Getting Ready For The Snow

Just a day or so I was walking around the   forest area near the Cape Fear River enjoying the crisp but very comfortable cool temperature. 

The water at the River was the highest I have ever seen it. This is a pic of one of the paths on the River banks where people stand to fish. 

The weather people are saying we will get a little bit of snow and ice. 

I will be in my house enjoying a DVD marathon of Alias seasons 3 and 4. I was very happy to have found Alias season 3 DVD set at Trade-It for $4.99. 

Today I got Alias season 4 for only $5.00 (plus tax) when I took in some DVDs to trade at Edward McKay used bookstore. 

I will also write a few blog posts and a Mermaid short story I have been thinking about.

Hopefully, it will not snow as bad as last year - we got two bad snow storms. 

Stay warm and safe everybody!

Thomasina

Woodstock 3 Days of Peace and Music Director's Cut DVD Review

I have watched documentaries about the Woodstock Music Festival before but this DVD reminded me how huge that concert really was. Overwhelming is a word that comes to mind but there was still a very intimate vibe when I was watching the performances.

 It was just a sea of all people for all walks of life enjoying three days of amazing music. This huge peaceful type of concert with this type of "hippie" vibe and variety of famous artist been never been repeated  like this since. Concerts and festivals today do not compare to the vibe of Woodstock.

Watching the DVD, it was so interesting to look at the cool hippie/flower child fashions. I love the baby doll dresses, long strands of colorful beaded necklaces, and how "natural" everyone looked. There is so much plastic surgery, heavy makeup and hair weave to be seen today. Back then people looked like people. Black people wore their own hair a lot more than they do today.

The logistics alone are incredible to imagine how to plan a musical event attended by that many people. Of course a lot more people ended up arriving than the management team had planned for. I have always been extremely interested in behind the scenes activities. 

My favorite musical performances of the concert were Joe Cocker (Update: Joe Cocker died at 70 a day after I posted this blog - so very sad), Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Richie Havens. Some of the crazy zoomed in camera angles added to that being right on stage seeing the bands up close feeling. Loved it.

Hopeful one day I will be able to attend an festival that will come a little bit close to to the magic of Woodstock. The world is a very different place today. There is a lot to be cautious and even afraid of when being in crowds that huge. Europe still has annual music festivals. In America, there is a tendency towards violence sometimes (remember the other "Woodstocks").

Definitely check out this amazing DVD. I must admit it was fun to watch Woodstock but standing around in the rain, mud and the trash would be the least fun part of the experience. Let's not even think about how everyone smelled. LOL!

Thanks for reading!

DVD Thoughts - Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Wow. I have not watched this movie in many years. I was shocked at how many scenes I still remembered. This time the film had a different effect on me today then when I watched in the past. I had to really face the fact that world wide nuclear destruction could really happen. 9/11 had not happened when I watched this way back when.

Looking at the devastated buildings of the city skyline reminded me too much of 9/11 and war torn countries in the news today. Of course not on such a huge scale as the movie but it is a sobering thought that we really have to think about terrorists attacks.

On a more positive note, I had forgotten just how handsome the young Mel Gibson was back in the day. I love the Mad Max character. He did not ever give up. Mad Max was determined to survive. It must be true that only the strong will survive.

 It would have been so easy to just give up and go crazy after surviving such a horrible event in world history but the human race pushed forward and adapted to be able to live the best way they could.

After I watched the movie, I thought about how good most people in the world have it in their day to day lives. We take so much for granted: clean water, food, shelter, access to medical care, electricity, and law enforcement. If you think about it, their are countries in which the people live a life that closely resembles the world of Mad Max. Two men enter, One man leaves. I am so glad this is NOT the way disagreements are settled.

Lastly, Tina Turner was so cool to watch on screen. Love strong powerful intelligent female characters. Definitely loved the chain mail dress and those huge hoop earrings.

 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome gave me a lot to think about and even more to be thankful for.

Thanks for reading!

What I Am Watching and Reading Lately

 I love this TV series so much. Not only is Timothy Olyphant super sexy, the show is extremely well written.  This is a DVD series I will add to my collection.

 My favorite thing about watching this DVD was the wardrobe but not the writing. But the wardrobe does not have the absolute perfection of real shows and movies from this time period.  I am a film wardrobe geek and I am very picky about how current movies depict wardrobe accurately. At times the wardrobe looked too costumey.

 Honestly, I did not get what all the hype about this show is about.  I wish there was a stronger and longer storyline about black characters during this time in history.

 Awesome describes this DVD. Loved the strong independent lead woman character. Loved the 1920s wardrobe and production design. All the characters were well written and developed. I was surprised by storylines that involved current issues such as abortion and drug addiction. I highly recommend this DVD.

 A lot of time was spent on special effects and not enough time was spent writing a strong script. A smart plane that will replace humans interesting and scary concept.

 There is a big twist you really do not see coming but it does nothing to save this safe you can guess the plot and the ending movie. Go watch Top Gun instead. All this movie did was motivate me to exercise harder to get in shape like Jessica Biel. Not Joking. LOL!

I wanted to like this graphic novel so much but I didn't. Maybe I needed to be a gamer to appreciate the gaming reference in the storyline. Just didn't find the story or the art very interesting.

My previous post about what I'm reading and watching is here.

Thanks for reading!

A Few Of My Favorite And Not So Favorite Things - Reading And Watching

Batman Beyond - I LOVE everything about this animated TV series from the voice actors, writing, character design, color palette (red skies set the exact mood) and the music. This version of Batman is set in the future and Bruce is an old man guiding a teenage younger version of himself in a tricked out Batsuit. Whenever I watch a Batman movie, TV series or read a comic, when Bruce is handsome, I enjoy the story even more. After watching this well crafted series over and over during the years, this was money well spent.

 I was so excited when I saw this Dr. Strange DVD on the shelf at the library. It goes into much detail about the origins of Dr. Strange. Not knowing any of his back story, it was interesting learn more about a character I enjoyed reading in The New Avengers comics.  The action scenes were the best part of watching the show. It is not often you get to see how a group of magically powered superheroes would fight each other. The worst thing was how long the story was bogged down in Strange's sad and arrogant past. I wanted the plot to be more about magical fight scenes with the evil baddies. Not a good storyline balance at all.

 Hanna is a young female action hero with an twist. The plot is not necessarily original. It seemed by the end it was a movie to set up other movies. After listening to the commentary, the movie as written made a lot more sense. I could get the "story tale" motif after the director explained it. Lots of very well choreographed fight scenes that were awesome to watch. Loved seeing a female lead know how to take care of herself.

A sequel made for no reason than it will make more money for all those involved. The first Pirates of the Caribbean was the best and the second was good too. The Spanish sailors seemed really interesting but they really were not in the story very much. I am a huge mermaid fan so I was very disappointed by the "woman in fake fish tails" boring design. Don't get me started on the mermaid "attack teeth". I was glad I didn't pay money to see this at the movies.

I got inspired to take up my knitting again after seeing a character knitting in a movie recently. This is the video that taught me how to knit. Very good instruction. Fun to watch and some danceable music too. I checked out from the library and enjoyed it so much I purchased it. This DVD will be perfect for anyone of all ages to learn how to knit. I just re-watched it as a refresher and it was knitting again in no time.

 The first three Shabby Chic books Rachel Ashwell brought out were my favorite. I'm not a fan of the Shabby Chic decor as much as I was in the past. Love the soft pastel color palette but creeped out by the scraped off painted furniture. In this book, the version of Shabby Chic is mixed up with western items. I just didn't like the two styles together. 

Too many stories of drug abuse and cheating on their girlfriends and wives, I didn't enjoy reading this book at all. For some reason, I have been reading a lot of books about the sordid lives of rock stars. The waste of life, talent, money and time don't not make for a positive reading experience. It does jolt me back into the reality of what it would be like to date a musician (some not all of course). It takes a strong person to live a healthy productive life on the road in a band and a strong person to be in a relationship with that person. 

What have you been reading and watching lately?

Thanks for reading!

Four Movie Marathon - A Few Thoughts

 I had heard this was a confusing movie. 

There was way too many storylines to try to keep up with at one time. My favorite story was the one set in the future and it wanted it to be the entire movie. I didn't know until the ending credits, the brother (and now) sister who made The Matrix were involved in this movie. This explained the strange bad copy of  Keanu like character in the sci fi story. The makeup and wigs were terrible. I am so glad I saw it for free. Thank you public library.

 I watched this movie in reverse. It was supposed to be amazing and won a lot of awards.

 A guy in a boat with a tiger? Hmmmm I decided I wanted to see how this movie ended to decide if I would take the time to watch the entire film. Verdict? Yes this was a very good movie. Seeing it from the end then rewinding  it a bit then some more then all the way to the beginning was the only way it made sense to me. Best part of the movie? The visual effects. Very creative and awe inspiring. 

This is a story about how to survive tragedy mentally and physically. I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was at times. But to be honest, I would not have had the patience to see this at the movies. Seeing the visual effects on the big screen would have been very cool but I would not want to pay to see this movie.

 I have a thing about bad wigs and makeup in movies. 

If I see a picture of a character in an upcoming movie and the wig looks terrible (Halle Berry in a past X Men movie and that horrible Cat Woman movie) I will not want to see the movie. When Salt came out a couple of years ago, I remember looking at the trailer thinking those are terrible wigs on such a beautiful woman. The plot is interesting with lots of twists and turns. I love a good spy movie. 

There is a scene with fantastic special effects makeup (I will not give it away) that is absolutely the best character transformation makeup I have ever seen done. Overall this is a very good action movie.

Bad Lieutenant is the best movie out of the four films I watched.

 Nicolas Cage is such an amazing character actor. I love it when an actor completely disappears into the character they are playing. This movie is about when bad circumstances in life can lead you to making bad decision after bad decision. Watching this movie was an adventure into the head space of a drug user.

 It didn't go overboard with the unique visual touches but it was just enough to make you think and to scare you. This film is about the drug business and drug addiction. Both of these things can ruin your life, your career and your family's life. I think this might be my favorite of all Cage's films.

My Favorite TV Show DVD Sets - Blog Posts Coming Soon!

When I love a TV show, I want to own all the seasons. Having a marathon is a fun way to appreciate all aspects of  my fave show. My much loved DVD sets are:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons 1-7

Angel seasons 1-5

Dark Angel seasons 1-2

Dead Like Me seasons 1-2

Farscape seasons 1-4

Invader Zim one season

La Femme Nikita  seasons 1-5

The Pretender seasons 1-4

Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles seasons 1-2

Wild Wild West seasons 1-4

Veronica Mars seasons 1-4


Batman Beyond seasons 1-3

I will be posting my thoughts about the writing, production design, wardrobe, makeup, and acting on each of these shows in the soon.

Thanks for reading. :)