A couple of random notes...

We finished watching the "Six Feet Under" series late on Christmas night, and were then unable to sleep for a couple hours. While much of the last season got a little too twisted from the par for that series, the last episode reaffirmed why we became obsessed with it for a while. As far as I can tell, "Six Feet Under" is unparalleled on the small screen in terms of quality, production and storytelling.

The final episode, though, while taking television to whole new levels, was an absolutely fitting conclusion to the show. And it was absolutely haunting, reminding us all of our mortality. It was incredibly unsettling, because we're used to the end of a story being characters riding off into the sunset, essentially achieving immortality because the end of the story is untold. In this case, the ends were told, which made the end of this fictional universe far more profound. Beyond that, the ends were told in a beautiful peace of filmmaking, which may be kitschy (I do get snowed at times) but was very well done.

I recommend watching the series from beginning to end, but be warned that you will probably end up caring about the characters more than those on any television program in history. Of course, that happens when the characters are more realistic, and easily relatable. It's a neat trick. It's too bad more television isn't of this quality, but I think this show may have been a once-a-decade-or-less phenomenon.

In other news, watching the last season of "Six Feet Under" has renewed my interest in Quakerism, which has come and gone frequently the past two years. I've wanted to try a Quaker meeting because the beliefs are as close as I've seen to my own, but have basically been too much of a chicken for a social situation on my own. Plus, Amy's affiliated with a church here so she's otherwise entangled. I'm thinking of going this Sunday though Amy will probably not come with me. I will probably chicken out again, and then my interests will eventually wane because I won't act on them.

"Well, I've seen some old friends sort of die, or just turn into whatever must have been inside them, whatever all of us had then in common grew up and left home, we don't think that way no more, turn around, turn the volume down..."

We also managed to watch The Pursuit of Happyness with Kory and Amy, which was a movie with Will Smith and his kid. I worried from the promos that it would be a glorification of capitalism, but it's a glorification of achievement in which money is mostly a necessary evil. It's also strange to see Will Smith as an older gentlemen, since my generation basically grew up with him as a hip older brother on the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." The movie, overall, was pretty decent. It seemed to drag a lot, but I wonder if that wasn't intentional for showing how life would drag in a situation like that. And I know it was his kid's first movie, but there were a few too many cutesie kid lines, which I always find annoying.

But then, this movie made me think about Hollywood... Is it weird that most of the best dramatic actors were originally comedians (Jaime Foxx), comic actors (Bill Murray, Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks) or were rap stars (Will Smith, Ice-T, Ice Cube)? I guess that means Will Smith is a double, since he was a rap star and then a comic actor before drama. And those that come up as dramatic actors are usually just good-looking jerks that can't act worth a shit (Ben Affleck, etc) and are used to sell movies, tabloids and clothing to people who apparently can't control their urges to see "pretty" people?

Meh. Hollywood blows, anyway.

"And as I'm growing older I'm bored, I remember when misery thrilled me much more, when I can't relax and I'd like to go back, but that's gone."

Oh, check out my first attempt (in eight fucking years!) at bullshit video editing:

I threw it together in about 30 minutes from a bunch of random movies and pictures we had. No, it's definitely not the quality of what I used to do with video, but then again, that was eight years ago, and I hadn't done anything since. Give me time to practice.

Well, that and maybe a terrabyte hard drive....