Ya know... I think I might be a prick sometimes.
Last night, my wife Adia and I watched There Will Be Blood, a movie I had seen once before but she had not. I spent the last few weeks telling her how amazing I thought the film was... from Daniel Day-Lewis' brilliant acting, to Jonny Greenwood's moody score. After the brutal glory of the finale, credits rolled, and I turned to Adia to ask what she thought of it. She looked at me, shrugged her shoulders, scrunched up her nose, and said it was 'okay', but nothing really special.
Okay?!? Merely okay?!?! How can you watch the spectacle which is There Will Be Blood and, after experiencing The Power, think the movie was okay, nuthin' special? I would be fine with her even
hating the picture. But, the fact that she gave a 'whatever' response really bugged me. So we exchanged a few words. Then she said,
why do you do that? Stop hyping up movies like that! When you tell me something is the best thing in the world, my natural reaction is to take the opposite opinion, to pick it apart, and actively try and find flaws in it. Whoa! To that I was pretty much speechless. She goes out of her way to try and NOT like the movies I like. I have a feeling this extends beyond movies to music as well. She always seems very reluctant to warm up to new artists or albums that I try and share with her. The music I tend to show her isn't free jazz avant garde either, its mellow singer songwriter... I guess you could say 'girly' music. She gives the line that I know so well,
I don't know. I really only listen to music I already know. What the?!? Then how did she ever start listening to music in the first place? Was she born with a preset digital library of all of the songs, albums, and artists she can ever know? I think the 'opposite opinion' strategy is the culprit with music as well as movies.
Why? Why does she do this? I consider it a disorder. There must be something wrong with her. I clearly don't suffer from this. Whenever she makes me watch
her movies, I almost always consciously try to find something I
like about it. From the quirky tone of Waitress, to the holiday charm of While You Were Sleeping... there is usually some aspect of these films that appeal to me. Now, I can't say that about all of them... Ten Things I Hate About You, Save The Last Dance, pretty much anything with Julia Stiles in it... putrid! But, I usually try and find the redeeming qualities of her film and music choices. I've grown to really love Over The Rhine, and the Once soundtrack.
Can't she be more like me? Just give the movie a chance. She did say she liked Daniel Day's performance as the evil oil tycoon Daniel Plainview. But to say the film as a whole was merely 'okay'... SIMPLY BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT... thats just madness, man. I'm trying to put myself in her shoes, really trying. Maybe she wrongly assumes that I think of myself as
the music, film, television, literature, entertainment AUTHORITY in our house, and she needs to be able to make up her own 'mind', whatever that means. She might feel that because I deem something worthy to be watched or listened to doesn't exactly make it good. So, she is actively trying to prove me, the Authority, wrong. This is just her way of rebelling isn't it. Its really not that big of a deal. Women need to rebel every once in a while, just to feel like that have a bit of control in their lives. And, now that I think of it, I truly
AM our household's all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful Wizard of Entertainment. So, once Adia is through with her rebellious phase, she can finally start enjoying and loving all of the movies that I say are good.
Ya know... I think I might be a prick sometimes.
(I'm finished.)
