Hanorah Words

It's better than it looks... I think Everyone has their favorite Christmas movie. I liked them all well enough though I had a particular soft spot for the Rankin and Bass movies. I liked Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer and all the other related movies in that universe, but there was one particular movie that didn't fit into their particular Santa Clause mythology that Rankin and Bass created and perpetuated with their movies and that one was my  personal favorite. It was called The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus . It first aired in the United States on December 17, 1985 on CBS... three years before I was born. The story is based on a book of the same title written by Frank L. Baum... the same man who wrote The Wizard of Oz . I've never read the book because I didn't want to ruin my childhood by finding a bunch of differences between the book and the movie. I mean, the movie is 55 minutes long and the book is a small children's book, but look at what they ...

Don't look at my scary face! Urgh... This movie removed 98% of our IQ! Grr... Somebody flipped my asshole switch! Ugh! I'm the coolest thing in this film. *Whimpers* Forget about all that! Look at me! Ooh... Where was I? Oh, right! I was going to write about Maleficent. What can I say about Maleficent that hasn't already been said? .... (Do you hear the crickets yet?)... Well, okay... Umm... I liked it and I hated it all at once which seems to be the order of the day with Disney this year. What did I like about it? Diavel, the crow that turned into a guy: he was interesting and cool. He seemed to have a moral compass but still did what his lady liege commanded even when he didn't agree. He also just looked bloody cool. I mean, did you see the way they made him look like a dragon? That was interesting and cool! Obvious CGI, but it was awesome looking CGI! Aurora herself. They didn't give her much to go on, but Elle F...

Well... this doesn't look like the Girl Quest Fantasy I've been looking for! Well... I saw this movie... And I listend to the music... And I cried at the appropriate parts... And I kind of predicted that either Hans would end up being a douche-ass or a pushover and he turned out to be a douche-ass... This wasn't what I wanted. It was kind of what I needed, but not really... I'm not really sure what it was besides "good" since a lot of people liked it and it turned into this huge thing where people were making "Let It Go" youtube videos and mash-ups and parodies and everything else under the sun. I even wrote my own verses to "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and sent it to my cousin. They were called, "Do You Want to Write a Story?". She didn't. So... What to say? Well, this WASN'T girl-quest fantasy.  Instead this was a story about sisters. It was a good  story about sisters and family and true-...

Well, a lot of things have been going on with me lately that have really slowed things down a bit as far as posting goes. Mostly, I've developed... a social life. True, it's mostly friends from work, but I do other things outside of work as well, like Aikido... and that's about it for now. I'm still working on 50 Shades of Blue, the first draft this week, but it's going slower than expected to start writing it. I was trying to write it in First-Person Point of View, but I wasn't doing so well like that. I'm really quite terrible in first person. I'm going to revert to Third-Person-Singular and see if that helps me with my writing process better. I think I'm just more comfortable with that writing style. I certainly  can't do the Hunger Games style because that's just crazy. And it highlighted how stupid Katniss was. In addition, I am watching Legends of Korra , when the season ends, I'll do my review of that. I'm also ...

Cyn loves documentaries. Now I watch them a lot. So... In the middle of the afternoon, I was thinking of my new 50 Shades of Blue  project and watching Little Britain  and thinking of using it and Doctor Who  as my "research" for the project. Then, Cyn came home, commandeered the Netflix and decided she needed to watch a documentary that would probably depress her and give her a feeling of catharsis or something. Cyn's crazy! Anyhow, she picked this one out after watching a documentary on the existence of evil. The evil documentary made me kind of sick and I mostly just delved into whatever it was I was working on at the time... the way I am now with a documentary called (A)sexuality  right now as I write this. Well, she dozed off while watching Miss Representation , but I watched it while working on my 50 Shades of Blue  ideas. Everything was going pretty good until I made the vital mistake of paying attention because they had Gina Davis and...

Twilight ! With Aliens! So, everyone knows that " Twilight  with..." is a thing now. A major "thing". A HUGE  thing. They're even making movies about it! Everyone who reads this silly blog also knows that I'm slightly gaga over ThatGuyWiththeGlasses.com and anything to do with Channel Awesome in general. I haven't come over... whatever someone would call a TGWTG fan like I have with Doctor Who  and my utter worship of Pterry (that's Terry Pratchett to you poor souls who still think Harry Potter  is the best thing to come out of Britain). However, I do  watch the videos and I started this writing blog, in part, because  of the people at TGWTG. I also did it because anyone who wants to be a writer is given the advice to get involved with social media BEFORE getting published. Especially in this day and age. Also, I just like reading what I write and hearing myself talk in my head. And I would be horrible at actually talking to a video c...

I love fantasy and magic. Why? The reason is very simple. ANYTHING is possible. Really! Not a whole lot of people seem to get this basic tenant of all fantasy and magic. Anything. Can. Happen. It doesn't have to make a whole lot of sense. It doesn't have to follow very many rules. If you can come up with it, then it can happen. It's like Rule 34... only for LIFE and pornography isn't the limit. That's why dreams are kind of the ultimate fantasy. Anything can happen in your dreams and it makes perfect sense  to you. You may be watching a black, flaming robotic unicorn battle a wizard which is flying by shooting fire out of his backside. It's normal. Awesome and funny, but not unusual. It's there. Unfortunately, if you take this completely to heart and write a book with a fantasy world where literally anything can happen if you just imagine it, you get a boring book without  conflict. Or you get Alice in Wonderland . Either way, ...

I have a problem. I can't seem to finish anything I start. Look at Hold the Tainted Tacos . Seriously. Go check it out. See how it ends... abruptly? I couldn't figure out how to go about the next bit... so I stopped. And I just stayed stopped. Now I'm doing it again and I'm aware of it too. I don't want to finish all the Magical Realism stuff I promised myself I was going to read and watch and immerse myself in. I really... don't. Part of it is that there's so many books to read and blah, blah, blah... I'll never get through it all. Whine, whine whine... Groan. Moan. Groan. Moan. I'm so terrible I watched Twilight  for Universe's sakes! I have two books to finish in four days and I'd rather watch Twilight . Because.... well, I suck mostly. Also, choosing to do something and sticking to it is hard.  My brain is always coming up with writing ideas. I usually judge the strength of a writing idea if I choose to come back to it la...

I was on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses   and saw Maven of the Eventide's video on Queen of the Damned  and...well... Lestat and The Vampire Chronicles in general. It got me thinking about vampires again. Well, also I've been doing something else extremely naughty. In fact, I'm somewhat afraid to admit it... I watched the Twilight  movies.  We will  seduce you! With sparkles! And solemn looks! I can hear you groaning and laughing hysterically in my head depending on how well you know me and how you feel about those... abominations. It started after I watched a Nostalgia Critic video on whether or not Twilight  was really as bad as I thought it was. I admit. I read the first book, tried to read the second book, but wasn't interested. I didn't even really read them. I listened to them on CD . Someone had to read the books to me so that I could stomach them. And they still weren't interesting to me!!! In fact, I thought it was the end of v...

Looks like an action movie, doesn't it? The next movie on the list is Run Lo la Run or  Lola rennt  in it's original language (German). It's a 1998 movie about a girl named Lola who's boyfriend has somehow managed to lose 100,000 German marks (roughly 51,000 Euro) that he's supposed to give to his crime boss.  She has twenty minutes to find the money and get to her boyfriend before the boss gets... violent. Lola decides to visit her father at the bank and hit him up for the money before going to her boyfriend who is on the verge of robbing a supermarket. The movie takes a turn for the weird when, at the end of her run, she does it again... and again, getting it completely right the third time, obviously. The most entertaining part of the movie is that you get the see the future of certain side characters due to Lola's actions and they change every time.  It made me giggle. Of course, the funniest part about seeing this film is that I've never watc...

When I saw Adaptation.  on the list of movies that were considered "Magical Realism", I have to admit that I knew nothing  about the film.  Then I found out that Nicolas Cage was in it.  I'm not sure how other people feel about Nicolas Cage, but ever since I saw Wicker Man , I just need to see his face and my mind only thinks of one thing: I would feel terrible if I'd seen him in a film where his acting really impressed me, but I haven't. He runs around with he weird face and big eyes reminding me of Droopy Dog and I kind of want to punch him in the face.  I feel terrible about it because I don't know  him, but there it is. But then something happened. I saw the screenwriter. Charlie Kaufman. There's another actor I usually hate. I see he has a role in a movie and usually I just... shut down most of the time. I can actually count on my fingers the number of movies I've seen him in where I didn't want to rip my eyes out so I ...

Guilty pleasures! Everybody has a few! So, when this appeared on a Top 100 and Top 10 Magical Realism movie list, I was stunned. Really. My mouth hit the floor and I couldn't really think of why  this movie was considered Magical Realism. I own  this movie.   I used to watch it all the time. Whenever I hear El Tango de Roxanne (which is on my IPod) I end up blasting it. I know that the plot is rather... old... and cliche. I know that there's no surprises and sometimes the cinematography gives me a headache. Actually, if you want a review that expresses all my feelings about this movie (in song, no less), just go over to the Nostalgia Critic MUSICAL Review: Moulin Rouge .  You'll be more entertained that way. They have prettier voices than mine could ever be and the girls look a lot  better in corsets. The question I want to address is this: Is Moulin Rouge!  a good example of a Magical Realism Movie? Well, let's remember the criteria: Does this ...

They aren't kidding! Like Water For Chocolate  is unique amongst the movies I've seen so far for several reason. For one, it's almost entirely Spanish with subtitles taking place in Mexico during the revolution. Secondly, it's based on a book that is considered one of the quintessential Magical Realism books out there written by Laura Esquivel who mimicked the style of Isabel Allende while drawing on her own family history. The other movies weren't really made  as Magical Realism works, but were films that people have categorized as Magical Realism since they were released.  With that in mind, I watched this movie setting it mentally as the standard for Magical Realism films by which the others will be judged past and present. I will also warn those of you who may be sensitive to such things that this film is highly... erotic. There is full frontal female nudity on several occasions and at least on case of full frontal male nudity as well as several actors an...

Which lives in Epicdom. Epicly! So, before I ever started this Magical Realism kick, I heard about this movie from my then-boyfriend. Anyhow, I heard of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World  from him around the time Kick-Ass  came out. Why? They were movies based on comic books/graphic novels that heavily used nerdy tropes. Kick-Ass  deconstructed and then reconstructed the whole idea of superheroes while Scott Pilgrim  combined dating and baggage with video games. I never got around to reading the Scott Pilgrim  graphic novel series. I always want to read it, but I end up distracting myself.  And then complicated relationship stuff happened where my reason for wanting  to read the graphic novels kind of went away.  I did end up seeing the movie at one point, but I still haven't picked up any of the material that actually tells the story "properly". Not that it matters. So, this is the second in my Magical Realism series that I am familiar with be...

Suddenly, I feel surreal... So, the other movie I saw on Top 10 Magic Realism movies was Pleasantville , a 1998 dramedy starring Toby Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Jeff Daniels, William H. Macy and Joan Allen.  When I was looking at these lists and saw Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Groundhog Day  listed with this film and some others, my brain sort of had to do a double-take because that's one heck of a comparison. One movie ( Life Aquatic ) has very little that is false and characters that don't act in realistic ways. Groundhog Day  is holiday themed with a magical bit that isn't explained about a change of character. The other... well, it's about people in our world who go into a TV Show like Brady Bunch  or Leave It to Beaver  and turn everything upside-down. Both have themes that you can take away about life and reflect a sort of truth about the world at large, but otherwise they are two entirely different movies with two entirely different au...