I bought an advance ticket toInto the Woods weeks ago and it was finally released here on White Day last week. I went with my friend Yvonne (aka. Batgirl) and gave her this lump of brown goo as a White Day present.
If you look at it at another angle, it turns out to be an iguana, which is kind of cool.
When I purchased the ticket, I received a mini calendar but I have little use for a pocket sized one, so I also gave it to her.
I liked Little Red a lot. Great voice, coy yet nasty, nice acting chops. I expect great things from her in the future.
Rapunzel was cute, yet I hope she didn't suffer from dandruff. I'd call shenanigans on her hair loss and instant regrowth, but hey, it is a fairy tale.
I had NO idea that the Prince was Captain Chris Kirk Pine. Cinderella has a great voice. Furthermore, I was not disappointed in the hobbling that her step-sisters suffered.
Depp as the Wolf. Suitably sleazy and unless it was dubbed, has a fairly good set of lungs on him.
Usually I find kid-actors to be annoying yet Jack was really good. His mom was terrific but when isn't Tracey Ullman terrific?
Once again Streep pisses me off by proving that she can do anything and play any character. (Jealous much?)
If you look at this photo closely you can see that I'm wearing the green.
That's because it was St. Paddy's and afterwards I went out for a pint or three of Guinness. Yum. Happenny Bridge was crawling with dignitaries from the recent WCDRR, who had wrapped up their Disaster Risk Reduction Conference earlier that day. Thus I had to sit way at the back and only got a blurry photo of the entertainment.
Still, I met some old friends, made a few new ones and had a great day overall.
I was just ready to retire last night when I came across a movie that was just starting on my Nippon Channel. I knew nothing about it and a few minutes into it, I saw a kaiju on the screen so I decided to lay back and indulge. It's a dopey comedy called 地球防衛未亡人 (Japanese Wiki here) or Chikyu Bouei Miboujin which loosely translates as Earth Defense Widow.
The director is Minoru Kawasaki who may be Japan's answer to Ed Wood, considering his imdb.
It stars MItsu Danas Amano Dan, a former geisha dancer who marries one of her customers. He dies in a Kaiju attack and she then joins up with the Earth Defense Force to fight it. The snag is that she undergoes erotic (yet SFW) flashbacks when in close proximity of the monster and this diminishes her capacity to engage in battle.
She is aided by colleague Aikawa Wako (Miku Oono) who spends most of the movie behind a computer screen.
Minister Tamaoka is played by Ultraman veteran,Koji Moritsugu and he has one good gag in the movie. In the heat of tension when no one knows what to do, Tamaoka stands up dramatically. Everyone looks at him expecting words of wisdom and he announces "Toire" (I have to go to the bathroom.)
The only other Daikaiju movie connection is the role of the Prime Minister played by Hide Fukumoto who also played PM Shinto Abe in ギララの逆襲 Girara no gyakushu also by the same director.
The President of the United States is played by comedian Nocchi who badly lipread perfect English dialogue. The running gag is that every time he was on screen, they'd fade back and he was always in the company of one or two hookers.
Now for the title monster, ベムラス or Bemarasu. I tried to photograph him from my TV but wasn't entirely successful.
He got a tummy ache from eating too much toxic waste and was easier to capture.
I scammed a few better resolution pics from the net.
I was beginning to nod off near the climactic battle whereupon they called upon an Ultra-clone to defeat the creature. Best gag of the movie (SPOILER),
as the credits are rolling, the UltraDude is human sized, though still dressed up in his uniform, and is seen walking towards the Tokyo Unemployment office.
This is not the best movie I've ever seen, nor is it the worst. Check it out...if you dare!
On this Fourth Anniversary of the 3/11 triumvirate disaster (Quake, Tsunami and Nuclear Mishap), we're all reminded of the fallen and their families. It doesn't help that today's snowy weather is mimicking that day. I had a chance to recount some of my experiences and, truth to tell, mine are all pretty cheery. (For a recap, click here for the beginning of that tale.)
Today at work, I had a very cheery day with my Grade Ones teaching them about Body Parts. First they ran a relay and drew some figures on the board. The first kid draws a head, the second draws eyes, the third draws a nose, and so on. Here is the result of one of the classes.
Throw in a few songs and have them trace their hands into original creations, and it results in some quite happy campers.
Try and guess which were drawn by the girls and which by the boys. It was nice to see some smiling faces today.
While everyone out there is remembering the tragedy, I choose to recall the strength that I saw among my friends and neighbours. Please keep smiling!
I'm looking forward to the latest episode of The Walking Dead tonight and I wonder if any of these characters (courtesy of Funko) will make a reappearance.
I seem to recall Michonne beheading her Walker companions so I doubt whether this guy will show up.
This charcoaled guy could reoccur, it'd be hard to tell otherwise.
I'm not entirely certain who this cutie is, could be Carol's daughter from Season 1. Wait, she got skewered by Andrea.
Even though Doctor Doom has died and been resurrected a few times, the chances of him showing up are very slim.
The Governor has shown up in a dream sequence, so he could easily haunt someone else's nightmare.
Grampa Simpson may act as though he's a zombie, but he isn't one just yet. So he's out.
Carl will definitely join us tonight and for the first time in 5 seasons, I'm actually beginning to like the kid!
Well, the episode has just begun, I guess I'll just have to wait and see...
March Third is the day of Hina Matsuri or the Doll Festival and I'm going to hijack the day on behalf of my fellow Canadians who have been "Spocking" their fivers in honour of Leonard Nimoy. Fortunately, the Bank of Canada has considered his behaviour to be legal so go on out and Spock your bills!
I found a fiver in my drawer so I'll take a crack at it tomorrow. I'll show the results if I don't embarrass myself too much.
In actual Doll Festival news, we received some sweet mini-Senbei bits at lunch yesterday. Pretty yummy.
Today, I made an impromptu Doll Festival lesson for my Special Ed kids and we made paper dolls. My meager effort is below.
Finally, I was happy to find some Evangelion/Hello Kitty mashup dolls in the conbini today. Even better, they were slashed from 771 yen to only 200, therefore I got all three!
I challenge others to showcase their Spocked fivers. Good luck!
Surprisingly, I only have this mini-bust of Spock in my vast nerdy collection.
I do have dozens of Star Trek spaceships, but only the above bust.
I can't eloquently express my feelings therefore I'll let others do it for me. So what I've done is gone around the Tholian Web and found lots of others' tributes.
Starting with Leonard Nimoy's final tweet:
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory." LLAP
