The Story Teller

Archive for October, 2010

‘You have to keep an eye on pleasures. Make sure you are enjoying them rather than them controlling you.’

-Engelbert Humperdinck

I’m not much of a cook nor do I watch shows about cooking or anything like it. I can remember only two movies with ‘cooking theme’ that I enjoyed watching. Aside from ‘Woman on Top’ starring Penelope Cruz, I got to watch Simply Irresistible starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

It was about a young woman, Amanda (Gellar) who inherited a small restaurant which was not doing very well. Then one day, he met a man who sold her a crab which led her to meet a department store executive, Tom, played by Sean Patrick Flanery.

The movie was kind of magical. I like the part when Amanda was preparing some food and she puts her emotions into her cooking that made it taste so good. The smell of her cooking made people sad, happy and even fall in love. The movie was fun and absolutely romantic.

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Some time before Christmas, a man scolded his 3 year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold paper to wrap a box and put it under the Christmas tree. His anger, however, turned into embarrassment when the little girl gave the box to him on Christmas day as a present.

But his irritation came back when he found the box empty and in an annoyed tone told his daughter that if she’s giving a present there is supposed to be something inside. The little girl immediately said that the box wasn’t empty as she blew kisses into the box for him because she loved him so much. The man embraced his daughter and asked for her forgiveness.

A short time after Christmas, the little girl was killed in an accident. It was said that for many years, the man slept with the box wrapped in gold beside him and every time he feels sad, he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss in memory of his loving daughter.

Source: www.indianchild.com

Picture taken from the internet

‘Love is irrational. The more you loved someone, the less sense anything made..’

-Stephenie Meyer, New Moon

Photo courtesy of apod.nasa.gov

Well, I’m not really sure if my choice, Coming to America, will qualify for this week’s theme. But, I can’t remember watching any movie aside from this one which emphasizes a person’s American dream come true.

Well, this is about an African prince, Akim (played by superstar Eddie Murphy), who came to America to find his true love. Since he didn’t approve of the tradional way of finding a bride for the heir to the throne, he went away, together with his friend Semi (played by Arsenio Hall) and found his bride, Liza, by himself.

This is a fairy tale about a prince falling in love with an ordinary girl. Where’s the American dream? Oh, well.. It was actually Mr. Dowell, Liza’s father’s American dream that came true, lol!

It may not exactly fit this week’s theme, but it sure is a great movie to watch, lol!

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“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, and driving through in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get the job you need, to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day, so you can afford to live in it.”

-ELLEN GOODMAN in the Boston Globe
(taken from the Reader’s Digest, December 2007)

I hope it is not so obvious that I like karate films or films with ‘butt-kickings’ in them. But, yes, I like those films, that’s why among the 1980s movies that I watched I chose to feature ‘The Karate Kid’ for this week’s theme.

Released on 1984, The Karate Kid was the original version of the remake of 2010. It starred Ralph Macchio playing Daniel LaRusso, as the newcomer and Pat Morita playing Mr. Miyagi as the handyman of the apartment Daniel and his mother moved in.

As Daniel got friendly with Ali played by Elisabeth Shue, it provoked her ex-boyfriend which led to Daniel’s entering into a martial arts tournament. He trained under Mr. Miyagi and won the contest.

It also featured one of the most popular songs of the 80s, ‘Glory of Love’ by Peter Cetera.

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Have you been to a dark room? A room so dark that you can not see anything? How do you feel?

Well, that’s how important our ‘eyesight’ is to us. And that’s what Helen Keller lost when she was 19 months old and contacted a disease described as ‘an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain’ which might have been scarlet fever or meningitis.

She lost not only her sense of sight but also her sense of hearing. But with the help of her teacher, Ms. Anne Sullivan, she learned to read and became the first deaf-blind person to have a Bachelor of Arts degree.

She was an author, a political activist and a lecturer. She campaigned for women’s suffrage, workers’ rights and socialism. She was born on June on June 27, 1880 and died on June 1, 1968.

She was one great person and her life story should remind us how our lives should be lived, FRUITFUL and WORTHWHILE.

Built from 1904-1914 and one of the most difficult engineering projects ever built, The PANAMA CANAL is another evidence of man’s ingenuity.

It joins the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean and serves as a shortcut cutting the travel from 22,500km around Cape Horn to 9,500km. It consists of artificial lakes, artificial channels and three sets of locks.

As far as my comprehension takes me, I think a ship has to get inside a lock and the lock is filled with water from the artificial lakes. The ship then rises up as the water does and will then move on to the next lock and the next until it finally crosses the entire canal.

The work originally began in 1880 by the French. The project, however, did not push through as many people died of malaria. The work was totally abandoned in 1893. The United States then continued the project on May 4, 1904 and was finally opened on Aug. 15, 1914.

I am not really sure if I would have the chance to see the Panama Canal in person. But with the advent of destructive things men had been building lately, the Panaman Canal is a great reminder how men can do so many wonderful things that make life better.

Well, I’m not really sure if this is an Autumn movie, but I remember some scenes when dried brown leaves were being swept by the wind so I assumed it is qualified for this week’s theme, lol!

Casper is simply one of my favorite movies OF ALL TIMES. I love the cast, Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci and of course the ‘then’ cutie pie Devon Sawa as the human Casper. I love the setting, as in the scary house which I find not scary at all and the theme song, Remember Me This Way by Jordan Hill.

I found the movie cute, funny and of course… moving for its simple father-daughter drama.

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