Robert Downey Jr. - The Futurist

The world can be so unkind to dreamers.

Five years ago I was about as anti Robert Downey Jr. as you could get. Iron Man? Get outta town! Sherlock Holmes? Over my dead body!

Now, knowing what I do of his life, of his struggle with drug abuse, of his remarkable comeback, he's starting to speak to my soul. This is a man whose father started giving him illegal drugs when he was EIGHT YEARS OLD. Who does that? What kind of normal life can someone have when drugs have always been a part of their identity, from the time they were a small child? There's a quote from RDJ when he was arrested in 1999 for drug possession, where he tells a judge, "It's like I've got a shotgun in my mouth with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal." Proof that he doesn't need a scriptwriter for his words to make an impact.

What changed?

It takes a survivor to admit they need help . . . to reach out for that help. Which is what RDJ did. He told Oprah Winfrey in 2004, "when someone says, 'I really wonder if maybe I should go to rehab?' Well, uh, you're a wreck, you just lost your job, and your wife left you. Uh, you might want to give it a shot." He realized he couldn't keep doing it anymore. The drugs were destroying his career, his personal life, and his individuality as a performer. Manic individuals on drugs burn bright for a second and then die. RDJ didn't want that person to be him.

2003 saw the beginnings of a comeback for him, mostly due to a lot of support by Mel Gibson. Does that surprise anyone other than me? Because I was shocked. Sorry Mel. Semi-Indie films were RDJ's career for awhile followed by a supporting role in Zodiak which is pretty phenomenal and then, of course, 2008 saw the birth of the Iron Man franchise. The rest, as they say, is movie-making history.

But between 2003 and the rest of his life, RDJ released something I only just now discovered . . . an album called The Futurist published in 2004. Did you even know he could sing? I sure didn't. Did you know he could play the piano? Again with the nada. As if the singing and the piano playing wasn't enough of a shocker, he was also the lyricist for 8 out of the 10 songs on the album. Crazy, I know!

The Futurist is like nothing I've ever heard. My vision of RDJ includes Black Sabbath t-shirts courtesy of Tony Stark. So I wasn't expecting the Folk/Blues/Indie/Country sound that he dished out in The Futurist. My first time through the album had me mildly enthralled. Those of you who know me know that I tend to watch favorite things repetitively and the same goes for my music. My third time through The Futurist, I was head over heels in love with it. Some songs have more meaning than others and some are almost country ballads, but Broken and The Futurist and Details are pretty astounding.

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Captain America: Civil War . . . from an ISFJ Perspective

I actually took 4 hours off work today so I could go to an earlier showing than I usually would, which was awesome.

Yes, I loved Captain America: Civil War.

I also realized, shockingly, that a male coworker and I are pretty much Steve (me) and Tony (him). But while we're butting heads over procedures and software, Steve and Tony are butting heads over government control and individual rights.

Steve Rogers (ISFJ) values liberty. He refuses to have his right to make a decision on when to fight and when to stand down infringed upon. He sees the far-reaching ramifications of the Avengers being controlled by over 100 different countries in a United Nations type scenario. He sees the big picture and he's already been there before, being stuck in a dictatorship and following orders blindly with no input as to why he's following them. And he has no desire to go there again.

Tony Stark (ENTJ) is suffering from PTSD. ENTJs with PTSD are not a pleasant sight. He's reacting out of fear, fear that he's created the entire mess (which he has), and the inability to fix it outside of heavy government involvement and regulation. I actually miss the Tony Stark who thumbed his nose at the government and told them to stay out of his stuff. Now he's signed away his right to choose whose side he's on in a fight or whether there should even be a fight.

Let me make something abundantly clear. I like Tony. I don't love him, but I don't hate him either, and I felt more empathy for him in Captain America: Civil War than I had ever expected feeling. That was a bit of a shocker.

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Lesson in Soul Mates from Robert Downey Jr. in "Only You"

Along from my sudden Jeff Goldblum craze is the Robert Downey Jr. craze. It's weird how these two crazes appear to be going in tandem, especially since I didn't even like RDJ up until last year. Be that as it may, I like him now, and so for the last few weeks, I've spent time tracking down some of his older films, like Soapdish, Heart and Souls, and a cute little film called Only You, on which this post is based.

Every once in a great while, I briefly ponder the idea of soul mates. But always without giving the thought much credence or, quite frankly, attention. In fact, I haven't really thought about soul mates in years, not until I watched Only You which is steeped in the concept, particularly Plato's theology.

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