Interview with Maurice Sendak about Spike Jonze and the Wild Things

To continue in the vein of Alvina's post yesterday, a video for your enjoyment! I watched this on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast yesterday and boy did it give me chills. Every time I see a preview or a clip online about Wild Things I get excited.

Its just so inspiring to see that a) after all his great success and fame, Sendak not at all possessive about his book, that he is excited about collaboration and sharing his vision, b) Spike Jonze seems to have used the same layered, collage-like aesthetic in Adaptation and Being John Malkovich to speak to kids- it just feels so perfectly suited to the confusing, frightening, fantastical time that is childhood and c) the book got BAD reviews at first, panned, it took two years before people caught on.

It is truly humbling to think the impact one book can have. And it just makes me antsy to make something that might move someone just a fraction of the amount I feel moved by Maurice Sendak's work. Though that achievement often feels far out of reach. I saw Maurice Sendak speak at MIT a couple years ago, when he said something to the gist of "I can't believe any good books can come out of the publishing industry the way it is now." Heh. Well one can still hope.

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Video Monday

For today's post, I thought I'd take a page from Fuse #8's Video Sunday and recommend some videos for your entertainment. The first is an absolutely joyful student-made one-camera video to the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling":




The second is the first of three pitch videos for Sesame Street, made back in 1968. I love how Kermit is such a hippie. Groovy!



(Thanks to Gothamist for the link, you can see links to the other parts here.)

The last two videos are from me.

Two weekends ago I went on a long bike ride around Manhattan, and randomly came upon what appeared to be a unicycle meet-up of some sort. What was great is that the riders all seemed to be teens:




And finally, some of you know that I rode the MS Ride yesterday. I did this ride in 2005 and loved going through the Lincoln Tunnel. Yesterday I went through the tunnel again and took this video. Warning: I wasn't very good about keeping the camera steady, so for those of you who get motion sickness (Grace), you may not want to watch:



Have a great week, all!