Poems From My Nanny

While I was at my Papa's house for Thanksgiving, he gave me these poems that my grandmother (Nanny) had written about me (#1) and my parents (#2). I thought I would share them because she was such a good writer and she truly touched my life. One thing you need to know before you read- my middle name is Kathryn, so when I was little, my parents called me Katy. Here ya go-


Katydude



There's a little girl we call "The Dude"
She rides on the Texas wind.
She's always loved most dearly
By my very closest kin.
She's in and out and all about,
She wiggles when she walks,
She tells us stories of all kind;
But speaks the strangest talk.
She calls us on the telephone,
Her head moves back and forth,
And sometimes up and down,
We know she has the answer
But there often is no sound.
She also rides a wooden pony
With Papa's advice, she calls Tortoni
He gave it to her one Christmas day
Along with loads of love,
To bring her joy and happy play,
To make a little cowgirls day.
She wears a Mexican sombrero,
Of pink and purple hue,
And when her sissy starts to dance,
She does the hat dance, too.
She twists a little here and there,
And around the hat she'll go,
We wonder what she's singing-
But I guess we'll never know.
I've written down a couple of things
She does most every day,
Besides the smiles and tears she gives
To let us know she wants her way.
But what she'll do tomorrow,
Is a question left untold;
So I'll simply sit and watch her,
And marvel at her goal.
At what her mind can conjure up,
In this tiny little soul.
So go ahead, our Katydude,
Ride on the Texas wind,
But remember The One who sent you,
Will be your kindest Friend.
He'll whisk you on His wings of love,
You'll share the ride with the Lovely Dove.
So do whatever you came to do.
Make it honest, make it true
Let the One who sent you know
You'll do your very best;
For if you do, Then He'll take charge,
And give you blissful rest.


Copyright 1988 Mary Louise Brown-Poynter





The Blue

Sometimes in our lives
We must begin our world a-new
Forward, in a different direction
A dream, a place, "The Blue."

Perhaps our rainbow turns to gold,
Or maybe silver-lined,
Might it be possible this dream to lose?
Not at all what we had in mind.

No matter what the outcome,
The wine and roses flow,
For today you sought a dream,
To carry close forever,
Wherever you may go.

But just in case you turn and find
Your rainbow is not gold, or even silver-lined.
Your daily chores are much too much,
Not at all what you had in mind.
Just call upon the Lord, He will start your world a-new
He will give you back your dream, your place,
He will give you back "The Blue"

Copyright 1988 Mary Louise Brown-Poynter

Happy Thanksgiving!

Harsh Twilight Review Demands Justice!

As always, I was reading the paper today when I noticed the review for the Twilight movie that released at 12:00 a.m. this morning- or last night, whichever. The harshness of the review and how dense the writer was made me angry, so I decided to write him a letter. Here is the Twilight Movie Review from the Star Telegram.

Twilight review: Teen vampires are pale imitators

The wooden stars suck the life out of the film version of 'Twilight.'

By CHRISTOPHER KELLY

cmkelly@dfw.com

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart bore the masses in 'Twilight.'

Holiday-movie preview: 12 cinematic gifts of the season

Sorry, Edward Cullen junkies: No matter how steep the curve you’re grading on, Catherine Hardwicke’s film version of the bestselling vampire romance Twilight turns out to be a dud. The story has been faithfully adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s book, a surprisingly accomplished fiction that jumbles up vampire lore, Harlequin romance fantasies and girl-empowerment dogma.

But Hardwicke has no handle on the material — visual, emotional or otherwise — and she has cast two inert lead actors, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, as the teen heroine and the hottie vampire who loves her. Watching these two pallid (literally and figuratively) performers try to convince us that they’re consumed by physical and spiritual desire for each other would be funny if it weren’t so resolutely tedious.

For the Twilight uninitiated, Bella Swan (Stewart) is a clumsy but beautiful girl living in Arizona who is sent by her flighty mother (Sarah Clarke) to live with her police chief father (Billy Burke) in the tiny town of Forks, Wash. On her first day at her new high school, Bella has a tense encounter with the school’s resident mystery boy, Edward Cullen (Pattinson), an exceedingly pale junior who hangs out only with his equally pale-skinned siblings. Edward seems repulsed by Bella, going so far as to try to transfer out of their biology class before disappearing from the school entirely for the next few days.

Like most fantasy stories, Twilight (adapted by Melissa Rosenberg) has the tricky task of quickly establishing the many characters and details of its alternate universe — a problem that hardly seemed like a big deal in the briskly paced novel. But here, large chunks of exposition are placed into the mouths of the actors, and they aren’t up to the challenge: Stewart delivers her lines in an anxious, halting manner, as if she’s looking around the set for her misplaced cue cards. Pattinson adopts an excruciating monotone and a mostly blank stare, draining from Edward all the easygoing charisma that Meyer invested him with on the page. It’s impossible to care about what these two dullards are debating, much less feel the connection that’s supposed to be developing between them.

The big reveal finally comes, nearly 40 minutes along: Edward and his "siblings" are actually immortal vampires who live together under the tutelage of kindly Dr. Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli). The Cullens abstain from killing humans (they refer to themselves as "vegetarians," though they do kill animals), and they live only in places where it is perpetually overcast. (If Edward goes out in the sunlight, his skin turns incandescent; it’s supposed to look like diamonds are embedded in his skin, but the special effects are so subpar that he mostly just looks like he was rolling around in glitter.) As for his initial coolness, Edward wasn’t repulsed by Bella but obsessed with her — and he decided it was essential to stay away from her for fear that he wouldn’t be able to resist eating her.

In the novel, all of this plays across as lusciously overheated and damp, not to mention a ripe allegory for every teen girl’s sexual awakening: Bella yearns to be consumed whole, even as the dictates of polite society tell her she must resist. But the McAllen-born, University of Texas-educated Hardwicke — who made thirteen (2003), a jittery portrait of out-of-control teenagers, before drifting into solemn inertia with The Nativity Story (2006) — struggles to find the right tone.

Some of the scenes in Twilight, especially the ones at Bella’s high school, have the fluid, tossed-off appeal of an episode of Sweet Valley High. Others — especially the ones featuring the Cullens, all wearing an unfortunate amount of chalky white makeup and smirking with inexplicable abandon — drift into camp. Nothing here even begins to approach the lush romanticism of Meyer’s (admittedly purple) prose. By the time you’re looking at the 15th shot of the camera floating through the air and gazing at the trees swaying in the breeze, pretty much all is lost.

To be fair, Twilight does come alive in its last 40 minutes, with the long-overdue appearance of an actual villain. A trio of drifter vampires, led by a "tracker" named James (Cam Gigandet), stumble upon the Cullens playing baseball — at which point, James instantly determines that Bella is going to be his next meal. Sporting low-slung jeans, ripped abs and a blonde ponytail, Gigandet is an infinitely more sexual presence than Pattinson (who mostly just looks like a member of the Cure, circa 1987). He singlehandedly suggests the movie that might have been — a feverish romp through the psychosexual id of a teenage girl, a thirteen with real bite.

But it’s a case of a day late and a dollar short: One actor is hardly enough to make Hardwicke’s wobbly vision cohere. The movie ends with the usual fantasy movie pile-on of red herrings and setups for the sequel, including a grave warning to Bella from her American Indian friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who plays a much larger part in the second novel in the series, New Moon. By then the only ones who could possibly care are the hard-core Twilight obsessives. For the rest of us, Meyer’s work has been rendered irrelevant — it’s just another chaotic teen blockbuster in search of a soul.

AND here is my reply. He so kindly includes his email address in the newspaper, how about that!

Dear Mr. Kelly,

I read your review of the Twilight movie that came out today, and I would just like to say that I think you are sadly mistaken. I'm not some silly little teeny-bopper, either, so please don't write me off right away. I was at the midnight showing of the movie last night, and considering all of the circumstances, I enjoyed the movie very much. I think you failed to take some things into consideration when writing your review. First of all, this was a very LOW budget film. Also, I was wondering, have you even read the book? Because it seems that you don't have a very good understanding of the characters at all. Bella is supposed to be a little confused and anxious. I mean, come on! She's conversing with a vampire! Plus, she's very shy and reserved, and she does NOT like attention. Technically, she is searching for her words...but as Bella, not as Kristen Stewart. Another thing- Robert Pattinson portrayed the character of Edward very well, in my opinion. Take into consideration that this is the first movie he has done with an American accent, and that he's originally a Brit. Maybe that could be the reason for the monotone? (Which, as a matter of fact, no one that I know has commented on.) And the blank stare is because he's got a battle going on in his mind. He's trying to control himself. I don't know where you got the easygoing, carefree image from. About the diamonds, of course it's not going to have all of the special effects since, again, it's a low budget film! Of course the big reveal comes along 40 minutes into the film, because it comes along deep into the book as well. This book was not written for a grown man, and neither was the movie, so of course you're going to hate it. You should be a little more objective and take everyone else's perspective into mind. I'm just glad there are loads of Twilight followers out there to counteract your snide remarks. They're depending on success for this movie to make another, and us Twilighters are excited about that. I hope you take this email to heart- don't be so bitter! Enjoy the little things in life!

Sincerely,

Rachel (i included my last name- but not for blogger!)




I really tried to be nice... I considered being rude and nasty but I figured that wouldn't be a good face to put on. Anyways, I just thought I would share that little tidbit with you guys. Enjoy!

New Moon - Fan-made trailer

I found this on Fanpop. I'm normally not a big fan of fan-made trailers and things like that, but when they're really well done I like to spread it around and give them what's due, so here goes! This one was made by Joanna from Poland.

Pattinson takes a bite out of fame; Stewart tells 'Twilight' fans to buzz off; Boyle gives back to Mumbai; crying over spilt 'Milk'

Found this on FanPop - I believe they got it off of MSN. But I thought it was interesting. Here goes!



Pattinson takes a bite out of fame; Stewart tells 'Twilight' fans to buzz off; Boyle gives back to Mumbai; crying over spilt 'Milk'

Get tickets, showtimes and more at MSN Movies

As I began my interview with Robert Pattinson, the dreamy vampire Edward in the upcoming romantic thriller "Twilight," I reminded the 22-year-old Brit about our previous conversation on the movie's set last spring and how enthusiastic he was at the time about the project.Puzzled, Pattinson responds, "I was having a good time on that day? There was, like, a close-up in the script where [Edward] has a look that's 'demonic and animalistic,' and just imagine trying to do that when you have stupid contact lenses in. You can hype yourself up as much as you want, but you still have two orange blobs in your head. Everyone is like, 'Do something! Do something!'"A phenomenon that has caught most of the mainstream media off guard, "Twilight" frenzy has turned Pattinson from a relative nobody to tabloid fodder in less than six months. He says he tries not to look at the pictures, but finds it difficult when his family and friends continually forward them his press breaks."My mom sends me a picture and I'm like, 'Don't send it to me.' They send it every single time," Pattinson admits. "My mom and dad, any press I get, they always look at everything. I find it so bizarre. They are like, 'We're so proud of you.' And I'm like, 'Don't be proud of me. It's all luck.'"Most young actors begin their careers insecurely humble (and quickly turn arrogantly entitled), so I prod Pattinson just a bit. To get to this stage in his career, there's got to be a little bit of talent involved, no?"I have been phenomenally lucky considering I never started out trying to be an actor," Pattinson says. "It's funny because in all these things, so many actors say, 'Oh, the press, that's the actual job. Publicity and blah, blah, blah.' I try to spend as much of my life making it as easy as possible, and most actors say, 'I like to make the job as easy as possible and all the other stuff is so hard.' So, when they are doing press, they are so serious and that makes it so boring. But I like to make the jobs as hard as possible and stress myself out about everything, and then afterwards it's like you are yourself when you are doing [publicity]. Am I even answering your question?"Eh, sort of. No doubt, it has been a long day.Trivia game: Test your knowledge of award-winning filmsI move on to a recent quote that director Catherine Hardwicke gave in an L.A. Times article, saying that when Pattinson and co-star Kristen Stewart run into crazy fans, she gets freaked out but he seems to enjoy all the attention. Is Hardwicke reading the situation correctly?"Definitely misreading," Pattinson says. "It's not like I have a bad time."Pausing for a moment, Pattinson clarifies: "Kristen sort of wears her heart on her sleeve, it's very obvious. But, y'know, if I am feeling uncomfortable about something I force myself to be relaxed about it. People ask you if they can give you a kiss and you're like, 'No,' and they just do it anyway. And it's like, what can you do?"Finally, knowing a "Twilight" sequel is more than likely, I ask Pattinson if he's looking forward to adapting the second and more action-packed novel in the series, "New Moon." His eyes light up at the prospect."My part in the second one is completely different," Pattinson says. "He's, like, distraught, and sort of goes mad. I much prefer the second one to the first, and I'm hardly in it. I just get this really cool, ominous presence in the book where Kristen keeps saying how much she's longing for the return of Edward and then I have this pretty dramatic entrance at the end where I'm going to kill myself. It's cool."We'll take your word on it."Twilight" opens nationwide on Nov. 21.

I GOT MY TICKETS!!!

I now, officially, have my tickets for the midnight showing of Twilight on November 21st. I'm so excited! I CAN'T FREAKIN WAIT!!! Thanks, Tara, for your help. You're such an angel!