Steeped in romance, intrigue, and absinthe, this bohemian masterpiece extolls the virtues of truth, beauty, freedom, and, above all things, love, serving to inspire and ignite one's imagination with not only vivid imagery but a stirring plot that uses parallelism to great effect. (The scene entitled "Le Tango de Roxanne," especially, conveys such emotion that it nearly brought me to tears.) In short, I absolutely loved the movie, and, although I can understand why some people might be put off by it (it is rather overdone and silly upon occasion), I do declare that the naysayers are wrong about Moulin Rouge.

Now, on to the actual topic of this entry: love.

Love, the most mysterious and mercurial of emotions. Love, that incorporeal force which can uplift our soul or lay waste our spirit. Love, elusive and ethereal, quintessential and quixotic, the enigmatic end-all-be-all of human experience. Have I fallen in love? Truthfully, no. Love has eluded and excluded me, or perhaps I it; someday, however, I shall find it, and I will recognize love by not words, nor caresses, nor lavishments, but by the eyes of my beloved.

Of all the body parts young women possess, the first I notice are the eyes. (I jest not, O ye of little faith.) Those "windows to the soul" (to borrow a cliché) are, without a doubt, the most expressive form of communication a human being has. Throughout a person's life, the only thing not to change are the eyes; from the crib to the coffin, they remain constant. Ye gods, the emotion that they express! Eyes show the subtle nuances between friendly affection and deeper feelings, anger, fear, joy, love. And the honesty, the unadulterated honesty, that eyes possess: The tongue may harbor lies, but truth is in the eyes. (A nice little epigram I devised, don'tcha think?)

Eyes reveal so much of a person's personality, intellect, and general disposition that it is hard to ignore them. There are intelligent eyes, bright with knowledge; joyful eyes, shining with happiness and crinkled by constant smile; sultry eyes, enticing and seductive; angry eyes, aflame with dormant rage; dull eyes, obscured by fatuity and nescience; myriad others, innumerable but each pair distinct in its own right. There are blue eyes, but there are even different varieties of those: clear blue, deep like pools of icy water; diverse shades of light and dark azure.

Two girls currently hold the majority of my attraction at the moment, both having brown eyes. But this is not boring, dim, murky brown; indeed, their eyes are alive, glowing with inner beauty and intelligence, kindness and good humor. It was their eyes that first appealed to me, drawing me in and alluring me with their simple charisma. Oh, the glory of girls' eyes! One girl at my school has big, gray-green eyes: sublime. The magnificence of most eyes is not their color, however; rather, it is the simple vivacity and life behind them that is so beautiful.

Well, that's about all I have to say on that subject, so now onto more mundane things.

I have my first AP test (Literature & Composition) on Monday at 8:00 a.m. Erg. The second (Language & Composition) is Thursday morning. (Thursday, by-the-by, is my birthday: "Happy Birthday, Eric! Here's a three-hour test that cost you $78!" Whee.)

I recently went to Borders and Wherehouse with Chris, and picked up a couple of great books (Fast Food Nation and The Slang of Sin) and a few CDs (No Substance, Bad Religion; Clarity, Jimmy Eat World; Very Proud Of Ya, AFI; the second Moulin Rouge soundtrack; and, although I didn't buy it, per se, I also acquired No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls by Simple Plan).

I'm currently reading Fast Food Nation, about "The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" (imagine a modern The Jungle), and listening to a mixture of Bad Religion, Relient K, Simple Plan, and Moulin Rouge.

[Exit Orpheum.]