An evening with the Goonies.

I haven't been in a writing mood lately. I got a letter from a buddy of mine last week and only just wrote him back yesterday. Of course I still haven't got it in a mail box. Baby steps.

I'm trying to watch The Goonies, I've never seen it before, but it's one of "those" movies, much loved and referenced on popular culture. It's kind of all over the place, so it isn't really holding my interest- hence my writing here. But it does have Corey Feldman, so that's a big plus.

I visited a friend downtown yesterday- just since I was there- and for some reason she mentioned this one couple and how the one guy really lucked out getting that girl. I don't know why, but whenever that guy gets mentioned in conversation it's always about how awesome he is or he's doing. Which does me about as good as hearing how much Robert Downey Jr. (there's probably a better contemporary celebrity I could cite here, but you get what I'm saying) made on his last picture.

So I said "which doesn't do me a lot of good".

It's pretty easy to fall into that myth that all you need to be happy is that "one person". An idea that would've been far more interesting to discuss than, again, a more or less random other persons relationship status.

Today (er, yesterday by now- the Saturday) was my Mor Mor's (grandmothers) 88th birthday. She's really losing it (not 'loosing' it, as some may write) every few minutes she'll tell us how glad she is to see us.

But it could be worse- my dad and my two aunts keep talking in circles about how bad she's getting, saying the same thing over and over. At least Mor Mor has the excuse of being old.

But of course I'm sensitive to people talking over and over about nothing. As I type that Sean Astin's Goonies character just gave a SUPER redundant speech to keep everyone looking for the treasure. I'd rather just sit with someone and say nothing than say the same thing over and over.

Ah, well, that would be true, except I'm so good at talking to fill the silence.

I feel very aware of how often I've written "of course" in this post. I think, not counting just now, that I've used it twice now- but I've been on the verge of using it a lot more before stopping myself. Interesting.

Don't light those, Goonies! They aren't candles, they're dynamite! It says dynamite right on the side!

Excerpts from P79-81 of The Rebel Sell:
"Thus it is important to draw a distinction between acts of rebellion that challenge senseless or outdated conventions and those that violate legitimate social norms. We must distinguish, in other words, between dissent and deviance. Dissent is like civil disobedience. It occurs when people are willing in principle to play by the rules but have a genuine, good-faith objection to the specific content of the prevailing set of rules. They disobey despite the consequences that these actions may incur. Deviance, on the other hand, occurs when people disobey the rules for self-interested reasons. The two can be very difficult to tell apart, partly because people will often try to justify deviant conduct as a form of dissent, but also because of the powers of self-delusion. Many people who are engaged in deviant conduct genuinely believe what that they are doing is a form of dissent.
***
Is (an action) deviance or dissent? There is one very simple test that we can apply in order to tell the two apart. It may sound old fashioned, but it is still helpful to ask the simple question, "What if everyone did that?- would it make the world a better place to live?" If the answer is no, then we have grounds to be suspicious. A lot of counter-cultural rebellion... fails to pass this simple test."

A good bit of text.

Just copied that all out by the light of the computer monitor. Could've had an easier time of it.

Donner just straight up reused the Superman theme for a part in the Goonies, he's even got the strong man wearing a Superman shirt. This is a weird movie.