You can't take your little kids to The Hunger Games, or some busybody will call Child Protective Services on you. You tried dragging your five-year-old to Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and she started demanding a pee break every five minutes. So what are you going to do with your squirming sprogs this weekend? Take them to Pirates! Band of Misfits, that's what. Seriously, this movie is one of the rare animated films for kids that's genuinely fun for adults. It's from the people who did Wallace and Gromit. It's got David Tennant as Charles Darwin. There are some clever bits. And it's a great puppet movie about the power of pretending. It's a sad commentary on the world that you even have to say "It's got heart," when describing a movie for children. And yet, that's a rare enough phenomenon that it merits comment. These days, your average porn movie has more genuine sentiment, warmth and love for the material than your average merchandising-driven film for kids. When you see something like The Muppets or most Pixar movies, they come as a shock — because we've forgotten that entertainment for kids can actually have real love in it.

We're probably raising a generation of sociopaths — but more importantly, we're making a lot of terrible movies.jiro dreams of sushi dvd deutschlandIn an Adventure with Scientists is one of the good ones. filmul sushi girl online(Or, if you're an American who doesn't deserve a cool title, it's called Pirates! jiro dreams of sushi download mp4You can feel the love in every hand-made frame, because a small army of craftspeople put that frame together, and breathed life into it. jiro dreams of sushi download indowebsterThis relatively low-budget stop-motion movie is a throwback to a more heartfelt era of film-making.jiro dreams of sushi amsterdam

In Pirates!, there's a pirate captain, whose name is simply The Pirate Captain, and he's desperate to win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award, which he always loses out on to flashier, more marauding pirates. sushi grade fish knoxvilleHe mostly thinks that piracy is about having a cool beard and a happy crew, and he doesn't actually spend a lot of time slaughtering people for their wealth. But another impending loss in the Pirate of the Year contest makes him raise his game and try to raid a ton of ships — with a series of zany mishaps, until he finally attacks a ship that's transporting a young naturalist, Charles Darwin. Darwin convinces the Pirate Captain that he can reap enormous wealth by helping Darwin win the Scientist of the Year Award — and then the Pirate Captain can use that lucre to win the Pirate of the Year Award, in turn. Unfortunately, the Scientist of the Year contest is in London, under the nose of the pirate-hating Queen Victoria.

It's all immensely silly, in a lovely joyful way. As usual in this sort of thing, the Pirate Captain and his crew mostly enjoy hanging out and being friends, and being the scourge of the seven seas is just sort of incidental. Their big ritual is "Ham Nite," where they eat ham. They're prized possession is Polly, the Captain's parrot, who turns out to be a lot more unique than anybody realized. The Pirate Captain does ridiculous dance routines for his adoring crew, including the obligatory girl-in-disguise Pirate. Anybody who's ever seen an Aardman production is familiar with the amount of mayhem and slapstick they pack into a stop-motion puppet show, and this movie doesn't disappoint at all. There are some set pieces with so many moving parts, and so much chaos on the screen, it's a total delight to watch things get nuttier and nuttier. And the theme of pretending is a great one for kids, and yet another way this movie is sort of old-fashioned despite the CG touches here and there.

The Pirate Captain wants to be a real pirate so badly, he's basically playing dress-up and acting out a role. And meanwhile, the lonely, pathetic Darwin really terribly wants to be recognized as a great scientist, and to get a girlfriend. It's a classic theme, that we've already seen in movies like Chicken Run — people who want to be something so badly, they manage to transform themselves into something far more unique, amazing and weird. Another classic Aardman theme that this film advances in a really cool way is the pairing of the over-confident, delusional hero with a much smarter sidekick. The Pirate Captain's relationship with his much more self-aware first mate is classic Wallace and Gromit all the way, and meanwhile Darwin has a monkey butler who communicates via flashcards and seems to know what's going on way better than Darwin himself. That sort of double act never really gets old, because it's about great friendships but also allows us to see quite how self-deluding these characters are.

Oh, and Queen Victoria is a great, superb villain, whose hatred of pirates eventually comes to seem part of a general monomania. There are some jabs at the notion of Empire and the need to subjugate others, which are subtle enough that you never feel lectured or anything. The film's climax becomes a towering edifice of Victorian hubris and insanity, and this film delivers on the promise of its 19th Century setting in grand style. All in all, Pirates! is a fantastic movie to drag your kids to, and a great addition to the Aardman canon. It's a fantastical version of the nineteenth century where slightly mad scientists rub elbows with flamboyant pirates, and sea monsters are real. In this film, the greatest strength is friendship and the mad desire to embody a romantic archetype, and the greatest sin is the towering Victorian hubris that seeks to devour everything in its path. It's a really fresh, original film that will thrill you and your kids.This is how my father-in-law ate his slice of pizza.

I asked him why he rolled it up, and he said, “It’s just easier to eat that way.” Then he put a pepper on top so it would “look pretty.” This was so strange to me, but immediately afterward, Justin did the same thing. We kind of bullied her into trying an oyster. She slid it into her mouth and had this look on her face – we all worried that she might spit it out. Finally, she swallowed it and said, “I loved it.” I was so proud, for some reason. I curled up on the couch with two homemade blankets and a small black cat. I listened to the world outside of the screen door – the fountain, a friendly car horn (beep-beep-beep-beep-beep… beep-beep), a motorcycle, birds chirping. For some reason I thought of visiting my great-uncle’s house in Mexico as a child, and how he had so many trinkets on glass shelves, and how I had thought to myself that he must have been very wealthy, because he had a real tile floor instead of dirt. We talked over coffee and I felt like she was a mirror image of me at a younger age.

At the end of the hour, she said, “We’re like sisters from another mister!” And I loved her even more. I went into the store for toilet paper and Q-tips. I left with a basketful of sweaters, nail polish, pajamas, slippers, and doodads three hours later. Thank goodness I didn’t go to the office supplies section. I woke up in the middle of the night, shrieking at the top of my lungs, to Justin shaking me and telling me, “Baby! It’s just a dream! It was the “I’m here” part that calmed me down the most. I told Justin that I have always thought of my sister as “the pretty one.” I spent my life wishing I had her beauty, and I don’t think she even knows it. I fell asleep reading Moby Dick, after giggling at some parts and falling in love with Ishmael. I think I’ve reached my full nerd potential. I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! I keep lots of journals. My favorites are my visual journals, which I fill with images, thoughts, poems, etc. from magazines, websites, cards, and whatever ephemera I can get my hands on.

Here’s a peek at my most recent journal: It’s fun to look back on these and remember why I clipped a certain photo (or try to remember, anyway), and to wonder what I was thinking about back then. I suppose it’s like an analog Pinterest board. Does anyone else keep a journal like this? The crazy in me wants to scan in or photograph all these journals, just in case they ever get lost or burned or whatever. I’d have entire Flickr collections of these! I’m such a hoarder. My sister made me an AWESOME blanket! She asked me (not too long ago, which means she works FAST) what colors I liked, and I said I liked a mix of turquoise, red and blue. And today I got this in the mail! (I’ve already taken a nap with it. It smelled delicious, like my sister’s house – vanilla, buttercream icing, marshmallows, and the white stick part of Fun Dip.) *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *I can’t WAIT to get in there and eat some ramen and onigiri. Top Chef starts next week, and though I’ve never watched it before, I will be glued to the TV for this season, because two of our pals, Paul Qui and Drew Curren, are on it!

We’re going to Uchi on Friday with our friends B. and C., and it’s been way too long since we’ve seen them or been to Uchi. I am going to inhale some nigiri. Plus, last night we watched an amazing documentary about a sushi chef, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and so my sushi craving is at extreme levels. La Boite opened a new location downtown, just a few minutes away from us! I could walk down there every morning for croissants and coffee. I mean, we all know I won’t, but I COULD! Supper club is this Sunday! We’re making Indian yumminess – matar paneer, raita, and jeera rice. Tomorrow the high temperature is supposed to be 67 degrees! It will feel like fall, if only for a day. Hope your week is lovely and exciting, too. The sazerac is my current favorite cocktail. I often order it when we go out to a cocktail bar, but I also like making them at home. For some reason, Justin loves my sazeracs – just for fun, he filmed me while I was making one for him one night.