Read a Banned Book

"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." - Oscar Wilde

September 30-October 6 is Banned Book Week.  Celebrate by reading one of these frequently banned  young adult and juvenile books:

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  This one's got something for everyone who likes banning books:  homosexuality, suicide, profanity, drugs, teen sex.
2. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson.  This is the true story of two gay penguins who hatch an egg in New York's Central Park Zoo.  Enough said?
3. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  Banned for racism.  Ironic, given that it was one of the first books to raise the question of race inequity.
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.  Language, sexual content, violence, high school gangs.
5. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  Among its sins is the promotion of witchcraft.
6. The House on Mango Street.  This one's a cornucopia for book banners: poverty, ethnicity, violence, and abuse.
7. Where's Wally? by Martin Handford.  A sunbather in one scene partially exposes her breast.
8. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  Witchcraft, crystal balls, and anti-religious subtext landed this one in hot water.
9. Goosebumps by R. L. Stine.  Too scary for kids.
10. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein.  One of the poem's encourages children to be messy and disobedient.  Others deal with the supernatural, i.e. demons and ghosts. 

For more banned juvenile and young adult books, click here. 

  

To purchase these books at Amazon, click on links below:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
And Tango Makes Three
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Chocolate War Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7)
The House on Mango Street
Where's Wally?
Where's Waldo? The Complete Collection
A Wrinkle in Time: 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition
Goosebumps HorrorLand Boxed Set #1-4
A Light in the Attic Special Edition

The Simple Pleasure of Riding a Bike

"Get a bicycle.  You will certainly not regret it.  If you live."--Mark Twain

When the weather's good, like it is in September, I love to ride my bike to and from work.  It's good exercise, it's economical, it's fun, and it's conducive to thinking.  (Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity while riding his bike.)  My bike's a bit big for me, so I've been looking for a new one.  But, now that gas is so expensive, bicycling is hot; as a result bicycles are expensive, ranging from $400 to $700.  The beauty pictured above costs $649.  It was love at first sight for me when I saw it in our local bike shop, but I just can't justify that kind of money.  Not yet anyway.  A few more near misses on the bike I'm riding now, and I just might plunk down the cash.

Here's a list of seven movies that feature--or star--the humble bicycle.

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).  Features Paul Newman and Katherine Ross on a bicycle with Burt Bacharach singing "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head."
2. Breaking Away (1979).  A coming of age story about an Indiana youth obsessed with the Italian cycling team.
3. E.T. (1982).  An alien makes his escape on a flying bicycle.
4. Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985).  O.k. I've never seen this one, but, given its plot, I can't not include it on this list.  Pee-wee loves his bike, which is stolen from him, so he goes on a cross-country adventure to retrieve it.
5. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989).  A Japanese animated film about a young witch who makes her way in the world running a delivery service--by bike, of course.
6. One Day (2011).  A bicycle figures in a pivotal scene in this love story starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.
7. Premium Rush (2012).  This action thriller, considered by some to be the best movie of the year, pits a bicycle messenger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) against a dirty cop (Michael Shannon).

Grimm Disappointment

Grimm was my favorite new show last year, and I couldn't wait for its return.  Alas, so far it's been a bit of a disappointment, and NBC couldn't kill off the series any better if it were trying.  For starters the opening credits changed from a subdued, eerie tone to a harsher opening that includes Hitler as a werewolf (what?!) and a voice-over narrative.  Secondly, Grimm began in mid-August the day after the Olympic closing ceremonies on a new day (Monday instead of Friday).  Did anyone besides me even know the second season had begun?  Finally--and most importantly--not enough Monroe.  Let's face it, Monroe is everybody's favorite Grimm character, certainly everybody's favorite Blutbad.  The reformed big bad wolf makes cuckoo clocks, drives a pristine old VW bug--if you've been reading my blog, you know how much I love old VW bugs--and has fallen in love with Rosalee, a Fuchsbau.  Ironic since Monroe earlier had warned Nick to "count your fingers after shaking hands with a Fuchsbau," as these cunning fox-like creatures are prone to cheating and theft.  (Talk about star-crossed lovers.)

Grimm did not disappoint.  They've toned down the credits, too:  no more Hitler and no more voice over.  Lastly, they're moving Grimm back to Fridays starting September 28, which would have made a more logical date for the second season premiere.  What is it with these networks always mucking up what works?  Why change what works?  It wasn't that long ago that NBIC killed Harry's Law with their "improvements."

Frasier's Listening

Frasier (1993-2004)
Created by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee
Starring Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves, Peri Gilpin, John Mahoney, and Moose (as Eddie the dog)

My son (né 1996) and I watch a lot of movies and television together, though he'll only watch t.v. shows that overlap his life.  So 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) and Frasier he loves, That Girl (1966-1971) and Remington Steele (1982-1987) not so much.  The nineties was the decade of the singles sitcom, most of the Peter Pan ilk, i.e. Friends and Seinfeld, but Frasier, a Cheers spinoff, is a sitcom for adult singles.

Frasier Crane, who lived in Boston when he was a character on Cheers, moves back to his hometown of Seattle, where he lives with his father and works as a radio psychiatrist.  As befitting an adult, everyone on Frasier has a career.  Frasier's brother Niles is a practicing psychiatrist, Daphne a home health care worker, Roz a radio producer, and father Martin a retired cop.  Much of the show's comedy comes from the dichotomy between Frasier and Niles, the two most pretentious conspicuous consumers ever to grace television, and the more down to earth Martin, who loves sports and beer, Daphne, a working-class girl from Manchester, England, and the promiscuous Roz.

Though all of the characters are usually alone or in the wrong relationship, everyone is looking for that one true love.  Frasier sums up the point of their lives in the last episode with his interpretation of the last stanza of Tennyson's "Ulysses" (see below):  "While it's tempting to play it safe, the more we're willing to risk, the more alive we are.  What we regret most are the chances we never took."  All of the characters on Frasier are willing to take big risks to find real happiness, no matter how many times they fall flat, and none are willing to settle for less.  Most of us could learn from that.

From Ulysses:
"It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."



Amazon links:
Frasier: The Complete First Season
Frasier: The Complete Series

Mad Men

Mad Men (2007-)
Created and written by Matthew Weiner
Starring Jon Hamm, Elizabeth Moss, and Vincent Kartheiser
Costarring January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Aaron Staton, and John Slattery

I'm late coming to the Mad Men party.   Nevermind that it's won Golden Globes, been nominated for Emmys, is the most watched show ever on the AMC cable channel, and features one of the hottest actors on the big or small screen:  I'm just now seeing the show for the first time.  Of course, I don't have cable, so I can't watch cable programs until they come out on DVD.  My daughter has been trying to get me to watch Mad Men for quite some time.  Likewise I've been trying to get her to watch Boston Legal.  Finally, we settled on getting together once a month to share DVDs.  First up was Mad Men.  We watched a few episodes from Season One, and now my 15-year-old son and I are trying to cram four seasons in before school starts; we are that hooked.  As my son says, this show is really addictive.

Mad Men is "a term coined in the late 1950s to describe the advertising executives of Madison Avenue.  They coined it."  So begins the cable soap opera, which opens at the dawn of my favorite decade:  the 1960s.  It's no surprise that the ad execs would promote themselves with such a dashing turn of phrase.  Says Roger Sterling, co-owner of Sterling Cooper, the ad agency in which Mad Men is set, ad execs are shameless self-promoters.  All of them save our hero Don Draper (Jon Hamm), who keeps his head down where his personal life is concerned and his past well buried.  Good thing his talent speaks for him.  A veteran of the Korean Conflict, Don is a hard-drinking, smoking philanderer.  Oh, and he has a wife and kids in the 'burbs.  But despite the glamor in this most prestigious of advertising agencies--or maybe because of it--sexism and racism are rampant.  And yet Don's secretary Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) with a little help from Don and a lot of talent manages to rise from lowly secretary to lowly copywriter.  She has plans for her life that include a lot more than the traditional marriage and children.



Amazon links:
Mad Men: Season One
Mad Men: Season Two
Mad Men: Season Three
Mad Men: Season Four

Dancing in the Moonlight (and Starlight)

Take a peak outside at the billions of stars splattered over the black summer night.  If you want a meteor show, the Perseids Meteor Shower is visible from July 23 to August 22, peaking August 13-14.  If you're more of a moon person, the next full moon is August 2.  I try never to miss a full moon, but I don't do as much star gazing as I used to--though I aim to make a point of seeing the Perseids Meteor Shower this year.  These days I spend most summer nights in air conditioned-comfort, but time was when the sultry nights beckoned me.  My friends and I dragged Main with the tunes blasting from the radio, gathered at the Dairy Queen, drove along country roads in a pickup truck, and swam in the lake outside of town, usually in our underwear, though not always.  We did our share of star gazing and dancing in the moonlight, too.  I'll be away from my blog for a couple of weeks for vacation.  Enjoy the video and see you at the end of July.

The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
Vintage (1991)
110 pages
ISBN:  0679734775
Middle-School and High-School Readers

Originally published in 1984, The House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age story set in the Hispanic section of Chicago.  This quick must-read is a series of vignettes, character sketches mostly.  With very few, but very exquisite, words Cisneros paints vivid pictures that breathe life into these characters.  Aunt Lupe, Rosa Vargas, Angel, Vargas, Marin...they step off the pages.  Life is hard for these people; they suffer from poverty, disease, spousal abuse, child abuse, desertion, loneliness, lack of education, but for the main character, Esperanza, whose very name means "hope," there is a chance she'll escape the fate of those around her.  For unlike the other women and girls of her neighborhood, she is free.  She has no men to feed; she is allowed to leave the house, and she is getting an education.  What's more, Esperanza is determined to have a better life, but she promises to come back for those she leaves behind.  You can't help but root for Esperanza to prevail.

To order from Amazon, click The House on Mango Street.