June 9th
In my on going quest to hang out with people one last time before I moved I spent the day with Lauralie, her husband Mark and her daughter Chase (to read more about Lauralie's life with chase I suggest her humorous blog). What we planned was a day full of chinese food and rom/com's/Teen Flicks.
We watched four flicks in total. Whatever it Takes, 10 Things I hate About You, Eight Days a Week & The Wedding SInger. Whatever it Takes and Eight Days A Week I'm not going to talk about at this time because both of them will appear in upcoming That One Guy columns. Furthermore there's not much to say about 10 Things I Hate About You besides the fact that it's the 2nd best 90's teen flick (just slightly behind Can't Hardly Wait). What I wanted to focus on is the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore rom-com The Wedding SInger.
At the time The Wedding Singer was released Adam Sandler was my favorite actor. I had probably watched Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore literally 100 times and memorized every single line. But regardless of this, I wasn't excited about The Wedding Singer, the commercials didn't make me laugh too much and I didn't really know anything about the 80's to feel like I'd "get it". Regardless it starred Adam Sandler and so thusly I saw it. I remember leaving the theater in love with this movie. The jokes worked the plot was nice and simplistic and the soundtrack introduced me into the wonderful world of 80's music. Even in 7th grade I knew that while it wasn't his funniest movie, it was his best. It was with this movie I developed a crush on Drew Barrymore.
My crush with Drew Barrymore was pretty serious. She was the first celebrity I ever actively tracked down nude photographs of on the internet. It was of course 1998 and I was in 7th grade, so not only was this the peak of my puberty and sexual discovery (without actually having sex or even a girlfriend) but it was also the days of dial-up internet meaning that I actually had to take time to wait for images to slowly load before my eyes.
My friends never liked the movie to the level I did. I saw it a second time in theaters, bought the VHS and watched it on a weekly basis. I even recall watching it at a birthday sleep-over with my 3 best friends at the time along with The Frightners, Nightmare on Elm Street and Starship Troopers. As I look back throughout my life, I feel like The Wedding Singer almost became the template for my 'ideal' relationship. Which may also explain why I always seem to fall for girls who are dating complete assholes. Even my last entry I basically quoted Robby Hart (adam sandler) on why I want to write 'so that someone will go, wow, i know what that guy was feeling when he wrote that'. The Soundtrack even introduced me to some of my all time favorite songs, I remember listening to Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic and wishing I had a girl that made me feel the way that Sting felt.
The film is probably also one of the defining films of Lauralie and I's friendship (along with 10 Things and Empire Records). We watched this movie on a semi-yearly rate and it had gotten to a point where I almost couldn't watch the movie alone unless I texted Lauralie first to see if she wanted to watch it with me. Every time we watched this movie it seems like we decided we wanted to throw yet another 80's party. But this got me thinking about the 80's; all things considered the music and select movies (mostly horror and John Hughes) were the highlights, most of the people were pretty shitty and self-absorbed (the 2000's were basically the 80's part 2) and the clothes were pretty awful. Right now I'm watching American Graffiti, now the 50's is a decade I'd have loved to lived in. Of all the 'cliches' in the world, I can relate to Greasers more than anyone, or at least I understand the idea of it. I will never be a Greaser. I don't care about cars, I enjoy rock-a-billy but I'm hardly what I'd call a fan and I am too lazy to do anything with my hair. But I get why people are Greasers. I don't understand most other things. I don't get Juggalos or Goths or Kids with Mohawks (and for most of high school I listened to exclusively punk/ska) but I get wishing you could live out the 50s. Burger Shops, Drive-Ins, Sock-Hops, Rock-N-Roll. It's all so appealing, that being said, if I'm anyone in this movie... I'd have been Toad and he's basically the Anti-Greaser.
Summary
I spend a lot of time thinking of "What Ifs". I wonder about if I'd made moves sooner or if I had waited. I wonder about what happens if I move away this or that happens. I wonder about if I die early and while I think it's normal, it's not healthy. There's a quote that's frequently attributed to John Lennon (although I think I heard it was basically a paraphrase from someone else but regardless) 'Life is what happens while you're making plans'. If you don't live for the now, you're not living at all. If I'm going to die young there's nothing I can do about it, just hope that at the end of the day people will say "Here lies Matt Kelly, he lived his life to the fullest."
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Wow, I was obssessed with "The Wedding Singer" as well. It was the first movie I owned and it might be the only one I own lol. My favorite part of that movie was when he sings the song to Drew Barrymore on the plane. I liked it because it was a realistic song. "I wanna grow old with you."
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I think what ifs a lot too, but all in all life happens and we make the most of it. Think about all you've done this far and all that you have awaiting you. Live in the moment because you don't want to miss special moments or like in My Best Friend's Wedding hesitate to say, "I love you" and have that moment pass you by. We don't know when our time will come. I enjoyed this post :-)