I really enjoy Richard Paul Evans’ books; I really do; and this book was highly anticipated by me; I really enjoyed reading about Macy and Mark and the road they took in finding themselves and each other. His books are clean and I consider him one of my favorite authors.

I went to see this film on my birthday on 2/1, and I just wanted to break down and cry in the end; there were other times too; when they were in the train station and he played pretend with his son to cover up the fact that they had no where to go; Oh that hit me deep; but as I looked at it, I came away with a message; Try your best not to end up on the streets; It is hard when you earn a little over minimum wage and things look rough; but me myself, I feel like this, even if you put a dollar to the side, something, that is a step towards not being broke; not being a person who lives from check to check; that’s what I took away from this movie.

What can I say? I LOVE the movie, love the music each time I come across it; Eddie Murphy’s performance as James “Thunder” Early singing “Fake Your Way to the Top” with his “round and round” just makes me want to dance each time I hear it; It has an upbeat energy reminiscent of the times. I also enjoy “Love You I Do” “Move”, Jimmy’s Rap(“Jimmy got Soul”) are becoming favorites as well; Of course, it would be wrong for me not to mention Jennifer Hudson’s renditions of “And I am Telling You” and “I am Changing” without clapping and marvelling how in the world did she get booted from American Idol? but then one person’s trash is another’s treasure indeed, and in this, she really shines; She is well deserving of her Golden Globe and I pray she and Eddie gets an Oscar each.

This movie has a twist to it but like all of Preston Sturges’ movies, it wouldn’t be one if it wasn’t one. OK. Joel McCrea plays a director who makes nice little movies; He graduated from a Ivy League school and life is good; Yet, he decides to stretch out and make a movie called Oh,Brother Where Art Thou? (sounds familiar? well the Coen Brothers finally made a movie on this same title over sixty years later based on this).So he takes to the road as a hobo(mind you, this is still the days when folks still hitched rides on trains getting around the country); Well, he hitched rides,meets Veronica Lake on the way, and somehow ends up on a work gang behind it and the movie folks somehow feels he was dead. Mind ya, this was before DNA, positive ID etc in the end though all is straightened out and accomplished.

I saw this movie some years ago on PBS; don’t last longer than 85 minutes but it makes the viewing worthwhile and plus, I didn’t know that Preston Sturges directed this film; Anyhow, you have this young fellow(Dick Powell), who is played a joke on, and wins this contest of $10,000; Mind you, this is 1940, the Depression, and though the Depression is coming to a close, that is still a whole lot of money, even today that’s a nice bit of money; So he goes on this shopping spree and buys his whole block Christmas presents; Now just to see how the whole block react upon seeing Dick Powell and his girl come with the presents is worth the watch; Kinda makes you wish you would do it too. Anyhow, in time, it comes to his attention that a prank was played but don’t worry because in the end, the joke is DEFINITELY on them; a heck of a gem of a film. One of the best.

The movie was good; the action was something, but the ending let me down; it just ended with Crockett going to the hospital; no nothing just the end; that left me kind of cold there; Now, I have to follow an action movie from start to finish, and this one, I followed pretty well, but like Montoya’s woman; how could she NOT know who Crockett REALLY was? How could HE just sample the man’s goodies? Foxx showed a tender side as well as a good performance. but it left me cold.

I didn’t know that this film had come out until I was checking out some movies to see and this came up; Now I like a kids movie and all, but I’m not the Christmasey kind of person; I like the season when it comes but not all gung ho about it; Well, today, i sat and watched this movie and I really liked the message in it; Mind you, I’m like little Billy(“Santa haven’t come my way at all”),but I felt that it had a great message; Now, the young guy read the book where it stated that the North Pole was uninhabitable; yet, despite of it all, he took a train ride there along with other kids, including a cute, gutsy sister who could lead you where you needed to go(played well by Nona Gaye), and a young uncertain boy Billy, as well as a “know it all” kid who just rubbed you the wrong way. But as you watched the film, you wanted to grab a hold to it just like Billy wanted to grab the gift with his name on it and run all the way home with it. You couldn’t help but be amazed; So…this movie will darn sure be watched during the holidays as well as though days I need a lift and know that life can be good if we just “believe”

I bought this book for my daughters a couple of years ago so that they could feel god about who they were as little baclk girls; Although they loved the book, unfortunately, the book was put away when they moved around with their father. To this day, they still talk about that book.

I was fortunate to be in Walmart when I saw this 2 DVD collection; I always enjoyed both movies and just had to have it; I had planned to watch it as a family together but ended up doing it solo and with others. great movies;

I got to meet Lil a few years ago; Well around February, 2005 for Black History Month; The college I was going to had her come and perform; She spoke of singing with Duke Ellington’s orchestra, and now she sings around town(Mobile,Alabama area); I got this CD to check her out and I truly enjoyed “Grandpa Can Boogie Too”, “Boogie All Night Long”, Mercy Me; most of the music was done as far back as 1950; a few just in 2000; but very interesting.