Category: review

Loving “Her”

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Warning: Semi-spoilers below (I don’t give away the ending, but do discuss the plot).

I watched the movie “Her” recently and while I’m no movie critic, I enjoyed it so much that I felt compelled to write something. I’m sure my musings have already been published by someone else, but I’ve purposely not read any reviews of this movie, so that I can claim these as my own original thoughts. 😉

IMG_0653The basic plot line, as shown in the trailer, is that a man, Theodore, played by the always intriguing Joaquin Phoenix, falls in love with an operating system, or OS. The OS is a new version just introduced with intuition, and Theodore’s installation names herself Samantha. If I haven’t lost you yet, good. Once you get over the hurdle of accepting that these things are possible, you’ll enjoy a love story that is as endearing and complicated as any other love story you’ve seen. But the movie is just as much about love as it is about the human condition, or what it means to really be a living, breathing, person. Continue reading →

SAÏAH: Redefining Theater

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I was lucky enough to get a ticket to one of the last sold-out performances of Terminus, the most recent production by theatre company SAÏAH, based out of Atlanta’s Goat Farm. It’s hard to explain how Terminus is different than many of the other plays on any given night in Atlanta; calling it a play certainly is not appropriate. Let’ try this: An outdoor, choose-your-own-adventure, civil-war era, moving performance based on the plot of Watership Down. It was amazing.

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SAÏAH’s postcard for Terminus.

I don’t want to give away all of SAÏAH’s secrets, as I’ve heard this is not the first “theater experience” they’ve hosted, nor do I think it will be the last. But I do want to highlight the aspects of Terminus that really stood out to me,and have certainly made me want to keep on eye out for what this group does next.

I went to see Terminus on a double date with my coworker and friend, Renee, and our husbands. We heard about it from Weston Manders, a former intern of ours at Oglethorpe University, where Renee and I work. He was offered the part of Fiver, a leading role, and when he explained to us how Terminus was “not just a play”, we knew it was going to be good. After our first reservations were canceled because of rain (as several other performances were) we ended up going on the very last weekend the group was scheduled to perform. Continue reading →

Don’t Judge a Biscuit by its Crust

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20140316-151723.jpgThe first time I passed it, I thought it was abandoned. I thought it was just another old building that was left to slowly decay along one of the narrow country roads in Cumming. It certainly didn’t look like an operating business. The rusted roof, unpainted plywood walls, giant potholes in the parking lot – they all supported my assumption. The peeling, barely-readable white letters stenciled onto the side of the building seemed almost laughable: “FRESH BISCUITS 5:30 – 11AM.” I figured it had been a long time since any biscuits had been served.

The biscuit place is not on a road I travel frequently, and I usually pass it on weekend afternoons. Then one day, I took a different route to work and passed it early on a Tuesday morning. There was a line of cars wrapped around the building waiting in line at a drive-thru window, and a red neon “OPEN” sign lit up in the window. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I figured maybe the locals had been going there for biscuits for so long that they weren’t bothered by the building’s deteriorating exterior. Continue reading →