Sunday, December 2, 2007

6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon (or something of the sort)

I meant to write last night. And believe me, the last topic I thought I would discuss would be Kevin Bacon. But life happens, we have different experiences, things change, and before you know it, you're happily slurring your words as red wine flows freely, and trying to make random movie star connections that you otherwise would never attempt. Because you're usually too sober, too smart, and too serious to do such things. But as Nathaniel happily proclaimed to me this morning as we were discussing our ever-so-serious conversations/random-movie-star-fest last night, "It's okay! We all have our Bridget Jones moments!"

Did he mean me or him? Hhhmmmm....without coffee my brain was too foggy to think all that clearly.

Probably me, as I was the only one drinking the wine, something Bridget would do. Instead, he went for the beer. And good times were had by all.

The evening debacle started off by my ingenious idea to buy a bottle of wine. Red. From Chile. One of my favorites! Hurrah! The name on the bottle said it all: Casillera del Diablo. It came with its own warning. Ahem. Quote: "More than 100 years ago Don Melebor de Concha y Toro reserved for himself an exclusive batch of the best wines be produced. And, to keep strangers away from his private reserve, he spread the rumor that the Devil lived in that place. Hence the name: Casillero del Diablo or Cellar of the Dead."

There was a little bit of the devil himself in the wine. Right down to the devil-like sticker on the top of the bottle. I should have known better. It's like in the horror movie, where the dumb blond (sorry if I cause offense, but it's a generic horror flick theme, I guess. And as I'm blond and a bit breezy at times, I just roll with the punches) girl decides to venture alone, down the long, creepy hallway. She might as well paint, "I'm about to get horrifically killed by the axe murderer!" across her forehead. The audience all know what's about to happen, and in "real life" we would never venture alone down a long, creepy hallway when there's a killer on the loose.

Ahem. So I should have known that a bottle of wine with the devil's face stuck at the top, would probably not be the best thing for me.

Why?

I usually don't drink all that much. During my regular season, I'll hardly drink at all, maybe have a glass of wine every month or so (not kidding about that one). But hey, it's the off-season, I was in a perky mood, had just done two really great workouts, and figured it would be as good of a time as any to enjoy some good wine, great food, unwind and spend some quality time with Nathaniel. And del Diablo.

After arriving home, groceries for dinner and del Diablo in tow, Nathaniel and I decided to flip channels and see if there were any good movies on. We were both tired - I from my awesome workouts, and he from studying his helicopter flight manuals. Sometimes doing nothing is simply the best remedy of all. We both joke that we're probably the "most boring" couple out there, as our idea of a "fun" night is to read together or watch a movie. Wow - I get bored just reading about that. We'll go out from time-to-time, we enjoy great company and good friends, but we're pretty low key. Even in college, people would comment that we were, "like an old married couple."

What can I say? When a good movie, flannel pj's, and an early night turn you on, what else is there to say?

No, I take that back. Nate and I do go out. We'll go to the theatre, or out to dinner... and we frequent Barnes & Noble on some date nights...okay, I know I'm not really helping my cause at this point. I'll stop.

But it does explain how at 8 pm (on a Saturday night) we found ourselves in the bedroom/tv room switching channels between "Troy" and "Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets". (Guess which movie I picked? Harry never disappoints!). Finally, we decided on Troy when Nathaniel started discussing the many points and facts of Greek warfare. Being a sucker for the "intellectual type" (which Nathaniel is!), as well as Ancient History, I settled on "Troy". Harry would have to wait.

I actually really do enjoy studying ancient history. Even though my focus in college was on Eastern European history, I still enjoyed reading Greek and Roman Mythology, and learning about ancient civilizations. Nathaniel also studied history (and poli sci, and international relations...), but really enjoys the military aspect of it. His constant appetite for books covering all aspects of military history, the ethics of battle, warfare, politics, and the links between past military and the present is simply amazing. He reads all the time, and I enjoy listening to his points and ideas. Not that I always agree, but I love how much he thinks, how he questions himself, ideas, concepts and how he continually challenges himself.

After a glass of the devil red (he was drinking Sam Adams), Nathaniel started talking about different aspects of the movie, and if they held true or not in ancient historical terms from a military and warfare perspective. It's always interesting for me to listen to this part of history, never having studied it myself. I was always one for the myths, stories about the gods, legends of the past. No so much into the military aspect.

Soon, after another glass of the devil red, and a second or third beer for Nathaniel, we started discussing characters and actors in the movie. Which under normal circumstances would be pretty easy, but after drinking the devil, it became a slightly tricky thing to do.

We decided it would be "fun" to make connections between all the actors, figure out what other movies they had been in, and then eventually tie it to Kevin Bacon. Hence: The 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.

I'm not that big of a Kevin Bacon fan - I can only list a few of the movies he's been in, but as he's starred with Tom Hanks (and Tom Hanks has done a lot), I figured the connections would be pretty easy.

The third glass of the devil. Red. Ahem.

Now I'm feeling great! And the aspects of Greek Military History seem so much more interesting! Who would have known? The more I drank, the smarter I became!

And the world is bright, sparkly, and oh-my-oh-my doesn't Brad Pitt look great in leather? And isn't that Aegis who gets killed by Hector? Isn't there a bike named after him? And ghee whiz, I should go write my blog NOW while I'm "so brilliant". Wheeee!

After a few choice words by Nathaniel, I (thankfully) opted to finish our Kevin Bacon game.

But the Kevin Bacon connection became too burdensome, and instead we settled in on shouting out which movies the other actors had been in, and then draw the lines between random actors. Not Kevin Bacon. A slight alteration to the game, but hey, we were happy and buzzed, and life was great.

So Brad Pitt, goes without saying. He's been in a lot of stuff. Including "The Devil's Own" with Harrison Ford, about a youth in the IRA who comes to America to help smuggle goods or something like that to his IRA pals back in Ireland. Anyway, he co-stares with Harrison Ford and the main theme is the IRA. Great.

And Harrison Ford starred in another move about the IRA, as the wonderful former-Marine, turned CIA Agent Jack Ryan. Meow! And his co-star was the actor (can't think of his name! No, is it Sean Bean?) who played Odysseus in "Troy" and the elder brother Baromir in "LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring".

And Sean Bean also starred with Orldando Bloom (Paris) in "Troy". And, as you know, Orlando Bloom has been in a lot of stuff. "Pirates of the Caribbean", "LOTR", "Black Hawk Down" etc.

And Sean Bean also starred with the girl who played Helen in "Troy" (what's her name? Oh yeah, Diane Kruger) and she was also in "National Treasure", another movie that Sean Bean has been in.

The fourth glass of the devil wine went down pretty fairly easily.

At this point, we were no longer making connections, just comparing notes and shouting out random movies these actors had starred in.

The character of Menelaus, (the dude who's wife, Helen ran off with young Paris) is featured prominently in "Braveheart" as one of William Wallace's good friends. Brendan Gleeson. He's the big redheaded guy, the one you want on your side, when it's time for battle. He also starres in "Harry Potter 4 and 5" as Professor Mad-Eyed-Moody.

In Braveheart, William Wallace's red haired friend's father (did you get that?), was played by an older red-haired dude who starred as one of King Priam's consults/senior military officials in "Troy". Name of James Cosmo. (Like Cosmo Kramer!) Essentially, the "Braveheart" father-son duo of red-haired guys, played opposing sides in "Troy". Okay. Got that one down. Cosmo was also in "The Lion, Witch, and The Wardrobe". That movie also starred Jim Broadbent who played Bridget's Dad in "Bridget Jone's Diary" - reason enough to celebrate. Oh yeah, and Broadbent is currently filming "Indiana Jone's 4" (with Harrison Ford) and "Harry Potter 5". The circle continues!

Also, the guy who played Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus in "Troy", has starred in several ancient-movie genre flicks. Name of Brian Cox. Including "Rob Roy", starring Liam Neelson. Just a random fact. And Liam Neelson played the voice of Aslan in "The Lion, Witch, and The Wardbrobe", taking things back to Jim Broadbent. And James Cosmo. And Cox also played a role in "The Bourne Supremicy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum".

The connections were becoming more and more blurry. And random. The devil was taking control.

And by the way, the actor who played Hector, Eric Bana, also starred in "Black Hawk Down". He played a Delta Force guy, the super secret and uber-force part of the military that "doesn't exist". And that movie had a lot of people in it, including Orlando Bloom, and Josh Hartnett.

And Josh Hartnett starred with Harrison Ford in "Hollywood Homicide". Small world!

At that point, the devil was in control, and I knew thinking would soon be a lost cause. So I ended my part in the game by making the connection with the actress who played Hector's wife, Saffron Burrows. She starred in "Deep Blue Sea" as the crazy scientist lady, searching for a cure for Alzheimer's. In the process, she manages to create super-smart Great White Sharks, who end up eating all the guests, scientists, and researchers at a super-secret research facility off the Australian coast. And because everyone, except for the cook (LL Cool J) and the shark wrangler (James Blake) gets devoured, the movie was over.

And so were my connections.

The Devil had finally won.

But I'm sure that at some point I can go back and make the connections. Figure out how these actors and connected to Kevin Bacon. I'm sure that Tom Hanks and John Travolta will be involved somehow. Maybe even Harrison Ford. In the meantime, I'll stick to reading and writing, and not thinking too hard about random movie stars. And next time I'll be sure to stay away from del Diablo. And great white sharks. Because they end up eating everyone anyway.







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