Silly Blockbuster Online
This morning I found out that my friend Janna was looking to add Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet to her Blockbuster Online queue, but couldn't find it listed. I decided to take this as a personal challenge and did my own search. Sure enough, it doesn't appear. I then found a round-about method for tracking down Blockbuster's database entry for the movie, but then realized that they don't have it available to add to your queue. I mean, seriously! How stupid. Blockbuster Online provides the 2000 modern-day adaptation where Ethan Hawke, as Hamlet, is a struggling filmmaker who works for the Denmark Corporation and the not-terrible 1990 Mel Gibson version, but they don't provide the incredible film adaptation by Kenneth Branagh. Even while admitting that Kenneth Branagh is not the end-all-be-all of Shakespeare fillms, it is rather silly in my opinion not to offer the choice. Maybe they feel that people don't want to sit through four-hours and two-minutes of the brooding Dark Prince of Denmark, but let us, their customers, decide that. Okay, rant done.
On a sidenote: why is it that Julia Stiles seems to appear in most modern-day film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays? (See: Hamlet, O, 10 Things I Hate About You.)
Tonight: The End of My Childhood
Yes, I do realize that title is funny coming from someone on the verge of 30. And yet, one's childhood does not normally come to an abrupt end on a given birthday, or upon graduation from junior high or high school, or on any other predetermined day. Instead, it leaves you in minuscule amounts until one day you awake and realize the last glimpse has faded away. That moment occurred for me this evening when I distinctly felt the last of my childhood leave me after hearing about the too-early death of Kirby Puckett. Making such a statement feels to be somewhere between ingenuous and inappropriate, possibly even naively cliched. However, the connection between the passing of a childhood hero and the extinguishing of whatever glimmer of childhood remains within should not come as a surprise.
At the same time, attempting an analogy between the innocent idolization of a childhood baseball star and the “adult” recognition that he was not a perfect man is unnecessary. Yes, he made mistakes and those mistakes should not be ignored, nor should they be the sole focus in remembering the man and the ballplayer. The intensity, joy, and – I will say it – perfection with which he played a boy's game will always be remembered. Kirby's image will forever be etched in my mind when thinking about the autumns of '87 and '91, moments in time when I still believed the future could find me out there, playing the game.
No longer do I have such beliefs. No longer do I have such heroes. No longer do I have a childhood. But the memories will always remain.
A Great News Story
I just got this link from a friend of mine. This is definitely worth watching: