And while the Pew Research Center predicts that people who aren’t affiliated with a religion will decline as a portion of the world population in coming decades, researchers say atheists, agnostics and the like will continue to grow as a share of the population in countries like the U.S. and France.
Even still, the majority of the U.S. population in 2010 said that they pray at least some, with about 1 in 4 Americans saying they pray several times per day.
Seeing the state of our union today, perhaps a little more prayer wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It appears that more people prayed in better, happier times.
IS THAT YOU? Is the story of RONNIE, 60 year old Israeli film projectionist, who has been fired from his job and is going now to the U.S. in a search for RACHEL, the love of his youth. IS THAT YOU? Is a romantic, road trip journey to ‘The Road Not Taken’ in life created by Award Winning filmmaker Dani Menkin (HBO Cinemax-39 Pounds of Love, Je Taime, I Love You Terminal, Dolphin Boy) Jewish Film Festival
You see, Ronnie and Rachel though separated for 30 years, once made a vow that whatever might come between them they would meet up for Rachel’s 60th birthday. After being fired and realizing her day was near, the laid back Ronnie decided to take up the pursuit at the urging of his more demonstrative brother.
When Ronnie’s borrowed car breaks down en route to searching out Rachel, a young film student happens upon him offering to fix, yes, fix his car while asking him to be interviewed for her film project. Ronnie thinks she’s nuts but goes along with it . Both being of film backgrounds, she offers to drive Ronnie in her own borrowed car (van) to help him find Rachel while the two make some very entertaining stops for filming during a long, circuitous route to Rachels. Does Ronnie ever find Rachel? We highly recommend you find out. The movie is an adventure, a philosophical tale, and a double love story (‘Is That You?’ has already played at the Jewish Film Festival but it will surely be available in theaters and/or video.) Meanwhile the film festival runs through Sunday and most movies appear to be winners, certainly the three we saw, Is That You, Marvin Hamlish and Run Boy Run (reviewed in next blogpost).
The movie is excellent on several different levels, offering the audience take with them some potential life changes. The movie provides an hour and a half of pure escape but also offers philosophical questions we might ask ourselves about real would-be, could-be life-changes.
1) It asks the question ‘ Do you have any life regrets’ to those interviewed in the film, while serving as a catharsis for them while providing a good philosophical question for the film audience to ponder, one that they might work on as a possible life-changer
2) Not to spoil the movie, we are reminded in a stark way that ‘life is short’ and we should, perhaps, act and take chances NOW before it is too late, as Ronnie did. We won’t say more other than Ronnie made this decision and, no doubt, it was a good decision for him , despite a later life event.
3) We see an interesting interaction between a man and a woman of two different generations, one not based solely on sex and attraction. In fact, that is almost left out of the equation until the end. It’s about two people going about their own paths, less travelled, who just happen to meet up each not expecting anything to come of it. Something does come of it , but that thing is not shoved in our face, as in so many movies, and we never really learn what eventually happens to the two. Again, that is left to the imagination. A freshingly fitting ending we think.
MARVIN HAMLISCH: WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE
The movie included the soundtrack of Hamlisch’s life, going from his early successes with movie scores for people like Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford to harder times, but during it all, Hamlisch was still beloved by his many friends and fellow musicians, who paid him great tribute. Three things particularly come to mind after watching a beautiful movie/tribute about the life of Marvin Hamlisch During the Contra Costa Jewish film Festival March 8 Sunday 2015 (Century 16, Pleasant Hill) (2013, no doubt available now elsewhere)
1) While being one of the premier songwriters and arrangers of our time, Marvin Hamlisch had a real zest for life and wanted to experience ‘ it all.’ Whether it was especially food or music, Hamlish loved all kinds and styles. ‘There was no Bad music, only good music’ he said. He wasn’t a snob about classical being better than popular. It appeared he lived his life that way with people, too. ‘Give everyone a chance.’ He was a positive person and always had good things to say. He was kind and generous, all his friends and fellow musicians repeated in the movie.
2) His song from one of his film scores was something about ‘while we still have the time’… And that was about doing things NOW , to experience life while you can.
Hamlisch certainly packed in a lot during a premature 68 year life. He said one of his songs best summed up his life, the conflicting ‘The music is me or I am the music’ was his inner conflict much of his life ….
3)Relationships were perhaps the bain of Hamlisch’s existance. As much as he sought out true love amidst all the love songs he wrote about, Hamlisch could never find it, despite dating some of the most beautiful, talented women. Finally, when his career was waning in the 1980s , as was his love life, he finally met the woman of his dreams, Terry, on a chance blind date. Though, the funny thing is that they never actually met until months after talking for hours on the phone. But, by the time they met , he Hamlisch felt like he KNEW her enough he proposed just before she opened her front door of their first meeting. She said yes. Terry said what attracted her to hamlish was his kindness and unassuming nature . She recalled when they were first supposed to meet he told her he had to pick up some cleaning when it fact he was going to accept a big award. After writing iconic love songs like ‘Memories’ and soundtracks for movies like ‘The Way We Were’ and ‘The Sting’, Hamlisch finally was able to live out his last years with the love that had escaped him for so many .
Perhaps Hamlisch was one of those rare people, both genius and humanitarian, who seem to often leave us too soon. Robin Williams is another who comes to mind. Perhaps they’re just TOO GOOD, TOO KIND if there can be such a thing, and while their flames burn brightly they don’t last long.
New Holocaust Movie Should Make People Take Stock of MidEast Today
For this recent movie-goer, RUN BOY RUN was emotionally-wrenching. Scene after scene almost made me one to escape myself – the theater that is. From the scene when Jurek’s new dog and travel companion is shot by Nazi’s to Jurek’s severed hand that he loses only because the Nazi-sympthazing doctor refused to operate are emotionial enough, yet there are many more scenes I had to endure – scenes in which Jurek comes within inches of being caught, and then, in the flashback , having to watch his Dad give himself up to the Nazi’s so Jurek can RUN in the opposite direction, and only after excellent guidance and instructions from Dad.
Anyone with a compassionate heart would once again be reminded of the terrible atrocity of World War II. To think that this kind of stuff was happening only 70 years ago is hard to believe. But worse, to see this same sort of thing happening again today, a short 10 years since 3,000 Americans were burned to death not in a Nazi concentration camp but a towering inferno called the World Trade Center at the hands of equally vicious religious extremes . How more and more people and politicians, especially Jewish ones, are quickly forgetting these recent events while criticizing Israel opposition to US dealings with Iran and other terrorist countries which threaten to wipe out Israel is rather unbelievable, we believe.
Film Review: ‘Run Boy Run’
Lauf Junge Lauf Run Boy Run (Variety.com)
FEBRUARY 25, 2014
Ronnie Scheib
Based on a bestseller that was itself based on a true story (the real-life protagonist appears under the end credits), “Run Boy Run” sticks faithfully,
albeit highly unimaginatively, to its source. For his Holocaust saga of an 8-year-old Jewish child cast adrift in Nazi-occupied Poland, vet German helmer
Pepe Danquart relies on the pathos inherent in the situation to carry his film emotionally as the kid’s struggle for survival increasingly reflects the
Jewish people’s struggle to maintain their identity in the face of genocide. A natural for Jewish viewers and older arthouse-goers, “Run Boy Run” feels
too old-fashioned and by-the-numbers for a wider audience.
Srulik (played by twins Andrzej and Kamil Tkacz) escapes the roundup in his hometown to hide out in the woods. He hooks up briefly with a small bunch of
Jewish kids also on the run, who have banded together to forage off the land, roasting stolen chickens around a fire and keeping morale alive by swapping
displays of bravado. But after an unsuccessful chicken-snatching raid results in the capture of some kids and the scattering of others, Srulik once again
finds himself alone as bitter winter and the Gestapo close in.
Calling himself “Jurek” to disguise his Jewishness, he seeks temporary shelter or employment at a succession of farmhouses, encountering slammed doors
and an occasional odd job until he arrives at the home of Magda (Elisabeth Duda, excellent), wife and mother of partisans, who teaches him everything
he needs to pass as Catholic. Magda is the closest the film ever comes to an authentic character. Even Jurek, in virtually every frame of the film, is
defined almost solely by his will to live, functioning mainly as a witness to events with little personal coloration or interiority.
By the same token, the people whom Jurek encounters on his desperate, years-long wanderings function like a running tally of relative Polish
innocence or guilt in the Holocaust, rather than distinct characters. Thus, when a farm accident costs Jurek his arm, a “bad” doctor refuses
to operate because the boy is a Jew, while another, “good” doctor tends him and helps him to escape.
Danquart’s anecdotal, checklist-style approach furnishes fodder for the simplest kind of identification with his hero, and the sheer presentation
of these terrible grievances may prove sufficiently empathy-inducing for the target audience. Changes of tone, although possible, are rarely pursued;
in the film’s one foray into humor, the handicapped Jurek delights in inventing more and more outrageously heroic stories about how he lost his arm,
but this entertaining, tale-spinning talent disappears without a trace. If the Tkacz twins’ thesping never hits a wrong note, it rarely provides access
to any process of consciousness. Even the character’s ultimate choice between assimilation and the assumption of his Jewish heritage reads merely as a
choice between signposts. For this recent movie-goer, RUN BOY RUN was emotionally-wrenching. Scene after scene almost made me one to escape myself – the theater that is. From the scene when Jurek’s new dog and travel companion is shot by Nazi’s to Jurek’s severed hand that he loses only because the Nazi-sympthazing doctor refused to operate are emotionial enough, yet there are many more scenes I had to endure – scenes in which Jurek comes within inches of being caught, and then, in the flashback , having to watch his Dad give himself up to the Nazi’s so Jurek can RUN in the opposite direction, and only after excellent guidance and instructions from Dad.
Anyone with a compassionate heart would once again be reminded of the terrible atrocity of World War II. To think that this kind of stuff was happening only 70 years ago is hard to believe. But worse, to see this same sort of thing happening again today, a short 10 years
since 3,000 Americans were burned to death not in a Nazi concentration camp but a towering inferno called the World Trade Center at the hands of equally vicious religious extremes . How more and more people and politicians, especially Jewish ones, are quickly forgetting these recent events
while criticizing Israel’s opposition to US dealings with Iran and other terrorist countries which threaten to wipe out Israel is rather unbelievable,
we believe.
Perhaps that I take life more serious than others today has something to do with not only losing my family but probably more with the way I was ‘raised.’ I’ve since learned that kids of domineering, perhaps ragaholic parents not only have a much higher rate of depression but also have greater trouble in relationships, often never marrying (or jhaving bad marriages) and not having kids (or having dysfunctional ones, themselves) . After being ‘beaten down’ as kids we often have no interest in taking on children . (I tell people I’m still trying to live out the REAL childhood I never had and not I’m ready for kids, yet. Ha! ) I’m not one to play the blame game , accusing my late parents for later troubles I’ve had -in fact, I always tried to put differences behind me while continuing to help my Mom and Dad with e.g. medical issues, etc. to the end – but it is a reality that people from dysfunctional homes look at life differently than kids from more ‘normal’ upbringings.
In many ways I have no regrets. Life is not just one silly selfie for some of us,today. While I like to laugh I believe it’s important to QUESTION things,especially today, as I see things in society changing for the worse. Perhaps I’ve become less a follower and more of a QUESTIONER has something to do with my dark past. Perhaps after having seen more wrong in my own life I’m more aware when I see wrong in societal life. After spending decades living life thorugh others’ lenses I ‘ve grown tired of accepting other’s ‘values’that I don’t agree with.
Perhaps going thorough a life of challenges has given me a more critical eye and SURVIVING what I’ve been through, not to mention my own past medical issues (which pale when compared to my parent-controlled upbringing) makes me view life with deeper meaning while I try to squeeze more out of every moment. It’s too bad in one way that it takes much sorrow and h eartache to bring awareness but , in my case, I can say that it’s given me a deeper appreciation of life, the little and big t hings that are often overlooked by many. Had I not ‘paid dues,’I might be happily married with 2.2. children myself.
But, I have no regrets. This is the life I’ve been dealt and I look forward to the remaining years being the best yet. Now, finally, I can call my own shots , be with whom I want and not having to please my parents anymore.
It’s something I rarely discuss with others as most people come out of more ‘normal’ upbringings and would probably not relate to what I have to say. But, growing up as I did can contribute to one turning inward and introspective, in my opinion. For example, I’m less accepting of mainstream societal trends of the day, especially what I call a ‘decaying’ culture we live in today. Many ‘normals’ will overlook societal ‘lies’, if you will, e.g. administration, sports, etc. while people like myself may question what we see as wrongs and, in my case, harkening back to a simpler, happier time I remember as , yes , a child – in spite of my parents (Up to the age of 13 I did seem to manage to have a happy ‘other ‘life ‘ thanks in part to good friends and a good period to grow up in, i.e. the 1950s and early 1960s.)
Frankly, while I miss my family, I don’t miss some of the forced family occasions such as Thanksgiving and other holidays when family (including secondary relatives) supposedly get together to give thanks but really end up feeling worse. That’s me. That was my late dear sister,too, who , of the same parents went through a similar upbringing as I, and thereby lends credence to these feelings of mine. While, ideally, it would be nice to get together with people of like persuasion, I rather enjoy more quiet times alone or with few good friends rather than being with others more out of habit or expectations (as I did most of my life) than my own wanting. As more of an Indian than a Chief, it’s nice to be free of the many Chiefs in my extended family telling me what to do as if my way didn’t count. So, for those who claim loneliness, especially known to occur during holiday seasons, might take new hope in rewiring their alone-ness- not loneliness
Many will complain about being so alone over holidays. Yes, ideally, it’s nice to be with other like-minded people, but save for that I’d rather be alone than thrown together with other non-like-minded people. Perhaps this is MY FAULT for being different – albeit a different caused by circumstances largely out of my control. So, I will enjoy my holidays this year finally doing things I LIKE, such as taking in old movies, music, etc. , rather than following the latest trendy things so many follow in line to do. I played that ‘following’ role for years and years trying to do ‘what’s right’ but if it’s fulfilling those other than yourself I think it’s time to finally move on and LIVE WHAT YEARS I HAVE LEFT.
There are many blacks who are fed up, though unfortunately far too few are unwilling to speak out. Frederick Wilson II did speak out and it’s worth a listen!
theblacksphere.net
6 – THOMAS SEWELL – Dismantling America
7 – ALAN WEST – Racial Cherry Picking
8-TIM SCOTT
9) STAR PARKER (WITH ALAN WEST)
10) BONUS:
BARACK OBAMA’S BROTHER – LIKE TWO PEAS NOT IN A POD
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprising to see so much negative reaction to the Ferguson outcome.
First off, there didn’t even have to be a Grand Jury but the prosecuting office went the extra step to
aleve those who thought the ‘victim’ got a raw deal.
Further, we thought the way the prosecutor laid out the course of actions in a twenty minute preamble
rather than the normal practice of just coming out with a decision was a great way of trying to soften the blow.
And, choosing to make the dicision late in the day wouldn’t have made any difference. It seems to be just
another thing for the ‘victim’side to complain about.
Bottom line is that at the rate things are going in society things will never get better, only worse as
they appear to be doing. Two ‘sides’ couldn’t be further apart. ‘Victim’ side simply coming out, repeatedly,
with ‘An armed cop killed an unarmed black man.’ If only it were that simple we wouldn’t need a trial or
anything.
PHOTOS OF DARREN WILSON BRUISES FROM ALTERCATION WITH MICHAEL BROWN
WERE HELD BACK UNTIL AFTER VERDICT, UNLIKE CONTINUED PRE-VERDICT BAITING
FROM ‘VICTIM’ SIDE INCLUDING HOLDER AND OBAMA
And it’s almost a miracle that the police officer was exhonerated what with all the pressure
from the mainstream media and even the President and Department of Justice’ Eric Holder, coming out
with repeated, skewed statements. Even after the verdict, Obama spoke about not being violent but then
stating out he could ‘understand’ the black reaction (while on the split screen we saw the most violence
ever in Ferguson as 10 buildings and multiple cars were torched, stores looted and multiple rounds of
gunshots fired. Luckily nobody was hurt. Obama states how the racial situation in America has gotten so much better during his lifetime, yet what has he done to improve it. A recent survey showed that both blacks and whites find race relations worse now than when Obama took office.
ENTITLEMENT CULTURE GIVES PEOPLE EXCUSES, BLAMES OTHERS RATHER THAN TEACHING PROBLEM SOLVING
People seem to constantly overlook that these so-called victims are actually exascerbating
situations. Had Michael Brown not stolen items from a store and beaten the store owner – and then
even waited for the cops to come so he could confront them, as reported – there would never be
these situations. In the Travon Martin case (which didn’t involve a police but a Hispanic ‘vigilante,’
if you will,it wasn’t so clear cut, but here you had a guy stealing
and then, apparently, being physically confrontational with a policeman- and a 6 ‘ 4 ” 300 pound man
vs a cop about half his size. Even IF the police officer in question WAS guilty of being overly-aggressive, the whole incident would have never happened had Brown not stolen and then beaten the store owner, which brought about his calling the police. Minor details but why don’t we hear Obama and others harken back to the old family values he spoke about when he first came into office?
We’re not talking about Southern lynchings anymore but cops having to defend themselves against violent
criminals, of whom they have no idea whether they’re hiding a gun or not. It’s split second reactions
that count. Apparently and hopefully the Grand Jury testimony is accurate and the office used measured
restraint before feeling he had to shoot the victim. What if he hadn’t and the victim was able to
grab the officer’s gun – as nearly happened, per reports? Give the cops just a little more credit
and encourage family values, as possible to the ‘victims’ side just a little more we say.
The entitlement culture is taught to take full advantage of the gifts given out today and to blame others for any problems that occur. Minorities continue to be mired in poverty as they have for decades, despite legislation and government aid to improve their lot. Welfare and handouts were never intended to be a career choice but that’s where we’re at now 50 years since President Johnson signed the first public assistance bills in 1964. Yet, the plight of the black man has NOT improved. Perhaps it’s gotten worse. President Clinton was able to cut back welfare and increase job training but it seems much of that has gone by the wasteside as Obama has added to the ‘free lunch,’ increasing welfare and food stamp rolls, while encouraging folks that the ‘government will take care of you.’
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy where Obama and his ilk is actually keeping down the poor and minorities
rather than really helping them. He may have them believing that he’s helping but he’s not.
It’s way past time to teach jobs and ‘no excuse’ mentality.
KENNEDY’S SECRET SOCIETY SPEECH – This is a portion of the speech that President John F. Kennedy gave at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on April 27, 1961. “The President and the Press” before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
KENNEDY ASSASSINATION
– I Saw How That One Moment
Changed America, Timely Secret Society Speech
Time magazine’s cover story is titled “The Moment That Changed America,” and it features some newly discovered color pictures of the Kennedys riding through Dallas before the fatal shots rang out.Reporter David Von Drehle writes the piece, calling the tragedy on Nov. 22, 1963 “shocking beyond almost anything else in American history.” I would say that the moment’s resulting aftermath was even worse – how it dramatically changed, or contributed heavily, to the largely rudderless, schizophrenic society that followed in it’s wake.
I remember as a 10-year-old kid in 1962 my mother taking me to see President Kennedy at University of California, Berkeley, for the charter day address. I didn’t really appreciate at the time what the President was talking about or the magnitude of his presence there. All I know is that there were 50,000 presidential admirers packing the UC Stadium , taking time off on a week day to be there for the President of United States. Can you imagine 50,000 people showing up today for our current president or any other modern president since Kennedy, for that matter?
It was rather eerie but interesting – thanks TO modern technology – to be able to listen to this Kennedy Charter Day Address 50 years later, from March 23, 1962 , and really understand it for the first time. Here’s to you Mom, for bringing me to this historic date. If I think having seen President Kennedy made it even worse and harder for this boy to fathom when we lost President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Presidents weren’t supposed to die. Yes, I remember not being able to finish my school lunch of macaroni and cheese when the news came down . It was a major blow that would have a significant impact on the rest of my life. Yes, my life — perhaps all of our lives- changed on that day. I felt life wasn’t the same as it was. They call it the end of innocence. I guess you could say that. The optimistic, happier times were over as society moved into an era of contention and even violence.
One cannot say whether the angrier tone in society that followed would have existed had Kennedy lived. Pres. Kennedy brought with him an optimism carried over from the postwar era that we haven’t seen since. they say the music died in 1959 when the plane with Buddy Holly, pop icon, went down. One might say that everything else went down on November 22, 1963 when Kennedy died. Since then, despite major efforts , legislation and millions of dollars to try to correct social iniquities and other problems in society, things have only gotten worse. Time does not always heal and, sadly, we have not healed since the death of our beloved President Kennedy.
One can Note the changes in society reflected in our media, music, movies and so forth which have taken on a significantly edgier tone since Kennedy. The crime rate has more than doubled. Today we are a less educated and more violent society then when Kennedy lived. One would think that 50 years time would be time enough to correct those underlying problems in society that were simmering when Kennedy lived but things have only gotten worse rather than better with no foreseeable hope on the horizon. Throw all the taxpayer money you want at problems today it’s not going to bring us back to the hopeful and optimistic days they called Camelot of the early 60s when people left their doors open for their neighbors, children played in the street and life was much simpler and happier.
KENNEDY ’50 YEARS’ T-shirts Now Available – Give a memorable gift and keep this great President ‘s memory strong. Also, customise your own Posters, Mugs, other wearables and specialty media
Interestingly, outside of the south, even the races seemed to get along better in the early 60s than they do today despite all the newfound understanding and social programs developed in the past 50 years. Bussing, welfare, food stamps… Nothing seems to help, if anything, they make things worse. We’ve seen flashes of a return to the Kennedy during the presidencies of Clinton and Reagan but those times were fleeting and without the real Kennedy impact. all of our technological, medical and so-called educational advances have not helped to right the ship. No, Kennedy was not perfect by any means, but he instilled those Christian values, if you will -basic core values not seen in 50 years that brought us together during the postwar era.
Despite what many considered a handicap in being Catholic, Kennedy was still able to unite all religions and races unlike any leader since his time. Can simply having the right president in office right all society’s wrongs? Of course not, but it can go a long way. Without opening up Fort Knox, Kenndy remained a friend to all races, colors and creeds. Even without major social legislation at the time, Kennedy was able to instill in minorities a sense of hope and success. During his presidency unemployment was lower than it is today and without the ‘benefit’ of millions of dollars in aid. Outside of the South, ask minorities who lived during the Kennedy era how they felt race relations were then as compared to now and They’ll tell you that things were better then.
WILDWOOD DAYS, sung by Bobby Rydell , is said to have been ‘the song’ that ushered out the Kennedy Era. (Dr Demento and others ) Rydell’s Cameo Parkway label spawned and capitalized on the dance craze of Kennedy era America It was a big hit at the time with upbeat lyrics and music reflecting the feel-good Kennedy Years. Celebrating the fabled amusement park in New Jersey, as WILDWOOD DAYS began fading from the music charts,so came the disintegration of Camelot – the JFK era of hope and optimism.
President Kennedy was a man who did make a real difference. Yes, one man can shape a nation and Kennedy did that better than anyone since. Politics didn’t matter- what a change from today, both democrats as well as republicans admired Kennedy. The likes of a man of the stature of Kennedy have been sorely missed ever since we lost him on that fateful day , November, 22, 1963. I remember it well. One man’s memories and thoughts.
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