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
