Kick up your heels

I had a great dinner last night with Matt and Frank and am looking forward to connecting with them again on Saturday. Denver just keeps looking better and better. Matt shared this and I had to pass it along:

If anyone is planning one of those cool public dance/crowd art events...call me! I'm your gal. It's one of those things I have to do sometime in my life.

Also, have you seen the previews of the Where the Wild Things Are movie?

Beautiful. Judging from their use of Arcade Fire's Wake Up for the clip, the soundtrack sounds like it will be pretty great, too.

My Funny Valentines

Just a little clip of G and me, doing a little Valentine's Day dance in the rain...

Okay, actually it's Neve Campbell and Domingo Rubio in a beautiful dance scene from the movie The Company. I love this cello & piano arrangement of My Funny Valentine (it's a great soundtrack all around, actually) and it's one of my favorite dance scenes ever. So romantic and the rain makes it even more dreamy. {If I've posted this here before, just pretend I haven't.}

In reality, our Valentine's Day will be spent chaperoning a youth dance. Sigh. Maybe we'll try a few of the ballet moves to show those kids what's what. Now that would be a funny valentine (pa-dum-pum). Our anniversary is on Monday, though, so we'll just celebrate Valeversary then.

* * *

photo via Ali Edwards

Other My Funny Valentine favorites:

Chet Baker

Miles Davis

Elvis Costello

Kronos Quartet (couldn't find links for the last two)

What songs would be on your Valentine's mix?

Best Christmas Pageant ever

To balance out my rant against Mr. Madoff today, I thought I'd share my favorite children's Christmas play scene, from the classic movie The Bells of St. Mary's (starring Bing Crosby as a priest and Ingrid Bergman as a nun). It's a must see; enjoy:

Snow has fallen, snow on snow

What a gorgeous snow this has been! It's snowed on and off, ever since Friday, atypical Utah-like fine powder. Church was cut short today and we inched home through the blowing snow, after Lauren and I played a flute duet and Greg played his bass in a quintet.

Today I'm grateful for that hushed feeling that a snowstorm brings.
And that we contracted with a guy to come and plow our driveway.
And that I can make music with my daughter, who has spent many hours becoming a better flutist than I am.  
For singing along with the radio's You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch and Sleigh Ride at the top of our lungs as we took our modern sleigh ride home.  
And for fantastic movies. Greg and I saw Slum Dog Millionaire yesterday (which, so you know, is rated R for scenes of extreme poverty which would not be appropriate for children to see. Or live in, for that matter.)

and then later watched the wonderful Bella last night at home.

Food for my soul...I highly recommend both.  
I'm also grateful for playing games on the floor of the family room.  
And for writing Christmas cards and pausing to smile at memories and how much we love every single one of these people from all the phases of our lives (and wish we all lived closer to each other still).
And curling up with books in our favorite spots.
Even for tough times that help me appreciate blessed weekends like this one.
I'm grateful for busy present making behind closed doors.

For anticipation, building.

Basic Joy Children's Film Festival

If I could, I would pitch a fantastic open tent in a wide grassy field and, once a week or so, show children's films during the summer. And I'd invite you. Non-Disney, out-of-the-mainstream, old and new treasures that the whole family can love. With snow cones and fresh popcorn and lemonade amidst the fireflies. I don't know, maybe someday I really will do it.

But in the meantime....I'll dream about it right here + share my picks in internet land, a kind of virtual Basic Joy Children's Film Festival. Who knows? Maybe it will be a fairly regular feature here {"fairly regular" gives all sorts of leeway, really, doesn't it?).

You come, too--it's not the same as gathering under a tent together in the twilight, but you could rent one of these when your family is ready for a quiet break this summer (libraries have great DVD libraries and NetFlix pretty much has everything you could want). And shoot me an email if you have a favorite children's movie you'd like to recommend (Matt? Mom & Dad?).

So, for our first premiere pick, I've chosen one that the kids and I watched recently and loved:

Children of Heaven (1997)

A nine-year-old Iranian boy accidentally loses his sister's only pair of shoes on the way home from the shoe repair shop. In order to avoid getting in trouble (or cause more expense for their poor family), Ali and his sister, Zohre, decide to keep it a secret and come up with a solution of their own. They share his sneakers: she wears them to school in the morning, he wears them to school in the afternoon. When a race is announced, Ali decides to enter in order to win one of the prizes, a pair of sneakers.

Set aside any reservations you might have about your kids reading subtitles or being able to identify with a brother and sister in Iran. The director Majid Majidi manages to create a magical, engaging, simple story that is universal. Love between brother and sister. Joy in daily life. Wanting something really badly. Seeing needs beyond your own. Plus, in his review of Children of Heaven, Roger Ebert said, "My guess is that the race and its outcome will be as exciting for many kids as anything they've seen at the movies."

One of my favorite things about this movie is that it is about childhood. Not about kids doing adult things or about animals talking or about superheroes...it's about children navigating their childhoods. This is a great springboard to discussions in your family about comparing your own life with another culture (both similarities and differences), responsibility, family relationships, compassions, and caring for others.

Good for:
about seven and up (or younger, if you don't mind reading the subtitles out loud for non-readers)

Not for:
I honestly can't think of anyone this isn't for.

Questions to get you started talking:
What do the shoes symbolize? What do you think happened after the end? What would you have done if you lost the shoes?

Notes:
~The cinematography has the feel of a 1960s or 1970s film.
~It was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film in 1998 but lost to Life is Beautiful.
~ The movie had a budget of less than $200,000. Amazing!

[edited to say: sorry for the re-posting...technical difficulties on my end]