Marley & Me, I submit, is not — I repeat, NOT — a dog movie.

That’s what I’ve determined after seeing it for the second time last night. My daughter wanted to rent it because she thinks it is one. But I wanted to rent it because I knew better.

Because it is better than a boring old dog movie.

I won’t say I cried (on second viewing, no less) because I don’t cry at movies. But there may have been a little hard blinking.

See, Marley & Me uses a dog to take us through the seasons of life — specifically the seasons as they change from spring to summer. As a man and woman’s lives change from being about themselves to being about their family. It just happens to be told within the framework of a puppy growing into an old man-dog.

Marley provides a fair amount of the funny of this movie, but he also helps us get a window into the hearts of the main characters, Jenny (played by Jennifer Aniston) and John Grogan (Owen Wilson). Nothing really horrible happens. There’s a mild couple’s quarrel here and there, just the friction that comes from rubbing up so closely against another person’s life. That friction which rubs off the rough corners of our selves.

In a way, I  identify with this movie because it has a wonderfully talented (and beautiful, of course) woman choosing marriage and family over career, and depicts the normal ups and downs to a tee. It also shows a guy making career choices that are not only in line with his personal ambitions, but that suit the needs of his family. He’s striving for balance, and you admire him for it. I like seeing people sacrifice their own desires for a greater good. What greater good is there, really, then a happy family?

I haven’t read the memoir (of the same name) that the movie is based on, but I like the idea that a memoir can make a good story… even if it is just about people like you and me. What we do every day — choosing dependability, choosing responsibility, choosing to love others more than you love yourself — does make the world turn. We are the builders of humanity. For real, dude.

Too heavy? Well, if all you want is to commiserate about your aging dog, the movie provides ample grounds for that emotion, too. See the picture there? This is my old girl, Pesto. No, not the sauce. Though she is saucy, yeah. My husband and I, when we first got the runty little pointer mix from doggy jail, named her after the secretary character from the TV show Moonlighting. I know. We thought it was funny: Ms. Agnes dePesto.

Pesto.

She’s now fourteen years old, and I could write a book about the crazy little stories of her life, too. When she gorged herself on dog food and could hardly walk, when she jumped off the boat trying to reach the dogfish we’d snagged (we had to snag her, then), when she met each of our children and wholeheartedly opened her heart (and tongue) to them. But her last chapter is coming to a close now. Her time is near. She’s had a good run. Been a great dog. None better, I think. You forgive me the hard blinking, right?

Did you avoid seeing Marley & Me because it looked like another Benji or Beethoven? Well, go rent it. Though, perhaps it is. I didn’t see Benji or Beethoven. Maybe boring old dog movies aren’t bad at all!

I’m not going to rate this one — you may not like it at all. It’s a personal story, you’ll have to see how it hits you, eh?

I came across this post at the Seattle Library blog, about how cover (and interior) art has changed over time for some tried-and-true favorites. The blog-writer lays in to such drastic changes as Arthur, who had a very long nose in the ’70’s but is not even discernible as an aardvark on today’s covers:

Extreme Makeover: Picture Book Characters Edition | Shelf Talk >>

‘Tis sad, for those of us who pair a memory of lilting prose with the mood of particular illustrations. I was elated a few years ago to find that one of my childhood favorites was still in print, and I ordered several copies (online, not noticing the pictures much). When the box came, I was surprised to learn that my favorite little witch (and her ghost friend) looked nothing like I remembered. Here she is, then and now, The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches:

This is an awesome little picture book, in either form. Get it now for Halloween reading!

This one gets five nods from me!

Fortunately, Ira Sleeps Over has remained true. Interestingly, my favorite illustration in this book turned out to be the same one my daughter loves. There’s nothing special about the page, just Ira and his sister setting the table for dinner. The power of great images… and paired with great words, nothing better!

This one also gets five nods from me!

Sometimes, the changes are fun, though. My sister bought me, for Christmas, my number one favorite (early) childhood story, which had traditionally been one of the “other stories” in The Sneeches. It is now a standalone with glow-in-the-dark ink, no less: What was I Scared of? which is perhaps better known as “Pale Green Pants with Nobody Inside Them”. I can still recite this from memory. Thankfully, no well-meaning moneyperson has decided that the strange Dr. Seuss animals need a makeover for modern readers!

Five nods from me!

What are your childhood favorites?? Are they still around?

Or Visitors — whichever meaning you espouse for ABC television series “V”. I had high hopes, but just haven’t felt the need to keep up with it. Yes, it makes for an interesting allegory of terrorism and guerrilla warfare, but the individual stories feel a little lackluster and the characters seem cardboard.

So I want to point you toward two other shows I’m just starting on DVD.

Jericho

This CBS show only made it through a partial second season, and I’m just a few episodes in on season one, but this is a show that is tugging at my emotions already.

But let’s back up. Here’s what CBS says Jericho is about:

Returning for a second season as a result of one of the most unprecedented and impassioned displays of fan support on behalf of a television program, JERICHO is a drama about what happens in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion in the once peaceful town of Jericho.

In other words, it is near-future post-apolcolypse sci-fi. This could have gone very grandiose and epic (kind of what V is doing) but instead, the episodes have featured small, immediate problems, like a little girl with a bruised windpipe and a stranded woman getting picked up by escaping ex-cons. How people deal with these immediate problems — rather than the obvious one of the apocolypse itself — is great storytelling!

Also, it has a rather charming small-town-pulling-together-in-crisis thing going on. It’s a great exploration of how a town would have to transition from denial (people still trying to go to work) to survival (everyone pooling resources and sharing tasks).

Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles

Another show that has already hit the skids — (when will the networks learn?) — is Fox’s Terminator series. This one is more small-cast and personal, dealing with Sarah and her teenaged future-leader-of-the-resistance son some years before the world is taken over by machines. An artificial intelligence called Skynet, to be precise.

Same brand of fun as the movies — hand-to-hand action, some explosions, some suspense. It does aim a little higher, though, with some thought-provoking tie-ins through Sarah Connor’s voice-over narration. Perhaps it must dig a little deeper to compensate for the TV budget, but I think this is a good thing. Sarah wrestles with whether she should kill one man to help save humanity, or how to protect a son who is destined to risk it all to save the world, and so forth. Keeps it interesting.

I also enjoy strong female leads, and Sarah is good, but Summer Glau as the girl terminator is perfect. They have fun playing off the idea that people would underestimate small-statured women. Not unlike Sydney of Alias, now I think on it. By the way, this is one complaint I have with Jericho, at least in the few episodes I’ve watched. There is a fair amount of “help the poor girl” going on. In the early episodes that featured young women, both heroines were ultimately saved by Jake, the hero. Ah well, can’t have it all. There may never be another Alias.

What, you haven’t watched Alias? Okay, before you try Jericho or Terminator, GO WATCH ALIAS. If you can get past the occasional fake blood and torturous screaming now and again, you’ll find a smart, exciting mystery/romance with one of the strongest lead women characters ever on TV. Sydney Bristow.*

* And I don’t mean strong as in physical, because that would probably be the terminator girl. Sydney can handle herself physically, but her real strength lies in her quick thinking and her caring and humanity that shine through even the toughest situations. She’s the kind of woman you want your daughter to be as she faces her own demons in life.

It seems that Mr. Fillion feels another kind of force at Christmas…

Tweeted by NathanFillion >>.

Gotcha, didn’t I? You thought you were going to see something really strange! The power of words…

See, I was tying up the last ends of Christmas shopping over at Amazon’s site. The site suggested I employ a special phrase to make my online buying easier. The suggested phrase was:

Amber’s Unusual Apparatus

Now, perhaps it’s because I see the world through the writer’s lens (which is a bit like peering through Alice’s Looking Glass) but I can’t get this wonderful, provocative phrase out of my head! I feel a picture book taking shape — but only because I refuse to write for an adult audience. Adult. You knowatimean.

Anyway, if the hustle and bustle of the holidays gets you down, just think of this magical phrase and everything will seem a little more interesting.

Amber’s Unusual Apparatus

Perhaps we’re fantasy writers — it could be this magical gadget:

Or if we’re talking sci-fi — how about this?

If we’re literary writers, maybe this?

Or if, as my daughter would have it, the apparatus was for animals?

That’s my gift to you, fellow bloggers, just a spark for the imagination. I think there’s nothing better.

Merry Christmas!