Lovely Lyrics: I See the Light

I wanted to do a "Lovely Lyrics" post for "I See the Light" from Tangled because I knew the movie had been released sometime in November.  When I researched it, I did find that Tangled was released four years ago today, but I was rather surprised to see just how many movies Disney and Pixar have released in the month of November.  It totally makes sense, leading into the holiday season, but still!  Look at this list!

November 1

2003 – Brother Bear

November 2

2001 – Monsters, Inc.

2012 – Wreck-It Ralph

November 4

2005 – Chicken Little

November 5

2004 – The Incredibles

November 7

2014 – Big Hero 6

November 8

1973 – Robin Hood

November 13

1940 – Fantasia

November 16

1990 – The Rescuers Down Under

November 17

1989 – The Little Mermaid

November 18

1988 – Oliver and Company

November 22

1991 – Beauty and the Beast

1995 – Toy Story

November 24

1999 – Toy Story 2

2010 - Tangled

November 25

1992 – Aladdin

1998 – A Bug's Life

November 27

2002 – Treasure Planet

2013 – Frozen

November 28

2008 - Bolt

Obviously there are countless songs I could have chosen after creating this list, but I am sticking with my first choice.  I love this song so much!  I have written about Tangled before, but I will never grow tired of this exchange…

Rapunzel:  I've been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be? 

Flynn:  It will be. 

Rapunzel:  And what if it is? What do I do then? 

Flynn:  Well, that's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream. 

Seriously.  These two are so awesome together.  And when Flynn/Eugene tells Rapunzel, "You were my new dream"…I can't handle it!

Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi provided the voices for these characters and sang this song live at the Oscars.  It was amazing.  Unfortunately, the song lost out to "We Belong Together" by Randy Newman from Toy Story 3 for Best Original Song.  While that is another a great song, I was really hoping "I See the Light" would win!

I See the Light

from Tangled

Rapunzel:

All those days watching from the windows

All those years outside looking in

All that time never even knowing

Just how blind I've been

Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight

Now I'm here, suddenly I see

Standing here, it's all so clear

I'm where I'm meant to be

And at last I see the light

And it's like the fog has lifted

And at last I see the light

And it's like the sky is new

And it's warm and real and bright

And the world has somehow shifted

All at once everything looks different

Now that I see you

Flynn:

All those days chasing down a daydream

All those years living in a blur

All that time never truly seeing

Things the way they were

Now she's here shining in the starlight

Now she's here, suddenly I know

If she's here it's crystal clear

I'm where I'm meant to go

Rapunzel and Flynn:

And at last I see the light

Flynn:

And it's like the fog has lifted

Rapunzel and Flynn:

And at last I see the light

Rapunzel:

And it's like the sky is new

Rapunzel and Flynn:

And it's warm and real and bright

And the world has somehow shifted

All at once, everything is different

Now that I see you

Now that I see you

Music by Alan Menken

Lyrics by Glenn Slater

Happy Tails to you!

Lovely Lyrics: Part of Your World

The Little Mermaid opened in theaters 25 years ago today.  A quarter century, which seems crazy to me!  The movie marked the beginning of what is referred to as the "Disney Renaissance," a period of about ten years during which Disney's animated movies enjoyed popularity and profit after many years of disappointing box office returns.

I love The Little Mermaid.  Lovely story, beautiful animation, and wonderful music.  The soundtrack was written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, musical geniuses I have written about previously.  Part of Your World was almost cut from the film, but I for one am glad it was left in because I cannot imagine the movie with out it.  There are several great songs on the soundtrack, but this is definitely my favorite.

Ariel clearly possesses some of the classic Disney Princess qualities, which some people view as positive and others view as negative, and I am not going to debate those here.

What I love about Ariel is that she is a dreamer...she longs for adventure.  And my teenage self identified with her in a number of ways.  In the film, she is 16, and when the movie was released, I was 16.  She has a strict father she loves fiercely, and I had a strict father I loved fiercely.  She is in love with a handsome boy, and I was in love with a handsome boy.  Honestly, how innocent is the sixteen year old mind?!?

A few years ago, my sixth grade girls were talking about which Disney Princesses they liked, and they were NOT fans of Ariel.  According to them, "She is dumb to give up her voice for a boy."  As their teacher, I was impressed they were able to identify her flawed thinking and were strong, independent girls who didn't see themselves as needing to sacrifice their gifts for a boy.  They have a point, but there are other things that bothered me more - like why didn't she just write her name for Eric instead of making him guess?  She signed the contract with Ursula, so clearly she knows how to write her name!  But I happily overlook those kinds of things and appreciate the movie as a whole. So I remain a fan of Ariel!

While it is a "love story" in the sense that Ariel and Eric struggle to be together and end up getting married, it is also a love story between Ariel and King Triton - when he sacrifices himself to save his daughter?  25 years later, I cry during that scene whenever I watch the movie.  It never gets old.

So if you don't have the soundtrack, I highly recommend it.  In addition to the catchy songs, the score is beautiful.

Part of Your World

from The Little Mermaid

Look at this stuff, isn't it neat?

Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?

Wouldn't you think I'm the girl,

the girl who has everything?

Look at this trove, treasures untold,

How many wonders can one cavern hold?

Looking around here you'd think,

"Sure, she's got everything!"

I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty,

I've got whozits and whatzits galore,

You want thingamabobs? I've got twenty!

But who cares? No big deal. I want more!

I wanna be where the people are

I wanna see, wanna see 'em dancin'

Walkin' around on those...

What do you call 'em? Oh, feet!

Flippin' your fins you don't get too far,

Legs are required for jumpin', dancin',

Strolling along down a...

What's that word again? Street!

Up where they walk,

Up where they run,

Up where they stay all day in the sun,

Wanderin' free,

wish I could be

part of that world

What would I give if I could live out of these waters?

What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?

Betcha on land, they understand

Bet they don't reprimand their daughters…

Bright young women, sick of swimmin', ready to stand

I'm ready to know what the people know,

Ask 'em my questions and get some answers

What's a fire and why does it...

What's the word? Burn!

When's it my turn?

Wouldn't I love,

love to explore that shore up above?

Out of the sea,

wish I could be

part of that world

Music by Alan Menken

Lyrics by Howard Ashman

Happy Tails to you!

Weekend in Winnipeg

When we toured all 30 hockey arenas from 2008 to 2010, Atlanta still had a team, so that's where we went when we were making our way around the NHL.  Since that time, the team has relocated from Atlanta to Winnipeg (which is in Manitoba, Canada) and the Thrashers became the Jets.  Of course, there already was a team called the Winnipeg Jets, but that franchise was relocated to Arizona in the 1990's and was renamed the Coyotes.  Confused yet?  I know. 

Regardless, this change took place in 2011, after we had visited the 30 arenas, so we kept telling ourselves we needed to take a trip to Winnipeg to see a game.  It would also serve the secondary purpose of adding to our list of provinces we have visited; C had been to Winnipeg for work, but I had never been to Manitoba, so now we are tied with eight of the ten provinces visited.  I am sure we’ll make it to Saskatchewan and Newfoundland someday.

There were two factors to consider when planning the trip: 1) tickets to Winnipeg Jets games are extremely hard to come by, meaning we had to go when we found tickets, regardless of who the opponent was (when we were going around the league, we tried to attend games where we rooted for at least one of the teams); and 2) the game needed to be early on in the season to avoid potential winter weather.

After much research, C found us tickets and flights for the last weekend in October.  We lucked out because one of the teams C likes is the Colorado Avalanche, so when he found game tickets for when they were in Winnipeg, he was pretty excited.

Our flight to Minneapolis was at 6 am on Saturday morning, and with it being so early, I was asleep before takeoff and did not wake until we were almost landing.  Upon our arrival, we picked up our rental car, grabbed some breakfast, and embarked on a seven-hour drive to Winnipeg.  C did all of the driving while I read in the car.  Not fun, leisurely, bestseller reading, mind you.  Pages and pages and pages of textbook and research article reading.  (You will quickly identify this as a theme of the weekend.  Occupational hazard.)  I have no problem reading in the car, but highlighting is a different story.  Case in point:

Our trip was only a few days after the tragedy in Ottawa, so when I spotted the Canadian flag at half-mast at the border, I made C pull over so I could snap a quick photo:

When we arrived in Winnipeg, we did some decidedly Canadian things that we can't do at home:  shopping at Roots, eating at Harvey's, and getting coffee at Tim Hortons.  We also found an awesome building with some of the elements of the periodic table on it - so naturally I tried to make the "Breaking Bad" logo.  Unfortunately, the lighting was terrible, I was using my phone's camera, and the two elements were on different levels and at different ends of the building, so the angles and lighting do not match.  However, this did not stop me from immediately texting it to my brother, a fellow rabid fan of the show!  After that, we had a quiet evening hanging out at the hotel, filled with several hours of homework (me) and hockey-watching (C).

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and headed over to Assiniboine Park. 

Some of you may not know this, but "Pooh Bear" has been my nickname for my entire life.  On the day I was born, my grandma gave me a stuffed Winnie the Pooh.  That bear was my best friend.  He went on every adventure with me and we had grand conversations.  You know how people always say that if their house caught fire, they'd grab their photo albums?  Not me.  Once C and our dogs were safe, the only material possession I would run back in to save would be my Pooh Bear.  He is my Hobbes.

My Pooh Bear - ragged and matted from many baths - but so very loved!

So imagine my surprise and delight when C found this gem as he was planning the trip.  Assiniboine Park is home to the Pavilion Gallery Museum and housed in this museum is an exhibit about Winnie the Pooh.  It was so wonderful.  There is also a statue of the bear who was the inspiration for the A. A. Milne character.

From Wikipedia:

Winnipeg, or Winnie, (24 August 1914 – 12 May 1934) was the name given to a female black bear that lived at London Zoo from 1915 until her death in 1934.

She was bought as a small cub for $20 (probably from the hunter who had shot her mother) at a stop in White River, Ontario, by Lt. Harry Colebourn of The Fort Garry Horse, a Canadian cavalry regiment, en route to the Western Front during the First World War. The bear was smuggled into Britain as an unofficial regimental mascot. Lt. Colebourn, the regiment’s veterinarian, named her after his home city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Before leaving for France, Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo.

Winnipeg's eventual destination was to have been the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, but at the end of the War, Colebourn decided to allow Winnie to remain at the London Zoo, where she was much loved for her playfulness and gentleness. Among her fans was A. A. Milne's son Christopher Robin, who consequently changed the name of his own teddy bear from "Edward Bear" to "Winnie the Pooh," providing the inspiration for his father's stories about Winnie-the-Pooh.

What a great story - except the part about the hunter killing Winnie's mother - that I didn't know before this trip!

After spending time at the park, we drove downtown and stopped at Hudson's Bay Company (another favorite Canadian must-do for us) before heading to the game.  The final score was 2-1 in overtime in favor of Winnipeg, but we did not stay to watch the overtime period because we had a seven-hour drive back to Minneapolis after the game.  The fans were very passionate and brought a great energy to the game.  As for me, I brought a textbook to the game and read/highlighted during every down moment.  I know some of the fans sitting near us were not impressed with me.

The drive was pretty uneventful.  I was annoyed with myself because I usually bring a book light with me on car trips so that I can read in the car, but I failed to do so this time.  So I had to use my phone's flashlight which was a challenge, trying to hold the phone and keep the textbook open with one hand, and trying to highlight as I read with the other hand.  On a very bumpy road.  I doubt I'll forget to pack a book light again any time soon.

sunset we witnessed on our drive back to Minnesota

We checked in to what was possibly our shortest hotel stay to date – it was less than seven hours from check in to check out.  Our flight home was great and we are proud to say we've now been to games in 31 NHL cities.  :-)

Minneapolis-St. Paul airport - couldn't pass up a photo of rainbow lighting

Happy Tails to you!