Rent-asia

While in Florida to help Martha, Martha and I watched movies in the evenings (when we weren't out or too tired from running around). One movie, Rent, Perry, Martha, Vincent, and I had seen the musical of at the Palace Theater when we still lived in Columbus. While Martha knew the musical/story it was based on, La Boheme, either because of the distance, sound (rather loud if I remember right), or the updated story...HIV vs. tuberculosis, she had a hard time following the musical. Feeling guilty that she didn't fully enjoy the musical with us and hoping to rectify that for Christmas last year we bought her the movie version so she could see it again at her own pace. She hadn't had time or energy to figure out the new DVD/VHS combo player we had bought her also so she hadn't been able to watch Rent. We enjoyed the movie and the story made more sense to her this time around (we watched it over several nights).
The second movie, Fantasia, I brought with me. While preparing for painting the dining room I had to empty out the video cabinet that usually sits against the ugly wallpaper wall in the dining room. It was too heavy to move full. Since I was emptying it out any way I made Vincent go through the old videos to see if there were any we could get rid of or I could take to work for my students. Vincent nominated several that he thought he had out grown (Fantasia, Little House on the Prairie, Paulie, etc.) and could give to Jacob, my nephew, or the library. I took the nominated ones to Florida after picking through to see which ones I could take to work (Fantasia being too long and harder to relate to academic content tested on ISTEP). Martha and I watched Fantasia together over several nights. I'm not sure if we completely finished it but I enjoyed reminescing about watching it as a child. I even remembered peeing my pants (when I was little) because the Night on Bald Mountain segment scared me. I also did an art project in high school where I took old reels of film and bleached them out. We then were supposed to draw our own video/animation for the film. I chose to draw the mushrooms from Fantasia (yes, you have to draw pretty small and a lot for each second of film someone sees...60 frames per second if I remember right...but that was a while ago) and Mickey Mouse for my three minute film. I played some of the Nutcracker Suite for my soundtrack. While I don't remember what we were supposed to learn in the project, I definately have an appreciation for animation (maybe where Vincent gets his?) so particularly enjoyed seeing Fantasia again.
-- Stephanie