June Movie Reviews

Big Eyes is about artist Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) who was quite popular in the 1960s with her paintings of sad children and animals with over-sized eyes. Her husband convinced her the paintings would never sell if people knew a woman was the artist so he took credit. What a jerk. Then in a brilliant marketing move he began making prints, and posters and postcards of the art. Excellent story and great acting. They sure captured the 1960s. The sets were great.  When I saw the previews I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the painting of the print I've had hanging on my bedroom wall since I was a kid. I tried selling it in a yard sale a few years ago, but no one was interested so it ended up in a closet. Maybe someone would be interested now that a movie has been made about this woman? I dug it out of a closet and it's back hanging on the wall! ****

Family Affair is part of the Oprah Winfrey documentary series about Chico Colvard's family and the abuse his father inflicted on his three sisters. The father spent only a year in jail for incest after nearly 15 years of raping his daughters continuously since they were five years old. The sisters still have a relationship with their father who has never even apologized, hence, the theme of the movie and the purpose behind making it. WHY would they forgive him and treat him as if he's a great man worthy of their love and devotion when in fact he is a sick monster? They were far more forgiving than I'd ever be...it was depressing. ***

The Jungle Book was the last animated movie that Walt Disney personally made. He died before it was completed. I LOVED this movie as a kid. I saw a commercial or something that featured a scene from it and the next day I was in the library looking at their sales room and the video of the movie was there. I received two coupons for two free books in the last winter reading contest so I took it. What a sweet movie! Great animation, beautiful background art, delightful characters and music. It's a classic. *****

Lars and the Real Girl was a really strange movie about a very shy man who manages to fend off everyone in his life but then for some bizarre reason, orders a life-size, realistic doll and pretends she's his girlfriend. On the advice of a psychiatrist, everyone goes along with him and this doll has more of a social life than I have! I'm not sure the point of the movie and it was too surreal and stupid for me. **

The Love Punch with Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan is about ex-spouses. That's as far as I got. I'm not into divorce humor or watching two people not get along for over an hour. The librarian recommended it. All the movies she recommends I hate. We have exact opposite taste in movies. I should know this by now. Normally I really like Emma Thompson. This was dumb. *

St. Vincent is about a crotchety old man (Bill Murray) who hates people and the single mother (Melissa McCarthy) and young son who move in next door. It was sweet and heart-warming. Nothing special. ***

Trust Me is a movie about a child actor agent. I thought it was going to be a comedy based on the promotion and previews, but it ended up a drama. Even the cover of the DVD case they are smiling and looking rather comedic. I'm not quite sure what it was. I'm totally confused. It was OK if not a little slow. I'm not sure of the point. **

Wild is a movie about a woman who's mother dies, she goes off the deep end and becomes a trampy, heroin addict who decides as a last ditch effort toward sanity walk the whole Pacific Crest Trail by herself. Reese Witherspoon plays the lead role and I can't see her name without thinking of her drunk-driving brush with the law about a year ago when she exclaimed to the police officers, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" LOL. Anyway, as a former backpacker there were parts that were really funny especially in the beginning when she loaded her backpack until it weighed more than she does and then tried to get it on her back. That was priceless. Or her self-talk on the trail. She swears as much as I do. So she hiked the trail and became a new person. I wonder if that would work for me? ***

Blackened Salmon (recipe)

At the Naked Parade I tasted the best Blackened Salmon that the booth owner guaranteed was gluten-free. I immediately headed to the computer when I got home to find recipes I could test, combine and tweak to call my very own. Nothin' like a new way to eat a staple food. I've been getting pretty tired of the same old salmon.

Ingredients:
4 - 3 ounce skinless salmon fillets
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
spicy rub

Ingredients for Rub:

1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon basil (optional)
1 tablespoon oregano (optional)

It works best if all these herbs and spices are dry. I tried using the fresh herbs and it doesn't coat as well so you get large pieces of burned, or rather "blackened" gunk. It tastes better with the dried herbs and spices. Mix together in a bowl. Transfer to large, flat plate. Coat salmon pieces evenly on both sides with rub. Heat frying pan with olive oil until hot (medium heat), place salmon pieces in single layer, cooking for 4-8 minutes on one side, flip and cook the other side 4-8 minutes. Length of time depends on size and thickness of fillets. You just want to blacken them, not burn them to a crisp.

I warn you, this is HOT. Eat it with rice, bread or something equally forbidden to soak up the heat. I tend to sneeze if I get around too much cayenne and I only know this because I sprinkle it around the outside of my house as a bug deterrent. I've never eaten a lot of cayenne. I was sneezing and coughing non-stop for about 15 minutes after this meal.

I forgot to take photos. If I make it again, I'll add them.

Humanity Overload

Saturday I went to the Fremont Solstice Fair, or what I like to call The Naked Festival. I've always wanted to go and see naked people riding bikes, the crafts, and the Art Car Show. It's outdoors and fresh air is a really good thing for events that attract the masses. As you can see from the photo below, masses is an understatement.

 

 

Waiting for the parade to start....

I went with a friend who was saturated in smelly laundry detergent. I know she tried really hard to be fragrance-free and I sacrificed my health in order not to make her feel self-conscious. I know that was stupid, but I didn't have too much reaction: respiratory system burning and uncontrollable coughing. I tried keeping the growing irritability under control and ended up exhausted and in pain all night with the exhaustion lasting for days. I only encountered one truly toxic smelly person that made me dash so I say it was a good day.

I enjoy seeing naked people riding bikes. Most of them were painted so although the photo below looks like they have clothes or costumes on, most of it is painted on to look like clothing.

Others didn't even bother with paint, or very little of it:

The Art Car Show was fun and needless to say, it made me want to run home and decorate my van!

Dots...and dots...and dots...I really loved this car!

Shoes! Lots of shoes!

Flamingo themed!

Awesome paint job!

Another awesome paint job!

Love the colors on this one! Is that my favorite color teal?

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Welcome to Fern Gully!

For years ferns would come up all over like weeds and I'd painstakingly pull them up one at a time, nonstop. Then a few years ago I visited Lakewold, an historic estate with a huge garden that offered public tours. They LABELED their ferns! They treated them like royal, native plants deserving of honor and display not like nuisance weeds.

This got me thinking. Why am I going to all the trouble of pulling up ferns like they are weeds when I've been spending way too much money trying to get plants to grow under my trees? Ferns are low maintenance. Bugs and slugs don't eat them. They are perennials so I don't have to buy new plants every year. And they take over a space which keeps the real weeds controlled. What is not to love? So I decided I would intentionally grow ferns by purposefully transplanting each and every rogue fern baby.

I started with one little circular fern garden and called it Fern Gully. Every year I've added a garden of ferns somewhere to fill in holes, usually at the fence lines where there is little sun and lots of moss. They like damp and mossy environments and that's what we have here in Rathole. Here is what used to be Peter's Dr. Seuss landscape after all the grass died and so did Peter:

 

I started the Fern Gully at the side of the house when Peter was still hopping about. He use to make trails through the ferns. No more little bunny trails. It's a full-fledged jungle now!

 

 

Fern Gully at front yard fence line:

 



The newest project: the back yard. One fern at a time!

 

 

What I've been doing is also transplanting the cyclamen with the ferns. This is another plant that comes up everywhere, especially in places you don't want it.

 

 

Cyclamen die in the summer heat and bloom after the first fall rain. They have beautiful leaves and pretty pink flowers.

 

The ferns all die back in the winter and come back every spring. This way I have something green in the space year round so it doesn't look so bare. Low maintenance gardening is my goal!

Currently I'm attempting to identify what kinds of ferns I have. This is not easy because there are so many different kinds. All this time I thought a fern was just a fern! I think I've figured it out. If any of you know ferns, let me know if I'm wrong. These are LADY FERNS:

These are WESTERN SWORD FERNS:

And this one I discovered today!!!! It's very different, beautiful smooth, thick leaves and the new-growth leaves look like fringe. I think it's a LICORICE FERN, but I'm not sure. I am not willing to dig up the root to see if it tastes like licorice. UPDATE: IT'S A DEER FERN!!!! Not a licorice fern. WHOO HOO!

A closer view of the base leaves:

This is fun. I feel the desire to become a fern expert. I do need to take them in and get them truly identified so I don't have to guess.

I Love My Garden!!

My garden this year is so bright and cheerful. I've had so much fun.

The yellow roses are magnificent.

The red roses make me miss Peter. He loved to eat them.

 

Clematis

Zinnias

Lettuce ready to eat!

 

 

Sunflower babies!

May Movie Reviews

OH! May movie watching wasn't as intense perhaps because it's gardening season. Here are my movie reviews for May:

Captain Phillips is about the American freighter that was captured by Somalian pirates starring Tom Hanks as the captain. Excellent role for Hanks. It was very suspenseful, stressful, with wonderful performances and excellent rhythm and timing. Very entertaining. I really hope they have armed guards on freighters now. It's kind of ridiculous to sail through a dangerous area with no weapons of any kind on board. ****

The Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley and an all-star cast is about Alan Turing, a British war hero who cracked a Nazi code leading to the end of World War II by creating the first computer prototype. The story is very interesting and Cumberbatch's portrayal of this complex individual is excellent. However, the torment he suffered for being different, for being extremely smart to the point of social ineptness, and the constant persecution for being homosexual was disturbing. It is so heartbreaking. I'm so glad society is finally evolving even if it is at a painfully slow pace. The ending is incredibly sad. This movie received many Oscar nominations and one award for script writing. ****

Last Vegas starring Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, and Robert De Niro, is about four childhood best friends from Brooklyn, miserable in retirement or maybe just not enjoying life as much as they could. They get together for a bachelor party in Las Vegas. Excellent all-star cast, great jokes about aging, fun, light-hearted. ****

Night Has Settled was a movie about a teenage boy growing up in New York City with his mother, sister and live-in housekeeper/nanny(?) and the bond he has with her. It was interesting. Do young teenagers really roam NYC at night like that playing around on the streets? Hmmm. ***

The Other Woman is a comedy about a philandering jerk. His pathological adultery is discovered and his wife and two mistresses get together for revenge. It stars Cameron Diaz who usually plays characters who are silly, ditzy, and incredibly stupid just for the sake of humor. This was funny bordering on stupid, but her character wasn't so stupid which was a relief. Instead, Leslie Mann was the ditzy one and she played the wife. She was hilarious. It was fun, but nothing special. ***

Under Our Skin is a documentary film on Lyme disease. Very scary. It illustrates how incompetent and money-hungry the medical system is and clearly suggests how health care is in the hands of the chemical and insurance companies. It's disgusting the control medical boards and medical associations have over everything and how little they care about real people and their health. But we knew that already. Excellent movie and beautifully filmed, but depressing. It was so heart breaking to watch when the little boy start crying and I'll never look at grass in quite the same way again. YouTube has it online for free. ****