"Walk Like A Man"

The gout is officially gone, and not a day too soon, if you ask me. I can walk normally, if a bit stiffly, 'cause there's always some stiffness in the joints and such after the gout goes away. But that's a tolerable situation compared to not being able to walk, let me tell you.

Went and saw Miyazaki's latest Howl's Moving Castle, with Ev and Natalie last night. A great flick, though as Ev pointed out, the last few minutes are wee bit trite and syrupy (Miyazaki has a weakness for that sort of sappy happy ending, though, and we decided we could forgive him since the other 115 minutes of the film were spectacular), but it was nonetheless a great movie. Excellent voicework (featuring the likes of Lauren Bachall and Billy Crystal, who did much better as the fire demon Calcifer than I thought he would), beautiful animation (the scenes out in the so-called "Wastes" are breathtakingly beautiful), and an interesting story. Worth seeing, if you can find it anywhere near you (we had to go up to north Oklahoma City to find the one theatre in the area that was playing it).

More thoughts on Serenity--still think it was a phenomenal flick. You can tell it was a cathartic film for the cast and crew, a way to deal with the show they loved being cancelled (it works the same for the fans, let me tell you). It ties up most of the important plot points and loose ends (though we still don't know what Shepherd Book's true background is, and his presence in the film was virtually as a secondary character), and we essentially get to say 'goodbye' to Firefly. Though one really has to wonder, since folks in the cast and crew have hinted that this might be the first of three flicks (though I've no idea where they could go from here, unless it's dealing with the Blue Corp. and the guys with the blue hands or maybe finding out what the Shepherd's past was).

The movie was basically an expanded version of one of the episodes--moments of levity, moments of darkness and drama, excellent special effects, great characterization and character development, more of River being nutty (though this time around we get to see more of the "shooting around a corner blind and picking off the bad guys and saying 'no power in the 'verse can stop me' River"...only it's no so much shooting as it's River beating the rutten hell out damn-near everyone--folks in a bar, the crew, Reavers...). It'll make an excellent addition to the Firefly 'verse, I can tell you that.

More to come later, including a couple of album reviews I've got stewing and a meditation on the end of childhood.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The Eagles, "Desperado"