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Departure/Arrival

Sunday, after a recommendation from my dad, I caught The Departed at a matinee. The next day, I saw it again right after work. Not because I was pulled into it by friend. There was something about the flick that spoke to me on an emotional level. No, more primordial than that. It spoke right to my gut. The instinctive part of my being that was left over from the hunter/gather days. For a piece of art to affect me so acutely, I find it odd that I share little similarities between myself and the characters in the movie. I'm not from Boston - I'm far out from the city. I'm not a cop - law enforcement is the furthest thing from my employment.

What struck me was how the principle characters Billy Costigan and Colin Sullivan have a purpose. Out of the police academy, they are thrown into opposite ends of the law, both as a mole. Drive, passion, focus. This is what I desire. Nevermind their personal lives are in shambles. Their lives meant something. Since I struggle to find meaning within myself, maybe I'm stretching out to a movie to help fill the gap.

After meeting up with all my buddies this weekend it was comforting to hear that we were all dipping into our own quarter-life crises. Out of college, we took the job. Cut to our months down the line, we struggle with putting together our own sense of purpose. The soul-draining monotony of a 9-to-5, or the empty hole in your stomach that comes with the uncertainty of the future: these are our dilemmas. We spent four years training on how to get the job done faster, better and make it look prettier than anyone else. So when the biggest challenge you meet is "what am I going to do for the rest of the day?" you could imagine the resulting frustration. Without an objective or a goal, the rest of the ride looks grim.

So thank you supermen of cinema. It only took eight of you - Wahlberg, Damon, DiCaprio, Sheen, Baldwin, Nicholson, Scorsese (I'll even credit Pitt for the production) - but you managed to invigorate this kid, if only for a little while.

Van rocks me

The Departed soundtrack easily made its way on to my list of "CDs to get." Thanks to The Hype Machine, I found that an MP3 of Van Morrison's rendition of Comfortably Numb is available. Since seeing The Departed, it has been my one-track-playlist. I must have listened to it 50 times now. I've always recognized Morrison as one of the premier vocalists, but this track puts him into a whole new echelon. How come he doesn't write more songs like this? Belting a single note, the sharp attack, the staccato he puts on "I can't put my finger on it." Comfortably Numb is a great enough song as it is, with one of the best guitar solos of all time in its span, but with the crumbling power of Morrison's pipes, a tremendous force is produced. The love scene in which Scorsese uses the song is even more riveting. Like any incredible song, I just can't find the words to give it justice. Listen now.