Sunday, November 29, 2009

its just been one of those days

Its been the kinda day where, if you saw it on TV you'd say "that sorta thing never happens in real life". its been weird.

for starters, my dad decided to bleed the radiators in the house today. its generally a good idea to do it at least once a year and let all the excess air out of the pipes. the radiator in my room is hard to get to, and when i popped open the valve, i dropped the valve key under the bed (sometimes known as the "forbidden zone"...even i fear to go under there!). this meant we couldnt shut the valve and soon enough water started to spurt out of the pipes. we managed to find the key, but only after we had turned half my room upside down. Irony of ironies...my parents are always complaining at me to clean my room, and today they left it in the worst state its been in for a long time. ^^: go figure.

shortly after that my mum called me downstairs, cuz she spotted a big bird in the garden. Whilst we do get a wide variety of birds of prey in england, we rarely get one roosting in our back garden! we ended up scrambling around for cameras and telescopes to get a good look at it. we eventually identified it as a Sparrowhawk. a very beautiful bird. ^^ its gone now, but it was sitting there in our apple tree for quite a while!

after lunch my brother was going to be picked up by some of his friends to go out for the afternoon. they got here ok, but as one of them tried to do a U-turn on our road to pull up outside our house, they got hit by another car that was being impatient. my brothers friend got whiplash, which is bad enough, but we're also not entirely certain that her car is going to be repairable. not easily anyway. compared to the idiot who hit her, whose BMW barely had a scratch on it. hopefull that'll all get sorted out though.

After that i went to Kung Fu Staff class, which i just returned from. we werent in our usual training hall, and ended up in the Judo hall. Fun, becuase it has a squishy floor and we can do stuff with the crash pads. not so fun because we cant go all out with our sticks, in case we damage the floor. not bad overall though.

so yeah. between these events and the crazy weather (sunny one second, pissing down with rain the next) its been one weird and hectic day.

yesterday i started work at my new store in Orpington. i can already sense that its going to be very boring, but i needed the work, and my boss was kind enough to hire me for christmas, so i guess i'll do my best! the commute isnt too bad, and the people who work there seem to be ok. we'll see how it goes. as it stands, i dont have to be there again till next saturday, so i got another week with which to do stuff.

i've almost finished my VF-25 model, except the WINGS BROKE. AAUUUGHH! they were so freakin fragile, it was rediculous. im gonna haveta glue em back on, but its gonna mess up the transformation sequence. stupid transforming model kits! arrgh!



i hope everyones thanksgivings were good! mine was great. i wrote on MyO (see below), went up to London, bought Gurren Lagann manga vol 3 (art is amazing!) and Dengenki Hobby Magazine, which came with a Gundam 00 conversion kit...its additional weapons that i can mount on any of my second season Gundam 00 1/144 scale models. ^^

then i went to see Mamoru Oshii's "Sky Crawlers" movie. It was actually a packed theatre, i didnt expect to see so many people there!
The film was great, very typical Oshii. Its about a squadron of fighter pilots who are children, and they fight in this war that is actually a huge game that is used instead of actual conflict. The movie touches on themes of war and humanity, but also touches on identity and meaning in a persons life. The visuals were amazing, with the planes (alternate-world war two style) being rendered in CG, but they had a real weight to them, and moved very realistically. The characters were typical Oshii too, with the main female character having these creepy doll-like eyes. and Oshii's trademark Basset Hound was present too. XD
The screenplay was sorta slow paced, with long pauses and lingering screen shots on things that seemed to have no relevance. but at the same time, when the action did heat up, the "camera" work was superb.
The music was great, done by Kenji Kawaii, but not too heavy on the acapella female choir that Kawaii is notorious for.
Some would probably argue that the film is too obscure, that alot of it makes no sense, or isnt explained fully. This, again, is very typical Oshii, who is quoted to have said that films "shouldn't be understood, but vaguely felt". whilst not always the best way to tell a story, it worked here, and i really "felt" this film.
the funniest part of it was that as the end credits rolled, most people got up and left, with disappointed remarks being overheard. some of us, however, stayed until the end of the credits, and were treated to a sort of Epilogue, which kinda gave closure to the whole story. As the lights came up, one guy turned to another and said "and thats why you should always wait until the end of the credits"

i couldnt agree more.

"Sky Crawlers" is a movie for anyone who enjoyed the original Ghost in the Shell movies, for people who like their movies to be very artistic. and if i could describe Sky Crawlers with just one word, it would be "Art". Not just visually, but in the sense that everyone is going to interpret it in different ways. You may love it, you may hate it, you may be indifferent to it. But it will make you feel something.
If you want your movies to have a definitive ending, or need a no-brainer movie that spoonfeeds you everything, give this a miss. If you want a movie thats gonna stretch your mind and challenge you to dig deeper into the storyline, "Sky Crawlers" is a must-see. i loved it.


so yeah. a very good "thanksgiving"!

till next time! ciao!

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