The Holiday Scene

The holiday season…really kicks me all in my ass.

I’m not a misery loves company kind of girl…I’m more of a go it alone….make it through and then step out best foot forward.

I get through by doing what I do.....and watching scenes from movies powerful enough to inspire me to live…


This is not a ritual I started, it’s more like a ritual I’ve noticed.

Kill Bill 2 – The Cruel tutelage of Pai Mai….and the lonely grave of Paula shutlz…WHAT!!!! The inspiration of all inspirations. Seriously....at my lowest moments....I stop and watch my Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman)....prove one can make it through seemingly hopeless situations. Mr. Tarrantino painted a hopeless beyond hopeless scene and took me through it......Beautiful.

Shine- Geoffrey Rush at the piano bar…..

The Color Purple in it’s entirety but more specifically Celia leaving mister…..Shug and Celie finding those letters from her sister and Lord have mercy….the scene where Shug leaves the juke joint and walks (juke joint patrons in tow) to the church to join the choir with her Daddy……Oh my. Here's the line of all lines "See Daddy, sinners have souls too."
Tears just welled up as I typed the line. I have to skip past the scene where the fools bring down Sophia (Oprah Winfrey)....I absolutely can't and won't.....it reverses all the good the other scenes and saddens my soul...therefore.....I skip it. Skip it good.


The Wiz - Michael Jackson as the scarecrow....Diana Ross as Dorothy......Richard Pryor as The WIz.....need I say more. I will anyway.....Diana and Michael and Nipsy Russell (tin man) dancing for dear life....all the crazy emotions mixed with the vivid colors.....folks are high and happy......lost and nervous and it's all good. And I love it. One of the initiations into my life is watching The Wiz with me.


These get me through....inspire me......I'm grateful for these scenes and my ability to use them to get by.

and let me just add my new guilty yet not really guilty pleasure and movie that will from this holiday season on be added to my "inspiration scenes".....

Diary of a Mad Black Woman

That's right. I had such a rotten stinkin' attitude towards this movie and towards the whole Tyler Perry as MaDear enterprise. the title alone sent me running for the hills. I didn't even know who MaDea was..my aunt explained last year and tried to get me to watch some busted up VHS of the play.....the quality was worse than the worse bootleg copy of any movie. So I filed him and his plays away under too ghetto for me......I am humbled.

Because I loved the ever-lovin' hell out of this movie. The DVD was GIVEN to me and I still didn't watch if for months....finally watched it over thanksgiving and have officially watched it about 6 times....with commentary from Tyler Perry and all. I don't know if I'm missing my family so intensely that some of this down home sterotypical movie just moves me so.....or what but I thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of Diary of a Mad Black Woman. I laughed, I cried I smiled....and I really just can't get enough of (baptist) church scenes (see above) also love the church scene in The Blues Brothers....Oh my people....we sure pour out our hearts in song and I love to bear witness....the church scene in this one almost got me to search for a church, but you really need to hit the south for a rolly polly get down swingin' and singin' and gettin' merry like christmas, church. And with the South comes a whole set of troubles I'm not about to deal with...so I'll have to get my fill on the big screen.

My Great-Grandmother (my favorite woman in the world) is from virginia does not talk about all that ghost and scary stuff but she told me how as a child one day her and some friends heard singin' coming from an abandoned church....when they looked in it was a full service of singin' and swingin' churchgoers.....who were no longer of this earth. And like I said my Grandmother is not into that ghost and goblins stuff....she is of her faith. She told me this over 15 years ago but it stays with me....Our folks will sing and praise and cry and get by even after we're gone......I lurve the thought of it.


Well done....director...Darren Grant....KUDOS....I'd happily and readily turn my screenplays over to this guy because HE GET'S IT or at least as far as I'm concerned. And he didn't have any money for this film either. As far as budgets go for major motion pictures. Lions Gate saw the potential but they sure didn't give up much cheddar for it.....though the return was lovely I'm sure....Oh the bidness of the bidness.... Not a big fan of Kimberly Elise, Steve Harris or "pretty boy" Shemar Moore........they acted their asses off for this movie, so I've got nothing bad to say....but my favorites.......Uncle Joe, Brian and MaDea all played by Tyler Perry...do the damn thing. I mean I'm floored by my love for the movie. Even with it being filmed in one of my least favorite places in America......Georgia.....I was able to put that aside and love and I mean love. It was like a warm hug.

And to tell you how out of it I was about this movie and this funny and talented writer/actor.....did not know until the credits rolled, the character Brian, was actually Tyler Perry.

Sometimes I love being a belligerent stubborn ass fool because ..it's so thrilling to discover (happens more times than not). But at least I'm open to discovery....right?

Say it Loud.....I liked this Black Movie and I'm proud



Vera Wang....who dat is? She do nails? I need to get my nails did.

MaDea in Diary of Mad Black Woman

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Caught a matinee yesterday...in the great words of Ron Weasley....."BRILLIANT"

I could feel the excitement of anticipation in the theatre. Goosebumps came to life on my arms as the lights dimmed and that WB logo flashed on scene. Sheer excitement. And though I usually use the saying "Blessed are those who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed" in regards to all the recent so called "Blockbuster movies"....I am happy to announce I went in with high expectations and came out soaring.

Oh my how Harry and friends have grown...The movie has a different feel from the previous Harry Potters...A rough and rugged look. Not so Disney and Magical but more MadMax Beyond the Thunderdome but in the Magical Future. The youngin's might even be a litte frightened of the ever maturing Harry Potter, his crew and his trials and tribulations. Just as it goes in real life....S@%$ get's more complicated, hectic and scarier as we grow. Tis' life. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and my fav....Hermione Grainger (Emma Watson) are a joy to watch.

I loved it and am planning to go see it again.

Thank you J.K. Rowling first and foremost and then all the other folks who gave Harry Potter the greenlight for studio release. Can't wait to own the fourth installment of Harry Potter.

Quite pleased with the whole Harry Potter enterprise..not mad at it.

Professional verses Financial success

What I miss most about the fly apt in New Jersey I gave up to move west…..Singing at the top of my lungs and not having some miserable neighbor knock on my door and complain.

I've been trying to describe my idea of success…it's a hard one. There is professional and personal success...two seperate things. And a subcategory under professional would be financial success. I had this conversation with a friend the other day. I decided personally, I like who I am and how I've grown and how I've come to deal with the lost souls who wander the earth (all of us except maybe Gandhi). So personal success I have achieved and will continue to work on.

Now Professional success...To those who measure professional success in terms of finances, I am certainly not anywhere near professional success. For those who measure success in terms of following ones bliss while maintaining....I am "Queen Dayna bliss follower extraordinaire."

For me personally.... Professional and financial success will be the time where I can more than maintain and financially help my family and friends.... An independently wealthy woman who does NOT have to go into anyone's office everyday to cling on to some ratty six figure job.That's right I said it....six figures wouldn't be enough for me to spend day in and day out in the same office (unless it's my office) Now seven figures....hell yeah, maybe, for a little while but not six......Independently wealth and happy.....Tis' my goal. Though I still ponder all my and other folks ideas of success...

I have one thing:

If you Consider yourself financially successful and your neighbors can still here you actin' a fool in your home...…Reconsider.


Financial success is Janet Jackson sunbathing nude...being completely footloose and fancy free, not worried about anyone watching (or maybe just not caring), tapping her bare ass to the beat of whatever music played in her headphones. If I tried to sunbathe in private....where would I go? And how paranoid would I be that someone would see or pounce on me. Janet in her world, was safe and sound. Although turns out not only was someone watching, they were recording her because I've seen the video. But I'm thinking more of her financial successful state of mind than the reality of someone violating her personal space in such a manner...the video has been downloaded to my computer...sorry Janet but I think the video is great.

Get down girl, go 'head get down!

All my ideas of personal and financial freedom and success and yadda, yadda would go right out the window if I had little ones to feed. Do what ya' gotta for the chirren's you've brought into this world. At the moment....no kids are going hungry for my dream fulfillment.....I need several big checks on the table before I extend my family......Keep Hope Alive.

An Open Letter...revisited

this is a previous post (7-28-2005) but my ears are ringing with pleasant anticipation for the resurfacing of one of my all time favorite artists, so I must post this again...

LAURYN HILL

Yea though you walk through the valley of fools who ridicule that which confuses them. Know this, God's child..Your battle is not to make fools understand or to school humans on the art of humanity and Karma. You are only responsible for a mastering an understanding of self and remembering to appreciate this responsibility as it is the single most important task for every individual in the world. No matter how famous, talented, rich, poor, weak, strong, infamous, angelic, demonic or whatever. It is then that these wooden soldiers of society will either crumble around you or get in line and march to your tune...Pay them no mind and continue to rhyme.

Peace, Love and Happiness,

Dayna

Honey Child!!!!!!!!

I snuck in the conference room at work and caught most of the Oprah show today.

Okay, so I have marinated in issues of closeted men for most of my adult life. It started with the reading of E. Lynn Harris' first novel, "Invisible Life". And just recently in my thirties I have been able to get a grip (because I was trippin') and then I see this drama on Oprah.

Best selling writer, Terri McMillan's ex-husband Jonathan Plummer decided he was gay three years into the marriage. And admitted today on Oprah that he engaged in homosexual acts while married to her. OH MY GOD!!!! If you realize your gay well into the marriage....please leave before you ACT on your feelings. Her ex-husband claims he didn't want to hurt Terri's feelings. I don't care what he says, he wasn't trying to leave that cash cow and I'm sure he's loving his U.S citizenship. Why are we always trying to have our cake and eat it too. Karma is no joke. I don't care how young he is and how he needed to find himself, he's not being honest to her or himself about his reasons for going out and putting Terri's life in triple the danger than if he wanted another woman. Triple, Quadruple and then some.

I just started dating again and it makes me ill...It really does. The risk .....The risk...The risk of AIDS is the main issue I have..aside from the lying and being betrayed...what this male may have bought home on the tip of his you know what because he lacked the courage to just kick in the door and tell that woman he is leaving right now because Vagina repulses him. I love a gay man who is repulsed by a women's family jewels. It's upfront and honest. This is really disgusting and horrifying..Please...

Open letter to the man I wind up with.......If during our relationship you have an epiphany and want a man or another woman or a goat or a sheep or whatever...please dig deep into your inner power supply and find the courage to either:

A. Come to me and tell me and let me decide if I can deal with it. (which of course I'm not)
or
B. Pack up all your belongings while I'm away and then come find me and tell me you're no longer into this and let me go through it on my own.

But don't bring down the wrath of God on yourself by lying and cheating and jeopardizing my life because you didn't want to hurt my feelings. I can deal with hurt feelings...I can't deal with infections and cooties. And that is that. Don't cheat...just LEAVE.

I understand finding yourself or realizing your this or that or you may not be who you thought...That's life. Hey, me too! But...handle it like an adult with sense not like the Friggin' cowardly Lion.

People keep saying how crazy Terri McMillan is because she's acting like a betrayed woman.....I guess I'm crazy as well, because I would really have to go on to some mountain in Tibet and meditate for three years to keep from....who knows what.

I will say this for Ms. McMillan....Some of the best novels come from serious hurt and pain...I was doing my thing last year when I was all depressed. But it's still in the pain reservoir...I'll call on it soon. She'll have a good one to write when she sits still for a minute and starts working through all of her "Cheating Gay Ex-Husband" pain. Keep hope alive.

Though I have to say honestly when I first saw Terri McMillan's husband years ago...you couldn't tell me he wasn't gay anyway..same with Vivica Fox's ex. Just my opinion. Not stating any facts.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Officially a California resident..

I don't have medical coverage, my taxes are a MESS, I make all kinds of illegal U-turns out here and I jaywalk like a mug .....but I certainly took a detour on my way to work this morning and made sure I was a part of the decision making on Governor Shwarzenegger's (sounds so strange) reform agenda. And I read the little Voter book that came to my house to try to get as good of an understanding as I could from all that proposition this and propostion this drama. These politicians and the ads they ran on tv certainly tried to confuse the ever-lovin hell out of us po' dumb voters.....but I read when I feel like it and I don't have a television...so.....I felt like reading all about Propostion 74-80.....and my head promptly got to hurting after I finished. So no matter the outcome I put my 1cent in. I try.

If you're not part of the solution your part of the problem


If a quote could die from over use, I would be the murderer. The above quote is noted as an African Proverb but one of my dear (currently inactive) friends used that line on her beau in front of me one day and it is by far one of the best lines ever.

Pop - JARHEAD

I had absolutely no expectations or preconceived notions about this one...just had nothing else to do. And although I'm not into sending America's children into war to fight foreign children in their homeland to take control of things that don't belong to us. I do like a good war movie....MOVIE.......fiction.....MOVIE. Though I don't think I'll go see anymore war movies when there is a war going on. If the movie had been a whole lot better....I would be a whole lot more disturbed.

I flat out didn't care for Jarhead. I like Black Hawk Down better and I didn't really like that one either. Jarhead is far from a timeless classic but it is timely. I don't know what the filmmakers or studio tried to do here. Were they trying to take advantage of the fact that there is a war going on and for this reason a war movie be it good or bad will wind up making big money. Or are they just trying to upset the family members of soldiers at war right now. Because they certainly didn't intend to entertain an audience or raise any level of conscienceness. Whatever the case, I wish I had snuck into this movie so my ticket wouldn't help the numbers. People actually booed and gasped at the end of the movie. It's a shame because Jake Gyllenhaal (who didn't annoy me like he did in "The Day After Tomorrow"), Jamie Foxx...and all the supporting roles did what they could but it seems the movie was hopeless way before these actors even agreed to sign on. Jarhead, was a boring cliche with no character development. I didn't care or feel for any of the soldiers aside from feeling for the real soldiers in the war now. It did leave me with a bit of a petrified pit in my stomach in regards to the behavior of men at war. It left me wondering if men really behave like big bi-curious, attention deficient disorder perverts when left on their own without women while trying to hide their fears. I don't even care to comment further on this movie. The script should've been left on the shelf. Movie executives must be forgetting the concept of RED LIGHT....because a lot of crap is getting the GREEN LIGHT. And when I think about how much time, effort, water, food, sand, natural and unnatural resources etc....were used to make these "advantage taking" movies, it makes me nauseous. If it had to be made, I would accept it easier were it an independent film. A major motion picture it is not. I don't care how many major motion actors they tried to squeeze in there.


I could rip on this movie a whole lot more but I don't feel the effort.