Joaquin Had A Brother

from the mom

For unexplainable reasons, the life and death of River Phoenix made a lasting impression on me. The best reasons I can come up with are these:
We were both born in the same state within a month of each other.
We were both homeschooled (though he was really unschooled and I was homeschooled).

After that, any similarities end. He died of a drug overdose outside the Viper Room at 23, a talented actor with an untimely end.

All that to say that I've become a fan of his last movie The Thing Called Love. A movie about four musicians trying to make it in Nashville, I've made it a tradition to rent it and invite friends over for quite a while now. I've seen it five or six times and many of my friends will remember fun viewing parties where guests would identify with one of the characters more than the others and we would all have fun with that.

It has been awhile since I've rented it; pre-marriage, though M was present for the last two public viewings. I haven't been able to see it recently because we only have a DVD player and being made in 1993, it was a VHS film.

However, it has just been released on DVD with a Director's Cut version and DVD extras (including a segment called "Our Friend River"). So tomorrow night is the big night. We're inviting new friends over to see what the director says has become "somewhat of a cult classic." People always think I am a little weird after they watch it with me, but friends can still quote lines from it and even my husband wanted to watch the DVD extras with me last night.