The Many Sides of Me

                                                                

I was spending time with our writers’ group today. The South Jersey Writers’ Group is one of the best groups in New Jersey. Every third Sunday, a group of us meet at Audubon’s Treehouse Coffee Shop to work on our blogs, or for new members, learn how to blog. This week’s topic was how to keep your blog and Twitter sites focused on what you love to do. I do try to stick to posting only happy stuff, but lately, I tend to be very political.

While my fellow writers try not to combine their blogs with the toxic political scene that we’ve all been dragged into, I step right into the mayhem. I should just stick to talking about my books and my metaphysical stories, but I can’t. I could start another twitter page just for my political rants, but then I wouldn’t be me…not the whole me anyway.

There are many sides of Marie Gilbert. I am daughter, sibling, wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, aunt, cousin, and co-worker. I am an author, professional blogger, psychic/medium, and ghost investigator. I’m know as both Steampunk Granny and South Jersey’s Italian Psychic. There is way too much of me to put in a nicely labeled box.

My Gilbert Curiosities blog tells my followers about family, adventures, Steampunk events, zombies, and of course my metaphysical side, which includes weekly Angel Card readings, and results of a ghost investigation. My Gilbert Speaks blog is a pop culture site where I review film, books, and television shows.

 My blogs are normally uplifting and funny. They were at least until this past election.  I can’t keep silent when I witness the dehumanizing of people by our own government. I won’t keep silent knowing that an enemy country has committed and act of war against us: interfering in our elections and, hacking into our nuclear power plants.

I won't be silenced as our babies are killed while going to school. I won't be silenced when the NRA,  who doesn't pay taxes, has enough clout to control our politicians. I won't be silenced after Congress voted for a big fat tax break while at the same time stopping funding for meals on wheels for the elderly, and school lunches for poor children.

Conclusion

I won’t be silent. I must speak out against tyranny and a president who refuses to levy strict sanctions against Russia. I won’t be silent while the president upsets decent citizens with venomous hatred against the very agencies that protect us from his buddy, Putin. I won’t be silent as this president spews hatred against the free press, women, immigrants, and the poor.

Will my speaking out against a despot interfere with the number of Twitter followers? Most likely it will, but I could not look at myself in the mirror if I kept silent. So, too all my Twitter followers, I will apologize now. I am sorry if I’ve upset you in any way. It’s not meant for you. I am a voice calling out from the desert. I will speak out for all of you.

Steampunk Granny's Review of 2014:The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

                                                        

This past year was one hell of a wild ride and that was even with the world’s safety belt pulled taunt across its chest. While we made epic strides with medical and science innovations, the circus performances of Global Politics, especially that of the United States Congress, left many of us wishing that we could pack up and move far away...like to another planet.

                                                             

Luckily, there were a bevy of new movies, books, games and music to divert our attention from the wacky stuff that was happening around the globe. Grab hold of your wrecking ball and follow me.

Music

I’m a big fan of Black Keys, Of Monsters and Men, Lorde and anything by Parov Stelar plus my friends at Biff Bam Pop www.biffbampop.com offered a few of their favorites and I will share them.
Thank you Glenn Walker: http://biffbampop.com/2014/12/15/biff-bam-pops-holiday-gift-guide-2014-nothing-has-changed-by-david-bowie/

And, thank you J.P. Fallavollita: http://biffbampop.com/2014/12/31/top-5-albums-of-2014-as-chosen-by-jp-fallavollita/#more-31591

This year, I’ve been listening to the “My Head is an Animal CD by Of Monsters and Men with my favorite song being “Little Talks”
 
This is my favorite Parov Stelar tune. I play this when I’m feeling down and feel lots better after I try to do the dance steps.

I love all the songs by Black Keys, but this is one of my favorites

Lorde has such a great voice and I think this was the song that hooked me. Royals...enjoy

Television

2014 was a good year for Television and not only did the fan favorites like Dr. Who, Grimm, “The Walking Dead”, American Horror Story: Freak Show, Sleepy Hollow, Agents of Shield and Gotham live up to KICK ASS expectations, but we were offered top-notch series like True Detective and Gracepoint, the American remake of BBC’s Broadchurch.  

                                                          

Shows that didn’t make my list of favorites: Under the Dome, The Following, The Goldbergs and Stalker.

Movies

There were some great thought provoking movies out this year and I have so many favorites such as, Maleficent, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Deliver Us from Evil, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Drop, The Draft, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Her, Gravity, Mockingjay part 1 and, one of the best written horror stories this year, The Babadook http://thebabadook.com/home/

                                                             

                                                        

I will say that I have not seen The Interview which stars James Franco and Seth Rogen. Maybe it was because its plot has Franco and Rogen’s characters trying to kill real life North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

                                                           

I’m all for free speech and I abhor censorship of said free speech, but I don’t think it wise to upset a world leader who is very anxious and capable of launching nuclear weapons and hacking into Sony’s stuff. Maybe the studio could have used a fictitious name or country. I will say that friends who saw the movie liked it.

Books

I reviewed a lot of books this year and wrote reviews for those books. I give a 4 star rating for: Jack Flacco’s second book in a series Ranger Martin and the Alien Invasion. It is a fast, fun action story that you can’t put down http://www.amazon.com/Ranger-Martin-Alien-Invasion-Flacco-ebook/dp/B00ONG04IA

                                                         

I reviewed the Reading Glasses Anthology: Stories through an Unpredictable Lens http://tinyurl.com/qbbgonb  You can find out more about Hypothetical Press here: http://www.hypotheticalpress.com/

                                                            

And right now, I am honored and excited to be reviewing Wrapped in Plastic Twin Peaks http://tinyurl.com/lmez3m2 by Andy Burns, our fearless leader and Editor-In-Chief of Biff Bam Pop. I can’t wait to do the review and the interview.

                                                                 

Here is the synopsis: In 1990, avant garde filmmaker David Lynch (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet) and acclaimed television writer Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues) teamed up to create a television show that would redefine what the medium could achieve in a one-hour drama.

                                                          

With Twin Peaks, the duo entranced audiences with the seemingly idyllic town, its quirky characters, and a central mystery — who killed Laura Palmer? In a town like Twin Peaks, nothing is as it seems, and in Wrapped in Plastic, pop culture writer Andy Burns uncovers and explores the groundbreaking stylistic and storytelling methods that have made the series one of the most influential and enduring shows of the past 25 years

My Book

I have my book out, Roof Oasis book one of an apocalyptic tale with a twist.

                                                         

   

Think Romeo & Juliet meet The Walking Dead written by Jules Verne http://tinyurl.com/nmdl27e   I'm working on book two Saving Solanda which will be out in the summer of 2015

Conclusion

As far as world news, the lower that rat shit terrorist group called ISIS, the greed of Wall Street, the destruction of the Middle Class, Obama Care, GMO’s and the disgusting and dangerous practice of FRACKING along with the latest outbreak of the contagious Ebola Virus were the big topics around the water coolers and kitchen tables. I send my sympathies to the families who were infected in West Africa and here.

                                                        

I could write about the buffoonery that went on in Congress, but I’m already taking too many pills for acid indigestion as it is. Enough said. Let’s hope that 2015 will find our world leaders using more common sense and our private citizens using fewer guns.

                                                     Happy 2015

Sister Love

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                              Me, my sister Lucy playing referee, and Jane
                                          

Even though my parents had four children, my sister Jane and I have always had this love/hate/love relationship that would rival that of the biblical Cain and Abel.
I’m the instigator for most of the arguments as I have been trying to do her in since the first day my parents took her home from the hospital, going as far as trying to give her away to the Fudgie Wudgie Ice Cream man at the Wildwood seashore.

                                                         

                                                                                          

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Jane very much, but we’re only 18 months apart and this closeness in age, apparently became the catalyst for all our squabbles our entire life.  

                                                               

                                                     

Jane and I have a younger brother and sister, but our disagreements with them were far and in between and consisted mostly of whose side they were on when Jane and I fought.

                                                            

                                                                                                                    

I was the firstborn and the little princess for our extended Italian family. My father took me everywhere and my mother made the prettiest dresses for me and my grandmother doted on me. I was, for lack of a kinder description, spoiled rotten.
                                                            

Then Jane arrived. Who was this interloper that dared to take all of my mother’s attention? Where did she come from? And better yet, how could I send her back? Remember I was only 18 months old, but I knew that this was a threat to the throne that had to be dealt with. I remember and have been told by older family members that I would try to give her away to anyone who came to visit. Fortunately for her, there were no takers.

                                                                                                                                              

My sister Lucy was and is today the peacemaker, always stepping in whenever the “War of the Planets” was about to begin. Lucy tends to be, middle of the road, live and let live, you’re both wrong, type of girl. And even now that Jane and I are both in our early sixties; Lucy often has to play the part of the “United Nations and send in the peace keeping troops.”
                                                                                           
My brother wisely keeps out of the battles, thinking we’re all nuts.

                                                                                                                                               

With my sister Jane being hard core Tea Party and I a hard core Democrat.

 our younger sister Lucy has to play referee, but I did give Jane fair warning that the Fudgie Wudgie man still exists and can still be found selling ice cream on the Wildwood beach.