No campus today. Was going to get work done, but as usual ended up doing nothing. Slept the whole day. Funny thing was I didn't get any calls reminding me of yet another deadline violation. Guess they're bored of going through the usual routine or maybe they've secretly replaced me with someone else...
Oh hey, here's the latest example of the cosmos aligning in terms of me and pop culture references: there was this John Cusack movie from 1997 called
Grosse Pointe Blank. Cusack's a hitman who regularly goes to a shrink (this pre-dates
The Sopranos), and ends up taking a job where he has to go back to his hometown of Grosse Pointe - just in time for his 10 year high school reunion. While he's there, he also tries to reconcile with his girlfriend (Minnie Driver) whom he left on prom night to join the military.
Anyway, this movie never showed in the cinemas here. I read about it in a five-star review in
Q magazine, and for some reason I felt compelled to watch it. When I found they sold the VCD, I bought it - even though I didn't have a VCD player at the time. The main thing was that I could watch it, even if it meant bringing it to people's houses just so I could view the damn thing. Anyway, though I have no idea where that VCD is now, I do know that I really enjoyed the movie, and I even had the parents buy me the soundtrack from Saudi Arabia ('cause that, too, didn't come out here). Had the riff to the Violent Femmes' 'Blister In The Sun' imprinted on my brain, and it happened to be one of the first things I could pull off on the guitar.
Now I've barely given any thought to the movie for several years now. And then sometime in the past week or so, I saw an interview with Ronan Keating on E! News Live. I have no idea why they'd interview him, considering he hasn't exactly lit the American music scene on fire after several tries. Probably had something to do with his duet with LeAnn Rimes on the song 'Last Thing On My Mind', the video to which I'd seen several times on TV but had never given any thought to whatsoever. Anyway, Ronan mentioned in the interview that the video was inspired by
Grosse Pointe Blank. I couldn't instantly place the connection, since I didn't recall seeing Ronan brandishing pistols in both hands and blowing away dozens of rival assassins. (Hmm, must've been paying more attention than I thought.) But then he went on to explain the link, namely the "finding love through DJ broadcast thing". See, he plays a radio DJ in the video, and LeAnn listens to him via her truck radio and ends up being drawn to him. In the movie, Minnie Driver is the DJ, John Cusack switches on the radio when he drives into town, and things develop from there.
So what? So...after the big revelation, my thoughts on the movie evaporated just as quickly...until I switched channels about two hours ago. Lo and behold, it was on TV! So there's your cosmic coincidence for today. And me, feeling nostalgic, stopped whatever I was doing (most probably nothing) to sit down and watch. I gotta say, it's really held up well seven years later. Top notch dialogue, hilarious situations (on several occasions when people ask him what he's been doing and he says "professional assassin" with a straight face, they don't bat an eyelid and assume he's joking), and if I had a list of my favourite actors, John Cusack would be way up there. You could say that it indirectly led me to liking
High Fidelity, which is definitely one of my favourite movies of all time. Anyway, it looks like these events have had an effect on me. Looks like I'll be updating my favourite films list...
