After growing up in a world where sins absolutely meant Hell and Jesus absolutely meant Heaven, I never want to use the word absolute again. Except to say that I was absolutely mistaken.

I was raised to believe that there was a god, one god, and that Jesus Christ was his son. I accepted him into my ‘heart’ and was baptized at an early age. Then I was taught that anyone who didn’t move forward with those two procedures was going to go to Hell; even if they were a good person. Oh, Hell. The fiery pit where bad people burn with the devil.

I once believed this place was real and I could quote scriptures from The Bible as my own little way of reassuring myself that I wasn’t gonna be one of those bad people going to that bad place. I prayed when things weren’t going my way and I prayed when things were going my way. Come to think of it, I spent more time chatting it up with God when I was young than I did my friends.

I knew nothing about earning money, but I knew you were a selfish person if you didn’t give at least 10% of your income to God and your church. I knew that Halloween was for Satan and witches, that Jewish people believed in the same God that I did but were still going to Hell, and that Pulp Fiction was a very, VERY demonic movie that I was never allowed to see.

When I entered adolescence, I started to embrace my Christianity in new ways. I listened to rock bands who screamed lyrics you couldn’t understand…but they were Christian, so it was okay. I wore punky clothes and was straight edge. A straight edge jerk, judging everyone I knew who did drugs or drank or — god forbid — had sex. Read More »

After weeks of pouring over lecture notes and banging out papers, school is (more or less) out for summer, and, holy crap, you’ve got some free time on your hands.

You could spend it wisely by volunteering for Habitat for Humanity or fully exploring James Joyce’s literary canon or doing some other douchey bullsh*t that people who fancy themselves to be exceptional individuals would do, OR, you could kick off summer properly by cracking a beer and watching Lyndsey’s Top 5 Movies That Capture The Spirit Of Summer. As my name is in the title of the list, I think we all know what I’ll be doing.

Pass the PBR, bitch.

Dazed and Confused

Dazed and Confused is every great summer of my life, captured on film. Set in the 1970s on the last day of school at Robert E. Lee High, freshman, seniors, jocks, and nerds alike breeze through the day, interacting with each other and hanging out in a way that only people who have experienced summer in a small town can appreciate.

Funny and honest, insightful and hopeful, this endearingly life-affirming movie perfectly captures the vibe of summer vacation, and culminates in a dusk-till-dawn party that makes you never want to age past 22. Read More »

I love a terrible chick flick as much as the next girl, but sometimes you need a night with the boys to have a quality cinematic experience. Below, I’ve listed some movies my guys have endorsed or introduced me to, and hope you love them as much as we do:

Swingers. “You’re so money, baby, and you don’t even know it!” And it’s so, so true. Guys are just as bad as girls when encouraging their friends to hook up, and you can appreciate the other side of the story, as well as a young Vince Vaughn and Ron Livingston (from Office Space!).

Rounders. Mmmm Matt Damon and Edward Norton. My guy roommates used to play online poker for a ‘living,’ like so many other young men these days, and nothing seemed more awesome than a movie about poker. Also, part of me believes that all men share our love for Matt and Ed.

High Fidelity. Another movie about a guy’s girlfriend breaking up with him, and John Cusack’s adorableness is just another perk. This is one of my absolute favorites and I hope to marry a Rob Gordon-esque character someday.

Grandma’s Boy. I am ashamed to own this/cannot help but think of how I watched this at least a hundred times senior year with my boy roommates. One roommate always fell into hysterics during the Dance Dance Revolution scene, and I can’t watch it without laughing myself to tears thinking about it. Read More »

There’s been a lot of buzz lately over the upcoming movie “Grindhouse.” I know it’s like, a guy movie and all, but I gotta say, it looks kind of cool. Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill” films were pretty good, and although I haven’t seen Robert Rodriguez’ “Sin City” or “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D” yet, I hear they rocked the $@%. Well, that’s what I heard about “Sin City” anyway.

Plus, Rose McGowan has a gun for a leg in “Grindhouse.” And that would be sweet!

After the anticipation, PageSix just reported that the flick finally has a rating. Instead of NC-17, (there was supposed to be one scene where a guy get his head gets chopped off while his girlfriend gives him a blow job, but that was cut) now it’s just rated R. Lame-O.

Either way, it’s still very college-age appropriate, and it still looks like a good movie. Not a girls’ night out movie in which you all paint your nails and gossip about the cute actors afterwards kind of movie. But a movie in which, if a guy asks you on a date, you could say, “Let’s go check out ‘Grindhouse,’” and you’d not only enjoy it, but he’d think you were cooler than a girl with a gun for a leg.

“Grindhouse” opens April 6, 2007.

Check out the trailer: