The Bride’s Gate
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Author Archives: Lenora Good
Yojimbo
DVD, Criterion Collection
Toho Co. Film, 1961
110m
One of the many Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune movies, and the first of the duology of Yojimbo and Sanjuro. Kurosawa and Mifune made something like 16 movies together before parting ways, and every one of them are fantastic.
Mifune play the title character of this movie, and is quite believable as a ronin samurai, who, like all samurai of the final years of the Edo period is down on his luck. (Samurai were disbanded in 1876) He wanders into a village where two men are fighting each other and hiring gangs to fight for them.
Mifune, being a crafty ronin, sets it up so the two gangs will fight each other and kill each other. Alas, a government official comes, and the two warring gangs must appear to be getting along. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and ronin.
Lots of swordfights, although Mifune prefers to talk when possible. He saves a kidnapped woman, her husband, and their son. The husband lost everything, including his wife to gambling, and Mifune gets them reunited and they almost don’t make it out as they keep bowing to Mifune instead of running away. This, of course, causes some consternation with Ushitora as he wanted to keep her.
If you liked A Fistful of Dollars, you’ll love the original, Yojimbo 😉
For Daddy on Father’s Day
A poem.
Mudbound
Netflix, 2017
134m
Yes, it’s one word.
A marvelous movie on the south (Mississippi Delta) shortly after two young men come home from fighting WWII. The black man was enlisted and a tank commander, the white man was a bomber pilot. Their families are bound by the mud of the delta, owned by the white family and sharecropped by the black.
The two veterans served with honor and have grown past the racism of their families and the local KKK.
This movie should be seen by everyone. It is not a feel-good movie, it is what I would call American Noir. It shows life as it pretty much was, and in many places is regressing back to. We’ve come too far to regress back to that time. If you liked the movie The Help, you need to see Mudbound.
Harvey Anderson – Lifeguard
This is a bit of a memoir, about Auntie Lenora’s first love.
Sand Storm
Netflix, 2016
1h 27m
Somewhere I read where this movie was a collaboration between Bedouins and Israelis. Most places list it as an Israeli movie about a Bedouin family living in a settlement/ghetto someplace in Israel. The sand storm is not an haboob; it is the central family. The oldest girl learns to drive from her father, she goes to school, she dreams of marrying a man of her choice, of controlling her own life. Her parents have other ideas. Her father takes a second wife, mother is not happy, and when she fights for her older daughter, father banishes her back to her parents. Two women (mother daughter) fight to change the ways of their culture.
I found this movie to be very interesting, a look inside a different culture of today, not times past. The ending, though not what I hoped for, nonetheless, is the perfect ending for this movie. Well worth the time to watch.
The Medicine Dream
An actual dream I had that was a prize-winning poem.
Mini Marbles
Humor, a memoir.
Slumberland
Netflix, 2022 PG
1h 57m
Nemo and her dad live in a lighthouse. Mom is no longer living, and Dad goes out to rescue someone and is lost at sea. Uncle Philip, a staid, single man with no sense of adventure, becomes her guardian. Nemo discovers that if she dreams, she can find her dad again. While dreaming, she meets the outlaw, Flip, and the two of them search for, and find, a secret treasure map, and the magic pearl to grant their hearts desire. Flip wants to know who he really is so he can wake up, Nemo wants to see her dad.
This is a kid’s movie, so you know how it’s going to end. And you know there will be all sorts of adventures and dreams before that end. My friend and I thought it was a nice change of pace, we laughed, I cried, we totally enjoyed it. It was not at all difficult to get totally immersed in the movie.
Weird Laws of Physics
Weather in the Tries:
Hoo Boy — the lows will be 30 down to 26. The highs will be 34 to 45. No wonder a lot of animals hibernate. I think I’l like to be a bear, I could get my fill of fresh salmon and berries, and then go sleep it off all winter, to wake to spring sunshine and warmth.
Weird Laws of Physics:
Okay, it may not be physics, it may be a weird law of nature, or a weird law of an old God somewhere. I truly don’t know. If you do, please enlighten me in the Comment section.
I’m sure you’ve noticed when with another person and he yawns, you can’t help yourself, you yawn too. And more often than not, tell him to stop doing it. If the room is full of people, it doesn’t take long for everyone in the room to start yawning. Why? Surely, we aren’t all suddenly wanting a nap, or are we?
This sort of falls into the category of, “An interesting thing happened on my way to the Forum.” Oh, wait, it’s been so many years since I’ve been to the Forum I can’t remember. It was for sure, B. C. (before children). I was writing a text to a friend and wrote: “…pleasures of any size always expand when acknowledged. One of those rules I’ve never understood. Kinda like yawns. Once someone in the room yawns, everyone has to take a turn.” (A funny, as soon as I wrote the word ‘yawn,’ I had to yawn.) He responded that he did too. Several in a row. Once for each yawn typed. As did I. (yawn)
Did you just yawn, or want to? I had no idea I was susceptible to yawning just seeing the word, let alone typing it.
I looked up Yawn Contagion, and the answer is, nobody knows what causes it. People who study that stuff have all kinds of ideas, but no solid, cast in bronze, answers. Everything from mirroring to evolution, that if one person does it, it must be good to do, so everyone does it.
Ann Rice:
The gothic queen dies Saturday night. I believe it was from effects of a stroke she suffered. I enjoyed the books I read by her, except the Lestat books. My three favorites were and are, Ramses the Damned, Feast of All Saints, and Cry to Heaven. I understand she and her son, Christopher Rice wrote a sequel to Ramses the Damned that is due out next Spring. I can hardly wait.
Entertainment:
TV: MSNBC: Watched a delightful documentary, Paper and Glue. Even if you don’t normally watch that channel, check out when they will replay it again, or go online and see if you can find it. It’s about an artist named JR and his art is very large photos. He started as a graffiti artist in Paris. He has brought communities together, helped men in US Super Max prisons. It’s just a great 2 hours. You will feel better for having watched it than not.
Books: Remember, if I finish a book, I review it Rainy Day Reads
I’m a little over halfway through Humans of Climate Change: A Cultural Journey to Explore Climate-Change Impacts, Solutions, and Hope —by Kaden Hogan. This is a fascinating book, and no matter what you think of Climate Change, I think this book would interest you.
Auntie Lenora’s Bookstore:
Please note, my Web Guru (I have a hard time calling her my Web Mistress because as you well know, Auntie Lenora does NOT like arachnids, and web builders remind me too much of the 8-legged critters. BTW, I have a rule, if I see one inside my house, it’s dead; if I see one outside in their house, I step around it, maybe photograph it, but I respect their home and by golly they should respect mine!) Anyhow, we have a new tab on the page: Bookstore, and if you have a book you’re written for sale, I’m happy to put it up there with all the information, such as how many pages, how much money (incl s/h if you ship). The ISBN so they can get it from their local bookseller if they want.
Quotes of the Week: from https://www.inspiringquotes.us/topic/3683-yawning
“A Yawn may not be polite, but at least it’s an honest opinion.”
“A yawn is a silent scream for a coffee.”
You may have noticed your Coffee Break Escape is a tad later than normal today. That’s because a very good friend of Auntie Lenora sent her a manuscript to read and comment on, and she was soooo excited about reading it she forgot to schedule it last night. It’s really Sammy Brave Dog’s fault—he is falling down on his chores and will have a sit-down with HR either later today or tomorrow to discuss. And isn’t that a shame, so close to Winter Holidays and all 😉 Happy Shopping!