The Last Candle

Just what the title says. Enjoy!

I was intending to writeup a good long review of Nolan’s “reimaging” of Burton’s (and the original comic and TV series’) Batman, but Ace’s review at Ace of Spades HQ is pretty much spot-on with my own particular feelings about the flick. So go over there and check out the great review; if you like, regard the review as if it’s my own under a ghostwriter, except not really so much a ghostwriting since it’s obviously his stuff and written at his page — but I’m 100% with ‘im here, which should be counted for something…right? <p/> Okay, if I had to say something original, I’d say that the original Burton films — we will not speak of the Schumacher tragedies here — were more like the Adam West series (with the addition of an awesome score, courtesy of the one-and-only Danny Elfman), while Batman Begins captures a feel close to the animated series that ran during the 90’s. (My friend Andy did remind me of the original’s score, which was much better than Begins’s score, even if Begins did use it’s own pulsing and mostly rhythmic score well for it’s quick pacing and tight tension.) <p/> One thing I won’t pass up on is the opportunity to use the Yun-Fat-o-Meter grading system: <p/> <p/> Finally, when we saw the movie at Quality 16 near Ann Arbor, the sound in the theater was WAY too fargin’ loud. A good height for volume is one thing in an action film, but having the film’s sound effects give you a nasty headache by the end is too much. (Then again, the punches and explosions had a sort of tactile boost from the extra amplitude — something be said for immersion…) <p/> So far, Miyazaki’s got me divided on his films; I’ve only seen Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, but thought the former was a big ton of weirdo-mystical crap (but beautiful, erm, crap) while Spirited Away is easily one of my favorite all-time films. Go figure. However, having the more-recent Spirited Away be such a high favorite, there wasn’t any way I was going to miss Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki’s latest, when it arrived at a local theater. <p/> And it fell somewhere between Mononoke’s overwhelming weirdness and Spirited Away’s tightness and beauty — and more closely to Spirited Away. Whew. <p/> Of course, the film was just gorgeous and incredibly satisfying in the sights category — more detail in the animations and backgrounds than Spirited Away mixed with a huge variety of different locales and environments ranging the from dark and dingy to flower-swept plains — and the dubbing was OK. Christian Bale was decent as Howl (making the tally of Christian Bale-starring movies seen this week at TWO). Sophie/Old Sophie was quite good, even though I feared that the voice of Suzanne Pleshette, previously the voice of Yubaba/Zeniba in the American Spirited Away dub, would get old after hearing it for a couple hours, but that wasn’t the case — in fact, Pleshette was probably the best voice actor in the film. <p/> Almost by default as a Miyazaki film, besides a highly enjoyable cast of characters, the creative energy of Howl’s Moving Castle is really what keeps the film moving forwards; this does not speak well of the film’s plot. I can’t tell whether to call it more oriented for kids or more oriented for adults: it certainly has a huge amount of fantasy vibrance and a snappy pace, but the plot changes focus often with threads meandering all over the place, hoping to reconnect sometime in the future. Some events (including one at the very end of the film) happen almost without precedence; other layers, like Howl’s hate of the war and his consequent actions, take the entire film to engage while never really reaching any kind of conclusion. It’s fine to add atmosphere, but atmosphere stops becoming periphery when it not only drives characters but causes change in the story. Such things are not great to leave hanging by the wayside when the movie’s credits begin to roll. <p/> But really, in a film like Howl’s Moving Castle, plot and story acts (not solely) as a proponent for pushing the great characters and artwork. Spirited Away is a better film because it managed both without a reduction in either, but even though Howl’s Moving Castle lacks the narration focus of Miyazaki’s previous film, everything else in the flick makes it an excellent show. <p/>

First week of work: ovah! Learning how the software is constructed is a little bit like learning a whole new language (although the actual language is C++ — and soon C#). Proprietary (read: non-MFC) forms! Reference numbers! Constellation reports! Different tax laws for each of the seven different states assigned! <p/> But when my mentor Greg said I’d be amazed about how much I’d learn from scratch in a week, he wasn’t kidding: By Friday, I was actually able to do some really simple stuff on my own! Small moves, small moves. <p/> Maybe the biggest impact about the new job (I haven’t received a paycheck yet, so no impact felt there so far) — is getting into the mentality that this job is going to be my schtick from 8-5 five days a week for the next several years. That’s quite a singular commitment; before this, it ‘s been school, job in the summer, school, job, etc. Now: work, work, work. However, besides the (temporary) state of n00bishness, I’m really enjoying the work: excellent co-workers, comfortable and quiet, and plenty of bugs and new tax laws to keep me busy. And listening to music while coding is completely OK, which makes delving into just about any difficult bug or task fun. <p/> Next up: finding my own apartment, due to occur within a month or so. Housing in Dexter is, unfortunately, no less than living in my hometown. Strangely enough, from what I’ve seen there are many places in bustling Ann Arbor offering lower rent than Dexter’s available real estate — perhaps I’ll end up living in Ann Arbor after all.

As I write this, Nightwish’s Planet Hell (from the Once album) is blaring out of the TV — from a broadcast of the opening of the Pistons v. Spurs game live from San Antonio. Sweeeeeeeeee-et. <p/> Hrmm. Turned out to just be the instrumental parts of the song. Exciting nonetheless! <p/> Now if only the actual band had played the song instead of Will Smith bustin’ out with his own. <p/> Update: Now I hear the opening instrumentals to Ghost Love Score. THIS IS SENSATIONAL! <p/> Update 2: End of halftime show; Dream Theater’s Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and The Sleeper is being played to the thousands in the crowd. I now feel correct in saying that this is the best basketball game of all time.

The Bleat is probably the only personal blog on the planet worth reading by just about everyone, making any referential links to it somewhat redundant, but today’s Bleat on Revenge of the Sith has a section certainly worth repeating:

Not enough Wookies. And I don�t see them as the kind of guys who�d use a bowcaster, frankly; they seem more like shotgun types. You would not want to fight an army of a pissed off Wookies with shotguns. I bet they drink, too. They�re probably always drunk all the time, which is why their language seems so incoherent; for all we know they�re not saying anything at all, just yelling. Because they�re all hammered.

Imagine a rowdy, gratuitous Wookie drinking scene on Kashyyyk, finishing with a sudden cut to the big battle — a battle featuring drunken Wookie battalions, kicking and howling, beating the metal-minds out of the enemy with a one-gauge shotgun (using real shot, of course) under each furry arm. Best action scene of the year, right there. <p/> Wookies with ale and shotguns would have brought me to boost the movie from my original 1.5 out of four rating to at least a 2.5 — maybe even a three if the shotguns were at least five feet long and sounded like Civil War cannons when triggered (a la Hard Boiled, natch — actually, the whole thing should be a la Hard Boiled).

A favorite blogosphere “feature” of mine that’s become popular are the advent of Carnivals, a themed collection of blog articles aggregated by a different blogger every week. Many varities exist — education, history, for capitalists, cars — try searching at the blog-omniscient Instapundit for more. <p/> My favorite out of the lot (before someone invents the Carnival of Power Metal, of course) is the Carnival of Recipes. This week, the Carnival is hosted at Conservative Friends. (For the curious, don’t hope/hate to find Mad Moore Mousse or All Hail the Beef — next week the location might be a place with Liberal in the title and be just as non-partisan as this most recent carnival). Featured are a mighty-fine home-cooked selection of a few dozen recipes from submitters of all CMS’s. Carnival of Recipes: Tuck Into the Blogosphere! <p/> Since the recipes are all homebrews, most of them are simple and easy enough to make quickly with common ingredients while still maintaining that good home-cooked feel and flavor. Since I was in a cookin’ mood earlier, I whipped up the pancake souffle (by Rita at Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea), and it took two minutes to mix, 20 to bake, and about another two minutes to eat a third of the light buttery pastry-bready result. <p/> Thus, based on actual empirical evidence, I give the Carnival of the Recipes flawless marks.