Movies: The Bucket List, Merlot

SEE IT.

He DOES get to kiss the "most beautiful girl in the world"..in a most unusual way.

Oh..my heart is tearing up...it was great. Thought and life provoking.

I made the decision a couple months ago after reading this old book sort of the precursor to "the Secret" to really ask myself.."is THIS how I want to spend my life?"...it has helped guide me in many decisions.

Not the least of which was opening THIS bottle of Merlot to drink as I serfed tonight...Beringer Founder's Estate, Merlot, $11.99, 2004

Sunday

*Go to church? Where to Go? Damn I hate not having a place to feel at home.
* Wake up kids
* Drink Coffee, Internet, oops forgot to pee
*get dressed, its foggy,
*van is broke down,
*its cold
*go to local church, no gas, no groceries
*pretend to worship, then DO worship
*Sing
*Rejoice
*Grocery store with last dollars
*cook
*Frozen pizza for lunch
*Roast, BIG salad, peel carrots, potatoes, apples for PW pie, garlics,
*Toast almonds, sesame seeds, more sesame for dressing
*clean
*eggs for deviled
*peel eggs
*enlist help again
*laundry forever
*movie with Son
*Dinner ready
*dad home
*pie in oven
*salads, soda (big treat)
*Roast, tatos, done, made gravy
*Evan Almighty with all of family, not ONE phone interruption!
*showers around
*3rd load of dishwasher
*mother well Check call
*dessert during movie
*start new job tomorrow
*Trying hard not to freak out
*love around
*Yelling around
*Little one finger nails painted
*kisses
*Feel fat with big zits on face (and for you dear reader...I just spent a horrifying 45 minutes at "popthatzit.com" looking for a zit picture.) If you are brave, and bored, that is your place. See how I show my love by NOT posting anything. Don't do it right before bed. I. Can't. Stop. Looking. at. The. Videos.

*is there every any down time as a mom?

Movies: ARK: Evan Almighty, Maya Lin Chapel Haley Farm

I got a call to Substitute at the Alternative High School. I LOVE going there. It's my favorite place to Sub. The kids, work mostly independently, doing computer modules or whatever. I think there is a lot of lost opportunity as to the potential that is being lost, but hey, I'm not the Principal-yet. LOL.

So every Friday kids are released at 2. I don't know why. Lunch is at 11:30 (I had a really nice SUB sandwich from Central Kitchen), then they watch a movie. The Homeschooling part of me despises this. In Public School there is simply SO MUCH WASTED TIME!! AWWCCCKKK. Makes me crazy. Maybe what it does is create a space for "community"...yah--maybe.
Anyway, somehow it fell on me to do the CHOOSING. Wow. That is huge. I had a list of 8 different movies, and when I got to Chart Hits EVERY one of my choices was not available. (Maybe a GOD thing?).
I had a student with me, and asked for suggestion from Movie Place Person. We ended up with EVAN ALMIGHTY.
My friend Char had gone to the theatre to watch this, and LOVED it. I am not much into movies until recently.
SO...the High School kids LOVED it.
Has great themes, Home, Family, Personal Responsibility, Political involvement, Community awareness, YES all that.
Can be a definite recommend. Today, my 11 yr old watched it, we watched all the "EXTRAS" in the DVD. HIGHLY entertaining--the lost scenes, how the ARK was built etc. I found this especially interesting as I am a Children's Defense Fund Emerging Leader (Fellow)Class of 2004, -- A quick side trip: Maya Lin, the builder of the Vietnam Veteran's Wall in Washington DC also created an "ARK" in Clinton Tennessee. Her design, with a budget of $3 million, was inspired by the Children's Defense Fund logo, a child's drawing with the text: ''Dear Lord, be good to me. The sea is so wide and my boat is so small.''
I sang in that chapel area, and was moved to tears. The Alex Haley Farm is a retreat operated by the national nonprofit, the Children’s Defense Fund, and is the only place in the world to have two buildings by Lin on the same site.

The picture doesn't even begin to do it justice. It is..HUGE, Inspiring, awesome.

No other way about it...ARKS are COOL. In the movie, ARK= "Acts Random Kindness" ie: pay it forward.

Steve Carell -I love him from Office Space, and he is great in this.
GOD is Good, LOL

Change the World-- Great theme. Go forth...And ARK. ....


(just to show you, THIS cool pic of the BIG back of my head was at B SMITH's, in Washington D.C. in April 2007. WOW...isn't my hair perfectly streaked?? And my sparkly top!!! OH MY!!!)

Zombie's and Asperger's, Guns and Boobs=Grindhouse

The Fake movie trailers were 'da bomb'. I couldn't figure out if this movie was GROSS or crazy funny. SO, why did I sit through a gory, "grindhouse" movie? My 14 yr. old Asperger kid picked it out as Dad time, but Mom sat through it.

I freak out sometimes when he is so engrossed with ZOMBIES. What mom wants their kid to LOVE gore and guts, (guns YEAH! but gore and guts?). I try and remember what Dr. Luke Tzai said in a lecture I went to, and also what Temple Grandin mentioned when I saw her. Asperger kids LIKE the dark side. Not just that they LIKE it. It is what they think about. It is HOW they think about it-in their head with pictures.
Punk rock, Heavy Metal Music, Zombies, Monsters, Anime, Chaos, disorder, Bombs. Civil Unrest. Yep. I struggle with this.

The Christian part screams for angels, holy spirit, the Word, and Goodness. What about the verses that talk about "if there be any virtue, if there be any praise think on THESE things". I don't think zombies fit in there.

My Aspy kid does STUPID things. Sometimes, he recovers quickly, realizes "oh shit this wasn't a good idea" and gets out of the situation. Sometimes, he gets sucked in and just DOESN'T GET IT.

So,
Sometimes,
I can enter HIS world
View the world as HE sees it
Zombies, boobs, bombs, guns
Gore, Guts, Gratuitous Violence

and...
its a pretty good view.

What I watched

For some reason, we are getting Free HBO. Well I got sucked into a movie this morning, with David Ducovney. Robin Williams, Williams daughter as a girl that is a "first" girlfriend.
Great movie. Hard to keep going through it..SO worth it. So, if you are unemployed, bored, have tons of laundry, dishes and want to cry...Yah.

Plus..feel good family ending.

Movies I watched

wow. Two Winners. Both pretty tense. Not the laid back relaxing mode of movies. No. Psychological thrillers. Scary. Almost over the Edge.

Susan Serandon: Irresistible
Watch? Yes


Then : THE GIFT
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0219699/plotsummary

Watch: Yes.

Both good. Sit on the edge of the couch good. Put the kids in bed first good.

What I watched

FRACTURED : Anthony Hopkins Do I think it was worth watching: YES
Great Drama, not boring, very atypical who done it plot twist. Must be my Criminal Justice background..but was very engaging. Loved the one scene where a retired judge is discussing Criminal Law, "the reason we stay in Criminal law, is every once in a great while, we get to put a stake through the bad guys heart". YAH.

Premonition: Sandra Bullock Do I think it worth watching? Yes
Wow. I have always had a soft spot for anything to do with time travel, from "Somewhere in Time" to "Back to the Future". Again..a great themed movie...We got caught up in the plot right away. Not for kids I would say. Hope springs forth, and good ending. We CAN change our future by the actions we take today.

just in case I haven't blogged on it:
Mr John P had us over a couple weeks ago to watch "I am David". BEST MOVIE I'VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME. Get it watch it. Keep Kleenex close by

Film: INTO GREAT SILENCE

Below is a review. Don and John have been looking and looking at this film from Zeitgeist Films. We will have to go to Ann Arbor to see it.

This Films Monks...their Silence...prayers, movements, Shows the Monestary..can't wait.
The prep took 2 years, shooting took one, and post shoot 2 years. The director originally asked permission in '84.
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=intogreatsilence


INTO GREAT SILENCE fits neatly into the sub-category of films that need to be experienced rather than just watched. Over 162 minutes director Philip Groening films a group of monks who dwell in the Carthusian monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps. The monks have taken a vow of silence, and live life at such a gentile pace that it took them 13 years to respond to Groening's request to make a film about them. The subjects of Groening's film fill their days with slow and highly repetitive routines, so the director shoots at a suitably slow pace, highlighting simple tasks such as praying, gardening, cooking, and doing laundry. Groening lived with the monks for four months and worked under strict conditions dictated to him by the order; no voiceover, music, or interviews were to be included in the film, and Groening was to be the sole crew member on the shoot. There are a couple of moments when Groening breaks with his modus operandi. He interviews an elderly blind monk, the Gregorian Chants practiced by the order occasionally feature, and the monks stage a snowball fight on one of their weekly breaks from the monastery. But the film is mostly comprised of a long, lonely trip into silence, and will doubtless leave its audience members in a contemplative and restful state of mind once the journey comes to a peaceful end.

Theatrical Release: March 2, 2007