amy loves books

Drive-in Season

This year, apparently, the summer movie box office is a twelve year old boy - a fact that makes us very happy.  

So far - here are our grades and mini-reviews :

Iron Man - 

Overall family grade - A

Honestly, this was the only comic book movie I've ever actually enjoyed.  

Fear Factor - Lily spent one scene in my lap, more out of worry than fear.

Speed Racer

Overall Family Grade - A-

The way this movie was reviewed, was, in my opinion, a travesty.  It recieved an A- cinemascore from real audiences that actually saw the movie.  I can't figure out why so many critics decided to hate on this movie. It's an immensely fun and visually stunning movie.  You leave happy. 

Fear Factor - Not scary at all.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

Overall family grade - B-

Good, not great.  I actually liked it more than anyone in the family.  

Fear Factor - REALLY scary for Lily.  She's seen all three Indiana Jones movies (including the first one on a big screen) and none of them bothered her.  She spent almost the whole movie in her dad's lap and had nightmares about aliens.  

Prince Caspian

Overall Family Grade - B

We were split on this one - the kids did not like it much, but parents did.  I think the theme of having faith in times of God's silence and persecution was beyond them.  I thought it was genuinely moving at times, in a way that the first film never was.

Fear Factor - 

Nobody was scared.

summer

Another year is almost officially over.  I've been intentionally silent here because this year, for the first time, I've been invested in the future careers of two young teachers.  It seemed disingenuous to blog at the time.  

All I will say now is that I am evermore assured that the most important qualities that I can cultivate in my own heart are humility and kindness. 

Today was the last day that I had my ninth grade honors class.  I have loved teaching this class.  Every single one of the kids is spectacular in one way or another.  

There's this one kid that's my token punk rock skater.  I moved him into my class because he was miserably failing in his regular 9th grade class and I thought that maybe, just maybe, he'd do better with me.  He's almost seven feet tall, carries a skateboard, and draws. He never makes it back to class on time after lunch.  It's been a constant struggle with him, because he's smart enough to realize that high school is pretty much a whole lot of bull.

But today he lingered behind when the dismissal bell rang.

He looked at me and said - almost in disgust - This is not supposed to happen.  I hate school. 

He walked past me, and just as he was almost to the door, he clarified his remark. 

A class is not supposed to touch my heart. 

It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.  Without a doubt.

this was not a very good book

But evidently, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson wanted to play dress up. And, really, who wouldn't?

vote vote vote, everybody vote - unless you are a felon, 'cause felons can't vote

So, who would you vote for if you had to base your vote solely on the candidate's favorite movies from their Facebook page?

Candidate A:
Marie, The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard 2, Days of Thunder, In the Line of Fire

Candidate B:
Casablanca, Godfather I & II, Lawrence of Arabia and
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Candidate C:
The Godfather, Casablanca, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Citizen Kane

Candidate D:
Viva Zapata, Letters From Iwo Jima, Some Like It Hot

Candidate E:
The Lives of Others, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, action movies, suspense movies

Candidate F:
Sicko - Michael Moore

Candidate G:
Shawshank Redemption

Or would you go for one of the three candidates that were just too cool (or perhaps boring) to list favorite movies?

Candidate H - is just too busy saving the whole darn world to read books or watch movies - in fact - they'd like you to know that they write their own books.

Candidate I - does not watch movies but says Huck Finn is one of their favorite books and uses a sentence fragment to explain that they are fixing failing schools.

Candidate J - they've got nothing to say. You can tell they don't want to be on Facebook at all.

just waiting for that nation-wide distribution.

mmmm. pancakes.

(via. boing boing)

go green

Are there really girls that show up at the recycling dumpster between 11-12:00 waring a dress and pilling it up because they like to have fun?

Somebody sure hopes there are.

magic

and we were so lucky to grow up in a time when they still sat us all on the floor and showed us films of reel-to-reel projectors in school. i honestly do not know who i would be if i had not seen some of the things i saw sitting cross-legged on the blue school carpet.

the best.

It may be too much to hope that the entire movie will be a homage, but this traileris reason enough to finally show my son Brazil. I only wish I had a big screen.

I really liked Juno

Since I have no movie-watching buddy, I'm still trying to get to where I don't hate seeing movies alone -
but I loved this even though I had to see it all by myself.

It's my favorite currently-out-thing I've seen so far, and the soundtrack is nifty.

hooray!

Last year, we bought the kids the great, transcendent, classic Christmas film Santa Conquers the Martians on DVD from the dollar bins at Target.

It's hard to say what the best thing about the film is - but the theme song is up there. Lucky for you, dear readers, Senor Tonto has covered the song as a little extra-special holiday treat.

Enjoy!!!