A man and his wolf

There’s a new BBC2 documentary, part of the “Natural World” series, about Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946) and his wolf Lobo, one of the subjects of Seton’s Wild Animals I Have Known. The new documentary isn’t to be confused with the 1962 Disney live action movie, “The Legend of Lobo”.
In The Telegraph, Steve Gooder, director [...]

I’ll be spending tonight

at home with Paul Gross. Well, I’ll be at home, on the couch, and he’ll be on television, in the first part of the CBC political thriller miniseries Trojan Horse, the sequel to H20 (fictional but timely) the other year. Here’s the Globe & Mail interview before it disappears. If it does, try [...]

Richard Widmark (1914-2008)

Hollywood actor Richard Widmark died on Monday at the age of 93; he was also Sandy Koufax’s father-in-law for a time. The New York Times obituary, by Aljean Harmetz, is here. From which,
In reality, the screen’s most vicious psychopath was a mild-mannered former teacher who had married his college sweetheart, the actress Jean [...]

The Water Horse

I’m sorry.
I know going to The Golden Compass is the thing to do this holiday season, but we’re not big science fiction fans and don’t go to the movies often (there’s a tiny theater in town that plays two fairly current flicks at a time) so the kids and I haven’t seen The Golden Compass [...]

Rhymes with star

“I’d rather drop dead in my tracks one day than end up in a wheelchair in some nursing home watching interminable replays of The King and I,” she said before hooting with laughter.
From Deborah Kerr’s New York Times obituary today, quoting a 1986 Chicago Tribune interview.
Sic Transit Gloria Candy.

Paddle your own canoe

Shooting the Rapids, oil on canvas, 1879, by
Frances Anne Hopkins
We were doing farm chores and driving around in truck the other week with the radio set to CBC, as usual, when I caught a bit of music and Shelagh Roger’s comment that it was based on the Caldecott Honor book by Holling Clancy Holling — [...]

Film Club interview

from The Canadian Press. Here’s an excerpt (emphases mine):
What [the book] details is a father’s struggle to connect with a beloved son who is totally disinterested in homework and who, at six-foot-four, is a man-sized adolescent frequently skipping out of high school to wander about the big city at will.
“All we ever talked about [...]

An alternative education

First up on this morning’s CBC Radio “Sunday Edition” show, my favorite weekend listening, was host Michael Enright’s interview with film critic and writer David Gilmour, author of the just-published The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and a Son. Film Club is Mr. Gilmour’s account of his decision, several years ago, [...]

Erm, no thank you

Dangerous Book for Boys to Hit Screen: “Disney has snapped up the rights to the bestseller after a fierce bidding war.” It will be more than interesting to see how the folks at Disney plan to make a movie of a politically incorrect how-to-book that includes instructions on skinning a rabbit.
We’ll stick to the print [...]

Children’s entertainment that isn’t prechewed

One of the joys of traipsing in and out of Toronto’s Pearson Airport over a weekend is being able to stock up on the Saturday editions of The Globe & Mail and National Post, and the Sunday edition of The New York Times. In the G&M book review, I found a brief mention of the [...]

Raising hep cats: Reading about, and listening to, modern American music

Children’s author and home educating father Chris Barton at Bartography is mulling over choices for picture books about modern American music and musicians, mostly for his almost three-year-old son, and wrote the other week, “As for those books already on the shelves, there are far more worthy titles than one family can take on in [...]

Christmas Eve: In appreciation of Dudley

(as well as Clarence) at Christmas, from Verlyn Klinkenborg, in today’s Times,
We watched “The Bishop’s Wife” at our house the other night. Some years at Christmas we hang a wreath from the kitchen door, and some years we decorate a tree. But we always find an evening to watch “The Bishop’s Wife.” The camera hovers [...]

I triple-dog dare you

Just in time for Christmas, the cockles of my heart are warmed to learn that one of my favorite holiday movies has come to life:
Switch on your leg lamp and warm up the Ovaltine. The Christmas Story House and Museum will be ready for visitors starting Saturday.
Imagine being inside Ralphie Parker’s 1940s home on Christmas [...]

Back-to-school goodie bags

I have to admit that while I can’t stand the provincial public school system, I love the idea of school. In fact, I think I wrote recently that one of the reasons we pulled Laura out to homeschool is that Tom and I each loved school so much (I used to cry on the last [...]

Nifty resource, and cheaper than a trip to DC

I read this weekend that the U.S. National Archives and Google have teamed up to digitize and make National Archives holdings available free to all online. This means anyone with a computer can now have access to historic movies, documentaries, and other films in the Archives.
You can check Archives’ holdings at the official National Archives [...]