http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjz9rYwWcFg

For those of you going to see This Is It a treat from the 1988 Moonwalker video.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4QLFVrZ-fw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMT8ciK5bFc

Michael Jackson - The Lost Children

I thought Michael Jackson was a dance-pop artist. Like Madonna. I was into Rock n Roll etc. Different generation. Something happened when he died. I pulled out my Runes and asked him if he wanted to say anything. He said "Listen". So I did. Now that he's gone maybe people will appreciate his music more.

Award shows are usually meaningless mutual masturbation society events but I have to say I am happy that Bruce Springsteen got some acknowledgement for his great song and Mickey Rourke for his outstanding performance in The Wrestler.

As for Kate Winslet, I guess Ricky Gervais got it right, make a holocaust movie.  And make sure you screw somebody and are naked a lot right in the beginning before the old farts voting fall asleep.

Marissa Tomei was better but she wasn't playing a Nazi or actually portraying multiple sex acts onscreen.  Too bad. 

Here's my review from Yahoo and here's a clip from the movie.



The Wrestler (2008).. .. .. ..

[ All User Reviews ]

Previous   |  2 of 94  |   Next

.. .. ..

....

.. .. ..

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Overall Grade: A Story: A- .. .. .... Acting: A+ .. .. .... Direction: A+ .. .. .... Visuals: B Rourke's performance really stays with you. by sjf1022 (movies profile) ..Dec 19, 2008.. 12 of 12 people found this review helpful .... I went to a screening of this movie not knowing anything about wrestling or Mickey Rourke. I almost didn't go because I remembered Million Dollar Baby. I don't like fight movies. But the cast and the director were going to be there so I'm glad I went. But, let me tell you, this movie is a GEM. Run, don't walk, to your nearest cinema and go see it. Great acting by Rourke and supporting actresses Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood, and of course great directing by Darren Aronofsky, who said it took 7 years to make. Rourke trained for seven months at bodybuilding with frequent hi protein lo carb meals, and then trained as a wrestler for four more months before filming. He said it was hard for him to get the rhythm of a wrestler since he came from the boxing world and it was so different. Bruce Springsteen does an incredible song over the end credits and the soundtrack features a lot of 80's bands. Since Bruce and Rourke go "way back" he gave them the song for free! But Rourke's performance will stand out over time, like Anthony Quinn in La Strada or Stallone as Rocky Balboa. His whole life is in his face and those eyes, but his voice has a sweetness to it that counters his appearance. Darren the director focusses a lot on that face, showing us all the scars and the pain until we feel it too. I want to see it again. You will too. This is a GREAT movie. .... .. ..

When I was young I was living in Spain, in Madrid in a large dormitory called a "Colegio Mayor".  I lived in the all female Colegio Mayor Colombiano, there were students from all over Spain, Europe, and South America.  It was gated, there were curfews, everone had a small room with bed, desk and sink and meals were taken in a large dining room.

As December 25 approached, the girls started leaving for their homes. I was left with an Italian girl and a Dominican girl.  We agreed that either all three of us would have dinner Christmas Eve or none of us would so the cook and staff could go home and be with their families.

The afternoon of December 24 I went to the Puerta del Sol, the "Door of the Sun", the large square in the center of Madrid and the Plaza Mayor.  Christmas Eve is a rather pagan affair in Spain.  People were singing their version of xmas carols, "villancicos", beating tambourines and blowing flute-like instruments much as we do on New Years' Eve.  There are lullabyes of course but there are also songs making fun of St Joseph as a drooling old man, and songs about washing baby diapers.  I don't think they take the virgin birth too seriously in Spain.

The celebration with parades and toys is reserved for January 6, the Feast of the Three Kings, who arrive on camels bearing gifts for the Christ Child,  and if you leave hay in your shoes on the windowsill they will each leave you a gift.

The Department Stores feature three kings on their thrones, one black (usually recruited from the neighboring Air Force Base).  Sears in Madrid had a Santa and Reindeer display on the roof.

Anyway, I arrived at the dining hall where the cook prooudly served me roast leg of lamb and a wonderful xmas eve dinner.  The other two girls were nowhere to be found.  I took one bite and, alone in the big dormitory and this huge dining room, I burst into tears.

Cookie said, oh, come now, I'll put the food away, come watch the King on Tv with us.  I went to the cook's and housekeeper's small room and tried to watch while I stopped sniffling and dried my tears.  I felt so bad that he had to stay and cook for me.

Then I went to my room.  The phone in the hallway rang as I passed by, it was Josefa, the girl in the room next to mine, there on scholarship.  Susan, she asked, I just wanted to wish you a Merry Xmas.  Oh, I sobbed, I'm all alone in this big place! You can't be alone on Xmas, she said, you must come to our house.  My parents are poor, and my grandmother is dying.  They are at the hospital but we can put you in the kitchen.

I took the subway to the last stop in the worst part of Madrid.  Her father was an "obrero", a laborer.  On the subway I met a couple who asked me where I was going alone on Xmas Eve.  I told them the address Josefa had given me.  Oh, they said, we will walk with me the rest of the way.  I had no idea how far it was. We walked for forty-five minutes.

I found the small apartment, two small rooms, a kitchen and bathroom for five people.  Josefa and her younger sister made a small bed, but poor as they were, I was rich because I was not alone.  I had received the most precious xmas gift - kindness.

The grandmother died that night.  The parents were grieving.  All there was to eat the next morning was a can of Fabada Asturiana - beans.

I am not making this up.  There is no way that I could.  There is no heat in most of the buildings in Madrid, whch is why they gave me the kitchen thinking it would be the warmest room.

The next day I returned to Madrid.  It took hours to get back by bus.

But I am sure I will never forget the Christmas Eve I spent with Josefa and her kind family who despite their poverty and family pain, took me, a foreigner and a stranger, in that night. I wonder how many American "Christians" would do the same.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Okay, here it comes again.......

How to cook a turkey.

- Go buy a turkey

- Take a drink of whiskey (scotch) OR JD

- Put turkey in the oven

- Take another 2 drinks of whiskey

- Set the degree at 375 ovens

- Take 3 more whiskeys of drink

- Turn oven the on

- Take 4 whisks of drinky

- Turk the bastey

- Whiskey another bottle of get

- Stick a turkey in the thermometer

- Glass yourself a pour of whiskey

- Bake the whiskey for 4 hours

- Take the oven out of the turkey

- Take the oven out of the turkey

- Floor the turkey up off of the pick

- Turk the carvey

- Get yourself another scottle of botch

- Tet the sable and pour yourself a glass of turkey

- Bless the saying, pass and eat out

Happy Turkey Day! (hic)

Now for some Educational info from somewhere on the web

THANKSGIVING LEGENDS AND ODDITIES

Thanksgiving
Tucked away between the two monster sized holidays of Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving receives far less attention. But Thanksgiving is a very important holiday, especially to Americans with their busy lives. It is a time to kick back and relax, watch football games, go to movies, visit with love ones and enjoy a large family feast. Also, it's time for us to give thanks for the things bestowed upon us and America. There is no nation in the world that has more to be thankful for than America.

Go visit my Turkey Cartoons Archives for funny Turkey Cartoons or go to my Thanksgiving Cartoons Archives for funny Thanksgiving Cartoons!

The Thanksgiving Story
The Pilgrims who sailed to this country aboard the Mayflower were originally members of the English Separatist Church (a Puritan sect). They had earlier fled their home in England and sailed to Holland (The Netherlands) to escape religious persecution. There, they enjoyed more religious tolerance, but they eventually became disenchanted with the Dutch way of life, thinking it ungodly. Seeking a better life, the Separatists negotiated with a London stock company to finance a pilgrimage to America. Most of those making the trip aboard the Mayflower were non-Separatists, but were hired to protect the company's interests. Only about one-third of the original colonists were Separatists.

The Pilgrims set ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Their first winter was devastating. At the beginning of the following fall, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower. But the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one. And the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast -- including 91 Indians who had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year. It is believed that the Pilgrims would not have made it through the year without the help of the natives. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true "thanksgiving" observance. It lasted three days.

Governor William Bradford sent "four men fowling" after wild ducks and geese. It is not certain that wild turkey was part of their feast. However, it is certain that they had venison. The term "turkey" was used by the Pilgrims to mean any sort of wild fowl.

Another modern staple at almost every Thanksgiving table is pumpkin pie. But it is unlikely that the first feast included that treat. The supply of flour had been long diminished, so there was no bread or pastries of any kind. However, they did eat boiled pumpkin, and they produced a type of fried bread from their corn crop. There was also no milk, cider, potatoes, or butter. There was no domestic cattle for dairy products, and the newly-discovered potato was still considered by many Europeans to be poisonous. But the feast did include fish, berries, watercress, lobster, dried fruit, clams, venison, and plums.

This "thanksgiving" feast was not repeated the following year. But in 1623, during a severe drought, the pilgrims gathered in a prayer service, praying for rain. When a long, steady rain followed the very next day, Governor Bradford proclaimed another day of Thanksgiving, again inviting their Indian friends. It wasn't until June of 1676 that another Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed.

On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. By unanimous vote they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving. It is notable that this thanksgiving celebration probably did not include the Indians, as the celebration was meant partly to be in recognition of the colonists' recent victory over the "heathen natives".

October of 1777 marked the first time that all 13 colonies joined in a thanksgiving celebration. It also commemorated the patriotic victory over the British at Saratoga. But it was a one-time affair.

George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, although some were opposed to it. There was discord among the colonies, many feeling the hardships of a few Pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. And later, President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of having a day of thanksgiving.

It was Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to what we recognize as Thanksgiving. Hale wrote many editorials championing her cause in her Boston Ladies' Magazine, and later, in Godey's Lady's Book. Finally, after a 40-year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents, Hale's obsession became a reality when, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was proclaimed by every president after Lincoln. The date was changed a couple of times, most recently by Franklin Roosevelt, who set it up one week to the next-to-last Thursday in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season. Public uproar against this decision caused the president to move Thanksgiving back to its original date two years later. And in 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday, as the fourth Thursday in November.

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated between the Pilgrims and the Indians in 1621.That first feast was a three day affair. Life for the early settlers was difficult. The fall harvest was time for celebration. It was also a time of prayer, thanking God for a good crop. The Pilgrims and the Indians created a huge feast including a wide variety of animals and fowl, as well as fruits and vegetables from the fall harvest. This early celebration was the start of today's holiday celebration. Like then, we celebrate with a huge feast.

Today, most of us enjoy Turkey with "all the trimming". The "trimming" include a wide variety of foods that are a tradition for your family. Those traditional foods often replicate the foods at the first Thanksgiving feast. While others, are traditional ethnic or religious group's recipe, or a special food item that your family always serves at Thanksgiving dinner. Then, to top it off, pumpkin pies, apple pies, an even mince meat pies are bountiful around the table.

The American traditions of Thanksgiving revolve around a huge and lavish meal, usually with Turkey as the centerpiece. For those who do not like Turkey , a Roast or Prime Rib is common. As tradition has it in most families, a special prayer of thanks precedes the meal. In many homes, family members will each mention something they are very thankful for.

Thanksgiving Cards
Click "Hungry Turkey" Cartoon to view Thanksgiving Cards!

Thanksgiving Trivia

* Did you know? Potatoes were not part of the first Thanksgiving. Irish immigrants had not yet brought them to North America .
* After the first Thanksgiving, the observance was sporadic and almost forgotten until the early 1800's. It was usually celebrated in late September or October. In 1941, Congress made it a national holiday and set the date as the fourth Thursday in November.

Turkey Trivia

(1.) Turkeys originated in North and Central America, and evidence indicates that they have been around for over 10 million years.
(2.) In Mexico, the turkey was considered a sacrificial bird. As an article of tribute Montezuma received 365,000 turkeys per year from his subjects.
(3.) The American Indians hunted wild turkey for its sweet, juicy meat as early as 1000 AD. Turkey feathers were used to stabilize arrows and adorn ceremonial dress, and the spurs on the legs of wild tom turkeys were used as projectiles on arrowheads. They also shared a place in their folklore. The Navajos tell of an enormous hen turkey that flew over their fields bringing them corn and teaching them how to cultivate their crops. The Apache Indians considered the turkey timid and wouldn't eat it or use its feathers on their arrows.
(4.) Benjamin Franklin was displeased when the bald eagle was chosen over his proposed "original native" turkey as a national symbol. He said the turkey is a more respectable bird and a true original native of America.
(5.) Until 1863, Thanksgiving day had not been celebrated annually since the first feast in 1621. This changed in 1863 when Sarah Josepha Hale encouraged Abraham Lincoln to set aside the last Thursday in November "as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer."
(6.) Turkey eggs are pale creamy tan with brown speckles, and twice as large as chicken eggs. They hatch in 28 days. A baby turkey is called a poult and is tan and brown.
(7.) Domesticated turkeys (farm raised) cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.
(8.) A large group of turkeys is called a flock.
(9.) Only male turkeys (toms) gobble; females (hens) make a clicking noise. The gobble is a seasonal call during the Spring and Fall. Hens are attracted for mating when a tom gobbles. Wild toms love to gobble when they hear loud sounds or settle in for the night.
(10.) Turkeys have great hearing, a poor sense of smell, but an excellent sense of taste. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult.
(11.) Turkeys are fed mainly a balanced diet of corn and soybean meal mixed with a supplement of vitamins and minerals. On average, it takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30-pound tom turkey.
(12.) Mature turkeys have 3,500 or so feathers at maturity.
(13.) The Guinness Book of Records states that the largest dressed weight (cooked, with dressing) recorded for a turkey is 39.09 kg (86 lb.) on December 12, 1989.
(14.) In 1999, about 273 million turkeys were raised in the United States. An estimated 276 million turkeys will be raised in 2000.
(15.) More than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten during Thanksgiving.
(16.) The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds. A 15-pound turkey typically has about 70% white meat and 30% dark meat.
(17.) Americans feast on approximately 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
(18.) Last year 2.74 billion pounds of turkey were processed in the United States.
(19.) Californians are the biggest turkey eaters in the country. They eat three pounds more turkey than the average American consumer.
(20.) Ninety percent of American homes eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Fifty percent eat turkey on Christmas.
(21.) The good old-fashioned turkey sandwich is the most popular way for Americans to prepare the fowl, accounting for 44 percent of consumption.
(22.) North Carolina produces 61 million turkeys annually, more than any other state. Minnesota and Arkansas are number two and three.
(23.) When U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin sat down to eat their first meal on the moon in their historic 1969 voyage, their foil food packets contained roasted turkey and all the trimmings.

Well those Santa Ana winds are blowing again and there's a full moon and things are eerie.  October ends with Halloween and last night  I had a dream....of Halloween past....

I had been feeling kind of down with that flu going around, confined to bed and not being able to eat anything with a bad tummyache watching movies on my portable DVD player propped on my stomach.

And last night someone famous appeared in my dream to hold my hand and comfort me while the wind was howling.  Then I remembered the time he really did hold my hand.

A friend was going to drive me to see this rock band at Dodger Stadium on Halloween.  It was a beautiful October day in LA and I put on my day-glow Pope John Paul II world tour T-shirt.  After all, it was Halloween!  And Pope John Paul II was kind of a rock-star pope, going all over the world like he did, even coming close to the Pico Union barrio where I worked as an interpreter at Legal Aid., in his Pope-Mobile and all.

I liked the band's music and had seen them a couple of times.  I didnt have any of their CD's and didn't know that much about them, but I was looking forward to going to the show.

My friend called me and said she was at the hotel the band was staying at off the Sunset Strip and asked me if I would meet her there.  She was waiting along with a hundred other fans holding signs, flowers, posters, etc for the band members to come out, hoping for a sighting so she could take pictures.

I said I would do no such thing, but she told me if I wanted a ride to the concert I had better meet her there or else.  So I hopped on the bus and went down to the hotel.  I stood away from the crowd under a tree trying to make myself invisible.  Of course I had forgotten about my day-glow Pope John Paul II World Tour T-Shirt and that it was Halloween.

Suddenly there was a commotion of bodyguards, and the band members came out.  The crowd was pretty well-behaved; they stayed across the street.  The band members approached the crowd and I hugged my tree.Then suddenly, the lead singer looked in my direction and walked straight towards me, his bodyguards in hot pursuit.  The young crowd moved toward  me and the tree.

I suddenly realized I didn't know that much about that band but I'd better come up with something fast.  He looked at my shirt with a smile and then I remembered I'd seen them at Live Aid and that they were on the Island Records label and so was Bob Marley, one of my favorites. 

The lead singer looking like a rock star in his dark glasses came right up to me with a smile, and all I could think of to say was, Oh, I always thought you guys took Bob Marley's place at Live Aid!

I could see the change in his face.  He took my hand and put it on his chest and hugged me.  Oh, he said, I could never walk in His shoes.  He took my other arm and began to hug me.  It caught me off guard, and although I was quite embarrassed, I felt a tremendous warmth and charisma coming from this young man and knew I would have to find out more about him.

That night at Dodger Stadium, in the middle of the show, he came out alone with an acoustic gutar.  This was written by the great Bob Marley, he said as he played Redemption Song.  I couldn't believe it. My friend was elbowing me saying, Sue!  Did you hear that?  I thought how odd anything I said to a Rock Star could mean anything.

A few days later, I saw him again by chance in Hollywood. Thanks for the Bob Marley song!  I said. 

He smiled a big smile.  Oh, BONO said with his Irish accent.  Ya liked that, did ya?

Oh, and my friend took this picture after he hugged me!  That's me in the left low corner with my hand waving....

A nice DVD to rent when you are reminiscing about the sixties ..">

He's nominated for a Primetime Emmy for best actor in a drama for In Treatment.

He so deserves it.

Good luck, Mr. Byrne:

Pre-Finale clips of Gabriel Byrne and Melissa George affection. Song: "Answer" by Sarah McLachlan

Okay I am reprinting this by request: concert-going adventures in New Jersey!

(go to blog archives for more fun stories)

Saturday, June 16, 2007


Tripping down memory lane......
Current mood: nostalgic

Or, how Bob Dylan played six shows with the Grateful Dead in 1987 and I went to five of them..... thanks to unemployment, free tickets on United Airlines, Alyse in New Jersey, Sandy in Boston, Dinnie in San Francisco, and a bunch of people at Chubb's Pub in Long Branch, New Jersey, who got me to Philadelphia.

I mean why travel if there isn't a good reason like a concert in the area?

The one I have been trying the hardest to remember was the trip to Philadelphia. I had been staying in Ocean Grove New Jersey with my friend Alyse, who was camping out at the Stone Poney every day hoping Bruce Springsteen would show up unannounced so she could get up front and take pictures. She did too, she could paper the white house with all the pictures she's taken of that man.

I was having fun travelling on busses and trains poking around the Jersey shore and found a bar in Long Branch that was getting a bus to go to the show in Philadelphia. It was called Chubbs Pub or something like that. I bought a ticket, but couldn't figure out how to get to the pub on the day of the show so they arranged for two fans to pick me up. "Sue from California" as I was called by my friends in Jersey. I got a ride with a biker and his very pregnant lady in a tiny beat up VW. These people had NO money. They were the kind that worked hard, earned minimum wage and went to one concert a year, and it was a GRATEFUL DEAD concert. A far cry from the med students, law students and generally upper middle class newer fans I was meeting that enabled the Dead to play huge stadiums till Jerry died.

We got on the bus and the beer and other stuff started flowing. I heard stories of previous escapades on said bus to concerts in which some guy locked himself in the toilet. After a busload of angry guys with bursting bladders broke the lock by banging on the door they found him tripping his brains out staring at the water in the bowl. Look - blue water....>! Blue water.....!

They had also enjoyed police escorts into the stadium parking lot on previous excursions.

But I still wasn't prepared for Philadelphia and RFK Stadium. You know the one "Live Aid" was held at. It was 100 plus degrees in the shade and humid, like being in the jungle. Except there weren't any trees.

I remember the driver parking the bus by the largest thing he could find, a huge trangular CITGO sign so people could find it after the show. The stadium was miles away across the parking lot. I got to my seat and noticed water flowing at the sides of the stadium from shower like hoses. I know I was there. I probably enjoyed the show. But I have been trying to remember it for 20 years now, and I DON"T REMEMBER A THING after that!

I know made it back to the bus because they put me in the front seat next to Chubb the owner who was 300 lbs. The bus waited until everyone left and went through the parking lot picking people up. Then a 2 hr trip back to Long Branch. I still don't know how I got home.

What has happened to my memory? Is it age? Is it all the MRI's I've had in the past 20 years? I'm sure the concert was great. Why can't I remember it? How did I get home? I guess like they say the lord smiles on fools and drunks.

Now I see the value in keeping a journal. Or a blog.

Summer's coming again, I better buy some pens and paper...