Hello Fellow Travelers!
I have a new rant about more words that should never be together, yet there they are. But first, has anyone else seen a mountain goat in the Italian Alps called Ibex Alpine Goats? One of the places they like to hike is the front of a dam (What appears to be a smooth, vertical surface) that has been holding back some very old Italian lake (the name of this has escaped me, of course), we saw them on television and now I want to see them in person up close. We saw it on National Geographic and it was amazing! It looked like these goats were floating hundreds of feet off the ground unsupported by anything. Even with an explanation your eyes don't believe your ears when you see these animals hop (I said "hop") from one death-defying spot to another. The Nat Geo explanation goes something like this; Cingino Dam is ancient, and as such has stones that protrude anywhere from 1/4 to 2 inches at varying intervals on the front of the dam. The mommy and baby Ibexes have specially adapted hooves and no pesky horns to worry about. And why do they climb hundreds of feet up a concave, nearly flat surface? To lick the salty walls of the dam! Apparently, their diet is pretty devoid of salt. It's rare that I see anyplace or anything that I must see firsthand, but those goats on that Alpine dam requires my personal attention. Has anyone seen this? Does George Clooney live around there? Anyway, flying goats in summer, in Italy, how bad can it be?
As promised, two words: "cancer" and "comedy" appear together repeatedly on Google and one site even has a list of the top "cancer comedies". I forgot how many movies used cancer as a tool to move the story along. At the top of every list was last year's "50/50" with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the cancer victim) and Seth Rogen as his goofy friend. It was pretty funny and I couldn't help but notice he looked great, bald (Gordon-Levitt) and he looked pretty good until the end he got all his hair back which is always a cinematic signal that indicates recovery. I liked the movie because I like Seth Rogen comedies - warm-hearted and raunchy. It definitely had cancer in it. Those boys used cancer to shave, to pick up girls, discard girls and try on lots of hats! I revisited "Dark Victory" with Bette Davis, the hallmark of cancer cinema. Again, I was stymied in my search for meaning, Bette's only revelation was "she needed to live!" She looked really glamorous and full of energy right to the end. So that was no help either.
Blatant tearjerkers (Brian's Song) or uneasy comedies (Funny People - Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen) there are no realistic representations of cancer or it's horrifying aftermath. In film, anyway. People don't look like they're back from a three-week-stay in Mauii as cancer progresses. There is nothing comedic about tumors. I cringe at the phrase, at the idea of a "cancer comedy" there is nothing funny about cancer. Believe me, I've looked. I will continue to look for any humor everywhere, anywhere. That is all cancer left me with.
I have a new rant about more words that should never be together, yet there they are. But first, has anyone else seen a mountain goat in the Italian Alps called Ibex Alpine Goats? One of the places they like to hike is the front of a dam (What appears to be a smooth, vertical surface) that has been holding back some very old Italian lake (the name of this has escaped me, of course), we saw them on television and now I want to see them in person up close. We saw it on National Geographic and it was amazing! It looked like these goats were floating hundreds of feet off the ground unsupported by anything. Even with an explanation your eyes don't believe your ears when you see these animals hop (I said "hop") from one death-defying spot to another. The Nat Geo explanation goes something like this; Cingino Dam is ancient, and as such has stones that protrude anywhere from 1/4 to 2 inches at varying intervals on the front of the dam. The mommy and baby Ibexes have specially adapted hooves and no pesky horns to worry about. And why do they climb hundreds of feet up a concave, nearly flat surface? To lick the salty walls of the dam! Apparently, their diet is pretty devoid of salt. It's rare that I see anyplace or anything that I must see firsthand, but those goats on that Alpine dam requires my personal attention. Has anyone seen this? Does George Clooney live around there? Anyway, flying goats in summer, in Italy, how bad can it be?
As promised, two words: "cancer" and "comedy" appear together repeatedly on Google and one site even has a list of the top "cancer comedies". I forgot how many movies used cancer as a tool to move the story along. At the top of every list was last year's "50/50" with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the cancer victim) and Seth Rogen as his goofy friend. It was pretty funny and I couldn't help but notice he looked great, bald (Gordon-Levitt) and he looked pretty good until the end he got all his hair back which is always a cinematic signal that indicates recovery. I liked the movie because I like Seth Rogen comedies - warm-hearted and raunchy. It definitely had cancer in it. Those boys used cancer to shave, to pick up girls, discard girls and try on lots of hats! I revisited "Dark Victory" with Bette Davis, the hallmark of cancer cinema. Again, I was stymied in my search for meaning, Bette's only revelation was "she needed to live!" She looked really glamorous and full of energy right to the end. So that was no help either.
Blatant tearjerkers (Brian's Song) or uneasy comedies (Funny People - Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen) there are no realistic representations of cancer or it's horrifying aftermath. In film, anyway. People don't look like they're back from a three-week-stay in Mauii as cancer progresses. There is nothing comedic about tumors. I cringe at the phrase, at the idea of a "cancer comedy" there is nothing funny about cancer. Believe me, I've looked. I will continue to look for any humor everywhere, anywhere. That is all cancer left me with.
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