Color Purple

Several years ago I was following a Florida columnist, Bill Maxwell, who was a visiting Angelo State University as professor of English and Journalism. While in Angelo he still wrote his column for a paper in Florida. He wrote about teaching black literature to the ASU students and he mentioned the novel The Color Purple. His article piqued my interest in this book and recently I found a copy close at hand and started reading.



The novel was written in an epistle style where the main character wrote letters to God. As the novel gets on then the main character's sister write letters to her. The book is interesting and powerful. It gives much insight into the African-American culture of the early 20th century particularly in the South. The ending can tear your heart out.

But I had a hard time continuing the book after several chapters. This book should be rated a hard R. There is a lot of domestic abuse, a lot of graphic sex and sexual abuse, and other adult situations. The book could have stood on its legs even without this but it may not have given insight into the black culture. I DO NOT RECOMMEND Reading this book due this alone.

I remembered when the movie came out in the mid 80s and knew it had gotten Academy awards and what not. And that Oprah and Whoopie received a lot of attention in those early years of their careers. So I rented the movie wanting to see if Spielberg was faithful to the book. I was nervous that he kept a lot of the rough stuff in the movie. The Movie was very good and though faithful for the most part to the book, Spielberg shot many scenes with only the inference of abuse and graphic sex, though some of the adult themes were obviously kept in the movie. The adult themes alone keeps me from recommending the movie. I am tentative on recommending it. Though it was not as hard as the book it was still tough to sit through. The movie was well done and beautifully shot. The acting was outstanding.

Basically the book and movie left things in my head that I really do not need there.

If this story is only half accurate about black culture then I learned a lot that I had not realized. Did I see Mr. __________ as a sympathic character?...not really. Not as Bill Maxwell mentions.

Movie: Flywheel!

Flywheel is made by the same folks who made Facing The Giants. It is their first film and is pretty good for a first effort. Gwen, Emily, and myself really enjoyed it. We rented it but are going to buy tomorrow if that is not a good endorsement then I do not know what one would look like at all. :)

The Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia braved making Flywheel and Facing The Giants with digital video maybe even pioneering its use. I would say they made two quality movies this way on a small budget and a non-professional troupe of actors. In Flywheel I could tell it was done in a way that looked like video at times but in Facing The Giants I really thought I was at the movie theater.

In the August 2008 they will release their latest movie, Fireproof, which has a big name actor -- well at least a recognized actor -- in Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains and the Left Behind movie series. We can't wait to see it. Fireproof Blog

The Spiderwick Chronicles

In Feb 2008 the release of the Spiderwick Chronicles Movie comes out. We saw the preview trailer for this at the movie theater a few weeks ago. Yes the books are scary but it looks like the movie will be even scarier. Which is usually the case with scary books to movie translations.

I wrote a "review" of my readings back in September of 2006. See Dr. Bubba's Review: Spiderwick Chronicles.

The movie appears it will be rated PG. I doubt Emily will want to watch it and I am not sure I want her to watch it. The books in my opinion are definitely PG-like appropriate for 2nd or 3rd graders with all the language and poor behavior in it. I will most likely watch it to see what it is like and post a review here.

I noticed on the book shelves at our local book shop there is another series started by the same authors that looks related or similar to Spiderwick.

Interestingly enough there will be a video game: Spiderwick Chronicles Video Game which I will almost never play so no review will be forth coming.

Stranger Than Fiction - "A man worth living"

Saw a very interesting and well made movie last night.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Will Ferrell is actually incredibly good in this movie.

Quote:
Dave: "You're *never* too old to go to space camp, dude."

Happy Feet!

We had a "so accidentally cool" day yesterday. The sun was out and it was in the 50s. I got to enjoy some work I paid for before I left ... our neighbor Corey (not sure how to spell it) mowed, fertilized, and watered our yard while we were gone. He cleaned the gutters and driveway. So things were in good shape upon our return.

All of us but Gwen got up at about 5:30am so we had some breakfast at 6am of breads and stuff Gwen had bought at Starbuck in Houston. Then after watching TV and just getting out legs under us we got Gwen up and headed out to Viola's for breakfast. We had forgotten this was T.G. weekend and Viola's was closed ... so we headed over to the Booth's place next to Homerun Pizza. They were open and had alot of family there and they had Santa Claus (their son-in-law) there. Elizabeth told us, "Santa Claus scare me." So she would not go sit on his lap though she was fascinated by him the whole time.

Ruth and Nathan drove up as we were leaving. They (Rich, Ruth, Tali, and Jon) are heading to Oak Ridge today for a few days out there while Rich looks into some work.

Gwen picked up a Thanksgiving dinner she ordered before we left and it is ready for us to heat up and eat. Maybe for dinner tonite. We will go to church and eat with the Schmidt's today it appears. Emily was wanting to see them and it sounds like Will was wanting to see us.


So about those Happy Feet. We went to the movie Happy Feet. It was a fun and entertaining movie. Hard not to be with Robin Williams in it. I would give a review of it but I think almost all I would cover is in the Plugged In Online Happy Feet review. It is a fun movie and "so accidentally cool."

Greatest Game Ever Played

An incredible, but true, underdog story about a twenty year old amateur named Francis Ouimet and his ten year old caddie named Eddie Lowery at the 1913 U.S. Open. This poster was created using a real image of the two walking up one of the fairways at the 1913 U.S. Open. The image was selected as the logo for the USGA 's Centennial celebration.

"Mr." Ouimet won that Open beating Harry Vardon, whom many consider to be the greatest British golfer in history even today, in a playoff.

Ouimet and Lowery's stories were only beginning and are incredible in themselves.

Link to Francis Ouimet's story with links to all the other players found at this site. Please follow it and learn more about these incredible men.

All this was kick started by the Disney Movie called The Greatest Game Ever Played starring Shia LeBeouf of Even Stevens fame. Shia did a great job in this movie. The movie was is a good one to watch if you did not. Inspiring.


Well with all the rain stopping for a few days then I might be able to get the lawn mowed and the gutters clean. We will see how the weekend goes.

Gwen got in Colorado, thru Ebay, Elizabeth a cool car bed for when she no longer need the crib. Meaning when she no longer can be contained by her crib. Until then we do not need her coming to wake us up when she gets up. :) We will have to post a picture of the bed. Elizabeth loves it.

Emily had Emma Schmidt over for a sleepover and the two had a good time. Went swimming the next day. Tali will be coming over for a sleepover next Friday while Ruth and Rich are on a cruise to Alaska.

The girls can now go get their favorite cinnamon rolls again. After their friend Sam who owned Cafe Alegra closed shop they could not get those cinnamon rolls anymore. When Bryan and Patty Booth (of Coffee Booth fame) opened up a cafe on DP road Gwen asked Bryan to see if he could get the cinnamon rolls. Sure enough they serve breakfast and Bryan was able to get the cinnamon rolls.

The Booths are also going to try to serve Hot Meals for the LA school system. This is good news for Emily since she likes to eat hot food at school and they will try serve a Hot Meal every day at the schools. Good news for us since we run out of things to send her that are hot and will stay hot. Right now the Booths have contracts with three or four schools and are working on more. This will keep them busy. Bryan will not have time for working on cars anymore....we will have to find a new mechanic for our cars.

School starts this coming Wednesday the 16th. Hard to believe Emily is in third grade.

It is going to be a busy week coming up.