Dr Who, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobhe

For the past several years we have been treated to something unique in the Doctor Who legacy, an annual Christmas special.  This began with David Tennant, the tenth Doctor, and has continued since.

Every year each Christmas special has provided us with something unique and to some degree fitting.  That being til this year when we got "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe"  This sounded like a clever play off the Chronicles of Narnia."

With the exception of the title, there was little similarity to the original, worse still, for the first time in the past five years, this Christmas special had nothing at all to do with Christmas.

The story was confusing, drawn out and overall boring.  Yes I said it, boring.  Dr. Who may be many things, but boring it has not been in many years.

This episode felt like something that the writer felt forced to do, and really had no spark to it.  Which is sad, with Narnia as the basis, this could have been an amazing story, but instead it dragged, made the doctor seem a buffoon and made this viewer struggle to stay awake to the ending.

It is sad that we would get such a poorly executed episode when last years adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" was so powerful.

We can only hope that this next season of Doctor Who will be much better.

Do we really change?

It is Friday the 30th of December, we are just two days away from the beginning of yet another year.  Many of us wonder what will this year bring, will it be the end, as they Mayans predicted?


My question is this, as a people do we really change?  I mean we have advances in technology, but as humans, do we really change much?


I think about this every year, when we have a new year beginning.  In many ways we seem to still be like our grand parents, to one degree we are still quick to temper, and still very quick to judgement.


We accept on the surface changes, but when it comes down to it, we have difficulty with the idea of women being ordained as Priests, in the Catholic Church, we resist same sex marriages and we still think that war is the way to bring on justice in certain cases.


I would love to see a world where we are all brothers and sisters, and where religion and politics are not the basis for how we treat one and other.


I would love to be a world where love has no boundaries  and where people live without fear of loss of job or depending upon a job to be able to have home and food.


I hope that 2012 does bring on changes, for all of us, and that we tare down the world we have accepted out of comfort, and move into a world with only potential and love.

Inspiration from the Universe

Have you ever been sitting and listening to someone recap something, or read something that just struck you at being so appropriate for the moment you are in currently?


This happened to me twice tonight, Tuesday, December 27th, 2011.  I was in the combined dining room kitchen of my mother in laws house. I was sitting there with her, and my wife; we were discussing how sometimes it is wonderful to have a place where one can open up honestly, without concern of judgement.


This as well as how it can be wonderful when we can discover a process, or a place where we can find ourselves to be not only productive and have financial security, but a place where we can help others help themselves to improve and feel better about themselves.


I came to our bedroom, my wife's and mine, to write about this, but I read a email from an old friend first.  He has always struggled with his life, in many ways.  What he wrote struck me like a ton of bricks, because he was talking about a process he is going through that is helping him to set himself free from his past, and allow himself to be a more positive and productive person.


Sometimes the Universe amazes you, because it talks to you in such a way that you have to stop and listen.


Since the end of September I have been struggling to find a new job and regain a sense of security, yet here in one day, I have two people who suddenly in their own way are showing me that part of the answer is to move outside the weight of self judgement that we wear like suits of armor.


I can not say yet what will come from this, but I can say that for the first time in the last three months I can feel that things are finally moving forward, and that the muck and mire is melting away.


I will keep you posted as I proceed on this journey,


My best to all of my friends,

Wordless Wednesday Many mixed images, Colorado, Missouri and other stuff

Monday's Music Moves Me Happy Anniversary

Christmas day was more than a religious holiday, and day of family get together.  It was the third anniversary of my wedding to my wife Naila Moon, whom came into my life in August of 2008, we fell in love immediately and were married December 25th in a small ceremony at our Condo.

So a day late and dollar short here is my tribute to my beloved wife of three years.  I love you with all my heart and here's looking toward many more years to come.

 

Here's looking at you kid...

Wordless Wednesday, Color and Black and White.

This photo was originally a color photo I took in Manitou Springs, Colorado in September of 2009.  I modified this in Picnik to black and white, giving it older feeling, although the car gives away that this wasn't the old west.

I took this photo about two weeks ago at the local county library, here in Missouri.  Yes that is my wife posing with the Clauses.  You're never too old to tell Santa what you need.  Just ask Pinky.

Announcement

Come and check out my new Facebook page, which has a very familiar page title.

Chronicles of the Man Cave

Monday's music moves me Christmas 2

Christmas music moves me monday

This last clip is from the season Dr. WHO episode for Christmas, this was from last years episode, A Christmas Carol.  It is very different, but being who I am, I had to include this.

An Outstanding Movie for the whole family

Last evening, my wife and I had the pleasure to see perhaps the best movie of the year; the movie "Hugo"   This is perhaps one of the most amazing films I have seen in a long time.  Hugo is a movie that is seen through the eyes of a young man Hugo Cabret who works part time with  his father, whom is a clock maker.

At the beginning we find that Hugo's father dies in a fire at the clock shop where he works, Hugo finds himself taken in by his grand father, whom is an alcoholic.  Again clocks come into play, for Hugo's grand father works winding the clocks at a train station, and Hugo learns how to manipulate his way through the various hidden areas and work the gears of these large clocks.

Hugo when he moves into the clock tower, takes with him only one item, a automaton or automated man, that his father rescued from a museum.  The automated man was designed to write and Hugo finds himself savaging and stealing to find spare parts to make this machine work, in hopes that it will contain a secret message from his father.

The movie is fast paced, and uses the new version of 3D affects to take you into Hugo's world, from the opening scenes when snow is falling, you feel you can reach out and touch the snow, or be drawn in the streets of Paris with Hugo.

As the movie proceeds Hugo is brought into contact with the owner of a toy shop across from the Clock tower, this man is very bitter and at first has no patience for Hugo, whom he feels is nothing more than a mere thief.  Something that does not change when this mans ward, a young girl, by the name of Isabelle suddenly becomes friends with Hugo, and the adventure of discovering what the mechanical man meant by drawing a reference to a film done by George Mellies with his name under neath it, if anything the realization of Izabelle's foster parent's identity only makes the tension greater, for now both Isabelle and Hugo want to know why Papa George has concealed who he is..

 Isabelle's foster parent is none other than George Mellies, a man who created some of the first silent movies that inspired a generation of film makers from Buster Keaton to Charlie Chaplain..  The film, takes many twists and turns in discovering why George Mellies vanished after the first world war, and why he has done all he can to forget his past.

The cast is superb from the Cameo appearance of Jude Law who was Hugo's father, to Ben Kingsley who plays George Milles.


The 3D affects enhance the movie and keep it moving, more importantly, they make you feel you are actually there, a fly on the wall observing these events first hand, not a mere person sitting in a movie theater.

The movie is based upon the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick which is 534 pages long and won the Caldecott Medal for picture books for children.  This adaptation by Martin Scorsese is stunning and show the master work that can be done, with no violence or profanity.  For Scorsese this is an accomplishment, for many of his past works have been violent in nature, or very dark.

Hugo is a film people of all ages can appreciate and enjoy, and dare I say it.  It is a true family movie.  One that can be enjoyed many times.


This film should be an Academy Award winner, and will endear itself to one and all, who go to see it.  Well worth the price of admission.


Photos from Hugo Via IMDb

Asa Butterfield as Hugo

Chloe Grace Moretz as Isabelle with Asa Butterfield as Hugo, where Hugo discovers that Isabelle has the key that will make the mechanical man come to life.  Why does she have the key???