Juno

Three cheers for Juno, quite possibly the best movie I've seen all of 2007. You're going to ask me the typical question, "What's it about?" Glad you asked...

It's about a 16 year old, named Juno (Ellen Page), dealing with pregnancy. Gulp ______________. There, that long underscore is there to stomach that heavy statement stated prior. Ironically I'd consider the flick a comedy. I don't know how the now Minnesota native writer, Diablo Cody, did it, but she pulled it off brilliantly. Polarity between the vulgarities of the situation and the brutal honesty that Juno had to face forced a strange, comedic tension that left me continuously sitting forward in my chair.

Before I go into how Cody masterfully orchestrated such an interesting comedy I want to lay the artistic foundation of the movie. Now I will say that Cody's multiple references to places in Minnesota (Ridgedale, St. Cloud, etc. and even Minnesota license plates) really created a slight bias of enjoyment. As an art form, though, I enjoyed how Cody and director, Jason Reitman, created the setting. It seemed as each trimester was a different season that Juno was experiencing. It started in the fall where life was a noticeable change to the cold. Enter the second trimester of winter where relationships with the ones you think were congruently fluid in the beginning turned to a frail icicle awaiting just the slightest nudge from the frigid wind that’s anticipating how to destroy everything. Like most movies, though, there has to be new life and healing that the spring season/third trimester graciously bore.

On to the comic polarity...
The diction is innocently vulgar, much like the Minnesota nice dialect is came primarily from Juno and her boy next door buddy that got her pregnant (Michael Cerra). Mix that with some bluntness from her father (J.K. Simmons) and you got yourself some things to laugh about.

The second aspect deals honestly about the ills (as Juno's step mom questioned, "You barfed that blue slushy in my urn that I bought out in Stillwater?"), repercussions of teenage pregnancy walking down the hall as if she's swimming upstream as a sea of acne clad good for nothing youth gawk at the site of the growth coming from her midsection, and the beauty of giving life—which almost put this grown man to shed perspirations from his hazel eyes.

Look it up. Sometimes its fun and troublesome playing with two magnets that are flipped so they can't ever connect. Life bears is own pain and tears at times. Maybe with a dash of humor and honesty we can understand that there's life and rest beyond bitter circumstances. I know Juno did.

"I Celebrate the Day"

With this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know
How much You've touched my life because
Here is where You're finding me
In the exact same place as New Year's Eve
And from the lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I wanna be


And so this Christmas I'll compare
The things I've felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
And the hope that
That You give
That You were born so I might really live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me…

And the first time that You opened Your eyes
Did you realize that You would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever?
And the first time that You opened your eyes
Did you realize that You would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever?

And I
I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day
Pray for You to save my life
Pray for You to save my life
Pray for You to save my life

This song, from Relient k has grown to be one of my most favorite Christmas songs. If you haven't heard it, you should probably stop what you're doing and get to listening to it. Simply, yet so eloquently, it truly captures the essence of why we should celebrate Christmas. The greatest gift of all, born to die, so one day we can have His Life.

The Storm

"Storm"

Why the wind blows
high the pensive brail,
An arousing motion of apathey

Where the flower grows
wear the petals flail,
An open sky of melancholy

When the water pose
bend the poinient hail,
A musing cloud of mutability

How the fire loathes
sow the preemtive wail,
A perpetual state of corruptibility

For Jake

Since one of my best friends pouts that because he doesn't have a myspace or a facebook, I figured this would be a good avenue for him and anyone else to stay in touch.

The man,
The myth,
The legend in his own eyes,
Jacob Andrew Schlegel,
This one goes out to you.