Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

I really loved his earlier memoir Boy Kings of Texas , but I didn't love this one as much.  In the earlier book about his childhood, I found myself rooting for Martinez.  But in this book, I just found myself not liking him very much.  There is something in this book for people dealing with loss and tragedy, I'll consent there.  But there's just something about people that use too many 50 cent words and who are too smart for their own goods all the while hurting good people around them.  I feel for them, but I don't want to get too close.  Martinez is a good story-teller, no doubt, and I have a lot of respect for someone who really tells the truth.....even if it means it won't win you many friends. 

  "Have you ever stared into his eyes?  It was like the first time I heard The Beatles....."

(Article originally printed in The Gaston Gazette on October 22, 2015 and in the online edition on October 21, 2015.) “If you want to come and listen to music in the best-sounding music venue in Gaston County, come to The Nest.” That is the very succinct description given by Danny Kutcher, owner and booker at a very new and unique music performance space in Gastonia.   The Nest at Songbirds Studios is a “listening room” which unlike most music venues that center around bars and loud crowds tends to center around the artists themselves and the experience of truly hearing the music.     The baby grand piano loved by all traveling artists. Kutcher, along with friend and business partner April Perkins Smith, created Songbirds Studios as a music education business specializing in teaching appreciation and love of music to children.   Later Songbirds spread its wings by adding The Nest as a performance spot. The idea of a music teaching studio and perf...

I saw the trailer for this film in the theater and actually made a point of reminding myself to see it later.  I just looked that good! And it was. This movie is as fantastical and hard to believe as they come.  It's also as perfect in its beauty and its pain as I have seen in a while.  It also proves that a movie doesn't have to be complicated to have a big meaning in the end.  Perfect for anyone who's rooting for lost love, fate, reunion, and healing.  In other words, perfect for a hopeless romantic like me.

I'm not saying the beard necessarily makes him a better football player, I'm just saying it doesn't hurt.  

This isn't really the kind of movie I would usually choose, but it does have one of my fave mans in it!  And the description I heard on an NPR segment intrigued me so here we are.  I can't really find the words to describe how powerful this film is.  It depicts the lives of pilots operating drones in Afghanistan from a control room in Nevada.  It's too easy to say that it will make you stop and question war.  I think it will actually make you stop and question humanity altogether. 

I picked up this book at the library with a lot of hope.  First off, it looked self-published or from a small press, so I was intrigued by a little book that could.  Second, I thought "heh, a book about retail life....who can't relate?" Ummmm.....I was a little disappointed. For one thing, the book is boring as hell.  Young Christians saving the Big V until marriage?  Snooze fest.  I'm not saying that a novel can only be good if it's full of tragedy and pain, but a good one does require a little edge and how can I put this......reality, maybe?  This book was so white and nerdy it made Weird Al look like a gang-banger. It's not that I'm anti-Christian.....well.....maybe a little.  But one part in this book really bothered me.  The main character, Penn, (indulge yourself much, author?) is having a conversation with his supervisor in the store and discovers she's a lesbian.  He pretty much gives her the whole love-the-sinner-hate-the-si...

  "Don't waste your time always searching for those wasted years....."

This is a pretty interesting mystery thriller written in the mid 1950's and set against the backdrop of idyllic Italian beaches and touristy cities.  I didn't rent the movie because I didn't want Gwyneth ruining it for me.  And given how annoying Marge was in the book, I could just imagine her portrayal on film. And it also seemed from the previews that the book probably veered quite a bit off course from the novel.  And who wants to deal with that again?  I wouldn't call this novel transcendent, but it will make you long for the simpler times when forensic evidence wasn't worth much and rich people with passports could do pretty much anything they wanted.  Oh, wait.......

12 year-old girl to her mother: I can't believe you had to do all that just to have me. Mother: MmmHmmm. 12 year-old girl: But I don't want to have to touch the parts.  Do you have to touch their parts? Mother: You do have to touch their parts, yes.  12 year-old girl: (speechless) Mother: Of course, not yet.  But someday you will actually want to touch the parts.  (The preceding was that good ole birds and the bees talk a dear friend of mine had with her pre-pubescent daughter.  You've got to laugh at it, people, or you'll lose your mind.)

A cute fun novel about a British sitcom being made in the 1960's.  I have loved pretty much all of Nick Hornby's books, and this one is no let-down.  Actually, I might even say it's my favorite of all his books and would make as good of a film as About a Boy or High Fidelity .  I think I'll just go ahead and root for that!

  "I fake it so real I am beyond fake....."

When this movie came out, I remember it had a huge cult following almost instantly of people mostly right around my age.  I didn't see it because I didn't think it would really speak to me.  It was 2004 and I was 29 and married with a toddler son.  Slacker twenty-something life didn't really register on my radar. So now at age 40, it plays more like a period piece of misspent and somewhat depressed Gen-X youth that I was not a part of because I settled down at age 23.  And I'm okay with that. Of course there's a much greater story here having to do with the over-medication of children, dysfunctional family systems and the inability to make the leap into adulthood.  I wouldn't really call it a "feel-good" movie, but the soundtrack's not too bad when it's not trying so hard to be precious. (Think light, indie coffee house tunes.  The kind my husband hates on principle.) Even though this is a much better small, indie flick than many th...

  The event is still ON but has a delayed start of 3 pm!