All Time Favorite Films

I could not pick just 10 of my all-time favorite films, so here are the top 15:

1. Amelie                                             – 2001 France

2. Spirited Away                                – 2001 Japan

3. Kikujiro                                          – 1999 Japan

4. Fifth Element                                – 1997 France

5. Lawrence of Arabia                     – 1962 United Kingdom

6. Dil Chahta Hai                               – 2001 India

7. Dune                                                – 1984 United States

8. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?    – 1966 United States

9. Blade Runner                                – 1982 United States

10. Quadrophenia                             – 1979 United Kingdom

11. Tampopo                                      – 1985 Japan

12. Smoke Signals                             – 1998 Native American

13. Deadman                                      – 1995 United States / Germany

14. Chinese Ghost Story                   – 1987 China

15. The Matrix                                    – 1999 United States

Hindu Sidewalk Theater

A local Phoenix, Arizona Hindu youth group performs a short sidewalk theater piece offering a life lesson

This local Hindu youth group from Phoenix, Arizona, who studies Swadhyay together, performed a lesson for life for this sidewalk theater performance. Swadhyay is a religious group that exemplifies finding God within one’s self. The performance in Hindi without subtitles was about maintaining your path to a moral end and not being distracted by superstition, false promises, materialism, and remaining a positive influence on others. Thanks to Hemu, who translated for us.

Violent Meat

Rarely do I have nightmares, but tonight was one of those rarities. It is not so much the content of the dream I want to convey here today but what might be the impetus behind the ugly dream. On these occasions, when my dreams are filled with violence, it could be typified as being of brutal carnage. Often, the scenes in the nightmare are warlike; they start with pursuit and end with some type of bloody death. It was no different this evening, except the methodology of the last killings was telling, at least in regards to what I have thought might be the trigger of these types of dreams. The method of killing was what appeared to be an electric or high-pressure staple gun; on waking, I could not be certain that it wasn’t a bolt device.

These dreams with gory violence only occur after I have eaten a large piece of meat or a large portion of ice cream. Due to not eating meat for breakfast or lunch and then only eating it at dinner one to two times a week at the most, I have enough vegetarian days where I also remember my dreams, and I do think that on those days, my dreams are devoid of gore. The dreams after eating a vegetarian meal may still be intense, but I cannot remember once when my dreams turned so horrific that I forced myself awake due to what I was witnessing or what was about to happen to me.

The question I would like to pose here in this posting is, has anyone else noticed in transitioning to a more vegetarian diet that they can distinguish a trend in their dreams where violence accompanies their dreams after having consumed animal products?

Bollywood Night

The poster for The Rising, a new Bollywood film starring Aamir Khan in the window of the local Indian grocery Indo Euro in Phoenix, Arizona

This is the poster for the new Bollywood film The Rising starring Aamir Khan. Often, we first learn of new Bollywood movies from the posters that are on the storefront of our friend Sonal’s Indian grocery store, Indo Euro Foods, on Bell Road in Phoenix, Arizona.

The movies play in Tempe at the Tempe Discount Theatre, and at $9.50, it is anything but a discount. The film got going at 9:30 p.m. and was over just before 12:30 in the morning. Aamir as Mangal Pandey, a historic figure in India’s fight for freedom from English rule, was great in the movie, but the music left something to be desired. Caroline and I both enjoyed the movie and agreed that, with its heavy focus on history, it’s probably not going to do well with the young crowd. Not in my top 10 favorites from Bollywood but definitely worth seeing.

Watched Movie at Home

From our TV an image from the beginning of Pennies from Heaven with Steve Martin, this is the second time this year we've watched our TV

This is the beginning of the film “Pennies from Heaven” with Steve Martin, which is only the second movie this year we have watched together on our TV. “Pennies from Heaven” is a musical that is a difficult film to fathom since it was made knowing how uncomfortable Americans are with this genre. Generally, we want our actors to play the same stereotyped roles we have become accustomed to seeing them in. Steve Martin is a lonely salesman on the road looking for love while breaking into musical numbers taken from old black-and-white films. This movie was a surefire bet for failure.