Winnie the Pooh - Never Grow Old - A Movie, a Book, and a Garden

As a children's book writer, one thing I learned recently is that if your character is recognizable in a side-profile, then you have developed a good character. 

I think Winnie-the-Pooh stands up to this test, based on the imprint from our book on the shelf. Perhaps that is why Pooh is one of my favorite characters, why he's so memorable, and why Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh movie was such a joy to watch with my children when they were young. As they grew, we moved on to reading The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne which had been gifted to us. 

Watching a movie first, then reading the book second is backward for most book lovers, I know. But my children were young when the movie came out, so they had to grow into something called PATIENCE in order for me to read the tales of Winnie-the-Pooh out of the chapter book one by one.

Pooh's stories always come with a quiet surprise. His stories have never grown old, especially when mixed with quotes that make you laugh. Like this one:

"People say nothing is impossible. But I do nothing every day."

And quotes that make you appreciate your loved ones:

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

And quotes that make you think:

"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday."

This particular river philosophy becomes more and more true, the older I get.

So it should come as no surprise that I am truly looking forward to the new movie, Christopher Robin. One review compared it to Hook, which I totally loved seeing with my boys when they were young, so I am sure Christopher Robin and his friend Pooh won't disappoint. 

Perhaps the best preface to the new movie was visiting a local flower garden designed for and inspired by the 100 Acre Wood. We are so lucky to have two local citizens who put time and thought and inspiration to bring a beautiful garden to our community each summer. This one, as always was very much worth the visit. 

I leave you with photos to inspire.

On Jane Austen and the Art of the Duel

So how do you get a man who is prone to watching movies of conquest and conflict, and which often involve victors yielding guns or swords or cannons, to watch Jane Austen's Emma?

Well, it helps if the man comes home late while you're already in the midst of watching another classic, Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, which happens to involve one man yielding a sword, another yielding a gun, and a third yielding a shepherd's hook -- or pitchfork -- depending on the farm chore of the day, and which also happens to involve the death of at least one of them as they all pursue the heart of one woman.

After "the man" respectfully sits through what is left of Hardy's twisty-turny classic, in which some men win and some men lose in various sorts of fashion, it's possible to convince this "significant other" that although Emma does appear to be another match-making, who-will-end-up-with-whom, nail-biter, it will indeed end with a duel at the end. Someone will get hurt. Love is like that, right?

And I suppose I should mention that it especially helps to get the man into believing this potential plot-sequence, if Obi-Wan Kenobi is playing one of the potential suitors in the Emma drama. You know who I'm talking about -- Ewan McGreggor -- who starred as the saber-yielding jedi in Stars Wars 1, 2, and 3 (a.k.a The Phantom Menace, etc)?

And so, when the man-who-shall-go-unnamed commented that Obi-Wan was playing a dude named Mr. Churchill, I went along with it. And when this comment was followed by the question, "Doesn't this movie end in a duel? after one of them starts swinging a sword - or maybe it was a walking stick, I couldn't help but assure the man that yes, yes, it did. Someone will meet their maker. Love is dangerous that way.

It probably also helped that a couple weeks ago he found me watching another well-known and interesting Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. With all the blood and gore,  I suppose he found it tolerable. Personally, I thought the breaks taken by the actors for cups of tea to brood over who-liked-whom between scenes of zombies losing their heads and eyeballs and other body parts were quite charming. And given Jane's early interest in writing satire, I think she might have liked it.

If you love Jane Austen, you can't blame me for taking advantage of a man with a one-track mind when it comes to finding movie entertainment centered around warring parties. I simply stepped in line and wore the hat of a sleeper agent, or a mole, or whatever it is that they call misleading behavior these days. I have no idea. Although I can say I knew well what I was doing, and I was enjoying the process. Plus, I guess if one person in particular got really upset about it, I could easily mention the fact that Winston Churchill, a well-known war person, said Jane Austen's books helped him win his own war. A REAL one.  No joke. You can read about it here.

All in all it was an entertaining evening, filled with entertaining scenes. Do you remember the fish bowls teetering on precarious towers in the garden? They should have given PETA nightmares.

But the best part of the evening was the growing look of confusion on one man's face as the end of Emma neared, and the happy couple on the screen ended up happy, married, with no one dying in the process. "It's over? That's it? No duel??"

Yep. A glorious happy end to another Austen classic, and all the while, winning the hearts of men, one trick, one step at a time.

Fixing Up Fridays

Hello again! It seems like I haven't been here a while. Since it's Friday and I feel like I finally might be coming up for air after a whirlwind tour in stupidity and the details of life, I thought I'd share a video that is akin to how I'm feeling. Plus, it's worth a good laugh.



As for the rest of this post, a few Friday's ago I thought I'd close the week on Friday with a recommendation of a book, a recipe, and a drink. The book is easy. Right now I'm in the middle of The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen. It's a quick read and entertainning for young readers or the young at heart like me. My son read this book recently and liked it, so I thought I'd give it a go. So far, so good. Although I must say, I am starting to develop a pet peeve for books for young readers that have violence in them (one of the kids in this book is murdered within the first few chapters.) I don't get it. Is this really what our literature for young readers has come to? Are we as a society unable to identify with any else? Nevertheless, the story is good. Thus, the dilemma to my thoughts.

Moving on to food. Tonight I shall be travelling to see our local high school basketball team (Mountain Crest) battle it out with another local high school basketball team (Logan High) for some sort of semi-final match. What does one eat when one must travel during dinner time for such occasions? I don't know. Probably nothing, which is why there will be no recipe with this post. On second thought, if you're in rush like me, there is this thing called Bruschetta, which involves topping sliced bread with tomato, garlic, basil and mozzarella, and sticking it in the oven at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. How's that for a recipe that you can literally run with? Here's a pic where I actually had time to make it look pretty. And yes, it is almost waving at you like a flag, because I didn't have time to flip the pic.

The drink? The other day I enjoyed mixing Pomegrante Juice and Lemonade. And no, Chef John, it wasn't fresh-squeezed. :)  (He likes the good stuff, and has reprimanded me on this topic in the past.)  The drink is Quite yummy with a splash of, well.... let's keep it Rated G and call it 7-UP.

Any one seeing Jack the Giant Slayer this weekend?

 

Signs of Summer

The official list.....

1. It may not seem possible that flip-flops on snow could be listed as a sign of summer, but for me, it is. After enduring an unreasonably long, cold, wet spring, my daughter and I found both sun and snow in Colorado over Memorial Day weekend. With a free day to do whatever we pleased before the soccer tournament, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park where they had plenty of snow and 90 degrees of heat--which is why we were wearing flip-flops.

It worked out great, actually, because I'd never hiked on snow in a pair of flip-flops before. And I never would have thought I'd enjoy it. But I did. Not only was it refreshing, but it tickled my feet, which made me laugh as I ran through it on tip-toes....all the better in my opinion.

2. Being chased by kids for a car wash....not that they had the wash-thing down--just the sign, which they found in a nearby field.

3. Boys on rope swings on the Blacksmith Fork River. Oh! to be young again.

4. Baseball......and more baseball. 4 days a week. Need I say more?

5. Movies! All the good ones are coming out. Prince of Perisa was fun. And so was Shrek. And Iron Man 2.

Which leads me to my next topic. I'll be brief....

Titles.

My daughter's friend recently commented that he went to see the movie, Killers. Based on the previews, he thought it was going to be a romantic comedy. Not having seen the previews myself, I thought he was kidding. Afterall, the movie was called, Killers. But no, he was serious. "Everyone wound up getting killed, in all sorts of horrible and different ways," he said. "It was bad. Not what I expected."

?!? Not what he expected !?!

Okay. So maybe the movie delivered what it promised. You can't be any more clear with a title like Killers. But in support of our seemingly clueless friend, I did see the preview after our conversation, and it really does look like the movie is going to deliever lots of laughs. So, until I see the movie myself, I guess I have to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept his surprise. Because it's funnier that way.

And besides, as I've discovered, there are movies that do seem to offer different content that what you would assume you're going to get.

For example, 1408 is not a historical drama (it's a ghost story). And The Secret Life of Bees is not a documentary.

Silly, I know.

One more thing....If America is missing the Statue of Liberty, I saw her in the back of truck on Highway 7, heading south, near Boulder. ... Just passing that information along, in case anyone was wondering.

What were they thinking? (Patriots)

Okay, so I turned off the game and sent the boys to bed, so that I could watch my movie (Nights in Rodanthe--yes, it was good) before it got too far past my bedtime. After all, with 2:38 minutes left and a 13-point lead, and Tom Brady handling things, while Peyton and crew seemed to mangle key plays, I thought all would be well. And so did my boys. They marched off to bed in good faith.

However, I lost all credibility on the football front when my youngest brought in the morning paper and asked through a veil of confusion, "Who lost by one point last night? Was it the Colts?"

He was trying to sound hopeful.

I spun from my desk.

"One point! Did you say, one point! They had been leading by 13! With two minutes left to play!"

But I knew before I even snatched up the paper, deciphered the meaning behind the amazing photograph of Reggie Wayne's catch, that I should not have doubted Peyton. I knew he was capable of amazing come-backs such as this. After all, the announcer had reminded me so on their last failed drive before I clicked off the TV with confidence.

I won't doubt him again. Watching those two drives would have been fun. (Don't tell my sister. She's a true Patriot fan.) Me? I just hate missing out a good game. What was I thinking?

Sights are on the playoffs for sure.

The Proposal, a great movie

My new favorite movie is The Proposal, and I owe all thanks to my daughter who said we absolutely had to watch it (She'd already seen it with a friend, and wanted to see it again--and a third time, as it turned out, by the time she watched it with me.) Anyway, I loved it. I had no idea I would be laughing so much, until the end, when I cried, but only because the ending was a happy one. Even my boys liked it, which was surprising, since they are boys, and The Proposal is a romantic comedy, which is all good, because it means they have soft spots in their hearts and are willing to sit down and enjoy a movie that a mom, or a sister, or a girl would like to watch.

As for the rest of the week, it's work, work, work, a bit of rewriting on a manuscript, and then the SCBWI conference in Salt Lake on Friday and Saturday. I'm looking foward to hanging out with fellow friends and writers Judy Torres, Laura Madsen, Sydney Salter (My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters), Bree Despain (The Dark Devine), Karen Nelson, and many others, and meeting editor Elizabeth Law from Egmont and agent Kendra Marcus, if I'm lucky.

Enchanted

Last weekend I had a choice. . . . Drop the kids at the theatre with their friends and go shopping, or see the movie with them and forget shopping. Hmmmmm. Big Decision.

Movie, . . . or shopping.

Time with kids at movie, . . . or time with self while shopping, errrr, I mean, most likely beating self up in trying to make perfect purchases.

Silly movie . . . one that might make me laugh, . . . or shopping in a harried, rushed, most frustrating way.

(I'm not a shopper--can you tell? Although lately, I've been hoping to somehow transform into some sort of Born-Again Super-Hero Shopper, something along the lines of Wonder Woman, so that I can at least get this year's Christmas list done. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.)

As it turned out, I saw the movie. ENCHANTED, it was, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Silly, yes. Comical, yes. Enjoyable, yes, although reasons for all of those who attended varied.

My 9-year-old son and his friend liked the action of the evil witch and the chipmunk shooting out an unmentionable quite entertaining, though the King Kong theatrics at the end really drew them in. Funny, I didn't catch a King Kong reference until they mentioned it, but as my daughter said, it had a little bit of everything -- Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella . . . and King Kong! Who woulda thunk. I was expecting the movie to stick to only true-blue fairy tales.

My 7-year-old son had the cutest synop of the experience. He said, "All they [the characters] did was talk about love, and sing about love, and act about love. . . . It was all about love!" But nevertheless, even with all that love stuff going on, he said he still liked it. Which really, in the end, is what I LOVED the most.

All in all, the movie was quite Enchanting, for everyone, with only the briefest of jaunts into shopping--after all, a girl's gotta find some way to get dressed for a ball in Manhattan, doesn't she? And not only that, but she even made it look fun. Hmmmm. Maybe I just found my newest role model. Grisella of Andalasia. Dream on. :)