A Tough Movie Review

This is a hard one to review. My husband has been trying to get me to this movie for a couple of weeks but I have been able to avoid it until last night. I knew "The Boy In the Stripped Pajamas" was based on a book but due to the subject, I had never read it, although it has been highly recommended. And due to the subject I knew it wouldn't have a happy ending (you know I need a happy ending!). But the ending was much worse than I ever anticipated!

STOP HERE!

HERE IS YOUR SPOILER ALERT!

Here is the basic story: Time is WWII in Germany. Brunos' father is promoted to be a Commandant of a concentration camp, so the family moves out to the country for the new post. Through a number of situations, Bruno inadvertently comes upon the camp during his explorations of his new home and there he meets a boy, the same age as he is and they become friends. Brunos' parents have completely shielded him from the situation so he has no concept of what is happening around him and to his new friend.

As the movie progresses he begins to learn about the Jews, his fathers role in the camp, and what he is being taught, and he is very confused. At the end, he tries to redeem himself for a mistake he made against his friend (Shmuel) he sneaks into the camp to help Shmuel find his father who has gone missing. However, it is the day that Shmuels' barrack is to go to the gas chamber.

The frantic search of Burnos' family and then the realization of what has happened to him is gut-wrenching. I haven't stopped crying about it everytime I think about it.

The movie is beautifully made and very well acted. Although, two of my favorite English actors were in very evil roles, so now I have to go watch them in the "happy" movies to get the pictures of them out of my mind.

So, I recommend it but with very great reserve. It is not one I will ever watch again and it will probably take me several days to get over it and stop crying.
I am curious, if you have read the book, is this how the book ends? Let me know. SOOOOO Sad!

The final step for the Train Garden

Here are the pictures of the Train Garden with all the props added. Now it feels like it has come alive with all the villagers added. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Village
Train station, water tower, scholl, and farm houses
School with boys playing

Mountain lodge, with deer and Moose

Farm house with livestock

How much fun is this?!?!?!?!?!?

More Pictures of the Train Garden

So now the final step of getting the train up and running was getting all the props added to it. I trimmed all the bushes to look like trees, then added all the villagers and animals. I hope you can see some of them. There is a wedding going on at the church, a snake oil salesman in the village square, Passagers waiting at the train station. By the school we see kids playing. On the farms we see all the animals and on the mountain are all the forest animals.

Farms
Town square

Another shot of the aquare

The blacksmith and general store

Church with wedding

Hope you enjoy seeing it while I have fun playing in it

Southwest Shakespeare Company: "The Winter's Tale"

Just a reminder so you can make plans. My favorite Shakespeare Play, "The Winter's Tale", is being performed at the Mesa Arts Center starting Nov. 28th. Get you tickets soon as it is in the smaller Farnsworth Theater so there will be fewer seats available. This play has everything from drama, tragedy, comedy, romance, forgivness and redemption, miracles, and even a BEAR!. It is the first play to make me cry! Here is a clip to pique you interest:

It is a great start to your Holiday Season celebration! I hope you enjoy it!

You are all AMAZING!!!

I just saw my counter at the bottom of my blog and I realized that I had over 1000 hits in less than a week!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! As much as I enjoy doing this, it is even more fun to know that someone else out there is reading it besides me! Thanks again!

You have got to get this product!

Just a quick blog about this amazing product. I go through alot of produce but about 1/4 of it got thrown out. I saw a news story a couple of weeks ago, on Phoenix's Fox 10 news about Debbie Meyer's Green bags. They gave them rave reviews so I went out the next day with my friend Anita and we bought them. I specifially tried the bananas and strawberries because they are the produce I throw out the most and after 10 days they were still perfect. The bananas ended up lasting over 2 weeks without one brown spot.

If you want to save money, learn to use more produce in your meal planning and then get this product to save your produce. You will also save on gas because you won't have to go to the store as often to get produce. To borrow a phrase from the 70's...TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT!

AMAZING!!!!

One of Australia's movie Gems

Many of my favorite movies have come from Australia. Such movies as, "Strictly Ballroom", "Man from Snowy River" just to name a couple. But of them all, "The Dish" has got to be one of the best and the funniest. This comedy is based on the true story of Australia's roll in the Apollo 11 moon landing.

It stars Sam Neill (who is great in almost everything he does), Patrick Warburton (Puddy, to you "Seinfeld" fans), and several great Australian actors that you wouldn't recognize, but are all great!
The story starts just a couple of days before lift off in July 1969. Parks, Australia has got a reciever, or "the dish", that will pick up the transmissions from the space ship while it is in the Southern Hemisphere. But something goes terribly wrong and they lose the rocket and all the computer data.
Getting it back up and running before the landing, without letting NASA and anyone else know is where the comedy ensues!
They used the actual footage of the moon landing in the movie and I still get a little teary eyed (ok a lot teary eyed) when ever I watch it again.
There is never a dull moment and the supporting characters are very funny. You will even have a small bout of pride in America. If you have seen it here is a little quiz...What did the band play as the American National Anthem? For a great laugh check out this movie!!!!