Disfarmer

When I come across something like this, it often feels as if everyone else already knows about such things and I'm just behind the times. I just found out about Mike Disfarmer from a recent issue of The New Yorker.

In case you missed that issue, the guy was kind of a flake. Raised in the rural southern town of Heber Springs, Arkansas, he claimed to have been desposited by a tornado and raised by an adoptive family. To distance himself from his rural origins, he changed his last name from Meier ("dairy farmer" in German) to Disfarmer ("dis-farmer").

Flake or no, he was an amazing portraitist. Some of his images can be seen (or copies bought) at www.disfarmer.com. Many more are available for viewing on flickr.com, like this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photomartimages/sets/72157604293857762/

Castle In the Sky

I feel as if there's not much to say about this film. Anyone who enjoys animation probably already knows about Hayao Miyazaki and all the things that make his stuff wonderful:

- unpredictable storylines in fantastical settings

- traditional (i.e., hand-drawn) animation, with computers used only rarely

- magnificent artwork

and that, until recently (due to age), he drew many of the frames and usually checked every single frame himself (over 100,000 for a single film). And people who aren't familiar with Miyazaki are not likely to appreciate his stuff until after they've seen a couple.

If you haven't seen his stuff before, this is a good one to start with; also, Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro. He won a richly-deserved Oscar for the stellar Spirited Away, but some might find it less accessible than the others.

One other item: we just got this one from the library, and it was wonderful, but it's from 1986 (not released in the US until much more recently). I confused it with his more recent Howl's Moving Castle, which we haven't seen yet.

Citizen Welles

One day I was in the mood for a biography so I picked this one up at random at the Public Library. Turned out to be more interesting and educational than I expected.

And I guess that's partly because Orson Welles turned out to be more interesting than I expected. I've been a fan of Citizen Kane since forever, and of course I knew of the War of the Worlds radio show, but didn't really know much about the guy beyond that. Didn't know anything, for example, about his stage career, which was actually where he got started and began to build a name for himself before the Mercury Theatre radio shows.

The book is very much about Welles as a person, rather than being about The Movie Star or The Radio Star, and gives an interesting look into his personality and his approach to his work. (One of the biggest personal upsets of his professional life, for example, came when he was playing on a Broadway stage and someone from the back of the audience called out, "Louder!" Ever the confident perfectionist, Welles was mortified.)

The easy access of the Internet makes reading a book like this all the more fun. It's easy to find downloadable .mp3 files of many of the radio shows, and there's even some footage of the "Voodoo Macbeth" on YouTube.

Overall, a fun and worthwhile read, even if you're not a Welles fan.

The Sea of Trolls

Young adult fiction. If you enjoy reading about Saxons & Northmen in 793 - and runes, trolls, beserkers, druids, bards, skalds, and frost giants, then you will love this book. I thought it a lot of fun and I've already started the 2nd book of the series, The Land of the Silver Apples.

There's a lot of action, a lot of fantasy and I found it well-written.

Doubt

Wow wow wow! Theresa and I went to see this last night at the Bagdad, neither of us knowing much about it. I was just blown away by the quality of the writing and the acting. Meryl Streep especially was just incredible, and I already have very high standards for her. Philip Seymour Hoffman impressed me as well. This is the first role I have seen him in that wasn't just a big schlubby jerk, so it was nice to see that he has a little range.


The only complaint I have about the movie was that it ended a little abruptly for me. Some of that I'm sure is that I was enjoying it so much I didn't want it to be over. Really good stuff.

The Longest Trip Home

Okay - you can't click to look inside from here. You'll have to go to amazon to do that.

This is a memoir covering his entire life - growing up Catholic in the midwest, going off to college & jobs, getting married with a family of his own, and then returning home again when his dad gets sick. It was funny and sad and all very believable.

Give it a try!

Twilight

Well, I did it. I finished the entire book of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. Boy, she sure must have had a good laugh while writing it and while taking all her profits to the bank. Here's a summary of the first 390 pages:

His perfect face. His lips. His eyes. Too beautiful to be real. I have no control. He is a vampire but I am in love with him.

The last 100 pages did have a little action. I can see how the book might attract pre-teens. But don't waste your time....