Follow Up Read-Worth Fighting For by Lisa Niemi Swayze

Back on March 1, 2010 I blogged a book review for the audio recording of Patrick Swayze's autobiography, The Time of My Life. I was very  moved listening to Patrick's story, especially knowing that he had recorded his memoirs in the final weeks of his life.

Two years later and almost 3 years after Patrick's death from pancreatic cancer, his wife Lisa has written her story of Patrick's fight against cancer and their life together. Once I started reading Worth Fighting For: Love, Loss, and Moving Forward, I couldn't put it down and finished it within a few days. Lisa's honest and emotional retelling of Patrick's diagnosis, his strength during the brutal treatments, his final TV series (The Beast, filmed here in Chicago in 2008) and his last days is inspiring but very sad.

Lisa was Patrick's wife of over 30 years, his business partner and in the end, his full time caregiver. Upon Patrick's diagnosis, he was given weeks to live but lived for 20 months, largely in part to the sheer will of his spirit and the dedication to his medical care from doctors in California and Chicago. But it was Lisa who learned how to care for him, how to research new treatments, and how to keep him comfortable. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is the evolution of their marriage from lovers and partners to fighters, their only goal was to keep him alive.

What I wanted more of...the Moving Forward portion of the book. There is only one chapter written after Patrick's death and a short Epilogue, not nearly enough on how Lisa is doing or in fact how she is coping without her partner of 34 years. Maybe it's too soon. Maybe that will be in yet another book. Until she is ready to share those stories, this book tells of the 2 years they fought cancer together and like their first book is a true love story.

A Life Well Lived-Elizabeth Taylor

Last July I posted a book review of the biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century.
The post turned out to be one of the most visited on my blog. I have a great admiration for Elizabeth Taylor and was deeply saddened to wake up to the news of her death this morning. Her breathtaking beauty, her unforgettable talent, the great love affairs, her passionate dedication to raising funds, increasing understanding and educational awareness of AIDS, her love for family, her amazing jewelry collection. Sigh...what a life.
You can read more about my thoughts on Elizabeth and her amazing life by visiting the book review linked above. For today's post I am listing my favorite movies Elizabeth was in and a short list of recommended books about her life.

1. Jane Eyre. The 1944 version starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine was also one of the first films Elizabeth acted in, an uncredited role as the tragic Helen Burns. This movie haunted me as a child, Elizabeth Taylor was even as a child unforgettable, she breaks your heart.
2. National Velvet. The ultimate movie for every little girl that was ever horse crazy. This film made her a star at age 12.
3. Father of the Bride. The perfect father daughter relationship, the perfect wedding.
4. Giant. Taylor and James Dean. Enough said.
5. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Taylor and Paul Newman. Enough said. And boy can she act. Oh and the sexiest white slip ever worn on film.
6. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Sure she did the outrageous Anthony and Cleopatra with Richard Burton, but her role as Martha in this film is hard to watch, she's nasty and vulnerable, even more fascinating that she was really married to Burton when they played spouses in this film.
   
7. The "Is That Elizabeth Taylor?" Roles. General Hospital and North and South. I just watched because it was Taylor.

And a few books you might enjoy:

• Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century
• Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry
• Elizabeth Taylor: A Life in Pictures
• Liz: The Pictorial Biography of Elizabeth Taylor
  

Here is what I am wondering? If you believe in Heaven, then Elizabeth Taylor has finally been reunited with many of the great loves of her life, a number of her 7 husbands and friends like Michael Jackson. For the woman who lived some of the greatest love stories of the last century, which husband is she with... her great love, the died tragically young Mike Todd or the man she married twice, the larger than life Richard Burton? After all there is only 1 Elizabeth Taylor, even in Heaven.

What Would You Tell Yourself?

I've seen Michael J. Fox and other cast members of the Back to the Future movies on countless morning shows recently. Something about the 25th anniversary of the original film. Got me to thinking, where would I go if Doc pulled up in the DeLorean and said, "Where we're going, we don't need roads." Would I go to the future...or if I went back to the future, what would I tell my current self?

5 years from now, heck even 1 year from now if I could tell my December 23rd, 2010 self something I would tell me, "You made the right decision". I guess its that time where you catch up to your future that is the hardest.

So readers...if you could tell yourself something that you've learned 5 or 10 years in the future, what would it be?

Flash Back Friday #35

It's a Michelle Pfeiffer Friday. Because these are classic 80's movies. Because it's motorcycle season. Because I'll admit Grease 2 was one of my favorite movies when I was a teenager. Because I love Michelle Pfeiffer's all black outfit.



And because this scene from Tequila Sunrise has some of the best chemistry between actors I've seen in film. When Jo Ann (Pfeiffer) realizes what Mac (Mel Gibson) is telling her...and the way he looks at her. Sigh...



Have a great weekend readers!

Flash Back Friday #30

You could put this film in the hard-to-find-on-DVD category. Here is a scene from one of my favorite 80's movies, Fire with Fire with a very young Virginia Madsen and Craig Sheffer. One of the better teen movies and perhaps the most poignant and romantic and with a great soundtrack (how many movies include a song by Bryan Ferry?)
2 clips of the school dance scene when Lisa and Joe meet for the first time after only glimpsing each other in the woods.

Flash Back Friday #27

When I was little I watched Battle of the Network Stars every year on TV. I used to love to watch my favorite actors compete in swimming, running, baseball dunk, tug of war and my favorite the obstacle course.
Here is a classic, Kristy McNichol (Family) versus Melissa Gilbert (Little House of the Prairie) on the obstacle course. You gotta love the commentary by Howard Cosell. Geez, I had such a girl crush on Kristy. Where the hell is she these days?

Cowboy Librarian?

So I've returned from the mountains of Colorado and lived to tell the tales. After 21 years of avoiding all things outdoorsy I returned to the Mile High City for the first time in the summer since 1988. Now don't get me wrong, I've nothing against the state in the colder months, I've been skiing the hills of Colorado since 1983 and learned to snowboard there back in the 90's but I've been avoiding the state once the snow melts. Sad thing is my parents have owned homes out there since the early 80's and my sister relocated to Denver from Chicago a few years ago so I've had amble opportunity to visit, I just prefer to visit family when they are living at their home in Florida, I am way more a beach girl than a mountain girl. So after years of sending my son out there in the summer, I decided it was time to experience my mother's sanctuary in the mountains with him, my husband and my very happy mom and step-dad.

I can't deny it, Colorado is a beautiful place. Wide open valleys bordered by towering mountains and spectacular sunsets that light up the sky and reflect off the snow still clinging to the tops of the Rockies. My parents own a lovely home in the area around Winter Park with amazing views over the mountains and from their deck you can relax and take in 180 degree vistas. Truly spectacular. What was neat about the trip was experiencing things I've never done (or even thought of doing before). One afternoon we raced town the alpine slides at Winter Park, another we rented a pontoon boat (surely the dumbest type of boat ever dreamed up) and glided over the largest natural lake in Colorado (Grand Lake). On Saturday night we attended the local rodeo and that was so surreal it was like visiting another planet. Truly a family affair, most of the participants were high school age and their families seem to be heavily involved in everything from rodeo clowning to cleanup to fund raising.
I also visited local libraries and was pleased to find new modern buildings built in the center of small towns. At the Grand Lake Juniper Library they were having a theater night benefit showing of Pirates of Penzance!

One of the highlights of my travels are all the libraries I visit. From the most prestigious libraries in the world to the small mountain log cabin libraries, people USE and LOVE the books and services that remind us that the best things in life are still simple and free.

Flash Back Friday #20-My Kinda Christmas Entertainment

Little bit creepy, totally strange and a Christmas classic.
This is my favorite holiday movie, from A Year Without A Santa Claus.
Enjoy the Snow Miser and Heat Miser.

Friday Flash Back #16

I was watching music videos on VH1 this morning while my kid was getting ready for school and was feeling young and chipper until I sat through videos by New Kids on the Block and Gavin Rossdale.
Back in the late 80's while in my first 2 years of college I was working at a grade school supervising the before and after school programs. In 1989 all the kids were obsessed with the New Kids. Their faces were on every lunch box, backpack etc. Horrible really. Then in the mid 90's with the British Invasion of bands like Oasis and Bush (Gavin Rossdale's former band) it was all about hard partying Brit musicians. I saw Bush back in 1995 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago and they were topping the charts with their album Sixteen Stone. So this morning I sat through new videos by New Kids and the now solo Gavin Rossdale (more famously known as Mr. Gwen Stefani) and seriously aged about a decade in 5 minutes. Rossdale is probably in his early 40's and the New Kids are in their late 30's and these once teen crushes are now nearly middle aged men! Funny that their videos are still aimed at young females with the New Kids video showing them in expensive suits picking up women half their age in a bar and Rossdale's video features him half naked through most of it either in a shower or a pool (I'm not complaining).
After closing my gaping mouth I turned off the TV and went upstairs to rub some anti wrinkle cream on my face.
Geez.....
Enjoy some vintage New Kids on the Block with their video for Hanging Tough.

Feeling Nostalgic

(Picture is the cast of the classic 80's television series Degrassi Junior High which ran from 1987-1989. Check out the clothes and hairstyles!)


So this is homecoming week at my kid's school, which also happens to be the high school I attended (Class of 1988).
Today is 80's day and because he didn't want to dress up, not cool for guys I guess, I went through my bin of high school crap and found some buttons from homecoming 1984, 1985 and 1986. He liked the 1985 button and is wearing that as his little bit of school spirit.
I have a couple of large plastic boxes, one full of high school memories and one full of college memories. When pawing through the high school box last night I stumbled across a shoe box full of notes from friends passed in classes, ticket stubs, id's, tacky plastic neon jewelry, love letters (so funny!), pictures and anything I thought was worth saving as a teenager. With my 20th reunion in under 2 weeks I might sit down and go through the entire box.
The 80's doesn't really feel like it was that long ago until I saw all the kids walking into the high school today in "costumes" reflecting what we used to wear as teenagers. Side ponytails, big earrings, tight acid wash pants, "Flashdance" style tops, patterned tights, leg warmers, men's jackets with the sleeves rolled up and neon, way too much neon. Geez, when I was a teen the theme days in school were 50's and 60's days and my Mom let me wear her saddle shoes or bell bottoms. Sigh...how times change so quickly.
Check out this hysterical website of everything 80's, the pictures are great!
http://www.eightyeightynine.com/culture/index.html