Waking Sleeping Beauty [DVD]

Waking Sleeping Beauty a film by Don Hahn

In Waking Sleeping Beauty, we go behind the doors of the Disney animation building and see an equal display of creative brilliance and management melodrama.  As the 1970's drew to a close, the legendary animation studio was producing anemic box office returns (by Disney standards) and those in charge of the purse strings viewed its limping continuation simply as a tribute to Walt's legacy.  Shifts in corporate leadership created new challenges to the once easy going, hippie-ish department and as a result, the company reached a range of highs and lows.

This film features interviews with animators, directors, composers and executives.  In addition, the curtain is lifted and we're granted access to all sorts of behind the scenes footage.  We see the animators at work and goofing around, early film cuts and cells, actors recording voice-overs, corporate lectures, between take banter of Michael Eisner's television introductions and even funeral speeches.  Waking Sleeping Beauty is a film for anyone who is interested in the history of the Disney empire and ever wondered how the magic is really created.  

The Eyre Affair [Book on CD]

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

The first title in the Thursday Next series, takes us to a slightly different version of Great Britain, around 1985, where time travel is routine, and people have cloned dodo birds has pets. Thursday is a member of Special Operations 27, the literary detective division. Her father is a member of the Chronoguard, and her uncle invents all kinds of interesting devices. Thursday is involved when original manuscripts get stolen, and the story line starts changing. Jane Eyre is kidnapped and Thursday has to enter the novel to try to track down the villain before any lasting harm occurs to the storyline. A love of literature and some acquaintance with Jane Eyre suggested. Surreal and funny with wonderful characters.

Susan Duerden was an engaging reader. 10 discs, 12 hours 15 minutes

Bobby Charles [Music CD]

 Bobby Charles by Bobby Charles

No album better represents the sound of a bunch of guys hanging out, having good times and recording music than Bobby Charles's  self-titled album.  Charles, celebrated for writing "See You Later Alligator" for Bill Haley and "Walking To New Orleans" for Fats Domino, found himself relaxing with The Band in Woodstock, New York in '71.  The circumstances for his east coast residence have something to do with a divorce and hiding out from a Nashville marijuana bust.

The Band (with Dr. John in tow) back Charles through a set of lazy melodies with New Orleans influence and a loose, country bounce.  With this all-star line-up, it's really not a shocker that the backing is as cool as can be.  However, it's Charles's voice that shines brightest.  There is a exceptional fullness and soul in each word that Charles projects and yet he sometimes gives the listener the impression that he's singing softly, almost narrating a local tale.  

The feeling of living out in the country, slowing down and finding peace are intertwining themes throughout Bobby Charles.  On "Small Town Talk", after a whistled intro, Charles croons "and it's small town talk, you know how people are/they can't stand to see someone else doing what they want to".  "Tennessee Blues", the album's closer, is also no exception to this sensibility.  The song is so perfect and timeless, one might imagine Charles ripped it from a book of standards at least 25 years earlier.  With one of my all time favorite vocal performances (Doug Sahm's version is definitely worth hearing as well), Charles sings:

Find me a spot on some mountain top

With lakes all around me

With valley and streams and birds in the trees

And lakes that surround me

A place I feel loose

A place I could lose these Tennessee Blues

The long earth

The long earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

As a longtime Pratchett fan, I was looking forward to a fantasy full of humor and parody.  This isn't it, but I've been drawn in and am still reading.  Stephen Baxter is known for his prolific science fiction novels.  The Long Earth posits an infinite number of other worlds just like ours, each in its own universe--except they are completely undeveloped by humans.  In the very near future, a reclusive scientist develops a way to step between worlds by building a "stepping" box so simple any teenager can make one.  Large numbers of people begin popping back and forth, creating complex consequences and changing the world(s) in ways that no one can keep up with.  I'm enjoying interesting characters such as 13-year-old Joshua, who is more comfortable in the primordial forest of other Earths than in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, and a computer in the shape of a vending machine named Lobsang who claims to be a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle repairman.