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In a very strange turn of events, I actually saw 3 movies on DVD this weekend that I had never seen before. And one of them was rated R, which, believe me, NEVER happens, because by the time the children are in bed we're usually too tired to watch a whole movie. But this time, we watched it on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, when the kids were OUTSIDE playing. We even gave them a couple of bucks and sent them down to the dime store to get them out of the way for a while. We only had to stop the movie 8 or 9 times--it was great!
Okay, so in order of rating, here are the new movies I saw (for obvious reasons, I am not even going to bother to comment on The Fox and the Hound 2):
Meet the Robinsons. Rated G. I admit that I wanted to see this because I am in love with Rob Thomas, and he wrote one of the songs for this movie (Little Wonders, which you can find here. I found though, that the themes of choice (are you responsible for your life or is someone else to blame?) and family resonated with me deeply. The main character is an orphan, and gets adopted by the Robinson family (it's a bit more complicated than that, though), but his most desperate wish is to go back in time to meet his birth mother. The director said that the young hero's family-identity journey mirrored his own, as he was also adopted. I am the mother of an adopted son, and I think about these things a lot, so I found the theme very moving.
Dan In Real Life. Rated PG-13. As big of a fan as I am of The Office, this is the kind of thing I like to see Steve Carrell in the most. He just plays it straight and real, no pratfalls or funny voices (well, a few...), and his pain, confusion, fear, and finally, hope and love, are so understated that they are utterly believable. He's a widower with 3 daughters, and the oldest child in a huge family--I couldn't always count, but I think it was 3 brothers and 2 sisters, maybe, at a family vacation with all of them, including their parents, their spouses, and all their children. He meets a woman at a bookstore and falls in love with her pretty quickly, but then discovers that she is his brother's girlfriend. Obviously, he has some things to work out there...the resolution is hard-won and very satisfying.
Sweeney Todd. Rated R. Johnny Depp can totally sing. He's so tortured, so obsessed, so cruel in this that he ruins everything he touches, including the things he came to redeem. I have never been quite sure what I think of this musical, but this cast-crew combo got everything out of it possible. Tim Burton uses his characteristic eye for color to highlight the blood, which is the most ghastly bright red--almost always the only color in a grey world. Alan Rickman is obscene in his role as Judge Turpin; the way he looked at Joanna, his ward, made my skin crawl. And Burton uses few close-ups or long shots, but everything is done in a series of mid-range shots that give it a terrifying matter-of-factness, very effectively drawing out the mundanity of evil. FYI, you want to have a strong stomach for this one.
Kathy
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Book Review for Code Orange
Code Orange
By Caroline Cooney
Delacourt Press, 2005
I’ve just read Caroline Cooney’s young adult novel Code Orange for the second time. I am still so very impressed and compelled by her riveting combination of character development and research; the two go hand in hand in this novel, because the more the main character learns, the more afraid he becomes, and the harder his choices get.
Some people are better researchers than fiction writers. We get the feeling that what they really want is to show the reader how interesting their topic is—and it usually is interesting. But that’s not what we go to fiction for. We read fiction because we want to learn about people, others experiencing things that we find connections to. The best fictional characters, like the Velveteen Rabbit, become real simply because we believe in them so completely.
Caroline Cooney understands the difference. Each of her novels centers around a certain theme—forgiveness, sundered families, identity—and you know that she’s done her research. But that’s not why you read. You read because the main character—always a teenager—grabs your attention and your heart from the first words.
That’s exactly what’s going on in her gripping novel, Code Orange. The title refers to the Homeland Security danger alert codes implemented after 9/11, and hints at the sort of danger that will be encountered in the book. The main character, 16-year-old Mitty Blake, accidentally comes across a hundred-year-old envelope full of smallpox scabs in an old medical book, but at the time he has no idea what he is handling. Then, he begins his research for a school science paper, and begins to realize that he may have contracted the world’s most terrifying disease—a disease that is supposed to have been eradicated 30 years ago. From there we follow his journey into fear and paranoia, illness, bioterrorism, and worse. It’s utterly compelling, and incredibly suspenseful; as Cooney counts off the days from exposure to infectiousness, we are as impatient and fearful as Mitty is. And she cuts us no slack—is that headache just a headache, or is it the onset of smallpox? Is Mitty chilled because it’s February in New York, or is it a symptom of smallpox? She won’t tell Mitty, and she won’t tell us.
Cooney uses Mitty’s science research paper as a way of feeding us the information we need to have to become as scared as Mitty is. Mitty writes in his own words about the symptoms and development of smallpox, how it is passed from person to person, how it was eradicated and how it might return, and chillingly, about its potential uses as a weapon of bioterrorism. It never feels too farfetched, especially since Mitty can come up with a million reasons why this couldn’t really be happening. We know the incredible odds as well as he does. But we are still as afraid as he is.
Even more interesting than the smallpox storyline is Mitty’s character development. When we first meet him he is the ultimate teenage boy slacker. He cares for nothing but music and the girl he’s crushing on, and he’s filling a seat in an advanced biology class that his parents paid the school to put him in. But through his research and the fear that he might contract smallpox—and even worse, give it to others—we see him grow up. He realizes what’s important, and he learns how to act on his newly discovered feelings of love and loyalty. In the end, Mitty is no longer a slacker in any sense. Mitty knows what the right thing to do is, and he acts on it.
I would recommend this book for middle school age and up (including adults). The terrorism theme might be scary for the younger kids in this age group, but in my experience it’s better for them to be a little bit afraid and to ask their parents or teachers about it, than to hear something on the radio or TV and be terrified. Much as adults might hate it, terrorism is now a part of our children’s lives, and like all difficult subjects, kids must be exposed to it in controlled amounts. Since the book has no violence, only the threat of violence, I think that even pre-adolescent kids can handle it. And adults will find that they can’t put it down, and don’t want to, until they know how it ends.
By Caroline Cooney
Delacourt Press, 2005
I’ve just read Caroline Cooney’s young adult novel Code Orange for the second time. I am still so very impressed and compelled by her riveting combination of character development and research; the two go hand in hand in this novel, because the more the main character learns, the more afraid he becomes, and the harder his choices get.
Some people are better researchers than fiction writers. We get the feeling that what they really want is to show the reader how interesting their topic is—and it usually is interesting. But that’s not what we go to fiction for. We read fiction because we want to learn about people, others experiencing things that we find connections to. The best fictional characters, like the Velveteen Rabbit, become real simply because we believe in them so completely.
Caroline Cooney understands the difference. Each of her novels centers around a certain theme—forgiveness, sundered families, identity—and you know that she’s done her research. But that’s not why you read. You read because the main character—always a teenager—grabs your attention and your heart from the first words.
That’s exactly what’s going on in her gripping novel, Code Orange. The title refers to the Homeland Security danger alert codes implemented after 9/11, and hints at the sort of danger that will be encountered in the book. The main character, 16-year-old Mitty Blake, accidentally comes across a hundred-year-old envelope full of smallpox scabs in an old medical book, but at the time he has no idea what he is handling. Then, he begins his research for a school science paper, and begins to realize that he may have contracted the world’s most terrifying disease—a disease that is supposed to have been eradicated 30 years ago. From there we follow his journey into fear and paranoia, illness, bioterrorism, and worse. It’s utterly compelling, and incredibly suspenseful; as Cooney counts off the days from exposure to infectiousness, we are as impatient and fearful as Mitty is. And she cuts us no slack—is that headache just a headache, or is it the onset of smallpox? Is Mitty chilled because it’s February in New York, or is it a symptom of smallpox? She won’t tell Mitty, and she won’t tell us.
Cooney uses Mitty’s science research paper as a way of feeding us the information we need to have to become as scared as Mitty is. Mitty writes in his own words about the symptoms and development of smallpox, how it is passed from person to person, how it was eradicated and how it might return, and chillingly, about its potential uses as a weapon of bioterrorism. It never feels too farfetched, especially since Mitty can come up with a million reasons why this couldn’t really be happening. We know the incredible odds as well as he does. But we are still as afraid as he is.
Even more interesting than the smallpox storyline is Mitty’s character development. When we first meet him he is the ultimate teenage boy slacker. He cares for nothing but music and the girl he’s crushing on, and he’s filling a seat in an advanced biology class that his parents paid the school to put him in. But through his research and the fear that he might contract smallpox—and even worse, give it to others—we see him grow up. He realizes what’s important, and he learns how to act on his newly discovered feelings of love and loyalty. In the end, Mitty is no longer a slacker in any sense. Mitty knows what the right thing to do is, and he acts on it.
I would recommend this book for middle school age and up (including adults). The terrorism theme might be scary for the younger kids in this age group, but in my experience it’s better for them to be a little bit afraid and to ask their parents or teachers about it, than to hear something on the radio or TV and be terrified. Much as adults might hate it, terrorism is now a part of our children’s lives, and like all difficult subjects, kids must be exposed to it in controlled amounts. Since the book has no violence, only the threat of violence, I think that even pre-adolescent kids can handle it. And adults will find that they can’t put it down, and don’t want to, until they know how it ends.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Shout Out to The Confessing Tiger
I heard through the grapevine that The Confessing Tiger* thinks my blog is cool (it was the scurvy post, wasn't it?)!
Wow.
Well, back atcha, hon--and yours has video, which impresses the heck out of me. (oh, hey, there's a button up there that says "add video"...what d'you know?)
The Tiger was one of my students during my exile in the aforementioned "San Francisco of the South," and one of those that made it worth it. You can check out his site here.
Keep up the good work, CT, and keep the faith.
KCT+
*I will continue to use his Superhero name in order to protect his secret identity.
Wow.
Well, back atcha, hon--and yours has video, which impresses the heck out of me. (oh, hey, there's a button up there that says "add video"...what d'you know?)
The Tiger was one of my students during my exile in the aforementioned "San Francisco of the South," and one of those that made it worth it. You can check out his site here.
Keep up the good work, CT, and keep the faith.
KCT+
*I will continue to use his Superhero name in order to protect his secret identity.
Who me, bitter?
I guess I'm just bitter.
The media whirls around like a tornado, touching down on the offensive comments of political candidates, then taking off again into the sky. The problem is, they leave some of us in the mess they've made.
My point being, I'm not over it. I am not over what Senator Barack Obama said about people like me, when he thought nobody was recording him. In case you live in a cave in Antarctica and missed it, let me just quote:
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
I don't actually own a gun, but comments like that make me want to go out and buy one, mostly for spite. Now, the inaccuracies are one thing...it is true that some small towns have lost jobs, but almost all of the towns in my region are growing at a nice pace...that is, quickly enough to keep jobs but slowly enough to keep them small towns. Knowing all the challenges my community faces, I was so glad to come back here when I did, and so glad to get out of a community we might call "the San Francisco of the South," which was full of a lot of people who frequently said the same sort of things Obama said.
But, as you might guess, to have someone who has no idea what my life is like speak so patronizingly about how I "cling to..religion," out of my "bitterness..." Wow. Or how my neighbors and students and parishioners who hunt do so because they're clinging to their guns out of bitterness that is better directed at politics...that is so..well, as one of John McCain's advisors said it, demonstrates very clearly, "an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking...It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
That pretty much sums it up. I wasn't bitter before he said those things, but I'm feeling a bit bitter now. And the media can whirl on to whatever they want to cover next, but apparently the people of Pennsylvania didn't forget those comments. And I know that the people of Missouri won't.
Kat
The media whirls around like a tornado, touching down on the offensive comments of political candidates, then taking off again into the sky. The problem is, they leave some of us in the mess they've made.
My point being, I'm not over it. I am not over what Senator Barack Obama said about people like me, when he thought nobody was recording him. In case you live in a cave in Antarctica and missed it, let me just quote:
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
I don't actually own a gun, but comments like that make me want to go out and buy one, mostly for spite. Now, the inaccuracies are one thing...it is true that some small towns have lost jobs, but almost all of the towns in my region are growing at a nice pace...that is, quickly enough to keep jobs but slowly enough to keep them small towns. Knowing all the challenges my community faces, I was so glad to come back here when I did, and so glad to get out of a community we might call "the San Francisco of the South," which was full of a lot of people who frequently said the same sort of things Obama said.
But, as you might guess, to have someone who has no idea what my life is like speak so patronizingly about how I "cling to..religion," out of my "bitterness..." Wow. Or how my neighbors and students and parishioners who hunt do so because they're clinging to their guns out of bitterness that is better directed at politics...that is so..well, as one of John McCain's advisors said it, demonstrates very clearly, "an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking...It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
That pretty much sums it up. I wasn't bitter before he said those things, but I'm feeling a bit bitter now. And the media can whirl on to whatever they want to cover next, but apparently the people of Pennsylvania didn't forget those comments. And I know that the people of Missouri won't.
Kat
KU #1 Again...
...and as my daddy put it, "So where's the parade?"
The KU Debate Team beat out other top schools, including Harvard, Emory, and Dartmouth, to win the National Debate Championship. You can read about it here.
Well, even if they don't get a parade (which they should), I think it's awesome. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Kat
The KU Debate Team beat out other top schools, including Harvard, Emory, and Dartmouth, to win the National Debate Championship. You can read about it here.
Well, even if they don't get a parade (which they should), I think it's awesome. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Kat
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Very Important Day Coming Up!
And aren't you glad that I was here to remind you? Yes, International Scurvy Awareness Day is May 2. You can check out the information here, on the Limestrong website. While you're there, don't neglect to get your own poster of a beautiful, scurvy-free model.
It's only 9 days away, people, so let's get moving!
Kat
(scurvy-free and proud of it)
It's only 9 days away, people, so let's get moving!
Kat
(scurvy-free and proud of it)
Angels Among Us
I do believe that there are angels among us. I'm posting an email I got from my sister, Annie, about a pretty uncanny event in my brother's life:
Ray got hired up at the McDonald’s where April works but hadn’t actually started yet. It was a job, but he really wasn’t looking forward to it, since 1) it’s McDonalds (again) 2) it’s the food industry (again) and 3) it’s just the same old stuff, again. But hey, it’s a paycheck, and that’s how he was looking at it.
Last week, Ray was donating plasma for bus/cigarette money, which he does about once a week or so. He was sitting next to an older lady, and next to her was some other guy. The guy and the lady were talking, and she was saying how she needed a job but no one was hiring. The guy told her that he was the general manager of the Big Lots up the road, and that they were looking for cashiers and people to work the floor. He told her to come in Monday morning at 9am to fill out an application and he would see if they had something for her.
Well, Ray heard all of this, and there was no way he was going to sit there silently while some guy was handing out jobs. So he chimed in, “Hey, sorry to interrupt you, but I couldn’t help overhear… I’m also looking for a job, and that Big Lots is right around the corner from my house… would it be alright if I came in Monday morning at 9am also?” The guy said, “Sure!” He gave both Ray and the lady his name, Mike Johnson, and talked to them about the positions they had available and what kind of experience they had. Then the guy left, and Ray and the lady chatted about how lucky they were to have gotten a seat next to that guy!
Monday morning, 9am, both Ray and the lady show up at Big Lots. They both fill out applications and ask for Mike Johnson, the general manager.
No one had ever heard of him. “Mike Johnson” had never managed this or any other Big Lots in town.
Nevertheless, they were there and they had their applications filled out. The lady got hired on the spot as a cashier, and Ray is now a salesman in their furniture department!
So, it seems that Ray and the lady were visited by an angel at the plasma center. When Ray told me this story, his voice was shaking and he could barely wrap his head around what this job means for him. Everyone always told him he’d make a great salesman, and Mom used to say he could sell ice to Eskimos. It’s not waiting tables. It’s not building houses. He will, for the first time in over a decade, learn a new skill. He said he wasn’t even nervous about it, and I said that’s because this job is what he is meant to do, at least at this point in his life. He said that getting this job made him feel like he was actually moving forward for the first time in a long time, instead of just going in circles.
So, there you go. If you pray, pray for my brother, and give thanks for angels among us.
Kathy
Ray got hired up at the McDonald’s where April works but hadn’t actually started yet. It was a job, but he really wasn’t looking forward to it, since 1) it’s McDonalds (again) 2) it’s the food industry (again) and 3) it’s just the same old stuff, again. But hey, it’s a paycheck, and that’s how he was looking at it.
Last week, Ray was donating plasma for bus/cigarette money, which he does about once a week or so. He was sitting next to an older lady, and next to her was some other guy. The guy and the lady were talking, and she was saying how she needed a job but no one was hiring. The guy told her that he was the general manager of the Big Lots up the road, and that they were looking for cashiers and people to work the floor. He told her to come in Monday morning at 9am to fill out an application and he would see if they had something for her.
Well, Ray heard all of this, and there was no way he was going to sit there silently while some guy was handing out jobs. So he chimed in, “Hey, sorry to interrupt you, but I couldn’t help overhear… I’m also looking for a job, and that Big Lots is right around the corner from my house… would it be alright if I came in Monday morning at 9am also?” The guy said, “Sure!” He gave both Ray and the lady his name, Mike Johnson, and talked to them about the positions they had available and what kind of experience they had. Then the guy left, and Ray and the lady chatted about how lucky they were to have gotten a seat next to that guy!
Monday morning, 9am, both Ray and the lady show up at Big Lots. They both fill out applications and ask for Mike Johnson, the general manager.
No one had ever heard of him. “Mike Johnson” had never managed this or any other Big Lots in town.
Nevertheless, they were there and they had their applications filled out. The lady got hired on the spot as a cashier, and Ray is now a salesman in their furniture department!
So, it seems that Ray and the lady were visited by an angel at the plasma center. When Ray told me this story, his voice was shaking and he could barely wrap his head around what this job means for him. Everyone always told him he’d make a great salesman, and Mom used to say he could sell ice to Eskimos. It’s not waiting tables. It’s not building houses. He will, for the first time in over a decade, learn a new skill. He said he wasn’t even nervous about it, and I said that’s because this job is what he is meant to do, at least at this point in his life. He said that getting this job made him feel like he was actually moving forward for the first time in a long time, instead of just going in circles.
So, there you go. If you pray, pray for my brother, and give thanks for angels among us.
Kathy
New Blog
Hi, everyone. I'm just starting this blog thing over at a new address, but everything else should be pretty much the same. Thanks for sticking with me!
Kathy
Kathy
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