Image of the Month
FILMS — MARCH 2023
(Taurog 1965) Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
(Tenold 2023) Brandon’s Cult Movie Review: Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini
. . . Machine
(Nyby 1951) The Thing [from Another World]
(Paper Will 2021) Entertainment Made by Cults
(Cass 1952) Castle in the Air
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First-time listening for March 2023
26517. (Mike Oldfield) Amarok
26518. (Jon Batiste) Hollywood Africans
26519. (Carl Nielsen) String Quartet in G, FS5, op.5
26520. (Frank Zappa) Just Another Band From L.A.
26521. (Tove Lo) Queen of the Clouds
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READING — MARCH 2023
25104. (Kirsti Mäkinen) The Kalevala: Tales of Magic and Adventure
. . . . . [ill. Pirkko-Liisa Surojegin] [tr. Kaarina Brooks] [prose re-telling of
. . . . . Elias Lönnrot’s Kalevala with verse samples]
. . . . . [see other translations: Bosley at 27 & 8563; Kirby at 391;
. . . . . Friberg at 18426]
25105. (Matti Charlton) The Dark Woods ― A Very Light Bedtime Children’s
. . . . . Story
(William M. Breiding ‑ed.) Portable Storage Nine:
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25074. (Matti Charlton) You’re Mine ― A True Story for Brave Little Ones
There are not many books for children in which death is the main topic. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ 1938 novel The Yearling, which dealt with death from a child’s point of view, comes to mind, but it was not conceived by it’s author as a “children’s book.” It is today generally shelved with “young adult” fiction in libraries, but that was not a category in use at the time of its writing. The author was addressing adults in a story written from the point of view of a child. Its clarity and emotional intensity allowed it to reach a younger audience. We expect a teenager to have some concern with the idea of death.
But when it comes to books for younger children, death is still a taboo topic. It is something that, many believe, children should not be exposed to in fiction, or even allowed to think about. This presumes that no small child will encounter death, or have to think of it, or need to understand it. Except, of course, the children in Uvalde, Texas, and Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Except, of course, the millions of small children who have had to experience a death in the family, or even the death of a beloved pet. And that doesn’t even take into account parts of the world torn up by war, where small children are drenched in the stench of death. There aren’t many children in Ukraine or Yemen, today, who are oblivious to death. Religion is of little help, here. It is far more concerned with denying death than with understanding it, or preparing for it. At its worst, it attempts to dismiss life as a mere prelude to an imagined eternal existence … at once obliterating death from thought and obliterating life from significance.
So I would recommend Matti Charlton’s You’re Mine. I wish I had such a book available to me when I was very young. In very straightforward language, it explains death, how it is inevitable, and why its existence underlies the preciousness of life: “Be grateful for your life. Every day. Every second. Cherish every moment while your life is still yours.” The narrator is death itself, portrayed as a monstrous beast, speaking to the reader, “Little One.” While the artwork of the book is designed to be just scary enough for a child to handle, it also evokes the beauty of life in a way that a child can understand. It is refreshingly free of evasion, deceit, or existentialist blarney. Many adults would benefit from reading it, since, as the author says in a postscript: “..we are all Little Ones, after all.”
FILMS — FEBRUARY 2023
(Cornelius 1949) Passport to Pimlico
(Roman 2016) Peaches and Cream
(Hiller 1989) See No Evil, Hear No Evil
(Pálsson 2020) The Valhalla Murders [Brot]: Ep.1 ― Never Before Seen
(Noguchi 1967) Gappa: The Triphibian Monster [大巨獣ガッパ]
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First-time listening for February 2023
26486. (Kishi Bashi) Philosophize! Chemicalize! EP
26487. (Frederic Rzewski) The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
26488. (Big Thief) Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
26489. (Georges Enescu) Symphony #2 in A, Op.17
26490. (Basic Channel) Round One to Round Five 1993–99
26491. (Seo Taiji and Boys) I Know! [난 알아요]
26492. (Antonio Vivaldi) Sinfonia in G for Violin & Orchestra, RV 149
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READING — FEBRUARY 2023
25089. [2] (Robert McClodkey) Homer Price
25090. (Rosemary Sutcliffe) Beowulf [story]
25091. (Peter S. Ungar) Evolution’s Bite ― A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins
25092. (Jesús Gil Fuensanta, Alfredo Mederos Martín & Otabek Uktamovich Muminov)
. . . . . Not Far from the Limits of the Northern Uruk Culture in the Middle/Upper
. . . . . Euphrates: the Later Calcolithic Levels of Surtepe [article]
25093. (Susan Dewey, et al) Control Creep and the Multiple Exclusions Faced by Women
. . . . . in Low-Autonomy Sex Industry Sectors [article]
25094. (Raziel Reid) When Everything Feels Like the Movies
25095. (Joseph R. Bishop & Pascal Gagneux) Evolution of Carbohydrate Antigens ―
. . . . . Microbial Forces Shaping Host Glycomes? [article]
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