Another year is about to close

I'm typing sort of in a hurry, because New Year's Eve tends to be a whirlwind of preparations and mood swings which go from slightly pissed while doing the sketching of it all, to incredibly happy when it is all going on, to melancholic five minutes to midnight, to hopeful and cheerful at the stroke of twelve to pissed again for having to clean the mess.

For all that was worth, this year was good to me, as I discovered that between the dodging and the taking on life punches, there are pockets of peace and moments of wonder that make it all worthwhile and in the long run, if we really sit down through it; peace and the wonder have a bigger share than misery, if we let go that horrid human habit of brooding in the bad stuff.

I am grateful because I have found myself a being the with ability to take the best life has to offer and give a bit forward. Am I hoping things will be better? Hell Yeah.

The quote... it was written in 1999. I found it in 2000 at a card shop in the East Village and I keep it in my poetry journal. I pull it out when I need perspective or when I forget that the impossible is as possible as my imagination allows it...

HOW TO BE AN ARTIST
"Stay loose.

Learn to watch snails.

Plant impossible gardens.

Invite someone dangerous to tea.

Make little signs that say "YES!" and post them all over your house.

Make friends with freedom and uncertainty.

Look forward to dreams.

Cry during movies.

Swing as high as you can on a swingset, by moonlight.

Cultivate moods.

Refuse to "be responsible."

Do it for love.

Take lots of naps.

Give money away. Do it now. The money will follow.

Believe in magic. Laugh a lot.Celebrate every gorgeous moment.

Take moonbaths.

Have wild imaginings, transformative dreams and perfect calm.

Draw on the walls.

Read everyday.

Imagine yourself magic.

Giggle with children.

Listen to old people.

Open up. Dive in. Be free.Bless yourself. Drive away fear.

Play with everything. Entertain your inner child. You are innocent.

Build a fort with blankets.

Get wet.Hug trees.Write love letters."
by SARK ,1999

I believe...

I decided to take a break from general internet hassle during the holidays, however this is my Christmas Eve Post, a tradition of sorts :)

Our Christmas celebration promises to be a quiet one, dedicated to family. No, we are not tired, it is just that sort of common accord we decided that we just want to be together, appreciating the incredible gift that life grants when you are given someone to lean on. In our list of Christmas gratitude, there is first and foremost our humble thanks for the gift of life, which granted us two marvelous occasions this year to feel there is Someone beyond our selves that takes care and listens: the safe arrival of Lysanel and Mom's recuperating with flying colors of her heart attack.

Out my window the world looks gray, but not dead at all. It is the gray of nights that come a little earlier, as it usually happens in winter. The breeze is swift, but not cold. It is the favorable breeze that reminds us all it is Christmas.

I am lucky enough to look out and see early rising stars. I love living in Wesley Chapel because you can still see a bit of open country... I had a flash back courtesy of an early star. I am 12 years old on my way from Grandma's house to our own in Christmas Eve. I looked at the sky and saw, as if for the first time countless stars, you know the ones you see on an open field a little after midnight. In my mind, still untarnished by adult trials and worries, I swear I heard and saw the universe before me as I have never perceived it: a place of wonder and magic in which music and color collide to create a harmony among many spheres.

It is customary to close your eyes when making a wish, but me being me, I opened them widely, to absorb ever glitter, every tone from velvet black to deep purple, the cold and the heat of astral bodies and the spaces between, and I said to myself: I believe.

Ever since I've always stepped out at midnight on Christmas Eve, to a place where I can see the stars enough to reach them... and if this post seems inconclusive, it is meant to be, because each of us carry within our selves the perfect recipe for a Christmas Wish and I will dare not to suggest one for you... Mine, however, has a bit of welcomed chilly breeze, a sprinkle of stars, the taste sherry, the warmth of loved ones and if any uncertainty crosses my path I shake it away with a bit of hope.

Merry Christmas.

I am Legend... I won't kill it

Geez! Lately this looks like a movie blog... anyways is that time of the year in which theaters protect movie goers from the imaginary cold... where did my winter go?

I had just stepped off the Christmas Dinner Party and was happy as hell with my bonus as I said before and to make my night even better Izzy and Michelle call me to go to the movies.

In an unexpected move, Izzy called for I am Legend, and even if I didn't wanna, I would because Izzy hardly ever calls for vamps/suspense. Ahhhh... but he has a nose for action, and this was an action movie.

The general prediction is that this is the one for which America has been saving hard earned dollars because there was a looooong line to wait, about 20 minutes in queue. But then, Tampa midnight breed love their vampires...and Will Smith.

I must confess the movie surprised me. I was waiting for it to start with a bang and never stop, but it actually managed to keep the initial pace of Matheson's book, even with the change of scenario. In fact there were a couple of scenes that only New York city could provide that proved to be real effective in the way of creepiness and I'll get to them later.

The first half or so of the movie is pure Matheson and Smith plays it brilliantly. He is a man that lives in a world in which all books have been written, all movies filmed, all songs composed and he tries to avoid this by building a strong routine of survival. People will inevitably laugh at some of his devices at first, but gradually, as the big picture of total isolation unrolls, if there is any laughter, it will be of the nervous kind, followed by a perhaps I would have done the same thing kind of shit, that we know we wouldn't have done anyway.

He lives through his day hoping to sleep at night without nightmares, and there are nightmares every night, they come as flash backs and sometimes they wake him up realizing that is not what has happened what torments him, but what might happen. The nights in New York are filled with echoes of what once were human voices, enough to drive anyone crazy.

Smith manages to capture the agony of a man that has no human beings around him to test his sense of sanity and it works pretty well. Until someone decides to push the action button and it all makes a very fast left turn in Albuquerque. If you read the book, you will see it coming a million miles away, if you didn't read the book, you'll buy it, because the introduced character have a meaning towards their end.

Worse things have been done with adaptations, and as I said this one translates pretty good to the screen as an action movie. In fact I liked it a lot better than 30 Days of Night...however the vampire fan in me missed the whole quiet tension and drama that gave the movie and the novel it's title: a world in which nightmare creatures became the norm and the one last human being was considered a first class monster of legend. I miss the whole inverted hunter/ prey game that made this novella unique at it's time.

There is a couple of good scares as I said, courtesy of NYC. Those of you who have been there know that the structures in Manhattan work basically as a man made canyon and the wind can do wonders... the way those empty buildings worked the noise, or lack there of, was creepy enough for me to never complain about the sounds of the city again, also there is a scene with a deer... you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it... it is classic suspense... vampires are dumbed down as always happens and in this case we are lacking the half breeds of Matheson's book... once again, this is not the movie that will single handedly bring forth vampires again, but is a hell of an action film carried by none other than Will Smith... so enjoy!!!

"I can fix this. Let me save you. I can save you; I can save everybody."- Will Smith as Robert Neville, playing the whole I will save the world with nobility and all.

Office Party 2007

It was the night of the party

All all through the site

Not a person had shown up...

We thought geez this ain't right

Then that's when we realized

The accountant was parked

Waiting with his wife,

For the party to start

We came out of our car,

Meeting them at the lot,

Walking into the restaurant,

Ordering some Merlot

Doctor J., he came late

As it is to be expected

We all waited for him...

Some of us quite collected

There was a couple of Cubans,

The needed Nicaraguan,

All the rest puertorrican,

Good enough for parranda

[Don't frigging blame me if it doesn't rhyme, is not like it is the most inspiring subject you know]

Anyhooo... It was a lot better than last year's, the highlight of the night being a DVD with RUN DMC -yes you heard right- Christmas Special. Congratulations Doc, you discovered the eighties... now it's only two more decades to go.

The mojitos were minty, the Spicy Shrimps hot, the grilled beef sensational, the company was even better, the whole toast thing by Doc was.... errrrrrrr.... more inspiring that I expected, the games were not that Chucky Cheese's and actually none of us tried to excuse themselves to jump out through the bathroom window. The Christmas bonus was...worth a wacky year through and through.

After it all, I still had time to catch up with I am Legend, but I'll talk about it later boys and girls because it is almost 2:00 am and I have visions of Bob Marley dancing in my head which means it's time to go to bed...

Yes, I'm a fangirl... that's all I'm saying

The Golden Compass...the looong way

After years of Comparative Theology I've reached the following conclusion: The Devil is a complicated being. In my mind's eye he acts like Al Pacino and looks like James Bond... so when people tell me that Satan wants me to watch this movie, my reaction is to look at them with a twinkle in the eye and ask them... "so you are a fan of Daniel Craig too?" (Consider that the lame joke/ comment of the day).

Okay, Rafa, brace yourself, this IS a Review :p








This movie would have been a walk in the park, if it hadn't been for the controversy generated by it, which forces me to throw a bit of Liberation Theology into the mix. I'll eventually get to the supposed tale from the dark side... let me concentrate in the movie and the story it tries to translate to the screen first.

The film is epic in intent, yet doesn't make the cut. As of this moment this is not a bulleted review, but let me give you a couple of examples... the following segment will be sponsored by the word HOWEVER

• The visuals are stunning, the set designs are sure to make the cut to the Oscars... HOWEVER, in a movie in which the embodiment of the soul is a daemon companion, an animal, in this case; not much importance is given to the CGI for the critters. Pixels distracted me, and there is basically a CGI critter for every human character in the screen... take a bunch of children running on a field full of gorgeous tones of gold silver or clerics on a darkened room... all around them something is flying or purring or slithering or worse... VOICING IT OUT... in this world, there is no such thing as a private thought, your sometimes fuzzy and out of focus daemon will surely mess it up. And as I said before, this movie had much more money input than Beowulf or Shrek, the least they could do is provide decent daemons, since they are so vital to the story.
• Golden Compass pretends to follow the path taken by Lord of The Rings and the Narnia series HOWEVER, the pace and the scope of it doesn't help. The movie is marketed to children and young adults, yet the metaphysical nature of some of it's subjects, makes it inevitably a talking head piece... most of the kids around me were getting restless and that is a bad sign on a family movie.The scope of the piece is so big in intent that adults will not be able to enjoy it thoroughly, without saying WTF?! at least once. I am not saying that it is so deep we will all drown... it is as simple as plot development versus running time. It felt like X-3, cast of thousands, but we really know no one. Oh peoples of the Internet, don't even get me started with the Cliffhanger ending... it has the cockiness of a studio that swears they have a hit in their hands... sorry to say, it might be the number one movie this week, but it might not make enough to give us the pleasure of finding out what the hell was meant to happen... it is called CLOSING people, and all fabulous trilogies have it. Imagine for once, Raiders of the Lost Ark ending in an Island with a bunch of Nazis dressed as priests and Harrison Ford just saying "don't open your eyes"... you will be cursing the day...
• As far as star power goes, you cant get better than a cast that includes Ian McKellen. Christopher Lee, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Sam "I'm every Cowboy" Elliot and Daniel Craig HOWEVER their screen time is minimal.Craig, who seems to be all over the place in the promotional cut barely has about 15 minutes on screen. Kidman's Miss Coulter is in fact a Golden Monkey like her deamon clearly states. I mean, she is supposed to be REALLY EVIL, you know the kind of person that swears she is doing something good, the most dangerous villain of all, yet her dialogue is weak were it shouldn't be, is not her fault really. I wanted more witches and more gypsians, and perhaps a bit more bears, but time was running short....

A Shout out to the witches of the Northern Sky... Eva Green makes the best out of what she was given, she plays it gorgeous, like a real witch, and we all know that the real power of a witch is living her life without being bothered by the social dictations of what a woman should be. She plays it as she should, graceful and sensual, maternal when needed.Peoples of the movies, don't promise actors that will not be there, bad producers, bad,bad.

On the lighter side Sam Elliot was tryly enjoyable as Lee, the sorta out of place cowboy and his hare Hester was a hoot. He is one of the best developed characters and you'll find out why soon enough...

POLAR BEARS... if there is anything close to epic proportions in this movie is in fact that polar bear fight, you'll never see Coca Cola ads quite the same... bring it on!!!!

All in all is a nice popcorn ride, but nothing to stir the nerd in me as to wishing for the second installment to come my way. I liked it enough not to kill it with 15 bullets or less... I will probably watch it again on DVD...

Ohhhhhhhhhh, I see it coming, it's sort of bending in sharp angles Yessss, is The Little Theology Corner.

Going back to that whole Satan thing... lots had been said about the hidden agenda in this movie. Peoples of the Internets, it is not a hidden agenda when it is in plain sight...Pullman delivers it with impunity.

Ms. Lighshadow, here is one for you...Look closely on the air shots of the Magisterium, the ample piazza, closely safe guarded by mirroring walls that extend towards the main building, look closely and may be you'll discover that from the air, it sorta looks like a key... a Rome inside joke.

Pullman did not set out to stir waters with Christianity,(insert rolling eyes here)... otherwise, why would he call the basis of the human intellect "daemon"? you know that word makes nuns run...or identify his main scientific guy as Lord Asriel- a British guy with a very Jewish name in the lines of "he who battles God"as a meaning...

As a Christian I sort of laughed at the whole controversy. I didnt see it as much an attack on Christianity as an attack on the very human institution of the Church as the center of organized religion; represented by the Magisterium. If Lord Asriel's discoveries sound a little like Galileo's it is obvious...

Much like the Church of Rome in the Middle Ages, or the Pharisees in Jesus' time; the Megisterium dictates the truth, proclaims the truth and forces the truth down your throat. As far as truth goes, there a main difference between human and Divine perception. In the world of the Divine truth is an absolute, in the world of human beings, truth is relative. It has been the struggle of the Religious Institution for centuries to reconciliate Divine ruling with human nature... sometimes they screwed up royally; even after God Himself took care of it by coming into this world to sort out the big mess... well, mostly after it.

In their effort to convey the Divine, they rather bend the truth a little in order to get their way (and in the process, they have sent more than one down a very painful highway) It happened before, and I'm not pointing fingers solely at the Catholic Church, The Protestants did very well in Europe also, with this nonsense of forcing you to see what I see... it happened before, and sometimes books like these are written to remind us it shouldn't happen again...no offence taken, Mr. Pullman: your Magisterium is not my Church.

In real Christian Dogma, the institution should not have preeminence over the message. In fact is funny to think that Jesus Himself made a whole issue about it.

I could easily quote from the movie, but I'd rather leave it to a more credible source among Christians... go Jesus, as always, it's your birthday...


Matthew 23: 13-15


"How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You pretenders! You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter. And you will not let those enter who are trying to.
"How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You pretenders! You travel everywhere to win one person to your faith. Then you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."


Very much a la Jack Nicholson, Jesus knew that the institution couldn't handle the truth, even if you shoved a frigging compass down their throats. All because the seat of Organized religion is based on earthly power, when the Founder of it all advised them not to seek it, because their kingdom is not of this world... is a matter of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

I went to Rome recently and I saw it myself, the effort of one man, who actually "got it" and humbly asked for forgiveness for all the major screw ups. A shout out to John Paul II who saw through it and deemed it decent and Christian to recognize the right of people to be, think and act outside of the box. It takes a lot of guts to understand that the absolute truth of God is not necessarily that expressed by his most loyal or fanatic followers.

I live in a world in which an absolute truth called Love can reconcile the outcasts, the witches, the gypsies, the nay sayers, the scientists, the philosophers, the rebels and the men of faith, with no other rule than one that is by the way, Golden also.

It is very frigging simple, God said Love Me and one and other as you do yourselves... shit, I can't get easier than that, if you really get it going, no one will dictate what you should do, where you should go, what you should wear... you'll have your own golden compass.

Is that time of the year again...

The dreaded words have been spoken. The Office Party will be held at... some restaurant ridiculously near the Office... let's forget about forgetting the woes of the job.

Anyhooo... what really set off my nerves was the jolly phrase "there will be PRIZES and GAMES" I just hope they don't get all Chucky Cheese's... I'll just frigging quit. I'm not the Grinch who stole Christmas, I swear, I'm just a woman in the verge of a Christmas Meltdown... just gimme a frigging long weekend and let me do what I want... UGGHHH.

PS: Ms. Wendy, if you can read me, although you will be sadly missed, there is nothing to fear, it will probably suck anyways...

Beowulf... no spoilers

Alas... no spoilers but those of war... okay is not like I've always wanted to say that, but I just did.

Anyhoo, I just stepped out of the theater and this is a gut reaction to a movie I've been looking forward to see ever since I was in Italy... whole royal houses in both this world and the fantastic crossed my way before I got to it ( I got to see Isabella- Elizabeth- while in Rome, and Enchanted while still jet lagged. Now after 3 weeks of antici...pation, did it make the grade for me? Hell Yeah.

This is a moment of silence dedicated to all the purists and Literature Fiends that will want my head...

OKAY, it is not the original, people. It is an adaptation by Roger Avery and Neil Gaiman. It is at heart, still the oldest poem ever written in the English Language; however, the plot holes- you know those chunks we need to fill in with our imagination, while keeping the integrity of the piece-are filled with the suppositions, assumptions and very funny "merry making"songs of one of the most prolific fantasy masters of our time... SHUT UP BITCHES DON'T COMPLAIN.

Lots will be said about the quality of the animation... also about the PG 13 that should have been an R, wheter or not there was a slippery nipple somewhere, Beowulf's quasi Austin Powers naked scene, etc. etc. etc... I feel like doing something classy so I'll just leave it to you guys to go see.

I'll give props to the ones I haven't heard even mentioned... let's start :

This guy right here, Crispin Glover. He's the King of the cult followers, absolutely gorgeous in a very weird way. It would have been easy to be lost in a world of pixels that do no favor at all, yet those eyes, they came across through scaly, ulcered skin, to tell you there is something wrong with cheering for those who kill a monster, that there might be a reason other than evil behind his action. On top of it all, to you bastards who didn't catch it: of all the frigging actors in that movie, he was the one who delivered his lines in THE ORIGINAL... alliterative verse... Anglo-Saxon that made me shiver and for once made me worship at the altar of Nicholas Haydock who taught me to appreciate it.

Next... peoples of the Internet... the best Dragon ever committed to film. This dragon was designed and written by TOP CLASS NERDS... the whole sequence is fascinating. I just watched, mouth gaping, the mechanics of flight for this magnificent creature... once I got over it, the dragon hits me over the head with the infamous STONE GRINDING, towards breathing fire. I mean they got close to it in REIGN OF FIRE "they eat ashes" they said and left it there... these guys went through the whole conversion process of how a certain type of stone, combined with a naturally produced gas could ignite and make a giant flying reptile breath fire and keep his massive weight afloat like an air balloon would... don't get me started.

Third... thank heavens for these guys

Gaiman and Avery... wizards in their own right... Thanks for not messing it up royally and bringing forth a tale about flawed humanity and dying gods, heroes with terrible secrets and monsters in both human and inhuman form.... also songs about pursuing virgins and general drunken Geat train of thought.

The bitter sweet quote sums it all up, here's Beowulf saying farewell, or perhaps welcoming a whole new age:

"The time of heroes is dead: the Christ God has killed it, leaving nothing but weeping martyrs and fear and shame."

ENCHANTED... when Disney goes Meta

Not all is bad, in fact is good.





Still a bit jet lagged, went to the movies with the intention of seeing Beowulf and found it sold out, so I settled for ENCHANTED instead.





It is predictable, but somehow manages to be delightful as well, mostly because Amy Adams and James Mardsten -who has been obliterated by McDreamy in every single promotional shot- who took in the mammoth task of portraying traditional Disney Characters in the flesh and bringing forth their weaknesses without making the little ones cry or the adults feel embarrassed.

So we have:

• A sugar coated princess that has never gotten mad at anyone, who calls upon the forest creatures- or funny enough whatever urban critter- might come to her rescue. A girl that has never really worked a day in her life (well running away from trolls might be a workout, but not really a job)... suddenly finding herself in New York City penniless, friendless and basically screwed over by the typical old lady with a knack for giving away apples.


• Ah there is also a Prince much in love with himself, who doesn't really understand the need for dates to know each other and stuff because he is prince frigging charming after all... what else do you need? He is kind hearted, looking down with a smile to all the peasants around him and saving them from trouble when they haven't asked because they know no better... or so thinks the Prince


• Add Patrick Dempsey as a divorce attorney with a bitter streak and you have our movie.

Oddly enough, the one character that never stepped off the cartoonish was Susan Sarandon who looked fabulous as the Evil Queen, however kept wresting us all off our hardly acquired suspense of disbelief by reminding us all that this is not how she wants the story to end... serving more as narrator than anything else. This awareness of the evil character, spoiled it a little for me and sort of rushed the ending, but otherwise it was a nice take on it all. Very hard to accomplish after Shrek, but somehow Disney did it without getting their hands too dirty.

Ahhh the quote:
Prince Edward:(Pressing his sword against a construction worker's neck) I seek a beautiful girl.
Construction Worker: (stuttering) I-I'd like to find one of them too, you know?

Rome 2007

Hello... I've disappeared to the most wonderful place for a week or so, and as part reintegrating to the ritual of the habitual, I will blog about it.

I've been to Rome, which was a dream of mine since I was in college. I am still in awe of it all and forgive me if sometimes I might sound like a wide-eyed child... but that is how I feel. I used to say that I could write my way out of anything... Rome has proven me wrong. The emotional impact created by this city makes me want to giggle, laugh out loud, think , take a deep breath, cry away with heartfelt tears all traces of cynicism... and believe again in the possibilities of the human race. I might, or might not be able to be coherent about it.

I've walked through a city quoted by many as eternal, a place that moves along, yet seems to be outside of time. Time forces it self upon it, sluggishly stretching days into even longer nights. People live it all, breath it in, enjoy it. They talk out loud, caring very little for personal space... Romans will brake for gelato, even in the dead of winter and will take their sweet time for an even sweeter cup of coffee in a corner bar. They know, better than most, just for being Romans, that time, although imperceptible, is also unforgiving. They live here and now with a carelessness and a freedom that is contagious.

People live their ordinary lives threading daily in extraordinary places. Rome is a city were religion equates art and art surpasses faith. A strange breed of a city in which a Pope can be a sinner and a painter a saint.

Talking about heaven... God is everywhere in Rome, wether He wants it or not.You can find him in the wall of a chapel, the marble of a sculpture or the face of a beggar at the steps of a church. Rome is after all, if not the cradle, the poster child of Christendom. I've been to most of it's churches, falling in love with the stories and artists renditions of the saints, chiseling away faces so life-like, yet crossing into the divine by means of marble.

There are other gods in Rome as well, the old ones, the thousand altars Paul struggled against. They are decadent and beautiful and strangely inviting... they will steal half a smile from the most pious of souls, a what if, if you might. These gods for being both human in form and unreachable in nature turned more than one emperor crazy. Gods of blood and wine and water ever flowing.

The fountains are divine, there's one in every corner. Some of them bringing forth water from ancient springs... I threw a coin at Trevi, wishing to return.

This is it, most of what I am able to say without being carried away by the tears of a martyr or the laughter of madmen. It is, after all, the question I intended to answer to Lightshadow, at the cinema, when I simply didn't have words.

PS... with no pretense of poesy... props, kudos and all deserved praise to Maria Cotto, for being the map wizard. I am still baffled by her ability to read a map backwards, catch a bus and fend off minis at the same time... thank you for being my friend... let see where the next wind will take us.

Veteran's Day

Yep, it's me again. I know this is not the statement in vogue, but I don't care, this is the only statement I will get happily in trouble for, 'cause I honestly believe we live in the best frigging country in the world.

Label me an idealist, if you will a dreamer with her head in the clouds, an Army brat if you feel like being nice...

In days like these, aside of political views and leaving behind the right and wrong game, my heart and my respect goes out to all of those who at a given moment were either drafted of voluntarily signed in to do the type of job with fine print... you know that one that tells you is a whole lot of an adventure, which might or might not end in sacrifice.

To all of you who go where you are told to make sure that I go wherever the heck I want to...

To all of you who must forgo of your individual style so I can dye my hair purple, ...

To all of you who say "Yes Sir"on a daily basis so I can say "Hell, No!"...

To those who made it through to honor those who've fallen.... my most humble thanks and fervent prayers.

Today's quote... a colorful one from General Patton in honor to all brother's in arms:

"An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking! "

- George S.Patton Speech to the Third Army 1944

Norman Mailer died today

He was not easy to chew, to some not at all likeable. Some consider him too macho for American Lit... those are the ones who forget that he fought endlessly for the women's cause when it was really needed.

He gave us all an ironic yet painfully straight forward slice of American History in Armies of the Night, and wrote an attempt to the Great American Novel called Deer Park, which all criticized and few have read.

The B.A. in Literature in me salutes Norman Mailer, RIP.

"Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less."
Norman Mailer

It's not even bad luck... es la macacoa

Ahoy peoples!!! Just literally surviving the weekend. Sorry about phone calls that were never made, also about the ones who were made and didn't do much for the people involved. I've been sick, horrid and disorienting flu type of thing.



But that is not all.

Besides being sick:

• I had no time to rest because I was moving 9renting with option to buy- whohooooo, that is the best news, let me not complain, but just try to screw a computer desk with the Niagara dripping down your nose and there will be at least a frown


• I went to buy meds, stopped at the mall to pick some stuff and grab a bite and somehow managed to loose a credit card and other slightly important stuff when you are about to set on an international trip in two weeks or so...


• I wanted so bad to just call off today, but I decided it's best to doze it off at the job :p

Att,

Captain Tripps

ARRRRRGHHHH my Halloween sucked so bad

That I'm writing about in on NOV 2!!!!!

First, terrible day at the office, crazies all out unwelcomed overtime... I just wanted to get out...

Camera had no batteries, which means I got no pictures, anyways I didn't get dressed...

Nothing but morons came knocking at my door including a kid who didn't even have a frigging costume... I also had to give candy to a middle aged lady who was chaperoning a couple of teenagers... I will not finish my line of thought...

Didn't go out at all because there was more over time at the Office and I had to be there 7:00 am and by the time I had ceased fuming, it was almost midnight.

I'm just hoping the weekend brings something better...

Perfume Eau d' Rice

Okay, I've decided to put in on paper- or blog- just because I'm sure that I can flesh out -no pun intended- my own silly argument: Perfume is in fact, a vampire movie, the perfect one I set out to find among promising titles like "30 Days of Night" and " I am Legend"





Anyway, here I was hanging at the video store in a not so socially compromised Saturday night and stumbled upon this one...





I've heard of it before, you know, based on the German bestseller and directed by the guy who did the LOLA movie that generated critical praise and general, fanatical madness among hard core fans.





The poster was enough for me to grab it, it looked delicate and beautiful... a woman opening up like a crystal vial, dissolving away in rose petals, it was a visual presentation of an olfactory sensation, the fleeting scent of a red haired girl walking down the street...





What I found out was basically the Vampire Lestat loose in Perfumania. I am not making fun of this movie at all, it is just that it had this AnneRice imprint to it, specially the elaborate, painstaking detail of the visual... it was like reading 3 pages of someone running "spidery fingers" over piano keys. Those who read Anne Rice know what I'm talking about. However, this movie deals not with sight, but smell and I must declare the genius of the director, because this is one of the hardest things to translate on screen. They basically relied on the overlapping of visuals and music... there is a brief, clever scene in which the combination is so rich that I found myself breathing deeply.




It all unfolds fairytale style with a likeable little boy in his way to become an antihero of sorts- the guy you want to forgive but your morals wont allow you to. Jean Baptiste is in fact an Anne Rice vampire.

In his twisted universe he is providing an homage to WOMAN, and all it conveys.

Since judgement of aesthetics rely heavily on our ability to discriminate by means of the senses, Baptiste who has a non par sense of smell, sets himself free of all strains, exalts himself above mere mortals, trying to pin down all elements of the feminine psyche: the essence of mother, child, lover, etc, with only one drive, the need to preserve it all for eternity. He finds the female world wonderful and very much a la Lestat, kills indiscriminately, from virgin to whore, just to try to grasp what he cannot understand.

It is the best vampire movie with a non vampire character, ever.

There are lots of quotes in this movie but I'll just put a random that Is been stuck in my head since I saw the movie

"Perfume, pecado original amor que te consume, aroma al natural " Ana Gabriel-Pecado Original

Happy Birthday... I feel gothic

Hey Miss Lightshadow.... happy Birthday to you. I'm sorta feeling Gothic (and cheap) but I'll make it up... in the meantime have lots of Bloody Fun.

Always, L.

Howl O scream and a serious look at 30 Days of Night... sorta

Death Jockey at Howl-O- Scream

Very pointy poster for 30 Days of Night

As I have said before October brings about my license to witch, which means that I'll prowl the night looking for something spooky.

This year we decided to stay local (we being Michelle and I- the special Halloween tag team, since no one else in their right mind would dare unleash their inner child when we pick the place and time)

Anyhoo, the chosen poison was Busch Gardens... must admit that hardcore fan that I am of Orlando's Horror Nights, it was my first venture into Gardens Howl O Scream ever since I moved here.

I found out one advantages about the Tampa setting, the open environment (all around jungle theme of Busch Gardens) allowed for ever expansive scare zones. As the only true- honest to God scares of the night would prove... in a place were most of the main shows deal with acrobatics of sorts and in the cover of night, surrounded by trees, you need to keep an eye on things around you and ABOVE you... shout out to the flying guy and the MASTERS and MONSTERS Werewolf, for getting my heart racing.

The setting was the usual with Haunted Houses, scare zones shows and in accordance to this years theme "new spin on horror", open dance pavillions. Another well deserved shout out to the Death Jockey and the beautiful androgynous being that danced for 40 minutes without breaking a sweat at the entrance of the Club Muse House... frigging impressive.

Best Haunted House... TASTE FOR BLOOD... did I mention I'm a vampire fan? Anyways the whole illumination/ water splash combination that created the illusion of blood dripping walls plus the interactive theatricals of the vampires made it worth the while.

Honorable mention to TRAPPED IN THE WALLS, which showed a very disturbing scene... two mad men eating a golden retriever, that one kind of stuck for a while....

Best Scare Zone... Pharaoh's Revenge with it's supersized mummies and the best lighting for photographs... there will be some once I download the stuff that actually has some

remedy.

Honorable Mention to Eternal Midnight which made an effort to recreate the streets of London and the cemeteries of New Orleans... impressive artistry.

Best live show: FREAKS, hands down, nothing else worth mentioning, Busch Gardens theatrical at it's best... if I figure how to download video I will show a bite... all puns intended. It ended well, little after midnight, after running all the park through... that's when we decided that the end of a night at the park is the start of a night at the movies and took our already pumped full of energy selves to see 30 Days of Night.

I am a vampire fan remember? which means that this piece was hard for me to swallow, I didn't hate it, in fact I sorta "liiikey it". It is not a 15 bullet or less, but neither is THE MOVIE I've been waiting for, you know, the one that will redefine the vampire and guarantee night prowlers for yet another hundred years of cinema.

As a horror movie, it works. the level of gore is not that high, but when it rains, it pours. This movie has the most effective decapitation scene you'll ever see, if you are into those things (as many of the late midnight crowd seemed to be, then you will be completely and utterly satisfied).

If you are a vampire fan however, sit down and wait for the one that will redefine the sub-genre, because this is not it.

In order for a vampire movie to break the rules, they must depart from the Dracula formula... let me explain:

All formulaic vampire movies have the following: A RENFIELD, A VAN HELSING, A SEWARD, A QUINCY AND A VAMPIRE LEAD WITH A FLAW, MOSTLY HUBRIS.

You'll find all of them here....

The Renfield is of course according to formula, the most predictable of them all, however it always seems to pass inadverted to the unsuspecting victims... if I ever own a burger joint and someone comes in looking kind of hazy and asks for a pound of raw beef, I'll jump him with a baseball bat and ask him to take me to his master's lair...

The Seward is the guy/ girl with good intentions that somehow starts believing it all doesn't have a logical explanation a little too late.

The Van Helsing figures it all out and Quincy gets the job done, no matter how fatal the consequences.

The vampire master and his tragic flaw will certainly unleash events that will bring about his own demise, mostly to underestimate the enemy.... there you go 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.

The only thing that really bothered me is the fact that they chose style over substance... I hate it when they dumb down vampires... they could have easily switched vampires for zombies or werewolves and the plot would have been the same.

Vampires are usually the most rational of monsters, intelligent fiends, they could have done lots more with this vampires, since they did have something I had not seen on a major movie release...These vampires had an animalistic quality, communicated through specific frequencies which regular humans were not able to understand, they hunt in packs with an alpha vampire in charge of the hunt and the others closing in... however it seemed that the more they fed, the more brutes they became to the point of loosing all capability to reason and that sucked because by the end of the movie it was more 28 Days Later unrated version than a breath of fresh air for vampire fans. Had they been a little more rational, even if the level of violence escalated with each feed, we could have had something like Sabbath Gangrels, and that would have rocked.

Did I have fun? Hell yeah. Will I recommend it? Sure... if you are into survival against the supernatural. Are these vampires a cut above the rest? Not really, impressive potential, not a lot of brains is not exactly the best of combos, but it is a heck of a blood drenched ride.

"That cold ain't the weather, that's death approaching."- Ben Foster as Renf... I mean "the stranger" in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT

And I still don't know how to say shi......

In mese, arriverò in Italia dopo un volo di 9 ore.
Ciò è tutta che abbia imparato

• Hmmm questo è buono…
• dove è il American Embassy?
• Sono zingaro mezzo
• Giuro che ho lasciato Maria qui ed ora è andata...

looking forward to my international lampoons!!!

A certain garden gnome and other things

This weekend sucked real bad...destiny had determined I

ll better start looking....

The garden gnome celebration was a total fiasco, all that was left were half dead helium baloons which I sucked on... (it's fun to vent in high pitch) plus we sorta found out that there will be cuts in service time. Whatever... I am going on vacation in a month.

Dear Miss Lightshadow: Pleeeeeeeeeeeease, be awright!!!

The only thing keeping me sane is the hopes to go to Hollow Scream

http://www.howl-o-scream.com/tampa/index.htm

this weekend with no other than the divine Mrs. Michelle (take a deep breath, smell b-day cake)

If this note makes no sense... well I'm just scribbling to keep me off screaming my head off

Quotes? Any of the above will do, quote me when I make sense...

Finding Lostings

General Disclosure, there is no such thing as a Losting, is just that I needed an excuse to put up the miscellaneous fairy from Jasmine Becket's Strangeling Collection.

Anyhooo. I have more than one reason to be jumping for joy. Let's see

• I might be disappearing this weekend, completely. I have no idea where I am going, but the thought of finding out is wonderful
• Fall is here officially and squeeze me, but Winter is too overrated this is the most wonderful time of the year
• During the month of October I'll use my License to Witch as much as I can :)

And the top one... is not everyday that I celebrate the evils on the Internet with such heavy insistence, but for once, one of my current addictions brought forth something good.

FACEBOOK is turning out to be the most wonderful of tools, because it lead me to people I often thought about a lot and had no idea where to start.

It was kind of scary to write that initial line, you know the one that will confirm you whether or not life style and geography had taken it's toll, and there was no greater satisfaction that to get and answer that made it feel all again like 1991...

And it is not like I live in the past, but I honestly think that there is some in truth in " you should know well were you came from to know where you are going" and David, Mariah, Beysi and Robin were there when I didn't even know where I was headed (not that much has improved).

To find ourselves as responsible adults is both scary and funny, and right now I'm having a blast with it all. Of a sudden I find myself forgetting about all the stress of these 8 years or so and about what I wanted or didn't want... I'm peeking in a board house room and wondering if the girl in the top bunk bed who is reading her Bible and listening to Pyromania in Volume 20 is as cool as I think she is, or if that awesome Pixie Rocker Girl will allow me to hang with her very tight crew. I'm wondering is that guy has a sense of humor or is just my imagination or if I can survive a full lenght conversation with the skinny SLAYER girl, if we both survive Metal Mission... Okay guys, it's your turn to laugh... I'm doing this while dressed in a perfectly combined binary color coordination... I'm happy that it was written somewhere that we will all meet at a given point in time, even after wondering about for so long.

So to all the ones I just found and the ones I've had the chance to get reacquainted with, to friendships forged through fire, for those rekindling and for those barely starting to glow in the dark... cheers!

"May there always be work for your hands to do, may your purse always hold a coin or two. May the sun always shine on your windowpane, may a rainbow be certain to follow each rain. May the hand of a friend always be near you, may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you."- Irish Blessing

More weekend extravaganzas

Katya, posing for my very bad photo skills, yet taking it all in good graces...


The month of September keeps making the social butterflies flutter their wings. this time it was Katya's 15th birthday.





Katya is Ed's daughter and sort of cool niece by addition :) (Note in favor of Ed- yes he was pretty young when Katz came around) ... anyways it was time to celebrate the coolest teen you'll ever meet, who is capable of both discuss the literary achievements of Tolkien, by getting into deep analysis of Middle Earth and screaming her head out for Orlando Bloom's rendition of Legolas in the films.





After all the running and the photo ops- yes thank goodness for professionals. The party evolved in an all around pleasant experience for both adults and kids present. I had forgotten how awkward these parties are for the attendees which sorta want to dance but are not really up to it, so they end up with girl and girl dancing until one of the boys just breaks the ice... or in our case Lizbeth and her husband Nick had the guts to go to the dance floor and take on daddy Yankee's "Gasolina". Then Kendra ventured on the floor with Lysandra and for the first time ever my sister confessed being old....





The food was excellent, the daddy and Katya moments touching to the point of tears, the music smashing, the electric slide obligatory and the night left us all miserably tired but blissfully happy.





So Katz, many happy returns!!!!

"Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake." Anonymous

Happy B-day Mom!!!

Hey Mom, you've made it... surviving life for another year was kinda rough in this past six months, but between Jesus and the Power Box, I guess everything will be fine.

We had a bit of a get together this weekend to celebrate Mom's 55... and here is how it went. Lysania who decided to play gracious host made a sancocho (I mean beef stew doesn't even start to describe it- so I'll leave it as is). There were tostoncitos on the side (fried greens plantains) and of course avocado and white rice for those with discriminating taste.

Yeeesssssssss!!! Give us a big smile you mighty queen of fritoleras, any ways, it was sorta a hastily put together thing, since we were in the rush of moving from the old house into that fabulous gypsy like state in which you carry your belongings around until you settle down for good. (Mom and dad finally got rid of their house ... the never ending closing took almost 1 month to take place).

In a house full of adults the baby was carried and cuddled around until she decided that it was no longer cool to play cute.... this is yours truly squeezing the life out of Lysanel seconds before she decided to throw a tamtrum letting us all know that she was tired. Ken-Ken on her part was completely sugar-rushed and fresh from a commercial audition, let's cross our fingers boys and girls, my niece has sworn to be the anti Lidsay Lohan.... anyways lots of more pictures to come your way

9/11

It's curious that six years after, I've come to terms with many things... I think I've finally achieved closure. It came to some of us before today, it is still working through the fiber of many of us who will find it some time ahead from now.

I will always remember these buildings as part of the skyline that made me fall fiercely in love with a city.

Closure has nothing to do with forgetting and much to do with forgiving.

To the city: It's busy traffic and it's complicated life, and no fear.

To the Twins: May you stand tall, forever in dreamscapes.

To the dead: A place in our hearts and a moment of silence that depending in how close we were touched by this tragedy, could easily last a lifetime.

To the Troops: Love and the wish for a safe return.

To the Executioners of it all: Mercy, with an open heart.

"Some people fear complacency; others fear forgetting. Others have only limited space in memory, and the day is overwritten by the events that followed, by war and hurricane and every family's private trials. But the record can't be erased, any more than a year can have 364 days, and anything can bring it back full screen, like a glance at a skyline, a siren in the distance, a prayer that comes as reflex as you walk to work and remember the day they never came home"- Nancy Gibbs

The gay guy that lives in me....

Peoples of the internet... behold the truly trivial

Not to trivialize the lives of all gay guys, but there's one that lives in me and his nave is Gervis. There are several things that Gervis would assert that I'm not sure whether or not they are true:

• That he was born in England and there is such a last name as Spunkmeister



• That he formerly changed his name to Giorgio in fervor of the great Armani



• That he is errrrrr... 23 years old

Anyways, there are things I can assert as true...

• Gigi reminds me I'm supposed to be a girl and takes me shopping once in a while
  
• He looooves when I go blond and insists I wear light hoodies in Summer to keep the hair in place
  
• He also enjoys Musicals and laughing out loud in public places...
  
• He hates me leaving New York for Tampa in which the closest thing to a decent Theater this weekend was HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL...ON ICE!!!

Anyways I tried to make amends with Gigi this weekend by taking him to Starbucks and allowing him to be mean, I also got blond streaks that drove him crazy and big cover your face sunglasses. In an otherworldly effort to please him, I even ventured a little into the sun...

However, all the happy offerings I made to Gigi this weekend were thrown down the drain after we sat down to watch the opening of the MTV VMA's .

Here is what Gigi had to say:

STOP. Please people, just stop. Don't mess with Britney Spears anymore. Even Lynnette who doesn't like her that much couldn't quite stomach Sarah Silverman's skit... how far are you all going to take this... if she were my little sister I would be taking care of her instead of watching the wreck they are all waiting to happen.

So the girl is fat and sluggish...like half of her critics freaking rocking bodies...

She looks worn and tired... well she is twenty five with two kids and thw wholw wide world up her @ss... how would you look?

There you go, the unthinkable, L., or a part of her in defense of Britney Spears.

No quotes except for the immortal William Shatner: "You people need to get a life."

Chronicles of a hairdo foretold

Today I woke up feeling pretty and like loosing at least three pounds... it was either crashing low-carb or getting a haircut... scissors it is.

Went shopping for a new hair dresser after desperately falling in love with my old one- a charming, British guy that was actually gay, my luck... anyways I found this Argentinian lady called Raquel who was as desperate to do something other than blow drying as I was to do something, anything radical.

I said inverted bob... she said the eighties are bound to come back one asymmetrical do at a time, and I said, why not... inverted bobs are so me falling in love with gay guy and I need to keep my hair life going.

She chopped away until I looked straight out of 1985... I was thrilled, so the next logical step is doing something with the color of it all. I was thinking bleached, but that would be a little shocking for us all, so, maybe highlights will do. In the meantime the quote is...

"I feel dizzy, I feel sunny, I feel fizzy and funny and fine, And so pretty, Miss America can just resign!" - from the phoniest puertorricans to ever grace the screen, those in West Side Story

Drink up' me hearties... you ho's...

A sad relation of events in which the socially marginalized decide to have fun on a Thursday night.

I am spent, tired and in the meanest of moods.

Summer is not a fun time at the Office and the end of the month of August mark the Billing Company annual meeting, in which someone will try to blame the Office Staff for not providing enough information for Revenue to be collected and the Office Staff will have to fight each single allegation, claw and tooth, to justify a decent Christmas bonus in return.

All in all, it is CRUNCH TIME, which mean the closest to social interaction will be sleeping on top of the keyboard and receiving a mild electrical shock when the drool hits exposed wire or using the copying machine as a tanning bed.

Anyways, I have no idea why in hell Doc decided to have a Happy hour on a Thursday, and then to make things better, he decided it will be enforced by calling it an extraordinary meeting... to which we could invite someone over for drinks. I mean some people would say I have to be grateful, but come on... I'm thinking about paperwork while a 47 year old man discusses buying a VESPA as an alternative to his obvious midlife crisis.

I couldn't find a date even if I frigging paid him and Lysania's husband just said NO to the opportunity of saving us from ourselves. We were left alone, weird sisters fending off , not wanting to talk about mini bikes, not feeling like drinking, etc, etc...

At least, there is the oeuvres... you know there were scallops wrapped in bacon with mango sauce, bang bang shrimp, plain cocktail shrimps, even the not so fantastic cheeseticks with marinara sauce, but nooooo... we got there late and Doc had decided that it was time for us to explore Eastern shores. Our joyful culinary excursions called for Sashimi Tuna...

Me, I'm game for anything. Raw stuff doesn't do much for me, specially when I know that people over here - mostly Doc and Dr. Gal- eat it to secure their status chic and not because they really like it- you can see it in their faces. Besides, he/she who is used to Sashimi would master the chopsticks by now and none of them even dare open the packages.

To make the long story short, the only joy of the evening was watching Lysania struggling to swallow what she didnt realize at first was raw fish, and miserably failing. I am evil like that today. Anyway at the end she got her way and pronounced herself sole owner of the scallops.

The hour didn't bring much happiness ans you can see. I'm just trying to make it to the weekend ...

Ahhhhhh, the quote, let's suppose we had some fun...

"Rum's not drinking, it's surviving!" - Robert Shaw as "Romer Treece" in the movie "The Deep"

Crescent City

Two years after the greatest natural disaster in the Southern States, the city of New Orleans struggles to keep going, against all odds, when most people thought the music would die.
From those of us who've been there... cheers to it's people, and their infectious joy for life, respect for the dead...until we cross paths gain.

I couldn't pretend to say it better than the best of them all, today's quote comes from Mark Twain, on a city, an event and a way of life that marches to it's own drum:

"It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh; and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen New Orleans."-- Mark Twain, Letter to Pamela Moffett, March 1859

Ain't too tired to blog

Mom is back from the hospital, I barely have the strenght to type after two days of no sleep... She came back with a cool scar and a Defibrillator that will basically grant her the powers of Pikachu... or something like it.

I am just happy this little ordeal is over.

I'll leave a quote in reference to the heart- the proverbial, not the medical- just to celebrate life, which is the most important thing of all:

"Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also those who need it so much." -Daphine Rose Kingma.

Stardust... no spoilers

I'm still glowing, all puns intended after seeing... oh the joy, of a Neil Gaiman adaptation with some budget to provide a glimpse into his imagination.

Note to the excessively purist... the Graphic medium allows to stretch it as far as the ink allows, translating it to visuals is not as easy as it might look, specially when you are dealing with settings that you cannot quite compare with reality. Counting with Neil Gaiman himself as both producer and script adapter is THE CLOSEST any fanboy/girl will get, and we should be thankful for it.

Setting all book controversies aside, I will dare say this is THE PRINCESS BRIDE for a disenfranchised generation.

Went to the movies with the usual summer crew. Michelle and Kendra. After crossing my heart and promising my niece there won't be much kissing, etc, etc, etc... lights went and we all found ourselves glued to a charmer of a movie.

Claire Danes makes a lovely Yvaine, a fallen star in human form that is experiencing for the first time the petty agonies and trifle joys of ordinary life, magnified by her apparent lack of understanding of human nature.

Charlie Cox's Tristan is innocent and true and like many boys... without a clue.

Mark Strong and Michelle Pfeiffer steal their respective scenes and they are evil, cold and have no heart, as every villain should.

Robert Deniro as Captain Shake n'Spear, or is it Shakespeare? is... well go and see for yourselves how one of the greatest actors of his generation takes himself lightly, he sure got the hardest laughs.

What I found enchanting about it is that it kept to the spirit of the book, a fairy tale meant to teach us what is is to be human, the subtle difference between what love is and what we would want it to be and the prize that await those who learn to take chances, even if it means to venture into another world.

If you love Gaiman, you'll be like me, the fangirl will walk out smiling and crossing her fingers saying, they got it right...

PS: In the Kendra meter the yuck, kissy factor was within the expected range, the witches, ghosts and flying pirates carried her seal of approval: AWESOME!!!!

The quote doesn't come from the movie, but it was funny:

"I didn't know Gaiman could do pink... well now that I think about it that's kind of fuchsia"- Michelle

Nahhhh na nai?

Heat index is 106 degrees and it's getting to me, all of a sudden I find myself with this song stuck in my head, and liking it

If you dont see me around....

I'm buried in FACEBOOK, trying to build a decent profile... right now the worst of vices is taking over me... I am running race bets with play "munny" against Lysania... it is a disgrace

Catching up with movies I should have seen a long time ago...

Geez!!! This is looking more and more like the Movie Review Weekly, but since I am saving for a trip to Italy, the easiest way to spend an afternoon without the urge to go BUY SOMETHING I DONT NEED is watch movies.



Anyways, somewhere along the way I found a list of the best 100 American Movies in the last 1oo years Courtesy of the American film Institute...
http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/movies.aspx




I placed the ones I've seen as a child and didn't get and the ones that I've never seen and should in Netflix queue and kicked back...



Out of the bunch these are the two that wouldn't let me sleep...








The first time I really noticed Dennis Hopper, he was asking Keanu Reeves something in the line of "Pop Quiz, hot shot..." I knew he was considered to be the father of all things badass but didn't quite know why until I watched this movie..., which was by the way directed by the man himself.




Yes, I knew the lyrics to the title and all that crap, so I thought the movie wont be much of a surprise... WRONG

This is THE INDEPENDENT MOVIE. Looking at it the way I've seen it... all I thought was great before it- I was happy to conclude that my priorities were wrong. This is the one who set the bar.

• Cinematography is frigging gorgeous
  


• The characters are engaging, fascinating, fun and dare I say... a little scary in the way they define freedom


• Thanks for the groovy 60's piece of trivia that identified Wyatt- Peter Fonda's character- as a Pisces (sorta of a joke/note of myself to myself)


• Something inside me cried a bit , though, when I realized this movie is about change... how much we want it, how much we are afraid of it, and how quick we are to judge when some one "gets" the big picture before we do...

I don't know, movies about "choices made and chances taken" usually work too much in me.

Next one, another child of the 70's. One sick, sick, brilliant movie, perhaps the best of it's category. Once again, the category is unique:

Okay. I knew the usual movie quote... Robert Duvall in some beach rambling about the smell of Napalm in the morning. I never cared for it because I thought The Deer Hunter is the Reigning King of all Vietnam Flicks.


I still vote for Hunter, however this is the best exploration of madness derived from exposure to the Human Race I've ever seen. I've never seen something so repulsive and magnificent at the same time. And Brando's rendition of T.S. Elliot's "The Hollow Men" made me want to take the books once more...

I thought this would be another product of the times, a make love not war type of film. What I found though , is a piece that is as relevant in it's message today as it was 30 years or so ago. "Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one." Nietzche said it before Coppola captured it on film, but only one of the two had the guts to lay this burden upon Martin Sheen... and that's all I have to say.

There are movies I love and I can yap about for hours and then there are movies like these, my best advise is watch and tell me...

The Quotes:
"I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. " - Jack Nicholson as J. Hanson, quite a nice guy in need of road companions to New Orleans- Easy Rider
"Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared." - Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz- Apocalypse Now.

Harry Potter takes the FCATS... no spoilers

I will put the book aside, be it Order of the Phoenix or Hollows... there is hype enough about it and I shall not make speculations on a piece I haven't read yet. I know better than to tarnish a great series with my own conclusions. Nope. I'm not a Potter head, but I do recognize excellence when I see it, and I will take a second or two to explain why JK Rowling is the reigning queen of fantasy... eventually.

So far, this is a Review of Order of the Phoenix. No Spoilers meaning that I Loved it.

I met Harry Potter in the Queens Borough Public Library as I worked as Library Assistant for the Children and Young Adult section. I read Sorcerer's Stone in one sitting, as it was required of me to know what kids were reading so I could answer trivial questions and amaze them with my coolness.

I read a lot of books, some, I must confess, far more elaborate than the one written by this JK Rowling person. None were as engaging, though. Harry Potter made it to my must read list, and I would happily recommended to every child that crossed my way ages 10-13. By the end of Winter we had about 30 copies... errr some 25 more than what we originally ordered, all in HOT CIRCULATION. Thus the big Snowball that Harry Potter is started rolling and it goes on strong with a movie release and the culmination of the written series coming at us this summer, almost ten years after I read a story about a boy who survived a curse, o algo...

I'll get to the movie in a second, but before I'll tell you why JK Rowling is the Queen of it all right now... just like Real State, much of a series success depends of LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. By placing her characters in a school environment, Ms. Rowling had the guts to create characters that grow along with her intended audience, and that is a smart move when you write about coming of age...

YEEEESSSSS! I am sorry to disappoint the Christian right and the Liberal Left. Harry Potter is neither about the occult, nor about the growing discontent of the British People with Cornelius Fudge, their Prime... err their Minister of Magic. It is a simple and beautifully laid out story about growing up, year after year, from the threshold of Puberty to Adulthood. Sometimes is brilliant, others funny, awkward, maybe, others sad. Sometimes, like the movie adaptation of Order of the Phoenix will show, it's about 15 year olds trying to claim a place for themselves.

Compared to the other movies. Phoenix is shorter, which only add more weight into the level of darkness it throws at the audience. There is no comic relief, almost no magical wonderful structures to delight your eyes on (You will not see the display of wonder that was the road to Hogwart's or the Arrival of the Magical Academies in the last Installment).

In Harry's world, the mood is set by Potter. The boy is no longer a boy. For those who read the books and sort of read between the lines in the movies, it is easy to see that Harry didn't have much of a childhood. It was in fact miserable. Yet none can deny that Harry is innocent, or was. In the sometimes wonderful, sometimes painful ,always unavoidable road to adulthood there is the most revealing and painful chapter of it all... the Death of Innocence. This movie delivers it.

For the idiots who took their 5 and 6 year olds to a PG-13 movie, it was a bucket of Ice water to see that Harry out grew what they thought was the intended audience. Unlike the intelligent lay out of the written series, meant to grow along with the readers, the visual medium will take anyone who would buy a ticket. Don't blame harry if your 7 year old could not connect with him this time around. Potter is showing the first flares if teen angst and Daniel Radcliffe, whom like his literary counter part has grown before our eyes in this role, channels it to perfection.

To my judgement, this is the simplest of the movies in style, yet the most complicated, because it aims to destroy, and very fittingly, it will open the doors to reconstruct what is left and keep going...

MINOR SPOILER AHEAD: Click and drag if you want to find out.

• One of the praises that I must sing to the visual medium is this: Observe how after the confrontation with Voldemort, after the heat spell breaks all the glass windows, the glass is reduced to sand, and Harry falls on top pf it. The sand however is so fine it might as well look like ashes, from which Potter rises at the end, giving the whole Phoenix concept more meaning than what we initially are lead to believe. It thought the scene concept was just brilliant...

I've written too much already, I'll leave you with the QUOTE:

"LOOK... AT... ME!!!!!"- an annoyed and frustrated Harry as all of the adults around him rather treat him as if he is not there.

10000 BC... In the Teaser History Corner

ERRRRRRRR... I was looking forward to this and now I don't know. I thought the people who fought so hard to turn contemporary structures into Ice Age rubble would put more muscle into it. 12,000 years ago, although most of the physical characteristics of man were left as we see ourselves today, I bet we were still a bit rough around the edges. Mr. Upper Paleolithic didnt look like a model in dreadlocks and Ms. Upper paleolithic didnt look like a beauty queen fresh out of a mud bath.Did I just see mammoths buildidng pyramids... and white people in charge of constructing them- you know the ones who run for cover inside the big building... I'll have a fit afer I come back from Order of the Phoenix.

ARRRRRRRRGHHHHH!!!

Let's start with a well deserved ode to the Honda Civic 2004. Best little car ever!!!! The little green men that make you run smoothly are doing a wonderful job. Honda Civic, you are the poor man's VOLVO...

Car that I love and takes me everywhere...

I swear it was not my fault...

I love my car, it even has a name, T.J. Green. Don't ask me why, it just looks like a TJ to me.

Anyways, here I am, minding my own business in one of the many busy intersections in beautiful, sun drenched Tampa. The street light just turned red and I aligned the car to take a right turn... you know one of those turns that is to the DRIVER'S DISCRETION. My intuition told me that taking the turn as an SUV was making it's way into the intersection with was not the right move. So I decided to wait while the guy makes his U Turn and then it's my time to get going... What do I get in return?

A MORON REAR ENDING ME... Now the fun thing is that the guy hit me about 45 seconds after I made a full stop. It was like WHAT THE HECK? Didn't he just saw me here? What the hell made him think that he could accelerate when he has a car right in front of him?

TJ absorbed the impact completely with absolutely no damage. That was good news for the 5' middle aged Asian guy out of nowhere. I'm not being prejudiced or playing around with stereotypes here, but it really pissed me off when a guy with no Insurance and who could barely speak English just stood there as if nothing happened with the nose of his beat down Toyota all over my bumper...

After a couple of seconds of amazement I got off my car and kindly asked " Sir, what just happened here?" To which he replied, "Yeah, why you stop?" I tried to manage my urge to scream and kindly pointed out that there was a FRIGGING RED LIGHT!!!! to which the guy replied "Things to do, hully, hully."

I told him OK, there is no damage to your car or mine, but at least tell me that you are sorry, after all, YOU HIT ME!!!! The guy just got into his car and drove away because according to him he didn't understand a word I was saying. "NO ENGRISH" should mean call the cops but I only had 15 minutes to get back to work, so I let him go. Nevertheless, sometimes I still marvel at how inconsiderate people can be. FUCK.

This post doesn't have a clue...

Writing for the sake of typing away, just to share with the world a couple of facts... protein diets will make you cranky, who ever told you a bag of M&M's is not the secret key to happiness, has never been totally deprived of sugar.

Next......... saw Hannibal Rising after running away from it for a while... the only two things I found fascinating was the casting of Gaspard Ulliel, which was quite fitting, at a very psychopatological level... Nevertheless, I kept thinking, his facial bone structure could never produce Anthony Hopkins some forty years on... Only other thing that actually saved it for me, well, it actually messed it up real time was the scene in which Hannibal crosses words with the Police Investigator, the first time around. It was clever, it sounded like they nailed the character... and then they forgot about it because it took a turn towards the "Last Cannibal Samurai" or something... by the way they got me thinking that the whole Samurai subplot was intended solely for the scene in which young Hannibal tries on the mask, that is where we all were meant to leave out a collective gasp and say... maybe he got a kick out of wearing that restrain in Silence of the Lambs... this guy is sick!!!! Errr... it never happened. I would do a 15 bullets or less, but then I am cranky as I said before, so let's leave it at this is one good movie that never was

The Quote, a hybrid, and you all know where it comes from: "IIIIIIIIIIII want candy... - with fava beans and chianti."