And now we return to our irregularly scheduled programming...

Before Who Dies???

A lot of people have lists of the things they want to do before they die. Maybe all of us do... My dear wife gave it a new perspective this weekend with "They're on my list of See them before they die bands". She had just bought tickets to the local Genesis concert. But it got me thinking of all the aging bands out there who just might be on their last tour. Some have had last chance rumors going for years. Others replace an ailing member now and then as they try to keep it going. I hate to be the advocate of the last-chance desparation marketing of long-time bands, but it sure seems to work.

Healthy Fantasy and Harsh Reality

I remember how I was a daydreamer in grade school. To the extent that my grossly incompetant fourth grade teacher (Hi, Mrs. Stromberg) thought I had a learning problem. She set me up for testing, which I found interesting and did very well at. My teacher wanted to hold me back, the evaluator wanted to move me ahead a grade. So I stayed where I was... The problem was that I enjoyed a good fantasy much more than the reality of 4th grade subject matter.

Recently I saw the movie Bridge to Terabithia. A movie that I thought was much like Pan's Labyrinth in that it takes a good dose of magical fantasy and intersperses it with the harsh realities of bad events. Not in the way that most fantasies like Chronicles of Narnia or Eragon do. But bringing in subjects that are uncomfortable to deal with, even for adults and blurring the lines between the fantasy and real world depictions. Healthy fantasy and harsh realities. Without giving away spoilers that are important to the movies, all four of the movies I mentioned are worth seeing, with special attention to the understanding of kids.