wandering gifts

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christmas, christmas tree, family, family and friends, friends, gifts, home, love, miscellaneous, random, thoughtful gifts

Christmas isn’t about gifts as we all know but if we are honest we do love opening up little parcels and packages, knowing that someone thought of us and cared. Another thing I love about Christmas gifts is that they live under the tree for a while, peeking up between the branches reminding us of all of friends and family.

Sadly it’s nearly time to take down the tree, two more evenings of admiring its beauty in candlelight (yes I have real candles on my tree) and then it’s time to put Christmas back in it’s trunk (yes I have a wooden trunk) and wait for December to come around again.

And when the tree come down I need to find homes for my Christmas gift, a  challenge in my miniature home. Of course some of my gifts have already wandered away from the tree and settled down in the perfect spot.

One of the first to go where obviously any Christmas decorations that where hung on the tree the minute they were unwrapped and will be packed away for a year till they are rediscovered again.The next gift that moved was a lovely smelling candle that has been filling my home with the wonderful aroma of cinnamon and berries. On Christmas day a wonderful gift of spiced salts was used to flavour my goose and now lives with the rest of my spices in the kitchen cupboard. Wordy magnets jumped from under the tree onto my fridge and of course all the books have settled in on my bedside table ready to be devoured, like the German marzipan that has partially still survived.

So when the tree is dismantled on Saturday I will have to find a place for the rest of my thoughtful gifts and when I see them throughout the year, perched on a shelf, hanging on the wall or sleeping in a drawer, my mind will wander back to Christmas day and the love and joy I felt while unwrapping the gifts, reminding me of my wonderful friends and family.

My Christmas tree this year

Film review: A Dark Truth

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andy gracia, Deborah Kara Unger, drama, entertainment, Eva Longoria, film reviews, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Durand, Lara Daans, movies, reviews, The Dark Truth

Andy Gracia in “A Dark Truth”

Radio talk show host and ex-CIA agent Jack Begosian (Andy Gracia) is trying to make sense of his past by seeking the truth in his nightly radio show. But when he is hired by heiress Morgan Swinton (Deborah Kara Unger) to uncover a water crisis-spurred massacre in South America Begosian sees his chance for redemption.

Sadly The Dark Truth aspires to more than it delivers. The combination of third world exploitation, corporate cover-up and a leading man trying to do the right thing aims to be highly dramatic, yet still weighty, but only succeeds to feel like a made-for-TV movie.  And even though Gracia tries to hold the poorly written script together it is just not enough.  The action scenes are underdeveloped and bland, the plot too fragmented and the characters have no depth. In addition to this the viewer can’t help but feel that well-know actors like Forest Whitacker and Eva Longoria are past their prime.

It seems as if the aspirations of Director/Screenwriter Damian Lee and his budget were too far apart. His attempt to create a disturbing drama like “Blood Diamond” or an action thriller like “Tears of the Sun” with A Dark Truth failed.  And even the cynical and world-weary monologues of Begosian in his recording booth fail to inspire as everything is to obvious or clichés to actually make the audience think.

The Dark Truth may have good intentions but is boring and filled with lackluster stars, and truthfully not worth the price of a ticket