Jenni's Page

These seem to be making the rounds:

First, a musical meme:

Musical I hate: Carrie (I haven't seen it but it just sounds horrible)
Musical that's overrated: A Chorus Line
Musical that's underrated: Thoroughly Modern Millie
Musical I love: South Pacific
Musical I cherish: Funny Girl
Musical that changed my life: On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
First musical I was in: I wasn't IN any musicals! My son Jamie was in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in school. Does that count?
First professional musical I saw : Man of La Mancha

( Read more... )

Today was terribly hot - that flesh-melting, steaming-blob-on-the-pavement kind of hot in which you can do NOTHING but flop down somewhere and stay there for hours not moving at ALL.

I had to work today. Sean wanted me to bring him home a smoothie and a sandwich from Tim Horton's, but I could NOT walk the half-block to Timmy's in this weather at lunch-time. I got him a smoothie from the coffee shop downstairs so I didn't have to go outside, and thank god Eddie went to the grocery store today and bought a fresh baguette, so I was able to make him a sandwich when I got home.

But seriously, we have an indoor-outdoor thermometer which is right now showing 109 degrees F outside and 76 inside. Even the 76 is a bit too much but at least it's not 109! The inside-the-car thermometer was showing 36 C on the way home, which I suppose is the equivalent of near 100 F.

Some of my plants are dying. Everyone's lawn has gone from lush green to dusty brown in the matter of a week. We killed two weird-looking bugs inside the clinic today. That's not good.

But in talking to Olivia on Skype, I discovered that in Lloydminster, Alberta it never gets above 23 C during the day and drops to 5 C at night - perfect sleeping weather. And it stays light outside until almost midnight. And they get the Northern Lights! If anyone doesn't know what the Northern Lights are, here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)



The picture was taken near Edmonton, Alberta, which is near where Olivia is living as well.

So I am good for nothing the rest of the day. I am going to watch some movies, try to eat something although I'm not even hungry, and then go to bed.

Btw, last night I watched an absolute stunner of a movie. It was just excellent, and not the type of thing I usually like (a prison movie) but it was so much more and I thought it was great. It's called 'A Prophet' and here are the details:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1213205-prophet/

And last week I enjoyed another immensely entertaining film called 'Winter in Wartime', about a couple of Dutch kids who rescue a stranded British pilot during WWII. It was not at all depressing, but kept me on the edge of my seat with its amazing suspense. And it was beautifully photographed, as well as starring the incredibly attractive Jamie Campbell Bower as the downed pilot.



Okay, time to soldier on...

Hope everyone is managing to keep cool! :)

The funny side of autism:

I asked Sean why he rearranges his furniture at angles so it's not flat against the wall, and he told me it's because he leans on it, thus it gets pushed away from the wall a bit, and gets stuck at odd angles. I had to laugh because his explanation was so simple and the reason was not that he did it deliberately.

On another note, his sudden blurting has escalated, to the point I'm worried he might develop Tourette's Syndrome. So far Sean is not on any medications and I'd like to keep it that way. Any kind of drugs/medications are bad, very bad. Because I work in a doctor's office, I know so many things...I always threatened to write a book blowing the whistle on the medical profession when I retire. But I am seriously thinking about starting it now, because I think it will take me a long time to finish it and I want to get certain facts out there in the public.

( More here... )

INNOCENT VOICES

Here is the trailer from Youtube:




This award-winning film is an intense, riveting, beautifully filmed drama about an 11-year-old boy trying to survive in El Salvador with his family, during the war which took place from 1980-1992. After the war was over, Oscar Torres returned to script and film his story.

The kids in the film go to school every day and try to live and maintain their family lives amid frequent gunfire, bullets raining down on them on an almost-daily basis. The army regularly invades the school in order to round up 12 year old boys, taking them into service. Oscar Torres' name in the film is 'Chava', and he is 11, soon to turn 12. He lives in a shanty town with his mother, sister and young brother. His father left for good several years before, to go to live in the USA, and his uncle has joined the nearby but hidden guerrilla army who fight the soldiers. During a brief visit, his uncle tells Chava to come and join the guerrillas before he is conscripted into the hated regular army. Eventually Chava does so, but with terrible consequences.

The actors in this movie are amazingly talented. Leonor Varela plays Chava's mother, Daniel Jimenez Cacho is the town's rebellious priest, and both brave souls are trying to hold their families/parishes together under the most unbearably impossible circumstances. Carlos Padilla, who plays Chava, creates a beautifully emotional, heartbreaking performance. Apparently Oscar Torres (the real Chava) who wrote the film and was on set during the filming, would break down and cry uncontrollably between takes.

On a side note, Daniel Jimenez Cacho is one of my favourite Latino actors. He played the lead role in one of my all-time favourite movies, 'Perder Es Cuestion de Metodo'.

Despite some of the most tragic events I've ever witnessed on film, the movie is well worth watching. For me it was an immensely rewarding experience. It actually does have a happy ending (sort of), even despite so many horrific events occurring during the film. I want to point out too, that this is not a bloody movie at all - while there are harrowing scenes, there is nothing gory or graphic. What this movie does more than anything is show the real victims of war, the innocent people whose lives are irreparably changed by events they cannot control, the useless, ridiculous wars that human beings perpetrate upon each other.

And here is a link to the Wiki Page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voces_inocentes