My Aunt is a Zombie, from Hell.

Lately I've been really into watching old Aardman Studio animations. It started when I found you could watch the old "Wallace and Gromit" shorts streaming on Netflix. From there I looked up a lot of the old ones I remembered having on VHS as a kid. This one, "Not Without my Handbag" (1993), is a spooky one to get you in the mood for Halloween.

I think what I liked so much about it as a kid was the laissez-faire attitude this short had towards really spooky things. Demons, death, hell, and walking corpses were all sort of treated like no big deal. I also really liked (and still like) the surreal animation style.







This short has a real Monty Python sensibility to it, like jokes the news reader slips in there and the archetypal pepper-pot figure in poor auntie. It gets even more similar at the climax, when the devil totally goes the way of Mr. Creosote.

Caturday XXIV

I embedded the original video below - but I enjoy this version, courtesy of the Benny Hillifier much more! I don't like that they call the kitten stupid and retarded. >:(

No no no no no no no no no no no

I couldn't help but enjoy the "viral video" season opening of The Office. I particularly like Ryan at :51 - "This is how you make it in this country." lol



I also like Creeds guitar solo at 1:10 a lot. Creed Bratton is a really weird guy. He was in a 70's industry built folk band called "The Grass Roots."


I read about it in Rolling Stone. Once the band fell apart, he spent like 25 years living hand to mouth. The Office really changed his life. It granted him financial security and fame years after he'd given up hope of having either.

Brunhilda, Respect your father!

Last weekend, Paul and I watched "Ponyo" (2008), a really amazing kids movie from Hayao Miyazaki. He's a rather famous japanese director/animator. who made the oscar-winning "Spirited Away"(2001).

Ponyo is the story of a magical fish who wants to become human. Her father is an evil magician, her mother is some kind of giant sea-goddess.

We both really enjoyed it a lot. This will be the second children's anime that we've thought was awesome, which kinda confirms that we're a mere step away from wearing cat ears and stuff. Wanna make something of it?

I think that what makes this movie so satisfying is that it doesn't dumb anything down. or sugar coat things. There's a relaxed realism to the setting, the family dynamics, and the reality of dangerous situations. However, the great magical realism the story uses makes things light, fantastical and interesting.



The only thing inexplicable about this otherwise beautiful movie is the discordant "Ponyo Theme Song", by Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas.



These lyrics make no sense. "Munch and Munch, Kiss and Hug?"

The nepotism twins also voiced the main characters, Ponyo and Sosuke. Check this out:



(As Noah Cyrus) Really?

Also, Tina Fey does a really good job voicing the mom character. It's a beautiful movie with a really interesting story. My favorite part was when Ponyo reacts to ham.

Also Also, Betty White does a voice in this movie. If you're not sick of her yet!

Scoundrels!

Methinks the neighborhood chipmunks have been taking liberties with my pumpkin! Cads!
This has never happened to me before...I guess I just picked a particularly delicious looking pumpkin, because Paul's is untouched.

South Hadley's got some houligan rodent gangs!

Year 2!

Paul and I celebrate our second wedding anniversary today! It's hard to believe another year has come and gone. Keeping this blog though has really helped me keep track of the things we've experienced and accomplished over the last year though. A moderately successful garden, many good books read, 3 new jobs, and lots of fun adventures. I am very much looking forward to spending more years like this one with my husband, who I love.

I figured since I posted about Monty Python sharing our anniversary last year, this year I'd do something similar too.

Aside from being the birthday of our nuptials, October 5th is also the birthday of Louis Lumiere, one of the early pioneers of cinema (also, probably this guys namesake).


Louis and his brother Auguste patented the perforations on film that make it's advancement through camera and projector possible. They were also among the first to popularize seeing movies as a public social activity, when they started doing public screenings of their films in 1895. Most of their short films were very very short, usually not longer than 1 minute long.

From 1896:



Aside from making revolutionary moving pictures, women around the world can blame, um, I mean thank Louis and his brother for the invention of forceps!

Ouch, thanks a lot guys.

Stuck in my head now: