First Look at Tim Burton’s Remake of Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton’s remake of classic book and movie Alice in Wonderland is set to hit theaters in Spring 2010, but the hype for this remake has been accumulating for many years now. Some information on the Alice in Wonderland remake, which will hit theaters in 3-D, has been released and after seeing the cast (so far) along with photos of their looks, I have to say that I am not surprised. Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite books and movies of all time and always has been and after seeing what Tim Burton did to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I’m very, very skeptical about what is to become of my beloved Alice in Wonderland.

The cast for the remake didn’t bring any big surprise either, besides perhaps the casting of Alice, who will be played by 19 year old unknown Mia Wasikowska from Australia. The Mad Hatter will be played by Johnny Depp, which I saw coming years ago, the Red Queen will be played by Helena Bonham Carter, again which I saw coming years ago. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter alike have been targeted by Tim Burton movie after movie and because of this, they have both become the standard “creepy” actors to fill any roll that calls for something of the macabre. Lastly, we officially know that Anne Hathaway will play the White Queen.

Take a first look at the new Alice in Wonderland characters:

Changes We Often Go Through in a Relationship

A recent study has found that on average, men gain 14 pounds when their partners are pregnant. While they’re sticking to the story that they gain weight so their partners won’t feel bad about their weight, I think their mental process goes a little like this–”Getting the woman ice cream… I love ice cream! I should also have some ice cream!” Or at least that is what goes through the head of my partner. And it does not necessarily happen strictly when a woman is pregnant, either. My partner and I have each gained a bit of weight in the past three years we have lived together and I like to think it’s because we are both very much in love with one another and just got comfortable and I don’t necessarily think that is wrong in the least.

But weight gain isn’t the only change we see in ourselves when in a relationship. It is very common for us to have changes in a variety of different preferences merely because we get to see our preferences through the eyes of someone who may not feel the same way about it as we do.

Some things you may change while in a relationship, especially a long-term relationship or a marriage, are changes in music taste, reading lists, vocabulary, style, television shows, food, and there may be more.

Personally, I know that my own personal preferences in each of these areas have changed, at least a little bit, while with my partner. While I’m more of an indie/emo music fan, my boyfriend is a professional guitarist and very into other well-known guitarists such as Steve Vai, John Petrucci, among others, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy what he had played for me or was playing while in my immediate company. My reading lists have not changed, but I have noticed a slight shift in my boyfriend’s… Who found himself reading Kinky Gazpacho, that was recently reviewed here. And throughout our relationship, I have discovered my love of cream cheese, something I would have never, ever, ever tried before my boyfriend practically shoved it down my throat while continuously assuring me that I would love it.

How about you? Have you noticed any changes in preference while in relationships or in your marriage?

Book Review: Kinky Gazpacho by Lori Tharps

Lori Tharps grew up in the white suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, went to private school, attended a prestigious college, and continuously never felt a sense of belonging among her own people and a part of her own culture. While her life may not be too unlike the lives led by thousands of other American people, her accomplishments and her journey through life makes for an intriguing and captivating memoir.

Tharps’ memoir starts off when she is in the third grade, listening to her teacher tell the class about an International Day bazaar where the students would be participating by sharing their cultures in the form of food, games, decorations, and dress reflecting their native countries. Being the only black girl in her class and one of only a handful in her entire private school, the prospect of International Day weighed on her mind and brought her to the conclusion that on that day, her classmates would realize that she was different than they were; that she was less than them. Deciding not to attend school in costume that day because she did not want to attend school dressed as a slave, she went throughout the day in a panic, hoping that no one would ask her why she was not dressed in a costume reflecting her heritage. Throughout the following school years of Tharps’ life, similar thoughts and memories arise very much like her third grade International Day bazaar. She was raised in a privileged household and attended private school and for a fraction of one particular school year when she was nudged into the public school system, Tharps was received as a snob who was trying to “act white” by the other black girls she had wanted to fit in with, was ostracized by other black young women during her college years, and that was just the beginning of the racial dilemmas she would encounter throughout her life.

From a young age, Tharps became infatuated with Spain; knowing that Spain was her destiny and that she would someday live there. While in college, she traveled to Morocco with the American Field Service, but later studied abroad in Spain, where she came face to face with the culture she never knew Spain to have. She notices that a great deal of products, such as something as simple as a chocolate bar, has racist connotations, but when she brings them to the attention of Spanish natives, they are quick to declare that Spain is not a racist place. But after falling in love with a Spaniard, getting married, and having children, she spends a great deal of time traveling to Spain and her memoir becomes a detective story on how Spain had been involved in slavery. Throughout her life in Spain, Lori Tharps had searched for where the kinky mixed with the gazpacho.

I absolutely loved this memoir; it was a simple and lightweight read that packed a punch of reality that is undeniable. I devoured her memoir in utter anticipation of what her next move in life would be and was overjoyed over her boldness and determination to uncover a black past in a country where most of its citizen were unaware of the world that had come before and still revolved around them. The only flaw with the book is that it leaves you wanting to know and experience more of her life and general thoughts. Kinky Gazpacho will bring you on a journey that is so much more than merely a life led by a woman who dares to open her mouth and question her surroundings.

Rating:
Buy the Book!

We Heart Powell’s Books (& Think You Should Too!)

If you’ve checked out our book reviews recently, you may have noticed that our reviews look a little different. Since this site started (over a year ago!) our book reviews have always contained the Amazon.com widget, making buying the book we’re reviewing easy to do with just one click. While the widget was beneficial for our readers to make purchases, compare book prices, and buy used books from other Amazon members, I found another online book retailer that I fell in love with.

Powell’s Books is an independent bookstore that offers the largest selection of books, both bestsellers as well as the widest selection of hard to find and out of print books I have ever seen. I am all about supporting small, independent businesses not only online where small businesses have more competition than ever, but also in my every day life. I think it is so important to shop at local stores for anything you can buy through them–books, groceries, even clothes; if you can buy local and buy through independent retailers, do it, because it helps the economy in the city where you live and it’s part of being a good (and aware) human. We see “mom and pop” stores go out of business all the time due to the struggle to stay open while in the vicinity of multi-billion-dollar corporations. The local and independent stores around you need your support, most of the time, to feed their families. When you shop independently, you are helping other people instead of corporations.

In order to bring these every day sentiments into my online life, Woman Tribune is now a supporter of Powell’s Books and we urge you to support them as well! Not only has their selection impressed the pants off of me, the prices of most of their books (not just a select few, but most of their books) are cheaper than any other book retailer I have seen.

On our main page there is now a wide banner with a search embedded directly into it to make searching for books you want easy to do right from our front page! You can also search the site using the banner below. Go ahead, try it out.

We have set up a bookshelf through Powell’s Books so you can see the books we have reviewed here on Woman Tribune and buy the titles you’re interested in! You can see our bookshelf here. Books are listed in oldest-to-newest in the order we have reviewed books on the site so if you’re looking for the most recent books we’ve reviewed, go to the last page of the bookshelf.

We hope that you come to love Powell’s Books as much as we do!

Movie Review: Born Into Brothels

I watched the 2004 Academy Award winning documentary Born Into Brothels last night. Yes, I know I’m about five years late with this, but thanks to Netflix I have been watching a ton of movies I should have seen a long time ago–As well as some movies I wish I never came across that left me wondering how they managed to get funding to make it–But that’s what you get when a company tries to cater to everyone–They also cater to people with sucky taste in movies.

Born Into Brothels is a chilling documentary that brings you right into the red light district of Calcutta, India. But instead of its focus being on the lives of sex workers, it brings you into the lives of the children who were born into the red light district; the girls who are being bred to take after their mothers and grandmothers as prostitutes and the boys whose lives won’t be much better. Photojournalist Zana Briski lived in Calcutta for several years and teamed up with Ross Kauffman to make this film. Although the people of the city being enraged over having their pictures taken, or worse, the women being “found out” for being sex workers, Briski found that the children of the red light district were intrigued by the camera; and so she gave a group of eight children ranging in age from 10 to 14 cameras to take pictures of their own with. She also met with the children to teach them more about how to use the camera and how to get the best results when taking pictures of their subjects.

Throughout the documentary, we sit in on the children’s lessons with Briski and we see their creativity soar and their self confidence rises just by being given the chance to experiment with a form of art. Though she has made a tremendous effort to bring art into the lives of these children, Briski knows that there is so much more to be done, saying that without her help, these kids are doomed to fall into the same life of their parents. Lives of prostitution, poverty, and nothing else. Because these kids yearn for a life outside of the red light district, she begins to take measures to help them escape that life and searches for boarding schools that will accept children born to sex workers; but she finds that very few will.

After finding boarding schools that will accept the red light kids, Briski takes the measures to enroll these children into the programs she has found. The filmmakers were extremely respectful of the children’s wishes, they made their own decisions whether or not to attend the boarding schools and by the end of the movie, after filling out endless forms for the children and also ensuring that none of them were HIV-positive, the children did decide to attend the schools and to escape life in the red light district. They were also given the opportunity to travel when their photographs were shown at an art gallery.

By the end of the movie I was full of more questions than I was given answers to. We were caught up on the lives of the children up to the point of when the film came out and most of the children either dropped out of the boarding school they enrolled in or were taken out of school by their parents. I wanted to know what happened to them; if they were taken out of school to follow in the footsteps of the females who came before them and now working as prostitutes to provide for their families. If photography is still a part of their world and if they are still being encouraged to pursue art.

Overall, Born Into Brothels is heartbreaking, especially knowing that most of the children did not get to receive an education, as all of them had seemed overjoyed by the opportunity to do so. However, this is one of the best documentaries that I have seen.

For more information on Born Into Brothels, check out Kids with Cameras for a bio on each of the children, their photographs, and more about the film and you can also purchase the book Born Into Brothels, a book of photographs taken by the children of Calcutta.

Rating:
Buy the Movie!

Get Some (More) from Babeland

Babeland is currently running an awesome promotion that I wanted to share with everyone. From now until May 22 you can receive up to $30 off of any purchase you make through Babeland.com.

Babeland is a feminist-friendly, woman-owned adult store that really knows women and what women really want when it comes to sex toys, DVDs, and erotica.

Check out the coupon codes below and shop Babeland!

Book Review: No Matter What! by Lisa Nichols

I usually stay very far away from any type of self help-like books; I’ve always believed that people who just so happened to become successful in their lives felt it was their right to write a self help book for the masses based on very little personal merit and rode on the coattails of the fact that the mass populace had heard of them before (ie: Dr. Phil.) I’ve also become very fed up with books targeted towards women that repeat the mantra of “You’re great and can do anything you set your mind to… As long as you have a man in your life.” So when I had heard of Lisa Nichol’s book, No Matter What!: 9 Steps to Living the Life You Love, I was weary. In fact, I was ready to pass on the book completely because to me, a self help book of any kind is pretty much interchangeable for the next supposed “big, self help phenomenon” on the market. But I didn’t pass on the book and luckily, Lisa Nichols didn’t present her readers with regurgitated bullet points and run of the mill anecdotes and advice to reaching your greater good.

To put it bluntly, Lisa Nichols is real. No Matter What! is full of Nichols’ true to life stories from relationship struggles, to thoughts of suicide, to becoming a single mother, to more relationship struggles, to knowing what she wanted to do with her life and her own struggle to get there. She shares with her readers the truth about her life and what she had to do to get to where she truly wanted and knew she had to be. She sugarcoats nothing, which is what appealed to me the most. I cannot tell you how many times I found myself rolling my eyes while reading a book that claimed it could help me and my life because the situations in the book were too small to really put my own life in the shoes of the author. Everyone has had relationship trouble and many people have weight issues and while these two life situations come up in most everyone’s life, an author will not get into the heads of the readers to really help me without touching on the fact that these situations can become increasingly difficult to deal with. These situations vary in severity from person to person, obviously, but an author must be prepared to handle the severity of the situation that may be present in a great deal of their readers lives. That is the reason why I enjoyed Lisa Nichol’s book so much. She shares uplifting stories from her life as well as the heartbreaking, angry, and even shameful stories of her life and throughout it all, she tells her readers that no, it wasn’t easy to get past those roadblocks, but she did it and she has the same hopes for the people that she reaches out to through her book and through her speaking appearances.

No Matter What! is not merely a book that is to be read once and then forgotten; it is a resource that can be used countless times throughout your life. In every chapter of the book there are a series of action steps to help hone your nine “bounce back muscles” that are imperative to have throughout life because with these muscles (The Understanding Muscle, The Faith in Myself Muscle, The Take Action Muscle, The I Know Like I Know Muscle, The Honesty Muscle, The Determination Muscle, The Forgiveness Muscle, and The Highest Choice Muscle) you can achieve what you want to achieve in your life… No matter what!

Admittedly, I enjoyed reading Lisa Nichols’ stories about herself rather than the sections where she gave advice on how to change your life. She is a great writer and can tell a great story that leaves you wanting more information about the situation and what she did afterward, which is understandable since she is also the co-author of Chicken Soup for the African American Women’s Soul. I am assuming I would have enjoyed the Lisa Nichols memoir even more.

Rating:
Buy the Book!

Getting Off: A Woman’s Guide to Masturbation

Masturbation is a healthy part of every person’s life. Even as part of a relationship and while maintaining a healthy sex life, self-love still plays a healthy role in one’s life.

People start exploring their bodies at very young ages; from infant boys who every time you change a diaper, their hands are immediately exploring their penis and young girls who will mindlessly start exploring themselves whenever time permits. This is extremely healthy and positive behavior, but there are a great deal of people and organizations who beg to differ, going as far as to saying that any type of sexuality whatsoever, including masturbation, is unnatural, sinful, and just about anything else they can think of in order to scare people out of doing something that is natural and should be celebrated.

Jamye Waxman has a master’s degree in sex education and has written the book Getting Off, an entire guide to masturbation just for women–Or for men who want to know more about the body of a woman and pleasuring all of those sensual zones a woman has. Getting Off is an asset for every single woman, regardless of their knowledge of sexuality or their bodies. The book goes over several different topics, from the anatomy of an orgasm (the small, indifferent orgasm, the mediocre, satisfying-but-not-by-much orgasm, the can’t-get-enough, pass out afterward orgasm, and everything in between), fantasies, vibrators and other sex toys that can be used to heighten sexual pleasure while masturbating, how masturbation is viewed by mainstream media and the people who use the media as their only ground for knowledge, and so much more.

While reading through the different sections of the book, I was overjoyed to see a lot of the topics brought up that I didn’t expect to be brought up in such a refreshing light, such as the topic of anal sex and stimulation and how a great deal of women enjoy anal stimulation but feel too shy to explore the possibilities it can bring them sexually due to its social stigma as being referred to as strictly an exit. It also highlights a great deal of fun facts, such as the fact that graham crackers and Corn Flakes, food items that people eat to curb hunger, which in fact invented to curb masturbation, and the first vibrators were found in doctors’ offices to help cure women of “hysteria,” or what I deem as merely “sexual frustration” since the hysterical woman stereotype is still alive and going strong.

Getting Off is a resource that you will find yourself flipping through again and again, it is full of extremely positive and helpful information and completely obliterates the falsities that society and mainstream media have put in place for women, especially the “prudish woman” title or the belief that women cannot be sexual and sexually satisfying individuals.

Rating:

Stop Training Sitters, Put Everyone on the Same Page with By The Book

Every parent will continually be faced with the decision of who they are going to leave their children with when they need a sitter. Many parents have experienced “parent guilt” when leaving their children with a sitter, but there is a great book out that will eliminate any discomforts, doubts, and second thoughts you may have about leaving your children with anyone.

Karen Berg’s By The Book puts parents, their sitter, and their children all on the same page by outlining your child’s daily routine and how they should react to certain circumstances. It is a book full of adorably illustrated pages with the space you need to fill in everything your sitter needs to know about your family and taking care of your children. It comes equipped with pages about how to handle disciplinary actions, what to do in case of an emergency, what to do in case your child is sick, and a page where you can fill in where your sitter can reach you throughout the time they are with your children.

Because of By The Book, you will never be plagued by having to re-write sitter notes or already leave the house and remember that you forgot to tell your sitter something very important. You will never feel as if you have left your child in incapable hands because you know that you gave your sitter everything they need throughout the time you’re gone, and you won’t find yourself calling home every five minutes. By The Book makes it extremely easy to keep all of the pertinent information about your child, their routine, and what to do in case of an emergency all in one place.

By The Book is great for anyone taking care of your children, including babysitters, nannies, work at home moms, moms who work outside of the home, single fathers, grandparents, children with special needs, and so on. You can purchase By The Book in hardcover as well as refills for the book on their website. As a special bonus, you will receive 25% off of your purchase of a hardcover copy of By The Book by using promotional code BTBK7757.

Leslie Patricelli Offers Up a Series of Bright & Delightful Books for Children

Leslie Patricelli is the author and illustrator of a series of bright, silly, engaging, and delightful books for children.

Baby Happy Baby Sad is perfect for toddlers and goes through the two most definitive emotions a baby has every single day–Happiness and sadness. It is a thick board book, full of color, highlighting scenarios that may occur in a baby’s day such as playing in mud, which of course makes the baby happy and getting a bath, which makes the baby sad.

However, my personal favorite of the two books is Higher! Higher! Higher! Higher! is an adorable tale of a young girl on a swing pleading with her father to keep pushing her higher and higher. It is a particularly silly but charming book that truly takes hold of a child’s imagination and the little girl continuously goes higher and higher on the swing. She goes higher than a giraffe, higher than a building, higher than the mountains, into the sky, and lastly, she meets a little alien and they high five. I absolutely adored this book; it is a definite must-have for any young child.

What I especially loved about this book is the fact that the book involves a young daughter and her father, rather than her mother. I am a stepmother of two daughters and in the society we live in, we so often see images of children and their mother’s and while that is important, we often overlook the importance of a child’s father in their life.

These are not the only books by Leslie Patricelli; she is also the author and illustrator of other books for young children including Binky, Blankie, BIG Little, Quiet LOUD, Yummy YUCKY, and The Birthday Box; all of which are sure to be hits with your children. Patricelli’s books can be bought on Candlewick Press’ website.

Buy Baby Happy Baby Sad | Buy Higher! Higher!

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