An American in France: Days 6 et 7

Oh, to be young in Paris.  On day 6 of our journey, The Tableau Your Mind family left the Loire Valley, took a detour to Versailles, and ended up back where we started. Once in Paris, we tooled around the city, stopping at cafes, admiring a few bridges, darting in and out of train cars like the experts we had so quickly become. Though our day was short on

Maurice Sendak Dies at 83

(Photo Credit)

My three favorite authors as a child were Shel Silverstein, Bill Peet, and Maurice Sendak. Bill Peet showed me whimsy and silliness, Shel Silverstein showed me true love and dark comedy. Maurice Sendak showed me longing and heart. Though many of his books shaped my childhood education, it’s no surprise that my favorite Sendak book was Where the Wild Things Are, a tale that was about growing up and accepting responsibility as well as

Mr. Feeny Was On Grey's Anatomy!

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This probably deserves a bigger, more Boy Meets World-centric post, but we just freaked out a little because Mr. George Feeny was on Grey's Anatomy last night. What? Awesome.

We're going to need a few minutes to process this.

Update: Just processed it - still awesome. The only way it would have been cooler was if he had worked "Mr. Matthews, Mr. Hunter" into the dialogue somehow.

An American In France: Days 4 et 5

The Tableau Your Mind family left Paris on Day 4 and headed to Blois (sort of pronounced 'Blah') in the Loire Valley (sort of pronounce 'Lower Valley'). We saw Castles and shopped all around the adorable village of Blois, and then went to the Château de Chenonceau, a castle on the River Cher, who once pondered the complexities of life after love. It's a quaint castle with some great gardens and a really efficient walking tour. In the last few days, we have purchased souvenir keychains, drunk copious amounts of wine, and enjoyed the quiet town in which we were staying.

Juliette Binoche - Changing lives through sensual sweets.

I should point out at this point that we have been thoroughly enjoying the desserts that France has to offer, and that is never clearer than in the way we have flocked to the

An American in France: Day 3

Quasimodo watches Paris burn.

It is Day 3 in Paris, and things are getting crazy. The many well-laid plans for the day were thrown aside, and the Tableau Your Mind family dabbled in spontaneity. Of course, this involved going to many well-marked and safe tourist attractions, but we went to them in a completely different order than the order we had planned. We started the day in Le Marais, which is apparently beautiful and fun and hip, but mostly it was just cafes and wholesale purse shops - in all honesty, we may have missed the hip Le Marais. Then, we were planning to head to the Louvre after the Centre Georges Pompidou, but, instead, we went to Notre Dame. Quelle Surprise!

When I think of the Notre Dame, I think of Indiana football and the classic Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Since this is Tableau Your Mind and not Football Your Mind, let's focus on the Disney.  This 90s addition to the Disney family, based on a novel by Victor Hugo, is a wonderful and dramatic film, filled with religion and gypsies and repressed sexual desires. The villain, Judge Frollo, is the scariest cartoon character with

An American in France: Day 2

l'Amour (French Kiss)

What a difference a day makes! After the first, rain-soaked day in Paris, it could really only get better. And boy, did it. The Tableau Your Mind family enjoyed a beautiful sunny day visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Louis Vuitton, the Champs Elysees, Montmartre, and the Sacre Coeur. It was a busy day, full of romance (and war and nationalism and sex and a little religion). But for the purpose of this post, let's focus on the romance. France is built on a solid foundation of love, the ville de l'amour. And while plenty of French filmmakers have explored this love affair, I think, to go along with the monuments and landmarks I encountered, we should explore films directed by and American, an Aussie, and, okay, a Frenchman.

Of course, France and love is so closely tied with the activity the country is named for, so let's start with the film French Kiss, which stars Meg Ryan as an American adrift in Paris,

An American In France: Day 1

Tableau Your Mind is in France. We are out of our comfort zone. We are traveling in a country where English isn't the main language and the currency looks like it was watercolor-painted by children. We can't understand the woman on the train speakers for a completely different reason than why we can't understand the woman on the subway back home. We are lost.

When it's difficult to find one's bearings, it's important to look to the familiar - finding a McDonald's or a Cracker Barrel can help make a person feel grounded and safe. When I'm in France, it turns out nothing makes me feel safer than retreating to the films of France, to the

30 Rock: Live From Studio 6H! (Updated with West Coast Info)

30 Rock's live episode last night, "Live From Studio 6H," was pretty great and showed us so many things. Sure, the beginning was a little slow and hammy (in a bad way), but it became hilarious and hammy (as in, Jon Hamm-y) in the best way. Even with almost no plot or character progression, we learned so much! Here are just a few of the gems we uncovered:

Hipster Baby Shares His Pain

You and me both, baby.

The 'Magic Mike' Trailer Got Us Thinking...

Yesterday saw the release of the first trailer for Magic Mike, the stripper biopic directed by Stephen Soderbergh and starring and based on the life of Channing Tatum, 2012's most ubiquitous film star (This year's Jessica Chastain, or, more aptly, this year's Jude Law).

It got us thinking. Despite the somewhat cyclical nature of Channing Tatum’s career that this trailer represents, the role really opens him up to a whole new world of opportunities. He can dance, he’s funny, and he can sing. He still lacks some complexity in the more dramatic