Sci-Fi Bri's Movies: "Water For Elephants"

Sci-Fi Bri's Movies: "Water For Elephants"

Dir: Francis "I Am Legend" Lawrence Character(s)/Actor(s): Old Jacob Jankowski (Hal TVs "the Event" and a slew of movies" Holbrook), Young Jacob (Robert "Twilight" Pattinson), August (Christoph "Inglourious Basterds" Waltz), Marlena (Reese "Legally Blonde" Witherspoon), etc.

Based on a popular novel. During the Great Depression, Jocob Jankowski, a veterinary student at Cornell University, is forced to leave school after both of his immigrant parents perish in a tragic car accident. Not sure what to do with his life, the former collegian stows aboard a train which he doesn't know is the home of a traveling circus. When he is caught, instead of being thrown overboard, he is offered employment with the rival circus to Ringling Bros. At first he willingly does unpleasant jobs like shoveling manure, but before long he gets the opportunity to use his veterinary skills to help the beautiful Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) with a lame horse at the behest of August, the ruthless, volatile and unpredictable Boss and Marlena's hard-drinking, frequently abusive husband. I really enjoyed this movie, but the love story between Jacob and Marlena was very reminiscent of the forbidden romance between Jack Dawson and Rose in "Titanic". The real star of this movie was the pachyderm Rosie, a very talented circus elephant.

Poetry: "Mary #4"

Poetry: "Mary #4"

Mary had surveillance cams all throughout her house

Better watch your eyes when checking out her blouse

Mary had surveillance cams in each and every room

And if you do chicanery the cameras they could zoom... (tbc?)

Poetry: "Mary 3"

Poetry: "Mary 3" A work in progress

Mary ate a little ham

For her Easter dinner

After all, she thought aloud

"I'm not getting any thinner".

Mary ate a little ham

For her Easter meal

And she thought when buying it,

"What an awesome deal!"

Mary had a little ham

For her Easter lunch

The meal was free so Mary thought,

"Why not have a bunch?"

Sci-Fi Bri's Movies: "Win Win"

Sci-Fi Bri's Movies: "Win Win"

Dir: Tom McCarthy Characters/Actors: Mike Flaherty (Paul "Sideways" Giamatti), Jackie (Amy Ryan), Burt "Rocky" Young, Jeffrey Tambor, Bobby Cannavale, Kyle (?), Cindy (?), etc.

In this independent film, Paul Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, an overextended lawyer and part time high school wrestling coach. He is deeply in debt and his wrestling team hasn't won a match all year. Flaherty goes out of his way to put off expensive repairs in his home and office or to do them himself. When one of Flaherty's wealthy, elderly clients (Burt Young) starts to show signs of dementia the lawyer offers to be his client's caretaker. Flaherty gets $1500 per month for his efforts, but instead of following the old man's wishes of keeping him in his home, the lawyer puts Young's character in an Assisted Living facility. Soon afterward Flaherty notices a teenager hanging around Young's character's residence. The teenager is a runaway named Kyle, who is the old man's grandson and the son of a drug addicted mother. Giamatti and his wife (Amy Ryan) reluctantly take the boy in, and it turns out Kyle is a high school wrestling phenom. Before long, Kyle practically becomes part of Flaherty's family, joins the wrestling team, and inspires the wrestling team to start winning matches, that is until the boy's mom returns after getting out of drug rehab. This movie was excellent. Almost as good as "Sideways' and about as good as "Barney's Version" in which Giamatti plays a Canadian businessman and hockey fan who over the course of twenty years marries three very different women.

Essay: "Writing Contests"

Essay: "Writing Contests"

I subscribe to several free on-line writer's websites such as WinningWriters.com. In addition to advice, poetry, essays and prose these websites feature writing contests, most of which have monetary prizes for winners. I have entered very few of these contests, but I have noticed that at least 80% of writing contests have a mandatory "reading fee". For those who offer these contests I'm sure that these reading fees add up. If a contest requires a $5 fee, if one thousand people enter that's one thousand dollars. If a contest requires a $10 fee that's ten thousand dollars if 1000 people enter. If anyone is foolish enough to pay a $20 fee, if one thousand people enter that's an easy $20,000 for those who put on the contest. Anyway, I refuse to enter any writing contest that requires a fee of any kind. Some of these contests offer several thousand dollars in prizes, but if there is a fee I don't want to be scammed, manipulated or exploited. Who knows if these contests are legit? Another thing to be wary of is if a poetry contest requires or recommends that poets who enter contests purchase an anthology of winning poetry. I made that mistake a decade or two ago and wasted about forty dollars. To their credit, WinningWriters.com does offer free writing contests, but to access all of the 750 some-odd free to enter contests you have to pay a quarterly free. It is hard to say if that fee is a worthwhile investment.

Poetry: "A Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures"

Poetry: "A Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures"

A word is worth a thousand pictures

In a skillful author's pen

Sometimes what an author knows

Is beyond his reader's ken

The written word sometimes can influence

Women, child and men...

Poetry: "When I Wake Up To Seize The Day"

Poetry: "When I Wake Up To Seize The Day"

When I wake up to seize the day

I'd like to lay back down

When I have to go to work

My smile turns to a frown

I'd rather live in greenery

Than a world that is all brown

I'd rather prepare for graduation

Than have a night out on the town

I'd rather that I'd learn to swim

Than risk that I would drown.

Our so-called current leaders

Have turned the world all upside down.

Poetry: "Beauty" A work in progress

Poetry: "Beauty"

Beauty is a superficial wound

Which oft heals with age

Its no wonder in Hollywood plastic surgery is all the rage

Sometimes looks are hard to gauge

It's perhaps better to die

Than to be in a cage... (tbc?)