The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Kenny Ray

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Life imitating art imitating other art. No, that wasn't a typo. Here's how it went down…

A recent phone call with Hooters (the person, not the place) inspired me to break out my Camp DVD and enjoy another viewing of it. The lead actor, one Daniel Letterle, was just so — and I know this is going to sound even gayer than I want it to — intoxicating that I ended up googling to see if he'd been in any more movies. Fortunately he had a couple follow ups and so I loaded up my Netflix queue and waited by the mailbox. With the amount of quality TV running thin these days (can't believe it's still almost 5 months until Lost returns with new episodes) I've been working my way through my Netflix queue pretty fast so in almost no time I opened my mailbox to find "The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green" waiting for me. It's a low-budget (in a good way) film based on the popular comic strip of the same name. A comedy peppered with hunky guys was just what I needed to keep me pushing out of the funk I'm in, but in addition to the laughs, the sighs, and the "holy six-pack abs" I found was a wake up call.

Smack dab in the middle of the movie Ethan has a little walk and talk with him mother (played so gloriously by Meredith Baxter of Family Ties fame). Ethan has been steady downward spiral and Harper (his mom) finally levels with him. And me. This is what I heard…

Consider for a moment that you're having the Kenny Reflex. You get close, and then you pull back. Kind of like a rubber band. Just when you have something good … you do something to sabotage it. That is the Kenny Reflex and you've been doing it all your life. You're afraid of getting close, you're afraid of what you're going to hear, you're afraid of what you've got. And you are going to live in this little box of fear unless you change. Get some courage, darlin'.

I got called out. By a character in a movie. A movie based on a comic strip. Maybe it was because the lines were delivered by Mrs. Keaton, er, I mean Meredith that it made me pay attention. While certain semi-recent people have definitely deserved the boot because their part in the relationship had become toxic, she was totally right. I live in a box of fear. Fear of rejection. And, this is where it gets weird, fear of acceptance. That last part is way too deep for me to get into right now as the ear ringing is back and tearing my brain in twain. But it's giving me a good deal to think about over the next couple weeks while concluding what to do about the "glum chum dilemma."

Go rent or buy Camp and TMUSLOEG, both are very enjoyable flicks! Besides, supporting independent cinema is good karma.