(D) Dinosaur (D) Deer Hunter

It's funny now material presents itself. I was wondering what I was going to write about for the letter 'D', and low and behold it dropped in my lap.
I'm currently temping as an Executive Assistant at a very prestigious Investment Bank in New York City. The people that I work for make the big bucks. They went to prestigious schools that costs thousands of dollars.
I'm in the cafeteria, and this well dressed African-American man, about my age or a little older, is on his Blackberry. He turns to me (not the Chinese guy in front of me) and asks, "How do you spell dinosaur?" I looked at him and asked him to repeat, because obviously I misheard. "How do you spell dinosaur? My blackberry doesn't have a spell check."
OK, you make a six-figure salary. Probably live in a cushy apartment in Manhattan, have an MBA from God knows where and you don't know how to spell dinosaur? Really? And I'm unemployed?
Now don't get me wrong, I can't spell for all the cheese in Wisconsin, but I'm not making over $100K either, I'm not handling other people's money.
I spelled it for him. He said "Yeah that looks right, I had other vowels in there."
Huh?
Dinosaur is phonetic....REALLY?
Oy Vey! And I can't get a job easily because I don't have a college degree.
You know what I wanted to say to him?
READ A BOOK!
As I type this, I'm watching The Deer Hunter again. I haven't seen it in a few years. I don't recall much about it except for the last 30 minutes. I think this is the only movie DeNiro and Walken are in together. My daughter likes DeNiro (as an actor) but this movie couldn't hold her interest. She asked me "What's wrong with them?" I had to laugh, she's not used to seeing guys act like guys.
In watching this again, I can now see how the Characters OV changes to the NV. Especially Walken, who started out the most tolerant man in the group.

(C) Clarissa

I always liked the name Clarissa, I thought it was so pretty and feminine. I had a friend in High School (still is a friend) and her name is Clarissa. No surprise I named my daughter that. As a Child/Teenager I didn't read much, so I didn't know there were any books with this name in it. As an adult, long after my Clarissa was born, I discovered that there were a few.

Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady

A novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1748. It is said to be the longest real novel in the English language. In short, the book is a tragic story of Clarissa whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family. I never read this book, but of course, I have seen the BBC adaptation. It was a mini series from 1991 starring Sean Bean and Saskia Wickham. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Clarissa Dalloway is the main character. The novel's story is of Clarissa's preparations for a party of which she is to be hostess. With the interior perspective of the novel, the story travels forwards and back in time and in and out of the characters' minds to construct an image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social structure.

I didn't even know this until I watched The Hours. Where they jump back and forth between the three main characters. Virginia Woolf (1923) who wrote Mrs. Dalloway, Laura Brown (1951) who reads Mrs. Dalloway and Clarissa Vaughan (2001) who is the embodiment of Mrs. Dalloway.

More Movies about Authors

I discovered (or remembered) some more movies about writers. Some of these are movies that one would not necessarily know are about writers. Some I've seen, some I haven't.
Possession (2002) - A pair of literary sleuths unearth the amorous secret of two Victorian poets only to find themselves falling under a passionate spell. This stars Gwyneth Paltrow, I don't think I've seen this one. Thanks to Anne at Learning to Juggle for this one.
Limitless (2011) - I had no idea this was about a writer. I saw it Wednesday. Wouldn't it be great if we could all write a book in 4 days (1st draft to final). Ha!!
The Shinning (1980 & 1997) - I completely forgot about this one (bad Stephen King fan!). Kubrick's and King's version obviously deal with a writer.
Through a Glass Darkly (1961) - This Ingmar Bergman classic documents 24 hours in the life of a family taking a holiday on the island. The daughter has recently returned from spending time in a mental institution, and her estranged father sees inspiration for a novel in her condition, though perhaps not to the benefit of her health.
Miss Potter (2006) - While today we regard Beatrix Potter’s cute animal tales with admiration as children’s classics, in her time she had to struggle against family, prejudices and unwilling publishers to find success, as you can see in this film.
Sideways (2004) - While wine is the main focus of this film, one of its main characters is a man frustrated and unable to get his seemingly very good novel published–something many writers can relate to.
Finding Forrester (2004) - This film explores the sometimes tumultuous relationship that develops between a teen writing prodigy and a reclusive author played by Sean Connery.

(B) Bronx - in Literature and Film

Co-Op City
Stephen King mentions Co-op City in two of his novels. His first mention of it was in Running Man.
After hijacking an airplane, he purposely directs the craft into the Games* building in Co-Op City, giving his life to make his first and last political stand.
And in his Dark Tower series, Eddie is from Co-Op City. However, this is clearly not the New York of our own world, as Eddie lives in Co-Op City, Brooklyn, while the real Co-Op City is in the Bronx.
But regardless of the borough King places one of the largest apartment complex in the world in, it still is nice to see your hometown mentioned in a book. I lived in Co-Op City from the age of 4 until the age of 27. My mother still resides there.
* Games building is fictitious. No such building stands or has ever stood in Co-Op City.
Parkchester
The first time I've ever heard Parkchester mentioned in a book or movie was when I read/watched the movie Doubt. The movie was based on a play written by John Patrick Shanley. I saw the movie before I read the play. The book is almost a transcript of the movie.
How fun was it to see my current neighborhood on film. There was a part when Sister Aloysius walks with one of the students mother and they walk into Parkchester. The scene is across the field from my building. I pass it often. It was interesting to see how they transformed the small scene. There were awnings on the Main Floor apartments and no air conditioners were visible (Air conditioners were not allowed in Parkchester until 2001). However, they couldn't hide the Cable TV wires. Oh well, somethings you just have to overlook.
Another truism of the movie was that they made sure to let us know that the mother only WORKED in Parkchester. Parkchester didn't segregate until the late 1960s early 1970s.

St. Lawrence Avenue
Also in the movie Doubt the neighboring neighborhood of Parkchester was mentioned. The fictitious Catholic school was located in that area. Although they used a real school for the location which is actually located in another part of the Bronx (that school is St. Anthony Catholic School).
Buhre Avenue and Middletown Road
In the book PUSH by Sapphire she mentions being on the 6 train and getting off at either Middletown Road or Buhre Avenue. I can't recall which but I do believe they were both mentioned. And what struck me about it is that she mentioned it being a white neighborhood. No one, unless they've actually been there would know that. Most people think only minorities live in The Bronx, but it just isn't true. There are white people and there are alot of them. This part was not in the movie Precious.

Another fun fact about all of the above mentioned books or movie, other than that I read them all around the same time is that they are all a short distance from each other. Let's take a short subway ride on the #6 train.
We'll get on at St. Lawrence Avenue. Next stop Parkchester. We won't get off, we'll stay on until we get to Middleown Road which is four stops away, but we won't get off there either, we'll go one more stop to Buhre Avenue. Oh heck, let's just stay on until we get to Pelham Bay Park which is the closest stop to Co-Op City.
THIS IS THE LAST STOP ON THIS TRAIN, EVERYBODY PLEASE LEAVE THE TRAIN. THANK YOU FOR RIDING WITH MTA NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT. REMEMBER TO STAY ALERT AND HAVE A SAFE DAY.

(A) American Experience: Triangle Fire

March 25th marked the 100th anniversary of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire where 146 people died. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three; the oldest victim was 48, the youngest were two fourteen-year-old girls.
I read a book a few years back entitled Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle. It was a well written and well researched book. Non-fiction books can deliver the facts but it hits home when you see pictures and the faces of the victims.
This year I watched two documentaries about this tragedy. American Experience: Triangle Fire (2011) and Triangle: Remembering the Fire (2011). Both of these documentaries touched me deeply. I'm a huge fan of New York history, especially history of the early 1900s. This story makes me angry and these 146 people didn't die in vain, because of them, we now have safer working conditions here in the good old USA.
If you want to read more about it, you can find an article on Wikepedia entitled Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
I wanted to share some photos, but many of them are extremely graphic, so the only one I can share is a picture of the fire fighters battling the fire. If you like, you can google it and see the graphic pictures, but my heart will not allow me to post them here.

Blogging from A - Z 2011

So I swapped most of my reading challenges that I did in 2010 for writing challenges in 2011. I just found out about this challenge, and just in time.

You can read all about this challenge by pressing the picture above. It will take you to the link, however, here is a quick summary.

How does the Challenge work?

The premise of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge is to post something on your blog every day in April except for Sundays. In doing this you will have 26 blog posts--one for each letter of the alphabet. Each day you will theme your post according to a letter of the alphabet.

One of the fellow participants posted some Great Tips about doing this challenge, I find they will be most helpful.

One of the tips is to chose a theme. Since my blog is primarily a themed blog anyway, there shouldn't be much of a problem. My theme will be books and movies.

Good Luck to all the participants.

A Round of Words in 80 Days – Round Two!

This is my first time doing ROW-80. It came to my attention through one of my blog friends.

Round Two: April 4 – June 23, 2011

I'm enrolled in some online writing classes at Writers Village University, so I am forced to write stuff every week anyway, but this gives me the push to do something other than my assignments every day.

This blog is not a dedicated writing blog. I do not feel I write regularly enough to warrant one, so my check-ins will be within this blog. I mainly keep this blog to books and movies so it kind of fits in.

If anyone is interested, the sign up linky is here. You can read the other participants goals for Round 2.

My Goals (subject to change)

Write at least 1,500 words per week.

Complete and polish 2 short-stories.

Start outlining novel.

Read a lot about the craft.

That will be it for now. I want to achieve my goals. But anything extra I do manage to do will be included in my check-ins.

One Possible Goal

I've been reading that blogging helps writers write better. I've been blogging for a long time, and occasionally I blog a thought provoking post (most of the time it is a lot of pulp). I blog regularly so consistency isn't the problem. However, I am going to attempt to do one thought provoking post per week. It will be either on reading or movies or maybe even writing. Let's see what the wind brings.