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MOVIE REVIEW OF ANOMALISA: An Edward Hopper Painting Come to Life

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Charlie Kaufman's film ANOMALISA is the movie that moved and thrilled me the most this year. It's not for everyone, but it was for me. Kaufman gives us trippy, amazing movies like ETERNAL SUNSHINE, and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. And this movie is just as trippy and amazing but not in his usual way. Eternal Sunshine threw us into sci-fi territory with a machine that could erase painful memories, and the visuals were a beautiful nightmare. Malkovich gave us John M in a red dress on a p iano, John M in a hallucination of multiple Malkoviches. But ANOMALISA felt different to me. What was trippy was the presentation (stop motion puppets) but for a change the content was surprisingly naturalistic and realistic (middle aged man has identity crisis en route to giving a motivational speech). But it's in the lovely, cryptic dialog, the surrealism appears. Kind of like in a Haruki Murakami novel where simple reality starts taking tiny, menacing, magical U-turns.  It also rem

Hug & Cuddle Group for Single, Gay Men arrives in Chicago

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by Dwight Okita Today was the launch of my Chicago Meetup Group "The Hug & Cuddle Group for Single, Gay Men" at the Center of Halsted, Chicago's LGBT community center. Our first man hug session was an intoxicating, nurturing mix of beautiful diverse music, a safe cozy space, and 12 men who were strangers in search of tenderness and intimacy in a non-sexual setting. It was about an hour and a half of embracing, talking, caressing, and engaging. If you look at the picture above, it looks like we're slow dancing. The effect was a deep feeling of affec tion and connectedness. I'd never quite felt this feeling before. Our group currently has over 70 interested members.  I developed this event with Assistant Organizer Charles Gamble.  Initially at the event, people seemed a bit nervous which is natural.  Chairs were arranged in a circle and people were asked to tell their name and a little about themselves.  I spoke a while giving an overview of the Cuddl

Sneak Peek at my reincarnation novel EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE

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NOTE:  To me it's always fun to read excerpts of novels in progress.  Here's less than a page from  MY NEW NOVEL "Every Time We Say Goodbye" by Dwight Okita (c) 2015. FEEL FREE TO READ AND GIVE COMMENTS. THIS COMES FROM THE END OF THE BOOK. The two men entered Casa de Esperanza, or The House of Hope for dinner. Frank's cell kept ringing through the night, so he put it on vibrate. In fact it wouldn't be till he got home after midnight that he would listen to his voice mails and learn that Trudy had shot herself to death. He would be shocked and  saddened. He was just starting to like her, getting to see her more vulnerable side, starting to see her less as an adversary and more as something else. He would have to write a difficult column about The Death-by-Gun of a Gun Lobbyist. It would be provocative, drawing ire from both peace activists and gun activists alike, how one American grew up to be a statistic. And it would be part cautionary ta

Here we go again. Another senseless American shooting.

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Here we go again. I chant for a solution to the violence and madness that America has become. I pray for the enlightenment of the NRA and gun owners -- both responsible and not responsible. I chant for more meaningful background checks that will prevent weapons from getting into the hands of malicious killers and those who are severely mentally disturbed. I chant for a peaceful world we can be proud of.  That we as an American society can put all of our heads together -- both conservative and liberal -- and learn whatever lessons these acts of violence are trying to teach us. I pray that we evolve before we become extinct. Tennessee movie theater shooting suspect killed by police - CNN.com

SLUMBER PARTIES & LOADED GUNS: My Other Novels in Progress

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Hi folks, a while back you subscribed to my blog which deals with my being an indie writer, an online dater, a gay asian man, a Nichiren Buddhist, a person recovered from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and a frequent movie-goer.   Please let me know you got this email as my previous gadget wasn't sending them out properly.  You could post a comment below or email me at DwightOkita@gmail.com  Thanks. My first novel THE PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL will always be a top three finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards contest, out of 5,000 entries.  I self-published it in 2011 and it has doing respectably, garnering enthusiastic reviews. My second novel THE HOPE STORE I've been fine-tuning to enter in the new Kindle Scout competition presented by Amazon. I wanted to mention the next two novels I have in the works which I'm developing concurrently: SLUMBER PARTIES FOR GROWN-UPS is the third novel. A mid-life guy regrets he never attended slumber parties as

Movie reviews by novelist Dwight Okita: FOXCATCHER and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

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I saw the movie FOXCATCHER tonight. It was filled with good performances and was a tense movie to watch.  A movie about wrestlers and conflicts of interest.  Though not the feel good movie for the holidays, to be sure, I was surprised how many were in the audience. Steve Carrell channeled something in his performance. There was a stillness at the center of his character that was chilling. As if he were encased in glass and the words he spoke and the words he heard took light years to reach him. What the movie lacks in humor, it  makes up for in tension. I'd give it a B. I also previously saw THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING.  Isn't the movie poster above stunning?  I enjoyed this film. At the center, it was a love story, and also a story of transcending one's disabilities/ limitations. The movie was charming and touching and fueled by the scientific quest for knowledge and personal quest for romance. By the way, both movies in this post are based on real people who

MAYBE ONE DAY I WILL WRITE A NOVEL THAT IS MEMOIR-ISH ABOUT GROWING UP.

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HERE ARE SOME NOTES FROM ONE CHILDHOOD MEMORY.  IF YOU ALSO WOULD LIKE TO SHARE YOURS, PLEASE DO.  And considering I have written two soft, science fiction novels -- this would be a stretch for me to ground a book in the all-too-real world. I think I will try to develop the "memoir" and sci fi book at the same time. Some notes  by Dwight Okita I remember when I was little my father carrying me to bed. After I had fallen asleep in front of the TV. After it was late, too late for a boy like me to be awake. He carried me gently in his arms, climbing up the stairs toward my room, carefully laying me down in my small bed so as not to wake me, pulling the covers over me, tucking me in.  I loved that.  The whole ceremony of it. It was a ceremony that whispered to me: "This is my father and he will always take care of me. I am loved and I am safe. And also that I should go to sleep and not wake up in the middle of the night and start exploring the whole darned house.&q