Last night, the first night of this new household miracle, we had a hard time deciding on our first movie, and landed on the obscure title of “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” after an hour of deliberation and research. Could not have chosen a better movie. Its structure and style are innovative and edgy without taking away from the viewing pleasure (like Blair Witch Project). This is not a hand held camera film, it has a production budget, and uses it. “Saints” jumps back and forth between the adulthood aftermath and adolescence causality of its lead character, played by Robert Downey Jr and Shia LeBouf, respectively. It is a coming of age story set in the violent and sweltering Bronx of the summer of 1986. Downey is returning to the neighborhood he fought to escape after 15 years to help his father, played amazingly well by Chazz Palminteri of Goodfellas. Stylistically, it jumps back and forth in almost every conceivable manner. Adulthood-adolescence, gang retaliation and retribution, breakups and makeups, friendships and fights, hope and soul crushing inevitability…it is a great movie, though a dark one.

Nothing, really. Yes, the movie was stupid. I could not agree more. But let’s examine the facts. Will Farrell. Danny McBride. Ridiculous premise. Hot girl. Green screen. In some cases, that is a recipe for success (through a lens of artistic license).

First, Farrell could make a documentary of paint drying, play it on C-SPAN at 3am on a Tuesday, and I would watch it. And if you like to laugh, then you should too, if that scenario ever plays out. Farrell is just funny and is good for a minimum of 7 out loud laughs per movie. Not a bad ratio, considering Jon Favreau would kill for those numbers.

Danny McBride is ascending the comedic mountain of hilarity as we speak. Seriously, if that mountain existed and had been converted to a ski resort, McBride is on board the newly constructed high speed gondola.  Seth Rogan has already plowed from his pinnacle of an easy blue, down the bunny slope, through a group of 8 yr olds, through a ski rack, passed the restaurants, and onto the airport where he has skidded onto a flight bound for Carrot Top’s house. McBride was spectacular in Tropic Thunder and hilarious in Eastbound and Down. His chemistry with Farrell in Eb&D was awesome. Which only supports Land of the Lost even more. He and Farrell play off each other extremely well.

The hot girl brings a couple things to the table (fuck you Simmons, now I write that analogy all the fucking time): a) she is hot, b) she plays along well when the movie make fun of that (by letting the primate-man grope her, Farrell and McBride both make comments, etc), c) she is British and has the accent but not the bad teeth, d) she has freckles.

Lastly, the green screen. Now, this is like a recipe that has one ingredient you cant stand. You’re looking at it thinking: I hate squash, and I dont want to put it into this dish. Well, I hate squash too. But if you slice it thinly and saute it with onions in a shit-ton of butter, it adds a nice sweet flavor to any meal. The green screen is the squash. You can’t eat it raw, like those specials on the Discover Channel that are all animated dinosaurs running around looking like a cheap video game from1994. And you dont want to have the wrong supporting ingredients like Matthew Broderick in Godzilla.

In Land of the Lost, the green screen gave Farrell and McBride a blank canvas to fucking go nuts. Let’s say they accidentally eat a fruit in this mythical land they stumble upon, and that fruit turns out to be a heavy narcotic that eventually gives them the munchies. Well the green screen allows them to bring their imaginations to life as a giant crab rushes towards them, falls into a hole of boiling water, and is delivered to them as giant boiled crab claws. So yes, that is stupid. But the movie is stupid. Farrell and McBride play great together. You can tell they were on set laughing their asses off (smoking clove cigarettes) saying “what if we had this happen…or if I did this…” It is just an outlet for Farrell and McBride to interact in a land of their complete creative control.  And for that, I liked it.

Instead we watched Rockstar off HBO OD, with a surprisingly good ensemble cast of: Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate (hotness spanning 25 years), Emma Stone (the girl with the raspy voice from Superbad), Jeff Garlin (Larry David’s agent in Curb), Jane Lynch (the program director from Role Models who was also in most of the Chris Guest movies), Jason Sudeikis (Joe Biden from SNL), Will Arnett (or more famously known as Amy Poehler’s Husband), Fred Armisen (Obama from SNL), and Brad Cooper (the lead guy from the Hangover). Unfortunately it cast Josh Gad in the role the producers must have wanted Jonah Hill to play. I mean no offense to Josh, but if youre going to play a fat Jewish looking high school kid in the wake of Superbad, you might want to at least embrace certain expectations and not try to break type-casting. Dont be a whispering, congenial, pushover pussy. Throw in some quality physical comedy at the fucking least. Maybe that was the director’s fault. If that is the case my bad, but Josh, you didnt bring anything to the table, and quite possibly ate everything that everyone else brought. (that might be a Simmons’ ripoff, Im not sure. He has probably made and copyrighted every “brought to the table” joke possible).

The premise is a mix of Superbad and School of Rock. In fact, I am willing to bet my favorite koozie that is how it was sold to the studios. Drummer (Rainn) gets dumped by 80′s band (Cooper, Arentt, Armisen) just before they make it big. Gets recruited to play in his nephew’s band (Josh Gad, Emma Stone and one other guy that also sucks at acting) 20 years later. They make it big as a youtube sensation, go on tour, find success after some inner turmoil and setbacks. The best line of the movie goes to Jason Sudeikis, as the band’s agent, when he meets Christina Applegate, as the mom of the other crappy actor in the band: “I’d like to spend 9 months inside you…why is everyone so quiet?”

Other than that, the movie lacked anything all that funny. I signed up for the movie knowing the premise was going to convoluted, at least give me the satisfaction of some raunchy humor stemming from high school band members getting rock star treatment. Im looking for some Almost Famous scenarios with Superbad-esque lines, and a little Jack Black physicality. Thats what should have been green-lighted by the studios, bu it went the other way. It went more sentimental and less raunch. And that is a shame.

Last Saturday was Halloween, and I paid way too much for a ticket to a party, because god knows I wouldnt have gotten invited, just kidding everyone had to pay, i just had to pay more. Lots of great looking broads out of their clothes and into the true halloween spirit. Where would we be without women’s suffrage? On the fucking Mayflower probably, or in Utah. Great party though, and the ensuing night was fun. Followed some girls around, ended up at a random dude’s house with about two cab loads of other people. The house was close to mine but scored quite a bit higher on the “I can get laid just by showing girls my house” scale. 2 stories in a loft set-up, big rooftop deck, and framed portraits of his parents bank accounts. My penis shrank two inches just being there, good thing I had the inches to spare from when I bought my first handgun.

My stepfather also came into town. While one would normally associate the man who is not your father but is fucking your mother with resentment and hostility, I live in America, which isnt normal in the Puritanical sense that it used to be. That was a convoluted way of saying divorce is such the norm that maybe we should be looking down our noses at healthy, functional families. They’re the outliers and should have to use separate bathrooms.

My stepdad is cool and he took my roommate and I to one of the nicer restaurants in town. While in college it used to be funny when you joked about parent-visit-meals being the only time you ate vegetables, in my state of adolescent- adulthood it is depressing. It means youre doing a shitty job of taking care of yourself. I enjoy cooking and also enjoy the taste of vegetables, but vegetables are extremely perishable and require a degree of planning that I have not mastered. I have the part down where you buy the vegetables in anticipation of cooking and eating them. I can do that, I’m not simple. Its hurdling the distractions that everyday life can impose. Like fast food, or happy hours, or sports, or any number of things that make 3rd party prepared food more viable.

Seeing my stepdad was energizing. Nice to talk face to face with someone who has a vested interest in your well being. I could see him taking notes with his eyes (a line stolen from Almost Famous, a great movie in terms of performances and rewatchability {how can rewatchability not be a word, sometimes I hate that fucking red squiggly line}). He obviously reported back to my mom. Maybe I’ll have a better Christmas for it.

I met with a few contacts of contacts this week. It is nice when someone takes time out of their day to meet for lunch or drinks with someone they know only through connections. I got some good advice and found a place that looks like fun to work for, when they lift their hiring freeze I will apply.

Rereading last weeks post, I hope I didnt prompt one of my 4 readers to commit suicide, and since I know all of you, I guess I am over-crediting my writing as all of you are alive. Yes it was a depressing post, but this space is meant to address my fluctuating mood.

In hindsight, we are able to identify symptoms of our emotional condition that we fail to mind while in the midst of such a period. I am no different, I dont have super special awareness, probably the opposite in fact. Looking back to last week, the first thing I remember is that I didnt make my bed most mornings/afternoons nor did I take out the trash or do dishes. These chores have become important to me without me realizing it.

When I moved in with my dad after being laid off a year ago, I was expecting trouble along the lines of when I lived with him right out of college. The first time around, we butted heads for months before finally getting into an actual fist fight (which he won when I underestimated how far he was willing to go to win. You learn a valuable lesson when your dad eye gouges you into submission, and that lesson is: wear goggles and a cup when you fight your dad). We hugged it out the next morning, but I moved out shortly thereafter.

Sanford and Son part Two was a great success. We got into one argument the 9 months I lived with him, over something stupid when we were both tired and frustrated. I didnt take for granted that he was letting me live rent free. I tried my best to live by his rules. Rules that never needed articulation since I had “suffered” under them as a child. I kept my room clean, bed made, clothes in the closet. I cleaned the kitchen every morning, I did our laundry, I swept and took out the trash. Sometimes I even cooked, though my father is such a great/imaginative cooker, it was a pleasure to let him teach me a few things. I was like a Mad Men wife.

My point, yes I do in fact have one, is that I gained control of a certain aspect of my life that I had previously always let slip. It was/is really the only aspect of my life that I can completely control. I cant control the job market, nor the happenstance that will inevitably lead to my next job. So for the past year or so, I have been making my bed and keeping my domestic life in relative order. Last week I let that slip and didnt notice the implications. It is the little things in my life right now that must be in order or my mind will frazzle and I will fail.

The anxiety levels had been rising steadily until finally beginning to keel this weekend. On Tuesday I received an email thanking me for my interview but informing me of this firm’s choice of someone else for the internship. The unpaid internship. That I cant get. Unpaid internships are a hot commodity right now. I read somewhere that 850 graduate student  applicants were competing for 10 spots at one firm. That’s, uh, heartening.

Getting out of bed became really difficult. 1. 2. 3pm. Not good sleep. Lots of waking up. Lots of thinking, not in despair but not with the Care Bears. Thoughts on small things, big things, contrived hopefulness, what it means to give up, how long for credit scores to heal, what happens if I break all my fingers in a door jam (not after today, for that one), when will I have sex again, can your virginity grow back, mentally yes it can, I cant wait to have sex for the first time again, care bears, small things, big things.

Got a great lead then played a chippy game of indoor soccer on Wednesday. A real estate company is looking for a development analyst. Well, that was my f’ing title at the last company I worked. And it gets better. The job description is the exact same as my last job. I should be a natural. I’m going for this one. Going to show up, announce myself and not take no for an answer. That might mean jail time, but at least its the right attitude.

Indoor soccer was the only exercise for the week, not counting the escalator to and from the metro. I played solid, only one real mistake, not getting rid of the ball soon enough. We won the game by double the other team’s goals. We controlled the tempo. But it should be known their team name is the Old Codgers. Theyre not that old. Yes, yes they are. They did exactly what I will do when I’m in their position. I will play dirty, not dangerously, but enough to gain an edge. These guys might have taken it a little far with retaliatory tackles and dives and pushes. But I sympathize. But I will also be in better shape than those wheezing fuckers.

There is really not much to say. Was it a true story? Maybe, I wasnt even that interested to look it up afterwards or during. And I fucking love Wikipedia. Im on that site like white on caucasians. It said it was based on a true story. I guess it could have been, but why not make a movie about penguins marching inland to lay their eggs then walking back after they hatch…

There are no redeeming characters in this entire film. It has moments of funniness, actually they are mostly just silly, that are rendered sad by the supposed seriousness of the outcome. Not that it is a revealing outcome, nothing really happens. If you go see this movie…well you shouldnt, and if you do, I fucking told you not to.

Zombieland is close to the top of a genre dominated by B and C movies. A genre that has been thoroughly explored and for the most part has some clear definition. Shaun of the Dead is the mantle, and Zombieland is no Shaun of the Dead. They both share the same outlandish gory model, but that is the gingerbread: the fact that there is humor to be found in complete destitution only serves to accentuate the humor further. And the gore obviously adds to the creativity as the audience gets the full appreciation of zombies eating and exploding through a variety of means. Shaun of the Dead is more of a farce and aims for high comedy, contrasted to Zombieland’s character study.

It profiles 4 people and gives us the depth of why/how they have been able to survive, 2 of whom are sisters and are of the same ilk. One is a predator that hunts the zombies, one is a prey who runs from the Zombies, and the girls, well, they were their normal heartless selves and outsmarted everyone, more than once because guys will always fall for that shit. There is enough character development to appreciate each for what they are and Woody Harelson and Jesse Eisenberg are foils enough to bring about naturally funny situations. The director, Ruben Fleischer, is clever with recurring themes and humorous in making them obvious.

Its a good movie, not a great one. Dont expect to laugh as often a Shaun of the Dead, but the audience wont be zombies. Horrible joke, horrible.

4:05 Now Im falling asleep. I bet Johnnys going to be pissed.

5:15 Just woke up. But were in downtown Baltimore. Johnny isnt pissed. But hes not thrilled. He’s attacking the fact that my head kept falling off its perch on my hand, but that I refused to readjust. I mean, what can I say? Im stubborn? While yes, that would normally apply, Im going with the fact that I was fucking asleep, and my brain was concentrating on the upcoming REM cycle and not comfort. Looking for the hotel and cheap parking within a few blocks.

5:20 Johnny can’t find sufficiently cheap parking.

5:30 We finally make it to the hotel room. Chad is in the hall on a business call. You know you’re old when you’re taking a business call on the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend while your friends are wanting to go out. Vlade and Corey are waiting for us in the room. We walk in to find them staring at the street 18 stories below, playing an impromptu game of “Who is going to get murdered first”. Johnny rushes over to assess the odds.

5:32 Thinking ahead, I changed into jeans. Gotta make sure I make it into the swank B-more club scene. And Johnny says its going to get cold. When asked how cold, he replies the low 70s.

5:34 I change back to shorts on account of the heat. My god the heat. Corey realized that he’s all grown up watching me change. By the time we get down to the lobby, the story is that I have changed 3 times already. If exaggeration was a measurement of anything of worth, then my friends would be rich in something. Instead we’re all just that much better at telling better stories the next day.

5:40 Leaving the lobby, I followed Vlade into the same compartment of the revolving door. I make a big mistake trying to gain separation by stopping. The compartment door to the rear hits my foot. The door is removed from it’s hinges. Johnny calls me out by name in front of the hotel staff as they stare at the broken entrance. For good measure I shout out are room number as we walk away from the scene.

5:57 After Chad leads us on a tour of “nothing special” around the neighborhood of downtown Baltimore called “nothing to see”, we make it to the bars across from the ball park. Nice little set up of a strip of bars with food vendors immediately outside. We chose Pickles Bar. I cannot give proper justice to the size of the bouncers at this place. One is especially huge and even leads to a conversation on the drive home of what one of us would do if we encountered this man on a Mid-Evil battlefield. Besides not go near him, consensus is to go for the knees with some sort of long object. Comments on the gross amounts of ugly people (pun intended) in Baltimore dominate conversation. Chad keeps reminding us that it is an industrial city.

6:12 Corey claims he is in fact not a sociopath, but merely likes to read Bill Simmons for the comedy of his stupid articles. Same goes for his reading Kevins blog and listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers. I can understand the humor in doing it once but repeatedly enjoying someone’s perceived failings isnt good, unless you are me and watching Wipeout, because that is different and socially sanctioned.

6:30 Ian is meeting us at Camden Yards, coming on the train straight from work. Were going to pretend that we left Ian’s overnight bag in DC when he gets here.

6:40 Thank god for the shorts decision. It is fucking hot. Corey is surprised he is not sweating, which is cool, because Im doing enough for the both of us.

6:50 Johnny buys a sausage with peppers and onions and it gets envious looks from the group. Johnny cant get his mouth around the bun and spills a good portion of the peppers on the ground. We all stare down at the ground forlornly. It looks like a stop motion display of fireworks, only if the stop motion had stuck on one frame, and the fireworks were made out of red and yellow peppers.

7:03 We’ve been playing “fingers” standing up for the past 30 minutes. Great game. Even if we are grouped in a tight circle holding our fingers on the tip of a beer bottle that one of us is holding in the middle of the circle. I bet we look like regular gang busters amongst all these ugly people.

7:09 Ian just got here. Ian doesn’t fall for the left your bag joke, mainly because I forgot that we were going to play that joke earlier. Ian asks if we forgot his bike too, since his bike was stolen from the Cavern a few nights earlier. Round of laughs. Couldnt be more proud of my roommate for turning my joke against him into a non-threatening, self-deprecating joke. What a guy. Obviously I will end up hating him for shit like this later on, but the newness hasnt quite worn off.

7:17 Vlade asks Johnny how his sausage and peppers were. Johnny recommends against peppers because they are out of a can and thus colder than the fresh cooked onions. I recommend Vlade use the peppers Johnny spilled all over the ground instead. Vlade recommends I blog that joke.

7:20 Chad leads us toward the will call line in the most circuitous route possible. Who knew you could get there not taking left turns. Johnny didn’t realize Camden Yards had been built like a maze.

7:30 Made it to the seats. Finally. Two kids are sitting in our seats. Given that the stadium is less than a quarter full, the odds were against this happening. Ian asks the usher to ask them to move. The rest of us sit in the open expanse of seats nearby.

8:34 Vlade goes to the bathroom.

8:43 Chad tells us he a surprise for us. When a 26 year old guy tells a group of mid 20′s guys he has a surprise, it opens the door for numerous crappy jokes, and a slight feeling of apprehension. The jokes mostly fall into the categories of coming out of the closet or liking guys or being gay.

8:59 Vlade has not returned. We are leaving for Chads surprise. After searching in the nearby bathrooms to no avail, Vlade is spotted walking towards us with a half eaten cinnamon pretzel. Due to the overwhelming lack of fans, half the concourses on the upper deck have been closed, leaving a long walk for the famous pretzels.

9:06 The surprise turns out to be pretty cool. Suite level access to Camden Yard. Good game. Rangers win and we stayed for the whole thing. Netfali Perez throws hard.

9:35 The game ends, and as we are walking out of the stadium, Corey stops to buy a pretzel, the rest of the group heads out of the gates. As the booth is about to close, Corey gets his for free. Upon being told this, Johnny heads back inside, not able to pass up the opportunity for free food.

10:12 Chad is leading us to Federal Hill, the bar scene in non-Wire-Baltimore. We’ve been walking for awhile and have passed through seemingly abandoned, though well maintained, historic neighborhoods of Baltimore. Ian says that we should be ready for historical reenactments to burst out at any point.

10:33 We find the bars, and its a scene similar to 6th Street in Austin, though on a smaller scale. Very nice area, with lots of people. The first bar is filled with dudes and is really narrow.

10:40 Vlade and I head next door. Baltimore has to be a favorite in the ugly girl sweepstakes. Not that i would talk to a girl regardless, but its like background scenery while skiing, something nice to look at while you drink. Where’s the golden tee machine?

10:55 After a game of one on one fingers (not as gay as it sounds, but still kinda gay), Vlade and I go on a Golden Tee machine hunt.

11:15 The closest we came to finding the best bar game of all time was when a bouncer told us there was one in the back of his particular establishment. ATM machine. Obviously the patrons in Federal Hill dont need bar games for the socially awkward like the rest of the country. Fuck me.

12:30 After reuniting with the group, we congregate at a bar with a dance floor, watching the kids who can dance participate in dance-offs. The competition is surprisingly dominated by Asians and Blacks, though a white kid is able to hold his own, until one of the Asians simulates dick slapping him with a giant cock. Might as well be a euphemism for future Sino-US trade relations, a comparison likely lost on this particular crowd.

12:35 A group of girls dances its way near to us. Even I think they are checking us out and wanting us to talk to them. Corey takes the lead and offers the short brunette a round of drinks. Judging by the ensuing conversation and Corey’s reaction, Corey is either negotiating the return of dead POWs or is getting shot down hard. It gets taken to a new level when one of the girls puts her arm around the short brunette, effectively cutting Corey out of the accords. Corey is flabbergasted. This particular phenomena the rest of us call rejection having never happened to him. Poor guy, life comes so fast sometimes.

1:15 We have since gone to another bar and have met up with a girl Corey is dating, Mary, who is suspiciously in Baltimore the same weekend we planned a trip to the city. Mary is looking good, regardless, though I had forgotten a particular impairment of hers that almost causes me to choke on my drink while laughing when it sounds off.

1:30 I buy a drink for a girl after waiting for a long while to get the barkeeps attention. A big hint that she wasnt for me was her obvious surprise at someone buying her a drink. Never a good sign if a girl has never had anyone buy her a drink before. I say adios and head to the pool table and play a familiar offshoot game of pool, where the straight shots are seemingly impossible to hit. Somehow I beat Vlade who looks like he is playing a deeper game of the same vein.

2:07 Johnny, Chad and I hop a cab back to the hotel. I spot a 24-hour Subway on the ride there, and head back to it after we get to the hotel. Nothing like walking through downtown Baltimore, alone at night, searching for food. Just like the early settlers in the 1600′s Im sure.

3:15 Falling asleep next to Johnny only to be awoken by Corey announcing his entrance with a story of how he and Ian had been scouring downtown for prostitutes and crack. Alarmingly, Ian is not with Corey. Corey is not able to tell us where he left Ian, nor why he left Ian, for that matter. I call Ian, get his VM, and having done my part, I pass out again.

… Ian crashes into the door, falls in bed with Vlade and Chad. He then gets up and makes a wobbly break for the hallway again. Chad stops him and leads him instead to the bathroom, where he seems happy enough. He eventually lands on the floor with a comforter and pillow, bemoaning his bad luck at not being able to “land” a prostitute in Baltimore.

Tomorrow at Chad’s parents’ house we play shuffleboard, eat lots of boiled crabs and watch the beginning of college football season. Ian and I dominate shuffleboard.

Movie starts and ends like a documentary. Much like Funny People, disregard the trailers and previews you might have seen beforehand. The main character, Wikus (pronounced Vickes), sounds exactly like Murray from Flight of the Conchords. Extremely difficult to take him seriously at the start because he is seemingly modeled after Murray as well. Throughout the course of the movie, we watch the evolution of Wikus in the harsh face of the reality he had once been a willing participant. A  puppet cut loose from his strings, Wikus fights for his humanity against some of the more corruptible ambitions of our race: greed, knowledge and power. The defense contractors, scientists and war mongers all pursue him for his unique ability to use the alien weaponry. Weapons to be sold at the highest bid. Experimental genetic gains not realized since Nazi Germany. Irresistible domination of everyone and anything. The movie is micro-chasm of the corruptible human enterprises the world over. An opportunity to use a distinct chance at benefiting all mankind squandered in hands of a small few who have buried their conscience under the conclusion an insignificant, finite life.

So Wikus is fucked from the get go. That much is evident in the first five minutes of recounted testimony from peripheral characters and ‘experts.’ But he is given the chance to redeem all of  humanity, even as his evaporates before our eyes. This choice is hastily contrived through quickly developed chemistry between Wikus and Chris Johnson but is clearly evident. Time constraints probably in effect. The popcorn, jellybeans and root beer started churning at about the 30 minute mark by themselves. Then the experimentation began, and then there were some not quite Angus-quality-beef dining scenes, and then there was a cat food scene. My stomach was in open revolt, kicking out at its neighboring organs with vehement unorthodoxy. We made it through, but at the chagrin of those downwind.

On the whole the movie is immensely watchable in its diversion from standard story formats. The story has depth and the acting, especially from the lead spot, is much more than passable. It is essentially a drama masquerading as an action flick. And while the action hinders the development of certain relationships, it is well choreographed and entertaining. The resolution remains obscure until the very end, not hidden by conventional twists or turns. Instead, the filmmakers shadowbox with the audience, providing snippets of information, both poignant and latent, that never reveal the complete truth until the end.

I blame the movie’s reception on it’s marketing. If you only show funny moments in the trailers, audiences are going to buy tickets wanting to see a comedy and rightly so. “Another film by Judd Apatow” lends itself to be interpreted as another raunchy date flick. If not, I’ll just go fuck myself, but I was expecting farts into pillows leading to pink eye. Not slow montages of Sandler and Leslie Mann spinning in circles.

However, seen as what it was supposed to have been, I liked it. I had a great mix of laughs and realism. I didn’t leave the theatre thinking the ending was that of a fairy tale and thus disappointed. I felt that everything worked out normally. In fact normalcy is the perfect word to describe the movie. It’s a normal movie about funny people. So we get to see that comedians do lead lives beyond the stage and that yes, they do crack jokes in real life situations. But they also put work into their craft and some fail, some succeed, and others lose touch with the reality that gave them inspirAtion at the begining.