Stardust!

I found this pamphlet the other day and it reminds me of a story I don't think I'd ever recounted before. Let me take you back to March 11, 2011, does this date ring a bell for anyone? For those living in Japan, it rang a lot of bells. That was the date of the mega-earthquake (and the accompanying tsunami and Nuclear mishaps, but those events aren't relevant to this tale, in fact I was ignorant of their occurrence.)

First a bit of background: I was teaching at a Day Care Centre at the time of the quake (14:46) and the kiddies I was "educating" were a bit of a rowdy bunch. I was writing something on the board and when I turned around, all the kids had disappeared (the scamps!) and I discovered them all hiding under the table. Then I discovered the reason for their burrowing, when the entire room began to rumble and shake back and forth. Those wee lads and lasses were way ahead of me in protecting themselves, must be that since they are closer to the ground, they felt the shock wave sooner. After ten minutes of wailing waifs, a co-worker and I decided to evacuate them to the ground floor.

Everyone was all right and since my evening class was definitely cancelled, I began my trek home. Fortunately, by a happy coincidence, I was just a stone's throw from home and returned in just fifteen minutes. Doubly fortunate, my apartment sustained minimal damage though dozens of my toys had fallen down including a Gamera that plummeted into my toilet.  ( You can read about that here.) It wasn't all smiles though for I had run out of kerosene that morning and had no way to heat my place. Also I didn't have any candles. Until I remembered my supply of Halloween candles. Is there anything that can't be made better by Halloween?

So I settled down, tucked under my blankets and began to read my book by candlelight. Every time I had to use the loo, I had to blow out my candles and use a flashlight because every half hour or so, there was an aftershock that shook my abode. The only other interruptions I suffered were the blaring of sirens several times an hour. I read Neil Gaiman's Stardust from beginning to end and loved every page of it.

Sorry for this little segue into my life, I just thought it was pertinent to the following pamphlet.

 

An amazing cast.

Behind the scenes.

In the middle of the pamphlet is an insert that included several photos from the film.

Since you can find a copy of the movie yourself, here is Neil Gaiman being typically charming while promoting the movie in Tokyo.

Here's today's Eko Eko Azarak postcard.

And since I got so long-winded above, I don't have time to enlighten you more about the chant. What I can do is freak you out with a snippet of the movie...

Whoa. I hope to watch the whole thing this weekend. Since we have a typhoon coming, I'll have plenty of time to do so.

Today's snack-related tidbit follows. Buy two sweets, get a free badge. Not a bad deal. Though 7/8 of the badges were pretty lame, this one isn't.

More spookiness tomorrow. In the interim be sure to click the Cryptkeeper badge to investigate other creepy bloggers. I'll give you a sneak preview, if you check out Deadpan Flook.