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Yes, this year they were a bit “blah” and over-managed but the Oscars are the Oscars. If you love movies and all the fanfare that goes with them then, love them or hate them, you can’t miss the Oscars. For awhile, I couldn’t get ABC and so started a sensual tradition of a simple but wonderful girlfriend getaway that I continue to this day. Oscar night, another movie-loving friend or sister and I rent a room at the Hilton, order up room service and celebrate along with the stars. We start the evening off by catching up on an Oscar nominee that we haven’t seen (this year “Precious”–we try and watch as many as we can before the Big Night), then we watch Barbara Walter’s special (goodbye, Barbara!) and then we order dinner in time for the red carpet. In the morning, we catch up on all the post-Oscar complaints, behind-the-scene stories, and accolades in USA Today while we have breakfast in bed. Then we take the morning to get back on track, working out in the gym, going for a swim and finishing off with the hot tub. It ends up being about $100/person and it is worth every penny. A time to catch up with girlfriends or a favorite sister, a time to splurge and spoil yourself a little while you take a break from the every day, a time to share your love of movies and celebrate the glitz and glamor–but this kind of getaway could be extended to any event or non-event. Take some time for yourself and a friend and enjoy the sensual in your own way. As a friend told me, “This is one of your more fabulous ideas!”

 PS And just a quick note on what was sensual about the Oscars–Lauren Bacall winning a lifetime achievement award–that is one speech they should have spent some time actually airing in entirety–she is Hot!

Summer should be so sensual with sun, warm air and lazy long hours on the beach but sometimes it can be a hectic time of overscheduled outings and juggling fun times with other obligations. And what to do with all those greens in my fridge?! Slow it down. Sit on the porch in the sun. Take time to read a sultry summer novel. Put together a big bowl of all the juicy summer fruits and add the whip cream! Enjoy the summer!

Recently, I have had a strange (or not so strange) desire to pack my bags and head for Italy. What is interesting is that in the last week, two other girlfriends have mentioned heading off to Italy too. That made me think about how sensual that country seems to us Americans and look at the movies on the Barefoot Aphrodite list of sensual films for women to see how often Italy shows up. If we can’t pack our bags, at least we can soak up the sensual vibes of Il Postino, Swept Away, Stealing Beauty or Under the Tuscan Sun. Why not have a summer Sensual Film Club gathering or two and watch them all with lots of Italian food and wine to go along?!

I’ve mentioned this site before but it’s worth pointing out again. A lot of our sensual selections are foreign films (hmmm, go figure) and yoiu can join your own foreign film club by going to www.filmmovement.com. A subscription buys you one award-winning foreign film per month plus discounts on additional DVDs. Let someone else select the movies for you and widen your horizons. Or just visit their site for lots of current foreign flm info!

Sometimes I like to put a movie on and just veg but other times just a little effort can make a sensual pick all that more sensual or romantic (see Alex’s review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona for one example). Try renting Il Postino (although it’s a good one to have in your DVD library) and getting a copy of 100 Love Sonnets (Cien sonetos de amor) by Pablo Neruda. Open a bottle of Chilean wine and light some candles (I love candles!) and experience a beautiful movie just that much more!

Yes, I’m back. I think I took a creative hiatus from life in general but I’m back and rarin’ to go!

Doing some sensual Christmas shopping? Well, to me, there is nothing more sensual than a sense of humor. If a man makes me smile and (even better) laugh, well, it rates right up there with good looks and solid abs! Here are two great companies to take a look at:

Mountain Ash Design by Sarah O. Green

Happy Fantastic Designs by Joanne Kalisz

Their items are beautifully handmade and high quality at reasonable prices. And they are sensual in their fun-ness and Attitude. Check them out!!!

Watched “Brief Crossing” (”Breve Traversee,” 2001) with Sarah Pratt and Gilles Guillan, the story of a woman who meets a 16-year-old boy on the ferry between France and England and spends the evening with him. It is interesting to watch films about young men/boys with older women vs tales of young women/girls with older men. The latter always strikes me as somewhat creepy while the former is somewhat sexy. A cultural/power issue? Regardless, this film made me think again about what makes a film sensual. Sensual films for me almost always involve a certain amount of sexual tension whether it is the “under wraps” kind of “Pride and Prejudice” or the overt kind of “Swept Away.” ”Brief Crossing” certainly exudes sensual tension and is sexy overall but, in the end, it leaves me on the fence about its sensuality. I think the reason is that the movie is mostly about intense verbal interaction between the sexes with little regard for their surroundings. Although you are somewhat aware of the anonymity of the ferry and in one scene get the feel of the contrasting cold night air and dangerous/exciting ocean, you are more aware of just the two main characters who engage in a battle of words with little concern for their what is going on around them. Or maybe it is that the director chooses to focus on the starkness of the surroundings–a cafeteria, a disco club where teenagers dance in the background with little feeling, an anonymous cabin. And then it is hard to believe that Thomas even has a chance with this older woman who rants against men and the ravages of age while he pouts and rather timidly insists that she not include him in the “all men” generalizations. And maybe in the end, the film reflects how cold and passionately brief a sexual relationship can be if no room is made for the sensual.  

Realizing it has been about ten years since I last watched a porn movie, I thought it might be time to revisit and see if they or I had changed at all. The long and short of it? No and no. I went where I would send you if you thought our list of sensual films for women was not hot enough: Good Vibrations. Women-focused and fun, it has a great movie section–at least from their descriptions. While I should have probably gone to their “new to porn” section, I opted for “Sex and a Story” and chose “Pirates.” Well, there is a story and there certainly is sex. The problem is that when there is sex, there is no story. Suddenly, any relationship between the characters becomes the same scene, give or take a position, with the same body parts and the same lack of…um, real connection between the characters. Slightly arousing initially, it all becomes rather clinical, boring and even absurd after a short while. It makes me want to go back to Harvey Keitel carressing the hole in Holly Hunter’s stocking in The Piano (note how many reviewers mentioned it). Sometimes less is more. And sometimes more is way, WAY too much.

The search for new sensual film selections for women can be a long and disappointing one. For example, Netflix describes the Japanese film “Vibrator” (2003) as “a life-changing emotional journey of sexual self-discovery.” Between that description and the title you would think you would be in for something at least enjoyably sexual if not sensual, right? Whoa! What you get instead is a disturbing film about an emotionally damaged woman who takes up with a truckdriver for a peculiar, sometimes dull, road trip. While there’s sex, there’s not a lot of sexual self-discovery and it all seems kind of sad and desperate. The trip hardly seems life-changing–it’s more about how people can be messed up inside and barely keeping the outside together and they maybe/might/could possibly meet someone a little less messed up if they let that someone know how messed up they are and have sex in between those type discoveries. Sensual? I don’t think so…

Another disappointment (more predictable but you never know until you know you know) is “Killing Me Softly” (2002). The book that the movie is based on is described as “…about the passion and tenderness in violence, about what you have to lose…” but the movie is over-acted, under-scripted schlock. Heather Graham has great breasts and little acting talent (and who thought she should wear big glasses as a “disguise?!”)–Joseph Fiennes is just plain sleazy bordering on creepy. Sensual??? Ack!

Still, there is hope and when you find a real sensual film it is such a pleasure to share it with other women and save them the trouble of sifting through the mediocre, the bad, and the just plain ugly!