Up Inside the Cyclone: May

 May has been crazy busy and totally full of surprises. I have to say that I have enjoyed most of it. I keep finding myself getting thrown more plot twists in month than I had planned for. Also, more plot twists for the rest of the year than I have planned for. However, it's all gonna be great and we will be heading into June were I am sure my Plot Twist are going to be crazier.

Let's talk about The Sixth Sense first. 

After coming home from an awards ceremony for his wonderful work in child phycology, Malcom Crowe is faced with a live for death situation. He was shot in his home with he wife there. The fallowing fall we see that he has recovered and is trying to help out a little boy by the name of Cole Sear. Cole's mother is worried about him saying that he has been self harming and is not getting along with the other kids in his class. Malcom starts to work with him and finds that Cole believes that he is talking with people who have died. However, they don't know that that have died and and trying to find someone to cope with the last thing they need to do before they go into the after life. Malcom tells Cole that instead of being afraid of them that maybe he should trying to help them and talk with them. Cole starts to help the people that he is seeing and it starts to lead to Cole getting along with classmates and making real friends. However, talking with the dead starts to uncover some unexpected mysteries. 

I have never actually seen this movie before. I have heard of it, and of course I know that famous line from the movie, but I always thought that is was going to be more horror movie that suspend. As someone who hates scary movies find out that it's a suspense movie gave me more hope about seeing it. It's actually a really well done, and enjoyable film. It does have a nice plot twist there but it's not sit on the edge of your seat and wait to be scared like I think it was going to be. I will probably see this again and I will definitely recommend it.

Now, let's talk about my plot twist. 

This is one of those off months were two people got an extra day. When I drew the names at the end of last year to make the list is was all so fitting that the Married Luke and Alaina would share a month. Luke got his plot twist in first. He actually scared me really cause he called me to give me mine. The man never calls me. Really even when he texts me it's funny videos or memes. We don't actually talk unless we are in person... then it's hard to shut us up. Anyway, he scared me by calling and then tells me that it's plot twist time. 

In addition to having to watch the movie I actually have to write a review on the movie. So, Luke, if you ever read this, here is the following review. 

Seven Samurai is the story of the survival of a small village. Bandits have been raiding this part of the country for a while. The village where our story takes place is was raided fairly recently and the village is struggling to rebuild and survive. The bandits come by the village again to start to plan of over taking them, but they decide to wait until the next harvest in order to get the most out of the raid. One of the villagers was nearby when this was being talking about and he reports the news to the chief of the village. The village all thinks that they are dead and they are going to be better off if they walk away. However, the chief tells a tale of when he was young. That where he lived there were several nearby villages that were being attacked. One village hired a Samurai to help them. All of the villages feel, except the one that the samurai was protected. With a few weeks before the harvest, the chief sends a few villagers to find a Samurai to help. Weeks go by without success until one day they find a Samurai that is willing to listen to their story and to help. He finds what they are up against and say that they are going to need six other Samurai in order to have a shot of defeating the bandits. The band assembled to set back to the village to try and save their homes. 

Once again, I have never seen this movie. I have heard of it many times but I have never seen it. It has never been on any of my lists to watch because I am not a huge foreign film fan. I have an aversion to subtitles because I can't keep up with them. I also feel that I miss more trying to read faster, or I end up just watching the bottom of the screen when they are on and missing all of the action above the words. So, I tried to go into this with an opened mine. 

About 30 minutes into the movie one of the characters did something that reminded me of one of the dynamics in the movie The Magnificent 7........ 

Yeah, then it hit me, The Magnificent 7 is based off of Seven Samurai. Granted this connection was never made before because I have only seen the 2016 version of The Magnificent 7 not the original. Now where that I was looking up information about the 2016 film did it make any connection with Seven Samurai only to the original movie. Once I realized what it was I was more invested in the film. I loved trying to figure out who the characters I knew were portrayed by in the original work. Spoilers: lots of the seven die in both movies. I own the 2016 version of the movie and after a few viewings I noticed that you can tell who lives based on the color or the horses that they are riding. In Seven Samurai I wasn't able to find that similarity but it was more engaging in the film to see if I could find that detail on the first viewing. 

Overall, the movie is very long, but it was a lot of fun! I very much did enjoy watching this film and there is always more to see, so I might re-watch it again sometime.

I said earlier that Alaina also had a plot twist for me for the month. She actually sent me a text about what I was supposed to do. Here is what happened there.

 Yes, I was a little freaked out. Yes, I was scared because I don't want to dye my hair. As you see I did a spray on, which was fine but still. I know as some point I will have to start dying my hair but once you do it..... you can't undo it. Also, I did temporarily dye my hair once, years ago, for Halloween. It was jet black and did watch out over time. Also, this is the first time that I panicked over a Plot Twist so far. I mean, at the start of the year I thought everyone was just going to do crazy things to be. I love that everyone has been making do things that are out of my comfort zone in a different way, but Alaina is the first to make me question the power I have given over her. I see now it's for good reason.

So, thus, we end May and we start the move to June. We June we will be halfway through the year. I guess who will see how I am dong after the halfway point.   

Looking In My Own Backyard: May

 So, I am going to post this quote and it will make sense in a bit. 

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous" -Albert Einstein 

So, this month the family movie that I watched this month. I have keep a list of movies for these theme's on my phone. Since I am doing three this year I have been having google pick a random number to pick the movie that I am going to watch on my list. This one that google picked was At War with Grandpa. 

War is always a dangerous sport. However, it becomes hilarious when Grandpa moves in. When a grandson is forces to give up his room so that he grandfather can move in with the family, he is not happy. He write a declaration of war to his grandfather and starts a series of pranks that are pulled on each other to see who wins that room. A series of weird events caused both of them to form a closer bond and to give them both something to look forward to.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's a great family film that doesn't have cussing, or anything bad in it... except pranks. It's sweet and the characters are understandable in fact that both are having issues with the new living arrangement. It's great that they have the wonderful forming of their relationship by the end. 

The reason for the quote....

I wanted to talk about someone who I found interesting on my tree. I am not going to because I need to do some more research before I tell that story. I also have been bad and I don't do much of the research for these posts until the day of. That way I have all of the stuff in my head and at my fingertips in that moment. However, the last minute change made me pick someone else. I picked to do my grandpa on my mom's side. I also pick the movie to watch when I have free time and I forgot I picked the movie. It was meant to be as it seems. 

This is my Grandpa, Clarence J. Graf. He and my Grandma Gladine were married  May 19th 1956. When I came alone they were into many years of divorce but I don't ever remember visiting and not seeing him. He died in 1997 when I was about 6 years old. The reason I wanted to write about him was because he did leave a bigger influence on me then I could have thought.

My favorite flowers are poppies. The first time I remember seeing them is when we went to my grandpa's funeral. he was vet that served during the Korean War. He was also a part of The American legion. They did (they still might I am not 100% sure) a fundraiser where you buy Buddy Poppies. The American Legion created this program to help disabled and needy veterans. This is far better explained on the website by clicking here. Around the time of the funeral my mom bought this cute little plastic flower that I still have today. I have had a special place for that flower since. It's hasn't helped that the Flower in well used in my favorite movie but here we are. 

A few years back I was thinking about who I have fallen in love with movies and theatre over the years. Movies was easy because my dad grew up in the movie theater, and met my mom in one. I also went to movie basically since before I could walk. I was obsessed with them when I was younger. I mean that made since. Then I got to thinking about how theater came to be. No one in my family is a real theater bug. No one went regularly. My dad and bother do music but they don't preform at venues. 

When I started to think about it I thought it was in the early 2000s when mom took me to see Peter Pan at the Oak Ridge Playhouse. Then I realized that I really loved ballet and tap when I was younger and did take classes. I did do recitals growing up and that was some of my only experiences with the stage. Actually, I can pin point the love of the theatre starting at around that same time I was doing dance. My recitals were fun but, the last gift my grandpa gave me before he died was a VHS copy of Riverdance. 

Riverdance is not a Broadway show but it's the first time I remember seeing the art of story telling on the stage. The funny thing to me today about it I remember the story that my 6 year old self put together when watching cause I didn't know what was really happening. In 2012, three year after the first time walking into the Tennessee Theatre, Riverdance came to the Tennessee and I got to go with my mom. I ended up remembering every queue, every light, ever action, from a show that I hadn't seen in over almost two decades at that point. I remember leaning over and telling my mom that it was the same show. She told me there was no way that it was the same because it had been so long. Then I started directing the show from my chair. I told her when was going to happen who was going to come out and she looked at me like I was a crazy person. 

That VHS copy was the first real experience that I ever got to know about the stage. I used to play it and replay it all the time! I have home movies of me, and my little brother, dancing to it. I bet I watched it so much it drove my mom and dad crazy! Who would have ever thought that one of his last gifts was something that would last a lifetime? That later I would get to see the very show that I fell in love with 20 years before. 

I am still saddened that I didn't get a chance to know him better. However, I am very glad that I got gifts that will last me a lifetime.