Manhattan Short Film Festival! One World-One Week!

For film buffs, I stumbled across a unique event happening world wide. From September 26-October 3 2010, over 100,000 people will participate by attending cinemas, galleries and cafes to view and vote for the finalist in the Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival.

Seven continents, one world-one week. Be apart of the experience!

For viewing locations: Click here

For media blogs, there is a contest held that is completely free. Enter with the following; one three minute video, on site photos, and last 250 word review of the films at your local cinema. Exciting, don't you think? Enter here

For more information on this extraordinary event, visit msfilmfest.com

Now go and support your film industry!

My Rec for DVD rental; The Stoning of Soraya M.

The Stoning of Soraya M. (Rated R-strong violence)

Cast and Credits

Shohreh Aghdashloo-Zahra

Mozhan Marno-Soraya M.

James Caviezel-Freidoune

Navid Negahban-Ali

The movie is set in Iran (1986) and centers around a journalist who is stranded in a small town due to car failure. While he is waiting for the mechanic to repair his vehicle, he is met by an older woman desperate to speak with him. Considered to be crazy, she is forced away from the journalist by the mayor of this small Iranian village.

It is not until the journalist is alone, that she is able to coax him to her home where she can speak freely to him. Agreeing, he notices two small girls playing in the older woman's courtyard. The woman explains that the children belong to her niece, and it is her niece that she wishes to discuss. She begs to be recorded, to which the journalist obliges.

From there, the story takes place and recounts the horrific events that lead to the stoning of an innocent woman; her crime is adultery.

The film is powerful to say the least and what is even more disturbing is that this occurs to this day, to many women all around the world. The injustice that is placed against young girls and women anger me to no end. And you simply need to change the name of this movie to any other name of the countless number of young girls and women, who die each day at the hands of their own father, husband or relatives.

If you have netflix, the film is available for instant view and I urge you to take a few hours out of your weekend to watch this compelling tale of mistrust, lies and eventual betrayal.

An interesting fact; the story is true and the journalist, French-Iranian Freidoune Sahebjam's 1990 book, La Femme Lapidee, brought light to this dark past. (He is known as being a war correspondent and reporting on war crimes.)

The book The Stoning of Soraya M.

Official Trailer:

Blog Blogger Hop! Aug 27-30!

In the spirit of twitter follow friday, Jen over at Crazy For Books has started

a fabulous way for bloggers and readers to find each other, blog hop

and have fun.

This week’s question comes from Books Are a Girl’s Best Friend “Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?”

A: Why yes we do! Danny over at Dreamy Blogs created it for us; see those cute stars on the right? When it comes to book reviews, I think a rating system is completely appropriate. I don’t want to just say, buy the book. I want to give you an idea how much I liked the book by the amount of stars I give. I may like a book, but only give it three stars. And as a buyer, I do look at the rating given when reading other people’s book reviews (we do not do any book tours, we buy all our books). Three and under, I probably won’t read/or buy the book. So yes... it matters to me and is most helpful.

So if you are new and just joining us. Please let us know in the comments and Aloha!!

The Fallen 1 by Thomas E. Sniegoski

Genre; YA, fiction, Nephilim and craziness

Summary: On his eighteenth birthday, Aaron begins to hear strange voices and is convinced he is going insane. But having moved from foster home to foster home, Aaron doesn't know whom he can trust. He wants to confide in the cute girl from class, but fears she'll confirm he's crazy.

The book essentially is split into two stories; the first half focusing on Aaron and what he is and the second half, his adventures.

I don't want to spoil any of the major plot points, but you do see the cover, do you not? There is a hot looking guy with wings? Yeah, it's about angels.

With that being said, I adore stories of nephilim, angels, battles between God's creations, even forbidden love.... but I did not enjoy this one.

Let me actually retract that.

The first half of the book was great. I enjoyed getting to know Aaron and I was eager to understand what/who Aaron really was. Obviously by his nightmares, there is more to the kid than meets the eye. And the dog, Gabriel. The absolute star of the book. Sad, huh? Aaron's interaction with his dog had me laughing and the dialog between the two was completely comical. (I'm pretty sure that is how my 80lb lab would speak too, if she could communicate.)

But then I got to the second half of the book, Leviathan. What the LL Kool J was that all about? The first half makes sense. It introduces you to the character, the nemesis, the agenda behind the madness. The second half of the book is straight out of a Stephen King mini-series on TBS. It's like if you took Dean Koontz and Stephen King and they were able to have babies, and they did... that would be Leviathan. I felt myself scratching my head and asking where in god's name did my angels go? Plus... it was just boring. I struggled sooooo long with this book, I swear Mockingjay came and gone. That's how long it took me to read this book.

So no offense to anyone who enjoyed it, it really was well written, I just didn't. As I said, I did like the first half. BUT! The second half just about killed me, so though I have the urge to only give it 2 stars, I'm going to be generous and give it three because of The Fallen (the first half).

Suz

One Lovely Blog Award

The wonderful anjohnston over at Down The Rabbit Hole (which is a blog name that I adore) has given us a wonderful gift. See that lovely award above? We curtsy in acceptance of it. Thank you!

Now here's how this works... Pass on the love.

1) Accept the award, then post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or blog link.

2) Pass the award on to 15 other lovely blogs.

3) Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know that they have been chosen for this award.

So let's begin, shall we?

1) Bewitched Bookworms I love these gals. Like a lot. And if they recommend a book, chances are that I will enjoy it too. I've known these smart and witty women for quite some time and I'm happy to pick them as numero uno.

2) The Norwegian Book Girl I really like the look of her blog, it's easy on the eyes. Plus her reviews and post are kick ass. Need I say more?

3) Page Turners They are very active on twitter (which is where I get MOST of my updates.) Love them for that.

4) Babbling About Books, and More Again, it's more than just book reviews. The blog is very informative and it's the only blog that I subscribe by email to. See how much I love them?

And there you have it!!

Mockingjay Is Here!!!

Noe has been chosen. Let the rebellion begin!

Book Blogger Hop: Aug 20-23!

In the spirit of twitter follow friday, the book blogger hop is a wonderful way for book bloggers and readers to find each other. Thanks to Jen over at Crazy For Books, for creating a unique way to share our love for the written word.

This week’s question comes from Libraryscatbooks. “How many blogs do you follow?”

Currently we follow 52 blogs, but that number increases every friday thanks to the book blog hop. Sometimes an author will re-tweet a book review, and honestly I have found a few really great book blogs that way as well.

What about you? How many do you follow and how have you found some of the book blogs that you’ve recently discovered?

Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan

Genre; young adult, freak show fiction, dark fantasy

Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare is the first book in a twelve book series.

I was drawn to read the book after seeing the movie last year. Unfortunately, I never got around to picking it up. Until now...

The book starts off as we follow two best friends, Darren and Steve, to a mysterious freak show that comes to town.

During the performances of the freak show, they notice how unusually weird but real the performers seem to be. Darren becomes mesmerized by one performing spider, Madam Octa, which leads him to act callously and stupid. He ends up stealing the spider and from this decision, leads to the unfortunate adventures in the book.

I really liked the whole idea of a freak show coming to town, though in real life I would not be caught dead at one. But what didn’t work for me was the addition of vampires, and even more so, half-vampires. I just don’t understand how one can be a half-vampire, but that’s just me.

Overall the book was okay and the plot moves quite fast, though the overuse of exclamation points was starting to work on my nerves.

But... I will say this. I am curious enough to continue the series and do recommend that you give the first book a try.

Noe

Rooney Mara Gets A Tattoo!

So E Online is reporting that Rooney Mara has landed the coveted role as Lisbeth Salander in the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Did you know that Kristen Stewart was on that list of actresses hoping to land that role? Yeah, I didn't know either.

What do you think? To be honest, I saw the Swedish version and I really liked Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth (though Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist was pure yuck for me). She had the exact body type that I pictured Lisbeth having. Very petite, yet fully able to kick ass when ass needed to be kicked.

This will be an interesting movie, I'm curious to see the American version brought to life. I've read the first two books of the trilogy and I really liked the plot line as crazy it became. (Yes, I love the books. I am woman, and I am not offended in any way by the books.)

Side note: In the Swedish movie version, there were a few minor changes from the book that really upset me. The movie does not do the book justice, and though the book is very long, it's an enthralling read.

So bottom line is, are you looking forward to this movie?

UPDATE: 7/20/11 So, I thought I would update this post because my views of have changed since then. First, I have finally seen ALL three of the Swedish films and I'm completely in love with them. 
BUT, I have also seen the trailer for the American version with Daniel Craig and I am not even going to lie... I desperately want to see it!! Now, I know it's just a trailer but it looks amazing!!! So I thought, I'd add it here since occasionally we get a person who stumbles across this older post. My main point is that I'm a fan of the books and Swedish or American, I adore seeing Lisbeth Salander come to life. 

Here's the amazing trailer by director David Fincher!!

EAT PRAY LOVE directed by Ryan Murphy

EAT PRAY LOVE (Rated PG-13)

Cast & Credits

Liz Gilbert-Julia Roberts

Richard-Richard Jenkins

Stephen-Billy Crudup

David-James Franco

Felipe-Javier Bardem

The movie brings Elizabeth Gilbert’s NY Best Seller book, Eat, Pray, Love, to life and rightfully so with a brilliant cast. (After all, if I was going to pick someone to play me, why not pick Julie?)

Listen, there are plenty of people that will backlash against the idea or notion of a woman having a mid-life crisis of sorts, picking up and leaving everything she knows and loves to go and find herself. But that is what Elizabeth Gilbert set out to do and that is the exact concept behind her book. To find herself, because she was drowning in utter sorrow.

After a failed marriage, Gilbert tries for a moment to rediscover her passion for love and has a short fling with David (played by the ever so handsome, James Franco). Even though David is considerably younger than her, extremely good looking and over all a very nice guy. Gilbert is still not happy, and in a sense it’s not him-it’s her, it’s definitely her. With this revelation and still very much swimming in a sea of sorrow, she explains her idea to her best friend (her publisher) that she will leave for one year and visit Rome, India and then Bali to try and rediscover her passion for life through food, meditation and a toothless master guru in Bali .

Side note: Now what you don’t see in the movie, is that I presume since Gilbert is already an established author, that this presentation is actually a pitch for a book deal and most likely used her advance to pay for this trip. Plus, if you knew a head of time you were writing a book, would your adventures be slightly skewed by a hidden agenda?

Nevertheless, I found this movie to be simply beautiful. I’m not going to lie. And for the record, do not torture your husband with such. Take a dear friend because this is a chick flick by ten-fold.

I mean honestly, who can hate on Julia Roberts and that very infectious laugh and smile. She gives an outstanding performance and her supporting cast was nothing short of spectacular. Probably one of the most endearing moments in the movie came from Richard Jenkins (who plays an older gentleman that she befriends at a meditation retreat in India). In a very surreal moment, Jenkins finally confesses to Gilbert his reasons behind his self inflicted exilement and in that moment we realize that not only is this adventure about Gilbert helping herself, but about Gilbert helping others. It is through the people that she meets, the relationships that are formed, the tears that are shed, that we learn that life isn’t always about just us. It is about all of us, together sharing one larger experience.

And so I leave you with this. Don’t put too much thought into whether or not you want to see this movie. Just see it. The cinematography is breathtaking, the acting is flawless, and overall the story was heartfelt. In the end, it is her experience not yours.

But that does not mean you can’t live your own Eat Pray Love adventure. Try an exotic dish that you have feared in the past. Spend sometime in devotion, even if it is for a few minutes in your bedroom while the kids are screaming in the hallway. Have a love affair with your husband. But lose yourself once in a while, and in turn you will rediscover, whatever that may be.

By the way, I embarked on my own little culinary adventure (practice what you preach) and had Thai food for the first time.

I did not like it and my right eye began to burn really bad from the chili oil.

But!

At least I tried!

Suz

I give this movie...

Book Blogger Hop: Aug 13-16!

Jen over Crazy-For-Books started this wonderful way for book bloggers and readers alike to find each other and well... book blog hop!!

So for those that have stumbled across our blog, Aloha! We are happy to meet you!

Today’s question comes from Michelle over at Michelle’s Book Blog. How many books do you have on your to read list shelf?

A lot, too many to count, but a handful of those books consist of classics as well as modern fiction. So the list is infinite and will continue to grow, till we both get old and gray and pass away. Noe is saying I’m the first to go. Whatever!!

How about what’s next for us?

Miss Noe: Pretty Little Liars or Linger

Madame Suz: I’m counting down the days till Mockingjay.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend! Next up, I will try to have an Eat Pray Love experience. I’ll let you know if the movie sucks or not.

Happy Birthday Danny!

This post is dedicated to the lovely Danny over at Bewitched Bookworms. As you can tell, it is her birthday and both Noe and I want to say "Happy Birthday!!!"

Danny and I go way back. Both being fans of Twilight, I stumbled across her blog out in the twi-fandom Let's Ride the Vanquish a long time ago. Her blog was different. It was simply beautiful and elegant and very intelligently written.

Sometime later, I ventured out into the bloggy world and started my own blog: True Blood Twilight (Um, yeah. I still have it and it's where I vent about my obsession with True Blood and anything and everything Twilight.)

Danny was kind enough to help me sort my blog out and eventually made it over into the fabulous layout that it is now. (I swear I love my banner)

From there, she has not only done this layout as well-I Adore Books and Film, but my other writing blog: The Mishaps of a Scribe.

She's a great blog designer, which if you are looking for one, visit her here at Dreamy Blog Designs and as I've always said, a kick-ass-book-extraordinaire.

Happy Birthday Danny!

Our First Award!

Anjohnston over at Down The Rabbit Hole has bestowed upon us, our very first award! Yeah for us! And yeah for Anjohnston for choosing us!

With this lovely award, are a few minor stipulations... Just a few...

1) Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

2) Share seven things about yourself.

3) Pass the award to 15 recently discovered blogs.

4) Contact the blogs to let them know about the award.

Sooo... we're doing 8 and splitting them between us. I know. Why can't we just follow the rules.

We'll let Noe start:

1) I have an obsession for Greek mythology. Like bad!

2) I'm a competitive cheerleader but would much rather dance. Plus I'm too lazy to tumble.

3) I adore cats because they are sassy. Mine has one eye and constantly fights our two 80lb dogs.

4) And last, I'm a vegetarian in a house full of carnivores. It's not easy being a loner.

My turn, Suz:

1) I manage a commercial shopping center in real life, but... Oh. Maybe I should keep my mouth shut.

2) I am an aspiring writer, which I discovered I have a passion for late in life. But better to discover your passion at all, then never.

3) I have an unhealthy obsession with all things French. Never been there, so I have no idea why.

4) My guilty pleasures are reality shows. Shhh! I just started watching Jersey Shore Miami! God help me, please.

NOW! Onto the next recipients! Unfortunately for us, we are still discovering blogs but we thought we'd pick one blog each that we think is unique and well... versatile.

Noe's pick: Teens Read and Write They do book and movie reviews!

Suz's pick: The Naughty Book Kitties This guy makes me laugh, like no other in his reviews!

And there you have it.

If You Could Name The Next Caster Chronicles Book...

Have you ever thought about what the next title to book 3 and book 4 of the Caster Chronicles would be?

I don’t know if you know this, but we LOVE this series! A lot! So we decided to tackle this.

Now, please for the love of God, do not hate on my photoshopping skills. That font drove me crazy!!

But for fun we did come up with our final names for Book 3 and Book 4 of our beloved series.

Shall we?

(Noe picked this name.)

(I picked this one.)

Get it? Based on the Twilight saga, we could only assume that the poop will hit the fan by the third book and the fourth... our happily ever after.

So what would come up with?

Beautiful Creatures

Kami’s twitter

Margaret’s twitter

Book Blogger Hop: Aug 6-9!

In the spirit of the twitter follow friday, the book blogger hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!

Thanks Jen for hosting and a big amen sistah!

This week's question comes from Chelle from the Prairie Library! Do you listen to music when you read?If so, what are your favorite reading tunes?

Oooh. Great question. It's always nice to know what other people do while enjoying or participating in the things they love most.

Noe: I do. I listen to my iPod while laying on my bed reading. My playlist has MGMT, Muse, La Roux and etc...

Suz: Well, I don't think I can have my iPod in while reading, but I do have music playing on my computer while reading. I also listen to music when I write too, and a lot of the times the music will dictate the mood of the character I'm writing. So yes, music is a huge part of my literary world. Btw, Noe stole my bands (she got those from me!) But I also just use slacker radio or pandora to mix it up for me. I use MGMT as the inspiration for my custom radio station.

What To Watch This Week

While Noe and I finish up our reading, let us share a little of the movies that we've watched this week and give you a quick break down of our favorites.

Side note: Noe is currently reading Artemis Fowl by author Eoin Colfer. (Her only comment at this moment, "I thought Artemis was a girl's name." Um, okay. Moving on...

I'm reading The Fallen 1 by author Thomas E. Sniegoski (kinda boring so far) and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Yes, I've never read this and I am cracking up at the way Salinger writes. I love it!)

Anyhoo...

First up, The Men Who Stare At Goats directed by Grant Heslov. The cast is full of win, with George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. Rated R but Noe watched it with me and was only horrified at the death of one goat.

The movie in a nutshell is about a reporter (played by Ewan) who travels to Iraq in the hopes of being able to add his take on the ongoing war. While abroad, he meets up with and teams up with Lynn Cassady (played by Clooney), a contractor with an unusual past.

See Cassady used to be a part of a covert team of psychics that worked for the government. Their goal, to stare at goats and make them die. (Okay, that was one of their projects.)

Bottom line, the movie is a comedy and totally hilarious. I found myself laughing out loud several times. I think it may be so stupid at times, that it's funny. Does that make sense? And George Clooney as this kick-ass-psychic-secret-agent is kinda awesome. He's got serious Jedi skills and between him and Jeff Bridges, I couldn't tell you who made me laugh more! I say rent this and have fun.

Next up, Zombieland directed by Ruben Fleischer. Starring Jesse Eisenberg (who I love, very Michael Cera feel), Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and the young miss Abigail Breslin. Now this is totally rated R for obvious reason, blood bath galore. Noe was not allowed to watch this and she ran like hell out of my bedroom when I put it on.

So, I hate zombies and I hate zombie movies even more. The only zombie movie I've ever watched that I enjoyed, was Shaun of the Dead. With that being said, hubby loves zombies and this was on our to-watch-list.

I'm not gonna lie. I am not a fan of the ripping of flesh, or violent spurts of blood (and yes, I do love True Blood and watch it religiously-go figure) but I can tolerate it in the context of a comedy and that is what zombieland is about. It's a mindless comedy about these four people surviving in zombieland and trying to get from east coast to west coast, in the hopes of making it to some amusement park. That's it. Oh and Woody's character loves Dale Earnhardt, twinkies and killing zombies.

But it was funny and kinda unique for a zombie movie. I loved Columbus (Jesse's character) and his survival list. That really cracked me up. These words would appear out of nowhere and be hidden somewhere on the screen. Here's a few...

Rule 1) Cardio (cause zombies can catch over weight people. Not my words by the, way. That was in the movie.)

Rule 2) Beware of bathrooms (you don't want to be taking a poop and have a zombie try and eat you. That would suck.)

Rule 3) Seatbelts (being ejected through the front glass of your car and into the hands of zombies would also not be cool.)

The list goes on and on and seriously, the movie is just brainless and freaking funny. I recommend renting it! For a full list of zombie rules, go here.

Next up in our queue: Nine and Inglorious Basterds.

Aye Matey, 'Ere There Be A Black Pearl In These Waters...

In case you didn't know, we LOVE Johnny Depp. So, since Johnny is/will be in town soon to start filming his next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean-On Stranger Tides (due out May 11, 2011), we can't help but set-stalk.

A few days ago, something ominous and dark sailed across our south shores of Oahu. My husband had to do a double take, because he wasn't sure if he what he was seeing, was that of an aged vessel. Then after several moments of intense cursing and questioning, the men declared it to be a pirate ship, the Black Pearl to be exact. (How fun would it be to sail this ship?)

The Black Pearl-South Shore Oahu

Photo taken by our friend, Glenn.

Upon learning of the Black Pearl's destination, we flew down to check her out. She's quite... unusual and oddly, cool at the same time.

The Black Pearl getting ready at Kaneohe Bay.

Since the Black Pearl will be stationed here till August 10, we will find Johnny Depp if it is the last thing we do.

We search the length of the Black Pearl for Capt. Jack Sparrow.

No pirates in sight.

Our attempts to disguise ourselves as crew members were thwarted, since we did not have a shirt on that read; Crew member. Damn it, the details!!

We did notice this sign.

Probably not a good place to swim.

We will certainly post any details or photos we come across, should the ever so lovely Jack Sparrow makes his presence know. Wish us luck!