Monday Monday. But I seem to have possibly solved an Illustrator problem I was having on Friday, and there is the promise of cake later in the day to make life more bareable.

From the minute I got home Friday to the moment I left this morning I was busy with the kid-in-laws who were visiting with their mom. It was fun, we had some good playing, but I am certainly not feeling well rested.

Watched Ponyo and Beauty & the Beast. Boy the Studio Ghibli looks classy beside the crass badly animated 90s stuff.

How was your weekend? What's on tap in the week ahead?

My weekend was pretty darn good! Spent some time lounging in a park doing some trip planning with Nina, then we went and saw the New Pornographers perform for free in Stanley Park! It was a good show, I was a little disappointed that Dan Bejar wasn't with them, and the lack of an encore (due to Neko Case not wanting to go back out after a beer can was lobbed on stage) was a bit of a bummer, but understandable. They did close out to 'Bleeding Heart Show' which is a great and fitting song to close out to.

Then on Sunday after a bit of a sleep in we went to a family picnic up at Cultus Lake! It was a little cool and the water was a little choppy for water skiing, but great for tubing and cruising about the lake. But I'm beat now, and in dire need of a nap!

Too much to do, but not much motivation to do it!

I keep trying to get my kids to watch Ponyo again, but they haven't gone for it. Though they do quote it and mention it from time to time.

I am pleasantly surprised at the impression My Neighbour Totoro made on my various nieces and nephews. The 4 year old who was visiting on the weekend has apparently watched it so many times his 7 year old sister is pretty much done with it.

My brother's daughter developed an imaginary friend named May after watching it.

Also another nephew watched Kiki's delivery service and now draws himself and his brother on brooms in all his drawings.

Beauty and the Beast is much better written than Ponyo though. But yeah, B&B isn't the nicest looking Disney film. Partly because they were experimenting with early computer animation.

Friday: Jess and I went out for Malaysian and then saw Bridesmaids - which I mostly liked. It gets too broad in places.

Saturday: Had friends over for board games. Was meant to be board games then a movie, but they just wanted to keep board gaming all night. We played from 1ish - 10, with a dinner break. Pretty good innings. (Played Merkator, Alhambra, Caylus Magna Carta and Colosseum).

Sunday: Jess had the girls over for a crafternoon, so I went and saw Kung Fu Panda 2 with a friend. So boring and pointless and disappointing. Then we watched Paul, which I had avoided because I was convinced it would be terrible, but we actually quite enjoyed it. And then we finished with John Carpenter's The Ward. Which was an amazingly bad movie. Like, boring and dumb, and not fun at all, but then with the lamest, most played-out twist. For his first movie in 10 years it could not have been more terrible. I can only assume he hasn't watched a movie himself in the last 20 years, or he'd have known not to do what he did. Blech.

I guess I found that the writing in Beauty and the Beast felt a little spoon fed after Ponyo. With a ten minute discussion and a song to make sure every plot point is completely clear. It was more the character design and animation of everyone outside the Beast's castle that I found offputting. Like Gaston was so stiff, and his sidekick felt like he was lifted from some other era but without the animation quality to make him work.


When I went through my John Carpenter watching a few years back, I had that experience watching Ghosts of Mars. Like you're left with your mouth hanging open asking at how utterly awful it is. How could the same guy make this movie?

coincidentally, my bro is doing a John Carpenter marathon himself (in preparation for a double-feature of his or something like that at an awesome theatre in LA).

Normally Myazaki (can't be bothered spell checking that) films are well written - Ponyo was all plot holes and nonsense.

And yeah, we just watched Ghosts of Mars too. Awful - but not on the level of The Ward. YEESH.

JCM, If The Ward is one of the features, you should warn your brother outta there. :P