THANKS FOR JOINING US
“Robert! So good of you to join us,” she said.
Or he said.
Really, anyone who had a turn to come up and say hello at church after I hadn’t attended in a while used to say this phrase to me. I’m not sure why this specific passive-aggressive line was used by literally everyone who came over to shake my hand. Maybe it was rehearsed. I like to think a group gathered to collectively agree about how best to subtly insult someone who hadn’t been present at church in several months, and that there must have been other phrases that didn’t quite make the cut:
“Glad you could make it this time!” | (Pretty good, but perhaps a little bitter)
Or: “I thought you were dead; I’m glad to see you’re not! Ha ha ha.” | (Maybe a little too much wishful thinking mixed in with that one)
“Didn’t you grow out of puberty years ago; why do you need to sleep in until noon in your twenties?” | (Oddly specific and definitely NOT autobiographical)
And I would smile, trying not to squirm from the cold, clammy hands of the elderly ladies, or the overly aggressive, bone-breaking squeezes of the elderly men. I smiled because there was nothing for me to say:
They were right to point out that I had been gone for some time without any explanation.
The explanation was simple for me. I was off living a life that required my being elsewhere to fully live it. The fault was in assuming I could return to a place where I supposed there would be no difference in opinion from when I was last there. In fact, I expected a warmer welcome—like a guest hosting SNL or that nod of gratefulness from librarians after returning books to the library after years of being overdue (definitely NOT another autobiographical detail).
There wasn’t any excuse worth giving. I didn’t feel a need to explain myself. I was back. And I was excited to get to the real conversation.
“You look taller, have you grown?”
“Have you lost weight?”
Yes. And, yes I have. Thanks for asking.
“Glad to be here,” I’d say, smiling through clammy or overly aggressive handshakes, relieved the good part of the conversation could finally begin. “I’ve been busy.”
Truly. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
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MARIO’S MOVIE
A little behind the times, but I had some thoughts on The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Quick side review: The movie was excellent! There were so many easter eggs and musical score references to previous games layered throughout the movie that really could only be appreciated by fans of the longstanding game series: The score included pieces from Super Mario 64, Super Mario 3D World, Luigi’s Mansion, Yoshi’s Island, and so much more. The voice-acting immediately made sense once Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) said his first lines, and the likes of Luigi, Bowser, and Princess Peach came to life in ways that the games hadn’t touched upon in franchise history. This was truly a movie for generations of fans to come together to get another view of Mario and company in a new way. Mario truly warps to an interconnected world featuring arctic regions (with snowball launching penguins), dangerous lava pits, overgrown mushroom stalks, rainbow roadways, and even a land of rampaging apes (including Donkey Kong and kin). By the end of the movie, there was a call for more: More Nintendo franchises to appear, more worlds to explore (including Mario Galaxy references throughout that included a comically depressed celestial starlit, Luma, that hinted at the eventual introduction of Rosalina).
The Nintendoverse appears to be getting started, which brings a slew of stories that stand apart from the usual superhero canon that has so saturated moviegoer imaginations for the last decade. It’s an added bit of fun, a twist on nostalgia that was both needed and appreciated by generational audiences. It was a movie made with love by fans of Super Mario for fans of Super Mario.
And not to mistake it: This was a movie made for the fans.
For critics, on the whole, did not appreciate The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Underneath the joy that fans emoted during the movie, there was a discord of critical review. The Super Mario Bros. Movie scored incredibly high by fans but poorly amongst critics. After having watched the movie, I understand critical arguments that were made about the film: There wasn’t a groundbreaking story, nor was there much emotional depth with any character; and the stakes appeared low as it was clear Mario would save the day…give or take a few extra lives along the way.
And yet, I wholly disagree with just about every critic that scored the movie as subpar.
Where critics lost objectivity in their reviews was in assuming that “good” movies consisted of essential story tentpoles: a rich backstory, high stakes, emotional growth, and a surprising but inevitable conclusion. It’s true that these features are lacking in The Super Mario Movie, but anyone who left the theater thinking the film a failure missed the point.
A movie can be greater than its individual parts—traditionally acclaimed story elements included.
The magic of the Super Mario Bros Movie sparked from its delivery of nostalgia. The movie was a celebration of something so beloved, and by so many, that the fact it exists in a way that compliments the original experience of the video games is a testament to a different kind of satisfaction. There was much more working in the movie than those basic arguments critics were making.
It reminded me of good cooking, and so I thought:
“Story doesn’t necessitate a good movie, much like a prime cut of beef doesn’t necessitate a great meal: The joy of eating has everything to do with how its prepared, who its eaten with, and if you like to eat beef in the first place.“
I would venture to claim many critics didn’t like beef Super Mario before they sat in their chairs to dine out.
Which is fine. Movies live beyond the confines of bad reviews. And from the joyous applause and laughter and excited anticipation for what Nintendo franchise could possibly appear on the big screen next, I looked around at an audience that was one-third kid and two-thirds adult fans of the Mario games: There will surely be second helpings of this dish.
My critical advice: It’s not too late to acquire a better taste for the games before watching next time. It’s a delicacy to many, after all.
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COLLEGE, SURVIVAL, AND ESPRESSOS
I’m writing a bit extra in this Weekly Post-Ed to say a little more about what I’ve been up to since I last posted: Hope you don’t mind.
I’ve just completed my first year back to college full-time. Two semesters of attending classes, doing homework, studying for exams…and all at the age of 34-years-old. Everyone that I’ve mentioned my current occupation (“full-time university student”) has said, “I could never do what you’re doing. I could never go back to college.”
After a year’s worth of experiences and tribulations, I can conclude these people are 100% right: Being older doesn’t make college easier because, by design, it’s meant to be survived.
That’s because college is not a series of tests that assess how smart you are, but rather how resilient you are. The amount of information that’s taught in lecture, expected to be read and understood for class discussion with assigned readings, and the gauntlet of tests, essays, and exams throughout a semester is designed for most to flounder. The totality of information aside, the performance pressure students place on that holiest-of-idols, FINAL GRADES, leads to scholarship opportunities that are either accepted or revoked. It’s a painful reality since the cost of college is so laughably high that one wonders why there isn’t a “Tip Your University” screen when paying tuition by credit card—just an added cost to an already paid-for service.
(Of course, one could argue there is a “Tip Your University” feature: It’s called alumni donations.)
I’m writing this as a situated adult, someone who has arrived on the other side of young adulthood. I watched my classmates, undergrads ranging from 18-21, mostly, who worried about campus living, friend groups, where the parties were at, how to get sex (and from whom), and who is older and can score some beer. Many worked side jobs, juggling full loads of coursework as well as 20-30 hours as a restaurant server, cashier, cook, tutor. Many experienced homesickness, many traveling across state to attend and live on campus to survive on their own.
I write all of this assuming we’re all comfortable acknowledging the absolute frantic age of always-connected electronic life we live in. Texts, emails, Google searches, late-night notifications, social media likes, 24-hour news, mass shootings (including a particularly close-to-home tragedy at Michigan State University only a few months ago), the still-present Covid-19 variants running amuck, and a slew of intangibles that are probably worth listing but I’ve run out nerve. The constant draw of attention to devices and crises that are pushed into eyeballs at rapid speed makes for a life unlike what past generations have experienced.
College feels like a triple espresso, now, instead of a double; just enough to induce a constant state of shakiness that is advertised as the new normal. The body can only take so much, however, which is both literally and metaphorically the case with students today.
College life encompasses all of this, condensed into an ecosystem that demands excellence and flaunts those who somehow possess the superhuman strength to achieve everything on the course syllabus with a 4.0 GPA. Attending college is a Herculean effort, one that tests mettle in ways both arcane and unreasonable. And, I have no problem identifying as someone who had it easier than most. Out of my population of college students, I’m quite privileged. For all the reasons I’ve stated above, I didn’t have to work a side job, nor did I have to wrestle with forging an identity amongst a landscape of raging hormones and brand new adulting experiences like my classmates did. I was solely on a mission to broaden my intellectual horizons and gain a bachelor’s degree: A piece of a paper that equates to, essentially, a deli line ticket acting as an expensive placeholder that says, “I have a right to the working world, too.”
And yet, despite all the setbacks and travel and intensive mental Olympics required to survive each semester, it truly was an invaluable experience being back in college. I have so much more to share, about what it meant to succeed as well as what doesn’t work about current education, but all of that can wait for another time.
I’m thankful for a break before heading back for a final year. There’s a lot to unpack about these past few months, so stay tuned.
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This week’s Weekly Finds features the upcoming Original Soundtrack from Street Fighter 6. The themes of each roster character have been fully revealed and feature a dance-centric, urban catalogue of hip-hop, cultural inversion, and it makes for a damn entertaining setlist to fight to in-game. While the musical direction of Street Fighter 6 has bristled many fans of the series who wished for a more traditional remix of song selections from previous titles, I’ve quite enjoyed the new direction for this iteration of character themes. Below are YouTube links to a few favorites I’ve had on repeat lately:
- Cammy’s Theme – “OverTrip”
- Ken’s Theme – “Spirit of the Flame”
- Blanka’s Theme – “Zilra Zilra”
- Jamie’s Theme – “Mr. Top Player”
Of course, if you’re a fan of the original character themes circa Street Fighter II, here’s a walk down memory lane orchestration by Games and Symphonies! Enjoy!
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Wishing everyone as well as you can be. You’re not alone out there,
