About Me

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Recent retiree--35 year's experience teaching reading, English, adult basic education and volunteer leadership skills. Started this blog to exchange ideas and commentary with friends and others having an interest in joining the discussions. Greatest life accomplishments include: 1.organized my 3rd grade class to check out library books for me to get around librarian's weekly limit--Amazon.com, the Mullins Elementary 3rd Grade Class of 1956 is still waiting for "thank you" notes; 2. volunteered in the Peace Corps, island of St. Kitts, West Indies; 3.taught adults to read, earn their GEDs., and speak English as a second language; 4. bought a border collie puppy for $6, got evicted rather than give him up, and began a life-long love affair with all things "Dog"; 5. joined a physical fitness boot camp in my mid-50s--don't mess with someone who's been doing regulation pushups in wet grass at 5:30 a.m.; 6. walked across Northern England with best friend Sally--over 80 miles from the Irish to North Seas; and 7. travelled to many foreign countries for pleasure and work.
Showing posts with label Netflix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netflix. Show all posts

Thursday, November 7, 2013

November Gratitude Mosaics - F for Films

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November 6

Today for the November gratitude alphabet, F is for Films - good movies entertain, inspire, challenge, and teach through their characters and events.  They can take you to places in the world you may never see for real and visually amaze.  Every year I try to see the important films when they are released in the theaters.  And I enjoy "helping" choose the winners for important awards like the Academy and Golden Globes.  This year hasn't been a great year for movie going for many reasons, but the ones above I've seen and loved for different reasons.  Well, except for Anna Karenina, which totally irritated me because it was almost like a comic opera.

Second--or maybe first--way I watch films that I've missed on the big screen is to rent from Netflix and watch on computer in the hidey hole/den.  This is my favorite place in the house, especially with the owner of those little black--or white speckled now--legs to keep me company:



Here's a sampling of Netflix viewing this year:

 
In films my taste runs to history and politics in troubled parts of the world--Of Gods and Men, A Woman in Berlin, Salmon Fishing in Yemen.  I watched In the Land of Blood and Honey because it's about the Bosnian-Serb war in the late 1990s and I hope to visit Bosnia in 2014.  If you love photography, highly recommend Everlasting Moments, the story of a Swedish woman who escapes a brutal and impoverished marriage by learning to take pictures.  Just as with books, like British police procedurals--Vera, Foyle's War, Rebus, Endeavour Morse, DCI Banks.  And just for the heck of it, throw in Jane Campion's Top of the World set in New Zealand. Annika Bingtzon gave me a little Swedish crime.  And In Treatment gave me Gabriel Brynne as a troubled therapist--yumo! And finally, do I even need to mention BBC Masterpiece Theater period dramas like Downton Abbey and The Paradise.  Of course, loved them. 
 
It's a good thing that this project is falling in November.  I'm one of those year in review people, taking stock of the past year and figuring out what's ahead for 2014.  By the time I finish this gratitude alphabet won't have anything to do for December and January!
 
Linking to November Blog a Day at Myanderings .