Category: entertainment

Spirited Away – It’s All In The Title

Since Senor Eagle asked, here’s how I interpret Spirited Away:

  • A little girl and her parents stop on their way to their new house to explore a tunnel they find at a mysterious deadend. They come out of the tunnel to a deserted city block. The dad follows his nose to a beautiful buffet of food. The parents commence pigging out (pay attention, that’s important). The little girl wanders off, and find a mysterious looking bathhouse.

  • The girl (I can’t remember her name for the life of me), meets a young boy who tells her to hurry back to her parents and leave before all the lamps come on and it gets dark outside.

  • She races back to the restaurant only to find that her parents have been turned into pigs.

  • Somehow, and I don’t remember quite how, she ends up working in the bathhouse as a way to survive and find a way to turn her parents back into themselves.

  • That’s all I’m going to tell you about the “facts” of the story. It’s a movie you have to feel more than watch. You can watch it for just the gorgeous animation, which is well worth watching, or you can get into it, suspend your preconceived notions of what a movie should be, and have a great time experiencing this world of spirits (get it, Spirited Away?).

  • If you want everything in a movie to make sense and a neatly tied up and spelled out ending – skip this movie. Don’t even bother. You’ll hate it.

  • If you’re willing to play along and suspend your disbelief (and by suspend, I mean put it way up on a shelf and deny any temptation to bring it back out), you’ll love this movie.

Oh, and don’t forget to nominate yourself for the ugly blog redesign. No, I mean it. If you use the MT Default Templates, you qualify. Not because your site is ugly. The MT Templates are servicable, but they’re so… vanilla. Live a little and get crazy. I’ll help.

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Weekend Entertainment Roundup

Here’s another weekend entertainment roundup:

  • X2: X-Men United: Wow. I have to admit that I Nightcrawler was my favorite character as a kid. Alan Cumming was the perfect choice, and I thought he pulled off the character perfectly. The story was a lot of fun, and the little fanboy in-jokes were great. I was in fanboy heaven and can’t wait for the third one. Letting Logan go crazy on the soldiers at the beginning was a brave choice for a PG-13 movie, and they pulled it up well – not too gory, but you knew the wounds were fatal. A great movie for anyone who ever read superhero comics, and not bad if you didn’t (Jen liked it too).

  • Spirited Away: The movie aside, this is the best English translation of the Japanese movie I’ve ever seen. It didn’t feel dubbed like most do, and the voice acting was top-notch. Now, the movie is weird. It’s really weird. But, unlike the other Miyazaki movies I’ve tried to watch (My Neighbor Totoro most recently), I loved this movie. The visuals were so beautiful, and the characters so fun, I was transported to a wonderful place. The story just washes over you and it’s hard to think like an adult while it’s going on. If you can turn off the grown-up part of the brain, this is a perfect movie.

I’ll get back to the political stuff next week. Really, I will. Also, don’t forget to nominate yourself and your friends for the ugly blog redesign contest.

Found Music Part Quoi?

I spent this afternoon working on documents, experimenting with crazy CSS stuff and listening to music long forgotten in the bowels of my office downstairs. I went through the four hundred or so CD’s down there last night and picked out some old stuff to bring to work. So far this afternoon I’ve listened to:

  • Tripping Daisy: I’m An Elastic Firecracker: This album rocks… really. It’s got great hooks and is pretty funny too. It’s a really good album if you’re in the mood for some arty hard rock.

  • R.L. Burnside: Too Bad Jim: Real Delta Blues from a guy who looks like he’s really got ’em. He’s not screwin’ around. The sound is extremely raw, but the guitar work is sure, and Mr. Burnside’s voice carries the pain and anger better than most. This was his first album. I got Ass Pocket Full Of Whiskey, and it didn’t have the same raw energy of this one. A great introduction to real blues.

  • The Presidents of the United States: Self-Titled: Who doesn’t remember Peaches and Lump? A great funny two-string guitar album. Throw it in with the windows down on a summer’s day and all your cares are forgotten.

  • 2nu: Ponderous: It took me forever to find a copy of this to buy. Someone in high school loaned me the tape once and I just fell in love. Other than the one song where they actually sing, this is a great album of funny spoken word pieces set to music. It will make you giggle, guaranteed.

Yeah, it was that kind of day… And I still have to hang out for another meeting that will keep me here past six. Then, I’m going to go work out and try out my new MP3 CD Player with my new “workout collection”. The fun never ends around here… if I’m not dead when I get home, I’ll tell you all about the fantabulous dinner I made last night.

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Three Cooking Undertakings

Last night, Max and I made cookies. Our pantry was against us, however and we were missing two important ingredients: brown sugar and rolled oats. Being the creative culinary maverick that I am, I substituted regular sugar mixed with maple syrup (it made the sugar brown, and kind of brown-sugar-esque) and crushed pecans. The cookies turned out a little flat and runny, but they’re still yummy. The maple syrup added a great flavor.

Today, I decided to try out Mr. Allen’s yummy-sounding soup recipe. Of course, being American, I couldn’t just follow directions. Instead of making chicken stock, I used some store bought beef and chicken broths left over from my braising experiment. I used broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms as my veggies of choice, along with a healthy heaping of spices: white and black peppercorns, green chili powder, red chili powder, a pinch of curry, and some sea salt. I simmered for two hours, then added two little containers of heavy whipping cream, whipped with my little kitchenaid thingy, and voila – the most amazing soup I’ve ever made. Jen is floored.

On top of the soup, I decided that Max and I would enjoy making bread together. Unfortunately, Max decided to take a nap, and I got to make bread by myself. It was my first time making homemade bread from scratch aaa-aaall alone. I decided to go old school and mix everything by hand. I’m not sure it’s going to turn out, but it was fun to try just the same.

Oh, there’s the timer. Time to go see how it turned out.

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Massive Armada Launches Groove Attack

The other two music-related things I was going to tell you about yesterday before Mike delivered his new album were the two CD’s I got in the mail on Monday. They are:

  • Massive Attack: 100th Window: Before I start this, I have a confession. I am a huge Massive Attack fan. I own all their albums. I have been waiting for this for five years. So, if I break down and start to cry, that’s why. This is a great album. Go out and buy it right now. Why? It has Sinead O’Conner sounding the best she ever has in some haunting Teardrop~~esque (my favorite song EVER) pieces on it. The rest of it is classic Massive Attack, only new. There’s growth and expansion from what they did on Mezzanine. The sound is fuller, and has more layers than anything that’s come before. Everywhen is heavenly, with the slightest bit of distortion on the keyboards adding a pleasant roundness to the sound. The layers come in one by one and wash over my ears, making me nod and close my eyes. It’s hypnotic and then it blows your ass out of the chair~~ like the best of their other work (think “Angel has a baby with Teardrop who sounds a little like Safe From Harm“).

  • Groove Armada: Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub): I somehow have a copy of Edge Hill on my computer that I swear I have no idea how it got there. It’s a great song, and I was already placing my order with Amazon, so I went for it. I’m glad I did. The other songs on the album bear little resemblance to Edge Hill, but they’re still good. I even like the rap in the first song (it shows up in others two, but I’m listening to Massive Attack still, so I’m not going to go find them. The album flows really well between songs, and creates a great laid back mood throughout, even when it’s rockin’. After Edge Hill, Little by Little has me going back to it over an over. Hypnotic, densely layered and beautiful, even the vocals are great. What I love about the song is it gives you a good couple minutes to set the mood of the song before the vocals come in. Even then, the music takes precedence. Good good stuff for your headphoning pleasure.

My lovely wife got me Fear of Pop for my birthday, which I’ll probably review tomorrow, if I can stop listening to Mike’s new album, and these two gems.

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He Ain’t Just My Friend, He’s A Moo-Zish-Yan

Today has been a much better day than I expected. Lots of good news and good new music. I’ll document the other new music later, but I want to tell you about my friend Mike. See, he was my boss for a little while a couple years ago and is an all-around swell guy. I didn’t find out until recently that he’s something of a musician (something of because I didn’t know how good he was). All that changed today when, while I was meeting with someone in my office, Mike ran in, dropped something on my desk without saying a word and ran off. It was a CD, and it had his name on it!

I popped it open, threw it in the UberMac, ripped it (don’t worry, Mike, I won’t share), and began listening. Holy crap. He doesn’t suck! I’ve had one other good musician friend in my life, and the experience was a lot like this. I got this huge swelling of pride. My friend has created something beautiful, and I know him (not Biblically… I swear… although he did offer to take me hiking). All of the songs on the album are good, but there are some that are honest-to-goodness pieces of art. Waltz for Brooklyn is a gorgeous song that almost made me cry, partly because my friend created this and was kind enough to share it with me, but mostly because the song is just that good.

So, if you’re in need of some acoustic guitar happy-sweet-goodness, go pre-order Half Pint today. Tell him Kevin sent you… and no, I don’t get anything if you buy it. It’s really just that good.

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Pork It With Ham

I had a great birthday. We had gourmet pizza from Emilio’s, a fantastic cake made by mom and lots of fun. Work has been really busy, which hopefully explains my lack of content here the past few days. Not that you need an explanation, right?

Today, I decided to make Jen a nice dinner for our “date” (mom’s got Max; we’ve got the house). We got a pork roast on sale, and I decided to try out another Molto Mario idea and braise it. Thankfully, Jen got me Mario’s book for my birthday, so I didn’t have to make it all up. Here’s the menu:

  • Bruschetta: fresh roma tomatoes, fresh mozarella cut into small cubes, shredded fresh basil and grated parmesan on toasted baguette slices.

  • Prosciutto-wrapped Asparagus: I got the prosciutto thick-sliced at the deli (too thick, but I asked for it that way). I wrapped the asparagus up in the slices and sauteed them in a little olive oil. The ham got a little hard. If I do this again, I’m using thinner meat.

  • Fresh linquine covered in the braising liquid with vegetables. I used the carrots, mushrooms, onions (Spanish and Red), and celery in the tomato-based braising liquid. I reduced it a little in a sauce pan and then threw in the cooked noodles.

  • Braised Pork Roast: We don’t drink, so I used pureed and diced tomatoes and olive oil as the braising liquid. I used too much; the roasting pan overflowed; the house filled with smoke; I opened windows. Other than that, the pork came out really tender, and the sauce that came out of the pan is heavenly (because pork is gooooo-oood).

Other than the too-thick prosciutto and the smoke, it was really yummy. I have a couple other recipes I want to post, I just haven’t found the time. I made a really yummy salmon filet with red onions and fresh orange juice that I came up with off the top of my head. It was great (if I do say so myself). I also made homemade meatballs that blew me away. They were unbelievable, and I’ll share the recipe when I can get around to getting it down on paper. I’ve still got some in the freezer for subs later… mmmmm, meatball sub.

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Yeah! Crunch Them CD’s!

Protesters destroy Dixie Chicks CDs. Yeah! Burn those cd’s!! Oh wait, it’s because the lead singer said something about the President you didn’t like? Well, that’s just plain stupid. Now, if this is just a referendum on bad music, go cats go! I’ve got a list of music you can start on when you’re done with the Dixie Chicks. You can start with almost the rest of contempory country music, which should take you a while. When you’re done with that, come back and I’ll give you a list of meaningless pop that should keep your bulldozer busy until the war is over.

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Friday Night TV

Thank goodness for TiVo. There’s now so much good stuff late on Friday night that I can’t believe trying to keep up without having TiVo handle it all for me. Let’s go over the list:

  • Ali G: It’s hard to say which show is funnier, but Ali G is one of the two funniest half hours on TV. The things he gets away with saying because of his outrageous accents are just brilliant. Submersive and somehow innocent, it will knock you on your funny bone, snap its finger in your face and show you its drawers as it walks away.

  • Penn & Teller: My wife hates Penn & Teller, but loves this show. They take the things no one else is willing to take on (but everyone is pretty sure is BS, but either doesn’t have the time or the stones to say so) and debunks them in the funniest possible way. The bottled water one last night was absolutely priceless.

  • Real Time With Bill Maher: I don’t really like Bill Maher. Really, I don’t. But, the panels are usually interesting. Paul F. Thompkins’ segments are very funny, and he’s committed to showcasing stand-up comedians. Sarah Silverman was really funny the first show, and Eric Idle was awesome last week. Worth watching for those alone (especially because you can fast forward through the other parts.

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