Category Archives: Fantasy

FMQ Looks Soooo Easy!

Weather in the Tries:
Got up to 107, again, yesterday. Today it’s only gonna be 100, then the temps will drop to 86 on Thursday and up to 93 by next Monday. IF the prediction holds true. That’s always iffy. Depends on how big the competition between the butterflies of Seoul and Hong Kong. I understand their teams have some of the most ferocious wing beaters going. Beijing’s aren’t too bad, either, but they lost the competition this year to Hong Kon and Seoul. Keep your rain gear handy. Yep, I’ll see your Olympics in France and raise you two teams of Pacific Rim Butterflies!

FMQ Looks Soooo Easy!
Boy Howdy, I watch the Quilting Nerd show , I sit straight, make my hands follow hers to learn the motions, then go into my machine, it looks so farking easy, I work at it, then have to quit because I understand the salt of my tears will damage my machine. Besides, it’s too farking hot.

By the way, if you have a quilt you’d like professionally quilted, you might want to check her out. Her studio is here. She does both long arm, and domestic quilting.

Anyhow, I did figure out how to get my presser foot raised a wee bit last Monday, so didn’t have to take it to the sewing machine doctor (unfortunately, they aren’t covered on my health insurance). So I was/am able to practice. When it cools down somewhat. 

The “What, Me Complain?” desert dog is still sleeping on the floor most of the night. He’s not complaining, but he says it’s warm enough. But our afternoon nap/snuggle on the bed, he’s right next to me, stretched out and snuggled to my thigh. Although, today, he did evenutally move away a couple inches. 

Photos of the Past:

Egret across the slough where I used to live on the Columbia River

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Osprey nest out in the Columbia river, just about the middle if I’m remembering correctly.

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Cormorant on the shore of the Columbia. Like the Anhinga’s in Florida, they have no oil in their skin to help them stay afloat. After a few dives, they have to come out and sit in the sun (if they can) but hold their wings out to air dry.

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from the desk of the hot dog;
Sammy says he’ll write when he’s a few degrees cooler as my lap is just too hot to stay put.

TV Series of the Week:
Netflix, Korean 16 episodes, My Demon. Lots of eye candy, and a fun story. And God is wonderful. She just damn near stole the show! A fun RomCom.5 stars! Excellent subtitles. Of course, if you’re fluent in Korean (Hangul?) you don’t need the subtitles 😉 The Asian Wiki has some info about the story and cast, here.

Music of the Week:
Jesse Cook-rumba-flamenco music think I’m gonna have to save my pennies and buy a couple of his cds. Especially before I leave on my road trip!

Quote of the Week compliments of Holidappy.com:

“The trouble with quotes about death is
that 99.9% of them are made by
people who are still alive.”
~Joshua Burns

Kiki’s Delivery Service

DVD, Studio Ghibli (Japan)
Anime
July 29, 1989
Fantasy
English Subtitles
103m

Rating: 5 out of 5.

No English dubbing on this one, and the menu showed subtitles as undetermined. They were in excellent English. Yes, I do prefer the original language and subtitles. 
   I had seen this one before, and it’s great fun. A young witch leaves her home at age 13 to go somewhere else for a year to study her specialty. Kiki and her cat, Jiji who she can understand, leave her family and friends. She wants to go to a seaside town, to see the ocean. After being blown off course, they arrive at a city on a hillside overlooking the sea. 
   She is having a hard time in the city, having never been in one. She nearly causes accidents, and finally ends up outside a bakery on the hillside. A woman with a baby in a pram leaves the bakery and the owner’s wife come out trying to stop her, she’d left the baby’s pacifier. Kiki takes it, flies to the woman, returns the pacifier, thereby quieting the baby, and starting her new job.
   She goes to work for the bakery, delivering baked goods, and works for anyone else who comes to her with something to be delivered, until she realizes she can no longer understand Jiji, who would rather be with the white cat a couple houses away. And then she can no longer fly her broom, which breaks. She becomes depressed. A friend is hanging onto a rope attached to a blimp that broke away from its moorings. She must fly. She must save her friend. 
   Oh, come on, this is a kid’s show, you know it’s gonna have a happy ever after ending. That’s why I bought the collection. You know if you have young people in your household, it’s safe for them to watch anything from Studio Ghibli, and better if you join them.

Kiki’s Delivery Service trailer

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

DVD, Studio Ghibli (Japan)
Anime
2 August 1986
Fantasy
English dubbing, excellent
124m

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The movie opens in an airship, similar but not quite, like a blimp. There is a young girl, Sheeta, unhappy, and an evil man in the same room. She looks out and sees pirates coming for the air ship. She knocks out the man, reaches in his pocket for a necklace, puts it on, and escapes out the window. 

The pirates want her. The government wants her. Or, rather, they want the necklace she’s wearing as it holds magical powers, of which she is not yet aware. Rescued by a young boy, they take off on the run trying to evade the government men, the pirates, and anyone else who wants her crystal necklace. Laputa is an old country that ‘floats’ above the earth, in the eye of a great storm, unable to be seen from Earth. 

People want to find Laputa, steal its riches, especially the technology so they can rule earth. Some know Sheeta is descended from Laputa’s royalty, they want her and her crystal. And will stop at nothing to have them both.No one does these movies like Studio Ghibli. Inspired by the book, Gulliver’s Travels by Dr. Jonathan Swift.

“The Earth speaks to all of us, and if we listen, we can understand,”—Uncle Pom

Laputa: Castle in the Sky Trailer

Tales From Earthsea

DVD, Studio Ghibli
Animation, loosely based on the books by Ursula Le Guin
Fantasy
English dubbing, very good
115m

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Studio Ghibli animated and produced my all-time favorite movies, but this one fell a little flat for me. It could be I had a choice of watching it in Japanese or English, there were no subtitles. I’m a subtitle geek, I love hearing the story in its original language and reading the subtitles. I know. I’m strange.

The story is loosely, very loosely, based on the Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin. I remember reading them when they first came out many years ago. I barely remember them, but this story didn’t fit my memory at all. Some judicial internet searches, and voila! I know why.

One of the nice things about Studio Ghibli movies, they can be enjoyed by any age group.  The English dubbing is by top notch actors—Timothy Dalton, Matt Levin, Mariska Hargitay, Cheech Marin, Willem Dafoe, and others. Watch the movie, see if you can recognize the voices.

Arren, the runaway prince, comes back to the castle and kills his father, the king, stealing his magicked sword, and runs away again. Sparrowhawk, the Arch Mage, rescues Arren from various horrible things, including a slaver. Arren rescues a girl who is not grateful, and when Sparrowhawk takes him to visit an old friend, there is the girl. Eventually, the evil wizard gets the old friend, Sparrowhawk, and Arren under his control, and the girl takes Arren’s sword to him in the castle of Cob, where she learns his true name, and tells him hers. 

It’s a fairy tale, it’s meant for kids as well as adults. You know it’s going to have my kind of ending, relax and enjoy the story. 

Tales From Earthsea Trailer

Slumberland

Netflix, 2022 PG
1h 57m

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Nemo and her dad live in a lighthouse. Mom is no longer living, and Dad goes out to rescue someone and is lost at sea. Uncle Philip, a staid, single man with no sense of adventure, becomes her guardian. Nemo discovers that if she dreams, she can find her dad again. While dreaming, she meets the outlaw, Flip, and the two of them search for, and find, a secret treasure map, and the magic pearl to grant their hearts desire. Flip wants to know who he really is so he can wake up, Nemo wants to see her dad. 

This is a kid’s movie, so you know how it’s going to end. And you know there will be all sorts of adventures and dreams before that end. My friend and I thought it was a nice change of pace, we laughed, I cried, we totally enjoyed it. It was not at all difficult to get totally immersed in the movie.

Trailer for Slumberland