Sunday, August 26, 2012

And this is exactly what I'm talking about...

Wow, time flies.  Yupp, this is exactly how every website/blog/whatever that I've created/worked on/whatever became neglected.  It's been nearly 3 weeks: shame on me.  School started Wednesday the 15th, so between that, swimming, homework, Tumblr, Psych, and other things I have neglected something very important.

Onward ho!

Last night I finally finished one of the books I highlighted three weeks ago, Alicia: My Story.  Can we all just take a moment to appreciate people like Alicia Appleman-Jurman?  If you read the post, you might recall that Alicia is a Polish Jew.  The book is about 433 pages long and covers 8 years.  The whole story is so heartbreaking; she goes through so much.  Living through the pain that both Alicia and her mother live through is terrible.  At one point her mother, knowing she is going to die anyway, throws herself in front of the bullet meant to kill Alicia.  This was maybe the saddest part of the book for me.  Sitting in Algebra 2, I had to take a deep breath and quickly close the book before my tears started to fall.  After the war is completely over and Alicia is allowed to return to Buczacz, her hometown, she still does so much more for so many people.  Remember, Ala is only 14 or 15 when the war ends.  She goes on to run an orphanage consisting of roughly 24 children who survived the concentration camps, work for the Brecha, learn 2 more languages, find at least 3 surviving extended family members, and travel to Eretz Israel (Palestine) only to be captured by the British and be imprisoned for 8 months.  You could really say the war doesn't end for Ala until 1947.  But this is a wonderful book, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.  It's really capturing.

Lately, I've really gotten into (okay, maybe really is an understatement) a show called Psych on USA Network.  Now, I'm not one for modern TV shows or movies or TV in general.  But this is one awesome show.  It's full of culture and I guess that's one of the reasons I respect it.  It's packed full of references mostly to movies from the 1980's.  While not my favorite decade, I still like watching movies from then.  Besides that, you do get the very, very occasional CH reference (Ginger Rogers, Phantom of the Opera 1940's, etc.), and some modern references to awesome book series (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson).  Plus, the random breaking out into song sometimes seen in the show (but mostly in the bloopers.)  While I love the whole cast (have you ever seen a modern-day couple as cute as Maggie Lawson and James Roday?!), I really respect and envy Corbin Bernsen.  That name probably doesn't ring a bell: why do I like him so much?  Well it's really the fact that he was in the movie Radioland Murders, something I really want to see.  Sure, the movie looks pretty good.  But my dear Rosie (Rosemary Clooney) is in the movie, according to her Wikipedia filmography list.  Now, whether she really was in it or her voice/a clip of her was used from the CH days I'm not sure.  But the fact that he was in a movie that I associate with Rosemary Clooney just makes me all happy and warm inside.  If I ever meet or write to him, my first question will be about Radioland Murders.

Schpeal over; have a picture!


...Or two.  :D
Top: Rosie, who seems fakely surprised with her book
Bottom: Jaggie, or James Roday and Maggie Lawson

~Bailey

2 comments:

  1. I know what you mean about not really being into modern shows. While yours is Psych, mine is Burn Notice. God, how I love that show!

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    1. Is Burn Notice on hiatus? Because hiatus is the number one thing I hate about modern things. You don't have to worry about any of that with the classics!

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