Movies, Music & Manuscripts(Books)

What have I been watching, listening to and reading lately? 

Well here's a fun little story about me and my hubby.  The night before Valentine's Day we decided to watch a movie. My hubby has been wanting to watch Aliens again and we had it on our DVR, so what better romantic movie to watch than one with acid blood, a little bit of gore and no romance at all. We laughed about it and enjoyed the movie.

MOVIE:
The last new-ish movie I've seen is True Memoirs of an International Assassin.  Okay, I don't love Kevin James as an actor, but I do like him in a lot of things.  He brings back memories of Chris Farley for me. Some of his stuff is just junk, but I really enjoyed Mall Cop and Hitch.  So, when my husband went through his kung fu movie phase recently he stumbled across this gem on Netlflix. He asked if I would like to watch it with him and I said yes, so we added it to my list.  Then on a night last week when we wanted to watch something that wasn't super long we opted for this one.

Now, I'm not a movie critic.  In fact, I often like movies that the critics don't like.  If someone says to me the critics are stating that the movie wasn't very good, I say to myself, if the plot is interesting I'll probably see it then.

Check out the trailer here:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1542768/videoplayer/vi3047077401?ref_=tt_ov_vi  or on your Netflix account if you have one.

The nice thing about it is that it's TV-14 rated due to violence and thematic content.  There isn't much language or nudity. It had me and my husband laughing several times.  What really struck me is that Kevin James must have done a lot of prep work for this one, he needed to learn all the moves with knives and guns and hand to hand combat.  I hear that this type of stuff isn't easy and that a lot of really great actors have a hard time with it, so call me surprised and thoroughly impressed.

TV SHOWS:
I won't list the amount of TV I watch, at least not in this post.  You would be asking me where I get all the time or how I manage to do anything else if you were to see what I watch on a weekly basis. So, I will share with you my top show this year.  For me it's Timeless on NBC. http://www.nbc.com/timeless?nbc=1
I am really hoping this gets picked up for another season or more. I look forward to watching this show every week with my husband. It's the only TV show we watch together. Time travel, expense, history, action, a little romance, intrigue and relatively clean!  I love a good sci-fi adventure show and they are extremely hard to come by.  I think this one takes the cake.  Of course, every time I say something like this the series tends to be cancelled or end after a couple of seasons.  One can only hope.  Oh a few more things, does the actor from ER that is on this show, Goran Visnjic(AKA Luca)-Garcia Flynn on this show, ever age! Matt Lantar played on Star-Crossed a couple of years ago, I loved that show and it got cancelled after a short first season. He is an amazing actor for being so young.  He can show his feelings extremely well. And come one, who can resist a show that puts together an unlikely trio of a Historian, a Special Forces Guy and a Computer Science geek? Well, I can't.  Give it a chance!

MUSIC:
I love Spotify. No, I'm not a premium user and it doesn't have all the songs I want, but seriously, if I NEED a song then I need to spend the money to get it. Some of you might be screaming at me, you don't pay for your music!!!!!  Actually, what I do is listen to artists on Spotify first and then once a year I usually invest in their music with gift cards I get for Christmas or my birthday.  I'm a big Christian Music Fan. I recently set up separate playlists for my workouts as well.  I separated them into warm-up, push it exercise and cool down.  I also love the fact that you can get genre music anytime you want.  Want oldies, jazz, classical, decade specific music...just type it in.  Then you can add the songs you like to your own playlist.  I've used Pandora before and my husband prefers it but I really just love Spotify.  Would I pay for it if it was no longer free?  Probably, as long as it wasn't a ton.   Anyway, want to follow me on Spotify? Be forewarned it's filled with worship music along with albums from Disney Movies. In the search box type in : 
spotify:user: Christie Lee Rennebu Stoddard
If I had to pick my favorite artist right now, I would say Crowder, specifically his album American Prodigal. 

BOOKS:
Currently I am reading book 2 in the Daughter of China series by C. Hope Flinchbaugh, it's called Across the China Sky.  Book 1 is a historical(set only 20ish years ago) christian fiction, that was an amazing read. It touched me like most other books don't. It's slightly like The Hiding Place(if you haven't read this you should), which is an autobiography, in the feelings it creates. It is so eye opening to a place in the world we often don't think about but that requires a lot of prayer due to it's persecution. Book 2 follows the same characters as they move forward in their journey of life and faith.  I'm half way through it and can't wait to finish so I can start book 3. 

I was notified recently that I've been approved by Moody Publishers into their blogger review program. This is where they allow you to choose from a long list of their books to get for free in exchange for an honest review within a certain period of time. I've chosen my first book and it's on it's way, so I look forward to sharing my thoughts on that as well. It isn't a fiction book and it's about Anxiety.

Well that's it for now.  Feel free to share your thoughts with me about what you're watching, listening to and reading.  I would love to hear about it!


Colossians 4:5

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.