Twilight Gives Good Bite
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One word. Fan-freakin-tastic! Well, technically that might be three, but whatever. "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2." Wow. All I have to say is...Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Bill Condon. (Condon has previously directed the critically acclaimed and Oscar winning films "Gods and Monsters," "Dreamgirls," and "Kinsey.")
From the opening credits to the closing credits, simply wonderfully over-the-top deliciousness. Everyone can rest assured that The Twilight Saga is going out with a really big bite.
Breaking Dawn Part 2 topped the box office charts on it's opening weekend with an estimated $141.3 million in sales nationwide, beating out Part 1 which only grossed a measly $138.1 million in it's' opening weekend.
If you read my piece, "It's Twilight For Twilight," then you know how despondent I've been over The Saga coming to an end. I've been an avid and loyal fan of the series from the beginning. Yes. I am a Twi-Mom, and proud. In fact, that was the title of a piece I wrote exactly a year ago when Breaking Dawn Part 1 came out (Twi-Mom and Proud).
And, even though I wasn't that thrilled with Part 1, I couldn't wait for Part 2.
So, when our babysitter came early on Saturday, and Mark interrupted my writing with, "I want to do something with you today.?"
Where do you guys think we headed? That's right. We hit the 3:10 showing of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 in White Plains.
As soon as we sat down Mark started talking to me. I told him, in no uncertain terms, to "zip it." He sarcastically replied, "I can go sit in another row if you want."
I rolled my eyes, and "shhhh'd" him.
Right from the start, you knew special attention was given to this film. First, the imagery is beautiful and symbolic of Bella's (Kristen Stewart) internal transformation from human to vampire.
And, while we're talking about her transformation, I have to say that Kristen Stewart's make-up is amazing. Flawless. The effect is subtle, but oh so effective. I think Breaking Dawn Part 2 needs to win an Oscar for best make-up. She looks that good.
Edward's (Robert Pattinson) hair, not so good. His shape was inconsistent throughout the movie. For those of you who don't know this, Edward's hair is basically a character, in and of itself.
Yet, Part 2 is the most stylized of all the Twilight films. Everything came together in this last installment. The special effects surpass the previous four films, which tended to look somewhat stilted and animatronic. They now feel more fluid and seamless.
Aside from the aesthetics, there's real substance in this one. Part 2 evolves along with the characters and reaches a certain level of maturity, previously absent in the other four films.
Bella and Edward (Robert Pattinson) are married, have a child, live in their own home and must deal with some pretty heavy life issues. Like; their impending deaths and a totally inappropriate relationship Jacob (Taylor Lautner) has with their daughter, Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy). (Jacob is totally creepily annoying in Part 2. And, for the record, I'm Team Edward all the way.) Life's not so easy for the sparkly vamps.
Oh, and just in case you've been living on Mars, The Twilight Saga is based on Stephanie Meyer's best selling novels. They tell the love-story of a sparkly vampire who falls in love with a seventeen year old girl, with really great smelling blood. He wants to devour her. Literally. This presents the couple's first hurdle. Then there's the vampire-girl-werewolf love triangle, along with Bella's regular attempts at taking Edward's virtue and her unflinching desire to be turned into a vampire. A vengeful redheaded vamp, Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre and Bryce Dallas Howard) is also out for Bella's blood, since Edward killed her mate in the first Twilight. The vampire and the wolf repeatedly join forces to protect Bella. And, of course there's the Volturri, the vampire lawmakers, keeping close tabs on Bella's human status. A big no no. Humans aren't supposed to know about the existence of vampires.
This all starts to come to an end in Breaking Dawn Part 1 when Edward and Bella are finally married. Only, now they must make sure Bella survives the birth of their half vampire-half human baby. Oy. The only way Bella can survive is for Edward to change her.
Part 2 picks up with Bella's new vampiric state, hunger to feed, Edward's thrill at his wife's now permanent condition, their daughter's gifted ability to communicate through touch, Jacob's "imprinting" on baby Renesmee (ewww) as her protector and future love, and then the imminent threat of the Volturri's visit to determine whether or not the Cullen's have broken any laws by making a vampire child.
It all comes to a dramatic head on a snowy battlefield between the Volturri, the Cullen's and their extended vampire family who have gathered from all over the world. It's fabulous. Speaking of fabulous, Michael Sheen's performance as Aro, the head of the Volturri, is chillingly good and ultra vampy (total pun).
The most touching part of the movie comes at the end. Bill Condon pays homage to the whole Twilight Saga in a beautiful cinematic retrospective. It's nostalgic and sweet. The nostalgia continues with an individual highlight of every actor to have ever played a significant role in The Twilight Saga, from the first film to the last, in order of character importance. I've never seen that before and found myself tearing up.
Also, when you go see Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, don't be surprised if you feel a certain camaraderie with the rest of the movie audience. In my theater there was a sense of Twi-Family bonding happening. I'm not joking. We laughed together. We cried together. And, we clapped together.
After the movie ended, I walked out with two teenage girls. We talked about how amazing the movie was, our sadness over its' end, and whether or not Robsten will survive. As we walked toward the car, Mark was shaking his head. He looked at me and said, "I swear, you're like a 12 year old sometimes."
I just smiled and said, "No, I will forever be a Twi-Mom and proud."
Contributor Sharon Lippmann, writes about her "so called suburban life" as a proud resident of Scarsdale, NY. She is a writer, blogger, mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend and one sassy chick. She loves exploring the interesting, strange, perplexing, vexing, ridiculous and funny that life offers up frequently. Enjoying more of what she has to say about nothing, and, well, everything at mydailypill.com.
Could We Have Done More?
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Here is a letter from Harry Reynolds of Bradley Road:
To the Editor: Politeness in the criticism of others is the rule in this village, except in those rare cases of indefensible immorality of which the village as a whole are guilty.
In the recent chaotic storm, nothing horrific happened to us, as far as I know. Damages ranged from rain entering open attic windows to distress over traffic into the city or the sight of one’s tree reclining like a drunk on an angry neighbor’s garage. Compared to the unspeakable suffering of others in Far Rockaway or Staten Island or in the public housing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, our suffering amounted to a teaspoon of misery.
What have we learned about how we acted in the storm?
We learned that our contemptibly selfish capacity for abandoning the people stumbling among the wreckage in the Third World countries of Far Rockaway or Staten Island or in the public housing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side was immense.
Where and among whom was there even the lifting of an eyelid to help those people with donations of money and clothing? What did the ministers or congregations of our respective faiths do for those people? What did you and your family do?
What did we learn about ourselves? We learned that come hell or high water we will not move a foot or a hand to help one another, even when there is no storm, even when the need may be that of an old person a house or two away from our porch where, on a summer Sunday afternoon, we stand and, looking about for a second or two, contentedly count ourselves God’s wonderful creation.
Harry Reynolds
Bradley Road
Opening Reception at Madelyn Jordon Fine Art on Friday
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Madelyn Jordon Fine Art is pleased to announce Distilled Spirits, the gallery’s second solo show of work by Antonio Carreno. The exhibition will run from November 9 – December 31, 2012. An opening reception for the artist will be held on Friday, November 9 from 6-8PM. Previews and private showings are by appointment only.
Distilled Spirits features oil paintings from Carreno’s newest body of work, Gravitation, created over the last two years. These saturated, expressive paintings signal a seismic shift in the artist’s abstraction. His canvases invoke an otherworldly, contemplative place, inhabited by spirits and energies not always seen but often felt. Inviting the viewer to experience this intimate world full of spirituality and lyricism, Carreno intuitively explores what post-modernists describe as the human truth – concrete experiences dictating one’s fallible and relative truth rather than an overwhelming universal truth.
Evoking a sense of the individualized style defined by Expressionism and Cubism of such European masters as Paul Klee
Similarly, darts of energy fields, illustrated in pearl white or deep blue pigments, soar in “Ascendent #12” from the bottom of the canvas to its crest. The artist’s patterning of fluid elements forms this seductive painting with its warm hues and drip style. Carreno blends these energetic forms into a dazzling, delightful abstraction of rising spirits in seeking a higher, human truth.
“Dream #5” is multi-layered. Thick planes of paint open the canvas, providing a third-dimensional quality that is discordant to its physical flatness. These gradations of paint, like the stages of a dream, invite the viewer into the space as one plane gives way to another and ultimately exposes a tier of yellows, blues, and black. The title of the painting rests as the only clue that we’re entering into a subconscious space that is both complex and contemplative.
(Pictured at top: Morning Thought)
Madelyn Jordon Fine Art
37 Popham Road
Scarsdale NY 10583
914 723 8738
www.madelynjordonfineart.com
Abstract Artist Antonio Carreno Opens Show in Scarsdale
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You don’t need to go to the galleries in Chelsea to view the work of some wonderful contemporary artists. Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, right here on Popham Road, presents the work of prominent and emerging artists and Jordon is available to consult with you on acquiring or selling works of art.
On Friday night November 9, just as Scarsdale was beginning to recover from the storm, Jordon hosted an opening for abstract artist Antonio Carreno. His vibrant, active and colorful works were a welcome sight after a bleak week in town. The artist, who grew up in the Dominican Republic where he attended the National School of Fine Arts was there to offer some insight into his abstract canvasses with concrete names like Morning Thoughts, Celestial Session and Distilled Spirits.
According to Jordon, Carreno’s “canvases invoke an otherworldly, contemplative place, inhabited by spirits 
and energies not always seen but often felt. Inviting the viewer to experience this intimate world full of spirituality and lyricism, Carreno intuitively explores what post-modernists describe as the human truth – concrete experiences dictating one’s fallible and relative truth rather than an overwhelming universal truth.”
Carreno says he is influenced by masters such as Kandinsky, Mirot and Norman Lewis and calls his style “magical realism.” He uses shapes, forms, line and color to create dynamic paintings that are better to view than to describe. Stop by Madelyn Jordon Fine Art at 37 Popham Road in Scarsdale before the end of the year to see Carreno’s appealing work and to talk to Madelyn about building your own art collection.
Scarsdale Has No Power Over Con Ed: Meeting at the Library 11-4
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Several hundred residents attended a hastily called information session at the Scarsdale Public Library at 4 pm on Sunday. Mayor Miriam Flisser, joined by Village Trustees David Lee, Kay Eisenman, Bob Harrison, Jon Mark and Bob Steves and State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, took the stage to answer questions about storm recovery.
Residents were clearly tense, frustrated and hoping to get some answers about why Con Edison has not been more responsive to Scarsdale. The Mayor began with an update, reiterating what has been sent in the daily emails from the Village. This was news to some who had not opted-in to receive the information.
The Mayor reported that Con Edison hoped to restore power to all seven schools in Scarsdale so that they could open Monday and to allow voting to take place on Tuesday. As of Monday morning a delayed opening was planned for the district, but around 8 am parents learned that there would be no school at the Edgewood School and Middle School on Monday as Con Edison had not restored power.
The Mayor discussed the collapse of the Optimum Lightpath communications system and said that the emergency operations team had used their
She credited her team with innovations -- such as switching to the analog phone system and hooking up generators to traffic lights. Regarding delays in restoration, she said that the Village could do little to influence Con Edison who only promised to have power back to everyone by November 11, thirteen days after the storm.
Residents asked many questions about what happened and what we could expect and there were few satisfactory answers. Wayne Aaron asked, “Where are we on the list (Con Edison’s list) and Mona Longman asked, “How can we change the timeline?” Linda Shapiro said she spoke to Con Edison at length and that communities like Rye Brook and Pelham had received much faster service. She said, “Why are we on the bottom of the rung?”
The Mayor said that it was not the responsibility of the Village to supply power, and that the “Village could only advocate for Scarsdale.”
Others asked why the Village continues to plant trees in the "right of way" underneath the power lines and if it would be possible for the Village to hire their own crews to repair the power lines. Another said that the utility poles in Scarsdale were old and weak and claimed that other areas have sturdier poles with better footings to withstand higher winds and heavy branches. Peggy Sanchez of Fox Meadow asked if the high school gymnasium could be used by cold residents and the Mayor replied, “We are not able to set up a shelter.” Concerning the use of home generators, someone asked the Mayor if the Village code would soon be revised to allow people who live on small plots to install one. She said that the new law is moving through the system but that “it takes time.”
Paulin fielded several questions and said that she too had no power and was very frustrated with Con Edison’s service. She said, “We met with Con Edison after the last storm and they have not done what they need to do. There will be hearings and the Governor will hold them accountable.” She added that they were able to get Con Edison to open up a few streets in Scarsdale where residents were trapped by fallen trees.
Here are just a few of the many comments the site received following the meeting:
"I found it quite disappointing. This was my first exposure to my elected officials, and wow I found it sobering. No real answers, no foresight to have someone from the Schools present, and a recitation of facts without any real purpose or passion. As many said there, Con Ed has been borderline shameful. But what I also saw was a Mayor who had no ability to take responsibility for being our advocate. Unlike other Mayors in surrounding areas, I don't see her as getting on TV and yelling like hell for us, or refusing to be silent on these "civil" calls. She had little capacity to even empathize with most of the citizens in the meeting. She may be a great administrator, but what we need is a great leader for our Village who refuses to take Con Ed's answers. The only thing Con Ed listens to is pressure, and our local Village leaders are clearly lacking in any ability to apply it effectively. Amy does not fall into that camp. I thought Amy was great, by the way. She was the only one who seemed to get it (amazing how effective a simple "yes, that must be frustrating" can be; something the Mayor should learn). So bottom line, very frustrating. And I think the Mayor needs to go this March, and the star chamber-selected "candidates" selected to run this town should not get too comfortable. Changes are afoot."
“Today's meeting was a disappointment--both for the slow progress of Con Ed to address the problems here in Scarsdale in a timely way, and for the shocking lack of passion, energy, or even simple ability to "feel our pain" by the Mayor and her nameless comrades on the Board. She needs to at least show is that she is truly advocating for us because the demonstration today was a classic example of a nice, earnest administrator completely out of her depth. She needs to show some strength or it will be her last term. You may not be responsible for Con Ed Madame Mayor, but you sure are responsible for making your citizens feel as though they are in the good hands of their local government.”
“Scarsdale is supposed to be a community with superior resources and creativity. Yet we remain tethered to a one-party system and a government-created power distribution monopoly. We should expect our government to lead us with new ideas and solutions. But, despite our leadership's self-congratulations (at all political levels), Scarsdale simply was poorly prepared and is now under-represented in its struggle for remediation resources. Only in school do you get an A for effort - in the real world, especially civic leadership, you only get it it for results, of which to date there are almost zero here in Scarsdale.”
“We are seeing a complete failure of both the Village's professional staff and oversight of the staff by the board of trustees. The professional staff failed in at least two fundamental ways. First, it should have built strong links with ConEd, clearly the most important utility serving the Village's residents. Those links would not have resulted in Scarsdale receiving more resources than we should have been allocated, rather to make sure we receive the resources that we should. Equally as important, those links would allow the staff to learn of ConEd's plan for the region and our village informally, the way all such communication really occurs. Expecting the mayor, who only serves two years, to establish and maintain those links (or serve as an effective point of escalation during emergencies) is not practical. It is only the professional staff, who are typically employed for many years, that can establish these links.
Unfortunately, I can only assume from the lack of meaningful updates from official Scarsdale and the lack of crews in town compared to others in Westchester now being powered back up that those links were simply never built.
The second failure is the lack of planning "business continuity." The instances of failure here are numerous: We have no generators, our website (scarsdale.com) is down, our phone system is down. We are fortunate to have both the emergency notification system and scarsdale10583.com.
Ultimately, the buck stops with the trustees and the mayor, whom we elect first and foremost to make sure our basic needs are met.
Once power is restored, the trees carted away, and our leaves removed, I for one would like to see us (we the people) form an independent commission to review both the state of our Village’s preparedness (the professional staff) and the quality of supervision by the trustees and mayor.”
A second meeting with the Mayor and Trustees will be held tonight, Monday November 5 in the Scott Room of Scarsdale Public Library. Everyone is invited to attend.
Photo credit: Sarah Schuman
