Malibu morning picture of the day - Monday, June 16, 2014

Happy Monday all! Here's the start of this week...

I really liked the sunbeams coming through this morning. This is what the sky looks like when the it's just about to all break apart--you can see the hint of blue in the upper right.

Here's a little more the same.

Julius, nearing one year old

Nora, nearing 3 years old

I had a fine Fathers Day yesterday. One of my beautiful daughters-in-law cooked me delicious pork-chop supper and I got to play with grandson Julius and granddaughter Nora as much as my knees would allow.

I'm kind of an absentee grandparent so my relationship with these guys is rather perfunctory yet. Nora gives me kisses and hugs of obligation--you know the kind. We all had to do them.

Nora is a fascinating whirlwind of changing emotions from almost one second to the next. She is motion personified--Mercury would be her patron god if we were pagan Romans. In this picture she's going from perplexity to happiness (I think that was the phase shift, I forgot, might be the other way).

Some of us went to go see Maleficent earlier in the day. This is a piece of art in the genre of retellings of previous work because the original is NOT timeless enough to appeal to current sensibilities. Wicked would fall into this type.

If you consider the original Sleeping Beauty film to be religious canon in your childhood faith in fairy tales, give this one a pass--or wait until it comes out in home release and hold a "snark party" to ridicule it with fellow believers. Keep track of all the current politically correct elements as it moves through--you'll fill up a page. If you are a prince with a pure heart trying to find a job in Hollywood these days, you need to get into another line of work. Seriously.

Now this is a female comfortable in her own skin...
and there's sooo much of it.

Otherwise, it's a beautifully produced, good film. There are all kinds of plot holes, but tween girls to whom this is pitched and who have not mastered film criticism analysis skills yet will probably be very forgiving. This film answers the question: "Would you want Maleficent as your fairy godmother?" I spend a fair amount of time in the company of gay men, and I have to say I know more than a few who would consider that prospect tres cool indeed (with Cruella de Vil and Ursula the sea witch being good alternates as well). I agree. I would personally prefer to date Ursula over Ariel any day--I think she'd be a hoot especially after a couple of drinks. These theatrical heavies' resemblance to Auntie Mame and bosom buddy Vera Charles is NO mere coincidence, after all.

Have a great start to the week.

Love,
Pops