Thursday, January 28, 2016

a night at the museum

In the past week I have read four books and I was fully intending to review at least one of them today but I find that I am too tired to attempt it. I think I might be getting sick. Bleh. I guess I can't expect to go an entire winter season without catching at least one cold. But I wish I could.

Tim and I went to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit at my alma mater last night. The no photography rule was in full swing which was really too bad because a lot of the paintings they had are from his personal collection and I know for a fact that I have never seen a handful of them. My parents live fairly close to the  Norman Rockwell Museum [Stockbridge, MA] and I've visited it more times than I can remember so it was like seeing a bit of home transplanted into Utah - even if they didn't have The Lineman, which is one of my favorites, as part of the exhibit. It was really cool to learn more about his process, how much he used live models and props to achieve the look he wanted. It's amazing to think that he painted over 4,000 pieces in his lifetime when his process leading up to actually painting a piece was so detailed and long. Maybe it's just because of my proximity to his art when growing up but I will always have a special place in my heart for this man and his work.

There was short video about Rockwell's that showed at the start of the exhibit. Tim and I both remarked early on that the narrator seemed rather unexcited about his subject which left us feeling really bad when the credits rolled and we found out that it was Rockwell's oldest son. Woops.


Thursday, January 21, 2016

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As you may have noticed, the blog has undergone a bit of remodeling. I've been feeling the winter blues something fierce these last few weeks, guys. Something had to change and we're not allowed to paint our apartment so the blog gets it! To be honest, I don't often look at my blog page the way you guys see it and I'd forgotten that I'd left it so...drab the last time I changed the design. I'd like to apologize for that. Looking at it reminded me of the winter landscape I see reflected through my office door right now and I don't need to suffer that online as well as in real life.

We're three weeks into the new semester here and I'm finally starting to pick up on my normal routine for the next three months. I'm taking an editing class three times a week and - while my mind is constantly being overwhelmed with terminology and questions about how I've managed to get this far in my life without knowing some really basic grammar rules - I'm really enjoying it. I think Tim might be a little concerned about my new habit of randomly attempting to identify parts of speech in everyday dialogue but a girl's got to practice. It feels good to be learning in a classroom setting again and the silver-lining to my earlier mornings is that by the time the semester ends it'll at least be light outside by the time I wake up! The sun was still up when I left work at 5pm yesterday and I almost cried.

This editing class will be largely project based and we'll be getting our projects via whichever student journal we sign up to be editors for. [There are a lot more student publications on campus than I'd have guessed] I'm apparently insane because I signed up to work for two journals this semester when we only have to do one for the class. I think I'll manage because all I have right now is part-time work and this one class so the work load should be doable. But I might still be crazy. I just couldn't choose between two of them, mostly because I'm really attached to the idea of editing for the student fiction journal but I also need experience with source-checking and the second journal will be better for that.

I'm hoping I really used my best judgement on that decision because right now I'm inclined to take on way more than I normally might in an attempt to get myself out of this funk. For example: while already toting around the Chicago Manual of Style [our "textbook"] yesterday I chose to check eight books out of the library. Eight. [When seasonal depression hits: read.] Guys, I have long arms but even for me a total of nine books is a lot to hang onto. Thanks to the donation of a coworker I was able to use something sturdier than a grocery bag to get them home and I've already started devouring them. Look for some book reviews in the coming weeks. I finished My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson this morning. I'm going to need more distance from it before I can write anything but suffice to say that I highly recommend this short but poignant novel that centers around three Native Alaskan brothers who are sent away to a Catholic boarding school.

Speaking of reviews, the one I wrote for The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook was published on the Children's Book and Media Review website earlier this month. Pop on over to check it out and while you're there sign up to be a reviewer. You get to keep the books they send you for free. I know of no better incentive for bookworms like myself. I've got another review due in March but I'm pretty confident that I'll inhale my library books before then.

Friday, January 8, 2016

thoughts on thumbelina

I watched Thumbelina earlier this week while babysitting for a friend. I've always been fairly familiar with the film but it's been several years since I last actually watched it so my reactions were pretty fresh and I thought I'd share a few with you guys.

I'd forgotten how immediately the story jumps from meeting Cornelius to "Let Me Be Your Wings."

"Let me be your only love!"
I was kind of surprised at how uncomfortable this made me, like, woah girl! You just met this guy three seconds ago. Maybe we should slow down on the whole "will you meet my parents tomorrow?" thing. Or not. Yes, let's teach girls that they should basically agree to marry the first guy that gives them any attention. Super.

Fairy tale relationship pacing aside, though, the longer I watched the better I felt about the whole Cornelius thing - and that wasn't just because I'm crazy envious of his ride, because I am. But here's the thing: Cornelius is the only healthy relationship option in the whole film.

Let's go through the "suitors," shall we? We shall, because it's my blog.

Grundel the Toad
because who wouldn't jump at the chance to marry that? [gags]
Grundel is the perfect animated version of the infatuated, immature man-baby. He tells his mother that he wants to marry Thumbelina based on a two-second encounter that he wasn't actually a part of but he took as romantic interest on Thumbelina's part. Most girls have encountered a variation of this species at a party or bar. We don't know if kidnapping Thumbelina was Grundel's idea but even if it wasn't, he doesn't seem terribly concerned about his mother's actions. He treats Thumbelina like a present or a pet, with the attitude that because he loves her, she is his.

I'm just going to leave this here...
The most innocent-seeming of the suitors, Grundel is also the most obsessive. He tracks Thumbelina through the film in order to "bring her back" because he loves her [and his brothers made fun of him for basically not being able to keep a woman]. Thumbelina's needs and wants don't matter at all to him. He doesn't care that she wants to go home or what her dreams are or the fact that she repeatedly asserts that she loves Cornelius and he's coming back for her. Grundel wants her, so he will have her.

Berkeley Beetle
aw yeah, razzmatazz
Berkeley is a classic self-absorbed dude-bro - big man on campus who's most concerned with his own image and reputation and only cares about other people when they can boost these. He's a performer so he's attracted to Thumbelina's voice. When he begins talking to her, he's smooth and suave, feigning a willingness to do her a favor if she sings for him but when she doesn't immediately comply with his demands the conversation immediately escalates to him giving her orders and then completely by-passing her suggestions by kidnapping her. 

There's a lot of kidnapping in this movie, guys.

Berkeley, like Grundel and his family, makes an attempt to assimilate Thumbelina into his life by making her change something about herself [Grundel's family wanted to incorporate her into their way of life and "maybe make [her] blonde." Berkeley dresses her up like a beetle] But Berkeley only wants Thumbelina as long as she fits in with his life and lifestyle. When her disguise falls apart and, more importantly, when he sees his peers' reactions to her real appearance, Berkeley wastes no time in siding with the crowd that calls her ugly and gives her the boot with a parting "you'll get over me someday."

Thumbelina went along with Grundel and Berkeley [post kidnapping], however briefly, because of their attention and flattery. She almost ends up marrying Mr. Mole, however, out of despair.

Mr. Mole

Does anyone else think of Governor Ratcliffe when you see that picture? No? Just me? Well, moving right along.

Mr. Mole is a selfish, miserly collector that pays Ms. Field-mouse [whom Thumbelina is indebted to for saving her life] to convince Thumbelina [who has just been told that Cornelius is dead] to marry him so he can have her at his disposal as story-teller and singer [like the music box she stands on when she sings the story about the sun] under the guise of "companion." He consistently dismisses and derides her comments about loving the sun and living above ground - she is simply another object for him to collect and horde to himself. And, as Ms. Field-mouse puts it, Thumbelina should be grateful to receive the attentions of a man as wealthy and well-to-do as Mr. Mole, her own needs and wants are unimportant. The idea that she would say no to such a proposal is preposterous because what could anyone need aside from material comfort?

Let's jump back, now, to Cornelius:
wittle bby
Incidentally, if they ever did a live-action version of this film [yes, that would be weird since most of the characters are animals/insects] Chris Pine would have to be Cornelius.
I mean come ON
Anyway. To return to Cornelius, he's the only healthy relationship potential Thumbelina has in the film. Whereas the toads flatter her as a means of keeping her with them, the beetle flatters her only as long as he looks good as a result, and the mole literally can't even see her as a person since he's blind - Cornelius thinks she's beautiful because she is, regardless of her relationship to him or what she might think of him for saying it. The first three want her for her voice - it could boosts the toad family's fame, the beetle's own reputation, and provide diversion for the mole - and while Cornelius first comes across her as a result of her singing it's not the other value he sees in her. On top of that, he's the only one that even freaking listens to her and is invested in doing things for her. He literally sings "anything that you desire, anything at all - everyday I'll take you higher." Of all the suitors he's the only one interested in building her up. She tells him that she wishes she had wings? Well, girl, he'll get you wings because it's something you want in order to be a part of a group like her, rather than something he wants in order to turn her into something/someone else.

So yeah, if my future kids ever watch this movie I'm going to do my darndest to keep the focus off of the time-line issues of fairy tale romances but that flaw won't keep me from helping them learn the good lessons this story has to offer. Every woman out there has encountered at least two of the nasty suitors and a significant portion has had the misfortune to date at least one of them. Teaching girls what a healthy relationship is founded on involves showing them what qualifies as unhealthy/abusive/manipulative as well as what's good. If those bad examples come as animated animals/insects I'm fine with that.