Zoller

Boys Don't Cry – 1 Star (Terrible)

How can a film produce an Oscar winning Best Actress performance and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and still be a terrible movie?

Easy, just fail to deliver an important message involving understanding and knowledge when you have millions of moviegoers who are glued to your presentation.

Give Kimberly Peirce credit for tackling an extremely controversial subject in Boys Don't Cry, the true life story of Brandon Teena, a transgendered teen who was born a woman named Teena Brandon that preferred life as a male until it was discovered that "he" was born female.

To say that this is a disturbing and powerful film is much more than an understatement when Brandon's biological identity becomes known, the script gives us an all too familiar scenario of events: betrayal, humiliation, rape and murder.

Please, Kimberly Peirce, if there is to be a subsequent controversial movie in the offing, do not repeat this scenario as it only reinforces all of the stereotypes, prejudices, bigotry, stupidity and transphobia already present in our society and culture.

(I am not sure what the phobia is for transgendered people so I simply created transphobia because homophobia means an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people, which is not what we are talking about here.)

In fairness to Peirce, Boys Don't Cry was her first film as a director, and she shared the screenwriting credits with Andy Bienen. Peirce drew some minor praise for her direction and script with the Stockholm Film Festival's Best Screenplay Award and even a Best Film nod from the International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

However, artistically this is not even an average film and certainly not a pleasant viewing experience because of the R-rated violence, including an intensely brutal rape scene, sexuality, language, drug usage and murder. Good grief, Lucy would have been aghast!

The point is that none of this graphic violence would have been needed to make this a great and moving film that engenders more understanding and compassion rather than being a disturbing drama with romance gone wrong.

Kimberly Peirce is not the first director/writer whose effort in a dual role breeds more failure than success. Any trophy she won for her directing and writing effort in Boys Don't Cry is metal without real meaning because it does little to help viewers better know and understand the transgendered community.

Peirce (terrible rating) joins the non-so-exclusive club of fellow writer/directors who have fallen short, including Vanessa Parise (average rating) for Kiss the Bride, Peter Weir (average rating) for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Nancy Myers (average rating) for Something's Gotta Give, Thomas Bezucha (average rating) for The Family Stone, Michael McGowan (average rating) for Saint Ralph, Jared Hess (terrible rating) for Napoleon Dynamite, Robert Rodriguez (terrible rating) for Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Paul Thomas Anderson (terrible rating) for Punch-Drunk Love.

The absolute worst of this lot is Punch-Drunk Love.

Boys Don't Cry must have been a low-budget movie because the star of the film Hilary Swank reportedly earned $75 a day for the filming and walked away with a paltry $3,000. Let aspiring actors know that Hollywood is not all glamour and wealth.

Hilary Swank delivered even though the movie did not. She earned both Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actress Awards as Brandon Teena. Swank also won another 18 lesser Best Actress Awards.

Chloë Sevigny played Lana Tisdel, Brandon Teena's love interest in the film. Sevigny earned both Best Supporting Actress Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and won another 7 lesser Best Supporting Actress Awards.

Every female in the film auditioned for part that Hilary Swank won over hundreds of other actresses. Katherine Moennig who plays the part of the lesbian playgirl Shane on ShowTime's The L Word, a lesbian drama, also auditioned for the part.

Swank is no longer a name but a force in the acting community. She earned a second Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe for her part as the struggling waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby, which also earned Clint Eastwood another Oscar as the Director.

Hilary Swank is only the fifth actress to win two Oscars in her first two nominations as Best Actress. She joins Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field and Luise Rainer.

Swank brings to her roles the legendary, tenacious preparation of Dustin Hoffman. Swank dropped her body fat to 7% for the role as Brandon Teena and then went into serious training and put on 19 pounds of muscle for her role as Maggie Fitzgerald. She is athletic, having been a swimmer and gymnast of note growing up in a trailer park near Bellingham, Washington.

Boys Don't Cry is a sad, disturbing movie to watch, not just because of the subject matter but because the way it was presented nixed any opportunity to increase knowledge and understanding about the transgendered community.

Because of the violent explosiveness of the film, viewers are left to choose up sides and launch multiple topics of debate which regrettably settle or advance nothing.

It is like getting a group of overreactionary people together to settle the right way to think about pro choice-pro life issues, all of which is like civilization running in neutral gear when it could be moving forward to better knowledge and understanding of the critical issues people face in their ordinary lives.

This is not a job for a talented Hollywood scriptwriter; it is a job for someone more enlightened than a Hollywood scriptwriter.

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Ed Bagley is the author of Ed Bagley's Blog, which he publishes daily with fresh, original articles on Internet Marketing, Jobs and Careers, Movie Reviews and Lessons in Life intended to delight, inform, educate and motivate readers. Visit Ed at . . . http://www.edbagleyblog.com

# posted by magnuszmspyqb @ 10:38 PM 0 comments

It is a vegetable that has its origins in the wild celery from the Mediterranean basin. The celery has a thick and pulpy rhizome, reduced aerial stem and big, green pinnate leaves.

It is a cultivated plant, used as a nutriment, but also as a medicinal plant. For the therapeutic recommendations are used the roots, as well as the leaves and seeds. Also it is used as an aphrodisiac, febrifuge, hypotensive, in urinal retention, kidney disease.

These uses are due to the content of minerals and sodium (55mg %), calcium (235mg%), potassium (50mg%) and phosphorus (60mg%) salts, vitamins: A, B1, B2, C and microelements: iodine, magnesium, copper.

People say that the celery rejuvenates, as it stimulates the adrenal glands.

Therapeutic features

The celery's roots are very useful in renal affections and for cardiovascular affections. It is also recommended in case of obesity because it eliminates water excess from tissues.

Having hypoglycemic properties it is a very good anti-diabetic.

For intestinal problems it can be used as a laxative and diuretic in this way: boil 40 grams of leaves in a liter of water. Filter and drink a cup a day. As a drink, can be consumed 100 grams in the morning before eating. Also, for diuretic effects, drink 2-3 cups of decoction made of 30 grams of roots and rhizomes per a liter of water.

For ophthalmologic affections drip on the eyelid some celery tea drops.

Tonic wine: is prepared of a shredded and macerated root, left for 48 hours in a liter of white wine with 100 grams of sugar. Drink 2-3 glasses of this perfumed wine. It has a diuretic, as well as a tonic effect.

Chilblain baths: boil an entire shredded celery in 2 liters of water for about 45 minutes. The frozen parts are held in the decoction as hot as it can be. It can be reheated and used 3 times a day. The treatment lasts for 3-5 days.

The rhizome and roots can be consumed raw. They act as a laxative, aphrodisiac and decrease arterial pressure.

The decoction (is made of 100 grams of celery - leaves and roots - at a liter of water) and the tincture (shredded celery roots - 30-50 grams of celery per 100 grams of alcohol, are left 7-10 days to macerate) are used to treat skin disease.

Celery benefits - find out more about herbs on www.liveandfeel.com

# posted by magnuszmspyqb @ 4:21 PM 0 comments

In todays retail market digital signage is one of the fastest growing communication media, allowing brands to talk directly to a responsive captive audience at the point of sale. Retail chains are translating the static advertising and brand messages into in house digital signage delivering real time content to shoppers.

Interactive Digital Signage: Imagine walking around with a friend in your favorite mall. There is a digital signage showing up some advertisement and some strangers are standing in front of it. Suddenly you see that digital signage changes its content to adapt your interest and you stop to catch a glimpse on it. You see an advertisement presenting a discount for an IPod you are interested in, and you take out your mobile phone, activate your blue tooth to make a connection to the display and copy it to your phone. While your cell navigates you to the location where you can buy the IPod, you and your friend wonder how the digital signage can always present you content or advertisement that you really are interested in. This is the latest in the digital signage where user profiling is done on the basis of customers interaction history and buying pattern.

Enhanced familiarity: Digital signages are designed by companies who have decades of software experience but a little retail store background so the software can be state of art but content lacks impact. As such there is growing need for retail shop owner to go for digital signage firms who can deliver technology as well as enhanced content rather then irrelevant advertising messages.

Point of sale: Digital signage also point of sale advertising is a powerful tool for retail market owing to the fact that 60% of purchase decisions are made shop itself so its necessary to go for carefully executed consumer centered digital signage. Brand recall and increased sales easily comes with a digital signage solution.

Its always wise to go for digital signage solution firm which understand your business and brand value well enough and helps you choose the right solution.

http://www.belwo.com

# posted by magnuszmspyqb @ 9:05 AM 0 comments

You know that game that counselors like to make you play, where you stand with your back to someone, close your eyes, and fall backwards trusting the person will catch you and not let you fall? This is what open adoption can feel like in the beginning, except you have no reason to trust in the person who is suppose to catch you because its a stranger. They havent done anything to gain your trust and likewise, youve done nothing to earn their trust in you. Blindly, a birthmother trusts in the strangers to love her child as their own, to let her know hes happy and to never deny her existence. Likewise, adoptive parents trust in a stranger to give up her child, to make them a family, and to never tear them apart.

Taking this first step of blind trust takes enormous courage, respect and love. This is the foundation successful open adoptions are built on. But after those first steps are taken, a birthmother releases her child into the care of another, and adoptive parents open a line of communication to reassure the birthmother of her childs happiness, step by step trust is built, respect grows, and the love that brought everyone into this arrangement blossoms for the benefit of a child.

Its been 20 years since I took that first frightful step. My son was born on April 5, 1985. It was a time when the term open adoption was virtually unknown. Those who were trying to start communications between adoptive families and birthparents had no road map to follow, no guarantees. It was simply a new idea that sprung from the pain and regret that closed adoptions had created. The idea that birthmothers who relinquished their children could forget it, put it behind them and move on with life was proven to be wrong over and over again. Birthmothers could no more forget their children then they could forget they have legs.

For me, I knew I could not let go of my son without knowing he was loved and happy. I needed some way of confirming that I had made the right choice. I put too much love and sacrifice into making the choice for adoption to just leave my sons life to chance after his birth. All I had to offer my son was love. No home, no father, no income. Just love. The realization of this brought me to my decision. I loved my son enough to put his needs before my own. Keeping him would be for ME. Giving him a home and a family, choosing adoption, would be the best for HIM. Working with my counselor, I knew the family I chose for my son had a home, I knew he would have a mother and a father, I knew they would be able to provide for him, what I didnt know was if they would love him.

I HAD to know. I needed to know. There was no way I would be able to live with myself until I knew. I waited a full year. When the package came I tore it open, photos of my son, their son, smiling, laughing, sleeping peacefully, floated to my lap. There were two letters, one from his father, one from his mother. They expressed their love, their gratitude, their joy. To further express their gratitude, they offered me the one gift they could give: they baptized my son with the name I had given him in the hospital. By doing so they not only honored the fact that Joseph's life had begun with me, but allowed him to keep a piece of those precious few days with him always. I thought it was perfect. He wasn't just my Joe anymore, he was their Joe too. In her letter, his mother wrote: "children are not really ever ours, they are just entrusted to us for a time by God." I had taken my leap of faith with her; she now was taking her leap of faith with me. I could not have respected her more for it.

For twelve years we took those steps together, we openly shared our hopes, our dreams, and our fears. We learned to trust, to respect and to love each other, and by example, our son grew to trust, respect and love. At the age of 12 he requested to meet me face to face. His parents and I shared our fears at reuniting at such a young age, but ultimately decided to trust in each other, and Joe, and we made it happen. Holding Joe in my arms again was one of most amazing moments of my life. I cried, I kissed the top of his head, I cried some more, then I remembered he was still just a child and this blubbering woman suffocating him was probably scaring the pants of him! I backed off, and we started to talk. The next day we had some time to talk alone and when I asked him why he wanted to meet me (fearing that dreaded question, "why did you give me up?") his answer was simply, "I missed you."

On the day he graduated from high school, we celebrated our journey together. All the years of questioning my choice were washed away as I listened to his accomplishments and watched the joy and pride in his eyes. During the ceremony his principal asked all those who had loved and supported the graduates in their journey to this moment, their parents, to stand and be recognized. I thought of Joe's parents and how thankful I was that he had them. Joe's father was on my left, his mother on my right. They each looked at me, took hold of my hands and we stood together.

Open adoption is no longer a destination without a plan. It's found a happy ending and those entering into this arrangement today have stories such as mine to guide them on their journey. While it still requires the courage to step in front of a stranger and trust in them to catch you, knowing the potential for love and respect will give you the strength to go ahead, and fall.

Patricia Dischler is the author of Because I Loved You: A Birthmother's View of Open Adoption (Goblin Fern Press, 2006). For more information on the author and her books visit: http://www.patriciadischler.com

# posted by magnuszmspyqb @ 2:49 AM 0 comments