Aftermath and Heath Ledger

Sorry for the long break. I've kind of taken the first couple of weeks of the new semester as the break I didn't have. I'm reading a couple of books for fun; I'm watching tv and movies; I'm going to the gym. All the things I didn't have time for while studying for exams, which I'll hopefully know the results of next week.

Whenever I'm not posting, I still narrate events of my everyday life in my head as if in a blog post, or determine my opinions and reactions to things per something I can write. The mental post I've worked on the most is one about Heath Ledger. I was sad to hear that he died; I was surprised. His was an unexpected death to be sure; there are a lot of people in young Hollywood whose death I would have been less shocked by.

My question, now that we have a complete body of work--well somewhat complete, who hasn't been eagerly anticipating The Dark Knight for over a year now, and felt bittersweet watching the trailer for I'm Not There--how will we determine his impression, his legacy as an actor?

I've thought a great deal about how he compares to River Phoenix as a clear talent, who seemed still on the way up, who would do incredible things in the future, but died suddenly. Now, we can only evaluate them on what they did do, not on what they had the potential to do. At first, I was questioning if Ledger could be compared to Phoenix, but now I wonder if Phoenix can be compared to Ledger. I haven't seen the complete oeuvre of either actor and am probably more familiar with Ledger's works, so I know that I am perhaps not entirely unbiased. Of course, by naming Ledger as the more significant actor, than I have to reach higher for comparisons. Is James Dean a stretch too far?

And the Countdown is On.

In exactly nineteen hours and twenty-one minutes, I will be done with my exams!!!