Victim of the Game

He refused to sit down before the ladies were seated. The perfect gentleman.

"It's neat to get to marry your best friend," he said about her. Romantic "Awwww"s swept over the audience. "It felt like I was all of a sudden 10 times the man I'd ever been in my life." More "Awwww"s. The perfect husband.

Every night they have "Honesty Club" with their children, allowing the girls to speak their mind without fear of embarrassment or punishment in order to keep communication lines open. The perfect father.

And the worst part about it was, like a battered woman going back to bed with her abusive husband, I was actually letting myself fall for him. Again. The perfect deceiver.

On Valentine's Day, 2006, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood sat on Oprah's couch and convinced the world that divorcing the mother of his children who had stuck with him through the hard times, and running off to marry the "other woman" was not only the romantic thing to do, but it was the right and noble thing as well.

Garth Brooks was, and, as much as I hate to admit it, probably still is, my favorite musical artist of all time. Which is why this demonstration was such a saddening experience for me. I didn't feel angry as much as I simply felt disheartened and betrayed. Betrayed because, during critical times in my life, I had been strongly influenced and inspired by the lyrics that Garth had sung. Not only had he sung them, but he had written them. To have written them was to have believed them himself. Or so I thought. Now it appears, everything he has ever written could have been hogwash.

"Did I try in every way
To show her every day
That she's my only one?"

-- If Tomorrow Never Comes

"And as she walked away, I looked at my wife,
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life."

-- Unanswered Prayers

Well I'm shameless
When it comes to loving you.
I'd do anything you want me to.
I'd do anything at all.

-- Shameless

Shameless indeed. At least Garth didn't write that one (Billy Joel did). But do those sound like the words of a man who would ever consider divorce to be an option? If I told those things to a woman in private, I would be hard pressed to ever think of leaving her. But if I had whispered them, seemingly from the depths of my soul, or exclaimed them at the top of my lungs to people all across the world, as Garth did concert after concert for nearly a decade, I cannot fathom how I could ever act in such a way as to completely contradict everything I had ever crooned from the stage with the actions of my own life.

But for Garth, this sanctimonious display didn't end there. It seems he has made it his mission to justify his actions, not only to himself, but to his girls, his wife, and to the rest of the world. Touting his ex-wife's blessing of his marriage to Trisha was a smooth move. When asked what Sandy, his ex-wife, had to say about the upcoming nuptials, Garth said, "She looked at me and said two things which I'll never forget as long as I live. She said, 'It's about time.' … Then she said, 'This is a good move for you.'" When his children were posed with a similar question, the oldest girl, Taylor, said, "Dad, we love Trisha. If you're thinking about marrying her, we would be very happy."

Assuming all of that was true, which is not unreasonable considering Garth and Sandy were reportedly quite unhappy with each other in the latter years of their marriage, Sandy received a healthy chunk of Garth's wealth in the divorce, and Garth has made a serious effort to be a good father, even to the point of giving up his singing career during the kid's formative years, it still does not make Garth the romantic hero so many are making him out to be just because he bailed on his marriage. And it certainly doesn't excuse the hypocritical lyrics that he will no doubt continue to spout once he goes back on tour.

I suppose I should have been listening more closely when Garth sang these words, inches from Trisha's face back when he was still married to Sandy,

In another's eyes
I'm someone who
Loves her enough
To walk away from you
I'd never cheat
I'd never lie
In another's eyes.

-- In Another's Eyes

It's quite a deceptive song. Garth would have Sandy think the "another" and the "her" was Trisha. And he would have Trisha think that Sandy was represented by those words. But, in the end, they both knew he would cheat and lie, because he was doing it right in front of their faces. So who was the last to be discovered the fool? Me. The fan. I always gave Garth the benefit of the doubt. I believed him and I believed in him. And when he sang of the virtues of heroes like Cowboy Bill and the strength it takes to stand outside the fire and "forsake it all" for the chance love might exist, it solidified my faith in the integrity of my own boyhood hero. I thought he would never cheat. I thought he would never lie. I thought wrong.

It is somewhat ironic that, just as the seedlings of the Garth/Sandy/Trisha love triangle were sprouting, both Garth and Trisha recorded this song on each of their own individual records to warn me of the upcoming disillusionment I would one day face:

Well, it took a little time,
But I guess you finally learned
That promises get broken,
And bridges do get burned.
You've been siftin' through the ashes
Just tryin' to find a flame.
Holdin' on to nothin',
You're a victim of the game.

You were standin' way too close
To see it all fall apart.
And there were things you couldn't hear
'Cause you were listenin' with your heart.
But you can't say I didn't warn you.
Now there's no one else to blame.
There's no one quite as blind
As a victim of the game.

And it don't matter who you are.
It treats everyone the same.
All you need's a heart
To be a victim of the game.

-- Victim of the Game

And now, here I am, still a victim of the game. Still in love with the songs. Still eagerly willing to buy every album Garth Brooks releases. Still scouring through Karaoke song lists for any Garth Brooks song available. Still a believer in the lyrics' message. But it was a sad day when I had to say goodbye to my belief in the man behind the message.

So let me enlighten Oprah, the fans, and anyone else out there who might still have a bit of wool over their eyes. As it turns out, Garth Brooks is not the hero he has been made out to be. He's just an ol' cowboy, and with a cowboy,

What you see is what you've got,
And he can't be what he's not.
--What'cha Gonna Do With A Cowboy?

There. I said it.

Same old story
That everybody knows.
It's one heart holdin' on,
One letting go.

-- Same Old Story

There. I Said It.: A Series of Blogs.

I know that, this being only my second blog entry, it's probably too early to be starting a series of posts along the lines of a particular topic, but the more I thought about this, the more the idea grew until it became a little overwhelming to try to even start unless I made a deal with myself to break it up and take it a piece at a time. Plus, ideas befitting this topic seem to come to mind daily, so I expect to make this a running piece that I add to on a regular (regular at first at least, semi-regular later on) basis.

What better way to admit your unpopular, although admittedly still not too controversial, beliefs than to post them to a personal blog? Read 'em if you like. Disagree with 'em if you like. And please, respond if you like. They're just my thoughts shared with those who care to read them. My guess is, a silent majority actually agrees with most of these thoughts, but society tells us that we should think differently, so we just don't voice our opinions. We'll see. Anyway, I'm calling it, "There. I Said It."

Belief #1
Movies from our current generation are, almost across the board, significantly better than movies from earlier generations.

For over a decade, the American Film Institute (AFI) has celebrated film by ranking movies made since the beginning of movie-making. Their lists have ranked the top 100: movies overall, comedies, musicals, villains/heroes, quotes, songs, romances, thillers, inspirational movies, movie stars, or film scores. I love movies, so every year I get excited about watching the countdown. And when I sit down and watch it, I have a good time because I get to relive so many of the movies I have seen and I get to be exposed to movies I haven't seen that I would probably enjoy. That, I know, is AFI's intent when putting together these lists.

But I also am consistently disappointed. The Top 10 usually has one or two I might possibly agree with. The Top 100 usually is agreeable, in my opinion, on about 20 or so. As it turns out, the movies I like were made while I was alive. AFI, on the other hand, seems to love movies in black and white, and considers anything made within the past two decades uncomparable to the films from "The Golden Age."

Here's an example. Last year, AFI ran a revisiting of their countdown from ten years prior (they said they were wanting to give credence to newer films, which I knew when they said it, was hogwash and that there was no way any movies from the past ten years would infiltrate their ivory tower list) - AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition. Here was the Top 10:

10. Wizard of Oz
9. Vertigo
8. Schindler's List
7. Lawrence of Arabia
6. Gone With The Wind
5. Singin' in the Rain
4. Raging Bull
3. Casablanca
2. The Godfather
1. Citizen Kane

Would anyone reading this have more than one of those in their top ten favorite movies? I'll take the challenge a step further. Does anyone reading this even know someone personally that would have more than one or two of those in their top ten favorite movies? Imagine if you asked one of your friends what their favorite movie was, and they replied, "Singin' in the Rain." Wouldn't your continued friendship with that person be in doubt after that moment? Now, while none of those movies are in my top ten, I could understand where someone might list one or possibly two of those movies as some of their favorites. In fact, my own mother's favorite movie is Gone With The Wind. Either that, she says, or Silverado. (It's hard to tell if her Gone With The Wind selection is still really valid or if it's just a pat answer that she's had since she was little, and she just doesn't feel like re-evaluating it. That is actually an all-too-common issue that I think is a fundamental cause of this new-movie discrimination). The only movies from that AFI Top 10 list that I might even allow a friend of mine to have as their favorite movie are
Gone With The Wind (because I can't disown my mother for that), The Godfather, and Casablanca. And if you were personally affected by the Holocaust, then I could understand a Schindler's List selection. The Wizard of Oz was a great movie - WHEN I WAS 8! Ask someone what they thought of Lawrence of Arabia and you'll most likely get one of two answers:

It was long.
or
I've never seen it.

When people say they've never seen Lawrence of Arabia, I don't think anything of it. Because very few, it seems, have. On the other hand, if I find out that someone has not seen Star Wars or Rocky, I am dumbfounded. Those movies should be seen. Lawrence of Arabia? Take it or leave it.

Vertigo is OK - kinda creepy, but watchable. And Raging Bull as depressing and heavy as it is, at least it's a sports movie and has Robert DeNiro, which raises its value in my book no matter how rewatchable the movie might not be.

But Number One: Citizen Kane? That's just absurd. I'm not sure which is more ludicrous - that it was ranked number one on this list or that it retained its title from the first version of this list ten years ago? It was number one for the original "100 Years ... 100 Movies" list. Then the voters had ten years to reconsider their egregious error, add new voters and subtract dead ones, come to their senses, and when it came time to select the number one movie, they selected ... Citizen Kane again! It's almost enough to make you want to stop watching movies altogether. Supposedly it was a breakthrough in film-making of some kind. If that were the case, though, and if it's such a great film, why then was it beaten out for Best Picture in 1941 by How Green Was My Valley? Let me repeat: IT DIDN'T EVEN WIN BEST PICTURE!!! And yet it's considered the best movie ever? Unbelievable. AFI needs to just sacrifice one year and create a top 100 list for Film-Making Breakthroughs. Then they could get past this love-fest with awful movies and get on to the ones that are actually entertaining or, at least, beneficial to society in some way. Citizen Kane was neither.

It would take too long to go through them all, but believe me when I say, the other dozen or so lists are just as bad, if not worse (the top ten Comedies, for instance, are preposterous: 10. Airplane!, 9. The Graduate, 8. It Happened One Night, 7. M*A*S*H, 6. Blazing Saddles, 5. Duck Soup, 4. Annie Hall, 3. Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, 2. Tootsie, 1. Some Like It Hot).

What's interesting to me is that AFI even knows their list is not usually the movies most people like. How can I tell? Because when they are advertising their countdown, and even during their intro to the countdown, they try to suck viewers in by showing clips from relatively new movies, making it look like this year, they're actually going to be reasonable and select good, entertaining movies (I can only conclude that entertainment value is simply not one of their selection criteria). But after they've sucked you in, they proceed to beat you over the head with old movies, insinuating that, "If you consider yourself a movie buff or lover of film, then these must be some of your favorite movies. Otherwise, you are merely a peasant in the Hollywood Kingdom and you really don't even deserve to be watching this countdown."

Now that you've compared the AFI top ten list with your own, let's see how mine compares with yours (in other words, which list would you rather sit down and watch straight through - AFI's or mine?) Here are my top ten favorite movies (comedies have their own category as it seems is required by law in Hollywood, so they cannot be included in a favorite movie list such as this one. Also, the first one on the list is my overall favorite, but the rest are not in any particular order):

Braveheart
Back to the Future
The Natural
Rocky
Rounders
You've Got Mail
Lord of the Rings
Tombstone
Silverado
Love Actually

Here are my top ten comedies in no particular order (please note that I added a criteria to my list that AFI left off of their comedy criteria list - the movie should be funny):

Three Amigos!
Anchorman
Tommy Boy
Dumb and Dumber
Napolean Dynamite
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Ghostbusters
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Jerk
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Out of both of these lists, the oldest movie is Rocky - 1976. The oldest comedy is The Jerk - 1979. Before that, it seems that movies were not really very funny, and most were not nearly as good as movies made since.

This post is plenty long already, so here are a few additional points that, while abbreviated, still support my stand that new movies are just better than old movies.

1) Actors of our generation act better than those of previous generations. For example, crying scenes today seem authentic, whereas those kinds of scenes in the past are usually too dramatic.
2) Dialogue from old movies sounds very scripted. I haven't done much acting, but I can easily tell in older movies when the script specifically calls for one actor to interrupt another. It's very jilted and I'm pretty sure that the interruptee would simply stop talking at a specific word, whether the other actor interrupted him or not. These days, actors are much more accomplished at this piece of their craft. They know what their character is wanting to say, and will continue to say it (scripted or not) until they are realistically interrupted.
3) Special Effects. No contest. Who cares if technology is just better now? That should not count against newer movies. In fact - just the opposite! Better special effects alone should often be enough to place recent movies above older movies because it makes the movies more realistic, and therefore, more entertaining and higher quality.
4) More realistic portrayals of everyday life. Most serious movies often seem like, aside from the unrealistically beautiful people in them, they are straight from our daily lives. I didn't live in the 40's, but it would be hard to believe that the U.S. Post Office would simply deliver dozens of huge bags of mail to a courthouse on Christmas Eve, when they aren't even supposed to be working, at the simple request of a lawyer defending Santa Claus just because they don't know what else to do with all of those letters. If this is not familiar to you - it's the climactic scene of the original (and far inferior to the modern) version of Miracle on 34th Street. Sorry if I spoiled it for you.
5) Music. Today's scores are moving. The songs are fun and popular. Old movies' scores, even the ones considered "great", like that from High Noon, are repetitive and not nearly as elaborate, spectacular, or engrossing as anything John Williams, James Horner, Alan Silvestri, or Howard Shore ever wrote.
6) Length. Long movies today are long because they have to be to get the story in. For the most part, even when they are long, they are very enjoyable because the story moves very well and keeps you involved, so much so that you wouldn't mind if the movie was actually longer if you could stay involved in the story for a few more minutes. Old movies, on the other hand, are long seemingly because the directors just didn't know how to cut out scenes, so a movie that would have been cut to under two hours today remained at an interminable three.
7) There are some exceptions for all of these. Jimmy Stewart was a great actor and would be today. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" still holds up. And if you take a girl to watch Casablanca at the Paramount Theater, she'll still fall in love with you. But these are the exceptions, not the rules. And they still aren't the best overall in their respective categories.

I would love to know more about film history, and grow in my expertise of the subject, so I still watch, and sometimes even enjoy, movies from the older generations. But when people start claiming that those movies were better than anything we have today, that's where I have to object. Older movies better than today's movies? That's just ridiculous. There. I said it.

The Best There's Ever Been

I submit that "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is the coolest song ever. I'm not saying it's necessarily the best song ever, but definitely the coolest. Click here for the lyrics.

As the story-song begins, Johnny's just chillin', minding his own business, "sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot," somewhere in Georgia where the hickory trees grow. He's not bothering anyone. I don't think he even has an audience. He's just jammin'.

Along comes the devil. Apparently, the devil has a quota of souls that he has to steal "'cus he was way behind". I'm not really sure who would be holding the devil accountable for his soul-quota, so my guess is he was gonna lose some serious bragging rights to JC if he didn't get a few more souls that month. As a side note, I'd say it doesn't bode well for places like New York, L.A., Chicago, etc. that the devil thought he had a better chance of finding a new soul in Georgia than in those major metropolitan areas, presumably because he's already won most of the souls in those areas.

So the devil enlightens Johnny of his hidden fiddle-playing talents and proceeds to start talking smack, saying, "I think I'm better than you." Now Johnny didn't ask for this. He was just hangin' out, doin' his thing, and out of nowhere, the devil shows up, interrupts Johnny's session, and wants to throw down. But does Johnny back down? Is he intimidated? Lesser men might've been, but not Johnny. He gets right in the devil's face and says, in so many words, "Let's do this." Not only did Johnny risk the bet even though "it might be a sin" (and he apparently didn't sin very often since the devil wouldn't be after a habitual sinner), but the DUDE GAVE THE DEVIL ODDS! Sure, a fiddle of gold would be cool. I've never seen anyone who had one, not even Charlie Daniels (by the way, how is it that Daniels hasn't come up with or been given a fiddle of gold yet?). And you know the devil thinks it's valuable because wooden fiddles just don't last very long in his 850-degree pad. But in exchange for Johnny's soul? I'd say those odds are in the devil's favor. Like 16,000,000:1 in the devil's favor. But it didn't phase Johnny at all, because he was, as he proclaims, "the best there's ever been."

Johnny's bravado didn't deter the devil, and he busted out his fiddle saying, "I'll start this show." And I don't care who you are, it is impressive, if not a little intimidating, when the guy you are going head-to-head against starts throwing fire from his fingertips. That's Dark-Side Sith Lord sort of behavior, so you know this devil's for real. And if that didn't scare Johnny, then I would think that awful sound of the bow hissing across the strings would do it. But Johnny probably just laughed, thinking it was cool. When the band of demons joined in, Johnny probably could have cried "foul," since this was supposed to be mano-a-mano and not mano-a-mano-con-venda-de-demonios, but not Johnny. He just waited patiently until the intense, albeit very talented, screeching stopped. Now I have to give the devil credit here. He went straight fiddle and didn't attempt any lyrics like Johnny does, but as anyone who plays an instrument can tell you, throwing in lyrics while cruising through some technical musical riff is much more difficult than just playing the riff on its own. Not to give away the ending, but this may have actually given Johnny the edge.

The last note still hung in the air when Johnny gave the devil a backhanded compliment, saying he was "pretty" good and then calling him "old son." Johnny knew he was going to make the devil's knees weak during his turn because then he told him - told him - to sit down in the chair Johnny had with him so he could show the devil "how it's done." You knew right then it was over before Johnny even started.

Johnny might've been able to beat the devil on fiddle-skill alone, but he doesn't stop there. He opens his piece by throwing out dagger after dagger with his lyrics:

Fire on the Mountain
Run Boys Run.
The devil's in the House of the Rising Sun.

Interpretation: "What's up devil? I see you there. Why do you keep picking on scared little boys? Why don't you come here and pick on someone your own size?"

Chicken in a bread pan pickin' out dough
Granny, does your dog bite?
No, child, no.

Interpretation: "Because you're chicken, that's why. You're used to dealing with boys as soft as dough in a bread pan, but in the end, you're still just a chicken. Or maybe a dog. At best. Is he a mean dog, Mommy? Does he bite? Does he have rabies or sharp teeth?
'No child, don't be silly.'
Then what's everyone so scared of? This dog's turn has come. He's stepped into a hornets' nest and he's about to get his butt kicked. And I'm gonna do the kickin'."

Johnny follows this up with a screamin' jam session that, when Charlie Daniels plays it, leaves his bow in shreds. Johnny's was probably shredded, smokin', and stinkin' of horse hair by the end of that meaty performance.

Was a judge's ruling necessary? Did Johnny and the devil or his demons argue over who was better? Not a chance. The devil hung his head and just "laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny's feet." He had been beaten so badly, there was no question of who had won. From my initial impression of Johnny, he seemed to be quiet, even introverted by nature, but the devil had provoked him and brought out the fire within this young man, so Johnny didn't let the devil's humiliation end at just admitting defeat. He poured salt into the wound, yelling out to the retreating devil, "Come on back if you ever want to try again." He followed that with one of the most get-your-heart-pumping, fire-you-up lines that I've never been able to say and called the devil himself an S.O.B.! What's cooler than that? Nothing's cooler than calling the devil an S.O.B. and being able to back it up because, as Johnny reiterates, he's "the best there's ever been."

So, as the devil is sulking away, the last thing he hears is Johnny whaling on his fiddle again, singing the Chicken in the Bread Pan smack one more time, proving once and for all that, when it comes to fiddle-playing and soul-wagers, Johnny owns the devil.

Now the devil's even further behind, so watch your back, perfect your craft, and beware, because it would be hard to top "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."