Our family just got back from seeing Disney Pixar's new movie, "Up," and all I can says is take the kids and go see it! So much fun. (It's rated PG and there are some scenes that might be scary to younger children.)
We had a choice between the 3-D version and the regular version and decided to spend the extra $2 per ticket for the 3-D version, but we didn't find the 3-D effects to be all that spectacular.
So don't worry if the 3-D version is sold out and you are left with the regular version, because more important than the 3-D effects are the terrific Pixar animation and the wonderful story (I laughed! I cried! And I fell in love with Ed Asner's cranky old man.)
Check out the preview below. (Click on the box to get rid of the Google ads that run in the bottom of the trailer. They came with the trailer and I couldn't remove them.) Then go see this movie!
Pardon me if I get a bit misty tonight while watching your last night on The Tonight Show. But it's all your fault. You invited James Taylor to be your last musical guest, and you asked him to sing not "Fire and Rain," not "You've Got a Friend," but (in my humble opinion) the best James Taylor song there is: "Sweet Baby James."
That's the song I sang to Matthew when he was a baby, rocking him as we swayed back and forth on the glider in the nursery on nights when he'd had a bad dream.
That's the song he'd ask for when he was a toddler, when we'd snuggle up and I'd sing to him and rub his back before he fell asleep.
That's the song I sang when he was in preschool, when he always wanted to "match our notes" on the last word: "James," his little face beaming every time.
Now he's 13, and way too cool to want his mom to sing to him. But I'll bet I can talk him into curling up on the sofa with me and watching James Taylor sing a song that has meant so much to both of us for so many years.
And Jay, I'm guessing it means a lot to you, too. Thanks.
P.S. In case you miss the show tonight, here's a gorgeous version of the song performed by James Taylor and Yo-Yo Ma.
Just had to share this with you. Cutest thing I've seen in a long time. Little Paisley is just 15 months old, but she already has great taste in music! Wait till you see what she does at the end.
At the other end of the age spectrum... I was in the grocery store today, and I picked up a copy of Entertainment Weekly with Adam on the cover. The 70-something woman in line next to me looked at the cover and said "Doesn't he just have an amazing voice?" And we launched into a five-minute conversation about how it was too bad that Allison got voted off and about how much we both liked her duet with Adam last week. The woman was in her seventies!
Talk about bringing the generations together! Adam, we haven't seen somebody like you in a long... well, ever, actually. You're an original.
When you're a mom with a 13-year-old boy, it can become harder and harder to find things in common. Sure, I go to Matt's baseball games and cheer him on, I chauffeur him from school to piano lessons to sports practices. I help quiz him on Spanish verbs before a big test.
But it's the little fun things we talked about when he was a kid that can get lost when a child hits the teens — and starts to prefer to share those little daily laughs with friends.
That's why it has been so much fun to get completely caught up in American Idol with Matt this season. "What will Danny sing tonight?" "Wow, isn't Adam amazing?" "Can you believe Allison is only 17?" "Would Adam do a better job than Axel Rose on 'Welcome to the Jungle?'" (I'd love to find out.)
How amazing it is that my teenage son plays The Who when he's hanging out in his room — like I once did. (Still a big fan.) That together we scoured the Web to find sheet music for the arrangement of "Mad World" that Adam sang on Idol? (Matt's now learning to play it on the piano and he's planning to make a CD for me for Mother's Day.)
How lucky am I that, every Tuesday and Wednesday night, Matt hurries to get his homework done so we can snuggle on the couch and watch something fun that has nothing to do with the economy, swine flu, war, politics or even that ever-present upcoming pop quiz in Spanish?
Twitter is everywhere these days. As a parent, I love it. Looking for
links for everything from potty training to college-savings advice? Type in key words on Search Twitter.
Looking to connect with other parents? You'll find plenty of friendly
faces.
And if you'd like to follow your favorite parenting magazines on
Twitter, just start right here:
If you're the editor of a parenting magazine, and you'd like to be added to this list in the future, please drop me a line at kathy@kathysena.com. Thanks!
Is your son studying American history right now? Is your daughter working on the school paper? Do you want your kids to learn about the news of the day? To be informed citizens? Then you obviously care about newspapers. And you have certainly heard about the current decline in circulation, the folding of long-standing papers, the layoffs.
Newspapers are important to this country. And they are hurting right now. Today's guest blogger, TJ Sullivan, is taking doing something unusual to bring newspapers to our attention. Check this out — and please share it with your kids...
Thomas Jefferson did not wish to become a wolf.
Odd as that may sound today considering all the good he did his
country, Jefferson worried about the possibility, so much so that,
while on a trip to Europe in 1787, one of his letters home became a
kind of dissertation about the people he'd seen transformed into "wolves and sheep" along the way.
Cloaked in the garb of government, Jefferson wrote, the leaders of
Europe had managed to divide their nations into two distinct classes --
"wolves and sheep" -- with the ruling class preying upon everyone else.
It was, Jefferson figured, the result of the public's inattention,
an inevitability wherever government was permitted to exist absent a
free press.
"Were it left to me to decide whether we
should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
Those words appeared in Jefferson's letter to Edward Carrington,
a Virginia statesman who was serving as a delegate to the Continental
Congress. In it, Jefferson went on to say that, without newspapers, he
feared the American public would stop paying attention to their
government. Once that happened it was only a matter of time before
Jefferson, the Congress, and the whole of the American government
turned into a pack of wolves preying upon sheep.
Wolves and sheep. You don't have to be a Jeffersonian scholar to comprehend what it means.
Yet, here we find ourselves more than 222 years later in the midst of a newspaper crisis that TIME magazine
says has reached "meltdown proportions," meaning our transformation
into wolves and sheep may soon be a foregone conclusion, and still the
majority of the American public appears oblivious.
Many newspapers have closed. Buyouts and layoffs have decimated once
great institutions of American journalism. And despite all that, some
of the craziest last-ditch efforts you ever could have imagined are
being implemented in the effort to stave off death.
These aren't sane measures. Indeed, had anyone suggested such things
two years ago they'd have been branded a lunatic. But as we approach
panic mode, even remotely plausible ideas seem worth a shot.
TIME magazine's cover story this week, a very thought-provoking
piece written by Walter Isaacson (a former TIME managing editor, and
president and CEO of the Aspen Institute), suggests the solution may be
to charge readers for access:
"Under a micropayment system, a newspaper
might decide to charge a nickel for an article or a dime for that day's
full edition or $2 for a month's worth of Web access. Some surfers
would balk, but I suspect most would merrily click through if it were
cheap and easy enough."
Simple enough, except that, as Isaacson points out, it's not new.
Writers have been charging readers for news since paper put cave walls
out of business, but, despite that, prior attempts to make readers pay
in the wired world of the World Wide Web haven't gone over very well.
Which brings us right back to where we've been for years while, in
the meantime, another newspaper (Denver's Rocky Mountain News) rages against the dying of the light.
No more.
It's time to do something drastic.
It's time to do more than join another Facebook pledge group, or promote a campaign like National Buy A Newspaper Day, or to purchase some overpriced t-shirts emblazoned with the message "Save a journalist, buy a newspaper."
It's time to admit that, regardless of how many readers may be clicking through newspaper content for free on the Internet, newspapers don't matter
to those readers because Jefferson's concerns aren't on their radar.
They've got enough to worry about. They've got jobs of their own.
They've got this much time to read blog X, Y and Z, and click their way
over to the paper and back, or not, or whatever, but there's no
compelling reason for them to stop and think about what would happen if
the newspapers providing all that news ceased to exist.
To the average reader wolves and sheep are little more than characters in a fairy tale.
It's not that Americans don't care. It's simply a matter of human
nature. Until the discomfort reaches the readers -- at which point it
will be too late -- there's no motivation for them to get involved in
finding a solution.
Clearly newspapers can't solve this alone. They've had years.
They're lost. And, at this stage, asking for directions isn't enough to
put them back on track.
Now is the time for newspapers to do something proactive; time for them to demonstrate what life would be like without them.
It's time for every daily newspaper in the United States, in
cooperation with the Associated Press, to shut down their free Web
sites for one week.
Yes. Shut it down. Blank screen. Nothing.
Of course, news would still be reported daily in every newspaper's
printed product. No editor, or reporter or publication would dare shirk
their watchdog responsibilities. This isn't about stopping the presses.
But the Web? People can do without news on the Web for a week. They
won't like it. They'll complain about it. But, that's exactly what has
to happen before they can be expected to care.
Pulling the plug gets their attention.
So, here's the proposal: At the stroke of midnight on Independence Day, Saturday July 4, all daily newspapers ought to switch off their Web sites until Friday, July 10.
Call it "A Week Without a Virtual Newspaper." Call it crazy. Call it
costly. Call it whatever you want, but it's no more drastic a measure
than asking people to work for free.
A move like this puts the crisis where it ought to be, front and
center at the top of every newscast. It makes it impossible for anyone
to deny where the majority of news content comes from, and why it
matters. For without virtual newspapers, what would Drudge report? What would Huffington post? What would Google News and Yahoo News and all those cut-and-paste blogs that get so much of their material from newspapers have to offer if newspapers went away?
Not that there's anything wrong with public affairs blogs, aggregate
news sites, or any other online entity that makes use of newspaper
reports. The point of pulling the plug for one week isn't to harm them,
but to emphasize the origin of all that news content, and why everyone
should care about protecting that source.
Pulling the plug is perhaps the only way to make people outside of
journalism sit up and take notice that this isn't about jobs in
journalism, but American Democracy.
"You’ve seen it too often on the news — a child is found (sometimes too
late) in an abusive home," writes Belkin. "A baby dies in a hot car. A teen shoots up a
school, and it turns out he was ignored or mistreated by his parents.
You wonder — didn’t anyone notice? And why didn’t they say anything?"
ABC’s new show What Would You Do? sets up such situations and watches as average people decide whether to get involved or mind their own business.
When DO you call the police? Speak with a teenager's parents? Notify the school guidance counselor? When are you possibly overreacting and when might you be ignoring a potentially dangerous situation?
As parents, these are tough calls to make — especially when it's tempting to just mind our own business and not risk angering a neighbor, a parent from school, one of our kid's friends...
I'm proud to introduce Lynn Armitage, a professional journalist/editor and a terrific blogger.
Lynn created her blog, A Mad Mom, because "Yep, I’m mad all right. Mad and disgusted by all the destructive influences on our children in this society: rap music, violent video games, sexually provocative t-shirts, slutty kids’ fashions, MySpace, mean-spirited schoolmates, bitchy, spoiled young girls with major BRATtitudes, reality shows like “America’s Top Model” that send the message to girls that they’re fat if they’re larger than a size 2, etc.."
Here's a terrific guest post from Lynn. For more, visit A Mad Mom.
SHOOT THE MESSENGER
OK, moms... I know you’ve heard this song, and I wonder if it
bothers you as much as it bothers me. It’s a very popular, overplayed
tune called “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.
When you first listen to it, it has a cool sound, a catchy tune and the
singer belts it out in a very distinctive voice, I'll give her that.
You can’t help but listen. Then comes the chorus: “All I want to do is... (pop, pop, pop – the sound of guns going off) and take your
mo-nay...” Then you hear a cash- register drawer opening up.
When
I first heard this song, my teen acted out the gun-shooting part with
the thumbs and index fingers on both her hands, as though she was
actually shooting at someone, and then when the sound of the cash
register comes, she pulled down on an imaginary slot-machine lever. I
couldn’t figure out what she was doing and what “mo-nay” was, and she
quickly educated me.
“Mom, it’s ‘money.’ They’re shooting
someone and taking their money.” At the end of the song, the gangsta
gal brings it to a dramatic close by singing, "Some I murder, some I
let go... "
What the HELL??? Is this what record producers
think our children need to sing along to, or for that matter, is this
what these musical geniuses think is going to sell records? Who do they
think is going to give our teens the money to BUY these records,
anyway?? Not me, and I implore YOU not to buy this CD or let your
children download this song to their iPod, either! Since WHEN did it
become popular for our children to emulate and glorify gangsters?
Please,
PLEASE do your children — and the world — a favor and switch the
station every time this song comes on. Either find the Disney Channel,
some soft-rock station or shut the radio off altogether and use this
time to connect with your children in a loving way, rather than the
way Hollywood is trying to reach them — through mainstreamed violence.
We're doing the happy dance here at Parent Talk Today because the nice folks at alltop.com have chosen to feature the blog! Check it out here.
You'll need to scroll down to the bottom of the listing to find us (and we're not complaining!), as new blogs are listed in the order they're posted.
Alltop.com helps you explore your interests by collecting stories from “all
the top” sites on the web. They display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens
of sites and blogs, and they describe themselves as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. Great concept! (Warning: Start nosing around there and an hour will fly by before you know it.)
It's a real honor to be in the company of blogs such as Divine Caroline, iVillage and DailyCandy. Be sure to stop by and check out all the great stuff.
And thanks again to everyone at alltop.com for helping to spread the word about Parent Talk Today!
What a sad day. Tim Russert died this morning at the way-too-young age
of 58. I can't think of any political journalist who did the job with
more integrity, enthusiasm or pure joy.
We're talking about a man I've had Sunday-morning breakfast with for years. My son, Matt, has grown up with Meet The Press
and Russert, gaining a real appreciation for politics and government in
large part because Russert made it all seem so interesting, so exciting.
During the 2000 presidential election, it was a hoot to see
4-year-old Matt — who for weeks had been paying particular attention to
Russert and his ever-present white board — getting excited and saying
“It all comes down to Ohio, Ohio, Ohio!”
Russert's enthusiasm for, and interest in, the upcoming presidential
election was infectious, and I can't imagine him not being a part of it
to the finish. Yes, CNN has John King and his amazing electronic board, but give me Russert and his little white board and wipe-off markers any day.
As a journalist, I thank you, Mr. Russert, for setting the bar high
and for being a great example for young people entering this business.
And thank you for helping my son learn — and care — more about our
country and its government. I'll be thinking of you a lot during this
election season. And on election night, you'll be on the minds of many
of us, because something won't be quite right without you there — even
if it doesn't all come down to "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio."
At Parent Talk Today, we chat about everything that's on your mind as a parent. Grab that Frappuccino and join us for book and movie reviews, videos, tips, a little whining, and a lot of fun. We're the next-door neighbor you wish you had!
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