Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey Art & Music, Balancing perspectives, Connections, Moral Ambiguities

Movie Review: One Battle After Another

I’m thankful the filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson, wanted One Battle After Another to be a dark-comedy because I was sure laughing within the first few minutes of this flick! Oh, geez! Yes, spoiler alert (well, not too much of one), this movie is so intense!

Now, I’m a huge fan of both Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro, so this movie has been on my ‘must see’ list since it released, but other than Wicked, I wasn’t going to go trek out to the theatre. Luckily, the family added us to their HBO account so hubby and I could see this. But wow! We were NOT ready for the ridiculous discordant jazz that ran throughout most of it! Yes, I know the soundtrack is meant to create tone and layers, tension and release, but it made me super anxious and annoyed at the same time! I want to watch it again with closed captioning and MUTE on! Seriously!

Otherwise, the rest of the songs used in the movie soundtrack were good, some even great. Use of the nostalgic songs such as, “Dirty Work” by Steely Dan (which, was my favorite and will stick with me for a long time), “Soldier Boy” from The Shirelles, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, “Ready Or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love)” from The Jackson 5, and “American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, were great additions–and certainly brought relief from that terrible jazz. Well, I could have done without “Eye of the Tiger” since it’s so over played in film. But you get the idea. Jonny Greenwood (from Radiohead) really messed up the movie in my humble opinion. And this is why music is sooo subjective! Then again, Jonny is a risk taker I suppose.

Benicio made a GREAT sensei and helper to Leo in the movie and I was happy to see the two act together. But there’s at least one scene where Leo is running and his legs are so skinny! He looks like a little girl! I laughed at that one, and felt like they shot it in a way that made him purposefully look silly. Sorry Leo! As for star power, all the acting in ‘Battle’ was impressive. Sean Penn was a surprise right from the beginning of his performance. You’ve gotta see it to get what I’m referencing here. And talk about moral ambiguity. Sean’s character certainly brought THAT! I had flashbacks while watching Sean’s colonel antics to David Walliams gun-loving instructor in the Little Britain skits! Hilarious!

Anyway, a few scenes were let down’s like when the daughter is found in the nunnery. But overall this was a funny romp and not a waste of time. It shed a bit of light on an otherwise sad tale of revolutionary types. And with what all that’s been going on in Minnesota lately, it seems timely. It may get your rebel juices flowing.

February begins

Our son-in-law (SIL) added us to their HBO family account, which is how we watched One Battle After Another. I’d hoped Don’t Look Up would be on there too, as I’d been waiting a good while to see it, but I didn’t find it there. If anyone knows where I can watch that, let me know in the comments please. I’m a huge Leonardo DiCaprio fan, so there’s that. Years ago, my daughter and I went to see Gangs of New York in the theatre because we love him so much, and that’s saying a lot because neither of us like blood and gore in movies!

Of course, I guess I got over my disdain of blood and gore because I’m finally getting to finish Stranger Things, thanks to my son sharing his Netflix account with me! Ha! I’d never seen season 4, so I’m watching it currently in order to see the final season. Season 5. It’s had me glued to my chair! I love all of the characters and all the 80s stuff… they even had a hanging glass lamp (though in a different color) as my parents had and that my son had kept and had hung in our outdoor kitchen when we lived on his off grid property in Florida a few years ago!

I’m starting to feel a little better too, thanks to some wonderful nerve tinctures a soulie-sister friend formulated for me and shipped to me from Florida. I can’t thank her enough! If she’s going to sell them on her website I’ll write a separate article on that with a link. I hope she will sell them because WOW! It was sure an answer to prayer for me! And I know my son and at least a couple friends will want to give these a try. Here’s the brief note I wrote on Substack about the tinctures:

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Finished Sons of Anarchy

Hubby and I finished watching the older TV series, Sons of Anarchy. And OMG we couldn’t believe how IT ended! Ugh. Sad. Suspense. Brutal. It will live with me for a while. I was so glad Gemma saw her dad again, but Jax!

Integrating the Spirals

I’m encouraging those “over 60” to open to lifelong learning (observe and gently question their pre-conceived beliefs, aka ‘Programming’), become more aware of their thoughts and emotions, consistently move their bodies (too many are stuck in their heads and physically unhealthy), become strong, and resilient in spirit, soul, mind, body. And to question EVERYTHING!

Link to my YouTube channel where you can see the videos: https://youtube.com/@spiralsister

Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)

Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey

The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.

About us

My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 400 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey

Here’s a video of us performing on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/416711742?ref=fb-share

My books on Amazon

I have four books on Amazon. The two most recent are: Have Yourself a Wholly Vibrant Life: Reversing Asthma and Other Chronic Illness Naturally and Blue Eyes: Ethereal Messages of Connection.

Connect with us

Here are the social channels where I am most active:

Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey Art & Music, Balancing perspectives, Connections, Expanding Consciousness, Moral Ambiguities

Integrating the Spirals: Cognitive Biases

I happened upon this chart the other day and it got me thinking about all the ways in which, I do or do not challenge my own cognitive biases. I know I challenge my thinking often, but I see from this chart that I have more to work on. Even reading over the chart got my dander up a bit! Ha!

For example, I don’t think I have Anchoring Bias. I get too much information from too many sources, and have always been inquisitive, so maybe I was guilty of this when I was young, but certainly by the time I was in my thirties, I am pretty sure I’ve conquered this, IF it actually exists. I’ve always never heard of Sunk Cost Fallacy before, however, I have always been one to say, “I don’t want to throw away good money after bad.” Apparently my frugal mother taught me the value of dollar at a young age, so much so, that I’ve just never had an issue with continuing to waste money on things that offer no value to me. And I don’t conceptually believe we should continue going to war just because we previously lost X number of soldiers lives over a particular cause/issue.

Let me know which ones you do/don’t believe in or do/don’t take issue with in the comments. I’m curious.

How our January is wrapping up

Our son-in-law (SIL) tells us this is actually are first REAL winter in New England, because last winter was mild. We’re supposed to be in the negative (below zero) temps for our lows for about the next week to ten days, AND get up to two feet of snow, beginning this afternoon. We ARE now using our electric blanket on the bed!

As well, SIL came over yesterday and covered one of our windows (I kept feeling a breeze) that is behind our bed (where a head board would be). The insulation taped up to the window has really helped lock the cold air OUT. Whew! And the liquor store got my favorite Irish Whiskey back in stock, Paddy’s! So, yes, I’m having a 2-3oz pour in a crystal glass each night, especially since dealing with this silly compression in my shoulder blade. (And that radiates pain all the way down my right arm to my fingers! Ugh.)

My JIGGLE BUTT videos are on hold for now, until the nerve pain goes away. I can’t risk doing any dancing because it could aggravate this situation more. I didn’t fall or twist anything, this pain just hit me one day, seemingly “out of nowhere.” My chiropractor said these things add up though, until one day the smallest thing, even sleeping the wrong way, carrying in the groceries, etc. “breaks the camel’s back,” so to say.

I did post three video shorts yesterday just to update everyone after the chiropractor worked on me. Here are the links to those if you haven’t already subscribed to my YouTube channel (and why haven’t you?):

Short #1 where I show the exercise / stretch he suggested I do 4 times daily

Short #2 where I show the massager that’s helped ease the nerve pain so I could sleep

Short #3 where I show the topical joint and tendon oil that has eased some of the nerve pain

Eleven minute video where I talk about the pain and where it is, etc.

What we’re watching (real and unreal)

My daughter had told me many times how good the TV series, Sons of Anarchy, was. And since we get it now on Hulu via Disney that our son-in-law pays for, we’ve been watching it. We are on season 6 now. I don’t know how the series will end, but I have a feeling the character called, Jax (short for Jackson), will live, or at least his wife Tara and their children will live. So many characters have already died in one way or another. It’s been a very dramatic show. My husband had never wanted to watch it since it’s about biker gangs/clubs, but he’s now okay with it. He quit watching for a while in season 2 and I continued on my own, but he finally asked to watch again with me, so here we are. Ha!

I also did some research on Katy Sagal when I noticed several Sagal last names in the credits. I didn’t know that one of Katy’s sisters, Liz (who is a twin), is one of the writers of the show. And that McNally (another sister) plays the hospital administrator character. Nor did I know that Katy is married to Kurt Sutter, who is the show’s creator and executive producer! This is why it’s great to be able to deep dive into who plays which character on IMDB.com. We love Walton Goggins (from The Shield, Justified, and Fallout) and we were totally shocked to see him dress in drag in a few episodes of SoA. The body suits they can put actors in are incredibly real looking!

Speaking of what we’re watching, what is up with people taking other people’s YouTube videos and using AI make a completely NEW video of them? It feels like theft and forgery to me! And I don’t like it! My daughter says AI has ruined YouTube “Fail” videos for her because she doesn’t believe any of them are real anymore. Ugh. One of the independent journalists we follow has someone creating fake AI videos of him. They use his likeness and voice so it even fooled us for the first few minutes! Later, we saw one of his real videos and he mentioned the fake one and said he’s been trying to get YouTube to take down the fake channel. Man! That can really distract people from his real channel and impact his YouTube income, and income from the merch he sells! It’s just not right, I tell ya!

Have you experienced the deep fakes / AI image and voice videos of people you’ve followed on YouTube? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Integrating the Spirals

I’m encouraging those “over 60” to open to lifelong learning (observe and gently question their pre-conceived beliefs, aka ‘Programming’), become more aware of their thoughts and emotions, consistently move their bodies (too many are stuck in their heads and physically unhealthy), become strong, and resilient in spirit, soul, mind, body. And to question EVERYTHING!

Link to my YouTube channel where you can see the videos: https://youtube.com/@spiralsister

Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)

Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey

The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.

About us

My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 400 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey

Here’s a video of us performing on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/416711742?ref=fb-share

My books on Amazon

I have four books on Amazon. The two most recent are: Have Yourself a Wholly Vibrant Life: Reversing Asthma and Other Chronic Illness Naturally and Blue Eyes: Ethereal Messages of Connection.

Connect with us

Here are the social channels where I am most active: