Dear Moon~

OF COURSE you are good enough, don't you dare squib out! The world needs bowlers such as yourself, think of all the experience you have to back up that raw talent. Do you have a special pair of bowling boots?

I'll have my flippers crossed

Croix

thanks Croix.....I definitely won't chicken out...zero chance of that! I have a "lucky charm" that was part of a game I had major success in 29 years ago under VERY difficult personal circumstances. I remember holding it close thinking "if I can do this, I can do anything!!".. Now I have taken up the game again, it always comes with me. I will keep you posted.....

"the time has come...the Walrus said"

It's definitely on free to air as I dont have any of the paid stuff

Also saw invictus - yes excellent

cheers

Stressless

Hey Croix - You suggested I watch Lion earlier today. Well it was on Foxtel tonight, so I watched it.

It was sad ............ but I do concede that it had a feel-good ending. Anyway it was good.

Have you watched Finding Dory yet?

Dear Sherie~

I'm glad you liked Lion, as it deals with some pretty serious topics it could have been a lot heavier, I however think the touch was exactly right. It has a great ending, amplified by it being a true story with shots of the real people in the credits. Sad - yes, I feel for the brother and all the other kids I guess.

Have you seen Will Smith's Ali?

As for Finding Dory, I'm up to the part where the scruffy duck abandons the bucket to peck pop-corn :)

Croix

Hi Croix,

Yes I have seen Ali, and thought it was okay. As for Dory, I personally have not seen it.

Right now, I'm badly in need of cheering up. I thought perhaps a good comedy. Any suggestions anyone?

Sherie x

Dear Sherie et al.~

Well I'm sorry to hear you are needing cheering, I guess what we think is really funny changes from person to person, anyway I'll pop some in and so oyu can see if any appeal, you can of course look up the details in IMDB or better yet Wikipedia. While I don't have either some may be on Stan or Netfix

1974 Young Frankensein
1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail
1979 Love at First Bite
1980 Airplane
1984 Ghostbusters (plus 2016)
1988 Naked Gun 1
1999 Wild Wild West
2000 Chocolat
2001 Amélie

HTH

Croix

Thanks Mr Walrus for your suggestions. Actually of all those, the only ones I've seen are Airplane, Naked Gun and Chocolat.

The type of comedy movies that I like are in the vein of:

4 Weddings and a Funeral

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Birdcage

Roxanne

The Castle

Please pardon my ignorance, but I am unable to work out what HTH means? I'm thinking its not a movie title.

Sherie

Dear Sherie et al.~

Come on Moon - help a walrus out!

This is taxing the grey matter :)

OK, how about

1986 The Three Amigos
1993 Mrs Doubtfire
2001 Bridget Jones' Diary
2003 Bad Eggs
2010 Going Postal (*my favorite out of these)

HTH2 (Hope This Helps too)

Hello Croix

Going Postal an excellent choice. Terry Pratchett is a favourite author of mine. And the film kept pretty much to the book. Amazing.

Oh gimme a break Croix...it's a public holiday here in Qld. I was sleeping in listening to this wet stuff falling on the roof! wonder what it is.....oh yeah, I think it's called "rain" - haven't seen it here for so long we'd all forgotten!

Anyway you've all got just about everything covered..but what about Murder By Death?

TRains, Planes and Automobiles

Chocolat....isn't funny is it? Which was the funny part? I thought it sensual, dreamy, whimsical, charming...but funny?? I can't remember laughing. I am not much use, because not usually drawn toward funny comedy movies.. but you can't really go past Monty Pythin & Holy Grail can you?.....FETCH ME A SHRUBBERY!!!!!

Feel good movies

Sleepless in Seattle- Tom Hanks

An affair to remember- Cary Grant

Hearts and Souls - Robert Downey Jnr

City of Angels- Meg Ryan

Billy Elliot - amazing stage show

Trying to list funny /feel good movies for Croix - I have to say An Affair To Remember would never have occurred to me. Even the theme song can invoke a huge swell of sweet tender emotions and memories within me..even today I will think of the same man if I hear it...and that movie with Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant.

Meeting at the Empire State Building and then the poignant scene re-created years later by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle..(this time with a happy ending) .oooh too much for this romantic fool that I am!

The original always reminded me of the Great Love Of My Life...and the long-standing "affair to remember" that lasted quite a number of years - after many long years apart, not knowing where or if he was even still alive..I had met no-one to equal him. hearing of my old love story, a well-meaning acquaintance, with the help of advancing technology and social media, without my knowledge, began searching for him. She found him.

No longer lovers, we remain lifelong friends to this day. Yes it was An Affair To Remember.......Moon S x

hey Moon girl,

see happy ending = feel good

Stressless

Morning people....I thought of another movie Croix and his followers might like. but maybe not the younger folk - it's set back in the Swingin' Sixties of London - Carnaby Street and all that....(remember that era Croix?)

"There's A Girl In My Soup"....with Peter Sellars and Goldie Hawn. I liked it particularly because at the time, I was in the middle of my affair with the older married man I mentioned in Affair to Remember (above) and it reminded me of us! One of my favourite lines was when driving a sports car along the mountain top of the French Riviera - overlooking the gorgeous panorama he says

"Do you like it?"

"I Love it!"

"Well, let's go and GET SOME OF IT!".............aah...memories.

(see I can remember them Croix, just on the wrong thread that's all...hehehehe)

Dear Moon~

I'm not going to complain if your aim is bad and a memory ends up here - all good.

That movie ended up with everyone returning to how they were at the start if I remember correctly. Sort of left me wondering what happened, but pretty good nevertheless, plenty of lines.

"Are you going to get me plastered?"
"No, you're scary enough sober"

Same era as Alfie, another with an ending which I was in two minds about.

Croix

You're nearly as good as me Croix, with the quotes! Did you also see the Alfie with Jude Law as well as the original with Michael Caine? Here's more trivia (I have a head stuffed full of movie trivia as you may have noticed)

I first saw Jude Law many years ago (before he became Jude Law if you get my drift!) a simply gorgeous looking young man...played Boysie in an Oscar Wilde tele movie with I think Michael Gambon as Oscar......they made another years later with Stephen Fry...but I think Jude was the young boyfriend in the first one........I thought then what a pretty boy he was! (why does old Oscar keep popping up in our conversations?) wish he was alive today...perhaps he is..perhaps he was re-incarnated and having a wonderful time on earth today!!

Hey Croix,

I was driving down the freeway today and saw that big red sign that says ,

Stop you are going the wrong way and it reminded me of my fav comedy of all time,

Planes, Trains and Automobiles with the hilarious John Candy and Steve Martin

It also reminded me that I haven't spoken to you in a while, although Ive seen you around, the forums.

Hope you are well and everything is ok

No pressure to reply

Stressless

Hi Croix, I don 't have anything to say about art, movies or books, music or anything like that. But I came to visit with you for another reason...

I wanted to thank you for all the times you have treated me with kindness. You helped me feel like what I have to say is worth listening to. Like my words are valid. Like I am a person who has worth. Happy tears. From the depths of my heart, Thankyou Croix. And Thankyou for seeing me in that well that time( I am unsure if you remember, but I do).

Shell

Dear Shell~

Oh yes, I'm not going to forget that well anytime soon, it was really horrible for you, and I was very worried about you and very relieved when it got better.

I suppose part of the reason I got so concerned is having experienced similar myself in the past. Hopefully it is in the past for both of us now.

I am really pleased you came here and let me know how you feel. Thank you .

Of course your words are worth listening to and valid. I've been noticing you helping others here in the Forum and thinking you have a lovely gentle touch.

No need to talk of books or such, you are welcome here anytime

Croix

Hi all,

Thanks for inviting me Croix! This looks like a good place to be. I'll do a little intro....Im a writer but also a drama, history and English teacher....oh and Japanese, which is my current job. I love reading, love the theatre and write for all different reasons. I also like to draw and use all kinds of media but I like aquarelle, acrylic and pen-and-ink. I'm originally South African but a LONG time Aussie citizen and spent ten years working in the Czech republic. My husband there was employed in quite a pivotal role in the film industry so I either spent months alone while he was in London or Budapest or St Petersburg or somewhere on a job.....or travelling with him. I learnt a lot about film in that time. I had terrible accident and after that our always-volatile marriage crumbled and I came back to Australia. I now have a wonderful partner who had been my best friend for 16 years previously. When I write I am fascinated with cycles (a bit of absurdism in there), coming of age stories and stories where people find out they are not who they always thought they were - or the reader find out that the book (character) can't be judged by its cover.

So that's me.....I've ready so many posts from different people here and you all seem so interesting and engaged so I can't wait to share in that.

best

RunGirl

Dear RunGirl~

Thanks for coming here and saying a little about yourself. Teaching drama, English, history and Japanese is quite a portfolio.

I taught computing for many years and that was hard enough - the saving grace from my point of view was there was always mathematically correct answer. I'm not sure of the equivalent in drama. I did a couple of semester drama an awful long time ago and found I appreciated the intellectual side of it but could not act for nuts :)

I don't know much about Japanese, or Japanese drama eihter, except perhaps where is spills over into the popular West, such things as Seven Samurai. This of course from my point of view was an introduction to the samurai/ninja genre, the earliest I remember being Akikusa Shintaro.

With drama, you mentioned in passing absurdism. I think earlier in this thread there is talk about a favorite of mine, Waiting for Godot.

Without having an artistic bone I don't manage to draw or paint, but I'd expect there are others here that do.

Thanks

Croix

Croix, the history of japan is complex especially as it changed so rapidly from feudal and agricultural to capitalistic and industrial. Japan closed itself off form the rest of the world for hundreds of years but allowed researchers to exit to various countries and pick up all they could. When the Americans finally came in with guns blazing demanding trade route , the Japanese were already well versed in their strategies and coped well. they conquered china and Korea and only lost wwII because of the brandnew invention of the H Bomb. All this happened so quickly. Ive written a short story based on one man's experience of it which I would like to turn into a screenplay

Hi Crois et al

Waiting for Godot is a fabulous play, as is Endgame. The Absurdism movement was and is often misunderstood but it is a dagger to the heart of society and its expectations and lack of proactivity.......almost by accident. My stories tend to have a more positive spin to the "cycle" but my book, "Showpony" does not....nor does the protagonist deserve it.

Dear RunGirl et al.~

I prefer Godot, Endgame is a little too bleak for some reason, perhaps because it is set in a a bare (well almost) room rather than outside. As someone who is getting older I'm not sure I'm comfortable thinking about Nagg and Nell's existence :[

Showpony from the title might suggest Michael Cain's Alfie, am I sort of on the right track? The protagonist there was left to rue his actions.

Croix

dear croix,

regrading the right or wrong answer when teaching..... yes...well the things that that get tricky with English and drama, and even history to some degree, which are subjective as opposed to objective marking, You have to rely on a set of (complex) criteria for subjective marking and make decisions guided by those. In creativity there is generally no specific right, only degrees of quality, but there is a wrong .....i have had students completely misinterpret the genre and flunk out badly

Dear RunGirl~

I've never though about the the subjective subjects having a 'wrong' though I guess now you point it out it certainly makes sense. I did tend to make a rod for my own back by including some essay or point-form questions in tests/exams. I personally really dislike answering t/f or multiple choice questions as I always had great difficulty in knowing what was wanted, a test of the language skills of the examiner as much as anything else.

With essays quality (as well as base knowledge) does play a great part as the logical thinking of the writer can come to the fore. Not the same as what you are talking about I suppose but maybe a parallel.

Anyway I don't have to do marking any more -Yay!

Croix

Actually "Showpony" is seated on the play "Equitus"....I don't know if you know it.