Tag: family
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Stones
“Stones” emerged from a walk with my autistic brother, where the gravel beneath us felt like a ledger—each stone a record of what we’ve inherited and what we must carry. I wrote it to honor the physicality of memory and the way lineage shapes our future terrain. The poem resists sentimentality and abstraction, staying grounded…
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Photo Stop
This poem began as a meditation on gesture—specifically, the act of photographing something not to share, but to preserve a private emotional truth. I was thinking about how grief often manifests in small, unceremonious rituals: lifting a phone, deleting and retaking an image, placing it back in a purse chosen for protection rather than style.…
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The Box My Mother Kept
The Box My Mother KeptI find her in a boxlabeled “Misc.”full of not-miscellaneous things:wrinkled receipts—pollo, jabón, stamps from the 70’s and 80’s,movie ticket stubs to matinee rom-coms—each neatly placed under curled daisy petals.Birthday cards with crooked suns,one written by my six-year-old selfin tortured handwriting trying to be tender:“Te amo, Mamá”in Sharpie and crayon.A drawing of…
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The Legend of Ochi: The Lantern Beneath the Alder
There’s a hush to The Legend of Ochi, not the silence of fear, but the quiet after something sacred has been touched. Isaiah Saxon’s direction threads the edges of folklore and fable, delivering a debut feature that breathes in myth and exhales childhood. Carpathia, rendered with murky moonlight and soil-thick air, gives us a story…
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Invention: Invention as Inheritance
Courtney Stephens’ Invention moves like smoke curling through rooms of memory: elusive, personal, and strangely ceremonial. It’s less a film than a kind of séance with the archive, gathering fragments of familial detritus—audio reels, feverish patent diagrams, domestic footage—and stitching them into a visual elegy that resists conventional closure. As a narrative, it flirts with…
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Snow Globes
Snow Globes There are tableaux we make out of dinner plates, a child’s lost sock,a father’s coat on the bannister,the silent, stuck smile of a motherstirring steam into endless errands—windows frosting into the same patterns,altars of dusty decades accumulating unnoticed in twice told stories, reupholstered sorrows,all the slow cyclones of repetition caught under glasswaiting for…
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The Karate Kid: Legends- Wax On, Wax Off… Again?
The Karate Kid franchise has thrived on the underdog narrative, the poetic symmetry of a well-placed roundhouse kick, and the wisdom of a mentor who speaks in riddles. *Karate Kid: Legends* attempts to honor this tradition while stitching together two disparate branches of the Miyagi-verse—Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han—into one cohesive…
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Final Call
Final Call The screen flickered in the hush of enveloping dark, Michael Douglas pacing, his fate unraveling— *Fatal Attraction,* a movie about consequence, its shadows pressing forward. But beneath the flickering flames, something was wrong, settling into my gut like a held breath, bending the air—quiet rupture, breath held too long. Five minutes home, five…
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The Last Ride
The Last RideThe highway hums beneath us, a silver ribbon unspooling, stretching time, five hours folding into salt and horizon. She sits beside me in the old Chrysler— the Town & Country, once dignified, now a relic of polish fading into nostalgia. The wood paneling still whispers of its golden years, though the lacquer has…
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My Jesus Hour in a Taco Bell
I feel at home at Taco Bell, as the cuisine echoes the worst of my mom’s cooking: cheese that tastes like beans, beans that taste like rice, rice that tastes like flour.It’s where I go when I am missing someone, usually near their Jesus’ hour, between the last sip of a lunch hour Pepsi and…
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Abundant Mangoes
This is the first time I’ve been in this mango grove, hearing the iguaca sing, since my parents left this islandIt is mid-July and I am wearing my dad’s old hat palm pava square and jaunty on my balding crownquietly stealing this fleshy passion fruit, its skin warm on my palm, eager to be sucked,…
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Snow White : A Reimagined Tale of Reflection and Renewal
In a realm where the magic of cinema knows no bounds, a bold reimagining of a timeless classic has made its grand debut: Disney’s live-action *Snow White*. Starring the talented Rachel Zegler as the enchanting princess and the formidable Gal Gadot as the chilling Evil Queen, this fresh adaptation aims to infuse new energy into…
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A Son’s Lament
It’s been over thirty-five years since I felt your motherly touch, and I no longer try to shape a garden of sorrow. Instead, I let the new grass flame, its green distinct from the old cold fire, whose embers tighten their ring with each passing year. I find joy in the crepe myrtles unfolding into…
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The Long Drive Home (A Draft: Seeking your opinion)
When the car burst onto the empty highway, the bridge stretched long over the river,and the faint glow of streetlightsbathed the dashboard in a soft, cold light,not bright, but a subtle washprofoundly changing my thoughts. Suddenly I wanted to feel clarity,to dive deep into my center,marriage and divorce throwaway wordsfor the deep sensation of home,knowing…
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Slamdance 2025: Banr”: A Heartfelt Exploration of Love and Memory in the Face of Alzheimer’s
Movie Info: After 40 years of devotion, an elderly couple faces a heartbreaking farewell—he succumbs to a heart attack, while she battles Alzheimer’s, trapped in a cycle of fragmented memories and a desperate search for her family, as love fades into unrecognition. Review: “Banr,” directed by Erica Xia-Hou, is a touching and deeply emotional film…
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My Penguin Friend: A Delightful Heartwarming Tale of Bird and Man Without the Avian Flu
MOVIE INFO: A sweeping family adventure, My Penguin Friend is a triumphant tale of friendship between a lonely father and a little lost penguin who recharges his spirit and heals his family with an unshakable, ocean-crossing loyalty. Humble fisherman João (international star Jean Reno) has turned away from the world in the wake of tragedy.…
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That Christmas: A Heartwarming Holiday Tale That Delivers Festive Cheer
MOVIE INFO: Based on the charming trilogy of children’s books by beloved multi award-winning writer/director Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Yesterday), That Christmas follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness, and Santa Claus making a big mistake, not to mention an enormous number…
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Light
When I was a child light shone angels through my fingerscrowning my parents’ faces,blessing the simple tasks of theirs: table setting, pouring water—how it lit the world in my upturned smileand flowed through as I grewand how it followed me homeand stayed, even in the dark.Light was the water, earth,reflecting off every animal, every street,…
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True Sisters Know How to Stitch a Real Wedding Dress
My mother got married in a hand stitched dressthat each of her four sisters contributed a piece of their souls into the embroidered lace:a skein of swans in perfect v formation flew up her left sleeve, doves fluttered down her right, peacock trains fanned cardioid eyesof the most luminous white across her torso and bluebirds…
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Robot Dreams: Do Robots Dream of Electric Friendships?
MOVIE INFO: DOG lives in Manhattan and he’s tired of being alone. One day he decides to build himself a robot, a companion. Their friendship blossoms, until they become inseparable, to the rhythm of 80’s NYC. One summer night, DOG, with great sadness, is forced to abandon ROBOT at the beach. Will they ever meet…
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The Pond
The pond was a quarry first, a blast furnace to the colonies where trains ran across its field.“Iron Ore Bed” map points called it.It was left to the rain when it dried up.When his parents bought the land twenty- five years before he was born, the field was overgrown and the pond was weedy and…
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The Neon Highway: Traveling the Road of Broken Dreams on the Old Country Road
MOVIE INFO: When singer-songwriter Wayne meets washed-up country music legend Claude, the two head back to Nashville for a second chance. REVIEW: Beau Bridges wants to upstage the success of old brother Jeff’s Oscar winning success from Crazy Heart, where he played a fading country music star trying to make a comeback. Beau plays the…
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If: Maybe We All Need Just An Other Sixth Sense
MOVIE INFO: From writer and director John Krasinski, IF is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids. REVIEW: IF has a lot of invisible beings being seen…
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Journey to Bethlehem: Mary the Disney Princess With a “Gleeful” Spirit
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: A young woman carrying an unimaginable responsibility. A young man torn between love and honor. A jealous king who will stop at nothing to keep his crown. This live-action Christmas musical adventure for the entire family weaves classic Christmas melodies with humor, faith and new pop songs in a retelling…
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Two Artist’s Love Letters
1.He created for her colors that never existed,and then threw them away, creating new anew, mattered matter, forever dynamic cosmos of spiritually affective things reconciling in the meeting of colors.Innocent white, virtuous gold,evil black, envious green,passionate red, blue love,fearful yellow, hateful scarlet-all given back to the death lifefrom the ones rejected by herfrom his daily…
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Good Burger 2: A Reheated Burger, Even With All the Trimmings
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Dexter Reed and cashier Ed reunite at fast-food restaurant Good Burger with a hilarious new group of employees. Review: 1997’s Good Burger was an innocuous kids comedy that somehow developed a cult following. The sequel, Good Burger 2 comes 26 years later as a Paramount Plus filler movie for the…
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Leo: A Cold Blooded Creature Who Wants to Warm Kid’s Hearts
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes; Actor and comedian Adam Sandler (Hotel Transylvania, The Wedding Singer) delivers signature laughs in this coming-of-age animated musical comedy about the last year of elementary school — as seen through the eyes of a class pet. Jaded 74-year-old lizard Leo (Sandler) has been stuck in the same Florida classroom for…
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Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret: Getting Beyond First Period to Full Teen Identity Crisis
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: For over fifty years, Judy Blume’s classic and groundbreaking novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. has impacted generations with its timeless coming of age story, insightful humor, and candid exploration of life’s biggest questions. In Lionsgate’s big-screen adaptation, 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is uprooted from her life…
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The Little Mermaid: Great Sea Legs, Not So Great Land Legs
Summary via IMDB: The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, Ariel is a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. Longing to find out more about the world beyond the sea, Ariel visits the surface and falls for the dashing Prince Eric. Following her heart, she makes a deal with the evil sea…
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Haunted Mansion : Spooks Come Out for a Singing Wake
Storyline via IMDB: A single mom named Gabbie hires a tour guide, a psychic, a priest and a historian to help exorcise her newly bought mansion after discovering it is inhabited by ghosts. Review: I doubt if even fans of the Haunted Mansion will like the latest cinema edition of the Disney Parks ride. This…
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Puss in Boots- The Last Wish: Knowing the Last Cat Life Is Not Really the Final Curtain Call
Plot via IMDB: Sadly, Puss in Boots, the undaunted Spanish lover and hero, is now down to the last of his nine lives, a decade after the events of Puss in Boots (2011). And as if that weren’t enough, the unstoppable bounty hunter known as The Big Bad Wolf is after him. To restore all…
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We Have a Ghost: Going Beyond Spooky
Plot via IMDB: Seeking a fresh start in Chicago, the Presley family moves into a dusty fixer-upper they soon realize comes with a catch: a ghost in the attic named Ernest (David Harbour). Despite Ernest’s attempts at scaring teenage son Kevin (Jahi Winston), the detached, music-obsessed teen soon finds a kindred spirit in this trapped…
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Lyle, Lyle Crocodile: Hoping and Bopping to that Crocodile Rock
Plot via IMDB: Follows the title reptile who lives in a house on East 88th Street in New York City. Lyle enjoys helping the Primm family with everyday chores and playing with the neighborhood kids but one neighbor insists that Lyle belongs in a zoo. Mr. Grumps and his cat, Loretta, do not like crocodiles,…
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Kekkon hirōen no shashin (the wedding party photo)
Hahaoya: The red Camilla/ living the noble death of love/ amongst daughter’s sky. Chōjo: Red spider lily/ lives in the web of neglect/ to eat butterfly. Ichibanshita no musume: A chrysanthemum/ blooms amongst all the flowers/ that have turned black.Hanayome: The cherry blossom/ hopes her short bloom will not wilt/ in the red string’s cutting.Japanese…
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Last Day
She exists a clam shell folded in the middle of the bed, her bedspread forming a waterfall of somber gray tears. She hears her daughter shut the door, probably for the last time, and step into the clear, bright light all around.Yet the clam mother will remember it as a dark and overcast day. She…
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The Road to the Sea
When I was a young boy my mother drove us in a white Plymouth to a road that ended even with the sea. The last tenth mile was paved seashells mortared with beach stones, the low shoulders no higher than my ankles- the carapaces of turtles, crabs, lobsters boiled and eaten over a century. She…