Saint Hallmark's Day

Valentine's Day is here once more!

It's now half past one on the morning of Sunday the 14th of February and I'm in no way fit to sleep yet. I've therefore decided to be seasonal and to publish a blog post in commemoration of society's most commercial yet loveable holiday, Saint Valentine's Day. Before all of this, though, let's take a quick look at the profile of the man responsible for the feast day, Saint Valentine himself.


Saint Valentine is one of those ancient Christian saints of whom the church knows next to nothing. Other examples of this type of saint are Saint Cian, who was a Welsh hermit, and Saint Peris, who was apparently Saint Cian's master. Damn. My namesake was a manservant. Anyways, in reality, the very existence of saints like Saint Valentine is disputed and I like to think that, even if these people really did exist, their worthiness of sainthood and divinity have been grossly exaggerated by the passing of the years. With the complete lack of any reasonable historical evidence to prove that these people even existed we have to take what we hear about these early saints with a pinch of salt and remember that back in the third century the process of becoming a saint involved nothing more than someone of power in the Church declaring you a saint. There was no inquiry into the religious worthiness of these people. It's probable that most of them purchased their reputation and that their celebrity was based on misinformation.

Pope Gelasius I, who declared Valentine a saint in the first place, described him as being among those martyrs "..whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." This was said 200 years after the death and apparent martyrdom of Valentine. Oh, and the Church thinks that Valentine could have been one of three people:

• A priest in Rome.
• A bishop of Interamna, an ancestor of the modern Italian town of Terni.
• A martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
  

In short, don't take Saint Valentine's legacy seriously.
It's complete codswallop.


As we've seen, the historical credibility of Saint Valentine is laughable by modern standards, but when has the reason for a holiday ever mattered? Valentine's Day has evolved into a wonderfully materialistic day on which courting couples declare their love for each other by spending, spending and spending some more. The only real profit is found in the money earned by the likes of the major card companies and, to a lesser extent, florists and restaurants. It's played up to be important and undue pressure is put on people, especially men, to splurge out and impress their partners. Sure, show her that you care, but do you really need to spend €20 on that bouquet of flowers to do so?

Me, I won't need to worry about the material aspects of Valentine's Day this year because my valentine is in the US of A at the moment. When I do see her again, I will acknowledge Valentine's Day with a small token of affection, but it will be of my own creation and won't contribute to the huge profit made by corporations involved in the holiday each year.

Less than revolting.

I went to the cinema a week ago for the first time since I saw Avatar.

Coming to think about it, I think it'd be appropriate to begin to refer to events in cinematic history with respect to when Avatar was released. That would make today 2 months and 2o-something days A.A (After Avatar).

I went to see Michael Cera's new flick "Youth in Revolt" with a group of friends I'd been moping around with for the day. I'd been looking forward to seeing the film that whole Saturday afternoon because I'd read an engaging article about it during the Summer and I hadn't been to the cinema in a fair few weeks.
I sat down in the screening room after the film had started. I had been hanging about in the lobby with some friends who were waiting for their popcorn whereas most of the group had already taken their seats. Luckily, by the time I had found my seat in the darkness of the theatre the film was still rolling its opening sequence. The film had been advertised as a comedy, so I wasn't expecting any sort of integrity or meaning. I was optimistic nonetheless and watched the film with an open mind.
I don't know if it was because of my mood while watching the film, but "Youth in Revolt" greatly impressed me.

The film is partly based on a novel of the same name by C.D Payne and follows Nick Twisp (Michael Cera), a rakish and withdrawn teenager. Nick is sixteen and is interested in all sorts of obscure art forms, with a particular love of cinematography. His parents are divorced. He doesn't live with his father and his mother has been involved in a series of short-lived relationships since the separation. He leads his unremarkable life in small-town America as a dorky teenager stereotypically does; he's picked on by his peers and obsesses wildly over girls far out of his league. Thankfully, his life changes when he, his mother's boyfriend and his mother decide to spend some time in a relative's derelict caravan in a rural campsite. The campsite is somewhere in the American outback and is home to Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), an intellectual and beautiful teenager with whom Nick unavoidably falls in love. Disregarding the well presented sub-plots, the rest of the film documents Nick's fall from grace as he overcomes all sorts of obstacles with the aim of being with his newfound love.

Youth in Revolt seems at first to be just one more film of a new breed of which takes into account teenage popular culture and the psychological rollercoaster associated with teenagedom itself (Juno etc.). It may initially remind you of films in the past which have tried and failed to capture the teenage spirit. I can assure you, though, that this film is nowhere near as fruitless as the films we've seen dealing with teenage life in times gone by. It's original and, what's more, it succeeds where other's have failed. Having said thas, however, there were some aspects of the film which could've been improved; the novelty of Michael Cera's generic unfortunate-yet-charming teenage role had worn thin with me and the ending became somewhat sentimental.

With moments of gorgeous cynicism and convincing performances from the dup of young starring actors, "Youth in Revolt" left me confident that modern cinema has retrained the ability to leave its audience refreshed, if somewhat apathetic.


8/10.

Don't hurt me.

You haven't read a post from me in roughly one month.
I'm back.



Before you bombard me with malicious remarks such as "About time!" or, of a more irrelevant nature, "Your writing style isn't cohesive!", let me justify my absence. Although the cessation was admittedly unnecessary, I'm going to try to explain to you that it wasn't out of complete laziness. Humour me.

It may come as a surprise to you, but I'm a relatively busy person. Those of you who know me personally and are familiar with the chaotic rigmarole that is my life will recognise this. I'm in fifth year, which is considerably more demanding than previous school years. With the senior cycle comes a weightier workload. This workload directly equates to evenings spent pouring over schoolbooks and a loss of free time. I also have a host of extra-curricular activities to contend with. Being continually occupied by something or other, I find it difficult to act on my initiative and to write, edit and publish a blog post. "Why don't you write during your free time?", I hear you ask. The answer is simple, infuriating and most of you will relate to it: when I'm busy, I fervently wish for free time, but when I'm granted it, I tend to while it away achieving nothing. It's a vicious circle. Along with all of this, I don't like to publish blog posts for the sake of it. I want each one to have a premeditated, worthwhile purpose. I want each one to contribute positively to the blog as a whole. As a result, I avoid writing and publishing a post if its topic doesn't completely satisfy me and I publish fewer posts than most. All of this, coupled with my atrocious tendency to procrastinate, led to my month long hiccup.

Now I'm back, however.

Don't expect any further hiatuses. I'm brimming with eclectic post ideas. I don't care if my future posts slip into the farthest reaches of the blogosphere unnoticed; I want them to be published regardless of the response they incite. They will be original, kooky creations. Once I firmly establish a rota with Seabird, you will be able to rely on a stream of continuous original content. When I gain momentum, there's no stopping me.


The future is bright.
The future is hostile and albatross.