UNDISCOVERED

I feel like a mountain, undiscovered,
lost amongst a forbidding range,
its quiet sides rock-strewn and snow covered,
its anonymity unlikely to change.
No climbers seek out its cloud shrouded peak,
hidden beside greater visions,
there is nothing special of which to speak,
never to be map-made revisions.
It blocks no path or points the hiker’s way,
None even find it derisible,
For all the world I, can confidently say,
It is simply invisible.

NAKED

No, not me, silly. You wouldn't want to see that. But what you might want to see, and there is some nakedness in it, is the British movie Naked (1993), starring David Thewlis as Johnny, a somewhat unlikable misogynist on the run from Manchester who escapes to London searching for someplace to land, hoping it might be with his ex-girlfriend Louise (played well by Lesley Sharp). Although I didn't see the attraction, physically or personality-wise, women seem open to sexual relations with him, despite his abusive bullying and intellectual ravings. Thewlis is wonderful in the role, especially as he roams the streets seeking some sort of connection to people, but he is both irritatingly superior and pathetic. Except for the crying scenes, the late Katrin Cartlidge was decent as Louise's needy roommate. I didn't quite understand the role of Jeremy, similar in personality to Johnny but wealthier. The movie seems gritty and real for the most part. It is not my favorite, but it definitely was interesting.

NEWTOWN

I regret the things I did not say
when braver paths should’ve been my way,
to limit harm and protect the young
both at home and worlds far flung.
Lets block greedy goals that unmake men,
shun those afraid, seeking fateful omen.
Too many lost in six hundred ticks,
not time now for partisan politics.
No need to take away every gun,
but return the ban once before won.
Ten thousand annual to graves patrol,
don’t need this type of population control.
Who needs to fire one hundred rounds?
Elementary schools are not killing grounds.
Restore some balance to mental health,
a few less dollars for bombing stealth.
And while we’re at it, end hunger and pain,
So that young souls did not die in vain.

SOUNDTRACK IN MY HAPPINESS

I just downloaded to a MP3 player about 600 songsnd I tried to assess about 30 songs that were tops in my mind, becasue they touched me, or had some special sound, etc. Of course, the following list is both incomplete and subject to change, but I love these songs and it is a good start. I love so many more, but this will give my friends an idea.

*“A Friend” Winans
*“A Little Sweetness” Nelson Rangell
*“Ain’t No Stopping Us” McFadden & Whitehead
*“Ascension” Maxwell
*“Back Together” Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway
*“Closer” Goapele
*“Fabulous” Jaheim
*”Funkin For Jamaica” Tom Browne
*“Georgie Porgie” Toto
*“I Apologize” Anita Baker
*“I Still Dream” Boney James & Al Jarreau
*“If I Break” Al Jarreau
*“In the Name of Love” Bobby Caldwell & Richard Elliot
*“Iris” Goo Goo Dolls
*“Jamaica Heartbeat” Acoustic Alchemy
*“Just in Case” Jaheim
*“Just Like Music” Erick Sermon
*“Kisses in the Moonlight” George Benson
*“Morris Brown” Outkast
*“Mr. Chow” Acoustic Alchemy
*“Native New Yorker” Odyssey
*“Nights Over Egypt” Jones Girls
*“Nite Life” Ronnie Laws
*“Oh People” Patti Labelle
*“One Night” Earl Klugh
*“Outstanding” Gap Band
*”Paradise” Winans
*“Pretty Wings” Maxwell
*“Somehow Our Love Survives” Joe Sample & Al Jarreau
*“Southern Cross” Crosby, Stills & Nash
*“Stomp” Kirk Franklin
*“What You Won’t Do For Love” Bobby Caldwell
*”When You Cry” Winans
*“When You’ve Been Blessed” Patty Labelle

RED DOG

For dog lovers everywhere comes the delightful, silly, funny, Australian film Red Dog (2011) about a wandering mongrel in the northwest region who adopts a mining town and in particular its American bus driver and his Aussie girlfriend and gains nationwide fame for loyalty and perseverence. It is a family friendly, heartwarming, and melancholy tale that can be enjoyed by everyone. The star is Koko, but there are good performances put in by his human actor friends, such as John Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Rohan Nichol, Luke Ford, Arthur Angel, and John Batchelor,a s well as a host of lesser roles by actors playing members of the mining town and local community. The story of the pup, based on an allegedly true story, is spun as a truck driver delivering a statue to the town is accidentally engrossed by the tale as it is told to him in a local pub by people who witnessed the events and knew Red Dog.

MY FRIENDS

A nostalgiac look back at four of my friends who used to dance locally with Columbia Classical Ballet, and with the NUTCRACKER being performed last weekend, I was thinking about them all, now dispersed around the country and Brazil. Akari, Kaori, Waldilai, and Renata.

VOYAGER I

Mankind's long-flying space probe to the farhtest horizons of our solar system has reached the edge and is prepared to enter space beyond, making us an interstellar people, I guess. Thirty years it has been sailing and communicating information back to Earth. How cool is that?

KID ROCK

Kid Rock, who actively supported Romney during the presidential campaign, was at the White House and met President Obama, and afterwards was quoted as saying about himself, "But I believe if you don't stand for something, you don't stand for nothing." Is it just me, or was he channeling George W. Bush?

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

Sometimes my social history background is pleasantly pleased and excited by a movie in which the director and company try to produce a faithful rendition of a time and place. I like to see how the people lived, the social stratifications, the costumes and (especially)art, and all else that goes with the time. Although I may not be a specialist in that period, I usually get the feeling as to if they carried it off. And I think they did in the wonderful film, Peter Weller's Girl With a Pearly Earring (2003), a story about a young servant girl in the employ of the great painting master Jan Vermeer in the city of Delft. The movie focuses on the relationship that develops between master and servant as the painter tries to satisfy the wishes of his most powerful patron, and how her presence (and the spector of a former dalliance by Vermeer) affects his wife, child, and even community. Colin Firth is excellent as the laconic Vermeer, who seems to be irritated that he has to answer to the whims of a patron, but he has family obligations, particularly a large family. Scarlett Johansson is very good as the servant girl Griet. I thought Joanna Scanlon was extremely good in her role, and if she wan't nominated for anything, it would be a crime. Judy Parfitt, who plays Vermeer's mother-in-law Maria Thins, and Essie Davis, who plays his wife Catarine, were very good. Though he is a decent actor, there is something about Cillian Murphy that I just don't like (unfairly), but I just don't like his look or something. Maybe because he often plays villans. What is relly interesting to me is the insight one gets into the running of a somewhat wealthy (though financially stressed) wealthy household in seventeenth-century Holland. You can almost get a feeling of what some of our colonial forebears were like and how they existed, bringing some aspects of their world to America. The only thing you don't get is the smell, and you can imagine. I was confused with the camera obscura, which I thought would have been invented much later (and will have to go look that up). Generally, though, if you want a nice, slow movie with beautiful scenes and you like historical fiction, I think this movie might be one you would like to pick up on dvd.