The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman With illustrations by Dave McKean

“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”

 Once these first words are read you have embarked on a journey that will briefly horrify and break your heart before leading you up a path which—if you are an adult— will reconnect you with everything you have forgotten about being a child.  Children themselves will appreciate the author never underestimating their perception of the world and become enveloped in this beautifully written tale.

Nobody Owens is growing up in the cemetery with a wondrous right known as Freedom of the Graveyard.  His safety requires he stay behind its brick walls, iron railings and under the watchful eye of its residents.  Whilst growing up with Bod you’ll want to wrap yourself in the pages of this eloquent novel and disappear, knowing something as clever and captivating as this witty tale will end all too soon.

The only written words that can do this novel justice are its own, and the world they create will linger long after you have finished the last page.  Read this book—read it now.

©2011 Bella Bowie

CGI Nightmare

Franklin is a children’s series with a long history. This eagerly adventurous, sometimes sanctimonious animated green turtle has been entertaining children with his devotion to family and forest of friends, since he made his debut in the book Franklin in the Dark by Paulette Bourgeois in 1986.

 

For the show’s silver anniversary the producers decided to update the series in a way that may traumatize you for years to come.  What was once a friendly looking woodland turtle now looks as if it could be the love child of M. Night Shyamalan’s aliens in Signs and Mac from the infamous Mac and Me. 

This doesn’t look so bad you say.  Still shots are one thing but check him out in action.

Paler, thinner, a longer neck and a strange awkward gait give Franklin 25 an otherworldly appearance.  Tonight when you’re asleep, listen for Bruce Cockburn’s voice haunting your dreams. “Hey, It’s Franklin...coming to your house.”  It’s not just a theme song. It’s a warning.

©2011 Bella Bowie



Waving a White Flag

What was happening? Rushing from one place to the next I kept seeing Charlie’s face everywhere.  Staring at me from the front pages of the free press racks.  Muted disembodied head appearing on the flat-screen at Java Joe’s.  In high definition from the laptop on the research table beside me at the library.  It felt so surrealistic that I wondered if I was dreaming or perhaps dead.  Like the painting that appears throughout Marc Forster’s 2005 film Stay, Sheen‘s image had suddenly become the backdrop of my daily life.  The back-breaker came with a text from a usually disconnected friend, “Wow.  Charlie Sheen, huh?”

I’d been so inundated with imagery that I tired of this story before hearing it. Even by the time I was able to catch up with my emails and feeds I found myself skimming past anything CS related.  I know, I know—pot-kettle-black—and I feel dirty writing this, but despite my efforts this wonderfully choreographed sideshow has been inescapable.  In the pause before the traffic report this afternoon the reporter referenced Charlie Sheen in his report on the price of oil—the price of oil.   I logged onto Facebook to see a member calling himself “Chuckie Sheen” as a friend suggestion­­­.  Too tired to dodge the bullets any longer this post is my surrender.  

I can’t help but think of the scene culminating with the arrest in The People vs. Larry Flynt.  I see Charlie in his room right now spinning in circles yelling “I turned the whole world into a tabloid!” 

Rock on Chuckie, rock on.

©2011 Bella Bowie