The Swandive

I love...

Recent beautiful, quirky and fun movies that have set my heart to tuning in the love vibe.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly:
Saw this with new friend and sweetie. New friend is such a joy to have met - this alone brings love in. Even better we saw the movie, and great movie conversation followed.
I received the book that this movie was based on when it first came out. Ken, (who I perceived to be) the heartbreak of my whole love career, gave it to me. About a man - Jean-Dominique Bauby, a super cool, high rolling editor/journalist/woman obsessed/writer who is struck with a freak and rare syndrome - he becomes 'locked-in' to his body, his only means of communication is through one eyelid. It is beautiful. Period. Breathtakingly beautiful. I wonder if Ken has seen the movie. I am glad that I have, I hope he will see it too. I think I know him better through this film, in a way I was not ready to take in when I read the book.

Juno:
Saw this with ROME and (I am not sure they know I think of them this way) best friends who now live too far away. Loved the movie so much we decided to see it again with another out of town friend who I love dearly. I had a whole post in my head about this movie - what it is 'about'. The long and short is that I overheard someone talking about the movie in the bathroom and they called it a wonderful movie about adoption. I had not considered that this is what the movie was about. Then... friend said the same thing. It reminded me of why and how art is so important - it is in our differences, our varying viewpoints, that makes life interesting. Right on.

Once & Sicko:
I posted about it earlier - but I think it bears saying again that the more I look back on these two - the more I really love them. For different reasons of course.

Once: Irish, beautiful music, simple story, sweet, heartbreaking - did I mention Irish?
Sicko: Raising awareness for all the right reasons. Thought provoking and wonderful.

There are a whole host of movies that I want to see now. It's like I forgot for a while how much I like the movies, and I have fallen in love all over again. Any movies I should add to my must see list? C'mon - leave a comment - I dare you.

i need a reminder

I am, maybe like many of you were, at home, watching the Oscars tonight. Normally we are at a party, but for whatever reason, we had the pleasure of just curling up, just the two of us tonight. I can't remember loving it as much as I have so far. I mean, what's not to love? So far some pretty great jokes have been told, amazing images and art has brightened the screen, Ellen (yeeee!) and a song I forgot all about how much it moved me the first time I heard it.

Have you looked around my whole blog? I have a bunch of different headings, sections. One of them is on the right - called "brought to you by the letter K and ..." Go ahead and take a break, scroll down and look. Anyway, I added a new one tonight. Its the lyrics to the song Melissa Etheridge wrote for An Inconvenient Truth, called I Need to Wake Up.

Back in the day, I had a friend, who had just "found Jesus." He was the drinkenest, gayest, sweetest, strange dude I knew. Anyway, he really straightened (no pun intended, although he got married to a woman like 6 months after he found Jesus) up after his conversion to Christ. He used to put post-it notes, with Bible quotes and uplifting thoughts all over his work space. He worked in a theater. Not exactly a hotbed of Lord lovers.

I mention this, because what is here on this blog is of course for you, my friends and guests. But it is also for me. Sometimes when I forget who I am, I go back and read things that I have written here. Or, I go through my links. This blog helps me to remember what I am, it grounds me. I have added the lyrics to I Need to Wake Up, because I heard a call in the song again tonight. And this time - I really don't want to forget. So - its my own little post-note.

Maybe you hear something too?

love, loss and illusions

Finally - we can keep going in our Netflix cue. Last night was The House of Sand and Fog. The most striking line in the whole film to me...

"Things are not as they seem."

an academy film weekend

Saturday - my sweetie and bundled in (its cold here!)and decided to have our own little double feature night. We decided on a former academy winner, and one that is up this year: Chariots of Fire, which I had never seen but K has, and Jesus Camp, the much buzzed about documentary - that I read about first at strangeculture.

Ummmm, wow. There is just so much to say. I'll take them one at a time.

Chariots of Fire - My reaction is much like when I watched Ghandi last year. I can't believe its taken me this long to get around to watching it. The winner in 1981 - all sorts of interesting things pop out to me about this movie. The Executive Producer - Dodi Fayed - friend of Princess Diana, deceased. Ian Charleson, also in Ghandi, brilliantly played one of the main roles, Eric Liddell a Scottish runner who is also a devout Christian. If this movie were to come out today, I am not so sure that it would be received the same, so much has changed in our world since then. But - the sweeping views, the synthesized music,  the timeless message of living into ones spiritual gifts, was enough to keep me captivated for the 123 minutes.

And then there was Jesus Camp. I have to admit, even though I had done some reading up on it, surfing around different reviews, etc. I was not at all ready to take in the emotional roller coaster it took me on. I don't know what could have prepared me really. I won't go into all of the details except to point out a few core moments for me. One: Ted Haggard was just awkward, uncomfortable, and really strange in this documentary. His joking and poking at the person watching the film was just strange, his jokes were not funny, and I really wish that I could have heard a message instead of him being so preoccupied by the camera and its location. Two: and I say this as someone who lived something similar, the flat out trickery and leading that the adults do to youth and children in this movie is just sad, unconscionable and shameful. How can a young person make a decision for Christ if they are not old enough to make a decision? I hope that someone stays in touch with these young people, I would love to know them again when they do make it to the age of consent.

Then, Sunday morning I woke up and opened up the Sunday paper to find more hokeus-pokeus religious sadness. The article was the front page lead story - The Kingdom and Power of Mac Hammond. The IRS is doing some investigating of his ministry practices. They do a little inventory of his wealth, multi million dollar wealth. A few homes in Florida, multiple cars and other motorized toys, land land land (without having to pay taxes of course). I don't get it, how can a reasonable person in their right mind think that this is the work and providence of the Gospel? This happens to be the same church that politically supported (publicly - a serious IRS no-no) Michelle Bachmann for State Senate. If you don't know her, google her. This picture sort of says it all. Anyway -  quote from todays paper

He (Mac) said he buys expensive clothes because "if I look decent, I preach better, so I'm really doing it for you, amen."

Does anyone else find this statement so ridiculous and offensive? Ugh.