Film Scene I Love - The Outsiders

Diane Lane and C. Thomas Howell in The Outsiders. The scene I want to post starts at 1:18 in and ends at 3:45.

I love this short sunset scene in The Outsiders between Cherry Valance and Ponyboy Curtis. Diane Lane was so beautiful! It perfectly encompasses the strife between the Socs and the Greasers in just their little bit of dialogue.

Happy 177th Birthday Louisa May Alcott!

Born November 29, 1832
Died March 6, 1888

"I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us."

Happy 47th Birthday Jon Stewart!

Born November 28, 1962

"I think of myself as a comedian who has the pleasure of writing jokes about things that I actually care about."

The Photography of Julia Margaret Cameron

"I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied." - Julia Margaret Cameron

I can't remember how I first discovered Julia Margaret Cameron, but whenever I look again at her photography I'm astounded by it's beauty and intensity. For the era that she lived her portraiture especially is groundbreaking in its immediacy. When you consider that these images were not taken with a click of the button, but with the subjects sitting for the lengthy periods of time necessary in early photography, the intimacy of her work is astounding.

Self Portrait, 1862


Whisper of the Muse, 1865


The Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, 1874


Sir Galahad and the Nun, 1874


Charles H. Cameron as King Lear, 1872


Elaine, 1875


The May Queen, 1874


Sadness, 1864


The Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty, 1866


Julia Jackson, 1867 (mother of Virginia Woolf)


The Gipsy, 1865


Miss Magdalene Brookfield, 1865


Beatrice, 1866


Maud, 1875


Julia and Charles Norman, 1864


The Kiss of Peace, 1869


Gareth and Lynette, 1874


H.W. Longfellow, 1868


Charles Darwin, 1868


Robert Browning, 1865


A. Tennyson, 1865


Prayer, 1866


Paul and Virginia, 1864


Daisy Bradley, 1864


Cupid Reposing, 1872

Winter 1968 - My parents were adorable.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I found this incredible set of photos of my mom Mary, father Tom, Aunt Marty (my mom's sister), and uncle Mike (although he and my aunt were not yet married at the time of these pictures). They piled into my dad's camper and drove up to Mt. Charleston to play in the snow and were amazingly young and sweet and gorgeous!

The backs of the photos are date stamped with April 1969. That must be the date the photos were developed, not taken. April is a little late for snow on Mt. Charleston and my sister was born in April of 1969 but my mom doesn't look pregnant in these photos and I doubt this excursion would have taken place if they had a newborn at home. My guess is this is the winter of 1968 and the roll of film sat around waiting to be developed. Anyway, enjoy this pictorial.

My dad Tom in cowboy boots and a gigantic belt buckle!

My mom, snowball in hand, threatening with a smile!

Action shot of a thrown snowball! You can see it at the top of the picture.

My mom and my uncle Mike in the background. How great is their hair?

A greaser in a jean jacket.

My mom was the cutest thing ever.

They look happy. It must have been a fun day.

Lovely sisters sitting on a stump.

Camper life.

Whoopsie daisy! This one might be my favorite. I love the sun on her face.

My uncle Mike, aunt Marty with a goofy grin, and my dad looking so svelte!

Aw, give me a hug darlin'!

Look at her flip! So awesome.

Young and so in love. My aunt and uncle got married, got divorced, remarried, got divorced again and have remained best friends to this day.

Film Scene I Love - East of Eden

James Dean and Julie Harris in the carnival scene from East of Eden. Everyone always talks about James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause but I think this is his best role. I love how he listens to Abra talk on the Ferris Wheel. She is basically talking about how she sometimes thinks she'd like to be like the slutty girls that he goes out with, all the while not realizing that he doesn't want that, he wants Abra for her goodness. It's a great little scene that reveals so much of the characters. It makes me sad all over again to wonder what James Dean could have become if he hadn't died so young.

My New Moon Adventure

We ate off their faces.
Believe it or not I went to the midnight premiere screening of The Twilight Saga: New Moon last Thursday night and had a great time! It was in celebration of my niece Kylie’s 14th birthday. She and four of her friends were allowed to play hooky from school on Friday and I, along with my sisters, took Friday off work. We had a pizza party replete with Twilight paper plates and napkins and my sister Brandi made a massive cake that looked like the one Bella gets for her 18th birthday in the film. The girls were a riot in their giddy anticipation of the film. At one point during the pizza splurge, young Kirsten, in defense of Taylor Lautner being the better choice over Rob Pattinson said, "Taylor is a wolf! You can RIDE him!" The adults in the room nearly died from laughter at this inappropriately funny sexual innuendo. Poor Kirsten, who owns her own horse and is an avid rider, meant her comment literally, not sexually. We hope.

Ky, blowing out the candles.
Around 8:30pm we decided to head to Aliante Theaters to get in line early for good seats. There was already a line formed when we got there and to our horror, Aliante was ill prepared to handle 2000 Twi-hards and their answer to the chaos was to make everyone form a line along a walkway OUTSIDE the casino. You must understand that we are desert girls; we do not do well in the cold. On this particular night it was 50 degrees and windy. Wind in Las Vegas equals COLD. Two of our girls had on flip flops! Luckily my sister lives block away, so she ran home, got some appropriate footwear, extra jackets and blankets so the girls wouldn’t suffer. My friend Shanda (who is the GREATEST) also lives nearby and brought us hot cocoa!
Cold girls.
Bombarded with complaints, the Aliante management finally moved us all into the theaters around 10:30pm. Now it was just about waiting in mounting tension and excitement for the big event. The girls did not want to be seen any longer with adults and sat in a different row from us. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to closely gage their hormonal reactions as they viewed the film. It didn’t matter that much though because there were other teenage girls all around me.

The two girls sitting right next to me were clearly on Team Jacob. And let me tell you they were NOT happy with his long haired look for the first half of the film. But once he went through his "change" and shed the long locks along with his shirt, they were giggly, squealing, OMGy messes of teenage fandom. I remember those days well and it was so palpable in the theater that it made me feel kind of squirmy myself. These are beautiful boys. It’s not that hard to understand. I was quite surprised though by how often even the devoted Twi-hards were chuckling at the cheese factor in the film. My eyes rolled more than I could count, but I will also admit that I enjoyed the movie. Taylor Lautner was excellent as Jacob, definitely putting to rest any fears that he wasn’t going to be able to handle the role. Kristen Stewart did fine with what was given to her as the brooding Bella. The Bella character is completely infuriating in the books and the movies with the way she completely loses herself when it comes to the men in her life. I just want to shake her and scream, "BE YOUR OWN PERSON BELLA! F**K THESE GUYS!!" But I guess then you’d have a completely different story or no story at all. Chris Weitz did a decent directing job with the larger scope of this film. The CGI wolves were believable and I felt the pacing was much better than Twilight. The books are all so nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens, EVERYTHING HAPPENS, that it must be hard to adapt for the screen and have a compelling film throughout. The music choices were much better this time around too, not corny or obvious. And I really dug the abrupt ending.

I know that the Twilight phenomenon gets a lot of flak, but I think it’s good fun and people should lighten up. This is not masterful cinema; this is teenage heartthrob fantasy at its most cheesy. Enjoy it!

One of my favorite onscreen couples. . .

Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn