Television, Not Just For the Shows; There's Great Music On There! #MusicMonday

It seems like a good time to do a Music Monday post! It's Monday and there is some great music in my head, so let's hear it!

Fans of How I Met Your Mother may be familiar with this one from a couple years ago, but it's a new find for me, and I'm really digging it. It's Heavy Hours by Crooked Fingers


This is another song that I found thanks to television. I swear I find some of the best artists that way! This one you may be able to guess by it's dark feel, was heard on AMC's The Walking Dead. It is Oats In The Water by Ben Howard.


 So, that's what I'm listening to this week! A little somber, I guess, but I'm going through this "what do I want to be" kinda thing, so they kind of set the tone for it.

I hope your week is full of new music finds. I know mine will be!

My Own Little Paradise, Close to Everything, but So Far Away!

When I get home, I feel like I'm away from it all. The big trees on my culdesac, make it feel like like I'm in the country. It feels like I've gone far away from the hustle and bustle of town. It's peaceful and quiet with no signs of the traffic, congestion, and madness that is only blocks away. I have a big back yard to relax in and enjoy the little bit of nature that is left in my overdeveloped area of Florida. Thanks to the sounds of nature, the shade of the trees, and all the many critters around, I forget about everything else. When I get home, I just sit back and relax. Ahhhhhh.....




Can't forget this critter, he's one of my favorites! #AwesomeDawson
 
Hope things are peaceful in your part of the world!
 
♪Bite my lip and close my eyes, take me away to paradise♪ (Green Day)

Disney's Maleficent Movie Shows Another Side of Evil #EvilisComplicated

The weekend is here, so you may be thinking about what to do with your couple days reprieve from work. I highly suggest getting outside for some fresh air and activity, maybe some hiking or a little yoga, anything that gets you moving! Then after you've worked about a nice sweat and had some good healthy fun, go rest and cool off in your local movie theater, because while the hype of opening weekend is over, Maleficent is still playing and is worth the cost of the ticket!

I had the opportunity to attend the Maleficent screening with my oldest daughter last week. Her favorite Disney movie is Sleeping Beauty. She likes the movie so much that she has already decided that if she has a daughter, her name will be Aurora. Yep, she's a fan!

She was excited to go the screening of Maleficent because she had been looking forward to the movie since Disney announced that Angelina would be playing the part of the wickedly fabulous Maleficent. When we arrived, we were each given a cardboard headpiece of Maleficent's horns. We put them on and tried to get a pic together, but we kept cutting the horns out of the image. After a few tries we were seeing too many spots in front of our eyes from the flash and decided to settle for the pic without the horns in the image.

We eagerly awaited the start of the film, while Disney Radio did activities with some of the other guests. Finally Maleficent started, and right away I knew I liked it. It was a beautiful story of a young fairy with beautiful horns and big beautiful wings. (I have to say that I never realized that it was horns on top of Maleficent's head, but it totally made sense to the story. 
As the story went on we learned how young Maleficent loved the land she lived in with all the many other fairy creatures, and was not at all evil, but was in fact very happy and playful. Then something terrible changed everything. Maleficent became very dark and went on to cast her spell of evil sleep upon Princess Aurora as part of her wicked plot of revenge.

You may think you know the story from that part on, but this movie does a nice job of giving the traditional story a nice little twist. I like that it doesn't try to stretch it too far to give you an unreasonable ending. Most of the movie nicely supports Disney's original Sleeping Beauty story. Where they did make changes it makes sense to the plot and the "other side" of the story they are telling. It is designed to make you think differently about evil, and it does a great job of doing so.

The one thing I didn't like about Maleficent is that the names of the 3 fairy godmothers that watch over Aurora were changed from their names in Disney's original Sleeping Beauty. I'm not sure why this decision was made, unless it was to honor the original book, but I with all the other things they did to maintain continuity, I was surprised in this obvious difference.

Other than that one distraction, I really liked the movie, and so did my daughter. In fact, we can't wait to watch it again. I will say though, when we see it again, we won't bother with the 3D version. I don't think it was necessary for this movie, and I wouldn't recommend that you pay the extra for it. Just do the regular film, but do go see it on the big screen. It is definitely worth it!