Valentine’s Special: Last Minute Mish-Mash!

I’m having technical difficulties with posting up the normal specials I do, usually a piano cover.  I will try to still get one in before midnight EST :).

I sat around thinking about it and realized that I could just do a mish mash of some stuff I feature here. Maybe invite you to check out some past posts and tell you a bit of some more stuff. Lets get the formality out of the way!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!

One of the growing and developing segments is the movie section.  Of course, you can head over and check out this year’s theme: Nicholas Sparks marathon.  I even reviewed a few other romantic comedies to help with the mix. You just need to head over to the Valentine’s marathon up in the menu under movies 🙂 HERE‘s the link the page if you’d like to get quick access to this year and last year’s Valentine marathon picks.

I always like to do lists for any events and I’ve done a romantic comedy lists in the past already HERE!

Movies that I know aren’t good but I love to watch

If you dropped by my place, I would NEVER admit that I actually like it.  I’ve probably only admitted it to my boyfriend but thats because he witnesses me watching these once in a while.  They aren’t great but there is a fun aspect to it.  Most people probably will hate it and its totally dumb teen flicks but everyone has an appealing factor. For me, the likes of these female leads were enough to make it enjoyable.

Nicholas Sparks Quotes

If its anything you learn reading and watching Nicholas Sparks books and movies, you know they have some really romantic lovey dovey quotes.  You know which ones I’m talking about.  Those that if my boyfriend said it to me, I’d well up with tears holding back my laugh.  I’m romantic but these things only work in movies.  I mean that last quote especially.  I’m seriously, even when Zac Efron said it, I laughed out loud.

My TV Guy Crushes (or I know from TV)

Ian Somerhalder
(Damon in Vampire Diaries)

Alex Skarsgard
(Eric in True Blood)

Alex O’Loughlin
(from Moonlight & Hawaii Five O)

Colin O’Donoghue
(Captain Hook in Once Upon a Time)

Top Girl Crushes

Emma Stone

Zooey Deschanel

Kate Winslet

Amy Adams

After doing that, my brain has momentarily stopped on heavy thinking.  For the girl crushes, I had so many but these are the most recent 🙂 They are all sweethearts in their own way and just so awesome!

I’ll leave you with some music and videos to leave a warm lovely feeling in your hearts, hopefully.

1) Disney’s Declaration of Love 🙂

2) Jackie Cheung- Love You More Every Day

3) Leehom Wang- A Simple Song

I actually  had done this song with karaoke but it had some third party issue that youtube alerted me when I uploaded it so to avoid problem, I just removed it.  Maybe if I get the piano I’ll do that.  I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing just me singing but the lyrics are lovely.

I’ll try to translate the lyrics here:

This world is complicated, it twists the words I want to say. I don’t understand complicated cultures. What kind of present will make you remember forever? Let happiness not leave so quickly.

Clouds and sky, butterflies and flowers, they never need to say anything.  It cannot break the connection and will always miss each other. Sing love songs and say love quotes, I only want you to hear clearly, I love you, this is the only thing I want to say.

Chorus: I write a simple song, to make you happy.  Love is a river and its unavoidable that we will hit road bumps. This simple song is nothing special, just like me, so normal but profound.

I keep thinking of how to let you see all my good, but I forgot to smile to you regularly.  What I’ve lost and forgot, I will try to make up for it.  You are my most precious treasure.

I’ve been into the Chinese music phase these days *blush*.  Hope you like it!

Since my plans for this didn’t turn out as I had wanted, here’s to make up for that. I’ll try to see if I can get something that I originally planned 🙂

This is going up pretty late so a lot of you have passed Valentine’s Day (you know, time zone differences).  Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day my lovelies!

Valentine’s Marathon: Safe Haven (2013)

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends! I hope that you’ve found some plans to share with your loved ones whether it be spouses, partners, boyfriend/girlfriend or even best friends.  Its really about celebrating love, right? Hey, I have a date with my oven and baking supplies and my TV and stack of rom-coms.  Oh, wait, you meant a living thing? My little cat is my date tonight 🙂

From the beginning of February till now, I’ve spent two weeks watching a few others but mostly focused on the Nicholas Sparks marathon.  We’ve finally reached the last one and his most recent adaptation from his novel, Safe Haven.  I read one review back then that revealed the twist so I already know that going in.  Either way, I didn’t even remember much of the plot and I never read the book.  Honestly, I was near finishing the last season of Gossip Girl and I almost didn’t even watch this, but I did because I like to wrap things up nicely 🙂 Lets check it out, shall we?

Director: Lasse Hallstrom

Cast: Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, Cobie Smulders, David Lyons, Noah Lomax, Mimi Kirkland

Katie (Julianne Hough) runs away from her home in panic, jumps on a bus evading the police and ends up in South Port.  There she meets the widowed father, Alex (Josh Duhamel) who runs a gas station/corner store.  She watches as he tries his best to keep his family moving forward while trying to move on from losing his precious wife to cancer. After Katie settles in at the local restaurant and slowly adapts to this new secluded and slower lifestyle, she also starts getting closer to Alex and his family.  At the same time, she builds a relationship with another nearby neighbor Jo (Cobie Smulders) who helps her sort out her feelings.  But when her past starts chasing after her, she is threatened to leave South Port and the people that she has learned to love and appreciate and she also may lose the only safe place that she has finally found.

I went into this marathon somewhat dreading it and honestly, other than a few road bumps in the middle, I’m glad that I found and bought Safe Haven. I mean, I knew the twist and maybe you know it, heard of it or just don’t care or you’d like to find out so I kept that hidden.  Its somewhat silly in a way but then would it be such a bad idea if that actually happened? I don’t think so.  I’d like to think that I could do that also if it ever happened.  Safe Haven may be pretty much hated by a lot of people and if its anything I’ve learned from this marathon, a lot of people are just not fans.  It suffers from being formulaic and attempts to manipulate our emotions but I mean, isn’t that what romance movies usually do? Anyways, I’ve accepted it.  As long as its within reasonable tolerable levels for me, I can deal with it. With that said, Safe Haven really does give a solid love story.  Maybe one of the few where I bought a lot of it.  Sure, there’s things that don’t make sense here and there but its a romance, ok? Love doesn’t have to make sense.

We are grow from pain and we move forward and we have to have the courage the better and the good that happens to us. Sure, it doesn’t evolve at the pace of Nicholas Sparks novels but sometimes, maybe it does. I’m not a love expert.  Either way, point being these two characters here Alex and Katie are played by Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough respectively.  I don’t know much of what they did and they’ve never impressed me much, so I didn’t really care much but I think I just fell a little more in love with Josh Duhamel after this movie.  Plus, I take back all the chemistry comments about the previous movies in the Sparks marathon (except A Walk to Remember) because these two are awesome.  I think its because of the chemistry and more slowly developed relationship due to the kids involvement, it turns into some sweet.  Its two people trying to move forward slowly from their pain and trust and love each other. I guess it resounds to me because feeling safe is really an issue for me and when I found it, its quite inexplicable and thats how I felt about that here.

What I really liked about this is that one also is that its not just a love story and then a little climax with whatever was going on, a death or a loss or whatnot, this time there’s a physical shift to the cop chasing down Katie and how he inches closer and flashbacks of why she had to leave.  It reveals who she truly is, whether she’s good or bad. It adds a bit more of a complex situation and because the cop (played by David Lyons and shown up there)  turns out to be more and he’s expands on the set of problems already, it adds a bit of intensity.  Its a nice up in pace after watching the previous ones.  The feeling is a tad different as well and honestly, as a movie, its more well-rounded than I’d have imagined.

Overall, I enjoyed this one.  Julianne Hough does good and Josh Duhamel is charming as hell.  I just actually realized it.  They have really good chemistry which makes a good part of a romance.  The supporting characters add positively to the script.  The twist might turn some off but I felt like it was a nice idea.  The movie itself gave me a feeling of freedom and the comfort of finding safety and feeling secure.  All this had some pretty lighthearted music when they were in South Port.  Honestly, it had a feel good factor and hints of intensity and changed the pace from an expected Nicholas Sparks adaptation.  I was happy with it overall.

I’m sure there’s some epic Oscar nominated or winner romance that will beat this and you know before you walk into this one, its not going to be one of those so you just need to go in with an open heart and enjoy what it offers if you’re into romance of course.  I’m saying right now, Nicholas Sparks is really meant for those full-on romantic at heart (which I am because I like corny and mushy romance-y things).  If you know you’re more the realistic lover, well, this is not your thing.

What did you think of Safe Haven? What are your thoughts on Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough? Are there movies of theirs that you like? 

I’m a bit behind schedule with today’s posts but I promise another post this evening.  I do want to get a special post out but I’m having some technical difficulties and can only deal with it after work so I’m looking for an alternative right now 🙂