From Wicked Witch to Snow Queen + Disney's First Official "Frozen" Blurb

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Disney have just (re)announced that their doing their take (the quote is "loosely based") on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, to be titled Frozen.

We already knew Kristen Bell was to be the Gerda equivalent (now revealed as "Anna") and now it's just been announced that the Tony Award Winning Actress Idina Menzel, who first played Elphaba in the Broadway musical Wicked, will step into the shoes of the Snow Queen herself.


How will it play out? Disney have also just released their first official blurb for the film to give us some insight:

In Frozen, a prophecy traps a kingdom in eternal winter, so Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) must team up with Kristoff, a daring mountain man, on the grandest of journeys to find the Snow Queen (voice of Idina Menzel) and put an end to the icy spell. Encountering Everest-like extremes, mystical creatures and magic at every turn, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom from destruction.

I don't know about you, but to me it seems that this premise is so "loose" in comparison to the classic (and dearly loved across the globe) fairy tale that it's just about lost. I have no problem with Disney making an fantasy animated feature film with lots of snow and an icy queen  - they should. It'd be beautiful and they certainly have both the artistry and the tech to support a big vision BUT to say it's based on a fairy tale and essentially claim this is the new Snow Queen when it has almost nothing in common with the original (based on the official tidbits released this year)? That seems wrong. It's one of those few times I wish there were some form of copyright on the literary tales that say "you cannot liken your work to the original without using x% of the plot, characters and acknowledging the source material in the opening credits..." But then, that's part of why Disney use fairy tales in the first place, isn't it? They can do whatever they like.


From Entertainment Weekly:

The movie, of course, will have a musical element, with original songs by Broadway’s Robert Lopez (a two-time Tony winner for Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon) and wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez (who worked with him on Disney’s 2011 Winnie the Pooh.) 

The digitally animated feature will open in November 2013 and is being directed by Chris Buck (Tarzan, Surf’s Up) and produced by Peter Del Vecho (Winnie the Pooh, The Princess and the Frog).

So there you have it. A CG musical using the very marketable phrase (as far as Disney goes)"fairy tale". We know Disney's been having a huge internal reshuffle with one of their most loved and recognizable (read "bankable") veteran animators, Glen Keane, departing in March this year but it seems as if they've been hard at work in an effort to show they remain undaunted and are barreling along into production on (another) new version of this old project. Considering they still attract much of the world's best in all the various talents I have no doubt it will be a beautiful, magical and wonderful film. But will it feel like The Snow Queen we know and love?

Although fairy tales can have their elements and plot points changed more than you'd think and still remain "recognizable" it requires more than just having a character with one key characteristic for that recognition to happen. (Eg. just because a girl in a film puts on a red hat, or even a red cape and hood, does not automatically make it a Little Red Cap tale.)

I will be watching to see what, if any, fairy tale elements are in the film at all, as well as what it will do to the public perception of HCA's Snow Queen.*

I couldn't help but stifle a snigger, though, when I read the summary of the announcement by Bleeding Cool, since it's what everyone's been thinking but I hadn't seen put so boldly in print until now:

So, Disney are going from Tangled to Frozen. Surely there needs to be a third in this series. I suggest Bloated, maybe. Or how about Punctured? Muted? Sodden? Burnt?

Heh.


Frozen is currently set for a Winter holiday release in the US during November 2013.


Note: All images shown are concept art by Paul Felix for an earlier version of Frozen (still then called The Snow Queen). One of these are from current development art.

*Interestingly, I've noticed the fairy tale of Rapunzel, as published by the Grimm's in Household Tales 200 years ago this year, is remaining largely intact in the public minds. Tangled, and all it's various marketing, didn't have the usual effect of very near eclipsing the classic tale in the public mind at all. It would seem that Disney's title change, in addition to other things, did indeed distance it more than intended from the classics tie-in they were hoping for.

Brave Father's Day Tribute/Promo

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I couldn't resist posting this, even though it wasn't officially in my way-too-long "must post" list until a minute ago...
One of the things I'm loving about this new fairy tale is the portrayal of the family: it's intact! Although it's about a mother and daughter and their push-pull relationship, here there's a father too and neither parent appears to be distant/absent. In fact the family dynamic and their individual relationships with Princess Merida are central to what the story is all about. I'm really liking this aspect.
Is it weird to remark, though, that this portrayal of Merida's dad is exactly the kind of mother I would like to be to my son? (Except maybe a couple of hundred sizes smaller?)  ;)

Enjoy!

CW's Beauty & the Beast Extended Preview

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Playing catch-up...

In case you missed it, here's the 5 minute extended preview of CW's Beauty and the Beast scheduled to premiere in the US in the Fall:


The 5 minutes looks very much like an entire episode edited down to its main scenes, which is disappointing. What's left to tune in for if you've seen it all? Let's hope there's more to it other than "Why was my mother murdered?".
In the premise details, the post-9/11 Iraq War reference (military experiments make a beast out of a man) isn't as completely hokey as expected but I still have major reservations - especially since we end up with a very clean-faced broody guy with a not-at-all-authentic-looking scar placed just "so". Perhaps it's just that the writing is too obvious for me. ("You're like a superhero!") I'm hoping they're not going to state the obvious for the audience every time. Scratch that. I hope they don't do it again. If they want any of the cop procedural demographic they're going to have to write smarter, harder and use far more subtlety. Hopefully the actors are good enough they will get the message across without needing to utter the subtext but it's an important risk to take if you want to be a memorable series.
On the flip side, one of the promos says "All men have a dark side... but not like this" and in this case I truly hope they mean what they're saying. In order to make this show interesting we're going to really need to see the monster inside the man*- and hopefully the monster isn't typical either. The Beast we're seeing just looks conflicted about his transformations, ashamed of his appearance and rather hormonal - ie broody. Not exactly an attractive quality in a leading man (or woman).**
Regarding the actors, it's nice to see a more mature Kristen Kreuk. Except for the flashback, she works better than I thought she would with that little edge to her. I think I even caught glimpses of some character layering in there (fingers crossed). The Beast, on the other hand, is unfortunately rather forgettable. I don't even have the sense that he's had first hand experience of a real war, let alone anything else he's working through. Let's hope that was just due to editing for this clip.
The thing I'm really missing in this preview from the original series? All the underground stuff and that vague sense of fantasy just out of reach. That was what captured my imagination then and makes me remember it now - a whole other world right under our feet. I must admit I had little patience with the series in the 80's - it was too slow and angsty for me - but I kept trying to tune in from time to time to get another glimpse of the hidden world. 
One more peeve - the promo image/poster. Ugh. The actors look like they were shot separately and 'shopped together - no chemistry at all. I know they were directed like that but the result is you can almost overlook the fact that there's a guy standing next to "Detective Catherine Chandler". He looks completely replaceable. And it doesn't say Beauty and the Beast to me at all. 
Maybe I'm being harsh but I expect more from people using fairy tales (I wonder if the writers and creators actually went back to the tale or completely took their cues from the original series?) and also from any type of police procedural or reference to any war we've had friends and family fight in. These are the days post-CSI and 24, which raised the standard for details and suspense. Since almost everyone reading this blog will remember the Twin Towers falling on 9/11, no matter what country you were in, any reference to that has to have substance. It's not a vague historical point in time to hang a plot point on but a very real wound for too many people today. Ironically, this is what fairy tales are very good at helping with but you have to be very smart about it as well as honest while still being respectful. That's not an easy job. While I would sincerely love for that rabbit to be pulled out of CWs hat my expectations will likely remain low on that point.Right now the only reason I'd be tuning in is because of the fairy tale connection but it's early days yet. There's much more promo-ing to come so hopefully we'll get a real carrot sometime before the Fall season starts. You never know: a rabbit might just appear.
* Eg In Buffy, we saw all this angst and unrequited love happening but it was really when Angel and Buffy finally got together and Angel turned Bad with a capital "B" that things got very interesting - and mythic. For the first time we saw this "person" be truly evil. Although he had the reputation of being the baddest of the bad, we didn't really believe it till he turned into an actual killing machine and became a very real threat to his one true love. Because bad should be BAD and not be sitting on the fence. There's no point to a story if there's no real threat, no conflict. Fairy tales are very clear about that!**Even the Angel paradox got tiring after a while, despite seeing him get his evil on, first hand.

Pixar's "Brave": Release Day

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Today's the day. It's the "other" big fairy tale movie of the year, by which I mean the other movie which will have an effect on how people view fairy tales this year and how movie studio and TV series executives will consider spending their money with regard to other fairy tale fare. Personally (and despite all you will read in the next post) I'm very much looking forward to seeing it.

Here's a clip to whet your appetite:
Pretty, yes? And moody in the best way. It's going to look amazing on the big screen.

The clip reminds me of Secret of Kells but then it probably should - and the association is a good one. Brave will be very different in many ways, of course, but there's no doubt it will be beautiful too.

Pixar's Brave to Change the Fate of Princess Culture?

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While it's a given that Brave will be a beautiful film it is interesting to see the smattering of mixed reviews surfacing in its debut week. There are the expected rave reviews and gushing over the lush animation and the feisty red-headed princess but there's been more than a little criticism too.

Why? Three theories:

1) Merida got upstaged
Pixar was a little late to the theater with their feisty heroine this year. Since we've had Hunger Games and Snow White and the Huntsman provide audiences with larger-than-life kick ass girl-women, seeing Merida do much of the same is, sadly, a little like deja vu, despite that this is the first family film in that vein where the others were mainstream (or perhaps teen-stream).

The "Brave" wigs

2) Too much hair
There's waaaay too much emphasis on all this hair! Maria Tatar recently linked to an article and it seems Ms. Tatar has the right of it when she noticed the topic continually returning to Merida's hair. It's what everybody - creators and marketers - seem focused on. Hair! A quick story to illustrate: my husband is currently working in downtown Hollywood and, in his words, this is what he saw:

This morning when I came out of the Hollywood/Highland station I saw, walking down the street in front of me, two women with a little girl and a young boy. Both women had curly, curly long red-orange hair and the girl was carrying a chunk of red-orange hair. This seemed a bit odd to me until I realized that they were walking away from the El Capitan theatre and were wearing "Brave" wigs. The boy was having nothing to do with the females and was walking apart from them. He had no wig.

I think this scene is a good example of the response we're seeing all over. Despite how strong, feisty and brave Merida is, with marketing campaigns like Target's stating: "Look pretty and be brave, too" we've diluted anything important the film may have had to say. But that's not the whole story either.

3) Change your fate. Or not.
Even more importantly, it would appear the entire story has already been told in the promotional fare and there's really nothing more to Princess Merida than we've seen. Although she's feisty and defies convention she doesn't really have a direction or drive once she's able to do all the things she wants. In other words, we have a princess who is behaving like, well, a princess. There's no saving her people, the world or anything else going on. She makes a mistake and has to repair the damage she's done but, in reality, though she grows closer to her mother, nothing much else appears to change.

There's an interesting article in Time published today, titled: Why Pixar's Brave is a Failure of Female Empowerment. Unlike the writer, I don't have a problem with Merida being a princess. Nor do I have a problem that she has to deal with the marriage issue. For the era, that was primarily what princesses were useful for: forming alliances by joining in marriage and producing heirs. How she deals with that is where she has to show her individuality. What is a problem, though, is the lack of both growth and of personal purpose by Merida, beyond the crisis (of her own making).


From the article:

The best parts of Brave are the scenes involving the changed Queen Elinor, now a gigantic bear. But despite a lot of superficial talk of fate — “Our fate lies within us. You only have to be brave enough to see it” — her physical metamorphosis represents the main transformation. Other than deciding her mother isn’t so bad, Merida doesn’t really grow. She’s simply extended her time as a tomboy, another archetype, less a girl than a stereotype of a kind of girl.  “It wasn’t clear to me what her arc was,” Orenstein (FTNH ed: author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter) says. “What is it that we are imagining girls moving toward here? ‘I get to ride around on a horse all day’ isn’t really enough. That isn’t going to take her anywhere. There wasn’t a desire to do something.” 

This wouldn’t feel so vaguely unsatisfying if Brave were just one of many Pixar movies that featured a strong female lead. It’s the absence of others that turns the spotlight on Brave. And having a princess protagonist isn’t inherently bad. It’s just that she is so chapter one of what girls can be — and so many other Pixar movies skipped most known chapters and moved on to whole new volumes. (FTNH: bold emphasis mine)

You can read the whole article HERE.
There's one other issue that appeared in the comments regarding the grilling Brave gets in the article. I feel for the parents who are tired of every movie needing to "be a good example" for their children when all they want is good, clean entertainment. I would wholeheartedly agree except for one major thing: the marketing push and resulting peer pressure from the toy angle (even four year olds will influence their peers with regard to what is "cool"!) really does speak as loudly, often louder, than the most conscientious parents. and that's when a kid hasn't even seen the movie! When the best way for a child to recapture their personal movie experience is through a toy or book with the same images, that's the "message" that will sink in and stay.

What if the marketing for Brave was more gender-neutral, or perhaps aimed more toward tomboy-girls and boys at most, rather than at the princess culture girls? Instead of exiting El Capitan with giant red-orange wigs what if each kid got a sword or bow and arrow? (No floaty blue dresses in sight either, thank you.) Do you think the boy my husband saw would have been keeping himself so carefully separate from his "wimminfolk" then? I don't think so. I think he'd be (happily) trading blows and bruises with his sister, complete with sound effects of turning into a bear of which his sister would no doubt (happily) match him roar for roar.


There is one other interesting observation by a few of the commenters on the article that I want to highlight too. I'll quote the shortest one:

I'd appreciate if films with female leads had adequate male character. I don't understand why "female empowerment" films have the need to portray men as incompetent goofs.

They have a good point and there's more in the comments expanding on it too. The presence of a "strong" female character does not exclude the presence of strong men. The now go-to standard in family films (making the men less competent to make the women appear more so) isn't good for boys, for assertive/kick-ass girls OR for the princess set. I'll let you read the debate (and rants) for yourself.

One thing I do agree with the writer on, though, is that I hope Brave does well - really, really well actually. Why?
1) I would like to see more lead heroines from Pixar. With the marketing force of Disney behind them, Pixar does have a great influence on kids. I'd like to see what other female leads they come up with and hope that the results are as "groundbreaking" as everyone's been hoping Merida would be.
2) I'd like to see more fairy tale fare handled by Pixar (and Disney) story people, especially now that the public view on fairy tales has changed somewhat.

It's Always Something: Secondary Cancer Risk with CLL and CT scans

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CLL is bad enough, but about half of us will get a secondary cancer and when we get them our overall survival is inferior. Skin cancers occur to more than one in three and a whopping 16.5% of us must deal with a melanoma.

Here is the gut of an abstract from ASCO this year:
546 CLL patients were included in the study. Median age was 62.5 years. 84 (43%) were Stage 0 and 62 (32%) were Stage 1 RAI at diagnosis indicating earlier disease. 266 (49%) patients had a second or secondary malignancy. A total of 304 cancers were identified. 14% of patients had more than one malignancy. Melanoma was identified in 44 (16.5%) patients and non-melanoma skin cancer was identified in 54 (20%). Lung cancer was identified as the most frequent solid tumor malignancy with 36 (13.5%) cases, followed by prostate (35), breast (21), colorectal (15), and bladder (14). 10 patients had a Richter’s transformation of their CLL. 26 patients developed either myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myelogenous leukemia. Conclusions: Second malignancies are frequent in CLL patients. Immunosupression, increased UV light exposure, longer life expectancy in low risk CLL, and tertiary cancer center referral bias are likely reasons for these increased rates.


And here's the conclusion of the one on how aggressive those secondary cancers can be:

Conclusions: Several common cancers, including breast, colon, and lung, have inferior overall and cancer-specific survival when there is coexistent CLL. 


And our risk is high even when compared to other B-cell cancers such as follicular lymphoma (FL)


Here's part of a Canadian abstract:


CLL patients had a 1.8-fold higher relative risk of a 2nd cancer (95% CI 1.29-2.41) compared to FL patients. SIR (Standardized Incidence Ratio) was 1.9 when non-melanoma skin cancers were excluded. Patients with FL had a similar incidence of second malignancies, as did patients with other invasive cancers. The most common second cancer among CLL patients was non-melanoma skin cancer, followed by cancers of the digestive organs, prostate, breast and lung. Malignancy was the leading cause of death in CLL patients. In patients with a 2nd cancer, cancers of the digestive organs, lung and brain were the most common causes of death. However, in patients without a 2nd cancer, CLL was the primary cause of death. After cancer, cardiovascular complications and infections were the most common causes of death in CLL patients.

And:

We demonstrated that CLL patients have a significantly increased risk of developing a 2nd cancer compared to FL patients, and this increase was similar in both genders and in all age groups. Thus, the poor relative survival of older men with CLL cannot be explained by an increased incidence of 2nd cancers. The increased incidence of malignancy in CLL may be related to the immune suppression in this disease or to an inherited predisposition to cancer.  


Five dear friends have had their CLL complicated by a secondary cancer is the last few months, two lung cancers, one breast, one prostrate, and one possibly renal.  Two are in ibrutinib trials and one is post transplant. Andrew Schorr, a well respected CLL patient and reporter has shared that he has developed MDS. I lost a friend a few years back to AML. And there are so many more.


Secondary cancers usually quickly vault into being the primary concern often demanding urgent therapy as the Canadian article notes. They are, after all, the leading cause of death in CLL.

I don't share this to depress you. I tell you because we are immune suppressed, many of us are on treatments that further compromise the ability of our immune systems to search and destroy potential and early cancers. A few of us must get EPO and other "growth" factors that might accelerate cancer growth. There is one possible positive. We often get more testing (see below re CT scans) that may facilitate finding new cancers sooner and more often.


And remember: we got CLL in the first place, which suggests at least a predisposition to one cancer. Maybe more?


So get your check-ups. See the dermatologist at least annually. Get our annoying choice of gender and age specific cancer screening tests: PAPs, mammos, PSAs, colonoscopies. We are not at normal risk. We are not the people at whom the recent relaxed recommendations for PSA screening were directed. We need to be more vigilant.


Next lab draw I get a PSA and I have a derm appointment scheduled. Colon is fine, thank you. It better be with all the fibrous veggies that I eat.


My news today from my ibrutinib/ofatumumab trial at OSU?  


Palpable nodes are slowly but surely getting smaller. Blood chemistries are completely normal including liver and kidney function and uric acid and LDH. ALC (absolute lymphocyte count) is down to a very normal 2.3, eosinophils are back to normal, platelets are just fine for someone with a history of ITP and single digit counts in the past at  a lofty 348,000, Hgb is almost normal at 13.0, reversing its prior slow downward drift. All good, very good.


So after four plus hours of my ofatumumab infusion, I will be leaving with my three bottles of ibrutinib. YEAH!


The trial protocol may be changing. Nothing is certain until there are written changes to the protocol approved by the independent IRB (Institutional Review Board) that is set up to safe guard us "subjects" from unethical or dangerous therapies.  


First the good news: After next month's and my last ofatumumab infusion, I probably only need to be here every 60 days. That makes perfect sense. 


Now the bad news which unfortunately is pertinent to today's topic of new cancers. I may no longer be able to opt out of the excessive CTs scan, every 60 - 90 days. Why do we need such frequent exposure to a proven cancer promoting procedure that is of questionable value in patients with CLL, already at higher risk for secondary malignancies? 


From the New England Journal of Medicine:


These considerations suggest that the estimated risks associated with CT are not hypothetical — that is, they are not based on models or major extrapolations in dose. Rather, they are based directly on measured excess radiation-related cancer rates among adults and children who in the past were exposed to the same range of organ doses as those delivered during CT studies. 


It is not that bad. The same journal does point out that the risk, while not insignificant, does dramatically decrease with age. Another advantage of being older; I am not likely to live the many decades it takes to get the secondary cancer. Dr. Rick Furman points out the data from that same article that states: " One article published (NEJM 2007;357:2277-2284) suggested that the increase risk for developing a cancer during their lifetime for a 40 year old was 0.02% from a single CT scan. Thus, it would take 50 scans to increase one's risk by 1% if they were 40 years old."


I don't want to overreact, but there is no safe minimum amount of radiation.  The radiation exposure from each set of three CT scans ordered here are roughly equivalent to 12 years of background radiation. Do I really need four or six a year? And it is reasonable to assume that the negative synergy of having CLL and a lot of ionizing radiation might make the risks higher for us.


As for the role and value in CLL, from an article that Dr. Bryd co-authored in JCO:
VOLUME 25 􏰆 NUMBER 35 􏰆 DECEMBER 10 2007.



"Current NCI-WG CLL response criteria are a significant predictor of PFS in previously treated CLL patients, with no additional benefit from the inclusion of CT scans."


But there are other ways to look at the issue.


Also from JCO earlier in 2007:
VOLUME 25 􏰆 NUMBER 12 􏰆 APRIL 20 2007



"In this series, an abnormal abdominal CT was a strong predictor of progression in patients with early-stage CLL. The inclusion of CT scans in the initial work-up of patients with early clinical stage on clinical grounds can, therefore, provide relevant clinical information. "
But those of us in this trial are much more similar to the previously treated patients in the first of those two study from JCO.
Finally, again from Dr. Byrd referring to the demands to include CTs in clinical trials in an ASH publication in March 2011:
"The current requirement for CT scans remains problematic to interpreting new study results, as essentially all prior CLL clinical trials did not include CT scans. More importantly, these imaging tests add significant cost and potential morbidity to the very special patients who volunteer to be part of clinical trials exploring new treatment approaches. Reconsideration of the CT requirement in the setting of implementing detailed lymph node and spleen physical exams might offer an opportunity to match our new clinical trial approaches to methods best supported by evidence-based tumor assessment."

I know I am in a trial. It is to get important potentially life saving information, but as Dr. Byrd says so eloquently, trials are for patients, not the other way around.


If push comes to shove, and the imaging is a must to do to in order to receive my meds, then the choice is simple: it is a small risk for a big gain.


Moreover, if it helps get the drug approved sooner, so all those waiting for these game changing meds can benefit, then it is a small theoretical risk for a huge payoff.


Finally, small molecules such as ibrutinib and GS-1101, because they unanchor the B-cells from the safe home in the nodes and send them out in droves onto the less protected environment of the blood stream,  the ALC can shoot up.  That is normally a sign of disease progression with old school therapies, but is not usually the case with these new new drugs. Hence, the need to document shrinking nodes to prove that the therapy is working is even more critical with these treatments.


Still, isn't twice a year enough?


I even opt out of the total body scanners at the airports where the risks are at best minor and more honestly, unknown at this time, so I hope I can continue to opt out of my CTs here. TSA staff can get by with just patting me down at the airport to check for contraband. Why is essentially the same procedure for palpable nodes done by team of medical professionals not sufficient?  


A while back, I suggested to Dr. Byrd that he do a trial that once and for all compares the response to therapy of palpable nodes to that of the nodes seen on CT to see if we can eliminate need for all the scans. Seems even more urgent now.


Finished the airport at Phoenix waiting for my delayed flight home.

Eulogy for my Nurse

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I will not keep revisiting this topic, but let me share one last time how I said goodbye to my wonderful nurse at her memorial service.
EULOGY FOR JENNIE LYNN TAYLOR
Thank you for the opportunity to expression my love and joy of having been able to work with Jennie over the last 20 years. My feelings and experience are not unique and other members of the St Jude family could have told their own wonderful stories about Jennie. In fact, I have borrowed some of my words from the remembrances and stories shared by Drs. Rhodes and Luecha and PA Kent Stout at a service at our office last week.It is a singular honor and privilege to be able to say this goodbye to her in front of her friends and family and an even greater honor and privilege to have known her and watched her grow personally and professionally over the last two decades.I so wish that I were saying this at her retirement party and not a memorial service.For those of you who don’t know me, I am Dr. Brian Koffman and until my own personal health challenges with cancer some four years, Jennie was my medical assistant. We spend hours together five and sometimes six days a week for over two decades. I often told her and others, that she was, after my wife, the most important woman in my life and many days I spent more waking time with her than at home with my family. The relationship has been less intense with my illness and my subsequent absence from the office, but she remained an old and trusted friend and comrade. She was the only one that could give shots to my kids or my wife or even me. My family is all devastated by the loss.Together for so many years we did the work that she so loved and was so skilled at - helping those who were sick or afraid or just trying to take of themselves. She was so reliable, so smart, so responsible, so gentle, so patient, so prescient, anticipating my and the patients needs for most visits and making things run so more smoothly for both the patient and me. She was such a fast learner. You told her something once and she nailed it. My co-workers and I all honestly believed that if her circumstances had been more fortunate, she could have been anything: a nurse, a physician assistant or a doctor.  In fact, she was always capable of more than just following complex medical orders. She was capable of giving them. The doctors in our group quickly learned that when Jennie had an insight or suggestion about a patient, you better listen. She had a sixth sense of people combined with an unbelievable memory for details that made her a master clinician. So many times when I was about to walk into a patient’s room, Jennie would pull me aside to remind me that the patient’s granddaughter had recently had a serious illness or that the patient nearly fainted six months ago when having blood drawn or that the patient admitted to her that she was afraid or overeating or a million details that I had forgotten or would never get to know.  She had an ability to hone in on what was important and not only make me aware, but make sure the patient understood the process. She took the extra time and never shunned the trying tasks of explaining the most complex medical issues in simple terms that young and old could understand. That skill takes the rare combo of smarts and caring, both of which Jennie had by the boatloads.She remembered everyone and greeted them all with a smile and a friendly word. She made everyone feel important, heard, appreciated, and cared for. It was no act or technique. It was because her tender soul did care. It was who she was. Despite her own struggles, despite her often failed efforts to build bridges, despite her repeated and often frustrated attempts repair a broken world, despite her own vulnerabilities, she continue to give so much heart and soul to each “sacred encounter”. She put others’ needs ahead of her own, soothed their pains first before caring for herself. She was there for her patients and touched their lives in meaningful and unforgettable ways, a natural, gifted and hard working healer attested to by those who took the time to come here today and by the hundreds of notes and messages from patients who are devastated by our loss.We were a team. She organized my scattered schedule, kept me accountable, and reminded me of my obligations. More than that I trusted her judgment and her reliability. She pointed me in the right direction. Her skills were complementary to mine. Her strengths covered my weakness.  One of my patients said tearfully that she was my partner, my right arm. And she was.Although recently we have not worked as much together, Jennie may have become even more important to me and my patients. In my absence, she answered their questions and concerns, when appropriate, by herself, and when necessary by taking them to one of the providers. She got the critical messages to me and from me. She has kept my connection alive with so many of them. Another patient called her my surrogate. And she was.Jennie had other special areas of expertise. As a proud ex-smoker she helped so many others join the reformed tobacco users club. She did this on her own time and on her own dime.  This was more unpaid work for her, but she was on a missionJennie’s was also a valued and friendly coworker at the medical group. She always went out of her way to greet people. Almost the entire office is here today as are many former members of our staff, because they want to honor Jennie. The staff in their hearts remember and still hear and see her frequent laugh and smile, appreciate her efforts to connect with everyone, even those full of hurt and anger. She knew words carry meaning and chose her carefully to avoiding causing anyone pain, directly or inadvertently. She was a trusted confidant that could protect a friendship, keep a secret and honor a debt. She wanted everyone to share in any potential joy. Let me give you a concrete example that demonstrates the detail she went to. With my frequent absences from the office, she would always put money in the office lotto pool in my name when the jackpot got huge, so I would share in the big winnings. And although neither of us or for that matter, any of the medical group ever became instant millionaires, Jennie wanted to make sure that I was not left out in the cold should the ship come in.As I move forward without her (I still can’t believe that’s she’s gone), I pledge to incorporate her virtues into my work as a healer- her personal touch, her smile, her memory and her attention to personal details. This is a way I can keep her alive as part of me as long as live. I will take her into my heart and my deeds. May I humbly and gently suggest that you might consider doing the same. Take one of her strengths, one her virtues, and make it your own as a way to honor her memory.As time goes by, I and all of us will focus more on her life, not just her untimely death. We will celebrate that life, the joy she brought us and our extended family and her co-workers and our patients. Her life will be her legacy. The pain of the recent tragedy will fade and the abundance of the gifts she brought to all of us, will be what we will cherish and recall. I am not there yet. I suspect neither are many of you. It is not something that can be rushed, but we will get there.Finally, I believe with all my heart and with all that I learned from more than seven years of a death struggle with cancer, that we are all in this together. Sometimes it takes a tragedy, a rending of our family bonds to remind those of us that are left, shattered though we might be, that we share a common humanity and at least by my belief, a spark of the universal, a shared divinity. Jennie is still alive in our memories and her influence.I will finish with a very short Hebrew blessing for those in mourning.Zihrona l’vrahah May her memory be a blessing.

Capt. Dave's Dolphin & Whale Safari

To contact us Click HERE
WHERE: Dana Point Harbor
ADDRESS: 24440 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point, CA 92629
WHEN: May 28, 2011 - May 29, 2011
WEBSITE: www.lagunabeach.com/dolphinsafari
PHONE: 949-488-2828
ADMISSION: $55 per adult / $35 per child ages 3-12



Come sail with Capt. Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari's on our hi-tech sailing catamarans year round, with its exclusive Eye-to-Eye Underwater viewing POD™. Daily trips to see dolphins, up to 5,000 strong, leap and play right off our bow, migrating Gray whales December through April and Blue Whales May through November. See them below, too, with our underwater video camera, hear them on our hydrophone. Celebrity and Certified naturalists make this exciting excursion educational and entertaining, too. Homemade triple-fudge brownies make this a one-of-a-kind adventure unforgettable. You can see a live feed from our boat, the first and only place in the world where you can view Whales and Dolphins Live right from your computer during our daily Dolphin & Whale Watching excursions at whalewatchingtv.com!

Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari offers you the opportunity to get close to and view the exquisite California dolphins and California whales, as well as California Sea Lions and other beautiful sea creatures. Southern California whale watching can be one of the most peaceful and exciting adventures of your lifetime. We leave from our ocean view 'Dolphin Deck', one of the prettiest spots in Dana Point Harbor and take you on a 2 1/2 to 3 hour ocean adventure. Dana Point harbor is just 12 minutes from downtown Laguna Beach. Captain Dave Anderson is an Award winning filmmaker and experienced Marine naturalist who has been leading dolphin trips and whale watching from Dana Point since 1995. He has also created and produced the award winning documentary "Wild Dolphins and the Whales of Southern California ". Call Captain Dave's to book your dolphin and whale safari and enjoy your awesome once-in-a- lifetime experience!

Private charters are also available for larger groups and can include our regular dolphin and whale watching excursions, as well as traditional and sunset sails, team building activities and massage/martini relaxation sails. Please call for details.

Laguna's Beaches, Second to None.

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Laguna Beach boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in California. The city's seven miles of picturesque Pacific coastline features plenty of pristine sandy beaches. Throughout the year, you'll find beachgoers of all ages soaking up the sun and enjoying all the great activities you'll find in Laguna Beach. Map of Laguna Beaches.

Lounging in the soft, warm sand is only the beginning of what you can do here at the beach. Surfing and skimboarding are popular among locals and visitors. With up to 15-foot waves, the coves along Laguna Beach's coastline are home to some of the best waves in southern California. Or, cast a line and try your luck at the plentiful fishing along the coast of Laguna Beach.

Exploring the underwater world is fun and exciting in Laguna Beach, which is home to amazing diving. You'll discover a new world just beneath the waves filled with fish, anemones - even the occasional octopus!

But you don't have to dive to experience the amazing marine life hidden just below the waves. Laguna Beach boasts impressive tidepooling opportunities, giving you an up-close look at marine life without having to get your hair wet! Nestled within the rocky outcroppings that frame Laguna Beach's white sand beaches, you'll find an amazing display of marine life that calls this unique environment home. Check out our tidepool video for a sneak peek at the amazing sights you'll see while tidepooling in Laguna Beach.

While you explore the coves of Laguna Beach, please help us keep these beaches beautiful for years to come! All of Laguna's beaches and coves are designated "Marine Protected Areas," so remember:

• Deposit all litter in designated containers. Keep trash out of our parks and out of the food chain.
• Stay on designated trails. Prevent erosion and preserve plant and animal habitats.
• No pets are allowed in wilderness parks. Protect wildlife and your fellow park visitors.

With such an amazing variety of things to do and ways to relax at the beach, it's easy to see why Laguna Beach is a prime vacation destination for visitors from around the world.

Life's a Beach

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For those familiar with Laguna Beach, it iswidely recognized that Laguna Beach is known for…well, it’s beaches! (And maybea reality show or two…)Located halfway between Los Angeles and SanDiego, Laguna Beach is home to over 7 miles of coastline, including over 20beaches and coves. Because there are so many beautiful beaches and Pacific Edge plays host to one of the most beloved, we wanted to know what the locals’ favorites were.Well, the answers were all over the board – from semi-hidden beaches that couldget missed when walking by, to the bigger beaches with all the action. Looking at the variety of favorites got usthinking…do we know all the beaches Laguna has to offer? Well, here’s a goodplace to start.





http://www.lagunapages.com/beach/default.asp