cartoon lab-rat
The majority of my time today was taken up by a single protocol. It began at 0815 this morning, is highly involving, shamefully long, and ongoing as of the moment (2143, rather black outside). I have little against working long hours when necessary, but having to attend at regular intervals all day and evening long is just killing, especially when the restful moments are of a length that is conducive to achieving just about nothing else. A ten minute lunch-break, a brief, rushed dinner and a meeting to follow, topped off by more playing-with-antibodies has made for a tiring day.
[...goes to make an adjustment...]
Thrilling; a realtime moan. What also cheers me up no end is that the college network administrator has managed to keep my computer cut-off from the network since last Thursday night, which means all sorts of inconveniences as virtually everything that goes on at the University is organised via the 'net. The problem? He doesn't really know. Someone must have peed in his mother.
Despite everything, I'm in a really good mood (I am readily categorisable as an optimistic fool), and am also pleased to have finally taken receipt of my Miyazaki DVD (Princess Mononoke), which I ordered last week, only to receive a Pamela Anderson pornographic compendium. I mean for godsakes, if I'm going to be sent the wrong item, could it not have reflected my interests to a greater degree? She doesn't even have any facial hair.
I can't say that there are any cartoons that I've bought recently, but I saw Miyazaki's most recent piece a few weeks back; Spirited Away is one of the best pieces of animation I've seen in a long time, featuring a tremendous richness of both environment and depth of character in what is, outwardly, a relatively simple stylistic approach. If you can't take weird, don't watch it, but few film-buffs, if not any aesthete outright, will find this one disappointing.
Almost time to head home.
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Yes, I loved Spirited Away as well. It's the only Miyazaki I've seen so far, but I fully intend to seek out some others.
Sorry about your day, hope you are properly rested now -- and networked.
I watched Spirited Away in Japanese. I think the English dubbing is a bit off. But then again, it always is.
... for some reason I'm imagining Pamela Anderson with facial hair now. *shudder*
I'm not surprised that you enjoyed it, Matt, given what little I know about you, but what about you, K?
I saw it in Japanese too, and am glad that I did, though I haven't heard the dubbed version.
Princess Mononoke comes dubbed by default in our domestic release, with great voice-overs by Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, Gillian Anderson and Billy Bob Thornton. Did I watch it in English? Yes, but only for three or four minutes "just to see", and only after I had seen it in the original Japanese.
I was very disappointed when I tried to take a friend to see Crouching Tiger in the USA; it was dubbed into English, and though in that case it was done by the actors themselves, I think it took a lot away from the film. Mandarin is an exquisite tongue, and coming from the elegantly spoken Michelle Yeoh, our most famous Malaysian actress, and Ziyi Zhang, it was simply beautiful to hear. The initial British cinema release was in Mandarin, so I did end up seeing it as I'd intended (didn't waste money on the dubbed version at the cinema, though I've seen it since on DVD).
Mandarin is exquisite alright. Exquisite torture to the untrained speaker. My tongue still hurts from practicing inflections.
If you liked Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, you'd probably like a little show called Grave of Fireflies, it isn't as fantasy as the other two, but heartbreaking.
Nothing seems to be able to make me ponder like a good book/movie/anime. For some reason, unlike unsubtle and often too cliche American productions (I'm not sure about European), anime seems to show what cartoons should be instead of the toilet humour that we get these days on the Cartoon Network. (This is not saying anything against toilet humour, I'm as big a fan of 'pull-my-finger' jokes as the next person, but some attempt at subtlety is always appreciated)
As for how I liked Princess Mononoke and the rest, I guess the previous paragraph pretty much says everything.
As the Greeks may have said, my three great Passions are books, movies and anime... sometimes in that order. Perhaps even some of my closest friends would be shocked to hear me say that (you heard it here first!), but I need my nightmares, and computers simply don't do that.
Computers are a means to an end yes, but rarely ever are they an inspiration.
I'm sure my site has informed you on my anime habits. ;) I've written about them more than once. I'm just a huge geek. And frankly quite proud of it.
If you're into watching anime _series_ (and have whole weeks of time to kill), you might want to consider maybe the following:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Serial Experiment: Lain
.hack//SIGN
Cowboy Bebop
What appeals to me about anime? I think this says it best, a famous TV character once said, "In anime, it isn't Clark Kent waiting to become Superman, but Superman waiting to become Clark Kent."
Miyazaki's work is excellent. I love watching "Spirited Away". Thank God I watched it in Japanese. His other work such as "Castle in the sky" (Laputa) and "Magical Girl Kiki Delivery" are equally good too. They are being released in North America right now,just before Christmas season.