Books On Film | Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is the first book in a series of six written by English author P.L. Travers. In the first book, published in 1934, the Banks family is in need of a new nanny after their old one leaves in a huff. Mary Poppins blows in on a strong wind to fill the position. The children and Ms. Poppins proceed to have all sorts of wondrous adventures together.

The story of Mary Poppins has been adapted into a very successful film and stage play. The 1964 Walt Disney musical film, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, is considered a family classic. The film, which featured a nicer Mary Poppins than the books, had adventures from all of the books as well as new adventures created just for the film. The movie is great fun and the music is fantastic. If you've never seen it you are missing out.

Saving Mr. Banks, a biopic released in theaters this month, chronicles the life of P.L. Travers including the negotiations between Travers and Disney for the film rights to books. Travers' life story and encounter with Disney is also chronicled in the biography Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers by Valerie Lawson.

If your children are into fantasy grounded in real life, then they may love the Mary Poppins books and if you are into biographies, then you may want to pick up a copy of Mary Poppins, She Wrote. 

Saving Mr. Banks Trailer (2013)  

  

 Covers courtesy of LibraryThing.

The Wanderlust Librarian | Pinball Wizard the Second

After the overnight on the USS Hornet (read about it here), Lizzie had mentioned something about the Pacific Pinball Museum. Wait, wait, wait... WHAT?!!?? A place where I can visit that's less than an hour away from where I live? 

Vintage and awesome! 

Knowing that I loved pinball, Lizzie found her ticket on the Discover and Go website and printed out her FREE ticket. I, on the other hand, forgot to reserve my ticket. The tickets for that day were all claimed. *if you want a ticket, reserve it in advance!!*I had to pay the $15 entrance fee. 

All the pinball in the Pacific Pinball Museum is FREE!!! So, save your quarters and play all the pinball you want. After you pay the entrance fee, get a hand stamp for same day in and out privileges. 

The vintage pinball room

From the outside, the museum looks small. In fact, when you walk in, there are a row of new pinball machines (for $0.50 per game) and behind the cashier, there are a slew of restored machines from 1930's through the 1960's. I was ALMOST disappointed until I looked to the right of the cashier and saw an Addams Family pinball machine along with 2 other machines (of which I ignored because I love the Addams Family machine!). They have a private room for rental. When there's a party, that room is closed and the machines are for the guests only. Luckily, there was no party that day. 

The 80s are alive! 

There are other rooms for machines from the 70s and 80s. There were a fair amount of machines. The rooms were off of an indoor courtyard area. They were small and had a few machines per decade. They were not what I was looking for. 

There is limited pinball art in one of the rooms. There are some pieces on the wall and an interactive display where you can make a bumper hit. The scariest thing in that room is an old clown game (not pictured for "scares the bloggess" reasons). There are 2 machines with a clear plastic body where you can see the innards at work. 

Old pinball boards

Bump the bumper!!

My high school years come alive in music! 

For me, the magic was in the 90s room! It was a lot of my favorite machines crammed into one room. There were about 14 machines and a FREE jukebox. I made a playlist of all of my favorite music from high school: Pulp Fiction, Cranberries, Oasis, etc. Some of the pinball gems I played over and over were: Earthshaker, Doctor Who, Road Show and Twilight Zone. The 90s room provided a good hour and a half of entertainment for me. Though, let me just say that scoring a free game when playing a free game...is not as rewarding as one might think after playing a free game. 

Getting high score, though, is always a huge thrill. It felt good to get a decent win under my belt. Also, it was amusing to see a crowd around me. The folks learned that pinball is an art... and not mashing the buttons around. It was a good run. 

Admittedly, when asked "How do you do that?" I said, "See these buttons on the side? I push them to make the ball go out to the board and on the ramps.". After a hearty group laugh from my sarcastic answer, I told him how to make the points work for him. All in all, it was a good run. 

Should you go to the Pacific Pinball Museum? Yes. 

Is it really a whole day of fun? A few hours, yes. A whole day? No. But if you get your tickets for FREE from the Discover and Go page at the library, it's definitely worth your time and a day trip to Alameda! 

If you enjoy pinball, you can try and find your favorite machine at the Pinball Locator. After all, what good is your love of pinball if you can't play your favorite machine?

xoxo

The Bloggess

I'm the #2 player for the day! 

Book Bucket List | Vote for the Book!

 

This year for One Book, One San Joaquin 2014, we will be doing things a little differently.  We are leaving it up to our community to choose the featured book! In addition, we are moving this community wide program to October. Just click the image below or this link here.

The three titles up for the vote are Dracula by Bram Stoker, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

We will announce the winner at the end of January, and then start planning programs and events based on the winning book! So keep an eye out for One Book, One San Joaquin updates as we announce the winner!

Learning | Burma-Shave, Part 2

My introductory Burma-Shave post last week barely touched on the discussions we have had on the subject at Troke.  

My co-worker, Ginny, asked the same question that occurred to me, when I received The Verse By the Side of the Road: the Story of the Burma-Shave Signs and Jingles through the Link+ program.  We both wondered how the shaving cream got the name Burma-Shave. In short, "Why Burma?"

My father (the co-pilot, back row, furthest left) and
his fellow crew members from the 40th Bombardment Group.
The aircraft behind them is "The Song of India,"
the B-29 they flew on missions from Tinian over "The Hump."

Burma (or Myanmar, as is it currently known) is a mountainous country located on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal.  Its northern border touches Bangladesh, India and China; its southern region reaches Thailand and the Malay Peninsula.

Trivia question

Name the television series that is the source of the following dialogue:

"BURMA!"
"Why'd you say 'Burma?'"
"I panicked."

See the answer at the bottom of this post.

Ginny and both have fathers who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the Second World War, in the China/India/Burma theater. They were both stationed on the island of Tinian. (Small world, isn't it?) Perhaps we're more inclined to ask,"Why Burma?" than the average person.

Clinton Odell, the founder of the Burma-Vita company in Minnesota first invented a liniment which was supposed to have a number of health benefits. It was mostly comprised of ingredients from Burma and the Malay Peninsula, so he called it Burma-Vita. It is reported to have smelled terrible, which may have been one reason why it never became a commercial success.  

Mr. Odell was inspired by a brushless shaving product he saw in England, called Lloyd's Euxesis; he hired a chemist to develop a similar product, which he named Burma-Shave. (I couldn't help but to look up the origin of the name Euxesis; it comes from the Greek root eu- [good] and -xesis [to scrape]...so it's all about shaving well.)

Burma-Shave did not sell very well until Mr. Odell's sons started advertising the product on roadside signs. The first signs were placed 100 paces apart, but those distances grew as people began driving cars faster.  The publicity generated by those roadside signs can still be felt today--most people familiar with the name Burma-Shave immediately think of those signs; and conversely, when people see a sequence of rhyming signs by the road, they think of Burma-Shave.

Answer to the trivia question:

Monty Python's Flying Circus, Series 2.  It was part of the Exploding Penguin on the TV Set sketch from Episode 22, "How To Recognize Different Parts of the Body.". Graham Chapman exclaimed "BURMA!" after John Cleese speculated about where the penguin came from, "Penguins don't come from next door; they come from the Antarctic."

Books On Film | The Secret LIfe of Walter Mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939) is a short story by James Thurber which chronicles the fantastical daydreams of mild-mannered man named Walter Mitty. Walter daydreams himself into heroic adventures as a U.S. Navy flying boat pilot, a surgeon, an assassin, and an Royal Air Force pilot as an escape from his humdrum life.

The book has been adapted into two movies, two radio plays, and a stage play. The most famous of the adaptations is the 1947 technicolor comedy film starring Danny Kaye. The plot of the film departs from the story by a fair bit with Walter eventually meeting a mysterious woman and getting involved in a real life adventure involving missing jewels.

A new drama adaptation, starring Ben Stiller, will be out Christmas day. The plot of this film also departs from the original story. In the new film, daydreaming Walter is eventually forced to go on a real life adventure around the world to recover a lost photo. It looks like a heart-felt movie about living life to the fullest.

It's a short read, so if you are intrigued by Walter Mitty's tale then make sure to grab a copy of the book linked above.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Trailer (2013)

 

Cover courtesy of LibraryThing.

The Wanderlust Librarian | Books: Armchair Travel at its finest

When I travel, I love when I have a comfortable seat. It's preferable for me to have some premium coffee and some tasty nibbles. Oh, and while I'm at it... my own private bathroom. 

The bloggess has spoken. 

Right. What I meant to say is when i'm at home and traveling to new places in an engaging book. 

Traveling doesn't always mean luxurious places. One place I (armchair) traveled to this year was prison. I learned what it was like to be in a women's prison with Piper Kerman in her biographical book Orange is the New Black. This book is full of gritty descriptions and more prison slang than I can shake a stick at! This book is a cautionary tale at its best. 

I went to Indianapolis to hear the story of Hazel Lancastster, cancer patient and her journey through illness and love in The Fault in Our Stars by the (AWESOME) John Green. My friend, Panteha, chronicled this book in her blog. My 15 year old daughter and I loved this book. I suggested this read to a guy friend who also loved it. One place that was described lovingly in this book was Amsterdam. My cousin recently moved there and between Green's descriptions and his pictures, I'm wondering what's stopping me from going there! The movie comes out next year, so if you want to be ahead of the trend, check out this book. 

At some point in my life, I wanted to be a coroner. Instead of reading about one, I read about the afterlife of a dead body. In the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach, I learned the different ways cadavers are used for medical science, automobile safety and the study of decomposition. Warning, this book is not for the faint of heart. While funny and macabre at times, there are still dead bodies in this book. I revisited this book earlier this year (it was published in 2004) and I was still fascinated by the many voyages the body can take after the soul departs. One of the best opening lines from Mary Roach reads: "The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back".  

Give yourself some time to enjoy some reading time. Read a new book from the library or re-read a favorite! Comfy chairs are out there... and they're waiting for you! 

Book Bucket List | Gift Books!

It's December 20th. I have only three real days of shopping left.  I'm still not done and I'm trying not to completely freak out.  (Brothers of mine, I promise you won't go without!) Since I always end up scouring the internet for gift ideas last minute, I thought I would make a list of my own. 

Here's a few bookish gift ideas:

The picture book This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen is not only hilarious, but  imparts some helpful life lessons as well.  It is the 2013 winner of the Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association too.  Follow the journey of a little fish who just happens to "find" a hat. Yikes!

Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan is the Newbery Award winner for 2013.  The story is about Ivan, the gorilla happily living at a mall.  He loves his fellow animal friends and likes to focus on his art.  However, when Ivan meets the baby elephant Ruby, who was taken away from her elephant family, Ivan's perspective on life quickly changes.  This chapter book would be perfect for a young reader. (The cover is also one of my favorites this year!)

Teens are almost the easiest to buy for this season.  There are so many popular series out that appeal to fans of multiple genres.  Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games series is still huge, especially with the recent release of Catching Fire in theaters.  Veronica Roth's Divergent series is another good option, as the movie in that series will be coming out this March. (Yay!)  And as always, there's Harry Potter. (Shameless plug, I know)

One of my favorite books I read this year was James McBride's The Color of Water.  This year, McBride's new book The Good Lord Bird won the National Book Award for Fiction from the National Book Foundation.  The story begins in 1857 when the young slave, Henry Shackleford, leaves the Kansas territory with abolitionist  John Brown after a violent argument.  However, after a case of mistaken identity, Brown believes Henry is actually a girl.  The pair eventually end up at Harper's Ferry, one of the many catalysts of the Civil War.

Vader's Little Princess and Darth Vader and Son are some of the funniest Star Wars books I've ever seen.  If Lord Vader ever knew about the existence of his children (sorry spoiler alert), then maybe the scenes in these books may have actually happened.  Very funny and good for all ages!

For lovers of non-fiction, the recent release of Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower is really fascinating.  Lower has done quite a bit of research on the involvement of the much ignored presence of women in Nazi Germany.  This is a must read for any history buff.