Category: Reviews

I know what you’re thinking… here’s yet another law firm show. You already enjoy Law & Order, why would you need another lawyer show? You tried watching The Defenders and it failed to tickle your fancy. In comes Kathy Bates with her hot new show. Hard ass lawyer, with a fancy office, fancy team, tons of legal jargon to go around, a disagreeable DA to deal with, and no character development whatsoever, right? WRONG! What Harry’s Law has going for it is the entire OPPOSITE of all those things on this list.

Kathy Bates plays Harriet (aka Harry), a burned-out patent lawyer with no criminal experience who gets fired after pretty much boring herself out of a job. After being fallen on by a suicide jumper, and ran over by a car by a young former court rival, all in the same day, Harry decides to simply rent a space in that neighborhood where these strange things happened, and start a law firm. But guess what, that space she rented came with a whole inventory of designer bags and shoes, which her former assistant goes ga-ga over, and decides to join her in that little office, determined to continuing the shoe selling business and starting, much to Harry’s chagrin, the new “Harriet’s Law and Fine Shoes” locale. And, wouldn’t you know it, the young patent lawyer who ran her over, also itching for a change of pace from the corporate world, decides to quit his cushy job and join her in her new adventure.

The show shines with Academy Award Winner Kathy Bates’s performance, and makes you root for her because she REALLY has no idea what she is doing!!! After having spent 32 years trying patent cases, she is a complete fish out of water in a criminal court room.

I cried at the end of the first episode. I can’t say I have cried at the end of ANY TV show pilot I have ever watched. The build up to the final verdict on that first episode was simply breathtaking.

I also need to mention that the show has managed to cast a STELLAR actor for the role of the annoying and disagreeable D.A. (ok, yes, there is a disagreeable D.A.). They managed to get Paul McCrane, whom you might know as major asshole Dr. Bob Romano on E.R. (the chief of surgery who lost his arm on the blades of a helicopter).

In addition to that DREAM of a character (which I’m very much looking forward to watching getting into fights with Kathy Bates’s character), I am also looking forward to seeing my girl Jordana Spiro (you may know her from the show My Boys). That girl is so gorgeous I’d watch anything she was in. I love her voice and her overall demeanor on camera. Can’t wait to see more of her here!

Anyways, I think this is going to be a good show… but people should watch it to make up their own minds. I recommend it! At least based on the pilot episode…

Happy TV’ing everyone!

ina

Photo Credit: http://www.episodeinfo.tv/category/comedy
http://www.tv.com/harrys-law/show/79497/viewer.html?flag=1&i=8&gri=79497&grti=101
http://www.squidoo.com/jordana-spiro

Short version:
I discovered Veronica Mars over the weekend and I love her!

Long version:

The Find

This past weekend my husband Brian and I embodied the very essence of sloth. After dropping my mother off at the airport and waving our contractor goodbye for the day on Saturday morning, we found a comfortable spot on the couch and caught up with every show we had on our DVR.

By 6PM we had completely ran out of shows, so Brian turned on Roku and started watching some insane scifi show from the early 90’s called Lexx or something. So I put on my headphones and decided to look for an instant play movie to watch on Netflix on my laptop.

Didn’t find any movies, so I moved onto browsing the TV show series, and there it was… Veronica Mars.

I had never seen the show before, but I have grown quite fond of Kristen Bell ever since seeing her on the best comedy ever, Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008). So I decided to give it a try.

The Show

The first episode of the third (and final) season begins with Veronica Mars starting her first year of college at the fictional Hearst College, in her fictional home town of Neptune, CA. That was a good season for me to start watching: new environment, new friends, none of the nuances of a new TV show, plus it’s more relatable to my age (as opposed to high school shows). Also, the new environment doesn’t require much need for knowing background information, although I’m sure the high school days were very formative for the young detective.

A good portion of the third season revolves around a mystery concerning some rapes on campus. On one side you have the fraternities trying to stand by their innocence, and on the other you have the campus feminists trying to shut them down. Then there’s the side-story love-triangle involving the dean of students (AWESOME AWESOME ED BEGLEY JR), his young wife, and Veronica’s beloved criminology professor (played by the same actor that played yummy Professor Lasky in Saved By The Bell: The College Years, Patrick Fabian). Each episode also focuses on smaller crimes which have to be solved, and the romance between Veronica and trust-fund high-school-sweetheart Logan.

This show has it all without confusing the viewer and always leaving them wanting more. Even Brian started watching it, and was amazed at how they are able to have a season-finale-like cliffhanger at the end of every single episode!

The Main Character

Veronica is the quintessential independent woman of the millennium. She’s opinionated, not easily dissuaded, and has one heck of a lot of common sense. She makes big decisions seem easy, and she exudes confidence.

Young girls who have similar personalities to Veronica’s may feel isolated at times (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything), and it’s encouraging to see Veronica manage her own personality shortfalls with confidence.

The Mole

My father refers to imperfections as “moles” (as in the ones on your face).

The “mole” of this show, I have to say, is Veronica’s father, Keith Mars, played by Enrico Colantoni. I appreciated his sexy, albeit bald, casanova role in Just Shoot Me (1997), and I just really don’t buy him as the cool but caring and nurturing dad. He makes this puppy dog face that is just simply not congruent with his former-sheriff character. The way he’s playing it may appeal to young audiences who wish they had a cool and soft and teddy-bear like father, but we, the adult watchers, simply don’t buy it.

The Recommendation

If you’re looking for old shows to get hooked on, my first recommendation will always be Frasier (1993-2004) 🙂 However, Veronica Mars is a good one to follow it with 🙂

ina

Last week I watched the movie Ghandi (1982). For those who know who Gandhi is, but don’t quite know how he became the leader he became, you might really get some insight from watching this movie.

I have to say I had no idea what he had done or how. I thought he was just this little guy who was religious, devoted, and with just a set of principles to guide him, and people flocked to him solely for what he stood for. Well, now I know what an important political figure he was. He managed to influence the government, and to influence thousands of people to stand peacefully against the English empire. Simply by “non violent non-cooperation,” he got the Indian people to stand up for themselves (1940’s) and dismiss the English forces.

There were some parts of the movie that were quite disturbing. They portrayed a massacre that occurred in the hands of General Dyer, and the violent riots that occurred between muslims and hindu people after the English had withdrawn (which split the country into Pakistan and India, ultimately). I was horrified at how barbaric people can behave when their core beliefs are shaken.

During the movie, Ghandi did not proclaim himself to be hindu, christian, muslim, or jewish. He proclaimed to be ALL religions. He preached that we are all one and the same, and it makes no sense to separate us. However, ultimately, a new generation stepped up to fight for their beliefs. It was clear these young people who were shouting “Death to Muslims” were not the same people that followed Ghandi during his fight against England. That pivotal moment is when you realized that this little old man had started a movement that was bigger than himself.

Even after he was killed on his way to lead the daily prayers, the troubles between India and Pakistan continue, and the corruption in the new democracy of India persist.

It’s a world like none we could even imagine living in, and Ghandi takes credit for being a peaceful leader and standing for equality at all levels of humanity. Who knows what could have happened if he had not been shot. Would Pakistan and India be in a better place? Would he have more influence over government actions and over corruption? Who knows.

I encourage others to watch this movie. It’s moving, informative, and eye opening.

ina

Last week, on my commute back home one day, the train experienced delays. I had nothing to read and I had managed to mess up the one side I had completed on my Rubics cube (yet again), so I decided to just read something light. I went on my smartphone and News.Googled Taylor Swift. Maybe I’d catch a glimpse of what critics are saying of her new Album titled “Speak Now” (released Oct 25th). I was not prepared for what I found.

Turns out that LAST YEAR this critic called Bob Lefsetz (former entertainment lawyer whose opinion apparently matters) had said a few things about our Tay Tay that were not very flattering. He claims she can’t sing and probably HAS to use something called an “auto tune” in order to sound on key. Mind you, this is after he had written a rave after going to one of her awesome concerts.

Taylor didn’t take this sitting down. She called him up and had a long conversation with him to address his comments. Bob said she was intelligent and had full domain of certain topics. She assured him she doesn’t use am auto-tune and wouldn’t even know what one looked like if it was put in front of her. She even invited him to check out her equipment. Then he said he still stood by his opinion that she can’t sing. She laughed it off and said she could take that, but what she could not take was any claim that accused her of being inauthentic.

Then there were claims that her new song “Mean” was about him. I can see it, after all, she does say:

♪ Nobody’s listening,
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things,
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing ♪

I don’t really care what this dude has to say. People don’t come to Taylor’s concerts to hear an Aria. They come because they love her and love singing along and love that she cares about them so much. She’s a real-life Barbie doll who inspires young girls the way that the Barbie comics used to inspire me when I was 9. Barbie was always so kind to others, so loved, so humble, so daring, so adventurous, that I really wanted to be like her. That’s the impact our dear Tay Tay has on her fans. Can she sing? Well, of COURSE she can. Put her up on a stage with a mike and she certainly makes it sound good (as a karaoke aficionado, I can attest to the fact that it is HARD to sound good on a microphone). Now, does she have the vocal range of Martina McBride or Carrie Underwood? Definitely not, but that’s not Taylor’s hook anyway, so who cares?

I do have a confession to make, though. After reading these critiques, I see Taylor in a different light.

You see, we, the fans, are completely sheltered from the bad stuff because we follow Taylor on Twitter, Facebook, mySpace or through her very-fan-oriented TaylorSwift.com site, where no bad stuff ever enters. We follow her bandmates on Twitter, and we delight ourselves in knowing which country they are visiting at the moment, which TV show they are playing on, and learning what great foods they ate along the way. There is never talk about anything bad, and I really appreciated that. It fed our perfect fantasy.

Now that I realize, like Bob Lefsetz, that Taylor’s love stories are no longer anonymous, she’s going to have to take a deep breath and accept the consequences that her stories belong to those who participated in them also, and not just her. People will lash out, respond, and create a second side to Taylor’s songs. Did she know this was coming? I really didn’t see it coming… but I guess it makes sense.

So now that I know that “Mean” is about Bob, that “Dear John” and “The Story of Us” are both about John Mayer, that “Back to December” is about Taylor Lautner, that “Last Kiss” is about Joe Jonas, and that “Better than Revenge” is about Camilla Belle (stealing Joe away), I have to say that I am a bit scared for Taylor. She’s a very nice person with real feelings and a lot of class, and it must feel like nails on a chalkboard to see that her letters, which will continue to make her famous, are targetting people who have their own fans and defense. It’s as if her personal diary had been plastered all over the news… but she was the one who leaked it.

I feel very uncomfortable with this way of lashing out at the world. I know she can only write what she knows, and her own feelings are what she knows… but writing letters to her past boyfriends in such a public way may backlash.

I just hope she can start seeing the difference between being authentic and airing out your dirty laundry. It’s not classy, it’s not necessary, and it’s not her.

ina

On a previous post I talked about a new event I planned: The OFFiS! Which is a night where my friends and I gather to watch Academy Award nominated films in the category of Foreign Language.

Our first OFFiS event was yesterday. We watched a Japanese movie called Departures (2008), which won the Academy Award for our category in 2008. Here’s a description of it:

Departures (2008)
Freshly unemployed, young cellist Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) has an epiphany in which he realizes he’s been heading down the wrong career path. Retreating to his hometown, he trains for a new professional role as a nakanshi, or one who prepares the dead for burial. Tsutomu Yamazaki provides comic relief as Daigo’s eccentric mentor in director Yojiro Takita’s Oscar-winning, richly detailed — if unlikely — drama about finding your bliss.

The story was pretty moving, even though there were many things we could not quite understand from a cultural standpoint. For example: Why did the wife smile through misfortune? Why did she not express her point of view until it was too late? We were really struggling to understand the lack of communication in the main character’s marriage. Daigo, the main character, made it a habit out of hiding non-trivial information from his wife. For example, the fact that he owed 18MM yen on his cello, or what exactly he did for a living (and no, he wasn’t a spy or government agent). Every time the wife would ask why he didn’t tell her, his answer was “because you would have said no.” How do you live like that?

Anyways, putting that aside, there was something that kept nagging at me. The job he got was looked down upon by everyone. He was essentially a ceremonial undertaker. He prepared bodies to be put in the casket as family and friends watched. After a while, he warmed up to it, and thought of it as an honorable career. What was bugging me about it was how this perspective clashed with what I think makes a career, and that is the existence of intellectual challenge.

It didn’t take any experience or educational background, and there wasn’t much of an opportunity to learn new things. Is that a career? What really defines a career?

I guess I think about it this way because I get bored very easily, so I need constant change to keep me awake and interested. What if the job did not require education, but it had opportunities for learning different things? Like owning a store, or something like that. Would that be a career? I think I would still find it boring after a while, but I’ve never had that kind of job.

In terms of society, though, every job is essential. Why can’t I think of the undertaker’s job as a beautiful and essential role in the community? Why isn’t that enough to tickle my fancy?

I guess to each their own… it just got me thinking.

ina

The premise of the movie is that an astronomer discovered that the sun was approximately 1 week away from going supernova. Freakin’-a, I can’t even finish writing the premise without already finding 5 things wrong with that statement. Now, I worship Luke Perry as much as the next Beverly Hills 90210 fan, but if his career wasn’t over after this show, I don’t know what else could finish it.

I’m no expert, but I can tell you a few things that I know from watching series about the Universe on the History Channel:

1. A supernova is when a massive star (100 times the size of our sun) reaches the end of its life, and it collapses to its center right after expanding in a huge explosion. It is impossible for our sun to go supernova because it is simply not big enough. When our sun finally dies, it will become a white dwarf, which is a different phenomenon of end-of-life for a star.
2. Suppose our sun was about to die. Take my word for it, it would be impossible to calculate the exact time of collapse to the week. The evolution of stars go over millions of years, and their lifespan is certainly not measured in days.
3. The plasma “fire balls” they keep referring to are completely misrepresented. There are a few things wrong with this picture. It is true that the sun may emit plasma flares, however, they are not fire balls! These are flares of electron-free charges (basically naked nuclei), which are not lit up on fire! Should a flare actually be pointed towards Earth, they would be attracted to our magnetic poles. The surge would be so great, that it would indeed cause blackouts and render satellites useless… but not for just a little while! It would be permanent. But none of that is happening in the movie. Instead, they are showing something similar to a massive meteor shower.
4. More things wrong with the flares: they show the sun flaring out in rings. Dude, sorry to break it to you, but flares occur in single spots on the sun, NOT as rings of energy.
5. If you really want to nit pick, you can easily have a field day with the representation of those fireballs. If they are coming from the sun, people should be seeing them coming straight on, not sideways as if they were entering the atmosphere at an angle. They are also extremely slow coming in! The flare will not travel at the speed of light, since we are in fact talking about physical matter, but they would be FAST: literally coming at millions of kilometers per hour. Why do they look like they are falling leasurely down through the sky??? Are they actually slowed down THAT much by AIR??? Which brings me to my next point of visual misrepresentation: they keep falling onto Earth in different angles! Take a look at this picture. If the flare is coming from the sun, why on Earth (no pun intended) would they come from different angles! Look at their tail trajectory. Seriously people?

There are many things wrong with this series. And they are not subtle. Even I knew the sun’s death meant becoming a white dwarf, and I’m not even an astronomer! Did they not have consultants on set??? Did they talk to ANY reputable astronomer? Or did they think just because it was SciFi they would be able to get away with anything they wanted? Or maybe more people would tune in to see a show called Supernova rather than one called White Dwarf.

Warning: spoiler alert

Oh, and by the way, the final resolution was that the genius scientist (our dearest Luke Perry) found that his own calculations were wrong by a SIGN error (should have been a minus sign, not a plus sign). He caught it, and saved the world! By the way, just minutes before that scene, my father (an amateur astronomer himself) actually called it: “he probably just had like one sign wrong.” My father gets the credit for calling that one.

ina

I just took the train to the airport for my flight to Texas this evening. That’s not strange, I have done this many times before, but this time I took a different route: instead of taking the Blue Line (subway) to Airport station and then the shuttle to the terminal, I took the Silver Line (bus) straight to the terminal.

First off, let me dispel the myth that it is faster because it drops you off at your terminal. It isn’t! At least if you take the subway you don’t have to deal with traffic, and the shuttle is a DROP OFF ONLY bus! The Silver Line bus picks up passengers, which makes it really slow to move on from terminal to terminal.

The one thing that I found kind of nifty was that the Silver Line bus goes UNDERGROUND for the first 3 stops. So it works almost like a subway, but it’s on wheels! See a picture below. I thought that was kind of cool.

Alright, wish me luck in my travels! Wow, I feel like I live on a plane lately.

ina

I do not buy Apple products. Here is why:

1. iPod: when they first came out, they were too expensive and I already had a MiniDisk player that worked just fine (early 2000’s). In 2005 I got a Shuffle as a present, and it ended up breaking (it wouldn’t charge anymore). Took it to the store, and one of them Geniuses said I had to buy a new one. Reluctant to spend money on a gift, I left it alone. I didn’t use it that much anyway. During my years of pondering whether to get an iPod, I still found it offensively expensive and I had heard that the Apple music format was not compatible with anything else BUT Apple… so I always had the question of whether I would be able to populate my thousands and thousands of pirated songs (from the good old Napster days) into an iPod anyway. I never cared enough to find out the answer. It was just too much trouble. For my birthday, my husband got me an mp3 player that has FM radio (Sandisk Sansa). At this point, even if I wanted an iPod, I would not buy one for the simple fact that it doesn’t have FM radio. What can I say? I like my NPR.
2. Mac: I grew up on PC. I know the OS inside and out. I understand the command prompt and the file structure. I find Macs difficult to use because I don’t know them. I hate the fact that the backspace button says “Delete.” I hate that I would have to re-learn everything I know about shortcuts on a new system. I thought of getting a Mac so I can do my video editing on a more media-friendly machine, but then I just realized it would be too expensive a purchase just to use one application more effectively. I got a Dell Studio 19 inch laptop in PINK instead. I’m very happy with my choice.
3. iPhone: my husband is a Verizon freak. If it ever came to a choice between me and Verizon, there is no doubt in my mind that Verizon would win. I would not switch services to AT&T, no matter how cool the iPhone is. Now, let’s put the service provider aside. I NEVER get the first generation of any new technology, so I sat tight and waited for the iPhone reviews to pour in. A couple of years later, Verizon started coming up with their “response to the iPhone” and I just thought I’d wait for that instead. As for functionality, I do a fair amount of blogging on my smartphone, and it is very important to me that the keyboard is responsive. I have tested the iPhone’s keyboard, and I get more gibbirish than anything. It just doesn’t agree with me, so I would not find it very useful for my most important smartphone task. Byebye iPhone, you’re just not cool enough to make me switch.
4. iPad: only time will tell. Too early to review. However, I did go to the Mac store and tried out their keyboard (for blogging, of course), and it gave me gibbirish. The Z and the Y are inverted!!! what??? I DON’T THINK SO.

As for what happened to my broken unfixable Shuffle, well… it got what it deserved.

Sorry it’s not a very scientific review… it’s more of a laymen review.

ina

From the movie Adaptation.

Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn’t be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I’m a walking cliché. I really need to go to the doctor and have my leg checked. There’s something wrong. A bump. The dentist called again. I’m way overdue. If I stop putting things off, I would be happier. All I do is sit on my fat ass. If my ass wasn’t fat I would be happier. I wouldn’t have to wear these shirts with the tails out all the time. Like that’s fooling anyone. Fat ass. I should start jogging again. Five miles a day. Really do it this time. Maybe rock climbing. I need to turn my life around. What do I need to do? I need to fall in love. I need to have a girlfriend. I need to read more, improve myself. What if I learned Russian or something? Or took up an instrument? I could speak Chinese. I’d be the screenwriter who speaks Chinese and plays the oboe. That would be cool. I should get my hair cut short. Stop trying to fool myself and everyone else into thinking I have a full head of hair. How pathetic is that? Just be real. Confident. Isn’t that what women are attracted to? Men don’t have to be attractive. But that’s not true. Especially these days. Almost as much pressure on men as there is on women these days. Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence? Maybe it’s my brain chemistry. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. Bad chemistry. All my problems and anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance or some kind of misfiring synapses. I need to get help for that. But I’ll still be ugly though. Nothing’s gonna change that.

ina

Got a new phone and I’m ready to blog again.

The first time, the keyboard stopped working. The second time, I damaged the battery connectors by accidentally putting the battery in backwards (it could happen to anyone). In both cases, the phone would crash overnight while charging, or it would crash as I got an incoming call. Also, the phone is backlight-happy: it turns on and turns off with amazing ease and independence, such that my phone pocket dials people at will, and also turns on when I am talking, such that my cheek ends ups hanging up on current calls. Even with the new phone now, the calls are so slow to come in, that callers may hear the phone ring 3 times before I am even able to accept the call. Also on the new phone, I’ve noticed that the 2 and 8 keys on the keyboard are abnormally bright.

The actual phone is a marvel of design (great keyboard, great screen, great usability), but I’m sorry to say that it is just a piece of junk quality-wise. I wish it was fast, reliable and didn’t break as easily. If all these wishes came true, I probably stick with this phone forever. If only, right?

So here are some tips for people who do have this phone already, and are stuck with the 2 year contract:

• GET THE INSURANCE AND EXTENDED WARRANTY. You will thank me later.
• Lock your screen, such that if your phone decides to turn on, it won’t be able to dial numbers
• Get yourself an alarm clock. This phone should not be trusted to be up and functioning overnight.
• When you call someone, wait for the call to go from "Dialing" to "Connecting" before turning off the display and holding the phone to your ear. If you turn off the display while it’s "Dialing," it will turn back on when it switches to "Connecting," and your cheek might press the "End Call" button.
• Alert your friends and family that if their call didn’t go through the first time, they should try once more. This is a practice that has helped my family get in touch with me despite the unreliability of my phone.
• Get yourself an additional extended battery. I’m lucky to get through a whole day without the battery running out on me. On the same issue: keep a charger at home, at work, and in your car. Keep your phone plugged in as much as you can.
• Use Microsoft’s MyPhone application to back up your stuff. I could not figure out how to use the Verizon backup system, but even if I did, it would not back up certain things that are specific to Windows Mobile. MyPhone is really easy to use, and it backs up your stuff overnight. If you’re planning on switching out of Windows Mobile, then you should figure out the Verizon backup instead.
• Make the most out of your phone by using the STAR key on the keyboard to open Remote Desktop. Simply leave your computer at home on, and you’ll be able to access it through your phone. THIS is the main reason why I purchased a Windows Mobile phone in the first place. When I switch to Blackberry, I’ll be mozying over to rdmplus.com and installing Remote Desktop on my phone. Booyah.
• Use your phone camera. It’s a 3.2 mega pixel, and the size and quality of the pictures (on a clear day) is quite something.
• Remember that your phone has an Airplane mode, so you can use it in-flight.

Man, I can’t stay mad at this phone for long. I love my phone. It’s perfect for blogging, and it gives me what I need. It’s still a piece of junk, but it gives you so much that it will be hard to let it go… hard, but not impossible.

Good luck out there.

ina

I don’t watch The Bachelor. I guess it’s mostly because the guys they ‘showcase’ are never my type. I like the geeky, sweet and shy ones like my husband. But they always have some pretty boy player with the muscles, and way too much willingness to kiss 25 girls on the first date.

I am a firm believer in 1-to-1 connections, and everything else is just ‘wanting to get some.’ Meaning, the guy MUST have one girl he can’t stop thinking about, and the rest are just nice to have.

Well, somehow my husband and I turned on the TV to last night’s The Bachelor Special “The Women Talk,” and could not turn away. They had all the girls talk about their experiences on the show. In the end, they had the guy come out and talk about his experience. By the way, my sister Monica Geller is totally in love with this Jake man.

If there’s one thing I learned on this Special is that people either have no idea what the word “love” means and what true love feels like, or they are all masochistic suckers who fell in love with some guy who’s been playing ALL of them… PUBLICLY…

A few comments:

• That girl Gia apparently thought she had him wrapped around her little finger, and he sent her home anyway. He said it was the right thing to do, which is a nice way to say “I was just not that into you”
• That girl Ally was 100% right: if what they felt for each other was real, THE SHOW WOULDN’T HAVE MATTERED. But he let her go, and moved on to another girl who would stay. What does that tell you about his level of commitment?
• Both Ally and Jake said the same “I thought he’d fly his plane to California and come after me” and “I thought she’d jump out of the limo at the last minute and choose me over her job,” respectively, but NONE of them did that. Why do we always wait for the other to bend first? Does that sound like true love to you?
• Again on Ally: when the host asked her if she would have chosen differently, notice how she made a pause. I was totally with her: she said she would choose love over job… but she knew this wasn’t the guy for her, and she couldn’t say “no, I still would have done the same,” instead she answered more broadly: she would choose love over work… in the future… if she had the choice… with someone else entirely… but not with him. She’s probably the smartest of the bunch.
• That girl, Elizabeth was it? Who said no kissing until she’s the one… I didn’t see her interview or her clip (that’s when we turned on the TV), but I thought that was a nice attempt at ethics on a dating show, where the guy IS expecting to get action from everyone. I think she had the right mindset, but in the totally wrong setting and totally out of character. She even admitted to not hold out like that in real life. Just not the best place to make that statement… and it was just not believable.
• That girl Roslin (sp?) was a total whack job. It is OBVIOUS she was having a relationship with the producer, and continuing to deny it does NOTHING for her image. People just hate a liar and they can smell it from a million miles away. What a big difference would it have made if she had just come on and said “Yes, your producer and I met and started a relationship on the show. It just happened, and we are both sorry about how the entire situation unraveled. We do apologize for putting the show and the other girls in the house in such an awkward position. We are still in a relationship, and I met his father, and we are very happy. I really wish all of you and Jake the best.” I should be in PR. My heart was with the host, he was LOSING it with her.

I guess that’s enough of my two cents about a show I don’t even watch. I’ll be watching the finale next week for sure, though!

ina

This is a test. I opened Word 2007 to start working on the paper I have to write (which I have been procrastinating from doing all day), and I saw there was a New Blog document option… this is my attempt at blogging with it. Let’s see how it goes.

This is a test to see if it accepts HTML, or if it sends it as text:

<font color=#ff80c0><b>ina</b></font>

Post-Test Assessment:
Eh, it’s the same as emailing the blog, except that Word does handle inserting pictures.
At the same time, I only email blogs if I’m on my phone… if I’m at my computer, I won’t use Word, I’ll just come straight to the website.
Survey Says: Useless feature.

ina

This morning I turned on the TV to the movie Yes Man (2008) with Jim Carrey. I’d been wanting to see it, so I set it up to record tomorrow and I’ll review it later (if it deserves it). I only watched about 15 min of it (BTW, I love Zooey Deschanel), and I, OF COURSE, started reflecting on my own life.

I used to be a Yes Woman. I really really believed that every opportunity was golden, and it would open up doors to new and better ones. I had the “why not?” attitude. I followed a very wise advise I got from a little life book: "Show up." That’s how I ended up always taking even a little bit of action in all my bold ideas. But ever since I started the MBA (3 years ago, as one of my "Yeses"), I have not felt very "Yesy." In fact, I’ve felt like saying “No” most of the time. It even made it into my new year’s resolutions list for 2009: to start saying No, so that I don’t overextend myself with commitments and feel so overwhelmed all the time.

I want to be a Yes woman again… but I can’t do it while I still have classes at night, and so much on my schedule. I think Yesdom is for people who have the time and some money to spend. I used to be one of those people…

Well, August will come soon enough, and the MBA will be over. I’ll get my time back and fill it with any kind of stuff. I guess we’ll have to see what’s next for this temporary No Woman.

ina

They played Ricky Gervais’s movie The Invention of Lying (2009) on the flight back from Caracas. It wasn’t as good as I expected it to be, but something stuck with me: the "true" world was so devastatingly unhappy.

Leave aside the Biblical references, and the obvious explanation for people to have something to believe in, therefore the worshipping of a god, and just look at the contrast between a happy and an unhappy existence.

If everybody said what was on their minds, would we all be miserable? We could all relate to the "true" statements in the movie: homes are nothing but sad places where old people are abandoned by their loved ones, we do think the person we are out on a date with is a total loser, we do think about what our kids would look like were we to marry an unattractive person (although not as much as Anna, played by Jennifer Garner, seemed to have), and we do feel happy when someone lies to our face, because they are saying exactly what we want to hear. That little lie can make your day and give you hope that things will be fine.

I don’t believe that humans are so pessimistic, though. In that sense, I disagree with the premise of the movie. I think that we all have our optimistic and our pessimistic side, and if we all set out to say exactly what was on our minds, we would evolve into beings that balance out the good and the bad. We would probably speak our minds a lot more than we do nowadays to say the good things. We are just so used to putting on a front, that we think our true selves must be pessimistic, miserable and hateful monsters. But that’s not so.

The monster inside of me tells me every day that I’m not good enough, that I hate my job and I’m too much of a chicken to do anything about it, that I’m short and fat, that I’m a bad friend, that I will never be happy. If I only listened to the monster, I would be even more depressed than those people in the movie. But what keeps me going is the energetic and optimistic side of me, who tells me how good a life I have made for myself, how smart I am, how generous I am, how pretty and so NOT fat I am, and what a great wife, sister and daughter I am.

Studies show that we listen to negative feedback much more intently than we do positive. This is not because we only see ourselves negatively, on the contrary, it is because we DO believe the positive, and may think that anything that’s not news doesn’t count as feedback. Let me tell you right now: if we did not have an equally strong positive side, we would have all given up on life years ago.

So maybe it’s time to give your positive side a voice. Stop drowning it. Kick the monster’s ass for 60 seconds, and ask yourself: what is my positive side telling me about myself to balance out the negative?

ina

I finally watched the movie Revolutionary Road last night, and I have to say it is not what I expected. I thought it was going to be a 50’s version of "The Story of Us" (1999, Michelle Pfeiffer and Bruce Willis), where they would show the characters’ lives over years and years, but it wasn’t. The whole story actually occurs within a few weeks.

Warning: this review goes through the entire plot in the "Plot" section. If you’re planning on seeing the movie, I advise you to skip that part.

Plot

The premise of this movie is a couple who met at a party (an aspiring actress and a good-for-nothing temp). They get married and her acting career fizzles after poor performances. He takes on a job at a company selling advanced equipment, where his father worked for 20 years. They move to a quaint house in the suburbs (on Revolutionary Road) and have 2 kids: a boy and a girl. Typical American family, but they are not the typical couple.

Unlike everyone else around them, they realized that life should be LIVED and not let pass them by. Dissatisfied with their lives, and finding themselves fighting more and more each day, they decide to move to Paris for a very much needed change.

That decision is put to the test when Leo DiCaprio is offered a promotion working in the computer business, and Kate Winslet gets pregnant unintentionally. As the bread-winner, the husband feels that he might be able to lead a wealthier and better life by taking the job, which makes him reconsider Paris. At the same time, the wife is considering an abortion in order to keep the Paris plans alive.

After many fights about the job and the clearly unwanted baby on the way, they decide not to move after all, which is just the beginning of the utter deterioration of their marriage. This is besides the fact that they have both cheated on each other and show no clear remorse.

After hitting rock bottom one night (HUGE fight), Leo goes to work, and Kate performs the home-abortion way past the "safe" time of 12 weeks of pregnancy. She dies after being taken to the hospital.

Leo never moved to Paris. He moved to the city with his two kids and lives his life in sorrow.

My Thoughts

I watched this movie with my husband. He had many things to say about how dysfunctional their relationship was, starting with the very first fight scene. My husband said that they were not communicating (he’s so cute when he talks about relationships as if he was an expert 🙂 ). I asked him what they could do to save the marriage, and he said "Talk."

I told him that more than "Talking," the thing that was missing was the "Listening." It’s so hard to listen to others sometimes, especially when you are sure they are wrong or acting irrational. It’s much easier to just exercise your right to expressing your feelings by talking about them and making the other person hear you out. If they refuse to listen, then you say they’re not listening (boom, they lose). But why are you doing all the talking in the first place? Why are your feelings more important than the other person’s?

My husband and I have by no means the perfect marriage, and we do get into fights sometimes. What usually makes it OK at the end of the day is that we both have a deep love and respect for each other, and I often tell him that even when I don’t like him, I still love him. It also helps that we both know how to appease the other in a fight, and we know when we really mean an apology. For example, he knows that something as simple as a hug or embrace can melt my bad feelings away, and I know that he doesn’t like to be touched when he’s mad, so I know that I need to make myself behave pleasantly and treat him kindly for his anger to melt away faster. It’s not easy in either case!!! How can he feel like hugging a ball of fire? and how can I make myself be nice when I’m probably as angry as he is? It’s HARD work, but we know that there won’t be any real "listening" going on unless we are both in the right mindset, and we use those means to that end.

Our little "tricks" to help each other through fights are not fool-proof, but as long as the desire to resolve arguments in a favorable manner for both parties is there, we can trust each other to take care of our feelings as well as their own. And I think that’s what it’s all about: loving someone so much that you are willing to put yourself aside for them. If this is a mentality that both partners have, imagine the possibilities for making each other happy.

Going back to the movie, it was clear that there was deep resentment between them, and they did not trust each other with their feelings. They were both out for themselves. Even at their best, they were cheating, withholding, and full of unspoken hatred.

Miserable relationship. Sad movie. Watch it with your significant others and talk about what they could have done better. I just hope neither you nor your significant other place blame on just one of the characters. That would not be a good sign.

To read a real review, check out Maxim’s Movie Reviews blog.

ina

Again, there was nothing on TV, and Mr Holland’s Opus was starting, so I decided to watch it. I know my husband loves the movie and it’s a classic. I saw parts of it when it first came out, but never really sat through the whole thing. Well, I’m glad I did tonight. I’m also glad I got to see it with my husband.

The plot is simple: a musician/composer takes a teaching gig at a high school hoping it will give him enough free time to compose his ultimate symphony. Like every teacher movie, he ends up deeply touching the lives of all of his students by his modern, playful and caring style. All while he was raising a deaf son, or not raising him, rather. He becomes detached from his own family, and he realizes later in life that he doesn’t know his son. In the end, 30 years later, they cut the arts/theater/music program from the school due to budget constraints, and his students from the past 30 years (one of which became the governor of the state) gather in the auditorium and allow him to direct them all in playing the Opus he has been composing for the past 30 years.

I was crying and crying by the end of the movie. It was incredibly touching.

As with every review, let me tell you how this applied to my regular life. For the past few days, as I have been considering a career change to teaching, I have been struggling with the lack of validation/rewards in the school system. I recommend that you read Teaching in the 408‘s blog entry on The Ledge that teachers live on: whether to leave or stay. The main idea here is that teachers stay for the kids. They do genuinely care about them, but, as professionals, teachers need to feel like their careers are advancing, or that their efforts to improve are actually being recognized by higher forces in the school system. This reward system does not currently exist, or at least not in any efficient fashion. This has been on my mind a lot: do I really want to go from a really frustrating job to a really frustrating job? Will making class educationally entertaining for the kids be driver enough to keep me going year after year?

After watching Mr Holland’s Opus, it’s easy to think that these issues won’t matter in the long run or in the day-to-day. It makes you believe that it IS all for the kids after all, and everything else is a side issue. Occupational hazards, if you will. However, not all teachers will get a standing ovation from all of the children they have impacted over the years at the end of their careers; even if they did, would that be enough of a reward?

This movie did not plug all the holes in my aspiration for a new career, and did not answer all of my questions; but, by golly, it made me feel so inspired. It made me feel like maybe there is something to just doing it for the kids. Maybe the work itself is its own reward. Maybe being a teacher is really that romantic and a path worth going down. Whatever the reality actually might be, it’s movies like these that make us work towards a common goal: a better world for our kids.

I feel like going out on Netflix and queuing up all those good teacher movies. Lean on Me is a good one. Another good one is Chalk — it’s filmed as a documentary, same style as The Office, and it was a great flick, especially if you work in the school system. Are there any other good teacher movies? (please don’t mention the one with James Belushi or the one with Michelle Pfeiffer — I’m over those)

This is a must see. If you have any other inspirational movies you would like to recommend to me, I am ALL ears. I’m always looking for those uplifting feel-good movies 🙂

Check out the New York Times’ review of Mr Holland’s Opus.

ina

I happened by this movie, Why Did I Get Married?, while there was nothing else on TV, but I thought the final message was pretty good, so I decided to share the knowledge.

I started watching about 30min into it, so I don’t know how it began, but the premise pretty much goes like this: a college reunion of 4 couples meets up in a cabin in Colorado. The couples’ issues suddenly become apparent, and secrets start lurking underneath appearances. Here’s a summary of the individual plots:

Warning: This review may contain some spoilers.

• Terry & Diane: Diane is a partner at a law firm and Terry is a Doctor. Diane has always put her career first, and this has put a strain on the marriage. She resents her husband for demanding so much of her time and insisting on having another child. She insists she’s not up to it, and holds back sex from Terry.
  Underlying secrets: Terry had their daughter’s DNA tested for paternity matching without Diane’s knowledge. Diane tied her tubes after the birth of their daughter but never told Terry.
• Gavin & Pat: Pat and Gavin appear to be the perfect couple. Pat is a Doctor who advises her friends on relationships. Gavin seems to be a good guy. Pat was driving the car when she got into an accident that killed their son. Apparently he wasn’t securely strapped to the baby seat. There isn’t much to go on them at first, other than the fact that they praise that love overcomes all.
  Underlying secret: Gavin blames Pat for the death of their son.
• Mike & Sheila: Mike drove up to the cabin with his mistress Trisha, while Sheila, his overweight and dispirited wife, drove up the next day all by herself.
  Underlying secret: it’s not much of a secret, but Mike is sleeping with Trisha. Everyone knows it but Sheila. Sheila interacts with Trisha completely oblivious of what is going on.
• Marcus & Angela: Angela is a firecracker. She will go off screaming and telling people off at any time. Marcus puts up with it because he loves her. He appears to be a bit of a pushover, but is embarrassed by her behavior.
  Underlying secret: Marcus slept with the kids’ caretaker (I came in late, so I don’t know if she was the babysitter or the teacher), Keisha, who he believes gave him an STD. Angela doesn’t know they slept together. What Marcus doesn’t know is that Angela knows he has an STD because she slept with Keisha’s husband, and he gave it to her, so Angela gave it to Marcus. Angela has been waiting for Marcus to bring it up to come clean, but he’s keeping sleeping with Keisha a secret, which he’s assuming that’s how he got the STD.

At one point at dinner up in the cabin, Angela got so upset at Mike’s obvious flaunting of his affair with Trisha, that she blew up and told Sheila right then and there that they were sleeping together. Then Mike proceeded to air everybody else’s dirty laundry as retaliation. This resulted in almost-broken-up marriages, although Sheila and Mike did get a divorce. Sheila ended up finding a new man who loved her for who she was, taught her that she should not put herself down, and helped her get in shape by working out together. Diane finally realized she was being selfish because she did not understand the importance of putting as much time and effort into the marriage as she did into her career. They worked it out after Terry moved out to make a point. Pat and Gavin also worked it out, mostly due to Gavin’s insistence in talking about their son, which surprisingly resulted in Pat admitting she felt guilty, too. They vowed to get through it together. As for Mike and Trisha, Mike realized that Trisha was a second-class citizen who didn’t cook, clean, take out the trash, and just didn’t challenge him enough.

I was tempted to change the channel at several points in the movie. The chauvinistic talk among the men, especially in the beginning, completely turned me off, in fact, it angered me. I hate it when men talk about women like objects. At one point, the asshole of the movie, Mike, said that “it was a law” that if your wife isn’t giving you any, you are allowed to sleep around. The conversations among the men were quite fascinatingly shallow, but the voice of reason was never strong enough to overshadow the idiotic discussions these men would have. I didn’t change the channel because there was nothing else on TV, so I kept watching.

The women’s side was more interesting. I like movies where women talk to one another. Maybe it’s because I’m so embarrassed of my own problems that I am afraid of talking to my woman friends about them, so I watch other women talking to each other and I get advice through the screen. Another problem with revealing my problems is that (1) people don’t care about your problems, that’s why they are called YOUR problems, and (2) when problems pass, perceptions persist. For example, if I had an issue with my husband or my mother or my sister, and I talked to a friend about it, they might get an ill opinion of them or of me. Since they are not in the situation, it’s hard for them to understand the final resolution. The damage is already done, and it’s hard to undo perceptions. I can’t live with that.

One thing that I took away from the movie, and I do live in real life, is that love does conquer all. My husband and I have had our share of problems. We don’t talk about our problems out loud to third parties, but guess what: we have them. Just like everybody else. The good news is that we both understand that there is no place else we would rather be than with each other. We both understand how important communication is, and we have discussed things that are so delicate that we don’t know how other couples do it. You need a very deep level of intimacy to be vulnerable and discuss your greatest fears and your greatest insecurities with someone and not fear judgment. This is not easy, and I can’t say we have mastered it. The most important thing is that we both know how important it is to reach that point, and we try. Chances are our problems will always be there. It’s all about how we handle them.

In the end, they all work it out, and Sheila loses weight with her new man, and she’s so happy she can’t stand it. It all worked out not because Diane quit work, or because Pat kept ignoring the issues, but because they all realized they would rather be with one another, than not at all. And for that to happen, they had to work things out. Vulnerability was key to making this happen. They had to stand down from their high towers and see each other eye-to-eye. THAT is real-life advice.

A lot of relationships that appear to be doomed might actually have a chance. One book that describes these couple interactions and when solutions are possible is The Seven Principles for Making a Marriage Work. It’s actually quite fascinating: they can tell which couples will make it and which won’t by the way they fight. If fights are based on insults and lack of trust, the foundations of the relationship are quite rocky (not doomed, but just rocky); but if fights focus on disagreements on ideologies “you have to take out the trash the night before, otherwise you’ll forget in the morning” and the couple makes an effort to bring the fight to a close by compromising (“I can never remember, it would help if you reminded me”) or by offering a comic relief “Maybe our 1-year old could do it, it’s time he pulled his weight around here”, then the marriage is and will be alright. It’s not the lack of fighting that makes a marriage healthy, it’s what’s beneath the fight: the actual feelings being felt and how they are handled by the couple. Anyways, it’s quite a good advice book for married couples or long-term relationships out there.

In conclusion: Marriage is HARD WORK, but, with the right partner, it can be the most rewarding and intimate relationship of your life.

Click here to read the New York Times review of this movie.

ina

Martian Child is the story of a writer who lost his wife, and decides to adopt a child from an orphanage. The child he adopts believes he is from Mars and is on Earth to learn about humans.

The movie begins with John Cusack‘s character, David, being interviewed for his latest sci-fi book about some sort of alien war epic. You see him missing his belated wife and seriously considering adopting a child. He decides to move forward, despite his sister’s warnings (played by his sister in real life, Joan Cusack). Adopting was something he and his wife wanted to do together, and he thought it would be a good way to bring her back in some way. At the orphanage, he bonds with this child who spends his days inside an over-sized Amazon.com box, out of fear that the Earth’s sun might be too potent for his fragile Martian body. After multiple visits and attempts at gaining his trust, David takes Martian boy (Dennis) home and their life together begins.

I broke up into tears in several parts of the movie. I realized that my feelings were mostly being shaken when it came to rejection and loneliness. We all feel it at one point or another, when we wish we could be somewhere else or we could be someone else. I remember feeling this way when I was growing up, through elementary, middle and the first couple of years of high school. I never seemed to fit in, no matter how hard I tried (oh, boy, did I try). I mimicked everything from popular shoes (Timberland) to popular jean brands (Levi’s), to popular music (I would listen to salsa 103.3 FM in middle school, and popular 107.3 FM in high school). No matter what I did, I was always labeled as a reject. Kids can be so cruel. I could start telling you heartbreaking stories of rejection, and you would get an insight into my soul, but I won’t because it is still too fresh on my mind and I’ll just go hysterical on you.

The question I always had was: where were the adults in all of this? Dennis had David, who would lose his cool sometimes, but he was always there encouraging him to be himself. Nobody ever told me it was OK to be different and that there would be a great life ahead of me for thinking for myself, as opposed to following the pack. All I got from my parents was “eh, don’t pay attention to them, who cares what they think?” No offense to my parents, who I know tried their hardest to be the best parents they could be, but that was not very helpful “advice” to a child (if you can even call it that). I needed someone to tell me that what I was feeling was normal, that the kids were in fact mean, and that it was up to me to distinguish between stupid and smart. I needed someone to tell me that I was a smart girl, and a beautiful girl, and that what the other kids did to me was more of a reflection of their own insecurities, than it was a reflection on myself.

I felt bad for Dennis for being teased in school, but I related to him more than I felt sorry for him. I felt like I was him. I wish I could distance myself from everything sometimes and just be in a different body altogether. We should all find our David who encourages us, tells us that it’s OK, and makes us feel good in our own skin. Without a David to make us feel accepted on Earth, we will remain Martians in an alien planet forever.

I hope this makes you want to check out the movie, and I hope you keep on being yourself. There is only one of you in the world. Don’t you ever ever ever ever EVER ever ever EVER forget that.

You can read another review at New York Times: Martian Child (2007)

ina

I did not intend on this posting being a review of Twilight (books or movie). I actually have another point to make, but I can’t really let this opportunity pass by without telling you what I think about the series, so here it is inanutshelll:

Warning: These mini-reviews may contain spoilers.

Twilight:

• Book: Totally and completely amazing. I could not put it down. I read all 500 pages in a span of a few days. I fell in love with Edward and wanted MORE of him as soon as possible!!!
• Movie: Sucked. Low budget flick where the actors had no idea what they were doing or had ever heard of the book series before walking into the audition. Awful piece of filmography. However, Edward and Bella were brilliantly cast (in terms of physical portrayal of the characters). As I read the books, I imagined them acting it out, and they were great… in my head. Check out another review at Screen Rant

New Moon:

• Book: My absolute favorite of the series. I literally cried when I turned the pages “September, October, November” without any word from Edward. I could not stand it. My heart was sinking throughout the entire book. Whenever Bella would do something irresponsible, and I heard Edward’s voice, I would actually get a physical reaction (my heart rate increased, my breathing got heavier, etc). Great book. The best of the whole series.
• Movie: Haven’t seen it yet. I think I’m going to wait until it’s on Netflix so I don’t have to pay double (for the monthly subscription plus the theater). I hope that they really did it justice now that they actually had a budget to work with. I’m looking forward to seeing Dakota Fanning play the role of the pain-inflicting vampire. As a matter of fact, weirdly enough, I pictured her in the role as I was reading the book, even BEFORE I found out she would be in it. Weird… but the part was truly made for her. As for Taylor Lautner, I do not see how he will fill the shoes (quite literally) of the Jacob character, who is supposed to be an overwhelming 7 feet tall at this stage in his wolf development. Check out another review at Screen Rant

Eclipse:

• Book: I thought it was alright. Not very memorable. I think the mystery was OK, but a bit predictable. I could tell the best was behind us, but still entertaining reading. Once you start with the books, you can’t put them down… even if it means just doing it for the sake of getting through them and getting your life back.
• Movie: post-production.

Breaking Dawn:

• Book: Way too gory for me. I thought that the Nessie/Jacob imprinting was a great twist (did NOT see that one coming), and I personally enjoyed Bella’s powers. However, I did not like or approve of Edward’s distance during Bella’s hard time for fear of vampi-babies. I wish he had been more supportive and more on her side. All in all, too long, too gory, I couldn’t wait to get it over with and re-join the ranks of contributing members of society.
• Movie: Has not started getting filmed yet.

Midnight Sun:

• Partial Manuscript: This was probably better than Twilight itself. You get to really see what was going through Edward’s mind, and it’s just dreamy. You can read the very bottom of Stephenie Meyer‘s November 16th, 2009, blog entry to find out more about why it wasn’t completed and when she’ll get to it (not for a while, if ever).
• Movie: No book, no movie.

Now that we got that out of the way, here’s my real point: The actors (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner) have really big shoes to fill in terms of expectations of an audience who has fallen in love with the books, and, sadly, they don’t fill them.

Ever since I read the books (completed all of them over a span of 6 weeks last June/July 2009), I have searched online on YouTube for interviews that would give me more insight into the characters and the whole movie production of such a great series of books, and I was very much disappointed. Robert Pattinson is a goof. He’s not nearly as cool or insightful as Edward is, so it’s actually quite painful to see him on interviews laughing at his own jokes and being completely clueless as to how to manage the audience. Taylor Lautner is a KID. He was 16 years old when Twilight came out, and I could not picture him as a mean wolf with a strong personality. He still doesn’t do it for me as Jacob. Kristen Stewart is the most similar to her character in real life: she appears shy, she slouches when she talks, and looks completely out of place in a talk show. The only beef I have with her is her choice of hair and wardrobe. She seems to be a punk kid who was just playing nice-girl on screen. I hate the punk look on our dear Bella.

Don’t be shocked: we ALL expect the actors to keep up the fantasy for us. None of us would get excited about seeing an actor who is completely unlike their character talking about their creative process. We want the characters come to life, and this particular cast leaves much to be desired.

ina

I spent the day today with some friends who have dogs. We went to the baseball field near their house and we played with the dogs and just hung out. Then came back home to snack ourselves silly and talk about the book we are reading, A Civil Action. We had a great time!

As I saw them play with their dogs and talk about them as if they were their very own children, I started to really wonder about that special bond that exists between dogs and their masters. Needless to say, I do not have a dog, so this is an unfamiliar phenomenon. I immediately remembered the movie Marley & Me. For the longest time I refused to watch that movie because I thought it was a movie about a dog with superpowers or a dog who can communicate with humans, like Airbud or something, which it isn’t. A couple of my friends (grown adults) said they had cried and cried with that movie, so I figured there had to be something to it. So I caved.

The movie begins with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston starting their lives together. They are both writers/journalists trying to get a life going. They get married and think about children, but they are not ready yet. So they buy a dog. A crazy puppy named Marley. He’s incorrigible. He’s impossible to train and jumps and runs all over the place creating all sorts of trouble for the owners, but they won’t get rid of him. Then come the kids. Marley manages to not eat them or hurt them in any way, but Marley’s constant barking makes it impossible for Jen and Owen to keep a neat and normal home, as if having children (three of them) wasn’t work enough. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but the movie does span several years of their lives through kids, careers, moves, needs and wants, etc.

My reaction: I didn’t get it. Sorry to those out there who did, but I totally did not get it. It was like watching The Story of Us, but as if Michelle Pfeifer and Bruce Willis had a dog.

I asked my friends today if they had seen it, and they were all over it: “Yes! I cried so hard with that movie! Not like sad/normal crying, but more like weeping and sobbing from the very start!” — ok, I was glad I finally figured out that there was nothing wrong with me. This movie was in fact made for dog owners.

If you don’t have a dog, or have never had a dog, then the movie Marley & Me will not tickle your fancy. If you have a dog or have ever felt emotionally attached to one, this movie will shake you to the core.

I guess that’s all I can say… maybe I’ll let a dog owner complement and expand on this review.

Check out another review at Screen Rant

ina

I just finished watching a German movie called “Die Welle” (“The Wave”). I am still shaken up about it.

It all begins with a high school teacher who has been assigned to teach “Autocracy” during “Project Week.” He signed up for teaching “Anarchy,” but the principal gives that topic to someone else, so he’s quite disappointed about the assignment. He decides to make the best of it by really showing kids what a dictatorship really is like, after the kids had expressed how a dictatorship would never happen again in Germany: “We are way past that point.” Well, apparently the teacher does too good a job at mimicking this particular government type: the kids get hyped about an all-equal movement were there are no classes and they are all united. They create a symbol for themselves, give themselves a name “The Wave,” they get a uniform, and even a secret salute. The movement starts getting out of control.

The problem is that the teacher, who is supposed to be responsible and the voice of reason, gets caught up in the movement as well. He feeds off the kids’ energy, and ends up craving their attention and seeing himself as the leadership symbol of “The Wave.”

The movie does a fantastic job at demonstrating the reality of a dictatorship: it begins with unhappiness, and it gradually creates a new environment based on antagonism, chaos and greed. As a population, we want things to get better, and all it takes is to find a leader who promises to give us what you need. Once the crowd has a common cause, the leader moves on to create animosity between parties. This enhances the sense of unity and makes the “members” completely idolize the leader. This is why dictatorship is usually coupled with a cult of personality, where the leader uses the media to portray him/herself as the savior of the people. From this point forward, the leader has full support to do anything s/he wants. Need to change the laws? Well, people want a change, so the leader has the people’s explicit permission to go ahead without further debate. In the meantime, crime, unemployment and other economic indicators worsen. A dictatorship is fed by chaos. The more chaos, the more power is given to a dictator. For example, suppose the economy is suffering a down turn. This gives the dictator the power to simply take over operations: if the private companies are not doing their job, the government will take their business and do it for them (and the crowd applauds the efforts to turn things around). Since, as we said before, the dictator has the support of the people, he has already been given the power to make changes as he pleases.

It is all downhill from there: crime, unemployment, economic instability, political persecution (treason as a common charge), expropriation of assets, elimination of private property, gradual loss of basic civil rights, etc.

Dictatorship does not happen overnight. This form of government is a textbook case of the boiling frog metaphor. It is easier than we all think it is.

I am actually freaked out by this concept, since my family and I have experienced this first-hand. It is difficult to watch movies like these and not get a deep emotional reaction.

Check out another review at MovieCritic.com.au

ina

I think The Office, NBC Thursdays at 9/8c, should stick to silly comedic situations and let go of the drama. It’s not a dramatic show. I’m not digging the new vibe.

Not Very Funny.

ina