Ghibli Museum

English language map for the Ghibli museum.

On Saturday, I went to the Ghibli museum with a Japanese friend. While it was nice to have a personal translator, it certainly wasn’t a necessity: most of the exhibits were self-explanatory, and the short movie we saw in the museum’s theatre contained no speaking (in either Japanese or English). I particularly enjoyed the “history of animation” exhibit.

I certainly haven’t seen all of Miyazaki‘s movies, although I’ve enjoyed the ones that I have seen (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle). However, I don’t think that seeing any of Miyazaki’s movies is a prerequisite for enjoying the museum. If you’re interested in film, animation, or well-presented museum exhibits, then you’ll probably enjoy the Ghibli museum. I would, however, recommend buying tickets well in advance (you can’t actually buy tickets at the museum), and, if you don’t speak Japanese, in a country other than Japan.

The Beales of Grey Gardens

I’ve watched this pair of documentaries in the wrong order – Grey Gardens was released way before The Beales of Grey Gardens, and I still haven’t watched Grey Gardens (but have requested it from the library).

The women featured in this documentary are fantastically eccentric – in every clichéd way (they are cat women) and then some. It’s hard to watch this without laughing out loud.

Michael Clayton

Kendra recommended Michael Clayton to me some time ago (ie. when it was still showing in theaters), but it took me until this week to check it out of the library (to be fair, I requested it some time ago). My timing was impressive: Just last week there was an article in The New Yorker about Tony Gilroy, who wrote and directed the movie. The article refers to Michael Clayton several times, and talks extensively about Gilroy’s use of the reversal. From The New Yorker article:

Gilroy told me, “A reversal is just anything that’s a surprise. It’s a way of keeping the audience interested.” A camera follows a man as he goes up the stairs to an apartment; we see his wedding ring as he pulls out his keys. He pushes open the door, slowly—a husband coming home, trudging up the stairs with his briefcase. But a woman in black lingerie greets him: he’s seeing his mistress! That is a reversal.

It was fun to watch out for and identify reversals, as well as other points discussed in the article, and it gave me an appreciation for the structure of the movie that I wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Beyond the co-incidence of watching a film so soon after reading an article about it, Michael Clayton is an excellent film. The DVD case describes it as a thriller, but it’s so much more than that. It reminded me a little of The Firm, albeit faster paced, and much more subtle. There’s remarkably little violence or use of special effects, no inclusion of a forced love interest (which is a bit of a relief, really) and the plot twists and turns (all those reversals!) so well that you’re constantly engaged.

Where the Wild Things Are

So very excited about this movie!

The Real World is Scary

I had a “real world” (ie. not in academia) job interview last week, and can report back that the real world is scary. I think the interview itself went OK – my first of this kind, so it was a learning experience, if nothing else – but they kept asking questions about things I just don’t normally think about: my career path, my mobility, health care plans, 401(k) plans. By the end of the day, I was happy to collapse in a restaurant, enjoy dinner with a friend, and catch at movie.

The movie we watched was Happy-Go-Lucky, which I have to admit to feeling a little ambivalent about. It’s a British movie (this isn’t why I feel ambivalent about it, though), and not a great deal happens in it. And, at least if you’re me, the lead character grates on you in the beginning, although she does grow on you as the movie progresses. Perhaps this is the point? In any case, I felt much better about the movie at the end than I did in the middle of it.

I finally have got around to down loading photos from my camera that I took while I was in Adelaide (at the end of August). I really only had half a day or so to explore, before the conference started, but I actually really liked what I saw (and I really had very low expectations before I got there). I spent my half day walking along the River Torrens and through the botanic gardens, both of which were very pleasant. On my last day, I had a bit of time between my conference ending and needing to be at the airport, so I explored the central market, which is truly amazing – lots of delicious food.

Palm House at Adelaide Botanic Garden

More interesting (to me) stuff, in bullet points:

• Recipe for Concord Grape Pie from Naples, NY, where I spent a year on high school exchange. I’ve been to the Naples Grape Festival. (I think I even played in a marching band at the Naples Grape Festival).
• reCAPTCHA (Stop spam, read books). Someone in my lab reviewed an article on reCAPTCHA for journal club a while back. It’s a pretty cool use of technology, and now that I know about it, I see it everywhere. Basically, they use “not robot” tests (ie. where you have to enter in letters or a word to convince the internet that you’re a person) to improve the digitization of old texts.
• What is the what: The best book I’ve read recently. It’s a compelling story (it follows the life of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan), but it’s also incredibly well written – I couldn’t put it down (I gave an entire weekend to this book!).
• Knit One, Save One: For people wanting to knit for a cause.
• bills food: Has an excellent recipe for baked risotto – you’ll never stir a risotto for hours over a stove again.
• Biodegradable compost bags: I thought I’d come up with an original idea – sadly someone else thought of it long before me! So much for patenting it and becoming rich.