Movie Time! Pt. 2 🎥🍿

Good evening lovely people!

Tonight I return with a part two of a lil review of two movies from Amazon Prime Video. Before we begin, I’ve seen some good movies, some bad movies, and some ugly movies. Some were truly interesting or beautiful while others made me question my taste in films and had me wondering why I even wasted my time. Fortunately, the movies I watched over this past weekend were all pretty good so no complaints there.

So let’s get to it.

Up first: Unhinged

“Academy Award winner Russell Crowe stars in Unhinged, a timely psychological thriller that explores the fragile balance of a society pushed to the edge, taking something we’ve all experienced- road rage – to an unpredictable and terrifying conclusion. Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is running late to work when she has an altercation at a traffic light with a stranger (Crowe) whose life has left him feeling powerless and invisible. Soon, Rachel finds herself and everyone she loves the target of a man who decides to make one last mark upon the world by teaching her a series of deadly lessons. What follows is a dangerous game of cat and mouse that proves you never know just how close you are to someone who is about to become unhinged.” – IGN

The Cast:

Russell Crowe – Man/ Tom Cooper

Caren Pistorius – Rachel Flynn

Gabriel Bateman – Kyle Flynn

Jimmi Simpson – Andy

and a host of other fresh faces.

Unhinged has a runtime of 1hr and 30 minutes.

People, we’ve all been there, right? A bad day compounded by the stupidity of people doing careless shit on the roads while we are just trying to get home from work, or the store, or… the place that put us in such a terrible mood (highway 270 at rush hour, and now the bridge construction on West Florissant!). While we know that inconveniences and the poor decision making of other drivers on the roads (because WE can drive) has a tendency to sour our moods momentarily – something in us burns a bright red hot flame in our minds and beneath our skin. Now it doesn’t happen all the time…(Or maybe it does.. I don’t know) but the times that it does… makes it hard to get over the craziness we’ve just been effected by. 

So what if our day is so much in the crapper that the slightest bit of unkindness sends us over the edge? For the answer to that question, look no further than this film.  Unhinged is billed as a thriller and it’s a damn good one. Pulse pounding action and a high adrenaline inducing thrill ride await you.

Russell Crowe plays a character by the name of Tom Cooper…or that’s what he calls himself and that is what we are led to believe. In the cast roll at the end of the film and over at IMDB he’s simply called Man. LOL Man/Tom was having a bad day. At the beginning of the movie we see him break into a house with a can of gasoline in hand. We assume this house belongs to his ex-wife and her current boyfriend. He goes about his way of killing them and setting the house on fire. As he drives off, the house explodes.

The opening scene later on made me wonder if those people were actually known to him because of the way he hounded Rachel when they butt heads during a traffic incident. She’s running late for work and ends up behind a truck that won’t go through the green light. She honks her horn to get him to move. When he doesn’t, she pulls the car out from behind him and goes around him. “Tom”, the man in the truck, pulls up on the side of her and apologizes after addressing her son Kyle in the back seat then asks for his mom to apologize back which she refuses to do. 

Tom tells her that she doesn’t know what a bad day is but she was going to find out… thus kicking off his plan to ruin her day and her life. While we watched this movie, my mom and I both wondered if he had somehow chose her to do all these horrible things to. It seemed far fetched to us that a random stranger would go so far but… then road rage in an unstable mind makes it make sense.

After Rachel drops her son off at school, Tom begins his assault. 

The action sequences in the movie are something else and Tom proves himself to be every bit of ruthless and ferocious as he has promised. While the first kill of the movie happened right at the very beginning, the next one is very public. He tracks her down at a gas station and while she’s inside, he switches her phone out for one that he wanted her to use. She doesn’t see him do this but sees him parked behind her at the pump and alerts the gas station attendant of his presence to which, the clerk says, “Oh he’s road raging.” I laughed, she said it in such a matter of fact way. Like we didn’t know from his actions.

A young man offers to help her and also get the Tom’s license plate info for Rachel so that she can tell the police what’s happening. He gets the plate and Tom does something we thought would happen, he runs over the good Samaritan. Now I personally would have gone about it in a different way but I am here on the couch not in Rachel’s shoes. While I can say now that I would have behaved differently, if I ever found myself in such a predicament I might become a shaking bowl of human shaped Jell-O. Lol

I enjoyed the movie very much. The only thing I have a problem with is how incredibly idiotic the woman was being with each situation she found herself in. It wasn’t until much later in the movie that she began to wise up and by then so much damage had been done that it all seemed too little too late.

So onward we go to the ratings…

Cinematic Quality – 👏

I viewed this from the comfort of my own home so there’s that but I enjoyed it a great deal. We switch from Tom’s POV to Rachel’s and the switch is barely noticeable as we open up with Tom then go into their conflict then switch to Rachel’s story. We feel every ounce of Rachel’s fear during this ordeal and pick up on just how deep Tom’s mental break is. Unhinged is the correct word. he film does a good job of putting us in their situation. lol

Run Time – 👏

The hour and half it took tell this story was worth every second of the watch. As you can see in the trailer this was a no holds barred type of deal, there were no cut aways from the calamities and kills that happened during the movie. I omg’d so many times during this movie that I became a bit annoying to my mom. LOL I flinched and she covered her eyes LOL – I’d say this film did a great job of using the time to give us what we (audience) wanted.

Solid Storyline/Plot – 👏

SOLID! I like that this movie is built around something we’ve all experienced one time or another. We either identify with the antagonist (hopefully not too much) or the protagonist… having a bad day that ends up nightmare…  yes. Having a bad day that ends with blood shed… not so much. The action was on point. Thrills galore while the maiming and mayhem was vivid and in our faces.

Attention Magnet – 👏

Couldn’t look away from the television even when I wanted to. I didn’t want to miss anything and I was actually rooting for Rachel and Kyle to survive Tom’s horrors.  I can tell you, there was one scene in particular that you saw in the trailer that spawned a nightmare Saturday night. The big frikkin truck running over a car with a man in it. I mean, that kinda stuck with me. Brutal!

Ending – 👍

This is the only thing I wish would have been done better. I don’t want to spoil it but ..look, for as spectacular as the movie was throughout, the ending was kinda flat and had me wanting more. I have some specific in mind… call me moviemakers and studios.. we’ll do lunch. Lol

4/5 👏

Last but certainly not least… Black Box

Before we get into this film, I just want to say I never thought I’d see Phylicia Rashad (Claire Huxtable) give us creepy vibes. Or am I late to the party?

“Directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. (Born With It) and script by Osei-Kuffour Jr. and Stephen Herman, Black Box stars Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World 3, The Circle), Phylicia Rashad (Creed), Amanda Christine (Colony), Tosin Morohunfola (The Chi, The 24th), Charmaine Bingwa (Trees of Peace, Little Sista), and Troy James (The Flash, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an agonizing experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Jay Ellis, Aaron Bergman, Lisa Bruce, Marci Wiseman, Jeremy Gold, Mynette Louie and William Marks.” – Amazon Prime Video

The Cast:

Phylicia Rashad – Lillian

Mamoudou Athie – Nolan

Amanda Christine – Ava

Tosin Morohunfola – Gary

Charmaine Bingwa – Miranda

Troy James – Backwards Man

Black Box has a runtime of 1hr 40 minutes.

Billed as a horror/sci-fi, Black Box is under the Blumhouse umbrella, the second film in an anthology series.  The first of the series being The Lie that we discussed yesterday. This film gives me Get Out and Black Mirror vibes and I’m not mad at that. Make no mistake that while it gives me that feel, it is it’s very own horror film and really doesn’t need to be compared to another.

The story opens up with a young man and his daughter preparing for a day of school and what appeared to be an interview for work. Nolan is a photographer who, after his car accident..one that we assume took his wife, left him with amnesia. 

Peoples… let me tell you like this – let’s skip a bunch of me giving away the plot and let me just say, you’ll want to watch this one. If you like sci-fi and horror along with a splash of psychological thriller mixed in there, then this is the film for you.

While I watched the movie, I felt Nolan’s frustration and his confusion. Ava, his daughter, helped him out a great deal with reminding him of things that made him who he is and the things that were a part of their relationship. The two share a secret handshake that Nolan can no longer remember. His world seemed a foreign animal to him, nothing seemed to make sense until he went to see a doctor, Lillian, who had treated him after his accident. She has all the clues and the breakthrough to Nolan’s memories and his life.

And we’ll leave it at that.

On to the ratings!

Cinematic Quality – 👏

Visually, the movie was something else. We were meant to be “kept in the dark” just as Nolan was throughout his recovery so that we could understand where he was coming from and know his pain. We discovered some things just as he did, which I absolutely love.

Run Time – 👏

So much was packed into that hour and 40 minutes that I kinda had a sensory overload… like just when I thought I was understanding things, something else happened and the rug was pulled out from under me. I like that they made use of the time for story development and character development.

Solid Storyline/Plot – 👍

While I want to call it an original idea, Blumhouse has already sipped this flavor of tea with Get Out. But this goes in a completely different direction that Get Out went and I’m glad of that. One of the things that I love about movies like this is character duality, who you are vs who you become. I wanted to understand the plot and the story because there were moments that I found some confusion so I found myself questioning everything I was seeing. Now if this was by design they did a good job but I feel like maybe it wasn’t.  It may be different for those that view it. Maybe you’ll understand where I failed to.

Attention Magnet – 👏

I didn’t dare look away. One of the things I like to do is try to solve the mysteries that present themselves in movies like this and so my eyes were peeled to find clues to what was happening and why. It’s worth the watch but make sure you’re able to give it your full attention.

Ending – 👏

I felt like the ending was well deserved… we were given hope in a hopeless situation and that’s all we really want. A sign that everything will either be okay or a sign that things can be redeemed. We were given both as it were. One of the characters needed some serious jail time .. I felt. But they were out doing whatever the hell they wished and that was upsetting BUT it is possible that something more could happen later… I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

4/5 👏

So that’s all I have tonight. Thanks for coming by and I hope you enjoy one or all of the movies I “reviewed”. Let me know what you thought of them if you’ve seen them already or even if you plant to watch any of them.

The dawn comes in like 5 minutes… lol because time is evil so I will bid you all a good night and please please please…

Be Good Humans!❤

Movie Time!!💡 🎥 🎬🍿

This post was meant to come to you right after the last post, but the headache caused me to step away from sources of light and noise – so here we are… doped up and cloaked in darkness because the sun hurts.

Soooo here we go! <<< SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS AND SPOILERS!!!>>>

This weekend was full of Amazon Prime movies and I wanted to come and talk to you about them and give my own unwanted opinion about them. LOL My two cents just happen to be gold rather than copper. (okay okay, gold overlay…. alright! gold plated??? …. *sigh* gold leaf fine!) In the interest of time, I’ll only be reviewing two movies today and the other two tomorrow (Thursday).

First up…Without Remorse.

I must admit, this isn’t really my type of movie but I watched because well… Michael B Jordan! That and my mom insisted we watch because this was right up her alley. The film is billed as a Action/War and has a runtime of 1hr and 50min all of which did not disappoint.

The cast includes: 

Michael B Jordan – John Kelly/ John Clark

Jamie Bell – Robert Ritter

Guy Pearce – Thomas Clay

Lauren London – Pam Kelly

Jodie Turner-Smith – Karen Greer

and a nice handful more…

“An elite Navy SEAL uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, the explosive origin story of action hero John Clark –one of the most popular characters in author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe. When a squad of Russian soldiers kills his family in retaliation for his role in a top-secret op, Sr. Chief John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) pursues the assassins at all costs. Joining forces with a fellow SEAL (Jodie Turner-Smith) and a shadowy CIA agent (Jamie Bell), Kelly’s mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the U.S. and Russia in an all-out war. Torn between personal honor and loyalty to his country, Kelly must fight his enemies without remorse if he hopes to avert disaster and reveal the powerful figures behind the conspiracy.” – Amazon Prime Video

I enjoyed this movie a great deal.  This was an anxiety and fear inducing thrill ride. (<– look at me using critic lingo lol) Michael B Jordan delivered on screen as well as Guy Pearce who…in my opinion is TOO DAMN GOOD at being the antagonist.

((Momentary side bar – Guy Pearce in the films Brimstone, The Count of Monte Cristo, Bloodshot, and even FX’s A Christmas Carol where he was Scrooge (cold chills) has had me hating him ever since… I know he’s an actor but he’s too good at it and it makes me question his character as a person.  Like what kinda person are you that you play these roles so effortlessly?! LOL))

Now I must admit, I have not read any of Tom Clancy’s books but I have seen some of the movies in the Jack Ryan universe and I did enjoy them a great deal. While I know things get lost in translation from book to film which makes me want to read the books, I feel that if the film makers have done their job – and I have a feeling they have – we should be able to see it on screen. Again, I have not read any of the books so I could be wrong. 

In the film, we follow John Kelly as he does not search BUT hunt the people responsible for the death of his very pregnant wife and his near fatality at the hands of a Russian assassin. Beforehand, his last mission went awry as he and others realize they are fighting Russians not the Syrians they were told they’d be up against.

Trouble follows him home and lands on his doorstep when Russian assassins come in the night and turn his life upside down.  John kills all but one of the assassins but is also injured in the gun fight. After near loss of life, Kelly recuperates and his brought back to health. From there on out it’s pretty intense. In one of the first scenes we see, John Kelly crashes into a Russian diplomat’s car and sets it on fire trapping him inside. John in his rage, opens the door to the burning car and threatens the diplomat for information.  After receiving the info he wanted – the man is executed which lands John in prison where he commits more acts of bad-assery. Because setting a car on fire and just walking up to that shit like it was smoke and opening the door is pretty bad ass.

We follow him through his hunt for revenge/justice and in search of the party responsible for the death of his wife and the other Navy Seals on his team as they have been picked off one by one. And in doing so we discover the over arching conflict that has been set in motion.

At the end of the movie we get a pretty nice Easter Egg. Hint: book and video game from the 90’s.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and am glad we sat down to watch. My mom enjoyed it and gave it the same number of Ovations I gave it. 4 out of 5 👏 I felt John Clark should have been a little more fierce, we got to see that what we felt was just a scratch of it and thought they should have let him just wild out. But as spoken earlier, things often get lost in translation from book to film.

So here’s the scale, each category can earn one Ovation ( 👏 ) which would equal 5 in all. Any category earning anything other than an Ovation like say a 👍 or 👎 means it was not up to par.

Let’s begin…

Cinematic Quality: 👏

Since we watched on Amazon Prime from the comfort of our living room, it wasn’t like being in the theater and seeing things on the big screen. Both a plus and a negative. But the quality came across – the images were vivid, nothing was blurred or grainy like say…ummm… Season 8 Episode 3 of GOT’s – The Long Night… the quality didn’t come over well on the television and we all had a lot to say about that. Nothing was grainy or grayed out or horribly filtered throughout the entire film. Without Remorse earned its stripes here.

Run Time: 👏

The hour and 50 minutes run time was more than adequate timing to develop the story and give us the information we needed about the characters to either connect with them, question their character, or hate their guts.

Solid Story Line/Plot: 👍

One thing we both wanted to see was the development of the story and relationship between Robert Ritter and Thomas Clay. In writing, we would call Ritter an unreliable character. He seemed to be a shadowy figure and shady character that we second guessed time and time again. And I suppose that was by design, we were probably meant to have that apprehension but I would have loved to see what actually conspired between he and Clay. Maybe the book answers that question. While my mom thinks we got to see John Kelly in all his glory, I really feel like we could have seen him be more vicious and unhinged… but that is just a personal preference. I’m all about the kills. Lol

Attention Magnet: 👏

The opening started strong and literally grabbed us right from the beginning like it did with one of the characters Lol I never lost interest in the movie or wanted to turn my attention elsewhere. I was much too invested in Kelly’s pain, his resolution, and his mission to seek revenge. 

Ending: 👏

Just desserts were served up nice and cold. Resolutions to the conflicts that arose were made and there was no question as to whether certain characters would ever meet justice. And all ends were concluded or executed in the same manner of viciousness and fierceness we saw in the beginning and middle of the film. We even had a nice nod to a video game and book and we believe there may be another Clancy movie in the making due to how this film ended.

So… 4/5 👏

Up Next: The Lie

“The Lie is written and directed by Veena Sud, and stars Mireille Enos (The Killing), Peter Sarsgaard (An Education) and Joey King (The Kissing Booth 2, The Act). When their teenaged daughter confesses to impulsively killing her best friend, two desperate parents attempt to cover up the horrific crime, leading them into a complicated web of lies and deception. Produced by Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Christopher Tricarico, and Jason Blum. Executive produced by Howard Green, Kim Hodgert, Jeanette Volturno, Couper Samuelson and Aaron Barnett.” – Amazon Prime Video

Man loook…. This movie right here, had me talking to my tv and the people in it in a very disrespectful way. Lol  I just… movies like this get under my skin and make me angry, not for the content but for the characters! 

The cast includes:

Joey King – Kayla

Devery Jacobs – Brittany

Peter Sarsgaard – Jay

Mireille Enos – Rebecca

Cas Anvar – Sam Ifrani

The Lie is billed as a Thriller with a run time of 1hr and 37 minutes. In this hour and a half  I managed to lose my faith in good parenting, I lost my hair from the stress of these characters doing insane shit, and I lost then regained my sanity because while I know this is a work of fiction…t he thought of one of my children doing this just…. whew ! Jesus Fix it!

Let’s begin…

Jay picks his daughter teenaged daughter, Kayla, up from his ex-wife to take her to her ballet retreat on a cold winter day. On the way to the retreat Kayla spots her friend Brittany on the side of the road at a bus stop, Kayla yells for her dad to stop and he does. Kayla asks her dad if they can give her a ride. When asked why she’s at the bus stop, Brittany tells her friend that she had a fight with her dad and that he made her take the bus to the retreat. Brittany gets into the car and is asked what happened to her face to which she makes up a lie as to why the bruise is there.

On the way to the retreat, Brittany tells Kayla and her dad that she needs to go to the bathroom and asks that he pull over so she can go pee. There is no rest area or buildings around so he gets concerned… however Brittany makes a big deal about the need to pee and he stop. The girls get out of the car and head off into the woods toward a walk-bridge that crosses a river. After several minutes of the girls being gone, Jay goes off in search of the girls. While searching for them he hears a scream and proceeds to run in the direction the screams are coming from. 

And then the craziness begins.

When Jay makes it to his daughter, he finds her sitting on the railing of the bridge staring into the water and her friend nowhere to be found. He pulls her down off the railing and proceeds to question his daughter of the whereabouts of her friend. Kayla tells her father… “I pushed her. She was being a bitch and I pushed her.” Jay runs down to the river embankment to search for Brittany and find nothing but her purse laying in the snow next to the river. He picks it up and heads back to his daughter from then on, determined that his daughter not have any consequence for what had transpired between she and Brittany. 

This seems like more of a moral tale about the lengths parents are willing to go to protect their children. What are you willing to do and how far are you willing to go? 

Also, how much trust do you have in the system and in yourself to do the right thing?

So let’s get to the ratings… where you’ll find out just a little more about this film.

Cinematic Quality: 👏

I don’t really have any complaints. I like how the very beginning of the movie begins with flashbacks of Kayla’s family life and the time her family was a complete unit and how it brings things up to speed in the present where her parents are divorced and living apart from each other with separate lives, Jay (her dad) with his girlfriend and Rebecca (her) mom with her lover who was set to move in with her.

Run Time: 👏

The 1hr and 37 minute run time, I feel, was adequate time to tell the story, set up the thriller, and give us mystery. They really managed to use the time wisely to give us a complete story and put us directly in our emotions from the very beginning. Just remember being in your emotions doesn’t always mean you’re experiencing love or sadness… emotions have a wide range and with this film you’ll go through them all.

Solid Storyline/ Plot: 👏

While the theme of the story involves all the characters as unreliable… the storyline and plot given is pretty good but doesn’t become clear until the end. The mystery last that long, at which point other emotions will make themselves known LOL. I honestly didn’t know how to feel at the end. I had gone through every emotion known to man and then when the ending came… I found insanity the best course of action. But that’s neither here nor there. I’m fine… * I say with nervous ticks* completely fine.

Attention Magnet: 👏

This was like a train wreck… not that it was a bad movie but the story progressively got worse and worse. Not due to bad writing but it’s content… I kept saying… OMG Noooo… OMG do something! But I couldn’t look away from any of it and became invested in these characters and because I thought I knew how it was going to pan out… I thought I could relax. NOPE!

Ending: 👏

OMG the ending… look.. man… this is one thing I am not going to spoil. I was not expecting what transpired and I definitely wasn’t expecting how things ended up. The ending is solid and I ended up having to take medicine to control my anxiety and keep from having too many bursts of insane laughter. You ever get so mad you just laugh. This ending undid me and man… 

That’s all I’m gonna say.

 A well earned 5/5 👏

Tomorrow’s post will have Amazon Prime’s Unhinged and Black Box.

Again I apologize for the tardiness of this post and for the novice quality of things here. Lol  

Until tomorrow luvs.

Be good humans! ❤

 

 

 

Quick Update & May the 4th Be With You

Friday, April 30th –  I received my second dose of the vaccine and I’m here to report that while I am well, I did and am ..umm .. I don’t want to say suffering, that’s such a strong word. So I will say I am experiencing some side effects. These are things that I didn’t experience when I had Covid. Things like sore arm, fevers, body aches, and gastro- issues. While I did have some dehydration it was never severe. I find myself needing to rest from feeling tired, having headaches, and body aches.

I found myself wanting to push through the symptoms and even tried to continue with my daily activities until I was in the store in a full sweat with throbbing headache. So I abandoned the mission and went home. Instead of me grabbing things to make for dinner, we just picked up something quick on the way home.

I do not have Covid but the side effects made me feel like I did.

So here I am resting and doing some things that make me feel good. I’ve been writing poetry, watching movies, and I even finished up my blanket.

Yeah… there are a myriad of colors here. But I like colorful things and to me it’s nice to look at and it feels like to be wrapped up in. It’s not too heavy or too light – like Goldilocks, it’s just right.

I also made a blanket for the grandbaby a couple months back and I can’t wait till he’s old enough to enjoy it. Right now he lays on it but doesn’t know anything other than it’s soft and feels good on the skin I suppose.

<< This sucker took me a a good three weeks to complete whereas Kai’s blanket took me a matter of days to do.

Maybe due to the gauge of the needle and the quality of yarn, his blanket is made of some pretty thick yarn and I used a good sized needle to accomplish the task.  I used the smaller copper crochet needle on my blanket which is a Size G and the other needle on the baby’s blanket. I even have one larger than the gray one. My daughter is currently using the jumbo blue crochet hook to complete the blanket she is working on.

So now I’m all nice and cozy beneath my blanket tapping away at the laptop.

The day is gray and rainy with a nice chill in the air. It feels more like fall than spring today but that’s what blankets are made for, for your comfort.  I am currently watching Revenge of The Sith on TBS and covered up to my neck in this glorious blanket.

I have another post that I am going to try to get out today. Since I have been resting, I’ve been catching up on all the movies I’ve wanted to see on Amazon Prime. So I’ll get to that tonight. I saw bunch of awesomeness, a bunch of craziness, and a splash of ugly. And I will get into all of that.

I viewed four films in all this past weekend and have several more to go but I must catch up on the shows I watch before I get back into them. I’ll list the shows that have sucked me in as well in that post.

So until then my loves…

Be good humans! ❤

Luck of the Draw / Quick Update

On the battlefield with my soldiers, today might be our last,

the skies are gloomy and grey, the heavens are overcast,

sunny days a distant memory of our victorious past.

Today we’ll not use force, but our mind’s might,

in this we war, in this we ready for the fight,

who knows what may become of us this night.

Moves made after another and the game never ends,

just one more to capture and to my will he’ll have to bend,

losses are never as they seem, but your own territory you must defend.

Dealt a crushing blow, my queen stolen away,

in this vile and crucial game that we all must play,

smoke rises and fires burn this very day.

Trumpets of the court sound and we’re the last on the board,

royalty face to face, hits and strikes tallied and scored,

our best given but none the victor – a draw, our reward.

We will meet again!

~~~~~~~~

^^^ me being all dramatic about the draw I got in chess.

It’s been a weird few days. Time is flying by and I can’t account for any of it. I really can’t.  *shrugs shoulders* I don’t know. I hate to think that I’m walking through my life with my eyes closed but that’s what it feels like. I just need things to calm down.

We’re prepping for the time when the world opens back up, right? But not enough people are getting vaccinated and many are skipping the the second dose. Remember when there wasn’t enough vaccine for everyone, well now things are kinda reversed. There’s more than enough and no bodies to take them. People have their reasons, I guess. I just don’t want to be one to get Covid again. Once was enough for me.

I hope people will reconsider. I would love for us all to be on the same page so that we can get back to the business of living. Covid has definitely rained on many a parade including one very big one that a city near me has every spring. Valley of the Flowers, in Florissant. and Ferguson’s 4th of July parades. Maybe next year they’ll happen. I miss seeing the muscle cars in the parade… I always look forward to seeing the vintage Camaros. I want one so bad Lol. Where would I even go if I had one??? smh lol

In other news, I had a meeting of the minds concerning the red lady ( the novel) with another creative person and I think, I may have put him off of writing for a while. Lol Completely unintentional. He told me that he was kicking off writing a novel as well and we discussed some of what that entails.  We had a socially distanced meeting at my house and discussed it’s progress and the things that I am getting stuck or hung up on. So I showed him my notes (4 giant notebooks) and the book itself all nice printed out (2 massive binders full).  The look on his face was priceless. You know the saying “coulda bought me for a nickel” yeah… he was floored because he didn’t know I was working on something so big.  Anyway, during this meeting, I determined a schedule and a workplan. Because I keep falling into a rut and getting frustrated with myself – taking on smaller chunks of the thing seems to be the best course. But you know what they say about making plans… “when man makes plans God laughs. (Make promises and the devils listens) <– added that because it always seems that we fall short of our promises from time to time, like someone is disrupting our intentions…. cause you know… intentions pave the road to hell or so they say.

so yeah… me and plans and promises… we’ll see what happens and how it goes.

Now for the bigger issues like appropriate beginnings and needing to add chapters in between to break up the larger ones… that’s gonna take some doing. I have some idea how to proceed, which only happened because I had it printed out but inserting those things is gonna be the problem…

Which is why I need the makers of Microsoft Word to make the insertion of pages easier than it is. I need it dummified and made simplistic so that I don’t destroy a whole document and the computer it’s on trying to do these things.  Help me!! Save my sanity! lol

That’s all I got. To give myself a break I began crocheting a blanket for couch cruising.  OR to have since the air conditioning has been on lately.  I’m trying to end it the way I began it but that’s making it so much bigger than I planned. I bought this yarn called Cakes (Caron & Yarnspirations). I’ve gone through about 7 of the 8 I bought, (they actually look like little cakes). Then I guess I’ll be done. I’ll post pics of the finished project when I’m done. It’s quite colorful and seems not to jive in the middle of the thing but it works for me and I like it.

Sooo…. off I go to make dinner. I wish I knew how to make Paella. That’s one of the dishes I am gonna teach myself to make soon. I need that in my life.

I hope everyone is having a great day and evening.

B e g o o d h u m a n s! ❤

First Come, First Served

Overlooking all your signs and senses

Bringing things from past to future tenses

Me, we, and us – never felt so good

I’d stay here all night long if I could

But you know who came first

And what that means is that I have to go

Sometimes leaving is the worst

But I grow fonder in my missing of you soo….

Love was served up quick and hot

And that’s all we had time for

Will you miss me in the morning or not?

And will you call me when you want more?

I’ve never been one for passing delights

And flings or affairs of the heart

But the way you worked me out tonight,

Was enough to change my mind – such a good start

So until we meet again my dear

But just so that we’re clear

You came first before all others

And told me what I wanted to hear

So goodbye for now – I have to go

You know the sun is up but I want to know

If you’ll keep me close so this love can grow

What? There’s something you want to show?

Well I guess I can stay a little longer if you say so

I really have nowhere else to be

What did you say? You want to see my body aglow?

You haven’t yet had your fill of me?

I suppose I can spend another night with you

If that’s what you really want and need…

Oh…we’re to start a new game of love too?

No more secrets… tonight we’ll be freed.

The Glamorous Life

When you think about your favorite authors…in your mind’s eye do you see them dripping with the finest jewels, laced in expensive fabrics? Are they zooming through the streets of a well known town in the latest sports car or boating at high speeds in the tropics? Are they romantically sitting near a window writing with a feather plume with stars in their eyes as they pen a sappy missive to their long lost loves or are they guzzling the finest liquors banging out an adventurous tale for their beloved fans?

I ask because, what we imagine is often very far from the reality and truth of what is.

The glamorous life of a writer/author often entails struggle if they aren’t that well known. The struggle to form complete and cohesive ideas, the struggle to convey a story or a reality that we’ve made up for reader consumption, the struggle to get the work out to the public either by traditional publishing means or self-publishing, the struggle to build an audience and keep that audience captivated. The struggle to see sales high enough to cover our bills, materials, and overhead expenses. The struggle to be competitive and relevant. The struggle to continue doing the thing we fell in love with doing.

Authoring is so luxurious a job that I can afford to have a tub of Folgers every couple of weeks… it’s so luxurious that I can shuffle through the house in my favorite socks ( with a hole in the big toe recently stitched up) and favorite worn t-shirt and sweats to get said coffee and pour it into favorite coffee stained mug that reads FEMME PIRE (got it at FiveBelow). It is so frikkin luxurious that I can splurge at my favorite store without looking at the prices or worrying that I won’t have enough to cover my purchases… cause we’ve all been to there haven’t we?? (Dollar Tree is awesome!)

I’m just trying to say that some very realistic shit happens to us writers like rejections, second guessing our skills and talents, roadblocks, creative blocks, forgetting where we were going with our stories, being broke or barely making it, imposter syndrome, and did I mention rejections?? Or how about the fear of failure and the fear of success because how will we ever be able to keep up what we started or top ourselves to keep our audience?!

I just….

If any of my creative writing teachers had told me that I would experience these things at various points during my career or altogether because adversity is a waterfall I bathe in daily…. I would have considered those things deeply… probably would have still ended up where I am…..but I would have prepared myself for what was to come. I love what I do. Sure it’s not making me a ton of money right now and some ideas are hit or miss BUT (<–big like I like’em)… it’s what I do, what I enjoy and what I love. I take pleasure in creating things and sharing those things with people in the hopes that they’ll like them too.

I take joy in amusing myself with the things I come up with and the knowledge that I have come a long way in my writings. What started as a passionate dream became an obsession and then a career because you need a bit of obsession to throw yourself into things wholeheartedly. Our careers are like marriages… we have to love them enough to want to do them for the duration of our lives. For those that have experience career changes, that’s okay too… because sometimes the thing you’re doing doesn’t fit the things you want to do or have a passion for.

Your life’s work should always line up with your passions… it makes what you have to do so much easier and it feels like your work is play. That’s where the glamor lies for me…being able to use my imagination and creativity to entertain people.

Don’t get me wrong, the glamorous life of well known authors is something of a motivation but that’s not what I’m in it for. I have this dream of changing and reshaping the way people think through the things I write. I can’t write about struggle with say.. a silver spoon. I have to know that place and I do because that’s where I come from. But I do hope to lessen that struggle or have the struggle pay off because I feel like… it would all be for nothing if no one learned from the things I write or even the things I went through to get to certain points of my life. I haven’t reached the summit yet… still trekking but I am happy to be doing so.

So I want to say this to all the creatives… Keep going. Make something brilliant that matters to you and I assure you people will flock to your vision. Change the world and challenge its norms, be the change you want to see and above all else…

Be good humans! ❤

They, THEM, and Those

I was scrolling Twitter when I came across a tweet that Stephen King made about a new show on Amazon Prime called THEM.  He said that it scared the hell out of him and I thought – whoa, something scares the master of horror?!!?! Gotta see it!

So I roped a friend who lives in Indianapolis now into watching with me, he watched where he was and I watched where I was.. I started it a little bit ahead of him, I was two episodes ahead. So we watched it and we weren’t disappointed.

I chose two trailers to share with you – Both from Amazon Prime but one has been posted by FilmSelect and is quite unsettling (to me at least). The first one is the one Amazon Prime posted on YouTube, the second one was posted by FilmSelect

 

Now this would have been my Cinema Sunday entry but I had to recover and get my mind right after viewing the series. I’ll say this now, it is not for the faint of heart. There are depictions of behaviors and circumstances that actually happened, even though the series is fictional.

THEM explores the haunting effects of racism in America during a period called The Great Migration, in which, black families left the south due to Jim Crow era laws and integrated into all white neighborhoods such as Compton (in the 1950’s) in search of a better life. The show tells the story of the Emory family who were implants from North Carolina. The family of four moved and settled in an East Compton neighborhood in California after a tragedy besets the family, particularly the mother “Lucky” Emory.

It seems each member of the family has their own personal horrors to deal with, on top of the terrors that the neighbors, who were inflicting their own brand of horror on the family, take to committing in desperate efforts to keep their neighborhood white. Make no mistake, viewing this film is a jarring experience and a pretty accurate depiction of the times back then. I wouldn’t call it entertaining as it left me feeling super raw and sensitive but it does hold the attention and grips you as it sucks you into their world. Which is no doubt what the creator Little Marvin wanted. 

I’d be lying if I said I watched the show and was unaffected. Anger overtook me in the first 10 minutes of the show and intensified throughout my viewing. The knowledge that so many people actually behaved in the manner that this neighborhood of folks did in actual history is disturbing and infuriating. 

This series which is billed as a limited anthology, displays human nature in all of of its ugliness and only some of its beauty.  Some of that beauty being the resilience and strength of the human spirit and the love of one’s community as Lucky finds out visiting relatives and friends. It is a dark show that offers very few light moments and I suspect the reason for such is to immerse us into this world so that we feel every bit of anger, sadness, confusion, despair, and hopelessness the characters feel.

It’s heavy. It is definitely not for kids and viewer discretion is advised.

Now did I like the series? I did. I am a fan of horror and shining light on the ugly truthful situations to bring all the monsters out into the open. This series did exactly that. It seemed that even the monsters had monsters, case in point Betty, the one that began the assault on the Emory family. Her monsters were her father and… the goddamn Milk Man. Smh… tough to watch and I have to say, I did feel satisfaction at one particular monster, Ms. Vera, being slayed by little Gracie. Ms. Vera had the audacity to appear in my dreams… where she was swiftly dealt with Lol. I hate nightmares especially ones that want to talk and gloat about my weaknesses, like they know me. *hard eye roll*

And there is the reason why these things happened in this town in the first place. The backstory to the town, the house that the Emory’s moved into and the attitudes of the people there, were explained in detail in episode 9: Welcome to Eidolon. It seems old ghosts held all the terror for the new family of Compton.

Now, I don’t know much about present day Compton, California…just the things I’ve been told. And I don’t know anything about Compton of the past and whether the creator of this series tapped into that history for a truer narrative but the way it’s presented feels very believable. Not about the ghosts, but about how realtors of the time and how they conspired to make money off of the families that moved into those neighborhoods and those that moved out. How entire neighborhoods of people go batshit crazy when they feel threatened by the presence of those unlike them. How newcomers to an area have to deal with the poor attitudes of those they have to be around.

The question that comes about is – why did they have to move there? Why not go to where you are accepted? Sure it’s a valid question. But if we live in a free world, why would we limit ourselves? We all want to live in a better place especially of we’ve come from someplace worse, as Betty pointed out. Aren’t we all allowed the opportunity to live better and to be treated fairly?

Them points out the glaring realization that even now, we still have a long way to go. With race, with gender equality, with religious preferences, and with those who live a different lifestyle than we live… Differences are everywhere and all we seem to be doing is tolerating and not accepting.

I’m wearing a t-shirt today that reads…

“More Hope

More Humanity

More Acceptance 

More Love”

All of the things I truly believe in.  Seeing things like this series and Lovecraft Country makes me appreciate those that have gone before me. It makes me glad that progress can be made. It helps me understand that for as many differences we hold, we can still accept and embrace those differences to become better humans.

So I urge you, give Them a gander. You will be mad, you will want to cry, you will want to scream and curse and cuss at your televisions but when you are through doing all of that… ask yourselves why you felt those emotions. Ask yourselves what you would have done differently. Ask yourselves, if you are ready to explore the truth of our history…not just African American’s history but the truth of American history.

Good talk, peoples.

Now I have writerly things to do and hopefully I can complete them before the day is over.  The sun is shining deceptively on the other side of the window and I can feel my attention span slipping. So off I go. 

My love to you all.

Be good humans!❤

 

 

As I live and breathe…

It’s a beautiful day in Zamunda! (or so I hear) I don’t live there, I live in St. Louis where, oddly enough, the weather is beautiful as well. Happy Easter Holiday to those that celebrate it, I hope your feast day was as glorious as the day The Lord rose. If it wasn’t… get a new family! ASAP! I hear Target is selling them online in their Spring sale. I kid, I kid.

But really, It was a gorgeous Spring day yesterday and we’re getting a replay of it today AND are due for more of this weather anomaly tomorrow! I will not complain. I will take the Wal-Zyr and breathe easy. I will run, play, and frolic in the beauty that awaits me…. after this. 

I have been absent. I needed to be. Mental health needed maintenance, babies needed to be hugged and fawned over, dinner needed to be made, and then there were things that needed to be caught up on… plus, you know… I didn’t really have much to talk about. I mean life dealt me a few cards and I played them… I won a few, lost a few more…but I live to keep hushed up about the tale. LOL

Let me gush about this little bundle of joy that has stolen so much of my time and MONEY. Granny is broke! Like… I was broke before but now I’m like – in double negatives and red lines but money keeps materializing and disappearing as quickly as it came. 

     

He’s such a little character already. He talks and coos, and smiles and giggles. I love his little smile and his little chubby cheeks! He came to visit yesterday and I was so happy I got to spend a little time with him. I’m looking forward to seeing him more in the future. I just have to request time to spend with him. 

In the last picture, I’m told he was laughing at his dad because he was told to take a nap… that was Kai’s little “Yeah right, pops.”

Then I have a couple of pictures with me holding “the precious”.

One of us rushing his dad with the bottle of num nums… He was a very hungry boy.

And this one of us talking about how slow his dad was with the bottle. We have that in common, we’re not ourselves when we’re hungry. Lol

I’m excited to see him grow up and come into all of that personality. Such a cute little snuggle bunny.

That’s all I have for now.

Little writing update – revisions are going slow and I’m very frustrated with myself while trying to make it a coherent and cohesive read. I have been given some direction from my beta reader but I’m really wanting some direction from my editor. She’s a busy busy bee, so

I don’t think she’ll have time to sit with and discuss stuff. But I won’t know until I ask so yeah.

Other projects are making it known that they want attention – I have dreams about them Lol which tells me that I need to make time to complete them.

And so far that’s all I have.

I will return soon. It’s the beginning of the week and I’m really trying to talk myself into doing the neglected laundry from last week. *heavy eye roll* It has to be done though. Anyhoo… see ya later.

Be good humans! ❤

The Blessing of Life

So…. today is a new day.  The beginning of a new week and I gotta tell ya, it is vastly different than it was yesterday. Yesterday I was just Ty scrolling Netflix looking for something watch for Cinema Sunday. A 40 something year old woman who chose the torture of writing as a career.  A woman who lives with various challenges in her everyday life and has been given the strength to do so. A woman whose snow globe is shaken much too often.

Here’s why we didn’t get a Cinema Sunday post yesterday:

When I went to sleep last night, I had been mulling over the news I received earlier in the day. My son, the comedian that he can be, told me that there was going to be a new addition to the family. So naturally, knowing my son’s wit and comedy…I figured he was talking about getting another animal. I was quite fond of the last pooch he had and was sad to see that he had to rehome him. So when he told me this – the first thing out of my mouth was… “You better keep this one!”

He sent me the “haha” then proceeded to text…”Okay Grandma.”

I asked why he called me grandma and he said… “Because your grandson is on the way.”

Now… my brain was like  OH, It’s a male pupper or kitty! Or whatever and it’s a newborn…. so I asked… what it was and he says… Human. So, I nearly dropped the phone. I fumbled it in my hand as this was some shocking shit to read.

My son who had earlier in his life made promises that he would never have kids…. Not due to anything I did or said but because he really didn’t want any… was telling me that he had a baby on the way. So I asked some questions… you know like, uhhh… “WHAT?!”  Yeah. He repeated himself and then called me. We talked at great length about the whole situation and why he hadn’t said anything before and he was like I didn’t want to disappoint you and have you be mad.

Me: “So springing it on your old bird last minute was the best plan of action? What did you think I was going to say – NO, you can’t have that, put it back???”

He laughed. I asked how he was doing and how new mom was doing…. this is her first. He said she was okay that labor was moving slow. The baby seemed not to want to come out. I told him that he was the same way and that the doctors had to suction him out.  TJ said that they discussed that but that would be a problem because the little one was broad shouldered. So the ended up doing a C-Section to bring the baby into the world.

Little Kairi Amirr Smith was born today and weighs 8lbs and 1 oz. He is a big little dude. I told his father that he needs to sign his son for some football, basketball, track and field, or some Olympic swimming ASAP I’m told he’s a tall baby. Yeah, Kairi needs some employment like tomorrow. LOL Look at 2021 being a blessing after the cursed year. 🤣😂🤣  I really am excited. Tyran is going to be 25 this year and his sister is going to be 20. She’s excited to be an aunt and hang out with her nephew, as am I.

Tyran and his son, Kairi

He’s a proud papa and I’m happy about that. Mom is doing well, the baby is being the boss of everyone around him and Tyran (TJ) is actually happy. Covid is keeping everyone where they are and I’m actually happy about that too. I don’t want the little one getting sick. I want him healthy.

I am a grandmother *faints* 😵

Be good humans ❤

I Know The Blues / A Lovely Day

You know I’m tailored to these blues…

there’s no one size fits all and this is what I choose.

My song is of resolution and consequence,

of love and hope – of triumph and defeat,

of soulful reparation and recompense,

at the intersection of where pain and pleasure meet.

I wail and moan to the rhythm of struggle and success,

whether I’m known for my blessings or tragedies, I could care less.

Because it’s the music that lends the soundtrack to the life I lead,

some hear random sounds, I hear warnings of which to take heed.

My blues, my song, my rhythm and sound…

lend to my heart a feeling so profound…

that I have to sit and close my eyes to capture the meaning behind the words,

and while this song is so sorrowful – it is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.

~~~~~

A little music on this fine Friday.  I’m enjoying the beginning of my weekend with my retail therapy purchases, which consists of new comforter, new sheets and a nice mattress topper for my super firm mattress. Man, I could bounce a quarter of this sucker.  I’ve been trying to turn my bedroom into a place of comfort for a while now and it’s nearly there. I think I want a plant or something in here but where the hell would I put it?? Lol, I need more space.  I actually need to rearrange the room yet again. It would help free up more space and give me access to my closet. I can barely get in there without removing things and such… that might be on my spring cleaning list. Speaking of which, the weather has been awesome! The other day it got up to 71 and and yesterday 65. Today it’s supposed to be like 57 degrees. I’ll take it.

Dare I say we have Spring a lot earlier than expected unless this is the Spring of Deception.  Mother Nature can keep Third Winter… we don’t need it. I’m expecting the Winds of March anytime now. I remember one year I nearly took flight because the wind was so strong which was really weird for Missouri. Not uncommon for Chicago but here it was like St. Louis was playing copycat.

I’m glad the weather is breaking. I need the warmth of the sun. I literally live for it. I didn’t have much to talk about today. I wanted to post a new poem and update the blog so mission accomplished.

I had a thought earlier about my ideas that never see the light of day.

The worst idea to have is the one you’ve devoted so much thought to but didn’t pursue. – Me

I hear someone saying, what if it gets you in trouble…and to that I say, you never know unless you try! 😂😂😂  Which brings me to this – Don’t go looking for trouble, give it enough time to find you. Then proceed with caution. LOL (Was about to spell Caution- Caughtion… what is wrong with me?!)

Being in trouble is yet another way to get the blood pumping through your veins. It tests our strengths and reveals our weaknesses. Wait… do we really need that?? No, nevermind. Lol me on my campaign for doing dumb things…smh 🤦‍♀️

Anyway, I hope you’re all having a great day and are enjoying the mild temperatures. Get some sun and fresh air today.

Be good humans!❤