happy endings

As I figured, postings in Blatherchat in response to my poll about animated movies made me realized I completely neglected to mention some of my other favourites:

Shrek: Especially love the exploding bird scene.

Monsters Inc.

Toy Story 1 & 2

The Iron Giant: Always makes me teary-eyed at the end. I'll always forgive Vin Diesel for his over-hyped testosterone roles because he was the Iron Giant voice.

I would have included Beauty and the Beast except I hate how the movie ended. I think the Beast was much more interesting. The ending in Shrek was much better. :-)

I did see "Perfect Blue" and "Princess Mononoke". I loved the animation in both and enjoyed them, but found the underlying storyline of "Perfect Blue" too dark for my tastes, and was too aware of the moral message that "Princess Mononoke" was pushing (Debbie ducks here as avid Princess Mononoke fans go berserk). I don't mind if films have a message like the "nature good, man bad" one in Mononoke as long as it doesn't become too intrusive.

But maybe I saw it on a bad day. Everyone else I know liked the movie, including Jeff, so perhaps I should rent it and try watching it again.

I think I'm much more of a fan of children's animated films that ones made for adults; I'm looking for emotional resonance and happy endings. I don't need to be reminded about the bad things in the world. I've encountered as much as I want to on my own already (and can always find more by just watching the news). When I go to the movie theatre, I'm looking for pure escapism, even if I know it's only going to be for short time.

I suppose that's part of the reason I love sappy old musicals so much, because of their inherent benevolence (I'm willing to swallow a lot of saccharine clichés for benevolence) and they always have happy endings. I like happy endings in books as well as movies.

Perhaps that's why I wasn't keen on the end of Ghost World as much as the rest of you. I tend to prefer -knowing- that the ending is happy; I've never been a big fan of open-ended non-conclusions which leave the viewer thinking. I don't want to speculate about the protagonist's happiness at the end of the movie; there's too much room for me to speculate about bad things happening. I want to know that the good guys win and the bad guys lose, that the girl gets the art scholarship and goes back to school, that the lovers do indeed live happily ever after.

Unrealistic, I know. That's not the way the world works, Debbie, I can already hear some of you telling me gently. And I admit that a iron-clad all-questions-answered ending does not necessarily make a good movie, and can sometimes make a bad movie. Perhaps a subconscious part of my psyche is trying too hard to see loose ends wrapped up nicely and characters I care about find their heart's desire as often as possible out of a need to cancel out bad karma in my life.

Hm. Too much psychoanalysis; my head hurts.

Think I'll go jump in the lake instead. :-)





To those living in Toronto:

Merav Hoffman says that her friend, Di Zhang, is opening up a new bubble tea parlour called Manatea on August 26th. Location: in the north food court of the Eaton's center, south of the bulk candy place, next to Yogenfruit. Apparently she's offering a 10% discount to filkers if they sing her four lines of something, as long as it's quiet enough at the parlour that she can hear them.

If you're in the area, please do check it out!

News/links:

Tired of faxed junk mail, a Silicon Valley man is filing a $2 trillion lawsuit against Fax.com

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Harry, JBR and Jean in the kitchen last night, just before supper.
	Mackerel, Harry's and Jean's cat, snoozing in the boathouse.
	Jean on ukele, Harry on my guitar, last night during a music session in the boathouse. I had my flute, and JBR used a cooking pot as a drum. Jeff was working on his laptop.

poll: animated films?

Jeff and I checked out the trailer for Spirited Away, a new Hayao Miyazaki film that's coming out soon. Wow, does it ever look fantastic! I'm REALLY excited about seeing this. It has all my favourite elements in an animated film: a young girl as the main character, magic, and something "different" about the story. Can't wait until this movie is in the theatres!




Here are my favourite animated films:

Tonari no Totoro (My Friend Totoro): This is my all-time favourite by far. During our Tokyo visit, Jeff patiently suffered through my paroxysms of ecstasy when I found an entire section of a toy store devoted entirely to Totoro merchandise. The two girls in this film remind me a LOT of what Ruth and I were like when we were that age, and of course I could identify with them being worried about their mother being ill in the hospital. Parts of this film always make me cry. I love the incredible imagination shown throughout this film, the atmosphere, the soundtrack, the little fuzzy black creatures in the girls' house. A Hayao Miyazaki film. I highly recommend this. Geez, I should go out and see if there's a DVD available; now I'm overcome by a sudden longing to see this film again. Did I tell you that I adore this movie?

Majo no takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service): I'm not a big cat person (I'm allergic, eh?) but I do really like Gigi, the young witch's cat. Hayao Miyazaki film.

Tenku no shiro Rapyuta (Castle in the Sky): Another Hayao Miyazaki film.

Mulan: Disney film. I was pretty impressed by how well the animators managed to convey Asian features, which usually end up as caricatures in most cartoons.

Anastasia: John Cusack did the voice of Dimitri and Christopher Lloyd was Rasputin; how could I not like this?

The Little Mermaid: LOVED the music.

Snow White and The Seven Dwarves: Disney. I remember having a picture book that was part of the album cover (yes, I had the soundtrack on an LP!) when I was very young, and prop the book open to my favourite illustrations beside my pillow just before I fell asleep. Yes, it's cliched and doesn't give little girls the greatest inspiration (i.e. waiting around for their prince to come), but I've got a soft spot for this film. Plus the evil stepmother still gives me the willies.

Darn, I'm sure I've missed some. Maybe I'll be inspired your poll answers.

POLL: What are your favourite animated films?

Answer in Blatherchat

Other Links/news:

The trailer for X-Men 2 is now online. Patrick Stewart looks pretty swoony in a suit, I must say.

Television Without Pity: Wow, these people watch a lot of tv.

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Today's Blatherpic:

	An illustration from Ooo-cha!, a book by Colleen Sydor that my sister illustrated in 1999. Click on the picture to see a larger version. Please don't copy this graphic without permission of the artist, thanks.
	A Totoro hangy-thingy (I'm sure it has a proper term, but I don't know it) I picked up in Tokyo. I thought about hanging it from the end of my guitar, but it rattled around too much when I played, so I hung it on one of the tuning pegs on my harp instead.
	My Gigi and Totoro toys, gifts from my friends Mark and Andrew.

my dad

Yesterday evening I invited my Dad to come visit. I don't get to see him that often except at my sister's place, where my attention is often taken up by Sara and Annie.

My Dad turns 71 next week. I never remember how old he is, mainly because he seems so much younger, at least to me. He travels to Japan several times a year to visit with a friend and do volunteer work at a school. He's constantly working on improving his fluency in Japanese; he was born in Vancouver, and Japanese was not his first language. I bought him a rosewood flute a couple years ago, and he practises it everyday. During his last trip to Japan, he bought a handmade lacquered flute that I'm lusting over ("hey Dad, are you sure you didn't buy that for ME?").

He uses his computer all the time to keep in touch with friends in Japan and has a much better digital camera than I do. He works out at the gym 5-6 times a week. He babysits Sara and Annie 3-4 times a week. He's one of the most active retired people I know.

"Relax, Dad. Enjoy your retirement," I'll say to him.

"But I am!" he'll reply, and then he'll be off on another trip.

My Dad's been through some rough times in his life including having his family's hotel business taken away during the war when he was a kid, losing his wife to cancer, losing his son and daughter-in-law in an automobile accident. He was one of the first (if not the first) Japanese schoolteachers in Toronto, and his first teaching assignment was in a particularly rough area of the city. He's also one of the most positive people I know.

He and I played flute and harp together when he came to visit, which was fun: Ode To Joy (which was one of my brother's favourites) and Plaisir d'amour. We had dinner at Fune, and both of us ordered the sashimi dinner. We talked about his life, my life, the future, had green tea ice cream for dessert.

Then we strolled over to Chapters, where I bought the Fellowship of the Rings DVD. Yes, I caved; I had originally toyed with the idea of waiting until November until the full version comes out. I blame Rand and Allison and the guy behind the counter in Chapters. I'll buy the November version, too, of course. I was pushed over the edge of indecision into buying the DVD by a brief conversation with the Chapters guy, who is obviously a Tolkien fan. Like Allison and Rand, he assured me that none of the special features on the DVD I was buying would be on the November DVD version. He also said that George Lucas bought a copy of the DVD in the store last week (!).

After we came back to the apartment, my Dad asked if we could watch part of the movie before he drove back home despite the fact that he's already seen the movie twice in the theatres. While he watched the movie, I gloated over the leather bookmark that came with the DVD and pored over the list of special features.

And marvelled over the fact that I have such a cool Dad. :-)





I've updated Waiting For Frodo.

poll: signature smells?

I used to know someone who always smelled wonderful. She wore a particular type of perfume (sadly, I can no longer remember the name) all the time, and after a while, it was impossible for me to smell that fragrance and not associate it with her.

Even Jeff has a signature fragrance, though I suppose "fragrance" is too feminine a word for a guy. He doesn't it wear it as much now, but I still strongly associate Ralph Lauren's Polo cologne with him. I could be standing on a crowded subway platform, catch a whiff of Polo, and immediately look around for him. Seems to be a popular guy cologne, sadly, so these days I find it's more often NOT Jeff.

Chanel No. 5 reminds me of my Mom, who used to wear it on special occasions. My father got that for her every year; I remember saving some of these elegant-looking small glass bottles as a kid, pretending I was dabbing my own neck with a few drops of perfume just like my mother.

Years later, I decided that I wanted a "signature fragrance" of my own, so I started researching, combing perfume departments of large stores, accepting samples from eager saleswomen with atomisers in hand. Sometimes Jeff would come with me, since it was obviously important that he like the fragrance.

I wanted a fragrance that was feminine but not heavily floral, playfully sexy but not sleazy. Despite the zillions of perfumes available, it was a tougher choice than I expected, mainly because after sniffing only a few samples, Jeff and I started getting headaches and our eyes would start watering. Some of those atomiser-wielding salesclerks were a bit over-enthusiastic in their spraying.

Finally we found one we both liked: Simon Chang's Kimono. Ecstatic, I bought a bottle and started using it, but almost immediately was worried about wearing too much. I've always hated it when you walk into an elevator and almost keel over because some woman is wearing too much perfume (or was recently). I also kept forgetting to put it on.

In the end, I quit wearing it. Maybe my sense of smell got more sensitive over the years, but I find most perfumes too overwhelming these days. From time to time I'll wear a bit of White Musk from The Body Shop (and I still love that fragrance), which is pretty mild. Usually I put on just enough so that only I can smell it. :-)

Do you have a favourite fragrance/cologne?

Also, what perfumes/colognes do you associate with what people in your life?

Answer in Blatherchat

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I've updated Waiting For Frodo. Thanks to Rob Wynne for his help with this particular strip! :-)

Ever wonder why people are searching for on Google? Check out Google Zeitgeist. (Thanks, Jeff)

Today's Blatherpic:

My ancient Smith-Corona typewriter at the cottage (the one I use to type each issue of The Outhouse Daily News).

waiting for frodo

Misty on the lake this morning (today's photo was taken a few minutes ago). Jeff and I are packing up to go back to the city very soon.

For those who haven't noticed yet, I now have an MP3 recording and lyrics for Waiting For Frodo online, linked up to my Waiting For Frodo comic. The song was recorded at Conchord earlier this month (sound engineer: Gerry Tyra) and will, after final mixing by Chris Conway, be included in our upcoming CD.

Our new CD, by the way, now has a tentative release date of next year's Worldcon in Toronto! (Labour Day weekend)

If you want to receive a notice when the CD is ready, please add your e-mail address to our mailing list:

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Thanks to TheOneRing.net for mentioning my comic strip yesterday (twice, even!). From the e-mails I've been receiving, looks like a bunch of new LOTR fans have discovered my comic as a result.