Greetings everyone. Even though February is the shortest month, the winter drags for us in some parts of the earth.  It holds opportunities for celebration as well. So here we go:

Kevin is officially off to Japan taking full advantage of the February school break and just before he left, he made sure to offer up his sentence.

Off on an adventure, (No pictures this week)

Amy feels February’s  spirit of patriotism as she writes:

Patriotic feelings swell in the midst of Lincoln’s 200th Birthday Celebration.

And here’s her photo that I must have missed

Lincoln in Post-It Notes created by Chris Killham and displayed in the windows on the bridge that spans Jefferson Street.

Delaine is taking advantage of this month of celebration to bake:

To end my busy, overly scheduled week, I baked a simple berry cobbler.

I want a piece:

Ken, from the Middle Earth, may not be celebrating or feeling our winter, but as usual he offers up wonderful words and an image:

Kia ora Bonnie!

Here are my words:

Wanting grace-note roll or trill
From simmering kettle or steam boiler,
Lacking resonance with clear clarion shrill
From aileron blade or spoiler;
Diapason with its languid chiff,
Euphonious calliope,
Aeolian harp with plaintive riff,
Diaphanous vibrant canopy;
The fine aesthetic dulcet choice,
Tawhirimatea’s breath of life,
It yields the most mellifluous voice
On flageolet or flute or fife;
If you puzzle at this trite epistle
Ponder a while on the humble whistle.

Catchya later
from Middle-earth

And a link to Ken’s photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27480515@N06/3275545895/

Nancy was ready for this photo/text challenge and found herself way right back in the center of her heart::

Once again, despite my best efforts, my favorites subjects are the star of my DiS contribution.

And my HVWP bud, Eric joins us with a week focused on his teaching challenge,  Kindergarten.

As my first goal is to foster well balanced, independent and cooperative children, what do I say when a five year old child responds, ” She is my sworn enemy!”  while trying to resolve a conflict?

My guest host partner Anne, reminds us that even though many of us are enjoying a well deserved vacation, there’s tragedy in another part of the world and she shares:

This week was a really sombre one for me, as the full impact of the Victorian bushfires surfaced, with its death toll, housing loss, animal injuries and grazing land damage. (So, I hope that you will forgive me for not adding a photo)

As I come to the end and add something from my Photo-a Day Challenge, I thank you for taking time to share something here.

On the West Side Highway in the Passenger’s Seat: 45/365

How lucky for Kevin and his family to be jetting off to Japan and how lucky for me to host this week’s DayinS and Anne is rising to the challenge next week.(More details to come)

This week, maybe selfishly, I’m going to suggest that you send me a photo to upload along with your distilled text for the week.

It was about a year ago that D’Arcy Norman suggested that, we might challenge ourselves to shoot a photo a day for the year 2008 and share as many of them as possible.

“What’s today’s picture?”

He calls it “mindful seeing,” and explains in a post he wrote last January:

Mindful seeing is the process of turning off the filters, of seeing your surroundings unfettered and unobstructed.

When viewing the world without filtering, even the most boring and banal subjects can become wondrous and interesting. We are constantly surrounded by interesting things that we normally don’t see - textures, lighting, patterns, shapes, objects, groupings, even messages.

Photographers are often described as distancing themselves from their surroundings by “hiding behind a camera” or “viewing the world only through a viewfinder.” I see photography from the exact opposite side of the coin. By mindfully seeing the world around me, I feel as though I am seeing much more than I would otherwise. I see patterns, convergence, divergence, shadows, lighting, juxtaposition, and composition that are likely missed by others. That’s not to say that I am “better” than any other - just that by being mindful of what I am seeing, I am aware of what is around me. And when I am aware, I am better able to take an interesting photograph.

If you’re interested, the group’s still there, and  now there’s  the 2009 challenge.

Of course there’s Photo Fridays at Flickr where we’ve been sharing together since June and going strong.

I joined this challenge as of January 1, 2009 on my  photo blog, every day and  so far so good. What will I discover about myself?

I want to keep returning to D’racy’s quote to rethink my passion for capturing images.

So if this challenge whets your appetite,  get out our camera and capture something in your world with some of your wondrous words along side or just words is always welcome of course.

Cant’ wait to see what Kevin has to share with us, You can send me your photo in an email:

blkdrama@me.com and leave your sentence as a comment below.

Bonnie

Becca left this writing questionnaire prompt for her Write on Wednesday writing group, on her way off to a vacation and somehow I never took up the challenge and it’s never too late,  so here I go:

What’s your favourite genre of writing?

I love writing  movie reviews and posts about my thoughts on my work, my life. Is that a genre? I’d say non-fiction.

How often do you get writer’s block?

I would say never.  I’m not blocked  but I drive myself crazy procrastinating.

Do you type or write by hand?

As I moved to Mac and began blogging, I retired my notebooks and never looked back and that’s made a big difference.  Left-handed writers had their own set of writing challenges, one being writing stamina.  On a keyboard the playing field in leveled.

Do you save everything you write?

I don’t save what I write on my blogs and some of them have disappeared, but I have been assured by the edublog creators that that issue has been solved. Everything on my hard drive is backed up.  Important pieces are saved.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?

Good question.  Yes, I get a chance for that during our Summer Institute when the writing really flows.

Do you have a  constructive critic?

I do. Thanks to my  National Writing Project and Hudson Valley Writing Project communities, I have a great network of writers to ask for deeper feedback when I need it.  I have my online writing communities as well.  Wow, am I a blessed writer.

Did you ever write a novel?

No, I am better with short stories, digital pieces.  I did take up the NANOWRMO challenge in November, but I enjoyed it, but I had too much going on and after two weeks I had to pull out. It was fun though.

What genre would you love to write but haven’t?

Hmmm, I’m thinking about this one…

What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will?

Horror stories!

How many writing projects are you working on right now?

Many!

Do you write for a living? Do you want to?

I do write for a living.  I have published pieces on the NWP website, but all my work is done with writing.  I couldn’t hold my position with the HVWP without the writing I do.

Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper?

Yes, and now online projects.

Have you ever won an award for your writing?

hmmm…

What are your five favourite words?

Obama…I have to keep thinking about this one…

Do you ever write based on your dreams?

Indirectly, dreams often motivate me to wake up and write.

Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?

Depends on what feels logical.

Have you ever written based on an artwork you’ve seen?

Yes, and my most creative writing coming from its connection with images and music: digital storytelling, now there’s a genre I didn’t list above.  Wow, that’s dumb. I’ve returned full circle to the start of this exploration.  Nice!

Thanks Becca, I wonder if there’s a new prompt for this week.

Bonnie

Just found Cafe Writing thanks to Becca!

Happy 2009!
Café Writing has been declared a resolution-free zone. Well, sort of. There have been enough memes asking about your resolutions for 2009 over the past week, and frankly, I’ve always felt that the resolutions we keep best are the ones we don’t announce – rather like birthday wishes not coming true if you reveal them.

Instead the theme for this Project is “Fresh,” whether that means “audacious” or “new” – and perhaps a bit of both!

Remember to tag your posts with Café Writing, or link to us in some fashion.

This Project will be live through the end of January. When a new Project opens, the previous one is closed.

Here’s the prompt I selected from the smorgasbord of choices.

Option Six: Seven Things

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write..
~Pearl S. Buck

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven things that inhabit or occupy your writing space. Interpret “writing space” any way you please. You’re not required to explain the items in your list, but it’s more fun for readers if you do.

* ~ * ~ *Greetings Cafe Writing Community. How exciting, it’s January 8, 2009 and here’s a brand new adventure to take on.  Here I go!

7 Things that inhabit my writing space.

1. My laptop. No more pens or funky journals, just a white, 13″ Macbook.  For a left-handed writer, this keyboard is Nirvana.  I put my pens in their container, my journals in the book case and I connect to the wall outlet and start clicking away with a fury and  I never really mind revising.

2. My Camera: As obsessed as I am with my computer, my camera is also always near by.  The image and the word work hand-in-hand for me. I have made a commitment to a photo-a-day on my photo blog.

3. A cup of coffee: I used to drink coffee piping hot. Now it can just cool down right near by and I sip it casually.  Do I need it? Probably not, but it’s a wonderful trapping for a writer and of course, I no longer smoke, so there’s no butt-filled ashtrays around me.  I do rotate the funky cups I use.

4. PJ’s: I usually write first thing in the morning and almost always in my pj’s.  What a great way to start the day, writing into the morning even before a shower.

5. The Today Show: My background music: Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann. I couldn’t wait to begin my day with them when I was getting ready to retire from my full-time high school teaching career. Of course, there are times when I have to silence them, but mostly they get me going.

6. A log in the fireplace: Perfect way to brighten up a dreary winter morning or a cold one.

7. My comfy leather chair by the window. Just outside I can see the Hudson River.  I bought this chair a few years ago just for reading and writing and it’s been perfect.  Sure I have a great desk in my study, but I’m not sitting at it often.  The living room is really the heart of my home.

That’s 7.  FUN!

Bonnie

Welcome back, Write on Wednesday and Greetings to Cafe Writing, a monthly writing group I just found on Becca’s blog.  One keyboard click often leads to another treasure.

So here’s our WOW Fresh Start

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write..
~Pearl S. Buck

It’s invigorating to think about fresh new things to do with my writing.  After all, the new year is the perfect time for a fresh start.

How about you?  What fresh new ideas do you have for your writing?

Welcome back Becca and Write on Wednesday.  I’ve missed your great Wednesday writing prompts but I totally understand the need to take a break, so welcome to 2009! Let’s hope we can all enjoy it.

At first, when I read your prompt considering new writing resolutions, I couldn’t think of any and I was ready to just jump into the Cafe Writing prompt, but wait, I always need a bit of time to remember and yes, I do have a new writing challenge.  Inspired by Bud Hunt and D’Arcy Norman and his 2009/365 Photos Flickr group.

I am using my photo blog to house my commitment to sharing a new photo each day with some writing that comes from the photo.  I’m very interested in the image and its words.  I am part of a wonderful image/text community, Photo Fridays, but I feel I need to kick up the anty for myself.

So far, so good.   I even purchased a new, pocket-sized  digital camera perfect for grabbing a shot from my bag.

A photo a day!

Here’s one:

Slice of Life Challenge at Two Writing Teachers

A Photo A Day-am I up to the challenge?

Here’s the inspiration I found at Bud Hunt’s blog

It was about a year ago that D’Arcy Norman suggested that, if folks wanted to, we might challenge ourselves to shoot a photo a day for the year 2008 and share as many of them as possible.  I didn’t do so hot about the sharing part, but I’ve managed to work the question

“What’s today’s picture?”

What D’Arcy’s invitation, and the group’s examples and conversations, did for me was to literally fiddle with the way that I see the world.  He calls it “mindful seeing,” and explains in a post he wrote last January:

Mindful seeing is the process of turning off the filters, of seeing your surroundings unfettered and unobstructed.

When viewing the world without filtering, even the most boring and banal subjects can become wondrous and interesting. We are constantly surrounded by interesting things that we normally don’t see - textures, lighting, patterns, shapes, objects, groupings, even messages.

Photographers are often described as distancing themselves from their surroundings by “hiding behind a camera” or “viewing the world only through a viewfinder.” I see photography from the exact opposite side of the coin. By mindfully seeing the world around me, I feel as though I am seeing much more than I would otherwise. I see patterns, convergence, divergence, shadows, lighting, juxtaposition, and composition that are likely missed by others. That’s not to say that I am “better” than any other - just that by being mindful of what I am seeing, I am aware of what is around me. And when I am aware, I am better able to take an interesting photograph.

If you’re interested, the group’s still there, and getting started with 2009.

Of course there’s Photo Fridays at Flickr where we’ve been sharing together since June and going strong.

I’ve begun this challenge as of January 1, 2009.  I have sharing photos and text on my  photo blog, but every day?  So far so good. What will I discover about myself?  Can’t wait to get desperate as the days, weeks and months pass.  I want to keep returning to D’racy’s quote to rethink my passion for capturing images.

Of course, I need more challenges in my life and here we go again…

Lynn is on board with me. I am also sharing my daily photos on Flickr and with my Photo Fridays group.

Lots of online sharing, what fun!

Bonnie

Thumbs way up for Frost/Nixon: Ron Howard director, Frank Langella as Nixon, and Michael Sheen taking on David Frost’s role.  fresh from his work in The Queen as Tony Blair. I had a good feeling about this piece and beieved that under the direction of Ron Howard it would come to life for me, where the play just didn’t.  I know it was a big hit on stage and I love plays, but I needed to feel the world of these interviews, the closeups on Nixon as we arrive at the last interview and Frank Langella’s remarkable creation of Nixon’s human tragedy.

I hated Nixon.  I didn’ t want to feel sorry for him and Langella forced me to look at the man behind his horrible leadership.  It’s been hard for most of my life to be a passionate Democrat with all these winning Republicans.  Nixon was the bane of my existence through my college years and even though I worked hard for my Democratic candidates there was Tricky.

I was thrilled to watch him pack his bags and leave the White house in disgrace, and given all that, I let myself feel sorry for Nixon the man after all these years.

I hope the Frank Langella is honored for his work; for this piece and for a wonderful movie from last year, Starting Over in the Night.

Golden Globes, Oscars…can’t wait.

So here goes:

:

1. Gran Torino starring Clint Eastwood and Chris Carley.  How often can you see a movie with a big star like Clint, working across from someone you’ve known and worked with from the time he was 14. That’s 16 YEARS!  I’m teacher proud and it’s a very good movie on its own merits, but in this season of movie glut it becomes one more of the many good movies to see.  It’s great marketing to feature Clint,  looking very much like his Dirty Harry of old, but it’s much more than that, thank God. Lots of people will come for Clint and get a good dose of Chris as the priest.

I’m still thinking about the issues of race it raises. I hope Obama is really ready to take on race in America.

2. I’ve Loved You So Long  &  3. Tell No One

Both of these movies are in French. Both feature Kristen Scott Thomas, who rose to stardom in The English Patient, (the first movie I saw with Tuvia) and then found  movies that stretched her as an actor. She is the central character in I’ve Loved You… and we get to know her well as the piece unfolds slowly, authentically.  She has been in prison for 16 years for murder of her 6-year-old son and  her younger sister accepts responsibility for her. She opens her heart and home filled with her husband, young daughter and stroke-silenced father-in-law.  It isn’t an easy adjustment for anyone, but oh so worth the time it takes to get to know each character and slowly Kristen’s story unfolds  as she comes back to life.  It’s getting award nominations and  Oscar buzz for Kristen and hopefully it will move to more theaters.  We saw it in one of our cinemas.

Tell No One is a French thriller that holds you captive for 2 hours and 5 minutes and you savor every moment. A young doctor is visiting his childhood summer place with his lovely, loving wife. They visit the lake they remember as children. They undress, swim and nap, wrapped together on a platform. It’s turning dark. She returns to shore. He lingers. She screams. He is knocked unconscious and falls into the lake. Eight years later a widower and lost without his wife, he receives an email from her: I am alive but Tell No One, they are watching.

In this piece Kristen has a great supporting role as the loyal, loving friend and she’s wonderful once again.

4.. The Visitor

Richard Jenkins, remembered for his recurring ghostly role in Six Feet Under, a popular HBO series, takes us on his unexpected journey that ends his widower’s life of sleepwalking.

Reluctantly he returns to his New York City apartment filled with lingering memories of his married past. Requested by his university department chair to present a paper he supposedly wrote with a colleague he agrees. As he opens the apartment door, he enters into the unexpected: fresh cut flowers on the dresser and a young, beautiful Nigerian woman in his bath tub. Zainab (Danai Gurira), and her boyfriend Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), immigrants from Senegal and Syria, are uninvited guests, unknowingly being exploited as illegals. Realizing that Walter is the rightful owner and dreading the law, they pack and leave with all their belongings. Quickly, Walter reconsiders and invites them back. Tarek, vibrant and alive, warms to Walter immediately and at the end of a conference day, he returns to his apartment and unexpectedly finds Tarek practicing on his drums. Walter, fascinated, hesitantly accepts Tarek’s invitation to drum along. Walter enters Tarek’s world and when Tarek is in danger, Walter steps up to this new friendship.

The Visitor concludes with questions raised about how we treat immigrants post 9/11. Walter is back in the world and we wonder what will happen next.

A small movie, it did get some serious play in many theaters and it’s too bad it isn’t remembered now by those voting for the annual movie awards. Oh well, I’m smiling and I remember it.

5.. Vicky, Christina, Barcelona

What an absolutely sexy, romantic romp of a movie in the golden Gaudi city of Barcelona. Wine for everyone and Javier Bardem for….me!

Woody scored with this one. From start to finish I was loving the experience, grabbing Tuvia’s hand every chance I could get. It took me back to a time when I salivated for another Woody Allen masterpiece: Annie Hall, Manahattan (my all-time favorite) Hannah and her Sisters…on and on and then lots of films that left me unsatisfied, remembering the past. And then I stopped going until Matchpoint and the one after that and still I walked out with Tuvia feeling cheated, not getting it.

But this one, I got! Two young American women accept a golden invitation to spend their summer in Barcelona. The dark-haired, serious, down-to-earth Vicky  (Rebecca Hall) is engaged to a serious, safe and dependable guy back home. Christina (Scarlett Johansson) is still searching for adventure and passionate love. Juan Antonio,(Javier) a successful and colorful artist, likes both women and invites them to join him for a weekend of adventure and great sex. Christina accepts, Vicky comes along reluctantly. Both sparkle with Javier.

The movie moves along in its golds and earthy tones and when we least expect another surprise, surprise, Penelope Cruz arrives, as Juan’s ex-wife, Maria Elena and then Vicky’s preppy fiance joins the group to soak up the romance of the city and marry his Vicky there before their fancy formal event back home.

And the plot thickens as Woody keeps us guessing.

6. Elegy

is another kudos for Penelope Cruz,where she is paired with Ben Kingsley. Based on a Philip Roth novel, maybe more auto-biographical, Ben Kingsley is a successful professor, author, interviewer, man-about-town, lover of the ladies. He is aging and is beginning to feel it. Penelope Cruz walks into his class and he is stricken and doesn’t realize just what this relationship has to offer him.

So far, you might be ho-humming this account, but remember, it’s Ben Kingsley working with Penelope Cruz and they transform a potentially cliched younger woman-older man affair into something that might leave you sobbing, tearing into the depths of your heart. Both Tuvia and I felt the authenticity of this piece and it still  lingers. I hope others remember Penelope’s work in both pieces when Oscars are considered.

7.Rachel’s Getting Married

Rachel is Getting Married is a small movie.  Most of it takes place in a  big old farm house and Jonathan Deme probably had with a much smaller budget than some of his BIG flicks.

But this authentic movie took over every spot in my mind  held weakly by Nicole and Hugh and big Australia.  This “simple” story and its very layered characters  held my attention. I want to remember Rachel in all it’s human sadness and self-preservation.

Great to see Debra Winger romp through her juicy moments as the modern mom and what a great piece of acting from the young Anne Hathaway.  I’d like to see both actors on the Oscar scene for ‘09.

8. Man On Wire

On August 7 (my birthday) 1975, wire walker, Philippe Petite strolled across the newly built Twin Towers.

I don’t remember where I was celebrating my own big day and I don’t remember anything about this daring and gorgeous act, but I will never forget reliving this moment as I watched this riveting documentary, directed by James Marsh,  even with the shadow of 9/11 looming close once again.

A rag-tag group of young French and American 20 somethings planned and orchestrated, with their passion and the ’70’s spirit of adventure, Philippe’s walk across the Towers. A covert operation, under cover of night, draws a sharp contrast with the motivations of 9/11. How life has changed from the innocence of the 70’s.

Petite is the center of Man on Wire, as he shares his memories of his daring feat. He speaks with articulate animation that is as riveting as his walk. How smart he was to document his wire walker experiences. He has stills, video of his childhood, his early days on his home made wires and the romance that he brought to his passion that he shared with his circle of friends. His passion became theirs and that’s all documented.

What’s brilliant about the work of the film’s director, is his ability to put it all together weaving interviews from Petite’s group, merging the past and present reflections.

I was immersed in this piece, realizing that the documentary genre has become my own creative passion. I have great challenges ahead: an SI piece is in the making, a wedding this weekend.

This is a film to own and study.

9. Fugitive Pieces

Fugitive Pieces, The title felt familiar. As I read the blurb about a young Jewish boy who watches his parents murdered and his older sister taken by Nazi soldiers, he runs away and is found and saved by a Greek archaeologist who smuggles him out of Poland and on to a boat sailing for his home in Greece. It felt even more familiar.

As we sat, waiting for the movie, drinking coffee, it came back: a novel of prose and poetry, fugitive pieces of a guilt-ridden survivor. I read this book with my club I remembered how we all lingered with it.

The movie offered the fracturing of Jacob’s life and we had to follow it. It was authentic and painful and poetic in its narration. It made me ache with emotion. The novel made me ache. I remember.

Exquisite in its suffering and its salvation.

10. A Secret

Un Secret ( A Secret) took us back to WW II again.  The focus was on Jews living in Paris during the war but it was less about the horrors of victims and more about the horrors of the living back home. The story, based on an autobiography written by Philippe Grimbert is told through the voice of a son, François, who in 1955, when the film opens, is 7-years-old a frail, which is hard on his father, who is passionate about his physical fitness and his mom who was once an Olympic swimmer.

As we moved deeper into this film’s world we move around in three time periods and sometimes that’s confusing.  We begin in 1955, then up to 1985, when Francois is a grown man with a profession, a family and his aging parents. The director films this present in black and white.  But he throws us a curve when he moves back in time to 1936 where a family secret is born in the midst of the Holocaust and Jewish persecution.  It is the young Francois who learns about the secret when he becomes a teenager and the epilogue of film takes us full circle.

This is more a story about the lives of Jews who were able to survive the horrors of the camps by hiding across the border.  And even though they are Jews, living in Paris in 1936, their lives are not just about the Nazis.  They continue to live and deal with relationships. It is the young Francois who learns about the secret when he becomes a teenager and the epilogue of film takes us full circle.

This is an important film that moves us beyond the more typical issues of the Holocaust.

11. Then She Found Me

After watching a few interviews with Helen Hunt and listening to a few interesting reviews, Tuvia and I leapt for Then She Found Me and thumbs way up there from both of us.

Helen Hunt has been on hiatus, and I haven’t missed her but she has returned with a vengeance of passion to tell this story as a co-writer of Elinor Lipman’s novel, director and star of this unusual movie with lots of donated star power: Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler and even Salman Rushdie.

No one in this movie looks Hollywood-style glamorous. Helen( April Epner) is a 39-year-old-teacher, freshly married to her good friend Matt. She is desperate to be a mother. Teaching young children just isn’t enough. Adopting isn’t an option either, an adoptee herself. She wants her own child and it doesn’t help her campaign, when after a year, Matthew declares that he is not happy with his life and leaves her. Helen looks beaten down, thin, exhausted. Colin is sloppy and Matthew is a putz. Well,Bette is her bouncy self and Salman is a convincing gynecologist.

I don’t think that sharing more of the plot will move you any closer to seeing this one. Just take a leap of faith and you could be left as the credits roll, glad you did.

12. Iron Man

I watched a few Robert Downey Jr. interviews as he hyped the movie.  He was he usual cool self, honest in an outrageous way.   He was driven to play Tony Stark and convinced everyone that he was the only choice.  As the revenues  poured in, everyone was giddy with financial success: $100 million, $200, more.

It was nice to have him back  along with Gwyneth Paltrow  and a bit part for Terrance Howard.  Jeff Bridges shaved his head to play the heavy, but everyone watched Robert D’s every brilliant, human move. Can’t wait for his next challenge.

And there’s more:

13. Doubt

I never got to the play version of this new holiday movie, but finally, I got to see and love the power of great characters with a great ensemble cast to take it on. Meryl is in top form and just looking at the photo says everything about her total commitment to serving the play and the character. A master. And then there’s smiling Philip Seymour Hoffman and an innocent Amy Adams.  I think the story could move into the issues this pieces raises but thumbs up for this trio!

14. Slumdog Millionaire

Tuvia didn’t get this one, but he did wait patiently for it to end respecting my love for its every minute.  What a wonderful surprise hit-The Little Engine that Could.  If Gran Torino doesn’t make its way into the Oscar mix, I will be rooting for this one for Best movie of the year!  Creative in it’s plot as the story unfolds, it’s not a fantasy piece,  but it is romantic in its core. We see the 98% side of the Indian population here and root for the “good” boy who puts everything on the line for his true love.

YES WE CAN!!!!

15. The Reader

Sorry Kate Winslet, you should never be listed at the bottom of any list of movies, even if this one is in no particular order.  I will move you up closer to the top, when I get a chance, but now I’m racing to be done with this post.  Seems like I’ve been writing it for weeks.

So The Reader. I read the book about two years ago with my book buddies and we all loved it, but time passes and I forgot the details and just how powerful the book really was.  The movie is wonderful, with Kate as its center and she was probably my young Meryl Streep favorite. She disappears into this role and while movies come and go for us, we lingered with this one, talking about it at the diner, when the lights were turned off,  on car rides.  And Tuvia took the novel down from its home on the self and read it from cover to cover, searching for answers to questions the movie doesn’t resolve and it should have.

The acting is terrific and the story is powerful but there are gaps here and they should not have been left to our imagination.

16. Changeling

Clint Eastwood directed Angelina Jolie in this piece just before he began working on Gran Torino. One powerful flim after the next.  What a great force and to think, I used to hate his Dirty Harry phase.

Angelina and Brad are creating a unique family worthy of a model UN, they support the rebuilding of  New Orleans and they make creative movies and Angelina is a powerful force in any flim project she takes on.  I don’t remember the movie as vividly as I remember her, her eyes, her character’s stamina.  I’m sitting here remembering as I write and wonder why it didn’t do better at the box office and with reviewers.  Oh well, it worked for me.

Okay, I’m done for now.  I still have to see:

Frost/Nixon, Benjamin Button and more, so I’ll be back with more movies…

Enjoy the New Year with a movie.  There’s lots to see.

On Friday afternoon at 3:00 I sat in the Lowes movie theater on 68th St. and Broadway in New York City waiting for a movie.  We got there early, really early to avoid the cold winds.  We tried walking the 20 blocks from “the TREE” at Rockefeller Center, but there was no way.

Taxi!!

So after a short walk around the theater lobby and the purchase of a small bag of popcorn, we had our pick of seats  in an empty room but slowly, in the next 30 minutes, the theater filled.  Did anyone else, know anyone in movie’s cast?  Anyone else know Christopher Carley? I didn’t stand up to ask, but Tuvia assured me that the answer was probably NO!

I was nervous.  Chris had been in a recent Robert Redford flick.  A small part with a few lines and that was just fun to watch.  In the last decade he had debuted on Broadway, he had been seen in lots of Verizon commercials, even an episode of the Sopranos, and all of that was exciting but this movie, Gran Torino, starring and directed by Clint Eastwood, now that was a nailbitter!

The movie opens in the church.  Clint’s wife’s funeral and yes, Chris opens with the sermon and he looks young and full-faced, Spencer Tracey? And the movie begins and  I am on the edge of my seat where I remain  for the next two hours.  It’s all good but for most of the 2 hours I am holding my breath, always wanting more of Chris until the last few scenes where I begin to relax and feel that Chris has been given an amazing opportunity.

I wonder how I would be feeling in Chris’ shoes at 30 years old working opposite CLINT EASTWOOD, who at 78 is starring, directing,  composing the score and even singing the last tune of the film. And there’s Clint calling Chris “padre”, treating him like an adult. Chris, from my 8th grade English class…

It was a lot to take in and digest.  Chris was great!  The movie is important to be seen and with Clint as Walt, standing in cardboard form everywhere looking like a Dirty Harry from movies past, I’m sure this full theater is a preview of coming theater audiences when the film opens nationally on Christmas Day.

Chris has been sharing the process with me from the day he first read for the part.  On Saturday morning we had a long talk about the film now that I could contribute to the conversation.

There’s life-long learning, there’s life-long s-t relationships.  I have both!

What a profession, teaching!!!

Gran Torino
Running time 116 minutes
Written by Nick Schenk
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Starring Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Her

Here’s the .Gran Torino trailer (Chris plays the priest!)

Tonight in LA, Chris will walk the red carpet with his wife, his agent, his parents and me, riding along in his jacket pocket.

I am always BK.  He knows he can call me Bonnie, but BK feels closer to our core, the playful center of our connection.

He has been holding out for this break, supported by his wife, his family, me.

GT opens in NYC on Friday.  Can I stay away? Can I wait patiently until it arrives in my area?  I don’t think so.  If it’s here, on this coast, I need to get to a theater.  I think Tuvia will understand.

Friday night remains wide opened.

Break a leg, Drama Boy!

BK