Falcon In The Yard

This is what I saw in my neighbor's yard when I walked out the door this morning! 

It's one of the falcons that I frequently see at the park.  He sat there and watched me get in the car and drive off.

My Geeky List

Coworker Anna is highly amused by my spreadsheet of movies.  It wasn't sufficient that I merely keep a list and check off the movies I've seen.  Nope, I had to geek it up and record WHEN I've seen it, IF I like it, WHAT it was about, and then, of course, enter formulas to count how many and figure percentages.

This silly list is actually helping me.  One, it keeps me from watching movies I've already seen.  Not that I'm against re-watching movies, I do it all the time.  I do, however, want to avoid watching dreadful, boring movies all over.  And with my crappy memory I get about fortyfive minutes into a movie and I start to wonder if I've seen it already.  Well by then I have to finish watching it because I don't remember how it ends!

This morning I started to watch Mona Lisa (1986).  It hit me about 10 minutes in that I'd seen it before.  I sat through another 15 minutes and yep, I think I have actually watched this TWICE before.  I fast forwarded through to the end and that was enough for me to declare I've watched it in November 2012.  Did I like it?  Not really.  Was it worthy of a best actor nomination?  Not really.  What was it about?  A man falls in love with a prostitute who is in love with another woman.  Sorry, telling you about the other woman is probably giving away too much.  I don't care.  This movie will get lost in the shuffle which is where it belongs.  It certainly has been lost in my brain's files and I will be happy when it slips away again.

My list also helps me now that I'm stepping forward and sharing my thoughts on movies I've seen.  I can't report on a movie as soon as I see it so keeping some notes is necessary.

Movie Chat - Oppressed People

You would think the topic of oppressed people would be a favorite subject of the Oscar nominating committee, but overall that is not the case.  We don't see much about the oppression, war, and extermination in Bosnia.  There are a few movies nominated such as Hotel Rwanda (2004) and Invictus (2009) about the brutalities and inequity found in Aftrica.  American slaves and Indians both seem to be missing from the rolls while the plight of southern blacks in the first half of the 1900's is only recently getting attention The Color Purple (1985) and The Help (2011).  Slumdog Millionaire (2008) is the only one about India since the 40's.

Yet the nominating committee does salivate over Nazi's and their concentration camps.  I gave that issue a lot of pondering and have come to the slightly unfair conclusion that it's because the movie production companies been dominated/owned by Jews.  It's not that these movies are undeserving, they are poignant stories performed by very talented actors, just that we are lacking representation of all of the other oppressed, repressed, and outright down-trodden people of the world.

Of the movies I've seen, these are somehow associated with the Jewish experience in World War II:
Ship of Fools (1965)
Voyage of the Damned (1976)
Cabaret (1972)
The Boys From Brazil (1978)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - reviewed November 9
Life is Beautiful (1998) - reviewed on November 23
The Reader (2008)
Mr. Skeffington (1944)

There are more, these are only from a quick scan of my geeky list.

Oh yeah, Sofie's Choice (1982)

Seriously, I watched The Reader today and when the Nazi trial came up I literally groaned.  Remember, I don't typically read the synopsis before watching because I like the surprise (ha).  So when I find a movie that highlights a different group I get a little excited. 

One like, Persepolis (2007), has been lingering in my head since I watched it.  First I have to warn you why I shied away from this movie for a very long time - it's a foreign language cartoon, an artsy one at that.  I have tremendous disdain for the artsy crap - just tell the story without the interpretive dance and goofy symbolism... I like thoughtful, intelligent symbolism, not goofy symbolism.  When the girl was deflowered, there were flowers falling from the sky.  Seriously, blah!!!  And then subtitles????  Come on.  That means I have to read and watch?  How can I play on the internet with all of that going on?

And yet

I liked it.  It is about a girl in a very liberal, 1970 something, prewar Iran and how she had to adjust to the new rules of an increasingly oppressive regime.  It really made me consider what people living in Iran have had to cope with over the years, that not everyone is crazy, anti-American, bomb-toting maniacs.  Maybe a cartoon... sorry, "animated feature"... is the only medium to properly tell her story.  My imagination managed to fill in the gaps and I guarantee the picture I built in my mind is as strong as anything I've ever watched on a screen.  If for no other reason, you must watch this movie to fall in love with her grandmother who puts jasmine blossoms in her bra every morning and soaks her breasts in ice water to keep them perky!  Grandma was loaded with all sorts of fabulous advice and lived a no-nonsense, take no crap, life.  With women like that in your life, you're doomed to be headstrong and independent.  And I do like stories about strong, feisty women, even if they're told through sub-titles in an artsy monochrome cartoon.

Sunday In My City - Visiting My Brother

A few weeks ago we drove out to celebrate the birthdays of two of my nephews.  My brother's new house is situated on a beautiful piece of property and these are the views from the back porch.  It was the height of fall colors

 

 

Friday Fragments - November 23, 2012

How was your Thanksgiving???  Mine was great.  All of the essentials were present - turkey, pie, and family.  We will be repeating the process with my side of the family on Saturday. 

The only thing I had to bring was dessert - and not a pie because that was already covered.  Okay, little kids were going to be present so Rice Krispy Treats is pretty easy and always a hit, right?  Yeah, I've made them with stale marshmallows in the past with no problem but this time was not so successful.  It was more like Rice Krispy BRITTLE.  Even my teenager said they were horrid.  That's okay, I've been wanting to make my fruitcake recipe without the fruit.  OMFG, that also turned out horrible.  I didn't toss it out, but soaked it with amaretto and have managed to create something palatable, but not appropriate to bring to a house of teetotalers.

Finally, I broke down and whipped up pumpkin bread.  I cannot even begin to describe the heavenly scents in my house.  The teenager turned up his nose, convinced it was going to taste like shit.  He did manage to choke down a tiny crumb after some coaxing... and ended up with two servings on his plate.  Hubby found the recipe when looking how to improve Bread Pudding.  He found one from Alton Brown that used pumpkin bread instead of a stale loaf of white bread.  The bread pudding was divine, but we also discovered this easy bread recipe was tasty on its own.
Alton Brown's Pumpkin Bread Recipe

 

*****

Are you participating in Black Friday?  I have managed to sleep in and have no plans to leave the house.  Our shopping this year will be online.

My sullen teenager reared his head in this endeavor as well.  He has spent the last several weeks bemoaning the need of a new Xbox so he can play the latest release of Halo (which he is also lacking).  As we scoured the Black Friday ads he discovered large flat screen TV's in his price range.  Suddenly his priorities have changed and he is in DIRE NEED of a new TV.  The measly 32" currently residing in his room is simply insufficient for his gaming and viewing pleasure.  Poor thing. 

*****

Oscar Movie update:  I've started to dedicate my Monday posts to discussing my movie watching adventure so make sure to come back and read more.  The one pick I have to offer you this week is Life Is Beautiful (1998).  Usually I go into these movies blind, unaware of the topic.  Sometimes it burns me and other times, like this, I am pleasantly surprised.  Had I even known the synopsis I would have been prepared for something wildly different.  It was about a Jewish family taken to a concentration camp.  Yet, it was more about the man and his incredible view on life, how he swept his wife off her feet and later how he kept his son shielded from the atrocities going on around them.  I smiled quite a bit and even giggled a few times.  It was truly a touching story (and true).

*****

Christmas preparations are now underway.  Time to listen to carols, pull out decorations, shift through wrapping paper, and send out cards.  Are you ready?  I'm certainly not.  Of course I never am ready.  Ever.

*****

The Fog

It is so incredibly foggy this morning...

I EFFING LOVE FOG!

It ranks up there with snow in my book.  I love looking out the window at it, I love standing outside in it, and the thicker the better.

And this morning it's a big thick fog.

Like snow, everyone hates driving in it.  And yes, it's a royal pain in the ass from that vantage point - even super duper dangerous.  But it doesn't stop me from admiring it.

Fog is cool

Preparing Menus

What are your Thanksgiving plans this year?

Are you hosting or visiting?

What are you responsible for cooking?


This year Thanksgiving day will be spent with the in-laws and I'm responsible for bringing a dessert, but not pie because someone else is covering that.  I guess I'm making Rice Krispy Treats and a cake.  On Saturday we will be gathering with my family.  We're not hosting but we will be making the turkey and a few side dishes.

Gobble gobble!  Yummy meals ahead!

Lincoln

We went to see the new movie, Lincoln, yesterday.  My husband hoped it was going to be more of a biography of his life.  Instead it was about the last few months prior to his death and the political back and forth of getting the 13th Amendment passed.  Needless to say, Hubby was disappointed.  I, however, thought it was great.

As soon as I saw previews for it this summer I knew I wanted to see this movie.  Then a few weeks ago Jay Leno was talking about it and said he thought it was one of the best movies he's ever seen and knew it was going to be an Oscar contender.

The topic of the movie alone isn't really something that would perk the nominating committee's interest - politics and slavery.  But they will enjoy the struggle and negotiations it shows.  For that alone it will get a best picture nomination, you know, forget that golden child, Steven Spielberg, produced it. 

Where this movie really stood out and no doubt will sweep the Oscars will be with the actors.  Daniel Day Lewis LOOKED like Abraham Lincoln and by all accounts sounded and behaved just like him.  I believed I was watching President Lincoln, it was an incredible performance.  Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones were both absolutely stunning.

Unfortunately, this is a fairly boring moving.  My inner history geek thought it was great, but a lot of the beauty of this movie will be lost on the masses.  They may admire the fantastic performances by the entire cast (truly, ALL of them were awesome) and they may think the debates were somewhat amusing, but the struggle to significantly alter our Constitution and the work that went into it will be only an interesting side note, if even that.  And that will be the real crime.  I don't know how to make political debates any more interesting than what I saw on the screen yesterday - they were brilliant.  Thaddius Stevens was merely an interesting name that somehow hung in my memory from college, but I didn't know how or why he was important.  I'm sure some droll instructor covered him in one of many lectures.  It's probably scribbled in one of the notepads I've kept.  I'm quite sure no one told me of his linguistic artistry, but the man could make a point and drive it home.  His significance in history was lost on me until yesterday.  He was a passionate abolitionist and kept the slavery issue on the table at incredible odds.  Without his passion and convictions Lincoln would not have had the backing necessary to write slavery out of the Constitution.  

The one thing I do remember from high school, however, was the name Seward.  He was Lincoln's Secretary of State (something that also didn't stick in my memory).  The reason I remember him is that he was the guy who managed to bring Alaska in as a territory to the US and the newspapers called the deal "Seward's Folly".

There you go, a history lesson for the day.  You're welcome.

What?  The history geek doesn't remember these significant fellows?  Nope.  I hated history in high school and didn't discover its intrigue until college.  So, yeah, lots of important stuff slipped in one ear and out the other.

Back to the movies, I have a couple of other nomination titles I've jotted down:
The Forger
Magic Mike - yes, I think supporting actor is due here
Being Flynn
Ruby Sparks

We are at the beginning of block buster season where many more titles will bubble to the surface.  I can't wait to see The Hobbit.  By all accounts it will be as amazing as the Lord of the Rings trilogy that each received their own nominations.

We'll have to wait until January to see how my predictions turn out.

Sunday In My City - Elk up Close

We made yet another trip to Lone Elk Park.  We're finding late afternoon seems to be the ideal time to see the animals and we were truly surprised to see the entire herd of elk, right there beside the truck.

Use Moisturizer

I think I was still in college when I saw on TV a woman who said the best advice she could give any young woman is to use moisturizer.  I'm not one to accept advice very well, but something clicked in my tiny head that maybe this was important.  Moisturizer has since been part of my morning routine.  It took a while to find the right product that didn't cause acne or feel too greasy.

Moisturizer on my face makes sense.  But my neck is starting to show a bit of age. Lotion hasn't necessarily made it beyond my chin every day.  And it shows.

Then I saw Sally Field on the Tonight Show promoting the new movie Lincoln (I cannot WAIT to see it and that was before Jay Leno said it should be an Oscar nominee).  Her face is still cutie patootie, but holy crap, her neck was a horrid collection of wrinkles.  And I hate talking about anyone like that, but damn. 

Ladies, don't forget your neck and hell, probably the cleavage too!

New Quarters

We've been collecting the new quarters as they're released.  It's not like I'm a professional collector and know when or even what the next one is.  They pop up as pleasant little surprises.  It's kinda fun that way.  Anna, the mal-treated coworker, always brings me new ones.  Last night, however, my son brought a quarter for my inspection.

It was fantastic, filled with all sorts of patriotic designs.

And it was OLD.

He was so proud.  This one must be worth something.

Right?

"Ian, it's a Bicentennial Quarter."
"What's it worth?"
"Twenty five cents."
"What?  Why?"
"Because it's still in circulation and everyone has at least one in their wallet."

Poor dejected child.  He has a collectible quarter worth a whopping 25¢

Movie Monday - Illnesses

Okay, it makes sense to finally devote a day to discuss my movie finds, so come back every Monday to read my recaps.   

I'm amazed how I watch movies in the same time frame that have similar topics.  This makes sense if TCM (the source of most of my old movies) is having a week long devotion to Nazi movies or a tribute to Bette Davis, but my movies do not all come from the same place.  Some I stream online, others I rent from the video store, and then of course there are other channels.

Within two days I watched
Lorenzo's Oil (1992)
Awakenings (1990)

I knew the premise of Lorenzo's Oil, a sick boy whose parents went to extraordinary lengths to find their own cure.  I dreaded this movie.  DREADED IT.  I had absolutely no idea about the plot of Awakenings before I watched it - a boy starts to lose function of his limbs and eventually becomes catatonic.  Years (decades) later a doctor searches for a cure.  I groaned as it started to watch it.  Who wants to see a movie about a sick kid?  True stories about sick kids?  And here I was watching TWO of them back to back.

UNCANNY isn't it?

Even more uncanny was how beautiful and perfect these movies were.  I liked them!  Yes, they tugged at the heart strings, but not miserably so.

I should have known better with Lorenzo's Oil.  It had Susan Saranden and I have yet to see a movie with her that I didn't like (you have seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, haven't you???  Yeah, I should have listed that on Friday with musicals I absolutely love, oh but it's not an Oscar nominee.  Sometimes you need brain candy.)  Lorenzo's Oil was a true drama with lots of back and forth and arguments and people pushed to their emotional and physical limits.

Awakenings was funny - of course, it had Robin Williams!  There were lots of in-your-face victories and interesting twists.

Without giving away the endings of either, one was happy, the other not exactly so.  Despite that I walked away fulfilled by both.

Sunday in my City - Round Buildings

I'm not really a fan of 50's and 60's architecture, but these round buildings have always captured my interest.

This beauty is called a spaceship.  Many years ago it housed Naugles which was later bought out by Del Taco.  Two years ago Del Taco pulled out of town, very much to my dismay I LOVED THAT PLACE, and left a controversy in their wake.  What would happen to the spaceship building on Grand Avenue?

 Property owners decided not to raze the structure and ended up renovating it.  Now it houses a Starbucks.

Not too far away down Lindell Boulevard is a AAA office.  At one time it was headquarters, but those facilities have since moved out to west county  Now it is simply another AAA office in a really cool building.

Friday Fragments - November 9, 2012

I completed my video class and I'm rather pleased with the outcome.  I kept in mind that the goal was the learning process, not so much the final product so I didn't have over-the-top expectations.  I think that lack of needing perfection made it better.  Yes, there are all sorts of flaws, but those mistakes were a necessary part of the learning process.  I will post a link to it probably in a few weeks.  In the meantime, new video opportunities have popped up.  I will definitely be able to apply my newly learned skills right away.

In a perfect world I could launch into those new projects, but other ones have to be completed first.  We have a new logo at work and that means the web mistress has to reconfigure the web page accordingly.  Some people are under the impression that the change is as simple as "dropping in" the new logo.... uh no.  Our web page is old school html coding and while I hold my own doing this, I'm not quick about it.  The whole header has to be re-done, requiring me to slap on my graphic designer hat then flip back to web master to make it fit.  The part that has been most challenging is screwing with the new color palate.  Before I left work today I sent off what I believe will be the final version.  Hopefully everyone who needs to have a voice in this will approve it.  I'm ready to move onto other activities.

Ready to talk movies?  It's been a while since I've posted about my journey through watching all of the oscar nominated films.

First, my confession... I don't like musicals.  Of course there are always exceptions like Wizard of Oz, I mean who can resist Somewhere Over the Rainbow????  And I really like the Lollypop Guild.  Oh hell, I love all of it.  I also can't stop singing through Mama Mia and Muriel's Wedding (waiting for me on DVR to watch tomorrow morning), but neither of these are oscar worthy movies and honestly the stories are rather weak.  Anyone who knows me understands my love for those movies has to do with ABBA, not storyline.  But other musical movies?  Some can be a challenge for me.    So for me to find ones that are better than bearable is almost exciting. 

Gigi (1958) was downright pleasant.  I'm not too wild about the premise - a young Parisian girl coming of age and being taught to attract a man with money.  Yet, with Gigi skipping around and singing her heart out, I actually had fun watching it.

Even more fun was The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964).  I wouldn't mind watching that a few more times.  Molly was sassy and a real go-getter.  She had more than a few lessons to learn, and some the hard way, but she took them head-on and without looking back.  And remember, she was a survivor of the Titanic.  I'm pretty sure the makers of Titanic saw this movie when they wrote Molly's character.  This one is highly recommended!

Cat Ballou (1965) wasn't exactly a musical, as in the characters didn't burst into song and dance, instead there were two guys with guitars strolling through town singing her story.  And it was a pretty shitty story with an upbeat tempo.  Her father was wronged and died so she wanted to get revenge by holding up a train.  It has a good twist at the end, but I don't see how this was nomination worthy (won best actor).

All That Jazz (1979) belongs on the stage, not the screen.  It was an artsy piece about theater and this guy's relationship with his wife.  The story jumped around and had a spooky ghost-chick as his conscience?  I really did not like it at all and it had a dreadful ending.

For non-musical movies I watched Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).  It was about the war crimes tribunal of the Nazis, specifically the judges who sentenced people to death.  This was more of the caliber of movie one would expect for oscar nominations.  It dealt with difficult topics, people's histories, and personal growth.  I liked it and think it's worthy of recommending.  You may want to remember that I'm a history junkie and usually liked the movies shown in history class.

Now a side-note to my movie watching hobby - I do not like Bette Davis.  Her characters are shallow and her voice grates.  I've seen four or five of her movies and just do not get her fame.  It seems more constructed than anything.

Movies have been a pleasant distraction this week.  My ex's father went into hospice last week and then passed away on Monday.  It's been a tough time for my family as this gentle man touched all of our lives.  He was a fabulous grandfather to my children, ensuring they knew they were loved and adored.  My mom was long-time friends with him and I have always felt kinship with him.  I may have divorced his son, but I definitely did not divorce the whole family.  Yesterday was the funeral and it was a difficult good-bye.  I have so much more I could write, a whole eulogy has rambled through my head, but I'm not ready.

Again we are reminded to tell those around us how much we love and appreciate them, to take time to enjoy what life puts in front of us, to make an effort to be pleasant, find ways to see the silver lining, laugh, love, and most of all - trust God's wisdom.

Waxing the Truck

This is from early last month.  Ian got the assignment to scrub then wax the top of the truck.  So he made the most of it while he was up there.

Halloween Pics

Our pumpkins were carved last Tuesday.  As soon as we opened them we found MOLD. 

Mine was the worse as I had to cut a hole in the bottom to get rid of the rotten flesh

 

 

Not to be super gross but we kept the seeds.  I washed them several times to make sure there was no moldy flesh left on them and then I baked the shit out them.  And they were yummy.