A Picture May Be Worth 1000 Words...

But being there is worth an easy billion.

Pictures never do justice to a hike through the woods. They show the colors, the light and the shadow, the little pieces, but not the whole picture. We hiked to the Cascades and there's so much to see and feel. We were asked why we would jaunt over hill and stone and up the stairs for four miles in the heat of July.

Pictures don't always explain and most people who ask that question don't care to hear about the smell of the river, wet rocks and moss, and black earth under dead leaves, or how laser intense the sun is through the trees and how it lights up the whole canopy like stained glass, or how the temperature drops to a chill you can feel in your belly when the path takes you between two huge stones, how the roots and the moss cushion and trip your feet, how the wind sounds like a tidal wave when it roars over the falls and down in to the valley around you, or any of the reasons that take me back out to the falls every summer.

John Bauer Artwork

The first time I saw a book illustrated by John Bauer I was so struck that all I could figure was that I had seen the artwork long ago or had dreamed it or something even more magical. See for yourself. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.

Remembering the Beauty of Things Set Aside

I read this again:


I keep forgetting how much I love it.





See?

I will never be able to watch this enough.

Seriously, it's awesome.

Explains a lot actually.

One of my coworkers has told me that our workplace is built over what used to be a very old graveyard. Maybe those lights in the workroom aren't set on a timer after all. Anyway, it reminded me of this:

Family Pictures

Three and four year olds love to brag on their own families, and they were happy to draw them. Some included every relative they ever had or heard of. Some included Batman. Some went the Abstract Expressionist route.



At least one of the Dads looks like Cthulu.

Storytime Review #3

The Rainbow-Colored Horse by Pura Belpre.




This is a Puerto Rican folktale that reminds me of Cinderella and The Magic Pony and the countless other tales of the youngest son who gets it right. I read it to both the K3 and K4 classes. The K4 seemed to understand it a little better, but the K3s had a blast decorating their own rainbow horses with bingo dabbers.

Where’s Paul Harvey when you need him?

So. Those who know me know that I am a stickler for backstory. I gotta know WHY to be satisfied. Which is WHY the song “Ode to Billie Joe” makes me so crazy. It’s a cool song, voice and music are beautiful, kinda bluesy and sultry and secretive. The lyrics are compelling because you never find out what was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge AND you never knew why Billy Joe jumped. I could live with that IF I hadn’t been told that the woman who wrote the song admitted that she had made it all up and she had no idea what was thrown or why he jumped. What?? That bugs me. She created it, she wrote it, she sang it, and never once gave any thought to what the story behind it was?? How- how does she sleep?

Or DOES she know and she’s just not telling? Hmmm. That seems more likely to me, though it does leave us with more questions. And there are those who may think it’s a disservice to a fine song to pick apart the lyrics this way, but it’s not just me! See?? There’s things there I never thought of, but the theory I like best is that ‘that nice Brother Taylor’ has more to do with all of this than previously suspected. He’s the one that shows up spilling the beans about Billie Joe. Why would he even mention that BJ was out on the bridge with ‘a girl that looked a lot like you’ and that they were ‘throwing something off‘? Was he stalking them? Was he stalking them for the narrator or for Billie Joe? Does it matter?

And that last one, I can answer. It does NOT. It’s a great song, a story song, which I love, it just isn’t the WHOLE story, which frustrates me no end. See what you think.

Returning After Long Absence

To deal with unfinished business. I can't believe I never even finished my summer movie reviews. It's February! But I'll do that here and vow to do better.

Ok.



Predators

I love the Predator mythos. The Predators are so cool. They’re bigger than Terminators. They’ve got better toys than Batman. They don’t seem to be susceptible to any of the usual movie foe weaknesses. They don’t run home to protect their own eggs, they don’t shrivel in daylight, or hesitate over blondes in filmy nightgowns. They don’t have Mommy issues. They are high-tech and crafty, and while you may be able to elude a few of their vision settings, eventually, they’ll adjust to one that will find you. The only thing you can really use against them is their honor code, and since that’s backed up with high tech weaponry and about 8 feet of mean, you’re really better off just cowering and hoping they decide you’re not a worthy kill.

One thing I really enjoyed about Predators was the parallel between the alien monsters and the human ones. Faced with each other and pitted against their own inhumane tricks, the humans have to admit the horrible things they’ve done and that they deserve what’s happening. One character early in offers the theory that they are in hell, and when we learn about them, it does seem they deserve to be.

There’s a chance for some of them to atone though. My favorite scene is where the Yakuza character does the honorable thing (also read:crazy) by taking up the samurai sword and fighting a Predator in a field with winds and tall grass swirling around them. It’s a surprisingly beautiful scene for a popcorn alien vs human movie, but Predators has a few of those scattered around in all the action. Little pockets of awesome in what was already a pretty cool movie.


Despicable Me

There was a problem with the speakers at the drive-in, so every now and then we’d have no audio, but the strength of the story and the animation was that we could tell what was happening pretty well even without it.

The idea of a villain who’s not that good at villainy isn’t new. What made Gru unique was that even if he himself was bad, not all his ideas were. He wasn’t incompetent and even if his minions were more cute and adoring than efficient, he didn’t mistreat them. So, I guess even if Gru was the bad guy, he really wasn’t that bad. His mother was much meaner than he was. And his mentor had a cold streak that Gru did not.

Even though a lot of his schemes started out for nefarious purposes, they didn’t end that way. He has all these minions to carry out his complex plans, but he doesn’t mistreat them. He adopts the girls for no other reason but to use them and then ditch them at an amusement park, but they look to him for protection and with admiration and that seems to be both a new and pleasant experience for him.

We knew going in that living with three orphan girls would change him. If repeated viewings of Annie in childhood taught us nothing else, it is that exposure to plucky orphans can melt the hardest heart. If Gru’s heart is hard, it’s because it’s been kicked around so badly. Even if his first impulse leans toward villainy, it isn’t long before he is coming to the rescue. Having a criminal mastermind for a Dad might not be so bad. I’m only sorry we didn’t get to see it in 3D.

The Last Airbender

I loved the cartoon series, but I was kinda relieved that the movie fast-forwarded through the plot parts I already knew. The obvious: The acting wasn’t that great, either too wooden or too over the top, but since it was the first time out for some of the cast, that’s not too surprising. I had trouble seeing the guy from Daily Show as a deadly Fire Lord. He also reminded me of an old boyfriend. It was just hard to take him seriously. The special effects were good though. Especially the water-bending, I thought.


I also saw Sin City. I got it on Netflix and it took awhile for me to watch it but when I did, I was hooked. Awesome, awesome. The Hard Goodbye was my favorite part. Holy crap, but Mickey Rourke looked just like Marv. Awesome! And I liked the black and white with a little color effect. I saw The Spirit in theaters a year or two before I saw Sin City and yeesh, the black white and lil bit o’ color was about the only thing I liked about that goofy movie. Sin City was tons better. Even when it was ridiculous how badass every single person was, it was the cool brand of ridiculous.

Sigh. Now I have to wait until May for my next movie extravaganza...