But sometimes just a mouthful's worth it.

It is a much overworked theme in movie-land just as in Pop music. Who can forget "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" or the sappy Barefoot in the Park (which gets a 92% thumbs up on Rotten Tomatoes though I wouldn't waste a rotten tomato on that one)?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Blablablalbabla...and

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Yup. Even when we do triumph in love, isn't this a blessed aspiration we might take heart in?

It aint easy, but nothing good is (so I'm told). I'm prone to believe that. As someone else says often in her signature line, "It's the relationship (stupid)!" The process, however, often does stink.

Let me count the ways...

*

D'oH!

Many a serious thing is said in jest. Many a not so serious thing is said all too often.

That about sums up Hollywood currently. I have to say "Harold and Kumar" is the exception (reviewed today). Additionally, I've thrown in some classics this week that may have fit in last week's Madness theme. I'm afraid that'll be a good theme to discuss America's current state of affairs for much too long a while yet to come.

Interestingly, I've recently noticed a new crop of films coming out soon, whose subject is overwhelming viral epidemics; Legend, Doomsday, Infection, Andromeda Strain and (most promising) The Happening from M. Night Shyamalan. The premise is some sort of "natural" crisis exterminating humanity. I believe this is a metaphor for our political crisis; that we are, indeed, killing ourselves as Americans if America means Civil Liberties, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution. As last weeks review of No Country For Old Men closed, America "carries in its bones the virus of what we've become..."

Too bad we just can't come out and say it.

Yes, Madness. Unsubscribe me here.

War (most apparently), Hatred (in the form of Racism here today), Violence and the perversion of beauty ( Hitler's perversion of Wagner or Alex's Beethoven). With the on-going dearth of decent New Releases (well, I do have one for you tonight), I have been busily sifting through older film classics which are rife with Madness, understandably so as is Human History.

I've probably gone overboard myself this week reviewing more films than I have ever: Gallipoli, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, No Country for Old Men, Les Miserables, Pi, and Clockwork Orange.

Here in Amerika, under the guidance of the Neo-Cons, it seems, sadly, we have gotten used to Madness; therefore my call to Strike for Torture rather than against it. Yes, my personal brand of madness is tongue in cheek, though the cheeks of the Neo-Cons have left a bad taste in my mouth. No amount of Dr. Pepper from the concessions stand can clear my palate, I'm afraid.

So, come on. Let's get on with it.

Cry Havoc, and let loose the dogs of War!

No, no this is not Sparta, it's not.. And this is not Madness either...it's Heresy.

Yes, looking for a theme for this week from the films suggested at our last Film Review, I chose Heresy over Madness or Spartaaaaaaaa even. Now, last week, a number of Prophets stopped by our little theater to recommend some fairly fantastic cinees. Videes I can not ignore, neither can I dispute their true horror show nature. Worse than recommending Ruthless People (as many did during Brillig's Tea Time) I'll be going with the enlightened classic Earth Girls Are Easy (I know, I know... I'll burn in hell over this alone). Just to make things hotter for myself allow me to recommend a little Dogma for those already on fire with religion. Well, really I am only human, though fiery the angels fall...Hmmm, did I get that right (I wonder)? Oh, well, I suppose being human is not all it's cracked up to be...

Someone pile some more wood beneath that popcorn popper, it's showtime!

:: Whadaya mean that aint no popcorn popper? ::

Yamileth Perez is a 39 year old Nicaraguan mother of four currently on tour in the Northwest with Witness for Peace working with other groups including the Jubilee USA Network and the New Sanctuary Movement.

So, here they are...

Wednesday during Tea Time, Brillig asked folks for their favorite movies of all time and I was there, lurking with my notebook. Now, if your suggestion wasn't included today please keep in mind that I am only able to see so many films in such short notice and also there is that little thing I call the focus of this diary. For example, many people recommended Ruthless People; a very funny film, I agree, but one where the protagonist does all he can to get his wife zapped? Pleeeaze, Lord have mercy! Yes, I think it is very funny, but Killing Zoe, is also a great film though equally twisted for my intent in this diary. I dunno, you decide. Should I review Ruthless People next week (warning: if you say "yes" expect to see Killing Zoe here too!)

Now, it's off to the movies!

Someone call a cab...

In the predawn hours of April 9, 1940, the skies over Copenhagen were blackened completely by a droning swarm of German Luftwaffe while armor and men streamed across the border to the south. My mother, in her late teens, awakened by the noise, ran out to the balcony off the living room staring up at the bombers. With my grandparents, she watched as strips of paper drifted down from above like a snow storm in Spring, calling on the Danes to surrender.

"What's all this?" my mother asked.

"It's Satan hard at work while the world sleeps," my Grandfather replied.

For forty years I have been in mourning with little real hope left.

This year it looks like things could be different (Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton). This year I CELEBRATE Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all he has done for his children. Thank you, father....

Turn down the lights someone.

Help Us Make A Nation (HUMAN)

How does a movement begin? Where does it begin? Is it a point in time or the first time an idea crosses a visionary's mind? Is it connected to the struggles of the ancestors and their voices that still speak to those who must lead the people or do movements begin again just when the time is right and the timing...when the right people come together and start to work? Ask anyone connected to The People... and they will say all of the above. The movement doesn't begin because it never ends. Without vision the people perish. The dreamers must always dream...(From The History of The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond)

Given that the greater part of our site's purpose here on the Street of Prophets is to provide a place where people who might describe themselves as religious progressives can come together to explore not only faith but the larger questions that revolve around it and our hopes of impacting the world in a positive, progressive way, I am  providing these weekly film reviews. I thought that submitting reviews of off-the-beaten-track films that often nudge this kind of thought and discussion might be a plus. I'll be offering this each week on Fridays and would happily entertain recommendations for future reviews. Feel free to post comments about the films reviewed here today as well as your own recommendations of films you feel may fall along these lines.

Some suggestions on what you consider "Classics" would be nice...

Turn down the lights, please...

Picking through the garden for the irrepressible and ever present fern sprouts that routinely shot up through the hand tilled soil, Paul beamed paternally as his children defied the rigors of the wild, entering boldly into the world. Noting how well the basil was budding from all the tender trimmings they'd been given over the passed few weeks, he snipped another broad leaf from one of the Italian Reds, folding it into his cheek to chew while he worked. The dragonflies, swarming overhead, darted in the air from mosquito to mosquito as they fed, humming as a flock of tibetan monks might while chanting their prayers in the early evening twilight. The mountainside meadow, filled with low lying blueberry bushes no longer able to hide their bounty from beneath their dwarfish canopies, gave up the suns warmth it had been gathering through-out the day on a subtle summer evenings breeze. Selecting two round, red and ripe tomatoes, Paul headed off to the kitchen to prepare his supper.