Saturday, May 30, 2009

Amelie and a Sea Lion



Greg and Amelie visited the aquarium while I was up in the Bay Area for Sam's birth. This happened, and it's so cool. Hope you like it!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Good News for Vegetarians at the Campfire


Deelicious Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows, which are gourmet, but s'more-able and roastable, are available at most Whole Foods, though you may have to search the store a bit to find them. We found them in the Venice Beach store, in the vegan hummus refrigerated case (?) thanks to persistence and one helpful clerk. I will update once I can check the same spot at my local store. They were $7.99.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

My New Nephew!!




Baby Riddle was born today. He's huge, and adorable! Some photos/video.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

The Woods Go Hollywood, Disney-style

This Past Tuesday, Amelie and I were one of the first people EVER to see Disney's new movie, the Princess and the Frog, starring an African-American princess (set in 1920s New Orleans), and I am pleased to report it does not suck. There's still a ways to go, as, for instance, 75% of the animation was in some stage of unfinishedness (have you ever watched the DVD deleted scenes for Disney? Like that.). The story needs some tweaking but they know that as that seemed to be the purpose of our screening and the two-page survey for me and single page for Amelie that we filled out afterwards. I would say that 80% at least of the screening audience was non-Caucasian. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.


Overall, I think Tiana was a good role model for the princess obsessed girl, as the take home message was not to wait for some drippy prince to sweep a girl off of her feet, and that wishing is not a fool proof way of getting what you want when you wish upon a star (ahem). The prince was more a comic than romantic character at this point - he is also almost always a frog

**SPOILER**

(as is Tiana, which you will know once you see the toy line)

END SPOILER*** .

I'm still wondering how they can make that love story a little more believable. But, on a positive note, that creepy frog scene on the official web site is nowhere to be found in the cut that I saw.

My only real complaints are that the music is just not as good as previous Disney musicals scored by Ashman and Mencken or even Elton John or Phil Collins. I hate to jump on the hate on Randy Newman bandwagon that is forming on the interwebs here, but no particular song stuck with me. It's like they threw in a token number for every New Orleans style (zydeco? check, gospel? check, dixieland...) but they lack the zing. And my only other quibble is that one of the bad guys is almost exactly the same as the Nathaniel character in Enchanted. Weird.

Anyway, it was very neat to be able to be a part of this at this early stage. The movie comes out in December.