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DOG BLOG: TRAVELING WITH YOUR DOG (JACK'S BLOG)

 

 

 

 

 

Jack guest blogs for his owner, Dawn Celapino this week

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "CENTURION" A BLOODY GOOD TIME AT THE MOVIES

By Brian Lafferty

 

September 6, 2010 (San Diego)--Neil Marshall is a British writer/director renowned for the amount of blood and gore he includes in his films. Sometimes he’s visceral as in Dog Soldiers. He can be gleeful and cartoonish about it like he was in Doomsday. In The Descent, the violence was unpleasant. In the case of Centurion, he is gritty and realistic. Even if it appeared gratuitous, I didn’t mind because I had a lot of fun watching it.

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1" A SATISFYING CONCLUSION TO THE MESRINE SAGA

ON THE SILVER SCREEN: PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1 A SATISFYING CONCLUSION TO MESRINE SAGA

 

By Brian Lafferty

 

September 6, 2010 (San Diego)--Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, released last Friday, is the second of a two-part series. Killer Instinct emphasized action while this one focuses more on character exploration. Vince Cassel showed us in the first movie how he could rob banks. The movie contains action but not as much as the first. Instead, Cassel is given the opportunity to flex his acting muscles this time around, giving us a glimpse of one of France’s most notorious outlaws when he’s not on his latest crime spree. It is here that we get a portrait of the criminal artist as an older man.

 


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ADVICE FROM THE PURPLE MOUNTAIN SAGE: RANDOM THOUGHTS TO IMPACT OUR PLANET

 


Increase your enjoyment of living

by Sharon Courmousis, Sacred Rocks Reserve
"Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find.” ~ Quoted in Time

“There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.” ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

 

Recipe: Lime and Coriander Char-Grilled Chicken


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THE DOG BLOG: PACK A PICNIC FOR YOUR PET


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "GOING THE DISTANCE" GOES A LONG WAY

By Brian Lafferty

 

September 3, 2010 (San Diego)--I normally try to give every movie I see the benefit of the doubt but I will admit, based on such experiences as When in Rome and The Bounty Hunter, that it was hard for me to not be leery. Fortunately, whatever doubts I had immediately dissipated once Going the Distance began and the result was a very good time and lots of laughs. I urge you not to dismiss it.

 


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LEFT HOOK: ROSA HINSON DAVIS

 

 

By Walter Davis

 

Editor’s note: This memoir, submitted this week, provides eyewitness insights into turbulent times in our nation's history as well as the strength of a remarkable woman and her son.

 

July 1, 2010 (Birmingham, Alabama)--In 1915 when Mrs. Davis was a little girl, she could not go into the front door of most restaurants and public places like bus terminals. When traveling her family was not allowed to use the public restrooms in gas stations along the way because of the pigment in their skin. Finding a hotel was a challenge and crooked police could stop, search, rape, and kill as they pleased.


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT" BRINGS OUT THE BIG GUNS

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 27, 2010 (San Diego)--Jean-Luc Godard, that great French filmmaker, once said, “The best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie.” When I first saw Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which is the first in a two part series (Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 will be released next week) I wasn’t very impressed. I felt like I had seen it all before and that the movie wasn’t anything special. That was until I saw Takers a while later.

 


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DOLLAR-WI$E DIVAS: HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS

 

By Nancy Clement & Dawn Clement


Share creative ideas to assist people of all ages on tips to save mo
ney and improve their lifestyle!


August 28, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) —Want to save money on your college textbooks? Why buy when you can rent? Now you can rent textbooks from Bookrenter for a semester. Check their website to see if the book you are interested in is available--with 3 million titles, chances are good that it will be. They offer free shipping to your door and at the end of the semester, UPS comes and picks it up so you do not have the hassle of re-selling a textbook you no longer need.


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "TAKERS" TAKES THE AUDIENCE FOR A RIDE

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 27, 2010 (San Diego)--The movie may be called Takers but “Sharp Dressed Men” would be a more apt title. The Takers in this movie are a group of men who get their kicks robbing banks but there is very little of it. Instead, we see only a group of men dressed in expensive suits strutting around, acting cool, and emitting a subtext that says, “Look how much money we have to afford these coats and ties!” At some point I wished ZZ Top’s hit song, “Sharp Dressed Man” would blare to lighten things up a little.

 


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A CONVERSATION WITH LOCAL FILMMAKER VERNON MORTENSEN


The Kid: Chamaco, which he produced, opens Friday for a one-week engagement

 

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 26, 2010 (El Cajon)--“The quality of writing will get you through the door,” says East County film producer Vernon Mortensen. His newest film, The Kid: Chamaco, opens Friday for a one-week showing at the Reading Gaslamp.  “To get to the door, half the time you need to know somebody," he told me over lunch in El Cajon.


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "PATRIK, AGE 1.5" OVERCOMES FORMULAIC SCRIPT WITH ROMANCE, HUMOR, AND FINE ACTING

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 22, 2010 (San Diego)--Patrik, Age 1.5 is formulaic, super-sweet, and very sentimental but I liked it. The movie opened on Friday and is playing at the Ken Cinema until Thursday. I found the structure to be overly predictable and some of the song choices questionable and gag-inducing but it was to me a worthwhile cinematic experience.

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "CAIRO TIME" A ROMANTIC AND VISUAL WONDER

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 22, 2010 (San Diego)--Cairo Time is a film best appreciated as art. Forget the simplistic, nearly nonexistent plot involving a budding affair between an American woman and her husband’s Egyptian friend. I admired this film for it’s cinematography and it’s visual style which included such lyrical imagery as the Pyramids, the mosques, the streets, the desert, and the Nile. The script, not unlike the characters, wanders almost aimlessly but I liked where it took the characters and I enjoyed where it took me.

 


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POLITICAL WRANGLING: EAST COUNTY MAYOR & COUNCIL RACES: HERE'S THE LINEUP

 

By Buck Shott

August 19, 2010 (San Diego's East County) – The races are on for mayor and council positions in East Couny. Two local mayors’ seats are up for reelection in November. Both face challengers vying for the leadership spots in El Cajon and La Mesa. In addition, a pack of contenders is vying to run for council seats in East County’s cities of El Cajon, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, and Santee. Here's the lineup: 


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THE DOG BLOG: VACATION PET CARE OPTIONS


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WILL POWER REPORT: LONGEVITY AND INCOME


Nothing but the Truth!

 

By Will Power

 

August 13, 2010 (San Diego)--Gerontologists have come up with startling news. The length of your life is dependant not on genetics, but on income. The richer you are, the longer you live.

While this seems like a self-fulfilling prophesy, it is also an indictment of a US system of health care that rewards the rich at the expense of the poor.


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DOLLAR-WISE DIVAS: $AVE MONEY! KIDS EAT FREE

 

Share creative ideas to assist people of all ages with tips to save money and improve their lifestyle!

 

By Nancy and Dawn Clement

 

August 13, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – Free is cool! For a short time Cali Comfort  Restaurant in Spring Valley is offering a special deal: Kids eat free every Friday for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This special will only be available until August 21, so mark your calendar to be sure you do not miss out. Some other restaurants that offer Kid’s Eat Free meals are in the list written below; many of them are located in East County.


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "AGORA" IS A SUCCESSFUL THINKING PERSON'S EPIC

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 8, 2010 (San Diego)—Don’t go into Agora, which was released to theaters on July 30, expecting something along the lines of 300. It is more intellectual and philosophical than that. I like to think of it as a smart person’s epic. There is bloodshed but not as soaked and certainly not as fake. There is love and lust but there is no sex. Alejandro Amenabar has shied away from the obligatory scenes associated with these movies and replaced them with scenes that contain intelligence, relying on the solid writing and great performances.

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "GET LOW" IS HIGH ON ACTING

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 8, 2010 (San Diego)--Felix Booth (Robert DuVall) is an older, grouchier Boo Radley. It’s fitting, given that DuVall’s first movie role was the enigmatic recluse in the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird. He is always the subject of gossip, which may or may not be true. Kids often trespass on his isolated property deep in the woods to see if the old man is there, only to be chased away with a shotgun.

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: DON'T OVERLOOK "THE OTHER GUYS"

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 7, 2010 (San Diego)--The Other Guys works best when it focuses on Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. I found their scenes droll because of the way the two played off each other. The Other Guys could have benefitted tremendously from a slight trim job and a comprehensible, less-than-convoluted plot but it in the end, it really doesn’t matter. The movie has enough laughs for me to recommend it, although it is not without its flaws.

 


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POLITICAL WRANGLING: SMOKE SIGNALS

 

By Buck Shott

 

August 4, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – This week, our Political Wrangler brings you the lastest from those smoke-filled rooms in Washington and San Diego.  Amid pressing world issues, which of your U.S. legislators has a bill to ban marijuana brownies?   Who is drawing fire for cozy ties to tobacco lobbyists after backing a cigar club for legislators? Which Congressman is fighting to make it easier to send cigarettes to our troops?  Did a certain Supervisor break the law in doling out $80,000 in taxpayer money to a special interest group?


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: SUPPORT COMMUNITY GARDENS

 

Petition calls on City to help residents start community gardens

By Sylvia Hampton

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS" SERVES A FINE COMEDIC MEAL

By Brian Lafferty

 

July 30, 2010 (San Diego)--Intelligently dumb may sound like an oxymoron but it is the best phrase I could use to accurately describe Dinner for Schmucks. It is at times goofy and stupid but there is always a certain astuteness that permeates throughout the material without coming off as pretentious. The “dinner” doesn’t arrive until the second to last reel and it is a little bit of a letdown but that doesn’t mean the lead-up isn’t hilarious at times.

 


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DOLLAR-WISE DIVAS: FAMILY-FRIENDLY OUTINGS IN EAST COUNTY FOR FREE OR ALMOST FREE

Share creative ideas to assist people of all ages with tips to save money and improve their lifestyle!

 

By Nancy Clement


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "CHARLIE ST. CLOUD" GIVES UP THE GHOST

By Brian Lafferty

 

July 30, 2010 (San Diego)--Charlie St. Cloud is one of those movies that made me wonder if it should have even been made. The two major themes in this picture are death and letting go. These by no means rank the highest on the controversy meter when it comes to sensitive subjects. Charlie St. Cloud doesn’t handle these themes in a competent manner but that’s only one symptom of an even larger problem: the plot, the characters, and their actions are built on such a shaky foundation that the movie is doomed to begin with.

 


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KELLLY'S TRAVEL TIPS & TRIPS: CLASSIC TRAIN TRIPS

 

 

All aboard for the most scenic and relaxing train rides in North America--and beyond…

 

By Kelly Wieboldt

 

Are you ready for a unique experience? A great train ride might be exactly what you are looking for! Once you're snug in your window seat, you've already begun.

 


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BEST OF MIDDLE EAST COUNTY: GARDEN FRESH GRILL & SMOOTHIE

 

 

GARDEN FRESH GRILL & SMOOTHIE


6165 El Cajon Blvd., Suite F, San Diego 92115
(corner of College Ave. and El Cajon Blvd.)
(619)287-2373
www.gardenfreshsd.com  

 

Review by the East County Eater
 

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "RAMONA AND BEEZUS" SWEETENED BY SUNNY DISPOSITION, HONEST CHARACTERS

By Brian Lafferty

 

I will admit going into Ramona and Beezus fearing the filmmakers would somehow screw it up. I remember reading all the Beverly Cleary books in third grade and loving every one of them. Fortunately, the director and screenwriters not only have crafted a good, sweet and entertaining movie but as an added bonus they have captured the spirit of the books.

 


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ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "SALT" CONTAINS NO SPICE

By Brian Lafferty

 

July 23, 2010 (San Diego)--The scenario of Salt is gleefully implausible, with twist after twist and sequences of events that go way beyond the valley of the absurd. The film knows this. These would not be criticisms if the movie was any good, but Salt is a surprisingly boring action movie, completely devoid of suspense as if the filmmakers made a conscious effort to avoid it.

 


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MARKETING MATTERS: IS SOCIAL NETWORKING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING TOOL?

 

 

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS AND GROWTH

 

By Rama Beerfas

 


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