WHERE OH WHERE IS KEANU REEVES HEADING?

 At 54, Keanu Reeves wonders if at any point he will feel secure enough to take his foot off the gas and be content to just enjoy his life and make fewer films.

Keanu told the interviewer from GQ.com, "I wonder if this is going to be the house I die in? I never wondered about things like that when I was 40. I haven’t really thought about my career future, or what was going to happen, until recently. In 1995, when I was filming A Walk in the Clouds with Anthony Quinn, a two-time Oscar winner, Quinn was always on the phone, checking to see if he’d booked on this or that. I asked 80 year-old Quinn, is it always going to be like this? Quinn said there’s this idea that, like, at some point you’re going to be set, and then, maybe there won’t be so much working on working."

Was it just his mood, or a man who's earned more than $350 million from being in films, not sure what he was achieving.


I wikipedia-ed him. Keanu Reeves has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The New York Times has said he's a good actor. I searched around for sad events in his life and saw that he and his girl friend, Jennifer Syme, had a baby, a still born--their grief resulted in a breakup. Taking pills for depression, she sideswiped parked cars, her car rolled over and she was killed.  He postponed shooting The Matrix, expressing his need for peace and time to deal with it.

Although Keanu has revealed that he believes in God or some other higher power, he says his spiritual beliefs are "personal and private."

Reeves gained fame, starring in blockbuster films--the Bill and Ted franchise (1989–1991); action thrillers Point Break (1991), Speed (1994), and The Matrix (1999 -2003), currently the John Wick franchise (2014–2019), with offers for other films pending.

"Money is the last thing I think about," Reeves said when he gave about $80 million of his $114 million earnings from The Matrix sequels, relinquishing his contractual right to a percentage of the earnings from the ticket sales, which added $38 million back into the producers' film budget. Later, he co-founded a company that produce Henry's Crime, a film starring himself, and co-founded Arch Motorcycle Company, which builds and sells custom motorcycles. An avid motorcyclist himself, he's  certainly in control of what he does personally, as well as professionally. 

At the same time, there's a photo of Keanu sitting on park bench eating alone that was used on news sites, and led to a "Sad Keanu" meme on internet forums. A Facebook fan declared June 15 as "Cheer-up Keanu Day."

Who is this guy really? There's a part of him that's a musician--he played bass guitar for two bands. Keanu, the writer, wrote the text for a book, "Ode to Happiness. As a producer director, he produced a documentary, "Side by Side," and directed the martial arts film, "Man of Tai Chi."

Just recently he created a cancer charity, but didn't attach his name to the organization. He supports PETA, the SickKids Foundation, and Stand Up to Cancer, explaining in an interview that his sister had battled leukemia for more than a decade.

But what he said to the interviewer from GQ.com--"Is this going to be the house I die in..."--that thought and his history tell me that what he's done so far in his life is not work that he loves. He seems to be building a structure where he can affect many people. He reminds me of Danish social critic, Kierkegaard, the existentialist philosopher, who said, "Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart--as long as it stays I am ironic, if it its pulled out I shall die."


The words get me remembering my own sorrows. Anyhow, its good to see that at times, Keanu smiles, even laughs.



Having gathered all this information, I think that actor Keanu Reeves is uniquely, a famous movie star who probably never wanted to be a movie star.

No doubt about it, as this blog shows, I am a fascinated fan....

WHY WARREN BUFFETT WON'T RETIRE

Buffett, who is 88-years-old, says, "Why do I get up every day and jump out of bed? It's because I love what I do and the people I do it with!"

He and his 25 colleagues occupy a single floor of a tower that displays someone else's names, and a sign that says "Invest Like A Champion Today."

The modest office doesn't indicate what goes on inside.  Every working day, Berkshre Hawthaway, (name he borrowed from a  client,) Warren puts in $100 million from subsidiaries, shares, dividends, and interest from Treasuries. They out perform S & P by almost 2.5 million percent, though in the first decade of this year, the firm fell behind. Buffett, unworried, sticks to the investment strategy he developed since buying his first stock at age 11. He wrote his investors, "We are willing to back our own conviction with our own money."

Here's his basic advice.

This secret club is what he's done for young people.


Playing the long game could seem very risky for any man, especially for one his age, but Warren sticks with what worked when he says, "I am not bothered by the thought of my death,"  adding, "I'm not big on superstition... that can be expensive."

Guys, in Wikipedia and other biographical sources, there are fun details about his private life--what he eats, drinks, reads, his health, family, kids, first and second wife--it would fill a week of daily blogs and help to explain why he has a finger in thousands of money-making pies.

He's busier than ever, not retiring--that's why I'm writing about him. Clearly what he eats, wears, and how he handles his day, shows us that he ignores the current golden rules for survival that we're bombarded with every day. He enjoys, truly e-n-j-o-y-s what he does--is doing today, yesterday, and tomorrow.

Grab that. Apply it! Find a way, a hundred little and big ways to enjoy what you are doing.

(VIDEO) WHO IS SMARTER?

John Cullum and Em talk about how they think differently, when they're making decisions.

Em loves the way John's mind works in a straight line, John loves the speedy way Em gathers information. Each thinks the other is smarter.

WOW, LIZZO!

Get to know Lizzo.
She's thirty-one years old, five-foot-ten. While performing songs she's written about love--rapping, belting operatic high notes, shimmying with her more than ample thighs on display--she expresses inner thoughts, like--"Don’t say it, ’cause I know I’m cute. It's been a journey, but I do love my fat."

Her music, straight-up hip-hop to guitar, is soul to funk-pop. It's joyous empowering feminism, large, boisterous and unapologetic, in a style that fits plus-size Lizzo, who declares, “My space is for all the big black girls in the future who just want to be seen.”

The fact is, Lizzo isn’t the only artist spreading a message of self-worth, body positivity, and unabashed female sexuality. Rappers such as Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill blazed a trail and their successors include Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, women whose messages flow from the cultural movements surrounding feminism, identity and visibility.

Growing up in Houston, she played a classical flute. In college, she played in the marching band and did some rapping; dropping out and living in a car after her father died, ended up in Minneapolis, doing five shows a week with an Indie group, released two records, and worked with Prince at his famous Paisley Park home.

Now, her first major-label recording is out--"Cuz  I Love You" with Lizzo playing her flute onstage, switching from rapping to singing.


This video has had 22 million Spotify downloads.


It’s only recently, thanks to the music streaming boom and social media, that women in the world of hip-hop have been able to make their mark, like Cardi B, with her big hit, “Bodak Yellow” that has become a blue print for more artists to follow. But Lizzo says realistically, "Even if there’s a shift, we’re not at the mountaintop.”

With her good face and good voice easily transcending her repetitious lyrics and amateurish dancing in raunchy outfits, her passion to be herself and not try to adhere to the typical standards of feminine beauty, is wonderfully important.

Yes, as Lizzo does more albums and gets more famous, I think she will be a name, a big star, on the mountain top of her field.