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Located in the Montmartre district of Paris, France is a hotel that just staying at can give you the feeling of being a pretentious artist.  It’s called the Kube Hotel (or Kube Rooms to some), and it’s a futuristic-retro hotel where everything is designed to look a little bit odd yet cool at the same time. 

From the outside, the hotel looks more like an historic building and gives no hints as to what awaits inside, except for one.  The reception area is the anomaly to this historic look, placed outside the hotel proper in a transparent cube.  Once you get inside, the real visual show begins.

The interiors use a combination of transparent structures and colorful lighting, along with bizarre and unique artwork and architectural elements.  Together they form a strange experience that is akin to walking through a work of art.  The restaurants and bars are all done up this way and the Kube Hotel also features the Ice Kube - one of the only ice bars in all of France.

The hotel contains 29 rooms and 12 suites that all match this avant-garde design, some containing cubed bathtubs or beds made to look like they’re levitating with colored lighting emitting from beneath them.  Add to that some real technological innovations, such as fingerprint room access, giant, top-quality televisions and the latest video game consoles and you’ve got everything you need.

Oddly enough, even though the hotel is meant to be hip, it’s hidden away on a quiet street, away from the hustle and bustle of Paris.  Rooms begin at around $200 for a double, so it’s not too cheap to stay there.  It is an experience, however, and a fun place to spend a night or two if you happen to have the cash to throw around while you’re in the city.

My best friend took us to go see Hotel Transylvania the other day, and I must admit that overall it was a really funny movie. You might expect it to be filled with Adam Sandler poop jokes and annoying voices, but it was honestly funny and well done. I was pretty comfortable with the subject matter altogether, and I wouldn’t mind watching a series or another movie in sequel form.

All of that said, as a female I can’t help but notice how my gender was largely ignored—as usual. The main mother in the movie was dead—and not dead as in a monster but present, I mean not even in the film. Two other adult women were in the movie; one had two lines and was perpetually pregnant and happy with dozens of children, the other was pegged as a nag. One of the stars of the film, a teen girl, only really spoke to men, and she falls in love with a human before she’s even had a chance to see the world or really do anything on her own.

The human, to his credit, is a really progressive hippie dude whom I adored. He was so funny and unassuming, it was hilarious and he certainly did not take advantage of the situation. That said, it seemed like all of these men were vying to either control the girl’s life or be a part of it, and her main dream to see Hawaii seemed to run second in her goals as soon as Mr. Human showed up to court her.

I am not sure why 50% of the population is always represented as under three percent of the characters and dialogues. Oh yeah, I guess it’s because most of these movies are written, produced, and directed by menfolk. Forgive my snark; it just really, really gets old. It’s like today’s filmmakers are scared to make female characters at all unless they are stereotypes. Remember Don Bluth? He sure didn’t shy away from female characters. They made up half of his movies most of the time, and were often the lead characters as well. What happened between the 1980s toons and today’s movies?

If a second movie is made, it would be super cool to focus on the teen’s adventures away from the castle and not just on her love life—or, better yet, many more girl monsters who visit the hotel and their adventures. It’s a funny and enjoyable movie, though, so I wouldn’t advise not seeing it. Expect laughs and a good time, but nothing groundbreaking.

Normally I don’t advocate electronics that might take away time from actual reading and imaginative play, but today we ran across a device that I actually think is sort of cool.

Have you hard of the Playaway View? A Walmart grant afforded our local libraries to purchase these small devices to allow children to read and watch videos on their screens. They are shaped like a small game system about the size of a GPS system and feature a plug-in device for charging. They are super easy to hold and just as simple to use.

They Playaway View we checked out is a four-part series of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. One of the episodes was my daughter’s favorite one, about how fortune cookies are made, so you can imagine how stoked she was to see that! There are lots of other choices available as well, from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

Other selections on the Mr. Rogers edition include the Eric Carle episode as well as episodes about Wynton Marsalis, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, and Sylvia Earle. It runs about an hour and 53 minutes.

The all-in-one video player does not require any DVDs or other loadable materials; it simply plays on the screen. This, of course, limits your choices to only the selection that you checked out.

These devices would be great for long trips, or stays in hotels. I don’t like cars with television screens in them, but this would ensure a brief viewing time that wouldn’t be as long as an entire movie. It’s super easy to use, with buttons for playing, volume, skipping, rewinding, and fast forwarding. They come with pretty sturdy carrying cases, too, so you know they’ll be safe for traveling.

Playaway Views are recommended for ages 3 and up. Adults are recommended to supervise their children while enjoying the device, and kids should be aware that the screen is not a toy to play with. They are also quite costly to replace—up to $99 for the screen itself and $15 for the plug replacement. Fines are similar to videos as far as late charges go—25 cents per day—and you have to be at least 18 to check them out. Check out your library’s policies for specifics.

If your library doesn’t carry Playaway Viewers and you’d like to check them out, see if you can request one via Interlibrary Loan. If not, perhaps your library could obtain a grant from a local business.

Superstars of American music, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash make country music for everyone, even people who don’t like country. You would never catch me listening to awful modern country, but these two artists are some of my all time favorites.

Members of the “outlaw” movement, Willie and Johnny wrote songs that transcend styles and genres. Who can say they don’t like such classics as “Folsom Prison Blues” or “On the Road Again?”

For many years Nelson and Cash were part of the Highwaymen, a country music super group that also included Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, great musicians in their own right. However, there always seemed to be too many voices in the highwaymen. The duets done by individual members were always much better, like Waylon and Willie on “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys.”

If you want a stripped down, intimate set by these two masters, then check out VH1 Storytellers with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Their strong, distinctive voices come through as almost delicate, accompanied by the meat-and-potatoes chords of Johnny Cash and the skillful, jazz-like lead lines of Willie Nelson.

The album, released in 1998, begins with “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,” and continues through a showcase of some of the best original songs penned by the two masters. Some of my favorites include “Family Bible” and “Drive On.”

Being a VH1 Storytellers production, the set includes stories between each song, but what really stands out are the timeless songs and the immense quality of the singing and musicianship. If you have any interest in either of these artists, then you will absolutely love this CD.