louise on the left (coast)

...And so the little pig decided to build a house of bricks He knew the bricks would keep him safe from harm. And this made the wolf so mad.   The wolf howled "Let me  in , let me in!"  "Or I'll huff and I'll puff till I blow your house in!" "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin" laughed the pig. He laughed so hard that he started to cough. Before long the little pig realized he couldn't let the wolf in at all. The little pig couldn't let in the wolf  because was too sick to get out of bed. The wolf repeated his demand, "Little Pig, little pig, let me in!" And the little pig thought to himself. "I can't.  You're already here." Finally, the wolf heard the little pig coughing and the wolf tucked his tail between his legs, and took off running just as fast as he could run. -- The end. Mr. Swine Flu.  H1N1.  It's here. Yes, yesterday we had a visitor in our house.  Mr...

MEDITATION ON THE MODERN DAY PRINCESS Snow White Given that I am the mother of two girls living not far from the real Disneyland, Dina Goldstein's project just struck a nerve with  me. I encourage you to take a look at how this artist looks at fairy tales with a modern twist.  I doubt you'll think of Disney princesses, the same way, again. FALLEN PRINCESSES The Project Fallen Princesses By Dina Goldstein 8 Jun 2009 These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues. The project was inspired by my observation of three-year-old girls, who were developing an interest in Disney's Fairy tales. As a new mother I have been able to get a close up look at the phenomenon of young girls fascinated with Princesses a...

"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 ol...

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...