Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
This parent says, if you’re responsible for putting together a headline like that, you need to quit and go work for President Obama. Make lots of money so you can retire to a life of nothing-ness after we get rid of Him.
Technically, it’s completely accurate. But it is a lie, produced from an agenda of lying.
Reporter: “What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?”
Sendak: “I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.”
Reporter: “Because kids can handle it?”
Sendak: “If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered…This concentration on kids being scared, as though we as adults can’t be scared. Of course we’re scared. I’m scared of watching a TV show about vampires. I can’t fall asleep. It never stops. We’re grown-ups; we know better, but we’re afraid.”
Reporter: “Why is that important in art?”
Sendak: “Because it’s truth. You don’t want to do something that’s all terrifying. I saw the most horrendous movies that were unfit for child’s eyes. So what? I managed to survive.”
Not having seen the movie, I’m willing to speculate that the content probably resembles the advertising pretty well…I’d bet some money on it…and if that’s not the case, so what?
In my day, we had Jaws. Now that looks just about as cheesy as anything else from 1975, especially if you’re watching it in your living room on a winter afternoon over a bowl of hot buttery popcorn.
But in the middle of the summer when you turned nine? When there’s nothing to do but go swimming? Yeah, you just chuckle all you want at this skinny kid furiously scanning Lake Whatcom for dorsal fins…laugh it up. You be nine years old, go see that movie on a Friday night and go swimming on the following Saturday morning. You do that stuff and then get back to me.
I’m in Maurice Sendak’s corner on this one. A moment of “boo,” and the piping hot tears streaming down the chubby cheeks is testament to the idea that it should never have happened. On what planet? Where is this otherworldly place in which kids have to be bubbly and content 86,400 seconds per day? They don’t even get that in the womb for chrissakes.
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Jaws scared the piss out of me. So did haunted houses. Yet every Halloween my parents had me going to them, and I was willing to go. Scary things are good things. Talk to skydivers, mountain climbers. There’s fear of death there. A movie? Well, I guess there’s the fear of fear there, and that’s a bit too scary for parents.
- Andy | 10/13/2009 @ 08:12Bingo, sir. You know, I’m guessing anyone born after, let us say, about 1980 just isn’t going to get it. You dove into the water or jumped into the water or…whatever…and that shark was THERE. And you’re swinging your head violently this way…and then that way…of course you’re exhausting your air supply faster because your heart’s going thump thump thump.
I think if they didn’t have that scene with the little boy getting gobbled up right there in broad daylight, the effect wouldn’t be nearly so pronounced.
- mkfreeberg | 10/13/2009 @ 09:10In my day, we had Jaws.
Heh. Your generation was a bunch o’ overprotected pansies, too. In MY day we had Boris Karloff. I still sleep with the light on. 🙂
- bpenni | 10/13/2009 @ 11:08Whatever happened to parents learning more about a film, then making a personal judgement call on whether it was appropriate for their particular child’s age and/or level of emotional maturity?
Geesh, doesn’t it say precisely that under “PG-13” in the MPAA’s guide to movie ratings? There’s usually a poster of this sort somewhere at each cinema, and sometimes even on the screen before the film starts. As well as on the Internet.
- cylarz | 10/14/2009 @ 21:24[…] SENSIBLE Maurice Sendak Tells Parents to Go to Hell …. […]
- Steynian 390 « Free Canuckistan! | 10/15/2009 @ 17:14