UPDATE FEBRUARY 2016
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YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED to a social gathering of the WHS Class of 1966 on Saturday, February 13, 11:00 a.m., at Fargo’s Pizza Company located at 2910 East Platte Avenue in Colorado Springs. Our classmate Ron Petty reserved a room for the gathering, so mention his name to the staff person at the reception area so that you can be directed to the right place. At the gathering, there will be discussion about a possible 50-year reunion.
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INTEREST in ATTENDING a 50-YEAR REUNION includes 31 classmates whose names appear on the updated list below.
Shirley Guinta Tafoya; Patti Kueck Daniel; Twila Wilson; Bruce Brian; Rhonda Richards Shamburger; Warren Knight; Pam Rains Shuman; Joy Woods Haskell; Doug Allen; Mickey Martin; Linda Nolin Weber; Mary Ashley Fuchsman; Daryl Kuiper; Bruce McAlexander; Ron Petty; Paul Snell; Gillie Walker; Donnie Martinez; Mimi George Torreano; Denese Clark Bigelow; Gary Storm; Judy Ames Bradford; Dean Otey; Glen Kruse; Bob Cook; Steve Cox; Rich Stroud; Glenda Windle Armstrong; Donna Wiltgen Mills; Lydia Romero Fine; Mike Adragna.
In addition to expressing interest in attending a 50-year reunion, our classmates Lydia Romero Fine and Mike Adragna have kindly offered their help in planning the event.
If you are remotely interested in attending some type of reunion, please send an email to this email box so that you can be added to the list.
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TO VISIT OUR CLASS WEBSITE that was assembled and is maintained by our Class Committee member and Webmaster, Paul Snell, please go to: www.1966whs.com
The software that Paul used to build the website allows people to access the website through a regular computer as well as a smartphone or digital tablet. At the bottom of each page of the website is a link to a Facebook page that can be used by classmates who have Facebook and want to communicate and receive information through Facebook. Please be sure to bookmark the website address on your computer so that you will have it handy whenever you want to visit the website.
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THE 2016 OSCAR NOMINATIONS are the focus of my essay, which is enclosed herein at the tail-end of this update immediately after my farewell remark “I don’t care what people call me, just call me.”
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PLEASE do not TAKE IT PERSONALLY if you do not hear from me right away. As a volunteer in several nonprofit entities (including the college campus), I have only so much time within which to do my volunteer work as well as tend to my health challenges and other aspects of my personal life. Delays in my replies, in particular, are due to my long sleeping hours during which there is total relief from my neurological illness for which there is no cure. It is now eleven (11) years that I have had massive nerve damage. With this neurological illness continuing to take center stage in my life each day, there cannot be very much so-called normal or routine activities on my part as long as a state of normalcy has not been returned to my life. As noted in my update in July 2013, another reason for delays in my replies is that I have been “slowing down” more and more since late 2012 – it takes me forever to get something done. My doctors attribute the slowness to me getting older, not the neurological illness.
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This update was prepared by me.
Respectfully submitted,
Donnie Martinez
Known at WHS by stepfather’s surname Collier
Martinez is my birth certificate and legal surname
a/k/a Butch, family nickname since childhood
a/k/a Don, presumably the adult version of Donnie
a/k/a Primo (Cousin) to dozens of my Martinez cousins
a/k/a El Aguila (The Eagle), a version of Gillie’s name for me
a/k/a Nitpicker Supreme, a title lovingly given to me by Gillie
a/k/a Frank to older women saying I look like their idol Frank Sinatra
a/k/a Dee Dee, a fun name used by people to mean Dear Donnie
I don’t care what people call me, just call me.
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THIS YEAR’S OSCAR NOMINEES
by D. Martinez (February 2016)
Just as I have done for many years, my picks for the Oscar Awards are now once again shared with friends, relatives, activists, neighbors and people with whom I went to school. It is now eleven years of my ongoing neurological illness for which there is no cure, yet my spirits continue to be lifted whenever my health challenges allow me to get out to a movie theater.
BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES are: Cate Blanchett; Brie Larson; Jennifer Lawrence; Charlotte Rampling; and, Saorise Ronan. Noticeably absent from the list are Julianne Moore for her great performance as a lesbian police officer in the true story “Freeheld” and Helen Mirren for her great performance as a Jew searching for her family’s items seized by the Nazis, as conveyed in the true story “Woman in Gold.” Ms. Blanchett is very good as a mid-30s upper-class married woman who develops a lesbian relationship with a young working-class woman in the repressive 1950s, as conveyed in the well-done film “Carol.” Ms. Larson is very good as a kidnapped woman living year after year in a one-room shed with her child-age son whose father is the kidnapper, as conveyed in the well-done film “Room.” Ms. Lawrence is very good as a struggling single mother whose mop invention faced several obstacles before eventually becoming a financial success, as conveyed in the true story “Joy.” Ms. Rampling is very good as an older woman who becomes distraught upon learning one week before her 45-year wedding anniversary party that her husband’s first wife died mysteriously, as conveyed in the well-done film “45 Years.” Ms. Ronan is very good as a 1950s Irish immigrant who is torn between her love for an Italian young man in the U.S. and her love for a young man in Ireland, as conveyed in the well-done film “Brooklyn.” Brie Larson is my choice for the award, but I won’t be disappointed if the award goes to Cate Blanchett or Charlotte Rampling.
BEST ACTOR NOMINEES are: Bryan Cranston; Matt Damon; Leonardo DiCaprio; Michael Fassbender; and, Eddie Redmayne. Noticeably absent from the list are Tom Hanks for his great performance in the true story “Bridge of Spies” and Jacob Tremblay for his great performance as the little boy in the well-done film “Room.” Cranston is very good as a screenwriter who was blacklisted and imprisoned during the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era in the 1950s, as detailed in the true story “Trumbo.” Damon is good as an astronaut who has very creative survival skills (including using his own caca as fertilizer to grow potatoes) when he is stranded on Mars, as conveyed in the film “Martian.” DiCaprio is good as the 1800s severely-injured fur trapper Hugh Glass who sought revenge when he was abandoned by fellow trappers, as conveyed in the visually stunning and violent film “Revenant.” Fassbender is very good as the co-founder and successful owner of the Apple business that has produced computers and other digital devices, as detailed in the true story “Steve Jobs.” Redmayne is very good as a 1930s successful visual artist who transitions from male socialization to embrace her true identity as a woman, as detailed in the true story “Danish Girl.” Bryan Cranston and Michael Fassbender are my choices for the award, but I won’t be disappointed if the award goes to Leonardo DiCaprio.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEES are: Christian Bale; Tom Hardy; Mark Ruffalo; Mark Rylance; and, Sylvester Stallone. Bale is very good as a financial whiz who made money upon betting there would be the 2008 financial collapse of the bank/housing industry in the U.S., as detailed in the true story “Big Short.” Hardy is very good as the 1800s fur trapper who abandoned a severely-injured fellow trapper who recovered and sought revenge, as conveyed in the visually-stunning and very violent film “Revenant.” Ruffalo is very good as one of the investigative reporters who exposed the Catholic Church’s longtime cover-up of the molestation of children by priests, as detailed in the true story “Spotlight.” Rylance is very good as the 1950s Soviet Union spy who was represented in court by a U.S. lawyer who later helped with the early 1960s exchange of the spy for the U.S. spy-plane pilot captured by the Soviet Union, as detailed in the true story “Bridge of Spies.” Stallone is good as a retired champion boxer who is battling terminal cancer while being a mentor and trainer of an aspiring young boxer, as conveyed in the film “Creed.” Mark Rylance is my choice for the award, but I won’t be disappointed if the award goes to Mark Ruffalo.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS NOMINEES are: Jennifer Jason Leigh; Rooney Mara; Rachel McAdams; Alicia Vikander; and Kate Winslet. Ms. Leigh is very good as a mid-1800s fugitive prisoner chained to a bounty hunter as they and six other mean-spirited characters are uncertain about reaching their destination, as conveyed in the appropriately-titled film “Hateful Eight.” Ms. Mara is very good as a young working-class woman who develops a lesbian relationship with a mid-30s upper-class married woman in the anti-gay climate of the 1950s, as conveyed in the well-done film “Carol.” Ms. McAdams is very good as one of the investigative reporters who exposed the Catholic Church’s longtime cover-up of the molestation of children by priests, as detailed in the true story “Spotlight.” Ms. Vikander is very good as a 1930s successful visual artist who is fully supportive of her spouse’s transition from male socialization to embrace her true identity as a woman, as detailed in the true story “Danish Girl.” Ms. Winslet is very good as the marketing executive and right-hand colleague of the co-founder and successful owner of the Apple business that has produced computers and other digital devices, as conveyed in the true story “Steve Jobs.” Alicia Vikander is my choice for the award, but I won’t be disappointed if the award goes to Rooney Mara or Kate Winslet.
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES are: “Big Short”; “Bridge of Spies”; “Brooklyn”; “Mad Max: Fury Road”; “Martian”; “Revenant”; “Room”; and “Spotlight.”
“Big Short” is a well-done film about the true story of four financial whizzes who made millions of dollars upon betting there would be a major financial crisis due to years of bank mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them and due to banks bundling mortgages into unsafe bonds, thus creating the 2008 bank/housing collapse that impacted the economies in the U.S. and worldwide. The film supplements information provided by “Inside Job,” the 2010 film that addressed numerous factors over three decades that culminated in the 2008 financial crisis.
“Bridge of Spies” is a well-done film based on the true story of the 1950s Soviet Union spy who was represented in court by a U.S. lawyer, who later helped with the early 1960s exchange of the spy for the U.S. spy-plane pilot captured by the Soviet Union.
“Brooklyn” is a well-done film about a 1950s Irish immigrant who is torn between her love for an Italian young man in the U.S. and her love for a young man in Ireland.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” is a fantasy science-fiction action thriller story in which rebel leader Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron, one of my favorite actresses) is the driver of a huge war rig that she and other women use to escape from a male-dominated cult led by a military tyrant and his skinhead followers. After a visually spectacular vehicle chase that takes up 90 minutes of the movie, Furiosa and the other women finally reach their destination – a women-only village in which Furiosa was raised in her childhood.
“Martian” is a good film about an astronaut’s very creative survival skills (including using his own caca as fertilizer to grow potatoes) when he was stranded on Mars. On a related note is the recent news story that scientists have discovered a new planet that is about ten times bigger than Earth.
“Revenant” is a visually stunning and very violent film about the 1800s fur trapper Hugh Glass who sought revenge when he was abandoned by fellow trappers. The real life of Glass is misrepresented by the film’s premise that Glass sought revenge due to the murder of his American Indian son, but historians agree that such a son never existed and that the revenge stemmed only from Glass being abandoned after he incurred massive injuries from an attack by a grizzly bear.
“Room” is a well-done film about a kidnapped woman living year after year in a one-room shed with her child-age son, whose father is the kidnapper.
“Spotlight” is a well-done film based on the true story of the investigative reporters who exposed the Catholic Church’s longtime cover-up of the molestation of children by priests.
For me to enjoy a movie, it must almost always have two main qualities: (1) it reveals events of a historical era unfamiliar to me, or (2) it is set in a geographic location or situation unfamiliar to me. Because they were set in locations unfamiliar to me and they had many historical details that I did not know until seeing the films, “Big Short,” “Bridge of Spies” and “Spotlight” are my choices for best picture.
My pick for best documentary is “Amy” (about the life of Amy Winehouse, a jazz and R&B singer who died in her mid-20s), and my pick for best foreign-language film is “Son of Saul” (about a Jewish concentration-camp prisoner who claims a dead young boy is his son).
ABC will televise the awards on Sunday, February 28, 6:00 p.m. Colorado time.
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