Movies
For rainy days, you might want to check out www.netflix.com. It’s like Blockbuster via postal mail. It’s simple. For just a meager monthly fee, you can rent up to three DVDs at once and hold on to them as long you like. No late fees. No five mile drive to the nearest Blockbuster. Just hit the corner and return the movies in an envelope back to Netflix, and they will send you the next three DVDs on your queue.You might want to check out:
Slam (1998) (starring Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn)
Most know Saul Williams as the famous spoken word poet and musician with the pounding lyrics that leave his audiences jaw-dropped and astounded. In Slam, he has that very same impact. He plays Ray Joshua, who must face life imprisonment for a crime he witnessed but did not commit. There, he finds his salvation in words, but it is not until he meets Lauren Bell, who teaches the prison’s writing program (Sonja Sohn), that he realizes that his gift has a name: poetry.
Spirited Away (2002) (directed by Hayao Miyazaki)
This is a film that anyone at any age would enjoy. Miyazaki takes imagination to new depths as he introduces 10-year old Chihiro, a young girl with good intentions, whose parents are trapped in a mysterious ghost world on the other side of a lake that floods only at night. In order to survive in this strange and foreign land, Chihiro must enlist her servitude to an overbearing owner of the ghost bath house, Yubaba, who promises to make life very, very difficult for Chihiro. During her time in the ghost world, Chihiro befriends a greedy gobbling ghoul, unclogs a river spirit and finds love in a mysterious figure from her childhood.
Miyazaki counters the eerie nature of the film with rich and spontaneous characters that will have you laughing, squealing, gushing and gasping from your seat. When I played this movie at a family gathering one night, everyone from my grandparents to my young cousins were completely captivated, and at the end we all looked at each other in a haze of wonder. Only Miyazaki can make soot balls seem utterly adorable and dream up an eerily beautiful ghost train that runs through a body of water, transporting spirits through the ghost world.
La Lengua de las Mariposas (Butterfly) (1999) (directed by Jose Luis Cuerda)
At the time of Spain’s political instability, when the Spanish Republic had fallen to Fascist rebels, the people of Galicia witnessed their own neighbors, supporters of the Republic, being captured and sent to their deaths. In that very town, there is a shy boy named Moncho, who had just started school. Despite his timid nature, Moncho eventually befriends his teacher, Don Gregorio, who senses Moncho’s great potential and becomes dedicated to opening Moncho’s world with knowledge. There is a beauty to Moncho’s innocence as he learns of life, love and death with Don Gregorio patiently guiding him. In the backdrop, political tension heightens, and the beauty of Moncho’s childhood comes undone as the reality of all that’s happening around him slowly takes over the town.
Where to Go:
Contrary to stereotypes, poetry readings do not consist of people in all black attire and a beret worn tilted to one side. On October 13, The Bowery Poetry Club is hosting the Urbana Poetry Slam (7:00-9:30 p.m), and if you’ve never been to a poetry reading, going to a SLAM would be a SLAMMING (pun intended) introduction to the spoken word!Admission: $6
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY, 10012
www.bowerypoetryclub.com
If you want to try your hand at reading a poem aloud for an open mic in front of a live audience, the Nuyorican Cafè is the place to go. Wednesdays are open mic nights (with the exception of the first Wednesday). Or if you’d prefer to listen, why not drop by on Friday nights for the weekly poetry slam?
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
236 East 3rd Street
New York, NY, 10009
www.nuyorican.org
Do you enjoy wearing neon colored vests and running around in the dark in imitated galactic warfare? Well, hey! Then, Lazer Park is for you, where you can alternate between a variety of arcade games and an intense match of laser tag with your friends (or even better... strangers!). The best part is that it’s right in Times Square where you will never get bored.
Lazer Park
1560 Broadway
New York, NY, 10036
www.lazerpark.com
It’s been scientifically proven that laughter is the cure to school-induced stress. No, just kidding. However, if you do enjoy laughter, then a night well spent would include a visit to the famous New York City comedy club, Comic Strip Live. It was there that many of the famous comedians we know such as Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Ray Romano, etc. got their start. Purchase tickets at the Web site online or find their club promoters wandering Times Square, looking for their next pitch (suggestion: check the big, flashy Mcdonald’s corner).
Comic Strip Live
1568 Second Avenue
New York, NY, 10028
www.comicstriplive.com
Books:
In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez-Author of the famous work, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Julia Alvarez delivers yet another spellbinding tale, this time of the Mirabal sisters who bond together in a time of oppression by a dominant patriarchal society under the rule of a dictator who poses increasing danger towards the Mirabal family. This is their story.
(Note: In the Time of the Butterflies was adapted into a movie in 2001, starring Salma Hayek.)
Bad Haircut, by Tom Perrota –
It’s the comical story of the life of a typical American boy, Buddy, growing up during the controversial decade of the seventies, filled with post Vietnam War fervor. Each chapter describes a certain time in his life where he grows up just a little with more than what he started. Each experience has an underlying lesson in life for him. His experiences range from a meeting with the Weiner Man, a man of his mother’s past to a confrontation of race when he decides to steal a ball from a lone Black boy in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding –
When a group of young British boys are stranded in a plane crash on a remote island with no trace of authority in sight, they see this as an opportunity for adventure, with Treasure Island and monkey butlers and strange, exotic foods at every corner. What started out as fun, takes an ominous turn as they discover that a Beast lurks in the depths of the island, watching the boys’ every move.