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 FIVE - 2012) (ongoing thread)
I have a funny family story concerning Boring: Before I was married I told my husand to be that if he married me his life would never be boring. Later when he referred to that statement he said, "I did't know then that Boring is Beautiful." I married him anyway and I was right; our life was never boring. How could it be with six children, eighteen grandchildren and ten greats... I rest my case.
Nina wrote: "Not a new movie but a good one if you haven't seen it; Race the Sun."Thanks, Nina. Here are the links:
Race the Sun (1996):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117427/
"A bunch of high school misfits in Hawaii, introduced by their new teacher, attend a science fair in which they draw up inspiration to build their own solar car and win a trip to compete in the 1990 World Solar Challenge in Australia."
http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Race_...
I've put it on my N-queue. Netflix gives it the following genres and says it's a "fact-based film".
Genres: Children & Family Movies, Family Features, Sports Movies, Family Dramas
PS-Glad to see you back posting. I missed seeing you and was a bit worried.
Nina wrote: "I have a funny family story concerning Boring: Before I was married I told my husand to be that if he married me his life would never be boring. Later when he referred to that statement he said,"I did't know then that Boring is Beautiful."..."A very apropos post!
Nina, your husband must have the heart of a poet! :) Your life sounds very exciting and interesting to me. You've done so much and you've seen so many places. You have such an active mind and add so much to our group.
Joy wrote: How could anything beautiful be boring? Ed and I love to just sit and "gaze" at the scenery on Lake George. Now don't take this wrong, but it proves Lisa's point. She's younger than us, and she said Norfolk is 'just a bunch of old people sitting around doing nothing'. lol Well, she is on vacation with her mother, right?
I'd be in the class of 'sitting around doing nothing' also. My days of action and adventure are over, by choice. Nothing is more exciting to me than sitting outside watching this beautiful world and reading a book. Others would call it boring.
BTW, I see that Halle Berry is in "Race the Sun" which Nina just posted about. Sometimes I confuse Halle Berry with Salma Hayek who starred in "Frida". They seem to resemble one another.Pic of Salma Hayek: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6IgGAAqUsXo...
Pic of Halle Berry: http://movies.popcrunch.com/wp-conten...
They are both so beautiful!
Jackie wrote: "Now don't take this wrong, but it proves Lisa's point. She's younger than us, and she said Norfolk is 'just a bunch of old people sitting around doing nothing'. lol Well, she is on vacation with her mother, right? I'd be in the class of 'sitting around doing nothing' also. My days of action and adventure are over, by choice. Nothing is more exciting to me than sitting outside watching this beautiful world and reading a book. Others would call it boring."Jackie, I can certainly see your point. Actually I've always preferred "thinking" to "doing". Some people run around like chickens with their heads cut off. They exhaust me. Here's a book for them:
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (2010) by Susan Cain
PS-"Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude and good company."
-Lord Byron
More on "boring". ========================================
Poem: "Being Boring," by Wendy Cope from If I Don't Know
Being Boring
'May you live in interesting times.' Chinese curse
If you ask me 'What's new?', I have nothing to say
Except that the garden is growing.
I had a slight cold but it's better today.
I'm content with the way things are going.
Yes, he is the same as he usually is,
Still eating and sleeping and snoring.
I get on with my work. He gets on with his.
I know this is all very boring.
There was drama enough in my turbulent past:
Tears and passion - I've used up a tankful.
No news is good news, and long may it last.
If nothing much happens, I'm thankful.
A happier cabbage you never did see,
My vegetable spirits are soaring.
If you're after excitement, steer well clear of me.
I want to go on being boring.
I don't go to parties. Well, what are they for,
If you don't need to find a new lover?
You drink and you listen and drink a bit more
And you take the next day to recover.
Someone to stay home with was all my desire
And, now that I've found a safe mooring,
I've just one ambition in life: I aspire
To go on and on being boring.
FROM: Writer's Almanac for 7/21/03
writersalmanac.com (Click on "archive")
or go to: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org...
Wow! I'm boring & loving it.;-)
Good poem, Joy. I agree.
Jim wrote: "Wow! I'm boring & loving it.;-) Good poem, Joy. I agree."
How about this one:
====================================
LOAFING
I looked into the room a moment ago,
and this is what I saw--
my chair in its place by the window,
the book turned facedown on the table.
And on the sill, the cigarette
left burning in its ashtray.
Malingerer! my uncle yelled at me
so long ago. He was right.
I've set aside time today,
same as every day,
for doing nothing at all.
-Raymond Carver
All of Us: The Collected Poems by Raymond Carver
[From: Writer's Almanac for 5/25/04]
http://www.writersalmanac.org
=====================================
Not exactly a poem for an active person like you, Jim, but I'll bet there are times when you agree. :)
Joy H. wrote: "Nina wrote: "Not a new movie but a good one if you haven't seen it; Race the Sun."Thanks, Nina. Here are the links:
Race the Sun (1996):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117427/
"A bunch of high scho..." Just a touch of severe tenditis kept me from typing/not good with my left hand.
PS I received "Hugo," and am waiting to read your reviews until I watch it.
Nina wrote: "Just a touch of severe tenditis kept me from typing/not good with my left hand."Nina, sorry to hear about your tenditis. Hope it improves.
Nina wrote: "PS I received "Hugo," and am waiting to read your reviews until I watch it."Nina, I hope you'll enjoy "Hugo". If the beginning is slow, hang in there. It's a good story and the movie is so well done.
I saw a little bit of "Law Abiding Citizen" tonight. It looks really good. Anyone else seen it?
I went to the theater to see Law Abiding Citizen, my BF Gerry Butler is in it. It was awesome. At first you think it's about revenge but it's not. When you realize what this brilliant man is doing, you can't help but agree. Maybe not with his brutal tactics but with the point he makes. Gerry always chooses excellent films that have a point, one of the reason I like him so much.
Jim wrote: "I saw a little bit of "Law Abiding Citizen" tonight. It looks really good. Anyone else seen it?"Haven't seen it. Netflix says it's "violent" and "suspenseful". Great cast: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Leslie Bibb, Bruce McGill, Viola Davis, Michael Irby, Regina Hall, Gregory Itzin, Michael Kelly. But not my cup of tea.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1197624/
http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Law_A...
"Traumatized by the atrocious murders of his wife and daughter -- and the flawed justice system that set the killers free -- Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) gives in to his rage and sets out on a course of vengeance. He soon takes on not only the prosecutor involved in the case, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), but also the city of Philadelphia. Director F. Gary Gray's bold crime thriller co-stars Viola Davis and Michael Gambon."
BTW, I rec'd the notification for Jackie's post but not for Jim's. I guess I was posting on this thread when Jim's post came in. Maybe that's why I wasn't notified. When this happens, it's easy to miss a post.
Violent and suspenseful, an apt description, but it's so much more profound than simple vengeance. It's a movie that deserves notice, but you'd have to be able to watch some really harsh violence in order to get the message.
Jackie, I try to avoid movies with violence. They bring me down.
I know. As good as this story is, I don't think you could witness some of the things that happen, yet there's no other way to tell it.
It was the violence that grabbed Marg & I since the little we saw was so unexpected as to seem unreal. It made us wonder if it was just a gore flick or something better. Thanks, Jackie.(view spoiler) We stopped the movie then & decided to ask.
We'd missed it because we forgot to set it to record & were watching Jeopardy on the DVR. We're over a week behind, so tonight we'll see the final of the Teacher's Challenge. I can't wait. The first round of the final was all over the place. All 3 guys are good, but the one that seemed the best made some huge mistakes & they all wound up with about $5000 - a very low score considering the caliber of the players.
Jim, how could that happen with a cell phone?
I have no idea, Joy. I guess a bit of explosive in the phone, a shaped charge. I don't know & the timing seemed unbelievable which was why I was wondering how good it was.
I haven't watched Law Abiding Citizen; but in John Sandford's novel Mortal Prey, one villain is dispatched with a cellphone that contains a small charge of plastic explosive, programmed to explode when he has it to his ear, if the person on the other end of the call presses a certain sequence of numbers. The way Sandford explains it, it sounds plausible to me, though I'm not knowledgeable enough to really know.
Jim, (view spoiler).I recommend you watch it from the beginning, even if you have to wait and record it at another time. And finish to the end, the point his makes is powerful and it's such a part of how the court system works that we don't think about it.
Not a very very good day; but could be worse. I failed the eye test at the renew my driver's license bureau this morning so off to the eye dr on Monday to ask for help. Otherwise, My husband is putting off his cataract surgery until he tries his new glasses. This is in order to pass his driver's test. After all is settled with that and me, he'll do the cataracts. I have been busy putting together a genealogical history book on one of my ancestors and it is very time consuming; so far I have 175 pages and about that many more to gather up. It is rather interesting as my ancestor was the first white man to cross the Allegany mountains in a covered wagon. He is written up in a book at the Library of Congress. I am taking them from England to America in 1700, to VA, to WV to KS to MO...Otherwise my tendonitis is not nearly as bad. I am sorry for anyone with bronchitis. Miseralbe. I will say a prayer for the two suffering from it. And, Jim, better snow, than ice, Right. I think we often share weather; weird weather that is.
Sorry to hear about the failed exam, Nina. Good luck.Jackie, I plan to. Thanks.
Joy H. wrote: "More on "boring". ========================================
Poem: "Being Boring," by Wendy Cope from If I Don't Know
Being Boring
'May you live in interesting times.' Chinese curse
A good poem; nice to read something pleasant.
..."
Jim, Werner, & Jackie: Thanks for the interesting explanations about the phone and also about the point of the movie and its title. Jackie, can you tell me (inside spoiler codes) what happened to Gerard Butler's character at the end?
Nina, I hope things get sorted out with the eye tests and the driving tests. Good luck.Good onya with the genealogical history book. You had brave ancestors. What year did he cross the mountains? I wonder how dangerous the trip was. I can't imagine making such a trip in a covered wagon but many people must have done it. I wonder what good novel would deliver a good idea of what it was like.
Yes, the poem was pleasant and fun to read. I like upbeat stuff. There's enough in real life to bring us down.
Some quotes from my collection:
=====================================================
"Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will." -Thomas Carlyle
"A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening 'outside', just by changing the contents of consciousness. We all know individuals who can transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome, just through the force of their personalities. This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others, and justly so; it is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well."
-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience [1990]
"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness."
-Robertson Davies
====================================================
Joy, movie spoiler: (view spoiler)Nina, good luck with the eye tests. A friend of mine just has both her cataracts removed, one at a time, 2 weeks apart. She said it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Good to know, for future reference.
Jackie, (view spoiler). You know I won't watch the movie. :)What are you doing up so late? :)
I napped early in the evening and now I'm wide awake.
I'm always up this late but usually I'm in bed reading. I don't know, time just got away from me.That's where I'm going now....
(view spoiler)
Jackie: (view spoiler)I guess we're both night owls. :)
http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscarto...
I'll probably sleep late tomorrow.
Joy H. wrote: "Nina wrote: "PS I received "Hugo," and am waiting to read your reviews until I watch it."Nina, I hope you'll enjoy "Hugo". If the beginning is slow, hang in there. It's a good story and the movie..."I really really liked, "Hugo" and wondering where your review is?? I wish very much to read it.
The Carlyle quote makes me feel good. As for my pioneer ancestor travelling across the Allegany Mountains; he did it in 1777. There was no trail at that time and I don't know how he brought the covered wagon across those mountains; first white man to do it. He had to stop part way for three months because of Indian raids. After reaching what is now Alderson, WV(he founded the town) he estaclished the first Protestant Church west of Allegany mountains and planted the first orchard. It is written that he carried his gun on his shoulder as he planted.
PS I held in my hands the Communion vessels he brought with him. I was terrified I might drop them. You have probably heard of Alderson, WV as that is where Martha Stewart was in prison.
Netflixed The Counterfeitershttp://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/p...
Language German or French, English subtitles. Good WWII story. Brings to life the casual cruelty of the concentration camps. I give 4 stars out of 5
Netflixed Margin Call
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/p...
This is kind of like the horror movies where the monster is never actually shown. I usually hate those, they're boring. But somehow they made this work. BIG company peddling mortgages, at long last realize they're in over their heads and decide to dump on the market. The monster is that the mechanism of the evaluation of their holdings is never explained. Their 'sell at any price' brings ruination to the world. I gave 4 stars out of 5. Can't believe I got 2 Netflix winners in a row!
Holocaust movies aren't usually my thing. But having read The Hiding Place (I gave it 5 stars; my review is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... ), I was curious to see the movie version; and I finally did tonight. It's a very profound and moving film experience, a dramatization of actual events (it follows the spirit of the book very closely despite differences in details, having been made with the author's participation and support). On the one hand, it's a harrowing, grim, disturbing evocation of one of the darkest hours in human history; but on the other, it's a very luminous testimony to the power of Christian faith in the face of the depths of that darkness --even the hell on earth that was Ravensbruck. It's not for the squeamish; but if you watch it, it will affect you and make you think.
Jackie, thanks for explaining about "Law Abiding Citizen". I guess he made his point with the right person.
Nina wrote: ""I really really liked, "Hugo" and wondering where your review is?? I wish very much to read it."Nina, here's my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The title of the movie was different from the book title, as you will see.
Nina wrote: "PS I held in my hands the Communion vessels he brought with him. I was terrified I might drop them. You have probably heard of Alderson, WV as that is where Martha Stewart was in prison."Nina, thanks for posting about Alderson. I looked it up at Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderson...
It says: "Alderson was originally settled in 1777 by "Elder" John Alderson, a frontier missionary for whom the town is named, who organized the first Baptist church in the Greenbrier Valley."
That's quite a history. I guess your ancestor was the missionary they refer to. Where are the Communion vessels now?
Earl, glad you found 2 good movies. 4 stars out of 5 is a good recommendation.
Werner wrote: "Holocaust movies aren't usually my thing. But having read The Hiding Place (I gave it 5 stars; my review is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... ), I was curious to se..."Werner, my mom had a "deep Christian faith". It saw her through some hard times. It's truly impressive for the strength it can impart.
Joy, I'm sure your mom was a special person, and she raised a daughter that I know she'd be proud of!
The Communion vessels that are over two hundred years old now rest in a cabinet at another John Alderson's home in Alderson. When I viewed and held them they were at John's aunt's home. She sort of thrust them at me and as I said woe be to me if I accidentally dropped them. As I said John Alderson was the first white man to take a covered wagon over the Allegany Mountains. I am now compling a book about this family and I am about two thirds finished; up to two hundred pages so far. The John Alderson who founded Alderson prior to that travelled on a scouting trip with his brother and Daniel Boone into the Wilderness and found a spring near what is not Charleston, WV. They named it Burning Spring. I just re-read some of my notes and John Alderson did establish the first Protestant west of the Alleganies. Prior to that he lived with his mother and father and wife in a house on land that previously belonged to Abraham Lincoln's grandfather. This Lincoln grandfather gave the first John Alderson land to build his church upon. This was in Rockingham CO VA. I need to stop here. Enough history lesson. This family was actually involved somewhat with George Washington, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Carroll who was the last person to sign the Declaration of Independence was a relative.
Nina, our families have a geographic connection. Barb was born and raised in Rockingham County, and most of her family still live there. (In fact, she and I did too, from 1980-83.) So I'm quite familiar with that area!
Joy H. wrote: "Werner wrote: "Holocaust movies aren't usually my thing. But having read The Hiding Place (I gave it 5 stars; my review is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... ), I wa..."How many sibs did you have Joy?
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How could anything beautiful be boring? Ed and I love to just sit and "gaze" at the scenery on Lake George. We're "gazers". Some people prefer a more active life. :)
Have you watched any of "Kingdom"? With ROKU and streaming, I see the beautiful scenery on my big screen TV. I think that might be better than the IMDb episodes on a computer screen. The cinematography is what makes the movie interesting. Otherwise, the storylines, with the lawyer solving mysteries, aren't as interesting to me. Of course, Stephen Fry can make *anything* interesting!
PS-Wiki provides a small map showing the location of Norfolk in England:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk
I never knew exactly where it was. Now I know.