Movies for women, which have licenses available

Because trying to find a good list on the web is next to impossible (particularly movies that can be shown either through the Movlic.com license, or the MPLC license for libraries, I present the films that Reel Women have watched in the past five years. There are a few that we had to raise money to get the license for in here, too.

Films Reel Women has shown since September 2008, when we started the series:

2008
Sept:  Real Women Have Curves
Oct: God Says 'Ha!'
Nov.: Away from Her
Dec:  No Movie
---------------------
2009
Jan: The Duchess
Feb: Dreamgirls
March:  Frieda
April: North Country
May:  The Queen
June/July/Aug: No Movies
Sept: A Class Apart
Oct: A Powerful Noise
Nov: Revolutionary Road
Dec: No Movie
---------------------
2010
Jan: Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron)
Feb: Not Easily Broken
March: Magdalene Sisters
April: My Sister's Keeper
May: Precious
June: The Blind Side
July: The Prize-Winner of Defiance, Ohio
Aug: The Young Victoria
Sept: In the Time of the Butterflies
Oct: The Painted Veil
Nov:  White Oleander
Dec:  No Movie
------------------------
2011
Jan:  Mrs. Brown
Feb: Breakfast at Tiffany's
March: Winter's Bone
April: Eat, Pray, Love
May: Rabbit Hole
June: House of Sand and Fog
July: Fair Game
Aug.: The Whales of August
Sept: Pan's Labyrinth
Oct:  Soul Surfer
Nov: Black Swan

Dec: No Movie
---------------------
2012
Jan:  The Help
Feb: Down in the Delta
March: Conviction
April: Sarah’s Key
May: Upside of Anger
June: An Education
July: Easy A
Aug: Martha Marcy May Marlene
Sept:  Made in LA
Oct:  Baby Jane
Nov: The Invisible War

-------------------—

2013
Jan: Heartburn
Feb: Cancelled due to blizzard
March: Anna Karenina
April: Half the Sky
May: Albert Nobbs
June: Silver Linings Playbook
July: Zero Dark 30
Aug: The Impossible (50th film)
Sept: A Separation (Sept 24)
Oct: Stories We Tell
Nov: Much Ado About Nothing

I have followers?

The pressure to write is going to be unbearable now.

I started this nearly two years ago, after the school district gig. But, I discovered that even tho I decided to blog because I needed to start writing for myself again ... when you are writing every day, you kind of don't want to do this at night.

I do think that pushing some of my longer Facebook posts over here could be interesting, so ... you never know what you might see.

I'll also take suggestions.

I can wait this out, too

Criminals, generally, are not the brightest bulb on the string.

I can say this after a lot of years of covering cops, courts and just general reporting. But, the bad guys actually think they are smarter than the rest of us chumps -- you know, those of us that work for a living, pay our bills, are respectful of other people and just want to build a good life built on hard work and respect.

Take my burglar. At the end of March, an investigator with the Elgin Police Department came to me with some info that made me deliriously happy. Steven T. Luellen, 31, of Elgin, was being charged with my burglary from back in August.

Mr. Luellen thought he was smart, too. He apparently put on latex gloves so he wouldn't leave fingerprints as he sliced my screen open, pushed a fan out of his way, and entered my apartment. He also probably thought he was being pretty smart when he put the chain on the door. If someone tried to come in while he was in the apartment, he could get away before someone got in.

But you can't cure stupid, Mr. Luellen (who of course is at this point just a suspect because he is innocent until proven guilty). He managed to leave one of those latex gloves behind on my windowsill. Because Luellen has a very long criminal history, his DNA was already in the Illinois police database.

He was already in lockup when the state crime lab finally, after six months, tested that latex glove for DNA. He had violated his bond on an earlier domestic battery case -- a charge that came about two weeks after my burglary. There is nothing quite so blood pressure-raising as to see your burglar at bond call.

Oh, and did I mention that the second my neighbors called and told me I had been burglarized -- when I was in North Dakota at my aunt's funeral -- I knew that Luellen was the only person that it could have been? He had a long criminal history, was living on the couch of the bimbo upstairs, and was already pissed because I called him out for attempting to steal my cable, and in the process cutting my cable and internet? I had a feeling he was still a little pissed that I told him, in front of friends, to never talk to me, try to make contact, or knock at my door, or I would call the cops.

So anyway, once Luellen was charged for my burglary, his bail was set at $500,000. Can I get a hell yeah! He's not going anywhere for a while.

But now, he is starting in with the games. And thus comes the title of this post. I can wait this out too, Buddy. I am Norwegian and a Walker. That just spells bitchy, stubborn and tenacious.

I missed at least one of the initial court appearances because the file was sealed. It was sealed because he'd gotten let out on the bail bond violation the day before Elgin went to charge him on my burglary ... anyway, long story short, the case file is still not available through the clerks system. But I can look it up his appearance dates on the jail's website.

Luellen asked for a speedy trial and the state was all ready to offer him a deal. Seven years -- which means he would get out in three or so.

Yeah, I am not OK with that. I told the prosector that I am not OK with that. I am not OK with a plea deal and I am not OK with seven years. I am OK with somewhere between 10 and 15 -- 15 being the max for Rez Burg.

Then, the prosecutor had a new idea. If Luellen came up with at least one piece of the jewelry he'd taken, I wouldn't push for a trial and let the plea happen. That piece of jewelry is the Black Hills Gold necklace my Mom bought me when I was 17. My mom worked an extra job cleaning a jewelry store so she could buy some nice pieces. She bought me the necklace, wrapped it, and put it under the Christmas tree. Then it disappeared from under the tree. Mom the worked MORE hours so she could get it for me again. And this SOB took it.

But guess what, he won't cough up the necklace, or my class ring, or any of the other pieces he took. So guess what. I work for a newspaper. I have a blog. I have more than 200 Facebook friends who live in Elgin. And I just became a bitch.

So his latest game, a favorite for some in the Kane County Jail, is to fire his public defender and hire a private attorney. Not sure how he will pay for that, unless the gang he's a member of plans to pay for it. So when that money runs out, he will go back to the public defender -- and so on and so on to drag out the trial.

But guess what. I have seen this game. I have access to ink. Lots of it. And I will not let you get away with it, either.

Not Mayberry for us all

Have you seen this going around Facebook?

My curfew was the street lights, my mom didn't call my cell, she yelled my name, I played outside with friends, not online. If I didn't eat what my mom cooked, then I didn't eat. Sanitizer didn't exist, but you COULD get your mouth washed out with soap. I rode a bike without helmet, getting dirty was OK, and your neighbors cared as much as your parents did. Re-post if you drank water from a garden hose & survived!

This picture is so different for a child who grew up in an abusive household. There were good times and bad, but the fear in your heart is hard to ever get over.

This is the way I remember it.

“My curfew was the sound of dad’s truck and trailer turning in on the end of the street. That is when I knew my friends had to go home and I had to be in the house. I didn’t dare go to their houses if I thought he might come home. If dad had a bad day, that is when he’d line us up and whip us with the belt. Sanitizer didn’t exist, but I could be beaten for whatever misbehavior he imagined. I rode a bike without a helmet but got yelled at and berated when I fell off of it and got my knees skinned. Getting dirty was a way to get in trouble, too, because he worked like a slave to buy you those clothes. Your neighbors hid their eyes and shut their windows and pretended they didn’t hear. Re-post of your childhood was not Mayberry.”

Things I am glad I learned in school

1/ Don't run the water while you brush your teeth. Cause that uses up a lot of water, unnecessarily. I think this came from my kindergarten teacher, and I thank her for that. Of course, I wash dishes by hand and run the water, but hey ...

2/ There is no reason to crumple up paper before you toss it. Of course, back then in what must have been like third or fourth grade, there was no recycle bin, but I do appreciate now that the teacher insisted we throw out paper just by laying it in the bin, not crumpling it up first. Now, it drives me nuts when I see someone crumple paper. The only time this is acceptable is if you are going to play some hoops with said crumpled paper.

3/ Push in your chair when you are done. It drives me nuts when I am at a restaurant, the library, whatever, and people leave their chairs half way in the aisle/walking space. It is just etiquette people.

4/ Don't slouch. I think that was Mrs. Allen in the ... fourth grade? But, she also had a weird rule about no talking when we had bathroom breaks. That one still makes no sense to me.

5/ You are in traffic and in the center/left turn lane. Which way do you point your tires? Trick question, of course, because you leave your tires pointed straight ahead so that if you are rear-ended, you go straight and not into oncoming cars. I wish every day, when I see people who have their car turned half-way into oncoming traffic, that everyone had my driver's ed teacher ... or, apparently, a driver's ed teacher at all.

That is all.

I think we are just fed up

While having lunch with Ruth today, we were talking about the state of Illinois and the financial problems schools and social service agencies are having because the state is not paying its bills.

This state's finances are a mess. Admittedly, a lot of other states are having the same problem because of the economic downturn. Less funds are coming in via taxes and fees and when less is coming in, some bills just don't get paid.

But the people being hurt by the state not paying its bills are the people who need the most: children and working (or working poor) families.

There is a feeling among many people that I've talked to, and from bits and pieces I have heard in the media, that the only thing left to do is increase income tax. You've heard the political ads already, that "so-and-so wants to increase the income tax by 50 percent."

The thing is, an income tax increase has been bandied about for years, but when the economy wasn't in the tank, no one took it seriously. Two or three "Blue Ribbon Task Force" committees have suggested a 1 percent increase in Illinois income tax to pay for schools.

I am not going to go into the "isn't the lottery supposed to be paying for schools" debate, because if you still believe that, you are just ignorant.

There are also those who've suggested that the state is playing games by not paying its bills, so that the electorate will be more accepting when/if an income tax increase happens.

But, here is the thing. Until the lawmakers understand that we've had enough, the electorate is never going to accept that increase. Until insiders are no longer paid salaries to serve on boards that meet once or twice a year, until we don't hear about "pay for play" and about the Toddler putting one of his relatives on the Cook County payroll, until the last unqualified person is fired from their high-paying state job, the state isn't going to get one more penny out of us.

I heard a politician say last year (and no, I don't remember who it was) that they could get rid of all of those issues and still not have enough to pay the bills. Yeah, and? It might not be enough to solve the problem, but at least then we'd have enough faith in our lawmakers to give them more, knowing that it wouldn't be wasted on padding their pockets.

H&M controversy

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/nyregion/07clothes.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06about.html?scp=2&sq=jim%20dwyer&st=cse

So a grad student walking through New York sees people (poor, homeless, or both) sorting through bags of discarded clothing from an H&M store, one that happens to be around the corner from a charity doing a clothing drive. She contacts H&M's Swedish HQ and gets nothing from them, so she contacts the New York Times, instead. Journalism doing what it is supposed to be doing.

Same thing seems to be happening with Walmart, at least in New York. If they can't sell it, it gets mutilated before it gets tossed.

I agree that it sucks, and that clothes that can be used shouldn't just go into a landfill. It is neither green, nor showing corporate responsibility.

But, I get it, too. Stores have been doing this kind of thing for ages. Remember the big box store in my hometown (small midwest chain), that punched holes in everything before it went into the dumpster. However, I think it is a new awareness of people in need that gets our ire up about this.

As the NYT story says, the biggest issue is people getting the clothes from a charity, then trying to return it for cash. Anyone who has worked in retail knows how some people can get when trying to return something. Sometimes, they give them the money just to get them out of the store. (Ask my sister who worked Dec. 26 at the local Walmart. People are crazy.)

My guess (and just a guess) is that these stores are afraid of donating locally because of that, and balk at the cost of shipping to send it to an organization that would give it to people in developing countries (read: somewhere where they will not have a local store to try and return it to).

H&M promised it would not happen again. Walmarts response was a little less robust, but did say in the original story that they were surprised the clothing was in the dumpster, and that it does recycle or donate unsold clothing. All it takes is one unethical hauler for there to be a problem.

I was also anti-Walmart for a long time, until a Walmart opened in my hometown. My sister is working there nights and weekends while running a home-based licensed day care, so that her family can have health insurance. (In North Dakota, BC/BS has like 90-plus percent of the health insurance market).

They work with her schedule and show their appreciation. It is also bringing people who used to drive to Fargo and Fergus Falls, Minn., Walmarts to shop back in town, and people from the small towns around them there, instead of to Fargo.

I read somewhere (may have been on Facebook), from a friend who said that since they would drive to Fergus, anyway, they would go out for dinner, or buy tires, or go to the mall there. Now, he is more likely to do those other shopping trips in town.

Again, I am all for corporate responsibility and doing the "green" thing. But I don't think Walmart or H&M deserves to be the whipping boy for this topic, either.