bookshelf -choo choo

"Whenever I can, I substitute picture for word." -VLB

Written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton, Choo Choo was her first published children's book (an earlier work, Jonnifer Lint, did not get accepted). Quite an amazing lady actually. A Massachusetts native, father was first dean of MIT, on the bleeding edge of children's book illustrating. Read more here. The premise for this story came from watching the trains at Rockport (MA) station with her son, Aris. Our wee boy is mad on trains and loves this, especially as the train runs away and goes too fast in his estimation...




Her better known works may be The Little House or Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, but the dark graphics of Choo Choo definitely give an illicit thrill to the sub5 set...

Susi, Vikram to team up again

Director Susi Ganesan and Vikram, who teamed up for 'Kanthaswamy', are rumored to come together again next year.

Happy at the way 'Kanthaswamy' has shaped up for release, Susi Ganesan said, 'It isn't just another fantasy or a Robinhood styled adventure film. It's based on fantasy with logic.'

According to him, it carries a social message about caring for our society which will be the underlying theme. 'Kanthaswamy' is a new venture for me. It has expanded my creative horizons, declares a confident Ganesan. Both Vikram and Shriya have contributed their best. We toiled a lot shooting in various locales abroad, he says and adds, 'one of the grand movies to have hit the screen ever in Tamil cinema, will be 'Kantaswamy' which would surely draw audience from all walks of life'.

CHILDHOOD PHOTOS OF ACTOR SURYA

lee denim

'Course love my blanket-lined Levis to death, but have written about the stealth pick of Lee denim here before too. M thinks Buddy Lee is a creepy doll a la Chucky... i think he looks like our wee boys hahaha. Lee are digging in the archives ('archive' is a word thrown around a little too loosely sometimes, but this time it does apply). Nice animated/potted history of the Lee company on their euro site here. Via Selectism. The Lee store does not even offer the jackets for sale, forget 101 repros etc... huge hole.

Exhibit A, Lee repro shirts by Edwin below. Classic shapes, good materials. Not rocket science guys...

bonus -tom waits

Remember that movie Mystery Men? Found this deleted scene on the internets. Tom Waits.... rascal. Watch.

dean's shortbread

The bakery Dean's of Huntly is less than 50 years old; unlike the storied, ubiqitous, red wrapped, Walker's shortbread and much more like-granny-baked to me. A step up. Easy to spot as it is the one in the green and cream wrapping.

woodsongs -lambchop (and others)

Lambchop was on Michael Jonathan's WoodSongs Old-Time Radio House, last Monday, January 26. Streaming media available from today here. They were preceded by the Tannahill Weavers in this clip (a Scottish trad band). Lambchop at the 16 and 47 minute mark. Play. They tell the story of how they came up w/ 'lambchop' as a name incase you didn't know (i didn't). Lot of chatting. Good stuff.