Picture Book Review: And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street: Dr. Seuss

To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Dr. Seuss, Random House, New York, 1964.
This book is an imagination book.  It lets us know what happens when the imagination runs free, but when we talk to our dads we still have to be truthful.  Very entertaining.

Christmas Music Review: Rockapella: Comfort and Joy

This C.D. represents the Rockapella style very well with mouth percussion, low bass, nice melodies backed by intricate harmonies.  There is much to enjoy here.  Particularly, "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree" and "I'll be Home for Christmas" feature bass solos.  "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" also ends with bass lead.  However the cream of this set is a song "Peace on Earth" in which the melody continues, "should begin with me."  Some other notable songs include "Merry Christmas Darling", "Home for the Holidays" and "This Christmas day."  "Little  Mary Snowflake" starts the C.D. and provides an uptempo song.  This is plenty to enjoy here.  There is something weird with kids adding dialogue, which doesn't work for me.

Movie review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Fantastic Beasts is the prequel to the Harry Potter.  It is produced and story from J.K. Rowling.  It features the author of one of Harry Potter's favorite books.  Newt (Eddie Redmayne) is a collector of fantastical beasts, which he keeps in his suitcase (magically expandable).  He has traveled to America to release a Thunderbird in Arizona.  However, first one, and then a few more of his beasts get away and cause problems.  Tina (Katherine Waterston) arrest him and takes him to the Ministry of Magic.  She is a disenfranchised Auror and is trying to get in the good graces of the ministry.  However they don't believe her and send her on her way.  Newt befriends Kowolski (Dan Fogler) who is a no-mag (normal person).  They also meet Tina's sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol) and the four make quite a group, and engage in capturing the creatures.  At the same time an obscurus loss in the city, causing great damage and in fact killing people.   This includes a senator.  The head of the Aurors (Colin Ferrel) is very interested in the obscurus, and maintains an investigation outside of the ministry.  Newt and Tina are blamed for the deaths perpetrated by the obscurus, and sentenced to immediate death.  Only with magical creatures, and Queenis's help are the able to escape.
There is plenty of action here, and the creatures are unique and interesting.  They seem to make this movie.  The antics of different creatures are very well done.  I really enjoyed this film.  by the time this film is over, they must erase the memories of the entire town, including Kowolski who is having a romantic relation with Queenie.  However some memories linger in his subconscious.

Christmas Music Review: Lonestar: This Christmas Time (2000)

This is country music with a country flavor.  The "O Holy Night" is original and fresh with their style.   It loses the triplets familiar in the piano, which I like.  In this case the presentation is dependent more on the vocal.  Their version of "Drummer Boy" is forgettable.  There is not enough percussion which is the trade mark of this song.   "Winter Wonderland" has a more upbeat rhythm and its catchy as a result.  In contrast "The Christmas Song" is sung with acoustic guitar only and was the mellow Holiday feel.  "The Reason for the Season" is a song new to me.  This song really hits the Christmas message beautifully.  This is likely the highlight of this C.D. I found myself singing with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."  This was very well done.  Another song new to me is "This Christmas Time."  It is very well done, and has very good energy as they sing of being together.  they also provide a beautiful song in "If Every Day Could Be Christmas."  This is another song with which i was not familiar and the message is very poignant.  That we open up and give with our hearts, which is a message we should carry with us all year.

Movie Review: Splendor in the Grass

This is a movie of thwarted love, which leads to a two-year stay in a mental institution for Dee Dee (Natalie Wood) and a life settling for for Bud (Warren Beatty).  The are from rural Kansas.  Bud's father (Pat Hingle) is the money behind the town.  When these two were high school lovebirds, there was too much going against the relationship.   Bud always wanted more in terms of sex, but Dee Dee always resisted based on her teachings at home from her mother (Audrey Christie).  Her father was supportive (Fred Stewart) but also in the back ground as they struggle  to get ahead.  They do finally make a killing in the stock market.  On the other hand, Bud's father is dead set against the relationship.  Bud is going to Yale no matter what happens.  He already destroyed the hopes of his daughter Ginny (Barbara Loden) who turns out bad as a result.  Bud's father manages to separate the lovers, and as a result Dee Dee becomes more and more distraught.  Finally at her graduation dance, she is with another boy at the kissing spot, gets away form him and is determined to kill herself going over some water falls there.  Her father sells stock to support her in a mental institution in Kansas.  She is there for two years.  She does come out of her melancholy, and befriends another man there who is studying to be a doctor.  He had had a break down cutting into a cadaver.  Before Dee Dee leaves the hospital he has proposed to her by letter, after he does recover and begins his medical practice.  Bud's father becomes one of those who jumps in New York, after arranging for his son to meet a girl who looks like Dee Dee.  After being released from the hospital, Dee Dee discovers she cannot go with Bud, he is married; she is going to marry the doctor.
Wood does an excellent job acting.  The quiver in her lip when confronted by a school teacher is perfect.  You can see the emotion in her face, and her lead up to the breakdown is well done.  She was nominated for an Academy Award.
There is some brief nudity, as Dee Dee's mother confronts her while she is in the tub.  Dee Dee has an episode as a result, screaming and ending up on the bed.  The movie has a good point in that, sometimes what happens to us does not carry into adulthood.  That is the point behind the poem the use,
 Splendour in the Grass

 What though the radiance
 which was once so bright
 Be now for ever taken from my sight,
 Though nothing can bring back the hour
 Of splendour in the grass,
 of glory in the flower,
 We will grieve not, rather find
 Strength in what remains behind;
 In the primal sympathy
 Which having been must ever be;
 In the soothing thoughts that spring
 Out of human suffering;
 In the faith that looks through death,
 In years that bring the philosophic mind.

-- William Wordsworth

Movie Review: ****^Moana

Here is a Disney movie without a romantic relationship, yet it is beautiful and I was thoroughly entertained.  Moana (Auli'i Carvalho) is given a mission by the ocean, of finding the demigod, Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and carrying the heart of Te Fiti (a goddess of life) which he stole 1000 years before.  This has caused a curse which is slowly spreading to all the islands, and reaches the island of Moana.  Moana is the chief's daughter, and destined to become chief.  Her father (Temeura Morrison) does not like anyone to go beyond the safety of the reef.  However the ocean is calling Moana, and her grandmother (Rachel House) knows of the need for a quest, and that Moana has been chosen.  There is plenty of action, a battle against coconut pirates, and a visit to the monsters below, all to fulfill the quest.  There are even a couple twists at the end, one when they give up, and when when they have to return the heart.  Great fun!  Plenty of Polynesian dance and culture, and the music is also right on.

Picture Book Review: Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book

Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book, Dr. Seuss, Random House, New York, 1962.
I found this book to be delightful with the rhyming words, creative pictures and so many interesting creatures.  This book begins with one yawn, which is contagious and spreads and spreads until zillions of people are sleeping.  This is a must read Dr. Seuss.