Killers of the Flower Moon- Too Slow and Too Long

I watched half of the movie-Killers of the Flower Moon at our Cinema the other night. After 1.5 hours, I got bored and went back to my apartment.  Today, I read in Wikipedia, the ending of the movie.  

The movie had 10 academy award nominations but had mixed reviews. It was too long and too slow for me. It is not as entertaining as Oppenheimer and a little longer.  

I agree 100% of the following review: 

"Ploddingly slow. Could easily have been 45 minutes shorter without sacrificing any of the story line that was included. Full of Oklahoman and Native American stereotyping. The movie focuses on Leo's character, Ernest Burkhardt. It would have been far more intriguing for the film to focus on De Niro's character, William King Hale".

Here's a summary in case you have not seen the film from Wikipedia.

Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 American epic western crime drama filmdirected and produced by Martin Scorsese. Eric Roth and Scorsese based their screenplay on the 2017 non-fiction book by David Grann.^[7][8] Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it focuses on a series of murders of Osage members and relations in the Osage Nation after oil was discovered on tribal land. The tribal members had retained mineral rights on their reservation, but a corrupt local political boss sought to steal the tribal members' wealth.

Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023. It was theatrically released in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Paramount Pictures and Apple Original Films. The film has grossed over $156 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, with praise for Scorsese's direction, the screenplay, production values, editing, cinematography, musical score, and cast performances (especially DiCaprio, Gladstone, and De Niro), although the runtime received criticism. It won Best Film at the National Board of Review and was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute. It was also nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, seven Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Gladstone winning Best Actress Motion Picture - Drama, as well as nine British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film.

For complete Details visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killers_of_the_Flower_Moon_(film)

Meanwhile enjoy the 2 photos of me and Marsha Kefer from our Zumba Exercises here at THD.

Science Discovery in the Philippines That Changes Everything

I found this video super interesting.  I guarantee you will find the video very educational and worth your time, whether you like history or archaeology.   It is about 12 minutes and an excellent description of the Philippines today. Six amazing Discoveries are discussed: The Butchered Rhinoceros, Nickel-Eating Plant, Homo Luzonensis, Angono Petroglyphs, Laguna Copper Plates and Limestone Coffins/Graves.    

https://www.facebook.com/KidztopiaAmazingStories/videos/631554059181225/

"Frequently, it is stated that the Philippine's history is commonly associated with foreign colonization. There are limited historical records that document the diverse culture of the indigenous Filipinos before the arrival of the Spanish. 

Nevertheless, archaeological findings, such as the evidence of rhino butchering and the discovery of Homo Luzonensis, provide compelling proof that ancient humans had already inhabited the country thousands of years ago."

https://fb.watch/q0jkPJ7x6y/

Your comments will be appreciated. 

Meanwhile enjoy this photo of my hummingbird feeder( with a bird) in my patio that I photographed on 2.4.24-a rainy and windy day here at THD, Walnut Creek, CA. 

Debris due to the gusty winds the whole day from the Eucalyptus trees created a mess in my patio. Luckily we did not have a Power Outage.  Neighboring Communities ( Roosmoor) did not have electricity whole day yesterday.  

The Art Works of Pacita Abad-Filipino-American Artist

About a week ago Aileyn Ecob, co-resident here at THD showed me a few photos she took at the Pacita Abad special exhibits displayed now at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFOMOMA). I am posting some of the pictures Aileyn sent me.  Thanks a million Aileyn for these photos. 

https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/pacita-abad/

The Pacita Abad Exhibitions will closed on January 28. 2024 

💥

Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad: Life in the Margins, Spike Island, Bristol, UK, 2020; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Spike Island, Bristol; photo: Max McClure 

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric Mueller

Pacita Abad, My Fear of Night Diving: Assaulting the Deep Sea, 1985; collection Lopez Museum and Library, Manila, Philippines; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Lopez Museum and Library

Pacita Abad, European Mask, 1990; Tate: purchased with funds provided by the Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee 2019; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Tate; photo: At Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric Mueller

Paci

Pacita Abad (installation view, SFMOMA); photo: Tenari Tuatagaloa

Pacita Abad, If My Friends Could See Me Now, 1991; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Peggy Guggenheim; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate; photo: Don Ross

Pacita Abad, Anilao at Its Best, 1986; courtesy the Pacita Abad Art Estate and MCAD Manila; photo: At Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad: A Million Things to Say, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, 2018; image: courtesy the Pacita Abad Art Estate and MCAD Manila; photo: At Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad: Life in the Margins, Spike Island, Bristol, UK, 2020; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Spike Island, Bristol; photo: Max McClure 

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric Mueller

Pacita Abad, My Fear of Night Diving: Assaulting the Deep Sea, 1985; collection Lopez Museum and Library, Manila, Philippines; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Lopez Museum and Library

Pacita Abad, European Mask, 1990; Tate: purchased with funds provided by the Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee 2019; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Tate; photo: At Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric Mueller

Pacita Abad, L.A. Liberty, 199

Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad: Life in the Margins, Spike Island, Bristol, UK, 2020; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Spike Island, Bristol; photo: Max McClure 

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric Mueller

Pacita Abad, My Fear of Night Diving: Assaulting the Deep Sea, 1985; collection Lopez Museum and Library, Manila, Philippines; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Lopez Museum and Library

Pacita Abad, European Mask, 1990; Tate: purchased with funds provided by the Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee 2019; courtesy 

Pacita Abad Art Estate and Tate; photo: At Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric 

PaMueller

Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad: Life in the Margins, Spike Island, Bristol, UK, 2020; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Spike Island, Bristol; photo: Max McClure 

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric Mueller

Pacita Abad, My Fear of Night Diving: Assaulting the Deep Sea, 1985; collection Lopez Museum and Library, Manila, Philippines; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Lopez Museum and Library

Pacita Abad, European Mask, 1990; Tate: purchased with funds provided by the Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee 2019; courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and Tate; photo: At Maculangan/Pioneer Studios

View of the exhibition Pacita Abad, Walker Art Center, 2023; image: courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; photo: Eric 

Mueller

I am very proud to write a short article on Pacita Abad.  All Filipino-Americans should be proud of her artistic accomplishments known over the world.  

Here's the ad on her SFO MOMA Exhibition.       

https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/pacita-abad/

Pacita Barsana Abad (October 5, 1946 – December 7, 2004) was an Ivatan and Filipino-American artist. Her more than 30-year painting career began when she traveled to the United States to undertake graduate studies in Spain. She exhibited her work in over 200 museums, galleries and other venues, including 75 solo shows, around the world. Abad's work is now in public, corporate and private art collections in over 70 countries.

Legacy

Pacita Abad's works have been displayed in numerous galleries and museums in the Philippines during the annual Philippine Arts Month and art festivals.

On July 31, 2020, Abad was commemorated with a Google Doodle.

In 2023, the first major retrospective of Abad was held. The exhibition opened at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, followed by MoMA PS1 in New York, and then the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. It opened as the largest museum exhibit in the United States devoted to an Asian American female artist.

Quote

"I always see the world through colour, although my vision, perspective and paintings are constantly influenced by new ideas and changing environments. I feel like I am an ambassador of colours, always projecting a positive mood that helps make the world smile."

For Detalis visit the following two sites.

https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/pacita-abad/

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacita_Abad

This is supposed to be Marcos eating the Filipino people-for his corruption activities during his presidency

SFO MOMA Flyer Ad: "Experience vibrant works by a daring artist who traveled the world.The first retrospective of Pacita Abad (born 1946, Basco, Philippines; died 2004, Singapore) features more than 40 works including her signature trapunto paintings: stuffed, quilted canvases Abad adorned with materials and methods she investigated during her lifetime. Over a 32-year career, the prolific artist made a vast number of artworks that traverse a diversity of subjects—from colorful masks to intricately constructed underwater scenes to abstract compositions—revealing visual, material, and conceptual concerns that still resonate today.

When Abad left Manila in 1970, she stopped to visit her aunt in San Francisco where she found a city thrumming with radical political and creative activity. This context of Bay Area progressiv­ism formed the crucible of her growing engagement with art, and her extensive world travels, beginning in 1973, solidified her commitment. Abad, who became a U.S. citizen in 1994, spent time in more than 60 countries across six continents, including Sudan, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Afghanistan, with longer stays in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore. Through her travels, she interacted with myriad artistic communities, incorporating diverse cultural traditions—from Korean ink brush painting to Indonesian batik—into her expansive practice. The portability of these works and use of textiles Abad collected on her travels further reflected her peripatetic existence.

Abad’s embrace of quilting and other kinds of needlework confounded critics, who dismissed her works as naïve, childlike, and ethnic. In fact, Abad’s multifaceted practice articulated a powerful material politics, reflecting her vision of a nonhierarchical world. This exhibition celebrates Abad’s bold self-determination, commitment to social justice, and radical artistic experimentation".  The Pacita Abad Exhibits will close on January 28.  

Personal Note: My Love for Art starts in the Family:  Here's Ditas Paintings.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txBtqoHNIhI

The Man in Orange Shirt

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.5c42c3b6-57c0-48f6-9f6a-70345aa5c7aa?ref=imdb_web&autoplay=1&ref_=imdbref_tt_sims_tp_fdv&tag=imdbtag_tt_sims_tp_fdv-20

One of the Best Mini TV Series I have Enjoyed Recently- Fellow Travelers

Paramount+'s Fellow Travelers series is a dramatic and romantic story that follows the relationship of two men, Hawkins Fuller and Timothy Laughlin, over several decades of political and social change in America. The series starts in the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during the McCarthy era, where a persecution of communists and LGBTQ+ people is unleashed. The plot extends back to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, covering significant events such as the protests against the Vietnam War in the '60s and disco-era hedonism in the '70s.

The series is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon and was created by Oscar-nominated Ron Nyswaner. Actors Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey play the leading characters, Hawkins Fuller and Timothy Laughlin, respectively. The series premiered on October 28, 2023 and has eight episodes.

The review has highlighted the chemistry between Bomer and Bailey, as well as the depth they bring to their characters and plot. It's a series that not only tells a love story, but also explores the challenges and evolution of American society over several critical decades.

"A complex, intimate, captivating and visually stunning portrait of anguish and desire, “Fellow Travelers” is an expansive tale set primarily at the height of the U.S. government’s war on communists, “subversives” and “sexual deviants” and ending amid the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s." — Variety

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellow_Travelers_(miniseries)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/111197258753232