Monthly Archives: August 2008

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Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Date: August 4, 2008
Location: Regal Sawgrass

Now this was a pleasant surprise!

Took the day off to spend some time with the kids before school starts back up and after some pool time and Ikea time (ok, that was more for Alex and me than for the kids) Sophia and I went to see Kit Kittredge.

I don’t know anything about these American Girl dolls or books. We saw a store once in Chicago and it sort of creeped me out to see all these girls dressed just like the dolls they were carrying. I figured it was some sort of Stepford situation.

But if they’re all like this movie, sign me up. It’s delightful, sweet, poignant and clever with a mystery plotline that kept me guessing throughout. It has a cornball appeal and girl-power message that totally won me over.

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Song of the Day #12: ‘God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)’ – Randy Newman

Randy Newman’s latest release, Harps & Angels, hits shelves today… his first proper album since 1999’s Bad Love. He’s done a lot of soundtrack work in the meantime, of course, including some wonderful stuff for Pixar.

It’s funny, I’ve seen a lot of negative reaction to Randy Newman on internet message boards by people who think of him as some hack who churns out Disney tunes for easy cash. Clearly these people have no idea what they’re talking about.

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Song of the Day #11: ‘Moscas en la Casa’ – Shakira

I’m a lyrics guy.

I’ve never been into instrumental music, apart from the occasional jazz or classical album that slips through the cracks. I hate jam bands. I like verses, choruses and bridges. I like words in my music.

So I never found room for foreign language artists in my collection. I’ve enjoyed a Puccini aria or two, sure, but no international pop or rock stars. I just didn’t see myself getting into songs performed in another language.

And then I found Shakira.

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Song of the Day #10: ‘Stray Cat Blues’ – The Rolling Stones

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m thrilled by the use of a good pop or rock song on the big screen. And as a lover of both film and music, I have often listened to a song and imagined exactly how I would use it in a movie.

I’m sure this is something a lot of us do, matching images to the music we hear. Is it more prevalent for the generation that grew up on MTV and was conditioned to see music accompanied by videos? Or did my parents listen to Frank Sinatra and invent movies in their minds?

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Song of the Day #9: ‘Yes U Can’ – Jewel

What, exactly, is a guilty pleasure?

Is it something you genuinely think is good even though it’s not considered “cool” to like it? If that’s the case, John Mayer and Counting Crows are guilty pleasures. But I don’t look at those acts that way — not at all.

Is it something you liked once upon a time and now you’re a little embarassed to admit you liked it, but not embarassed enough to get rid of it? That makes a little more sense to me, although I did a major CD purge a few years back and probably cleared out any candidates for that category.

So looking at my current collection, I’d define a guilty pleasure as something even I don’t really think is any good but somehow I enjoy listening to it anyway. And I have just the CD in mind.

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