Goodbye WordPress…

As much as I have loved working in WordPress I have to say goodbye.

I have recently started a movie review blog in blogger and have found that I am writing there more often. In an effort to streamline my internet life I have decided to move this blog there as well. You can continue my blog here http://kouhonua.blogspot.com/

The true motivator behind this switch is that I have discovered that I can post there via email, which means I can post from my blackberry! Who doesn’t love being mobile?!

I have tried to integrate this blong into my new one but can’t seem to do it. Must be something to do with the different programs. If you have any sugestions please let me know.

This blog will remain up until I can consolidate them.

Looking forward to seeing you on blogger.

My picks for summer flicks

After what was a disappointing Oscar season and a painful beginning to 2009 things are looking up for Hollywood and for movie goers this summer.

Here is a list of some of the films I am anxiously looking forward to watching and why.

#1 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – July 15th

Us Harry Potter fans have been very patient after the release of the Half Blood Prince was moved from its original release date in late November. All partiality aside, HBP looks amazing. The kids have grown up, the story has grown up, and the films have grown up. In the 6th installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry learns of the origins of Voldemort as he and Dumbledore begin a quest that will ultimately lead down a dark and sad road and launch our beloved trio into the final stages of this saga.

Despite what some fans of the book may say, I will always be a fan of director David Yates. Order of the Phoenix was so well done in comparison to the first 4 films that it prompted me to start reading the books. To my shock the books sucked me in and made me a true Harry Potter fan. I wouldn’t have fallen in love with the books if it wasn’t for David Yates so I can’t wait to see what is in store for us in HBP.

One saving grace to inconsistency that plagues the Harry Potter series is production designer Stuart Craig. He has been a corner stone in creating the HP world, and I cannot wait to see what he has up his sleeve for the myriad of new sets and locations!

I only hope that now that I have read the books, they can still keep the movie magic alive.

#2 Public Enemies – July 1st

Johnny Depp, need I say more. Okay maybe I do.

Public Enemies is based on the true story of legendary 1930′s bank robber, John Dillinger (Depp), and an FBI agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale).  Let’s forget for a second that Johnny Depp makes me swoon and focus on the fact that I love this genre. After all, Bonnie and Clyde is one of my top 100 and I just adore the look and feel of the 30′s. The trailer was not surprisingly action packed, directed by Michael Mann, but also gritty and absolutely gorgeous.

Okay, now lets get back to the Depp factor. He’s hot, I’m sorry, I just have to admit that. Many actors will come and go but Johnny will always have a special place in my heart. It has to be the eyes, or that amazing jaw line, or maybe it just boils down to his aura of cool.  Whatever it is, Johnny can’t go wrong. I’ve seen him in quiet a few bad flicks but I never knock his performances one bit. Call me biased, but he is one of my top rated actors of our time. He might be a little old for this role, but you can’t deny that he fits his character like a glove.

I’m also glad to see another favorite of mine, Christian Bale, in a role that is more suited to his talents. I’ve been saying this for a while now,  Bale needs to learn that he is not an action star and that is all I am going to say about that.

The rest are in no particular order

#3 Up -  May 29th

Up is this year’s Pixar installment and maybe the least hyped of all Pixar’s releases. Up is about 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, voiced by Ed Asner, who fulfills a life long dream by attaching thousands of balloons to his house and lifting off to adventure.

Who doesn’t love Pixar? Masters of their genre, the creative and passionate people at Pixar studios deliver time and time again the fundamentals of good movie making. Story, character, character, more story, and more character. Some of my favorite movies were made by Pixar.

Little publicized, Up, I hope, will even take me by surprise.

#4 Year One – June 19th

Year One is this summer’s Jack Black comedy without the annoying antics of Jack Black. Scratch that, I’m sure his antics will be hard to miss, but they are certainly out shined in all of the previews by the halarious timing and delivery by Michael Cera. Oh yeah, and don’t forget it is written and directed by Harold Ramis! Sure to be fantabulously funny!

#5 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – June 24th

The Autobots and the Decepticons are back in this sequel to 2007′s Transformers that totally hit me off guard. I grew up on this cartoon and just the sound of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime makes me go all googly. I don’t have high hopes for this film. But I like the last one so much I’ll gladly pay my $12 bucks to see this one and hopefully find myself sideswiped again.

#6 Bruno – July 10th

What can I say about Bruno other than Sacha Baron Cohen is crazy! I begrudgingly fell for Borat. I hope I am not disapointed.

#7 My Sister’s Keeper – June 26th

Normally not my type of flick, or at least not the type of flick I am willing to spend money on in the theater. But recently I  saw the preview for this film and it did what a good preview should do, it made me what to find out what happens. I appreciate that, most previews nowadays spill the whole movie for you in a nice little package so you don’t have waste your money.  Which I guess you could argue is a good thing.

My Sister’s Keeper is based on the book of the same name by Jodi Piccoult and in a nutshell is about two sisters, the younger was genetically engineered to save her older sister’s life. Staring the talented young Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva (from my favorite TV drama, Medium), this film is sure to be a tearjerker and hopefully one that leaves me moved.

Well, looks like it’s going to be an expensive summer for me with lots of outings and popcorn. But I can’t wait! There is nothing quite like escaping from the heat, and life, into a dark movie theater.

“So much time, and so little to do! Strike that, reverse it.”

So, it has been exactly one month since I posted my last blog entry. I had intended on blogging every single night of my vacation but that very quickly ended on the first night. There was just too much to do and I just wanted to soak up every second I could with my parents.

They arrived on April 24th and that Saturday we drove to Yosemite. I hadn’t been there since I was 2 years-old. My parents used to spend many Octobers there and it is a place that has very special meaning for me. It is of course where my parents got my name.

I was disappointed this trip because we were unable to see my fabled lake. The road was still closed from winter. But that gives me a wonderful excuse to take a weekend trip this fall. I didn’t realize how close the park really is. We did discover that there is a Tenaya Creek so we had a wonderful day there instead.

I can’t wait to go back.

The rest of the time with my parents was wonderful. I miss them so very much.

As I start to edit my vacation pictures I will probably blog more, but I am not going to make any promises.

But I will leave you with this picture.

Yosemite Valley from the tunel lookout point

Playing Catch-Up

So much has happened since my last blog post nearly two weeks ago.

Jana had a fabulous birthday party at the Yard House in Downtown. Why is it so hard to convince strangers that we giggle that way even without a drop of liquor? There is no better thing in life than laughing hysterically in a corner booth with your best friend until one of you lands on the floor and calls it a night.

The next day was the Dodger’s Home Opener and perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea to just keep pointing at the drink menu at random. The opening day ceremony was amazing, marked by a very special tribute to our very own Vin Scully who is currently in his 60th year with the Dodger organization. The celebration was marred only by the very odd contrast of the fly-over of a stealth bomber and the release of dozens of white doves. A “peace” offering, I suppose, to us liberals who are annoyed by the “traditional” spectacle of American military might during a baseball game. The game was great, of course, and marked by history. Interestingly enough 50 thousand people get to tell one story and two people get to tell another.

Jana and I also went to last Friday’s game against the Rockies. That was a great game. I love watching this team. These boys play with all their heart and win or lose it’s great to root for players who actually try. It’s such a nice contrast over the last few seasons and it is what will make this team a winning team this year.

On Saturday I shot a beautiful backyard wedding in Lakewood. This wedding reaffirmed to me how much I love wedding photography. I absolutely just love being in the center of it all. The couple was so loving and their friends and family were so wonderful. Also, I captured some of the most beautiful wedding pictures to date. I am just in awe of my camera and lens. All it makes me want to do is keep upgrading and adding. My only disappointment about that day was that Jana could not shoot with me. Instead a friend of hers, that joined us in DC, helped as my second shooter and did a fabulous job.

Throughout all of this I have been adjusting to life with a 60 pound pit bull. She is just the most amazing and beautiful dog that I have ever seen. She is constantly charming us with her many quirks and her stubbornness makes me laugh. She is amazing me everyday with her quick ability to learn. She already knows what she can and can’t do and tests those boundaries every day. It is so hard for me to fight the urge to let her sleep on the bed. As to her relationship with the cats, I think they are all finally learning to get along. She ignores them for the most part and they try to keep out of her way. I’m sure they will be friendly in no time, but for now my tiny little cats still aren’t so sure of that giant mouth and all those teeth.

Baseball: Life and Death

Yesterday evening I had just gotten back from taking Bella for her evening walk. I plopped down on the couch and did something I very rarely do these days, I turned on the TV. It just happened to be on the news. They just happened to be talking about their lead story. A story that literally made me sit up and take notice.

A promising young kid with a great arm, a kid who had finally experienced a dream come true, was killed in a car accident with two of his friends. The 22 year old, Nick Adenhart, had just pitched 6 scoreless innings for the Angels Wednesday evening and in the early hours of Thursday morning his celebration and life came to an abrupt halt when a drunk driver ran a red light.

I know young people leave this world for senseless reasons every day and it hurts just as much to hear about them as it does to hear about Adenhart. But I think what has blindsided me so much is that he was a ball player. Athletes seem to live in another world, one of make believe and fantasy. I love baseball for it’s ability to let me escape from the stresses and worries of real life. This news slammed both worlds together in a way that makes me imagine the twisted metal of those wrecked cars.

When I talk about baseball I often talk about hope. To me they are one in the same. There is hope in this tragedy. That people will learn to make better choices. That our society will help to encourage those people to make those choices. That we may all learn to live life to the absolute fullest. To strive for the best six innings of your life because you may never know when they will be your last.

My heart goes out to the Adenhart family, the families of his friends, Angels fans, and fans of baseball everywhere. May Nick, and every soul taken from this world too soon, rest in peace.

Random Randomness

I have 10 days to grow my nails out so I can paint them dodger blue!

Bella snores like my dad but thankfully not as loud.

It’s nice to have a President who acts like an adult around foreign leaders.

This gloomy weather needs to go away by tomorrow.

I really want to get a Mini Cooper. A blue one.

I need to start to budget again.

I want to go see a movie in the theater.

I hate PCs, they are stupid.

How did I get red ink on my hands?

I wish it was lunch time.

I enjoy being with people but they exhaust me so much.

I’d like to go back to school full time.

I really must stop plotting illegal behavior with a certain someone over the internet.

I find some people’s inability to problem solve simultaneously humorous and annoying.

Thank goodness it is Friday!

Yay for weekends with a dog.

Bellatricks!

Bella

Well, as you can see by the title of this post and the picture this is not the same dog as we were hoping to bring home a week ago. But before I can introduce this angel let me begin by discussing the previous 7 days.

Last Tuesday Petunia’s foster parent emailed me explaining that the adoption foundation had called our building manager and she told them that it was her belief that the landlord was not allowing any new dogs so until that was straightened out Petunia could not come for her week trial. We were devastated, and very upset. As we watched the many dogs come and go in our courtyard our anger kept rising. We, after all, have lived there without any problems for 6 years. We were being punished for bad timing. It was wrong!

We had to wait until Thursday before news came that it was alright for us to bring Petunia home, and we were ecstatic. But we didn’t hear from Petunia’s foster parent until Friday. The email he sent was like yet another rug pulled out beneath us. It had already been a very emotional week and his words were not the ones we were hoping for.

Nevertheless, the more and more I think about it, I can’t escape my reservations. Of the seven dogs I have raised myself, plus the ones we’ve fostered, Petunia is, without a doubt, the most “high energy” in terms of running, patrolling, and play with other dogs (she has essentially retained her puppy energy, even though she is two years old). She definitely benefits from having unfettered access to the outdoors and she chooses to spend the greater part of her day outside. As I mentioned in our phone conversation, I work from home, and I have to say that on several occasions this week I couldn’t help but be reminded how Petunia takes such pleasure in simply sitting in the backyard sunning herself, and it was making me feel guilty thinking that she would no longer have the freedom to do that if we place her with a family in an apartment.

We were so disappointed and so angry. He didn’t understand or even give us a chance to show how dedicated we were to giving Petunia the perfect home.

We spend most of Friday night and Saturday morning brooding. Ryan flat out refused to take back all the stuff he had brought from the pet store. I tried and failed to see the silver lining. Finally, after a good deal of discussion Ryan headed off to the shelter. I didn’t go, those places make me cry.

It turned out to be the same place we got our cat Ashes 6 years ago. They had a lot of American Pit Bull Terriers. The SPCA website listed over 1,300 Pit Bull Terriers for adoption in Los Angeles. That number made me both sad and angry.

Well, Ryan found her, a gorgeous 5 year old Pit Bull Terrier mix.

We brought her home on Monday.

I named her Bellatricks, Bella for short. She is anything but a Death Eater. In fact, she is probably all Hufflepuff.

I believe a lot in fate. I knew it was fate that we met Petunia. It was fate that we weren’t supposed to bring her home. It was fate that lead us to Bella. Beautiful Bella.