Rick Beneteau’s Inspirational Blog

Rick wrote this in the early morning:

My great friend of over 20 years, former music partner and now Internet partner, Larry Thompson, the most dyed-in-the-saddle Disney fan I’ve ever known, told me about their new blockbuster movie this week. I knew he’d have a rave review because, well, he’s a Disney fan:-) As he began explaining the animated epic, I suggested he write a post for my blog. I probably won’t see it while it’s in-theatre, I love his take on things and you might just be a little tired of hearing from me anyway:-) So, in my overfilled Inbox this morning was his review, and I’d like to share that with you as well as extend my wishes for a great first weekend of summer! Now, heeeeeeere’s Larry . . .

“Chances are, if you’re the sort of movie goer who would like a movie like Pixar’s “Cars”, you likely would have seen it by now. If you’re still thinking about going, don’t read any further. I don’t want to be the one that wrecks the story for you. I dislike those second time viewers that sit right in front of you and tell their friend all about the “good part” coming up. Clam Up! Go sit somewhere else! Let me be surprised like you were the first time you saw it…

Like most every time I experience anything attached to Disney and/or Pixar, I sat in the theatre and balled like a baby. Don’t know exactly why. I’ve studied all things Disney for a number of years and feel a real kinship to the mindset and admire the creative genius. Personally, I’m a musician. Can’t draw to save my life. But I understand the creative process and the great opportunity and responsibility to tell a good story that will entertain, uplift, teach and leave the recipient better than when they came in.

I’m currently working with a young man who has attained some pretty significant success in the music business in a very short period of time. While he’s been at it a number of years writing and recording and developing his craft, his new found celebrity is a little unsettling. He recently attended a national awards show that was littered with the A list from Hollywood and the music business. He told me that he found it almost frightening to think he was there. But in spite of his preparatory years, he’s Lightning McQueen. He’s the rookie with lots of talent and lots to learn. On numerous occasions, I’ve tried to teach him the concept about dues, and the fact that they will have to be paid, in one way or another. I’ve tried to help him over the rough spots and to avoid the collisions that he is encountering. But in reality, maybe I’m the guy sitting in front of him telling him about the good parts, or bad parts, and wrecking the show for him. Maybe I’m actually making things worse. I don’t know….

Back to the movie. The characters in Cars are excellent. I remember seeing the trailer for this movie last year and felt that this might be the first Pixar movie I would purposely miss. The characters looked too childish. Don’t know if I just became more open to the concept but I do know that having a 4 year old with a birthday got me a front row seat. It wasn’t really the characters that blew me away though. It was the backgrounds and rich details. There are wide panoramas of open fields, deserts, grand canyons and long Interstate straightaways that just leave you in awe. And the inside jokes are just outrageous.

As is most always the case, the storyline is multi-layered. One story for the kids, and one for the parents that take the kids. Little talking toy cars running around, bumping into each other. An ensemble cast of adult lives, bumping into each other. Excellent.

As tradition would have it, the Pixar artists included a number of cameo (or would that be Camaro?) appearances from previous movies and shorts. A small flock of little blue birds on a passing telephone wire, and, as the credits were running, a number of scenes from Pixar features that had been Car-Tooned including Toy Story, A Bugs Life and Monsters Inc. Brilliant.

If you haven’t seen it, please do. It will be time well spent. Take the kids. Take someone you love. Enjoy the fun. Rededicate your life to family and community. Don’t be a jerk. Offer your help to others. Teach by example. Find your life and live it for others, as well as yourself.

Oh, and drive really fast in something with a loud, high revvin’ small block motor!”

Thank you Larry!

Rick

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Rick wrote this in the early morning:

Finally had the chance to see a few movies. “Match Point” I found intriguing.

The opening scene and narrartive depicts a tennis ball striking the top of the net and falling lazily over to the opposite side. The few Woody Allen films I’ve seen before flaunt the same elements as this dark portrayal of “luck” - obsession, desperation, class struggle, neurosis. Instead of Allen’s oft-used canyons of New York, the charming English countryside and elegant London settings fare well as the battleground of the crusty upper class when invaded by the former tennis pro, lower class, Chris Wilton, played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Infidelity saunters in as Chris begins instructing the socialite brother of his soon-to-be wife, Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), on the finer points of tennis, only to begin to backhand him and hone in on his student’s neurotic fiance, Nola Rice, fittingly portrayed by Scarlett Johansson. At first, flirting. Then turning to obsession. Finally, wild adultery. All turning very sinister.

A calming thread to the tense drama is the love of Opera shared by the players as they escape to the London Opera House to “chill.”

The film is as much about usery as it is about luck. Everybody uses everybody. The hungry Chris uses the rich family to climb the societal ladder. Chloe (Chris’ wife played by Emily Mortimer) uses Chris to fulfil her obsession with having children. Entreprenurial father of Tom and Chloe, Alec (Brian Cox), uses Chris to occupy his daughter, build his business and satisfy his craving to keep the family financially fortified. Nola eventually uses Chris as human Prozac. It all climaxes in an ending that is shocking. And evil.

What this movie does is reaffirm that sometimes in life evil wins out over good in a big way and the ball will fall over the net in favor of the evildoer.

Rick

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Rick wrote this in the early morning:

This is not an actual movie review (haven’t had time to see any lately) but rather an article I wrote last year that many people seemed to be able to relate to. I hope you enjoy . . .

The Problem Movie

“The other day I got out my can-opener and was opening a can of worms when I thought, what am I doing?!”
Jack Handey

Problems. Problems. Everywhere we turn there are problems!

The modern world and its monster media make darn sure you hear about problems. Every hour of the day. Every day of the week. Every week of the year. Bloody wars. Suicide bombings. Gruesome murders. Killer storms. Throughout this non-stop bombardment of negative news we have our own problems to deal with. Money
problems. Relationship problems. Health problems.

Life is problematic!

Let me ask you this question. Are you always worrying about your problems, dwelling on how bad things are and constantly thinking about the worst possible outcomes? Even if you’re not wrapped up in your problems, do you still from time to time create what I call a Problem Movie. You know, imagining the worst possible
outcomes to your problem, letting them flash across the screen of your mind like your cable news channel? To a degree, I think we all do this.

One of the basic, immutable Laws that govern this amazing Universe is the Law of Attraction. I’ve written about this many times simply because I have been so profoundly impacted by it, in both positive and negative ways, in my five decades of living on the planet. James Allen (1864-1912), author of what most modern day self-development experts feel is the ‘bible’ of positive thinking, “As A Man Thinketh”, sums this law up most succinctly:
“A man is literally what he thinks.”

Centuries before however, the Bible tells us so, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. Proverbs 23:7

So I ask this, if we know the Law of Attraction to be true, then why do we allow our problems and the negative thinking associated with them to invade our lives even a little bit, let alone dominate them as some people do? Afterall, no one controls our thoughts and thinking but us, right?

I don’t profess to know the complete answer to that question. Nor do I know why so many of us can’t seem to tune in enough to the bad news networks or read page after negative page of the daily newspaper. But I am learning more about human nature as I grow older.

For instance, I have a small group of clients that use my Spirit Coaching services and a certain few individuals who have chosen me to try to help them confront and move forward from their problems. While most do exceptionally well because they are open to learning and applying what amounts to some pretty simple concepts, some I have not been able to help whatsoever because, well, they seem to derive so much more benefit from being able to tell me (and others) about their (long list of) problems and how much they suffer from them than they ever would from finding a solution to, and eliminating them. I recall stating this very sad fact in a recent article, but I’ll say it once more, these folks really do LOVE their problems!

I see a similarly interesting phenomena with the new series of health related products I have helped to create. A small percentage of customers simply need to prove their theory that change is difficult. They do this by running their Problem Movies over and over and as a result they do not follow our program, choosing instead to remain steadfast to their misinformed belief only to remain a smoker, or overweight, or unhappy. Another failed attempt and yippee! - another problem created! These
people will continue to own and grow their problems until they eventually learn that change does not have to be difficult. Some may never learn.

Ok, I’ll admit that I feature Problem Movies a little too often in my own life. I catch myself writing the scripts and directing the scenes that I would never want to become my reality. Heck, what sane person would ever want what they’re thinking most of the time to become their reality?

Here’s a very recent example of how I allowed the plot I created in my mind to turn into my reality.

I had no sooner written my last line of web and promotion copy to use for our Long Term Katrina Relief effort when I entertained the thought - what possibly could happen ‘this time’ to sabotage yet another noble effort by a lot of caring folks to help people. Yes, I went so far as to project the same kinds of obstacles that had been put into my path previously with such charity projects. In other words, what kind of villain was I going to cast in the movie I had just set into motion? Right, old fears rearing ugly faces! Wasn’t a long thought but it surely was potent!

We no longer had clicked send to launch this project to hundreds of influential and possible promotion partners and then to tens of thousands of potential donors, when we began to experience major server issues. Nobody could access our website! And this challenge went on for days.

But hold on, there’s a sequel.

Once these server issues were finally fixed we discovered another - any links to the donation site would automatically and mysteriously “redirect” to the main business website of my partner, and originator of this project, jl scott. Another technical snafu. No wonder we weren’t getting any donations! I was by then working on other things, and jl was packing up to move north and out of the path of Hurricane Rita, so neither of us took notice right away.

In the normal scheme of things, when a link is broken, you will receive a polite email from someone letting you know of the problem. What happened next, I was not prepared for, but should have expected.

Into my Inbox came this rhetorical assault on the integrity of our Long Term Katrina Relief project, even calling it a scam! This subscriber of mine came loaded and gunnin’ for bear as he attached this constitution-length document, full of untruths and venomous assertions that he threatened to blast all over the Internet via discussion boards and lists including the sending of press releases if I personally didn’t “fix” this. There was nothing to fix but a server glitch to get the website appearing again. This misguided soul must have put a lot of effort into making the movie that produced such an overture. I could only imagine how much good he could have done to help our cause with all the time and energy he spent trying to tear it down!

Needless to say, we took care of this incident quite quickly but simply stated, I was equally responsible for the receipt of that email as it was me who put those kinds of negative thoughts out there, projecting a fear-based outcome and setting into motion the very incident I just described. The Law of Attraction is indeed a very powerful force!

I’ve always loved what Shakespeare had to say about thoughts:
“Make not your thoughts your prisons.” Have you too spent time in your life as a willing prisoner?

Back to our problems. We all have them and always will. I’ve often likened life to a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs and twists and turns and moments of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror. No matter where we are on that ride and what problems exist in our lives, we always have the choice of how and what we think. We are always the writer and director of our own movies.

It goes without saying that burying your head in the sand and ignoring a problem will never solve it. But neither will creating and then running and rerunning a Problem Movie, fraught with fear-based outcomes that are self-fulfilling by universal decree. If the opening scenes of a Problem Movie start rolling on the screen of your mind be quick to take a commercial break, change the reel and start another. One perhaps where a solution has been found whether you have found it or not, or, one that doesn’t star your problem at all! Remember, you control every thought you have and every thought you have dictates your reality!

Anyone for popcorn and a good movie? Great, because you have my heartfelt wishes for a lifetime of Happy Endings!

© Rick Beneteau

Rick

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Rick wrote this mid-afternoon:

Ok, I admit I’m a sucker for an epic Hollywood love story. So, I decided to, for the 5th time, go back in time to see Titanic again.

I really love everything about this classic - the sound track; the great characters and performances; the to-the-tee replication of the ocean liner down to the fine china; and the dramatic yet realistic portrayal of it’s demise on an eerily calm, cold ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. There is no great plot outside of the love story except the arrogance of the ill-fated ship’s senior crew and it’s designers attemtping to break a trans-Atlantic speed record, but having the story seen through the eyes of one of the vessel’s last remaining survivors while just a few thousand metres above it’s dark grave made the 200 million dollar epic even more brilliant.

Although I’m not a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio (I did like him in The Aviator though) I thought he played the care-free, street artist from steerage class, Jack Dawson, very well, especially when pitted against the upper crust snobbery of Cal Hockley, fiancee of Rose DeWitt Bukater, Jack’s love interest, played by Kate Winslet. From the moment he began talking her down from taking a dive off the stern after reaching the end of her rope with her apparent elitist future, the opposites-attract chemistry begins brewing and reaches the boiling point through the steamed-up windows of a Packard sedan parked in the cavernous bowels of the 900 foot long giant. That scene, as was the portrait posing of Rose wearing only the Heart of the Ocean pendant, one of the film’s centerpieces, was done in great taste by the revered director, James Cameron. As the blend of fiction and history would have it, just as Roses possibilities for a life beyond upper class trappings were opened, so was the hull of the ‘unsinkable’ liner by an iceberg the under-ruddered Titanic could not out-manouvre.

What impressed me the most was the acting during the last part of the film, the final two hours of Titanic’s life above the waterline, when impossible choices had to be made in the face of impending doom. I’m quite certain from everything I’ve read about in the history books that these heroics were not overplayed. They may even have been understated. Even the villainous Hockley showed signs that were grace saving.

With the strains of one of my favorite singers, Celine Dion and My Heart Will Go On still freshly ringing, I will leave you with this. If you’ve seen Titanic four times, make it five. This is one of the best films ever made and it deserves a front row seat in your DVD collection.

Rick

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Rick wrote this in the early morning:

If you’ve read this blog for a while you’ll know that I have been in the process of catching up on movies I’ve missed during the past several years. On the New Release shelf of one of the video stores I frequest, I saw one I had heard about at Oscar time last year but knew no details of, and had forgotten about. I rented Brokeback Mountain.

Beautifully filmed against the sweeping mountain vistas of Wyoming, I was almost put to sleep during the first half hour. Lots of staring and seemingly inconsequential, lethargic conversation between the film’s centerpieces, two drifters who were hired to tend sheep on Brokeback Mountain one August in the 1960’s. Their exchanges begin to pick up and shockingly, to me at least, they begin making heated love one night under the stars. I then realized that this was a love story . . . of two cowboys.

Heath Ledger is absolutely brilliant as the simple, yet complicated, Ennis, haunted by the childhood memory of a gay-bashing murder he was made to witness as a child by his father. Jake Gyllenhaal, with his boyish looks, plays Jack, a somewhat more worldly rodeo cowboy. Both are bewildered by the mutual passion they have been plagued with in their redneck world.

The award-winning epic slowly rolls through the next few emotionally charged decades painting a poignant picture of angst, unfulfilled desire and unrequited love as they live their lives apart from one another, each marrying and having children, to meet up every few years for a “fishing trip” at familiar, and breathtaking higher elevations. Counterpoint was the dusty, dirty streets of the small Texas town where Ennis lived out his dual existence.

Perhaps purposely so, was the unclarity as to how Jack met his final demise. Was it the flat tire story that his widow recounted or was it a repeat of the hate crime that was foreshadowed by Ennis throughout the film?

Brokeback Mountain is a restrained movie that fills the senses, tugs at the heart and I recommend it as a must-see.

Rick

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Rick wrote this in the early morning:

After a week of playing catch-up post my daughter’s wedding and the happy couple’s subsequent visit after their honeymoon excursion in Niagara Falls, I was ready to just chill and watch a movie last night. A movie that didn’t make me think, or get fidgity, fill all the senses or fight to keep track of events. Something to just sink back into the couch and enjoy without effort. Jenn picked up such a movie - “Dreamer”, starring the wonderful, and believable child actress, Dakota Fanning. Easy on the mind and beautiful (shot in Kentucky horse country) for the eyes.

The youngster, Cale Crane, wanted two things. A family that acted like one. And a horse on the family’s every shrinking, horseless horse farm. Her father, Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) was tired of making other men rich raising winning thoroughbreds. Mom (Elizabeth Shue), wanted a true bond to develop between father and daughter, and the strained relationship between Ben and his father, the equestrian patriarch (Kris Kristifferson), to be healed.

It is the sole determination of the youngest member of this family, and the racing injury of a promising horse that Ben was training, that brought the dysfunctional family together in a wake of obstacles, setbacks and lack of money to claim the ultimate prize - The Breeders Cup. And claim it they did in typical Hollywoodish, but nevertheless, inspiring fashion.

A wonderful thread was sewn throughout the movie, echoed by Pop and granddaughter, and spoken to Sonadora (means “Dreamer”), the champion philly: “You are a great champion. When you ran the ground shook. The sky opened and mere mortals parted. Parted the way to victory. Where you will meet me in the winner’s circle. Where I will lay a blanket of flowers on your back.”

A classic it may never become but a good movie for one of those evenings you just wanna chill!

Rick

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Rick wrote this just before lunchtime:

Caught a nice movie the other night. Walk the Line is the Hollywood version of the younger life of the demon-filled country music icon, Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix, who played JR Cash, did a super job singing all of Cash’s songs and he certainly did a great stage impersonation of the “Man in Black”. Reese Witherspoon is wonderful as the love of his life, June Carter Cash. The likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings were well performed throughout the film. I especially liked the exchanges between the tortured Cash and his bitter, never-can-be-pleased father, played by Robert Patrick. The opening scenes about the loss of the baritone singers older brother were both touching and a powerful way to set the scene for a movie I feel you’ll really enjoy. Here’s the site if you want to check it out.

Rick

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Rick wrote this in the early morning:

I made a conscious decision many months ago to start catching up on all the movies I missed during the past several years. I may explain *why*I missed them in a post in the near future, but that doesn’t matter right now:-)

I watched a movie, a musical, called “Rent” last evening. I had not heard of this movie before, and as I have seen just about everything this video store has in stock, I half-heartedly grabbed it from the shelf thinking I may just be cutting out and heading to my office to catch up on email ‘n stuff during the viewing as I normally do with a flick that doesn’t grab my attention.

Literally glued to the screen, I caught myself humming the hooky theme song for a good while after watching this Chris Columbus film. The only actor I recognized (and I lead a very sheltered entertainment life insofar as movies or television are concerned so you might know more of them) was Jesse L. Martin from Law & Order. The man can sing, and dance, as could the rest of the cast!

I checked the movie out online this morning and you can read about the Broadway play (huge award winner and no wonder) and the movie here: http://www.siteforrent.com. I think you will be as blown away as I was by the storyline (largely about tolerance), the passionate performances, the songs and singing, the dancing, the beautiful sets, cinematography and just how moving a movie this is!

My recommendation is to go rent Rent. My bet is you’ll want to buy it for your collection of must-have movies!

I also recently saw Saw II too:-) Cutting edge (sorry) for sure but pretty twisted and certainly not for the faint of heart!

Rick

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