most heart-warming endings ever created, I don't think I could make it even a tad bit better. Even if it was incredibly sad. 
This scene is basically the opposite of their friendship.