Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup shine in Mike Mills’s ode to his unusual mother, who raised him in the late seventies and tried to like punk music as much as she could.

Bening is terrific as Dorothea, perhaps the best work of her career. She represents the late seventies woman, still cool but perhaps slowing down a bit due to too many cigarettes and a general disillusionment with certain aspects of the changing culture.

Mills uses Dorothea as a sort of narrator from the future who talks about the events of the film while observing from a perch in years ahead. It’s an interesting technique, and Bening’s performance is a career milestone.

Gerwig and Fanning are great as two different women who hang around Dorothea’s apartment, both with their own highly interesting subplots. Cruddup chimes in capably as a local handyman who will sleep with you if you ask him to.

I must add, I love the way this film utilizes music on its soundtrack, from Talking Heads to The Buzzcocks. This is a great, accurate depiction of the late seventies, with a vibe that feels authentic.

Today we went to visit the home of Frederick Douglass. He was an Abolitionist and Suffragist who was a friend and an advisor to Abraham Lincoln.

His house is on Cedar Hill, which is just south of D.C. We learned a lot about this courageous man who was born into slavery and became one of the important thinkers on how to get rid of slavery. He helped recruit many black soldiers who fought in the civil war.

We were inspired by quotes from Mr. Douglass. Here are our favorites.



Editor's Note: Priscilla and Ella, ages 12 and 9, are Tucsonans traveling to Washington DC for the Women's March on Washington. Ella is a 4th grader and likes playing volleyball, traveling, playing with her cats, and designing clothes. Priscilla is in 7th grade and loves gymnastics and television. The comments section is going to remain closed on their posts.

As the spring semester started to roll in, I figured a good way to stay sane through the 14 weeks of stress and pulling my hair out would be to purchase a Himalayan salt lamp.

I’ve heard from my peers that salt lamps have many natural benefits to staying calm, cool, and somewhat collected.

According to Natural Living Ideas' "10 Reasons To Have A Himalayan Salt Lamp In Every Room Of Your Home," the environmentally friendly lamps cleanse and deodorize the air, reduce allergy and asthma symptoms, ease coughing, increase energy, neutralize electromagnetic radiation, give you a better sleep, improve your mood, and treat seasonal affective disorder. What more could a student ask for?

Ever since I was in high school, I’ve felt anxious for no reason at all. When I entered college, the anxiety got worse with the build up on my daily responsibilities and stress, which in turn lead to sleepless night, never being able to clear my mind, and feeling I couldn’t breathe.

I know I’m not the only one whose had this never-ending feeling, so I did some research on ways to help me keep my head above the water. I’ve resorted to yoga, aromatherapy, and currently have an obsession with candles. I know it sounds a bit odd, but I personally feel like these changes in my life have helped my anxiety, lifted my mood and has lead to better performance in my everyday studies.

Just as I was scrolling through my daily Tasty cooking videos on Facebook, I came across a video advertising these lamps. It told me everything I wanted to hear.

I looked into some lamps on the cheaper side of the cost spectrum, only to find out that there was a recall on the product reported this month.

According to USAToday, Michael’s recalled 80,000 lamps because customers complained the dimmer switch and outlet plug overheated.

80,000? That is a lot of lamps that clearly didn’t work for customers and enough to let me know the purchase isn’t worth it. Also, environmentally friendly? Sure, the base of the lamps are made of wood, but I think causing fires in people’s homes cancels that out. I’ll be sure to check that off my list of products not to buy.

Now that I’m thinking about the lamps as a whole, how would I really know if this lamp is working and how would I know if it’s just a placebo effect? If I think it’s working, then it’s working, but if I’m still extremely stressed and have reckless sleeping nights, my poor bank account will haunt me forever.

So, thank you U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for keeping me safe and saving me from wasting about $50.

Michael Keaton is flat out great as Ray Kroc, the sorta-kinda founder of McDonald’s.

Director John Lee Hancock’s film tells the story from when Kroc was selling milk shake mixers door-to-door, up to his wife stealing days as the head of the McDonald’s corporation. Hancock’s movie desperately wants you to like Kroc, but maybe we shouldn’t?

After all, he swept in and took the name of McDonald’s from the McDonald brothers (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch), effectively cutting them out of most profits and leaving them in his dust. The film is at its best when it is in old time, Americana mode. It’s a beautiful looking movie that captures the essence of those old timey fast food joints that replaced the traditional Drive-In diners.

The movie slows down a bit and gets a little muddled when it tries to depict Kroc as some sort of commerce hero. I suppose if they went into details about how his co-creating McDonald’s has contributed to worldwide obesity and environmental concerns, McDonald’s themselves would’ve mounted up the lawyers and put the kibosh on the whole thing.

Offerman is great as the well-meaning, high standards McDonald brother that regrets the day he met Kroc. Keaton gets high marks for a film that is ultimately uneven.

Some basketball players complain mightily when they're called for an obvious foul, then they adopt a look of shocked disbelief when the refs don't call a minor foul on the other team. If the player does it often enough, especially if he's a star, he may have a later foul overlooked or get a makeup foul called on the other side. If it's in front of a hometown crowd, the fans often join in as well—"What are ya, blind?" "Kill the ref!"—adding to the pressure on the officials calling the game. It's known as working the refs.

The Trump team are expert at working the refs, or in their case, working the press. During the primaries, Trump got far more coverage than any of his competitors. Even when it was unfavorable, it had an Entertainment Tonight, star quality feel to it—"Can you believe what this guy did? Amazing! You gotta love him." The constant coverage definitely helped his campaign. Nevertheless, he complained about the press with a combination of bitterness and glee, calling them the biggest liars in the world, and encouraged supporters at his rallies to join in the hate fest.

I won't try to rate the overall media coverage during the Trump/Clinton contest, since how you call that varies with the eye of the beholder. Recent revelations, however, about the intelligence community's investigations into ties between the Russian government and the Trump campaign which were known to the press but went virtually unreported at the same time Clinton-related emails were covered breathlessly, even when there was little newsworthy to report, are raising new questions about the press' refusal to publish potentially damning, politically damaging stories about the Trump-Putin connection. But Trump condemned the media like clockwork, as regularly as he called Hillary crooked and bragged that he would "Built the wall" and make Mexico pay for it.

No one knows if the Trump administration will use legislation or executive orders to rob the media of some of its freedom of expression. If that happens, the nation will be in deep, deep trouble. But we know his team is going to continue to work the refs every chance it gets. Trump used his recent press conference to condemn CNN by name, accusing it of spreading "Fake News" because it reported accurately that Trump had received a briefing paper about allegations of Russia's attempts to steer the election in his favor. When the press reported that the crowd at his inauguration was significantly smaller than Obama's in 2009, Trump sent his press secretary Sean Spicer to yell at them for stating the truth. Trump used his talk with the CIA to continue his condemnation of the press for its accurate coverage of the size of the crowd at his inauguration. And spinmeister extraordinaire Kellyanne Conway regularly threatens the media, warning them something terrible might happen to them if they refuse to behave.

Hi, I'm Atticus!

I'm a handsome 3.5-year-old boy and I need a new home! I was found as a stray so the Humane Society of Southern Arizona doesn't know a lot about my history, but they do know that I am very playful and cute!

I've been getting along well with my kennel mate by initiating play and roughhousing a little bit. I'm a big boy so I need a home that has ample space for me to get my daily exercise! I would benefit from a having a family that enjoys going for walks, runs, hikes or bike rides!

I need a home, but if you aren't looking to adopt you can still help homeless pets like me by donating to HSSA's fund to build a new home!
They are asking people like you to help them raise 3 million dollars! Click here for more information about the new shelter and how you can help today! www.hssaz.org/building

If you want to give me a home give HSSA a call at 520-327-6088 ext. 173 for more information!

I hope to see you soon!

Lots of love,
Atticus (761837)

American Babylon traveled to Washington, DC over the weekend. Here's a peek at the Women's March on Washington and an inauguration protest:

Writer-director Pedro Almodovar’s latest is one of his more quiet, introspective films. It also has the characteristically good looks and great performances his movies often have.

Julieta (Emma Suarez) appears ready to move with her boyfriend (Dario Grandinetti) and start a new life in a new land. A chance meeting with an old friend (Michelle Jenner) changes her mind. She leaves her relationship, takes up her old apartment in Madrid, and starts penning letters to her long lost daughter.

The film then switches to flashback mode where a younger Julieta (Adriana Ugarte) meets her daughter’s father on a train, and they embark on a complicated life together. That flashback eventually leads to the present and an ending that might frustrate a high percentage of its viewers.

Suarez and especially Ugarte are good here, keeping the movie from being too melodramatic with finessed performances. This one isn’t as original or captivating as past Almodovar works, and it’s certainly lacking in humor.

Still, it holds you for its running time, and the actresses are very impressive.

Amazing day! We heard there were 500,000-800,000 people joining us at the Women's March on Washington

We apologize for not posting during the day but overall we heard everyone had problems reaching the internet...

Here's our summary of the March on the ground.

Priscilla: Immediately when we reached the Washington Mall area, we saw a lot of people giving their perspective on Donald Trump and how he treats women, especially from all the speakers.

Ella: There was chanting from the crowd with lots of different chants. Chants like: "show me what democracy looks like" and "thank you Obama" and "thank you Michelle."

Priscilla: The weather was dark and in the morning we couldn't see the Washington Monument through the fog. We arrived at the Mall around 8:30 a.m. and stood at 4th and Independence.

Ella: It was humid and damp and our Arizona shoes/feet got cold and chilly.

Priscilla: Ashley Judd was my most memorable speaker. She read a poem from memory. It was inspirational and she said everything from her heart.

Ella: She had such confidence and all agreed it was really passionate. Michael Moore was really funny and was talking a long time and they had to cut him off to get him to stop talking. Everyone agreed that he was talking to us like a friend. He gave us ideas of what we could do, like call our legislators every day for 100 days.

Priscilla: We didn't like getting surrounded by tons of people next to the street and three out of four of us felt like we might pass out. We went up by a building and we met new friends and we played games to relax after the crowd-stress and we waited for the crowd to thin.

Ella: It was cool because so many people felt the same way and the signs inspired me.

Priscilla: Some signs were shocking but still accurate.  

Here are some pictures we took today! We are exhausted from our long day. We had to call to get a ride back to my Uncle's because the subway was sooo full that it stop letting people in. We met a lot of new people today from all over the country! We aren't alone, that's for sure.

We'll post more tomorrow! Thanks for reading about our awesome day.






Editor's Note: Priscilla and Ella, ages 12 and 9, are Tucsonans traveling to Washington DC for the Women's March on Washington. Ella is a 4th grader and likes playing volleyball, traveling, playing with her cats, and designing clothes. Priscilla is in 7th grade and loves gymnastics and television. The comments section is going to remain closed on their posts.

Women, men and children filled the streets of downtown Tucson to denounce Donald Trump's rhetoric and behavior. One day after Trump took office, the Women's March took to the streets, in almost 700 cities worldwide, with a message of equality for everyone.

Despite the morning rain, an estimated 5,000 gathered in Armory Park to hear speakers like Planned Parenthood outreach organizer Melissa Garcia and Rep. Kirsten Engel. Tucson Police Department estimated 15,000 people total participated in the march.

"It's time to get angry again," Engel said to a cheering crowd. She pulled on a pink hat in solidarity with the marchers. "Love is what keeps you fighting so tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow are better days."

More came as people began to march to the Joel D. Valdez Library, carrying signs, singing, laughing and chanting: "This is what democracy looks like." An estimated 10,000 people showed up to march, reminding each other of their shared values and that they're not alone.