Category: Culture & Media

We’ve Been Patriotic N’at

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Woop!  The election cycle finally came to a close this week!  And Barack Obama is our first African-American president!

How did people celebrate on election night?

In Michigan, my sister-in-law went to a giant spontaneous rave/nerd party in the middle of campus that lasted until 4 a.m.  It got cra-za-zy when a bunch of percussion majors began drumming, which resulted in all the students marching around town.  I’m sure the good citizens of Ann Arbor were thrilled.

In Brooklyn, my other sister-in-law and her husband noticed that a party was going on on the street corner that night, and they walked down to check it out.  They beat a hasty retreat however, when all the white hippies in attendance began singing “We Shall Overcome.”

(hahahahahahahaha)

At Retro Acres, we decided to host an election-night party.  Because we are indeed in Utah, we decided to keep the spirit of the event non-partisan.  However, this was kind of spoiled when the guests arrived to find our children jumping on the couch and chanting “ba-WOK o-BAMA!  ba-WOK o-BAMA!” 

Most of our friends were not particularly enthusastic about either presidential candidate, so Brian and I tried to restrain ourselves to only a few quiet “woo-hoos” when it was becoming evident that McCain was getting thumped.  And now that our friends are all out of the house, let me just say:

WOO HOOOOOOO!

How was the voting experience this year?  We voted early, at the student union of the University of Utah.  We arrived just before the polls closed, and there was quite a bit of a line.  But the kids were happy to fiddle around with the arcade games and pool tables while we waited.  Utah uses computers for its polls, and Brian and I both let our kids take turns pressing the buttons we wanted. 

After we were finished, we spent time walking around the campus and marvelling at what things had or hadn’t been altered in our absence.  (The Marriott Library looks so sleek and shiny now!  But the same dusty-book smell remains.) 

Change: it’s certainly something to believe in.  Ha!

Loving & Leaving Pittsburgh: CLP

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I quit my job last week.

I’ve worked as a page, and then as a clerk, and then finally as a librarian for the Children’s Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.  For seven years.  And then I had to say good-bye.

I was planning to write this amazing “behind the scenes” tour of the library, including the secret tunnels and overlooked doors that only we librarians know about, but instead, I decided to take a series of photos showing how gorgeous the building is.  Seriously, I love it.  It’s the kind of library I’ve always wanted to work for.

These first two are architectural details of the front door.

This next one is of the lantern in the front foyer, just before you enter the lobby.  There are four tiny lion’s heads on it, but I don’t know if you can tell from this image.

I especially love the grand stairwells, even though I hardly used them – it’s much faster to take the staff elevators.  You can’t see it, but the steps of the marble staircase are gently scooped after so many feet going up and down.

After going through the lobby, you turn down towards the Children’s Department . . .

Here is the main fiction room.  Brian and Eleanor are experimenting with this “My Storyteller” thing that some CMU students built.

And here’s the picture book area.  Everybody loves to see Mary Anne (from Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel).

Lastly, here is a section of the beautiful “Storyteller” mural we have in the Non-Fiction room.  I used to be in charge of shelf-reading that room, so I’ve always had a bit of affection for it.

“Netherfield Hall Has Been Let at Last!”

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So, we are moving to this very nice house in Salt Lake City next month. It used to belong to Brian’s maternal grandmother, but she moved out of it last fall and it has been sitting vacant since then. By a great stroke of kindness and generostiy, our family has gotten permission to live there. It’s close to the hospital, in a cute neighborhood, and has a big ol’ backyard with a fence. We are over the moon about how lovely it is. It’s a 1950s-style ranch house, very mid-century modern.

The question is, what shall we name it?

I’ve always wanted to have a name for my house. When I was ten, my parents took me on a trip to London, and while strolling up and down residential neighborhoods, we were charmed by how so many homes had signs declaring the name of the residence. Not the residents, but the house itself. “Time Cottage,” “Sunnyside,” “Primrose House,” etc.

In high school, nerd that I was, I read Lord of the Rings and was tickled by how tidy and whimsical the name “Rivendell” was as a house name. Then the movie came out, and now everybody knows the origin of the name. Oh, well.

We missed the boat on naming our house here in Pittsburgh. By the time we had finally finished procrastinating and chose a name (“Cardinal House,” after the family of said birds in the forest nearby) a whole year had gone by and it was going to look even more eccentric than usual to suddenly spring out with a name.

So, I say: name the new house now. Besides, if I name it before we leave, I’ll be able to put the name of our house on the change-of-address cards that I’m sending out. Like so:

Brooke Lastname

The Whatever House

123 Fake St.

Salt Lake City, UT 87654

So, my dear readers, what names would you suggest for our house? We’ve found it interesting to see what is considered acceptable as a house name. The suffixes -dell, -side, -field, -view, and -haven are frequently used. It’s also common to name the place after any prominent plants on the property, especially (for some reason) oak trees. Alas, we have no oaks. But we think there may be an elm.

Elmdell! Eh, no.

There are a number of stumps left from fruit trees. But as amusing as “The Old Stumping Ground” may be, it seems somehow lacking.

Enough of this silliness — do you have a suggestion?

Edit on 6/1 —

So, some of you requested a photo of the new house.  Fine, fine — but to tell the truth, I don’t have an image of the house that I’ve taken myself (I know, I know).  The only thing I can give you is the image you get when you look the house up on Google Maps.  Here it is, although it’s somewhat obscured by trees:

In Which Jeffrey Buckles and Swashes

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adventures-of-robin-hood.jpgWe’re still watching old movies around here. Today a DVD of The Adventures of Robin Hood arrived in the mail, and Jeffrey and watched it together while the other kids napped.

This is the old one with Erroll Flynn, and is considered by many to be the best version of the story. I have to say that I was a bit apprehensive, because every time I’ve tried to watch this before, I’ve found it a snore. But now I realize that that was due mainly to the fact that I had only watched blurry VHS versions before, with horrid muffled sound.

The restored DVD is sooo gorgeous — it looks like the old N.C. Wyeth illustrations springing to full Technicolor life. The pacing didn’t drag a bit. Olivia de Hamilland wears a differently-colored lamé dress in each of her scenes. Erroll Flynn takes out about seven baddies with a deer carcass. A deer carcass. What’s not to love? And really, I consider a film like this to be essential for cultural literacy. This movie has all the original action film clichés, before they were clichés:

  • The footmen with such bad aim they couldn’t hit the sidewalk with a can of paint!
  • Cutting the rope of the portcullis and then riding the rope as it goes up!
  • Ambushing the bad guys’ wagon train while swinging down on handy forest vines!
  • Swordfighting insults! (“You’d best say your prayers, Robin Hood!” “I’ll say a prayer for YOU, Sir Guy!”)
  • Bad guys who get hit with arrows under the arm, roll their eyes upwards, and clutch their chests while drooping slowly to the ground!
  • Characters whose clever disguise consists entirely of a heavy cloak that doesn’t conceal their faces in the least!
  • “Guards! Guards! After him!”
  • A duel that features shadows on the wall, candles being cut in half, and the villain’s secret spare knife!
  • DRAMATIC CAAAAAPES!

I was a little worried that Jeffrey might find all of this a bit boring, but whoa, was I wrong. He got into it even more than he got into Star Wars, and that’s really saying something. The excitement was up to the extent that we had to take occasional intermissions so he could use the bathroom more often.

The best part, though, was watching Jeffrey play “Robin Hood” with Eleanor for a good while just before bed. Armed with his foam pirate sword, he embarked on a lengthy duel with Daddy (who was able to conduct his swordfighting while lounging on a cushion). Later, he asked Daddy to hold a green blanket “vine” so he could “swing” off of it — and immediately after, he aimed a few more blows at him. (Said Brian, “What? I’m the scenery and the bad guy?”)

Jeffrey insisted on sheathing his sword inside of his pants. Eleanor, of course, tried to follow suit, despite the fact that her toy sword was twice her height. I’ll just let you imagine what that looked like.

Just before bed, Eleanor (who insisted that she was not Little John or Maid Marian but just Eleanor) was using building blocks to “play the violin” and was busy singing a song about Little Red Riding Hood.

Jeffrey, who was sitting on my lap, immediately began to whisper in my ear.

“Mommy, I think she’s singing a song about me.”

Oh, right — Little Red Robin Hood. Ha!

On the Bunny Trail

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The Saturday before Easter, to me, is the right time for all the secular bunny-bunny stuff.  Not that I don’t set out baskets of goodies for my kids on Sunday morning.  But it’s Saturday when we go to the church and have the egg hunt, and Saturday evening is when we dye eggs.

In honor of that, I’m posting a bit of vintage film goodness that my kids have been going crazy for.

The first is from Easter Parade, which we Netflixed last week.  Eh, it wasn’t quite as successful as the other musicals we’ve watched (the plot is confusing, the dialogue boring) but it does begin with a fabulous Fred Astaire number called “Drum Crazy.”  It’s perfect for springtime, although I must warn you that this song may stick in your head for a while (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing):

The second film is a Disney Silly Symphony called “The Funny Little Bunnies.”  It shows rabbits decorating eggs and carving chocolate bunnies, and my kids really, really (no, really) love watching it.  Perhaps this is because it showcases a style of animation so different from what we see today — the cyclical, repetitive motions, the symmetrical movements across the screen, the panoramic shots with dozens of figures scurrying around — it’s as if the universe is performing mitosis.

My two cents: I love that kilt-wearing bunny painting the tartan egg.  C’est bon.

White House Mama

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white-house.jpgJeffrey keeps asking a certain question:

“Mommy, are you running for President?”

This was at dinner a few days ago, and Brian reported hearing the same question during Jeffrey’s bath last week. “Is Mommy running for President?”

I suppose that Jeffrey’s been hearing enough election talk that it’s beginning to seep into his daily thoughts. Also, he keeps requesting that we read So, You Want to Be President every now and then, so he understands the basic concept of Being President. Oh, I love this kind of kid-flattery — when they honestly believe that you are capable of doing something like a Presidential campaign on-the-side. Just something I work on during, say, naptime. It was a little sad to set him straight. Looking at him across the dinging room table, I say:

“No, Jeffrey. I’m not running for President.”

“Why?” Hmm. No idea how to answer this truthfully — “I’d be really bad at it” — without leading to a score of other questions that need increasingly abstract, detailed answers. So, I bounced back at him with another question.

“Jeffrey, do you think I should be President?”

“Yeah.”

“Why do you think I would be a good President?”

“Because,” he says solemnly, “you’re good at talking to people and things.”

Heh. Talking to people — strangers, anyway — is one of the things I’m notoriously bad at . . . er, well. I’m not that bad at it. Let’s just say I’m one who loathes small talk. (LOOOOOOATHES.) But Jeff’s a little young to figure that out yet. I suppose that, to him, his mother is VERY good at navigating that Mysterious World of Adults and their Frightfully Dull Talk.

“Hmm,” chimes in Brian at this point. “Jeffrey, maybe you should be on Mom’s exploratory committee.”

“Yeah,” I say, tickled with this idea. “Can you find out if I should be President?”

“Yes,” Jeff replies, all seriousness as we leave the dinner table and begin trundling upstairs. “The first thing I’ll do is find out what George Washington does.”

Righto, Jeff. Remind me to look for that report in 2012.

Oh, and here’s the book I mentioned above:

so-you-want-to-be-president.jpg

So, You Want to Be President by Judith St. George, illus. David Small.  George’s text is an entertaining account of traits that our nation’s presidents have had over the years — the oldest, the pets, who really was born in a log cabin, as opposed to just saying they were — but what really shines here are Small’s masterful caricatures of them all.  From a twinkly-eyed Lincoln to a Taft with a tummy bigger than Rhode Island, it’s a glorious tongue-in-cheek yet loving tribute to the Chiefs.  Oh, and the pictures won a Caldecott.  Yada, yada, yada.

No, It Isn’t Ironic

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I just discovered the blog Judge a Book By Its Cover. It’s written by a public librarian who keeps track of all the horrible book covers she runs across, and gleefully mocks them. It’s a bit too raunchy for my tastes, but a quick scroll down produced this lil’ tidbit of gold:

finer-points-on-the-spacing-and-arrangement-of-type.jpg

Yes, it is a real, honest, non-sarcastic book. Probably one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a while — I’m adding it to my mental list of Bad-Good Book Titles (which also include Build Your Own Strativarius Violin and Really Bad Girls of the Bible). Thank you, lousy typographer!

Now in Technicolor!

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film-reel.jpgA few weeks ago I checked out Ty Burr’s new film guide, The Best Old Movies for Families. Burr, a film critic for the Boston Globe, is clearly a man after my own heart: this book is all about getting kids to enjoy films from the early ’60s and before. I LOVE the vintage-y vintage, and our Netflix queue is now clogged up with things like Bringing Up Baby and Easter Parade and The Adventures of Robin Hood.

So far, we’ve had great success with Singin’ in the Rain. It took us a couple of days to watch it, and at first the kids were kind of puzzled by the whole thing, but by the time we got to the “Broadway Melody” sequence at the end, Jeffrey and Eleanor were dancing around the room, trying to imitate Gene Kelly and Cyd Cherisse step-by-step. (Really — Eleanor wouldn’t just wiggle her hips to the music, but she would earnestly attempt to mimic the style of dance she was seeing, whether it was tap, ballet, orsingin-in-the-rain.jpg jazzy-jazz-hands-ness.) When Kelly picks up Cherisse and spins her around, Jeffrey tried to do the same with Eleanor. Unfortunately, he kept grabbing her around the neck and shoulders, so it didn’t quite work out.

Eleanor also really liked the “Beautiful Girl” song, where different models show of fashions of the ’20s. She’d pose in front of the television, her blankie artfully draped around her body in imitation of flapper chic. Fabulous.

meet-me-in-st-louis.jpgMeet Me in St. Louis has gotten mixed results — the kids were scared of the Halloween sequence, although they love the “Bamboo Tree” song, and Eleanor has been holding a cup up to her ear in imitation of the 1903-style telephone sequence. As for Laurel & Hardy’s The Music Box, Jeffrey thought it was hee-lar-i-ous, but Eleanor didn’t get it. I just love the pompous professor, a classic comedy stock character if ever there was one.

The only fly in the ointment so far is that Netflix doesn’t carry any Busby Berkeley films.

!!!

I know! There was a big box set that came out last year, for pete’s sake. It’s exactly the kind of thing that Netflix was MADE for. So, we have to content ourselves with watching the dance routines on YouTube.

We all love “By a Waterfall” from Footlight Parade. Brian and I dropped our jaws to the floor the first time we watched it.

But the kids’ favorite has to be the Carmen Miranda “Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat” from The Gang’s All Here. And can you blame them? Anything that involves a banana xylophone has GOT to be good.

Yesterday Jeffrey had to have major dental work done — cavities filled, and two crowns on his molars.* He had to go under general anesthetic to get the work done, and he was majorly woozy and exhausted afterwards. On the way home, we told Jeffrey he could pick out any movie he wanted to watch that afternoon. Sleepily, Jeffrey wobbled his head up from the collar of his puffy winter coat.

“I want Singin’ in the Rain, Mommy,” he said softly. The boy couldn’t have made me happier.

*Yes, YES, we DO brush his teeth. Assiduously. And we said good-bye to juice a long time ago. Jeffrey has simply inherited the soft teeth gene from his dad. Let me just state for the record that Jeffrey was amazingly well-behaved for the procedure and didn’t fuss or cry a bit, even though he wasn’t allowed any breakfast that morning.

Night at the Toddler Improv

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clown-shoes.jpgA few months ago, Brian and I began teaching the kids about “knock-knock” jokes. I figure that they, along with such other basic elements of comedy such as the horn nose and pie-in-the-face, would be easy for the kids to understand. Then they could make up their own jokes.

Yes, I knew it was a dark path to go down. Because most little kids don’t quite understand what it is that makes a joke funny — the wordplay. For them, a knock knock joke consists of some back-and-forth dialogue, and then some random statement, and then you laugh.

But I say, knowing when to laugh at the end of a joke is an important social skill. In about a decade I’ll get them into Advanced Joke Theory, which includes the false smile and the courtesy laugh.

For now, though, Eleanor tells ONE joke and ONE joke only. Spoken in a single breath, it goes thusly:

“Knock knock, who’s there? It’s a bunny rabbit stuck in the joke-joke tree!”

Yes! Original, indeed! Can you tell that she made it up herself? I can’t quite capture the timing of the thing in print, but the delivery is more like “It’s a BUNNY rabbit stuck in the JOKE JOKE TREEEEEE!”

She repeats this at least once every other day or so. You’d think I’d get annoyed, but it’s become such a running gag, and she says it with such relish, that I can’t help laughing at it. Plus, who can’t find the charm in the idea of a “joke-joke tree”? It’s something cultivated in a Humor Garden, I suppose.

My parents tell me that the joke I told repeatedly as a three year old went along the lines of “A squirrel went up into the tree! And said, Ha ha ha ha!” If anything, I hope this proves that a sense of humor is something that can improve with each succeeding generation. Just watch out for that bunny rabbit.

In Which Jeffrey Pens a Missive

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pen-and-ink.jpgToday I taught Jeffrey the concept of letter-writing. Or, that is, the concept of e-mailing.

Given a list of possible people to e-mail, Jeffrey chose his friend Liesl. Here’s what he wrote (I did the typing):

Dear Liesl,

George Washington died, and he’s dead. Are you playing with a Spider Man mask? I will be a Lego builder when I grow up. And a guy who throws a pie. Why didn’t you play lightsaber fighting on a warm sunny day? If you play with a lightsaber, tell me. I love Vikings. I saw a big wedding cake, and someone fell down on it. I’m making a story and I hope it turns out well. I wish you a happy birthday!

Your friend,

Jeffrey.

Okay, here’s my interpretation — for this e-mail, I prompted Jeffrey to both think of questions to ask Liesl, and to tell about the things he was doing. The references to Spider Man, George Washington, and Star Wars are obviously inspired by his current fantasy play obsessions. Building with Legos is also a favorite pastime. As for the “guy who throws a pie” and the person who fell on a “wedding cake,” I’m guessing these are references to the big pie-fight scene in The Great Race. But I’m only guessing — we haven’t watched that movie in months. And who can resist ending a letter with good birthday wishes?

So, you see, the thoughts of Jeffrey aren’t as random and bizarre as you’d think. There’s an explanation for everything!

Um, except for the Vikings. No idea where that came from.

Probably the best book that involves letter-writing would have to be:

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Click-Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, illus. Betsy Lewin. The cows are on strike! The chickens, too! There will be no milk or eggs for Farmer Brown unless they come to an agreement, which is met via a series of typewritten notes. This book not only has an appealing premise (what chore-despising kid doesn’t dream of going on strike?) but has a smorgasboard of early-literacy goodies: fun repetitive catchphrases, little notes to read, examples of characters reading and writing . . . good stuff.