Welcome Mr. B!
Summer break in January?

quote:

Originally posted by fjp451:
"There is more than one way to burn a book."

Perhaps these new libraries will be staffed with a Mr. Atoz or one of his more congenial replicas.

Our boys (mere scruffs then) were brought up on sips of Dandelion Wine, trips to Mars, scares by the Illustrated Man, and hunts for the White Whale on those treacherous, winding Irish back roads! , Mr. B! Indeed, stay the course.

Here a few interesting hints of the possible fate of Library BOOKS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Mc9d5IQGY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI6vrJHf8qo
(*Remember the scene in which Rod Taylor discovers the long forgotten books, all gone to dust!?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQbkhYg2DzM

Apologies! I live and teach in Australia so that inverts the seasonal timings, also Mr.B is the abbreviated form of my surname that my students and some teachers refer to me by, not a direct reference to Ray! Thank you for the warm replies, well in keeping with my antipodean climes.

Great! Mr. B, what grade levels?

BTW, I have years of filed lessons and outlines on Mr. Bradbury's works (7-12 and adult lit.) If ever you have an interest, I'd be pleased to share them with you Down Under!
"Mr. P"

I am maths and science grades 7 through 9. In time I can see myself moving through to humanities and English teaching, but perhaps not for several years. I am in a government school and the students are genuinely good, so too the teachers. I think i would find it difficult however to teach English without being granted significant freedoms in text choice etc. I don't have those problems in maths and science as the resource choice is essentially up to the teacher as long as the educational standard is being met.

I dug my copy of the Martian chronicles out, another of rays works that has resonated with me, especially the blue vase section, and the man who's telephone rings every so often as the woman with boiled egg eyes calls! I guess he's saying different planet, same hang ups, pardon the pun.

Another relephant moment: RB and Groucho, I'll bet your life this has been posted somewhere on board before.

http://minniesboys.blogspot.co...u-bet-your-life.html

"Fire Balloons" http://news.yahoo.com/photos/2...oto--1426608032.html

quote:

Originally posted by fjp451:
"Fire Balloons" http://news.yahoo.com/photos/2...oto--1426608032.html

Must have been breathtaking!

"And we'll go on to other worlds, adding the sum of the parts of the Truth until one day the whole Total will stand before us like the light of a new day."--Ray Bradbury's "The Fire Balloons"

Did anyone else have some Bradbury moments during the Lincoln movie? I had several.

"Downwind from Gettysburg"? Or something else?

Lincoln movie: Civil War images from (Colonel Freeleigh) "The Time Machine" and "Drummer Boy of Shiloh!" possibly. The Lincoln movie battlefield scenes, though few, were gruesome, as expressed by the narration in both RB stories.

BTW: I had "just" read The Lincoln No One Knows (by Webb Garrison) and Herndon's Lincoln (by William H. Herndon - friend and law partner of Abraham Lincoln - based on his own observations and hundreds of private letters and interviews, three volumes).

Great historical insights of A. L.'s life presented in these books (childhood to post-Ford Theater days). Herndon offers years of first hand anecdotes, priceless.

Because of the aforementioned books, when I observed the movie, I truly seemed transported back in time. Daniel Day-Lewis's Academy Award worthy performance is captivating from his voice intonation (said to be the best ever by language historians) to his body language and sense of the moments. A powerful rendering of American culture and politics of the time.

quote:

Originally posted by fjp451:
Daniel Day-Lewis's Academy Award worthy performance is captivating from his voice intonation (said to be the best ever by language historians)...

I wonder how they know what he sounded like.

DS, good question! There was a very interesting analysis done comparing the previous star performers who portrayed Lincoln in earlier classic movies (Raymond Massey, Henry Fonda, Hal Holbrook, Walter Huston to name a few).

Though, maybe not what all wanted to hear, the point of the discussion I had heard is explained closely in this article which addresses the "rural Indiana, rural Kentucky" reality of A. L.'s early years:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...lewis_n_1883693.html

I heard Spielberg talking about the voice in a radio interview. He says they located some extensive archive recordings of (I think) Indiana and Kentucky inhabitants from the 1920s and 1930s. Much later than Lincoln, of course, but closer to Lincoln than our own times are.

Day-Lewis studied the recordings and synthesised his own interpretation. He sent a recording to Spielberg, who immediately phoned him, saying "Wow, I just heard the voice of Lincoln!"

I have also heard it suggested that the movie Lincoln sounds a bit like Garrison Keillor! An unlikely claim, but when you listen to recordings of both, there are similarities in tone and sometimes in intonation.

Phil, right on the "Spielberg" interview!

It was interesting to hear how meticulously they had approached this part of his character. As I commented, the body language throughout the movie truly speaks as clearly and loudly as any words delivered. It works effectively in view of the politicking and cultural conflicts that were attacking the 16th US President from all angles.

The typical, and at times, prolonged pauses in A. Lincoln's speech mannerisms were also well displayed. This reflected Mr. Lincoln's approach to carefully weighing things before responding, but may also have occurred without warning because of a childhood kick to the head that he suffered from an unruly horse.

Ironically, I now remember thinking as I was viewing this movie, "Mr. Bradbury would really have enjoyed this." (So many of RB's stories can deliver the reader to the exact place and time.)