being timeless would keep me in shape.

     The funniest thing about people I have noticed is that they expect the people on film to stay looking the same for the rest of their lives.  It is most noticeable in a film that has been ingrained into your cultural psyche like Star Wars.  None of the actors that were in that film back in 1977 look the same as they did.  People see Carrie Fisher now, and think "What happened to you?!"  Well that's easy, time happened to her.  Granted there are people that choose to deny their own natural aging like Joan Rivers and Cher.  They end up looking like some strange kind of doll.  Granted she doesn't look her age, but she doesn't look normal either. It comes down to taking care of yourself.  I'm not that old by any stretch of the idea, maybe I'm just at the point when I think that I should probably be taking better care of myself, and I think about the fact that I'm too old be become any good a gymnastics.  Not that it is something I ever really wanted to do but I look at the people that can do things like that and I feel a bit envious.

Joan Rivers 1960

    I am however young enough to get into shape, and perhaps gain a bit of muscle mass.  I'm already a big guy, from the perspective of what others have told me.  When I was 18, I was very fit, being in both swimming and marching band.  Now I feel like I could be keeping in better shape than I am.  I've gained 60 lbs. since high school.  Maybe that isn't a lot for some people, but the idea of breaking the 300 lb barrier makes me feel fat.  I'm not trying to demean anyone's struggles with weight.  I'm just stating my own feelings about my weight.  As I said in post a few months ago, I was going to start running.  That plan fell a bit behind because I was unable to find a routine to work into my week.  I think I have found one, and now I am ready to commit to it. 

     Enough about my plans to get into shape, what really made me want to write this is the notion of eternal beauty or youth.  It is the entertainment industry that helps add to this idea.  Once some one is on film they remain that age in people eyes for much longer than a real person normally would.  Carry Fisher has been 25 years old, dressed in that golden bikini for over 29 years.  All those nerds that saw her in it, which was filmed in the early 1980,  they see 

Joan Rivers 2012

her now and wonder what happened to the petty girl they had those fantasies about?  Well, she had children, she had a drug and alcohol problems, she went through depression.   They are all things that contribute to the aging and break down of a person's body.  There are a lot of Teens and 20-somethings that think they are going to be beautiful forever. I know I'm probably guilty in thinking that.  I just figured I always had time to turn things around.  It is a kind of downward spiral of laziness.   The more you feel like sitting on  your ass, the more you sit on your ass.  You gain weight you keep sitting on your ass because you don't want to put out the effort to move your ass.  Then you suddenly realized you're buying pants that are several inches larger than you'd ever thought you'd have to buy.  It hits you like this creepy epiphany, and you want to just magically go back to being 20. Then not fuck up that next 10 years.  You can't however, now you have to work that  idiotic mistake off. Well maybe that's just another adventure in this thing called life.

     The idea though of being stuck in time, the torture some actors must feel at seeing their younger selves,  The great shape they were in, the good looks they had, maybe that is why they feel that need to maintain that look.  The pressure to remain ageless,  to always look 26 years old at peak athletic ability. It must be painful.

     You're older then you ever were and now you're even older, and now you're even older, and now you're older still.  You're not going to be 23 again even though there is a beautiful film of you showing off your body.  Everyone who sees that film expects to see you looking like that when they meet you in person.  That is horrible to subject anyone to that.  If you don't look like then, people get mad at you they feel let down.  They think you are a failure for not maintaining the look you had, back when you were so young that nothing you did would really effect that look.  The thought of growing old it terrifying for some.  I would imagine.  women feel the most pressure, if they start out in the industry beautiful and were cast for being beautiful then as their looks fade, their talents as an actress must be even better than the fact they are no longer in Hollywood's narrow view of beauty.  It doesn't just happen to porn actresses, it happens to all of them.  As their looks fade and so do their presents on the screen.  Sigorney Weaver has stayed in the game for a while,  you can speculate on weather she has had any work done, chances are she has.  Her looks were not completely about being beautiful, and more about being strong and tough looking, while appearing vulnerable.
      Men, however get a bit of a break.  They can get older, their hair can turn grey, they can lose that look of youthfulness, and become "dignified."  They can't become fat though, once they gain wait, gain a belly or a double chin, they are done.  Val Kilmer has fall to this, young and beautiful for all those years, he got older.  I am not sure weather it was just becoming weary of maintaining his weight or if it was a medical condition that caused him to gain weight but, people are suddenly point out what a failure he is.

     The point I was trying to make when I see people who complain about how an actress or actor who use to be hot, that person lives in a bubble of time in which they think the actor must remain. They are just people, don't age and remain beautiful for their entire lives.  The actors you see on the screen are not gods they are regular people. If one could live inside that bubble of time, where you were always young and beautiful and fit, it would be great, but you'd have to be swinging off of Jabba's barge before it explodes for the rest of eternity, like groundhogs day.  After a while you'd just want to kill yourself because every day is exactly the same.  

Sorry no ninjas in this one. 

You like me because I'm a scoundrel,

          Ian