Lafcadio Hearn, author of the book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, moved to Japan in 1890. He initially arrived to work as an English teacher in Matsue, a city in the Shimane Prefecture. Hearn became deeply fascinated with Japanese culture, folklore, and traditions, eventually settling in Japan permanently. He married a Japanese woman […]
Category: Movies
Through an interesting stream of consciousness, we came across one of the most interesting people on our World Tour: Lafcadio Hearn. Stream of Unconsciousness So, due to a combination of quantum effects, uncertainty principles, and tidal forces, the HBO algorithm suggested Kwaidan. The poster was creepy enough to draw me in. Kwaidan (Japanese: 怪談, Hepburn: […]
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A Sea Shanty Rabbit Hole
Say, may I recommend two “Sea Shanty” movies? We really liked both of them. Blow the Man Down Blow the Man Down is a 2019 American black comedy thriller film, written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy. It stars Morgan Saylor, Sophie Lowe, Annette O’Toole, Marceline Hugot, Gayle Rankin, Will Brittain, Skipp […]
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The Humble “Before”
Yesterday’s BLOTT (Everybody Loves Me, What About You?) leads naturally to a reflection on humility. Is it possible to combine humor and humility? (Our first humbleness failure may be assuming WLBOTT is funny.) But for the sake of argument, let’s make this assumption and move forward. There’s an interesting article titled “The Limits of Humility: […]
Moral Musings and Iguanas The Moral Dilemma It’s so easy to look down from our throne of bounty, our luxury WLBOTT world, and ask these questions. The WLBOTT world, where we have unlimited ramen noodles and health care in the form of Vick’s Vap-o-rub and generic Tylenol. It’s hard to imagine anyone in America as […]
References Jennifer Clement (author of Prayers for the Stolen) Guerrero, Mexico Chilpancingo The movie and part I of the book are set on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, a city about an hour northeast of Acapulco. Chilpancingo de los Bravo (commonly shortened to Chilpancingo) is the capital and second-largest city of the Mexican state of Guerrero. […]
Book .vs. Movie Similar vignettes propel the story in both the movie and the book – hiding in makeshift foxholes, the classroom antics, the operation to transform Maria’s cleft pallet…. The book is divided into three parts. The movie roughly corresponds to the first part. In the second part of the book, a teen-aged Ladydi […]
The Movie Prayers for the Stolen follows a group of young girls, their families, and their community, as they struggle against poverty and oppressive evil. The movie takes place almost exclusively in a rural village in the mountainous jungles an hour’s drive from Acapulco. The movie focuses on a poor rural Mexican Indian girl, Ana […]
“La India María” (born María Nicolasa Cruz) is a fictional character portrayed and created by actress María Elena Velasco. The character frequently endures situations of racial discrimination, classism, and corruption, although in all of these turmoils, María undoubtedly resolves them with hilarious acts of good-nature and morality. She has represented the poor indigenous, the migrant […]
WLBOTT: Elder G, how big an impact did Granny have on American society? Elder G: If I had to guess, I’d say a significant portion of older Americans, particularly those in the Baby Boomer and Gen X generations, would recognize a photo of Granny from *The Beverly Hillbillies.* The show was very popular during its […]