Reading Watching, Listening..... June in Review

What I Was Reading in June
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Feed by M.T. Anderson
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Take Joy: A Writer's Guide to Loving the Craft by Jane Yolen
Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry by Jeffrey Wilhelm
Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan
Good Poems by Garrison Keillor

It feels like I've not read nearly enough this month, yet when I look at this list and realize I've managed to complete all of them, except the poetry book. I chose to read a number of these books because they relate to my job as a teacher. Two are young adult books that I didn't love--Feed and Monster. The language in Feed was a bit distracting. The concept was interesting and I think some students might enjoy it. It does tie into all those books and films that are about that rotten and self-destructive future we are headed toward.

The Importance of Being Earnest is one I will teach in the fall. I've seen the recent film version but had never read the play. It was a breezy read and very entertaining. Now, to convince the kiddies.

Take Joy is one I've been reading in an effort to "love the craft." I think I gleaned a few things from Yolen's book, and if nothing else it has rejuvenated my desire to write. So, there you go.

The Wilhelm book had a lot of great ideas and I think he's in the right direction with this one. The thing I felt it lacked was the nitty gritty.. how does this REALLY look in the classroom. Seriously. It's like I wanted a video that demonstrated for me, the reader and teacher, how I could actually use this in my classroom and make it work. I have ideas, but I'm not sure about the balance. Maybe I need to read it again or just jump in and try it. Who knows?

Good Poems is full of 'em. All sorts. I am only a fraction of the way through this book, but I already think I need to return this to the library and just buy the book.

Saving Fish from Drowning was my book club book for June and I have to say I didn't love it. I have always enjoyed Amy Tan's books, with The Kitchen Gods Wife being my favorite. But this book, wasn't quite as good for me. Maybe it's because I didn't really find a sympathetic character in the whole lot of them. It was a bit too much of the Ugly American for me to feel good about the book or about what transpires. It really just bummed me out.

What I Was Watching in June

On TV
Studio 60

In the month when everything else is in re-run, I have to say I was pleased to discover four new episodes of Studio 60. I do enjoy this show. Amanda Peet is great. I wonder if they will be canceled and if that is why the last few episodes didnt air until there was nothing left to air? Hmmmm.... Truly this month is all about the re-run. The good news is that I'll gladly watch The New Adventures of Old Christine again and again. And I find that I can work out well to the tune of Two and a Half Men...

On DVD
Two Family House
Because I Said So
The Good German
Dreamgirls
Freedom Writers
Murder My Sweet (1944)
Houseboat (1958)
Fried Green Tomatoes
Pleasantville
Jeeves and Wooster Season Three
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker

In the Theatre
Knocked Up

One of my favorite accents in the world belongs to Kelly Macdonald. She was on an episode of Alias, appeared in Gosford Park, Nanny McPhee, Tristram Shandy, starred in Girl in the Cafe, and in the film Two Family House. The film was average. I didn't mind it, didn't love it. But I do love Kelly.

Two films I didn't much enjoy were The Good German and Because I Said So. The Good German promised to be interesting and cool with the black and white and period look to it. Emma said to be fair I wasn't fully paying attention. Because I Said So is that Mandy Moore and Diane Keaton, hysterical mom comedy that got better as it went on, but ultimately is one I would warn others against. It featured inappropriate and false conversations between mother and daughters and it seemed poorly edited and contrived through and through.

My quest to see all the Oscar nominated films of the year is the reason I chose to watch The Good German and Dreamgirls. For some reason, I had little urgency to see Dreamgirls but I was wrong. It was great. I don't know a lot about the background of the musical but I am not blind to the Diana Ross and the Supremes association. I thought the costumes and the actors were all about perfect.

In my mind Freedom Writers was slated to become a new "Dangerous Minds" and I wasn't sure I coudl even picture Hilary Swank as a teacher. It turns out I could. I cried a ton while watching this one perhaps because it's so hard to see kids the world has given up on... maybe because I work at an alternative school, maybe because so many people have preconceived notions of what that means. It was a heart touching story but it's also depressing in that it was one teacher and one group of kids and after only a few years she stopped teaching and there are so many more kids and so much room for more teachers like that.

Murder My Sweet is a film version of the Raymond Chandler book--Farewell, My Lovely--I read last month and I liked the book and enjoyed the film too. It had a number of differences and some of them distracted me, but overall, I thought it was well done. Houseboat starred Sophia Loren as a sort of Mary Poppins to a brood of children belonging to Cary Grant. It was charming and rather sweet especially when it turned into more of a Sound of Music plot as far as the "nanny" was concerned.

Fried Green Tomatoes and Pleasantville were both films I revisited. I remembered loving Fried Green Tomatoes and its celebration of friendship and while I wasn't blown away by watching it again, it was a pleasant experience. Pleasantville was too.

I only watched the first episode of Jeeves and Wooster's third season. In this one they travel to New York and it is great fun seeing Wooster's style outside of Britain. It's hilarious, as they all are, and I loved the prohibition bits.

My next two Bond films were The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Both featured the same evil henchman working for differnt bad guys.. Jaws. I was amused by him and his change of heart in Moonraker. It's funny how accustomed one gets to the Bond before you... for me, I was heart set on Sean Connery and I'm not saying that's changed.... but I am quite alright with Sir Roger Moore as well.

I saw Knocked Up at the theatre with Pam a few weeks ago and I wasn't expecting to like it at all. I was totally wrong. It was hilarious. A must see. I was only a bit put out by the unecessary use of all the f-bombs and other bad language. A few other scenes could have been shot or editted in a slightly different way and they could have avoided the R rating altogether. I guess there was a fair amount of drug usage in it, but still. Ultimately I found all the characters quite likeable and the story to be rather endearing. If anything, the sister was the biggest downside to the film.

What I Was Listening to in June
White Stripes
Martin Sexton
Joan Jett

.... and a random sampling from my MP3 player shuffles for June
June 2

What Goes On by Elizabeth Mitchell
We're Gonna Make It by Little Milton
L-O-V-E by Natalie Cole
Town Called Malice by The Jam
Out of the Woods by Nickel Creek


June 20

Not Dark Yet by Bob Dylan
Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance
I Turn My Camera On by Spoon
It's Still Rock N Roll to Me by Billy Joel
Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go by Wham