So after the fire starter music video was all wrapped up, we headed over to Mike's place for a birthday celebration. He made delicious bean dip, which I ate a lot of. I brought a photographic recording device with me as well as some flash bulbs. We turned Mikes lifting chamber into a studio! There were even signs made and hung above the portico.
To see the insanity follow the link : flickr photos
On Saturday Kat and I went to see people who do medieval type cosplay with swords and whips, while they are on FIRE! The girls were cool, guys...well not so much. Actually no one was cool, but it doesn't matter. They are playing with fire, and that always wins in my book. Also it was less of a festival and more of a "light things on fire and dance to Godsmack in the middle of a fountain gathering". Maybe I don't really know what it was, but I was entertained and I got a couple good pictures from it.
The rest of the photos are here : flickr pictures
Darren took me to a really cool record shop this weekend in Wallingford. My favorite so far is Be-Bop Deluxe Futurama. Minnie Riperton melts my face off with her voice, and the RAM album by McCartney is great.
Directed by Isao Takahata. The movie is an adaptation of an autobiographical novel by the same name. The novel was written as an apology to the authors sister who died from malnutrition during WWII. Grave of the Fireflies is hauntingly real, you forget it is animation after a few minutes in. The movie is set in Kobe Japan towards the end of WWII, when American B-29 bombers sent down incendiary bombs that killed over 8,000 people. A brother and sister are left without parents to fend for themselves, and it is a devastating story about the casualties of war.
For me this is the best anti-war film ever made. Simply because the film focuses completely on these 2 kids, there are no politics involved, no one mentions the U.S., the kids don't care about competing ideologies, they just need food.
While I love films like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and Kiki's delivery service, they all fall short of exploiting the real power animation has to offer. Grave of the Fireflies should be on everyones list. You only need to see it once, it has the power all good movies do of haunting you long after you see it.
