Up, up and away!

Love this clever costume idea!
Directions here.
via Black Eiffel

Monsters Inc.

Awww... Kitty! I love this movie. I'd forgotten how much until I happened upon it this afternoon. It was perfect for some blanket stitching company. I was grooving on the crafts today and a favorite animated film made the time fly by.

from IMDB... "Monsters generate their city's power by scaring children, but they are terribly afraid themselves of being contaminated by children, so when one enters Monstropolis, top scarer Sulley finds his world disrupted."

Pixar does a great job of creating a visual masterpiece as well as loading it full of fun little "easter eggs," like the Woody doll, Nemo fish toy, and it's always fun to listen for the voice of John Ratzenberger who makes an appearance in every Pixar film. Boo, however, steals the show with her pouty face, her pure love of Sulley and the trust and joy she has in him and Mike. It's a story about battling fears and embracing change as well as the story of a girl and her "kitty."

Spooky.

I couldn't resist decorating the holiday tree my favorite of the holidays. I was a child in love with dress-up and my joy for costumes has never faded. Also I love black. And I find great solace in cemeteries. And of my very scattered memories from my early elementary years, a song from music class remains... "Stirring and stirring and stirring my brew (sung spookily)" And fall is a great time of year. And the Halloween one is probably the best Charlie Brown special too. God Bless the Great Pumpkin.

Much of this I have collected from year to year, but if you are ever on the look out for great holiday goodies, be sure to check out the Plain and Fancy Antique Mall -- Linda from The Red Geranium there always carries such great stuff.

I even managed to find some ornaments to celebrate my Peanuts Great Pumpkin love!

Health Care Reform.

an excerpt from Roger Ebert's article "Sign the Social Contract"

"I am naive enough to think that universal care is obviously good. I don't say how it should be implemented or regulated. I say we should implement it and regulate it as well as we can, and improve it through our votes and our legislature. This is something we owe to the future. The United States is shamefully the only Western democracy without universal health care. All of the nations that we inspired by our revolution, including France, have moved ahead on us on this.

I am told we cannot trust the government. I believe we must trust it, and work to make it trustworthy. We are told the free enterprise system will sort things out, but it has not. When insurance companies direct millions toward lobbying and advertising against a health care system, every dollar is being withheld from sick people. When it goes to salaries, executive jets, corporate edifices and legislative manipulation, it isn't going to Amy Caudle.

The fallacy of the free enterprise argument is that it assumes corporations are motivated to bring about the public good. Corporations are motivated to maximize profits for shareholders. That is the primary mission of all corporate executives, and they retain their jobs by placing the bottom line and the stock price above all else."

--read the entire article here.

Roller Derby Rocks!

And so does Ellen Page. I just love that girl.

Whip it was a predictable film that pretty much stole its plot from a ton of other movies where the main character is a parent-pleasing child who discovers his/her love is NOT what mom and dad have in mind. The lead character hides the truth from the parents until the night of the big game, dance recital, roller derby and in the end it's a choice both the hero and the parents have to make. Think Billy Elliot. Think Dirty Dancing... Hairspray... Girls Just Want to Have Fun--wait, those are all dance movies... Hmmm... Well, I know there are countless others. However, with a cast like this it really does stand out--Kristen Wigg as Maggie Mahem, Drew Barrymore as Smashley Simpson, Juliette Lewis as Iron Maven and Ellen Page as Babe Ruthless. The roller derby scenes were gritty and playful and funny and painful and generally it made me want to go out, adopt an irreverent nickname and kick some ass...

Ebert gives it 3.5 stars. I agree. Click here to read his review.