Hitchcock May 28, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, People, Writing & Writers.Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Psycho
43 comments
Hitchcock’s namesake movie, a masterful portrayal of the mind behind Psycho and other thrilling thrillers, demonstrates how often “brilliant” partners with “bizarre.”
What an odd and peculiar man.
Anthony Hopkins, as Hitchcock, is unsettling, encouraging viewers to keep one eye open at all times. Helen Mirren, as his muse and wife, Alma Hitchcock, is fabulous, proving the adage ~ ”Behind every great man is a great woman.”
Perfect cast. Crisp script. One-liners laced with poisonous dry wit. We found nothing not to like in this period piece that peers through holes in the veneer and sees sides we’ve tried to hide.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Have you seen it? Does it mesh with your vision of the man behind the movies?
Believe It Or Not! May 18, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Fun & Games, Synchronicity & Mystery.Tags: Books, Fun & Games, Ripley, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Robert Ripley
20 comments
I grew up reading books by Ripley, filled with unbelievable oddities and amazing facts, but seldom paused to consider the man behind the cartoons.
A Curious Man: The Strange & Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley, by Neal Thompson, reveals this real life Wizard of Odd.
“The life story of Robert ‘Believe It or Not!’ Ripley is as intriguing as the many oddities in which he delighted.”
~ Entertainment Weekly
“An engaging, fast-moving biography… makes the case that Ripley was among the first media celebrities, and that his affection for the grotesque and the extreme shaped American pop culture.”
~ Columbus Dispatch
“Ripley’s amazing American life itself plays out like an impossible fairy tale.”
~ Kirkus Reviews
“A Curious Man is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world’s strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable.”
~ Amazon
Ripley’s efforts to counter claims that he was “stretching the truth” resulted in the fascinating and fun array of artifacts displayed in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museums around the globe.
Once could say that Ripley’s curated collections are the fantastic and amusing consequence of calling a man a liar . . .
“I venture to say that I have been called a liar more often than anybody in the world. Ordinarily, when one is called a liar, one feels hurt. But it is different with me. I do not mind it a bit. When I am called a liar by a reader of my cartoons, I feel flattered. That short and ugly word is like music to my ears. I am complimented because it means to me that my cartoon contained some strange fact that was unbelievable ~ and therefore most interesting, and that the reader did not know the truth when he saw it.” ~ Robert Ripley
Did you read any of Ripley’s books of wonders, miracles, freaks, monstrosities, and almost-impossibilities?
Did you Believe it or Not! ?
Aah . . . that’s better!
What Have You Created Lately? May 17, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Art & Photography, Books & Movies, Food & Drink, People.Tags: Art, Books, Consumer, Creator, Desires, Movies, Seinfeld
50 comments
In life, we have two principal roles . . . consumers and creators.
Why do we create?
To fill our hearts, homes, and hours with more satisfying fare than watching endless reruns of Seinfeld or I Love Lucy while mindlessly stuffing our pie holes with Hostess Twinkies.
Parents create offspring to nurture. Cooks create meals to savor and share. Musicians create music. Artists create paintings, statues, collages, quilts, jewelry. Photographers create Kodak moments and memories. Architects create buildings, bridges, and alleyways. Attorneys create theories of the case, opening statements, closing arguments. Writers create plot-lines and poetry, heroines and villains. Friends create relationships, connections, and shared bonds. Philosophers create ideas and ideals.
Advertising and marketing moguls create desires for us to consume when we are not creating.
As consumers, we consume an endless array of consumables in every waking and sleeping hour . . . books, sleep, movies, classes, TV shows, meals, lectures, jewelry, alcohol, shoes, handbags, concerts, sporting events, video games, puzzles, magazine articles, and the occasional imported cigar.
Our appetites as consumers are insatiable.
Once we have consumed the object of each current desire, a new desire arises to take its place.
To kill time and fill the void between birth and death, we can consume.
Or we can create.
What have YOU created lately?
Aah . . . that’s better!
Holiday at The Dew Drop Inn May 11, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Word Play, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Dew Drop Inn, Word Play, Writing
20 comments
When I received this book as a child, I giggled at its title . . . and dove right in to the Dew Drop Inn.
Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn (third in the series, The Family from One End Street) describes Kate Ruggles’ summer holiday at the Dew Drop Inn.
The Family from One End Street beat out Tolkien’s The Hobbit to receive the 2nd annual Carnegie Medal for outstanding children’s book by a British subject in 1937.
Seventy years later, a panel selected it for the Top Ten List of Medal winning works.
Eve Garnett wrote the series to address the social conditions of the working class in England at the time.
Have you met Kate?
You Can’t Stop Reading This Book May 6, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Bulletin Board, Humor.Tags: Books, Can't Sleep Without Sheep, Contests, E-Books, Sheep
31 comments
As I mentioned last week, Susanna’s holding a contest to coincide with the e-launch of Can’t Sleep Without Sheep . . . tomorrow!
What d’ya bet Susanna’s too excited to sleep tonight?
For the contest, she asked us to write an advertising jingle designed to make readers tingle with anticipation.
The winners get prizes!
Cool prizes!
If you’re too tired to write a jingle because you suffer from insomnia, or feel there is too much jingling in the world, you can win prizes for tweeting about the book this week. Details HERE!
There’s also a coloring contest for kids.
Yes! There’s still time to get in on the FUN.
Here’s my jingle, sung to the tune of Swagger Jagger:
illustration copyright Mike Wohnoutka 2010
You can’t stop reading this book
Reading this book
Reading this book
You can’t stop reading this book
So get a copy now
You can’t stop counting those sheep
Counting those sheep
Counting those sheep
You can’t stop counting those sheep
So get a copy now
Can’t sleep without sheep
Can’t. Can’t.
Can’t sleep without sheep
Not familiar with the tune?
Here . . . have a listen:
(B)Aah . . . that’s better!
Silver Linings Playbook May 2, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Fiction, Health & Wellness.Tags: Books, Bradley Cooper, Mental disorder, Movies, Silver Linings Playbook
45 comments
On Tuesday night, we watched Silver Linings Playbook.
In it, a just released mental patient is reading through novels discussed in the HS English class his estranged wife teaches.
When Pat finishes Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, he throws it out the window in disgust and wakes his parents to express outrage that so many “must reads” have twisted unhappy endings instead of “silver linings.” I share his wrath.
Here’s to finding silver linings in the midst of cloudy days, to being better (not bitter), and to living happily-ever-after on a moment by moment basis.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Can’t Sleep Without Sheep May 1, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Bulletin Board, Humor.Tags: Books, Can't Sleep Without Sheep, Contest, Sheep, Sleep
10 comments
Susanna’s announced another contest!
With fabulous gifts and exciting prizes!
The contest coincides with the e-launch of Can’t Sleep Without Sheep on May 7th.
At the moment, she’s asking contestants to write an advertising jingle that will make readers tingle with anticipation.
And there’s a coloring contest for kids.
You can find all the details HERE:
Let’s Talk Sheep – BAAH! A CAAHNTEST!!!
So, d’ya feel like playing “advertising copywriter” by writing a jingle? If you like the idea, please let Susanna know by casting your VOTE.
(B)Aah . . . that’s better!
The 100th Human May 1, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Gratitude, Synchronicity & Mystery.Tags: Gratitude, Maya calendar, Meditation, Mexico, Mystery, Synchronicity
16 comments
December 2012 . . . the final day of the 5000-year-old Mayan calendar nears.
The world is in turmoil.
People are lost in day to day struggles.
Greed and avarice abound.
Jack Reese and Apu Chohan, two archaeologists on a dig in Mexico, uncover an ancient riddle hidden in a cave.
As they race to decipher the hieroglyphs, with the help of an expert Mayan epigrapher, Alana Borisenko, the secret Order of the Veni Victus seeks to silence them.
With synchronistic precision, the trio find each of the eight gatekeepers who share the keys needed for the world to transition from the Age of Man to the Age of Gods.
The premise and underlying story of The 100th Human makes for a decent read, but the book would have benefited from additional editing.
That said, I enjoyed tagging along with Jack, Apu, and Alana as they traveled from Mexico to California to Salt Lake City to Colorado, discovering these eight keys:
1. Live on Purpose ~ pursue life with passion, using an internal barometer.
2. Embrace the Silence ~ silence the mind, just be, focus on your breath, step into the world of pure awareness.
3. Be Open to Infinite Possibilities ~ when nothing is certain, all things are possible.
4. Unity ~ like patterned squares on a quilt, we are connected to all that is.
5. Know thyself ~ connect with your true power. Be patient. Let life unfold.
6. Freedom ~ in the Present Moment, we are free to be. No worries, mon.
7. Gratitude ~ focus on what’s right with your world and watch it expand.
8. Listen to your Heart ~ love completes the transformation, transcending duality.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Do you embrace any of these keys to happiness and inner peace?
Which ones?
To learn more, visit Chris Fenwick at her blog: the 100th Human
Moment of Truth April 30, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Fiction, People, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Edgar Award, Fiction, Legal Thriller, Lisa Scottoline
14 comments
If you’re in the mood for a legal thriller full of unexpected twists and turns, pick up Moment of Truth by Lisa Scottoline.
Don’t be surprised if you can’t put it back down.
Despite pot holes in the plot (and a few sheer impossibilities to steer around), this story gives readers an insider’s view at how police officers and district attorneys put cases together ~ piece by piece.
We also see how legal theories fall apart and collapse like a house of cards when constructed on an unstable foundation.
Nothing is certain until that final moment of truth . . . when the last piece of puzzle snaps into place.
I never noticed the puppeteer pulling strings.
From the book jacket:
Attorney Jack Newlin comes home one evening to find his wife, Honor, dead on the floor of their elegant dining room. Convinced that he knows who killed her ~ and determined to hide the truth ~ Jack decides to make it look as though he did it. Staging the crime scene so that the evidence incriminates him, he then calls the police. And to hammer the final nail in his own coffin, he hires the most inexperienced lawyer he can find, a reluctant rookie by the name of Mary DiNunzio, employed at the hot Philadelphia firm of Rosato & Associates.
Though inexperienced, Mary doubts Jack’s confession and begins to investigate the crime. She find that instead of having a guilty client who is falsely proclaiming his innocence, she as an innocent client who is falsely proclaiming his guilt.
With help from the most unexpected sources, she sets out to prove what really happened ~ because, as any lawyer knows, a case is never as simple as it seems.
From the author’s bio on Amazon:
Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels including her most recent, THINK TWICE, and also writes a weekly column, called Chick Wit, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lisa has won many honors and awards, notably the Edgar Award, given for excellence in crime fiction, and the Fun Fearless Female Award from Cosmopolitan Magazine. She also teaches a course she created, called Justice and Fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and regularly does speaking engagements.
There are twenty-five million copies of her books in print, and she is published in over thirty other countries.Lisa graduated magna cum laude in three years from the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.A. degree in English, and her concentration was Contemporary American Fiction, taught by Philip Roth and others. She graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She remains a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area, where she lives with her array of disobedient pets.
I would love to meet Lisa for lunch in Philly some day, perhaps at Dickens Inn (now Cavanaugh’s in Headhouse Square) . . . just after sitting in on her Justice and Fiction class at the law school.
Aah . . . that’s better!
The Impossible April 29, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Nature, People, Synchronicity & Mystery.Tags: Ewan McGregor, Movies, Naomi Watt, Spirit, Thailand, Tsunami
40 comments
The 2004 Tsunami that rolled ashore on December 26th came out of the blue.
Families on holiday frolicked on beaches and played in pools, never suspecting the tidal tension heading their way in waves as the result of a massive earthquake.
When the waves came, they changed the landscape of those lives forever.
In The Impossible, we share the terrifying ordeal through the eyes of a family of five.
Living is life changing. Happiness lost. And found.
Watching the movie reminded me to notice all the good in my life.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film a perfect four star rating, praising the performances of Watts and McGregor, as well as the direction of Bayona, proclaiming it ”one of the best films of the year.”
Have you seen it?
