Soundbites
Movie experience can be more interesting than film itself
Life is about going a few things
alone.
And for me this thing is movies,
which is one of the more fascinating
tilings to go the lone route on because
everyone else... is with somebody
else.
AMC Oakview 24 in Omaha for
“Any Given Sunday”
In line, two in front of me, both
boys, college age. And both have the
puffed-out jackets. Homies.
Boy 1: “So she’s hot?” He’s picking
his nose a little bit, his head tilted away
from his friend, toward me. Nice view.
Boy 2: “Hot.”
“Didyagetonher?”
“Not yet.”
“So how hot is she?”
“Hot.”
“How hot?”
“I don’t know, she’s hot”
“Does she have big tits?”
“No, not really. I mean, they’re
good, but they’re not big. Not Jenny
big.”
“Like, uh, Tara’s?”
“Yeah.”
“Good ass?”
“Very good ass.”
“So she’s hot?”
“Yeah, hot.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah.”
They buy tickets for “Any Given
Sunday,” a football movie. They go to
the concessions, and they get jumbo
popcorn, jumbo soda and jumbo Milk
Duds. God bless them, they shared.
And slapped hands several times dur
ing the pigskin carnage. Men. Gotta
love ’em.
The Lincoln for “Runaway
Bride”
I read once, in Cosmopolitan or
something, that if a girl hangs on to her
boyfriend’s hand all night at a party, it’s
a message beamed out to every other
unattached girl at the party: “This is my
man. Stay away.”
And so the girls in line for Julia
Roberts and Richard Gere should have
known better No man was there by
himself, except me. And I wasn’t look
ing for a boyfriend.
But every girl hung on for dear life.
A few were enveloped into each other
with their arms.
I can hear my mother saying, “Oh,
for God’s sake! How do they even walk
like that? It’s ridiculous.”
Exactly, Mom.
It is a phenomenon I cannot under
stand, this latching on. A few of the
guys, they’re cool with it - in the sense
that they, apparently, enjoy looking like
Siamese twins.
But every other guy flails outward,
like a scarecrow in the wind, trying to
do one of those fake leans toward the
fern plants in hopes of breaking her
claw grip, only to find the time has now
come for him to pay for the tickets,
which he must do, with his left hand
alone, as he continues to be one with
his girlfriend next door.
‘Two please,” he says, shoving not
one but two student IDs in front of the
teller, and the exact money, $9, on the
counter.
He has done this before, I thought.
Since then, I’m sure he’s done it again.
The Cinema Twin for “Wing
Commander”
It’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen.
And this sucker in front of
me... this is the worst is J"
moviegoer! ve
known.
He was at “A j
Civil Action,” |
his Green Bay Packers gear on. And he
coughed. And coughed. And coughed.
And hawked up spit. And coughed.
And cleared his throat. And coughed.
And took off his hat, revealing a greasy
muss that resembled hair. And he
coughed.
And then his friend, God bless her,
went and got him something to drink.
Which must have went down the air
tunnel, because he coughed.
At “Wing Commander,” he made il
through about half an hour, all the way
up until the point when the movie’s stu
pidity went into overdrive. And then he
coughed. And hawked. And because he
was alone, he did not get himself his
own drink. Becausel refuse to walk out
of movies, no matter how bad (or
somehow I’d feel cheated), my princi
ples were put to the test
My principles won.
The Plaza 4 for “Carrie 2: The
Rage”
I watched this movie at the wrong
projection size, which squished every
thing on the screen, for the first 30 min
utes. So crazy Carrie weighed
about 400 pounds, along with r
every other actor. High school can ||
vn^ if A man, with his
> wife, shook
h“
fist at the projector behind him.
“What is this?” he shrieked. “Some
kind of joke?”
“No,” I replied. “It’s ‘Carrie 2: The
Rage.’”
“Boy, you’re a funny guy.” He
scowled and picked up his coat.
I had to concur.
20 Grand in Omaha for
“Titanic”
Not every movie do I see by
myself. Once in a very great while, I
tag along with my parents. In reality,
it’s the other way around.
My parents are talkers in the movie
theater. Not bothersome. Just talkers.
And movers. They shift in their seats
every 20 seconds. And they get to the
theater 30 minutes early, so you see the
commercial for pool cleaners so many
times you’ve memorized every word.
During the movie, they nudge
every few minutes. Popcorn? Sip of
soda? No. Five minutes later, same
thing. And eventually, you’d better take
some, unless you expect the five
■ minute nudge for the rest of the movie.
But the talking, it can kill me.
B Because they expect an answer
from me that I cannot give. Talking
to my parents about these things is
some kind of guessing S*******
game, a game / ^
cannot win, do not choose to play, but
somehow get wrangled into every time
we go.
A sample from the titanic
“Titanic:”
Dad: “Lemme ask you a question.”
Me: “Yeah?”
Dad: (pointing to Leonardo
DiCaprio onscreen) “What woman
does he look like?”
“What woman?”
“Yes - What woman does
Leonardo DiCaprio look like?”
“I have no idea.”
“Just guess.”
“I can’t guess. I don’t really... I
don’t really care.”
“Just look at him.”
“I have no idea. I do not know.”
“Can you see it in his features? He
has womanly features.”
“He looks like Leonardo
DiCaprio.”
“He looks sorta like a woman -
he’d make a good-looking woman.”
“Can we talk about this after the
movie?”
“Just look at him.”
“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t
know. Just tell me.”
“Sharon Stone.”
“Sharon Stone?”
“If he was a woman, he’d look just
like Sharon Stone.”
“My God, are you serious?”
“He looks just like Sharon
Stone.”
Meanwhile, my
. mom nudged from
\ the other side for a
1 popcorn check.
And
Sharon Stone and
Kate Winslet
shared a les
bian kiss.
Megan Cody/DN
Samuel McKewon is a junior political science major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist
This is your brain on politics
_Front-running presidential candidates both used drugs; both condemn drug use
On Monday, the Iowa caucus
gave us two front-running presiden
tial candidates for the New
Hampshire primary in February. The
two leaders chosen, George W. Bush
and A1 Gore, have both been elected
to public office multiple times. Both
have also taken an immense amount
of criticism from the public - Bush
for his befuddling answers on for
eign policy and Gore for his stale
persona.
They have one other thing in
common: both have used illegal
drugs (Bush, cocaine, and Gore,
marijuana in Vietnam), and both
could have been put in jail if they
were caught. They join quite a few
others.
Twenty-five percent of the
world’s overall population has tried
or uses marijuana. Of the nearly 287
million people in America, more
than 71 million of these people have
tried marijuana. In the past four
years, studies show that 41 to 48 per
- cent of teens use or have experiment
ed with marijuana.
Coincidentally, there have been
more than 22 million marijuana
arrests in the past 30 years. The num
ber of arrests has climbed, and now
there is an average of more than
500,000 arrests per year. If Gore or
Bush had been caught and convicted,
they would not be eligible for the
positions they are running for now.
These high figures of American
drug use are often cited by organiza
tions, such as “Project For a Drug
Free America” and D.A.R.E., to
cause alarm among the people and
for the government to gain support
for “the war on drugs.”
The U.S. government spends bil
lions of dollars trying to keep drugs
out of the country each year. The
amount of drug seizures in this coun
try has gone up, but officials are not
sure they have made any progress
because they “don’t know how much
is actually coming into the country.”
But, because half the population
desires at one point or another to
have marijuana in this country, the
drug keeps coming in. And thus, the
people who are buying the marijuana
are getting hit with a double-edged
sword.
Not only are people paying for
the marijuana, but their taxes are
paying to make sure the marijuana is
not getting to them. Not to mention
these people are also paying for pris
ons that keep a high number of con
victed drug users and dealers in jail.
Perhaps they are making an invest
ment in themselves if they ever were
to get caught.
Yet with billions of dollars being
spent to keep marijuana out of the
country and nearly half of America
at one time or another wanting it in,
there has not been a mass movement
to change popular thinking on Drug
Culture.
Perhaps it’s a good thing that
America’s children aren’t told to get
high af^r school, but it’s still true
that most of the population never
receives any information on why
people do use marijuana. Instead, we
are told to “be smart, don’t start,”
and we are shown commercials, such
as the “This is your brain on drugs”
advertisement.
It is not until later as a public that
we learn writers like Hunter S.
Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Allen
Ginsbeig, Edgar Allen Poe, Walt
Whitman and others have experi
mented with drugs. In fact, the more
we delve into the subject, the more
we know that drug use has influ
enced much of the writing, movies,
architecture and art we know and
love in today’s society.
Drug culture, though it involves
such a high populace, is still per
ceived as an underworld that much
of the time escapes the eye of the
U.S. government. Many people still
think of the average drug dealer as
the man in the dark trench coat hid
ing behind the bushes, when in fact it
is their neighbor, classmate, cowork
er or even church-goer.
But even so, America as a whole
wants to continue to shoot itself in
the foot, and the majority wants to
give way to the minority and disal
low marijuana in this country. For
the most part, the vocal minority
doesn’t tolerate any pro-drug move
ment.
Instead, beliefs, such as the gate
way drug theory, (which even
Partnership for a Drug Free America
admits has no validity), are allowed
to be spread to an uneducated audi
ence who is told to be ashamed of its
own actions.
Even Bush and Gore are con
demning drugs when both have
experimented with drugs in the past,
yet both think they are qualified for
the highest office in this country, and
most likely, one will be elected.
But even though the candidates
condemn drug use, a known drug
user will be in the president’s office,
and almost every other office in this
country. Why doesn’t anyone want to
know this?
(Some statistics for this column
were taken from the Web sites
www.potsmokers.com and
www.partnershipforadrugffeeameri
TrevorJohnson is a junior secondary education and English major and a Baity Nebraskan Columnist.
