Walk The Line

I was curiously surprised by this movie last night. I really wasn't anticipating that I would like it but I did. I loved it! Plus Joaquin Phoenix is HOT, even with the scar. Or maybe it's especially because of it. Regardless, he has that whole sinister thing down. I loved him in Gladiator as well. I mean him and Russel Crowe in the same movie...Yummy! They could have been playing Gin Rummy for 2 1/2 hours and I'd watch it!

I was never a huge Johnny Cash fan, although I grew up listening to that music. I would listen to mom's old records every day from Cash, Janis Joplin, Sonny & Cher, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis, Willie Nelson. As an adult however I've only known the older Cash, from the last decade or so of his life. I was fascinated with the movie for that reason. He was one messed up dude! I never knew that he toured with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. I did know the Lewis story before watching the movie, now there's one sick twisted puppy. And we all know the Elvis story.

Why does that type of musical genius tend to coincide with compulsion? Brilliance of any type, musical or otherwise, has always seemed to belong to the addicted. Take a look at Walt Whitman, Jim Morrison, Edgar Allen Poe, Motzart, Nietzsche. Does genius preclude sanity? Does brilliance breed obsession?