Movie Reviews | Peaches Prattlings

{April 24, 2021} Yoga…brunch…hair…dog…movie…

Yup, that was my Saturday, what’d you do?! Details, details, coming up!

We started with hot yoga, of course! New instructor, for this class, for us, and for her, this was her 6th class ever, very cool. The nice thing…it was a a 730am class, so…even though we set alarms for it, just to be on the safe side, and also we are tired of missing class and getting charged $15-$20! If you cancel less than 12 hours before the start time, they charge you $15, if you just don’t show…$20. I get it, you’re a business and there could be people who weren’t able to attend because there might not be spots available. They are pretty good about it if unforeseen circumstances happen, they don’t charge you, but if we oversleep, that’s on us, and that’s happened, pook.

Overall, it was a decent class, she’ll get there. Listen to me…ha ha! I did like her playlist, all the instructors have different taste in music, I’ll tell you about it some time. Most of the time, it’s us and one or two other people, this morning there was a decent sized class. And it was pretty even, there are some classes where it’s me and a few guys, but more classes are a whole bunch of women, and PSM! We’re also starting to get to know people, recognizing them when we’re in class together, which is impressive when you actually can’t see their entire face because of the mask! One of the guys, who we now know, was taking the next class, it’s a restore class, he’s a beast! wow! PSM said we’ll do that one day. Huh? My response this morning [of course we’ll do it, you know I’ll take the class with him!] was “Breakfast will restore me…now!” ha ha.

That seemed to work…off to The Shack we went! I’ve told you about one of our favorite breakfast places a few times. We shared a veggie omelet with french toast and an english muffin. Beauty…seats at the bar! We have sat at a table only twice in this particular location. Once because DLP was with us and once because there were no seats at the bar, go figure! At other locations we can never seem to get a seat at the bar! But…our favorite bartender was there and we’ve become friendly with her, she’s really nice and a lot of fun to talk to. We talk about life, kids, and now, she’s getting married! She and her fiancé have been working out and you can really tell! She is doing much better than I did before our wedding! You go!

Today we told her we just came from hot yoga and she said she always wanted to try it, she thinks her fiancé would do it with her. Lightbulb! This coming week is customer appreciation at the studio, all the St Louis studios and…we can bring a friend for free! We asked if they wanted to come and try a class! She said definitely! Wah to the hoo! She was telling us her child’s drop off schedule, we figured evening class…And…we told her there is usually sustenance after, especially if we do an evening class! She perked up even more on that one! Score!

After breakfast, we headed home. PSM went to run an errand with the trailer and I decided it was time for some color in my life, so I pulled out my latex gloves, just looked up latest gloves and it turns out they are called medical gloves, which makes sense since they can come in different materials, and went through my color options. Since my hair is short, I haven’t used the entire bottle of anything I used last year. It’s funny, I was just thinking I should have done this two weeks ago when we had the dog’s Gotcha Day! I had just started coloring my hair around then, too funny! My go-to right now is still Splat, it seems to work for me. I decided to go with Midnight Blue, well, I think that’s the color it is, who knows, this one isn’t on the bottle like some of the others! Either way, I think it came out great! Matches my bike, ha ha!

Then we had a doggie scare! I happened to walk into the living room, with about 15 minutes left to go on my hair and I see Bee, the beagle, sorry for what comes next…eating her own puke, ugh, ick, and everything else you can think of. By the way…they do that, fact of life, still gross! I stopped her immediately and cleaned it up, as I was cleaning it up, she started licking things. Licking things is not unusual for our dogs, they lick our faces, we love the kisses, they lick the grass, Bee licks the street for worms, they lick the area rugs, mostly checking for food, the beds they sleep on, the ones in the living room sometimes have crumbs from their treats, they lick our legs, pants, arms, that’s a little odd, but that’s them.

What this was…different. She was licking everything as she was trying to clean the entire house, licking incessantly, like she had an insatiable thirst. She licked the floor, not just the floor, the corners of the kitchen, the crevices, the area rugs, you name it, she licked it. I watched her for a few minutes, then I put her in the crate to see if I could stop her from going crazy and making herself sick. She proceeded to throw up in the crate and then try to eat it, I stopped her, was able to clean it up, get the bed out of the crate and when I closed the gate, she proceeded to lick the tray in the crate and the crate itself. At this point, I am on the phone with the vet. I had first called PSM during all of this to see if he had any ideas, nope, so vet it is. Turns out…dogs will do this when they get nauseous, trying to help whatever is making them nauseous go away.

While I’m on with the vet, she stopped, then started again, then stopped. They told me to bring her in, even though I thought she was done, better safe than sorry. I told them I had to get the dye out of my hair first and I would be up there. Of course this happened! I proceeded to go as quickly as I could to get the dye out, let’s just say, it looked like I murdered a Smurf in there! OMG! The one thing I always forget…wear gloves when you’re getting the dye out of your hair, just like when you put it in…my finger tips were a little blue!

Ruby is now running back and forth from our bedroom to Bee, very sweet and worried sister she is! I got leashes on both of them. By the way…Bee is now sitting in the crate looking at me as if she had not a care in the world! Got them in the car, luckily the vet is only a 5 minute drive up the road. I called and eventually they came out to get her. Then Ruby and I waited, and waited, and waited. They finally called, she was acting like her normal self, sniffing the ground, not licking, and sounding like a pig looking for truffles! The vet said they couldn’t find anything wrong, didn’t feel anything in the way, she even lost a pound! Go Bee! They gave her an injectable, to be on the safe side, and sent me home with a 4-pack of pills in case this ever happens again! I wish I could have gotten a video so you could know what it is if it happens to you! While Ruby and I were waiting, PSM showed up with a smoothie for me, he’s so sweet! He took Ruby home and after a while, Bee came out, happy as a lark and we went home!

Bottom line…Bee is FINE! Wah to the hoo!

But wait…the day’s not over! We got home, we were hanging out and I thought someone deserved a little something’-somethin’ and for me…the dog mom, is not an extra goodie, but time on the bed, snuggling with me and it worked like a charm! I got Bee, then Ruby on the bed with me and they snuggled while I played games on my phone and watched some Midsomer Murders! What more could you want.

If it was me, and it was, I wanted more! PSM came in and asked “What time does Mortal Kombat start? Ooh? Movie date? I’m in! I found a showing in the AMC IMAX theater, purchased tickets, selected seats, and put the dogs up, even before you can say ‘popcorn please!’

We got to the theater, ordered popcorn, water, and a box of Butterfinger Bites. Did you know Butterfingers were introduced in 1923?! Wow! I can tell you my box of treats was fresher than that! ha ha. PSM got a beer and we were ready to go! We found our seats, settled in and watched previews, which…I looked at PSM and asked him if Mortal Kombat, which I’ve seen the original movies and knew the answer to my question, was a horror movie, to which he replied no, and my next question…”then why are all the movie previews for horror movies?!” That made zero sense.

The movie started, and I will share details on the movie in another post, but…all I have to say is WOW! La La La LOVED it! I can’t wait to see it again! More details later.

After the movie, home to walk, feed, and hang out with the pups, grabs some dinner and chill, tomorrow’s another day! And we have a motorcycle ride in our future! Cannot wait!

{April 1, 2021} Why can’t a woman be more like a man? HA HA

Before you start crowing, I was listending to Pandora radio and one of my favorite stations is Broadway Musicals. As I’m working, Why can’t a woman be more like a man? from My Fair Lady came on, sung by Rex Harrison.

The musical, which originated on Broadway and then was made into a motion picture staring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, sigh, one of my alltime favorite actresses, yes I know, I know, I have many, but she was…well, that’s another post for another day. And another post…the fact that Julie Andrews made that role on Broadway, but was denied the role because the producer, Jack L Warner didn’t think she was well known enough as a screen actor, humph I say! Don’t get me wrong, Audrey Hepburn was fabulous in the role, but c’mon on!

The tagline from IMDB: Snobbish phonetics Professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make flower girl Eliza Doolittle presentable in high society. That about sums it up. She’s poor and uneducated, he’s rich and possibly over educated. She doesn’t think she’s better than anyone, meaning, she is who she is, but she would like to improve her station and be a little more polished, she has a great song Wouldn’t it be loverly, truth be told, that was where I heard and first started using the word loverly, it’s a simple song of the simple things she wants in life. On the opposite end, he thinks he’s better than everyone, there’s no filter when he opens his mouth and his mother just shakes her head when he comes around.

Eliza overhears Henry Higgins identifying different individuals accents while outside of the theater one night, even claiming he could make her a proper lady. Eliza goes to his house the next morning wanting to hire him to give her elocution lessons, she wants to ‘talk better’.

Digression here…one of my favorite lines from Working Girl, starring Melanie Griffith, who is having a conversation with Joan Cusack about taking speech classes. “What do you need speech classes for? Ya tawk fine!” Classic! Back to our regularly scheduled program…

Higgins agrees to take her on and “class her up”, he’s going to work with his house guest, Colonel Pickering, played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, to do it. The goal…the Embassy Ball, to see who they can fool. They work day and night, Eliza suffering through the torture he puts her through, while he suffers through the tireless effort he’s putting in, interesting take on things, different viewpoints. She manages to make it through, imagining all the ways to kill him! Just you wait. And for some reason he can’t understand why he can’t get along with women…

All of a sudden, she gets it “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain“, try saying that through a mouth full of marbles…and there is much joy and praise in the house, but…not for Eliza, it’s all for Henry Higgins, for all the work he’s done…The first test…take Eliza to the races to meet her mother and see how she fits in with the upper crust, she passes, mostly. She only says what she’s told, sort of, until the first races starts, then the gutter snipe comes out, for a moment, it’s priceless, and she actually charms a few people with it, especially one young man, but that’s another story for another day. Well, wait, here’s a man who falls in love with her, who just wants to be On the street where you live, but who does Eliza eventually fall in love with? Yup…

Back to the purpose of the post. After the races, which was a success, we are off to the Embassy Ball, where she is stunning, and stuns. She is regal and refined, and any other r words? She’s polished and proper, and a thing of beauty, she charms everyone and the Queen of Transylvania asks her to dance with the prince. She is now what she wanted to be, polished and proper, she could do anything, get a job in a flower shop, she could run the flower shop, she could probably marry well, who knows. Keep in mind, the story is set in London 1912, none of this would be considered wrong, unheard of, out of the ordinary.

Well, what happens when they get home from the ball, Higgins and Pickering are so very proud of themselves, the household staff have been treating him like he’s all that and the bag o’ chips, they don’t pay Eliza much mind and no one says anything of what she’s done for herself, she put in the hard work, but does anyone notice, nope and Eliza finally realizes she doesn’t have to take that shite anymore and leaves, good on ya!

In the morning, when Higgins realizes she’s gone, he’s put out and out of sorts and doesn’t understand why. He can’t understand, after the triumph of the ball, why would she leave. Dense… and he goes into the reason we’re here, Why can’t a woman be more like a man? It’s a sort of conversation with Colonel Pickering, but more the musings of obnoxious, self-centered, misogynistic, need I go on?

If you actually listen to the lyrics, you have to laugh, and to hear it as a song, and if you never really paid attention, but then all of a sudden it hits you, wow. “Why can’t a woman be more like a man? Men are so honest, so thoroughly square;Eternally noble, historically fair.” really? “Why can’t a woman take after a man? Men are so pleasant, so easy to please. Whenever you’re with them, you’re always at ease.” seriously? “Why is thinking something women never do? And why is logic never even tried?
Straightening up their hair is all they ever do. Why don’t they straighten up the mess that’s inside?” Are you kidding me? Seriously, you just have to laugh. Just take a listen, something about it set to music…Now…I have a feeling there are some people who still feel this way, who am I to judge?

And what happens in the end? Eliza goes to Henry’s mother’s house, where he finds Eliza and she tells him she doesn’t need him any longer and walks out. What happens to Henry Higgins? What do you think he realizes? I’ve grown acustomed to her face. At home later, he’s mooning over her and she appears, you don’t see it, but you know she puts him in his place, she’s put up with him and he realizes he can’t or doesn’t want to live without him.

And all the things he moaned about…why can’t a woman be like him? All the reasons he fell in love with her. Go figure…

{March 31, 2021} Movie Trailers

I absolutely la la la love movie trailers! I mean, I love trailers. One of the reasons I love going to the movies, I mean actually going to the movies is to watch the trailers before the movie starts.

Some trailers are great…they give you just enough to get you interested, but not enough to give the whole movie away. Other trailers, you wonder why they bothered, you get the entire movie, what’s left to go see? Some trailers give you almost nothing and you sit there and scratch your head!

For those of you who know me, you know I absolutely la la la love movies, well, in addition to the trailers I was just talking about. But I really do and I have a knack for knowing who’s in a movie, even if I haven’t seen the movie. I can also tell you things about a movie after only seeing it once. I can also watch a trailer and 9 times out of 10 I know if I’m going to like the movie, I’m not usually wrong.

I remember my dad calling me once because he was playing Trivial Pursuit and needed to know the name of an actor in a movie and, yup, I knew it. I had never seen the movie, but I knew the actor was Broderick Crawford, no idea how I knew, I just did. Another time that spoke volumes, I was at a friend’s house with a bunch of people and we started playing Scene It. It’s a game where you answer trivia questions about movies and pop culture. After we finished playing, we decided to play again and it was seven people against ME! What? And guess what…I lost by ONE point! Not too shabby. I really do love movies! You know I watch movies over and over, I watch movies in the background and to fall asleep, movies!

In college, I majored in Communications, focus on television. My goal was actually to work for Children’s Television, truth be told, I really wanted to work for Sesame Street! How amazingly awesome would that have been! Working in an industry I loved with a show that I adored. You have no idea! I am such a Muppet head! During my communications courses in college, we focused not only on television, but film. We disected scripts, counted beats, watched for continuity, broke down scenes, analyzed how music plays a huge part in film, you name it, we did it. I even wrote a script, it was awful, but I wrote a script. I would never have gone to see my own movie if someone made it, tried to get my money back! That bad!

What all of that did was give me an appreciation for film, I know a movie is good if I don’t start breaking it down while I’m watching it, finding things that are wrong or don’t make sense, I’m mesmerized. And one thing I always wanted to do, while in college, and then after college, was to make movies. To watch a movie and have to pick out the scenes that would entire someone to want spend their money, want to watch that movie. It’s a skill and a gift. I knew that there were certain movies I could never create trailers for, horror for one, omg! I don’t watch horror movies, no thanks! Reality can be scary enough!

One of the things I love about Hulu, Netflix, IMDB, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, even YouTube [the list goes on!] is the ability to search for and watch trailers. It’s something to do, something I love and gives me something to look forward to when I select Add to My Watchlist. I am telling you, I can get lost in trailers, especially when they have suggestions, oh man! Ooh, this looks interesting, ooh, that one too! And then it’s an hour later, what happend!? Where did the day go?

Here are a few that I love. A Song is Born, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolverine, Animal House, The House Bunny, Mary Poppins, The Godfather, The Wizard of Oz, Grease, Footloose, Beauty and the Beast, The Muppet Movie. There are so many more, but we’d be here for ever!

{March 30, 2021} The Court Jester

The Court Jester is one of my all time favorite movies. I know, I know, I’ve said that before, but if you have spent any time with me and my family, especially when I was younger, it was Danny Kaye all the way.

I truly have been a Danny Kaye fan most of my life and one day I’ll tell you all about the other movies of his I love, like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, yes, before Ben Stiller‘s version, White Christmas with Bing Crosby, A Song is Born, the list goes on. But…today, I’m going to tell you about a movie that myself, my dad, my sister, and my mom all loved. When we were kids, we spent our summers in Mastic Beach, NY, which is on the South Shore of Long Island. We had a VCR, for those of you under 45…ha ha, that’s a video cassette recorder, you would put the cassette tape in, watch it and then have to rewind it before you took it back! and we would bicycle or drive to the library and get movies out.

Two movies that my sister and I absolutely adored were Walt Disney’s Cinderella [1950] and The Court Jester [1955] with Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury. Some of you will know who all of these people are, but I’ll give you other references if that helps. I told you about Danny Kaye, but…you might not remember that he played Dr Burns, the dentist on The Cosby Show. Glynis Johns was also the mother, Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins and the grandmother in While You Were Sleeping, she used to come into the deli I worked in, in the Hamptons! Basil Rathbone was most famous as Sir Guy of Gisborne in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and personally, I think he was one of the best Sherlock Holmes. Lastly, there was Angela Lansbury, Miss Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast, and probably most known as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote. Ok, now you’re caught up on some of the bigger names in the movie.

The tagline in IMBD: A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful King. That pretty much says it all. It’s an action/adventure story, with a little swash buckler thrown in, romance, intrigue, all wrapped up in a musical. What more could you want?!

Danny Kaye plays Hubert Hawkins, he’s part of The Black Fox’s band of merry men, gives you a Robin Hood type of vibe. His role is to entertain the merry men, but he wants more, he wants to be out there, on the front lines, fighting, but The Black Fox feels he is best suited where he is. King Roderick I is on the throne, but not by birthright and he is constantly looking over his shoulder because there is a rumor that the royal baby was missed, the rightful heir to the throne and he can’t have that!

His righthand man is the evil Sir Ravenhurst, who does the kings bidding. Basil Rathbone can play a mean one, he can. Little known fact, he is best known for his fencing skills as the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history, what do you think about them apples! He really was great, it was a treat to watch his skills with a blade! What he did made Danny Kaye look good in their scenes.

Something happens at The Black Fox’s camp and Hawkins has to go with the Maid Jean, Glynis Johns, who happens to be The Black Fox’s Captain, to deliver the royal baby to the castle and take the throne back for the royal baby. Along the way, they meet Giacamo, King of Jesters and Jester to the King, and Hawkins takes his place when he gets to the palace, perfect cover!

Throughout the movie there is laughter, silliness, sword fighting, poison, intrigue, romance, spells, threats, singing, dancing, and to top it all off, a baby with a royal birthmark. What more could you want?!

The songs are clever and fun, with Danny Kaye, you know there has to be hillarity, some of the best scenes are where he is being a total goofball. The best scenes also have the most tongue tying lines! “The pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.”

Here’s a quote from IMDB about that line: Danny Kaye’s daughter, Dena Kaye, said for the rest of his life, when people recognized Danny in a restaurant, they would walk up and spout the entire “brew that is true” speech.

I mentioned romance, right? Hawkins is awkward around women, and when he appears at the castle, Princess Gwendolyn’s handmaid, Griselda, who is also a witch, puts a spell on Hawkins to romance the princess to save her own neck! She makes him braver than he ever was!

The reason I’m telling you all about this movie and these memories is I has it on as background while I was working today. There are certain movies and tv shows that I have seen so many times, I don’t have to actually pay attention to them, I can have them on in the background and still get work done. I might sing along, maybe to The Maladjusted Jester, or Life Could Not Better Be, or any of the songs he sings. When GES and I watched this movie, the same thing with Cinderella, we would watch it, rewind it, then watch it again, rewind, watch, repeat. We don’t have to say much more than one of the lines and we’re off and running, quoting lines and laughing with each other.

Today, while I was watching it, I actually recorded the Pellet with the Poison scene and sent it to my dad and sister, sent good vibes into the universe and got them right back.

My hope is that any one of the clips I posted has maybe piqued your interest just a bit, maybe you’re curious to explore the world of Danny Kaye, even try to find The Court Jester and check out all the merriment. Even if you just watch the clips, maybe look for additional clips and laugh, I’m good with that!

Get it. Got it. Good. Yes friends, if you’ve ever heard me say that…now you know where I got it!

{March 16, 2021} Our Marvel-ous Marathon Progress

Like how I did that?! I am over the top punny! Well, at least I think so, PSM keeps groaning.

So…our progress so far in our Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Marathon, meaning watching the movies in order. We have watched:

I promise, you will get a review of each movie from me here in the future, just not today, but I will definitely share my thoughts. One thing I have observed, which is interesting…as we watch these movies, a few things are happening, which contradicts the beginning of this sentence, go figure…

As I was saying…as we watch these movies, I don’t know about PSM, but I am seeing these movies through not only new eyes and maybe getting new perspectives on a few aspects of the film, noticing things I might not have noticed before, but I am also talking a lot more, well, asking questions, which I don’t do very much the first time I watch a movie, notice I said, not very much! There are more questions that I have as I watch these movies, much to PSM’s chagrin, I’m sure! At least we’re not in the movie theater!

The other thing I’m doing, oh my word, is coming up with some awful [ly funny] puns! For example…tonight we watched Iron Man 3 and the villians were on something which made them get very hot and blow up, so my brain can’t stop, which comes right out…”Oooh, she’s hot!” “He blew away the competition!” and it went downhill from there! I laughed!

Overall, it’s been fun to watch them again, and to watch them with PSM. So far, some of the ones we just watched are the first time we’re watching them together, that really has been fun. Also, looking for the amazing Stan Lee. I know there are lists of where he appears in each movie, but I am keeping my own list as we go, and I will share it with you when we are done with all 23 movies, promise.

I wanted to say thanks for joining me on this marvel-ous adventure, it’s quite the undertaking. Over the course of these posts, we’ll Iron out the details. I’m keeping my Hawkeyes out for Stan Lee’s cameos, which I think is a Banner idea! [groan!] I honestly tried to keep it all Loki, but it’s not working! I’m afraid I mave have made you Fury-ous! I am Thoroughly enjoying this! As I’ve Peppered this post with puns, it’s made me so Happy! I hope you don’t find all of this Strange and you’re not Hulking mad! If you did, please don’t Avenger, I might turn Scarlet, sorry, I had a Vision. Ok, I’m done! [I’m sure there will be more down the road, I’m just that determined, I’m trying to get to the Groot of the problem! Maybe more on Thorsday! Thorry…

{March 14, 2021} Raya and the Last Dragon

Today, since it was raining, no motorcycle rides for us, but…we decided to go to the movies and saw Raya and the Last Dragon, the newest Disney movie. The IMDB tagline is “In a realm known as Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.” Pretty accurate.

A little bit of trivia…Kumandra was inspired bythe Southeast Asian cultures of Brunei, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The story is that Kumandra is peace and harmony and all peoples living as one, with the five lands in the shape of a dragon: Heart, Talon, Spine, Fang, and Tail, all connected by the River Dragon. One day, a very long time ago, the Druun emerged, a swirling mass of purple and black, reminding me of The Nothing from the NeverEnding Story, it basically swirls and swarms through the lands turing the people and dragons to stone statues.

The dragons pooled their magic into a magic gem called the Dragon Gem, to protect against the Druun and the five lands are now divided. The dragons who pooled their magic gave the Dragon Gem to their sister, Sisu, the last remaining dragon. The Heart Land was tasked to guard the Dragon Orb for centuries and when Raya’s father brings the lands together, hoping for peace and a return to Kumandra…unfortunately, I think you can guess what happens, and the orb is broken apart and each leader takes a piece of the orb to try to protect themselves and their people. Unfortunately, that unleased the Druun to begin it’s attack on the people and the lands again. And the mistrust is even greater amongst the people.

Raya’s Ba, or father, is turned to stone as he pushses Raya away, gives her his piece of the orb and tells her it is on her to go and bring unity back to the world. That’s a lot to put on a 12 year old’s shoulders, but she rises to the challenge. We see her six years later, riding on Tuk-Tuk, her loveable pet, comprised of one third-pill bug, one third-armadillo, and one third-pug hybrid, with the ability to roll into a ball, it’s pretty cool. He’s adorable, as a wee bit, and then a big bit and stays very much a goofball throughout the movie, but he can move! Where do I get one?! These movies have to stop creating characters that I want for my own!

As Raya sets out, she goes to each of the lands to attempt to take the piece of the gem to reunite them together. Along the way, she finds Sisu, who seems to have been asleep for a while, not really sure what’s happening when she ‘wakes up’. It was interesting to watch their dynamic, and to see Sisu see the world through new eyes, a lot has changed since she’s been gone, almost the eyes of a child, or at least a very trusting, naive innocent, she still has faith in humanity and what it can accomplish if you put your trust in one another, something hard to do at this point, for most of the people still there, or left behind, as it feels.

Along the way, as she is going to each land, Raya meets someone that she has to trust and earn their trust in return and as you might imagine, they become their own band of merry men, so to speak. It really is an interesting combination of characters that she brings together. I hope you can picture all they can do, when they learn to trust and work together.

And that’s what the movie is about, believing in yourself, having the power and strength to open yourself up to others, to trust them and allow them to trust you and what you can accomplish together. Did they succeed? Was there unity? Were people reunited with their lost loved ones? Did Raya get her Ba back? First…if I tell you everything, how will you be surprised. Second…it’s a Disney animated movie, yeah, that about sums it up.

The cast is great, Raya is played by Kelly Marie Tran, Sisu by the brilliantly funny Awkwafina, the dialog was perfectly her and there were a few times I felt like she was channeling Robin Williams, in that way he would kind of do his own thing with dialog, go off the rails, like he did in as the genii in Aladdin. Gemma Chan was Raya’s nemesis, from Fang, Benedict Wong was Tong from Spine, Sandra Oh was Chieftess Virana from Fang, Lucille Soong was Chieftess Dang Hu from Talon, Daniel Dae Kim was Chief Benja and Raya’s father. I love that Alan Tudyk played Tuk Tuk, he didn’t say much, but his noises were mighty cute!

Overall, it was a great movie, a lot of wonderful symbolism, pageantry, colors, feelings, story, action, humor, humility, unity, trust, and love. What more could you want?! I hope you enjoy it, I’m going to watch it again!

{March 11, 2021} A Marvel-ous undertaking!

Oh, how punny! I know, you have no idea, so I’m going to tell you, not to worry!

Last week sometime, while I was in Colorado, I told PSM, this was a whim I had, and I’ve had a few, that when I’m home, we need to do an MCU marathon! And for those of you not in the know…that’s Marvel Cinematic Universe! And for those of you still not in the know, those are the super hero movies based on the Marvel Comics, and the amazing Stan Lee, just one of the many brilliant minds who brought us all those amazing super hero comic books and grapic novels.

I was a kid when I started reading the comic strips in the newspaper, Sunday funnies, those were great, because, depending on the newspaper, those were the ones in color! When it came to comic books, I started with Archie Comics, Spider Man, in high school, I was introduced to X-Men, among others, I could go on and on and on, on this topic and I might just do that…another day. Back to the topic at hand.

I’ve watched a lot of the comic book and graphic novels come to life, like I said, another time, and I remember when the first Marvel Movie came out, Iron Man in 2008, starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jon Faverau, who also directed, and Terrance Howard, to name a few…I think I reviewed this movie way back when, but I have a renewed look at it, I could do it again, it is my blog, after all! And that was just the beginning, literally! One of my favorite memories was when The Avengers movie came out, May 3, 2012, I went to the AMC Theater near me for an MCU marathon!

Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and then…The Avengers. It was 18 hours in the theater! OMG! We had special passes and they let us out for about 30 minutes in between each movie, it was amazing! So…if you had only seen each movie once, which we know was not the case for me, this was an opportunity to see each movie again, and then…The Avengers! What a day it was!

So…where was I? Oh yeah, like I forgot, we’re in the MCU Universe! PSM must have heard me because last night he suggested we do a MCU Marathon, but… not in order of release date, but in chronological order, how you should watch them in the timeline that actually happened. And friends, that’s just what we did!

We started wtih Captain America: The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, and Hayley Attwell, then we watched Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson and Samuel L Jackson. Both fabulous, oh, we have got to talk about these two movies soon! Tonight was Iron Man, we started late, so we threw in something else that didn’t take as long, tell you about it later! Tomorrow…Iron Man2 and The Incredible Hulk, with Edward Norton and Liv Tyler, of course! Oh man, I’m getting excited to tell you about the movies themselves! Tangent!

So…that is the plan, go through all the movies, even the ones we weren’t crazy about, only because one of us didn’t like the way it played out, [that would be me], but ya gotta take the good with the bad, so I’m down for some Baby Groot to lift my spirits!

Looking forward to sharing the journey with you!

{February 2, 2021} It’s Groundhog Day! It’s Groundhog Day! It’s Groundhog Day!

Did you know it’s Groundhog Day? Hopefully when you wake up tomorrow, it will be Wednesday, February 3rd! Fingers crossed for all of us!

Let me back up! Today is Tuesday, February 2, 2021 and it’s Groundhog Day. This is the day that Punxsutawney Phil, the official groundhog in Punxsutawney, PA, comes out of his hole, the temporary home he has in Gobbler’s Knob, to tell us if Winter is here to stay, well, for at least 6 more weeks, and today…Groundhog Day 2021, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and we will have 6 more weeks of winter folks. Oh joy…

“We have passed the darkness of night but now see hope and morning’s bright light. But now when I turn to see there’s a perfect shadow cast of me. Six more weeks of winter there will be!” club vice president Tom Dunkel read from the chosen scroll.

This event, which is more of a festival and celebration now, has been going on annually since 1887! Can you believe it! Well, more to the point, can you believe that this is the same groundhog that has been making a prediction since the tradition started? Yup, that’s right folks, well, that’s what the “Inner Circle” or Phil’s “Inner Circle”, identifiable by their top hats and tuxedos, want us to believe, isn’t that fabulous!

Whether or not Punxsutawney Phil’s predictions are true or not, it’s still a fun tradition to keep up and behold. This year, in keeping with Covid-19 rules, the ceremony was held virtually, well, not by everyone! Phil was there, along with his inner circle, hey, someone had to verify if Phil saw his shadow and read the proclamation. And…except for the three intimately involved…the guy holding Phil, the guy reading the proclamation, and the guy with the microphone, everyone else had a mask on, no, not Phil, duh!

I’ll be honest, as a kid, I knew about the groundhog and Groundhog Day, the tradition of the groundhog coming out and predicting the 6 more weeks of winter, or not, but I didn’t know it was such a BIG deal until I saw the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, who plays a self-absorbed weatherman who ends up living the same day over and over and over again, well, until he gets it right.

The movie had a great cast, including Andie MacDowell, as his producer and eventual love interest, Chris Elliot is his goofball cameraman, Stephen Tobolowsky an old classmate of Billy Murray’s character and an insurance salesman with two of my favorite lines in the movie “BING!”, I know you have to watch it, and “Watch that first step…it’s a douzy”. Then, there’s Billy Murray’s brother, not movie brother, but actual brother, Brian Doyle Murray, a great character actor, Angela Paton, she’s one of those actors I don’t always remember her name, but I like seeing her. Rick Overton, who plays one of the guys in the car when Phil Connors, Billy Murray’s character drives off a cliff, Michael Shannon, who has a small role and I always forget that it’s him because had such a baby face in the movie, he was playing a teenager or just barely out of his teens and then, Harold Ramis who co-wrote, directed, and had a small role in the film.

The fun part is to watch Bill Murray’s character grow into an actual human being with all the experiences he has. He starts off, when he realizes that he’s stuck, is to do all the things we might think about doing, since he can’t get in trouble, or trouble that lasts past midnight, when the clock or day resets itself. Then he starts to take life a little more seriously, while still enjoying it. The day resets, but he doesn’t, so he has no choice but to grow. On the last day, well, the day that doesn’t reset itself is the day we get to see the new, maybe who he really was all along, just buried, Phil Connors. Who knows.

The hard part is to watch him try over and over to get out of this day and then you sit there wondering ‘just how long was Phil Connors stuck?‘ Harold Ramis said “It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything,” said Ramis, “and allotting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years.” Just ouch!

Before I leave you…a bit of Groundhog Day movie trivia before I say farewell. The movie takes place in Punxsutawney, PA, but actually, it was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois! But JJ, how do you know that!? Well, first, if you look up the movie, you can find that out, but…I happened to be in Woodstock, Illinois for a project and the people at the office told me that the town square, about two blocks away, was where they filmed the movie! OMG! Of course, I had to take a stroll. How cool is that!

Well, here’s to 6 more weeks of winter and I’m hoping the radio doesn’t wake me up to I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher. If it does, I’m going back to bed. What would you do?

{January 23, 2021} Treat after Treat after Treat after…

What a day today was, it was treat, after treat, after treat! I admit it, I’m spoiled, and I’ll take it!

Since I couldn’t get a reservation to ski for the day, I made other plans. First… last night I pulled down the blackout curtain, hoping it would help me also in a little. Well, any guesses how that turned out? It’s all good, more time for me to do nothing! Ha Ha!

I thought about going to a yoga class or doing a virtual livestream class and then I thought about something PSM said, you’re skiing, you don’t have to do yoga, true, but I thought it might help, who knows. Then my body said, “um…yeah, you’re good, take it easy” and I listened, go figure! I laid in bed, turned on the tv and vegged out, it was fabulous! Then I got up and made myself an egg sandwich, moved to the couch and continued my relaxing journey! Not a bad way to start a Saturday.

I decided to be a little productive, checking emails, updating a friend’s resume, and making plans for the day, all while relaxing, that works for me! My friend texted that she loved that I had no plans and I have to say, it is refreshing to not have plans when you’re visiting somewhere. It all depends where you are and what you’re doing, right? I used to live in Colorado, there is a lot that I did, but there is also a lot I haven’t done and depending on what it is, I want to share it with PSM. This time, I’m only here to ski and see friends, and since I have the pass and I’m not that far from the mountains, take it easy.

I finally got motivated and headed out the door for my first treat of the day. I drove downtown to see LJ, she has a great apartment overlooking Denver and the view of the Flat Iron Mountains is fabulous! She shares the apartment with her boyfriend JS and their kitten, Steve. OM G, what a doll baby! Cutest little orange tabby with a lot of energy and a name tag that might be bigger than him!

We sat down and talked and talked, about everything and nothing, and just like all our conversations it went all over the place, par for the course, of course! All the while Steve took turns biting my toes and fingers, pouncing on me and other things, and settling in next to his mom’s side happy as can be. Oh my am I getting my fix!

After a bit, we looked for a place to go and LJ is one of the friends I have who tries to go vegan with me, a lot of places we called had a wait and we decided on…Edgewater Public Market, I’m in! She’s been there a bunch and her yoga studio is there, same one PSM and I go to, which means…next time we travel to Denver, we can go to our yoga studio! She went off and got pizza and I got a vegan chicken Caesar salad from Meta Burger, another hit! I told her about my dinner from last night and she had to get a side of the vegan mac-n-cheese, she was not disappointed! And we talked some more, we can do this for hours, wait, we are!

Then…another treat! We both saved room and went over to Happy Cone for some vegan gelato for me and full on fabulous ice cream for her! We were both quite pleased. It’s a simple ice cream shop, ‘New Zealand style creamery handmaking ice cream, chocolates and happiness’ is the tag from their website. I believe Hap Cameron, the owner was the one who scooped our treats, I could be wrong, but it sounded like a New Zealand accent when he spoke…through his mask!

Then we sat and talked some more, go figure, then a strange smell wafted by and despite the masks, we could still smell it, it was probably someone’s food as a few people walked by, but it was time for us to get some fresh air, so we went to the outside heated tent and sat at a recently cleaned table and talked some more. I mean, when don’t we talk!? I’ve told you this before, one of my favorite things about my friends is that we can sit and talk about everything and nothing and it’s always as if no time has passed. Eventually, sadly, it was time to leave. I took LJ back home, we said our goodbyes and hugs and headed off in different directions. Looking forward to the next time!

I called AM and we worked on dinner plans, that was the plan after all, hang with friends! He called in an order at City O’ City, I think we’ve talked about it before, but I la la la love this place! I placed my order for ‘chikn’ n waffles. The chikin’ is fried cauliflower, not to worry, the waffles are actual waffles! It’s served with vegan creme fraiche, maple syrup, and carrot bacon. We also had seitan wings for an appetizer, y-u-m! There was a vegan pizza, and for dessert…a ho-ho cupcake and a whoopie pie. Let’s just say, if you come with me to Denver, I’ll take you to City O’ City. I’ll tell you how good it is…the first place LJ asked about getting lunch…City O’ City! Oh yeah!

I picked up the food and headed to AM’s house, it was AM and his daughter…AM! Ha Ha, his wife NM was at their house in the mountains, I was bummed not to get to see her, we kept missing each other this weekend. It was a great time! We talked school, a teeny bit politics, books, movies, podcasts, it was quite the dinner conversation!

When the younger AM went to bed, AM and I retreated to the den, popped in Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan‘s first movie together, Joe Versus the Volcano then spent the next 1.45 hours talking movies, discussing almost every movie on the wall, laughing, disagreeing, agreeing, howling, taking moments to actually watch some of the best parts of the movie. I think I’m going to have to dedicate an entire post to this movie, it is probably one of my all-time favorite, same for AM. What a great night, it really was, I’m still laughing!

What a day for me! Treat, after treat, after treat, after treat. I am spoiled and I’m ok with that! What’s next?!

{February 20, 2018} 2 flights, 2 hour delays, 6 movies, some work and I’m home!

I kid you not, today was a killer travel day!

So… 4:15am alarm, oh joy! I had already packed last night, laid out my clothes, so it was just a matter of getting up, showered, dressed and to the airport. Easy peasy. Seriously, that was the easy part!

I couldn’t get to curbside check in, so it was gas, drop off the rental car, get on the shuttle, lug everything into the airport, then drop the bags. That was fun, waiting on the line, watching them take someone else. Why have two lines if you’re not going to look at this one. And this one was simpler, just bag drop. One nice thing about the wait, the TSA pre-check line was a lot shorter when I got there!

Ok, this one is on me…I mis-read the sign for the gate, which is odd because I am in this terminal all the time…I must have been on auto-pilot because I went down the escalator, down the walkway, up the escalator…A4 was back where I was when I came through security, ugh! There went my dream of getting breakfast before my flight to Salt Lake City!

I settled in, watched three movies and worked, I am just that good! I worked when I was able to get connection. Let’s see, movies, which will be reviewed later…The Man Who Invented Christmas, about Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, with Ryan Reynolds and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Loving Vincent. I also watched the 2 episodes that made up Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie, what a mind and last was Sleeping with the Enemy until we landed in Honolulu.

We landed with just enough time to get to my next flight in SLC, Salt Lake CIty, for those of you not in the know…had I known what was about to transpire, I would have stopped to get breakfast!

I got to the gate, they hadn’t started loading the plane yet, but how long would I have? They kept saying we’re about ready…Then they only boarded rows 1-9 because they were cleaning the plane, huh? I was in row 10, can I sneak in?! Then it was people who need assistance and people traveling with small children, ok. Then it was Diamond and Platinum and first class. Wait, isn’t 1-9 first class?

Then it was time for the rest of us, that had only taken about 30 minutes, felt like an hour or more. But wait, there’s more! We are delayed due to the snow, then we need to gas and de-ice. Seriously? Then it was another 20 minutes, then we were number 8 for takeoff… Then it was two hours later and we were off. Here it was about 2pm, I haven’t eaten since I woke up at 4:15am and I’m not going to eat until we land? Which we did about 4:30pm. Ok, I snacked, but those airline snacks don’t fill you up!

The woman next to me was very nice, from Salt Lake City, she has a house on the North Shore, so we chatted for part of the flight and felt for the babies crying in the back, poor things.

We finally land and then the baggage carousels changed, but eventually I got my stuff. I grabbed a taxi, made it home, finally! Then as quickly as I could, put the food in the fridge that was in my bags, changed into my bathing suit and headed to the beach for the last hour before sunset! It was fabulous!

Then I decided, food and a movie! In the theater! So, Raman Ya it was and Black Panther. I got lucky, it seems that every theater on the mainland was sold out! Great flick! I’ll tell you about that later too. That was movie number six! Then home to write to you and zzzz! I gotta get up and work in a few hours!

Ah, the life of a road warrior!

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