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My Coloring Book

4/17/2016

24 Comments

 
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Back in the day, Barbra Streisand had a mega hit that’s also the title of this post. 
 
Now, I’ve been doing it myself.
 
Filling in a coloring book, that is.
 
Who knew that spending hours with a glass jelly jar filled with sharpened colored pencils and a for-grown-ups-only, complete-the-pictures pad could also help reduce stress; make my brain slow down, and sometimes, even be the catalyst to a good night’s sleep?
 
Given that I’m a foodie, it’s appropriate that the book I bought is called Color Me Delicious.
 
However, the contents appealed to me not so much because of the dishes it shows, but the world it portrays. 
 
Turn the pages, and you’ll see hands happily roasting s’mores and a birthday cake with perfectly positioned frosted flowers.  Other sketches show a front porch with silly jack o’lanterns; keep going, and you’ll see a jumbo mug of hot chocolate and gingerbread houses.  This rose-colored version of life suits me fine, since I purposely didn’t want anything too complicated.  (No surprise here that my selection is from Taste of Home, a publishing house known for comfy recipes that make you feel like you’re hanging with Beaver Cleaver.)
 
I’ve noticed a few of these books around for many months, but didn’t pay them much attention until I saw one at the home of my daughter’s tutor.
 
“Oh, a friend gave that to me,” she said.  “She said I needed to relax, and she thought this would do it.”   
 
The tutor hadn’t yet tackled any of its pictures, but given my issues with sleeping at night, the idea piqued my interest.  When she suggested that my daughter might use one while tackling a specialized listening program, we decided to check out the biggest bookstore in our area.
 
There, we found displays on both the store’s first and second floor, easily totaling at least 40 choices.  Who knew this coloring thing was so popular?   I especially liked the city-themed ones, Paris and New York among them.  However, my kid ultimately decided on a thick, almost hardcover one featuring lots of intricate mandalas that would make me nuts. 
 
I wish I’d saved myself some time, and gas, by checking out our local supermarket first. 
 
Yup, between the paper towels and frozen pizza, I found nearly two dozen books to choose from. A block away, our one-stop hardware store boasted a dozen different books, smack in the center aisle.  Google some to buy, and a whopping 600,000 results come up.   
 
What happened to what used to be an activity exclusive to the preschool set?
 
Well, like so many great ideas, it took just one person to turn the coloring book industry on its proverbial head. 
 
And like so many who are chockful of creativity and imagination, this person is not only talented and did the work, but had luck on her side. 
 
Her name is Johanna Basford, and prior to her breakout coloring book success three years ago, the 32-year-old Scottish artist peddled a different sort of merchandise.    
 
In a studio located on her parents’ trout and salmon farm, also in Scotland, Basford’s medium was silk screening; specifically, she designed hand-printed wallpaper for luxe hotels and boutiques.  But after the 2008 crash, Basford
was forced to close her workspace, and became a freelance commercial illustrator for clients that included Starbucks and Nike.
 
Then, in 2011, a United Kingdom-based publisher saw Basford’s work online and thought her sketches would be perfect for a children’s book. But Basford had another idea: how about a grown-up coloring book? 
 
“It got kind of quiet for a moment,” remembers Basford.  “Coloring books for adults weren’t much of a thing then.”
 
So, the artist spent the next nine months coming up with the template for her first book.  A labor of love, she worked on the concept at night, keeping her paycheck career going during the day.  The initial publisher decided the concept was worth the risk, and in the spring of 2013, debuted My Secret Garden. 
 
A 90-page collection of beautifully intricate black-and-white ink drawings of leaves, flowers and birds, Basford’s first book has now sold 1.4 million copies around the world; been published in 22 languages, and last year, made the top 10 list of Amazon’s best-selling books.  Her three subsequent coloring books--Enchanted Forest, Magical Jungle and Lost Ocean—are also doing very well. 
 
And while Basford’s books focus on nature, it’s possible to now find a coloring books on dozens, if not hundreds, of other themes.  In fact, much like knitting clubs, coloring book gatherings are now popping up around the world, meeting in cafes and in homes.  Too, many aficionados buy more than one book so they can keep several going at any one time.  
 
Once I began to color, often at night when my household is at its quietest, the runaway success of these books makes complete sense.
 
After all, the books take us back to childhood, when life, at least for most of us, was both kinder and simpler.  And according to at least one psychologist, the relaxation that coloring gives us also lowers a specific and active part of the brain that’s affected by stress.  Put another way, coloring has the ability to take us away from worrying, an activity that already takes up way too much of my time.
 
In fact, I think it’s time to find a few more coloring books.  Lucky for me and so many others, I’ll have a whole lot to choose from.    
 
What do you think about adult coloring books?  I’m looking forward to your comments and stories!
 
P.S.  Find out more about Johanna Basford at www.johannabasford.com.
 
P.P.S. One more thing: if you’ve never heard Barbra Streisand sing about her coloring book, here’s the best rendition yet:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp-RgmR5KKg.

 
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24 Comments

My Movie Nights

4/2/2016

23 Comments

 
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 I wish I’d been the first to come up with this terrific observation.

Because really, it’s the reason that I do this one great thing I do every few months.    

Still, since the thought comes from Ann Patchett, one of my favorite essayists, I’m happy to share what she has to say about addiction.

Sadly, I can’t find the exact quote, but writing about her love of opera, Patchett thinks that an addict isn’t truly an addict unless he is compelled to share his addiction with others.

That’s exactly how I feel about the movies.  

Because they are just so darn awesome, I want all of my friends to know just how astonishingly wonderful the best films can be.  And since all of these chums where I now live think a really old movie means that it’s from the 1980s, I feel it’s my sacred duty to screen the classics… often dating back a good 60 years.

So, once every two to three months, I host Girls’ Movie Night.

I’ve been doing this for about four years now, and the template is basically the same.
 
We start at around six o’clock, with guests out the door by 10 p.m.; that’s because all of us have husbands and kids at home.  Men aren’t invited, so my spouse makes himself scarce for a quiet night out alone. Back here, there are always appetizers; a sit-down dinner (where I read interesting facts about the movie aloud), and dessert. Also, everything is made from scratch, with the menu always having something to do with the movie we’ll be watching.  (Thank goodness it has been a potluck affair from day one, and thank goodness there are some great cooks in our crew.)

For instance, when I showed The High and the Mighty, the kitschy 1954 John Wayne film that’s also the first airplane disaster movie, we featured tropical food because the action unfolds on a flight from Hawaii to California.  (Here’s the trailer, with a luscious score by Dimitri Tolkin, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=64BarFD6Mso.)

Despite the fact that I’ve been doing this get-together for a while, the ideas keep on coming.

Take Gidget (www.youtube.com/watch?v=adtFTiOQMMA), the original beach party movie, starring the adorable Sandra Dee (“…although she’s not king sized, her finger is ring sized…”).  It was summertime, and we chowed down on hot dogs, chips and s’more bars.  And when I showed the underrated 1950 film Caged, a gritty story about an innocent woman in prison (star Eleanor Parker was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar and should have won), we ate homemade chili ladled from a big steel pot. (Take a look at some of its top-notch performances here, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRY_U4yS1oE)

I’m pretty sure we’ve watched well over a dozen movies by now. 

Some others are Sunset Blvd (William Holden is my forever celluloid crush); Double Indemnity (featuring the best screenplay ever written—and oh, that anklet!); It Happened One Night (the first movie to win Oscars in all major categories), and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, with Ellen Burstyn and dreamboat Kris Kristofferson showing us
one of the best on-screen kisses of all time. 
  
I’ve loved movies since middle school.

My best friend then was Linda Mayberry, and it was she who introduced me to the wonderful celluloid gems that would play on TV. 

We’d watch them mostly on weekends, but sometimes catch The Million Dollar Movie, where the same film was on the air every night for one full week.  Given that the stations showing these movies tried to fit in as many commercials as possible, the editing was often choppy, and the prints weren’t all that great either.   
  
None of this mattered to me. 

However, I finally got the chance to see how great films are really made to be viewed—on a huge screen with a crisp print, replete with appreciative audiences and state of the art equipment—when I took an American film class at UCLA.
There, in what’s now called The James Bridges Theater, I watched (among many others) Grapes of Wrath (1940), Strangers on a Train (1951), High Noon (1952) and a sneak preview of Paper Moon (1973).  (Director Peter Bogdanovich was around to answer questions afterwards.  When I raised my hand, he addressed me as “sweetheart.”)

Today, going out to the movies is still one of my very favorite things to do, especially a few months before the Academy Awards, when so many fantastic films are showing in theatres. 

But most of all, I like going back to the classics made so many decades ago.  To my mind, that’s when so many of the great movies were made.  I’m also lucky right now, because I can watch most of them right at home.  There’s no giant screen, of course, but when I get caught up in the story and the acting and the score, it takes me to a place where that’s not necessary.

And of course, being a movie addict, I am compelled, always and forever, to share. 

I’d love to hear about your favorite movies!  Comments are always most welcomed and most appreciated!

P.S.  I grew up to write and co-produce my own movie, Botso.  The trailer, and much more, is at www.botsomovie.com.
23 Comments

    Hilary Roberts Grant

    Journalist, editor, filmmaker, foodie--and a clown! 
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