louise on the left (coast)

"What was that?" Right now I'm sitting at home, wearing a witch's hat next to a bowl of candy waiting for all those trick or treaters to arrive while my own goblins are off at another Halloween party. That means is this is a perfect opportunity to write my quick un-review of  "Paranormal Activity" which we saw this weekend.    Here's the film's official trailer.   Here's the   q uick Un-Review:   "Paranormal Activity"  was a lot of fun, but not perfect.   And here's the longer, and admittedly more rambling review: Unlike early reviewers claimed, "Paranormal Activity" does not out perform the "Blair Witch Project."  Frankly, for a date-night movie costing over forty bucks to see, I truly wish it had .  The "Blair Witch" film still is a more cohesive and suspenseful film, but this one is a very close second place. In spite of looking forward to  "Paranormal Activity

A little tribute to "Halloween," the way I like to remember it:   Halloween:  Hot cider.  Homemade costumes.  Little old ladies offering fresh, juicy Vermont caramel apples and homemade popcorn balls at the front door. Just some retro, random kids I might have grown up with. Days when all things "scary" were limited to ghosts and goblins, and not bloody, plastic props that look like they fell out of the evening news. This is saying a lot, actually, since I grew up in the Vietnam War era.  Every night the evening news brought to our living rooms relentlessly graphic footage of the war as well the violent protests against it going on here at home.   "Halloween," had not figured out how to market our fears back as well as they do today.   I suppose for some reason they felt it would be in bad taste to show bloody body parts in our front yards with a war going on.  Imagine that?   In any case, thank God that "back in the olden days&

Okay, so, since my dear friend, Prince, already snagged what may be the best spoof of Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are , ( Where The Dirty Hipsters Are) I'm still feeling pretty confident this is a very close runner's up. EVERYBODY POOPS WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Watch:

Okay -- I have had a bit of insider info on this fact, but I sat on it, so to speak, for a while to see if what I'd heard a while back was only grandiose posturing on my "insider's" part: However, alas, it's sad, but all too true.  Eric Schaeffer's shows continue to air despite his nauseating track record in with a new series on Starz called "Gravity" and/or "Failure To Fly" which he's shooting based on the really funny subject of suicide.   Variety announces, here .   This I learned having read Nathan Rabin's funny piece,   Eric Schaeffer sadistically, inexplicably given new television show I don't get it.  I don't get why Larry David is the only comic writer who can gracefully pull off touchy subject matter without pissing people off? I think the answer is due to the fact that, David is a great writer and a comic genius.   Making me laugh about peanut allergies is almost impossible to do, but he succeeded.  Also, har

A loyal "WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE" fan. So after many long months of waiting to see this movie, I finally got a chance to go see a matinee of "Where the Wild Things Are" this week with my daughter and her Brownie Troop. (But, for the record:  I've been eagerly awaiting seeing this movie for months: Click here for my former post .) This week she and her fellow third grader girl buddies all got a full tour of the cinema. They went up to the projection room, each received their own box of popcorn and drink, and to top it all off, each got a "Wild Things" paper crown to wear! Not too shabby, for your average Brownie field trip! I was really excited because I knew this would be a great opportunity to get a broader perspective on how others liked the film. Note* Unfortunately, I don't have a photo here of the girls sitting in a row in their Brownie vests and paper crowns, but you'll just have to take my word that it was pretty adorabl

My favorite children's author is, hands down, Maurice Sendak. However, my favorite of his books is not the hugely famous   Where The Wild Things Are , (yes, the same book that  that Spike Jonze based his hit film on ), although that's a good one.  Instead, my  personal favorite Sendak book is the much lesser known book from 1967 called: " Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More to Life " Introducing "Jennie"  I remember my mother bringing this book home from one of her library conventions.  She's always been something of a genius about spotting great children's literature early on, and always brought gifts from these trips which I still treasure today.  Posters and odd first edition books by eccentric artists, like Edward Gorey (who apparently shared her love of 1920s raccoon coats) and the sweet husband-and-wife team of the D'Aulaires.  She always came home with great gifts, and even better stories to tell.   In any case, ever since th

Okay, so you can look at the link to Photoshop Phriday, here , but only if you PROMISE not to show it to elementary school-age kids. You're only allowed to traumatize older children with these wickedly funny, but undoubtedly grotesque photos. Yes, back "in the olden days" when kids had things like "snow days" and we had crappy TV (maybe three grainy channels) and no brothers or sisters to torture or avoid torture from, I had to entertain myself with what I had lying around. So, on long days like these, I found myself doing arts and crafts with mail order catalogues left around the house. One of my favorite pastimes involved cutting and pasting catalogue images in unusual ways in a little game I am ashamed was called "Freaks." I know. It's wrong. I admit it. But, cut me some slack, I often worked in something of a vacuum at the time. I feel badly now about how upsettingly un P.C. that was. But, my parents gave me books like " Struwwel

Best line from yesterday's press conference with CO sheriff: -- "Heene family a flight risk." Heene family flees conspiracy charges. "Bye, folks! We're off to Mexico to see if we can get our own reality show down there!" Monday update: *Actually, Gawker just posted a story titled " I helped Richard Heene plan a balloon hoax." pretty much proving that this whole dumb thing really was just a publicity stunt. Gee, nobody could see that coming... But, you have to admit that until Wolf Blitzer tripped Falcon up on live TV, the Heene's elaborate prank worked far better than they probably anticipated it would. Which is because they underestimated how gullible we all are. And, folks? Guess what? -- We're pretty gullible.

It's true. The best "kid moment" of the week did not come from six-year-old Falcon Heene, best known as "balloon boy," or I guess after his "Good Morning America" appearance, "barfing balloon boy." No, the best "kid moment of the week" came from fourth grader Tyren Scott, the innocent boy who, right in the middle of the Heene family flying saucer drama, asked our president, "Why do people hate you?" Yep. Apparently, some people were still interested in what the President had to say on his controversial visit to New Orleans that day. Did CNN run the story as it happened? No, they were fixated on balloon boy and totally overlooked and upstaged the best moment of the day, in my opinion. While most top news organizations were chasing a balloon over dirt fields in Colorado, at least a few other news organizations kept their eye on substance. (Also" Not to toot my horn too much, here, but I did post the balloon boy an

I realize this is so "yesterday's news," but -- I felt like it was a pretty funny follow up to the exciting saga of The Heene Family's great adventure.

Well, in my opinion, there's not a thing wrong with Mad Men, except that we only get one heavenly scoop of it a week.  (After all -- it is fiction.) However, this article is interesting, for those of us who can't get enough of the glory that is Mad Men. EDITOR'S CHOICE  NOVEMBER 2009 ATLANTIC What’s wrong—and what’s gloriously right—with AMC’s hit show by  B enjamin  S chwarz Mad About "Mad Men" - The Atlantic (November 2009) Shared via AddThis