Spirited Away

I went out to the Filmhouse cinema this afternoon and saw Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It tells the story of ten year old Chihiro who finds herself trapped in a magical fantasy world when her parents are changed into pigs. It's a brilliant film and one of the classics of animation. It was the highest grossing film in Japan when it was released, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

 

This evening I went to the Book Festival and saw Ben Aaronovitch, who has written comics, urban fantasy novels and scripts for Doctor Who (he wrote the "Remembrance of the Daleks" which I would say is one of the best older Doctor Who stories). It was basically an hour long Question and Answer session, and Aaronovitch gave some really good writing advice and was very funny. After the show I bought his book Rivers of London and got it signed.

 

Kate Tempest

Last night I saw the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, which chronicles a year of Studio Ghibli while Hayao Miyazaki worked on The Wind Rises and his "friendly rival" Isao Takahata worked on The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. It's sometimes funny, sometimes funny and a fascinating take on animation and the creative process, as well as an account of the making of two masterpieces.

I went out today and bought a book called Funny Stories for Five Year Olds for my nephew's birthday present and a card.

Later on I went to the Edinburgh Book Festival to see poet, playwright, rapper and novelist Kate Tempest talk about her new novel The Bricks That Built the Houses. It was really a great show, completely sold out. She read poetry and spoke about the healing power of art. She would get extremely animated while speaking and reading, and visibly tired herself out at times. 

After the show I bought her book and got it signed:

Turning Point

It was another quiet evening last night. I watched an episode of the fourth season ofGame of Thrones. I'm way behind on that show, because I don't have the network that broadcasts it and so I collect it when it come out on Blu-ray. I read a bit more of End of Watch and played some Uncharted 4 on my PlayStation 4.

It was a really busy day at work, and kind of sucked. There were a couple of meetings, one that took over an hour, about all kinds of changes that they are bringing out, that in addition to the regular work. I didn't have a time for a break today at all. I was listening to a lot of Mary Chapin Carpenter to cheer myself up. I also listened to The Comicsbound Podcast which is a pretty new podcast about all aspects of comics. It's fun, and pretty interesting. 

Back home I saw that the book Turning Point: 1997-2008 by Hayao Miyazaki arrived in the mail. I listened to Bizarre States, which this week was about Pokemon Go, a giant telescope being built in China, and the story of the song Gloomy Sunday, the so-called "Hungarian Suicide Song". I am currently listening to this week's episode of Ron's Amazing Stories, which is a podcast that bills itself as "Stories to Take You Away From Today", which presents vintage stories and radio plays often on a weekly theme. This week's theme is the Bermuda Triangle. 

I'm Back!

Remember me?  I can't believe that it has been so long since I wrote in here, but I have decided to come back

Last night I was watching the 1997 movie Perfect Blue, an animated Japanese psychological thriller horror movie. It's about Mima, the squeaky-clean lead singer of an all-girl pop group. Mima decides to leave the group to become a serious actress. Her controversial first role is in a gritty, explicit crime drama. Mima soon finds herself plagued by threatening phone calls and postcards, and even finds a website containing a blog, purportedly written by her, that is disturbingly accurate about her day to day movements. She begins having hallucinations about her pop idol persona, and finds the plot of the drama bleeding into her real day to day life. Then people connected with her new career begin to turn up brutally murdered. It's a very good, and pretty disturbing anime.

It was a pretty long day at work. I listened to Chilling Tales: The Podcast which was having an episode called "The Summer of Love-Craft", broadcasting the first part of a reading of The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft. It was pretty good. 

I stopped off at the Mash Tun bar on my way home and had a quick drink. I also ordered the book Turning Point: 1997-2008 by Hayao Miyazaki, a collection of essays, articles and interviews by and with Miyazaki about his life and career, this covers his work from Princess Mononoke to Ponyo.