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All the snow melted and it’s like fall again. This anxious week ended so anticlimactically - but there seem to be pretty angry people on the road.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/11/how-deal-2020-election-anxiety-and-depression/616989/

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This is exactly what Chinese social credit system is designed to do.

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[forsmallestofhumans]

Now that we spend so much time in the car, I found nearly everything ABC (that’s Australian answer to NPR/CBC/BBC) puts out pretty amazing.

They are age appropriate (different podcasts are targeted to different age groups), calm, and don’t talk down to even their smaller listeners. This is a welcome break from how frenetic and sometimes even offensive American podcasts are. Also, they don’t spend a time thanking sponsors, which is a nice side effect of government actually investing in arts and culture. Thank you, Aussie taxpayers!

https://www.abc.net.au/kidslisten/programs/all-shows/

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The little cartoon about a baby chick who is amazed at the outside world (the only thing you need to know in Russian is, “kokoe vse zelenoe, kokoe vse krasivoe” - “how green, how beautiful everything is”), is very entertaining for anyone 3 years old+, but deeply unsettling for the grownups.

Because as the chicken gets eaten by the fox, and then the fox gets eaten by the wolf, and other increasing in size animals, their entire beings get taken over by his catchy universe-admiring song, and you begin to question your free will.

#3

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We saw Babar for the first time, on Amazon Prime, and I haven’t seen my son this excited ever. It probably was the most violent movie he’s ever seen, but no one died, and the violence was pretty, erm, cartoonish. There was a very realistic scene of a village being burned and pillaged, and parents being taken away in chains and worked as slaves.

In some sense, I think it was good to see that. We’ve been talking about war, and about what is the military, and what it’s for, in response to his new friend’s obsession with Star Wars, and pew-pew-pew shooting that he’s been imitating. It was pretty good to illustrate what the war is. And the military/army in the end is defeated and humiliated - without any real violence or any army necessary, but just by being kind and making friends (also by being incredibly lucky, but ok). I think it was a good message.

Someone might have a problem with the bad guys (rhinos) architecture and art being a total ripoff of Mayas (and the nice and peaceful elephants being, of course very French). Although little ones probably won't be exposed to it in a while, and in some sense, Mayans really were violent and cruel, and used those structures in much more vicious ways than depicted in the movie, so it wasn’t completely inaccurate.

#4 #movies

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An interesting comparison between the 1970s Soviet and Disney versions of Jungle Tales/Mowgli .

#4

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Just saw - such rarity for me - some episodes of For All Mankind that’s temporarily free now on Apple TV app - and so happy with what a great show it turned out to be (and they have subtitles for so many languages!).

Works well as a follow up to Hidden Figures which I loved. Looking up the real life vs fictitious characters was fun, too. Like I didn’t know what an amazing woman jerry cobb was, but I do now.

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Just saw a collection of shorts aimed at 3+ year olds but of course very enjoyable by everyone (they have others ages as well)

NY International Children’s Film Festival is doing a “virtual cinema” where you pick your favorite art house movie theater (i picked the one in Hudson because it seemed the closest) and give them a very nominal $6 to rent it for 48 hours.

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Posting here and on the main blog because this beautiful and wonderful short film when we watched it, went over L’s head (he was disappointed that there was no demolition in the end).

But if you have 8 minutes, this is lovely and heartbreakingly sad.

#movies #100

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Saw the Norwegian short Dunder, on Kanopy (though it’s also available on Vimeo on demand).

L loved it, and I liked the story and animation, too. Apparently there are whole series of books in Norway, sadly none of them in English (except one, which is $28 plus shipping from Norway).

#4 #dunderly

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Little Mouse named Pick is a gorgeous wordless Soviet animated tale about a cute little mouse going through the seasons in the forest, made after Agnés Barteau story.

Since there are no words, no Russian knowledge is needed, and the quiet beauty of the forest is all throughout this short film. There is always tension in the little tragedies that happen to the mouse, and the constant fear of the huge unknowable word that would probably be relatable. But it all ends well.

#3 #4

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Kanopy Kids has probably the best catalog of kids programming in the world, and it’s free with your library card.

And they of course also have art and independent movies for grownups.

They are available in US, UK and Canada. @in-silvis

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Michael Hearst is performing, with his Unusual Creatures, Extraordinary People, and Curious Constructions book a cafe near my old place, and I really want to take L there on Saturday. If he would let me - he does not like to leave home on weekends these days.

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on dental hygiene

I am a little bit of a closeted Japanophile (after living there for a little bit, I have a hate-love relationship with the country, but I love (most) people, and the culture (that many of them don’t appreciate themselves).

Anyway, since a very young age, L watched one particular video on a pretty wacky Japanese Youtube channel, TOKIOHEIDI (blissfully ad-free) - about Mr Germ, who inhabits your mouth, and on importance of brushing teeth. The video is hilarious, and very Japanese. There is an English version of it on their English channel (with less than 2M views), but the Japanese version (which L sometimes requests) has almost 80M of them.

It is so apparently famous that there is a follow up featuring dancing kids cosplaying mini-Mr Germs. There is definitely lots of Japanese weirdness there (and yes, after you brushed them away, they go to heaven), but L loves it - he doesn’t know what weird means, and I love it because I very much do (don’t show the one under that last hyperlink to your kid).

BTW, despite educational element of why we brush teeth is now achieved, morning toothbrushing is still a struggle.

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Mo Willems is awesome.

Pigeon series are exactly my type of humor (which in this case overlaps with that of a 3 year old), and Knuffle Bunny is not just very New York, but very that-part-of-Brooklyn-where-we-live-relatable. It sparked L’s (short-lived) interest in laundromats.

What’s even better is that there are audiobooks that he reads himself, with his daughter (that they were written for, no doubt), has an awesome music score and are a pure delight.

#books #audiobooks #2 #3 #mo willems