Happy New Year, Everybody! I hope you all had an amazing holiday season.
You’ll find over these next few months a few changes to the site. For one, I’ll be posting more often (a New Year’s resolution of mine). Second, I’ll be sharing some of my favorites I come across that have really helped me along in my journey.
Starting off this year, I wanted to share a few of my favorite essential items that I’m using to accomplish my goals this year. Each item I’ve chosen to share has it’s own unique quality in helping me be the better person I aspire to be. Here are my picks and why I chose them…
THE PERFECTIONIST’S GUIDE TO STARTING 2016 OFF RIGHT
1. Kate Spade 2016 17-Month Medium Agenda- Gold Dots (153150). I love Kate Spade planners. This is my second year using them. Not only are they pretty, but they are perfect for organization and toting. This year, I decided to downsize and get the medium sized, which is not as big as the striped planner. This works perfectly as a Go To when I need to know where I’m going, what I need to do, bills to pay, and errands that need to be run. I use stickers and washi tape to help keep the organization looking pretty {planner organization post upcoming}.
2. kate spade new york Large 17 Month Covered Spiral Agenda, Black Stripes. This planner is great for those who need a bigger agenda. I use this to plan all of my content. It’s pretty bulky, so I keep this one at home. It’s great to use because there’s plenty of space to write in. Also great for those who have a lot of multi-tasking.
3. Ninja Kitchen System Pulse (BL201). I’ve had one of these for a couple of years now and it’s been one of the best appliances in my kitchen. It’s great for making spinach smoothies (my favorite) and superblending the hell out of things. For those needing to add some juicing into their diet, I highly recommend this for making smoothies. It’s a powerful blender and really does the job. Keep in mind that this is not a juicer. A juicer is something entirely different. Coupled with a juicer, the Ninja is a great tool to help detox your body.
4. Rodney Yee: ABS Yoga for Beginners. I’ve been using this video for years. I started off using the VHS tape. When it switched to DVD, it was renamed and I had no idea what it was called. One of my former bosses is a friend of Rodney Yee and mentioned to him that I was looking for a specific video. Rodney knew exactly which one I was looking for and gave me a free copy of the DVD. I have been using this video in the mornings, especially when my back is in a lot of pain. Going through just one session, you can feel the results immediately. You can feel the burn in your abs just a few hours later. More importantly…ZERO back pain immediately following the workout. That’s how effective this particular video is. Like it says, this is for beginners. I still use it 15 years later and the effects are always beneficial. This is a must have for those wanting to try yoga, to get stronger abs, increase flexibility, relieve back pain, or just get fit. This has been my all-time favorite workout DVD in this lifetime.
5. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. This book is what is changing my life right now and something I’ll be talking about over these next few months. Starting off 2016, I wanted to start decluttering my life and getting down to being more of a minimalist: To Have Fewer, But Better Things. I downloaded this book through Amazon and devoured it within a couple of days. I ended up throwing out five large bags of clothes from my closet…and that was only the beginning. My goal is to go through these next five months and completely declutter the things in my life that no longer bring me joy. The less things you have, the less things you have to take care of. I’ve been so overwhelmed with things that I found that the reason why I didn’t have the time to write or do the things I wanted to do was because I was so inundated and drowning in my stuff that I spent more time cleaning up and tidying, without ever finding an end to it. There’s a whole mental side to this beyond just keeping the things that bring you joy. You start to realize why you buried yourself in stuff. It’s not a pretty monster to face, but you have to face it so that you can learn to never go back to being that person again. As a Perfectionist Wannabe, this book is a great tool to jump start a change in your life. If you’re a loyal reader, we’ll be talking about this book a lot in the upcoming couple of months, so make sure to devour your copy.
6. Stabilo Point 88 Pen Sets color parade adjustable set of 20. A friend of mine (who knows how crazy I am about organizing my planners and color coding them) found these Stabilo pens and bought a set as a gift for my birthday. These are the most wonderful pens out there, especially if you color code your agendas (or color in the adult coloring books). Another friend, who is a teacher, also swears by them. She uses them for so many things, including scrapbooking and journaling.
7. FranklinCovey Planner Love Magnet Clips – Gold. I love all things cute and sticky when it comes to organizing my planners. These are great to use to mark special occasions or clip receipts or tickets to events. {I’ll share more of my cute and sticky collection in the upcoming weeks.}
8. My Mind’s Eye Trend Style Notebooks, 3 Designs, Peach, Black, and Aqua. I stock up on paper products at the start of every year. Usually I order Sugar Paper products, but this year, I’m stocking up on My Mind’s Eye. They don’t just offer journals and note cards. They also have scrapbooking needs and party paper to help you plan your next shindig.
9. Silhouette Cameo Bundle with Vinyl Starter Kit Bonus Mat & Blade $25 Online Store Card and Guide. This Cameo is one of my newest investments. It is amazing what this product can do. I’ve watched Youtube tutorials on designing glitter shirts, creating vinyl mugs, stickers, quilting patterns and silk screens for pillows, etc. It’s amazing what this thing can do and so accurately. For those who love to craft or are business owners, this product could really simplify your life. I bought one to help expand Perfectionist Wannabe into a new direction. I can’t wait to share with you the products I’ve developed thanks to this Silhouette Cameo. It’s amazing what this little device has been able to do for so many people. The precision of the work is absolutely perfect. Just look up a few Youtube videos on products people have made with the Silhouette Cameo and then come back and tell me you don’t want one for yourself (that is if you’re into the DIY world).
10. Chalkboard Calendar Wall Panel from West Elm. The second I saw this, I knew I had to have one. This is perfect for organizing editorial content. It’s also perfect for just everyday home and family calendars. It’s a decal so it’s easy to put up. You can peel it off when you move or don’t need it anymore.
How are you changing the world? Oftentimes we get so caught up in our own lives that we forget to care about anything else around us that doesn’t affect us. Then one day, time stands still for a moment and we are forced to stop. We are forced to watch an atrocity taking place. Then we ask ourselves how this could happen. How could evil like this be born into this world? What can we do to help the victims? How can we stop the evil from growing? How can we stop it from happening again?
When we say “we,” we don’t necessarily mean ourselves. We mean the government, our armies and just about everyone else out there but ourselves. Trust me when I say you’re not the only person thinking that.
That’s what needs to change. We need to change.
If we truly seek to change the world and to make it into a better place, we need to go out there and make these changes. How does one start?
It’s The Little Things
Changing the world doesn’t happen overnight. It takes small steps at first. You start by getting out of your shell and interacting with complete strangers.
After seeing the movie “Shelter,” I started carrying around extra food with me to give to any homeless person I came across. Usually, it’s an orange or a clementine. Homeless and the poor don’t always get their nutrients because they don’t have access to fruits and vegetables all of the time. With the cold days of winter settling in, they’ll need some Vitamin C to keep them from getting sick.
Since seeing the movie, I find myself walking up to sleeping homeless men and leaving them an orange beside them. I stop to talk to a drugged out homeless kid begging for money, handing him an orange with instructions that he must eat it so he doesn’t get sick. I gave one to the guy I’ve seen everyday for the last 10 years because he’s wearing a boot on one of his legs now (how he injured himself is beyond me because he’s always sitting there zenlike, minding his own business, smoking a cigarette).
When I first gave that last guy an orange, his eyes lit up at the kindness. He looked at me and thanked me for the kindness. He was genuine about it, too. You could see it in his eyes.
It was one of those moments where just that one human interaction was very important. It meant that he wasn’t invisible. Someone actually saw him, stopped and acknowledged him.
I’ve noticed over these past few weeks random people watching me stop to leave something for the homeless man at the Finding Neverland theater on Broadway. I think they’re shocked that a well dressed person carrying a bag that could pay their rent for several months, would stop to pay attention to one homeless man. In a way, I hope that by watching me doing an act of kindness, it will encourage them to do the same.
I check to see what he’s eaten while he’s sleeping. It’s apparent he’s getting a lot of his food from Carmine’s. He doesn’t eat it all, but I notice that he’s eating that orange I left him. That’s what I’m checking for. I want to make sure he’s getting his Vitamin C.
I left him another orange this morning, but this time in a Ziploc bag filled with some candy as an extra treat.
For that doped up kid I ran into last night, I checked this morning to see if he did as I asked. Sure enough, someone bought him a McDonald’s breakfast this morning. He didn’t even eat it. But that orange…he ate.
There’s a reason why I chose oranges to carry with me to give out to the homeless. First, they need their nutrients. Second, it’s a sweet treat. Third, what harm can come from an orange?
The third part is the one I want to elaborate on. When you give, you need to make sure that what you give is something that will benefit another human being in more ways than one. You are doing a good deed, so make sure that the good deed is something good for them.
McDonald’s is not conducive of a healthy place to eat. Sure, it’s a hot meal, but there’s only so much McDonald’s a poor person can take. It’s also not a place you’d want to eat every single day. It’s junk food.
When you give, you have to think about the true karmic benefits of giving. What if the person was a vegetarian or didn’t eat pork, but you handed them a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast because beggars can’t be choosers, right? WRONG.
Give them something you would eat. Give them something to eat that you enjoy. Give them something that will help them in that very moment keep up their health.
The reason why giving out fruit is a special treat for me (and for the people I give them to) is because there is a high risk of Vitamin C deficiency in the poor and homeless. That leads to sickness and scurvy. Giving them an orange is like giving someone a moment of sweetness that will benefit them and their health. [For more on the scurvy problem in the poor, click on that link.]
When you give to others, expecting nothing in return, you need to think of the good karmic benefit and how far it will go. If you gave them a meal from McDonald’s, how far does that good karma go if the meal makes them sick? I mean, it’s junk food. It’s not good for you. You know that. That’s not how you create a good karmic act.
If you hand them money, what if they take that money to buy drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and other things that are bad for them? How are you helping them? You’re not. You’re feeding into the reason why they are on the streets to begin with.
When you decide what is best to give, think of how it can benefit the person you are giving to. A bottle of water is a good thing. A can of soda is a bad thing. A cup of hot coffee or tea and a conversation is enlightening. A brand new pair of boots can be a bad thing.
For those who are aware of the police officer in Times Square that bought a homeless man a pair of brand new boots during one of the coldest winters Manhattan has seen in years, his kind deed was all over the internet and news. What wasn’t all over the news was what that homeless man did with those brand new boots.
About five days later, I was walking through Port Authority and saw that same man…without the boots. He was back to being barefoot again. I let a few of the news media outlets know about it and they headed down to Port Authority to see it for themselves. Sure enough, he wasn’t wearing them. He said he hid them. He didn’t want anyone to steal them from him. Truthfully, he probably had them stolen from him or he sold them. If they were used boots, he probably would have kept them.
He took that police officer’s good deed and shit all over it.
That’s what you need to be careful of…doing what you think is a good deed, but it ends up being cut short in the cycle of creating good karma by the person you did the kind act for. Those are the good deeds you want to avoid doing, because it doesn’t help anyone no matter how good your intent was.
Creating Good Karma
Creating good karma for yourself and for the world doesn’t end when you do the deed. You have to think of creating a kind act that will continue long after you’ve done your good deed.
For instance, in Morocco, the people there speak kindly of an American woman namedAmy Bend Bishop who visited Morocco back in 1927. She was the woman responsible for creating a free veterinary hospital in Fez, Morocco.
You may not think that’s creating anything special, but it was very special to the people.
The animals in Morocco are almost all work animals. The livelihood of the people depends mainly on those animals. If an animal needs medical attention, they can take it to this free hospital and receive free care for the animals. Although, if the animal is a pet, the owner usually has to pay for the vet bill. The reason that is that if you can afford to buy the food and care for a pet, then you should be able to afford the vet bill for your pet.
Her kind act to the people (and animals) of Morocco has helped keep the good karma flowing long after her death. The people there appreciate this act of kindness because it has helped them in so many ways. She also has people speaking kindly of her long after she’s died.
This is how you keep the good karma flowing and what we should all aim to do. Change the world one small step at a time.
There’s also a lady in Manhattan that died last week that had so many people in attendance at her funeral. Her family was astonished by how many people came. The church didn’t have enough seats to fit everyone.
The people that attended her funeral weren’t just family and friends. They were people whose lives she changed personally. For one Indian family that attended, they said that she had stayed in their home in India for one night many years ago. When one of the girls from that family came to America to attend Columbia University, the girl and her family were invited to stay with this lady for as long as it took for them to get acclimated to New York. How long was that? A month. This coming from staying with this family for one night in India. That is what we call being over generous.
That was the type of person she was.
Her manicurist…she helped her find a husband. She helped get her kids into the right schools. She really was so much a part of helping this woman and her family with all of the major things that happened in her life. Yet, she was just her manicurist.
She helped change the life of each person she came into contact with throughout her journeys around the world. Those changes were big changes in each person’s life. The amount of gratitude they have for her is the game changer.
She lived an incredible, happy life. Everyone loved her. She was wealthy and giving. She used her influence and her mind, heart and soul to change the world around her.
They may be little things to her, but they were big things for the people she helped.
This is how you change the world. You do things that will help people ALL OF THE TIME. There are problems that are BIGGER than you can imagine like how do you stop terrorists? You start by changing how you look at life, how you treat people, and by being kind.
You also have to stop being afraid. You have to stop disconnecting with life. You have to start reconnecting with the world not through your devices, but through real human interaction. The more you disconnect from the real world, the more the world becomes a stranger to you. You, just like everyone else that chooses to disconnect, becomes part of the problem, not part of the solution.
You can say you want change in this world, but you can’t change it by saying it. YOU need to be the change. YOU need to get out there and make that ripple of change. YOU can’t wait for people to change the world the way you wish to see it. YOU need to make that change the world needs. Start small, but think wisely. Think of how you can impact the world through your acts of kindness for the long run, not the short run. How can you change the world into a better place?
Now, imagine if everyone in the world was working towards this common goal of kindness to each other and making this world a better place for everyone.
Law of Karma
If you want great things to happen in your life, you need to do great things for others. When you do good all of the time for others, you are rewarded sevenfold. It’s just the way the universe works.
If you are constantly doing good and making sure that your good deeds go beyond just that one act and continues to keep going, the more you reap from the karmic benefit.
Happiness, good fortune, treasures, money, an amazing life…just about anything you could ever dream for yourself and so much more happens when you are doing good karmic acts. But it’s important that when you do good deeds, you are not looking for the karmic rewards. The universe still looks at your intent. The intent needs to come from a good place, not from a greedy place.
To change the world, you need to constantly be bestowing blessings upon the world and sharing the wealth that God gives to you. Be over generous, and the universe will be over generous to you.
The thing is, you can’t dictate what you want to the universe. I want to explain why…you need to trust that the universe (God) knows what’s best for you. You may think that you want X, but really it’s not what you need (most times it’s not necessarily good for you). God is a lot wiser than you. Trust that he’ll reward you brilliantly. You have to look beyond material possessions. Sometimes having an amazing journey in life with incredible experiences is worth more than all the money in the world. Happiness is the key factor.
Trust that God will know what will truly make you happy. If you go in with that blind faith, doing good for others all of the time without knowing what the reward will be (or caring what the reward will be), you’ll find God can be over generous, too.
Give greatly. Be over generous. Give wisely. Help everyone. Be kind.
To my fellow Americans, have a happy Thanksgiving. Be thankful for what you’ve been given and share that gratitude with the world by sharing that wealth with everyone you come into contact with. If you have leftovers, consider packing up a few meals and delivering it to shut-ins, the elderly spending Thanksgiving alone, the homeless, or families that need a little cheering up. God has given you this feast, share it with all those around you.
Ever wonder what Martha Stewart would give away in her gift bags? Well, here’s a look inside what we received during the American Made 2015 Summit.
This denim tote from Map Tote is the perfect tote bag. It’s nice, big and sturdy with long straps. I also love the denim material used to make the bag. It was strong enough to hold all of the stuff Martha sent us home with.
On the way home, I thought I spilled some of the Martha Stewart bottled coffee I had put in my bag. I kept looking for a wet spot on the bag and couldn’t find anything. After I got a couple of blocks from Martha’s HQ, I felt like I needed to eat something, because I felt like I may have had five too many cups of coffee. But wait, I only had two cups of coffee and my last cup was at 11AM. What gives?
Well, it would be the aroma from Martha Stewart Cafe’s Martha’s Blend coffee. It was so strong, my body was getting the jitters just by smelling the coffee. Considering I was loving her delicious coffee at her HQ, you can expect this to be the perfect brew. You can purchase her coffee and teas at Martha Stewart Cafe.
My favorite item in the bag is something I’ve been wanting for some time now, but didn’t know where to get it. This little monkey comes from a company called Creature Cups. I’m going to have to order a few more of these. I’ve been wanting the octopus one for some time. They are so cool. I can’t wait to give them as gifts this year.
The little slab of chocolate (I’m going with a guess here) may be from Dylan’s Candy Bar. Let me tell you something, that little piece of chocolate had me in heaven. It was so delicious.
Bottled coffee from Martha Stewart, quilting material fromThe City Quilter, Chalkboard US Map from Fathead. What I like about the Fathead is that you can color in all of the states you’ve visited. That’s what I did with mine.
So you know sharing all of this would lead to something. As part of the month of November, a time when we should be thinking of the things we are grateful for, Ariana Huffington mentioned that every night before going to bed, her daughter lists three things she is grateful for and shares it with a couple of her friends.
Keeping in line with the things learned at the American Made 2015 Summit, I want to know what THREE THINGS you are grateful for. Share in the comments below and enter for your chance to win a copy of Martha Stewart’s Appetizers cookbook. The contest begins on November 11 and ends on November 18. GOOD LUCK!
Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Connelly star in “Shelter,” a film written and directed by Paul Bettany. Peter Travers of the New York Film Critics Series preps to interview the cast and director. November 9, 2015.
Paul Bettany (“A Beautiful Mind,” “Priest,” “Legion”) makes his directorial debut with the film “Shelter.”
Bettany was inspired to write the film about a homeless couple in Manhattan, taking inspiration from a couple he used to see everyday near his home in Manhattan. Every morning, as he was taking the kids to school, he’d come upon this couple. Every day they exchanged pleasantries, a nice hello, before heading on their separate ways.
After Hurricane Sandy hit, he noticed they were gone. He never saw them again. He always wondered what happened to them.
It was that interracial couple living on the streets that inspired him to dive into the homeless culture and create a story that could have been their tale.
His wife, Jennifer Connelly (Oscar Award winning actress for “A Beautiful Mind”), was cast in the lead role. Anthony Mackie (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “8 Mile,” “The Night Before”) plays opposite of her leading role. Together, they tell the imagined tale of what could have happened to that couple that Bettany saw outside of his building.
This film dives deeply into the world of homelessness as we follow Tahir, a Nigerian refugee (and former terrorist) with no papers living on the streets. He is trying to find some sort of redemption for the egregious sins he had committed in his lifetime.
He stumbles upon Hannah, a heroin addict, living on the streets. She just so happens to be wearing his jacket that was stolen with the rest of his things while he was in lockup. He follows her around all day before she confronts him for following her. She gives him back his jacket, but he still refuses to leave her. He knows why she is on that overpass.
The only reason why anyone goes up there is if they want to kill themselves. She tries to climb over the fence, but he holds her back.
That is when his redemption begins. He hopes that if he can save her, then he’ll be able to get into heaven to see his family again.
We follow the two as they get to know each other and eventually fall in love. We see what they do to try and earn some money on the streets. We watch as they go through garbage bins looking for food, clothes, boots, and anything they can use to survive living on the streets. We watch how they survive living with only the things they can carry on their backs.
Bettany wants us to see and experience what the homeless go through on the streets of Manhattan. We watch as their story takes a turn for the worst when the weather changes. What they do in order to survive the winter, including the blizzard outside when all of the shelters and housing has turned them away, sheds light on the horrors that occur. People take advantage of those in their most vulnerable states. Hannah’s dignity is completely stripped away to nothing in her desperation to find someplace out of the blizzard. A good Samaritan isn’t such a good Samaritan when he demands another form of payment for his kindness.
A wrench is thrown into the mix when Tahir becomes sick. He knows he’s dying, so his interest becomes solely on Hannah’s safety. He starts encouraging her to go home to her family. They’re looking for her. She refuses to go without him.
The message in this story of Tahir and Hannah is to take a closer look at the homeless around us and to not judge them for their failures. Yes, there are some who are con artists pretending to be homeless and make more money than the person giving them that dollar, but then there are the real homeless people out there that we shouldn’t ignore. Some only need just a chance to get themselves off the streets. For some cities, they need better resources to help people.
“The film is about judgment, not about homelessness,” Bettany told Peter Travers of the New York Film Critics. “I didn’t want to make a film about homelessness being bad or drug addiction being bad or how anybody deemed with those two situations are either criminals or victims. I just wanted to understand the predicament a little bit more. That’s all I wanted to do.”
“The responses to homelessness are a myriad. One of them is ignoring, and the people being invisible. Another one is some downright aggression which has to be borne out of fear. ‘It couldn’t happen to me because I’m different from you. You must have done something to bring yourself that low, because it will never happen to me.’ Well, explain to me why there are so many homeless veterans? Those are men with medals.”
“Last year in New York we passed two milestones. An apartment sold for $100 million. Extraordinary, really. Even more extraordinary though, 60,000 of New York City’s citizens sought shelter in the New York City shelter system every night. 4,000 of them were children. 19,000 of them are women. Half of New York City’s homeless population are families, and all of that is going on in a town that holds more billionaires than any other city on earth.”
“Over the last ten years, we have lost 32% of public housing.”
Anthony Mackie and Paul Bettany. November 9, 2015.
The question of how they got to be that way isn’t because they chose to be that way. Nobody chooses to be homeless and destitute. As Anthony Mackie said, we are all just one second away from being homeless ourselves. Anything can happen in our lives that can cause us to end up on the streets. For Tahir, he was escaping a past in another country. He was a refugee. For Hannah, her husband died. She didn’t know how to live without him, or how to take care of herself. She was heartbroken and grieving. She started taking heroin to numb the pain she was feeling inside.
There are families living on the streets. People across America are finding it harder and harder to find stable work, especially in places where manufacturing companies closed their doors (see Detroit). Even in NYC, 98% of the garment manufacturing companies closed shop over these last few years. Public housing is becoming fewer and fewer as the number on the streets steadily climbs.
The important thing to note here is that people don’t choose to be destitute and poor. They don’t do this because they want a free handout. When you tell a bum to “Get a job,” you don’t know how many times he’s tried only to have the door slammed in his face again and again. They get to the point where they give up. It’s like the veterans out on the streets. We sent these kids out to fight our wars, but when they came back, we gave up on them. They couldn’t get a job because they were considered risky (due to PTSD).
Look at the job market where manufacturing companies that could have employed people back from the war, refugees, or even the homeless…those manufacturing companies were forced to close their doors one shop at a time. The jobs went overseas. American companies that want Made in the USA products are being forced to send their manufacturing jobs overseas because those manufacturing companies don’t exist on American soil anymore. They don’t want to do it, but they have no choice because the manufacturers are gone.
Say you worked in a manufacturing company and they were forced to close their doors. It was the only place that employed an entire town. What do you do when everyone in town loses their source of income? Pick up the family and move? To where? Where do you take them? If almost all of those manufacturing companies are closing their doors, and that’s where your skill set is, what are you going to do for money?
This is the reality of the homeless situation across America. People don’t choose to be destitute. The circumstances surrounding them forces them into this predicament. It beats them down until they have no choice but to live on the streets. If Americans were always picking up the bill for those living on welfare, keep in mind all of those that did not qualify for welfare. Where are they? They’re the ones in line for the non-profit food trucks carrying food for the homeless. They’re the ones at their local churches asking for some clothes to wear. They’re digging through the trash looking for a pair of shoes. They’re the ones standing in line at the shelter when the weather gets too cold hoping to get a warm bed so they don’t have to sleep out in the storm. These people are the forgotten.
“Shelter” doesn’t just dive into that dark place of homelessness with no redemption. It has its own Hollywood ending. Elements from Connelly’s work in “Requiem for a Dream” comes to light. It was one of the first films that gave people the opportunity to see that she was a force to be reckoned with as being a superior actress. It divorced us from that young girl in “Labyrinth.” This is what that young girl grew up to be…an outstanding actress that would win her own Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in “A Beautiful Mind” (where she met her husband, Bettany).
Jennifer Connelly. November 9, 2015.
While people may reminisce of how this film reminds us of her role in Requiem, you can also see how her husband pushes her to a whole different level of humanity in her acting. There was one scene in the film that appears to be difficult for Bettany to stomach, even as the director. As a husband, he had difficulties with one particular scene in the film where Hannah is completely degraded, humiliated and all dignity stripped from her. While he was trying to shed light that this is what happens to women on the streets, it also shows the strength in the woman playing Hannah. To see your wife be stripped of all dignity in that one moment, you can understand why Bettany has difficulties with the scene. He tried to protect her all throughout the film. It was as if he was apologizing to his wife for forcing her to go through that scene for the sake of his film.
But one look at Connelly as she watched her husband try to apologize in his own way for making her do that, you can see that’s not how she saw it. She was just Hannah in that scene, not Jennifer Connelly. She was telling Hannah’s story, not Jennifer Connelly’s story. It’s seeing that in her eyes, you understand why she’s the one with the golden statue. She earned that Oscar and you can see why she deserved the most coveted prize. She lives up to that statue’s reputation. She is an actress and plays the role impeccably.
The good thing about Connelly is that you can expect everyone else in the film to bring their A-game to the set each and every day. That’s what Mackie brought to the film. He brought his A-game.
While this film acts one part documentary of the homeless situation, it also shares its own beauty in the cinematography. You can see the beauty and art of the film from the first few seconds as the introductory credits begin and then as it hits its peak in the rain, when the two actors plunge into the pool of water, and ends with a frosted over window on a train.
Paul Bettany’s directorial debut is perfection from beginning to end. He pushes the envelope and takes us into places where we dare not tread in order to show the world…THIS IS HAPPENING. It’s a cry that it’s time we do something.
Another resource located in Detroit, a group called The Empowerment Plan is a non-profit that employ the homeless and gives them a living wage to make coats for the homeless. Those coats are now being distributed all around the world to the homeless. You can’t buy the coat, but you can help by donating to the group so that they can make more coats for people on the streets.
You can learn more about the film and where you can view the interview at New York Film Critics. There, the stars and director share their stories on how the story came into being and what playing these roles meant to them.
All in all, this film is about how we place judgment on the homeless. The purpose is to try to create understanding that will hopefully change the way we see people living on the streets. Maybe it will create change within ourselves by doing something to help.
Shelter is due to be released in movie theaters on Friday, November 13th.
A few months ago, I received an invitation to attend Martha Stewart’s American Made 2015 Summit. I was a little shocked I received the invite, so I immediately responded and purchased my ticket. I spent this last Saturday as one of the many guests at Martha Stewart’s HQ for one of the most talked about summits in America. Let me tell you how this one adventure changed me.
First, I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived down at the Chelsea HQ. There was such a long line of people to get inside. After I got upstairs, grabbed my name tag and a cup of coffee, I headed to the back of the long line that was awaiting breakfast.
Right at this time, someone got the brilliant idea that they should take a tray of pastries to the back of the line, so that they could help move the line along faster. Guess who was at the back of the line? ME. I grabbed a chocolate croissant and headed to the nearest table (all standing room only).
Martha Stewart’s HQ is located inside a huge warehouse building located just a few blocks from Chelsea Piers. Inside, you walk into a huge “ballroom” that can easily fit over a thousand people in it. Her HQ houses the magazine, the test kitchens, photo studios, offices and everything they need to make Martha Stewart Living (OmniMedia) what it is.
Throughout the day, we listened to numerous speakers on how to grow our businesses, as well as the changes we’re seeing from the economic, agricultural, technological, and socio-economic standpoint. Huffington Post’s Ariana Huffington was the keynote speaker. She spoke about the importance of rest and sleep. Many decisions that end up being disastrous for a company are made by people that are lacking sleep. Ariana understands this all to well.
She was a victim of pushing herself too hard to make her business succeed that she collapsed in a pool of her own blood. After that, she learned the importance of resting and getting some sleep. When she goes on vacation now, she doesn’t answer a single email. Her out of office message tells people to email her back when she returns to the office. In the meantime, the message that was sent will be deleted. That way, when she returns from vacation, she has ZERO messages awaiting her. This is UNPLUGGING and enjoying life without the need for technology.
One thing successful bloggers talk about all of the time is how they work so hard to run their blog. They lose sleep over it, just to get the content up. I learned a few years ago that I can’t write immediately after a game. I wait until I get some sleep and a cup of coffee before I write anything. I do this only because I know I’m no good to anyone when I’m tired and sleepy. Why wreck my product by pushing myself to get it done when I need sleep?
I’m also big about unplugging when I’m at home. I find that by turning the device on, it takes away from the things I really want or need to do.
Did I mention that we were fed Martha Stewart style all day long? Oh, we weren’t just fed, but everything down to the presentation was on par. I fell in love with this butternut squash, quinoa and kale dish. I hate kale and quinoa, but I was absolutely obsessed with this dish. It was so good {waiting to see if I can get the recipe to share}.
Over the course of this week, I’ll be sharing the things I learned this week at Martha Stewart’s HQ. Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing the goodies that were in the gift bag (it weighed a ton), as well as announcing a few giveaways.
I walked into Martha’s HQ not knowing what I was going to take from this. I walked away with a much clearer understanding of what I wanted to do, especially as far as this site goes. The speakers she selected gave me the idea on how to fine tune what it was I wanted to do. It’s not just an ideal anymore. This is a product.
More importantly, what I saw that day was a group of people that were on course to becoming the next Martha Stewart mogul in their own fields. Each and every single person there had that potential within them. This summit was there to help further them along on their journey. It’s understanding that was what I saw in the people around me, that I also had to humble myself so that I could realize…wait…that means me, too.
Before I end this post, one lesson I took from life was a combination of what Martha Stewart and Stew Leonard were saying. Remember that no matter what seed you plant in life, remember that in the end, you need to enjoy it.
What makes Kim’s works so breathtaking is how she has mastered the craft of telling a story using very few, yet precise words, to illustrate a moment in the most poetic way.
Kim has graciously agreed to do an interview with DoPW. If you have yet to read her works, you’ll understand what makes her books so special as you read through her interview. I sighed throughout the interview from the beauty and truth to her words.
1. Please tell us a little about yourself.
I am 47 years old, female, a bit shy of 5 feet, vacillating between 110 to 115 pounds but I still often think that I am invisible–or could be invisible. I love being on the bench observing others as much as being the one who points out to others the beautiful things existing around us. I spend a lot of time sharing the words I like with friends. Once, I began typing a page I wanted my best friend to read. By the end of the month, she had the whole book emailed to her one bit at a time. However, some photographs would say that I move constantly, making their work impossible sometimes. My publishers worry I might fall off the plane after travelling to 22 cities of 13 countries in 6 months, crossing 18 time zones more than once. Personally, I think I am very still, almost motionless. The numbers contradict with my state of mind due to the fact that I am very slow–slow thinker, slow writer, slow at understanding jokes! So, my mind never gets to follow my body. It remains at the same spot at all time, which helps me not feeling the pace I guess…
2. You’ve worn a lot of hats so far in this lifetime. You’ve been a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, restaurant owner, as well as an Award-winning author. In Ru, you mention that this has a lot to do with realizing that you can do everything you’ve ever wanted to do after your aunt Six gave you a tin filled with professions she dreamed for you. This allowed you to realize that you could dream your own dreams. What other dreams have you had for yourself? Of the jobs you’ve had already, which was your favorite?
I never thought I could be any of things I’ve done. I simply followed the waves as they came to me. Everything was way beyond my ability, professionally and mentally and physically. But, as an immigrant, every job opportunity is considered to be a gift. And my responsibility is to be worthy of the gift. I have not had any dreams since the refugees camp where I did dreamed for constipation. The open pit was hopelessly horrible… After the camp, everything has been bigger than my imagination could imagine. My dreams have all come to me before I knew how to dream them.
I have loved all my jobs. Without them, I would not have been able to write the things I have written. Without them, I would not have seen all the complexity of life. Without them, I would not have known how to see the essence of things amidst chaos.
3. In your books, you share the stories of the immigrants that have left Vietnam and have settled in Quebec. Each person has their own unique story. Which stories have had their biggest impact on you?
All of them since together, they tell our collective story. Each one is interesting and mostly, important.
4. You have a very unique writing style. You use very few words to tell a story. Each choice of words weaves together a beautiful tale that strikes a person deep within their soul and leaves the reader gasping at the beauty of the words. There is an art in using very few words to tell an entire story. Were there any writers that inspired you to write this way?
The Lover by Marguerite Duras was my first book in French, or more precisely, the book which exposed me to literature. My uncle read it with me sentence by sentence to help me understand why Duras is exceptional and revolutionary. My mom used the book for my dictées from the first to the last page. And finally, I learned it by heart to absorb the musicality of the French language.
5. Be truthful, how long does it take you to write each paragraph?
Each paragraph had 3-4 pages at the beginning. Everyday, I read from the first sentence down. Everyday, I would delete, rewrite, delete and delete some more to take away all excess. And to make everything feels as light as a feather in the wind.
6. In Ru, you wrote about living the American Dream. What does the American Dream mean to you?
It means possibility and freedom and hope.
7. Mãn is a beautiful tale about the different forms of love, including how love is shown through food. Can you tell us what kind of memories different types of food brings back to you?
It is mostly the food from street vendors in Saigon I did not have the right to eat due to the lack of hygiene. Even though I have eaten from the street and on the street once I could decide for myself, these types of food still attract me the most because they carry a lot of forbidden desires.
8. One of the saddest stories in Mãn was the explanation of the dog tags. “Before he left, he’d gone to see her in uniform and given her the plate to offer her “the life he hadn’t lived” and his dream of her that would be eternally a dream if he didn’t come back to retrieve it” (p. 135). Then we discover that he did not choose her in the end. He didn’t come back. What Maman does ‘out of love’ shows great strength even in the greatest of heartbreaks. In the stories you have collected throughout your lifetime, how have these individuals coped after letting go of their dream to be with the person they loved?
I simply LOVE your questions, especially this one. The broken heart people I know have a thing in their gaze–nothing identifiable or tangible but there is a certain void and depth at the same time. As well, I find them ‘man’, not serene as such but there is a calm in them, the calm of sadness maybe…or the calm of someone who no longer struggle, who has given up a part of themselves. Like Mia Couto has written, it feels like their organ to dream had been amputated from them…
9. There are two things your books did for me: 1) They made me very hungry; and 2) I now have a very strong desire to travel around Vietnam. If readers wanted to take a literary journey through Vietnam using your books, what are the places/experiences you would want them to see/try above all?
The markets and more markets. Just sit in the middle of any of them, have a fresh sugar cane juice or a coffee and watch the flow of people in their daily lives.
10. The tale of the Vietnamese immigrant is very humbling. Many came from being well off to all of a sudden being refugees with nothing, scrounging for food, shelter and warmth. I know a lot of immigrants come to North America with a dream. Most times it isn’t for themselves. It’s for their children. They dream of their children having a better life than the ones they had. Growing up, did your parents have dreams of the person they wanted you or your siblings to become?
They wish us choosing medicine or dentistry or pharmacology so that we have a stable salary from a stable profession. They wished a steady life for us. My brothers became a dentist and an actuary. I was a lawyer in one of the top 3 law firms in Canada but got lost somewhere on the way to the office at one point 🙂
11. You’re a mother, too. Do you find yourself in their shoes? Do you also have dreams of your children having a better life than you have? Or do you feel you are the one setting the example of how there are endless possibilities of the person they can become?
I have no specific dreams for my children. I only ask and help them to always make the most out of everything they do and be the most of what they can be. My second son is autistic. So, I often remind my older one to not waste his privilege to be born with no handicaps.
12. What dreams for yourself do you still have on your list of things to be in this lifetime?
I have received too much from this life already. I do not need more. Actually, I feel very guilty for all my privileges–great family, good health, kind friends, generous readers and critics, unexpected love and affection…. I do not deserve this much.
13. What’s upcoming for you? Are there any new projects coming up?
I am writing my next one. Enjoying every single minute, every single word… Writing is bliss.
These days, you’ll find a lot of celebrities aspiring to cross one more thing off of their bucket lists. Bruce Willis, for example, will be starring on Broadway for the first time ever in a theatrical adaptation of Stephen King’s “Misery,” alongside “Roseanne’s” Laurie Metcalfe. Kevin Costner decided he wanted to finance and release a book of his own alongside Jon Baird (writer) and Rick Ross (illustrator).
Together, they created “The Explorers Guild: Vol. 1.” This book has been in the works for the last 8 or 9 years. Baird wrote the book, Costner gave his input and ideals, and Ross illustrated the book. What they came up with was a novel they hope will be passed down from generation to generation, sitting next to the likes of Jules Verne or Joseph Conrad up on the bookshelf. Costner’s need to have a perfect product like his previous works is reflected in the beauty of his first book. This book is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
Rick Ross (l) with Jon Baird (r). October 21, 2015.
The paper is soft and delicate with a beautiful layout. Each word leads up to the graphic novel story, so you’re not just reading text, you’re also reading a comic strip. They are interwoven together to tell the story.
While the topic of the evening was on how this unique book came to life, Costner, who is a master storyteller, told a few stories of his own. He spoke about two films that made a huge impact on him as a child: “How the West Was Won” and “Giant.” He also spoke about the moment he decided to become an actor, and when he encountered Richard Burton on a plane.
Costner was very inspiring as he spoke about the things in life that inspired him to become the person he became from acting and directing to this new book.
Kevin Costner. October 21, 2015.
Here is the audio from the talk at the Modern Museum of Art (MOMA) in NYC on October 21, 2015. The talk becomes very interesting (and inspiring) during the last half when Costner starts telling his life stories.
We’ll have a review of “The Explorers Guild: Vol. 1” soon.
Ryan Reynolds’ latest film “Mississippi Grind” premiered at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center Tuesday night.
In attendance at the world premiere was Ryan Reynolds and the directors of the film.
“Mississippi Grind” is about a gambler named Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) from Iowa, who, like most gambling addicts, finds himself in a bit of a pickle. He’s broke. He’s losing all of the time. He owes a lot of people money.
Insert Curtis (played by Reynolds). He walks into Gerry’s life like a beautiful leprechaun, bestowing incredible luck upon him.
Curtis is a bit of a drifter. He has no set home. He just travels all over the place. Even though he’s a bit of a good luck charm for Gerry, he doesn’t care about winning…mostly because he wins all of the time. He doesn’t really ever lose.
Curtis is drawn to people like Gerry, guys on self-destruct mode. He’s tried to help other people like him in the past, people that need help seeing how they can become a better person. Yet, all through this, you wonder if he is truly trying to save Gerry from himself? The answer is: who knows.
After being threatened by some loan sharks, Gerry gets this idea that he should go to New Orleans to win enough money to pay off everyone. He doesn’t have much money, so he asks Curtis for a $500 loan. The buy-in to the poker tournament in New Orleans is $25,000. Gerry proposes they stop in a few places on the way to New Orleans to win the money they need. Curtis fronts him $2,000 and they head on an epic journey from Iowa to New Orleans to win it big.
There are very few movies I have on my list of films that you have to see at least once in your lifetime. These are the films that change you or open your mind in such a way that the movie becomes a part of you. You become a very different person after seeing it. These are the films that changed the way you saw reality and opened your mind to greater understanding.
Two of the films on that list for me are “American Beauty” and “Life is Beautiful.” Both, of course, ended up winning an Academy Award for best picture (“Life is Beautiful” won for Best Foreign Film at the Academy).
This year, though, I’ve had the pleasure of viewing a few more films that need to be added to that list. “Family on Board” (short film), “Winter” and now “Labyrinth of Lies.” All three films are currently up for Oscar consideration.
“Labyrinth of Lies” is a German film directed by Giulio Ricciarelli due to be released in the US in select theaters on September 25, 2015. What makes this movie so unique is that it is an eye opener for the Baby Boomer generation and beyond of how the world came to know what happened in Auschwitz after World War II.
Many of us came to know the Holocaust as being a part of history. We knew it happened. But for the 20 years post WWII, the world did not know what happened at Auschwitz, especially the German people. It wasn’t just denial, people believed in the propaganda put out by the Nazi party. They believed the Jews were being relocated to either a new city or a summer camp. They had no idea that thousands of people were murdered there.
That was what was so mind blowing about the film. The people of Germany, especially the youth and the 20 somethings, had absolutely no idea what happened. They hadn’t even heard of Auschwitz. That is, until a young prosecutor decided to investigate a crazed reporter’s request to look into a teacher who was one of the soldiers at Auschwitz. No one would take the request in his office, because many believed that it was just the normal course of the war. People die in wars. It wasn’t murder.
This leads the young prosecutor on a journey to discover what happened in Auschwitz and why the reporter believed what happened there was murder. They had already missed the window for any criminal charges (if any) to be filed, that is, except murder. Murder was the only charge that had no statute of limitations. If they could find that an actual crime of murder took place, then they could proceed with their investigation.
They found the evidence they needed to begin and the attorney general, Fritz Bauer, allowed them to proceed, choosing this young prosecutor, who knew nothing of what happened at Auschwitz, to lead the investigation. What unfolded for them was a labyrinth. A labyrinth of lies, deceit, political barriers, international barriers, corruption, and the idea that everything is okay and nothing is wrong.
After the war, many of the Nazis returned to a civilized life. They were kind, normal people just like everyone else. They did not believe they did anything wrong in Auschwitz, or at the least, they were protected by the Nazi Party members who were still in the bureaucracy. To many of them, they were just doing their jobs. It was a war. But as the story unfolds, the question of whether this was the normal course of war or actual murder is answered.
One of the most powerful moments in this movie is when they interview the witnesses. There are no words spoken. It’s just music. You see the shock and emotional expressions on their faces. You have no idea what is being said, but for the audience, you can imagine what is being said. This is the part of the movie where every story you’ve ever heard in your lifetime of what happened in Auschwitz comes forward. It is as if each of these witnesses are telling the stories you read or heard about. From the mass killings to the experiments to the shoes that are now sitting in the Holocaust Museum…these are the images you see flashing in your mind. It all of a sudden becomes so real, that you can’t help but be on the verge of tears.
Yet, there are no words being said. The music is what directs that story in your mind…and it is a powerful, yet horrible story.
This film is not another movie about the Holocaust. It’s a movie about how justice was brought for the victims for the very first time after the war. It wasn’t just about finding the murderers, it was about telling the victims’ stories instead of silencing them. The difference between what happened in these trials vs. the Nuremberg trials is that Nuremberg was about the victors dictating to the losers after the war what was going to happen. It wasn’t about bringing justice to the victims of the Holocaust. They didn’t even know about the Holocaust during the Nuremberg trials. It was the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials that brought the Holocaust to light and brought justice to its victims. It was also the first time that Germany was holding themselves accountable to the shame they brought to Germany and humanity.
That is one of the most important characteristics of this film. The director doesn’t want you to see or feel anything but the story. He doesn’t want you to pick out the elements of the cinematography or the music, etc. He wants the story to speak to you. He wants every single element in the process of the movie to come together to create the story. If you pick out any single element that goes beyond the story being told, it is as if he didn’t do his job correctly. This was purely about the story.
Ricciarelli was at the private screening at The Roxy Hotel last night and spoke about his film. Here’s the audio from the Q&A session with Hudson Union Society.
One of the things I kept thinking about after this film is how our world is still like post-WWII Germany. We become blind to the atrocities that we are still doing in the world. Even in America, we target a certain group of people and call them the enemy. The way this information is disseminated on why they should be our enemy is the same kind of propaganda the Nazis used during the war. Propaganda is a way of keeping people blind to the reality of what is truly happening.
If anything, this movie is not just a historical drama, it is a way of reminding ourselves not to repeat the past. Don’t be blind to what is happening in the world. A government proclaiming any group of people (like Muslims, Arabs or Mexicans) as our enemy should be a red flag to the world. No one should be persecuted for what they believe in, where they were born or the parents they were born to. Everyone is human and they have a right to live as human beings. Our willingness to remain blind silences those who have become the victims. Their stories need to be heard.
My high school friend came to NYC to visit me in July. We spent an entire week being tourists.
DIET: Today, I don’t feel like eating. This is nothing new to me. I have days where I just don’t feel like eating. I downloaded the app “MyFitnessPal” to track my food and water consumption. I started using it last Friday and after a day of logging in my food, water and fitness, I awoke on Saturday to a note from the app saying that it’s apparent I don’t eat enough and that is my problem.
I’ve always found that when I eat more, I lose weight. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that wish they had this problem. For me, food is a challenge. I just want a little taste of it, not the whole thing. I only want to take two or three bites to be satisfied. I don’t want to consume the whole thing. Then there’s the whole…when you workout, you need to add additional calories to your diet. To me, that’s asking a lot!
The issue with not eating enough is that it causes problems in the body. I’ve had doctors threaten to hospitalize me on several occasions because my blood pressure will spike as a warning sign that something is wrong. This isn’t one of those…it’s been happening for a few days. It means it’s been going on for a month or longer. It is all because I’m not eating enough for the body to work properly. I’m eating less than the bare minimum (800 calories a day). This is an issue that goes all the way back to when I was in junior high school trying to be thin. I barely ate. I skipped meals and then went to basketball practice. It really messed up my metabolism.
To this day, people always remark on how it looks like I barely eat anything. To me, I feel like I ate enough for an entire village. But the truth is…I only had a few bites. There are occasions where my appetite catches up with me, but that’s maybe once a week, just like it was when I was a teenager. But what I think is a lot of food may wind up being only 1200 calories…the amount of calories I’m supposed to be eating. I always feel like I’m going to explode when I eat that many calories.
For those suffering from anorexia and think it is okay…it’s not. It will fuck up your metabolism to the point your metabolism will become so sluggish, you’ll pile on the weight. If you suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, it actually adds to the complication.
I met a girl recently that was starving herself and she thought it was cool to do so. She was anorexic and had doctors telling her they were going to admit her into the hospital if she didn’t stop doing this to herself.
I finally told her she could end up like me. That’s why she needed to take care to eat what her body needed and stop starving herself, especially at her age. Also, for the record, this little 80 pound girl ate three times more than I did and she even remarked how little I ate. An anorexic telling me I ate less than she did.
She’s currently in the hospital for her eating disorder.
Eating food is a challenge for me. It’s gone beyond it being just psychological. The body is used to not eating a lot because it’s what I trained this body to do when I was a teenager. I did not give it what it truly needed and that later led to complications with my health. Teaching the body to eat more will be the biggest challenge for me.
CHALLENGE: My biggest challenge is learning how to eat what I need and eating enough food to optimize weight loss and better health.
SOMETHING NEW: I read from Dr. Oz that having a glass of cold water when you first wake up in the morning kick starts your metabolism into high gear. I’ve been keeping a bottle of lime water (using the Zing Anything Citrus ZingerI received fromPopSugar Must Have) in the refrigerator so that when I wake up, I can pour myself a glass of ice cold water. It can be tough to drink a whole glass of ice cold water first thing in the morning (because boy, I can feel it), but it’s a good way to get your body to start burning some calories before you even step into the shower!
DOCTOR’S NOTE: I had to see my doctor last month because I caught a bit of the Legionnaire’s that was going around Manhattan. It took me three weeks and a week’s worth of antibiotics to kick it. While I was at the doctor’s office, he ordered blood tests for every single thing I could possibly need a blood test for since I was complaining about extreme fatigue and feeling lightheaded. My blood pressure had also spiked. He had to take my blood pressure twice because he didn’t like the results.
The problem was my diet and the fact I was dehydrated. I drink a lot of water, but apparently not enough. The doctor told me that the worst thing I could do to myself right now is drink WATER! Imagine my shock when he said this. He told me that I needed to start drinking Gatorade every day. This, of course, does not settle well with the way I live, so I asked around for some alternatives. [I’m not big on having high sugar drinks or chemicals in my body.] My friend sent me a recipe for sports drinks using essential oils. This was a bit of a godsend. Essential oils are still a new thing to me, but people that use them swear by them and their restorative powers. [If you’re interested, you can find Essential Oils HERE. Amber is more than willing to answer any questions you may have about essential oils.]
ON THE SCHEDULE: Tonight, I get to screen M. Night Shyamalan’s new film “The Visit” (due out in theaters on 9/11).
ON THE SPIRITUAL BRAIN: On the way into the office, Avril Lavigne’s “When You’re Gone” started playing. I have to say it made me feel really sad. It made me think of my grandfather (who died in 2007) and my soulmate (who killed himself in 1994).
“The pieces of my heart are missing you.” Those words hit really deep inside those cracks that surround this mended broken heart. It doesn’t matter how many years pass, the people you miss the most are always the ones you’ll never see again. They’re the ones you love most of all. I oftentimes think of my soulmate and remind myself that someone loved me greatly in this lifetime. I was his first and last love. It’s the last love that someone has…that’s the love that matters the most. People have first loves and other loves along their journey in life. It’s that last love that means everything. I was lucky to have met him. I was blessed to have incredible memories of him. He has taught me about love in ways I never would have imagined, including how a heart in love with someone that’s gone will always be in love with them. That love never stops. It still grows deeper with each passing moment.
There have been other loves in my life, but not a love quite like his. That love was the perfect love. I was blessed to be his last love…the love that meant the most to him. I miss him every single day.
“To carry them within us – that is our task. We carry them all inside us, all our dead and shattered loves. Only they make us whole. If we begin to forget or cast aside those we’ve lost, then…then we are no longer present either. … All the love, all the dead, all the people we’ve known. They are the rivers that feed our sea of souls. If we refuse to remember them, that sea will dry up too.”
–The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George
September 2, Day Two.
Journal: Last night I saw M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Visit.” Let’s just say that old people scare me now. I’ll post up a review on the site later.
I’m now getting back into the swing of hockey and that included my first post of the season, the retirement of Bryce Salvador. That means more tweeting on my hockey account after taking much of the summer off from social media. It also means that I have a lot more writing to do.
Something I have been trying to do all summer is get up at 5AM to write and workout. Matthew Lucifer (pictured here looking annoyed after I took the cup of coffee away from him) wakes me up around 5AM every single morning. I naturally wake up at that time now thanks to his prodding. That’s the time he wants breakfast. [This comes from his days in incarceration (at the shelter). They fed the animals at 4AM. When the clocks fall back, it will be a 4AM wakeup call.]
I usually go right back to bed, but he usually follows me and tries to get me back out of bed by biting me until I kick him out of the bedroom and close the door behind him. Some days he lets me sleep.
This morning though, he did something that made me think he’s not a normal cat (not like I didn’t think this already). He has an unnatural obsession with water. I forgot I left my glass on the coffee table last night. So after I fed him this morning, I laid back down on the couch. He kept trying to get me to wake up. I kept grunting, begging him to let me sleep.
After falling back asleep again, I had water thrown in my face. He had taken the glass of water that was on the far side of the coffee table, moved it across from me, picked it up and threw the water in my face. A cat did this.
I sat up and wiped the water off of my face. He just sat across from me looking at me like, “Now you’re awake.” I want this to sink in for you…A CAT PICKED UP A GLASS OF WATER AND THREW IT IN HIS OWNER’S FACE TO WAKE THEM UP.
Matthew is a pretty good motivator when it comes to getting me to stay awake after 5AM. He bites, leaves bruises all over my body, scratch marks, and there’s a lot of slapping across the face all in the efforts to get me to stay awake after 5AM. As much as that little dude is successful with this, I still need to be motivated to write and workout that early in the morning.
CHALLENGE: 5AM wake up calls will now become my 2 hour ME time to write and workout. I also need to focus on working harder on the things I want to do with my career. I have so many ideas and goals. This is the year I’m going to push myself to completing every goal and idea I set forth for myself.
DIET: As for food today, I cheated a little to try and get the caloric intake up so I had 2 candy bars. Probably not the smartest thing to do after seeing how low I was in minerals and fiber. I’ll have to change that starting tomorrow. Also of interest, my sodium intake was 298. I needed 2300. Now I understand why the doctor told me I needed to start drinking Gatorade.
TECHNOLOGICAL HELP: I am using three apps to track what I’m doing: 1. MyFitnessPal, 2. Pact, and 3. Samsung Galaxy Active S Health to track my steps.
My FitnessPal helps me log my food and water consumption.
Pact is a bet you make with yourself that you’ll go to the gym. You set goals and you get paid for attaining your goals. If you fail in your goals, you have to pay. It’s a good way to get paid to workout and to motivate yourself to workout because if you don’t workout, you’ll have to pay into the kitty.
I have the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active phone. I used apps prior to this phone to track my steps, but it burned up so much of the battery. The S5 Active takes that issue away. It also measures and keeps track of my heartbeat and stress levels. It serves as a compass, barometer and stopwatch. It’s a good way to keep track of your fitness. I’m a huge Samsung fan and I highly recommend this phone for those who are active.
CHALLENGE: My resting heart rate is really high (see yesterday’s entry). After measuring it 4 times, the median was 100 bpm at a resting rate. Normal average range for my age is between 66-82 (from ages 20-39 for females) and 57-95 for the total range (bpm). It’s a little too high for my liking so that will be a major challenge…to get that resting heart rate down to normal.
Also, I took the test from Today.com that calculates your heart’s age. If it’s 1 year older or more, then you are at risk for cardiovascular disease. My results said my heart was 43. That’s a very bad sign. Healthy hearts are either the same as your age or younger.
CHALLENGE: Diet and exercise is the focus to get the heart back in shape and down to a healthy age.
There are a lot of components to getting healthy. These three apps really help me see where I need to focus more. I have to admit, if it weren’t for these apps, I would be so confused and inundated with all of this information. There’s just so much information out there on how to be healthy. It’s hard to figure out what you need to do to get this right. Each person is different and figuring out what is best for you…now that is a challenge in and of itself.
September 3, Day Three.
This is an example of how big Maine Coon cats can get.
Journal: So waking up at 5AM and staying awake was a fail this morning. I put down in the original challenge that I wanted to get more sleep. After one whole year, I finally got Matthew Lucifer to sleep through most of the night. Although, he’s not really sleeping through the night. He wakes up around 1AM or 2AM and just lays there waiting for me to wake up when I turn my body.
When he feels me move, he knows I’m awake, so he’ll walk up the length of my body, sit right on my chest and start licking my face. Before, he used to just bite it. This is also when he likes to start talking to me about whatever is on his mind.
Matthew Lucifer is a Maine Coon cat. That means he’s a really big cat and will continue to grow to a rather large size. Matthew is only three years old, but he will continue to grow until he’s seven years old.
I talk about Matthew a lot because he does some of the craziest things I’ve ever seen, as in, he’s not a normal cat. Although, the stuff he does is very normal for the Maine Coon breed.
The reason why I’m not getting sleep is because of Matthew. Training him to sleep all the way through the night has been a difficult task. Also teaching him that if he does wake up, he should just leave me alone is another obstacle. Surita, the other cat, knows to leave me alone if she wakes up. Sometimes she gets cold and wakes me up to let her curl up under the covers or she wants to snuggle. You know…the cute stuff.
Matthew…you should see my war wounds from our nightly cat fights. He is the reason why I haven’t had a good night’s rest in a year.
Last night was the second night in a row he did not purposely wake me up. He let me sleep. When I did wake up, I saw him staring at me from across the bed waiting for this moment. He came over and just started talking to me. Maine Coons are talkers. They talk a lot. They don’t meow. They have their own little language they use to communicate. I usually have to really fake sleeping before he believes I’m asleep and will shut up.
Last night though, even though he was letting me sleep, I was awakened to planes flying very low in the middle of the night. I don’t know why they were flying so low over a residential area (especially in the middle of the night), but the jet engines rattled me awake. The way it sounded was like Matthew was screaming like he’d been electrocuted or something (which would not surprise me if this were to happen since he has a thing for chewing on cords).
I literally jumped out of bed, hearing the screeching and rushing of the jet, ready to run into the next room when I felt something licking my arm trying to calm me down. I realized it was Matthew. Then I realized what the noise really was and thanked God it wasn’t a fried Maine Coon.
Just when I had finally trained Matthew to stop waking me up, something else wakes me up.
In all honesty, I haven’t had a good night’s rest since I adopted Matthew a year ago. I have probably had only one good night of sleep and that was because he sensed I was really sick. As my friends say, Matthew is like a child in so many ways. He does a lot of things a child would do including keeping their parents up all night long. We sleep when they sleep.
CHALLENGE: Better sleep.
*Have you figured out why his middle name is Lucifer yet?
September begins a new season for me and this is what I have planned for the site.
Why is September the start of a new season?
Well, consider it a little like going back to school. Each new school year is the start of a whole new you. That’s what I always loved about the fall. Autumn marked the start of a renewal and a chance to do things differently…actually, better than you did them before.
It means new clothes, new books, new activities, new learning experiences, and a whole new workload. September marks Fashion Week. For me, it also marks the start of my hockey season when I go back to covering hockey for Inside Hockey. The hockey season starts on September 17th for me. I’ll still have plenty of film screenings and premieres to attend, as well as a few film festivals. The Metropolitan Opera season also begins for me and I’m starting it off with Turnadot.
September also marks the release of many new books from various publishers. We’ll be sharing what’s new, as well as have a few special interviews with authors.
Mission 40
I’ve been tinkering with the idea of sharing the new journey I’m on. I’ve kept it under wraps these last couple of months because I’ve been trying to add some structure and thought into what exactly I wanted to do. Next year, I turn 40. With that, I have always had a specific goal in mind for myself of who I wanted to be at 40.
I’ll admit that I’ve laid that goal to the wayside for so many years because I’m a bit of a procrastinator. I kept thinking, “Oh, next year…I have plenty of time.” Well, I can’t say that anymore because next year is 40. Now is the time to get my butt in gear. I have to start being that person I envisioned myself to be at this age and that’s where Mission 40 comes in. Mission 40 is a challenge I’ve created for myself to push myself into being the person I’ve always dreamed I would be at this age.
What does Mission 40 entail?
The number one thing on this list is my overall health. After dealing with four tumors in this last decade, it’s time to start improving my overall well-being. Maybe instead of four tumors in this next decade it will be one, or maybe I’ll get lucky and not have another tumor again for the next 30-50 years. I have the cancer gene, so it is inevitable that I will get another tumor or cancer in some form at some point in my lifetime again.
The goals I am setting with my overall health entail:
Exercise
Diet
Brain Health (i.e. increasing knowledge through learning and brain challenges)
Soul Health (i.e. Meditation)
Beauty (hair, nails, etc.)
Less Stress
Overall Happiness
Getting more sleep
There are also certain personal goals I’ve set for myself careerwise that I am putting into action as the new season begins. There are certain bucket list items I’d like to check off, too. There are so many things I’d like to do over this next year in order to increase my overall happiness in life. A lot of that has to do with becoming more involved.
I’ve also started working more within the community, working on issues that we face in order to make the community better through service. I’ve also been getting more involved globally on how to evolve humanity by working towards eliminating many of the problems people face like poverty, war, slavery, and inequality. It’s time humanity evolved and I’m working to put that into action.
I’ll have a special section set up so that you can follow along with what I’m doing on a day to day basis…a journal, so to speak.
My ultimate goal is to reward myself with a special trip to South America next year to see Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands. If I can get over my fear of snakes…maybe I’ll take a little trip into the Amazon as well. All in all, this is the adventure I’m planning for…a little 40th birthday present to myself…a South American adventure. Before I can do any of that, I want to be in a certain place in my life before I reap the rewards.
For those interested in joining me on my Mission, I’ll explain how you can become more involved with the adventure I’m on so you can construct your own Mission for yourself.
The summer is starting to wind down. With only three weekends left, many are running off to get that one last vacation in before the fall arrives. For me, June, July and August are my months for vacation, which means taking a bit of a break from writing and the blogs. September is when I’m back in the saddle again. From film festivals to NY Fashion Week, to movie premieres, to NHL training camps, to the start of the Metropolitan Opera season…my working season begins. That means the content on this site will increase.
There will be more interviews from authors, publishers, celebrities, and artists. There will be more reviews, talks about books, films and the arts, a special fashion edition, and a new project unveiling that I’ve been working on over these last couple of months.
If you think content isn’t going up fast enough, as my artist friend Borbay describes the site…the word “Perfectionist” is in the title. That means that the content here is meant to be far superior so it takes a little longer to create it. People will just have to wait.
For now, let’s talk about what reading material is on the radar.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kim Thúy back in May when she was signing copies of her latest book Mãn. I had never read her works before. I just saw the book in the Book Expo newsletter from Random House Canada and knew I wanted to get my hands on it. She signed it “To Michelle, Thank you so much for coming back to me again.” You’ll find out soon on the site why that little inscription is a bit serendipitous {TEASER}.
What I was not expecting fromMãn was how beautifully written the book would be. It’s a quick read, but also the type of book you have to reflect upon as you go from chapter to chapter. Each chapter is only a paragraph or two long. In that one simple paragraph, she can tell an entire story, but she does it so beautifully that you go back and re-read the sentence, stumbling over each word slowly in order for it to sink in.
What makes Kim’s works in both Mãn and Ru: A Novel so unique is that she has perfected the art of storytelling by using very few words to tell an entire story. Each word she has chosen sinks deep into your soul and you are left pondering the words over, letting your tongue roll over each phrase she has chosen in each tale.
Both books are a compilation of stories of Vietnamese immigrants. She weaves each of their stories from one to another, using a choice word in each chapter to connect to the next story. For instance, she uses the word ‘red’ to end a story in one chapter and then uses it again in the following chapter to tell the tale of another immigrant. That one word can create a strong connection from one person to the next. In a way, it’s the same as how people read and connect to her books, no matter where they are from. The term “communism” can create a bond with a person in Eastern Europe because they can understand the struggle the Vietnamese went through, even though their experiences were totally different. That one word means something powerful to them. That one word is a lifetime of stories and struggles, of hunger, fear, anger and upset. Just one word can invoke so much passion in a person…just like a simple word like ‘red.’ That’s what makes Kim Thúy’s books so thought-provoking…one simple word can create a flood of feelings that enables the reader to connect to the book itself.
Her ability to weave these stories together using choice words is also a way of understanding how everyone in the book is essentially linked to each other. They may have in common that they are all Vietnamese immigrants, but there’s more to it. It links their life experiences from how we show love through food to what it means to let go of the person you love. From coming from well to do families to all of a sudden finding themselves as refugees in a foreign land, living as janitors, seamstresses, farm hands, etc. Then there are those who come from poor families who marry up and move to North America through marriage. She opens our eyes to the life of the immigrant in North America. They may have been from rich families or were doctors or professors in Vietnam. They sacrificed who they were to start over again in another country. Some were stripped of everything, others found opportunity. How do they evolve under those circumstances?
The stories are all very humbling. The writing style is unique and beautiful. I will forewarn you that you will be very hungry after you read her books. I have been eating Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai food every single day since I read Mãn. As you’ll discover in the book, the connection with food is about love…the love a mother shows to her child. The love a wife shows to her husband. It’s what bonds a family and friends together.
I highly recommend reading both of her books. You will not regret it. Your soul will thank you for the fresh drink of beauty.
If you’ve read the reviews of Harper Lee’s latest Go Set a Watchman: A Novel, people are really mad. It’s not even a story. It’s just a rant.
SPOILER: Atticus Finch is a racist.
That’s what really has everyone up in arms. But that’s because most of us had no clue when we read To Kill a Mockingbird that Atticus was anything but fair and colorblind. To find out he was a racist?!?!
This is where I want to remind everyone that Go Set a Watchman: A Novel was the first novel written by Harper Lee. It was also rejected by the publishers. They liked the characters, but it needed a stronger story. Go Set a Watchman: A Novel laid the foundation to the setting and the characters, but it needed a story. That’s when Lee came back and gave the publishers a new book entitled To Kill a Mockingbird. That was the book they published and it became a Pulitzer Prize winner.
What makes Go Set a Watchman: A Novel so difficult to digest is that it takes place 20 years after To Kill a Mockingbird. We know the story. We loved Atticus Finch, Scout, Jem, Dill and Calpurnia. How could we all of a sudden be shocked that Atticus was a racist and that Calpurnia didn’t really care for her or Jem?
You have to keep in mind that Go Set a Watchman: A Novel was the first book, not the second book. It was also the book that was originally rejected. When she came back to the publishers with To Kill a Mockingbird, maybe she decided to make Atticus fair and not a racist. Maybe Calpurnia really did care about the kids and didn’t care about the fact there was a black and white barrier. Maybe Harper Lee fixed what was really wrong with Go Set a Watchman: A Novel and made the characters into ones that would be cherished for all eternity when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird.
Would I recommend it on its own? No. It’s a rant, not a story. BUT, if you’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird, you need to read Go Set a Watchman: A Novel to truly understand the entire context of the times, racism, and Alabama. For those who are writers, it’s actually an interesting look into how you can be rejected from one story, but you can go back and rewrite it based on the same characters and create a masterpiece. Sometimes a complete do over is the key. She learned from her mistakes and came out with one of the best novels of the 20th century. That is a life lesson within itself.
I decided to take a little break from reviewing the tall stack of books I received from publishers so that I can read something without the pressure of it feeling like ‘work.’ I was ordering a couple of books for the Book Club when Amazon recommended this book. It looked like such an interesting story that I decided to order it as my ‘fun’ book (i.e. a book I chose, rather than was chosen for me by someone else).
I always love stories that take place in Paris, but I really love stories that involve books as a means for adventure. Any book lover understands that love of the book itself and what the adventure means. They understand that little happy place. So take a bookshop apothecary that is located on a barge, a bookseller that finally opens up that letter the love of his life left for him when she left him 20 years ago, a bestselling author that is being hounded by crazed fans and you have an adventure of how a bookseller is trying to make amends with the love of his life by setting sail on his bookshop barge to make right where he went wrong.
In all honesty, I kind of want my own Bookshop Apothecary…a bookshop that prescribes the right books to people, rather than selling whatever books people want to buy. Sometimes the latest novel just isn’t the right book for that person during that time in their life. Trust me when I say, I’d like to take back all that time I spent with Gillian Flynn’s “Dark Places.” I put up with it because it was a Book Club book, but damn if I’ll ever read another one of her books willingly. She’s too dark for me. An Apothecary would have stopped me from even purchasing that book, explaining that the book just doesn’t go with my personality.
I will say that I am enjoying this book. I’m now at the part where he embarks on his adventure. It’s really exciting. The author has already used the love of books to charm me into loving the lead character. Can’t wait to find out what happens!
***
September is a big month for publishing houses. The majority of new releases come out at that time. Stay tuned for our list of what to read in September.
One of my favorite songs is “Use Me” by Bill Withers. The lyrics say, “You just keep on using me until you use me up, Until you use me up.” I want to do as much work on this planet until I can not be used any longer. So I say, ‘use me,’ to me, ‘to use me up earth!’ I use that as my mantra everyday while putting my best foot forward.
When you go on adventures in life, you never know who you will meet or the people that the universe will place in your path. I met Edwin Walker (aka E. Micheaux) during the NYC Premiere of the movie “Dope” during the American Black Film Festival. We ended up sitting next to each other during the film, chatting for some time before the movie started.
I told Edwin a little about myself and he told me his story. His story is one that is worth sharing with the world because it is a remarkable story of how this young man (he’s only 26 years old) went out and pursued his dream to be a filmmaker at a very young age. He has done more things and has experienced a lifetime worth of stories in his short life than most people do by the time they are 26 years old.
Edwin continued telling me his story the day after the movie when we caught up with each other again at a special ABFF dinner. His story was so remarkable that an old gospel/jazz singer I met at the dinner was so amazed by the story, she pulled him over to remark on how inspiring he was to her! A 65-year-old woman saying a 26-year-old was inspiring her!
Edwin and I carried our conversation on over to the HBO “Ballers” party after the dinner and talked well into the late night hours about life, business, and social media. One thing I know for sure is that meeting Edwin was like meeting a new friend I know I will have for the rest of my life.
Edwin is a remarkable and amazing person that is very passionate about life and film. He’s sharing his story today in order to help inspire others to live their dreams.
1. Please tell us a little about yourself and what you do.
I am Edwin Walker and I am a Creative Activist of Art & Storytelling. I am from Chicago, IL. I’m 26 years old, yet on some days I feel like I’m 66. I’m such an old soul. I am working day in and day out to bring fresh and authentic stories to audiences. My ultimate goal is to have my own distribution company, a digital media network and entity. With that, I want to target Generation X and Millennials audiences, giving them content that they want. Innovative, yet fun and refreshing. In today’s media, many companies are owned by conglomerates that are feeding audiences the same content. I want to be at the forefront of giving audiences the content and projects that they want through a Direct to Fan strategy, cutting the middle man out, and letting the content curators and audiences do all the decision making. So that is my quest, it’s a big part of who I am at this point in my life and career.
2. How did you end up in LA?
How did I end up in Los Angeles aka LaLa Land? Well…the ambition and passion that I had for the Arts & Entertainment, I knew that it would take me to LA or NYC, and this was at a young age. My Grandmother always tells me, when I was five I would call NBC and ABC in my hometown and want to speak to the person who could get me on TV, on shows like The Cosby Show and Family Matters. This was at five. So I knew this would be something that I loved, and I felt the passion growing quickly, watching TV shows and movies wanting to be in their world. So when I was 12, I moved to Pasadena, CA, a city outside of Los Angeles to live with my Grandfather, and I began acting. I started doing commercials and got the opportunity to be on the Disney Channel Show, “The Famous Jett Jackson.” Other opportunities were starting to build when I got homesick.
I was miles away from all of my family in Chicago. Living with just my grandfather and no other family was tough. I was away from my Mother and Grandmother, living with this man who was strict and everything was so different from the life I knew in Chicago. So I moved back to Chicago after only a year and a half. I felt like I was failure at 13, like I started something that I couldn’t finish. So that caused me to give up on my visions and myself.
For about 3 years, I wanted to do nothing associated with entertainment. I tried Football, Science club, the debate team…anything to try to ignore my true passions. I just couldn’t escape it. I then started writing more at 16. I wrote songs, which led to me joining a singing group. That didn’t last for long. That soon turned into me writing scripts and short stories. My passion was reborn.
I got an agent in Chicago and started back acting. I took media classes and fell in love with directing and the camera. Soon after that I got a role in the movie “The Promotion,” starring John C. Reilly and Sean William Scott, written and directed by Steven Conrad (this is the man who wrote the script for the amazing film “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring Will Smith).
This experience was the game changer for me. At 17, I was working with A-list actors and top producers and directors. The week that I worked with everyone on set, I was a sponge soaking up as much information as I possibly could. They all gave me such great advice on what I should do in my career. John gave me a list of agents, Sean gave me a list of managers in LA, and Steven took all my scripts I had written and read them and told me about screenwriting programs in LA.
So I prayed hard about whether I should forego college and leave for LA. All signs pointed to this move. So at 18, with $1,700 to my name and knowing a handful of people in LA, four suitcases in hand, I did my homework. I found a few studio apartments to check out to move into. I packed up and moved there. I didn’t even finish High School. I enrolled in a program where I would get my last credits through mail. The program was called “American School.” It was like a home school program.
I can still remember getting on the plane at 18, literally a few months as an adult. I just turned 18 in November and I was sitting on this plane to LA on January 26th, 2007. Fear did not come over me at all. I was rather anxious and excited for the unknown. Once I got off that plane and returned back to LA, I was ready for the struggle, disappointment, “No’s,” doubt. Everything that could possibly happen to me in my 8 years living in LA has happened to me. From evictions, car repossessions, car accidents, bad managers stealing your money, being robbed, having to pawn camera equipment to pay rent, losing friends, losing money and losing things in fires.
Everything has happened to me, and I have had my days where I want to quit. I can’t lie, but I revert back to that 18 year old that was on that plane who had no fear. I could of turned around then, but I knew I was ready for the challenge ahead. That has kept me going thus far…along with a lot of prayer and trust in God.
3. Why did you choose being a filmmaker as a career? Were there certain influences that made you realize this is who you are?
I don’t think I chose being a filmmaker, it chose me. I’m an only child, and I always had to entertain myself. I was also a latch key kid. My Mother worked two jobs at one point in time. I’m a child of a single parent, so I would escape into different worlds. Creating scenarios of what my life could be, or how other lives were, how would it be if something was this way, or imagining life in space or life in the ocean. Creating stories and using my imagination was always thrilling to me.
I always got into trouble in school, because I felt like the teachers wouldn’t let me use my imagination and create more. I felt stifled. Once I started acting and studying my craft, I saw how much of a responsibility it is as an actor to make people believe you are another person rather than yourself.
Through studying filmmaking, I realized that the responsibility is now greater than the actor, because as a filmmaker you have to create a world and living things that people have to interpret. Growing up – I truly believe was my film school. I didn’t go to NYU or USC’s prestigious film programs. I went to 7 different schools in my life from Kindergarten till 11th Grade. In my entire life, I have lived in five different states. I’ve had all of these experiences with different people in my life that made me view people and places from a broader scope. Those experiences made me want to tell real slice of life stories, and start writing those stories. Filmmaking honestly chose me.
I think other filmmakers would agree that it’s bigger than passion when you have to spend a large amount of your time in your day giving brain power to stories that are sticking with you. You have to make that come alive through words and fonts that could take months, through scripts– sometimes even years. Then you have to find the money and the team to bring the vision to life and that could take years. Being a filmmaker is an emotional, yet invigorating, journey. You have to really be in it, knowing that it’s your calling. It called me and kept calling me and I couldn’t get away from being a filmmaker. It chose me.
4. What projects is your company Edclusive Entertainment creating now?
I have to keep myself productive, so in between gearing up for my feature film directorial debut, I have created mini pieces that are under 5 mins that are conversation pieces. My first one up is Lyfe + Def: A Reckless Love Story. It’s the tale of two young lost hearts. I’m really excited about this project because we live in a society that so many young people want to be loved, but they don’t know how to love. This project will explore that in a unique way.
The project that I will make my feature film directorial debut on is “Hometown Hero.” We are in the early stages of development. This story is one that I have to tell. It’s …
The gripping story of the demise of a young promising professional football player’s struggles with mental illness resulting from untreated trauma. Mental Illness advocacy is something that I am involved with by getting more narratives out there about cases in order to create awareness.
5. Can you talk a little about the social impact of the films you are creating?
The social impact that I intend to create is awareness and displaying slice of life stories that audiences don’t normally get to see. I want to do it from a new approach that the audience can understand and relate to. We are accustomed to seeing movies that are violent, but we don’t see many films that explore what makes a person violent. Through creating those images, I hope to create conversations that will translate into change, or new ideals of how we view one another, our communities, industries and the world we live in.
6. What is your favorite film and why? Were there any films that influenced you to become a filmmaker?
My favorite film is tough to say because I have so many, but if I could choose two that equally influenced me to be a filmmaker, I would have to say “Bicycle Thieves” directed by Vittorio De Sica (an amazing Italian film), and “The Defiant Ones” directed by Stanley Krammer. Both of these films show humanity among men and their quest for a better life. They are both authentic and intriguing. After seeing these two films, it made me make the conscious decision to be a filmmaker that makes films that tells stories with social issues from real people in real life that leaves a residue with audiences.
I want to tell stories about people who are real and have purpose in what they are seeking or know that they have. In those two films, not only are the characters memorable, but they are people who we all know, no matter if you’re black,white, green or blue. They are depictions of what we face in the world we live in. I could watch those two films everyday.
Once a week for 6 months, I actually did before. It was reassurance that I’m doing the right thing with the films I intend to make.
7. What’s upcoming for you and Edclusive Entertainment?
I mentioned a little bit above, Lyfe +Def: A Reckless Love Story, the short mini piece [Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram].
I have a short film that we produced titled “Perfect Love” directed by Simon Slavoj, which we associate produced. It’s the story of a woman seeking an answer that she’s not ready to really know.
I am also in production of directing and producing a documentary titled, “A Refugee’s Heart” where we follow the journey of a 47-year-old Cuban woman retracing her journey to Cuba for the first time since she left the country at the age of two. She returns back to Cuba to help other young women who are in need.
I am also producing “The Psychiatrist” directed by Bahiyjaui Allen. It’s a suspense thriller short about a twisted relationship between a patient and their psychiatrist.
We’re still developing and raising capital for the “Hometown Hero” movie. It moves slow on some days and fast on others, but meetings and interests are happening.
Extra: Why E. Micheaux? What is that name from?
When I direct, I use the moniker E. Micheaux. It’s homage to Oscar Micheaux who was the first black man to produce, write, direct and distribute his films and books in the 1920’s. I stand on his shoulders, and he is one of my greatest inspirations.
You can find Edwin and his company Edclusive Entertainment at the following places:
Everyone has their own U2 story…that story when they first fell in love with the music.
For me, it was just one of those bucket list moments. I was living in Washington, DC, trying to find some direction in my 20-something life. Fresh out of college. Maybe I was working in politics or law during that time. I can’t remember. U2 came to town and I said to myself, “I have to see this band at least once in my lifetime.”
I wasn’t a huge die hard fan. I knew a few of their songs. I mean…who doesn’t? I still remember “Where the Streets Have No Name” being among the first music videos I had ever seen on MTV during those days when I would sneak out and go over to my neighbor’s house to watch the forbidden MTV with my friend.
When I went to see them play at MCI Center in DC, I had no idea what U2 would do to me that night. I went in expecting nothing, and U2 changed my entire existence.
It was like they were making love to their music. I could feel each note in every single cell of my body. The energy of each note vibrated within my very being. I became intoxicated with the rhythm and flow of the music. It was like I was riding the waves that they bring. [“Even Better Than The Real Thing” reference.] They literally blew my mind.
I walked away from that concert a changed person. It began a new adventure into discovering who I was.
From wanting to change the world, working with non-profit groups, to learning more about the issues around the world, I began to see who I was in the grander scheme of the universe. The music opened my mind to who I am and who I could be.
I was sitting in traffic on the way to work one day and “Stuck in a Moment (You Can’t Get Out of)” came on the radio. Bono was singing, “You’ve got to get yourself together, you got stuck in a moment and you can’t get out of it.” I listened to that over and over again and then said, “NO. I’m not stuck. Not anymore.” And that’s when I decided to leave DC and pursue a different path in life.
I was young, not dumb
Just wishing to be blinded by you
Brand new
We were pilgrims on our way
“The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)”
Behind the Lens
In due time, I would end up in New York City. I never understood why I ended up here, all I knew was that this is where my path led. It was while I was here that I discovered who I am and the person I will become. I’m a writer first and foremost. When I first started out writing for Orato.com back in 2007, they asked that I start submitting my own photos with my work.
My editor pushed me in that direction, because she was also a photographer herself. That push ended up opening me up to understanding how I see the world. Photography is one of the best ways for me to visually see how I am improving spiritually in life. It’s not the quality of the camera that determines if the picture is a better picture. It’s the person behind the camera.
I read this story the other day:
A photographer went to a socialite party in New York. As he entered the front door, the host said ‘I love your pictures – they’re wonderful; you must have a fantastic camera.’ He said nothing until dinner was finished, then: ‘That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific stove.’ – Sam Haskins
In other words, it’s the person using the device that creates wonder, not the device itself.
A friend once told me that I have the ability to capture the beauty in the moment. It’s how I look at the world. I look for the beauty in the moment. It’s in that moment that helps me to remember and connect to the things I’ve forgotten and will forget. To capture the beauty of that moment, I have a visual aid as I take the steps to remembering what happened in that exact moment.
I mention the importance of remembering things forgotten because after the last tumor, I lost a lot of my memories. I spent the next year trying to piece things back together again. I created a 4’x4′ collage of photos of the places I had been from all over the world. It was a collection of beautiful moments.
Each day, I would stand in front of that collage and focus on one photo trying to remember where I was, who was there with me, what I ate while I was there, the smells, and how I felt. Who was I in that moment? A simple photo is a beautiful memory to me and a key piece in remembering who I was. It became a training tool to help me focus. It was like playing a game of Memory, but matching the photo to the actual life event that had become lost in the river of forgetting.
Bono made a comment during the show about ‘photographs.’ He said we were missing the moment. We were missing the concert because we were glued to our devices. I beg to differ, Bono. The person behind the lens of my camera is documenting a moment that is going to be relived again and again and again. More importantly, any person who knows me can tell you, what you see in the final product is not just the subject. You’re seeing how I see you. I’m able to pull out the beauty of that moment so that I can share it with the world. Some people will see it, others won’t.
I can find a simple moment that may mean nothing at the moment to anyone and create a moment that means everything to everyone who sees the photo. It creates a symbolic gesture that will take your breath away every single time you see it. Yet, in that actual moment, it means nothing to the person being photographed.
The joy isn’t just in the music and seeing U2 on stage. For me, the joy is being able to finally photograph them and share just what I see. While some of these photos look distorted due to the lighting, etc., that’s not what I see. I see the energy. I see the soul. I see the life force. I see the beauty in the art. It’s how I see them.
The Music
U2 was formed the year I was born. It’s a bit synchronistic how their music would follow me throughout my journey in life. Joshua Tree. Achtung Baby. Rattle and Hum. Zooropa. All That You Can’t Leave Behind. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Invisible. Big Girls Are the Best. What’s Going On?
There was even a time a musician was trying to get me to forgive him and come back to him. When he saw me walk into the club one night, he stopped right in the middle of a song he was playing, pointed to me and said, “This one is for you,” and started strumming out the chords to the song. He knew how much I loved U2. When I realized what he was doing, I walked right out of the club. I wouldn’t let him bastardize U2 or equate some memory of him to a U2 song.
I won’t let anyone I have come across in this lifetime connect themselves to a U2 song. To me, “One” is not about two lovers fighting. To me, “One” is about my relationship with God when I’m mad at him for breaking my heart. Some rockstar wants to make it about us? No. I can’t ever let him do that, because then I’d never listen to the song again.
To me, “One” is God asking me: “Is it getting better? Or do you feel the same? Will it make it easier on you now? You got someone to blame.” When I was really mad, that song would come on and it would make me really reflect deep within my soul about the relationship I have with God, the father. I would probably not have forgiven God for breaking me if it weren’t for that song.
Since that concert in DC, U2’s music has become my spiritual soundtrack in life. It’s not always just the lyrics to the songs. A lot of times it’s just the music. Desire is one of my favorite songs. I have no idea what it’s about. It’s one of the first (and only) songs I learned to play on the guitar. Who knew that what The Edge makes sound so complicated is actually just a few chords mixed in with his genius?! That’s what I call art. Or how about Larry Mullen, Jr. on the drums in “Sunday Bloody Sunday?” Or Adam Clayton on the bass in “Bullet the Blue Sky?”
If there was any song that explained my entire spiritual existence, it is “Running to Stand Still.” What the song is really about is not what it means to me. The song is my spiritual journey in life. “She said, I’ve gotta do something about where we’re going…” “I see seven towers, but I only see one way out.” “You got to cry without weeping, Talk without speaking, Scream without raising your voice,” “She’s running to stand still.”
This song probably has some of the most powerful words in it. To the band, it’s a song about a heroin-addict couple in Dublin. To me, it represents the internal spiritual journey filled with conflicts and choices that come along when deciding what to do. The feeling that you’re running through life only to be able to stand still…that’s the power in words. It explains who I am.
Words mean something different to everyone when they relate to what is being said. What one person says can mean something powerful in different ways to those who hear it. The author of the words may mean one thing, but how the audience relates to the words is something incredible in and of itself. They are the words that provide spiritual growth in a multitude of ways. That is how God speaks. He says a million things all at once. Our simple minds can’t register it all in one swoop, but the masses together can understand every single word, because we each understand the message in our own way.
U2 is the soundtrack of my life. When I’m writing spiritually and want to get to the core of how I feel and the message I’m trying to relate, only U2 plays in my ears. They provide the music to every soulful piece I write. Their music has been so much a part of my journey in life.
When I was in Fes, Morocco, my guide asked me if I knew who U2 was. I laughed and said, “Of course. They’re my favorite band.” He then told me that they spent a lot of time here working on their music. Who knew that the days that followed, I would end up connecting to Morocco in Mysterious Ways. It’s a very spiritual place, and a country I hold very dear to my heart.
As I started writing about my journey after the riad doors closed and I was locked in at sunset, I turned on my computer, put my earphones on and listened to U2 as I went through my photos and wrote about my journey through this desert land that made me feel God everywhere. He was in the broken smiles of the nomads, the sands that blew in the wind, and the mountains that called out my name. God was everywhere. I could feel him everywhere. That is why Morocco is so important to me. It changed my soul. It is one of the most magical places on the planet.
If there’s any album I’m closest to, it’s “Achtung Baby.” The song “Mysterious Ways” makes my soul dance. “Love is Blindness” is the song that explains the love of my life. The dark, eerie emotion you truly feel when you are still in love with someone who is six feet under and your heart refuses to move on. Some say the song is about committing the violent act of suicide. The love of my life put a bullet in his heart. Loving him has been like my “Love is drowning in a deep well.” Part of me knows that is how he felt as well.
This album defined those teenage years of my life.
Seeing U2 in concert in 2015 comes at the right moment. Post-op, I have felt lost and empty. Who I was prior to that surgery has been gone for some time now. Trying to figure out who I am after the surgery…that is the journey I am on. Just who is that person looking back at me in the mirror? What is she supposed to do with the rest of her life?
Every dream I had before the surgery died that day. I don’t dream anymore about being anyone or having a certain life. The things I wanted more than anything, I look at with disgust now. The question these last two years have been, “Just who are you now?”
That’s where filling that empty cup comes in. Seeing U2 in concert is like refilling that cup that had long gone dry. They’re not reminding me of who I was. They’re reminding me of who I am and who I can be. I am not my past. I am only my present. Who I choose to be in this moment is a writer and a photographer sharing a part of my life with you and what U2 means to me.
Using Fame to Better Humanity
One of the greatest lessons I ever learned from watching Bono was how he was using his fame to better humanity. Using his work as a model, when I’ve interviewed hockey players over these last seven years, I am always curious to hear what they are doing to give back to the world. How are they using their fame to better humanity?
Bruce Springsteen joined U2 on stage during Show #8 of the NYC run at Madison Square Garden. July 31, 2015.
The people I am most disappointed with are the ones who embraced their fame and fortune and gave back so little. A visit to the hospital or showing up at a kid’s hockey practice is such a huge thing for them. But they could do so much more.
Then you look at Bono. This guy worked towards getting AIDS patients the drugs they needed to help them. He’s working on getting water into homes so kids don’t risk their lives walking miles away to get clean water to bring home. Those kids risk being killed, kidnapped or raped just to get clean drinking water. While those of us complain about getting no 4G on their phone, there are people that don’t even have running water in their homes. When we don’t finish our meals and just throw it out, I’m always reminded of how there are people that would kill to have the scraps from our tables. There are kids out there that go through the dump just to find rotten food to eat.
There is so much we take for granted. We don’t know how lucky we are. That luck all depends upon where we were born on this planet.
If anything, the work Bono does is meant to not only educate the masses, but it is also designed to help inspire each and every single one of us to our own greatness.
When God gives you fame, you have a choice. Use it for good or use it for evil. Those who use it for good aim to change and inspire humanity to help them evolve into their own greatness. Those who use it for evil use it for their own selfish needs and concerns and give little or nothing back.
When I changed this site around, I wanted to focus on the needs of the many. What could I create that could help benefit humanity? That’s when I came up with the angle that I would share the stories of people out there who are living their dreams in order to inspire others to live their own dreams.
Choosing that path has led to some very incredible things and incredible moments. I’ve met people along the way who are not only just like me, but we are also inspiring each other to our own greatness. There are people I’ve met over these past few months who not only inspire me to work harder and to be wiser with the words I choose, but I am also inspiring them to do the same in their own field. Those are the people you keep close. Those are the people you support. They are part of your journey just as much as you are a part of their journey.
You don’t have to be a mega-rockstar to change the world. You can change the world by starting in your own world wherever you live. You can inspire others to their own greatness. I can tell you right now, there is no better gift you can give to someone than to help them on their journey in life. I’ve never met U2, but they have helped me in this lifetime in ways I can’t even explain or thank them enough for. They set the example of what it means to inspire the masses to be greater human beings. It should also inspire each and every person to do the same. Go out and inspire the people around you to be amazing.
Change begins within you. If you want to make this world a better place, you have to be the change you seek. Do what is right in your heart and follow it at all costs. That’s the journey you were always supposed to be on from the get go.
The Photos
The photos in this post were all taken by me during the July 31, 2015 U2 concert at Madison Square Garden. These pictures join the Rockstar Collection I’ve been building up for the last few years. That series also includes photos of Constantine Maroulis and Pete Yorn. U2 was the final piece that was needed for the collection.
The collection will be released in the upcoming months, as well as the never before seen photos from the Pete Yorn concert.
Certain photographs in the series will be available for sale. Details will follow.
“Circling the Sun” by Paula McLain is due to be released on Tuesday, August 28th.
If there’s any book you need to pick up this summer, let “Circling the Sun: A Novel“ from Paula McLain be at the very top of that list. If you’ve read “The Paris Wife,” you already know how spectacular the story was. “Circling the Sun” is even better.
Like “The Paris Wife,” the main character is based on a real person. McLain starts off by introducing us to Beryl Markham, a woman who is on a journey to become the first person ever to fly from London to New York. [There were people that had flown from New York to London, but never from London to New York.] As her plane starts to stutter, her life flashes before her eyes and we are transported to Beryl’s days of youth when she was a young girl running wild on a farm in Kenya.
McLain takes you through Beryl’s life as a wild child who hung out with the Kipsigis tribe and learned how to raise horses with her father. She trained with the boys of the Kipsigis tribe on how to hunt, make bows, and snap whips. She rode horses and trained them to race, just like her father did. She was a tomboy through and through.
By the time she was sixteen, her father’s horse farm started to fail, so her father pushed her into marrying a neighboring farmer. Not knowing each other very well ended up leading to a divorce a few years later. Before her father left for Capetown, he told Beryl to get her license to be a horse trainer, so she set out to become the first woman to ever get a license to be a horse trainer.
She went to work at a family friend’s ranch where she could log her hours and prepare for the exam. She took the exam and a few weeks later received her license to train horses to race. This would become her livelihood.
As her first marriage was slowly disintegrating, she started to have indiscretions. She soon began to learn how the colony could damage her and the people around her through gossip. It’s even more amazing how the gossip traveled. You think you’re alone and no one else will know, then all of a sudden everyone knows.
If you’ve ever seen or readOut of Africa, both Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton play prominent roles in Beryl’s story. Both women would end up falling head over heels in love with Denys. Beryl, though, may have loved him more.
McLain takes us through Beryl’s triumphs over the years, her relationships and adventures from one year to the next. This book was so well written and the story was just so fascinating, just like “The Paris Wife,” I had a hard time putting it down. McLain is a master storyteller. Beryl is an inspiring woman. She was the first woman to ever be a licensed horse trainer. She was not only the first person to fly from London to New York, but she was also the first woman to do it.
Beryl made her share of mistakes and learned from them, but she also valued her freedom. She was a wild child from the start and no one could truly tame her or domesticate her. Like Denys, it wasn’t in their nature. They valued their freedom more. That is truly why they were so drawn to each other. They understood that need inside of each other to not be caged.
Denys was the love of her life. He was also the love of Karen Blixen’s life, as well.
In the end, Denys truly belonged to Karen. She could write the other woman out of the story (Out of Africa) like she never existed, because Denys was hers in the end. She was considered the grieving widow, even though they never married.
This story was absolutely incredible. It will make you want to book your next vacation to Kenya to go on a safari expedition, to see the rolling hills or the flamingos flying off at the sound of horses hooves on the beaches. The book is beautifully written.
Circling the Sun: A Novel will be released on Tuesday, July 28th. You’re going to absolutely enjoy this tale. Paula McLain is proving again and again why she is a master at her craft.
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Disclaimers: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive monetary compensation. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for writing a review on the blog. All content and opinions are my own.
“Come Away With Me” by Karma Brown. This is the Advance Uncorrected Proof and not the official cover. The release date is August 25, 2015.
I’m just coming off of a very long vacation, so I’m very behind in posting up content. It doesn’t mean I wasn’t working in some way or another. It does mean I was able to find some time to catch up on a lot of reading material.
The first book I’m going to share is Karma Brown’s “Come Away With Me” from Mira Books.
The book is about a young woman named Tegan Lawson. She is going through one of the most difficult times in her life. Before, she was newly married, expecting a baby, and everything was just perfect until a car accident left her childless for the rest of her life. Her husband, Gabe, was behind the wheel that night.
Dealing with the loss of their unborn child and knowing that she will never be able to have a child again, left her severely depressed and angry at her husband. It was his fault this happened. She blamed him. How does a marriage survive this?
She and Gabe have a Jar of Spontaneity where they place their dream destinations. She pulls out three pieces of paper to determine where they will go to help get Tegan out of their apartment. It’s an attempt to help fix Tegan (and their marriage). She draws out Thailand, Italy and Hawaii from the jar.
In Thailand, they start off in Bangkok and then head to Chiang Mai to ride elephants and buy art painted by elephants. In Italy, they head to Ravello, Italy so she can learn how to cook Italian food just like Gabe’s mother. In Hawaii, she learns how to Hang Ten.
This adventure is a spiritual adventure for Tegan. In each place, she’s learning how to be herself again. More importantly, she’s learning how to be happy again.
What will surprise the reader is that the story isn’t quite what it seems. There’s a twist at the end that will leave your heart pounding and wanting to just embrace Tegan into your own being to protect her, because you understand her in ways you never thought you would be able to. The story will break your heart from the very beginning, but then you’ll find hope and promise at the end that makes you realize no matter how horrible things can be, you can always find your way out of that dark place. No matter how crushed and broken you are, you can be happy again.
I will warn you, for those who have been in that place of deep grief, depression and sorrow, the first 100 pages will be difficult for you. It was for me. Brown dives so deeply into that depression and loss, you’ll feel like putting the book down and not going through with it. There were some points in the beginning where I wanted to throw the book across the room because I was so mad at Tegan. I wanted to shake her and say, “Get over it. Get your ass out of bed. Move forward with your life, dammit!”
I found that if you stick with it, you’ll find the adventure that awaits is worth pursuing with Tegan as she reclaims her sanity, her peace of mind, her happiness, and herself. The story does get better. More importantly, for those who have found themselves in that deep misery that you can feel when you have lost someone you love, this is a way of finding hope that things can and will be alright. You can feel that deep sorrow and grief that feels like it will never end, but you won’t always feel that way. It’s just a moment and that’s what Karma Brown explains all throughout this book as she takes Tegan from her happiest of times, to her worst of times and then to her new self. These tragic moments change you forever, but the journey that follows is one that makes you an even greater person than you were before.
Come Away with Me is due to be released on August 25th. For those who have lost someone, and for those who love to travel, as well as enjoy reading spiritual adventures, I highly recommend this book. I will say that this book was not what I expected at all. Karma’s note of “Hope you enjoy!” that she inscribed in the front made me want to say, “Thank you for writing this book.” I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. I went in expecting nothing and came out of it thinking…this is the kind of story that sticks with you for the rest of your life in a very good way. The book doesn’t just make Tegan into a better person, it turns the reader into a greater person as well. You realize just how weak you can be, but also how strong you can be after life deals some of the hardest blows you’ll ever experience.
After reading this book, I started my own Jar of Spontaneity. I drew out four pieces of paper of places I will be going to over this next year. I pulled: Vietnam, India, South America and Bolivia. Tegan suffered a lot in the realization of what she lost after she lost the baby and her reproductive organs. It hit home for me because surgeries can oftentimes change you when you realize you can’t have kids anymore. I haven’t traveled overseas since my surgery. This book prompted me to go out and do those things again, because I’ve found that some of the greatest journeys into your own being happens when you travel. Thanks, Karma, for reminding me it’s time to take that step forward.
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Disclaimers: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive monetary compensation. I received a free copy of this book from Harlequin Books in exchange for writing a review on the blog. All content and opinions are my own.
Book Review –The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker. Released June 2, 2015 by Little, Brown and Company.
I am a sucker for Young Adult Fantasy Fiction, so when Little, Brown handed me a copy, I couldn’t wait to read it. I don’t remember where I heard about the book before, whether it was from Book Club or a book recommendation from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, I knew I wanted to read it because it’s right up my alley.
First off, I love stories about witches. This is what intrigued me about the book:
Elizabeth Grey is one of the king’s best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. But when she’s accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.
That is what captured my attention. I didn’t read anything beyond those two sentences, but it was enough to get me to want the book and read the book from start to finish.
What is this book like? Consider it the female version of the Spook series “The Last Apprentice” by Joseph Delaney meets Xena: Warrior Princess meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Disney’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” meets Jon Snow. I only mention Jon Snow (Kit Harington) because that’s who I would have cast as John the healer in the movie version of this book.
This book starts off with the two witch hunters, Elizabeth and her friend, Caleb’s, search for a few warlocks/necromancers who are practicing dark magic and attempting to bring an old magician back to life again. They’re required to capture, not kill these wizards. They bring them back to be tried before they are burned at the stake, because all forms of magic are outlawed in the land.
After accidentally killing a wizard in the book’s introductory hunt, she and Caleb head to the local pub where she discovers that Caleb is going off to party with some palace girl. She stays behind and decides to drink her woes away with glass after glass of ale (which actually ends up being absinthe).
While at the pub, she runs across a pirate and the king’s fool. They capture her and try to get her to talk. But she’s so out of it, she’s no help to them. She lies about who she is (a witch hunter), pushing it off as if she is just some kitchen maid. They let her go.
On her way back to her room, she finds a guard outside of her door. He’s been sent there under the King’s orders. She knows why he’s there, but she doesn’t want to go with him. She stumbles and out of her pocket falls some special herbs that are used in terminating pregnancies. The King’s guard sees it and accuses her of practicing witchcraft. He arrests her and takes her straight to the Inquisitor, Lord Blackwell, Duke of Norwich, the man she works for.
Despite being one of his witch hunters, Blackwell sentences her to death by burning at the stake. Caleb swears he will get her out of prison. He promises he’ll come back for her.
He never does.
As she is on the verge of dying, rotting away in a prison cell, an unlikely individual walks into the prison to save her. The most wanted wizard in all of the land, Nicholas Perevil, springs her from her prison…and thus begins her new adventure.
Thoughts
I really enjoyed this book. When it got to the end, I was happy it was over with (because you should see all of the books I need to review). But as the days went by as I was preparing the review in my head, I kept thinking…you know, I’m not done with this story yet. I want to know what happens to Elizabeth next. The way it ended, I expect to see another book after this. The story just doesn’t feel like it’s over yet. It feels like we could get a few more books out of this tale and develop these characters stories more.
This is Virginia Boecker’s debut novel. While at times, I thought it was a little crazy she added so many different elements like pirates, wizards, witches, revenants, nymphs and scary looking creatures you never want to meet in a dark alley, she actually masterfully pulled all of these vastly differing characters in and weaved an intricate tale where all of their stories worked well together…including the pirates.
Think about it…how weird would it be if J.K. Rowling threw a pirate into the Harry Potter books? That’s what Boecker did. You think it’s dumb at the start, but as you go along on their journey you realize just how important having a pirate is in this tale…and then you can’t imagine the story without the pirate or the revenants. They are all instrumental in helping a witch hunter find herself.
The characters were developed so well along the way, you can’t help but fall in love with the friends Elizabeth makes along the way. You even feel sympathy for the evil wizard himself. After all, there’s a reason to the madness and need for power. In a way, for Lord Blackwell, it’s the only way he believes he can save their kind.
Elizabeth’s tale is about one of growing up. She grows up believing a certain way, but when taken out of that element and forced to see the world in a new light, she is forced to come to a reconciliation of what she was taught to believe was right, and discovering for herself what is right in her heart.
A couple of my favorite quotes from the book:
He’s asking me the question I’ve always asked myself. How an unremarkable girl like me could live through unimaginable danger like that. I didn’t know then, not really, and I’m not sure now. I offer up my best guess anyway.“Because I was afraid to do anything else except live.”
“You can’t undo your past. You know that as well as I. But you also can’t foresee the future. Not even Veda’s prophecy can do that. What you want to do next, who you want to be, where you want to belong, that’s entirely up to you. As I always say, nothing is written in stone.”
For those who love YA Fantasy, I recommend reading “The Witch Hunter.” This is the kind of series that can only get better after each book…and yes, according to Virginia Boecker’s Twitter, there’s a Book 2! You’ll fall in love with the characters. Imagine John (the Healer) as Kit Harington (Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow)…trust me when I say you’ll fall head over heels in love with his character.
You can find out more about the book and it’s author from herwebsite. You can also follow her on Twitter @virgboecker.
You can purchase the book at Amazon.com by clicking on the link: The Witch Hunter
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Disclaimers: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive monetary compensation. I received a free copy of this book from Little, Brown in exchange for writing a review on the blog. All content and opinions are my own.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie quite like DOPE. The last time I saw something similar, about the plight of a young black man, was Clockers and Boyz N The Hood.
This story gives you a different perspective on how a group of friends overcome the obstacles of their poor neighborhood in Inglewood, California {Tyra Banks grew up in Inglewood}. This coming-of-age story about three geeks who are obsessed with 90s Hip Hop, 90s clothing, and the 90s lifestyle, have their own band, are at the top of their class, and are kids that just can’t do any wrong.
Sure, they either lose their shoes or get beat up, but they also work together to defy the odds set against them.
Writer/director Rick Famuyiwa throws every single stereotype of a young black person in the inner city at you. But it also makes you think twice about the story if you take color out of it. What if this was just a regular honor roll student defying the odds of his situation? Would Harvard immediately put his application at the top of the pile if he, a high school senior, managed to make a company $100,000 in three weeks? Isn’t that what Ivy League schools want?
So what if he made that $100,000 by selling drugs? He wasn’t out on the street corner dealing. He was just a kid that got stuck in a very, very bad situation and had to do something about it. He used his smarts. He used technology. He beat each and every system placed before him. He refused to be another statistic. He and his friends set out to beat a system that was always working against them. He used his brains to beat every single thing working against him and his friends.
At the end of the movie you question what would happen if you took this inner city kid out of the neighborhood, stripped him of his skin color, his socio-economic status, his lack of heritage, and take away all of the stereotypes, and made him just human on paper. Are the things he was able to do with the tools he was given enough to get into a school like Harvard?
There are two ways you can tell the story. You can tell the story from the perspective of a group of poor black kids from the inner city, or the story about three young human beings that were defying the odds placed against them since day one.
If you want to know who the next big up and coming actors are, watch this film. Shameik Moore (Malcolm) does a phenomenal job in this role. [On a side note, after watching this film, I walked out into the hallway of the screening theater and Moore was standing right outside the door. It was a definite pleasant surprise.]
Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz) also stars. Tony Revolori (Jib) and Kiersey Clemons (Diggy) also star in the film. There are guest appearances by Rick Fox and Chanel Iman (the model, this is her first film). Forest Whitaker also has his hand in this film as well.
For those who want a modern take to the old classic of Boyz N The Hood, you have to see this. It’s a movie that will make you think twice about the story. It will even make you think twice about how you viewed the movie up until the end.
My favorite part of this movie was the choice of songs. I knew every single song because they were songs that were popular when hip hop first started to gain rise in the 90s. The way a drug dealer on the street could brilliantly talk about music, it made you realize that Famuyiwa was breaking down another stereotype that all drug dealers are uneducated and unintelligent, that they lack heart or are always trying to pull people down with them. In other words, he is preaching again and again: never judge a book by its cover.
The film is due out in theaters Friday, June 19, 2015. This is one of the most important films you need to see this summer. It will make you think twice…and then still leave you thinking long after you’ve walked away from the film.
Applause all around.
This review from The Verge is spot-on and a must read supplemental.
On Twitter:
Shameik Moore: @meaksworld
Rick Famuyiwa: @RickFamuyiwa
DOPE: @DopeMovie
New York – It’s not so often that you find out that one of the most popular actors for the last 30+ years is not just an actor but a musician, too. Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael Bacon (The Bacon Brothers) stopped by the Cornell Club on Monday night for a talk and performance.
There was a rather huge attendance for the event at the Cornell Club. Between Cornell alumni and Hudson Union Society members, you had to get there early if you wanted a good seat.
You can hear the half hour conversation with Michael and Kevin Bacon in the audio clip below. For those who ever wondered what Kevin Bacon thought of the Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon, he talks about it in the audio clip. Unfortunately, you will not hear the actual music performance. I wanted to leave that for the Youtube video (i.e. something that they put out themselves).
This photo below is my favorite of the bunch. It’s also a photo I plan on adding to the Rockstar Collection of photos I’ve been taking over the last few years.
This is another favorite (below) that will go into the Rockstar collection.
[All photos by Michelle Kenneth]
You can find the Bacon Brothers on theirwebsite, Twitter: @baconbros and @kevinbacon, and on Youtube.
After the New York City International Film Festival, the award winning short “Family On Board” made a trip to Cannes, France for the Cannes Film Festival. Now, the film is heading to Hollywood! The film short is headlining the HollyShorts Monthly Screening Series on June 25th at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
Tickets to the series are currently on sale. You can purchase them for $15 HERE. If you share the event with your friends at checkout, you can get $2 off your order.
For those actors in Hollywood looking for work, you may get a chance to be in the upcoming full feature film. Here’s how you can be considered:
Pogatsia is sticking to his motto that actors and filmmakers should champion each other. All LA actors who come out to support Family On Board at HollyShorts will be given special consideration when casting begins for the feature (in development). Hashtag #FamilyOnBoardmovie to any of Family On Board’s social media accounts with a photo of yourself with your ticket stub at the event. Academy Award-winning director John G. Avildsen (Rocky) is interested in directing.
Here’s the full press release:
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If you’re in LA, I highly recommend going to see this film. It is a film you will never forget. If you’re in the business, this is definitely a film you want to be a part of.
, Seafood Brush from 
, a copy of Martha Stewart Living’s Thanksgiving issue, Woats, Pom juice and a box of Triscuits.
Right at this time, someone got the brilliant idea that they should take a tray of pastries to the back of the line, so that they could help move the line along faster. Guess who was at the back of the line? ME. I grabbed a chocolate croissant and headed to the nearest table (all standing room only).
Did I mention that we were fed Martha Stewart style all day long? Oh, we weren’t just fed, but everything down to the presentation was on par. I fell in love with this butternut squash, quinoa and kale dish. I hate kale and quinoa, but I was absolutely obsessed with this dish. It was so good {waiting to see if I can get the recipe to share}.
by Marguerite Duras was my first book in French, or more precisely, the book which exposed me to literature. My uncle read it with me sentence by sentence to help me understand why Duras is exceptional and revolutionary. My mom used the book for my dictées from the first to the last page. And finally, I learned it by heart to absorb the musicality of the French language
]
Here is the audio from the talk with Reynolds, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (the directors) at The Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Matthew Lucifer is a Maine Coon cat. That means he’s a really big cat and will continue to grow to a rather large size. Matthew is only three years old, but he will continue to grow until he’s seven years old.
September begins a new season for me and this is what I have planned for the site.
2. Harper Lee, 
Currently reading: Nina George, 
I mentioned a little bit above, Lyfe +Def: A Reckless Love Story, the short mini piece [
I am also producing “
When I went to see them play at MCI Center in DC, I had no idea what U2 would do to me that night. I went in expecting nothing, and U2 changed my entire existence.
I was young, not dumb
My editor pushed me in that direction, because she was also a photographer herself. That push ended up opening me up to understanding how I see the world. Photography is one of the best ways for me to visually see how I am improving spiritually in life. It’s not the quality of the camera that determines if the picture is a better picture. It’s the person behind the camera.
A friend once told me that I have the ability to capture the beauty in the moment. It’s how I look at the world. I look for the beauty in the moment. It’s in that moment that helps me to remember and connect to the things I’ve forgotten and will forget. To capture the beauty of that moment, I have a visual aid as I take the steps to remembering what happened in that exact moment.
I can find a simple moment that may mean nothing at the moment to anyone and create a moment that means everything to everyone who sees the photo. It creates a symbolic gesture that will take your breath away every single time you see it. Yet, in that actual moment, it means nothing to the person being photographed.
U2 was formed the year I was born. It’s a bit synchronistic how their music would follow me throughout my journey in life. Joshua Tree. Achtung Baby. Rattle and Hum. Zooropa. All That You Can’t Leave Behind. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Invisible. Big Girls Are the Best. What’s Going On?
Since that concert in DC, U2’s music has become my spiritual soundtrack in life. It’s not always just the lyrics to the songs. A lot of times it’s just the music. Desire is one of my favorite songs. I have no idea what it’s about. It’s one of the first (and only) songs I learned to play on the guitar. Who knew that what The Edge makes sound so complicated is actually just a few chords mixed in with his genius?! That’s what I call art. Or how about Larry Mullen, Jr. on the drums in “Sunday Bloody Sunday?” Or Adam Clayton on the bass in “Bullet the Blue Sky?”
This song probably has some of the most powerful words in it. To the band, it’s a song about a heroin-addict couple in Dublin. To me, it represents the internal spiritual journey filled with conflicts and choices that come along when deciding what to do. The feeling that you’re running through life only to be able to stand still…that’s the power in words. It explains who I am.
When I was in Fes, Morocco, my guide asked me if I knew who U2 was. I laughed and said, “Of course. They’re my favorite band.” He then told me that they spent a lot of time here working on their music. Who knew that the days that followed, I would end up connecting to Morocco in Mysterious Ways. It’s a very spiritual place, and a country I hold very dear to my heart.
If there’s any album I’m closest to, it’s “Achtung Baby.” The song “Mysterious Ways” makes my soul dance. “Love is Blindness” is the song that explains the love of my life. The dark, eerie emotion you truly feel when you are still in love with someone who is six feet under and your heart refuses to move on. Some say the song is about committing the violent act of suicide. The love of my life put a bullet in his heart. Loving him has been like my “Love is drowning in a deep well.” Part of me knows that is how he felt as well.
That’s where filling that empty cup comes in. Seeing U2 in concert is like refilling that cup that had long gone dry. They’re not reminding me of who I was. They’re reminding me of who I am and who I can be. I am not my past. I am only my present. Who I choose to be in this moment is a writer and a photographer sharing a part of my life with you and what U2 means to me.
There is so much we take for granted. We don’t know how lucky we are. That luck all depends upon where we were born on this planet.
Choosing that path has led to some very incredible things and incredible moments. I’ve met people along the way who are not only just like me, but we are also inspiring each other to our own greatness. There are people I’ve met over these past few months who not only inspire me to work harder and to be wiser with the words I choose, but I am also inspiring them to do the same in their own field. Those are the people you keep close. Those are the people you support. They are part of your journey just as much as you are a part of their journey.
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