Blizzard 2009, Just an Apparition

Right: 
Bayside Diner's Snowman holds parking spot for guests.  
(12/25/2009) 
--------------

     Last weekend, winter's first blast kept many New Yorkers, like others in the N.E region, cozied-up in doors, and yesterday the second day of the long Holiday weekend 30+ mph wind gusts and heavy rains took center stage; belting, pelting us with more of the same in your face force. Off and on throughout the day shrilling sirens, sounds of muffled jets and the chatter of a few passersby joined the duo's jam, while mounds of snow eroded like cotton candy on a child's eager tongue. How the birds survive the storms and remain on post to welcome and announce the rise of the sun to man is one of natures great mysteries.     
     While bringing us comfort, the sun finishes taking care of business it has with the rain. The streets are drying up. I can hear the planes and the trains just passing through, loud and clear. The remnants of Winter 2009's first big snowstorm got a licking!
     Early in the morning, while the storm was in naissance my daughter got me out of bed to go down to the Flushing Library on Main Street to take out books, graphic novels and an assortment of DVD's of almost every genre. Why can't I just roll back to sleep? It's only 8:30! Having spent the 25th indoors due to a cold that continues to haunt me I agree. The fresh air can do me good.
     Most Saturday's there is a crowd waiting for the doors to open at the Flushing Library and quite a bit of hustle and bustling going on on all floors, but as with last weekend it was quiet and we had rows and rows of DVD's to select from without bumping elbows except when we wanted to show one another a pick; TV series, International Films, Sci-Fi, Comedy, Drama and more. Most of the movies in our selection were good, The Truman Show, Push, Be Kind Rewind. Guy-X was ehh and Shutter intense.

 Movie Bite: Shutter (2008/I)

 

Left: Rachel Taylor (Jane Shaw), Right: Joshua Jackson (Ben Shaw) 

     Shutter directed by Masayuki Ochiai, is a  thriller, horror, mystery about New York City photographer Ben Shaw and his wife Jane who are spirited off to Japan right after their wedding so he can work a fashion shoot with two old friends Bruno (David Denman) and Adam (John Hensley). The Shaw's decide to take a short honeymoon in a cabin in the scenic Japanese countryside before Ben's assignment begins. However, their newly-wedded bliss is disrupted and a shadow hangs over them after a car crash renders them unconscious. What really happened? Jane obsesses about the mysterious woman she claims to have run over before the car went off the road. "Did someone come to her aide?" "Why wasn't a body or blood found?" The pain in Ben's injured shoulder keeps intensifying and the couple start to pick up a weird vibe. Ben brushes it all off as he busies himself with work but Jane remains daunted by the experience as she explores Tokyo on her own. Shutter-bugging like every good tourist.

     Is Jane seeing things? What's that strange blob of light gracing the couple's pictures at the cabin? A defect in the film? A light leak? Was the camera broken? Or, are they strong emotions waiting to be heard? Konichiwa!! Say, "Chiizu!" "Mou ichido onegai shimasu." One more time please. And Adam, Jane senses there is something not all right with him when the couple meet up with him and Bruno for dinner.

     The story unfolds like the petals opening on a rose layer by layer until the mystery woman's identity and fate come to light and her brand of just dessert is served.

 Interview: Rachel Taylor on "Being scared during filming"

Interview: Joshua Jackson "On working with a Japanese Director"

Shutter: Clip 

"You don't have a library card? No way!"

If you live, work, go to school 
or own property in NYC 
you can apply for a card in person or online.

-----------------
Flushing Library 
-----------------


 


Queens Public Library  

http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?page_nm=Get+a+Library+Card

Brooklyn Public Library  

http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/borrowing_materials.jsp#getbplcard  
New York Public Library (Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island) 

http://www.nypl.org/books/cards.html

Sno-thing to do

     We had lots to do and sno-thing to do this weekend in NYC under a foot of snow, except chill indoors instead of being chilly outdoors, unless you were into the whole play in the snow or I have to dig out my car bits. Besides enjoying reading and music and ticking of items on to do lists it was a great weekend for a Family Film-Pick Film Fest. Scan the cable listings, instant queue your Netflix, arm yourselves with DVD's from the library, Blockbuster or local video store, check your shelves for old favorites, plan the sequence of play, get the popcorn ready, plant your keister down and enjoy the show.

     We watched umpteen movies and shows on Netflix and DVD: The Ugly Truth, Gossip, With Nail and I, Darkness Falls, Serendipity, South Park Season III, Cherished, Fired Up!, Ping Pong Playa, Martian Child, Rocket Science...

Movie Bite: 
Rocket Science (2007)

Hal played by Reece Thompson (right) with his mother's Korean Judge boyfriend's son Heston played by Aaron Yoo (left)

-------------------------------------
Two families from contrasting cultural backgrounds in Plainsboro, New Jersey are joined temporarily in the midst of Hal's soul mate, soul searching odyssey, to rise and fall and rise again from their miseries.
-------------------------------------

     Rocket Science is a great coming of age flick written and directed by Jeffrey Blitz, about a stuttering teen named Hal whose life is cha cha changed when a beauty named Ginny ferrets his talent out for the debating team. In his journey of self discovery and realization Hal learns about the meaning of passion, determination, loyalty, expectations, acceptance, family, friendship, girls and women, the difference between love and lusting, kissing, the Kama Sutra, broken cellos and glass windows, becoming a man and more.

     The dialogue was rich and subtly injected with pearly words of wisdom. Among some notable quotes: "All we have are Sloppy Joes, but they aren't so terrible if you haven't had them before." "The fights you fight today are the fights you fight to the day you die." And my favorite, "Deformed people are the best perhaps because they have a deep resource of anger to draw upon." All true if you really think about it. What spurs one to push to succeed, to change, to better oneself and ones situation if one is content with things as they are.

     As children we can pretend to be superhero's like Flash Gordon, but you can do that only so long, as Hal is told, "You can only pretend as long as you can until the forces of be take that away from you." You don't have to be a rocket scientist like Einstein to be successful. How often we all forget to just be ourselves. Just be.

Great soundtracks:

"Blister In The Sun," "Kiss Off" - Violet Femmes

"Blister In The Sun"- Sam Matthews and Houfei Yang

"The Blob"- Guy Klucevsek and David Garland

"Fight Song Melodies," "Promise of Love," "Do You Love Me?"

"Failed to Open" and more by Eef Barzelay

Score Clem Snide

Rocket Science Soundtrack