November 14th, 2008 admin
No, it’s NOT too early to start thinking of holiday gifts. Believe me, you will be SO incredibly happy if you get your gift shopping done well before the holidays.
Mamma Mia is, to me, the ultimate feel good movie of the year. I saw it three times this summer, and every time I loved it a little more. The critics seem to have forgotten that this is, in fact, supposed to be a musical. Musicals are NOT meant to be like “regular” movies.”
Meryl Streep’s performance was outstanding, hilarious, sweet, fun… and her voice rocks! Pierce Brosnan may not make a career as a singer, but he was wonderful, just as my very favorite actor Colin Firth. But really I loved all the actors and their performances… and Mamma Mia is on my wish list for christmas.
by Ute Mitchell “Phoenix Mommy” 
Mamma Mia! The Movie 
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September 22nd, 2008 admin
Although many of us do not want to admit it, the U.S. has become a weak link in the global economy due to governmental mismanagement by obvious players. The 5 largest American investment banks don’t even exist anymore! Why? Whose fault is it? Does BUSH ring a bell? How ’bout the American government? Anyway, while the U.S. is withering away in power on various levels (and has practically become a “Banana Republic” no thanks to Dubya), China has suddenly gained an enormous financial and social level, never before experienced in history. Their power sort of crept up on us, didn’t it? Pretty amazing, huh?
I find it very unpleasant that this has happened and I am fairly bitter that China produces practically everything on earth and the quality is crap, and sometimes they decide to put toxic chemicals in foods and baby toys, furniture etc., but whatever. The world allowed this and so must assume its actions. What’s to do now?
Adjust to it, whether reluctant or not. China is here to stay and if we can’t accept that, we’ll have to move to another planet. For businesses, I’d think something like language learning would be in order. Billions of people on earth speak Chinese, and to grow your business internationally, you would be remiss to avoid China. That being said, they have a reputation of working unethically and dishonestly. That happens everywhere, so if you do your homework, you should be able to locate the best people to work with you and your company. While English is a language of business, many Chinese people do not speak it and so if you’d like to do business with them, you will have to take the initiative and learn Chinese. A few courses can do wonders.
Who has time to learn a language? I know, it takes time but if you get excellent language learning DVDs, you can work with your own schedule and Learn Chinese at your own pace
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Posted in DVD, business, efficient, good value, spare time | No Comments »
September 5th, 2008 admin
From amazon:
“This cable-television biography about the life of Illinois senator Barack Obama was made before he began campaigning to be the Democratic party’s candidate for the 2008 presidential race. Still, the program suggests Obama has one or another kind of profound, American destiny as a mixed-race activist who never comfortably fit into one or another group, and had to look deep into his own roots to understand his identity. The son of a white American mother and black Kenyan father, Obama was abandoned by the latter when he returned to his native country to work for its improvement. Raised by his mother–whom Obama credits with teaching him many of his values–and his grandmother, Obama lived in Hawaii as a child but moved to Indonesia for a few years when his mom remarried. There, Obama saw cyclical poverty and the underlying factors that perpetuate it before returning to Hawaii. Interviews with childhood friends and his sister describe Obama’s restlessness before attending Harvard law school and propelling himself into a life of public service and community activism. Often accused of lacking enough political experience to qualify him for the White House, Obama comes across in this show as a visionary and experienced consensus-builder who can reach across opposing points of view.” –Tom Keogh
Get the DVD now
Related: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
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August 10th, 2008 admin
It’s virtually impossible to approach No Direction Home without a cluster of fixed ideas. Who doesn’t have their own private Dylan? The true excellence of Martin Scorsese’s achievement lies in how his documentary shakes us free of our comfortable assumptions. In the process, it plays out on several levels at once, each taking shape as an unfailingly fascinating narrative. There is, of course, the central story of an individual genius staking out his artistic identity. But along with this Bildungsroman come other threads and contexts: most notably, the role of popular culture in postwar America, art’s self-reliance versus its social responsibilities, and fans’ complicity with the publicity machine in sustaining myths. All of these threads reinforce each other, together weaving the film’s intricate texture.
Scorsese’s 200-plus-minute focus on Dylan’s earliest years allows for a portrayal of unprecedented depth, with multiple angles: a rich composite photo is the result. The main narrative has an epic quality: it moves from Dylan growing up in cold-war Minnesota through Greenwich Village coffeehouses and the Newport Folk Festival, climaxing in the controversial 1966 U.K. tour that crowned a period of unbridled and explosive creativity. In his transition from Robert Allen Zimmerman to Bob Dylan, we observe him concocting his impossible-to-describe, unique combination of the topical with the archaic, like an ancient oracle. Scorsese was able to access previously unseen footage from the Dylan archives, including performances, press conferences, and recording sessions. He also uses interviews with Dylan’s friends, ex-friends, and fellow artists, and, intriguingly, with the notoriously reclusive Dylan himself (who looks back to provide glosses on the early years), fusing what could have turned into a tiresome series of digressions and tangents into a powerful whole as enlightening, eccentric, contradictory, and ultimately irreducible as its subject.
Some of the deeply personal bits remain unrevealed, but Dylan’s preternatural self-assurance acquires a slightly self-deprecating, even comic edge via some of his reflective comments. Alongside the arrogance, we see touching moments of the young artist’s reverence for Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash. Joan Baez, in a poignant confessional mood, comes off well, and the late Allen Ginsberg is so seraphically charming he almost steals the show a few times. A crucial throughline is Dylan’s hunger for recognition and ability to shape perceptions so that would be singled out as not just another dime-a-dozen folk singer. It’s illuminating–particularly for those familiar with the artist’s latter-day aloofness on stage–to see his reactions to audience booing in the wake of his “betrayal” in this fuller context. No Direction Home also makes clear–in a way that wasn’t possible in D.A. Pennebaker’s iconic Don’t Look Back–how Dylan’s ability to manipulate his persona always, at its core, protects the urge for expression: Dylan’s ultimate mandate, as an artist, is never to be pinned down. As Scorsese masterfully shows, the myth around Dylan only grows bigger the more we discover about him. –Thomas May
Order the DVD: Bob Dylan No Direction Home now
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August 7th, 2008 admin
America’s favorite pot-dealing soccer mom is more addictive than ever in the third season of Weeds, the highly acclaimed Showtime Original Series. Emmy and Golden Globe winner Mary Louise Parker stars as Nancy Botwin, a single mom who resorts to dealing pot after her husband dies suddenly. But when an off beat way to make ends meet grows into a mini-empire, the mother of all dealers finds she may be in over her head - and on the verge of taking everyone else with her. Hilarious and subversive, Weeds is the hit that put the herb in suburb.
Get Weeds Season 3
Not familiar with Weeds? Get Weeds Season 1 and while you’re at it, Get Weeds Season 2
I don’t think you’ll regret it. It’s perfect for when you have a free moment and want to escape the world to watch a wacky fun, comedy on television.
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