Maebius Musing

We just watched a very, VERY awesome movie that I had rented via NetFlix, called Kirikou and the Sorceress.   I did not know anything about this film, but it showed up in a random sample of children’s/international  movies.   All I can say is, I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to step outside the usual Disney films and expose your family to a bit of multi-cultural flavor.

(Trailer is here)
The movie does a great job translating my pre-conceptions of a good African Folktale into an animated movie, and seems to remain really true to the culture.   The colours are bright and vivid in many scenes, which contrasts the barren landscapes shown in some other segments.  The storytelling is very engaging and can easily be broken up into a number of shorter mini-segments if you want to spark off an educational discussion regarding the plot.

The plot, without giving anything away, follows a small baby, Kirikou, who is born fully self-aware and speaking, and learns that an Evil sorceress has cursed the town and eaten all the men.   He goes through a series of adventures to save the various townsfolk, using his wits and child-like love to overcome the obstacles in his path.  Eventually, he confronts the Sorceress through several teachable moments, and important lessons, such as not letting mean people get to you, and understanding that the way someone treats others has more to do with them than those they are hurting.   Kirikou remains child-like and small of stature throughout the film, but is never “childish”.
For very young children, there are a very few slightly disurbing scenes, such as the initial meeting of the Sorceress being kinda scary (similar, I suppose, to the old Disney character, Maleficent, who was not a nice witch!), and later a weasil-like creature hunting smaller chipmonk-ish things.  However, these scenes are not overly threatening, or gory, and the tension is mostly felt through dramatic music and a close-up of angry faces/flashing of teeth.  I’ve seen worse on daytime TV commercials, but the engaging nature of the story means we all got drawn into the world much more than a TV commercial would, and thus jumped a bit at the sudden angry-sorceress scene (it only lasts a second or two). Sensitive children may also need to be spoken to about the fact that wild animals hunting in nature are not always nice, (though there is never any prey killed overtly on-screen), and the situation is presented more as an “environmental hazard” to avoid during Kirikou’s journey.
One thing that probably kept this movie off my radar until now is the fact that it contains…*thematic drums: Dun Dun DuNNNN*…. nudity.    That is to say, the kids of the village run around naked, and the women of the tribe are topless (no adult male nudity depicted, just little kids au naturale).  However, this does not make the movie eroticized in any way.  It merely presents the tribe-folk as they are, and in my mind, is part of the wonderful multi-cultural experience.

The sprogling giggled and commented on how the other kids got to run around “nudie-butts” like we did at Starwood, which opened up an excellent discussion of that lifestyle compared to our current American one.

After the second watching of the movie, our kid also really seemed to connect with a few of the lessons Kirikou learned in the process of helping out the Tribesfolk, who got themselves in trouble by acting selfish or thoughlessly.  The lessons throughout the story are not over-done, and merely presented in an easily believable way, allowing good opportunity to show the issues and offer short discussion of solutions before the characters work things out with Kirikou’s help.  This is benefited by the overall “african folktale” style of the movie, and really does make a great ‘teaching tool’, beyond being a wonderfully entertaining film.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Kirikou_and_the_Sorceress/60000485?trkid=188469

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181627/

No Comments »

We just watched a very, VERY awesome movie that I had rented via NetFlix, called Kirikou and the Sorceress.   I did not know anything about this film, but it showed up in a random sample of children’s/international  movies.   All I can say is, I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to step outside the usual Disney films and expose your family to a bit of multi-cultural flavor.

(Trailer is here)
The movie does a great job translating my pre-conceptions of a good African Folktale into an animated movie, and seems to remain really true to the culture.   The colours are bright and vivid in many scenes, which contrasts the barren landscapes shown in some other segments.  The storytelling is very engaging and can easily be broken up into a number of shorter mini-segments if you want to spark off an educational discussion regarding the plot.

The plot, without giving anything away, follows a small baby, Kirikou, who is born fully self-aware and speaking, and learns that an Evil sorceress has cursed the town and eaten all the men.   He goes through a series of adventures to save the various townsfolk, using his wits and child-like love to overcome the obstacles in his path.  Eventually, he confronts the Sorceress through several teachable moments, and important lessons, such as not letting mean people get to you, and understanding that the way someone treats others has more to do with them than those they are hurting.   Kirikou remains child-like and small of stature throughout the film, but is never “childish”.
For very young children, there are a very few slightly disurbing scenes, such as the initial meeting of the Sorceress being kinda scary (similar, I suppose, to the old Disney character, Maleficent, who was not a nice witch!), and later a weasil-like creature hunting smaller chipmonk-ish things.  However, these scenes are not overly threatening, or gory, and the tension is mostly felt through dramatic music and a close-up of angry faces/flashing of teeth.  I’ve seen worse on daytime TV commercials, but the engaging nature of the story means we all got drawn into the world much more than a TV commercial would, and thus jumped a bit at the sudden angry-sorceress scene (it only lasts a second or two). Sensitive children may also need to be spoken to about the fact that wild animals hunting in nature are not always nice, (though there is never any prey killed overtly on-screen), and the situation is presented more as an “environmental hazard” to avoid during Kirikou’s journey.
One thing that probably kept this movie off my radar until now is the fact that it contains…*thematic drums: Dun Dun DuNNNN*…. nudity.    That is to say, the kids of the village run around naked, and the women of the tribe are topless (no adult male nudity depicted, just little kids au naturale).  However, this does not make the movie eroticized in any way.  It merely presents the tribe-folk as they are, and in my mind, is part of the wonderful multi-cultural experience.

The sprogling giggled and commented on how the other kids got to run around “nudie-butts” like we did at Starwood, which opened up an excellent discussion of that lifestyle compared to our current American one.

After the second watching of the movie, our kid also really seemed to connect with a few of the lessons Kirikou learned in the process of helping out the Tribesfolk, who got themselves in trouble by acting selfish or thoughlessly.  The lessons throughout the story are not over-done, and merely presented in an easily believable way, allowing good opportunity to show the issues and offer short discussion of solutions before the characters work things out with Kirikou’s help.  This is benefited by the overall “african folktale” style of the movie, and really does make a great ‘teaching tool’, beyond being a wonderfully entertaining film.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Kirikou_and_the_Sorceress/60000485?trkid=188469

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181627/

No Comments »

We just watched a very, VERY awesome movie that I had rented via NetFlix, called Kirikou and the Sorceress.   I did not know anything about this film, but it showed up in a random sample of children’s/international  movies.   All I can say is, I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to step outside the usual Disney films and expose your family to a bit of multi-cultural flavor.

(Trailer is here)

The movie does a great job translating my pre-conceptions of a good African Folktale into an animated movie, and seems to remain really true to the culture.   The colours are bright and vivid in many scenes, which contrasts the barren landscapes shown in some other segments.  The storytelling is very engaging and can easily be broken up into a number of shorter mini-segments if you want to spark off an educational discussion regarding the plot.

The plot, without giving anything away, follows a small baby, Kirikou, who is born fully self-aware and speaking, and learns that an Evil sorceress has cursed the town and eaten all the men.   He goes through a series of adventures to save the various townsfolk, using his wits and child-like love to overcome the obstacles in his path.  Eventually, he confronts the Sorceress through several teachable moments, and important lessons, such as not letting mean people get to you, and understanding that the way someone treats others has more to do with them than those they are hurting.   Kirikou remains child-like and small of stature throughout the film, but is never “childish”.

For very young children, there are a very few slightly disurbing scenes, such as the initial meeting of the Sorceress being kinda scary (similar, I suppose, to the old Disney character, Maleficent, who was not a nice witch!), and later a weasil-like creature hunting smaller chipmonk-ish things. However, these scenes are not overly threatening, or gory, and the tension is mostly felt through dramatic music and a close-up of angry faces/flashing of teeth.

I’ve seen worse on daytime TV commercials, but the engaging nature of the story means we all got drawn into the world much more than a TV commercial would, and thus jumped a bit at the sudden angry-sorceress scene (it only lasts a second or two). Sensitive children may also need to be spoken to about the fact that wild animals hunting in nature are not always nice, (though there is never any prey killed overtly on-screen), and the situation is presented more as an “environmental hazard” to avoid during Kirikou’s journey.

One thing that probably kept this movie off my radar until now is the fact that it contains…*thematic drums: Dun Dun DuNNNN*…. nudity.    That is to say, the kids of the village run around naked, and the women of the tribe are topless (no adult male nudity depicted, just little kids au naturale).  However, this does not make the movie eroticized in any way.  It merely presents the tribe-folk as they are, and in my mind, is part of the wonderful multi-cultural experience.

The sprogling giggled and commented on how the other kids got to run around “nudie-butts” like we did at Starwood, which opened up an excellent discussion of that lifestyle compared to our current American one.

After the second watching of the movie, our kid also really seemed to connect with a few of the lessons Kirikou learned in the process of helping out the Tribesfolk, who got themselves in trouble by acting selfish or thoughtlessly.  The lessons throughout the story are not over-done, and merely presented in an easily believable way, allowing good opportunity to show the issues and offer short discussion of solutions before the characters work things out with Kirikou’s help.  This is benefited by the overall “african folktale” style of the movie, and really does make a great ‘teaching tool’, beyond being a wonderfully entertaining film.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Kirikou_and_the_Sorceress/60000485?trkid=188469

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181627/

No Comments »

It is the holiday time of year again, here at Everthorn Farm, and that means COOKIES!

This year we tried one of my family’s recipes for “Sand Tarts”, which is a traditional thing from my grandmother.  Each winter season, my mother and aunt have a mini-contest to see who gets over to Nan’s house first, and then call the other one to say “I ate three Sandtarts! Neener-neener!”

It’s a simple recipe, but was quite a lot of work.  If you’d like to replicate the adventure, see below:

• 2 lbs all-purpose flour
• 2 lbs granulated sugar
• 1.25 lbs (5 sticks) butter
• 3 eggs.

Mix everything up in a big bowl BY HAND.  Apparently the By Hand is extra-important and is repeated twice, underlined, and circled on the original recipe from my Great(x2) Grandmother.

So mix everything together well, toss flour on the table, then roll out ultra-thin. The contest is to get the dough transluscent-thin.  Thick cookies are not Proper Sand Tarts.

Cut out shapes using your favorite cookie-cutters.  We like stars, bells, holly, etc.

Brush the top of cookies with egg prior to baking.

Accent the tops with sprinkles, coloured sugar, or crushed nuts (or a combination)

Cook at 350F until done.  This is highly dependent on the thickness of the cookies.

The best Sand tarts are thin, and get crispy-cooked in about 5 minutes.  Watch for them to just start turning brown around the edges.

Let cool.

Eat! Enjoy!  Brag you your siblings.

Happy Holidays!

1 Comment »

A number of years ago, when my wife and I were a fairly new couple, and long before the sprogling came around, I had surprised her with a felt “advent solstice Calendar”.

It is in the shape of a giant pine tree, with 21 little pockets sewn onto the back, and decorated with cut-out ornaments.  It is meant to be hung up, and begin at the bottom on December 1st, so that the final “sun-like-star” atop the tree is opened on the day of the winter Solstice (or there-abouts).

(Here is a quick video. Sorry for being sideways.  If anyone knows a decent free-ish video editor for Windows, let me know.)
Lately, with a kid with us, it’s becoming a wonderful tradition, and some mornings it is a struggle to delay him rushing to the tree before breakfast.  This, of course, is mostly because each pocket now contains either a small bit of candy, a shiny quarter, or a little toy from those machines at the mall.

Originally, I had used the calendar to leave little romantic notes, trinkets, and such, which was fun. now, it’s a great teaching tool, and we are finding that doing homework or chores can be easily rewarded with “ok, you can open today’s Advent pocket”.

After discussing the whole ‘what is the solstice’, our little one’s been watching the sun set (well, noticing it getting dark) and mentioning that he can’t wait until it gets light again so he won’t have to go to sleep right away.   It’s cute.

Even if you don’t acrobe to the original “Advent holiday” as formulated by the Church-going crowd, it makes a great secular, or other-spiritual tradition due to being easily adaptable, and wide-open to interpretation.  After all, it’s merely a good way to count down the days until a specific holiday.

Our culture seems to get christmas stuff out earleir and earlier each year (I’ll still fight against christmas music before Halloween gets here…yes, I heard it on a store speaker on Oct 30th!!), but the countdown to a holiday is a good way to get into the spirit of the season.    Just keep it within reason.

And while I ponder this, I think I might make something to hang up for Midsummer.  Maybe a big bonfire with felt “flames” to build up each day and circled by StJohns wort flowers?  We’ll see what I whip up this spring. 

4 Comments »

(a day late, seems to be a habit I’m picking up around here)

Nettle has tagged me for a “Six Random Things” meme, so here is my offering. 
http://everthorn.net/Musing/2007/06/eight-random-facts/?p=37

But Maebius, you cry, it is against the rules of blogging to simply link to prior posts as content?!?    I’ll grant you that one.

The rules are:

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1)  I am currently wearing khaki corduroy pants and a black long-sleeved lighter-than-sweater, heavier-than-t-shirt ensemble at work.   Lately,  I’ve been on a black pants and sweater kick, but my black pants have all gotten too dirty and need washing today.  My co-worker commented that he was surprised to see I switched my wardrobe around (black top) since it was becoming my “uniform” to wear black slacks or jeans, or trousers every day for the last two or three months.   Wonder why I dislike jeans and khakis all the sudden?

2) This is the Flory coat of arms/crest.   My surname is of French descent, though my geneology here on this continent is mainly German, PA Dutch, and Scottish background.  The French influence had long since been diluted, though the name carried down the paternal chain before the first settlers landed in America.   My great, great, etc, great grandfather (Joseph J. Flory) rode over on the ship “Hope” according to our research, and arrived in the US in 1733.

(Here is a link to a decent summary, chapter 2 mentions Joseph J Flory.)

3)  While I am right-handed, there are a number of things I do wth my left hand unless actively thinking about switching to the other.  They include:  Eating, Throwing Frizbees, typing most things (I don’t touch-type, and my left finger usually goes as far over as H on the keyboard), and stirring things, as well opening push doors (I pull w/ right, push w/ left).   Some people find this odd.

4)  I have a crazy attraction to pottery.  I’ve long harbored a desire to take a pottery class, but never got the willpower to do it since “I might not create the ultimate masterpiece I have in my mind”.   However,  I could spend days in the corning glass museum, pottery barn, and other stores just looking at the myriad of clay-based creations.   Renaissance Faires and other artisan-friendly craft markets are like a drug. I want to BUY IT ALL, but know I’d never actually use the pieces and they’d take up too much space.  Still, there’s that instinctive urge to look/touch/own anything from the smallest kindergarden-made snake, to elaborate drinking bowls and ceramics.

Strangely, Play-Doh and clay don’t call to me to create things with them.  It’s only fired and glazed items made by others that I vicariously crave the ability to make.   This= /drool

5)  I have a small collection of secret-treasure books.  These are old large tomes from various flea markets, or garage sales and each is thick like a dictionary, but are various subjects like “cooking for parties (from 1970, etc)”, or old faded fictional works I never intend to read.   The reason I call them treasure books are that each has had the inner pages cut out to make a kind of box-storage space between the covers, which looks like a normal book from the outside.    I have about 5 of these, and they are all currently empty since I don’t know what to store inside them. 

6) When I play certain RPG-style video games, I am the type of person who seeks out the “non-standard” methods of playing.   For those who know the genre, I like healers more than warriors, and tend to see how ‘buff’ I can make a healing character.   I play defensively in that I value armor over weapon skill, and enjoy the challenge of playing Final Fantasy 7 with a focus on Red13 and Yuphie, rather than Cloud and Tifa.

In the World of Warcraft MMO, I play a discipline Priest and a survival Hunter, for hte very same reasons.  They are considered “off-spec” and garner a slight amount of derision for not being the most min-maxed characters in a raiding situation.   I don’t raid, I roleplay.   I think this stems from some sort of desire to be “outcast/fringe” in nature.  Hmmm..

Tagging people who read my blog, but since just about every pagan-friendly blog in my feed reader has already DONE this, I’ll have to limit it to Wren of Kwitchery, and Varulv of…er… Varulv’s unknown blog that needs to exist.  

2 Comments »

Warning,  this may be a large post with many pictures so I’m splitting it with a page-break to prevent browser damage.

We carved pumpkins and went Trick-or-Treating this weekend.  Unfortunately, the sprogling has been feeling a bit ill an keeps waking up in the middle of the night with either being sick, or bad dreams, or otherwise “uncomfortable” since last wednesday.  You’ll see some serious dark circles under his eyes in one of the movies.  Poor guy!

Also, this weekend, since the weather was sunny and relatively warm, the kid was determined to have “Boat races at 10:00 in the morning”.  No bad weather, or sleeplessness, or parental diversions were going to prevent boat races.  They HAD to happen, COME ON MOM?!!  So the latter pictures will be slightly unseasonal, but still fun.

Click after the break for full details. Continue Reading »

4 Comments »