toma nota de gracia
- Gender: Female
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Movies I like
Reign Over Me
This movie was such a surprise! I didn't expect the intensity of emotions in this (or any) portrayal by Adam Sandler. His fictional character appears to be mind-numbed by a tragic loss due to 9/11. Most may write him off as a crazy man but one should consider that this is a man wracked with overwhelming pain. I believe he would have totally gone over the edge had he the concern of keeping a job but a great sum of insurance money received for his loss helps him escape from that burden at least. On the other hand, maybe holding down a job would have prevented this because those daily responsibilities can keep us moving along in difficult times. Hard to say... I do know that being a mother has helped to keep me grounded during times of grief, loss and pain. In Reign Over Me, Charlie is handling grief in his own way and I couldn't help but approve it even if it does seem fantastical. Be forewarned, there are scenes that are hard to watch, a lot of foul language and one little subplot of questionable taste that just wasn't needed to tell this story. Nevertheless, this movie has touched me in a very deep way.
This movie was such a surprise! I didn't expect the intensity of emotions in this (or any) portrayal by Adam Sandler. His fictional character appears to be mind-numbed by a tragic loss due to 9/11. Most may write him off as a crazy man but one should consider that this is a man wracked with overwhelming pain. I believe he would have totally gone over the edge had he the concern of keeping a job but a great sum of insurance money received for his loss helps him escape from that burden at least. On the other hand, maybe holding down a job would have prevented this because those daily responsibilities can keep us moving along in difficult times. Hard to say... I do know that being a mother has helped to keep me grounded during times of grief, loss and pain. In Reign Over Me, Charlie is handling grief in his own way and I couldn't help but approve it even if it does seem fantastical. Be forewarned, there are scenes that are hard to watch, a lot of foul language and one little subplot of questionable taste that just wasn't needed to tell this story. Nevertheless, this movie has touched me in a very deep way.
Books that moved me
Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
Loved it! Enjoyed this so much that I had to ration my reading so I could savor it longer -- was my only request for Christmas, hmm, think it was my only gift, too. Anyway, Weiner first approaches bliss on a scientific scale by visiting the Happiness Institute in the Netherlands where they are serious about these studies. He then goes on to visit other countries at various places along the happiness scale. I love the chapter titles, here are a few: Switzerland, Happy Is a Number; Qatar, Happiness is a Winning Lottery Ticket and Moldova, Happiness is Somewhere Else.
...featured on The Colbert Report Don't judge it by this little clip though; it is truly a witty & wonderful little gem.
Check out this Amazon link, I particularly agreed with the reviews by Symbiosis and Apostolou.
A Philosophy of Rock
Something Old
"Quiet desperation is the English way." So the song goes as it quotes Thoreau, who described it like this,
"No one told you when to run ... you missed the starting gun." ~Time Pink Floyd
I wonder if anyone else is so haunted by time, its passage, how it just keeps "slipping into the future".
"Quiet desperation is the English way." So the song goes as it quotes Thoreau, who described it like this,
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."Confirmed desperation? Must be giving up, perhaps not on life but on enjoying it and that pursuit of happiness to which we are entitled even though it is without guarantees. I s'pose this desperation also has something to do with living "comfortably numb". Well, there are moments and seasons of life that make numbness a tempting way to live but if you have a touch of Camus's invincible summer living within your winter, you move on with the next song and "breathe, breathe in the air" while snatching up those moments of not being "afraid to care".
"No one told you when to run ... you missed the starting gun." ~Time Pink Floyd
I wonder if anyone else is so haunted by time, its passage, how it just keeps "slipping into the future".
TV shows I watch
TV? It is hit or miss with me. Recommendations anyone?
Welcome to Grace Notes
Thanks so much for visiting this blog page! Its purpose is simply to focus on literature, music and other arts. I don't promise anything
profound, just this human's little thoughts and observations. All that we see, hear and do affects our beliefs, emotions and actions to a certain degree.
Whether we realize it or not, daily we make choices that reflect what is within us, and perhaps it's true that we would like those things to define us.
Hopefully, those things will sometimes refine us as well. 
Please know that your feedback is
appreciated, your participation welcomed!
Please know that your feedback is
appreciated, your participation welcomed!
Pondering Muses
No, as much as we love them, fairy tales don't always have happy endings and perhaps we shouldn't expect them. What is a fairy tale anyway? If not for a happy ending, then what is its purpose?
"My own definition of fairy tale goes something like this: A fairy tale is a story - literary or folk - that has a sense of the numinous, the feeling or sensation of the supernatural or the mysterious. But, and this is crucial, it is a story that happens in the past tense, and a story that is not tied to any specifics. If it happens "at the beginning of the world," then it is a myth. A story that names a specific "real" person is a legend (even if it contains a magical occurrence). A story that happens in the future is a fantasy. Fairy tales are sometimes spiritual, but never religious." ~Marcia Lane, Picturing a Rose: A Way of Looking at Fairy Tales
"While the fairy tales have no immediate purpose other than to amuse, they leave a substantial by-product which has a moral significance. In every reaction which a person [whether child or adult] has for distress or humor in the tale, he deposits another layer of vicarious experience which sets his character more firmly in the mold of right or wrong attitude. Every sympathy, every aversion helps to set the impulsive currents of his life, and to give direction to his personality." ~sacred-texts.com
Comments about me
Thoughts on music, literature and the arts
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A little bunch of words...
03/12/09 13:18:13 | 3 Comments
Words, words, words. The things we do with them. Words are used to teach and learn, to entertain and amuse, to hurt and to heal. What is behind the pen that is poised? the taps on a keyboard? Thoughts, feelings, passions, dreams, ideas, disappointments, goals and hopes are behind those pens & keyboards. And they are contained...
Quotes to Ponder
"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all
over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." ~Pablo Picasso
"For heights and depths no words can reach music is the soul's own speech." ~Unknown
"A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting." ~Henry David Thoreau
"For heights and depths no words can reach music is the soul's own speech." ~Unknown
"A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting." ~Henry David Thoreau
Things to do, places to see
a castle upon the green hills of Eire
swimming in a hot spring in Iceland
ancient pyramids of Egypt
getting lost in a formal garden's maze in England
the clear, aqua waters of the Caribbean
a covered bridge in Maine during fall
a picnic among bluebonnets in Texas hill country
see and feel the Blue Angels headed up the Choptank River
a streetcar on a steep San Francisco avenue
hiking in the Appalachians
strolling through a garden in the Pacific Northwest
swimming in a hot spring in Iceland
ancient pyramids of Egypt
getting lost in a formal garden's maze in England
the clear, aqua waters of the Caribbean
a covered bridge in Maine during fall
a picnic among bluebonnets in Texas hill country
see and feel the Blue Angels headed up the Choptank River
a streetcar on a steep San Francisco avenue
hiking in the Appalachians
strolling through a garden in the Pacific Northwest
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TXBill951
03/26/09
Peggy Smith
03/09/09
Original comment »
Peggy Smith
03/05/09
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