Buddy Flix

A genre not universally appreciated.  "Pulp Fiction" perhaps the culmination of the craft, yet several peeps I know, wimmens mostly, revile and detest this masterpiece.  "Beautiful Girls" is another special example.  I know's these guises.  I've been out in the winter, plowing snow with them, arguing, tossing back shots.

Latest addition to the list of faves is "Sideways."  More subtle than PF, less purile than BG's, and a perfect vehicle for Paul Giamatti who was most recently terrific in American Splendor. Two guys, past their prime (a pox on anyone who's thinking, Look who's talking), on a wine tasting road trip before a wedding.  One believes himself to be a conasewer of wines, the other is just real happy to be there, hoping beyond hope to get his niblick polished. ("Tastes pretty good to me?"), but the way they step up for each other is what's what about that.

Like with my buddies, it's "If it can find a way to embarrass you, I'll do anything to make that happen."  (If you've already been humiliated, I'll point that out for you, and help you remember any details you may have conveniently forgotten.") ((Ooh, an opportunity for the rare double parenthetical comment!)(a nod toward SB) 

See, it's like, if you can do something to make a buddy feel good, that would be, mmmmmmmmm, verboten. But if said buddy axes you to do something really really stupid - I'm talking crazy stupid - then that becomes an obligation, a noblesse oblige.  (When I complained in a bar late one night to a particular friend about monies I am long owed, he said, "You want me to hurt him?  I'll hurt him for you!" And that was about a nine-year past-due commission payment.)

What's the point? The point is, it's not about the golf.  It's not about the putt pot, or who has The Claw.  It's about the getting together, the arguing over the bet, the braying like donkeys when Larry, usually, scuffs a shot.  It's about the meanest guys in the state being your best friends, and it's knowing you could call them up at two in the morning from Anchorage for bail money and they'd hand-deliver it.  That's what buds and buddy flix are about.