A tune for your Thursday

Windows of the apartment are wide open today :)  I'll take every second of this sunshine and warm(ish) weather I can get.
Also, I'll take The Raconteurs playing on the stereo while I check off my morning chores to-do list.



While I always expect to start hearing Robert Plant sing, I can live with Jack White and Ricky Skaggs.

B

L to the G

And now, dear readers, it's time for a game of 'Who Wore it Best?'

OR

There's been lots of recent press questioning the uniqueness and even validity of L. Gaga's fashion and persona.  Liz Jones of the DailyMail (my guilty pleasure for tabloid indulgence) has an interesting theory.  There are others who claim she is the fashion muse of our time.  I think the answer's somewhere in the middle, nestled snugly between Mad Hatter and RuPaul.

The best outfit--a crowd favorite--goes all the way back to summer of '09:

Setting: Germany.  Theme: Animal Rights/Vegetarianism.  Perhaps her switch to beef (it's what's for dinner) is meant to be ironic.

In the musical voice of Cake, 'perhaps, perhaps.......perrrrrrrrrrhaps'.

Movies for our future children

When recently asked about my favorite movie, I realized that I couldn't pick just one.  I instead gave (unasked) a top 10 list and placed Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang firmly in the middle.  The first time I saw that movie was when I was 9, stuck inside with head lice (everyone on my swim team got them...don't judge).  For three days I sat on the hardwood living room floor while my mother picked through my hair with a fine-toothed comb and washed my hair with medicated shampoo...rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat etc etc.
We rented Chitty Chitty Bang Bang mostly because, at a run time of 144 minutes, it was the longest movie we could find.  And in the midst of those tedious days, I fell in love.  A few reasons why the movie's just gosh darned wonderful: Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay, Dick Van Dyke, two precious and precocious children, a sheepdog named Edison, Lionel Jeffries, songs that stick in your head for weeks, toot sweets, and a Baron Bomburst.

All this to say, recently watching this movie again has made Tom and I begin to talk about what movies we will allow our children to watch, and what movies we will NOT.  I suffered through Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeaquel very much against my will; I will never place the same burden upon our future babes.
A quick, off-the-top-of my head-list of approved movies.  Movies that encourage at least one of the following: beauty, imagination, tenderness, adventure, stewardship, greatness, sacrifice, and selflessness.

Iron Giant
Last Unicorn
Spirited Away
Babe
The Point
The Triplets of Belleville
Never Ending Story
Charlotte's Web
The Thief of Bagdad
Most classic Disney cartoons (esp Peter Pan, Bambi, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, Jungle Book, and Fantasia)
The Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series


And in the list of verboten:

Anything live action from the Disney channel (from Tom)
Most Nickelodeon cartoons
Most current t.v. shows
     I realize we've crossed over into cable/public broadcasting land, but I just wanted to add my disgust at children's tv.  Even if the shows were decent, we wouldn't be watching much, but at this low caliber...most likely never.

Too harsh?  Any suggestions for either category?

B

December 10th can't come too soon

Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida, Across the Universe) is a pure artist.  Before directing films, she used her experience of mask work and puppetry to direct/create the Broadway Lion King.  Quite an impressive resume.

Within her talented hands, we have no qualms over Prospero's Prospera's gender switch (how could we, with Helen Mirren in control?!).

We are also thrilled to see more of Ben Wishaw.  Bright Star was beautiful, but we're so glad he is getting another turn at the fantastic, because we loved him in Perfume...

And Russell Brand as Trinculo.  Enough said.

T & B

"He prayeth well who loveth well both man and bird and beast"

We've been planning to write about the zoo in which we live.  Recent developments, however, have inspired us to focus in on the newest addition.  Rather than a wide introduction, we jump right into the tiny details.

Last night, while going to look for pet mice at the local pet store (don't ask), we ran into a little girl carrying around a bundle of rags.  Because I (B) am a nosy parker curious, I inquired about the bundle's contents.  It was a kitten, a tiny kitten.  2 days old we thought.  The family had found it in their backyard, with no sign of the mother.  They waited and waited, hoping that the mother would come back and retrieve it, but nothing happened.  They called every shelter/vet office they could think of, and no one would take it.  We offered to take the kitten.

Which brings us to now...after taking her into a 24-hour emergency vet to have her checked over, we gave ourselves a review on bottle feeding.  We've been sleeping in shifts, feeding every 2-3 hours.  Oh, and did we mentioned that newborn kittens aren't able to eliminate their own waste?  We've been massaging that out every shift too.  No bigger than a hamster, she still has her umbilical cord attached to her tummy.  Eyes and ears will open up within the next 1-2 weeks.

The bad news that we're bracing ourselves for is that she may have something terminally wrong with her (mother cats can sense this early on and are known to abandon the kittens that won't survive).  But so far, she is slurping down her food and getting stronger/louder every hour.  And it's worth it.  So SO worth it.  If she is to die, better to go with a full belly and warm box than to slip slowly away outside, left to the elements.

We hope to give this life a measure of dignity, no matter how long it lasts.  But there is a fight in her, a drive towards life that we will nurture as best we can.  We are fortunate in our ability to care for her, and blessed beyond measure to have a part in working against the fallen state of nature (red in tooth and claw).  Pardon our lack of pragmatism but we find it hard not to melt into sentimentalism while caring for such a little one.

T & B

Ride the gray camel

I've been looking drooling over the beautiful colors of Fall 2010 ready-to-wear.  If I must endure the oncoming cold, I'd prefer to do it warm camels and gorgeous grays.

top: Michael Kors, all American man
bottom: Marc Jacobs, celebrity driven peacock

Fortunately for the budget (reality) minded, the trend is being wonderfully done elsewhere and closer to home.  Target, J. Crew, Ann Taylor, etc etc.

If you ever find an affordable version of this, let me know...in case Tom ever loses a bet.

B

The Borg in your pocket, or how Apple can save your soul (or at least your individuality)

We like Apple.  We like Steve Jobs.
We like what they stand for and what we are able to accomplish with their products.  Apple has successfully survived flourished since starting in 1976, and it continues to give customers the ability to achieve new levels of imagination and creativity.  No matter how new the technology, they consistently make a product that is reasonable, intuitive and beautifully effortless.

However, we believe their competition (and everything they stand for) to be an abomination.  Too strong a word??  Read on.

By resorting to low-brow blows and ludicrous comparisons, they cover their lack of artistry with blunt and downright frightening appeals.  We are disgusted by Droid's overplayed commercials.  We don't want to join the mindless mass and we certainly don't want to become a robot.  Droid's latest radio commercial promises that they will turn you into 'a more efficient media consuming machine'.  Their belief in what we should aspire to is startlingly different from Apple's.

While there may be dispute on how much worldviews affect technology companies, we can't shake the itch that something is very, very off with Verizon's Droid (and many others).  We're concerned that these advertisements actually work.  We prefer that which makes us more human (in the best sense) over that which makes us machines.

A study in contrasts for your consideration:






T & B