Celebrating The Week With Gratitude – A Celebrate The Small Things Blog Post

“Gratitude” by Allroads
http://goo.gl/xVlNy9

I hope you all had a wonderful week. If you did, why not participate in the “Celebrate The Small Things” Blog Hop and share with us what you are grateful for?

What am I grateful for this week:

I am grateful that I am back on track with my daily exercise. I try to walk a minimum of 12000 steps a day, but when we were all sick that was not possible. Now, thanks to my favorite motivational tool ( the Fitbit Charge) and the fact that we are all well, I am back to my regular routine. At least when it comes to exercise.

I am also grateful that my son has decided to become a vegetarian. That is totally his choice – my daughter switched to a vegetarian diet when she was 12 as well, and now is a vegan – but it makes it so much easier to cook every day, because now instead of cooking for one meat-eater, one vegetarian (me) and one vegan – the only meat I have to cook is for the dogs, unless my husband is home, who is staying on the standard American diet – well, at least for now, there is hope there too.

I am grateful that there is more leakage of the Suicide Squad movie – well, the shooting of the movie to be exact. I can not wait to see Jared Leto play the Joker. As both a Leto and a comics fan (both Marvel and DC), I am so happy for any snippet of info I can get my hands on.

What are you grateful for this week? Is there something you are really looking forward to, or something you experienced that still leaves you in a state of glee each time you think about it? Please share, we all love great news – oh, and do not forget to stop by all of the other wonderful bloggers who are participating in this blog hop.

Blessings

Claudia

P.S The above gratitude poster was designed by Allroads and is available here. Please support independent artists!

“Artifact” – My Obsession With A Significant Documentary (A Review)

Title: Artifact

Genre: Documentary

Rating: 5/5 Stars

I was introduced to Jared Leto via my daughters love for his band “30 Seconds To Mars”, and was hooked, even more so when I saw him in “Dallas Buyers Club” as the beautiful, transgender Rayon, marvelously brought to live by Jared. If you have not seen “Dallas Buyers Club”, you have missed out. But I regress. What I really wanted to write about today is the documentary “Artifact”

Essentially, this movie is about the band, their struggle to get a fair contract with their recording studio and them being sued for 30 Million Dollars as a result. On a deeper level, this docu shines a light on the world of greed, the status of the music industry and how we as consumers of the music should be aware that our habits of wanting the product as fast and as cheap as possible, make it harder and harder for an artist or a band to make a living making music. It is a wake up call to anyone who wants to be a musician, to become proactive before making any decisions of signing on with labels, and to have a clear understanding of what they are getting into.

 

The movie is also a statement of perseverance and continuing drive to create songs despite the circumstances. I consider this movie essential to be viewed by anyone who wants to work within the music industry, may it be on the artist side, or on the producing side.

The movie is available on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play. Downloaded, talk about it, play it, but pay for it. Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.

 

Groundhog Week – Lessons Learned

Today’s Question is: If you could relive the past week, would you? Would you change anything?

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams

A week of obstacles, a week of lessons learned, course directions made, and new bright futures discovered. Could I have lived without the despair of betrayal, of course. Did I learn from that, did we, my husband and I, as we are rising above the trials of owning our own business? Plenty. Our patience and perseverance has taught us lessons about our own strengths, lessons I will not take for granted. These are stepping-stones from which we can build upon.

If you are not willing to accept lessons, learn to see that failure is not that, but an opportunity, then you, my friend, have no business in business.

This is a daily prompt post “Groundhog Week”

Alexander (The Movie) – A Review

 

Movie: Alexander

Release Year: 2004

Director: Oliver Stone

Rating: 5/5 Stars

I have always been fascinated by Ancient History. It was my favorite subject in school, and is my favorite subject to teach. Out of this reason, and many others, I decided to watch Alexander, directed by Oliver Stone, in its extended cut version, today.

While of course this is a movie rather then a documentary, produced by an epic, and larger then life director, it is essentially the story of a great man. There are sure ways the execution of it could have been done better – rather then switching back and forth within the time line, it could have been done linear, but the care it showed for each individual character was superb. As a fan of Jared Leto, I was drawn to his performance, which was as I expected exceptional, as the best friend, and essentially true love of Alexander. Colin Farrell gave an charismatic, emotional and convincing performance, even if it was considered controversial, and I have a feeling not well received because of that. Glad, that I had only heard of a hint of the controversy about the movie and its main characters relationship with two males, to whom he was closer then any woman, I saw only the depth of their relationship, rather then the dissatisfaction that others have expressed about the film, because of it.
The fight scenes where epic and grant, nothing less is to be expected by an Oliver Stone project. Sometimes the gore was much, but war is not pretty, and should not be described as such, and back then it was even more personal and therefore more explicit. Maybe it also hinted on stereotypes when it expanded to include the people of Asia, but it is after all a movie from the view of a limited worldview, of the times of the beginning of exploration, rather then after it.

In all I really enjoyed the movie, I enjoyed the care of portrayal of each characters, the emotion, the visual execution, and its depth. Having one of my favorite actors, and musicians in its cast (Jared Leto), was the icing on the cake.

S Is For Starstruck

While I admire many people in the creative arts, there are only two at the moment in who’s presence I would turn into a starstruck fan girl, should I ever had the good fortune to meet them. Mainly because I admire them further then just the creative endevour of their many accomplishments, but also as people, with a depth, and character qualities that I think of as high in value.

One of these people is probably not surprisingly Joss Whedon. As a creative artist, he has accomplished much, sometimes despite of what others might have thought. Perserverance has brought forth some of the most highly acclaimed television shows and movies. But beyond that, he has shown a care for others, specifically for women’s equality causes, which has earned him my admiration. Let me share as an example his “Equality Now” speech with you:

 

The second person I want to write about is Jared Leto. While his music through Thirty Seconds of Mars is widely acclaimed, and I am surely a fan of his songs as well as his acting skills, it is his thoughtfulness for his family and his dedication to both venues he chooses to express himself in, that inspires me the most. His documentary “Artifact” showing a deeper look into the music industry and how artists struggle to get fairly compensated for their art – fighting at times both ends, the labels who are obviously into making profit, and those who illegally download and share the hard work of the artists.

Here is the trailer:

It is currently available through itunes and Amazon, watch it, even more so if you are thinking about working with or in the music industry.