Hayao Miyazaki

There's a great article in the New Yorker (17-jan-2005) about Miyazaki. I have watched Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service many times, and I am happy to watch them any time. I think these are the best movies for young children ever made. I didn't like Spirited Away so much, but I have only seen it once. Some extracts from the New Yorker article: In a 1993 televised discussion between Miyazaki and Akira Kurosawa, Kurosawa mentioned how much he admired the sweetly surreal cat bus (in Totoro). Toshio Suzuki: "When silents moved to talkies, Chaplin held out the longest. When black-and-white went to color, Kurosawa held out the longest. Miyazaki feels he should be the longest when it comes to computer animation" Miyazaki: "I like Ireland, though, the countryside there. Dublin has too many yuppies, computer types, but I like the countryside, becasue it's poorer than England" John Lasseter says that when the animators at Pixar get stuck on a project they watch a Miyazaki film.

For the in-house theatre, which shows short films that he makes especially for the museum (including a sequel to “My Neighbor Totoro”), he hired an acoustic designer to create an uncommonly gentle sound system. Miyazaki wanted the opposite of the “tendency in recent Hollywood films,” which is “to use heavy bass to try to pull the audience into the film.” He thinks that movie theatres can be claustrophobic, even overwhelming places for young children, so he wanted his theatre to have windows that let in some natural light, bench-style seats that a child can’t sink into, and films that make them “sigh in relaxation.” Miyazaki fondly remembered the days when cigarette smoke in a theatre could draw your attention to the beam of light stretching from the projector, so he placed the pro­jector in a glass booth that protrudes into the seating area. “I want to show children that moving images are enjoyed by having huge reels revolving, an electric light shin­ing on the film, and a lot of complicated things being done,” he explains in the mu­seum’s catalogue. Colleagues told him that projecting the films digitally would help preserve them, but Miyazaki relished the idea that, eventually, viewers might see “worn film with ‘falling-rain’ scratches on the screen.

Ramotswe on existentialism

Mma Ramotswe had listened to a World Service broadcast on her radio one day which had simply taken her breath away. It was about philosophers who called themselves existentialists and who, as far as Mma Ramotswe could ascertain, lived in France. These French people said that you should live in a way which made you feel real, and that the real thing to do was the right thing too. Mma Ramotswe had listened in astonishment. You did not have to go to France to meet existentialists, she reflected; there were many existentialists right here in Botswana. Note Mokoti, for example. She had been married to an existentialist herself, without even knowing it. Note, that selfish man who never once put himself out for another—not even for his wife—would have approved of existentialists, and they of him. It was very existentialist, perhaps, to go out to bars every night while your pregnant wife stayed at home, and even more existentialist to go off with girls—young existentialist girls—you met in bars. It was a good life being an existentialist, although not too good for all the other, nonexistentialist people around one.

2004 releases that were most played in 2004

My album of the year was Thunder Lighning Strike by the Go! Team. Apart from that, my most played tracks that were released in 2004 (according to ITunes) were (in order) as follows: You have to scroll down a long way (weird blogger bug) ... [update December 2005: fixed]

Track	Artist	Source
Comfortably Numb	Scissor Sisters	Scissor Sisters
Munich Air Disaster 1958	Morrissey	Irish Blood, English Heart - EP
First Of The Gang To Die	Morrissey	You Are The Quarry
Cinnamon Girl	Prince	Musicology
Darts Of Pleasure	Franz Ferdinand	Franz Ferdinand
99 Problems	Jay-Z & Beatles & DJ Danger Mouse	The Grey Album
It's Hard to Walk Tall, When You're Small	Morrissey	Irish Blood, English Heart - EP
The Never Played Symphonies	Morrissey	Irish Blood, English Heart - EP
If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind	Agnetha Faltskog	My Colouring Book
Come Home Billy Bird	The Divine Comedy	Absent Friends
Teenage Dad on His Estate	Morrissey	First of the Gang to Die - EP
It's a Pose	Nellie McKay	Get Away from Me
Inner Peace	Nellie McKay	Get Away from Me
Who the fuck	PJ Harvey	Uh Huh Her
No Child Of Mine	PJ Harvey	Uh Huh Her
Laura	Scissor Sisters	Scissor Sisters
It Cant Come Quickly Enough	Scissor Sisters	Scissor Sisters
Can't Stand Me Now	The Libertines	The Libertines
Uraqt (Diplo Mix)	M.I.A.	Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1
America Is Not The World	Morrissey	You Are The Quarry
She Wants To Move	N.E.R.D	She_Wants_To_Move-(Promo_CDS)
Don't Let Him Waste Your Time	Nancy Sinatra	Nancy Sinatra
The Slow Drug	PJ Harvey	Uh Huh Her
Cat On The Wall	PJ Harvey	Uh Huh Her
Music Is The Victim	Scissor Sisters	Scissor Sisters

If I had to guess what I listened to I would also have mentioned The College Dropout by Kanye West and A Grand Don't Come For Free by The Streets. And Bjork. And Liz Phair was 2003. But this was what I really listened to. You can't argue with the data.

My crow costume for halloween

The concept:

I smeared my face with vaseline and Amy covered my face with plaster bandages.

The beak has a base made of wired mesh.

The beak and the rest of the mask are covered in more plaster bandages

The mask is held in place by elastic bands. The mask is so close fitting that the elastic presses into me.

Amy glued feathers to the mask.

The body of the costume is a coat from a thrift store. The back is cut away to make a tail. Amy made huge feathers out of black fabric, stiffened with wire. She also made the talons which attach to my shoes.

When we went trick or treating kids would recognize what I was and say hello crow. This is a great feeling, the same thing happened last year when I was Gandalf. After a while I got more confident and started to shout caw and flap my wings.

Edna Mode quotes

I never look back, dahling. It detracts from the now.

I cut it a little roomy for the free movement. The fabric is comfortable for sensitive skin... and it can also withstand a temperature of over one thousand degrees... completely bulletproof...

and machine washable, dahling, that's a new feature.

Supermodels - ha! Nothing super about them. Spoiled, stupid little stick-figures with poofy lips who think only about themselves. Feh! I used to design for GODS!

You can't! It's impossible! I'm far too busy, so ask me now before I again become sane.

No capes!

Well, I'm sure I don't know, dahling; luck favors the prepared. I didn't know the baby's powers, so I covered the basics...

What are you talking about? You are Elastigirl! My God! Pull yourself together! What will you do? Is...is...is this a question? You will show him that you remember that he is Mr. Incredible! And you will REMIND him, who YOU are! Well, you know where he is... Go! Confront the problem! Fight! Win! And call me when you get back, dahling, I enjoy our visits.

Yes, words are useless. Gobble, gobble, gobble. There is too much of it, darling. Too much. That is why I show you my work! That is why you are here!

R.I.P. John Peel

I sent him a letter once. I don’t remember what was in it but he replied in some format. I must have moaned about Chester because he said he had grown up not all that far away. I sent him postcards with requests and he played one or two. Once someone else, besides me, maybe Nath or maybe Mike actually heard the request.

He wasn’t the only DJ. In the sixth form I often wouldn’t start my homework until Peel’s show was finished. I would put on Dave Fanning who didn’t require quite the same amount of attention. On Friday there was Phil Ross and later Roger Hill. I quickly found that music dabblers would listen to the 8pm shows on Radio One. But the real music lovers were listening to Peel. The thing I learned from his show was an attitude to music. There's a lot of it out there, and it's fun to lsiten to it without prejudice Peel would surprse you. I heard King Sunny Ade and Youssou N'Dour from him first. He played that Misty In Roots record a hundred times. He played Napalm Death and they really weren't very good. In the last year I have been listening to his show streamed over the internet. He knew some of us were doing this and mentioned it, and he read oout text messages and emails he had got. I heard him play Mutantes and it was weird that a band I had known for years were new to him. But he didn't worry about being behind the times, he just was playing a record that was new to him. He played what sounded good. For a time he played Sheena Easton and I listened carefully.