The Silent Bob Theory

The other day, Minnams and I were talking about Silent Bob (well, sort of. Minnams actually said, "Wait; who's Silent Bob?"), and how powerful it can be when you're quiet, quiet, listening, listening, and then finally, when you open your mouth, everyone's like, "Whoa. When she says something, we'd better pay good attention, because she doesn't talk just to hear herself talk, and wow! That was brilliant, what she said just then!"

For those not in the know, Silent Bob is a character in Kevin Smith's New Jersey Trilogy, and he's actually played by Kevin Smith. And everyone, please shush about how he was also in those other movies, because Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back just a bad, dumb movie. Dogma was okay, but Silent Bob there feels qualitatively different from the Jersey Trilogy Silent Bob.

Speaking of Jay and Silent Bob, my college boyfriend was actually an extra in a never-completed movie where I think Jay was the central character, and another of our friends had a fairly substantial role in it. I totally forget the name now, but I think it never went anywhere because the lead was in that classic E! True Hollywood Story downward spiral where he was doing so much cocaine that he couldn't function on set, so they scrapped it. (I may have just made half of that up; don't sue me for defamation or libel or whatever! Fuzzy memory based on secondhand, years-old information.)

Anyway, I tend in many work settings to use the Silent Bob approach, which sometimes gets me into trouble, particularly when I don't get those flashes of brilliance that inspire me to open my mouth or, conversely, when I chuck the Silent Bob theory in favor of a Tourette's-like compulsion to blurt out whatever random thought is in my head, in which case people are like, "Oh, dude, she is so not Silent Bob; she's just kind of not very bright." So you have to walk a very fine line there.

Which, Walk the Line! The Smelmooo and I saw it on Tuesday night, because that's free popcorn night at our theater, except because we used free passes to get in, we didn't get the free popcorn, so it was sort of a wash. Anyway, I am totally in love with Reese Witherspoon, and even moreso after this movie. There were a couple of moments where I felt like I saw Reese, or Tracy Flick, and even Dani (the scene when she runs across the woods to get Johnny after his tractor accident? How could anyone not have flashbacks to "COOOOOOOOOOOUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTT!!!" during that scene?!), but for the most part, she just was June Carter, and I was very impressed. Although part of me can't help but wonder if June Carter could possibly have been that perfect. But I really liked the movie, and Joaquin was fantastic, as well (although I occasionally had the, "Is there a frog on my head?!" thing in my mind as I watched his performance). When I was really too young for such a thing, I went to see Great Balls of Fire -- the Jerry Lee Lewis story -- with my sister and her college friends, but I never really thought of Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis as being contemporaries, so I was sort of startled to see that they toured together, along with Elvis. I think I'd have been at home in the late '50s, somehow.

In other movie news, I've now crossed Rosemary's Baby and It's a Wonderful Life off my list. I really liked both, and I'm surprised how much they've both stuck with me. I think that Rosemary's Baby proved to me that I have zero maternal instinct. At the end, I was like, "Stab them all! Kill the baby! Get the hell out of there!" and just could not fathom that she'd be like, "This is my kid [no matter that it's also Satan's], so how could I kill him?"

And I was figuring that It's a Wonderful Life would be overrated and schmaltzy, and I wasn't expecting a whole lot, and it was a little schmaltzy, but I loved it anyway and I don't care, and I teared up at the end even though it was a little silly, but it's Christmastime and it's a nice story, so pbbbbt if you think I'm a big sappy wuss (even though you're probably right).

So there it is; I've probably just proved the Silent Bob theory wrong by such inane ramblings after a long hiatus from blogging, but I'm back in the saddle, so the Smelmooo will maybe get off my back now :)

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Someone got here by searching: What makes a narcisstic tic
This reminds me of Judd on Survivor talking about being "a good sportsmanship."