Patrick Swayze died yesterday. I don't boo-hoo over celebrities, especially ones out of their contributing era. However, I am a Swayze crazy. I've never ran from it, and I'd like to tell you a little more about it.
I watched Red Dawn with my dad when I was 5 or 6, the beginning of my "I'm going to be an army man" stage, and I felt there with Jed and the gang fighting those damn Soviets. Looking back, this movie also started one of the lamest periods of my life, evolving into a Rambo obsession and triple digit knife collection. The memories, however, watching this movie, early weekend mornings, with my dad are anything but lame.
Dirty Dancing put a new definition of cool in me. That was real dancing. That was real cool. I can probably thank Johnny Castle for my winning of "Best Male Dancer" for my graduating class. If you have never heard "She's Like the Wind" by P-Sway. Find it and listen.
My dad said, "You have to see this movie, Roadhouse. Patrick Swayze plays this tough bouncer." I was probably 7 or 8 when he first let me watch it. Ha. I thought something like, "Dang! These just keeping getting sweeter." And they did. Dalton was hard-hitting, hard-loving, and hard-chumming. He had cool friends, like the ultra-cool Wade Garrett. He had a hot babe, and he beat up everyone. Future occupation: badass bouncer.
Something about Next of Kin made me feel closer to my North Carolina family. If I ever got into trouble with those 5th grade bullies, I knew they would load up in a pick-up truck with their wild pets and sawed-off shotguns and fight for me. I was Truman Gates.
I didn't appreciate Ghost until the last time I watched it. Whoopie Goldberg creeps me out, and I think I assumed Demi Moore to be a dude for a while. But the ghosts were pretty sweet. Oh yeah, I still need to take my wife to a pottery class.
Point Break was a monumental movie in my life. It featured a girl with my name, Gary Busey playing a cop named Pappas, Keanu Reeves (from BILL AND TED!!!), and a surfing-bank-robbing-cool guy named Bodhi. I remember going to the beach in Florida when I was in the 6th grade, and the waves were not big enough for surfing, so I got a boogie board and pretended I was taking a break from robbing banks to catch some waves.
The one good thing I got out of my Geography class last year: a Swayze movie I had never seen. City of Joy was a pleasant surprise. The style of the movie was different, but Swayze was Swayze. Note to self: watch again.
Patrick Swayze's character, Jim Cunningham, like the rest of Donnie Darko, was creepy, creepy, creepy. I'm not sure what it means, but I felt it.
I watched 3 episodes of The Beast and gave up. I didn't feel it. I missed the dancing and the coolness.
I know, I know, I have not seen all his movies, but hey, find someone who loves these more.
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