“Have you ever taken naked pictures of yourself?”
Quote of the Day [9.24.13]
“Remember we’re all in this alone”
Lily Tomlin
“What are you doing for lunch today?” “Same thing I’m doing right now except with yogurt.”
Julia Marlowe, by Irving Ramsey Wiles, Oil on canvas, 1901, photo by browsermetrics
After the birthday luncheon, we wandered over to the National Portrait Gallery. It’s my first time there and I will tell you it’s an overlooked gem of a museum. It’s got a great collection of portraits from the earliest Americans to the most recent generation. It’s also got a wonderful atrium, which is now my iPhone wallpaper.
Currently, they have a display of Union Generals by renowned Civil War photographer, Matthew Brady. They are small prints from the original negatives, and they look like baseball cards. It’s nice to think about what the back of these cards would say: winning percentage – 0.756, rebels killed – 14574, errors – 4.
My favorite is the portrait above of Julia Marlowe, an actress. The relaxed position of her right arm, the look in her eyes, her leaning out toward you is arresting. It stopped me dead in my tracks, and I had to read the caption next to the portrait. That’s the power of art and a uniqueness in portraiture.
It’s a wonderful place to visit if you want to avoid the hustle and bustle of the museums on the Mall.
“I support fire safety. But you see those sprinklers up there? They’re not hooked up to anything. I paid a guy off and had my nephew come in and super-glue them to the ceiling. New York, New York it’s a hell of a town.”
Have you seen the new illustrations on the cover of the Harry Potter novels? Of course you have. You’re staring at one now. They are amazing. I already own the set, but after seeing these I want to purchase them again.
“Bill, if I may, I’d like to try something different this time.”
Ue o Muite Arukou or its title in English, Sukiyaki, was part of the soundtrack to From Up on Poppy Hill. The song really doesn’t have anything to do with sukiyaki does it?
Anyway, watch the movie or listen to the song, and feel the melancholy.
An aside, the tune was the basis for an American hit in the 80s. A song whose lyrics form the basis of one of rap’s greatest hits, La Di Da Di.
It’s all because of you.
I’m feeling sad and blue.
You went away
And now my life is filled with rainy days.
I love you so
How much you’ll never know
‘Cause you took your love away from me
“We send a reporter to the scene, he asks the transit police if he can go into the tunnel, they say no, he says okay, I go on the air every eight minutes and say, ‘Still no news on that disabled train.'”
Pulled from the Shelves: From Up on Poppy Hill
The great animation director Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement this past week. He’ll be sorely missed, but if Ghibli continues to make animated films as lovely as From Up on Poppy Hill, the studio is in good hands.
From Up on Poppy Hill is directed by Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki. The father wrote the screenplay based on a shojo manga from the early 80s. Ghibli films are known for their leading ladies. Choosing a shojo manga heroine is natural. Although, this is the first time one can say that Ghibli is doing a moe film.
Moe? Yes. It’s got plenty of tropes from anime of the last few years: twin tails, seifuku, school clubs, school setting. For a second, From Up on Poppy Hill feels almost like any anime lately. That doesn’t really detract from it. I’m only noticing because of the amount of anime I’ve been watching.
The plot revolves around young love. The heroine falls for the charismatic editor of the school newspaper. She helps him in saving the old club house building from being demolished. They are meant to be together but certain family ties stand in their way.
It’s a simple film. Girl meets boy. Girl falls for boy. Boy falls for girl. They both are in love. Plain and simple.
I bought the Blu-Ray/DVD combo and I have both discs in both TVs ready to be watched. The English dub is completely different than the original Japanese. Goro Miyazaki trusts his viewers to understand what’s showing on the screen. The English dub doesn’t; it opens with a voice over from the heroine setting the scene fro the rest of movie. The Japanese version opens with just the soundtrack playing following the heroine as she wakes up, prepares breakfast, and gets ready for the day. We are meant to infer what’s happening, let the story unfold, and figure out the setting. That’s trust by showing and not telling.
Animation is not a genre. It’s a technic. This film could easily have been live action. I’m glad that Ghibli did it animated. Animation isn’t just for kids. Plenty of stories can be animated. I wish more directors chose it. Thank you Hayao Miyazaki.
4 of 5 stars.
“Okay, who did I hire as news director here?”
Wired commemorates 50 years of X-Men by offering up 10 essential X-Men story lines. The usual suspects are there, Giant Size X-Men #1, Days of Future Past, The Dark Phoenix Saga, as well as mid 90s comic desolation crossovers and latter day reboots. They’ve hit a good set of stories and arcs to give an overview of the who, what, and why of the X-Men. But like all lists that try to categorize something I have more than a passing knowledge of, it’s missing a few arcs that I would deem essential.
I’ve been an X-Men fan since I started reading comics. I am still picking up the latest issues even when I have no idea what is going on. Now, I’m not familiar with the mid and late 90s X-Men, but I want to add to that list.
I would add a few of the first issues: The X-Men #1-3. I own a copy of #3 with the Blob as the villain. Any list about the X-Men should include the origin stories!
I would add the run of classic Chris Claremont from the mid-80s. These were the stories I grew up on. I would start with the Shi’ar/Brood arc (#155) and run through the Wolverine/Mariko wedding in Japan (#174). That’s at least twenty issues of Claremont. It’s not leaning on John Byrne, but Claremont on his own.
I would add the Fall of the Mutants arc. The story line I came back to reading the X-Men after a couple years off.
I would add Inferno because that was the last meaningful arc I read.
I have yet to catch up to all the X-Men comics. There’s been a lot that happened to them. I should try to catch up on some kind of wiki.
“I own a lot of Euro Disney.”
I had plenty of blog posts in me this past week. Some ‘Link of the Day,’ maybe a normal post about something on the internet, but Blogger has been bloggered for a bit. I sent in bug reports/site feedbacks using the normal Blogger feedback form. I wrote with sarcasm. I wonder who reads those forms and if I will get a response. Hopefully, the profanity in the message will not keep them from seeing that it’s a real request and that they should fix the issue.
“Everyone knows standardized tests are fundamentally racist.”
My Panasonic Blu-Ray player is the worst.
When it plays through the special features, it hangs. Nothing. Usually, it should return you to the special features menu. It doesn’t. I have yet to figure out how to get it back. I usually restart the machine, and when I say restart I mean a hard shutdown pulling the plug with a restart. Remind me to never play a special feature through.
It’s also slow to respond to user input. I have no idea when I press the on button when it will actually respond. So you press it two or three times and now you may have shut it off.
There is no navigation back to the main menu. It’s a little pop-up which doesn’t seem to show everything. Is this Blu-Ray? Can they get software developers on this?
“Isn’t it that redhead’s job to answer the phones?”
Shimmering waves!