Big Willy's Top Fourteen Movie Spectacular!!

Apologies folks for the delay in getting back to the presses recently. Had a helluva lot of work getting ready for a potential closing on a big deal and haven't had a chance to get any thoughts written down.

But I am here to rectify that immediately with a listing of my 14 favorite movies of all time along with a few notes that may help you enjoy the film a little more. So without further adieu (in no particular order):

1. American History X - this is probably one of the most underrated movies of all time and definitely the best performance from Ed Norton in my opinion. It's such a disturbing look at how easy it is to get sucked into horrifying ideologies (especially when they're spawned in your childhood home). One of the neat things is to watch the progression of the black and white memory sequences. They begin by treating Derek as the proto-typical nazi wunderkind: strong, intelligent, charismatic and able to rally those around him to his cause with an almost supernatural ease (culminating in the basketball scene where Derek is hoisted up on his "brothers" shoulders as the triumphant winner - truly the ubermensch). But as the movie progresses we start to see these cutaways devolve into the darker side of these evil ways until the prison shower scene which marks the nadir of Derek's life. The dichotomy is striking and really drives home the point that nothing is quite so complex as the relationships within a family and how they affect and mold children.
2. American Psycho - those of you who read my Bret Easton Ellis treatise will find it no surprise to see one of his works on this list. As much as Less Than Zero turned a razor sharp satirical eye on Los Angeles in the 1980s, the same can be said for American Psycho and New York at the same time period. It is entirely too cursory an analysis to say that this movie is only about Patrick Bateman's insatiable bloodlust. If you look deeper into the dialogue it becomes clearer what brilliant satire this movie is. Notice how each of the investment bankers and lawyers appear completely interchangeable as the main characters struggle to recognize one from the other. How many times was Patrick Bateman mistaken for someone else in the movie? Also, tying back to my previous discussion of Ellis' novels, notice how Bateman only focuses on his appearance (both physical and social). This is central to Ellis' view of the nihilism so prevalent in the 80s when wealthy people could have everything and didn't believe in anything. What to fill the void in your psyche with then? Clothes, houses, business cards, the right reservations?
3. Shawshank Redemption - not much analysis needed here. Just a wonderful study in the power of hope and the indestructibility of the human spirit.
4. Godfather Part 1&2 - If you haven't done it already, do yourself a favor and take a rainy Saturday afternoon and watch these two back to back. Unbelievable! There are volumes written on the symbolism present throughout both movies but the most important aspect as far as I am concerned is, similar to American History X, the power of family and its ability to induce bad decisions but also bind you more tightly than anything else.
5. Grandma's Boy - I wish I could say something insightful here but sometimes you just need to see a movie where a stoned monkey drives a jeep to help the protagonist get to his office so he can watch his grandmother beat the antagonist at a video game that's set in a meth lab.
6. Kill Bill Volumes 1&2 - I'm a fan of all of Quentin Tarantino's films but this is by far his most ambitious work and I think he pulls it off remarkably. I would love to see this movie released how he had originally intended it, as one continuous production lasting nearly 5 hours. The movie is a mash-up of several of Quentin's most influential genres including the spaghetti western, kung-fu films and the revenge flick and that diversity is what ultimately led the short-sighted movie executives in charge to release it in two parts. Nevertheless, both movies are a lot of fun with all the gore, one-liners, and unexpected emotion we've come to expect from a Tarantino movie. Quick side note, Quentin plotted to release rats during the premiere screening to simulate the effect of watching a movie in a seedy theatre just like he remembered growing up. I guess it really is a fine line between lunacy and genius!
7. Rushmore - the only reason I chose Rushmore out of all of Wes Anderson's oeuvre is because this is the most well known and most likely to be in stock at your local Blockbuster. Anderson is definitely an acquired comedic taste (I watched this particular movie over 30 times when I was living in Geneva in college because we only had about 5 American movies - I also watched a lot of Ghostbusters and Strange Brew) and besides now being able to quote the movie from memory, I realized how brilliant Anderson's minor turns of phrase could be. Watch that movie closely one day and tell me the scene where Bill Murray confides in Jason Schwartzman that, after stashing a mini-bottle of Jim Beam in a pile of hospital bed linens and lighting up a cigarette in a hospital elevator, he's, "a little lonely these days," doesn't leave you rolling on the floor.
8. Braveheart - no real science to this one either. One of only two or three movies where, no matter what the location I'm watching it in, the room always seems a little dusty...
9. The Incredibles - I like the increasing popularity of these Pixar and Disney Animation movies not just because it's a bit of mindless entertainment that has content for every generation watching, but because they constantly seem to one-up each other with every new film. I wonder what the technology will develop into in the next ten years?
10. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - In one of my previous posts I talked about my feelings for Guy Ritchie so I won't expound any further except to say that, as this was the movie that really put him on the map, its definitely worth a view.
11. Gladiator - "Are you not entertained?!?!"
12. Dumb and Dumber - "I got worms"
13. The Devil's Rejects - I never understood why people derided Rob Zombie for trying to direct a horror movie. I'm no horror-phile but that dude is one of the scariest people alive (he makes damn good music - but still scary) so why wouldn't it stand to reason that he'd make good scary movies? That was certainly the case with the gratuitously violent House of 1000 Corpses, but what was unexpected was the anti-hero undertones that came out in The Devils Rejects. You begin to realize that, despite the terrifying depths of their insanity and depravity, the Fireflys are still a family that face a lot of the same struggles we all do. Watch the scene where Baby and Captain Spaulding make fun of Otis and tell me it doesn't remind you of any quintessential American family roadtrip.
14. Sin City - I have become a huge fan of Frank Miller since movie versions of all the popular graphic novels became fashionable (Watchmen, Dark Knight, etc.). The term "gritty reboot" is thrown about a lot today but Sin City was gritty from the very start and, the satirical view of the whole genre seen through the stilted and often cheesy dialogue is pretty cool. Plus I like that the entire thing was filmed in front of green screens. I also like Jennifer Alba in riding chaps.

So those are the top 14 cinematic masterpieces according to Big Willy. I hope you enjoy them all either for the first time if you haven't had the pleasure and, if it's the second (or third time around for some of you), I hope some of my thoughts helped you appreciate these movies on a deeper level (especially Dumb and Dumber - that movie works on so many levels!)

Is college football imploding?

Alright, I've managed to keep my cool and not get too worried about what the future of college football is once all the hullabaloo of this off-season shakes out. That is, up until Lane Kiffin lost his damn mind and may very well have ruined college football.

Let's look at the facts so far:

1. Mark Mangino allegedly abused his players and has been run out of Kansas after bringing them to some prominence. My guess is he tried to eat one of his players because, let's be honest here, when you weigh just shy of a metric ton, it's not a difficult leap to imagine one of his players spilling some barbecue sauce on himself in the cafeteria and Marky Mark just couldn't control himself.
2. Jim Leavitt went all Bobby Knight on one of his players and tried to choke him out. That should help with recruiting.
3. Mike Leach is probably the only one who got a raw deal amongst the three coaches vying for the Jigsaw Coach of the Year award. By all accounts Craig James' son is a crybaby and his father thinks having a microphone means people care what his $200 haircut has to say. I've had a migraine before (and not one caused by a damn concussion) and, to be honest, sitting in a dark room by myself was the only thing I wanted to do. Props to the Pirate Lord Leach for realizing he was getting shafted and taking a chance to loud everyone else out on national television when he had the shot.
4. Pete Carroll gave up one of the sweetest coaching gigs in the country to coach the SEATTLE SEAHAWKS!! He traded in Southern California sunshine and bleach blond coeds for 400 days a year of rain and chicks in flannel who don't shave. To quote Beanie from Old School, "Way to think that one through." Add to that, I believe Pete has severely overestimated his capabilities. Recruiting for the University of Southern California is a very different thing than wading through the garbage that sits in the middle of the NFL draft. You're telling me Pete Carroll can navigate a draft intelligently when all he's had to do for the past 8 years is draft 5 running backs who ran 4.3 40s and were built like mack trucks? And as much as I actually like Pete (I think he's a helluva COLLEGE coach) this is going to be fun to watch as he flames out quickly.
5. Charlie Weis was pushed out at Notre Dame. The whole Charlie Weis/Notre Dame relationship was a lot like my college girlfriend. We were really great together for that 3 months after we graduated from high school and then, when we went to separate colleges we proceeded to embark on a 6 month relationship that lasted for 3 and 1/2 years. This should have happened a loooooong time ago.
   
6. Speaking of Notre Dame, they traded in the only guy I know with a FUPA for the head coach at Cincinnati. I actually feel sorry for this guy. I don't know why nobody bothered to tell Brian Kelly that Notre Dame is irrelevant now. Seriously, does anyone remember the last time they actually tuned in to NBC on a Saturday afternoon in the fall over the last 10 years? Me either. And you bring in a guy who was successful in the Big Least to turn things around? Did anybody at Notre Dame even watch the Cincy/Florida bowl game?
7. Urban Meyer got weird. I'm not sure I really have anything else to say about it actually. That whole two day span was just weird.
8. And that brings us to the coup de grace with the Loudmouth, Lane Kiffin. WHAT. THE. F@!K?!?!?! This guys comes barreling into the SEC and in a short 14 month period proceeds: 1) to call half of his fellow coaches cheaters; 2) immediately become the focus of a NCAA recruiting violation investigation himself (what color does that make the pot then Lane?); 3) go 7-6 yet somehow bring in a monster 2010 recruiting class (see point 2 above); and then 4) bolt from the school as soon as something better comes along. The only problem is, I don't know that the USC job is better! The Trojans are under investigation themselves and they're bringing in a guy who can't wipe his ass without breaking a rule? He's assembling the "Dream Team" of assistant coaches but hasn't the thought crossed his mind that he's setting himself up to get cannibalized as soon as a second tier head coaching job opens up? And what happens when old Pete gets tired of losing in the NFL? You don't think he'll be back in Los Angeles pointing out how available he is? And finally, let's not overlook how much of a dick move this is to the kids he coached and/or recruited. These guys, unlike NFL players who are grown men who get paid a lot of money to perform no matter who their boss is, are KIDS! They're 18 year old boys who, even though they may be big tough boys, are still leaving their homes for probably the first time and the one person who was supposed to be their father figure, just dipped out right when they're starting classes. What a colossal, unmitigated asshole.

So, the landscape is littered with mercenary coaches, kids who are afraid of a little rough treatment (c'mon - you play football, act like it), and fan/booster bases who force out coaches because of their mind-bogglingly unrealistic expectations. All of this spells trouble ahead, but I guess we'll have a spectacle to watch until then. I'll get the popcorn...

Who'd have thought Goerge Michael and Limp Bizkit would be right?

As you know, I attended a wedding this past weekend down in Jamaica that was absolutely beautiful. Brad and Amanda looked fantastic, and I don't mind telling you that I was pretty stylin' in my linen pants and shirt as a groomsman. But I have to admit my lasting memory from the trip wasn't the ceremony on the beach with the wide open expanse of beautiful Caribbean ocean as a backdrop nor was it the multiple late nights catching up with my very best friends. No, the thought that will stick with me from this very special occasion is that the concept of faith finally makes sense to me.

And it is my understanding of that very important concept that I would like to share with you today. Now before I come to my great epiphany on the beach in Jamaica let me back up a bit. My entire life I have tried to find a spiritual connection to the world around me. I have studied nearly all of the major religions in the world (most of that studying came during a bit of an existential crisis I felt I was having during my time in New York) and while I departed from my birth religion of Episcopalianism to follow the teachings of the Buddha for about 2 years, I have since returned and feel very at home and happy at my current church, St. Andrews in the Old Village, Mt Pleasant.

Now before you write me off as another Bible-thumping religious wacko from the South, let me assure you that I have no intention of turning this particular piece into an evangelical work that is designed solely to convert you to my way of thinking. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I have nothing but the utmost contempt for people who foist their beliefs on others, be they religious, political, economic or what to have for dinner tonight. There are very few people who come equipped with the necessary intellectual tools to guide others to believing as they do and most times, the ones who are capable, use those tools for less than gentlemanly (or womanly) reasons.

No, my goal here today is simply to put into words something that had a very profound effect on me and hope that it provides you with some insight into who I am. Please take nothing more from it.

So back to the task at hand. As I said, I am currently a member of an Anglican/Episcopalian church that many would consider pretty progressive. We have a rock band who plays music every Sunday and the congregation is very enthusiastic, but most importantly to me, we have a rector who is not afraid to be challenged in his belief. That is why, when attending a service about 2 weeks ago, I got very excited when I saw we had a guest speaker who was going to give a sermon entitled, "Is belief in God rational?" Finally someone was going to try and take an analytical run at deciding if there was good reason to believe in something greater than ourselves. The hard-nosed, "the numbers either make sense or they don't" private equity professional in me had been waiting on this for a long time.

Well I'll spare you the details but the sermon lacked anything approaching true analysis and relied mostly on very suspect logic to arrive at the predictable conclusion that, yes, it is indeed logical that there is a supreme being of some sort. I was pretty let down about the whole thing because the ultimate cause of my spiritual search is that I have never met anyone who could explain to me in terms I felt comfortable with, what religion is and what it does. There is always a gap in the traverse from Point A (I am a reasonably intelligent and rational human being) to Point B (therefore God must exist). It's like the episode of South Park with the underpants gnomes. Their business plan was: Step 1 - steal underpants; Step 2 - blank; Step 3 - profit! I needed that Step 2.

Well it was at this wedding that I have discovered what, for me, Step 2 is and that is faith. Why did it take the wedding of a good friend to enlighten me to this concept? Well I began to think as I dug my toes in the sand and polished off yet another Red Stripe (quick side note - is there anything better than drinking at the beach? How is it I can drink about 20 beers on the beach and not be comatose? Another meditation for another day I suppose...) when I began to ask myself why anyone would ever decide to get hitched with the state of marriage as it is today.

With half of all marriages ending in divorce and many of those divorces turning people into horrible caricatures of themselves as the marital assets are divided and hearts are broken, what would posses a sane person to enter into that covenant? The answer I realized was this concept of faith. It is because you believe that, even with all that potential pain down the road, the love you feel for this person right now in this perfect moment, makes everything else worthwhile. You don't know that you won't end up in a bitter separation that tears your household apart, but you're willing to risk it on the faith that your love will weather all storms. That's a pretty kick-ass thing if you really think about it.

Let me put it in other terms for those who are not familiar with that particular brand of vodka. What about your pet? Have you ever had to put down a family dog or cat? Have you ever had to pet their soft heads as they (hopefully quietly) slip away? It is truly a devastating experience. But when you're sitting there bawling your eyes out, would you have traded all the wonderful times you had with that companion for the years leading up to that moment just to take away that pain? Of course not! And for me, the reason you don't trade those great memories is because you had faith that, even though you may someday lose your pet, all those great memories will assuage and someday cover up that pain.

I'll close today's addition with the hope and wish that in reading this you begin to think about what faith means to you and hopefully you gain your own spiritual awakening to whatever belief system you choose because, for me, knowing that I now have an understandable and tangible concept of what faith is, the sun is shining just a little bit brighter and I have a new perspective on the world that will hopefully make me a better businessman, a better husband, and, ultimately, a better person.

Nobody Cares About the Nonsensical Ravings of a Lunatic Mind

Alright folks, I'm back from the holidays rejuvenated, reinvigorated and ready to start the new year off right with some random thoughts and observations!

1. Haley and I went to see Sherlock Holmes over the weekend and I am not exaggerating when I tell you it is one of the best movies I saw all year. First of all, Guy Ritchie is a genius. I've always loved his "real" movies (and I say real because I don't count "Swept Away" when he had obviously slipped over that thin line between genius and madness by marrying Madonna and deciding to make a movie for her) because they were just cool enough to make you want to be a London gangster and just gritty enough to make you realize you'd never last a day as a London gangster. Add to that that this movie is set in Victorian England which holds particular fascination for me because I always thought the Victorian Age was such a turning point in the intellectual progress of the world. At what other time was there such enthusiasm for understanding the world around you in a rational and tangible fashion set against such equal enthusiasm for supernatural pursuits like the occult (check out Aleister Crowley if you need an example)? And this dichotomy is the perfect backdrop for this movie (I won't spoil any of the plot points but the story revolves around a Masonic-like group that uses what appears to be magic to try and influence the world order). Very cool stuff in my humble opinion.
2. Haley bought me an Amazon Kindle for Christmas this year which is hands down one of the coolest pieces of technology I've ever owned. For those who don't know, a Kindle is basically an IPod for books and magazines. You can purchase an item on the Kindle itself or buy it on Amazon.com and it's wirelessly sent to your device. If you choose to subscribe to a magazine or newspaper then the latest edition is sent to your device every night. As for the actual operation of the device, from what my technologically feeble mind can discern, it works a lot like an Etch-A-Sketch with some kind of magnetism electronically shaping ink stored under the display into the words for that particular page you're reading. More very cool stuff in my continuing humble opinion.
3. I've had a subscription to GQ for almost 2 years and have a been a fairly religious reader of the magazine for almost 10 years now. I've always enjoyed (and certainly valued) the lifestyle advice that the magazine had to offer but lately I've noticed that far too often it devolves into a mouthpiece for the left. The editor's section rarely points out anything other than how terrible the country is because of Republicans which seems an odd thing for him to do since his focus is fashion journalism and his educational background doesn't really lend itself towards trying to influence people politically, and when they actually stuck to their milieu and did an analysis of the fashion trends amongst Washington, D.C. power players, nearly every stylish entry was for a Democrat and every slovenly example was a Republican. Seemed almost petty to me. I hope the magazine figures out that this is pretty off-putting and gets back to focusing on helping gentleman to lead a gentlemanly lifestyle.
4. I've been pretty lukewarm to this year's bowl season so far. No super intriguing match-ups and the ones that did hold some interest have so far turned into non-events. Couple of points of note:
   

• What's the over/under on how many times Les Miles is going to absolutely butcher LSU's chances in close games with his miserable clock management before someone in Death Valley picks him off from a clock tower?
• What a terrible ending to a great Auburn/Northwestern game. Back and forth the whole game with a Big 10 team actually showing some heart against a (probably overrated) SEC representative only to have your kicker blow two kicks (one of which was a chip shot) and then your coach (gunslinger though he may be) call a fake field goal that looked more like a monkey trying to f*&k a doorknob (excuse the language folks) than a football play! How do you not give your backup kicker a chance at a 28 yard field goal? Why would you even recruit the kid if you didn't think he was capable of making basically an extra point?
• I may be the only person outside of Gator nation (and the big UGA fan in me hates me for what I'm about to say) that's actually kind of sad to see Tim Tebow leaving college football. He had a terrible delivery and when he ran he didn't look all that fast (even though he was usually pulling away from DBs like they were standing still) but damn if he didn't have the heart of a champion. Two things you could count on with him was that he would always have a haircut you could set your watch to (seriously - who still sports that much of a flat top outside of the military) and if there was a way for him to will his team to victory, he'd find it.
• And that brings me to Tim's final opponent, Cincinnati. Given the Bearcats performance I think we can all now feel comfortable in taking away the automatic BCS bid for the Big East right? Who's with me?
• Since I basically betrayed my all Bulldawg brethren (and for those of you wondering why I'm a UGA football fan when I went to Duke just check out the Blue Devil's record over my college career and you'll understand why I spent my fall weekends watching Georgia games with my good buddy Justin) in lauding Tim Tebow I feel obligated to point out that we looked REALLY good against the Aggies and, now that Joe Cox is gone, there is reason to be hopeful for next year.
• Of the games left I'm excited to see Orrin Hatch's wet dream tonight in TCU/Boise St.
  
• As for the national championship I'm taking Bama - hopefully they'll have the game down in Jamaica!

Well that does it for the first addition of the new year. Hope everyone had a blessed holiday season and best wishes for a prosperous and healthy 2010!

This is not an exit...

For those of you who know me, you probably know that I have a borderline disturbing obsession with the writings of Bret Easton Ellis. Some of you may know him as the author of American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction (where - in the movie adaptation - James van der Beek makes out with another dude), but I'm guessing less of you know that his seminal novel was Less Than Zero and was published while he was in college. And Less Than Zero, in my humble opinion, is one of the most striking looks into the ethos of the "Decade of Excess" - the 1980s - as told by it's most tragic characters, the young adults who came of age during that time.

Set in Los Angeles, all of the main characters in the novel are young men and women with more money than they could spend in two lifetimes and absolutely no interest in the world around them. Their nihilistic outlooks are fascinating to me because they beg the question (and I would argue that Bret's dark imagination finds horrifying and likely accurate ways to answer) what happens when you don't care about anything and have the ability to do everything?

Now, it is this question that brings me to my topic for the day. How would my literary hero Bret, view our current decade as it draws to a close in a mere 38 hours? I ask this because, on inspection, there are some striking similarities between the 2000s and the 1980s that go beyond fashion and music (which have cycled back around to skinny ties, baggy sweaters and bubble gum pop) and delve into darker psychological themes that, unless we change our ways, will leave us just like Clay, Blair and Julian.

In this decade we have had two cycles of immense wealth creation (and expansion of the gulf between rich and poor especially as the internet created thousands of Generation X millionaires), followed byin the early 1980s through the Black Monday crash of 1987. We had near daily conflict with other countries (the Cold War and the Iran Hostage Crisis in the '80s and the attacks of 9/11 and subsequent wars with Iraq and Afghanistan in this decade) which engendered a sense in young people that the world may not be such a nice place after all.

It was these things and myriad others that, and this is the most salient point for Mr. Ellis, has once again created a generation of 20 somethings who are completely and totally disillusioned with the world around them.

Now I'm not saying that I believe there are roving packs of disaffected youth going around molesting pre-teen girls and snorting mountains of cocaine as is the case with Ellis's dystopia. I'm merely pointing out that as I look around at people my age, I see a lot of children who had to grow up emotionally very early and did that growing up in a pretty harsh world. And I'm sure every other generation will argue with me that there's nothing new under the sun, but who else got to watch round the clock news coverage of the death of 3,000 of their fellow Americans in one day? Who else got to see firsthand and with such clarity (I point to MTV Cribs and every other voyeuristic show on television these days) the gulf between the haves and the have-nots?

These are all debatable questions that probably don't have any real answers but they do ultimately point to the following broader question that I believe Bret could answer with the same sharp eye he had trained on the 1980s. With all the experiences that this past decade has offered us, have we become completely inured to the world and it's wonder?

Before you try and answer that yourself, think about this: how many times have you read on CNN.com that a woman was beaten or animals were abused and neglected and didn't even bat an eye? How well did you sleep on the night of September 11th? What about September 12th? Is Eric Cartman's completely amoral worldview really so hard for you to relate to? Why do we have a fad where "emo kids" go around pretending to kill themselves because they feel that cutting is the only way to feel anything?

It's a terrible thought to believe that you can't find something to be excited about in this phenomenal age we live in where technology continues to advance at lightning quick pace. Where the citizens of the world are coming around to the notion that we can't mistreat others and not expect repercussions (on both sides of the conflict). Where the business community is learning that social conscience and success are not mutually exclusive ideas.

There are so many reasons to feel alive and connected with the world around us and my hope for all of you, as we enter into this new decade, is that you take the time each day to find just one of those reasons so that, with all deference to you Mr. Ellis, we don't, "disappear here."

Boughs of Holly, Barry, and the Blue Devils

So for my first real addition to this little adventure, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the holidays since we're wrist-deep into them (for reference, I had a fantastic Christmas with lots of good food, good friends and family, and some sweet schwag from Santa Claus).

Now you would think that those would be my lasting memories from this season but the moment that stuck out the most for me was during an exercise class I am taking to get ready for an upcoming vacation to Jamaica where my buddy Brad is getting married (this class is great by the way - it's called Body Pump and, despite how gay the name is, it's a helluva workout - should have my fat behind nearly beach ready in just a few weeks).

It was my first time trying out the class so, as you can imagine, most of my concentration was on figuring out where my next breath was coming from (seriously - I was making my peace with God a few times there) which means I didn't catch much of what the instructor was saying. One little snippet I did catch though was when, during our 40,000th bent over row, she shouted into her microphone, "Let's remember the reason for the season!" Now an allusion to Christ's birth being the reason for celebrating at Christmas may seem like an innocuous enough comment but the interesting part about it was the palatable, uncomfortable silence that fell over the room after she said it. It was like everyone couldn't believe she had actually been so bold as to make a religion-specific comment in public.

Now what blew me away about the whole situation was that, even if everyone involved implied exactly the same socio-politico-religio-and every other "-io" I can't think of right now background (and we did - it was wall to wall tow-headed, blue-eyed yuppies in the class, so I don't fault her for the assumption that we were most likely all Christian in some form or fashion), we have become so conditioned to reject and denounce even the slightest hint of commonality amongst us on the off chance that someone might get offended that a little comment about Jesus' birthday made everyone act like someone just farted in an elevator!

Now this is where I'm going to get political on everyone and discuss our current President, Barack Obama because I feel he is the epitome of this syndrome we all suffer from (and I am ashamed to admit that I fall victim to it as well).

I'm sure given what I've told you about myself it's not a dangerous assumption to think of me as a conservative person, so it may surprise you to know that I actually don't dislike our President. What I dislike is that we now live in a society where, in what should have been the crowning achievement in race relations in this country - the election of an African-American President - we ended up with people taking the opportunity to brand anyone who criticizes him as some sort of racist. Now I am not denying that there are a tremendous amount of backwards thinking people in this world but to have my disagreements with his policies, ideas, etc. smack of racism is just stupid.

Why does Barack Obama have to be a good or bad BLACK President? Can't he just be a good or bad President? Why the qualifier? Is it because people ultimately identify themselves by their indignation at perceived slights? Is it because if they have nothing more to rail against, then people will realize that they really have nothing of any substance to say (Spike Lee and Al Sharpton I'm looking in your direction)? How can we ever hope to really move past the horror of racism if we can't let go of the safety that being upset about racism provides? We have to learn that it's OK to hurt someone's feelings. If we want everyone to be on equal footing then everyone has to be equal fodder for criticism!

Alright, I'll step down from my soapbox now and leave off with a few quick notes about the college basketball season so far. I haven't seen all the top 10 teams play this year but here's what I know based on what I have seen: Texas is the real deal and may not lose a game; Duke is better than a lot of people are giving them credit for (and yes the Kool-Aid does taste terrific thank you very much); Big Ten fans continue to be delusional about the level of talent in their conference (seriously - just give up); and I don't understand why they even play basketball on the West Coast anymore - I haven't seen a strong performance from any Pac-10 team yet and Gonzaga is clearly overrated.

That's all for now folks. Back again when the meds wear off and I have something else to say!

And so it begins...

Welcome everyone to Will's World - a place for the entire internet to hear my brilliant observations on life as we know it or, as is much more likely, a place for me to document the random, incoherent musings that spew from my brain on a daily basis!

Now perhaps telling you a little bit about myself to start things off will give you a flavor of some of the topics that might be covered along the way here.

I'm a 29 year old white boy from Charleston, SC. I'm married to a beautiful woman named Haley whose amazing personality leads me to believe I must be a pretty decent negotiator since I somehow convinced her that my childish ass was a suitable match for her. We don't have any kids but we do have two dogs which are serving as worthy substitutes until that time comes. I come from a pretty small but very loving family that has always been there for me and while I've lost a few folks from that group along the way (I do miss my father, my Gamy and my Granddaddy everyday of my life) we're still pretty much intact.

I've lived a few places in my lifetime: born and raised in Charleston through high school where I got away with a lot more than I probably should have with a great group of guys who remain my closest friends today (read: did an ass-load of partying in a relatively consequence free environment); I left Charleston in 1998 to go to college at Duke University where I skated by with what I like to call a "gentleman's B-" (read: did an ass-load of partying in an environment that did have consequences - a very rude awakening but I survived); towards the end of my college career I stole away to Europe for four months to live in Geneva Switzerland, travel throughout the continent and study international business (read: did an ass-load of partying in several different countries under the guise of "finding myself"); I graduated from Duke in 2002 at which point I moved to New York City where I lived for four and half years working in finance and enjoying everything the City had to offer (read: did an ass-load of working to go with the partying all under the guise of entering the real world); finally I moved back to Charleston in late 2006 to be closer to my family and start working for the family business which is a small private equity firm/family office that is focused in the aviation industry (read: the partying is over and now it's time for Willy to start growing up - BOOOOOO).

I think I've had a pretty interesting life so far (for a white boy from Charleston SC) so I decided to share some of that life with the public at large here. I hope you enjoy!