Where’s Ryan Gosling? Ryan Gosling Rachel The Oscar-nominated “Half Nelson” star, was a surprise entry on the Oscar slate. But he’s been pretty much MIA from the campaign circuit.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Real Life Couples ~ Your Loves A Drug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ofCflZWLY&hl=en
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
the NOTEBOOK music video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruVo7-ndVWg&hl=en
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Notebook - Justin Levitt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFNBFQLYUY8&hl=en
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Best & Worst Date Movies of All Time
If you thought selecting a restaurant or what to do was hard, think again.
The most important decision you can make, one that will make or break the date, is the type of movie you choose to go see. Now if you're already in a relationship or married, the rules of film selection are a little different.
The Golden Rule: Do not go to the movies on the first date. I can not stress this enough. The first date is all about getting to know each other and the movie theater is the last place you'll be able to do that.
The Movie Rental: If you want to watch a movie and your budget is a little tight, consider renting a movie and taking it back home with you. Ten years ago going to a movie would have been affordable, but things have changed. Admission to a film is about $11 and some theaters even offer luxury seating now which can run you a whopping $15 per ticket. Now factor in the cost of drinks ($10), popcorn ($5), candy ($5), and parking ($2). All of a sudden you can find yourself spending upwards of $50 for a movie.
For about a fifth of the cost you can enroll in programs such as NetFlix which allow you to rent an unlimited amount of movies for a low monthly price and no late fees. You simply select the movie you want and they will be mailed to you in a few days. Once you're finished watching them, simply place them in the prepaid envelope and ship them back. It's really that simple.
Watching a movie at home has several advantages:
You can start and stop the movie whenever you like
Talk your heart away since nobody will be there to shush you
You can rent classic or critically acclaimed films which you know are good
And best of all, it only costs about $5
Here are some films for your consideration that are sure to go over well with your date...
BEST FILMS TO RENT - All Genres (No Particular Order)
Ghost (ROMANCE - 1990 - Starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg): Ghost is the story of love beyond death...a love endures all type of film. It is why you have to tell people that you love them all the time, because you never know what can happen tomorrow. Ghost shows us that true love is timeless and has no boundaries. The movie has it all: romance, action, and comedy (courtesy of Whoppie Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown). The film is not without its flaws but it is successful at conveying its message and leaving you with a sense of satisfaction.
The Notebook (ROMANCE - 2004 - Starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling): The Notebook is a contemporary love story and a favorite with many women. Adapted from the best selling novel, the film tells the story of two "star struck" lovers from different sides of the track. Sound familiar? The movie is about love at first sight...the type of love that you carry with you wherever you go and regardless of the circumstances. The type of love that stays with you throughout your life and doesn't let you forget.
My Cousin Vinny (COMEDY - 1992 - Starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei): When two young men are convicted of a crime they didn't commit, it's up to Joe Pesci (playing a hysterical role as the argumentative attorney from New York) to save them from being sent to the electric chair. My Cousin Vinny is a well written and clever comedy that is sure to be a hit. Marisa Tomei does an incredible job as Joe Pesci fiance; she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The Shining (HORROR - 1980 - Starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall): If you're into horror, this movie is a must. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, and adapted from the Steven King novel, The Shinning is by far one of the best horror films ever made. Unlike modern horror films, there are no predictable scares, deformed people hiding in the hills, blood thirsty zombies, or girls that decide to stay in the house while a killer is on the phone. Instead, Kubrick brilliantly combines cinematography, music, and sound to create this masterpiece of horror. Keep an eye on the boy...this film gave birth to the over-used emotionless child with ESP so common today (examples include The Sixth Sense, The Ring, The Ring Two, The Grudge, Godsend, Hide & Seek, and even the Got Milk commercial).
A Clockwork Orange(SCIENCE FICTION - 1971 - Starring Malcolm McDowell): Adapted for the screen by Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange is one of the few films ever made that is able to evoke each and every emotion a human being is capable of having. The movie is a genuine masterpiece; it's so good that there is nothing anyone can really write that will do this film justice. Be warned in advance that just like any fine piece of art, this film isn't for everyone. Those who are able to appreciate the film and its underlying message will undoubtedly question every film they have ever seen.
Worst Films To Rent
Let's face it guys, we love action and we don't need a plot. If it's fast paced, bloody, and has lots of guns we love it. Unfortunately, our dates don't always feel the same way. This actually brings me to my next point and film; if a date ever tells you that her favorite movie of all time is Bloodsport, marry her!
Bloodsport(ACTION - 1988 - Starring Jean Claude Van Damme): I for one love this movie...watching JCVD (Jean Claude Van Damme) do his "deaf touch" and having Chong Li say "Brick Don't Hit Back" was awesome. But the problem is that if I watched this on a date, it would probably end before the opening credits are over. The same goes for all of our other JCVD favorites such as Kickboxer, Lionheart, and Hard Target. You can actually use these movies to end a date on purpose, but that's another discussion and another time.
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Masked Era (OOTP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHJBhRVpJp4&hl=en
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The Notebook - That's Where it Is- *Preview*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqJkcAONgDY&hl=en
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Loving you - The Notebook video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf8aunEF2zo&hl=en
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Classic Hollywood Romances - Celebrating A Rainbow Of Life With The Varied Hues Of Love!
Well, does anyone of us ever come to think of Hollywood's most memorable romance classics spanning decades? As an ardent admirer of romance and the alluring Hollywood musicals, I unmistakably feel my pulses rising with the sheer magic and aura of the timeless romances portrayed so very lovingly in the silver screen of the yesteryears. Be it the ever-touching saga of star-crossed lovers meeting during wartime under the Moorish arches of Rick's Café American in "Casablanca", or the sweeping melodrama, "Gone With The Wind"-- based on Margaret Mitchell's bestselling Civil War epic (which defined the term "Hollywood blockbuster"), I have an insatiable appetite for each of them.
Oh how can I ever forget the sweeping emotions of the magic of a shipboard romance which charms a Frenchman and American woman (Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, respectively) into each other's arms in the ever-memorable "Love Affair"? Or do you remember that phenomenal romance between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in "An Affair To Remember", where a man and a woman meet on a ship crossing an ocean and fall in love, only to part ways, promising to meet dramatically on the top of Empire State Building, New York (which unfortunately, doesn't happen later)? Equally unforgettable to my mind is the all-time epic love saga, "Roman Holiday", which happens to be the most priceless transient romance between a disguised princess and a handsome American reporter (Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, respectively).
When you come to think of candlelight romances, serenading, wooing the beloved or star-crossed epic love sagas, you would obviously mark the romantic chemistry between the lover and his beloved as the quintessential foundation behind these wonderful, witty and immensely touching tales of true love. Interestingly, the success of these blockbusters in romance in Hollywood comes from incorporating core elements of Hollywood (especially the music), classical romance elements and a degree of sentimentality which, again, is quite stylishly sophisticated in nature.
The 50's and 60's were the hey days of classic romance in Hollywood, when ethos, pathos, happy endings, heart-wrenching goodbyes and romantic love scenes along with power-packed performances by some of Hollywood's heartthrobs like Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Marilyn Monroe were the staple of every young heart. Now, I would rather not attempt this article as a primer of cinematic history comprising the best films of all times from the classic romance genre, for that is the job of an encyclopedia and not that of a human. And these days, you are sure to get plentiful of those online. So I would limit my writing to the discussion of only some of the milestones of our cinematic past, the era and the cultural milieu behind the production of these masterpieces, which again, comes from the sheer love I feel towards these movies.
While today, Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, MGM and Columbia (Sony) are some of the pioneers in Hollywood film production and distribution, in the yesteryears, Paramount Pictures, the longest-lived American movie studio, used to lead the arena of American motion picture production and distribution. Those were the blissful times when the Hollywood studio system produced classic movies embodying a refined, evocative method of storytelling that left something to the audience's imagination. While this was true right from the early nineteen hundred and thirties' till the sixties', the audience those days were fed on films which did adhere to certain standards of discretion and used established cinematic devices to imply what they could not say explicitly. Without an iota of blatant sensory stimulations, the sheer use of compelling stories and characters, snappy dialogue, high production values (including those of cinematography, editing, shot composition, scoring, sets and costuming) and above all, extra-ordinary acting prowess of the stars those days gave birth to some of the most celebrated reel romances of all times, including "Gone With the Wind", "West Side Story", "Casablanca", "Roman Holiday", "My Fair Lady" and "An Affair to Remember".
The 40's, 50's and 60's, combined, was also the era producing the greatest silver screen legends like Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, the irresistibly handsome Cary Grant and the super charismatic Gregory Peck, the celebrated smidgens Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Sofia Lauren, Audrey Hepburn, and the ravishing Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe. Interestingly enough, did you know that recently the AFI has ranked the greatest love stories of the first century of American cinema, with "Casablanca" attaining the numero uno position? "Gone With The Wind" and "West Side Story" come only next to it among the greatest reel classics of America.
Truly worthy of their legendary status by virtue of their sprawling, epic film romance, few would venture to dispute the position of these three films as the silver screen's greatest romances ever. And it is worth mentioning that in each of these films, there are potent screen moments between the protagonists that are replete with romantic content which again, unmistakably evolve into meaningful, personalized fantasies among the lovers of these reel romances. Whosoever has seen "Roman Holiday" will never for his/her life forget the phenomenal scene between Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck when Peck puts his hand into the "Mouth of Truth" (La Bocca della Verità), a stone face in Rome that according to legend, will bite your hand off if you tell a lie. In the film, when he pulls his hand out it is missing, causing Hepburn, the disguised princess Ann, to scream hysterically. The chemistry between the two in the scene is so infectious that the audience never fails to identify the film as a superior love story with the distinction of classic romance elements.
On the other hand, those were the times that produced the ever-memorable, ever-fascinating Hollywood musicals, like the legendary "Sound of Music" (1965), "Singing in the Rain" (1952). Regarded as two of the great movie musicals of all times, these are films that linger in the hearts of lovers of romance eternally. Who can forget the sweet, ethereal chanting of Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" where she teaches the seven children the notes of "Do re mi" or where she asserts her individuality singing, "I have confidence in me", or where she playfully mingles with the children in the song "These are a few of my favorite things"?
For the records, the cast album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while the film itself won an Academy Award for Best Picture and is one of the most popular musicals ever produced. "Singing in the Rain", on the other hand, starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds, is replete with wit as a satirical comedy, featuring one of the most lavish elements of yesteryears' musicals. It is the film where there's the phenomenal dance scene of Gene Kelly with the title track, "singing in the rain", while twirling an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked to the skin. "My Fair lady", another classic romantic comedy woven in the mould of a musical, happens to be one of my personal favorites with electrifying performances by Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, the young, uncouth Cockney girl and Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, an arrogant, irritable professor of phonetics. Together, they put the screen on fire with an unforgettable film adaptation of the stage musical, My Fair Lady, based in turn on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.
In the later years, to be more particular, from the nineteen hundred and seventies and eighties, there has been a noticeable transition of reel romance from the stylishly sophisticated, artsy and evocative style of the black and white years to the more bittersweet, flesh and blood world of the lovers, rocking with prolonged kissing and lovemaking scenes, unbridled energy and emotion. What can be a better example of the new cosmos in which the lovers find themselves other than that showed in "Love Story" (1970), one of the most romantic movies ever made? A romantic tearjerker from director Arthur Hiller about a passionate couple with a tragic ending, this one happens to be a heartfelt tale of the love of a lifetime. Regarded as the most successful Paramount movie up to that time, the film received seven Academy Award nominations including the Best Picture award. Another one, from the 90's, "Forrest Gump" (1994), revives the same pristine emotions of love as the story revolves along some of the most enduring and touching moments of love between Forrest (Tom Hanks) and his lifelong love Jenny. While in the film, we have a sweeping look at thirty tumultuous years of American history seen through the eyes of the charmed simpleton Forrest, we are gifted with some classic scenes those have unparalleled intricacy and depth while still being enormously engaging. Again, in the 90's, we see the enormously gripping passion and on-screen chemistry between Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" (1990), a magnanimous love story about a wealthy businessman falling for effervescent hooker.
The chemistry between the lovers seemed to be so natural and convincing that it transcends the shackles of a romantic comedy and goes on to be remembered as quite a classic film in the romance genre. Towards the end of the 90's, the world of romance in Hollywood was again ablaze with the blockbuster of all times, "Titanic" (1997), a fictional love story between Rose (Kate Winslett) and Jack (Leonardo De Caprio), members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated 1912 maiden voyage of the ship Titanic. Even though the film is based on the historical sinking of the gigantic Titanic, the crux and the beauty of the entire film lies in the poignant tale of their love which is even more beautified by the soulful music and memorable soundtracks of the film. On a different note, though with the same poignancy and intensity of passion, unfolds the idyllic love story between Noah (Ryan Gosling) and his love Allie (Rachel McAdams) in "the Notebook" (2004). Adapted from the 1996 romantic novel by Nicolas Sparks, it has been one of the most touching screen romances of the present times.
Last but not the least; let me share with you my feelings of witnessing another classic film outside of Hollywood that portrayed romance on screen so evocatively yet with a poignant tone that I was immediately reminded of the classic undertones of creative suggestiveness and subtlety characteristic of the celebrated reel romances of Hollywood. The film is none other than the Italian masterpiece "La Vita E Belle" ("Life is Beautiful") directed by Roberto Benigni which went on to win 3 Oscars in 1998. While the film was based on the story of the violent indignities suffered by Jews in the concentration camps of World War II, the subtleties of the film transcend the horrors of the concentration camp with some of the most beautifully screened romantic sequences in world cinema.
Remember the scene where Guido follows his bride Dora into a greenhouse and the scenes which follow thereafter? Well, rather than showing what they do there, the scene slowly dissolves to a shot of the same greenhouse, only this time, a little boy is playing there. The implications are obvious, the device serves to advance the plot a few years without restoring to the clichéd "five years later..." inter-title and the love scene is left to the audience's imagination. By virtue of the amazing screenplay, the film turns out to be an unforgettable fable that proves the indomitable spirit of love, family and imagination in the face of all evils. Undoubtedly, this, along with the joys of love, and life--has been the most enduring theory working as the ultimate foundation behind all successful romance classics in the history of Hollywood! And so, be it in "Casablanca" or in "The Notebook", both 'cupid' and 'life' rule! For, all quintessential romances are a celebration of life in its varied hues. Struck by cupid's arrows, it becomes ever more beautiful and transcendental by all means!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Notebook - Iris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YIRJWLKF-k&hl=en
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Notebook - Pieces♥
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5tjwGTzutI&hl=en
Sunday, December 12, 2010
EL DIARIO DE NOAH (The Notebook) - RECUERDOS (Memories)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM2MqicE4xI&hl=en
Saturday, December 11, 2010
The Notebook: Joslyn's DVD Movie Pick of the Week
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDjt-vZ5ZYo&hl=en
Friday, December 10, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Kiss me like you beggarly it asian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WH_6WTzdbU&hl=en
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The Notebook- Young Noah & Allie- Almost Lover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7LzsmWd1zg&hl=en
Monday, December 6, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
BZ Community Class- Andye J (groups)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-xGzPa7mtQ&hl=en
Friday, December 3, 2010
I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gCJuJ2Qd7Q&hl=en
Thursday, December 2, 2010
[10/15/09] Who needs to abeyance amid words? NOT ME!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_pDPD7SkWk&hl=en
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Notebook(Dan and Serena Style)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTA7uStvqSI&hl=en