* LIKE THEY USED TO MAKE 'EM: Chris Hicks says Disney is releasing another animated "Aladdin" musical, this one only on video. You get the feeling the company could release an animated musical a month and make money.
It has to do with nostalgia, I think. We miss those old-time musicals full of sweet songs, supersentiment and lovable, sappy characters, but we won't put up with such maudlin stuff anymore from "live" actors. Give us wide-eyed animated heroes, however, and we're ready.It reminds me of the way therapists get kids to own up to their feelings by putting puppets on their hands and talking in funny voices.
* POEMS FOR THE UNPOETIC: Gonzalo Rojas, the acclaimed Chilean poet at Brigham Young University, has a friend in Chile who writes "anti-poems." Nicanor Parra's poems are flat, full of common speech and well-worn expressions. Very unpoetic stuff. But Parra has such charm and insight his unpoetic "anti-poems" are classics.
Here's an example:
SENTENCES
Let's pull our heads out of the sand:
The automobile is just a wheelchair.
The lion is made up of lambs.
Poets have no biography.
Death is a collective habit.
Our children are born to be happy.
Reality tends to vanish.
Fornication is a devilish deed.
God is a good friend to the poor.
* REQUIRED READING: While on poetry, Ken Brewer, a poet at Utah State University, has just released a limited edition book of poems featuring woodcuts by Ogden artist Harry Taylor. It sells for $250.
I was talking about it with my step-daughter Erica, a USU student. She didn't seem pleased for Ken at all. In fact, she seemed worried.
"Don't you think the book sounds great?" I asked.
"Sure," she said. "I'm just afraid he'll require the book for his classes."
* TRUTH IN ADVERTISING: I ordered a hot dog the other day.
"Do you want everything on it?" the waitress asked.
"Sure," I said. When the dog arrived all it had was pickle relish.
"I ordered everything," I said.
"I know," she smiled. "That is everything."
It reminded me of the time my college buddy Chris Larson and I took an apartment.
"Now I'll pay for all the heat," our landlord said. When it got to be 50 degrees inside, Chris and I went to the landlord to complain.
"I said I'd pay for all the heat," he told us. "And boys, that's all the heat."
* QUOTE OF THE DAY: For those of you getting ready to get the clubs and tees out, here's some golfing wisdom that Mike Reid passed on to me recently:
"Just remember, 90 percent of the game is mental. The other 10 percent is mental."