Coraline: The Curious Cat May Stray

Envisioning a picture based on the award-winning novella by fantasy author Neil Gaiman, director Henry Selick creates a magical, stop-motion masterpiece with the deep, dark, fantastic Coraline.

In the same vein as Alice in Wonderland and Pan’s Labyrinth, Coraline juxtaposes fantasy and reality, featuring a young heroine who finds herself on a weird and wonderful sojourn from her previously mundane life. It may sound like a tale done before, but with its abundant quirks and charms, Coraline holds its own in the genre. Selick’s film proves that puppetry is not dead with it’s colorful CG-enhanced style, while also drawing thematic elements from classic stories that entice the viewer to explore his or her own inner child.

The blue-haired, brown-eyed Coraline Jones is the new girl in her lazy country town. Her parents, a writer and an editor of a gardening magazine, bore her with their neglectful, workaholic antics. Itching for adventure, she decides to explore her 150-year-old house. In her wanderings, she discovers a doorway to an alternate reality, complete with a button-eyed (literally) “Other Mother” and an “Other Father,” who seem bent on catering to her every childhood whim with their surreal machinery.   Coraline is momentarily tempted to ditch her old life for this seemingly perfect dream world, but of course, she will find that everything is not all as it seems.

Bold and imaginative, the character of Coraline embodies the spirit of the film. She is the archetypal deviant child, intelligent yet naïve, with lessons to learn about life and herself.  For those kids old enough to handle some of the more action-intense scenes, this PG film provides both entertainment and morals.

If there is a complaint with the film, it would have to lie in its brevity and lack of secondary character development. The fast pace of the film didn’t allow Coraline to pack an emotional punch quite up to par with the visuals. But it is a fairy tale, based on a children’s book, and to expect Shakespearean depth would be asking too much.

In a time when blasé CG family films with “been-there, done-that” writing seem to be churned out weekly, Coraline is a respite. Offered in 3D, the visual ride enhances the artistic nature of the film without feeling gimmicky.  Likely to be a thrill for viewers young and old, Coraline is timeless tale with powerful testament to the spirit of childhood and imagination.

Six-Word Sensations Speak To the Heart

Poetry and prose collide in this intriguing collection of personal stories on topics of February’s favorite four-letter emotion. From the same folks who compiled the New York Time’s bestseller Not Quite What What I Was Planning, comes Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure.

Brevity is the soul of wit, as Shakespeare would say, and these stories confirm it. Most being shorter than a haiku, these six-word tales manage to say so much in so very little. They encompass a range a topics from young love to marriage to cheating to divorce. Some stories will seek a smile and yet others will end in tears, from either sadness or hilarity.

A sampler:

• “He still needs me at sixty-four.” —Armistead Maupin

• “Will government ever let us marry?” —Vicki Marsh

• “She left all her things behind.” —Craig Fishburn

• “If I get chlamydia, blame Myspace.” —Hanorah Slocum

Even for those who normally dislike poetry, if you can appreciate a good quote, you can appreciate these memoirs. They are stories perfect for those with a short attention span. Poignant and thought-provoking, these clever tales of half a dozen words each can inspire you to pick your brain and write your own.

SMITH magazine’s Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak comes just in time for Valentine’s Day. You can find it on Amazon.com or pick up a copy at your local Barnes and Noble.

Popping my 2009 wordpress cherry

Until about a year ago, I was never into politics. Barely an adult, I had kept up with them just enough via the Internet to make an informed vote in local and state elections. While true I was relatively more educated about these matters than most of my peers, I still wouldn’t have been able to hold my own in a sustained conversation or debate on important political matters.

But things have changed. I have changed. And our 44th President was huge part of that change.

2007 and 2008 were rough years for me, personally. Financial strife. Educational disappointments. A bad relationship. It was during this time I started paying more attention to the news, to remind myself that there were greater things out there.

Early 2008, I came across the writings of Andrew Sullivan while writing an argumentative paper in favor of same-sex marriage. Clear, logical, intellectual yet concise, his writing style fascinated me. I subscribed to his blog. From there I read his essay, Why Obama Matters.

Registered a Democrat from previous elections, I had been eyeing Clinton and Obama as the forerunners in the democratic primary race. After reading Sullivan’s article, I had no reservations. I saw the organizational skills Obama was utilizing on the Internet and was thoroughly impressed. I cast my primary vote with no doubt in my mind.

I cast my presidential vote months later with the same confidence.

The hype is justified. Repeat. The hype is justified. Put it into the perspective that the 60s were not so long ago. It is a testament to the fluidity of American values forward, and it is this fluidity which makes my cynical soul truly proud to be a citizen of this country.

I believe that we will get through this recession and the bailout money eventually repaid. I believe that the international integrity of our country, despite all the scandal, can be rebuilt. I believe that my decision to study public administration and economics with the hopes of aiding in the reformation of America’s health care system is the right one. I believe that the pragmatism and optimism that Barack Obama brings to the table is exactly what we need right now:

“The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment—this was the time—when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.”

Auto Industry Bail Out Ad

I hate to just keep stealing stuff from The Daily Dish, but it’s so good.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

The idea of “I get depressed and like to sit around on the couch and eat, so I have this thing called seasonal affective disorder.” No, it’s called winter, okay asshole? And we all get it, and that’s why we invented hockey and football. Okay? So you could sit on the couch and eat Cheetos for four months, or you can go outside.

-Denis Leary

A Real Hobbit House

http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

Nifty.  I want to live there.

CATO attempts to explain why intellectuals hate capitalism

http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/cpr-20n1-1.html

Interesting.  Basically what he’s saying is that intellectuals–those who rocked the Critical Reading portion of the SATs but not necessarily Math–are arrogant fucks who believe that they deserve income proportional to their intellectual value.  At a young age they are conditioned by their school enviornment to accept a certain standard of psychosocial norms that do not mimic the rewards system of the real world.

From a skeptic of both extremes of anarchocapitalism and a centrally planned economy, I have to say that the author’s argument is extremely intellectually specious.

Yes, we are arrogant fucks.  But I’ve also always found a certain kind of arrogance in using the pronoun “we” in formal writing, as if the author assumes that the reader agrees.

I think the writer forgot that intellectuals have a tendency to hate capitalism because it’s a cannibalistic system which has a tendency to bring out the gaping orifice in personal moral values.

Let’s watch the monkey dance:

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050506.html

Gandhi was right.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”  Literally.

What I learned today.

In an effort to revive my dying blog, I’m going to be updating this with a segment I call:  “What I learned today.”

It’s function is two-fold:  To give my blog content for once and to see what I really do learn over the course of a month.

I learned that there’s a World Toilet Organization that hosts a World Toilet Summit. http://www.worldtoilet.org/ourwork5.asp?no=1

Four year olds are easily impressionable.  “Repeat after me.  The Holocaust never happened.”  Yeah… I keep questionable company.

Dinosaurs were in the civil war.  http://io9.com/5084491/the-alternate-history-theme-park-where-dinosaurs-fought-the-civil-war

[edit: Man, this concept was shortlived.  I suck.]

Penetrating Wagners “Ring”

Apparently this book used to have some amazing reviews.  I still laughed at the few that amazon editors have yet to take down.