DanBuck

For the record, I'm a big fan of the bit-by-bit release of the list. Thanks for doing this whole thing Prins.

When I was six, I played the soundtrack to "Lady and the Tramp" and Sean Cassidy on my Fisher Price record player (which had my sister's name in brown crayon scrawled across the top). My six year old and my eight year old have MP3 players. I have no philosophy or strategy for guiding my children's tastes. I just want songs that they are likely to enjoy that are not about the Britney's sexual exploits. Mostly, I just want them to love music. So I'm looking for fun and pretty innocuous. Here's some of the stuff they have right now... Plain White Tees - 1,2,3,4 Panic at the Disco - Nine in the Afternoon Don't worry be happy -Bobby McFerrin Some Taylor Swift Some Jack Johnson A fair amount of Sam Cooke Gypsy Kings Jet Jamaroquai I know those are sort of all over the map. Many of them are influenced by what they hear on films or Rock Band. What do your kids listen to?

Mirrormask was a near miss for me crow. And Almost Famous and Eternal Sunshine... That's it... I'm editing.

What's why?

Joel & Ethan Coen - 25 Wes Anderson - 25 Michel Gondry - 10 Lars von Trier - 5 Robert Altman - 5 Richard Linklater - 5 Christopher Nolan - 5 Quentin Taratino - 5 Hayao Miyazaki - 5 Paul Thomas Anderson - 10 For now...

I know a few of these are older than 2009, but they were new to me this year. Sue me. 1. Fleet of Hope - Indigo Girls 2. Paris - Paul Benton 3. Bulletproof - La Roux 4. Just Ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne 5. Skinny Love - Bon Iver 6. Off I Go - Greg Laswell 7. Melody - Kate Earl 8. Corner - Allie Moss 9. Little Person - Jon Brion Guilty Pleasure 10. Whatcha Say - Jason DeRullo *Note: I have been a participant of this board for about 8 years. And I think this is my second post in the music forum. I lurk here quite a bit, but always feel in over my head.

I'm certainly in better company in these parts, but... Forrest Gump.

Then you'd do better not to judge it. Meh. I discern, not judge. And I discern both not to see it and laugh when it ends up in someone's Top 20 list. Top 20 OF THE DECADE. James Bond. The two don't mix. Maybe Top 20 of the summer it came out. You don't need to see a James Bond film to know what is in it. I've probably seen 83% of them. Enough is enough already. For the record, "meh" is my favorite word of the aughts. And Enough is Enough sounds like a Bond title. For the record, I quite liked Casino Royale, even if the ending (epilogue) was WAY overcooked.

This is particularly interesting. He does have a sort of ubermarionette aesthetic. I wonder how specific he gets with actors about delivery. It's interesting to note that Schwartzman has only been truly successful in Anderson-esque films. Are we seeing a cinematic manifestation of Gordon Craig? If I am late to this connection I apologize, but its fascinating to me. I'll have to mull this over a bit more.

Oooh! Man Without a Past! Good one! It'll probably make it onto my "almost list".

This works with wives as well.

I could easily do an ALL DOCUMENTARY list. But for now... Here's what I've got: The Lives of Others - 10 Lars and the Real Girl - 10 Gosford Park - 15 In America - 10 Before Sunset - 7 My Kid Could Paint That - 15 Finding Nemo - 7 Royal Tennenbaums - 6 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - 10 Spirited Away - 10 And 20 auxillary point to Jeepers Creepers of course!

Zuzu's Nightmare

Not dead. Just finished directing my thesis production. Check my blog (linked in my sig) for pics and reviews. I might participate in this. It looks fun.

It is very common in schools public and private. (In both TX and FL) AR is not a bad idea, but it is almost always badly utilized. I have found that the points system (while you could certainly take issue with individual pt assignments) is not the primary evil. The problem is that AR's latent message is that reading is only worthwhile if you earn prizes. And when it is used as a central part of a school or classroom's reading curriculum it tends to reward kids who are already good readers, and the slow readers feel more and more penalized. It's like a literary capitalism. There's very little emphasis on reading for the joy of reading. My wife (a third grade teacher) is also critical of the "Testing" becuase it is a poor indicator of reading comprehension, and doesn't come near critical thinking about the content. Having said all that, I have seen anecdotal evidence of it working well. Some kids really get a boost of motivation from earning points and it moves them toward being REAL readers in a way that other methods have not. Ultimately, AR is a fine supplement to a reading curriculum. Unfortunately some schools, especially private ones, will make it a central component of their content and even their graded work. So, from my experience and my wife's expertise, the question to ask is not "Do you use AR?" but "How is it used?" and "Is there other reading curriculum?" Hope this helps.