Welcome to Netflix

Thanks to my good friend, Sarah Dollar, I now have a free month of Netflix. So, I thought I would share what I'm watching. First, I watched "Neverwhere," which is a six part TV series written by Neil Gaiman. The show was okay, the book is much, much better. Anyways, "Neverwhere" is set in London Below, which is a realm where magic holds sway and wonder and danger lurk around every corner. Definitely read the book though, because it is filled with Gaiman's touches of wry humor and horrifying imagination; film cannot capture the terror of Croup and Vandemar that the mind creates.

Next, I watched "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and was blown away by Johnny Depp's performance. This was Depp as I'd never seen him before: gawky, strung-out, muttering his lines around the perpetual presence of a filtered cigarette, and moving about like a paranoid monkey. The movie itself was an education on the various types of drugs and their effects on the human mind and body: hilarious and very sad. In the midst of the crazed drug binge is a poignant eulogy for the brief and hopeful era of 1965 in which the youth of America rebelled and indulged in the movement of free love, psychedelic music, drugs, and a belief that they could change the world. Johnny Depp's character, Raoul Duke, talks about San Francisco in 1965 with longing and regret because it did not last or solve any problems. It is 1971, and all that is left is the drugs and the fading memories.

On a somewhat lighter note, I watched the pilot for "Firefly." It wasn't a bag of giggles, but I really enjoyed it. The future never looked so futuristic or so backwards.

Speaking of the future, tonight's movie of choice was "Blade Runner," set in LA in 2019. Dystopia reigns and Harrison Ford is looking good. The film is described as literate science fiction and neo noir, and that's exactly right. I guess that in the future all the genres will continue on, complete with the cigarettes, the rain, dark shadows, beautiful dames (even when they're not human), trench coats, guns, and grim narrators who tell it like it is. All hail, Ridley Scott. I guess my favorite part is the futuristic LA: dark and rainy, you have to wonder what happened to the climate that brought about such a drastic change.

Well, that's all folks. By the by, I am reading and doing a bit of work. What I'm reading is Nocturnes by John Connolly and The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton.

Two by Two

Tonight marks my second night in a row of drawing pages. After Easter I decided that I would have to draw at least two pages a day to meet my deadline for my SIP (Senior Integration Project). Obviously, that's not going to happen because life is unpredictable. Take yesterday for instance. I was going to do all of my homework and go to Art Criticism, but then Courbet went into labor and everything else stopped. (By the way, she had four lovely kittens: Alan Rickman, Kat Von D, Coraline/Morpheus, and Anton/Svetlana.) Right now I am working on my first page and I have three panels complete and five more to go. Fun times.

Now, for the sharing of the day. I finished Diana Wynne Jones's Eight Days of Luke today. I liked it, though it's not my favorite. My favorite Jones book might be Fire and Hemlock or House of Many Ways or Howl's Moving Castle. Speaking of, one of my favorite movies is Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle--beautiful, funny, moving, plus Christian Bale is one of the voices. :D Anyways. That's all for today. FYI: I'm listening to "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters--I forgot how much I like this song.

The Good Prince

I firmly believe that there are no coincidences. Take today for example. Today is Good Friday, a day that commemorates Jesus's death and sacrifice. Good Friday looks towards Easter, the resurrection, the Gospel truth that we can be freed from death and sin. It's a beautiful story, a true story.
Most people know about Jesus, but you might not have heard of Ambrose, also know as Flycatcher or the Frog Prince. Now, this may be an English major thing, but when I read I am constantly on the lookout for archetypes, and it is no surprise that the fairy tales or fables that surround us are full of archetypes. One famous archetype that gets brought up a lot in my Covenant literature classes is the Christ figure. Well, in my opinion, Ambrose the King of Haven (in the graphic novel Fables: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham) is a Christ Figure. He is pure, in body and heart, and he forms his peaceful kingdom on this purity. Ambrose's kingdom is in the heart of the evil Adversary's territory, but Ambrose is determined to wage a bloodless war against the Adversary--and he succeeds. So, this pure king sets out with his message of love and forgiveness and faces evil head on. Sound like someone? But it gets better. Ambrose goes forward, surrenders himself to death in order to preserve his kingdom. He does not die, but he is willing to, and in the end, salvation begins to work its way into the Adversary's lands as more people hear the good news about Ambrose's kingdom (Haven) and set out to join him.
Sounds like a Christ figure to me. I don't know if Willingham wrote the story with any intention of such a parallel, but there you go. Even if you're not a Christian, The Good Prince is still a good read (as is the rest of the Fables series) and Mark Buckingham continues in his excellence as an illustrator.
Good Friday and The Good Prince equals a Good Day.