Jonathan's blog

For movie night today, Lisa and the kids watched Monsters, Inc. (2001,G). From reel.com:

Two monsters who specialize in scaring young children find their world turned upside down when a three-year-old girl follows them back to their headquarters.

They liked it, though Lisa thought it was a little too "rowdy." Elliot said, "What's rowdy?"

Tonight I finished watching Control Room (2004,NR). From Wikipedia:

Control Room is a 2004 documentary film about Al Jazeera and its relations with the US Central Command, as well as the other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

I thought it was pretty interesting to see some of the TV images (e.g., of captured American soldiers) that I had originally seen glimpses of on US news when the US news was reporting on the fact that the footage was being shown on Al Jazeera. Also seeing the interaction between the skeptical Al Jazeera correspondents and the surprisingly balanced spokesmen for the US troops. I give it 4 out of 5.

Today I watched Safe Men (1998,R). I've liked Sam Rockwell since Box of Moonlight, Lawn Dogs, etc. This is another good one. It's goofy and quirky and I liked it. I give it 4 out of 5. From reel.com:

Oddball heist comedy about hack musicians mistaken for top-notch safecrackers. Despite moments of amusing whimsy, most viewers won't fancy its unappetizing mix of grating Gen-X goofiness and dud pseudo-borscht-belt schtick.

From a Reuters article on MSNBC:

In contrast to an earlier finding, it does not appear children who watch a lot of television wind up with behavior problems in school, researchers reported Monday. If there is an association, it may be that the exhausted parents of already overly active children are more likely to let them watch TV to give themselves a break, and not that TV itself leads to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, the report from Texas Tech University in Lubbock said. "The results of the present study do not indicate the presence of an important relationship between television exposure and subsequent attention problems," said the study published in the March issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. That finding conflicts with the conclusion of a 2004 study in the same journal, possibly because of differences in methodology, the authors said.

After church today we went out to eat with the Wanous clan to Los Cuatro Amigos. Later in the afternoon, we went sledding with them at Overlook Park. Here are some photos: