Howl

Last night I saw Howl's Moving Castle. Today I have the song "I Should Be Allowed To Think" by They Might Be Giants going through my head. This tells you something about how my brain works. (Bonus points if you can trace the references.)

I recommend this movie. It was lush, exciting, and emotional, with warm and believable characters and gorgeous, gorgeous animation. I haven't read the source book, but we went with a friend (WINOLJ) who is a huge Diana Wynne Jones fan, and it sounds like Miyazaki changed it almost completely (for example, the book has none of the movie's steam-powered automobiles or flying machines, and the scarecrow in the movie is friendly and helpful instead of being terrifying as in the book).

But if you like Miyazaki you'll love this movie. It's even more visually sophisticated than Princess Mononoke, but there's much less ooze and violence, and the plot makes more sense. Mind you, the plot is still rather tenuous and indistinct, at times incomprehensible, but that's Miyazaki for you.

I'd like to see it again with subtitles. Most of the voices in this dub are fine (I particularly liked Billy Crystal as the fire demon, others disagreed) but I didn't care for the voice of Howl and I bet the original Japanese voice suited the character-as-drawn better.

JayCon

Just back from jaylake's annual birthday bash at Old Town Pizza, along with deedop, chef_chopper, specficrider, djonn, coreolis, and many other keen people.

One of the activities at the party was the cutting out and coloring of Jay Lake Paper Dolls, including the one below which was made by kateyule (which I have placed behind an lj-cut for the protection of the viewer's sanity).

( Don't say you weren't warned )

While walking back to the car I saw something that made me wonder: why is it that when a bar says in the window "Lounge - Dining - Entertainment" you know it's probably a skanky bar, while if it says something like "Joe's Skanky Bar" it's probably quite nice inside?