The Elusive Black Book

The Elusive Black Book

Sometime ago I received a copy of The Elusive Black book from the author S.C. Barrus to read and perhaps do a post of the book.

It was my intention to write a review of the book as a whole but the contents comprise of essays, short stories, blog excerpts, poems, and novel excerpts, and each draws me in.

I will complete the book in it’s entirety and will do a review on the whole, but I must apologize to the author because tonight I read The Hanging Gardens and cannot rest until I post on that story.

A story of timeless love, of devotion.  A site where young boys romance their young ladies weaving a tale of the sculpture who works endlessly on the wall of love.  The tale is not so far off.  A telling of the human heart, of the beauty and dedication we can only dream of and long for.  “….he did not carve he merely swept away the excess and exposed the lovers within the stony surface.”

And as he grew wearier he heard the voice of God whisper, “Build it higher.”

The rhythm of romance flows through the telling of this tale gently caressing and sweeping away our own layers of dust and touching the very soul of our heart leaving us believing in the purity of love eternal, or maybe reminding us that we are indeed capable of such.

Thank you Cody.  It has been a privilege to have experienced The Hanging Gardens.

You will find him at awayandaway.com

I Swear -The Worst Movie Ever

I Swear The Worst Movie Ever

 I put little faith in movie reviews and think it is too bad when critics pan what is truly a good movie, but worse yet are the ones they rave about making me wonder who is getting payoffs AND makes me wonder when the public responds with a hellya are they just trying to fit into what is popular? I know, I know…. Personal appreciation and perception is well…personal but my head swims and my tummy does somersaults.

 Last night after a nice patio dinner out my sister-in-law and I decided to see BRIDESMAIDS. When she mentioned it I was all ‘Oh I heard such good reviews, lets go!”

 One review I read said it was, “An unexpectedly funny new comedy about women in love.”

 It has nothing to do with women in love, in fact it is about the Kristin Wiig character who is so screwed up she settles for the worst kind of lover, the booty call only, and clumsily tries to deal with the downside of her life not very well.

 We watched as the movie started, flat and boring thinking that any minute the story would start to flow, that something or somebody would connect but it never happened.

After about thirty minutes my SIL looked at me, brows furrowed, and said, “Seamus O’Reagan at CTV said it was a great movie.”

 We suffered through hoping that redemption for monies paid would miraculously appear.

Alas it never did.  The theatre never did rock with wild laughter but there was a chuckle or two at the banal scenes. Go figure.

 There was never at any moment chemistry between any of the characters.  It really did seem they were just reading their lines, no passion, and no connection as if they each said the lines alone on a stage.  Just saying words.

Mind you the writing was flat and that moment of humor that should have occurred was missed.  The timing was awful.

 The cast was wooden apparently unable to show appropriate emotion, or any emotion and the writing was equally as flat lacking any revelation of something more than a sulk. I am not sure any actor on earth could have accomplished the goal to entertain as it was written.

 Even the worst movies have a redeeming feature and in this one it was Melissa McCarthy who I had never seen before but she could well become a big star.

 If your tastes go to inappropriately used F* shots, and bridesmaids with food poisoning barfing in porcelain thrones while another defecates in a sink and another says the most horrible things about her children including profane name calling, and do not require well written wit you may enjoy it.

PS It was interesting watching other viewers.  One young guy probably about 25 was riveted in his seat; leaning forward, chin on his hands smiling to beat the band.  Another young, no older than 20 wearing minus 0 size clothes girl overheard me say it was the worst movie ever as we left, and she looked at me and said, “ You’re kidding? I thought it was so beautiful I cried.”

 Go figure.  Maybe it is an age thing.