Genius in Marketing

Not that anyone doesn't already think that Disney has marketing genius, but this trailer really exemplifies it. Someone should have gotten a raise.

Take a Winnie the Pooh movie that will appeal to preschoolers. We already have the original book, the Disney books, and videos on our shelves. And the new movie is just called "Winnie the Pooh". It's not "The Tigger Movie" or some other twist that might pique your interest. Seriously, are we really interested in going to see a Winnie the Pooh movie?

Now, instead of doing a preschool-appeal preview, let's choose an already-familiar, but not too familiar, beautiful, contemplative song by Keane and add it as the soundtrack to the preschool movie. Suddenly, all the adults watching are feeling waves of nostalgia for the silly old bear and it doesn't seem nearly as insane to indulge your favorite preschoolers with overpriced tickets to the theatre. Mmmhmm. Genius.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller Biography

My kids have been very excited about all things Helen Keller lately. It started when I handed Anna Kate an easy reader about Helen Keller. She thoroughly enjoyed the story and had her typical ecstatic response upon discovering that it was a true story - that really is the icing on the cake to her. Another easy reader, and then I pulled out an old favorite that had been my mother's and then mine, Helen Keller's Teacher. Seriously one of my favorite biographies ever. I started to have Anna read it to me, then read it with her, but before long, I was reading it and everyone was listening. I found The Miracle Worker at the library and later we also watched the Nest version of Helen Keller on Anna Kate's birthday. It kind of paled in comparison to the the first one. Apparently many prefer older versions of this movie, but I thought that the little girl that played Helen in The Miracle Worker should have won an Oscar - doesn't seem like that would have been an easy role. So today we actually finished the last two chapters of the book and it occurred to me that there surely must be live footage of Helen, and a search gave is this little video. Enjoy.

Homestead Blessings Giveaway

The new website Raising Homemakers is giving away a 10 DVD set of Homestead Blessings from Franklin Springs Media. There are some serious skills to be learned from this set!

This Raising Homemakers site looks very promising to me. They plan to have a weekly link up for Doorpost's Polished Cornerstones, which I'd been hoping to start with my girls this year.

Franklin Springs Media has the most tempting selection of family DVDs - I pretty much want all of them.

Here's a sneak peak of this set.





So go here and enter to win.

New Moon

I finally made it to the movie! Not too bad. :^) I enjoyed it.

But I'm kind of bothered by the fact that anyone seeing this movie (including myself) will find themselves wishing that Bella would end up with Jacob. I find this disturbing because anyone who's read the books knows that Edward is her true love - and you don't mess with that! (Yeah, I'm the type that was mad at the end of Enchanted for that very reason.)

Good grief.

Oh, and by the way, they played this preview at New Moon. Squeal. Love, love, love. Please don't mess this movie up, people, because it looks like it could be my new favorite.

Fantastic Documentary

Follows the story of two Amish men who come to a true faith in Jesus Christ and are ultimately excommunicated from their Amish churches and families.

Twilight Movie review update

I think that my initial review would make you assume that I hated the movie. As I try to explain better in my edited version, I'd actually like to see it again. It's just hard to review a 3 out of 5 stars movie when comparing it to a 6 out of 5 stars book and knowing what could have been.

Twilight Movie Review

Yes, I was at the midnight showing with my angel of a husband. (He let me read all four books to him too, so he already knew the story.)

So here's my opinion:

1. my initial review seemed a bit harsher than I intended, so I've tried to do better in this expanded version
2. I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars - the book was 6 stars
3. don't take anyone who hasn't read the book - it would just be too weird and corny
4. Edward seriously overacted - sometimes it felt like watching a high school play with really good cinematography
5. Edward is way too miserable, he's, like, frozen in a permanent grimace - he's cool when he lightens up, but that's not nearly often enough - the lighter moments let you see that this actor, who doesn't fit my image of the book's Edward at all, actually could have pulled it off quite well if he would have relaxed a little and understood his character better
6. awesome baseball scene - with my favorite song, no less
7. the rescue scene in Port Angeles was also amazing
8. Jasper is like a freaky mannequin, and I really liked Jasper
9. Alice, Rosalie, Charlie, Emmett, Carlisle, Bella, and Esme are wonderful, so are Billy Black and Jacob
10. in fact, it makes you want to root for Jacob - and I've always pulled for Edward
11. the meadow scene is pathetic, they chopped it all up - and the sparkle effect is seriously lame
12. otherwise, the script adaptation of the book was pretty good, not much to complain about
13. the first biology class is so overacted it makes you laugh
14. it is, unfortunately, not very romantic - I think because the tension of the Meadow scene wasn't resolved as quickly as it was strung out
15. it was fun to see - I'm certainly not sorry that I went
16. truth be told, I'd really like to see it again. I couldn't help being analytical and comparing everything to the book, but I think I would enjoy it more the second time around
17. Brian says Blade was better - haha
    

Our newest favorite youtube

If you're a Star Wars fan, you must click on this.

For those who haven't seen it - the final Twilight trailer

You can view this in high definition at http://www.myspace.com/trailerpark.

Twilight newsflash

Have you heard?! Thanks to the mysterious postponment of the newest Harry Potter movie, Summit films has moved the Twilight movie release date up to November 21! So you local girls revise your calendar - our midnight showing's moved up a few weeks. :^)

Evangelistic Movie

I've heard that this movie was inspired by Way of the Master's "Hell's Best Kept Secret".

We interrupt this vacation journal to bring you:

It's opening day! PluggedInOnline's review. Answers in Genesis' review.

"The Story of Silent Night featuring the Vienna Boys Choir" review

Our family thoroughly enjoyed this film last night. We were blessed to find it at our local library and it is as peaceful and full of the spirit of Christmas as the song itself. We turned of all of the lights except the Christmas tree and lived in the mood of that beautiful Christmas hymn for the space of an hour. It is not flashy or particularly geared for children, but we found it well-suited to watching just before bedtime. Anna Kate and Ethan watched the whole thing, and Rose drifted gently to sleep near the end to the sound of the Vienna Boys Choir. If you'd like a quieter reflection of Christmas, you'll love this.

Becoming Jane

is a new movie based on the life of Jane Austen. Hop over to By Sun and Candlelight where Dawn has more info or visit the official website. Yay!

First African-American Disney Princess!

It's been a long time coming, but the 2-D animated The Frog Princess is in production and scheduled for release in 2009.

Amazing Grace!

This movie was fantastic! We saw it on our date night Thursday. I'd heard lots of good things about it, but it was far better than I expected.

While it is a period piece, it has none of the dull spaces and overacting common to that genre. It is a well-told story of a great man and the terrible evil that he felt called to defeat. It was easy to relate to the charcters. You were allowed to see them in their weaknesses, not just their triumphs, and it made them more real. And the history of the African slave trade was presented as I had never seen it before. It was truly shocking.

Have you ever been to a movie that sought to stay in your head? Asked questions of you? This is one of those movies. It asks, "why are you here?" "What things were you meant to accomplish with your life?" Those are always questions worth revisiting.

• Visit the official movie website to view the trailer and, if you have older children or are interested in more background there is a very high quality study guide that you can download.
• Sign The Petition to End Modern Day Slavery.
• Sign the "No Child Soldiers" Declaration.
• Read the Rebelution's article about Zach Hunter, a teenage abolitionist.
• If you'd like to learn more about the life and Christianity of Wilberforce, you can read the free pdf of Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce an 80 page biography by John Piper. I just enjoyed it. :^)

Abstract Randomness

Why I thought I would ever be able to stick with set ideas or any kind of intelligent flow in this blog is beyond me. How should I ever have expected it to be much different from the rest of my life? :^) My mind flies in so many different directions at all times that I have a hard time focusing on one thing long enough to blog about it!

Have any of you been watching American Idol? (Yes, I read Challies post on it - very valid points.) We've never paid any attention to it before, but we know Chris Sligh, you know, the chubby guy with the big hair. He used to go to our church. We don't know him well or anything, but he would recognize us, and some of our friends used to be in his band. So anyway, we've been watching. And he's done a good job, but I really like that Blake guy's voice. It's beautiful. A lot of those guys have really fantastic voices. (Was that just a "duh" statement?)

Last night I was in need of some fiction and read Lori Wick's The Rescue for at least the third time. All the way through again (mostly at least). And, yes, I stayed up too late doing it. But I've been getting up earlier anyway.

The last three days have been fantastic weather and today the kids were outside all day! It was really weird actually. Being inside with that much quiet. At least when they weren't running in and out.

Ethan finished his kindergarten math book (Horizons), so I need to get first grade. I'm planning on having him do some at least a couple of times a week in the summer too, so perhaps we could even be in second grade math by next school year. He's also reading much better these days.

We watched Johnny Tremain for family movie night this week. Ethan and Anna Kate were pleased. They like colonial history.

Rosie's in the "no" stage so we've decided to put it to good use. Whenever we want to drive Ethan crazy, we just tell Rose to go tell him, "no." She chases him around the house yelling, "no, NO, nooooo!"

I got R.C. Sproul's book, Chosen by God, out of the library and Brian's reading a chapter to me whenever time allows. It's pretty funny, actually. I'll stop Brian with a though, question, or argument springing from what he just read, and it is, inevitably, the very next thing Mr. Sproul addresses. It drives Brian a little nuts. More on that later...

Anna Kate's teeth have been getting more and more misaligned from her thumb sucking. They began to be bent in opposite directions just after her last birthday. I have read and researched many times and many things. After spending most of another day reresearching the thumbguard and finally gaining Anna Kate's approval of the idea (not that I need my daughter's approval to so something, but everything I've read has indicated that it's very effective if the child wants to be helped), I ordered it Tuesday.

Speaking of Anna Kate, I think that I may have her start kindergarten next fall. Her writing is improving and she does half of the stuff with us anyway.

Rose has all of her first year molars and her incisors coming in at the same time. Need I say more?

I gave up on Brian, and finally watched the first disk of A&E's Pride and Prejudice tonight. Love it - so far - but of course I already know how it ends which is the only reason I didn't stay up until 4AM to finish it tonight.

Oh, and I got my hair cut. Off. Mostly. And he likes it. :^)

One Night With the King

In case you've missed it so far, I wanted to remind you that this lovely motion picture about Esther is still in the theatres. The sets are astounding, the story is inspiring, the acting is well done, and the details of the story's personal aspects are handled modestly and gracefully. The book by Tommy Tenney, Hadassah:One Night with the King, is even better (is there ever a movie that's actually better than the book?), and truer to the Biblical record. But I think you will find the movie a refreshing change from Hollywood's usual, and not at all low budget in appearance. I, personally, believe that if we want to complain about the way things usually are, then we ought to support those that try to do things differently. Especially one as well done as One Night with the King.