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Randal: Which did you like better? "Jedi" or "The Empire Strikes Back?"
Dante: "Empire."
Randal: Blasphemy.
Dante: "Empire" had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader is his father, uh, Han gets frozen, taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings. All "Jedi" had was a bunch of Muppets.


I loved Clerks. I recently saw a 20 second anime video to this sound-bite and I've been thinking about making it into an icon. I know there was a funny Buffy icon made to this last year. I'm thinking about using the anime series used in the short vid for the icon, but the problem is that one would then be very spoilery for someone on my friends list who is waiting to watch a particular series. So I think I'll hold off on using it for a while.

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So while answering a constituent letter from the Senator's office where I intern regarding Senate Bill 1503 (which would deny a person without lawful immigration status but having lived in teh state several years eligibility for exemption from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University; my Senator voted against it), I looked up the website of the bill's author, Senator Tom McClintock. It took me a few minutes, but it finally clicked that this is the same Tom McClintock that was one of the candidates for the recall election for California's governor. Apparently he also ran for State Controller (signs the checks) at one time and lost that too. Uber-conservative. Randomly, I clicked a link on his site and came across this speech.

Comments in italics are my own.

Why the Pledge of Allegiance Matters
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Kiki's Delivery Service

I made vanilla pudding tonight. It was lumpy. I prefer my pudding to be a homogenous, even mixture, when given the option. Like mashed potatoes. But otherwise it was sweet and warm and tasted like real vanilla pudding.

I also watched Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) this evening. One of the few directed by Hayao Miyazaki that I still hadn't seen. I have to say, that's the most adorable movie I've watched since... since the last time I watched a Hayao Miyazaki film. They just don't get more adorable or clever than Hayao Miyazaki movies.

Wow. Kirsten Dundst is the voice. What'd'ya know. I didn't recognize her.

I think of all of his I've seen so far, I'd place this fourth on my Miyazaki favorites list-- I liked it better than My Neighbor Totoro or Laputa: Castle in the Sky, but not as well as Princess Mononoke, Castle of Cagliostro, or Spirited Away. The only animated film that I've seen that I would say sits at the same level as Spirited Away as far as ability to move me emotionally, wow me visually, and convey a message I actually agree with is that rarely-seen, utterly charming and also utterly heartbreaking little film called The Iron Giant. You know, with the spacey kid and the Mulder-on-Acid!-FBI-agent. That was one of the few animated family films that ever made me come close to crying.

But back to Kiki's. As usual, lots of flying. ( Read more... )

Sometimes I wish we could see these films on television here. Why don't we have ABC or CBS or Fox throw out next year's sure-to-be-lame thanksgiving holiday TV movie and show one of these instead? It's likely to be more interesting and more educationally valuable. Although this is certainly less emotionally arresting, less violent, and less dramatic than Mononoke or Spirited Away, it's themes are nonetheless universal and intelligently and subtly conveyed. I highly reccomend it.