Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

Being a grandmother has many advantages. Among the many perks are unconditional bragging rights and unconditional love. We are unencumbered by the stress of young parenthood and have the freedom to enjoy every change and accomplishment of these little people, without all of the work. We do not have to worry about the extra laundry loads but can fully enjoy the mud pies.

One of the benefits of having grandchildren is having an excuse to be silly and young at heart. We can justify taking off early from the office on a Friday afternoon to sit in a dark theatre wearing 3-D glasses, munching popcorn and watching, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Where else in life can such precious memories be created by something as simple as sharing a bag of multi-flavored tootsie rolls?

" I love the lime ones, grandma." my grandson tells me and kisses me on the cheek. Those kisses on the cheek will make you melt!

The hard part is not getting carried away. We do carry on, we proud grandparents and we have to watch it or we will bore our childless and grandchild less counterparts to tears. There are also the seasoned grandparents, those that have so many grandchildren that they are past the gaga stage that we young grandparents enjoy. They simply nod with understanding as we babble on and then change the subject.

We also have to watch ourselves so we don't become "that grandparent", you know the ones who are way too involved. We have to allow our kids to be good parents and we sometimes have to keep quiet about things. It is difficult to remain silent on a topic that means so very much to us but silent we must be, even if we think we know better.

If we are lucky we will be invited to the soccer games and dance recitals and we will find ourselves with a lump in our throats as we nervously watch them, hoping that they will succeed, giving them a high five when they do, and standing by with words of encouragement when they do not.

We also have to exercise restraint. Spoiling them is so very much fun but we must take care not to go too far. We must not overshadow what their parents try to do for them with our grandiose gestures and we can't buy them everything they see and allow them to do whatever they want. Not all of the time anyway.

That being said, there are certain inalienable grandparent's rights. It should always be OK to share tootsie rolls, build forts with every pillow in the house, hang things from string, and dance our crazy dance to our favorite movie theme song; I Like to Move It, Move It, in our pajamas as we watch Madagascar for the umpteenth time. It is the grandparent's right to make the kid's favorite foods. Mom and Dad can deal with the peas and carrots. We get to handle the pizza and spaghetti. We will make sure that there is ample root beer and plenty of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish at all times and we never have to take them for shots or dentist appointments. We always get to have a hug and a kiss goodbye and we do not have to go to parent teacher conferences or PTA meetings.

With all of this in mind, I will watch with anticipation for the next 3-D movie feature and I will be first in line for tickets. I will occasionally splurge for special things and make pepperoni pizzas on demand. Finally, I will try not to go on and on about any of this at the next dinner party! I promise.
                                                                 

Taking Woodstock

Every once in awhile, I indulge myself. I am a movie lover of sorts. Most of all, I love the whole movie going experience, the popcorn, the ice-cold soda and shutting out the world for a few hours in the semi-privacy of the dark theatre. I arrive a bit early to review the posters for upcoming events and to size up the crowd. You can tell much about a film by checking out who is attending. If there are teenage boys in line, I steer clear.

I also like to take a visual survey of the audience as we sit in the theatre waiting for the movie pre-views. Among the small crowd filing into the theatre for the Sunday showing of Taking Woodstock, an Ang Lee film, were several gray long haired couples, sixties throw-back types. You know what I’m talking about. They still wear sandals and T-shirts. They don’t dye or cut their hair, don’t wear make-up and they definitely do not “work for the man.” I was sure of that. Some of them may even have been to Woodstock. They were just that cool.

I was too young for Woodstock myself. As a ten year old hippie in training in 1969, I was groovy with my Peter Max posters and peace signs. It was fun to be a kid in the 60’s even if it was a bit confusing with all of the craziness going on.

Taking Woodstock is an entertaining step back in time to the 60’s era. The movie is a fact based fictional account of the events that led up to this historical event. Just recently the 40th anniversary of the great happening was celebrated. At the time, nothing had ever been seen like it and nothing has been seen like it since. This may not be a bad thing.

The movie focuses on the Tiber family who owned the motel El Monaco, located nearby the Yasgur farm, the ultimate location of Woodstock. The Tibers are first and second generation immigrants, pinching every penny to make ends meet and stay ahead of foreclosure. Young Elliot Tiber has left behind his life in the city to return home and help his parents stay afloat. Mom and Dad Tiber are somewhat cartoonish in character. But no one trusted anyone over thirty in those days, right?

Elliot steps in when the Woodstock promoters are turned away from other locations due to their inability to obtain a music festival permit. Elliot had an existing permit, an easy thing to accomplish as he was head of the local Chamber of Commerce and City Council. He then teamed up with Max Yasgur, a neighboring dairy farmer, to provide the location. As they initiated negotiations with Michael Lang, the concerts promoter, they estimated that there would be a few thousand attendees. They had no idea what they were in for!

Moviegoers are entertained with a behind the scenes peak at the turmoil that follows as thousands of concertgoers descend on the area, much to the chagrin of the locals. The hair, the clothes, the bare feet, the dialogue peppered with “beautiful” and “far out”, are all there. Once the concertgoers make it to their destination, problems ensue. There were not enough food, water or bathroom facilities to match the demand. Add to the mix a lot of mud and it is hard to believe that they all stayed, but stay they did and what they saw will never be matched.

The main focus of the film is the people, not the performers. Hints of Country Joe and the Fish, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills and Nash are heard in the background but there is little in the film about the musicians. This film is about the people behind the scenes and the concertgoers themselves. Footage of the concert is portrayed in split screen with many things going on at the same time. The viewer sees hints of popular culture as bra and draft card burnings by concertgoers are mixed in with ample tie dye and LSD. Oh yes, that was the 60’s!

A glimpse of the free food booths set up by the “Hog Farmers” and a ladies group that brought in thousands of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, as well as the first aid tents to deal with bad trips paint quite a poicture. We all remember scenes of the hippies bathing in the open waters and sliding in the mud. Whoa boy! Hold me back from that fun!

One of the standout characters in the film is the cross-dressing former marine, Vilma who the Tibers hire to assist them with security during the event. Vilma is the catalyst for change among the Tiber family members as young Elliot comes of age and comes out during the film. Add to the mix a group of wacko local theatre performers living in the garage, a delusional Vietnam veteran with a host of other great characters and you have the recipe for a funny and entertaining film.

The actual event was by all rights a disaster for the promoters who lost money as thousands descended on the scene without tickets due to a snafu in the publicity and lack of any way to keep them out. The mess that was left behind was much more than Mr. Yasgur and the local townspeople had ever bargained for! Even so there was something magical if not mythical about the event. One thing for sure, things have surely never been the same since the sixties.

To see the movie trailer click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iq8z2WDbKo

Am I Clueless About Music?

The other night I was sitting on my deck with a bottle of Conundrum, my new favorite sipping wine, singing songs to oldies tunes. We old folks do that sometimes. We get a little tipsy and break out the oldies like the Beatles, James Taylor, Lynard Skynard and Fleetwood Mac to name a few. So all at once I had a revelation. I am totally out of touch with the music world. I know all the words to these old songs, at least the ones where you can actually understand them. With Stevie Nicks I just go; Mena na na, jes a da me, be te tu la, se la win oh. This is Stevie language. Same for whenever I hear Pearl Jam.

The next day, I decided that a trip to the web was in order to check out what I have been missing. So I head to the Billboard.com to see what’s on the top of the list. Now I was always a rock and roll girl. None of that rap and hip hop sh-t for me. I could do some Country Rock, key word being rock. Off I go to the top ten rock chart . Who do I find at the number one spot? Pearl Jam.

I am thinking, well then, maybe I haven’t missed much in the last couple of decades after all and I pop on over to You Tube to check it out. There I find the video for “The Fixer” which incidentally was made for Target. Yes, you got that right, Target, the store with the big circles for their logo. I listen to the song and although I found the lyrics to be a bit immature and the melody to be quite repetitive, it wasn’t bad and was actually a catchy little tune with an upbeat message. What else would you expect when they are making this for Target. So you get the drift.

I then got caught up in watching some of the old Pearl Jam recordings and I remembered why I liked them. Now I was never a hard core Pearl Jam follower but I did always turn up the radio when the songs came on and I did buy a few of their old CD's which I am sure ended up in one of my kids cars. I made my way through a pot of coffee or so as I listened to their old hits. I still love Yellow Ledbetter, whatever that means, and I found a You Tube video that has the lyrics to follow along with that helped me to appreciate the song even more. I especially love when lead singer Eddie Vedder turns to the guitar soloist Mike McCready and says “Make me Cry.” Now that kinda hits you, doesn’t it. Great song whether you can understand him or not.

I work myself down the list of the top ten rock hits and I do recognize at least one tune, “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon and I have actually heard of Nickleback so I give this one a try. Their latest hit “Burn it to the Ground” is actually the theme song for a Transformers movie, a film that lots of kids are sure to see. So again I check out YouTube and find a version complete with lyrics. What I found was more suitable for a Hells Angels rally or a bunch of wanna be party boys as they load up the frat bus. I guess there is a time and place for everything right. Parents beware.

All of this research made me aware of two things. We need to get out and buy music from artists that we appreciate. You can’t blame a band for so called “selling out” when we are all listening to their stuff for free on YouTube and everywhere else.

Most of all the experience brought back some lyrics to a favorite old song of mine.

So you’re a little bit older and a lot less bolder than you used to be.
So you used to shake ‘em down, now you stop and think about your dignity.

I was not above throwing back a shot myself in the old days and shouting out something like “Let’s hear some Bob Seger.”

Years of being a career mom took precedence over my rock and roll experience and my kids are all adults now and old enough to read this for a good laugh or two. But the line is true.

“Come back baby, rock and roll never forgets.” (I can hear them groaning now.)