Most Romantic...

These are just a few of Chris' thoughts on the most romantic pieces of entertainment.

Movie

I'm a little bit at a loss, I feel, when it comes to naming romantic movies because I haven't seen any of the classics. However, I'm a big fan of The Family Man. The guy starts out as such a jerk, but in the end he becomes the best dad and such a dedicated husband. I love Tea Leoni. I love the part when he's leaving for work and she runs out and grabs him and pushes him against the house and kisses him. I think it just fits perfectly the kind of relationship that I think any of us would like. There are a lot of things I love about his movie, this part being at the forefront.

Book

Scarlet Pimpernel. I love this book. Love it love it love it. It's really short too, so check it out. A wife feels trapped in a marriage with a man she presumes to be boring and slow-witted. While yearning for more romance and excitement, she later learns that he is in fact the Scarlet Pimpernel, and she has endangered his life by imploring him to help her brother. Best part is the restraint that he has to show in their relationship because he needs to maintain his identity as this dumb aristocrat, but as she walks away he literally kisses the ground that she walks on after she has left.

Poetry

So just about every street in Chile is either name for Miguel de Cervantes, Salvador Allende, Gabriella Mistral, or Pablo Neruda. Pablo wrote a book of sonnets for his wife and what's in there is probably the coolest, most passionate literature you could ever find. Sonnet VXII is probably the most well-known, and rightfully so, because it's just so beautiful. But even the letter at the beginning of the book that is addressed to his wife Matilde is amazing. Best part about his stuff is that you can read the English translation or the Spanish and lose very little of the meaning or the passion of his thoughts.

To my beloved wife,

I suffered while I was writing these misnamed "sonnets"; they hurt me and caused me grief, but the happiness I feel in offering them to you is vast as a savanna. When I set this task for myself, I knew very well that down the right sides of sonnets, with elegant discriminating taste, poets of all times have arranged rhymes that sound like silver, or crystal or cannon fire. But--with great humility-- I made these sonnets out of wood; I gave them the sound of that opaque pure substance, and that is how they should reach your ears. Walking in forests or on beaches, along hidden lakes, in latitudes sprinkled with ashes, you and I have picked up pieces of pure bark, pieces of wood subject to the comings and goings of water and the weather. Out of such softened relics, then, with hatchet and machete and pocketknife, I built up these lumber piles of love, and with fourteen boards each I built little houses, so that your eyes, which I adore and sing to, might live in them. Now that I have declared the foundations of my love, I surrender this century to you: wooden sonnets that rise only because you gave them life.

Painting
One of my philosophy professors said that if you want to see a painting that will make your knees weak, look at this piece by J.L. Gerome, Pygmalion and Galatea. The myth, if you're not familiar, is about a sculptor who sees women prostituting themselves and tells himself that he will never love another woman. He was such an amazing sculptor that when he finishes the sculpture of Galatea she looks so life-like that he actually falls in love with it. Aphrodite has pity on him and brings the sculpture to life, and this painting is that scene.

Song

There's so many that qualify. Where do you even start? I love Marvin Gaye's You're All I Need To Get By, but this one is my current favorite. That second line just kills me. You know he knew that was a money line as soon as he thought of it.


Dance

How can I stay away from this show? And I'll never forget this routine.


Have a Happy Valentine's Day.