TV and Guilty Pleasures

Two weekends have gone by with no movies that we HAD to see. We will take Viliamu to see The Green Lantern and/or Cars 2 ONLY if he asks us (Lantern looks like pure Velveeta and Cars just doesn't interest me). So what’s a movie lover to do when there are no new movies to review?

Let’s talk about TV shows and guilty pleasures. I LOVE LOVE LOVE a show on Fox called “So You Think You Can Dance?” Oh how I LOVE it. Very talented young dancers from around the country are put through a rigorous audtition process and finally 20 dancers (10 men and 10 women) are selected to compete. They perform complex dance routines in a variety of styles over the course of the competition. Viewers vote by phone or on the internet to choose their favorites.The choreographers are mostly FANTASTIC and the dancers do their best to live up to expectations. I have watched this show since it started - this is the 8^th season. The dancers are amazing this season. Watch and vote – Wednesdays at 8 pm on Fox; results show on Thursdays at 9 am!

By far, the best thing I have seen on TV for a while is “Game of Thrones” on HBO. OH MY GOD!! So good. The guilty part of this for me is that I usually don’t watch movies or shows that are so full of brutal violence, nudity and sex, but the story lines are incredibly compelling. The first season of this show has just finished with only 10 episodes. It’s based on a book series by George R. R. Martin. It is set in a quasi-medieval fantasy world with plenty of intrigue, politics, and fantastic characters. If you don’t have HBO, keep an eye open for the day they release this on DVD. I hate that I have to wait until spring 2012 for the next season.

Ron’s guilty pleasure is “America’s Got Talent.” I CAN”T STAND IT! Sometimes I am sucked into watching it because there is nothing else on TV and I need mindless entertainment. Some of the acts on this show are asinine or ridiculous or both, but Ron loves it. At least David Hasselhoff is no longer judging. I will admit that they will end up with a few truly talented acts, but in the end, the most talented act NEVER wins – America votes and gets it wrong every time. However, that's just my opinion. The winner of this show gets to headline a Las Vegas show and I'm sure they get some $, but I find it pretty silly.

Ron and I stumbled upon this show by accident a couple weeks ago. It's on the Oxygen Channel. 10 or 12 young singer/dancer/actors are in a weekly competition to land a 7 episode role on the Fox TV show "Glee." We are just getting to know the competitors but so far this is a lot of fun. Check it out!

It's going to be a long summer. I'd be happy to hear any suggestions you have about movies or TV shows. Or maybe I should just read a book!

PRIDE

I am a proud mama. My daughters are all wonderful and amazing human beings - and all very different from one another. I know I have said this before, so excuse me for repeating myself. I don't usually single them out, but today I want to tell you about my oldest daughter, jb.

We named her Jennifer when she was born and then called her Jenny. When she was in high school, she changed the spelling of her name to “Jennie.” We started calling her “Jenn” when she went to college because it seemed more grown up. When she became the deputy executive director of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition in Washington DC, she had “jb beeson” printed on her business cards – just like that – all in lower case letters. As a person, she has grown and evolved more than her name has changed.

jb is special…unique…a force of nature.

She never ceases to amaze me and I am proud of her for so many reasons. When I try to list all the things that make her special, I sound liked a biased mother - which, of course, I am. I tell people that she is a mover and a shaker – jb knows how to get things done. She is intelligent and savvy, tough but compassionate, kind but honest. I marvel at her fearlessness. She is my daughter, my friend and my teacher. Along the way, she has taught me many important lessons; she has given us great joy, a few tears and a few gray hairs! I think her sisters would say that she is over-protective of them, yet loving and supportive, lots of fun and yes, sometimes a pain in the butt. I know they are proud of her as well.

Yesterday, the state of New York voted to give her the right to marry her partner. She can now legally get married in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

She should have that right here in California or any of the other 43 states that do not allow same sex marriage. I defy anyone who would argue that point with me. I fiercely support jb's rights as a member of the LGBTQ community, but more importantly, as a member of the human race. When she is ready to get married, I hope with all my heart, that she can legally do it here. New York got it right, and hopefully, other states won't be too far behind.

So, I want to say "Happy Gay Pride Weekend" to my Jennifer-Jenny-Jennie-Jenn-jb, my other gay family members and friends. Your day is here!

I love you, Moon-Pie!

School's Out for Summer

Hallelujah! Psychology of Aging is OVER! I took my final exam this evening. It's already graded and I also got my term paper back. I am proud and happy to tell you that I received an A+ on my paper and my overall grade for the class was an A+! You know how apprehensive I was about going back to school, but as it turns out, I did ok.

So, now I have to decide whether or not I will continue on my educational journey. Foothill College has decided to offer a few of the courses for the Gerontology Certificate through the summer and maybe one or two in the fall. If they decide to change the hours of the class from 6 pm - 9 pm to 4 pm to 7 pm I will definitely need to consider it.

But not tonight! Tonight I am going to relax and bask in the satisfaction that I did well.

Let me close with something I learned in class: Between 2005 and 2050 the percentage of the population at the age of 85 and above is expected to QUADRUPLE and the number of people with Alzheimer's Disease is expected to QUADRUPLE. There are not enough medical professionals, healthcare facilities or family members to care for these people. The Silver Tsunami is coming and we are not ready. Gerontologists are going to be in great demand.

Super 8

This is going to be short and sweet because I am in the middle of editing my life review project for my Psychology in Aging class. This paper is 40% of my grade so I am taking it pretty seriously.

However, all work and no play makes Laura a dull girl, so Ron and I stopped at the theater on the way home from work on Friday. Usually, when we attend a movie on it's opening day, we end up standing in line and get really crummy seats. Maybe it's because we went to the 6:35 showing, but we had no problem buying tickets or getting good seats. In fact, there was hardly anyone in the theater. This made me nervous.

Once the movie started, I forgot about all that. The movie is set in the 70's so waves of nostalgia hit me as I watched. The kids in this are GREAT! In a way, it reminded me of E.T. The ensemble of child actors played so well off each other and Elle Fanning (Dakota's little sister) and Joel Courtney were so believable. For me, this movie was about the relationships between the kids and the kids and their dads. The monster part of the movie got a little hokey at the end, but I still feel that this movie is a definite "Go see it!" Even though there are no comic book heroes in it I hope that the people who usually go to the movies will give it a chance.

OK, there's my review. Now I have got to get back to my paper.

X-Men: First Class

We managed to see one more movie before time ran out on the weekend and I am so glad that we did. This has been the most satisfying movie I've seen for awhile. I never read the comics, but I did see the animated X-Men when the kids were much younger. I don't know how real X-Men aficionados feel about this latest installment in the movie series, but I loved the way they developed the characters, especially Erik aka Magneto. There was plenty of action without too much blood and gore and cool special effects as the mutants revealed their particular powers. I certainly hope there will be more movies about the early days of the X-Men. I will certainly be there. James MacAvoy is a very good Professor X, but Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw were excellent. I wholeheartedly recommend this movie.

where the wild thing is....

...in the bathtub after a long sweaty bike ride...guess who watched a little of Home Alone today?

Rain + Saturday = Movies

I am not a big Woody Allen fan. As far as I'm concerned, there is something a little creepy about him so I'm not one of those people that rushes out to see his latest film. In fact, I will confess to you now that I have not even seen Annie Hall. Yes, I am a little embarrassed about that, but it's the truth.

However, I did see Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. So, I decided to give Midnight in Paris a try. The premise of the movie is interesting - a Hollywood screenwriter, (played by Owen Wilson) goes to Paris with his not-very-nice fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and her snooty parents. One night when he is walking alone, he finds himself transported through time to the 1920's where he meets many of his literary and artistic heroes: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, Picasso and Dali to name a few. He also meets a beautiful woman (Marion Cotillard) and of course, falls in love with her. The dialog is clever and often funny and the scenery of Paris is beautiful. In fact, it was so well filmed, I don't feel that I ever need to visit in person. Bottom line for me - you can wait until this one is available to rent, but do see it.

After watching our grown up movie, we went and picked up Viliamu for our regular Saturday date. We gave him a choice of seeing Kung Fu Panda 2 or Pirates of the Caribbean. I was grateful to find out that he had already seen the Panda movie, so Pirates it was. The movie came out a couple weeks ago and I was surprised by how many people there were in the theater - lots of kids, too. I guess they couldn't get in to see X-Men... Anyway, there were plenty of swashbuckling sword fights, narrow escapes, scary, dirty pirates and beautiful and deadly mermaids. Johnny Depp was his usual charming self, Penelope Cruz was smoldering, but for me the love story between the young, good-looking missionary and the captured mermaid was the best part. Even so, the most telling thing about this movie was that 15 minutes into it, Viliamu turned to me and said "Is it time to go home yet?" He was restless throughout and the movie was long. By the end of the movie, he was almost asleep.

When we were in the car on the way home, I asked the Wild Thing what his favorite part of the movie was - it's the first time he's been stumped. He finally said it was when Blackbeard disappeared at the end. I could have waited to rent this movie. If you are a fan of the series, you definitely need to see it - just don't take a 4 1/2 year old to see it with you.

Decision

Going back to school has been an interesting experiment. I have been taking an evening class since April to see how well I would do sitting in class for 3 hours after being at work all day long. I also wanted to see if I am smart enough to sit in class with other students, many of them the age of my daughters. Oh, and then there is the whole idea of learning something, too.

In recent years I have felt less than many of my co-workers because I only have a BS degree. I don't need higher education for my position and I am not looking for other work. I have often thought that there might be something wrong with me because I had never wanted to go back to school for a masters. Not high on my list of priorities. Then I found out that Foothill College had a Certificate of Gerontology program. Hmmmmmm. I thought that I would be able to do this at my own pace.

It's been difficult to do the required reading and homework in the time I have available. I'm working on my term paper which is due on the 15th of this month. My final is on June 24th. I had put the question out to the Universe...."Should I continue with these classes?"

The Universe didn't take long to answer. I found out in class this week that the program has been suspended due to budget cuts. There aren't enough students in the program to keep it going at this time. There it is. So I will finish my paper and take my final and then wait and see what the Universe has in mind for me now.