Help me Joe Strummer!

I am thinking here, I miss you, Jeff Spicoli.

OK. We went to the movies again! To see Into the Wild. Sean Penn, Sean Penn. You were Jeff Spicoli. You were married to Madonna. You were in some other movies that were good, but I can't remember now what they were. You hate George Bush and do nice things for people in Iran and probably do not beat people up anymore. Then you decided to make this movie.

I read the book. A long time ago. I remember thinking, that guy in the book sounds a little spoiled and clueless. Too bad he died. I am not too sad about it though. Great writer you are John Kraukauer!

I had this sinking feeling from the very beginning. You know how I am about typography and there is no excuse EVER for poor film titles. Yet here were the worse, green and yellow like BP gas station, badly done film titles I think I can ever remember seeing. And then the song started, and ok. The movie is set in the early '90's. But who is singing and then KEEPS singing during the movie at the most random, cloud swirling shot on the top of a mountain times? Eddie Vedder. Sean Penn, Sean Penn. Get your head out of your ass.

Luckily, I went with Gary who is not a walk out of bad movies person like I am, and he drove, so I did stay til the end and it did get better. I did not fall asleep, although I was very bored. Perhaps that icey cold coke I drank during the first half hour helped. Thanks Coca Cola! Thanks Hal Holbrook and Vince Vaughn super co-stars and the desert! And one small dog towards the end and some bloody taxidermy. But every time it would get better for a few minutes, and I would think, I am a bad person, I do not deserve to ever go to Salvation Mountain, I must feel some love for this teen idol with the very, very pretty teeth, and then as if by magic from god, it would be a terrible movie again and I blame Sean Penn for this.

There was so much swirling of the camera at clouds and standing on mountains and that kind of thing. Too much of those teeth. And then some more mountains. And I believe he once frolicked with hazy horses in a pasture! With no shirt! And then swirling mountain cloud cam and the sun breaking through and I would start twitching again until it was perhaps Hal Holbrook in a bronco doing leather tooling in his garage but then, the voice over would start again and the twitching would ensue, and then for a moment, Salvation Mountain! Why have I never been to this holy place in Niland, CA? And then the clouds and hazy sun breaking through. You get the idea. I felt jerked around between the terrible and the really pretty cool. But it was about 4 pretty cool and 40 terrible.

We meant to go see the documentary about Joe Strummer but it started at 11pm. Sean Penn, maybe it's not your fault. If I could have stayed awake to see the Joe Strummer movie, this whole bad Into the Wild experience could have been completely avoided. I am sure my dog lesson this morning with Jim will erase it all from my mind and it will still be a good day.