The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I remember seeing the 2006 Oscar-winning film Crash in the theaters in 2004. I was 23 years old, in college, in the midst of taking a "Film History and Appreciation" course, and upon seeing it, immediately thought: - It was powerful. - The acting was superb. - The interconnected stories increased my interest. - It was a solid film (4 or 4.5 out of 5 stars) - But something was missing... When I discussed the film with my future sister-in-law, while I made the aforementioned comments, I also noted that the dialogue felt forced at times. For whatever reason, I decided to view the film again in the past week - 18 years later, and here are my observations: - There were powerful moments. - The acting was great, but character-development was sorely lacking. - The interconnected stories were interesting, but took away from the before-mentioned character-development. - The dialogue was often cringe-worthy.  - Overall, good movie, but not great, and definitely not Oscar-worthy (3 or 3....

I hadn't been feeling well all week, but began recovering yesterday, fortunately. After debating whether or not to see a band perform with my parents, I opted to go - to get out of the house and see a fun band perform that I had only seen once previously. Things were going pretty well all night. The band was highly entertaining. The folks and I people-watched, especially the drunkards dancing, and as always, that was both an amusing and facepalm-inducing experience. For the band's last song, they played the Beastie Boys' classic, "You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party!" Many women went up to the dance-floor to, well, dance. Most of the guys stood back and just observed. Toward the end of the song, some 45ish-year old woman then approached me and asked me to dance. First off, I'm not much of a dancer. Secondly, I still wasn't 100% healthy, so I felt like dancing like a sloth feels like sprinting. Thirdly, I have a girlfriend, so while it's not aga...