WONKA

 “Wonka” tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today. On MAX.

Q-tips say: YES, watch it. We really enjoyed this movie.

Kids. Families. Adults. There’s really something there for everyone and again, it just makes you feel good. Willy Wonka – Timothée Chalamet, was an excellent choice for this role.

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Past Lives

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.

Q-tips say: Good but a tad slow. FYI -for some people subtitles are needed. Past Lives may be a bit weepie but a very striking way to look at relationships and the ways that love lingers.

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The Bishop Museum

of Science & Nature – 201 19th St. Bradenton, FL 941-746-4131-
941-746-4131 – bishopscience.org

3/5/24 – Great museum for all especially for families & Grandparents to take grandkids to enjoy.

The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature - Trail of Florida's Indian Heritage

South-Florida- Museum – The largest natural and cultural history museum on Florida’s Gulf Coast, The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature offers engaging exhibits as well as educational programs which interpret the scientific and cultural knowledge of Florida, the world, and our universe. In addition to  the permanent exhibits, The Bishop features a constantly changing lineup of temporary exhibitions – offering something new to discover with each visit. Featuring fossil evidence of Florida’s earliest animal inhabitants and archaeological materials representing Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and pre-contact cultures, as well as local history and creative exhibitions, visitors of all ages find something to love at The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature.

The Museum also features an all-digital Planetarium and the Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat. At The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, you can learn about the world around you – land, sky, and sea – through the lens of Florida’s natural sciences.

The Planetarium - The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature
The Planetarium
PHOTOS: Bishop Museum of Science and Nature now Open
Manatee feeding - Picture of Bishop Museum Of Science And Nature, Bradenton  - Tripadvisor
The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature Welcomes New Manatees – Sarasota  Scene Magazine

Below & above viewing of the Manatees Exhibit.

The Bishop's New 'Backyard Universe' Opens Oct. 1 | Sarasota Magazine
Bishop’s backyard Universe – Yes, they have summer camps for kids.
The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature – Insects in Focus | USA Art News
Tons and Tons of Fossils | Jackson School of Geosciences | The University  of Texas at Austin
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Memory

Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) is a social worker who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her AA meetings. This is blown open when Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.

Q-tips say: A dementia drama, is the kind of film that, initially, is so familiar and heavy-handed.

“Memory” doesn’t necessarily have direct answers to all the questions. But it does well enough to know that even if a person is damaged, whether emotionally or psychologically, that shouldn’t negate them from receiving the kind of support that doesn’t belittle them but treats them with a dignity that goes beyond their trauma.

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Devil in Ohio

movie poster

A psychiatrist takes in a young patient who escaped from a cult, putting her family and life in danger. A series.

Q-tips say: Was ok & a little disappointing. Did not flow as other movie this type. FYI- not a movie some might NOT enjoy – it is about a cult.

Mrs. Q says: I totally get the Psychology behind it all. Unresolved trauma lives in the present and clearly, the mum hadn’t worked through it to notice the parallels and prevent crossing her boundaries. Was surprised it’s ok for a Dr to take a patient home and become their foster parent. So strange.  Suzanne really needs that therapy. Maybe Mae could’ve stayed if the adults put down some boundaries and helped the kids do the same. I get that Suzanne felt the need to take care of Mae and be in her corner, but at the expense of her own family? The dad is protecting the girls and Suzanne doesn’t get it.

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Einstein & the Bomb

On Netflix – Using archival footage and his own words, this docudrama chronicles what happened after the scientist fled Nazi Germany and dives into the mind of this tortured genius.

Q-tips say: Yes, we did enjoy it. Especially enjoyed that we watched Oppenheimer & then Einstein & the Bomb. Interesting movie indeed.

The documentary film focuses on the suffering and pain of a man who, although innocent, feels the weight of the consequences of his ideas on his shoulders. The most convincing moment of a project that for long stretches obtains the opposite result to that achieved by Oppenheimer that is, making the analysis of a fundamental historical phase for the world we live in today.

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Safe

movie poster

Widowed surgeon Tom has struggled to raise his two daughters alone following his wife’s death a year ago. Things seem to be on the right track for the family, who live in a gated community, because they have close friends nearby and Tom is in the early stages of a new relationship. But the situation takes a turn for the worse when Jenny, Tom’s oldest daughter, goes missing along with her boyfriend. Tom enlists girlfriend Sophie, a police detective, to help locate the teens, but her new partner is working her own agenda. As the investigation intensifies, Tom unearths dark secrets about the people closest to him in his affluent neighborhood. The drama series was created by mystery novelist Harlan Coben.

Q-tips say: Was just ok. A series – Starts with a murder and a disappearance in episode 1, and every next episode brings new clues (alongside new questions), so that more and more the mysteries get solved.

Told over eight 45-minute episodes, the story went up down and around the town before all was revealed in the final episode. How do so many people with a wide range of careers afford to live in a posh, gated community?

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Oppenheimer

During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.

Q-tips say: Yes we did enjoy it. The movie is 3 hours long. We watched the entire movie one night.

The film not merely captures the splendor of New Mexico’s desert panoramas but contrast the external coolness and internal turmoil of Oppenheimer, a brilliant mathematician and low-key showman and leader whose impulsive nature and insatiable sexual appetites made his private life a disaster, and whose greatest contribution to civilization was a weapon that could destroy it. 

Mrs. Q says: “Oppenheimer” rediscovers the power of huge closeups of people’s faces as they grapple with who they are, and who other people have decided that they are, and what they’ve done to themselves and others. 

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Slip Away

A  spiritual journey of compassion, redemption and unconditional friendship between two solitary souls at opposite ends of life.

Aging widow Fall (Partnow) finds joy wherever she goes, from the aisles of the local supermarket to the melody she hears grumpy busker Adam (Jesse Pepe) playing in the park. She offers to pay him for piano lessons, and his desperation leads him to teach her on the Slipaway, the docked boat where she lives. Fall’s happiness is contagious, but Adam’s past threatens to unravel the work she is doing to improve his life in the present.

Q-tips say: Yes, we enjoyed it. Slip away is a simple and sweet film.

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Bradenton Riverwalk 2024

2/16/24 –

Wonderful way to spend an afternoon walk with Chicago neighbors, Michael & Helen, who are visiting FL.

Bradenton Riverwalk –   452 3rd Ave W., Bradenton, FL 34208

Q-tips say:  SEE IT! Go and enjoy.   You can park for free in downtown Bradenton (by City Hall/police station) and follow the walkway under the bridge to get to the park.  There are great pieces of art to look at, sculptures, a pier, a walking dock, benches, covered swings and a playground for children to play in & they can enjoy the water park. It ends at the downtown marina close to city hall and Old Main Street where several restaurants await after this long refreshing walk that passes under the US 41 bridge.  Also, you might see a Tropicana train go by.

The playground was very large, clean, a variety of sets that included a jungle gym, swings, fountain, large grass field and lots of fun!!

There is plenty of lightening & while sitting for a few moments enjoy the river breeze, joggers, rollerbladers, bikers, dogs being walked (pet friendly ) and also an out door stage area where it looked like plays or entertainment could be found.

After enjoying the Riverwalk went to Pier 22.  ENJOY!  

Manatee riverwalk hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy

Jane Seymour - What an unbelievable thrill to see my Open ...
Open hearts sculpture
Bradenton Riverwalk Events You Won’t Want to Miss
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