Ten movies that influenced me

A facebook game, Cathyn tagged me in a post on Guarding Tess. I'll quote Cathyn's, and then list my ten. They're in the order I saw them. The idea was to show an picture from a movie that had influenced us. I would probably have played Guarding Tess if Cathyn hadn't.

"Guarding Tess", 1994, Shirley McClain and Nicholas Cage. This movie was recommended to me by Sandra Dodd, who has fantastic taste in movies, as well as being a phenomenal mentor, with the ability to know one needs a specific lesson at a particular point in their lives, and sometimes realizes the best vehicle to impart that lesson is not her words, but a movie she's seen. To say her recommendation and this movie influenced me is an understatement indeed. Sandra, if you're up for it, and haven't already been "challenged", and have the time, consider this your opportunity to jump in and share ten movies that influenced you. :)

I responded:

Very kind words, Cathyn! Thank you.
I might need to disqualify myself, as I've spent the past 3.5 years watching Korean dramas and not much else.

I did take a week off to watch the first two seasons of The Good Place (an American series—I hadn't watched American TV for.... 3.5 years, except for CBS Sunday Morning). Marty told me about it. I love it. It's not a movie, though.

Movies that influenced me, huh? That's a hard one, for real. I'm thinking of movies that excited my emotions and thoughts, that I still think about, but sometimes the connection is about who I saw it with, and what we were discussing! :-) So Guarding Tess would be on my list, I suppose. :-) But that would be stealing your post so I won't.

When I played mine, I played the most recent first, and accidentally skipped one, but this is the order in which I saw them, in my life.

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Peter Pan, 1955+

Peter Pan was shown once a year on TV when I was little. It wasn't easy to see a movie repeatedly otherwise. So it took years for me to see it enough times to really know it, but I spent a lot of time thinking about it!

Learned... keep some friends in the woods just in case, but it might be better to stay home anyway.

On facebook, with comments

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Wizard of Oz, 1939 (but I watched it from about 1959)

Annual TV broadcast, in those pre-video days.
I took from it:

People don't always know what they need, or what they have.

on facebook, there are some comments

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El Cid, 1961 (but I first saw it in 1963 or '64)

What I took from El Cid, which I saw twice as a kid:

Loyalty and logic. Service and the greater good.
The Middle Ages were awesome.

More details on when and where I saw it, and a clip.

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Brother Sun, Sister Moon, 1972

More medieval-fix.

My takeaway:

Money and parental expectation can be problems.
Maybe French moms shouldn't have married angry Italians.
It's cool when Obi-Wan Kenobi is the pope.

I'm not sure I took from that movie what Zeffirelli intended.

The ObiWan connection, of course, couldn't have been made in 1972, but in later years... yeah! It made the pope WAY cooler, and part of his speech is very "may the force be with you, too," though I think it might be "may the lord be with you." I'll look it up and come back.

"May Our Lord be with you, in your hands and in your feet." (watch that scene here)

More details on when and where I saw it, and other people's comments.

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The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

Don't trust what you think you know, even about your family.

More details on when and where I saw it, and other people's comments.

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Back to the Future, 1985

Life's stressful one way or the other, but rock'n'roll's still good

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Commando, 1985

This one had an odd effect on my self-awareness.

Keith asked why I didn't like Terminator, but loved Commando. I had to think about it.

In Commando, they dress like soldiers and go far away to save a young girl. In Terminator, he shows up where normal women are doing normal things, and is insanely violent. So I learned that I care about context. And costume- and make-up clues.

Context and perspective. I had a new filter through which to view other strong reactions in my life (or surprising lack of strong reaction, sometimes, in myself or others).
Original post, might not have much more.

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Searching for Bobby Fischer, 1993

Learn however and whenever you can, and remember no one person has everything you need.

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Crimson Tide, 1995

Duty and responsibility when there are constraints and obstacles.

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Secretly Greatly, 2013 (South Korean)

My most recent influence was a South Korean movie called "Secretly Greatly" which was based on a Korean Webtoon. It's about North Korean spies who were sent to live as South Koreans. The main character is assigned to portray the village idiot. The acting is wonderful.

One of my favorite things about the film is to consider what it would take to live convincingly as an idiot. What would you need to do? What could you absolutely not do? :-) And also to think about whether it's propaganda (well, it kinda is, but to think about points being made).
More, with links to where it can be seen.

International collection of a mundane tool

India, Australia, U.K., USA — all in use in Albuquerque

The one from India came from a cooking store. I got some plastic bowls, too, that we use all the time.

The Australian masher came from a big store with remainders from other stores, it seemed—new things, but more like a Big Lots or Tuesday Morning than a department store. I got kitchen towels that day, there, too, and use them every day.

One of the English mashers was bought new, and older and newer ones, used.

Full-size trompe l'oeil cars

Nice clouds, too, July 27, 2018. Those storage units are between our house and Fastino's, a drive-through Italian food place at Juan Tabo and Lexington. That's the back of our house, to the right of it, with the gate.



Here's what we see from our yard. This photo is from 2011, when Hollywood Video was still over past there.



We watched as that art was made, when that business was new.

Kirby Athena Denise Dodd

Kirby wrote:
"At 8:53pm MST, Kirby Athena Denise Dodd joined us. She is 6lbs 7oz. She is totally healthy with all the right parts."


Lovelace Women's Hospital on Montgomery, Albuquerque

Relax Now / Sunshine

The ebb and flow of life takes me from extreme involvement in...
wanting to become a teacher
teaching
the SCA
childbirth and breastfeeding
unschooling
particular discussions and sites, which themselves come and go
philosophy discussions in person, online, one-on-one

This blog once was a focal depository but now it's not. Still, I like it as a place, and as a collection.

Since September 2, 2010, the blog I have used most is Just Add Light and Stir. There are over 2700 posts there. Good ones.



Each one recommends three others. That changes, but the connections can be beautiful.

Round Korean Schedule

I first saw one of these in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, a Korean drama.



Then in a "variety show" (we would call it a reality show), they get a circular schedule for each guest "Master," before they know who it is, on Master in the House.

I went to try to find images or history of them, but I don't know what to call them. I tried variations of Korean scheduler round circular hours (two or three at a time) and finally found this:

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The morning after I wrote the above, I got up to look some more. In a google search for Daily schedule template round Korea, a freakish oddity arose: The cover of one of my books shows. I wrote that before I was watching Korean dramas, so it's not about that. Maybe it's because of the appearance of the cover, but most of the other images that came up had nothing to do with that pie-wedgy roundness.



(There is is, beginning of the third row, in this image. I don't know why.)

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From Master in the House, where they use one nearly every other show:





"Yj" left a comment with a link to this video which has English versions:

One beautiful song

Deb Lewis asked about a special medieval love song, but I don't know of one. Some conversation followed (on facebook, here), and I kept thinking about it for a couple of days, as I tend to do.

Then I started a response which I accidentally lost, so I'm bringing it over here where I can work more slowly and carefully.

There is a beautiful song of love and longing, but it's not not a love song. It's not a religious song, really (not worship, not a church song). It's not about unrequited love. It's about exhaustion, perhaps old age, and a calm desire to sleep, or to relax quietly in heaven. It uses the word "sprite," which I love, and not "old age," but the more powerful "cold age."

Unlike madrigals, it does have a tune. It'a a part-song, so voices stay in their own ranges without jumping the track, and it can be done with instrumental backup instead.

The lyrics are brief and beautiful.

Never weather-beaten sail,Thomas Campion. 1567?–1619

Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore;
Never tirèd pilgrim's limbs affected slumber more
Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast;
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest!

Ever blooming are the joys of heaven's high Paradise;
Cold age deafs not there our ears, nor vapour dims our eyes;
Glory there the sun outshines, whose beams the Blessèd only see;
O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee!

         That's the original verse. For vocal arrangements, the "O come quickly" is repeated three times.

I listened to some videos, and most did it too quickly for my tastes, so a note to Deb: I could sing it for you, but I wouldn't have three other voices. [I have sung it before, and I love it.] So this first video is the speed I like, but imagine it with four voices, one of them mine, and not done so full-voice, fill-up-the-church, but gently, and clearly but softly.


Then I found this, which I love for the yellow shoes on that one guy, and the oddity. The group above is in The Netherlands. This performance below was in London, but I don't know if they combined two groups (seems) or what, exactly, is up with it, but it's fun.


I have friends and relatives who have done combo Renaissance instruments and north-African/Middle-Eastern music before, too.