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 |   Reflections and ruminations from a modern day Alice - Life is Wonderland |
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Reflections and ruminations from a modern day Alice - Life is Wonderland  Welcome to the place were I chronicle my own falls down dark holes and adventures chasing white rabbits! Come on In, Take a Bite, You Never Know What You May Find... "Curiouser and curiouser." Alice in Wonderland    |
| "Blog City" DAY 1581- Prompt: April 16, 2018 by Prompt: Is opportunity something that happens or comes to you on its own or is it something you can create for yourself? If both, which one applies more to your life? In my life I'd had several opportunities that have come to me both organically and because I actively pursued them. More often then not, I've sought out the opportunities for myself, worked for them. It is rare that an opportunity has come to me by pure chance. Once upon a time I found myself a recipient of a scholarship to the Semester at Sea. A teacher had nominated me for consideration for the program and written at letter of recommendation and support. I was given the opportunity to do a week of scientific research and study aboard a 180 foot teaching sail boat out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. It proved to be one of the most rewarding and revealing experiences of my high school career. It was challenging, the first 24-48 hours I battled crippling sea sickness and crushing fatigue. Then, as our young captain said it would, the sickness left us as suddenly as it had come upon us. The next three days were filled with deck side classes on sailing, long sessions in the learning in the lab and exciting experiences like finding ourselves on the edge of the Gulfstream where the water turned an amazing 70 degrees. We all were allowed to jump over the side and swim in the open ocean. One afternoon we worked with the other scientists to pull the rafts of floating sargassum weed out and onto the deck and spent hours categorizing the organisms we found living on these islands of seaweed. On the way back, we were treated to a visit by a mother and calf humpback whale. Their immense gray bodies slipped under our hull and out the other side with a quiet grace that left us all speechless. It was one of the greatest, most memorable opportunities that was ever granted, unsolicited, to me. "Blogging Circle of Friends " DAY 1978: April 16, 2018 Prompt: April 16 is Save The Elephant Day. Write a blog entry about Pachyderms. Do you have any memories of elephants you have seen? What is not to love about Elephants? They are immense and powerful yet they can move with astonishing speed and grace. They are matriarchal, with the elder females running the herd. They are intelligent, emotional animals. What is more enjoyable then watching a wrinkled, furry baby elephant chase birds or play in the mud? Like many of our planet's amazing resources, they are also threatened and in desperate need of conservation and protection. For more information on how you can be part of the effort to save these wonderful creatures, here are a few groups that are doing some amazing work to help: https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/stopping-ivory-demand https://elephantconservation.org/ |
| Blog Harbor Challenge Weekly Theme: MUSIC ▼ Prompt - Day 16: Soundtrack songs. Which song from a movie/TV/game/etc. soundtrack has the most emotional impact on you? What song, when you hear it, brings you right back to the scene in question and gets you teary-eyed, overjoyed, amped up, etc. all over again? This prompt brings to mind two songs from two movies that are such complete and utter polar opposites I surprise myself! One of my favorite movies from back in the day is the 1986 film Manhunter, based on the book Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. It was the first film to feature Hannibal Lector but it centered around another serial killer cops dubbed the "Tooth Fairy" for the bite marks he left on his victims. The final scene when Will Graham has closed in on the killer, played wonderfully by the uncanny Tom Noonan, the song accompanying the epic climax is "In a Gadda Da VIda" by Iron Butterfly. It is quite literally the most perfectly paired score for any scene ever. Okay, I may be overstating it a little but the song does fit it all the right ways to the killer's powerful screen presence. He stalks across the screen nearly in time with the song's rifts, cutting an imposing figure with an eruption of violence and force. Here's a link to the scene if you care to see what I mean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EykztUgfp2U At the other end of the cinematic spectrum is my second choice...a very close second. The soundtrack from Moana, in my humble opinion, features one of the best musical scores to date. The song, "We Know the Way" produced by the amazing Lin-Manuel Miranda is introduced by solitary drumbeats that bring to life the cave and its historical importance to Moana and her people. It tells the story in a beautiful, lyrical way - masterfully sweeping you up in the moment. The animation throughout the film is stunning, but even more so in this particular sequence, is stunning. The song is moving and catchy, you find yourself soaring with it, singing it well after the credits roll, days and days later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubZrAmRxy_M |
| Blog Harbor Challenge Weekly Theme: MUSIC Prompt - Day 15: Songs you hate. Tell us about one or more songs that you would be perfectly content to never hear again in your life, ever. As my daughter was growing up, I had an expanding playlist of toddler songs that would play each morning on the commute to daycare. Most of them were tolerable. I even managed to find a They Might Be Giants children's album filled with quirky, catchy hits that became a car ride favorite. Overall, there was not one song that I genuinely disliked...until she found "Gummi Bear". It is a looping, electronic blunder with a maniacal chorus that sounds like its sung by a cocaine addiction robot from Hell. She used to listen to it on repeat. I was alarmed to learn it had been translated in several different languages including Spanish and German. Why?! It's, in a word, horrific. I'm not sure I can adequately describe its particular brand of awful so here is a link for anyone brave enough to give a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astISOttCQ0 Luckily my vast and varied musical tastes have rubbed off on my daughter. I consider it one of my parenting wins that she regularly listens to everything from Joss Stone and ZZ Ward to Broadway show tunes to Walk off the Earth and Santana. Now our rides are filled with a full and complex soundtrack that winds through countless genres and artists. There is still that odd, random morning when she gains control of my "phone music" and finds that one musical selection that I keep forgetting to delete from the musical memory. She plays it now to mess with me more than anything and as my ears bleed, I catch a glimpse of her smiling wickedly in the rear view mirror. |
| "Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond" PROMPT (DAY 14): Blogger's Choice! All you have to do today is write about any movie and tell us why. What are you dying to talk about? Do you want to praise or rip on a movie you just saw? Mention your favorite movie that didn't fit into any of the prompts so far this week? Talk about your most eagerly-anticipated movie of this year? As long as you talk a little about why you picked it, write about any movie you want, past, present, or future! One of the most thought provoking films I've seen recently is the movie, "The Shack". I found myself at turns both hating and loving it. Admittedly, tackling the concepts of Heaven, life after death and the holy trinity as central themes, is certainly admirable for how ambitious it is. I also laud the movie for having the best of intentions as well. I found the inclusion of some of the darker elements of the crime, namely the kidnap and murder of a young child, hard to justify in end. I argued with myself whether or not viewer needed that particular scene in order to accept the fundamental premise of the movie. I loved the casting and portrayal of the character meant to represent Jesus Christ in his earthly form. The writers and director really made it easy to connect with the character in much the way Christians are raised to see Jesus of Nazareth and his role in their spiritual journey to God. Scenes with this character brought to mind the engaging and comforting elements of Sunday school teachings for me. I was raised Catholic and married into a mixed faith marriage. My husband and I are both largely lapsed in our respective faiths and we watched this movie together. He found it interesting and the physical depiction of the holy trinity might have made a little more sense to him as opposed to my convoluted explanations. Overall the movie message was universally about forgiveness and regardless of your faith, its a concept that we all can get behind. It was very thought provoking, not all entirely enjoyable in the traditional sense, but it made us think and talk about it after. It has stayed with me long after the viewing which, in my book, means something. |
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