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Where the Wild Things Are, based on Maurice Sendak’s classic picture book, is slated for major motion picture release in mid-2009.

via Wild Things All Over – 2/4/2008 – Publishers Weekly.

and…

the film will carry a blockbuster of a tie-in—and it’s not the book the film is based on: it is a solo novel, written by Eggers (working title: The Wild Things) inspired by Sendak’s iconic tale, to be published by Ecco Press.

Awesome… Where the Wild Things Are is my favorite children’s book of all time.

if you haven’t been watching battlestar galactica, you have exactly 11 days to get caught up before the final episodes air on the SciFi Channel. that’s right. I’m a nerd.

2008 was a slow year for me in terms of music. Not bad in any way, just a bit slower. I settled in on a few albums and didn’t really go outside my box too much. Here are a few of my favorites (I included some links to amazon if you’d like to pick them up):

These first two are my “saturday morning/raining/sad/tired/quiet/mellow” records.

• Sun Kil Moon – April
• Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

My “time to dance and party” CD:

• Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

My favorite album to drive to (and not because the first track is titled “Freeway”):

• Aimee Mann – @#%&*! Smilers

My favorite albums for rocking:

• The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
• TV On the Radio – Dear Science
• Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

And finaly, three local favorites:

• Tapes ‘n Tapes – Walk It Off
• Jeremy Messersmith – The Silver City
• Haley Bonar – Big Star (Billy!)

Did you have any big favorites this year?

In these hard times, you deserve two “best films” lists for the price of one. It is therefore with joy that I list the 20 best films of 2008, in alphabetical order. I am violating the age-old custom that film critics announce the year’s 10 best films, but after years of such lists, I’ve had it. A best films list should be a celebration of wonderful films, not a chopping process. And 2008 was a great year for movies, even if many of them didn’t receive wide distribution.

via The best films of 2008… and there were a lot of them :: rogerebert.com :: News & comment.

If 2008 was a great year for movies, it was a bad year for me actually seeing movies.

Time to go pump up my Netflix queue!

Last night we saw Slumdog Millionaire. It was a soaring and moving experience. We sat down in the crowded theater, and we watched the previews as my mind did the reality-detachment dance. However, when the opening frame flashed upon the screen with text that read, Mumbai 2006, my heart skipped a couple beats as I thought about the reality of the past week in Mumbai — a place I have never been, but a place I would like to go.

I was quickly drawn back into the story, which finds the main character being interrogated (tortured) by the police. They are attempting to find out how this slumdog came to be waiting on the chance to win twenty million rupees. (via the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire)

Through a clever retelling of the slumdog’s life, we learn how he knew the answers. Obviously, I’m not going to give away how it ends, but I strongly recommend that you see this movie. It’s easily one of my best of 2008, and one of my favorites of the past few years.

The characters of this film, the places and situations are made of a strong humanity that was very real, conflicted, and ultimately, extremely compelling. Thanks to my sister for the recommendation!

Side note: we bought tickets while sitting at dinner using the internets. As the line was piling up for the 7pm showing, we decided to spend an agonizing 15 minutes trying to purchase tickets via moviefone.com for the 8:30pm show… luckily, we prevailed, and good thing too, as the movie was sold out!

listening to more vinyl has its positives and negatives. on the negative, there are no scrobblers for vinyl, so you can’t see that I’m listening to the electric moog orchestra. on the positive, you can’t see that I’m listening to the electric moog orchestra.

northern wisconsin provides excellent opportunities for unplugging from the internet, resting and relaxing. even though, the internet is only a few houses away. high speed internet is spreading it’s tentacles wide and far, so that even outside of minocqua, wisconsin, on a small lake, high speed is available.

i drove from my parent’s cabin to my grandparent’s cabin with my laptop open, just to see how many networks I would come across. eight. this may not seem like a lot, but nearly everywhere on the two-mile trip there was a wifi signal poking out.

but, at our cabin, no high speed. i set out the week with the goal of reading four books. (finishing two that I had already started and then two more new ones.) there have been discussions at school about the effect of the internet on reading, about how reading on the internet does not provoke deep thought and reflection the way that a book does, and even reading in a house where the internet is available provides enough of a distraction that books are read in a way that is shallower than before the advent of internet.

there is a strange allure to having the internet available when reading a book. what’s this word mean? what’s this place look like (look it up on google maps)? who was that person? (look it up on wikipedia)?

well, i’m sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle. it’s probably an issue of self-control, of learning to engage with your mind in a world that provides distractions everywhere you look.

the real challenge I think is convincing young people to let go of the distractions and singularily focus on something. at the NECC conference, I sat at a roundtable discussion about multitasking and it’s effect on learning. i got into a heated discussion with the woman seated to my right. she was on the side of “kids live in multitasking world, and we need to teach to that” whereas my argument was “we need to teach them to think, and that comes from focus”

needless to say, we didn’t convince each other of anything.

as the youngest person at that table by a few years, it was odd to be arguing against the technology-aided multitasking world that we seem to be heading towards.

who knows? but last week at the cabin in the woods on the lake, i finished those four books.