Cherry Blossoms in Oregon

One of my favorite things is when the cherry trees blossom. They especially look nice against the normal Oregon grey sky of winter. While it should be a sign that spring is around the corner, I have learned over the years that there are still many months of grey and rain. I did take this shot with Mateo against a nice blue sky.

Food Review-Sacripantina

Coleen and I had a date night the other day at Cafe Zenon. For dessert we had a slice of Sacripantina. Without being the hyperbolic, this was the best tasting cake I have ever had. The waiter informed us the Italian translation is "sacred little bread". I googled it and one site had the cake being inspired by a character named Sacripante, in the 19th century. One food blog described it was a tiramisu, without the chocolate or the coffee. Cafe Zenon makes their own desserts now and you can get one for about $60. Just must sure you inform them 48 hours in advance, because it makes two days to make. It is to die for.

Film Review- Like Crazy

A film that Coleen and I disagreed on, ala Siskel&Ebert duke em outs, was Like Crazy. Starring Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin as lovers that are split apart due to timing, technicalities and distance. I thought the movie was perfectly casted. I was absorbed into these characters lives, in part because of their relative lack of omnipresence in films. If Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz were in this film I don't think this movie could have taken off. (The more I think about that last statement it is probably less because those are two popular actors, but also two actors where I would have a hard time believing anything.)It is very difficult to make a truthful love story. The chemistry has to be right, for one. There is no doubting that the circumstances in this film are believable, especially between the two main actors. You are rooting for them throughout the film. Another Hollywood/Disney trap most films fall into is the "happy ever after" ending and then roll credits. This isn't how relationships are and they shouldn't be how they are portrayed, if you care about that sort of thing. The movie ends on an ambiguous note. There are many ambiguous notes throughout the film. The movie could have been titled "Goodbyes", instead of "Like Crazy". Coleen thought the "Like Crazy" title was more appropriate, because it drove her crazy. The characters live beyond the end credits and the audience is left to wonder what does happen to them. Unlike Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan that walk off with the golden retriever at the end of "You got Mail". You assume that Tom and Meg are still walking, and the dog has to be extremely tired by now. Don't get me wrong, there are certain times for happy endings. I know why they sell. They have their place. They are escapist pictures. Movies like "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" end in ways where the lives of the characters live on past the film, much like this film. They have a life beyond the screen. To end films ambiguously is an easy trick.

To have the audience care beyond the credits because they have attached themselves to the characters is another, and harder to pull off. I thought the film was a breath of fresh air.

Regrets of the Dying

I came across this webpage because I think Maria Shriver mentioned it in one of her tweets. I looked it over and found it to be inspiring. http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html It's been some time since I looked at the page and I have been surprised how often I still think about the time that I read it,so since it isn't going away in my own head, I decided to share it with you on here. Here is a summary of the five most common regrets of the dying, according to Bronnie Ware: 1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 2. I wish I didn't work so hard. 3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. I haven't done any research to validate the work of Bronnie Ware, so don't hold me to that. With that being said, I did like this list. I think it reminds us of the important things in life and these items can guide us in the choices we make while we are still alive. As I have mentioned before, I am reading the Happiness Project and a couple of items from that book relate to this subject. The first is, "The days are long, but the years are short". I love this. How many times do we think the day will never end? And then at the end of the year say "that year went by fast". And the second is an epitaph that I had read before, but she mentions it in her book: "Remember, friends, as you pass by,/As you are now so once was I./As I am now, so you must be./ Prepare yourself to follow me./" Morbid stuff stuff, I know. The point is to make the most out of what you have today and tomorrow. And if you aren't on that path-why not? and What do you have to do to get there, and be there daily? And the final quote is from Woody Allen: "I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens".

Movie Review: La Femme Nikita

A movie that I have been wanting to see for almost 20 years now was La Femme Nikita.

And it was worth the wait. A recent article in Entertainment Weekly about the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo compared some film heroines to Lisbeth Salander. "She's fierce, shrewd vulnerable-and part of a long, proud, badass tradition." Wow! That could have been taken from a comic book. Some of the characters to Lisbeth were Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner, Sissy Spacek in Carrie (?), Saorise Ronan in Hannah, and Anne Parillaud in La Femme Nikita. Luc Besson, who wrote and directed this movie was also married at one time to Anne Parillaud. He also wrote and directed "Leon, the Professional" and "The Fifth Element". You can see the strong female character in all three of these films. In Wikipedia, it is said he was part of the "Cinema du look" movement. The movie was made in 1990. I think at times it could look dated, but I think visually the film's style is fantastic. This look here looks as if the walls were painted by Basquiat.

The film had Tarantino elements, or since it came first, maybe vise versa. It's style, energy, keeps the pace of the film moving and the writing is perfect.