Happy Birthday Alfred Hitchcock. (1899–1980)
For thous of you unfamiliar with this genius, Hitchcock had no morals, he did not believe in them. Still he loved drama and he loved story and though that they did not work with out morals. (To paraphrase) he said that to create drama, you draw a clear moral line and then have a character obviously cross it (in an entertaining fashion). Now, when there is a moral law and you break it, there must be a consequence. You are now waiting for the consequence and that creates drama. It’s funny how, as a creator he mirrored his CREATOR much more than he did as a creation. Still, not all of his films end up on the moral high ground, but he did make some of the best films ever and many of them at least land on the right foot. I suggest you start with films like Vertigo, Rear Window, Notorious and Rope. I would avoid films like “The Trouble With Harry” that were supposed to be funny because he didn’t include the “moral line.” All he accomplishes here is to prove that yes, he needed the moral line to create great film.
If you want to go modern, I would not bother with the remakes but check out M. Knight Shamalon’s “Signs” From the opening music you can tell this is a tribute to Mr. Hitchcock and from the raw genius and strong moral lines, it is a fitting one.

As I listen to the cd, I realize that lots of this is based on books we are reading.

1) Are you going to Narnia (sample)

The 2nd Chapter of.Acts
2) Every Grain of Sand –

 ghost something (Bob Dylan Cover)

3) Bumping up and down (Red Wagon) –

Singable Songs For The Very Young

Raffi

4) Ponies need Shoeing

Glenn Yarbrough –

the hobbit soundtrack ( The Hobbit; Rankin Bass Production)

5) Teddy Bear Picnic

6) Old Mac Donald had a Band

–

Singable Songs For The Very Young

Raffi

7) There aint no bugs on me

Down By The Bay / Brush your teeth

–

Singable Songs For The Very Young

Raffi

9) The Cow by Robert Louis Stevenson – Sean McKinley – Librivox

10) Cows

Philadelphia Chickens

Sandra Boynton / The Seldom Herd

11) Crocodile Fishin’ –

Wild Anamalz

Beau Young

12) 5 Green and Speckled Frogs

Singable Songs For The Very Young

Raffi

13) Less frogs

14) Even less frogs

15) The Witch is dead (Get it through your head) / Something strange is happening to me – )

The 2nd Chapter of.Acts

16) Here Lies A Tree

Three Cheers for Pooh

17) Hosanna in the highest – ? – Scripture Rock

18) Psalm 23

1959

Soul-Junk

19) Aslan is killed

The 2nd Chapter of.Acts

20) Lift Up Your Hearts

Christian Songs

Joy Electric

21) Fox in Sox Rap

22) Ill-M-I  (Soul Junk Cover)

Welcome to Diverse City

Tobymac

23) And So It Goes

Dad

Breakfast With Am

24) Icky

Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing…

Breakfast With Amy

25) Son Dancer

Into The Son

Dakoda Motor Co.

26) All good generals

Into The Son

Dakoda Motor Co.

27) Dandelions

Proof That the Youth Are Revolting

Five Iron Frenzy

28) Undignified

Chris Tomlin

545

29) Ron Paul Anthem

30) New World

Music Inspired By The Chronicles of …

TobyMac

31) Bilbo’s Last Song

The Lord of the Rings

J.R.R. Tolkien

So as you look at this list, you might figure out that some of this came thanks to the ad intensive web page http://www.video2mp3.net/ Then a bunch more were brought to the computer by an Ion TTUSB Turntable with USB Record (This thing works great. It just plugs in to your computer and the program records the audio and splits up the tracks)

And, as you may have guessed, lately we have been  reading:

The Chronicles of Narnia

C. S. Lewis

Lady in the Water

M. Night Shyamalan

The Annotated Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkie

A Child’s Garden of Verses

Robert Louis Stevenson

Pooh Library original 4-volume set

A. A. Milne,

Psalm Twenty-Three

Tim Ladwig

Fox in Socks Book & CD

Dr. Seuss

and of course!

Bilbo’s Last Song

J.R.R. Tolkien

This is a review of the movie True Grit
It answers the questions
What Is It?
How Was It?
Is It Good For Kids?
What About Spiritual Issues?
and
What Is Your Recommendation?

The music is “My Darling Whippoorwill” by Mortal from their album “Wake”
Here is the link for that -http://goo.gl/EDx7F

God’s Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash from America 5
http://goo.gl/PL7Al

True Grit DVD
http://goo.gl/925kz

True Grit Soundtrack
http://goo.gl/6JF1W

Check out the review for

The theme music is “My Darling Whippoorwill” by Mortal from their album “Wake”

Yes, Welcome to Question Entertainment: The Basement Years!

As Promised, here are all the links I talk about in the video:

http://www.liasophia.com/abigailrooney

http://christopherouellette.wordpress.com/speaking/

http://DancingSkunkMedia.com/

PS
The music at the end is “My Darling Whippoorwill” by Mortal from their album “Wake”
Here is the link for that – http://goo.gl/EDx7F

I am looking forward to Dawn Treader and True Grit!

But There are exciting happenings over here. I am getting ready to do my “20 Questions” presentation in Chichester in November. You can see more about that here. It’s a class that teaches you how to understand story and find the teams of a story. Anyone is welcome, but it’s geared toward educators who teach story in any form.

And the book I wrote with Eowyn (My 4 year old Daughter) is just about to come out. You can read more about that right here!

I hope to see you on the 9th of November!

When it comes to children, I think society pressures us to keep there bodies too safe and there minds not safe enough.  Kids are hard pressed to just play anymore. They might hurt themselves running climbing and jumping. They might get wounded if the build something. So what do they do. They can sit and stare at a screen that is Physically Safe fun for them. Most of it is (at the very least)  ”not exactly what I want them to hear but it’s not that bad.” Still the slight message that might have been a forgettable side note becomes drilled onto there head when they watch the same movie again and again. (sometimes multiple times in a week.) When they are not watching it they can  partake in preprogrammed play with action figures and recite the movie they have heard again and again. (safely, on the carped floor, with no small parts to make them choke) The child has no input at all. The TV tells them each character and what the say and how they act. It is much safer mentally to read them lots of books. Then, even if there are pictures they learn to engage their mind to put the story together. You are also reading to them, and thus set the tone and can preempt the parts that they might not be ready for or that might be objectionable. I don’t need to out line all the benefits of reading to your kids and encouraging them to really play. As they jump off things and become real kids they may get bums bruises and scrapes but those will heal  much easier than the latest humanistic philosophy sloped in to the next “family” DVD. We are raising God’s children and preparing them for the future. What sort of adult life  are they prepared for when the thing they best know how to do is to sit in a padded room and stair blankly at the flashing lights?

PS.

Frank Luther put out a popular kids record in the 30′s called “Songs Of Safety.”  It has one song that goes “Johny climbs fences, and Johnny climbs walls and Johnny climbs banisters up in the halls but when Johnny climbs fences and Johnny climbs wall, Johnny is careful so he never falls.

Here is an NPR interview with Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids

Based on a very inventive and fun cartoon from Nickelodeon, The Last Air Bender is an adventure in another world. This world is made up of four nations, Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Some members of each nation can “Bend” or move their element through space. Though there may be plenty of other applications, It’s mostly used as a marshal art to fight others with.

Balance is thrown off when the Fire Nation attacks the other three, in an attempt to rule the word. In the midst of this conflict, To Teens, Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone) Discover the last living Air Bender, 12 year old Aang (Noah Ringer). Aang is not only the last of his people, he is “The Avatar.” A special warrior who has the ability to master all four elements, Bridge the Physical and Spiritual world, Bring balance and understanding, as well as kick major butt with his awesome power.

How was it?
The scope and magnitude of the film raises the level of the film in such a way that the failure of the movie to do anything worth while is simply magnified to a level that begs comparisons to Ed Wood. Right away the acting is on par with a well done Christmas play over at your local jr. high. Unfortunate the dialog complements the acting perfectly. Then there is the story line, it played like a ten year old explains season one of the tv show ( and then this happened, and then that happened..) as a studio exec’s secretary took dictation. The special effects were good but the actual “fighting” was boring and confusing. Where most the fighting was done with element bending, what you see is elongated ti-Che looking dancing with stuff swirling around them. As impressive as the dancing and effects were, I often thought “oh just punch him!”
This is the problem if you only watch the movie, but if you are a fan of the show (or like me, and watched it because you were excited about the movie) you will be even more disappointed. The show is for kids and has goofy humor, but is a lot o fun. Not only is the story very well thought out, the characters are dimensional and interesting. The result is that you care about the characters (even the “bad guys”) and are very interested in the story. All the humor is gone as well as the heart. Aang himself no longer fears being the avatar because he will have to sacrifice his own child hood for the good of the world. (A pain that makes him a real character who you can feel for as well as allowing him to be a fun character.) In the film Aang does not want this duty because the avatar can never have a family. Not only is he a twelve year old boy hoping to grow up to be a family man, its even more ridiculous when you realize he was raised by monks in an all male temple! The result on the movie is it suffers more by comparison. (thus you suffer more as well.)
Just to top everything off, the last image on the screen are the words “written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shamalon. This is killer. This man is the genus behind “Signs.” intact, of his 9 films, one I have not seen, one was silly, six were nothing short of amazing films that rival the films of Alfred Hitchcock, then, the ninth is this atrocity afflicted on film and unleaded on sad audiences with overpriced tickets trying to comfort themselves with thoughts like “maybe he will fix it in the sequel” or “at least I wasn’t watching the new Twilight.” but then you remember that Mr Shamalon had the nerve to include a twilight vampire in the cast, the hurt and sorrow return like flowing water that bends into tears as you just move on to the next question.

Was it worth the extra $3 for 3D?
I think the $3 for 3D was much better spent than the rest of the ticket. The effects were the best part of the film and they looked cool in 3D. I did think the effect was not as flat as Alice in wonderland but not as good as the preview for Voyage o the Dawn treader. There was something weird going on when they has fur hoods on and it got blurry when they panned (which they did a  lot). Maybe if the movie was better, the slight defects in the 3D would detract from the story telling, but with no real storytelling in sight – the 3D helps you focus on the effects.

Is it good for children?
There are some things that may scare small children. Armies are hunting down a 12 year old. But mostly kids will be confused, and fans of the show will be disappointed that “Saka’s not funny and Aang is boring.”

Was it racist?
The tv show has all the characters oriental, though each people group is a different sub set where the group all look like each other but do not look like the other nations or tribes. So, though they are all oriental, you can tell what people group they belong to by there racial features. This seems to me to be a nightmare for casting. So what M. Night has done in this film was to make each nation a fully different race. This is not racist but racial. (If you are unsure of the difference, ask Rhett and link.) Still some point out that the water tribe are heroes and are white while the fire nation are villeins and they are dark. First, the fire nation is is a little more complex that. (That comes through despite the shallow nature of the film.) Further more, the fire nation is Indian! The same nationality as the director / writer / producer. So why would he cast his own race as the fire nation? I do think all the races he picked fit well with the look of the show but the choice was probably just so he could give himself a cameo as a fire nation soldier.

What about spiritual issues?
The show for season one uses Hindu symbolism but in season two starts to get into Hindu/buddhist philosophy as well. Though in the season finally of one, princess Yue is given Christ symbolism when the moon god is killed and she gives her life for his resurrection and the physical salvation Of her people. In the movie the scene is so rushed that the beauty and pain of sacrifice is just laborious. All the buildup that points out the symbolism is reduced to the princess putting her arms out while in close up. Aang himself is a savior of a fictional world with many links to Jesus. In the finally of the second season Aang himself is killed and redirected and along the way strikes a Michelangelo influenced Jesus pose.

 Like Yue, Aang’s symbolism is boiled down to a modification of his back tattoo.
So, even spiritually the show is complex and interesting, and the movie is confusing chunky and unsatisfactory.

What is your recommendation?
This could have been M. Night Shamalon’s “Lord of the Rings,” but ended up his “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” this is a dull trip through cartoon cliff notes is not worth it on any level. Still if you are going to bring your kids to this film or the show you will want to talk about the fantasy world’s philosophy and it’s links to the our worlds philosophies, the truth and the lies.
My real recommendation… Start at M. Night’s “Wide Awake” and keep going until you get to “Lady in the Water.” Just stop before you get to “The Happening” and you will never have to bother with “The Last Airbender.”
(I’ll get back to you after I finish season three and yes I will go to the other two sequels.)

What Is It?

Based on the 80′s hit show, four Desert Storm Vets with a flair wild missions and imaginative strategy, are is framed…. oh just listen to the intro….

 from the 80′s

and the update

The TV show that made Mr. T. a superstar in the 80′s (and prompted me to wear a navy blue t-shirt with a picture of the Mo-hawked mussel man holding kittens) gets dusted off and finally makes it to the big screen after about 20 years of roomers.

How Was It?

This was fun like I remember the show as a 7 year old. (and much much better than what I saw when I watched it this year). The movie is built to be a ride with 4 guys you feel very cool hanging out with and it delivers. This is not going to be anyone’s favorite movie. (Well, except for the Jr. High kid who’s “Favorite Movie” is what ever he saw last where things blow up.) But it will not disappoint people especially if you are going for nostalgia. The characters were the big scene embodiment of the TV show cast. The plans “Come Together” with style, originality and nice dowses of big budget wackiness. (Example: “Are they still trying to shoot down the drones?” “No,” with a deflating sigh “they are trying to fly the tank.” Oh Ya!) The only down side for the fan boy… the theme song. A-Team had a super cool theme song that still holds up today (Though the ending needs work). They use it once during the movie in a very fun escape scene. Then at (SPOILER sort of) the end of the movie, we are brought to the point just before the show begins. So they give us a stylized version of the shows opening, complete with the title spelled out with accompanying machine gun sound effects. The theme comes up!… oh, for one verse, then they go back to the forgettable guitar rock that they have been using (instead of the theme) through the entire movie. It just made what was a fun romp through 80′s camp inflated by big budget effects, a bit of a let down at the end.

What about Political Issues?

They are in Iraq but there is little commented on the situation other than Hannibal shown praising a force of native Iraqi solders. In a hand to hand fight, the villain starts referring to B.A. Baracus as “Barac” though out the fight. I have no idea what they were thing to say by with either situation, but they were there. Finally, and most annoyingly, the plot revolves around an illegal American Money printing press that has been stolen from Saddam loyalists. There are now American Agencies trying to get the press so they can print their own money. In the dialog they say that the problem with this is that the influx of unbacked money will cripple our economy. Of course this is absolutely true the amusingly sad thing is, that’s all the Bank Bailouts were doing, adding more unbacked money into our already struggling economy. Maybe the A-Team will fix that in the sequel.

Was it good for kids?

There is a lot of violence, though very little in the way of gore. They do cuss, though at first, when ever the A-team dropped rough language, it was “bleeped” out by something exploding. The more concerning aspect is “Face.” Instead of just being a con-man with a way with the ladies, He’s a pick pocket con man who beds down all the ladies. At first I though this would be tempered as “His Achilles Heal.” But soon we find out that the opening was just a fluke and through out the film he uses sex to get what he wants. They try to soften this by telling you that he did have an affair where “[she] heard [he] was a player and [she] wanted to play, but then [I] started getting serious but [she] got scared.” This made it even more male fantasy style shallow. The idea is still cool guys should be able to have lots of sex with hot girls with no consequences and what ever benefit he wants. In the movies defense there is very little of the female form exploited.

What About Spiritual Issues?

This movie is very shallow. Still they get into spiritual discussions. Most of it is kept very much on the philosophical end of things. First of all, Hannibal, twice tells us that things happen for a reason. Though there is no mention of why, how, or who is making things happen. When Face and Hannibal first get out of Jail, Face want’s to know if Hannibal “Got Religion” because that would mean that he could not fight. (They were apparently unfamiliar with David in the Bible.) The snag for them comes when BA is broken out. He is seen reading some inspirational book (I did not catch the title) but because of it he can no longer kill. (Spoiler) Later he tells Gives Hannibal a quote from Gandhi about not harming people and Hannibal retorts with a quote about the warrior doing their job, which is also from Gandhi. This results in BA being able to kill an evil guy about to do in Face. Later Hannibal checks in with BA with “How’s the conscience big guy?” All of this is so silly that it’s hard to take serous.

Still Fighting for a cause is shown as noble and morally acceptable. Philosophical though and Religion are put on equal ground, and Gandhi is used as the moral authority. (ie: If it’s ok with Gandhi it’s ok with me.) Also the conscience may be looked at here as the ultimate judge of an action being moral or immoral.

The other thing that bothered me on two levels about the BA spiritual crisis plot line was that it felt a bit like they were making fun of Mr. T. The original BA is himself a known Christian and the show he did never had him kill anyone. (My father in law is fond of saying the A Team expended more ammunition that any other show and never hit anyone.) With all that, it does seem possible they they are making fun of Mr. T. and his Christian faith.

What About Mr. T.?

There is much buzz on the ol’ internet about Mr. T. being the only living member of the original A-Team not to make a cameo in the film. It has been reported that he was boycotting the film because of the excessive violence and sex that was just not part of what the show was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a family show. It turns out Mr. T. has not made any value judgments on the film because he has not seen it. According to his Lawyers, he did not make any of those statements.

(Thus they are probably lies put out by a “well meaning” Christian… we are not supposed to do evil to bring about good.)

It turns out that the A Team was about 4 guys. Three of the guy’s were characters that they developed for the show and cast with actors. So how did they come up with the 4^th? As one of the shows creators put it (I believe it was Stephen J. Cannell) “And Mr. T. drives the van!” So, as Mr. T. himself put it, going on the set of the an A-Team film and not being the one to play B.A. For Mr. T. would be equivalent to “your ex-girl friend saying hay come have dinner with me and my new boy friend.” B.A. Is much more that a part played by Mr. T. it was Mr. T.

This brings us to the second thing that really bugs me about the possibility that this movie is making fun of Mr. T. The show is ¼ based on Mr. T. It just seems to be in bad taste to try to do a respectable take on the A-Team and at the same time, make fun of Mr. T. Point being, if you don’t like Mr. T…. It would be like starting a U2 cover band and making fun of Bono.

What is your Recommendation?

Had they shown Face’s “Flings” as a problem and dropped the “Found Religion?” stuff, I would recommend this as a fun summer film and a great trip down silly TV of the past lane. As it stands, if you are going to “higher the A-Team” you should be ready to take to your kids about the characters moral searches and failings.

Chariots of Fire Theme

Chariots Of Fire

Vangelis

Swing the Mood

Jive Bunny

Boom 

Satellite

P.O.D.

Speed Turtle – Brian Wilson

Blue Moo 

That’s Amore 

Babe

Dean Martin

Mae East 

Dreamer

Continentals

(Steve Taylor)

Runaway 

Hoodwinked

Fleming and John’s Myspace page says:

 You can download a bootleg of their Awesome “Hoodwinked” Soundtrack here

Cutest Lil’ Dragon

Tri-Danielson, Vol. 2

Danielson Famile

Zaceus was a wee little man  

The Word & Song Bible

Stephen Elkins

Ill-m-i 

1956

Soul-Junk

Linus and Lucy 

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Vince Guaraldi Tri0

Charlie Brown 

The End Is Now

L.A. Symphony

Anima Fundi 

Grunt

Sandra/ Boynton

Birthday 

Forefront Records

Kevin Smith

Willy Wonka Theme 

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Danny Elfman

Heaven

Adventures of the O.C. Supertones

O.C. Supertones

Take me to your leader Space Mix (The Space mix is not on the album, It was on a Radio CD I have from college.)

Take Me to Your Leader

Newsboys

Plymouth Rock

SMiLE

Brian Wilson

At this point the “Dashing” was over and this was the sound track to the clean up effort

Little House on the Prairie theme

Little House on the Prairie

Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus

The Chronicles of Narnia

Harry Gregson

Zurgs Planet

Toy Story 2

Randy Newman

Learn your lessons well instrumental–  (Ripped from the dvd)

Godspell

Did I step on your trumpet 

Ships

Danielson

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