{"id":200,"date":"2011-04-06T23:53:13","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T23:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog?p=200"},"modified":"2011-04-06T23:53:13","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T23:53:13","slug":"poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Saturday &nbsp;four o&#39;clock showing &nbsp;of &nbsp;the Korean &nbsp;film POETRY at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute on March &nbsp;26, 2011 &nbsp;was no ordinary screening to me . By the time the ending credits rolled, I was literally on the floor sobbing the &nbsp;big ugly cry. What was even more tragic than my tears, was the &nbsp;absence of emotion from the little old white haired Mainline &nbsp;ladies &nbsp;slowly walking up the aisle giving me a passing glance of &nbsp;mild disgust. &nbsp;as they teetered past my seat. &nbsp; Maybe &nbsp;they &nbsp; didn&#39;t understood &nbsp;the &nbsp;film. I know for a fact the director of the theater didn&#39;t. She introduced the film and said that the director ( Lee Chang -Dong) &quot; enjoyed luxuriating in the mysteries of the film&quot;. She then corrected that sentence with the statement ,&quot;luxuriate isn&#39;t the right word&quot;. &nbsp;POETRY isn&#39;t &nbsp;about a mystery or mysteries. There was nothing vague or ambiguous about the story. &nbsp;The film is about &nbsp;mysteries being revealed in a &nbsp;major way to the main character- an elderly woman named &nbsp;Mrs. Yang ( &nbsp; played brilliantly by Yoon Jeong-hee). &nbsp; Mrs. Yang &nbsp;has a just one goal- to enroll in a poetry class and learn how to write a poem. &nbsp; Yet &nbsp;if I had to assign an astrological planet to represent &nbsp;this film it would have to be &nbsp;Pluto . &nbsp; I know &nbsp;the idea of writing poetry is very Venuian ( Venus- the planet of love and beauty ) . &nbsp;I mean &nbsp;that&#39;s probably what you are thinking. &nbsp;Yet &nbsp;the foundation of &nbsp; Mrs. Yang &#39;s &nbsp;seemingly stable world &nbsp;is on the verge of collapse; a sure sign of Pluto&#39;s presence. &nbsp; Pluto &nbsp;is the planet &nbsp;that rules deep and hidden issues. &nbsp;When &nbsp;the reality of these &nbsp;issues &nbsp; ( or secrets) comes to the surface either intentionally or unintentionally, the results are explosive and chaotic. &nbsp;Change &nbsp;arrives. &nbsp;All that was is now swept away in the rage of &nbsp;this planet&#39;s destruction. &nbsp;Destruction &nbsp;then clears the debris . &nbsp;The slate is wiped clean. &nbsp; &nbsp;Mrs. Yang&#39;s goal &nbsp;to &nbsp;write just one poem opens up a Pandora&#39;s box which &nbsp;cannot be closed. I went back and &nbsp;watched the film again a few days later. &nbsp;Unfortunately, the film has &nbsp;already &nbsp; disappeared from the theater &nbsp;( it was there for only a week) . &nbsp;Lee Chang-Dong &nbsp;wrote and directed &nbsp;POETRY .&nbsp;I consider this film to be a masterpiece. &nbsp;I know it has recently won &nbsp;awards at &nbsp;a few film festivals around the world. &nbsp; I&#39;m not certain of &nbsp;its timing to be considered for next years Academy Awards. &nbsp; It &nbsp;deserves &nbsp;to &nbsp;win &nbsp;best foreign Film. &nbsp;If it were up to me I would give it &nbsp;an &nbsp;Oscar &nbsp;for best film -period. &nbsp;&nbsp;I &nbsp;wept as much &nbsp; seeing it the second time as the first. &nbsp;Days later, the film stayed in my psyche. &nbsp;It unleashed &nbsp;feelings within me that have been buried. &nbsp;Instead of pushing away my sadness, I allowed myself to be. &nbsp; POETRY &nbsp;has become a catalyst for me in many ways, the ripples of which are just starting to emerge. &nbsp; I wasn&#39;t surprised to find out Lee Chang-Dong was born on &nbsp;July 4, 1954 ( &nbsp;astrological sign: Cancer). &nbsp;Cancers are one of the most emotionally &nbsp;sensitive signs of the zodiac. &nbsp; Thank you Lee Chang-Dong for changing my world! &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And speaking of &nbsp;change, &nbsp;after &nbsp;almost &nbsp;forty years of having an aversion to Indian &nbsp;food, I recently gave it another chance and now &nbsp;I&#39;m &nbsp;a changed woman. &nbsp;Blame my five planets in Taurus ( read: stubborn- o.k. very stubborn) for &nbsp;my slow response to &nbsp;change. &nbsp;Oh sure over the years I have eaten curry rice and curry chicken but &nbsp;no one could convince me to set foot in an Indian restaurant ( &nbsp;until recently). &nbsp;Despite my long standing rejection of Indian cuisine, I &nbsp;have always &nbsp;been attracted &nbsp;to &nbsp;Indian culture. &nbsp;I enjoy exploring &nbsp;Little India in NYC. &nbsp;I was &nbsp; giddy with joy when I discovered &nbsp;A light &nbsp;up Lakshmi ( Laxmi) Goddess Altar &nbsp;that plays twenty &nbsp;Bahjans ( devotional chants) to the Goddess of Love and money in an Indian Bazaar as well as a wall full of &nbsp;exotically scented Indian soaps- Cinnamon, musk and clove for a &nbsp;dollar each. &nbsp;I enjoy watching Indian films ( &nbsp;and I&#39;m &nbsp;slightly &nbsp;embarassed to admit I love Bollywood musicals). &nbsp;Indian textiles, clothing and colors catapult me into a creative frenzy. &nbsp;And I love tooling around in my car chanting ( off key) to &nbsp;George Harrison&#39;s Goddess chants; Govinda Jaya Jaya. &nbsp; &nbsp; I&#39;m obsessively &nbsp;addicted &nbsp;now to Chana Masala ( &nbsp;chickpea stew). &nbsp;It is vegetarian, inexpensive, healthy, tasty and &nbsp;I think it may be helping &nbsp;to dissipate &nbsp;my perimenopausal hot flashes. &nbsp;I found a recipe online but have modified it by &nbsp;introducing a can of vegetable broth. &nbsp; I also recommend eating &nbsp;Chana masala &nbsp;like a chutney; thickly spread &nbsp;over a &nbsp;flour tortiilla &nbsp;topped with a fried egg. &nbsp;Heaven ! I&#39;m telling you it is so good.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Chana &nbsp;masala, &nbsp;I&#39;m &nbsp; addicted to &nbsp;two Indian food products. &nbsp;I can&#39;t &nbsp;tell you where I&#39;m buying MAYA KAIMAL SPICY KETCHUP locally because I promised to keep it a secret &nbsp;to the person who &nbsp; turned me on to it ( it is available online). &nbsp; &nbsp; I can only eat this ketchup &nbsp;now; &nbsp; regular ketchup tastes like crap to me now . &nbsp;It is excellent on eggs and &nbsp;french fries and &nbsp;it is perfect on TRADER JOES VEGETABLE MASALA BURGERS ( in the frozen food &nbsp;section at Trader Joes). &nbsp;scrambled eggs with &nbsp;the &nbsp;vegetable masala burgers topped with spicy ketchup= perfect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now back to mysteries or rather one &nbsp;mystery in my life which has been solved. &nbsp;Ed Basner, the &nbsp;artist of the &nbsp;small zen rock sculptures ( as I labelled &nbsp;them), contacted me last July. &nbsp; I did my best to solve the mystery myself. &nbsp;I encountered &nbsp;four &nbsp;different people who gave me four different accounts of the mysterious creator. &nbsp; Ed has his own blog and lots of photos of his &nbsp;sculptures. &nbsp; I have &nbsp;put the address on &nbsp;my blog roll. &nbsp;Check it out. &nbsp; He &nbsp;is populating the Mainline with his sculptures. &nbsp;I&#39;m sure &nbsp;everyone living on the mainline has now seen &nbsp;a few of his babies. &nbsp; &nbsp;Whenever I see &nbsp;another sculpture &nbsp;of &nbsp;his crop up in a new &nbsp;location, &nbsp;it immediately makes me smile. &nbsp;Thank you Ed!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last Saturday ( April 2, 2011), I was lucky enough to see the &nbsp;musical BAT BOY &nbsp;at Villanova University Theater. &nbsp;The play was FANTASTIC and the cast and crew &nbsp;did an incredible &nbsp;job. &nbsp; &nbsp; It was also outrageously &nbsp;funny. &nbsp;I couldn&#39;t stop laughing. &nbsp;Michael Kane Libonati &#39;s portrayal of &nbsp;Edgar &nbsp;(Bat Boy) was phenomenal. &nbsp;His singing and acting blew me away. &nbsp; I was inspired to create a &nbsp;couple of paintings. from the musical &nbsp; &nbsp;I have seen several &nbsp;theatrical productions at Villanova. &nbsp;BAT BOY &nbsp;was by far the best and most satisfying &nbsp;play\/musical I have seen. &nbsp; &nbsp;The paintings small &#8211; 7 x 10 inches. &nbsp;Mixed media- pen and ink on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Writing continues to be a challenge &nbsp;for me. &nbsp;I have so much to say but &nbsp;writing &nbsp;so much of the time feels &nbsp;like swimming through peanut butter ( extra chunky), congealed &nbsp;from hanging &nbsp;out in the fridge. &nbsp; &nbsp;Oh well. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hope you all are enjoying &nbsp;the cusp of spring. &nbsp;I&#39;m excited about seeing the cherry blossoms bloom.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Love,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Katie<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bat Boy paintings\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-206\" height=\"208\" src=\"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blogwp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/edgarbatboyptgapr-300x208.jpg\" style=\"cursor: default; \" title=\"Two mixed media paintings inspired by Edgar ( Bat Boy) based on the Musical Bat Boy\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/edgarbatboyptgapr-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/edgarbatboyptgapr.jpg 587w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Saturday &nbsp;four o&#39;clock showing &nbsp;of &nbsp;the Korean &nbsp;film POETRY at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute on March &nbsp;26, 2011 &nbsp;was no ordinary screening to me . By the time the ending credits rolled, I was literally on the floor sobbing the &nbsp;big ugly cry. What was even more tragic than my tears, was the&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/poetry\/\">&raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[277,761,579,553,547,554,550,584,583,551,552,557,567,578,574,563,564,580,549,569,577,581,586,561,560,562,545,565,575,576,542,582,568,570,585,548,559,566,558,543,572,573,571,556,555],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academy-awards","tag-astrology","tag-bahjans","tag-bat","tag-bat-boy","tag-bats","tag-bollywood","tag-bryn-mawr","tag-bryn-mawr-theater","tag-channa-masala","tag-chickpea-stew","tag-crying","tag-ed-basner","tag-george-harrison","tag-goddess","tag-goth","tag-gothic","tag-indian-chants","tag-indian-films","tag-indian-food","tag-indian-goddess","tag-indian-music","tag-indian-spices","tag-kate-pfeiffer-art","tag-katie-pfeiffer-art","tag-katie-pfeiffer-paintings","tag-korea","tag-korean-films","tag-lakshmi","tag-laxmi","tag-lee-chang-dong","tag-little-india-nyc","tag-mainline-rock-sculptures","tag-maya-kaimal-ketchup","tag-movies","tag-musical-theatre","tag-mysteries-mystery","tag-oscars-villanova-theater","tag-pluto","tag-poetry","tag-spicy-ketchup","tag-taurus","tag-trader-joes-vegetable-masala-burger","tag-yoon-jeong-hee","tag-zen-rock-sculptures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katiepfeiffer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}