February 07, 2010
Up
In film circles, everyone has been going on and on for months about whether or not the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision to include ten Best Picture nominations instead of five in this year’s awards was a good idea. Now, I enjoy following the Oscars for two reasons:
Reason #1: I like to see films I’ve enjoyed receive recognition. This is something that makes me happy.
Reason #2: If films I’ve enjoyed receive this kind of recognition, then people will keep making the kinds of films I like. This also makes me happy.
I understand what people are saying about how increasing the number of nominees dilutes the honor, which I think is true, but I also have to say that I’ve seen seven of this year’s ten Best Picture nominees, and I enjoyed watching them all. I’d be glad to watch more like them, so I don’t know. It’s nothing to get all worked up about.
One thing that I was glad to see in this year’s plethora of Best Pictures nominees was Pixar’s Up. Last year, I thought it was a crime that Slumdog Millionaire won best picture while the real best film of the year, WALL-E, had to settle for winning the Best Animated Feature category, in which it was “competing” with Bolt and Kung Fu Panda. Of course, Up is in much better company in Best Animated Feature this year (a category in which it is also nominated) because 2009 was a crazy-good year for animated features, but the fact remains that just because a film is animated and just because its primary audience is children does not mean that its merits can’t or shouldn’t be considered alongside live action pieces.
Up is a family film, not in the let’s-make-as-many-mind-numbingly-stupid-jokes-as-we-can way, but in the let’s-engage-some-big-issues-in-a-way-that-children-and-adults-can-relate-to way. Which is difficult. I totally am that old dude trying to figure out how to live my life while clinging to old armchairs, so I may lack some perspective, but the perspective I have can tell you that they got that part of the film right. What Carl goes through is what it’s like to lose your spouse—you get really cranky, you try running away, you start talking to dogs. Showing children that you can be shattered by losing the people you love and that overcoming that is real work is gutsy and truthful in a way that should be recognized. What’s more, the film’s not even a downer. When Carl begins venturing outside the confines of what’s he’s decided is safe, he encounters things that are beautiful and profound and funny along with the things that are irritating and overwhelming and difficult, and those beautiful and profound and funny things make the negative things bearable—for him and for the audience who gets to laugh every once in a while.
It’s not like Up is going to be winning Best Picture—or even that I think it should in this year’s crop of films—but its nomination makes me hopeful that maybe we’re starting to feel a little like we can take animation more seriously. Pixar’s spent a good number of years jumping up and down waving its arms shouting trying to get us to do so. The least we could do is notice.
Posted by adrienne at 07:00 PM | Comments (3)
February 06, 2010
Quotable Saturday
“Well… I see we’re going to live a little while longer, and I’m glad of it, for it must be very uncomfortable not to be alive.”
-The Lion in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz adapted by Eric Shanower, illustrated by Skottie Young*
*Well, I read this line in this adaptation recently, but being the UBER NERD I am, I wondered if the line appeared the same way in the original text. So I used my MAD LIBRARIAN SKILLZ to do a search on Google Books and found that yes, indeed, that line is straight from Baum. Read it at the bottom of page 81. I don’t care what anyone says about Google Books. It’s darned useful for verifying quotes, and I like it.
Posted by adrienne at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2010
What I Did in Stories and Art the Other Day and How It Worked Out
This was my day on Tuesday:
6:00am: Wake up.
6:30am: Lucas arrives.
6:30-7:15am: Read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
7:15-8:00am: Shower, get dressed, dry hair, etc.
8:00-8:30am: Make breakfast, make lunch, clean up kitchen.
8:30-8:45am: Practice piano.
8:45-9:30am: Drop Lucas off at school, pick up prescription at CVS, drive to work.
10:15-11:00am: Stories and Art happens.
11:00am-1:00pm: Check email, check voicemail, check in with staff, get room ready for afternoon program.
1:00-2:00pm: Picturing America for Homeschoolers program, this one focused on the Brooklyn Bridge.
2:00-5:30pm: Cover the reference desk in the Children’s Room.
Then the evening involved a bunch of driving around, eating dinner, and watching the season premiere of LOST. As you can see, not much time for posting storytime. I don’t have time for it today, either, but I’m going to do it anyway.
Longer “Open Them, Shut Them”
“Read this with Gestures” by John Ciardi
“Mittens for the Snow Time”
We always have a lot of latecomers, so I’ve decided to try to make the opening not-reading portion longer so that hopefully all the kids are in and settled before we start reading a longer story.
Olivia… and the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer
At the end, one of the kids said, “I knew it was the dog.”
“Funny Little Snowman”
I’ve always liked this rhyme, but I seem to like it even more this season.
I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan
This book about a garbage truck with attitude is so fun to read and is rich with the kinds of words that grab kids’ attention (“underwear,” “puppy poo”) and that grow their vocabularies (“pistons,” “compacted,” “dual op”).
“Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree”
Last week, we did this with hand motions, and this week the kids did the motions while I did the rhyme with my alligator puppet and five little monkeys on the flannel board. I continue to be highly amused by Mr. Crocodile eating all the monkeys one by one.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback
For the first time in quite a long time, I decided to use our big book version of this instead of our puppet set. I’d forgotten how perfect Taback’s illustrations and design are here.
“Sticky, Sticky Bubblegum”
“Three Little Pigs”
I used the flannel board to tell this. Always fun.
Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
“Um, Bob, what rhymes with HOW DO WE GET OUT?”
Art Time: Air-drying clay!
Posted by adrienne at 07:55 AM | Comments (5)
February 03, 2010
The Importance of a Good Reference Interview
Teenager: I am looking for a book about ancient whales.
Me: What?
Teenager: I’m looking for a book about ancient whales.
Me: You mean, like, really, really old whales?
Teenager: Yes, like, before the middle ages.
Me: … Wait, you mean Wales the country.
Teenager: Yes.
Me: Okay, then.
I think it would have been an easier question to answer if it had been ancient whales, but we finally got there.
Posted by adrienne at 09:32 PM | Comments (10)
