Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Alice in Wonderland, it's Timeless

Journey into the enchanted realms where the unimaginable is tangible. 

The mystic bands of childhood dreams twined into our memories ripe with the shadows of eternity. Burning with curiosity, Alice ran after the white rabbit with pink eyes, topcoat and a waist coat pocket watch. (Lewis Carroll)

19-year-old Charlotte Henery as 12-year-old Alice in 1933

In time the little girl would be a grown woman ripe in years and a loving heart and gather her children and make their bright eyes eager with many strange tales, thus the tale of "Alice in Wonderland grew. (Lewis Carroll) 

Ruth Gilbert as Alice in 1915
 
Mark Izzy Schurr 




Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Another Modern Moron Book Review

I was amazed the state of California allowed my alcoholic father who declared bankruptcy, failed in business and terrorized me as a child was given full control all my accomplishments and everything I've done, Britney Spears said. 

Last year's book, "Britney Spears the Woman in Me" was a very impressive read. An excellent book I borrowed from the local Santa Rosa library. 

The tabloids and the news merely tinged the surface of the Britney Spears conservatorship, which she endured for 13 years. During this time, any man who dated her had to pass a background check by her father, sign an NDA and submit a blood test even though she was an adult.  

Conservatorships or guardianships are primary reserved for people with no mental capabilities, or ones who cannot do anything for themselves. 

Spears admits she needed some guidance, and that she partied too much from time to time, but as I see it, she was very young, beautiful and rich, and enjoyed life. This is not a crime. Spears was the first woman to have a number one debut album and single from the same album, and she was only 16-years-old at the time. It's not her fault she was idolized at such a young age, and she mentioned how men of all ages have oohed and awed at her body ever since she was a young teenager.

Her mom and dad got her into show business, and as a pre-teen she got her big break as a Mouseketeer on the new Mickey Mouse Club, aka MMC. Mouseketeers were between the ages of 8-12-years-old. 

Spears details her love life between Justin Timberlake and other men and keeps the gossip classy. She's the first to admit she wasn't perfect, nor is she now, but she's free from her parents and the conservatorship and that's fantastic. 

I want my father to stop drinking and my mom to stop yelling, Spears said, recalling her childhood before she was the bread winner in the family. 

In 2008, Cosmopolitan named her Ultimate Woman of the Year, and her song "Piece of Me" won every award it was nominated for, including video of the year. She was under conservatorship at this time, and her father flat out said to her, "I'm Britney Spears now.  

Under her father's insane dictatorship, Spears was also a Las Vegas residency performer. While a Vegas singer, dancer and choreographer, she did 248 shows, and every show was the same songs and chorography because of her horrible father. Each show grossed hundreds of thousands of dollars and she was given a $2,000. a week allowance.

"Sometimes under the conservatorship I felt like a child, but mostly like a pissed off adult. Music was my blood and my bones, and they took that away from me," Spears said. 

She also had four hours of therapy a week, mandatory AA meetings four days a week, training, fan meet and greets while also doing three shows a week in Vegas. Spears said she is sorry for not being able to give fans who attended her Vegas shows all she could because of the stupid conservatorship rules. Free Britney was something her fans did for her and kept her going she said in "The Woman in Me." 

Under the conservatorship I was safer physically, but it was absolutely horrible for my sense of joy and creativity, Spears said.    

She was also forced into a $60,000 a year rehab facility and was there for way too long. While she was there, her mother and father got rid of all her Madame Alexander dolls she started collecting as a child and three years' worth of poetry she wrote. 

I made peace with my family, and by that, I mean I never want to see them again, and I'm at peace with that, Spears said. 

In 2021, Spears got former lawyer for Stephen Spielberg and Keanu Reeves, and now she is no longer under her deranged father's thumb.  

"I've made music, traveled the world, became a mother, found love. lost it and found it again. It's been a while since I felt present in my own life, in my own power, my own womanhood, but I'm here now," Spears said. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 


Monday, May 20, 2024

A Modern Moron Book Review

Army soldiers banging on our door, telling us to leave our home and take only what we can carry recalls George Takei in his latest book, "My Lost Freedom." 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans living on the west coast to be rounded up and arrested on February 19, 1942. Takei was living in Los Angeles with his baby sister, older brother and his parents during this time. "My Lost Freedom" is George Takei's documentation as a 5-year-old boy going to prison because of his ancestry, along with his parents and siblings.

Takei was 4-years-old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, killing more than 345 U.S. soldiers.   

This book pulls no punches, it presents the facts, yet doesn't judge. "My Lost Freedom" is the second book I've read on this subject. Another recommend read, "When the Emperor was Divine," written by Julie Otsuka.

Takei's mother was born legally in Sacramento, and her husband was a Japanese immigrant from San Francisco.  

The unjust Japanese prison's were nothing like the German had for the Jewish, and I thank all powers for that.


 


The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki instantly killed more than a 130,000 or 150,000 people. Imagine your blood boiling the instant before you die, that's what is like being in direct contact with the atom bomb.



"My Lost Freedom" has the death toll numbers from Hiroshima and Nagasaki but doesn't refer to the blood boiling from the A bomb. I read that elsewhere. 



Five stars for George Takei's "My Lost Freedom," and yes, he's the George Takei, aka Mr. Sulu or Hikaru Sulu, the original "Star Trek." 

Mark Izzy Schurr   

 

A Modern Moron Movie Review

"Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" weaves the bizarre fabrics of fantasy and reality into an unknown attire that cloaks the audience. 

Screenwriter Josh Friedman puts us into a world where the unimaginable is tangible and apes rule the world. A virus infecting the minds of both humans and apes vastly benefits the apes. Nova, aka Mae, marvelously portrayed by Freya Allan is teamed with Raka, the orangutan and the chimpanzee Noa, because of war. Raka is sly witted, funny and heartful. 

Noa's the grandson of Ceasar, a renowned chimpanzee interictal in uniting different breeds of apes and coexisting with humans. His funeral Pyra at the beginning of the movie sets the tone for Noa to continue the family legacy of unity among all.   

Noa and Raka slowly learn their human counterpart Nova is equally as smart as they are, if not more intelligent. All three learn from each other. 

The special effects and make-up team did a fantastic job, and the story is a well-orchestrated planet amidst a universe of monkey madness.  

Anybody who liked 2001s "Planet of the Apes" starring Mark Wahlberg would probably dig this months "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," This movie series began in 1968 and the special effects have always been impressive, yet the dialogue stands out the most. The latest installment of "Planet of the Apes" doesn't disappoint, three stars easy for this flick. The second row, B7 at Airport Cinemas is my new favorite way to watch movies. 

Mark Izzy Schurr