Has there been a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp/Danny Elfman trifecta before? Because that combination right there is enough to pretty well guarantee me forking out the dough to see that movie in the theater.
The fact that they’ll be releasing it in 3D is just a bonus.
This year Santa was especially good to me. I got a shiny new apartment (with a GIGANTENORMOUS living room, a full kitchen, a plus-sized main bedroom, and a wonderfully-traditional tatami room, in a nice quiet little neighborhood in Urawa); a lovely gift pack of pfeffernussen, chocolate, more chocolate, Christmas pudding, classical music, and a card with pictures both of and by my nieces from my sister; and my old fiancée back (I’m moving in with her in the new apartment). Also, I had a nice chat with my mom about just random stuff, including Italian drivers, region-locking (I told her how to make her DVD player region free—I deliberately bought her the one I’d gotten because it could be made region free), and Avatar.
Today, to celebrate The Day After Boxing Day, I saw Up (in 3-D!) in the Shinjuku Picadilly theater. It’s a theater that would be extremely nice-looking, if only it were completely depopulated at all times. Full of people waiting to see a movie, it resembles nothing so much as an American airport after the new extra-ridiculous security precautions have been put in place.
Life is going pretty well at the moment. I feel like I’ve finally woken up after a night full of bizarre nightmares.
I thoroughly enjoyed Avatar, but it suffers from a pretty huge flaw.
In it, James Cameron lampshades the MacGuffin which basically means that the bad guys are bad for no reason other than, well, it’s fun to be a bad guy. Gratuitious evil is silly. And that made the movie flawed for me.
Otherwise, there was an amazing economy of storytelling. The movie was three hours long, but apart from the aforementioned lampshaded MacGuffin, no detail was wasted. And it’s a movie I’d enjoy watching again, just to notice what I missed the first time around.
And plus, when I watched it, it was subtitled in Japanese. Which meant that in the scenes with Na’vi-language dialogue, the subtitles were in Japanese only, which meant I had to read them very quickly to figure out what those people were talking about.
I’m amused that whenever I’ve mentioned the movie Inglourious Basterds to a woman thus far, the association with the movie that she’s drawn was not World War II, or Quentin Tarantino. Every time I’ve mentioned it, the woman recognized the movie by the presence of Brad Pitt in it.
Never mind that this was quite possibly his least-sexy role ever (especially with the hilariously-ridiculous hillbilly accent). Women just seem to like Brad Pitt.
I swear, after roaring along a deserted expressway at well over twice the speed limit*, my bike was purring contentedly at the traffic light at the end of it. It just seemed somehow very pleased with itself.
I'm sure that my bike is at least part cat.
*Speed limits here are ridiculously low. On the bit of expressway I was on, the speed limit was 60km/h. It later lowered to 40km/h, which meant that I was going at three times the speed limit at the time.
It is possible to talk down to a two-year-old. That’s when kids are starting to be aware of such things as “language” and other such things, and thus baby-talk is below them.
Also, they know this, and will treat all attempts at baby-talk with the contempt they deserve (if you’re lucky, they’ll ignore it).
And, best of all, they will be able to spot the adult who doesn’t talk down to them, and will reward them with extra attention. I used to think I was crappy with children just because I have no idea how to do the silly baby-talk thing. It turns out that even two-year-olds like being talked to as if they were a fellow adult.
I just received a note from a solicitor in England, informing me of some startling news. I am the beneficiary of a fortune!
My rich old uncle died back in 2004, and in the wake of his passing, his will has been meticulously disbursed. The note I received in my mailbox today explained the extent of my part in his will.
Seems he willed me the sum of an astounding one hundred pounds.
So, should I have them donate this amazing sum to UNICEF or Amnesty International?
No, not me.
Yesterday, someone crashed their little Honda Fusion scooter into, as far as I can tell, a truck. The bike came out of it badly, and the rider worse: he was carted off to hospital in the back of an ambulance.
As for the bike, every bit of fairing on it was broken, some bits worse than others. After generally cleaning up, the police put the bike on the side of the road, where passers-by can see the damage (and hopefully drive more carefully).
Today the bike was still there, the owner most likely not being in the best shape to come and rescue it. Only today, there was a parking ticket on it.
This woman sure has preconceptions.
Fortunately all those tons of responses she got proved them to be inaccurate. Hey, how about that, not all men are bastards.