*scream*

i'm back! and it seems, a little insane. heads up. thanks to laura's timely and thoughtful comment on my 'i'm ill, pay me attention' post (below), i have just been transported into a brilliant maurice-sendak-twitters-defensively gawker post, which in turn catapaulted me down a late '7o's tinted winding lane of maurice sendak reminiscences courtesy of the commenters therein. with a "the hipster grifter gets how long?" on the side.

my kids love 'in the night kitchen', which they often ask for when at granny's house. granny downsized majorly nearly two years ago, but, of course, that process afforded zero book culling. both my parents are the kind of people who hoard nothing but books, bookshelves having long taken over their houses, quickly becoming entirely inadequate to their purpose. i don't know how they can live like that. (she said, eyes deliberately not sliding three inches right to a teetering pile of 100+ paperbacks next to the bed).

anyway they love it, just as my sister and i were transfixed by it as kids. (we may have occasionally preferred 'some swell pup' fot it's frank, if contextural, illustrations of poo and wee and the fact that the primary adult carer appears to be a bear for no apparent reason whatsoever.) mickey wears an outfit made of pastry, for a start, which to a kid with nary a whisper of s.p.d. seems entirely ideal. the book is like a child describing drunkenness. utterly compelling, completely bizarre, more than a little bit wrong... plus it is anatomically correct. why don't we see the gruffalo's penis ever? actually don't answer that.

anywaaaay, as previously predicted i am, i am afraid, almost nearly over 'where the wild things are', and it hasn't been released yet. i saw another trailer at the cinema the other day and found myself borderline indifferent, although i still believe the casting of max to be exquisite. no, now, i am almost beside myself with excitement about this. seems i heart wes anderson more than i heart spike jonze/ wild things- i did after all sit through 'the royal tenenbaums' twice, one showing right after the other, and can actually find myself crying with laughter and lying prone on the floor unable to speak even attempting to describe 'the life aquatic'. funny, because i never thought i'd have to choose. (alright, i didn't have to choose. but i have. screw you spike, i've seen 'lost in translation', i know what time it is. not really. i'll probably see 'wild things' too. god i'm fickle.)







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