The Pirate Queen - a girl you'd want to look up to

Chewy and I went to see the Pirate Queen on Broadway.... Actually, until we got to the theater, I wasn't sure WHAT we were going to see. It was a surprise to celebrate our anniversary. It was a great show - kind of intense, but then, so was the subject matter.

Grace O'Malley was known in the 15th century as the Pirate Queen. She nearly bankrupted the British Empire with her sacking of Queen Elizabeth's armada. Finally, in a historic and unprecedented move, the Virgin Queen and the Pirate Queen met face to face to hash out England's annexing of Ireland as a vassal and the terms of that surrender.

It's an exciting and breathtaking piece of history, nearly unheard of in the West, and probably not much talked about in England. But the play started me off on a path to learning more about Grace O'Malley and I have to say, she was really a heroine. Not a Tolkienesque heroine, with faeries and goblins and magicks at hand - but from guts, courage and bravery, she achieved in a Man's world, what no other man was able to do.

I don't feel any connection to her struggles, and to me she's not that kind of a hero. But she was *damn* cool and I loved the play, especially since its based on truth.

Thanks, Chewy!

Mind Melds and other Spockisms

Sometimes I wish I could mind meld. Not often, as I am actually an extremely private person when it comes to my innermost thoughts. But there are times when I am frustrated with trying to communicate some strong feeling or another and I wish I could insert into my opponents brain the full force of my thoughts, feelings and process in one package so that they truly see and feel what I am feeling. Sometimes my thoughts themselves are complicated and so convoluted that if I tried to sort them out and explain them, I too couldn't make logical sense out of them as individual threads. But they make sense to me or are revealed to me as a pattern if I were to look at the complete thought. It feels like an emotional ball of yarn. Outwardly, it has form, but if you look closer, it is a snarled mess of knotted strings. And that is hard to convey.

Right now I am in the grip of some extremely strong balls of yarn, simultaneously banging around in my skull and my heart. (Oddly enough, they somehow have become connected, which is a scientific miracle in and of itself!) Perhaps to balance each other, one is extremely positive, full to bursting is warm, healing, loving, sunshine-y energy. The other is darker, more angry, frustrated and belligerent. Perhaps a little edgy and destructive. A ball of yarn indeed. This one has picked up some barbed wire along the way.

Were I a Vulcan, such passions would undo me. Neither the positive nor the negative set is logical, or can be explained in an empirical, scientific way. Yet they are just as valid, and possess as much Kinetic Energy as any equation in Physics or Mathematics.

Besides, is the path to "living long and prospering" really the method of excising emotion from one's makeup totally? I'd rather go through a tempestuous argument and feel the renewal of love at the end once a compromise is reached. Wouldn't life be so dull if neither end of the spectrum could be experienced?

So I am not a Vulcan. And I do not possess the ability to mind meld. I guess that means that I have to find ways to express these mixed-up and uncomfortable balls of emotion in words or actions - though perhaps the way I express them should also be done delicately. How frustrating.

I see now that sometimes its not that I feel lonely for lack of someone to talk to about these things, its sometimes a lack of ability to talk about these things which stops me.

*sigh*

So now I have posted the issue - but am not one step closer to being able to unravel the snarly feelings I have collecting lint, dust and more strings inside me. And some of these things will just go on until I have found a mechanism to deal with them. Maybe I need to focus on problem solving, instead of articulation. Perhaps I will be more successful...

My Movie Review - a short list

So - its been a while since I have written a movie review... actually, it's been a while since I've seen new movies! Well, kind of.

I am writing about three movies I have seen recently. One is REALLY NEW - the others are out on DVD.

1. 300 - (The official description: In the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army) This is a very new movie. It came out last weekend, and we went to see it Saturday night. I have to admit at the outset that we left in the middle - well, about 40 minutes before the end - just because the violence got to be too much and really, really overdone. All told, I really liked the movie - it was a very interesting piece of art in terms of cinematography, the story is interesting and inspiring (can anyone say "Chanukkah Story"?) and the visual effects were pretty cool. HOWEVER - I highly doubt the king of Sparta (in Greece) had an accent that hailed from the bonny hills of Scotland, but he was pretty hot. As a rule, I don't mind violence and a bit of gore (hello - I'm a CSI freak!) so a random decapitation doesnt really bother me in theory - but to watch it in slow motion, and see blood spatter across the screen for a full 2 1/2 minutes is kind of stomach-turning. I also had an issue with the gratuitous and unneccesary sex scene which was like, "come ON, people, get a room". Once the animals started getting killed, I was kind of over it. Like similar-themed "Troy", an ok movie, not worth the big screen, but somewhat entertaining... Not one I'd see again though.

2. The Prestige - (The official description: Robert and Alfred are rival magicians. When Alfred performs the ultimate magic trick, Robert tries desperately to find out the secret to the trick)I've always liked Hugh Jackman. He is the hottest Wolverine I have ever seen. And I thought this movie was pretty cool in concept - rival magicians, vying for that ultimate trick. Not a bad premise, and I was hoping to see some cool magic tricks, David Blaine style. But it was a HUGE disappointing, boring waste of time movie. It is about revenge. The whole thing. And it's more than a little disturbing how that plays out. I would NOT recommend this at all. I did not enjoy this movie.

3. The Illusionist - (The official description: In turn-of-the-century Vienna, a magician (Ed Norton - who looks terriffic in this movie) uses his abilities to secure the love of a woman far above his social standing) Ok, to start off, that description does NOT do justice to the depth and intricacy of this movie's plot. The storytelling is masterful, well-woven and complex. The lighting and cinematography are brooding, add mystery and texture to the story, and make it more 3 dimensional. I LOVED this movie. It was a great story, nothing gory, gross or offensive. It's about love, wits and magic, with a twist you'd never see coming. I was totally engrossed in this movie, straight up to the end, though I was able to figure the story out. And that didn't at all take away from it, as it was so totally well-done. I recommend this movie Very Highly - to see, to own, and to see again.

There you have it - these are my opinions. If you have seen any of these, please share yours:)

In Love with Chewbacca

** Beware! If you don't like things that are slightly mushy, sentimental or emotive - step away from the blog... just do as I say... step away from the blog... theres nothing to see here! **

Usually, I am not the type of person to hang my private feelings out on the line for all to see (except the occasional venting session, but those aren't the feelings I was referring to.) However, it has been a LONG time since I have updated this journal. Partly from grief, partly from being busy and caught up in Wedding details... but none of that is really an excuse. I'm not even going to attempt to backtrack a month and a half, but I will somewhat sum up by saying - I truly Love Chewbacca.

There. That says it all.

Our one year anniversary was on February 8th. It was grand, we bought steaks (THICK ones!) and Chewy barbequed them, with the secret family recipe marinade, and we invited Mom to join us in a nice candlelight dinner in the Dining Room. It was lovely. Did I mention that the day after the burglary chewy bought me a necklace so that I immediately had something to call my own? (And my sisters also decided to help the cause in replenishing my supply - and creating new memories - and sent a gorgeous necklace from Israel! - but I digress)

Speaking of the burglary - not to knock New York's Finest - but what exactly are they the finest at? Eating a dozen doughnuts in under a minute? Because their detective skills are SORELY lacking! Ok, I am off that soapbox.

We found an apartment, not too close, but not too far. It is absolutely lovely. Tall ceilings, wide windows, wooden floors, facing 2 directions so lots of sunlight.... I really loved it the first time I went in. We signed today actually, for a 2 year lease. So Yay Us!

But other things have been brewing as well, and to put it simply, we had a HUGE ARGUMENT today. I'm not embarrassed to tell you that, whoever is reading this, because the outcome of said argument was that I feel in love all over again with my sweetie. We were on the phone at work back and forth and it was getting pretty ugly.

Finally I left work at 2:30 and we met up to "talk it out" (which I was convinced was a euphemism for "get over yourself or I'm breaking the whole thing off" - yeah it was that bad) . ANYHOOO we met up and instead of perpetuating the ickyness my sweetie sat me down and calmly talked to me about his issues and concerns, which forced me to also respond calmly (I was only partially successful I have to admit in all honesty. He's a better person than me - I take longer to down-shift)

Now I am not going to pretend that I enjoyed this. No sir. But I left with a renewed, reborn feeling of Love because that whole argument and conversation brought us closer and strengthened our commitment to each other. So that was lovely.

** END OF THE MUSHY STUFF - (which wasn't so bad I think) **

Other good news - Chewbacca has accepted a new job! Yay! I am so excited for him - his whole life has been moving upwards in leaps and bounds! He is getting brilliant grades in school and now a new job!

I also have been offered a new job, which is creating major loyalty issues for me (damn my work ethic!) and I finally got the guts up to give notice (one month!) to my current location and they argued with me (lawyers!) and it became harder for me. So that is unresolved, however, I still intend to accept the new position and continue moving onwards as well in my own journey.

I know this summary is rather sparse considering the amount of time I have been silent. I apologize. It is also the first free time I have had since then, and after watching a re-run of CSI, I realized I actually had time to do ME THINGS.... imagine that!

So I came down here to say Hey. I'll try to be more communicative....

:)