Surviving the February Blahs

Right about now everyone starts to get really impatient with winter.  Snow just isn't that interesting like it was back in December, when the promise of a white Christmas made everyone smile.  The groundhog here said 6 weeks until spring, but it seems it was just a tease.  We got two days of 50+ degree weather, all the snow melted, then wham!  An ice storm slapped us down again.

Thank goodness for snow days, Valentine's Day, and President's Day.  Between the three of them and the short month, February doesn't drag on.  Here are some things we did to cheer up during the dark days.

Valentine's Day.  We always set up a card making station.  This year my 7 year old really got into it.  I think she used every foam heart she had on this one valentine for her dear friend Andrew who she doesn't get to see too often. 

 

 

Knitting with friends and with movies.  Occasionally, my friends will set up a knitting night, where we all bring projects, drink tea (or wine) and eat goodies.  After a particularly stressful week, I sat around and caught up with friends and the sweater I keep meaning to work on for my daughter, from the fabulously colorful and cheery book, Knitting with Color. 

 

 

 A special dinner.  My husband and I usually go out on Valentine's but this year our babysitter moved, so we didn't have a date.  I decided to include the kids and with the help of The Family Dinner book I mentioned last month, we set a pretty table in green and pink.  A retro tablecloth of Florida (where we went for Christmas), along with some yummy red foods helped alot.  My daughter chose the table settings, I used my seafoam green new bowls from Anthropologie, and we opened the cards and presents we got for one another and went around the table and said what we like about one another (another idea from the book).  My daughter claimed it was the best Valentine's day ever.  The meal was delicious, healthy and somewhat indulgent, while at the same time safe for my son who is allergic to eggs, peanuts and dairy.  We ate salmon, lemony red Swiss chard, roasted potatoes, and salad with dried cherries, feta (for us) and pine nuts.  Dessert was shortbread hearts dipped in dark chocolate, and lemon and raspberry sorbet in sparkling cider.  YUM!

 

 

  

Movies.  Again.  If you get a chance to see "The Illusionist", an animated French film by the directors of the award winning "Triplets of Belleville," on the big screen, go!  The screenplay is originally by Jacques Tati.  It is a tribute to the old Music Hall days of yore in Europe and England.  It stars an aging magician,who travels from Paris, to London, then up to Edinboro, Scotland to pursue his dying art.  It is a bittersweet homage, and takes place in 1959.  When we first see him, he has to follow a Beatles/Buddy Holly type of band whose screaming fans desert the theater when our character comes onto the stage.  Things kind of go downhill from there.  But the other star of the film is the scenery, drawn so achingly beautiful, you wish you could melt into the scene.  Because of this film, I've decided that I must see Edinboro before I die, I had no idea how breathtaking it is, especially in the sensitively drawn images we see on film.

An Education through Film

A few years ago I read a book whose premise looked interesting.  The book was called The Film Club: A Memoir by David Gilmour.  When his teenage son started to lose interest in school and started a downward spiral, he tried an unconventional approach to his schooling.  He told his son that he could drop out of school if he promised to watch 3 movies a week (of the dad's choosing), as a sort of education through film.  The book was not that great, but the idea was interesting and so were the films.


I picked up 1001 Film You Must See Before You Die at the library tonight and thought of that book.  My son turns 12 next month, and he is finally old enough for us to start showing him some of the great movies we grew up with. 

Unlike my generation, where great amounts of time were wasted watching whatever they decided to show on TV, our own children can pick and choose with VCR's, DVD's and TiVO. 

So I went through the book and made a list with my husband (a real film buff).  We were great film goers before we had kids, we went to film festivals, and watched obscure films, art films and regular old popular films.  My husband even wrote movie reviews for a while. 

Here are a couple of "film series" I think any self-respecting tween/teen should have under their belt, to properly understand their parent's era of the 70's, 80's and 90's.  Some people feel that the 70's were the "golden age" of film, and unfortunately, most of the most lauded films are rated R.   What follows are PG or PG-13 films, with a few R rated ones whose only fault is bad language (no sex or graphic violence).

Political Films that can help a kid understand the pulse of the era:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington- 1939- Jimmy Stewart - swell honest guy fights the corrupt government.  A Frank Capra classic.  Classic Jimmy Stewart.


The Manchurian Candidate- 1962 - political thriller from the Cold War era worthy of McCarthy-Angela Lansbury as the evil mother and Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh are all oddly cast.  A little surreal, but unforgettable.


All the President's Men- 1976- Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, reporters from the Washington Post breaking the Watergate Story.  Oscar winning acting and a great cast captures the Nixon era perfectly.  Rated R for language only. 

JFK- 1991- Oliver Stone's docudrama tells the story from the point of view of a reporter telling the story.  Documentary footage helps tell the story for those who weren't around to remember it.  Kevin Costner stars.  Rated R for graphic violence of the actual shooting.

Coming of Age Films:

1950's-early 60's- American Grafitti- made in the 70's but perfectly captures the sense of the time.  Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas produced and directed.  It became the inspiration for the popular sitcom, Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley.  It tells the story of a group of high school graduates one summer's day in 1962.  Cast members included Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Wolfman Jack (the famous DJ), Suzanne Somers, and Harrison Ford in his first role.  Nostalgic but not sappy.

1970's- Breaking Away-A coming of age story about a cyclist from small town Indiana.  A sweet, memorable movie about a rag tag group of young men with not much to look forward to breaking away for a brief moment of glory.  Daniel Stern (of Diner and Home Alone fame) stars.

1980's - Ferris Bueller's Day Off- This movie just screams high school in the 1980's.  Ferris (Matthew Broderick) fakes being sick, skips school and drives to Chicago with his pals because "life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."  A classic John Hughes movie, the director who defined the teenage film of the 1980s.

Another 1980's coming of age film not to miss:  Say Anything- 1989 with John Cusack.


1990's- Rushmore- 1998 by Wes Anderson.  Typifies the indie comedy of the 1990's.  Jason Schwartzman plays a intellectual geek at Rushmore Academy who is very unpopular.  He falls for his teacher and finds an unusual mentor (Bill Murray).  Soundtrack is mostly 1960's rock music, but the style is very 1990s.

Another good high school film of the 90's:  Election with Matthew Broderick (as the teacher) and Reese Witherspoon (as the student running for class president) is bitingly satirical.

Films that so much a part of the culture, your kid has to see them:

Besides Star Wars and Indiana Jones, the top ones that come to mind are:

Rocky (1976)- Boxing movie, Sylvester Stallone, Philly.  Underdog beats champion boxer.
Kramer Vs. Kramer (1980)- classic movie about divorced family
Blade Runner (1982)- classic futuristic dystopian society.  Harrison Ford.
Big (1988)- Tom Hanks as the boy who grows up too soon. 
Forrest Gump (1994)- Tom Hanks again.  This covers the 1950's through the 1990s and all the trends over the years.
Dances With Wolves (1990)-Kevin Costner's Oscar winning movie about a frontier man who becomes captivated by the Native Americans in South Dakota.

So, go to the library or Netflix or the video store (if they are still around) and check out some of these movies to watch with your tween or teen.

Speech, Fear and the Movies

I took my 7th grade son to see "The Kings Speech" yesterday.  Even though it has a "R" rating, it is no worse than Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.  In fact, it is much more mild.  The only reason for the R rating is a couple bad words, that are used to help the King get over his fear of those words.

Something I've realized after watching this movie is that really, everything comes down to self-confidence.  You can have money, power and fame, but without confidence, none of it matters.  That's the essence of the movie. 

It got me thinking about public speaking.  I'm lucky that my son is taking a public speaking elective at his school, taught by another mom who volunteers.  This mom happens to be a national debate champion, which is why I forced him to take the class.  He enjoys it, because she is so funny and so interesting.  I figure middle school is the time to do this, before all of the self-confidence dries up or is stifled out of kids.  In middle school kids are still willing to try new things. 

Plus, these days young adults are so lacking in social graces because they've been glued to their screens and phones and texts, never looking up to see how their words affect others.  In "The King's Speech," the King and his crew were befuddled by the "new" technology of the radio.  Talk about fear!  And they weren't even being filmed!  The King could get away with having a personal coach on the radio, but in today's multi-media society it just wouldn't fly. 

Our children grew up with TV, grew up ON TV (if their parents videotaped them), even put themselves on TV (Youtube).  They don't fear the screen, but they DO fear the real life public speaking.  Hiding behind a screen allows them to be separate from the real experience, where your heart races, you see people staring at you and you get an actual physical, audible response to what you are saying.  That's a lot more responsibility than dashing off a few words on a screen and clicking SEND. 

On another topic, I've started a fabulously fancy pair of gloves from Kristin Nicholas' Color by Kristin.  She really is the queen of color.  I'm also working on a sweater for my 7 year old daughter from this book and using my own colors. 

Color like this is very cheering on the drab, winter days in Cleveland.  Like the bright colors the Canadians paint their barns to ward off the endless white, I choose knitting projects that bring cheery color back into my life.

"Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen and "Is there a link between science and art ability?"

This week was Science Fair week at my kid's school.  I noticed something interesting...a lot of the kids who won prizes were also good artists.  I volunteer teach art part time to the middle school students at their school.  Most of the really good artists had really good science fair projects.  I think there is this assumption that scientists are all left-brain catalogers, but really, many of them think out of the box.  At least the big time ones, like Einstein and Edison.  A science fair project can join many interests, from building, inventing, nature loving and asking questions about the world.  A good artist can put together a great board, with visual examples.  Art is also about process, just like science.  And it is messy!  It seems like science is taught off to the side these days, at least in elementary school, which is kind of sad.

Because my kids have had great teachers, they've embraced science at school.  Both of them won science fair awards, my daughter won 1st last year, my son won 2nd this year.  My husband and I are NOT sciencey-y at all.  Sure, we love nature, the outdoors, and birding and gardening....but I'm really not sure where they get it from.  I'm artistic and bookish, and my husband loves math, music and sports.  I'm glad...my son wants to be an environmentalist.  We need more environmentalists in this world.

In any case, I think the art teachers should talk to the science teachers and talk about how drawing and putting your ideas down on paper should be ENCOURAGED, not discouraged.  Doodling, mistakes and general overall MESSINESS, is how some of the world's greatest scientists made their discoveries.  The discovery of penicillin (mold growth) happened because Alexander Fleming left his petri dish out by the window (in his messiness) and mold grew and voila!  penicillin was discovered.  And let's not even get started on the state of Einstein's hair!

Who doesn't love a science fair project like:  "Which anti-gas remedies decrease gas production?"  Or "Can bubblegum improve your memory?" What curious kid hasn't wondered about the effect of caffeine on plants?  I'd like to water my plants with coffee and see what happens!  And where else in school do you get the chance to build a trebuchet and launch stuff from it, or a hovercraft and get GRADED for it?  These were all actual science fair projects at my kids school this year.  Sadly, these types of events are being erased, downsized, eliminated at even the best schools. 

And now onto Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.   I've refrained from reading what others have thought about it, so as not to inform my opinion.  Well, I was excited when I started the book, but a little exhausted upon finishing it.  It is over 500 pages, which was a little too long.  I read his other book, The Corrections quite a long time ago, so my memory has faded.  But what I do remember is his characters.  In both books, they are generally unlikable.  Maybe this is the "modern novel" for you. 

The novel follows a woman, Patty, who came of age at the tail end of the 70's.  We meet her in high school, follow her through college and meet the two men she loves and then onto her subsequent marriage to one of them.  The conflict that arises from her decision follows her throughout her life.  But this is not the real story of this book.  The book is more about our times, and the characters give voice to the author's ideas and opinions about the world.  Politics, environmentalism, living in a meaningful way....all of these ideas are exemplified by the characters.  One character is an obscure rock star who ironically becomes big later in life.  One character emblifies the progress women made in sports, but sadly, this does not help her much in life.  Another character takes the idea of entrepreneurship in a newly freed Eastern Europe to it's not-so surprising conclusion.  Another character's story explores the uneasy relationship between government, the environment and big business. 

The book was interesting but I got a little bogged down at times by the author's almost too obvious tries to make his characters mouthpieces for his ideals.  Overall, it's worth a read, and you will recognize "types" from people you know throughout the book.

My next book is Great House by Nicole Krauss, a much different read about a novelist writing at a young Chilean poet's desk she inherited that has a mysterious power over those who possess it.  She also wrote The History of Love, a good book that came out a few years ago.

Reading two books at once

Sometimes, I mean ESPECIALLY, when I have a book club deadline, I tend to be drawn to all the OTHER books I want to read.  I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of person that always gets too many books out of the library at once.  I have great ambitions, especially when I perceive that I have alot of time, like vacations, 3 days weekends, you get the picture. 

So for my winter vacation I brought 3 books.....and read exactly NONE.  Then in January, with my book club deadline looming, I started on Muriel Barbery's "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," a best-seller BTW.  Well, it is translated from the French and is a little slow going at first.  So when I was cruising a neighboring library I just happened to see a book I had put on reserve at my local library which I didn't expect to get for several months.  It was Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom," which has been all over the press lately as "the great American novel of our time."  So, I did what any self-respecting book lover would do......I snatched it up immediately.  Clocking in at 562 pages, it is quite a whopper of a book. 

I started it knowing full well that I REALLY should have been completing "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," which had stalled for me.  Unfortunately, "Freedom" was quite addictive.  My husband gently reminded me that I should really get back to "Hedgehog," and surreptitiously snatched up "Freedom" when I wasn't looking!  He had recently read "The Corrections," and had also heard all the press.  Next thing I know, I was racing to finish "Hedgehog" and worried that "Freedom" would be due back at the library and I wouldn't have finished it. 

Well, "Hedgehog" got better quickly, it is quite a philosophical read.  The two main characters are a 12 year old girl living at an exclusive apartment complex in Paris and the concierge, who tries hard to hide her intelligence and love for philosophy and Russian novels.  Enter a mysterious, wealthy  Japanese tenant and the story starts to gel.  Each character's story is told from their point of view with a bunch of chapters on philosophy thrown in.  The ending is quite unexpected, and very cinematic.  You can almost see it as a French art cinema piece. 

So, I finished and hoped my husband would finish "Freedom" quickly, as time was running out.  Thankfully, this library has a 3 week deadline, so I'm well on my way to making it before my deadline.

The third book I found at Anthropologie, an artsy clothing/housewares/cool things-you-can't-find-anywhere-else kind of place.  I got a gift certificate for Xmas.  Since most of the on sale clothing was in size XS, I decided to blow it on books and cool turquoise/sea foam bowls for my retro 1950's kitchen.  One of the books, "The Family Dinner:  Great Ways to Connect with your Kids, One Meal At a Time," looked too interesting to pass up.  The author is Laurie David, who just happens to be the ex-wife of Larry David of "The Larry David Show" fame. 

Basically it is a book about how to make family dinners fun again.  It has recipes, games you can play to keep the kids from running back to their screens, treaties on slow food, meatless Mondays and growing your own food.  It's not preachy, which is nice.  The author interviews all sorts of people, from Maya Angelou (the poet), to Mark Bittman, Mario Batali, Jamie Oliver & Alice Waters (the foodies & chefs), to Arianna Huffington and Lynne Rossetto Kasper (Huffington Post and NPR), to writer Robert Coles (The Spiritual Life of Children),Nora Ephron (film director of "Julie and Julia" and "When Harry Met Sally"), Jonathan Safran Foer, and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma).  They even interview Robert Kennedy, Jr. to ask about how his family did family dinners (a most illuminating section!).  I highly recommend this book. 

We have already used it by having my 7 year old set the table decoratively with fun dishes I never use, and played games like "Stinky Pinky" and the "Once Upon a Time" game, where one person starts a story and you go around the table contributing to it.  We actually spent about a half an hour longer at the table laughing together that night, which is worth the price of the book in my opinion.

Bread and Coffee

 Breadsmith is an bakery that makes bread in the Old Country style.  They also carry vegan baked goods, which works out wonderfully for my dairy and egg allergic son, and the rising number of vegans in Lakewood.  By the way, they are delicious, and I'm kind of picky about that kind of thing (I'm not vegan).

The Root Cafe is the heart and center of Lakewood, where all the artists, musicians, local community organizers and movers and shakers rub elbows with moms with toddlers, teenagers on wi-fi and Albanians playing dominos.  The former Phoenix Coffeehouse, the Root Cafe expanded last year and opened up a vegan and vegetarian kitchen which serves sandwiches, pizzas, platters and yummy baked goods.  Another place my son can go and have a soy hot chocolate and a vegan muffin.  I regularly visit on Friday mornings to discuss kids, the schools, the community and whatever my friends are knitting.  The renovated vacuum cleaner store has been replaced with beautifully handcrafted furniture and tile made by local artisans.  They have local art on the walls, a heavily stocked bookshelf and game area, and original portraits of Root customers screen painted on the bathroom walls.  I LOVE this place.

Two Antique stores from two different eras....

 Deja Vu Antiques sells furniture, art, clothing and rugs from 1900-1940.  Their windows are a work of art.

Cosmic Collectibles specializes in mid-century furniture, often repainted in bright and fun colors.   This is their window display for October (drawn from life on 10-10-10!).  There are always quirky lamps, decorative objects, retro magnets, jewelry, ornaments, even unusual candles.  She always has the wittiest, most colorful windows that never fail to please.