Star-Crossed Lovers...

So, Kevin and I took the kids to see Gnomeo and Juliet on Sunday.  I thought it was very cute.  It got me thinking about the other versions of the play that I have seen. 

We had to watch (I mean got to watch) the original 1968 version in my Freshman year of High School.  Despite the nude scene, which we were warned to act maturely about, I found it to be very dull and slow moving.  And it did little to nothing to help us understand what Shakespeare's words meant.

The next year, though, Romeo + Juliet was released.  It was the version with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.  I found it to be the exact opposite of the original.  In other words, I actually thought it was entertaining.  And I found that the acting made Shakespeare's words very easy to understand.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if it was a bit weird at times.

I found this website that compares the 2 movies, if you're interested.

It has also gotten me thinking about other stories/movies that share the star-crossed lovers theme.  Here are the ones I came up with:

* West Side Story
* Twilight
* Titanic
* Dirty Dancing
* Tristan and Isolde
* The Notebook

How about you?  Are there any others you can think of?  Or do you have any thoughts on Romeo and Juliet?

Love Songs...

Can you feel the love tonight?  Well, I can.  And I'm not a stickler when it comes to Valentine's Day, but in honor of love, I though it would be fitting to talk about some of the greatest love songs ever (in no particular order).

Movie Love Songs
~ "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams = from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves...(video)
~ "Kissing You" by Des'ree = from Romeo + Juliet...(video)
~ "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers = from Ghost...(video)
~ "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel = from Say Anything...(video 1) (video 2)
~ "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith = from Armageddon...(video)
~ "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin = from Top Gun...(video)
~ "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker = from Officer and a Gentleman...(video)
~ "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston = from The Bodyguard...(video)
~ "Come What May" by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman = from Moulin Rouge...(video)
~ "When You Say Nothing At All" by Alison Krauss = from The Other Sister...(video)
~ "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion = from Up Cloase and Personal...(video)
~ "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge = from When a Man Loves a Woman...(video)

Other Great Love Songs (which I'm sure have also been in movies)
~ "At Last" by Etta James...(video)
~ "Have I Told You Lately" by Rod Stewart...(video)
~ "Remember When" by Alan Jackson...(video)
~ "With or Without You" by U2...(video)
~ "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton...(video)
~ "Love, Me" by Collin Raye...(video)

...yes there are MANY I'm leaving out, but that's where you come in!

Love Song Dedications (I spent many a night in middle school and high school wishing someone would dedicate a song to me on the radio.  So, right now I'd like to live vicariously through Kevin and dedicate the rest of these to Cakes...just a few of our/his favorites...it's kind of a mixed tape via blog!)   :)
~ "Free" by Zac Brown Band...(video)
~ "All My Life" by KC and JoJo...(video)
~ "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova = from Once...(video)
~ "You're My Best Friend" by Tim McGraw...(video) (because, you know, we are just like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill)
~ "Faithfully" by Journey...(video)
~ "More Than Words" by Extreme...(video)
~ "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera from The Karate Kid II...(video)
~ "Amazed" by Lone Star...(video)
~ "Beth" by Kiss...(video)
~ "To Make You Feel My Love" by Garth Brooks = from Hope Floats...(video)

Well, if you managed to make it through without gagging, I hope you at least enjoyed the music.  And as always, it's your turn to post some of your favorite sappy love songs.  Happy Valentine's Day to you ALL!!

Magic Eye...

Do you remember these things? I used to love them. And I remember that they were all the rage back in the day...way back in the 90's.   :)  There are tons of them available to you through a Google search (hearts, duckies, sharks, sailboats, and even one of the M&M guys). I must confess I've wasted about an hour just browsing through the images this afternoon.

I am always reminded of that scene in Mallrats (click here) where that poor guy has been trying and failing for days to see the sailboat that everyone else seems to see so easily. It's greatness.

But while I was looking around at all of the "magic eye" stereograms out there, I stumbled across a generator (click here) that lets you create your own. I tried as hard as I could to get the image to embed directly to this post, but it was just too big.  So if you want to see the one I made (and we all know you do), you'll have to go here.

Then I got started looking at photo mosaics.  You know, like this: 

(It's said that they are the magic eye pictures of the 2000's.)  

And I found another really cool website (click here) that will generate photo mosaics of your own pictures. 

  

 

Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, although there was nothing deep or insightful (or even particularly sarcastic) here today, I hope I at least inspired you to have some fun wasting some time.  I just couldn't justify having 3 extra days stuck at home due to ice with no blog post to show for it.  So here you go!  If you do end up making any of your own images, please share them (the links) in a comment.  I'd LOVE to check them out.