March 2010 | Page 2 of 2 | Kate's Point of View

Month: March 2010

Reporting on My Obsessions Continues

On March 13, 2010

Book review of “Once Up a Time in the North” by Philip Pullman

I’ve been grateful for these additions to His Dark Materials, packaged as hardbound, bite-size treats intended for a child. They are a way for Pullman to let his obsessed fans continue on journeys with characters they have come to know and love so well.

Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrenison both play leading roles in Once Upon a Tim in the North. The timing of their meeting and adventure is appropriately vague. Did this occur before the adventures spoken of in His Dark Materials? Afterwards? In another world? Doesn’t matter, so don’t get hung up on it.

I’ll admit that I found the story a little confusing. Both man and bear find themselves in a land in the far frozen Arctic amidst corruption. Being both noble souls, they try to do what they think is right and get into a heap of trouble along the way. The full story is short, exciting and a nice rainy-day read. Maybe get the book from the library or borrow it from a friend, though. Regardless of it’s painfully cute exterior and board game (see below), the book doesn’t stand up to Pullman’s others and isn’t a necessary part of your library.

Once Upon a Time in the North shares similar illustrations throughout the story that Lyra’s Oxford had, but instead of a pull-out map, this one has a board game. A board game! I’ll admit to being too scared to opening the board game packaging. Right now it is so sweet and pristine. If I (wo)man up and give the game a go, I’ll let you know if it’s any good. I read the instructions and it sounds wonderful.

Trying to Shake a Fabulous Character

By Kate

On March 10, 2010

In books, reviews

Book Review of “Lyra’s Oxford” by Philip Pullman

When I finish a good book, it can take ages for me to stop thinking about a character, a scene, a feeling I got from the book. (There were a few weeks when I couldn’t go to bed without thinking about vampires — more on that later.) After consuming the His Dark Materials trilogy in the span of only a few weeks, I was a little fixated on Lyra.

Lyra had courage and an adventurous spirit that I admired. Wonder Boy is reading The Golden Compass now and I am truly jealous of him as he gets to meet Lyra for the first time. And if I haven’t been able to shake Lyra, what of the author, Philip Pullman?

When an author writes a book, or a series, or even a short story, he or she lives with the character for some period of time. Perhaps the idea of the character ruminates in their head for years before being expressed on paper. And so it seems obvious that publication would not cause an end to that relationship. In my mind, Lyra’s Oxford is one little scene that Pullman kept replaying and felt he need to get down on paper. Loyal readers, wanting for more, would of course buy it.

Pullman published Lyra’s Oxford after His Dark Materials and it is nothing more the endearingly sweet. My copy of the story is hardbound and no more than 4 inches by six inches. There are illustrations on the pages and a fold-out map. The 49 pages detailing Lyra’s adventure with a witch are a quick read. While in no way as satisfying as any part of His Dark Materials, Lyra’s Oxford does quench a little of your thirst thirst for more of Pullman’s creation.

Hot Yogurt

By Kate

On March 9, 2010

In family / friends

My sisters and I have been following a web site, Groupon.com, watching out for good deals and celebrating the thrifty women we are. A recent coupon purchase got us all five classes at a workout facility. The first one we tried was hot yoga.

Holy moly people!

The three of us pulled our mats to a far corner of the room, hoping to remain mostly unnoticed. The instructor, of course, noticed us immediately. She spoke to use about our skill level (none) and about pacing ourselves (as if any of us had a choice in the matter). The class got off to an okay start, blending my superior abilities in flexibility and balance.

I did my best and was just find with turning real, fancy positions into basic lunches that stretched my leg muscles. The sweat was still pouring off my body so I felt good. At some point I had no idea what was going on so lifted my head to look around. As soon as I did I promptly fell to my butt and watch, slack-jawed, as people around their room balanced on their heads. What was this class? How did we, beginners, end up in a head-balancing class?!?

Overall the class can be graded a FAIL. I pulled something in my lower back, which feels find now but lead to a few embarrassing tears in class. (Despite what my sisters might say now that I’ve told them I’ve cried, you could not tell I was crying because the tears blended right in with the sweat droplets.) The day following the class sister 1 had sore hips, sister 2 and sore neck and I had a sore butt and ribs.

We’ve quickly ruled out hot yoga. But the thing is, I was intrigued. And I will try again. Obviously the next attempt will be a beginners lass, which would be MUCH more appropriate. And then maybe I can thread my head through my legs!

An Education: Weirdly Sweet

By Kate

On March 7, 2010

In reviews

Movie Review of “An Education”

Yesterday Wonder Boy and I went out to see An Education, one of the ten films nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in this year’s attempt thinly disguised attempt to bolster the economy by nominating more films. I don’t know if this film should have nominated for best film (despite its obvious superiority to District 9, which I don’t think I can review since I only was able to stay in the theater for 40 minutes) but it was very endearing.

Set in the 1960s, An Education focuses on Jenny Mellor. Sixteen year old Jenny lives with her parents just outside of London and has dreams of going to Oxford. it’s hard to say if the dream is hers or her father’s, but regardless, she works hard to get good grades and do well on her exams so the dream can become reality. She leads a very stable, suburban life: goes to school, plays cello, has a small but solid group of girlfriends and gets along well enough with her parents. She’s also very pretty.

I think that is one aspect of the movie that is, perhaps, the most important. In the 1960s women did not yet have open access in to many careers. So much hinged on their looks. Unattractive and you could count on a life of working as a teacher and living alone. Attractive and you strived (and I think that is the right word) to find yourself a man to take care of you, thereby relinquishing you of any duties to work outside of the home (and, if you were very lucky, maybe not even inside the home). But if you found that balance of pretty and smart, then you had a few more options available to you. You could make decisions in your destiny. Rotten decisions by today’s standards, but decisions nonetheless.

Jenny fell into this last group of girls.

One day Jenny meets David Goldman, a man over twice her age. David goes out of his way to show Jenny and her family that his interest in her is not improper and that he wants solely to expose her to cultural activities which she enjoys. (As a viewer, you quickly know that he is slick, and his interest is quite improper.) And as the plot develops, Jenny has decisions to make that are slightly outside of the slim pickings normally presented to girls of her ilk.

I enjoyed An Education quite a bit. I think it would be ridiculous if it won Best Picture because it was simply not good enough to warrant that amount of praise. There was no backstory to the movie, no build up to the plot. The ending was a little forced. But the way the movie was filmed was beautiful and I don’t know how you could stare at Jenny on the screen and not fall in love with her.

It’s definitely a film worth checking out.

Wild Alice

By Kate

On March 7, 2010

In family / friends

The last bit has been rough for me. I’ve lost one of the people who has influenced me the most growing up. And the thing of it is, I can’t be too sad. She had a wonderful, long life. And knowing that helps a little, now, and will help a lot, later. But for the time being I feel this great hole.

My grandmother was born in 1914. If she had lived only four more weeks she would have been 96-years-old. When she was 18 she ran away from home, temporarily changed her name and worked in an ice cream parlour. She later reconciled with her family and reverted back to her real name but she stay in Cincinnati.

Through a friend, Wild Alice was set up with my grandfather and they were married for 67 years. They had 7 children, 19 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren. Grandma started out as this very industrious lady, making clothing for her family. Asher sisters and, later, her children grew up and she had more time on her hands, she started to learn creative crafts: needlework, paper tole, knitting, ceramics, etc. When her hands failed her, she turned to technology, becoming a giant nerd. She was my oldest friend on Facebook. (Her account has not been turned off so she still is.)

What I’ve learned from my grandma cannot be summer up in a blog post. No matter the time I spent on it, I think it would end up trite and not honor the wonderful person she was. But these two themes are important:

Stay busy and active.
Neither my grandma nor I ever believed the saying “idle hands are the devil’s tools” but I know she thought you should be busy at all times, using your time wisely and not just wasting life. She had a wonderfully long life and because she was always so busy she accomplished so much.
Never stop learning.
I feel as if in every study I hear or read, they point to one aspect of living a long life being challenging your mind. If that holds up to be true, then my grandma is exhibit A. It is this aspect I hope to most carry on. It helped keep my grandmother engaged and interested in life and other people engaged and interested in being with her. And it kept her mind sharp so that she could make her own end-of-life decisions, which so many older people do not get to do.

This is rambling. Not one of my better posts.

I loved my grandma dearly. I miss her.