Letters from the hearth <3

Carl was born and reared in the California desert where the Depression of the 30′s had little impact. Huge Hollywood movie studios were being built that wooed an entire industry westward. Rows of orange crates filled streets lined with eucalyptus trees that stretched up to worship the hot sun. The scent of sage in the breeze was heaven, and before all the cars and freeways came, the purple mountain backdrop  [ Read More ]

Director: François Ozon Cast: Isabelle Carré, Louis-Ronan Choisy, Pierre Louis-Calixte In French w/ subtitles Rated: Not Rated Running time: 88 minutes Hideaway (Le Refuge 2009) Bizarre Story: A drug addicted woman is found barely clinging to life, is unknowingly pregnant,  with her dead boyfriend laying close by. She leaves, rents a lovely cottage, and welcomes the dead boyfriend’s adopted gay brother to live with her during her pregnancy. They party.  [ Read More ]

#samplesunday (1st entry) by Marsha Leigh St.Claire-B This memoir piece is posted with permission from: The Palo Alto Review ( Spring 2007 issue) Archie,Veronica, Jughead and Me. Tuesday afternoons began like this. I’m sitting near my front door with a folder full of piano music propped against my feet. The door is slightly ajar so I can peek around it from time to time to see if the taxicab has  [ Read More ]

  Hey men – this is easy really when you consider what our (women) weakness is . We are helpless when you tell us things – using words — even better. The story is old, I realize that women talk “too” much and men are always waiting for the bottom line – all the while their minds are drifting to something else until you finish your yammering. For women, we  [ Read More ]

Living one’s life as a perfectionist along with growing up with a mom suffering from the same disorder is far from perfect. I say “disorder” in the kindest terms possible because there is a misconception in either direction about how we perfectionists view our lives, and those that view how we behave. Here are the truths that I’ve discovered. I welcome comments if you also live as I do. One:  [ Read More ]

A tribute to movie making.  A fairytale.   A love story.   A work of art.  A labor of love. After my 4th viewing of this amazing film, I decided to put it up there with all the timeless romantic classics I’ve purchased,  The Wizard of Oz,  Wuthering Heights, Casablanca, The Time Machine (2 versions) etc. I suggest if you are the least bit interested, watch the film first, don’t read  [ Read More ]

One of my favorite romantic films of all time. I think Spielberg may have assembled one of the best casts ever – several scenes are ad-libed to perfection which remain classic. I think I’ve seen it over 20 times – not sure. All I know is if you have a favorite film in which when it comes on you say, ok I’ll just watch a couple more minutes-then watch an  [ Read More ]

The 1st time I heard this song and artist was watching Maureen Reagan’s funeral on TV in 2001. I instantly knew I’d want this song played at my own. This post is dedicated to everyone at work today on March 30. Hugs to everyone. We lost a co-worker today. RIP. (there is no video (black) – just a way to hear the song) My time on Earth Long as it  [ Read More ]

The cat is not out of the bag, not really. However a few of us are beta testing Photoshop CS5 and can now post a few images using some new features. I really enjoyed working with some old travel photos this weekend. I began with an old photo I took in Auckland, New Zealand many years ago. There are always too many cars in my photos. I also wanted to  [ Read More ]

A Serious Man The Cohen brothers are one of my favorite movie makers. They’ve done it again with this one – one that I’ll watch again to find tidbits – too much to chew on viewing only once as usual. Probably the best review was done here: Roger Ebert’s review Great choice of a rabbi to cast the “walowitz” character from Big Bang Theory. Everyone cast seems just perfect. Was  [ Read More ]

Finally watched this thing last night. Inglourious Basterds (2009) While “Death Proof” still remains my all time favorite Tarantino film,  most of his are always always memorable even if I mildly liked it. This one was pretty good for me. The photography, camera angles, were great ~ such an artist. The fact he wrote this stuff and had 3 (or was it 4?) different languages goin on amazes me. *head  [ Read More ]

There are certain actors that for some magical reach middle age and also reach the peak of their talent at the same time. One of those people for me was always Bill H. Macy – but another is Stanley Tucci and he’s the subject of this writing. This revelation came to me recently after watching Julie & Julia where he brilliantly plays Julia Child’s husband, partner and best friend, and  [ Read More ]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

ok these things are fun. Or..maybe we’ve turned into little kids. Doesn’t matter. I love em. I make screenshots of the scenes too which is verrrry time consuming – but worth it. Here are the ones I made so far:  If you click the links they play on the JibJab site. Starring (left to right top to bottom) Jeff, Julio, Rich, Marsh (me), Greg, Mickie “It’s A JibJab Life” I  [ Read More ]

Greg and I are rehearsing. What do you mean we’re too old for hs? The still photos from this vid are stored: here Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

“All she had to say was…..’she’s twenty’…….and my heart was broken”. A few days ago I stood like many other days at the counter. The lines had calmed down, nobody was waiting. I was looking down at my screen when a women approached. Our normal response is to spew out sometimes robotic words…”Did someone call you up? You have a boarding pass?” …but before I could utter a single word  [ Read More ]

Moon. “…Two weeks to go buddy……..” I just downloaded the haunting soundtrack by Clint Mansell (The Wrestler, The Fountain, Definitely Maybe) This is a small movie that you have to look for. It only lasted one week at one of my local theatres, pushed out for more summer blockbusters. I found it online yesterday only to arrive at the threatre and it wasn’t posted as playing. After asking, it was  [ Read More ]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

….”What’s that perfume in your hair?……..I don’t know….I bought it in Ensenada”…. Cheesy and cool. What a script. What a cast. What a director. Classic film noir. Billy Wilder is in my top 5 favorite directors. I mostly love his work in the mid to late 50′s but his earlier film noir work was brilliant as well. Double Indemnity was nominated for 7 Oscars and probably didn’t win due to  [ Read More ]

The funniest SNL I’ve seen in ages. Who else but Madonna would think babies from the Moon would be boring? I for one am curious about the baby Island – where of course you could just gather babies ( like shell collecting I presume?) Due to copyright you must view the video on NBC which is ok by me – the quality is superb. Madonna vs Agelina re: babies Don’t  [ Read More ]