Three stages in the life of a thistle – “something prickly and hard to eradicate” to kind of quote Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Not sure what to make of this yet, but it has me thinking.
See you along the Trail.
Category Archives: Movie
An early start – at least in my world
I am not a morning person. On Koenig Standard Time, the hours for sleeping run from approximately 2:00 or 3:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Clearly this poses a challenge with the way days are currently structured. I do try to follow that schedule on weekends and vacations.
Today was an exception. I did stay up until 1:00 AM or so, but I also managed to awaken early. This was my day to spend in Rocky Mountain National Park. I decided to get an early start. I succeed. Even with spending time for breakfast and having to return to the hotel to pick up my National Parks Passport, I made it into the park by 8:30 AM (which probably isn’t all that impressive for others).
For a couple of hours, the park was reasonable empty. I drove the Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor Center, stopping often for pictures and to do a bit of hiking. By the time I made my way back – around 10:30 or 11:00 AM – traffic had picked up considerably. But still it was an enjoyable day – short of wildlife – but an amazing diversity of eco-systems – incredible views. Not sure my photos do the park justice – not sure they show up here – but I took a bunch.
Walked the streets of Estes Park again in the late afternoon. Picked up Leavings by Wendell Berry. Very impressive. I had read some of the poems before, but there are some awesome ones.
Found Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on TV. They were young. Clips from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II are being shown. It looks good. Will have to figure out how to see it before the Trail takes me back to Manhattan. Patience not being one of my strong suits.
Tomorrow back to Greeley for the memorial service for Steve Brown.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Movie, National Park, Photo
"Not in front of the Klingons"
I heard one of my all time favorite questions again tonight and a cute line that I had forgotten.
The day began with dealing with some emails. Then a visit to the Centennial Village in Greeley, Colorado. An interesting place. The signage could be better. Or they could have folks stationed throughout the village to do interpretation. Of course, we could have gone on the tour, but we did not have a whole lot of time as we had picked up some additional responsibilities for the day. Still, even taking the village at our own, somewhat rapid pace, there was much to learn. And there were many great, great flowers.
Lunch followed. I was looking for something light like a turkey sub. We came across Cheba Sub Hut. Most excellent. A quirky environment; a manic person at the counter, and good food. I could get hooked.
A drive to the Denver airport followed. Tricia went to a retreat. I went to Estes Park. I did a bit of walking around – it was a cool, rainy evening so I neither walked as much as I had planned nor did I take as many pictures as I planned although there were a number taken for the pine cone collection. But I saw some of the city – amazing how much I remembered given that I had only been here once and that some ten years ago. I picked up a copy of Live Rhymin’ by Paul Simon.
After wandering around Estes Park for a while, I returned to the Rocky Mountain Park Inn where I had received a good deal on Hotwire.
Channel surfing, I came across Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country playing on the SyFy Channel. It has some interesting moments. Shakespeare contributes the title and gets quoted fairly frequently.
It was followed by Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. It definitely is not one of my favorite movies in the franchise. But it does have one of my favorite questions of all time. The plot involves a search for God led by Spock’s half-brother. He takes over the Enterprise and away they go. Adventures follow. There are some intriguing reflections on the pain we carry. I need to ponder that further. After additional adventures, they arrive at the planet where God supposedly lives. They encounter a being who claims divinity. However, Kirk and Spock and McCoy are surprised to learn that this being is overly interested in the Enterprise. The being suggests that the starship will be useful as he (at least he appears as a he) seeks to escape from the planet. Finally Kirk can take no more and poses the eternal question: “Why does God need a starship?” I will tell no more to avoid spoiling the film. But I love that question.
Of course the line, “Please Captain, not in front of the Klingons.” isn’t bad either.
Tomorrow: Rocky Mountain National Park.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Movie, National Park
Peacemaking, justice seeking movie clips
A friend posed the question, knowing that I watch more than my share of movies.
“Can you think of any film clips where a character makes the decision to be a peacemaker – or to do the just thing in a situation of conflict or injustice.?”
Given the context of the question and the person asking the question, the clip needs to be rooted in nonviolence – at least as far as possible.
Honesty compels me to confess that the nonviolent lens eliminates many of my favorite movies and scenes. (The scene in The Wild Bunch where Bishop, Engstrom, and the Gorch brothers decide to go back for Angel, wouldn’t work.)
But I gave it a go. Here are the first two that came to mind:
The Grapes of Wrath: Tom Joad leaves and tells his mother that he will be with her and the family wherever people work for justice.
Hotel Rwanda: Paul Rusesabagina and his staff find rooms for all those who make it to the hotel; Rusesabagina encourages the people at the hotel to call people abroad; the final line: “There’s always room.”
After that movies came to mind – scenes tumbled together; clips piling up. Among them: Norma Rae, Amazing Grace, The Vernon Johns Story, Amazing Grace, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Coach Carter, Edge of America, Field of Dreams, Milk, Cry Freedom, Gandhi, Made in Dagenham, Malcolm X, Real Women Have Curves, The Milagro Bean Field War, Gandhi. I would have to watch these anew to identify particular scenes.
Recognizing my limits, I ask:
What film clips show a character deciding to seek peace or do justice in a situation of conflict or injustice?
What films would you watch again to find clips that show a character deciding to seek peace or do justice in a situation of conflict or injustice?
I look forward to your responses.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Movie
Trust your gizzard
Checked out Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole tonight. I am in something of a Geoffrey Rush phase.
It’s an intriguing movie made in Australia and featuring a whole slew of ANZACs. Entertaining story – well done animation – great to hear the voices and figure out who they are.
But the emphasis on the gizzard is a bit too much – it appears interchangeable with grit (True Gizzard) and heart (Bravegizzard) and I can even hear Alec Guinness in the background: “May the gizzard be with you.”
See you (and your gizzard) along the Trail.
Filed under Movie
That words do not come too late
Spent the day writing a sermon. Tomorrow I preach at St. James Presbyterian Church. I am looking forward to that.
The day also brought a cleaning surge here at the Shire on the Hudson. Things had been getting pretty grungy. Now they are just kind of grungy. One step at a time. The laundry did get done. That’s always a good thing.
A number of movies have been viewed over the past few days. Some oldies that I have seen before – Batman: The Dark Knight (Heath Ledger is amazing – and then there are Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine and Gary Oldman and the list goes on); The Bourne Identity, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The most interesting new one was Get Low with Robert Duvall. He turns in a strong performance and the cast supports him well.
The story, supposedly based on truth, is fascinating. Duvall’s character, Felix Bush lives as a hermit. And he decides he wants to hold his funeral – before he dies – while he is able to attend.
I found myself recalling one of my favorite scenes from Waking Ned Devine. Jackie O’Shea is speaking at the funeral for Ned Devine – and when the lottery man arrives, Jackie quickly changes the focus because the town has told him that Ned is still alive. Michael O’Sullivan is masquerading as Ned so they can cash in Ned’s winning lottery ticket.
Jackie pauses for a moment and then says, “Michael O’Sullivan was my great friend. But I don’t ever remember telling him that. The words that are spoken at a funeral are spoken too late for the man who is dead. What a wonderful thing it would be to visit your own funeral.”
In Get Low, Felix Bush decides he wants to do just that (as he did in real life, apparently). Of course there are some twists and turns to get there. But get there they do. And the truth is told – painful, heartbreaking, hard truth – truth from the past – truth that has shaped, distorted, truncated Felix’s life and the lives of many others. And it seems that forgiveness and some measure of reconciliation occurs.
Felix’s tale in Get Low took my thinking in two directions.
Direction One.
I don’t want to attend my own memorial service. At least that’s what I think at the moment. I also don’t want that memorial service to happen any time soon. And I realize that memorial services are for the living not for the one who has died. But I do have an idea what I would like to see happen at that service – years and years from now.
That idea comes from Waking Ned Devine. The memorial service should be a time of celebration and giving thanks. And after the service, all of my family and all of my friends should gather for a party – a mighty party – a party with music and food and drink – a party with stories told and memories shared – a party filled with tears and laughter – a party that lasts through the night. Then, in the morning, the still quiet darkness of the morning, all who are able should fill their glass and make their way to the highest point that is nearby and their they should toast me as the sun rises.
Direction Two.
I need to be sure that my family and friends know what they mean to me. I need to make sure that my words do not come too late. May it be so.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Movie
There’s always room
Yes. It is 3:25 in the blessed A.M.
I just finished watching Hotel Rwanda. I am tired. My great end of the church aches, really aches.
But for some reason, I put the movie on around 1:00ish and once it started, it simply seemed wrong to stop. I had to watch, even though I have seen it many times. I had to watch.
I had to watch for those people who perished and for those people who were wounded in body, mind, and spirit and who bear still their wounds.
I had to watch for those few people who tried to sound the alarm, for those few people who acted to protect, and for those people whose number is legion (and I am among them) who failed. Failed to act or acknowledge or even watch as the horror unfolded. Those people who lived the words of the film crew within the film: I think if people see this footage they’ll say, “oh my God that’s horrible,” and then go on eating their dinners.
For the killed and maimed, the killers and maimers, for the ones who ignored and the ones who were ignored, I had to watch. No choice.
In watching, I realized again what an incredible actor Don Cheadle is. He is gfted, gifted, gifted. But this is also a story and a role that clearly moves Cheadle. Paul Rusesabagina may be An Ordinary Man (his own book title), but he is an incredible character to play. Cheadle knows that plays accordingly.
Other characters are poorly developed. I knew that. I recognized it again. The actresses and actors who play many of the roles are not given much to work with. But they carry on and Cheadle/Rusesabagina carries the movie.
The story of the events at the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali during those days of hell is an incredibly powerful story, an intensely poignant story, an excruciatingly painful story. It is story filled with evil acts and international indifference and banal inaction. It is a story of common decency that becomes uncommon courage. Even though I know the outline well, it is a story that grips me every time I watch.
And every time, I come a way with something new.
Tonight (this morning?) my learning came at the end of the movie when Cheadle/Rusesabagina makes the observation: There’s always room.
There’s always room. Are the words factual? Did Rusesabagina say that as his family made their way toward Tanzania? Maybe. Maybe not. It really does not matter. Because they are true.
There’s always room. They expressed the truth that came to guide Rusesabagina’s life as he opened the hotel to people fleeing death. Seeing others as sisters and brothers – he could do nothing else but find a way, create a way where there was no way – make room when there appeared to be no room.
There’s always room. They express the truth that guided rescuers during the Holocaust and during times of slaughter and genocide before and since.
There’s always room. They express the truth that could change our lives if we can open ourselves to let them do so.
There’s always room. Are they about hospitality? Certainly. But they point directly to the awareness that we are made for each other. That we are not made to butcher and exclude and deny one another – physically, emotionally, spiritually, or in any way. That Love has created us to love and that in loving our true humanity (broken and wounded as we are) is revealed and lived and reveled in.
There’s always room. What would it look like to live those words, really live those words – in our homes, our neighborhood, our churches, our places of work, our country, around the world?
It would be challenging. It would be hard. It would be frightening. Difficult. Costly. Painful.
But it also might lead to hope and peace and justice and joy and life, abundant life.
There’s always room. May it be so for me. Ever more, every day, may it be so for me.
‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ Mark 9:37
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Movie
The Fighter
I am not much for boxing.
I don’t turn off boxing when it comes on during the Olympics; I don’t pay close attention, either.
I am certain I have never watched a professional match from beginning to end. I am fairly certain I have not watched enough individual rounds combined to constitute a whole fight – unless that fight was a first-round knockout.
But on today’s return plane from Geneva, I choose to watch The Fighter. I had heard much about the film. And what I heard was good. And I have always liked Christian Bale. So when it appeared as one of the choices, I decided to give it a go.
I am glad I did. It did not disappoint. It did not convert, I won’t be buying the DVD (a similar experience took place years ago: I watched The Boxer because it featured Daniel-Day Lewis), but it definitely did not disappoint. And is worthy of the praise and nominations it received.
Boxing may be the presence, but the film is about family, loyalty, courage, and redemption. And you can’t go too far wrong with those themes when you have a good story and strong cast. The Fighter does.
And it has Christian Bale. And Christian Bale can act. The others in the cast also perform quite well. Melissa Leo is amazing. Mark Wahlberg gets top billing and delivers.
But this is Bales’ movie. And Christian Bale can act.
The boxing is a bit violent – the language a tad rough (but hey, Christian Bale’s character was a crack addict) – but it is well worth a look.
See you along the Trail.
11 May 2011
Swiss International Air Lines 022
Filed under Movie
The ways you learn things
Watching The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, I started backtracking an actress – something that I often do.
I discovered that Alice Krige who played Morgana Le Fey was the Borg Queen in various Star Trek flicks and played the love interest for Harold Abrahams (played by Ben Cross who played Sarek in the most recent Star Trek – yes, I wonder if I have cinematic ADD) in Chariots of Fire.
It’s a small world.
Cue Vangelis.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Movie
Skins
Several films viewed today including Skins a favorite – a painful, powerful, poignant film. Graham Green, a favorite actor, is in the cast. It’s a tale of brotherhood, brokenness, healing, reconciliation, revenge, renewal and more.
Each time I view the film, it takes me back to the time I watched it at Ghost Ranch with Sid Birt and others. At one point, reflecting on a character’s behavior, Sid looked at me and observed, “He’s something of a strange police officer.” I nodded.
And at the climax of the film, I looked at Sid and said, “But he’s quite a brother.”
Check it out.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Movie
Along the Graybeard Trail 