Quote of the Week: Saturday, December 29th

"If the good Lord intended us to walk, he wouldn't have invented roller skates."

-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Mary

"Sing, Mary, Sing!
Lullaby the King
Born to be our pardon
No longer shall we weep
Come soften what was hardened
Oh, Sing, Mary, Sing!"

-"Sing, Mary, Sing" by Jennifer Knapp

Memoirs of a Geisha

I received a copy of this film for Christmas and was so in awe of it's ethereal beauty that I had to write about it. My parents met in Japan, so I have always had a fascination with the country that allowed me to exist. I also met the woman who designed the hair for the film this summer at film school...she even styled my hair like Sayuri's (cherry blossom combs and all!) Anyway, enough bragging. Rob Marshall, the director of Chicago, creates a gorgeous, lost world that we can never enter, the world of the geisha in the 1930's and 40's. I know this will sound really weird, but this movie has a wonderful "rhythm"-Marshall knows just when to end the scene, just when the actress should tip her head. It's like a dance. Ziyi Zhang is like an Asian Audrey Hepburn, but my favorite actresses in the picture are Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li. Yeoh has such a grace and poise, yet gives her character an inner strength, and Li, with her intense eyes and bold voice, controls the screen every time she enters it. This is a film not to be missed.

Have a holly jolly Christmas (and Kwanzaa, and Chanukkah, and New Year...

I'm going to take a break from blogging until the New Year. Thank you for reading Linden Street, and have a wonderful holiday season! God bless.

Excerpt from Swan Lake by Mark Helprin

"Are you the emporer?" I asked, because at first I thought he might be a dog handler or a groom.
This seemed to amuse him. It was he: I recognized him from postage stamps.
"No wonder you're the emporer," I said. "You can write with your foot."
"Not really. I just keep my pen there sometimes," he answered. "But wait, maybe I can. What an excellant way to send orders to my foot soldiers. Call for a tablet."
"How?"
"Just call."
"Just say teblet?"
"Yes, my voice is tired."
"I'm not used to giving orders."
"I am. Do it."
"Tablet!" I screamed. The door flew open so quickly that I jumped back in surprise, and a liveried servant appeared with a vellum tablet. While I held it, the emporer tried to write with the pen held in his toes. He didn't do very well. Then he had me try it. I didn't do very well either. Now I breathed a little easier, because I knew we had something in common...I could no longer ignore his costume. "Are those pajamas?" I asked.
"Of course not! This is military underwear! Today I inspected a regiment of my hussars."
"In underwear?"
"Yes in underwear, with a uniform over it."

-Passage from Swan Lake by Mark Helprin

Quote of the Week: Saturday, December 2nd

You're in luck: today I'm giving you not one, not two, but three completely quotable and great-to-put-on-those-Christmas-cards-when-you-have-nothing-else-to-say quotes. Well, aren't you the lucky one!

"All progress depends upon the unreasonable man."
-George Bernard Shaw

"The woods would be very quiet if no birds sang there except those who sang best."
-Author Unknown

"That which gives is the heart, the fingers only let go."
-Haya Proverb

World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day. Wear red. Give back. Support the fight for a cure.

What can you do? There are a lot of companies who will donate a portion of their profits to help fight this disease. My advice, though, is to research where the money goes first before you jump in and buy. Aside from Aids, you can help support artists in third world countries by shopping at Ten Thousand Villages (see my links.) This non-profit organization sells jewelry, home decor and more made by artists in places such as Thailand, Guatemala, Ecuador and Nigeria. Another great organization is Samaritan's Purse...they've done everything from Katrina relief work to Operation Christmas Child. Don't be a bystander to the craziness our world is going through. We will never be able to completely eradicate all the world's probelms. But we can try to get as close as possible.

Music That's Rockin' My World: The Newsboys

I feel like I've been listening to the Newsboys for forever. (They've been around a long time.) In fact, this quirky, Australian band has been the only band that I've consistently loved since I first started caring about music beyond "Old McDonald." Their lyrics are hilarious and witty, and their sound is a cross between U2, Euro-pop. eighties rock and Coldplay (with a dash of urban funk.) Here are some lyrics from one of my favorite songs, "Breakfast."

"Hold the milk, put back the sugar
There are parents to console
We gather here to sprinkle ashes
From your late friend's cereal bowl
Breakfast clubbers sang the motto
That he taught us to repeat
You will lose it in your gym class
If you wait till noon to eat

Back when the chess club said our eggs were soft
Every Monday we'd say grace and hold our juice aloft
Well, none of us knew that his check-out time would come so soon
But before his brain start waving, he composed this tune

When the toast is burned
And all the milk has turned
And Cap'n Crunch is wavin' farewell
When the Big One finds you
May this song remind you
That they don't serve breakfast
In hell"