Even though I’ve seen Titanic in classic 2D countless times, there was no way I wasn’t going to see it in 3D…sixteen dollars, sixteen shmollars. AND it was Kevin’s first time to see it. 

How anyone in the world hasn’t seen Titanic is beyond me. Also, how I wept even though it was my umpteenth viewing is also beyond me.

Titanic was a truly tragic event, but I can’t help but wonder if the world would still be so fascinated by the Titanic if James Cameron hadn’t made this film in utter perfection like he did. Even though Avatar technically holds the #1 spot for highest-grossing movies of all time and Titanic comes in second (see box office adjustments for inflation here—Gone with the Wind is first and Titanic comes before Avatar), Titanic shaped culture probably a million times more.

First, we’ve got the Celine Dion song. (Which Kate Winslet hates by the way.) The song is only sung once in the whole movie…when the credits roll. It went on to be Celine Dion’s biggest hit, certified gold, and #1 for 10 weeks on Billboard. Remember how they actually played the version on the radio that was interspersed with lines from the movie? Upon reflection, how bazaar was that! 

Then, we’ve got Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Not only were they extremely attractive and talented when the movie came out 15 years ago, but they’ve only gotten better with age in both categories. And we all know that that is not usually case with young actors who experience crazy stardom…

Also, after Titanic, we had all the made for TV movies about the Titanic with slightly different plot lines and characters.

And who can forget Britney Spear’s “Oops I Did It Again.” Famous for many reasons alone, she also refers to the diamond necklace in it! (At the time, I thought she was such a baller for that part, but then again I was 10 and also thought the old lady in the movie was actually Rose and the movie was a partial documentary.) 

But to conclude, Titanic will forever be considered a classic love story. However, after classic love stories like this, along with Romeo & Juliet, Cleopatra & Marc Antony, Lancelot & Guinevere, etc., etc., I’m patiently awaiting a classic love story where one of the lovers doesn’t die. 

Came out over a year ago now,

Parents told me get out the house,

Good luck out the closet. Mom blamed

It on the X, the generation or the drugs

I don’t know which. Moved in with

Some friends who didn’t care, started

Dressing in black, stopped

Washing my hair. Grew out my nails

And let the dirt linger there.

My  room was night, thin papers

Echoed across the floor, tubes

And contraptions scattered

Along the floorboards. And again

I summoned the blue-orange flame.

I smelled a rotting corpse inside my head.

It was Kurt Cobain, but he told me

He wasn’t dead. His voice droned:

A mosquito, a mulatto, an albino, my libido.

Anarchy and apathy, twins birthed

From vanity, distortion of truth,

And punk rock on a full moon.

The reluctant King of the outcast teens

Said, “Why ask why?” Or was it,

“Why don’t you ask why?”

Never mind—he reeked of deodorant.

Euphoria clutched my abdomen,

But I could still hear him

As a whir, a vibration at my fingertips,

The sun is gone, but I have a light. 

-Kendall Alexander

Some days I cork my dreams with turquoise and let them wallow in gold. 

It is a well known fact that the generation you grow up in affects the way you think and act. 

But somedays,

                    I picket women’s rights like in 1917;

                    I shock society by sipping on moonshine in a short skirt at a Gatsby-esque party;

                    I fight to survive with the strength of a woman in the 1930s;

                    I cry for the injustice of the world and the heroes who saved them;

                    I strive for a perfect meal and immaculate house with the persistence of a woman in the 1950s; 

                    I preach love and peace with the fervor of a counter-cultural, social revolutionary;

                   I relish the feeling of the wind in my hair and the grass beneath my feet like only a 1970s hippie can;

                   and some days, I’m a Material Girl wearing neon and big hair. 

Other than that, I was born in 1990.