Thursday, April 26, 2007

Movie Review - United 93 (2006), Part 1

I'm sure most of us remember very clearly what we were doing on that bright sunny Tuesday morning...

I was at the office, writing, editing, reading. Just another normal day at work.

When we heard through a young engineer who constantly checks his stocks on his office computer that a plane hit the World Trade Center, we thought it was a nasty fluke. A terrible accident but an accident nevertheless.

But as the news of the fire got progressively worse we all gathered around the huge TV set in the conference room downstairs. There were about twenty of us.

And then the second plane hit the second tower live, just AS WE WERE WATCHING, ahhhhh... the horror of it all...

I'll never forget that moment when first my breath and my blood, then as if my soul and my spirit, left my face, limbs and my body... I never thought one could have a near out-of-body experience in the face of a shock that great and unexpected.

The great ensemble piece "United 93 (2006)" captures that moment eerily well. That moment when not the first but the second plane also hits the WTC, and the total shock and brief silence that follows in flight control rooms and strategic decision making centers all across the USA, that crucial turning moment in American history is captured exceedingly well in this film written and directed by Paul Greengrass.

Having said that, I also have to admit what a painful, excruciating experience it was for me to sit through this one. I tried to postpone seeing it as much as I could but I'm an incurable movie fan. So I had to see it.

So I did and I was devastated. It is still too much for me to come face to face once again with the well-planned evil that has sent thousands of innocent men, women and children to their totally undeserved deaths on that lovely September morning. Since then, Septembers are not that lovely for me anymore.

(To conclude in part 2.)

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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Lake House

A lot of us enjoy having friends online with the help of the internet. Some met their partners in life through it but what if you two met through letter but with conflict. One living two years ago. I've watched The Lake House just weeks ago and i find it so romantic and that it tells that love can really wait. The two people met through letters and kept exchanging responses with different dates on it, a different year. But Love will do everything for the two people be happy. Pain, sadness, loneliness, etc will definitely be part of it but still there will be a lot of things for that love to be possible.

The Lake House was a romantic drama film premiered on the 16th of June 2006. It was written by David Auburn, it starred by Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, and directed by Alejandro Agresti. The film was the next movie which Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves starred together after Speed which was filmed on 1994.

It was about two person who lived in a beautiful lake house and writes each other but the thing is that they were on a different times. Dr. Kate Forster portrayed by Sandra Bullock was in 2006 while Alex Wyler an architect portrayed by Keanu Reeves was on 2004.

In 2006 Kate leaves the Lake House with her dog named Jack and moved to Chicago. She left a letter for the next owner of the lake house. She worked as a doctor on one of the hospital of Chicago and on Valentines day, Kate was out at Daley Plaza with her mother when they witness a traffic accident and she run to helped but unfortunately the man dies in her arms which she told to her lead doctor and advice her to take a moment and go to a place where she can have peace in mind.

In 2004 Alex brought the beautiful Lake House without his girlfriend named Mona knowing but later she learned and talks to him on the construction site on which he was working. At night he returned to the lake house and finds a letter on his mailbox dated 2006 from Kate Forster. In her letter she apologizes for the paw prints at the front door whom she claimed that was there before she moved in but when Alex checked it he didn't see any paw prints and so he was confused. Some days had pass and Alex paints the bridge's handrails leading to the front door when a dog appears and walks through a tray of paint that causes to have a paw prints leading to the front door and so he replies to Kate and places the flag up on the mailbox.

They continue sending letters with each other but still they're not sure that it is really happening that two person can actually speak with each other through letters in different times. On one of the letter Kate told Alex that she left something on a train station if he can give it to him then she'll believe that what was happening is true. Alex goes into the train station and saw a couple saying goodbye to each other and when the lady rides the train he found something on the chair just behind the place where the couple stands while saying goodbye and on where the things of the lady was left while waiting for the train. On the next letter Alex told Kate that he saw her and that she's beautiful and Kate responses that she might be the one he saw as she has a bad hair on that year.

They continue writing letter until they agree with each other that they will see each other at the II Mare in 2006. Kate waits there but Alex does not appear and so he told Alex that he didn't appear that it wasn't right to continue correspond with each other as they will not see each other as they were really in a different time and that it wasn't possible. Alex's dog runs away and then he later left the lake house and gives its key to a man he just met which girlfriend wants to lived in a Lake House. The man found a dog and gave it to his girlfriend who named it Jack and she moves in to the Lake House.

Year 2007 arrives and Kate rekindles her relationship with her former boyfriend Morgan. They talked a lot and reminisce and Morgan had mentioned that Kate had kissed a guy on her birthday in 2004 when Morgan surprise her of a party and invited some of their friends and a couple which he just met. And with that she realizes that he already saw Alex and he was the one who she kissed on her birthday in 2004.

On the year 2008, on Valentines Day, Kate and Morgan visits an architecture firm who happened to be co-owned by Henry, Alex's brother. After their meeting and talking about business they were to left the firm but Kate notices a sketch of the lake house, she asks who did it and Henry answered that his brother sketched it and when she ask to speak with him, Henry sadly said that Alex died on Valentines Day two years ago and she ask Henry where and how does it happened, Henry said that it happened in an accident in a plaza hitting by a bus. And it reminds Kate what happened on 2006 when she's in a plaza with her mother, an accident happened and a man died in her arms, sadly it was Alex Wyler. While realizing that, she run fast even Morgan running after her can't catch up.

She rushes to the Lake House on her car she write a letter and got out there and put it into the mailbox, on her letter she said to Alex not to come on Valentines Day on 2006 and don't cross the street and meet her at the plaza but instead wait for another two years and they will meet on Valentines Day at the Lake house, she'll wait there.

Weeping, behind the mailbox, on her knees down, she almost fail to notice that the flag of the mailbox turned down. She stands up, turned around and she saw a pickup truck where a man emerge. It was Alex, Kate just whispered, "You waited" and they kissed.

Love can wait even for years. Even at first, falling in love to someone you didn't even know nor seen looks impossible, holding into it and just thinking of the love you have for each other will make it possible.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Nelson Rangell "Look Again" Smooth Jazz Music CD Review

Very talented Smooth Jazz artist Nelson Rangell has released his latest CD titled Look Again and Wow! It's good.

The CD launches with an outstanding track, Look Again, that I suspect will be heard on radio stations everywhere, and deservedly so. It really is a very nice track.

Look Again has a pleasantly varied, mix of 11 tracks that are very well written songs by this clearly superb artist. Most of the songs display a lot of the kind emotion that makes for a really great listen. Seemingly drawing from what I can only imagine are his own real life experiences. At different points touching on the most real emotions of love, and the pain of failed relationships can certainly be heard.

Overall Look Again is a solid release. Quite possibly Nelson Rangell's best to date. Really spectacular from beginning to end. If you're even mildly into Smooth Jazz music you'll enjoy this album.

My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 6, Long Walk. Great track!

Look Again Release Notes:

Nelson Rangell originally released Look Again on Mar 11, 2003 on the A440 Music Group label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. Look Again

2. Dedication

3. Good Morning Love

4. Off The Hook

5. Saturday Night

6. Long Walk

7. Steppin'

8. Somethin's Goin On

9. With All My Heart

10. Whisper

11. Scenario

Personnel includes: Nelson Rangell (saxophone); Terry Black (vocals, keyboards, Moog bass, programming); Will Downing (vocals); Jeff Kivet (trumpet); Ozzie Melendez (trombone); John Blasucci (keyboards, Hammond B-3 organ); Chris Davis, David Mann, Tejai (keyboards, programming); Gerey Johnson, Rhon Lawrence (guitar); Will Lee, Lamar Jones, Richard Patterson, Vernon Barbary (bass); Khari Parker, Ralph Rolle, Tarell Martin (drums); Lenny Castro (percussion); Craig Bauer (programming). Producers include: Chris Davis, Darren Rahn, Craig Bauer, Vernon Barbary, Terry Black.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

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Saturday, March 24, 2007

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Thursday, March 22, 2007

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

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