She's not sick, she's a dancer

Picasso said all children are born artists. But we don't grow out of creativity, according to Sir Ken Robinson. We are educated out of it.

Here's Sir Ken Robinson at TED being very funny and very right about creativity... and the education system that has us believing maths is more important than dance...

Brands narrated by a 5 year old

love is making its way back home

beautiful!

 

it was made with over 12,000 laser-cut pieces of construction paper and was directed by Erez Horovitz. you can see how on Josh Ritter's blog

 

a lot of love was poured into this.

 

it shows.

door mouse snoring

OK. So you probably already saw this but since when can you have too much of a door mouse snoring? (And, exucse me, but did he not just come straight out of Lewis Carroll?)

The best composer you've never heard of

That's what the Wall Street Journal said of Morten Lauridsen.

Dana Gioia (past chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts) describes him as "one of the few living composers whom I would call great."

What does Mr Lauridsen say? 

"There are too many things out there that are away from goodness. We need to focus on those things that ennoble us, that enrich us."

And of his "Lux Aeterna": 

"I didn't want to write an elitist piece that only the very best choirs in the world could perform--I wanted to write a piece that could be within the reach of many people, many performers. It's a piece with a message, and I didn't want to complicate that message with complicated musical language."

Reminds me of what another composer said: "Use ordinary words and say extraordinary things." Arthur Schopenhauer

Beautiful, direct, true, from the heart. Too many things away from goodness. I'm so glad Morten Lauridsen isn't.

(The award winning new documentary about him, "Shining Night" isn't yet scheduled to be broadcast anywhere in the US. The Wall Street Journal: "All he does is compose radiantly beautiful music and lead what appears to be a wholly satisfying life, and these days that's not quite enough to make you a household name. Time was when PBS would have snapped it up. Why not now?")

 

Keep fit for writers

My favorite part: "And rest". Brilliant!

the joy of books

peanuts christmas special

Charles Schulz' Peanuts Christmas Special had to fight to get the Peanuts Christmas Special to be what it is. Everyone told him he was crazy.

Here's what he had to convince network executives at CBS to do:
-- to not use a laugh track 
-- to use actual children for the voices of the characters 
-- and (most crucial of all) to keep the true meaning of Christmas in there and have Linus quote from Luke 2:8-14

The big important personages of CBS all hated the idea and said it would fail. Particularly that Bible stuff.

Thankfully Schultz didn't believe them. And what would it be without that "Bible stuff"?

Sometimes your job isn't just to create something. It's to fight for it.

More here

 

more favorite favorite favorites

a favorite poet and a favorite poem recited by someone who has to got be one of my favorite persons reciting a poem:

Bulbuous Bouffant Vestibules

I adore this it is insane and kind of reminds me of what I sometimes do with my sister/certain select friends--we can do it for hours... we love it...

Interview with children's writer/illustrator Shaun Tan

Author illustrator Shaun Tan recently won what amounts to the nobel prize for children's literature: the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. His book THE LOST THING was turned into a great animation (see below). He also worked as concept artist on animated films including "Wall-E". He was interviewed by SPIEGEL and answered the questions by... drawing pictures.

For instance when asked to introduce himself he drew this:

And when the interview said "At age 37, you have received the highest honor in your field. What's next?"... he answered:

Love him. Very cool. Read it here.

 

proudly clogging up arteries + inboxes...

SPAM was invented in 1937 by Hormel Foods (found at www.spam.com). It is pre-cooked port and ham in a can and was called "Hormel Spiced Ham" originally but the name didn't stick so they held a contest to rename the affordable meat product. The winning name was SPAM.

What does it stand for? 

In Britain it was a popular wartime food and they called it "Specially Processed American Meat" or "Supply Pressed American Meat" (yum). But there are other theories for what the acronym stands for...

"Something Posing As Meat" or

"Spare Parts Animal Meat"

(why not come up with your own??)

Then of course there's the famous Monty Python sketch...

Even after the poor woman tells the cafe she doesn't want spam, can't stand spam, hates spam--it is relentless, it just keeps coming... and that's how we got the name for that other thing that's relentless, that just keeps coming even when we don't want it, can't stand it, hate it--spam in our inboxes.

 

a display of pure joy: saving a Humpback whale from nets

The Big Bad Handbag

It's one of my most favorites of all... it's probably the best of all my books to read aloud... it's definitely the favorite with children and even though it's out of print... I know it'll come back one day. That is, if children have anything to do with it.

It's called Handbag Friends and it's a book disguised as a pink handbag which has not only a song and some little friends inside but also a nasty purply pimply monster called Clasp. This is a little clip/trailer from the book.

I regularly go into public schools to read to children (I'm part of the Learning Leaders author program--a wonderful program called Author's Read Aloud)--and my school is in Redhook Brooklyn. I go and read to the littlest ones. So they're around 4. A room full of four year olds!

And they are amazing. I'm spoiled now. They are the best ever children to read to! First of all they sit through this long book (64 pages, 3 episodes) and join in the song and they help the Handbag Friends fight the monster and they join in all the fun along the way. And then, almost without fail, every single time I get the same response at the end.

A spontaneous group hug.

I'm not sure it gets much better than that for a writer, do you?

Except maybe if it's this. One time we had Q & A after the Handbag Friends story. And a little girl's hand shot up. "Yes," I said, "What question did you have?"

"I love you" she said.

Vid of the Week: The little girl & the poor frail lady

latest vid: God To The Rescue!

Running Away

latest vid for father's day--happy father's day!

hooray for Teachers

teachers teachers hooray for teachers!

OK so my sister is one--and yes I am biased

but what would we do

where would we be 

without them?

they are unsung heroes...

aritcle on this very thing here

Who was the teacher in your life that made all the difference?

Vid of the week: A Little Slave Girl and The Proud General

aurora...

watching this you can't help but wonder... why is it necessary to be so beautiful? you get the feeling it's a virtuoso performance, a fabulous show put on for our benefit...

Like sunsets--these incredible paintings that appear every night... whether we notice them or not...

John Calvin said: "There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice."