Childhood Lost- Then Regained

It was first published in 1963. It was written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. With few words and scary illustrations this book was part of my childhood. My mom read it to me, I read it to my brothers and sisters, and now it sits nestled in the bookshelf in my 3 year old son's room. It is a book about breaking away from your parents and dreaming of going off to that place where you ultimately rule everything, where you are the boss. In the end you realize you miss those who most love you...you forget your anger, you lose your 'wildness' and you run into the arms of those who yearn for your return. Maurice Sendak, way back then, touched on the imagination and feelings of young boys everywhere in the world. It was no mistake that this book would become a classic. 

 WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE IS THIS. As a man with a family of my own, when I watched this trailer in theatres, time rolled backwards for that 2 and half minutes. Sitting in that large blue theatre seat was a 7 year old boy again, full of wonder, awe and hope. Old doors of the imagination long sealed and covered in the cobwebs our adult lives were swept clean and burst open to the possibility of wonderous adventure. It was like remembering who you were before you starting being in such a hurry to grow up. The music they chose for the trailer was superb (Wake Up by the Arcade Fire). The emotion of it all poured fourth. As I watched and listened I was reminded of how much time had lessened me, how much less adventure I had in my own life, but how..... it was not too late. Then as if a projection of what I was thinking on the screen it read in simple black and white: Everyone has Hope! I welled up with tears at the prospect that my adult life had not shut out completely that child inside of me like we all need to from time to time. It gave me great joy know know somewhere deep inside we all have a "Max that is a Wild Thing." I applaud Spike Jonze for taking on the incredible task trying to write the screenplay for and direct something that millions of us have already imagined. This film is produced by none other than Tom Hanks, who has a pretty good record for turning out fine films. The Polar Express was a children's book made into a movie by Mr. Hanks and it was fantastic. Here is hoping he does the same with this one. This movie is coming out on October 16th. Here is a link to a couple of trailers for it: http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=--N9klJXbjQ

Here is a High Def One: http://-0-0-1.hdtrailer.net/trailer.php?t=208 I hope you all get out and see this movie, and take your kids (even the one inside you) out to see it!

The Wizard of Speed and Time: A Dumb Kid

In 1979 Mike Jittlov release a short film called, "The Wizard of Speed and Time."

It was a low budget special effects film that featured a superfast wizard in his slick green robes running across the states and giving a hot women a ride to Hollywood, only in the end to be thwarted by a banana peel. There is also a little dance with some inanimate objects and a song I would have thought "Men Without Hats" would have been clamouring to do a remake of.

What I know for sure is........... this wonderful little film, made for about $1500 at the time started my fasination with film and special effects. As a kid I thought what every other kids thinks, "Well that can't be that hard to do". Turns out like most little kids I was wrong. Actually I didn't even have a camera! But hey the seed was planted, I'm years old now, and I finally got the computer, the camera and the odd weekend to play.

What I didn't know about this film was that poster you see to the right contains a ton of subliminal images. See if you can find Einstein, Mickey Mouse, a Chinese Dragon, or a naked woman. Also look closely at the wizards right hand and the energy from which he draws his power. See if you can find a word. The movie itself has a ton as well. Watch it in slow motion or something, you'll catch them.

Here is the link to the movie

Besides all the subliminal imagery and comments on how 'producing a movie you want in Hollywood sucks"...it left me with something way more important....the outlet for an overactive imagination.

Maybe it is tough getting a movie made in Hollywood, but watching this again, just wants me to make something for the sake of making it.

HITLER CHEATS at RISK

It's a lovely Saturday afternoon, my five year old daughter asks me, "Dad what can we do this afternoon?" I take a quick check at the thermometer outside the house...-35 below without the Windchill.

Hmmm....board game, yep that's it. I sort through all the Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers errata from years gone by when there it is...gleaming like a lost treasure in its tin, circular, special collectors edition glory...RISK. The Game of Global Domination.

This one game above all others I hold singly responsible in my youth as the most efficient weapon to exact my small and fleeting superiority against my brothers.

"No one can hold Asia you say? Suck on this......I'm caching for 42 armies, and I have all the territory cards for them too.....so that's 6 extra armies you whiny Bolshevik.."

But I digress.

What I know for Sure is this! Hitler cached in his cards last round and now he's caching again. There is NO WAY he had five cards in his hand, and Einstein is too busy looking at his watch to bother to get in the argument.

Normally I wouldn't complain but he's amassing armies in Siam, and my little girl hold's all of Australia (after all it IS the easiest to defend, even if you are a 5 year old).

So I bring up the fact that he didn't have those cards in his hand last turn, and he just goes on saying that, ".... Southern Europe, and the Ukraine were historically parts of my empire and if you don't like it you can piss off..."

Now sometimes I just let things go, but honestly he was being kind of an ass so on my turn I put all my cached armies on one country and ran them in the tried and true "suicidal spearhead maneuver" - (you know the one, the newbie tactic that always seems to work though it shouldn't cuz by some twist of fate the attacker suddenly starts rolling all 6's).

I topped it off with a sarcastic remark, "kinda like The Battle of the Bulge eh? Except by the looks of this one...you're totally screwed, and my 5 year old daughter is going to eat you alive from Australia when I'm done!"

There was an abrupt silence and then: BLAM! A Pencil right in the shoulder! Freaking Hitler threw a pencil at me! Bastard, what the hell! There was also a lot of what I'm guessing was cussing in German....when my little girl looks at me and says, "is the game over daddy?"

I look at her and say, "Yes little one, Yes, I think it is.....

In the end I guess I should have known it would all end badly. I should have listen to Einstein, he just wanted to play "Kerplunk".

First Post: You have to start somewhere.

 

Yes this is a wrist rest. Usually it lies there attached to the rest of your keyboard unassumingly defending your unappreciative wrist from the nightmarish pains of carpel tunnel. This I know for sure. What I also know, that you probably didn't... is that this wrist rest, (and by that I mean mine and NOT yours) may have in fact created the universe. I say that with some certainty, as logically if my wrist rest created the universe, then yours obviously could not have....there being only one universe and all. I even checked up the definition on http://www.dictionary.com/ and Universe by definition means basically 'everything turned into one"...so if your sitting there thinking that your wrist rest created the universe, then obviously not only do you have some serious scientific and mathematical hurdles to leap, but also basic english has escaped you...OK...moving on. My wrist rest created the Universe! Wonderful! Great! Now that the truth is finally out, don't bother trying to disprove it otherwise quantify meaning in it...............maybe just chill, order in some pizza and watch some reruns of Three's Company or something. After all, look around your life, your home, your job, your old highschool yearbook....obviously the Universe does have a sense of humor