Rueben’s Ramblings

At the end of this week, I will be “jetting” off to Sacramento for a short visit with some friends in and around the city, as we undertake a much over-due reunion of sorts as well as celebrating my birthday while I am there. While I am not typically the type of person to celebrate my birthday (let alone the holidays – but that’s a story for another time), I have to admit it will be really nice to see my friends from NorCal, do some much needed window shopping and see some movies. Since I will be out of town at the end of this week there will be no weekly round-up, but I will resume the round-up postings next week.

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On May 14, the movie Letters to Juliet will be released in theatres across the country and I, for one, cannot wait to see this film. Yes, it is a “chick flick” and I am the perfect demograph for this type of film; but every trailer I have seen just makes it look delightful.

The movie is about an American girl, Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried – from Veronica Mars and the movie Dear John) , who is on vacation in Italy; and while there she finds an unanswered letter to Juliet – one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover’s Verona courtyard, which are typically answered by “secretaries of Juliet”.

After finding this letter Sophie sets out on a quest to find the lovers referenced in the letter. The movie also stars legendary actress Vanessa Redgrave as Claire Wyman, the writer of the discovered letter, Christopher Egan (from the short-lived series Kings) as Charlie, Claire’s grandson who joins Sophie on the journey to reunite Claire with her long-lost love and Gael García Bernal as Sophie’s boyfriend.

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Halloween Dragon Butterfly by Patricia McCracken

Artists Spotlight: This month’s artist spotlight is on Patricia McCracken, an accomplished fantasy artist who specializes in watercolor and acrylics. Her style of art is influenced by the Japanese wood block prints from the Edo period called Ukiyo-e, which translates to “pictures of the floating world.” Patricia has been dappling in art since she was a child, as her mother would give her paints, pencils and paper to draw on from a very early age. When she got into college, she started working in watercolor and has remained in that format ever since; but when she discovered the Japanese wood block prints, she found her niche. Patricia has two degrees in art: a BFA from the University at Buffalo and an MA from Syracuse University. She loves combining the wood block prints and fantasy elements into her artwork, and particularly loves to hide the fantasy elements in her paintings so that “one has to look twice to see them”. In 2002 she began exhibiting in art shows all across the country and has won a number of awards for her Japanese style work. She currently lives in New York and can be reached at the following email: patriciamccracken@yahoo.com. You can also learn more about Patricia and see more of her artwork at: http://www.patriciamccracken.com. Her featured piece is called Halloween Dragon Butterfly.