Sunday 25 May 2014

Animated Discussions: Wrinkles

Ha! Have acquired a DVD of Wrinkles - a Spanish animation feature about... Old Folks... and....Alzheimer's.
Great. At least it's good to know I shall be truly catered for with relevant subject matter....
Once again it is an animation based upon a graphic novel. This time by Spanish comic artist Paco Roca.

I'll leave you with the trailer for the film.

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Dreaming Up Stuff And Digging Up Stuff

Sorry to be so slow in posting. I have just laid around and stared at the Miyazaki skies we is having, it's true.

Dreaming up? We-e-ell.... can't forget an image from the other day...down at the petrol station. The Old Man do drive in to get his paper. I notice we do pass a parked car with an Alsatian dog sitting in the driving seat... upright, eyes ahead, full of dignity. The Old Man do park up and goes in to the shop. A moment later the dog-car passes and pauses to pull out of the forecourt. A man now sits in the driving seat (of course) and the Alsatian sits in the passenger seat by his side.... side by side... same height....both of them... upright, eyes ahead, full of dignity.
Image just won't go away.

Mrs D has become similarly obsessed and appears to be constructing a cardboard "pick-up truck" for the dog and bike-girl to sit in... in similar manner.
Heigh-ho. The artistic mind is a mind capped by a bonnet containing a bee.

Digging up? Mmm. My first new potatoes.

Friday 16 May 2014

Thinking Miyazaki Skies: Three

OK.
For this one be aware that there is a lark singing. And behind you is the sea.... with a group of martins (house or sand... not sure..) flying over the cliffs....


Tuesday 13 May 2014

Thinking Miyazaki Skies

And why was I thinking of Miyazaki animations yesterday?
Because of those skies and windswept landscapes which sometimes...
....we do get here a little bit.

Monday 12 May 2014

Hayao Miyazaki Tribute Video Clip From Madman Entertainment

Because Miyazaki's  "last" animation is out now - "The Wind Rises" -  I have to share this tribute from Madman Entertainment, Australia.
Me? I still love "My Neighbor Tortoro" and "Spirited Away" most.


Tuesday 6 May 2014

Re-Reading A Favourite Book: A Question of Upbringing

A month or so ago I posted about re-reading Peter Hoeg's Borderliners for a group's "education" reading theme.

But I also took the opportunity to re-read the first novel in Anthony Powell's 20th century literary cycle Dance To the Music of Time  whose twelve, browning, 1970s paperbacks sit on my shelf. I loved them when I first read them. But would I still? Well here goes. If I had often wondered about picking them up again, this seemed as good a reason as any. The first novel in the cycle - A Question of Upbringing - could fit the "education" theme quite well.

In a drastically different world from Hoeg's story of institutional power and abuse, Powell paints a portrait of a time and place where the possible seeds of influence are sown by the connections formed in a privileged educational establishment.

 Set in early 1920s England, the book establishes some of the "Dance" cycle's central characters - notably its narrator Nicholas Jenkins and the persistent-in-more-ways-than-one Kenneth Widmerpool, a perpetual outsider destined for greater things. They meet at public school (probably modeled on Eton) where, unlike in Hoeg's world of abused children, it seems that in this educational institution an unpopular teacher is as likely to be pilloried as any pupil. Ultimately each young man moves on, either to study at Oxbridge or into business, the law, or the City. Their paths occasionally recross until Jenkins realises that some have diverged so far from his own and into completely other circles that the immediate bonds of friendship seem broken.

In some ways Powell also offers that continuous assessment of class and status during that time that we English are so famously obsessed with. (Are we really the only ones?) The title - "A Question of Upbringing" - may say it all.

...And did I still enjoy reading Powell? Oh yes. It required a step down from "adrenaline thriller mode"... and a recognition of an earlier style of writing... but I still love that elegant understatement and wit that is Anthony Powell at his best.

Thursday 1 May 2014

Where Is The Second Me?

What be all this talk of the "new" me? All them shots of new bodies and hands and things? So where am I?
I have got over the shock of being re-booted but where be I?
Answer is that Mrs D is sitting on her fundamental and staring into space again... She claims  there be a problem with the "hands"... and she do have to do a re-think.
She'd better get a move on before my head falls off again.