To avoid any spoilers for “Dead to Me,” I have intentionally
kept the subject of this post out of the title. That may mean fewer page views,
but ultimately, it means better viewer service. If you’ve already seen “Dead to
Me,” then feel free to scroll past the trailer. If you haven’t, I’m not sure
what you’re waiting for. Go watch it and then come back to this article. You
can book mark it. It’ll be here when you come back.
According to the Mayo Clinic, between 10 and 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. Miscarriages are rarely addressed in American culture. It’s almost as if superior medical practices and technology have made miscarriages a thing of the past. As an overlooked problem, and one that is often attributed to the woman and her lack of womanhood, it may be difficult for women to find a place that can help deal with the emotions a miscarriage may instill.
Judy (Linda Cardellini) has had five miscarriages, but this
isn’t sufficient enough loss for some members of the grief support group to
accept her after she has lied about her fiancé. It’s clear from a flashback
that Judy’s grief comes from another place as well, but the group members don’t
know about it. They just know she lied.
Not everyone handles their grief in the same way, and when
something as personal as a fifth miscarriage is the cause, the woman may
displace her feelings and choose to deceive to get the help she needs without
exposing the reality of her situation. “Dead to Me” does a beautiful job of
dealing with this emotional situation, touchy subject, and the psychology that
comes with it.
When Jen (Christina Applegate) goes to a grief counseling
circle, Judy (Linda Cardellini) tries too hard to become her friend. Jen holds
onto her anger at her husband’s killer, a hit and run driver, and she is left
alone with her two boys. Judy comes across as flaky, weird and possibly crazy.
She says she lost her fiancé eight weeks ago.
“Dead to Me” deals with grief and other social issues. When
the twist is revealed, it’s not because it’s obvious; it’s because of the
acting skills of Cardellini and possibly the director’s skills.
There’s only one way this series can end, but much like
watching a train wreck, you won’t be able to look away as the characters become
more entwined and make choices that, while poor, make sense in what we as
viewers know about the situation. The acting is great. Cardellini and Applegate
make for an odd couple that fit just right. The situations are funny, and the
dialogue is spot on. The characters are sympathetic and the script is
well-written.
Don’t be put off by the stated subject matter of the series.
“Dead to Me” is funny, smart and deserves to be in queue and binged at the first
possible moment. Discover something you didn’t know you were missing.
The fact that “The Wandering Earth debuted in February and
had the highest IMAX gross, which was then beaten by Avengers, creates an
interest in seeing the movie. Endgame could gross more in China than “The
Wandering Earth” and creating an even greater interest in seeing the Chinese
film. If it was that good, it must be worth seeing, and for those who want to
be able to say anything intelligent about the heavyweight duel overseas, they’ll
have to find a way to see ‘The Wandering Earth” and find out what made it such
a huge hit in China. In steps Netflix to fill the gap.
By promoting it as something people can see, Netflix is
effectively able to use the free advertising generated by the comparison
between “The Wandering Earth” and Endgame to get views of a Chinese film most
wouldn’t ordinarily even find to watch much less consider. If Netflix or other
streaming services begin to capitalize on the comparisons that go on with box
office incomes, we could see a slew of international films gaining steam first
through streaming. Once Americans get used to seeing foreign films with
subtitles, there’ll be no stopping the influx of new and better films.
Even if those foreign film studios are as mired in sequel-itis
as U.S. studios are, the stories and concepts will be new and more original to
U.S. audiences. That’s good for storytelling and creativity because foreign
films can introduce different ideas and viewpoints into American culture. For
now, Netflix gains with having “The Wandering Earth” available to stream, and
having one more way to create buzz through using another studios success.
When someone does something with passion and the do it well,
it’s a joy to watch them be rewarded. In the second episode, Jannine and Mark
have a ‘50s-inspired Instant Hotel that’s amazing. The other guests love it,
too. When they tell the couple how they feel, Jannine and Mark tear up. It’s a
beautiful moment that’ll touch your heart strings, too.
As a series, “Instant Hotel” is fun. Because the
participants are Australian, I’m never sure what I’m going to get. Sure, they
speak English, but the cultures are different enough to catch an American off
guard. So far, they tend to stick with their stereotypes: The two gay guys, the
spoiled little girl who can’t get out of bed and her enabling mother, and the
young couple with the wife who is spoiled but “in a different way.” But most of
them seem to be enjoying themselves. The competition is bound to ratchet up as
the mother-daughter team look to bring down the gay-team, but for the moment,
there are only seeds for this future conflict.
I don’t normally watch reality television shows, but
“Instant Hotel” is a good time that has a different cultural element to it. If
you want to diversify your viewing habits and watch something that you don’t
normally watch, this show is a good choice. Improve your creativity by
replenishing your well and learning about instant hotels in Australia.
“Aloha” (2015) brings broken Brian Gilchrist (Bradley Cooper) back to his Hawaiian military roots as a contractor designated to get the blessing of the king of Hawaii for a military base’s pedestrian gate, which would allow private contractors access to the launch area of the military base. Gilchrist is assigned Fighter Pilot Allison Ng (Emma Stone) as his military watchdog for his time in Hawaii. There is a love triangle involving quiet man Woody (John Krasinski) and his wife Tracy (Rachel McAdams), who also happens to be Gilchrist’s ex from 13 years ago.
The real problems arise when Ng discovers that billionaire
Carson Welch (Bill Murray) has put a nuke in the payload of the rocket being
sent into space. Weapons aren’t allowed in the sky, and this would violate
treaties. However, because Welch is a private citizen, it falls in a gray area;
he never signed a treaty. Gilchrist is faced with the choice of further
disgrace and saving the sky or keeping his lucrative job and losing Ng.
Stone chews the scenery as the intense, socially awkward,
quarter Hawaiian, who loves the sky and Hawaiian mythology. Krasinski provides
an amazing performance as the man who doesn’t talk much. Cooper and McAdams are
good in their roles as is the rest of the cast, which includes Murray, Alec
Baldwin, and Danny McBride.
“Aloha” is a surprisingly good film. It’s low key nature and
quirky characters provide an interesting family/friend drama. If you need to
find your way back to yourself, there are worse places to do it than Hawaii.
Welcome to a pleasant diversion, or as they say on the islands – Aloha!
What if I told you there was a Polish immigrant in
Pennsylvania, who fronted a Polka band, met Trump, George Burns and the Pope,
and ran a Ponzi scheme that bilked people out of their life savings? “The Polka
King” is based on the true story of Jan Lewan.
Jack Black’s portrayal of Jan Lewan is positive, upbeat, and
American. Lewan does everything to make a dollar and to climb up the ladder of
success, but it’s never enough. Then he hits on the idea to get investors for his
career. Offering a 12% return on their investment, Lewan unknowingly embarks on
a huge Ponzi scheme, and everyone is happy as long as they’re making money. He
gets caught by the government and gets a warning, but the allure of easy money
that can help him, his bandmates and his wife get ahead, is too much to resist.
He continues with the scheme.
From the beginning of the film to the “Rappin’ Polka” ending, which might be the funniest moment of the film, “The Polka King” is baffling. It’s clear that what Jan is doing is wrong, but his heart seems to be in the right place. He’s just looking toward future success. How does something like this happen in real life? It can only happen in the movies, and sometimes in Pennsylvania – they have the pictures, newspaper articles and videos to prove it.
“The Polka King” provides plenty of fun and a little comedy.
And if you don’t watch out for it, you might be hit with a dose or two of criticism
of American Culture.
Isolation is one of those themes that pops up quite a bit in science fiction. From “The Twilight Zone’s” first episode ‘Where Is Everybody’ to Will Smith’s “I Am Legend,” people are fascinated by the effects that being alone for an extended period can have on a person. It’s probably in part due to the dual nature of humanity. We want to be alone, and we need companionship; every person is somewhere on the spectrum between these demands, and it changes depending on the day and inner requirements.
Spoiler Alert.
This theme should have been clearer from the start of “The
Umbrella Academy.” There were so many other things to adjust to, however, that
it got lost until episode five. Number Five is the most isolated. He spends
decades in the future with a manikin, who is as real to him as any person.
Luther spends four years on the moon, which for him was enough.
Allison has been psychologically isolated from people for
most of her life. She couldn’t discern what was real and what was the result of
her power. She is now isolated from her daughter ad is attempting to build a
new relationship with Vanya.
Pogo, and this is important, was left alone in the house
after all the children moved on with their lives. Diego constantly talks about
how mom was treated, but he doesn’t pay any attention to the talking chimpanzee
who also had to put up with the abuse (as Diego sees it) that father dished
out. Pogo says that he owes everything he is to Mr. Hargreeves, but it’s clear
he’s hiding something.
Klaus used drugs to keep the spirits at bay. These are the
spirits he should have been connecting with his whole life in a “Ghost
Whisperer” sort of way. Unfortunately, his father’s ill-conceived training
regime did nothing but frighten a young child into a life of escapism and dulling
fear through chemistry. He continues to refuse to embrace who he his and what
his power represents, even if there’s nothing scary about his brother Ben, who
hangs out with him.
Diego lives in the backroom of a gym and goes out nights to
fight crime. He has spent his life pushing people away and doing things his way
without compromise. The death of his not-girlfriend sends him further down the
road to isolation. He doesn’t recognize that he needs companionship, but his
actions suggest otherwise as he takes Klaus with him to stake out the donut
shop.
Surprisingly, it’s the relationship between Hazel and Agnes
that hammers the theme home. Hazel feels acutely alone, and it’s affecting his
work. Perhaps his isolation is worse because he spends all of his time with a
partner as they travel 52 weeks a year. When he opens up to Agnes, he reveals
that his job is fulfilling anymore.
People need companionship. They need to be part of something
bigger than themselves. They need to be loved. Religions, cults and sports
teams flourish because they can provide a semblance of these things. Humans define
themselves in terms of the other; we don’t know who we are without someone else
to base ourselves on. It’s part of our strongest desire – that of establishing
and maintaining our identity. Sometimes, that means embracing the love of
family, both biological and chosen. Sometimes, it means choosing something more
carnal.
When a man finally shows interest in Vanya, she falls for
him. She doesn’t care if he’s nefarious. On the outside he presents a nice-guy façade,
and he does things to support and help her, including, unbeknownst to her, murder.
Vanya won’t take the warnings of Allison because she has been isolated for so
long. She hasn’t felt worthy and no one has expressed to her that she is worthy.
Her father always told her she was ordinary. Her siblings ignored her to the
point that when Allison watches tapes from their childhood, she says she wouldn’t
let anyone treat her daughter that way. Vanya wrote a book that further estranged
her from the family. She lives alone and pushes people away. So, when she
finally decides to open up and take a chance, she falls hook, line and sinker
for the manipulations of Leonard.
Vanya gives Leonard her love, literally and her power,
figuratively. Leonard, a creep, stalker and killer, dumps her pills and
unleashes Vanya’s creative power. Not all creative power is good. Some people use
their creativity to destroy. The atomic bomb, hypersonic ICBMs, new forms of
torture… the list of terrible creativity is long and horrific. Vanya’s power
isn’t just to build but to destroy, and when she finds out about Leonard’s
manipulations, it could be apocalyptic. Allison still provides hope that
someone can reach her.
by Cathy Cooke, BCHN, BBEC Founder and Creator of the Sleep Easy Method
When I was kid growing up in the ‘70s, I remember creating
elaborate stories in my head about far away lands I’d only heard of in
books. I remember playing in the woods
in our backyard and pretending to be a soldier in the army – more specifically,
being the first woman ever drafted into the army because my skills were so
imperative the Corps’ success. I had the
most amazing journeys to places like China, Africa, the deserts of Saudi Arabia,
all without leaving my backyard.
Fast forward to May of 2000, and I was still enjoying
adventures to exotic places. Four years
after graduating college, I was dreaming of joining the Peace Corps and
imagined myself living among the villages in places like Kenya or Angola. I could picture it in my head: the dirt
floors, the thatched roofs, the smells of Injera cooking on a wood stove. I don’t know if that’s how it really was, but it was fun to pretend. Maybe it was demeaning or naïve, I don’t
know, but my imagination was strong and the creative urge inside me was
fulfilled.
Over the next few years, I found myself becoming more
involved with emails and looking up information online. If I really wanted to know what life was like
in Kenya, I just put it into a search engine, and wham, there it was. And no surprise, it wasn’t exactly how I’d
imagined. Instead of debating for hours
with friends about a particular topic, exercising my mind to see different
points of view, employing creativity to construct a new argument for
persuasion, or trying to use my brains flexibility to understand all sides,
we’d simply look it up online, and the conversation was over. No heated debates into the wee hours of the
morning that often left us with a better understanding of the other side and
agreed upon points of view.
It makes me sad really.
I want my brain to engage, to work, to be flexible and creative in these
conversations and daydreams. But it
doesn’t happen anymore. I don’t have to
imagine, or think, or create, because I can just Google it, and that ends the
experience.
I have found the same to be true for my artistic
abilities. I have always enjoyed doing
crafty and artsy things. In the early
2000s, I took up mosaics. I remember
walking outside for inspiration, looking into street-corner shops, in backyards
where children played, on the nearby trails or at the plethora of activity
happening in the trees and sky. Certain
colors and combinations of shapes would send my mind off to a place of wild
creativity… “what if I combined that purple color with a deep red for an
intense October sunset…” I made some
really unusual but pretty cool mosaics back then. But with the advent of Google, I found myself
looking online for ideas; it was easier than going outside. And do you know what happened? My mosaics looked flat, lifeless, or like I
was imitating someone else, mostly because I was. I was no longer exercising my creativity,
because it was just too easy to look online.
This also makes me very sad.
It makes me sad for myself that I turn to the easy way too often, and
thus, miss out on all the amazing things the natural world has to offer. And it makes me sad for all the youth that
never got the chance to imagine, create, or dream about what life is like in
the Amazon or the South Pole. They’ve
never had a chance because the answers have been in front of them the whole
time. What kind of art will these kids
create? What kind of stories will they
make up? Where will they get their
inspiration?
I have been known to say “If I could snap my fingers and the
Internet would have never existed I would do it without flinching.” I mean that with complete conviction. Not only do I have an issue with the health
impacts (EMF exposure, blue light, bad posture, poor social development), but
also because it killed my creativity. I
know I have the power to remedy this.
You’re right, I could just get off the computer and go outside and find
my inspiration again. The problem is
that in today’s high-tech world, we have come to rely on the Internet for the
large majority of our communication, personal and business transactions. I run a small business, and if I want that
business to be successful, I have to be online a good portion of the day. I don’t want it to be that way, but it’s the
unfortunate reality of living in 2019.
Of course, I do admit to the benefits of the web, increased
access to education and information, entertainment, social connections,
etc. But, is that worth what we have
lost? Not a chance. I am a human being with needs that go beyond
food and shelter. I don’t need to see pictures of what Angola
looks like. I don’t need to connect with all ten of my friends from the 1st
grade again. I don’t need to be able to watch a marathon of “Mad Men” on Netflix this
weekend. But what I do need is my
sanity, feeling fulfilled, and nourished.
The Internet does not provide this for me. My daydreams, imagination, friendly debates,
walks in nature and exercising my brain’s creativity, that’s what fulfills me
and nourishes me.
So yes, if I could, I would snap my fingers and the Internet
would disappear. And then I would have my exotic trips to far away lands,
conversations until the wee hours of the morning, and some fantastic mosaics
that are full of unique imagination. It
would give me back my creativity! And
that would be worth it.
Cathy Cooke, BCHN, BBEC
Cathy Cooke BCHN, BBEC, is the owner of Whole Home and Body Health where she helps people to realize their potential through health interventions related to diet, lifestyle, and environmental concerns including air quality and EMF mitigation. You can find out more about her services at wholehomeandbodyhealth.com, or by contacting her at cathy@wholehomeandobdyhealth.com
Editor’s Note: Cathy Cooke has released a Sleep Easy Class for people who have difficulties falling asleep. She is an amazing instructor who has spent years studying sleep and how to achieve a better night’s rest. Check out this introductory video to get rid of your insomnia for good on YouTube.
The only child, Number Seven, or Vanya as she likes to be
called, without powers is perhaps slated to be the most powerful of all the
superhero children gathered at the Umbrella Academy. In the first episode we’ve
already seen Vanya, played by Ellen Page, practicing violin on a stage. She’s
written a book, and her dream patterns were beeping off the chart and compared
to the relatively normal brain patterns of the other children. She is clearly
the most creative of the group, and that’s what makes her dangerous.
Diego and Luther are the tanks. Time and space travel boy is
a freak! His fight scene against what appears to be an elite military group was
incredible. Suggestive woman is dangerous, but says she has stopped using her
power. And Klaus, a drug addict and cliché, speaks with the dead – that’s a
different kind of freaky. That leaves Vanya, who is undervalued and
underappreciated.
Creativity and the resulting innovations are what set the humans
of today, homo sapiens sapiens, apart from other humans and animals. Being able
to make something and then turn that to other uses is how people became the
dominant species on Earth. People aren’t the fastest or strongest. They aren’t
even the smartest necessarily, but people adapt the situation to their needs.
Too cold? Build a fireplace and house. To hot create an air conditioner. To
wet? Open an umbrella.
Vanya also trained with her father though she may not see it
that way. She knows what the people in the group can do and how to use their
powers, and as soon as she adapts her thinking to solving the problems at hand,
she will be the one to guide the members of the Umbrella Academy to greatness
with better chances for success.
Now at over 7.5 billion people the world’s population is
staggering large. It’s an incomprehensible number; as people, we aren’t
equipped to understand what that number means. Now, imagine having to whittle
that number down to 160 people who would carry on the human race on Mars or
elsewhere in space. That is one of the premises of the series “Salvation.” According
to the show, 160 people is the minimum viable population to ensure that the
species can continue.
In order for this small number to work, the chosen travelers
would need to be genetically diverse, fertile, and heterosexual. The population
would need to include 80 men and 80 women. There’s a good chance that marriages
would need to be arranged and monitored as time went on in order to prevent
in-breeding.
Engineers skilled in spaceship repairs, survivalists with
skills in establishing camps and places to live, and doctors skilled in combat
medicine would be some of the people the program could consider. Creative types
may be desirable for their ability to solve problems in unique ways, but they
would need to have more than just their artistic skills.
With this set of criteria, old people and children wouldn’t
make the cut. Poorly educated people wouldn’t get on the ship. People who claim
a sexual identity, other than hetero, would be left behind. Those with genetic
diseases or genetic disease history in their families wouldn’t be able to take
the trip. If it would be a true choosing of the best of the best, every person
would face a battery of tests that would eliminate him or her or allow that
person to move on to the next level.
The question that this type of plan demands is how would the
influential people who don’t meet the criteria be kept off the ship. Would the
inventor be allowed to travel, regardless of any other quality? Would the
president of the U.S. or the ruler of the country be allowed to go? If this ark
were a last-ditch effort to save the human race and Earth was facing destruction,
would the billion-dollar investor have a spot on the ark with no further
testing? Would a country like the U.S. reach out to other countries to find the
best people to put on the ark, or would it only save Americans?
Another thing to consider is that genetic diversity would
entail finding people that don’t resemble each other. This would make everyone
uncomfortable since human beings like to hang with people who resemble
themselves. It would also make it possible for people on the ark to form groups
of like with like, which could sabotage the genetic diversity of the group. “Salvation”
has a group of number crunchers on a committee with an unknown science fiction
writer to provide the heart; It’ll be interesting to see how they decide who
lives and who dies.
So, how would you go about selecting 160 people to board a
space ark? If you were able to save 1600 people in ten arks, how would you
divvy them up? Assuming there were a clear 160 best and 160 second best would
you mix them or would you keep the best with the best and the second best with
the second best and so on?
Penguinate! Positive Creativity 