This Is Me--2024 A to Z Theme

My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2025 the theme is a random assemblage of things that are on my mind--or that just pop into my mind. Whatever! Let's just say I'll be "Tossing It Out" for your entertainment or however it is you perceive these things.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Automobile Accidents

Français : Illustration d'un accident automobi...
Français : Illustration d'un accident automobile par Eugène Chaperon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
       
The films that I'll be listing in my April postings will not necessarily be films that I'd call my favorite films, but they will be favorites in the genres I'll be naming.   The A to Z genres are very specific micro genres as opposed to the broader genres like action, romance, or comedy.

  Movies about automobile accidents or where auto accidents are a prominent element of the plot:

        Any action film will usually include car chases where there are many vehicle crashes.   This micro genre does not include these.        

Intersection (1994) --In this film starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, a successful architect watches his life flash before his eyes as his car careens toward an accident in an intersection on a country road.  The film has received plenty of bad reviews, but I actually liked it.  This may have had something to do with the time of my life when I saw the film and the serendipitous way I acquired it.  For some reason I found two unopened copies of the film along with some other peculiar items in a box I was unpacking at work.  The videos and other miscellaneous items had nothing to do with my business.   I guess they had been shipped to me by accident.

Amores Perros (2000) -- In this highly acclaimed Mexican film, an automobile accident intersects with the lives of an assortment of people and their stories.  It's one of those movies about how lives are intertwined even when we may not know the other people involved. 


Crash (1996) -- From the same named book by the great sci-fi author J.G. Ballard, the story of this film involves people who gain sexual gratification from car crashes.  I don't know if this weird fetish is real, but the film tells the story well, the acting is excellent, and the cinematography is well done.  Definitely an adult film with fairly graphic content.   But it's a Ballard story and he's good.

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About my recent presentation on blogging and the A to Z Challenge at the Children's Book Writers

       On Saturday March 30th I was hosted by Nutschell The Writing Nut and Alana from Writercize at the Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles meeting.   I was very impressed by both of these young ladies.  This had to be one of the most organized well run groups I've seen.   We had 22 writers in attendance with only about 6 with blogs already.  The group seemed very interested in blogging and had tons of good questions.  We had 3 hours set aside and I didn't even make it through all of the slides on my PowerPoint presentation.   But that was okay because we got a lot of good information out there.

     There was a lot of interest in the A to Z and so far there is one new blogger who started her blog the morning after my workshop and she immediately joined A to Z.  There may be more, but this is one that I discovered on the sign-up list.

       If you have time I'd appreciate it if you'd stop by and follow Kid's Math Teacher (She's #1647 on the list as I write this).  Check out her post about the A to Z and perhaps tweet it out.   A comment would be great too.   I think she's going to be an excellent blogger.  She's starting out the right way and has followed the instructions I offered at the workshop in starting her blog.  She deserves our support.


       If there are any others reading this who were there at the workshop, please let us know in the comment section.  Keep your eyes out for a report from Nutschell at The Writing Nut.  

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       Can you think of any films that feature an automobile accident?   Have you seen any of the films I've mentioned?    Have you read any of J.G. Ballard's work?




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Friday, March 29, 2013

My #atozchallenge Theme for April: Film Genres A to Z

Click on Badge to sign up!

         In my recent post for Alex Cavanaugh's Movie Countdown Blogfest, I mentioned that my list of movies would be hinting toward my Blogging from A to Z Challenge theme.  Well, the first big hint was the list of movies.  I am a big fan of movies and there are many movies that I like far more than others.

        My April theme will be some of my favorite films based on film genres A to Z.   An example as a preview is my first post.   For "A" the genre will be films about automobile accidents.  That should give you some idea of where this will be going.

        So that's it!  Keeping it short today.  I've got 26 movie posts to get ready.  Yeah, that's right--I haven't even started.   This could be a train wreck.   Hmm--what are some movies about train wrecks?

Blog Disaster!

        I'm not the only one with blogging problems.  Our co-host Stephen Tremp was banished from Blogger!  Hopefully this will only be temporary, but in the meantime you can find Stephen at his new blog address http://stephentremp.wordpress.com/.   Hope you retrieve the old blog successfully Stephen.

Connections:  The Circle of A to Z Life

        During the 2011 pre-challenge build-up, I got some promotional time for the A to Z Challenge on the Dennis and Judi radio show on FM 101.5 in New Jersey.  We got some sign ups as a result of that brief appearance.

          For the 2012 Challenge our official badge was designed by appropriately named artist Ada Z.   Ada also contributed a video to the A to Z Video Challenge.

          This past week Ada Z posted on YouTube a video commercial parody related to Dennis and Judi.  The station picked it up and featured it on the station website.  It's pretty clever and very short.  I've embedded the YouTube clip below.   Take a moment to enjoy the clip and perhaps you can visit the station site and leave a comment.   Let them know you're from the A to Z Challenge.  Who knows?   Maybe we'll get another mention on the air.    If you can, tweet or pass on the video for others to see to help Ada Z get her work noticed by more people.

101.5 FM link     http://nj1015.com/a-sloppy-unfocused-fragrance-video/




        Have you got an A to Z theme?   Have you ever lost your blog and had to start a new one?   Have you tried to get the A to Z Challenge promoted through any conventional media sources?

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Ask Arlee: Are You Ready for the A to Z Challenge?


The Big Question  

    Yes, someone actually asked me if I was ready for the A to Z Challenge which begins next Monday April 1st.   In fact, more than one person has asked me that.  What a silly question!  I'm one of the bloggers running this thing.   I should be ready shouldn't I?

       Well, I'm not.  Not really.  Kind of ready, but not as ready as I'd like to be.  Not as ready as I was in the two previous years.

       Tons of computer problems have been plaguing me and various life issues have been diverting my time away from A to Z.  Good news is that it looks like my computer issues have been fixed (for now at least).  I did the disk reformat and reinstalled my hard drive and the machine is working almost like new.  I probably will need to replace a fan that is getting noisy, but otherwise I've never seen this baby working so fast.

        And contrary to about half of those who advised me, I reinstalled Chrome and having no problems whatsoever.  Everything is working faster than ever.  Let's hope it stays that way for a while.

        So bottom line is that I have very few posts prepared and will be shooting these off as I go.   Before my problems started inundating me I had signed all four of my blogs as I did last year.   I'm going to try to keep up, but if I have to drop a few then so be it.

How Do I Follow a Blog on a Platform Different than the one I'm on?

       This is another question that was addressed to me.   My A to Z Ambassador Judy Raiser from Raising the Curtain took on this question and is providing the answer at the A to Z Blog.  Be sure to stop over to find out the answer.

A Reminder Will Be Coming Your Way

        Just in case anyone has forgotten that the A to Z Challenge starts next Monday, the A to Z Team of co-hosts will be sending out some reminder emails with a few suggestions to help you along your way.  I hope you are all more ready than I am to put up your first posts A through F during that first week.

        After the Challenge starts, many of you who are prepared with pre-written posts will be on auto-pilot as you cruise on through the list visiting all sorts of bloggers.  Good luck to you and congratulations on being so well organized.

       The main thing is have fun with it all and I hope you find this year's Challenge to be very rewarding.  I'll be back on Friday when I will announce my A to Z theme for Tossing It Out.

        Are you ready to go?


     
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