2009--When the Child was a Child

When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.

When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.

When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.

When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:

Why am I me, and why not you?

Why am I here, and why not there?

When did time begin, and where does space end?

Is life under the sun not just a dream?

Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?

Given the facts of evil and people--
does evil really exist?

How can it be that I, who I am,
didn’t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?

2009--Hiroshima

How can a city recover and flourish from total destruction? I witnessed the best and worst of man in 2009.

2009--Driving a lot and thinking of Top Ten Lists...

Anyone can come up with Top Ten lists and now that the 2000's are closing down--how do you measure a decade of moviegoing? Follow the crowd? Chart your own path or follow your Cinematic heart?

YES--I think the last one will do.

The following are the movies of the decade (genre does not matter) which left an impression on me that I will never be able to forget:

The Twilight Samurai----a novel painted on a screen

3-Iron---the quirkiness of magic and love and believing it all.

The Barbarian Invasions---harsh, real, brutal, peaceful.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence---one of the sweetest movies ever disguised as science fiction.

Borat---have never laughed harder.

Time Out---a man's movie like no other.

The Best of Youth---a novel painted on the screen for 6 hours and leaves you desiring more. Without a doubt, the best of the decade and quite possibly the best complete movie I have ever seen.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind---goofy, labyrinthine, painful, heartbreaking.

United 93---never have I ever been frozen to my seat afterward.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly---a journey one wishes never to make but glad we witnessed it.

Amélie---a gift to all the romantic fools out there.

Apocalypto---visually rich and teeming with life and action. One of the very best.

Y Tu Mama También---a runner-up for the top spot. Utterly heartbreaking. Left me speechless--and still does.

The Squid and the Whale---emotionally violent but necessary for those without cookie-cutter lives.

High Fidelity---strips away our uniqueness and originality, but in a comforting way.

Grizzly Man---nature further proving its indifference to all things

A History of Violence---an unraveled life continued the new language of cinema

There Will be Blood---the new language of cinema taken to a higher level

No Country For Old Men---perfecting what they have been perfecting for decades

Sideways---funny, ugly, truthful, romantic, deceitful and number 3 on my decade list

The Pianist---an unforgettable experience

The Fog of War---maddening, infuriating, frightful and agonizingly real

The Class---this is the new world order blending with the new language of cinema

Rachel Getting Married---takes the new world order, blends it with the new language of cinema and focuses it on a single American family and its tributaries. Filled with pain and hurt but overabundant with joy and happiness.

Loin Du 16ème---One of the shorts in Paris Je'taime. Sad and unforgettable--all in less than 5 minutes.


Ebert's reflection:
All of these films are on this list for the same reason: The direct emotional impact they made on me. They have many other qualities, of course. But these evoked the emotion of Elevation.

Elevation is, scientists say, an actual emotion, not a woo-woo theory. I believe that, because some films over the years have evoked from me a physical as well as an intellectual or emotional response.

In choosing the list, I decided to bypass films that may have qualified for their historical, artistic, popular or "objective" importance.

No lists have deep significance, but even less lists composed to satisfy an imaginary jury of fellow critics.

My jury resides within. I know how I feel.

2009--Michael Jackson

every time an individual
seeks
or inadvertently gains
a god-like
persona,
the fall is sure to be tragic.

I remember first 'hearing' MJ
while on a musical ride in Coney Island
--Off The Wall--

I remember first 'seeing' MJ
on a CBS special where he first showed us
The Moonwalk during
--Billie jean--

Up until that point
our little lives had never
seen anything like it--
we were hooked!
It was all MJ, all the time
No matter what team you rooted for:
Rock or disco.

Hip-hop blossomed soon after.

As we grew up
we grew him up.
His ego, his ambition, his appearance--

the music, the dancing
dissolved into the background
as the headlines jumped to the front.

All that remained of his public persona
was a distorted semblance of
what we first saw

Still,
the music lingers and grows
as art often does--

there really was
no other way his story could have ended

no way it could have been any different

he was on a collision course with himself

and we remain spectators

with his music in our memories
as an enduring gift...

2009--Acompañame a Estar Solo

Osaka

2009--confundiendo amor con compañia

favorite pics of 2009

waiting for train at Korien

Haydn is Love Turned Loose Into Sound

Human, All Too Human

We don’t know ourselves, we knowledgeable people —we are personally ignorant about ourselves. And there’s good reason for that. We’ve never tried to find out who we are—how could it happen that one day we’d discover ourselves? With justice it’s been said, “Where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also.” Our treasure lies where the beehives of our knowledge stand. We are always busy with our knowledge, as born winged creatures and collectors of spiritual honey. In our hearts we are basically concerned with only one thing—to “bring something home.” As far as the rest of life is concerned, what people call “experience,”—which of us is serious enough for that? Or has enough time? In these matters, I fear, we’ve been “missing the point.” Our hearts have simply not been engaged with that—nor, for that matter, have our ears! We’ve been much more like someone divinely distracted and self-absorbed into whose ear the clock has just pealed the twelve strokes of noon with all its force and who all at once wakes up and asks himself “What exactly did that clock strike?”—so now and then we rub our ears afterwards and ask, totally surprised and completely embarrassed “What have we really just experienced?” And more: “Who are we really?”

Alone With Everybody

the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
vases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.

there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.

nobody ever finds
the one.

playing...

Through the years I have seen them entertain themselves for hours with car keys, remote controls, kitchen utensils, leaves and rocks. They can make a game out of anything-- but snow, well, that is just magical...

Back to the Image

looks different every day

old snapshots...

a quick moment in Long Beach

Two Brothers

The Birthday Boy!

some small, early signs of Spring

a tired Luna...

yawn!!...

finally settled in...

peek-a-boo

a new view...

driving, driving, driving...

down time

a new place...

welcome to new jersey

the movers are here to help