I’d Like to Thank the Academy…
I watched the Academy Awards in its entirety for the first time the other day. Other years I’ve seen snippets or didn’t watch them at all. I wanted to see Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. I had a teacher once who told us to watch the Awards. “One day you could get Best Original … Read more
Cook and Moore in “Bedazzled”
Volumes could be written about Peter Cook and Dudley Moore by themselves. Writing about them together would be an epic poem rivaling “The Odyssey”. So I’ll start here… Cook and Moore are two of the stars of “Beyond the Fringe”, a comedy revue that shaped and influenced generations to come. They became one of my YouTube … Read more
Frank Zappa’s “200 Motels”: And Counting…
I heard about Frank Zappa’s “200 Motels” on a Ringo Starr interview. Russell Brand was the moderator and Ringo was taking questions from the audience. A fan mentioned he liked the movie and asked Russell if he had every seen it. “No but I’ll look into it,” he said. “I see how Ringo and Frank … Read more
Shadow Goals with Samantha Bennett
I listened to a teleseminar with Samantha Bennett of the Organized Artist Company on “Shadow Goals”. Shadow goals are goals that prevent you from achieving your real goals. They can be created from fear and grief. We did some exercises and she gave some advice I will heed on how to unravel those factors. But … Read more
V-Day: How I Survive
Calling Valentine’s Day “V-Day” is a little too close to D-Day. “V-Day” makes it sound like go time. it brings to mind images of U boats storming the beaches of romance, an uphill battle against perilous love, the outcome unsure (the battle reason unsure), but still we fight. Some will be victors, get medals for … Read more
The Day The Music Died
On February 3, 1959, a plane crashed killing The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens. Ever since it has been called “The Day the Music Died”. It may be the day the music died, but it also gave birth to a beautiful song by Don McLean, ”American Pie”. On February 3rd, I told my mom that it was the anniversary (more out of trivia/general … Read more
What the Dickens!
I had another blog planned for today, but I learned it was Charles Dickens 200th birthday today and changed courses. Dickens makes me feel like the worst English major ever. I haven’t really read a lot of his work. A Christmas Carol but that’s pretty standard. I tried Great Expectations when I was a little girl because … Read more
A Snow Viewing Tea Ceremony at Anderson Japanese Gardens
Yesterday was a wonderful day. A couple of friends and I went to Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford for a yukimi chakai, a traditional Japanese Snow Viewing Tea Ceremony with Dr. Kimiko Gunji. I’ve never been to the Anderson Gardens so that was a treat in itself. They are stunning even during the winter. We all met in … Read more
“Groundhog Day”: The Movie is Better Than the Day
“Groundhog Day” is a classic comedy that is so classic I think many people forget about it. It’s “Groundhog Day”. It’s on TV sometimes. They saw it when they were younger and it has that guy, Bill Murray, in it. He’s in old movies. I don’t hang out with these people very often. Any movie that has … Read more
