black girl nerds

Anxious? Get Those Creative Juices Flowing!

Oh, anxiety. We’re all too familiar with that nagging beast, aren’t we? It rears its restless head at the most inconvenient times, leaving us tense and overwhelmed. Not fun! But don’t stress, lovelies. You know by now I’ve got a trick up my proverbial sleeve just for you.

photo of rainbow colored painting on canvas — Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com

Let’s talk about creative playtime.

That’s right! Tapping into your creative side can whisk those worries away. Remember “whistle while you work”? I’m talking art, music, dance…anything that sparks the inner muse. Trust me, anxiety doesn’t stand a chance against an actively creative mind.

Now I know what you’re thinking… Did he fire six shots or only five? ….wait, that’s not what you’re thinking. What you’re really thinking is: “But I’m not artistic or talented…” My friend, come on, that’s so not true! We ALL have that creative flair within; we just have to reconnect with it.

In fact, let your inner child be your guide! Think back to the activities you loved as a kid. Were you a coloring fanatic? An epic block tower engineer? Did you write poems and stories? How about dance parties in the living room? All signs pointing to that untapped creative side of you! It’s so easy to access now. Really.

If you’ve read my blog, or followed me on social media, you are well aware how much I love my music. Dance? Not so much. Maybe the Electric Slide, or the Harlem Shuffle and the ever-famous Two-Step. Despite my disco shortcomings, music and dance send my worries drifting away. Cranking up my favorite tunes and shaking it out (embarrassingly) fills me with feel-good energy! Maybe meditation music or a spicy salsa rhythm is your jam. Find what floats your creative boat and makes you happy and bubbly.

If you feel stuck, try taking a class and learning something new. Consider that camera gathering dust or finally try sculpting pottery like you’ve always wanted. Trust me, anxiety doesn’t stand a chance against fresh inspiration.

And hey, being creative isn’t about being Picasso or Mozart! Find activities that distract you, capture your attention, and flow intuitively. This is not the space to be intimidated, just have fun!

Sometimes we need to escape anxiety’s clutch and access our creative freedom. From coloring books to dance offs, cooking, photography…if it sparks your spirit and chills out your mind, embrace it. Ready to try it?

Drop a comment as to what YOU do to shake those anxiety blues.

Horror Movie Review – Wrecker

Title: Wrecker
Genre: Horror
Director: Michael Bafaro
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4227282/

This movie almost WRECKED my marriage. (See what I did there?) My husband had the day off and I suggested we watch a movie.

“Hey, we’ll watch this movie. It’s terrible, but it’ll be fun! We’ll have a few laughs!”

Famous last words.

I’ve seen some horror dreck in my lifetime. I’ve watched the Friday the 13th movies and stuff that I can’t even recall I’ve seen because it’s been so terrible. But I’ve been able to laugh and point and giggle about the director and/or writer being awful. Or awful acting. Sometimes, the movie is bad, but you can see the actors are having fun, so it makes up for it.

This was not the case with this movie. This movie was just bad with no redeeming qualities. None. Wait. I did love the red Mustang and some of the shots were gorgeous. I can say that. But I don’t watch a horror for its gorgeous shots. Really, I don’t.

Let me give you a little overview. Being a woman of a certain age, I have seen a ton of movies. I know most of the tricks, the cliches and the character tropes. And I deal with them, because, let’s be honest, there is nothing new under the sun. And that’s okay.

You know what’s not okay? This movie.

So it starts out, some cross country trip. Blonde girl is nice, brunette is nasty. She’s

drinking, pretending to smoke (As an ex smoker, I can tell a true inhale. You gotta savor that smoke to get that nicotine hit), flashing her boobs, etc. Meanwhile the driver, the good girl blonde is telling her to calm down. Okay, look, blondie, you knew your girl was out of control before she got in the car, so why all the peeved admonishments?

Side note: The poster? Where it says ‘you stop, you die’. They stopped plenty of times and no matter how much I wished……well. Movie poster is a liar.

Anyway, they somehow anger some random tow truck driver and he starts messing with them. I would go on, but even thinking about the movie makes me tired. Suffice it to say many stupid things happen and then it’s over.

Another side note: This second poster? Talking about ‘a wrong turn’? This is also a lie. They took a shortcut ON PURPOSE.

I’ve seen Duel. I’ve seen Joyride. Both were way better and Duel was made in the EARLY seventies. In Wrecker, the acting is terrible. The choices the characters make are ridiculous and make no sense. And…the whole movie had my face screwed up.

My husband was not pleased. What a waste of 70 odd minutes.

Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

Grade: F
Watch or not to watch?: Don’t bother. It’s not even bad enough to have fun with.

Three Halloween Books for Scary Reading

Yes, we like the movies, but there’s nothing like a scary book to curl up with on a dark, blustery night. When I lived alone, I used to scare myself to death with the sounds that I thought I heard when I was reading an especially scary book. And the dog didn’t help when she jump up and ran out of the room for no apparent reason. (Sometimes I think dogs do that on purpose to scare the mess out of us. Then they go drink out of the toilet and laugh at us.)

Anyhoo, here’s my top five books to read around Halloween, or any time. These are presented in no particular order.

Pet Sematary – Stephen King: I can’t tell you how much this book frightened me. I discuss this in more detail over at my blog, if you care to take a look. Suffice to say, while the movie is pretty scary, it could not come close to the frightening visions that I had conjured in my head when I’d read the book..

I Am Legend – Richard Matheson: Forget Will Smith. Forget the movies. Read the story. Get inside of the head of the last human on earth, who is plagued every night by some kind of creatures who bid him to “come out, come out…” This novel inspired George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Excellent reading.

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury: Jim Nightshade and William Halloway encounter a carnival that is not exactly what it seems. To me, some of the themes that run through this novel mirror Stephen King’s Needful Things. If you haven’t read either, read Something Wicked first.

The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson: I saw the movie, yes, it was scary. However, as I wrote before, there’s nothing that can scare you worse than yourself. Shirley Jackson taps right into that terror and carries you along with her.

Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin: First of all, stay away from the “sequel”, Son of Rosemary’s Baby. That book made me so angry that I threw the hardcover across the room. Literally. (I am very glad that I hadn’t been reading it on an e-reader because the urge to throw it would have still been very strong.). The original Rosemary’s Baby is another case of the ordinary turning so hideously extraordinary that you can’t believe it’s happening. Certainly, it may be somewhat dated, but still, transport yourself back to the era before the Internet and immerse yourself in the horror.

I hope you enjoy these hand-picked scary selections of mine. Be sure to lock the doors and the windows and leave the bathroom light on. You don’t want to fumble into someone in the middle of the night.

Pleasant dreams!

Blogtoberfest – Horror Movie Review – Unfriended

Title: Unfriended
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama
Director: Levan Gabriadze (as Leo Gabriadze)
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3713166/

Synopsis according to IMDB:
A group of online chat room friends find themselves haunted by a mysterious, supernatural force using the account of their dead friend.

I might be getting too old for this, I admit this up front. I did not enjoy this movie on any level. Though I thought the story and the premise was excellent, the thirty year olds playing high schoolers did nothing to elicit my sympathy. I couldn’t even enjoy it on the “so bad it’s good” level because there was little to no physical action. You couldn’t say “don’t go in there” or “stay out of the basement”. Nope. The entire movie took place on a laptop screen.

As I said, this was an interesting concept and on some level, it was well executed. Since I watched the movie on a laptop, it was easy watching and some intriguing things happened.

The actors themselves were annoying. The screaming, crying, cursing and yelling did nothing for the movie. I won’t spoil it here, but in the end the viewer is left unsatisfied.

I’d say see it once, just to experience it.

As always….YMMV.

Grade: D

Horror Movie Review – Hell House, LLC

Title: Hell House, LLC (2015)

Synopsis:
Five years after an unexplained malfunction causes the death of 15 tour-goers and staff on the opening night of a Halloween haunted house tour, a documentary crew travels back to the scene of the tragedy to find out what really happened. (from imdb.com)

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Opinion

Well, well, well. The found footage genre isn’t completely dead.

If you’re a friend of mine on social media, you should well know I’ve never met a found footage film I didn’t like. Well, scrap that, because I realized, yes, I’ve met a few I didn’t care for at all. However, I am fascinated by the whole genre of found footage horror films and never pass up a chance to screen them….if I can take it. Some I won’t see because the gross factor is too high. But that’s blog post for another day.

Hell House, LLC is a little gem I found hiding on Amazon Video. Sidenote- I got the prime membership just for the shipping, but the Video area is kind of like your favorite Palmer Video. I’ve been finding quite a few cool films included with my Prime membership. Back to the movie.

The premise is quite simple: A group of friends put on haunted houses each Halloween season in New York City. This season, they decide to rent an old hotel. The Abbadon hotel in Abbadon, New York. Now, I’m pretty genre savvy, so I knew that Abbadon meant something or other, but was too lazy to reach for my phone to look it up. No matter, because I simply like watching the story unfold before my eyes. Why do research when surely the filmmakers will do it for me?

As a found footage film, this is one of the better ones. There’s not a ton of shaky cam or people yelling profanity at the camera, which is good. The movie opens telling us of an incident that happened five years prior, where people were killed/injured at the opening of the haunted house. It then circles back to before the incident, where the haunted house was being set up.

I must say, this film offered me quite a few scares from places I didn’t expect and had me covering my eyes at one point. It’s fun and it holds together, pretty much, plot wise. There is very little blood/gore – it’s not a slasher film, but I tell you, it’s creepy enough that I remember some of the scenes from it a few weeks later.

Recommended – have fun!

Rating – B