Picked up Spirited Away on DVD today- except for all the Disney advertisements (which wouldn't be so bad if you weren't forced to sit through them before the menu) it is a great DVD, zero poos out of five. I haven't watched any of the extra features yet, but to be honest I hardly ever get around to watching that stuff anyways. I love Hayao Miyazaki's stuff, the strong female characters, the lack of clearly definable evil, the unusual creatures that populate his stories, not to mention the stunning animation Studio Ghibli consistently puts out. The only thing is, if I were Chihiro I think I would have just stayed at the bathhouse, especially since her parents didn't seem to be all that nice to her. And of course, as with any movie, it could have used a grizzly bear or two to liven things up. Anyways, I won't say much more more about that, so as not to ruin anything for you, just go watch it as soon as you get a chance. And if you haven't seen Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, you should see them too.
Now if only the Oilers had Spirited Away another win tonight. My room-mate Mike went to the game, and he called before the opening face-off- it was soooo loud, but the final score was 3-1 for the pooStars. I hate those pooStars.
Oh yeah I finished The Virgin Suicides too. It was alright. I doubt I'll ever reread it though. I liked the stylistic choice of a first person plural narrator- I don't know if I've ever seen that before. I think I'll rent the movie to see how they treated it, the book was written as a report, and didn't have a conventional plot or storyline. Anybody else out there ever read it? What did you think?
Now I'm reading The Arctic Grail, by Pierre Berton. For those of you who don't know, Pierre Berton is a chronicler of Candian history, and there are none better. He is one of my very favorite writers, having written Klondike, among others. Alex gave me this book, with the inscription "Here's a book to inspire you to make it to Nunavut. One more territory to go." It's a book about the quest for the North West Passage. I'm getting pretty inspired. But Nunavut may have to wait. Or heck, maybe I'll go there tomorrow.