CURRENT EVENTS
If you are feeling troubled
Perhaps this will also help
PHYSICAL TRAITS
Honor Thy Temple
This is for anyone who is feeling less than positive about their body image. Just try to be as healthy as possible and sing this song to yourself any time you aren’t feeling good about yourself.
CHARACTER TRAITS
The Foundation for Being Extraordinary
SOCIAL TRAITS
Getting Along with Others
LEARNING TRAITS
Growth Keeps You Extraordinary
Before you play, you should ask yourself if you have made any progress on your priorities.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Odds & Ends of Being Extraordinary
SELF-HELP BOOKS
To me, books are a way of learning directly from someone, who you may never have the opportunity to meet.
And of course, some read simply for the pure enjoyment of reading
I have no idea what the woman above is reading, but she does seem to be enjoying her book.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK
La La Land
La La Land is a 2016 American romantic musical comedy-drama film starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a musician and an aspiring actress who meet and fall in love in Los Angeles. The film’s title refers both to the city of Los Angeles and to the idiom for being out of touch with reality (Source: Wikipedia)
I enjoyed the film from an entertainment perspective, but I’m not sure it will hold up as well as the other musical comedy that I saw last week.
A Hard Days Night
A Hard Day’s Night is a 1964 British musical comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring the Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. The film portrays several days in the lives of the group.
The film was a financial and critical success. Time magazine rated it as one of the all-time great 100 films. British critic Leslie Halliwell described it as a “comic fantasia with music; an enormous commercial success with the director trying every cinematic gag in the book” and awarded it a full four stars.
The film is credited as being one of the most influential musical films of all time, inspiring many spy films, the Monkees’ television show and pop music videos.
MUSIC OF THE WEEK
Downtown
Petula Clark
LAST WEEK’S POLL – Easy Way or the Hard Way?
Do you believe things of value usually or mostly can only be obtained by hard work & effort?
87.5% – Believe it takes effort
12.5% – Believe you just need to be open to letting things of value come into your life
Whatever your definition of success, how successful do you feel compared to others?
56% feel they are more successful than others
44% feel they are less successful than others
THIS WEEK’S POLL – Tattoos?
ART OF THE WEEK
In The ****Heights
Baldwin Theater in Royal Oak, MI, USA
January 26-29, February 2-5, 10-12, 2017
New York City’s Washington Heights is a vibrant neighborhood on the brink of change where dreams are big, ambition is strong, and money is hard to come by. A winning lottery ticket could potentially change the livelihood of the community forever. This exhilarating bi-lingual sensation pulsates with Latin rhythms and hip-hop, and electrifies with exuberant street-dance thus deserving of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical. (Source: Program)
Mom’s Gift
Meadow Brook Theater, Rochester, MI, USA
Through January 29, 2017
In this comedy with a heart, Mom has been dead for 11 months and shows up at her husband’s birthday party as a ghost with a mission. Like Clarence in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” she has to accomplish a task to earn her wings. Only what the task actually is, is a mystery. There are so many things to fix. The problem is complicated by the fact that the only person who can hear or see Mom is her daughter who has been ordered by the court to spend Dad’s birthday with him as part of her Anger Management Program. One by one the family’s secrets are peeled away revealing a shocking truth that surprises even our ghost. (Source: Program)
These are a couple of S.E. Michigan plays, which I have seen, that are still running.
There are a number of other plays going on in S.E. Michigan and if you live elsewhere, it is likely that there is a play within driving distance.
If you haven’t seen live theater you should experience it.
EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE
Richard Chacon
I met Chacon back in 1981 and I thought he was one of the most extraordinary people I have come across, an artist and a philosopher. He died a number of years ago, but I still remember him.
I have no idea who is in the above picture with my friend Chacon.
THIS WEEK’S JOKE
PLEASE CONSIDER
If you reached this point, you must have seen something you wish to comment on; please do so.
My thanks to Carol, Blue, Broad Blogs, Linda, Mirna, Samantha & Unexpected Common Hours, for commenting on last week’s post. All you have to do is just click on “Comment”, scroll down to the “Leave a Comment” box. Type in your comment and then click the “Post Comment” box.
Also, please consider passing this blog on to others. My thanks to Carol, Jean, Mathew, Mureen, Patty, Paula, Shawn, Susan & United Notions Peace Makers, for sharing my post last week on Facebook.
BLOG & FACEBOOK
My thanks to Angela, Anna Rose, Denzil, Hjmhbo, Linda, Simple Insights, Smit & Unexpected Common Hours, who started following my blog (Currently 149 followers) and Kelly, who liked my Harmony Books & Films Facebook page (Currently 216 people)
MY BOOK
If you are enjoying this book and find it useful, perhaps you will find that is also true for “I’m Tired of Being Ordinary, Are You?”
And if you have read this book, please say a couple of words about it in an Amazon evaluation.
The book is available on-line from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The Kindle version of my book is $4.95.
http://www.amazon.com/Tired-Being-Ordinary-Are-You/dp/0990388697
Harmony Books & Films, LLC 
Always a great job, Bill!
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Thanks very much Jo. I appreciate your encouragement. And this time your comment made it to me. Not sure what was happening to the other ones, but this one made it 🙂
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I look forward to this every week. 🙂
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Wow. Thank you so much for that encouragement Melissa. And now I finally know your last name. I’ve been referring to you as Melissa Pasquale all these years.
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Letting go. So great for mental health, Isn’t it?
My mom’s birthday is next weekend and I’m planning to take her to La La Land. Hope she likes it.
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Yes Georgia, letting go is one of the best things one can do for themselves.
Happy Birthday to your Mom and I really hope she enjoys La La Land. I would love to hear what she thought of it.
And thank you for commenting. I always find comments so encouraging.
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For the love of God… Why does the video show up on your page like there’s no problem? I’ve tried it on my blog and I only get a link to the YouTube video instead, because “Vevo won’t allow videos to be shown everywhere” or whatever their excuse is (I got a notion after clicking “play” when I tried to put Meghan on DD). It’s not fair!
But I’ll let it go :p Pick my battles, as you said. At least Ed Sheeran works, haha!
Also, I am SO going to become an international expert. I think I’ve been working towards that goal for a good year now, so only 6 more years of pleasurable reading to go! 😀
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Samantha, I was teasing you a little about the video, but it also seem to fit right in with what I wanted to convey about negative self-images. What I did was bypass Vevo and went straight to Youtube. At Youtube, I clicked “Share”, than clicked “Embed”, then do a copy on the address that comes up and past it directly into your blog.
Don’t worry, someday you too will become very old like me and then you too will be able to do all kinds of technological tricks. 🙂
Yes, six years of reading and you have all your world traveling experiences, plus more travels in the next six years. I cannot see how you can miss being an international expert, unless you decide otherwise.
Su amigo Bill
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(For some reason when I click “Like” on a post when I’m on my phone, sometimes it doesn’t work)
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Samantha, it sounds like you are using a “Smart A _ _” phone. I’ve heard they sometimes like to override their user’s decision. You may want to trade it is for a plain “Smart” phone. Myself, I prefer a phone of just average intelligence; but to each their own. I hope this helps. Bill
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