Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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Movies, DVDs, and Theater
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What MOVIES or DVDs have you watched? (PART SIX - 2013) (ongoing thread)
Jim wrote: "... After reading an article about MD schools offering grief counseling, I just had to make this up. ..."LOL - Pretty clever, Jim! :) What a visual!
The comments are always the best part of youtube, lol
Jackie wrote: "The comments are always the best part of youtube, lol"So true. That's another reason I can't escape from the Internet. (lol)
I'm not sure that having training in education is as important as having some common sense. I've seen some really whacky ideas come out of supposedly well trained educators. When Brandon was in 1st grade, they gave him a calculator with the idea that kids needed to learn to set up problems, not actually learn how to count. In 5th grade, they suddenly realized that none of the kids could do a page of simple math problems (8+7=?) in a short enough amount of time - if at all.
Brandon was an exception because I wouldn't let him use one & sent a note in telling them I wouldn't buy him one & why. They insisted, so I returned the calculator they foisted on him in pieces in a plastic bag with a note telling them that such would be the fate of any other they sent home. He wound up using one in school, but had to do it the hard way at home. Poor kid. He hated math but was considered a whiz compared to the rest of his class.
If that isn't an example of primal idiocy by highly trained educators, I don't know what is. IMO, they were using one of my kids as a guinea pig & I wouldn't have it. I told them so loudly & repeatedly. They thought I was a jerk, but the feeling was mutual. His was the only class they did that to, so I guess we know who was right, but it didn't do the kids any favors, even Brandon.
You bring up another problem and that's the parents. Out of the whole class, you were the only one to care enough, and to have common sense enough to see how it would turn out. That's the real problem, parents aren't parenting any longer and we see the results, which aren't pretty. I congratulate you on your course of action.
Jim wrote: "I'm not sure that having training in education is as important as having some common sense. I've seen some really whacky ideas come out of supposedly well trained educators. When Brandon was in..."Jim, I'm with you. The kids have to learn their math facts; they can't always depend on a calculator. Learning math facts requires simple drills and repetition. There's no getting away from that.
Jim wrote: "I'm not sure that having training in education is as important as having some common sense. ..."So true about common sense! I agree!
"Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.". ---George Bernard Shaw
"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom."
---Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Jim wrote: "I'm not sure that having training in education is as important as having some common sense. ..."Right, Jim! Here's a story which proves your point. When I was teaching first grade, the science department had a list of science experiments we could so with first graders. One of the experiments required the teachers to provide a basin of water and a lump of clay to each child. The idea was to see if the kids could find a way to make the clay float. (view spoiler)
Now who gives twenty 6-year-olds twenty basins of water so they can experiment?
IMO, that's asking for trouble! LOL
Kids learn best by doing stuff & that clay experiment is a wonderful one. Teaches so many facts in such a creative, interesting way. I've always been too impatient to be a very good teacher, but my kids still got plenty of hands on learning. Mostly I show them then tell them to go do it.
Jackie, too many people seem to think 'the authorities' should do it all. Don't get me started on parents & what Marg has to go through with the little monsters she drives around. The biggest problem is the parents.On the flip side, the moronic idea that a parent can't paddle their own kid is creating yet another generation of irresponsible idiots. Pain has been a good teacher for a lot of years. Tell a kid not to tease a dog or stand behind a horse once, whack them the next time they forget, & the second lesson usually sticks. We're not that highly evolved yet.
We just watched a touching wonderful acting movie. I almost hate to say touching as it will go off as being sentimental only. Not true. Morgan Freeman seemed like someone in my living room; not on the TV screen. Great message. It will go down as one of my favotires. Try it, you'll like it.
Jim wrote: "Kids learn best by doing stuff & that clay experiment is a wonderful one. ..."Yes that's true. Here's a quote to back that up:
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” ---Confucius
But although the experiment was a good one, the 20 kids with 20 basins of water made me very nervous! :)
Nina wrote: "We just watched a touching wonderful acting movie. I almost hate to say touching as it will go off as being sentimental only. Not true. Morgan Freeman seemed like someone in my living room; not on ..."Was the movie: "The Magic of Belle Isle"?
http://news.moviefone.com/2012/07/03/...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839654/?...
PS-I saw it via Netflix. I gave it 4 stars out of 5. I remember liking it. Of course with Morgan Freeman, who wouldn't? :)
Yes, that was the movie. Wasn't it great? I am into "Wolf Hall," and it's interesting but hard sometimes to keep my focus. Have you read it?
I watched a martial arts film, The Man With The Iron Fists, tonight http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258972/Typical for modern martial arts: good story, excellent choreography. It had an odd variety of music. And quite a few Asian actors I recognize from TV shows currently airing.
Nina wrote: "Yes, that was the movie. Wasn't it great? I am into "Wolf Hall," and it's interesting but hard sometimes to keep my focus. Have you read it?"Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Haven't read it. Not sure I'd enjoy reading about Tudor England.
Jackie wrote: "I watched a martial arts film, The Man With The Iron Fists, tonight http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258972/ Typical for modern martial arts: good story, excellent choreography. It had an odd variety of music ...""Feudal China"! Sounds unusual.
Jackie wrote: "It's ridiculous. Here in NY, the new guns restrictions are exempt for film making. The hypocrisy is astounding. But the assault on our liberties is worrisome. There's a reason we were given the..."The NY Safe Act was clumsily written by gun-know-nothing amateurs, who borrowed boilerplate from all over the place, then Cuomo hitlered it through before anyone could evaluate it and point out all the errors. It turned thousands of guns into 'assault weapons' which have to be 'registered' and you can't ever sell them after they're registered. I'm not talking about what you're now picturing as 'assault weapons' (the pics in the paper showing AKs with huge banana clips hanging down) I'm speaking of a flint lock with a bayonet lug on it. Or a European $2000 .22 target pistol with the magazine forward of the trigger.
BTW the definition of 'assault weapon' has changed about every 40 years or so, muzzle loaders were state-of-the-art in the 1700s cause they could be reloaded 5 times a minute. Now a 'real' modern assault weapon is full-auto. The morons wanted to use this term, rather than invent a more accurate one, so it would sound worse.
The newspaper yesterday spoke of an effort to 'clean up' the Safe Act. If the general public's interest in hunting sports had not waned (due to all the posted land) this bill would have caused a full-out revolt in upstate NY. It certainly would have 50 years ago.
In case you haven't noticed most of the world HATES Americans. Now is not the time to get rid of privately owned guns, we should be a nation of citizen-soldiers. And yes, I advocate going back to national universal military training for ALL with a 6 year commitment. Mine was 2 active, 2 active reserve, 2 inactive reserve. With rampant unemployment I'd call it preferable to paying federal unemployment insurance.
And that's another problem, Idiot in Chief is downsizing our military. It's not having a defending military that's costly, it's foreign wars that are costing. He says he'll be using covert ops more, that in itself implies more interference in foreign affairs. If this clown gets his way, we'll be invaded in a few years. You might laugh and think it's absurd right now, but it will happen. Sooner if our citizens are disarmed. I know this will sound paranoid but if ever a person appears to be systematically destroying the US, it's our current president. If that's his goal, then he's doing a great job, if not then he's failing on every level.
Earl wrote: "... In case you haven't noticed most of the world HATES Americans. Now is not the time to get rid of privately owned guns, we should be a nation of citizen-soldiers. And yes, I advocate going back to national universal military training for ALL with a 6 year commitment. Mine was 2 active, 2 active reserve, 2 inactive reserve. With rampant unemployment I'd call it preferable to paying federal unemployment insurance. "Do you think that'll ever happen? ("national universal military training for ALL" ?)
Jackie wrote: "...If this clown gets his way, we'll be invaded in a few years. ..."Hmmm, food for thought!!!
Joy H. wrote: "Do you think that'll ever happen? ("national universal military training for ALL" ?) "I don't recall EXACTLY how it happened in my time. Whether it happened before the Korean war in response to the Russian threat or after Korea, since the draft was on anyway. It would certainly be unpopular, which is why you ask I expect. It certainly is a LOGICAL response to an overstressed National Guard and all-volunteer army. To implement it might take another 9-11 to get everybody on the same page. I gotta say that in 1956 (peacetime) our draftee army wasn't very combat ready (from the view of a lowly enlisted grunt). The Army was an old-boy's club that coasted in peacetime and didn't take advantage of the troops available to create a high-quality fighting force. Or course they all expected the big one would be decided with nukes back then I suppose.
Quite a few countries require all citizens to serve in the military. Sweden & Switzerland are 2 examples - or were. Not sure now, but they did. I don't see anything wrong with it.One of the things the liberals are forgetting is that we are a country, a group of people with a stated purpose. While we can & should accept people from all over the world into our country, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that once here, they need to become one of us with a similar set of goals. Public education & service both help with this.
Joy, did you know "Pope Joan" was going to be made into a movie?
It already was a movie, in 2009: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458455/If there's a new one, I can't find it under the title of "Pope Joan". Is that the title of the book it's based on?
When I looked up the book by the title, "Pope Joan," it said, soon to be a movie. That's all I know. Maybe it' an old add. Must be the same one.
Or maybe it's just not listed yet. I'll keep an eye out for it and let you know if I find anything.I watched Rise of the Guardians, an animated kids' movie, it's fantastic!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446192/
When the evil spirit Pitch launches an assault on Earth, the Immortal Guardians team up to protect the innocence of children all around the world. The Guardians are Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Sandman and Jack Frost. Lots of fun, excellent visuals/graphics, imaginative story.
For action movie fans - i recommend Indonesian movie 'The Raid' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1899353/ && http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raid...). The action sequences are intense and at times brutally bloody.
Sounds a little like Dredd http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343727/... a high rise controlled by criminals
Earl wrote: "... To implement it might take another 9-11 to get everybody on the same page. ..."God forbid!!!
Jim wrote: "Quite a few countries require all citizens to serve in the military. Sweden & Switzerland are 2 examples - or were. Not sure now, but they did. ...... we are a country, a group of people with a stated purpose. While we can & should accept people from all over the world into our country ... they need to become one of us with a similar set of goals. Public education & service both help with this. "
Jim, that makes a lot of sense. I have to agree. However, with Freedom of Speech, etc., we have to tolerate those who don't seem to agree with our goals. There's the rub! Of course, as you say, education helps to inculcate our ideals. But there's a fine line between education and indoctrination. Where is that line?
Jackie wrote: "It already was a movie, in 2009: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458455/If there's a new one, I can't find it under the title of "Pope Joan". Is that the title of the book it's based on?"
THANKS, JACKIE! Yes, that's the title of the book. Pope Joan
Neither Netflix or Amazon Prime have the movie available, according to my search.
So I've put them in my Netflix "Save" queue.
However, I found the following DVDs for sale:
"Pope Joan" (1972) Liv Ullman, Jeremy Kemp: http://scootermoviesshop.com/cubecart...
"Pope Joan" (2009): http://scootermoviesshop.com/cubecart...
Jackie wrote: "... I watched Rise of the Guardians, an animated kids' movie, it's fantastic!http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446192/ ..."
Thanks, Jackie. Sounds like fun. I've put it on my Netflix queue.
Ashraf wrote: "For action movie fans - i recommend Indonesian movie 'The Raid' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1899353/ && http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raid...). The action sequences are intense an..."
Thanks, Ashraf. Even though I'm not a fan of that genre, I appreciate your participation here.
I went to a live performance of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" last night at our local Wood Theater. It's heavy stuff. The performers were excellent!(Link: All My Sons )
I also downloaded the film* (via a rental) starring David Suchet. I'll finish watching it today:
http://www.digitaltheatre.com/product...*
* It's a film of the actual play, captured at the Apollo Theatre, London in December 2010.
I wish I could get the version with Burt Lancaster!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040087/?...
Our country's founders envisioned the militia as the whole body of male citizens of military age (and if they were defining it today, they'd certainly include many of our adult female citizens as well), suitably armed for that purpose. I think the Swiss model of universal military service and a universally armed citizenry has a lot to commend it. (Even Hitler didn't dare invade them during World War II, and they have virtually no violent crime --contrary to the "guns cause crime!" theory.)Paradoxically, a strong militia program, with universal training (especially under the auspices of the state governments) would reduce the need for a large standing army. (The founders actually didn't have much use for the latter, because they still had a strong historical memory of military dictatorship under Cromwell; and it was never characteristic of our society until the Cold War.) I'm in favor of maintaining as strong a military establishment as we need to defend the territory of the U.S. and to protect our shipping on the high seas; but not in favor of maintaining one of the size required to try to rule the world through the foreign interventions that Jackie mentioned, or to intimidate the states and the populace as a whole.
As Jim pointed out, America is a nation founded, not on blood ethnicity, but on a purpose, a common agenda of support for the democratic and human rights principles outlined in our founding documents. Historically, an argument for public schools was that they would socialize kids to that common agenda. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they did attempt to do that, to a significant degree. But as the political class has increasingly become hostile to democracy and human rights, we have a situation where the government-run schools are actually more prone to promote apathy and ignorance about that historical common agenda than they are to socialize kids to it, and more prone to sow ignorance and disinformation about our founding documents than to encourage understanding (or even reading) them --and the attitudes and state of knowledge of most of their graduates shows it. The great majority of private schools in the U.S. today actively teach students about the history and meaning of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, how our civic system is supposed to work, what the American Revolution was about, etc. I don't think the same claim could be made for the public schools.
Bravo, Werner! I'm standing up and cheering! Well said!
Werner wrote: "... As Jim pointed out, America is a nation founded, not on blood ethnicity, but on a purpose, a common agenda of support for the democratic and human rights principles outlined in our founding documents. ..."Excellent post, Werner!
As Jim pointed out, America is a nation founded, not on blood ethnicity, but on a purpose, a common agenda of support...That's why the hyphen is so detrimental, because it separates, divides us. People identify with something other than American first, and it's encouraged by the govt. It infuriates me that everyone claims to be Whatever-American, if you were born here you are an American. I'm even further irked that the ethnic group we are not comes before the Americans we are. Irish-American, Italian-American, African-American, and most of those that call themselves these names haven't even stepped foot on those countries, much less being born there. We are not hyphenated Americans, we are Americans. If we could just get rid of the hyphen, it might go a long way in being Americans first, something to bind us together. I received another census questionaire, one of the questions we've all seen on every application is ethnicity, giving a list of Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, etc, I checked 'Other' where I have to write in it and in big bold capital letters, I wrote "American". I refuse to be divided by color and I don't care if they ask, they ain't getting an answer. We must be Americans first if we ever hope to be united. I get that everyone has different ideas and it's why this country is so great, because we can have different ideas and opinions, but it's detrimental when those ideas and opinions divide us. I say let's have our opinions but don't let it become our everything, let us be one people first. I know it'll never happen but it would be nice if we could all just be simply Americans. It's where we were born, it's our home, it's what we are, say it and be proud of it.
Jackie wrote: "... Irish-American, Italian-American, African-American, and most of those that call themselves these names haven't even stepped foot on those countries, much less being born there. We are not hyphenated Americans, we are Americans...."WOW! That is food for thought, Jackie!
Do you think one's own "ancestry" shouldn't be important to that person? I value my ancestry even though I'm American. How would you handle "ancestry"?
I think our different ancestries make us interesting people. Each culture has different things which add variety and diversity to the world.
I do think it's important, I'm not suggesting one forget their heritage by any means, but if we're born here then we are American, we are not hyphen Americans, only if a person is born elsewhere can I see them using the hyphen. What do they say in other countries? They don't hyphenate themselves by where their parents or grandparents came from. They still remember their ancestry but they don't call themselves by it, they don't say Spanish-French when they're born and raised in France, they call themselves French. They don't say Russian-Polish if they're born and raised in Poland. See? That's all I'm saying, be American. Keep your heritage and traditions but don't put it before being an American, and don't divide yourself by it.People have always moved across borders, and accepted their new place as their home and integrated with it, defined themselves as part of it. Why do we claim to be part of a countries we aren't part of? We're the only ones who do it.
When someone asks you what nationality are you, what do you say? I say American. I have Irish, Polish, Spanish, Russian and German ancestry but I'm not Russian, I'm not Irish, I'm not Polish, I'm not Spanish, I'm not German. It's ludicrous for me to claim that by a hyphen, one or all of them. I still keep many traditions of my grandparents but I'm American, born and raised here, there's nothing else I could be. They came here so I could say "I am an American."
BTW, speaking of different cultures, I just saw the movie "Opa!" (via a Netflix DVD). The cinematography & scenery of Greece was so beautiful! I loved the Greek dancing! Nina recommended the movie.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460892/?...
It was a slow-moving plot (and there wasn't much to it) but the scenery made up for it.
Agni Scott, who played Katerina, was adorable and refreshing.
Agni Scott: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1552362/?r...
Jackie wrote: "I do think it's important, I'm not suggesting one forget their heritage by any means, but if we're born here then we are American, we are not hyphen Americans, only if a person is born elsewhere ca..."Yes, we could skip the hyphen but remember the heritage. :) Some say that it's the "melting pot" aspect of America that has made it great.
That's exactly what it made it great. Where else could so many cultures mix together and all be equal?
Jackie wrote: "Bravo, Werner! I'm standing up and cheering! Well said!"Ditto.
Thanks, Jim, and Joy!The movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding has its pluses and minuses (like most movies), but one plus was the message, encapsulated in a quote near the end, that where your ethnic heritage is concerned, you should "never let it define you, but always let it be a part of you." That's good advice, IMO. I'm conscious of the fact that I'm of Swedish/Scandinavian descent (though like Jackie, I have more variety in my descent than that lets on, and my kids and grandkids have even more; we're all pretty much mutts nowadays, and that's a good American trait with no shame in it!), and I have an interest in Swedish/Viking history, culture and traditions. But when I pledge allegiance to a flag, it's to the American flag, not the Swedish one, and the king of Sweden isn't my king. The U.S. is the country I'm loyal to and have a stake in, and the American project of democracy with liberty and justice for all is what I want to be part of.
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Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (other topics)The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and A Fifty-Year Search (other topics)
Safe Haven (other topics)
Mansfield Park (other topics)
The Man Who Cried (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Martin Sixsmith (other topics)Ted Hughes (other topics)
Ian McEwan (other topics)
Timothy Egan (other topics)
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I was just saying to my husband the other day that there seem to be so many unqualified people on boards like this which make so many important decisions. Seems to me that board members of any public institution should be required to be trained for the position, not just elected or appointed without any educational requirement.