I really like a lot of music from the 60s. When thinking about the prompt the song Incense and Peppermints by The Strawberry Alarm Clock came to mind. It’s funny but at first I was imagining church incense. Thinking what would rockers want with church incense. Then I remembered they are talking about those little sticks of incense. And probably high on something and enjoying their heightened senses of taste and smell.
So here we go. Let’s get groovy dudes:
|Nano Poblano| dude!
Here I go writing about one of my favorite classic movies. I watched it again recently. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir stars Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. The setting is 1900 in England. Lucy Muir is a young widow with a little daughter. She has been living with her in-laws for a year since her husband died. She makes the decision to set out on her own. She has a small income from her husband’s estate.
This was very daring for a woman in 1900 to want to live on her own. That’s what I really like about this character. She has a lot of spunk. She wants to live by the sea and finds a little cottage that has a very low rent.
The only problem with the cottage is that it is haunted by a sea-captain, Daniel Gregg, played by Rex Harrison. He is in the habit of scaring all prospective tenants in order to get them to leave him in peace.
The story is about the relationship that develops between The Ghost and Lucy. They can’t have a physical relationship but they do end up caring about each other. I don’t want to give the whole story away. I hate that when I read a review and it tells me the whole story before I see the film. I like to be surprised.
There is a commentary on the DVD that discusses more nuances of the film. It is in black and white. The cinematography, by Charles Lang, was nominated for an Oscar. There are special effects done with light that help set the tone and add to the mood. The musical score is by Bernard Herrmann. His music is very evocative of the ocean in its various moods. The view of the ocean waves hitting the shore are used during the film to suggest the emotional tone and the passage of time.
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer who worked on many films. He did scores for several Alfred Hitchcock films. His music is a great example of how the music is almost like another character in the film.
You may have guessed I like films about strong women. I like mystery and romance. This film has all three.
|Nano Poblano| among other things.
I had no idea when I made a comment to one of my fellow blogger friends that it would stir up such a hornet’s nest of controversy. It turns out many people have an opinion on the subject I had raised. It had to do with making connections with other bloggers when you are a new blogger. And should the more established bloggers reciprocate with their commenters and go and visit the commenter’s blog? and comment? Then this lead to another comment from me about the Big bloggers and how they attract new bloggers to their sites.
Many people weighed in on all my comments. By the end of the day I was still standing or sitting but just barely. 😀 I had struck a nerve apparently. This topic was on many people’s minds and they had a definite opinion about it.
There was some heated dialogue at times. There were many people who disagreed with me. There were many that agreed with me and offered support.
It did open a dialogue between me and the Bigger bloggers. This I see as a good thing. I think we all went back to our blogging corners and thought about it. We saw each other a little more clearly. We saw a bit of the person behind the comments and opinions. The person behind the blog. We were able to see things from each others perspective a bit better.
So I would say on the whole it was a good thing and positive experience. I want to say to you bloggers who are brand new to not get scared off by all this. Don’t be afraid to make comments. Sometimes you probably will stick your foot in your mouth. I know I did just recently when after a day of hearing all the arguments against my opinion, I misinterpreted someone’s post and left a snarky comment and felt I had to apologize.
I appreciate that some of my more experienced blogger friends offered me some support and advice. I appreciate that some of my fellow newbie bloggers did the same. I really appreciate very much the blogger friends I have made. xo
You see that’s the thing for me. It is the connections I make that mean a lot to me. Thanks guys.
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
—Samuel Johnson
If you get a chance to visit California there are many beautiful sights to see. One I think is a must see are the coastal redwoods. I was born in San Francisco which is in Northern California. I met my husband there while we were both in college. I was at University of California San Francisco in the Nursing School and he was at Hastings Law School. Hastings is also part of the University of California.
In those dating days we enjoyed all the beautiful surroundings available in the San Francisco Bay area. From the beautiful city itself and all the great restaurants to the beautiful wine country that was not a far drive from The City. When you live around San Francisco you always refer to it as The City.
One area we visited was north of The City, the beautiful coastal redwood forests. There is a new freeway running up there now. But the original highway is still there as well. It is called The Avenue of the Giants. These trees are so awe-inspiring. They are some of the oldest trees on earth. When you drive past them you get a sense of being in a prehistoric forest. The height and width of the trees dwarf you as if you are in the presence of gigantic dinosaurs.
The trees are fire and bug resistant. The last time we made the trip to see them was on our 30th wedding anniversary. A forest ranger told us a sad fact. That the only thing the trees were vulnerable to was the wind that has been created by the new freeway that was built near them. It creates some kind of wind corridor. It is blowing some of them over.
“Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.” –Jane Austen
Blogging can be quite an ego trip don’t you think? It can really give you a fat head. I think anyone who blogs needs to keep this in mind. It is more worthy to maintain our humility.
Nice things we can do for each other as writers is to read each others work and try to be supportive of each other. I have found there are bloggers out there who do this and I really appreciate and admire them.
Give a genuine complement. There has to be something about someone else’s efforts you find praiseworthy.
Vanity is not exclusively a female trait. It applies to both male and female bloggers equally.
After complaining about the gray weather and no rain predicted it did start to drizzle and rain lightly in the evening. Then later that night I heard that dripping noise outside again. I opened the patio door to check and turned on the patio light.
It was raining. Not heavily. But raining a slow gentle quiet wonderful dripping rain. The drops making a slow soft splashing noise in the pool and on the patio. What a wonderful sound.
There is that nice wet smell of the earth. And the smell from the smoke of a neighbors chimney.
We need a lot more rain in California.
and my friend |LindaGHillSoCS|
Cloudy outside the window. The kind of cloudy where the sky is mostly light gray. Not the kind of cloudy I like, the cloudy when the sky is blue with some assorted fluffy white clouds. Or the kind of cloudy that has some dark grays that indicate a storm may be coming. This kind of cloudy is just sitting there. Pretty bland. No storm portended. Just kind of drab. Subdued. Damping down my mood a bit.
It would be fun to be able to take my box of crayons. The big box that has at least 64 different colors in it. To color the sky timberwolf, periwinkle, cadet blue, silver, purple mountain majesty, and wisteria.
What kind of cloudy do you prefer?
Can we go home again?
One of my all time favorite films is The Trip to Bountiful. It is a tour de force performance by Geraldine Page for which she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. Supporting cast members are John Heard, Rebecca De Mornay, Carlin Glynn and Richard Bradford. The screenplay is by Horton Foote based on his play The Trip to Bountiful. You might remember him because he did the screenplay for the film To Kill A Mockingbird.
One theme of this film is about the desire to return to the place where you felt most at home. The nostalgia for earlier times in our lives when we may have been happier.
Carrie Watts (Geraldine Page) is an elderly widow who is living with her son and daughter-in-law in a cramped apartment in Houston. She wants to make a visit to her family home in Bountiful, Texas once more before she dies. Her son and daughter-in-law can not or do not want to understand her need to make this one last trip.
She plots to hide her pension check and make her escape by bus or train while her son is at work and her daughter-in-law is out of the house. She has made attempts in the past but they have always caught her.
Carrie has some behaviors that really get under her daughter-in-law’s( Jessie Mae) skin. She loves to sing old hymns all day while doing housework and she is always rushing about the apartment in spite of her heart condition that brings on a few fainting spells.
The opening music for this film is an old hymn that gets me weepy every time I hear it, ” Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling. ” I am not really very religious. It is just very soulful to me. Anyone familiar with the old southern hymns will recognize many that Carrie is fond of singing.
Carrie needs to make this journey home to complete something in her life. To lay things to rest. As the film progresses we learn the story of her life.
Another theme in this film is the relationships between parents and children and how these relationships impact their lives. It is about how these relationships bind them together. And it is about how people can be bound to the land.
Have you wanted to return to an earlier time your life? Have you wanted to go back to a certain place? Would going back help to complete something in your life? Like completing a circle.
Have you even seen this film? What were your impressions of it?
Suspense | Horror | Romance
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