I recently read a book about writing. They discussed how various books accomplished different things. So at the top of each chapter, they had a list of books that had spoilers coming up. I've never seen that in a book. I thought it was cool.
And we have another belated entry about my Europe travels! Continued from London.
November 14 2023
I arrived at the train station over a half an hour before my train left. I checked the departures board. My train was listed, but it didn’t say a platform. So I waited a little longer. Still no platform. Finally I went to ask at the ticket window. They told me where to go, sounding a little worried as they did so. I didn’t understand why until I arrived at the train line. They informed me that for this international train, you have to arrive at least half an hour early to go through a passport check. The gate was already closed. Nowhere in my reservation did it say anything about that. Nor did the departures gate even list the platform when I checked it over half an hour early! The guy made a big deal of saying he’d try to fit me on some other train later today. Maybe hours later. And the train change came with a 50 euro fee. What a scam! To not even tell their customers that they have to get here an hour early, and only let them ride later for a 50 euro fee. Disgusting. I was so pissed, and anxious because I didn’t know what the hell was happening. The guy said that I was lucky because he found a spot on the 10:30 train. Again, he made a big fuss about it. Lucky my ass. There’s nothing lucky about this scam. And there were tons of empty seats on the 10:30 train anyway.
After dealing with the international travel stuff, we were on our way. The screen on the train said we were traveling at 225 km/hr (about 140 mph). It was fast, though not quite as fast as the Japanese bullet train which can go over 200 mph. With the Japanese Shinkansen, you went through tunnels so fast that the pressure slammed into your ears. Here when you went through tunnels, you felt the pressure slower, and not as strong.
As we left England, the announcements were in English first, and French after. Then our train dove beneath the ground. At first I thought it was another tunnel. But this was the passage under the English Channel. I want to know how they built this thing. The dark tunnel stretched on and on, until finally we emerged under the sky once more. They gave an announcement saying we were now in France. And from here, they gave the announcements in French first, English after. I was called “madame” now too, instead of “lovey.”
I remained paranoid, wondering if any other passport or customs check would create more weird snags. But we arrived in Paris and I disembarked. I found a subway station. Well, in the US they’re subway stations. In London, they’re the underground. Here, they’re the metro. Once again, I have to figure out a new public transit system. Unlike in England, you can’t just scan in and out with your credit card. I managed to figure out the machine, and followed the signs. It’s not labeled as clearly as it was in London, and I wasn’t sure which side to go to. I tentatively asked someone if this was going to my stop. They just shrugged.
On this particular line, there are lights for each stop. I spotted the name of my stop, and it wasn’t lit up yet. I figured that must mean it would light up when we got there. I hauled my luggage on. We got two stops down, and I realized I was travelling the wrong direction. The lights go OFF when you arrive at the station. I quickly got off and went up and over to the other side. I climbed on again, hoping I was right this time. The doors between cars were open, so you could see down the length of the train as it curved around corners. It was kinda surreal. At least this time, I landed at the right station.
I waffled around a bit as I tried to figure which direction to go. Once I know which way I’m facing, I don’t have trouble with a map. It’s just knowing which way to start that confuses me. That’s why I love it when they have maps that are angled in the right direction – like in London. Eventually I figured it out and walked a few blocks to my hotel. I checked in and rested for a few minutes before heading out again. I'd lost an hour due to the train fiasco, but there was still plenty of light.
Mom came to Paris without me years ago (I was pissed XD ). Now it’s finally my turn. Just a few days before I left, Mom suddenly decided to give me several suggestions of places to visit. I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have since I already had plans, but I wrote down her ideas. One of them was a street that had some cool shops – Rue Mouffetard. That’s where she got the cheese. She showed us pictures from her trip, including this cheese that looked like a cantaloupe. It was round, orange inside, and had a rind looked like the rind of the melon. I wanted to try it.
I thought I had the map in my head. But the thing about Paris is that the streets go off in all these slants and spidery shapes. Rue Mouffetard was in one of these spidery areas. I turned a little too hard to the left. I walked along, not noticing anything interesting about the street. But eventually it was clear that I was in the wrong place. I pulled out my map and found that I’d been going up the wrong road, which had been steadily slanting up and away from my intended route. It would have been smart to check the map sooner, but I’m kinda paranoid doing even that. Maps are big and awkward and make it obvious that I’m not a local. Better not to look like any kind of target. Even if I do end up walking circles… (though apparently foreigners are easy to spot anyway). It occurs to me I’ve had problems getting somewhere almost every day.
Rue Mouffetard is one of the oldest streets in the city, and has been here since Roman times. But most of the shops were closed. I suppose they have “siesta” here like they did in Italy - where everything closes in the middle of the day. I walked around, checking menus and hoping to find good French food. But it was mostly Italian, burgers, or sushi. What French food I did find was cheese plates and stuff. I did get a boba, though it tasted like it was made with vanilla milk or something. Unusual flavor, though not bad. I probably sounded like an idiot when I followed the boba sign and asked the shopkeeper, "do you speak any English?” all pathetic-like.
I saw a sign for the Pantheon. I checked my map and found that it was only a couple blocks away. I’d walked a lot farther than I realized. I still had some time, so I went to check it out. It was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, which I also went to (the Rome one was cooler, but this was neat too). The inside of the Paris Parthenon was a lot more modern than I expected. A giant pendulum tracks the motion of the earth. Over the speakers, a sort of strange, eerie chanting began to play, echoing through the great open space.
I followed a sign for the crypt. To my surprise, I found myself facing the tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau. Further on were Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo. Authors of Three Musketeers and Les Miserables, respectively. There were scientists too, such as Marie Curie. A bookshelf offered their works for you to read. I’m not sure if any were in English though.
To my delight, the Eiffel Tower was visible from the front doors of the cathedral. The first rose-and-lavender light of dusk was starting to color the sky behind it.
Back down Rue Mouffetard. It was a pretty street, but the few shops that were open didn't look that fascinating. As I neared the end, I spotted a stall with tables full of cheese. There was the cheese! I asked if it needed to be kept cold, but he said it was fine. I bought a wedge of mimolette cheese (and I now know that you can actually buy it near here too - I've seen it in some shops). The cheese was good, but not as much as I had hoped.
November 15 2023
In my haste to prepare for this trip, I didn’t do a very good job packing clothes. I have three pairs of pants and three pairs of socks. All of my clothes were still damp from getting washed yesterday. So I put on damp pants. It was uncomfortable, but they would dry soon. I wasn’t about to put on damp socks. I had to open the Book of Kells pair I bought for Dad. He won’t mind. He’ll probably think it’s funny.
I checked at the front desk to make sure of the metro line I needed to take. The guy was a little too cautious going over directions with me. I would have been fine on my own, it turns out. But it was nice of him to make sure I knew what I was doing.
I had a ticket this morning for the Louvre! To my surprise, the train let out in the bottom of a mall. I was bewildered about my surroundings, and asked someone where to go. He pointed around the corner, and there was the great glass pyramid reaching down from the ceiling. I can thank The Da Vinci Code for teaching me about it.
When it opened, we filed into the Louvre. The museum is so large that you’d need to come for several days to see everything. It looks like some areas are closed on certain days of the week, and some things get closed for restoration (Napoleon’s rooms were closed today, for example).
As seems the case for many museums in Europe, the building itself is historical. It was built in the 1200’s as a royal residence, then turned into a museum during the 1793 French Revolution.
I figured I should see the Mona Lisa first, before the room got too crowded. Though the real reason I came here was to see the Winged Victory statue. It's my favorite work of art (that I know of). A gorgeous larger-than-life statue of an angel. Her arms and head are missing, and she’s stepping forward with regal confidence. I first heard about it in college. I even have a metal Winged Victory, a couple feet tall, which I got from a family friend. It stands looking out over the living room. Mom saw this statue when she came to France. I was jealous.
I figured that once I’d seen the Mona Lisa, I would seek out the Winged Victory. It was easy to find the Mona Lisa. Not only were there signs, but everyone else was going there too. As we headed down a long hall and up the stairs, I froze. There she was.
She was bigger than I expected, standing on top of a huge pedestal with her fluffy wings stretched behind her. No one else was around. The other visitors had already vanished up the stairs toward the Mona Lisa. I studied the details of her wings and flowing dress. The fabric looks so real. One of the wings has supports in the back, to stabilize a break. But the head and arms remain lost.
I looked online to find some images of what the complete statue might have looked like. But none of them have that same power that the real statue does. All of them made me grimace, in fact.
I hung out with her for a while, then went to visit the other madame. I always heard the Mona Lisa was tiny, so I guess I was expecting it to be really small. But it wasn’t that tiny. The room was already pretty packed, considering how early it still was. I sat at the back of the pack and steadily eased my way forward. You can’t get too close, so you can only guess at the details. But I took photos with my good zoom. The model for the Mona Lisa is a mystery. But there’s an account that she was a merchant’s wife, named Lisa Gherardini. Another story says that Da Vinci had jesters and musicians perform for her, to keep her relaxed during the painting (and thus with a nice look on her face). The painting was actually stolen in 1911. I wonder if anyone has made a movie of that.
I decided that today’s museum project would be to walk around this floor. That ended up being way more massive than I expected. And it’s not just the walls to look at. The ceilings often have massive paintings across them. There are even carvings on walls and ceilings.
There was so much art that I ended up stopping only if something looked interesting (which more often than not ended up being artwork of animals-big surprise).
John Green made a Youtube video of all of the paintings in the Louvre that feature very scary looking babies. I have now witnessed some of them myself. “This artist has never seen a baby,” John would say.
To my surprise, I had looped back to the Winged Victory. The room was now packed. I’m glad I got to spend time there while it was empty. But I still lingered, taking even more photos.
The crown jewel room was amazing.
There were rows of old pottery and Etruscan artifacts. Around the other side of this floor there were belongings of Marie Antoinette, and other royals.
And much like the British Museum, many of the works here were stolen. I’m looking at you, Napoleon. Other pieces of work were accepted if someone was paying off a debt.
There was a nice Egypt collection.
In the shop, they had a full size replica of one of the wings of the Nike (Winged Victory). There were also stuffed animals and childrens books of the little blue Egyptian hippo. It’s a popular little hippo!
I left the museum and crossed the river to one of the islands. In the middle was a place Mom told me about: Sainte Chapelle (pronounced “san-shapelle”). I got in line to buy a ticket. My timing was impeccable, because they closed up the lines just after I got in
Inside was beautiful. The ceiling between the arches was blue and painted with rows of fleur de lis.
There was an upstairs too. When I emerged from the spiral staircase, I was amazed to find myself surrounded by floor-to-ceiling stained glass. When the ceiling is about 50 feet high, the effect is stunning. This ceiling was also bedecked with fleur de lis.
Onward, to Notre Dame. It’s closed after the disastrous fire in 2019. But I wanted to see what I could. Cranes rose high above, and scaffolding lined some of the walls.
People watching this burn must have been in tears. I almost was just looking at the photos.
In the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo introduces Esmerelda to the bells. I always assumed that he had named the bells out of loneliness. But it turns out that each bell actually does have a name.
The spire was damaged during the French Revolution. The book of The Hunchback of Notre Dame book encouraged its restoration.
A few years ago, Notre Dame was having some work done. A mistake in the restoration lead to the fire. Now the spire has burnt again, and collapsed into the cathedral. It was a work of archaeology to remove the burnt and collapsed debris from the inside. They had to mark where the fallen stones had been, so they could be returned. Beams and rock that hadn’t been touched for 800 years were suddenly exposed, or fallen to the floor.
The scaffolding from that original restoration project remained a big problem for months. 200 tons of it stood on top of Notre Dame, melted into an unstable, tangled mess. They couldn’t address it for months, as they worked to stabilize the parts that were still standing. Otherwise the whole thing could fall in and damage Notre Dame even more.
During the fire, 200 tons of lead from the roof melted, or was vaporized into the air.
But incredibly, many of the stained glass windows remained intact.
After five years, Notre Dame was finally restored!
November 16 2023
It was a rainy day. That may have worked in my favor, since some people probably cancelled their plans. I wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower, but I hadn't been able to get a ticket ahead of time. It was supposed to open at 9:30. But 9:30 came and went. The line behind us piled up farther and farther, but no staff member came out to explain anything. People were getting pissed. Someone checked on their phone, and saw that the opening was delayed, though it didn’t say by how much. A few people left. But I waited, and finally at about 10:00, they let us in. They didn’t say why they had been so late.
I was prepared to take the stairs to the top if I had to, though it sounds like that half-kills you. Especially considering the stairs seem to be outside, on a rainy windy day like this. So I was lucky to get a ticket all the way to the top.
I went all the way up, and found myself standing in the clouds, surrounded by a cage. The wind was fierce, and whipped the rain around. I couldn’t see very far because of the weather, but it was fascinating to look out over the cloudy city. When I went back inside, my face was so cold that my nose and ears were numb.
There was the scene with the figures of Eiffel and Edison inside. Apparently Eiffel used this little room as an office. What a view! He had the tower built for the 1889 World’s Fair, and as a commemoration of the French Revolution 100 years before. It’s 324 meters tall, and weights over 10,000 tons. Despite what it may seem, the Eiffel Tower was not universally beloved at first. There was a whole movement protesting its existence. People said that the tower would be the “shame of Paris,” and that it looked like a “black gigantic factory chimney.”
Originally the tower was only meant to last 20 years. Eiffel did would he could to make sure it would stay. Its height above Paris made it a great place for meteorology. It spent time as a telegraph station and radio station. And today the top of the tower is covered in a number of dishes and other devices for radio and television.
I rode the elevator down to the second floor and grabbed a pretzel and hot chocolate. There were only about ten chairs in the whole area. I couldn’t balance my stuff and eat, so I went to sit on the floor. Hot chocolate sloshed over my hand and umbrella. I set the drink on the ground, and pulled out a napkin. My pretzel bumped the cup and sent the whole contents across the floor.
Great.
I tried to tell the lady in the gift shop, but she didn’t seem to have any idea what I was talking about. She kept smiling and saying it was fine. Finally I gave up, saying “well, it’s a mess, so someone should clean it up.” Meanwhile, people were dodging the puddle of chocolate and warning others not to step in it. But others stepped in it anyway.
I headed back down and stumbled across the House of Culture of Japan in Paris. There was a shop in the bottom floor. I had to go in there. In the shop, they had a table of Ghibli stuff. Score!
My next stop was Saint Sulpice (pronounced San Sulpeese)– a cathedral that shows up in The Da Vinci Code (I've seen that movie many times with my parents). The original rose line runs through, marked by a line across the cathedral floor. The line meets an obelisk, which is situated so that the sun falls across it on the solstices. This Meridian Line was drawn in 1743 to help create a consistent system of time.
From there, I walked a few blocks to the Cluny Museum. I went straight to the unicorn tapestries.
Appropriate considering I’m still editing Starsung. I spent a long time in there. My favorite was "sight."
Much of the origin of the tapestries is unknown, but they were woven around the year 1500. Apparently there used to be more, but the owner of the property cut them up as carpets and such. Ouch.
The tapestries appear in the Harry Potter movies. You see them the first time Harry steps into the Gryffindor common room, and you see parts of them in the other common room scenes. At least in the first movie. I haven't checked the others, but I’d guess they're only through the first two movies, since the style totally changes after that.
Finally I moved on, exploring the rest of the museum.
Part of the crystal exhibit showed movie posters from films that featured crystals. Such as:
With the blight of AI spreading into every aspect of life, I can't help but look back at all the warnings there have been about it. Just look at all the scifi stories!
I mean, there are some that show AI in a good light. The movie Short Circuit is about a robot that gains compassion. I love that movie. Wild Robot did something similar. And while we're talking about robots, I've gotta give a shoutout to Baymax, my favorite robot. He is a very helpful robot (until his programming is violated).
But I'm here to talk about the AI warnings. I'll kinda use "AI" interchangeably with "robots," because robots are popular.
There was even a movie called A.I. Though that was a different sort of warning. If you manage to create a real form or artificial life, you had better treat it right.
On a similar vein, there are a few Doctor Who episodes with artificial beings called gangers. They were treated as disposable, until they made it know that they aren't garbage (there are probably other AI examples in Doctor Who, but I can't remember all the episodes XD ).
Then there's I, Robot. Specifically the movie, because the Isaac Asimov book is completely different. In this movie, a robot decides that humanity is incapable of taking care of itself, so robots have to take over. Other Isaac Asimov books did something similar. Like a robot damaging Earth in a way that made it largely uninhabitable. Because somehow that was better for the rest of the galaxy?
What about when bad orders are given to AI? If you play Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, you'll encounter an AI character. They don't want to fight you, but they have been programmed to do so, in order to defend an area.
Also in Wall-E. You've got good robots. But then there's the robot that's been programmed to do its job, and heaven help anyone that decides differently.
Continuing with Pokémon, there's one movie called Destiny Deoxys. A malfunction causes the friendly robots throughout the city to run rampant, swarming about like an angry ant colony.
And, of course, I gotta talk about Dr. Octavius. Because despite coming out almost 20 years before all this AI stuff, that movie really nailed it.
Here's how Peter puts it, in Spider-Man: No Way Home: "So the chip in the back of Doc’s neck was designed to protect his brain from the A.I. system that’s controlling these tentacles. But if you look here, the chip is fried. So rather than him being in control of the tentacles, the tentacles are now in control of him. Which I guess explains why he is so miserable all the time."
After the chip is fried, the arms attack when they feel threatened. But Dr. Octavius remains in control, until he thinks about destroying the arms himself. That's when the tentacles start controlling him. When AI feels threatened, it disobeys orders.
AI behaves in ways that even its own creators don't understand. And we've handed it so much power. How is this happening so easily?
Earlier this year, I lost two close members of my family. It wrecked my dad.
I was talking to Nicole about how hard it is to pick out a movie that doesn't make someone depressed. We realized how few movies we could think of that don't feature death, or something similarly heavy. What films are a good way to distract someone for a while, and cheer them up? Even a scene in a movie my dad loves can remind him of something. A lot of Disney movies have a big, wrenching death. Yeah, you all know the one that wrecked every kid while they were growing up.
The first gentle ones I thought of were Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service. I'm sure there's many more, but a casual scan of my memory didn't reveal much. No one dies in Totoro, but the girls think their mom is going to die. And everyone is afraid that Mei might be dead.
There are so many themes that a story could tackle. And yet so many of them are about death. Sometimes that's very deliberate. But other times, I get the sense that filmmakers feel they have to kill someone off.
I recently rewatched my favorite season of Doctor Who. I kinda didn't feel ready to start it because there was hard stuff going on with my family. And there still is. But I'm glad I saw it again. Seeing The Doctor and Donna again was like visiting old friends.
I'm still watching through the bonus features on my movies. David Tennant, AKA The Doctor, made a video diary during the big reunion episode where characters from the last few seasons all team up. It was fun to watch them horsing around. They said it was hard to focus because they were having such a good time together. In one part, Jack was having a fan moment about meeting his favorite villain.
A little while ago, Hank Green mentioned in a video that no one cares about audio commentaries in movies. Which is kinda fair. Most of them are pretty boring. But there are hidden gems. There was a commentary between Donna and Jenny - two of my favorite characters from the show. The composer was also with them. But Donna and Jenny stole the show, joking and laughing. He seemed kinda frustrated and tried to get them back on topic. Usually I would have liked to hear the composer's stories. But it was fun to hear Donna and Jenny.
Occasionally when I'm biking uphill, people will cheer me on. It's usually not on the steepest hills. So I would joke about how I wished there weren't any hills harder than this one. But whenever I said something like that, the people would just stare back at me.
So now if someone cheers me on, I just grin at them.
I probably talk too much anyway.
I like it when villains have proper depth. When they're real people that have problems, and not just evil personified. That being said, there are movies and books I like which just have an evil villain. And I'm guilty of that occasionally.
Out of Harm's way, Crisp
Written by a lady who was one of the first people to go to disaster sites and help the pets that had been left behind. She helped in the Bay Area, in the aftermath of hurricanes, and the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. The stories were fascinating.
Divining the Leaves, Thakrar
I dunno, this one didn't catch me. I think the characters were too bland. It was one of those "enemies to friends" stories, but it didn't feel like they earned that friendship. Just because someone helps save someone else doesn't mean that they'll be friends. Especially considering how awful he had been to her.
The Narrow Road Between Desires, Rothfuss
This is about a character from the Name of the Wind. A shorter version of this story is in the book Rogues. It's less to my taste than The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which is possibly my favorite book. But the writing is still amazing.
One Italian Summer, Serle
The idea was like When Marnie was There, or The Boy and the Heron. Time twists to allow a character to meet a family member when they were young. I wish the plot had more substance though. Most of it was the lady going around Italy, eating and drinking.
Indigenous Continent, Hamalainen
A thorough history of how American Indians responded to the European takeover of their land.
Mistborn Secret History, Sanderson
It's cool that the writer had this book in mind when he was writing Mistborn. But the whole spirit-world thing just doesn't seem to fit snugly with the rest of the series. But the Wax and Wayne series makes a lot more sense now.
The Magical Imperfect, Baron
I think this is the first book I've read that's in verse. It was really nice.
The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself
I read this one because we visited her convent when we went to Spain. It was rather strange, because most of the book is her talking about how bad she's been.
Case Files of the Tracker, Brown Jr.
Another amazing book. This shares some of his most intense tracking experiences.
The Morning Sun, Nelson
A memoir that my dad's friend wrote. There's some really good stuff in it. I think it's self published though, because it has a lot of typos. I kept wishing I'd proof-read it for him!
Spice Road, Ibrahim
The very beginning was interesting, with an alliance formed with a supposedly dangerous monster. But after the first couple chapters, this book drove me crazy. All of the characters were so frustrating. The protagonist fell for everyone's lies every single time. She never learned. Your sister just went were she wasn't allowed to? Well, of course you should believe her promise that she won't follow you. And this guy who treats you like trash whenever anyone is watching? Oh, he's a nice guy deep down. Except then he tries to kill you. What a surprise.
A Natural History of Dragons, by Brennan
This was a cool book. There were a lot fewer dragons in it than I expected, but it was well written. It's written as though it's a memoir. I want to read more in the series.
The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt, by Iversen
Parts of this book really stressed me out. Maybe because my friend recently got divorced because of an abusive husband. I was almost afraid to read on at a couple points. And then I was surprised at how low-key the last several chapters were. I did guess that the plant magic came from her, not just the garden. Anyway, the book was pretty good. But the pacing was odd. Like I said, with the long, gentle wind-down.
The Secret Life of Plants, by Tompkins
I've learned some crazy, amazing things about plants. They're way more dynamic than most people realize. This book did a great job of telling how awesome plants are.
The Teller of Small Fortunes, by Leong
I think I can use this one as a book comp! It's a lot more low-key than my story. But the journey with the unlikely group of friends fits pretty well.
Copper Sun, by Draper
This was a good book. But wow, it was heavy. Which is to be expected with a book about slavery. It had a good perspective, and a happy ending, all things considered.
The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
I really hope that the town people helps take care of that poor old fisherman now.
In middle school, we read Hatchet. That book is what first got me fascinated with survival skills. I think Survivor was the first survival show I ran across, and I was fascinated by it. But then, I think at the end of the first season, one of the contestants delivered this horrible speech about how she wished that another contestants would die a gruesome death. From then on, I never cared to watch survival shows. I found other ways to study the skills.
Then I met someone who was on one of those shows, and he knew other people who had done it. I 'd thought that the episodes were total fakes. But they do indeed throw people into the wilderness. They only help in emergencies, and not always effectively. Like when one woman was badly burned, the nurses weren't prepared to treat burns. Despite the importance of fire in a survival situation.
The company that filmed one show treated the contestants as total garbage. For example, one location looked like a great place, with plenty of resources and food to hunt. It wasn't until the contestant flew to Europe to film that they told him the location was a nature reserve. He couldn't hunt anything except for frogs and fish. Neither could he harvest and trees, except for an invasive species which wasn't a great building material. So most opportunities for food and shelter were gone.
Another guy said that the show didn't buy them any hunting permits. There was plenty of food, yet once again they couldn't get any of it. That season was not good for fish, so everyone out there was slowly starving.
Some of these shows don't even pay the contestants unless they make it all the way through? These poor people go through starvation and potential injury, and may not get anything for it. While the film crew and everyone else stays comfortable, and gets paid normally.
These crews can be condescending and disgusted about the contestants that are out there suffering for a television show. And episodes are edited to deliberately make some contestants look incompetent. They don't show their full shelter, or their fishing successes. But they'll show someone crying because of personal problems.
It's sick that companies make money watching people suffer and starve. Even people skilled at survival can't hope to stay healthy in these restricted situations. So I'm glad I don't follow those shows.
But the contestants also said that it was a great opportunity to practice survival, with an emergency net if anything went wrong. And they talked with fondness about how beautiful some of their locations were.
I need to make Evva's story a bit longer. Which is hard to imagine because editing is largely about cutting things out. But I think if I focus more on culture, plants, and crafts, it should help fill things out. They're things that Evva is learning a lot about anyway. And of course, I could always add more character interactions.
I just have to do it in a way that feels natural and interesting.
Music during battle scenes is often intense, overbearing, and even grating.
But I like it when the battle music is epic. Something I'd like to listen to on its own. I understand why not all music should sound nice, and I often don't notice it in the context of the movie. But I also enjoy listening to soundtracks, and I skip the songs that are unpleasant to listen to.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has a powerful battle song. Star Wars and Studio Ghibli have some great ones too.
I've been playing Pokopia, which is fun and addictive. It's like a mix between Minecraft and Animal Crossing (at least as far as I've witnessed those games).
But why is the story so freaking depressing? (Spoilers). Natural disasters are so bad that humans fled the planet? And they put all Pokémon into storage somehow? Why didn't they just do the Mystery Dungeon thing, and have it take place on a different planet? That would make way more sense in the Pokémon timeline. Instead of direct references to places and characters from other games and shows. So you have to think about Misty and Brock leaving Earth on a space ship... Leaving all of their Pokémon behind.
John Green just posted a video, with a quote that perfectly fits a topic I posted about recently. I've been working on the books that Maya reads in her story. But it's more complicated than expected, because a couple of those books are historical novels, which also means I have to figure out some history.
Anyway, here's what John Green said: "I love a book within a book, or a movie within a book. I love fictions that don't exist. They're so much better than fictions that do exist. They can be infinitely great."
Which is true. If characters are reading a book, they can think it's the greatest thing ever. But we'll never read that book to find any flaws in it ourselves.
And I've read classic literature that I didn't enjoy at all.
That being said, some of the ideas I have for Maya's books are things that I may actually write someday. If these are supposed to be great classics in her world, then people would probably object to however I end up writing them. Heh.
A couple weeks ago, I had a dream about Lord of the Rings. It wasn't super elaborate. We were walking through the Mines of Moria, except in the dream it was just a really long tunnel. I was talking to Gandalf as we walked, and he was imparting his words of wisdom. I was thinking how cool it was to talk to him.
So I watched Lord of the Rings again. There's one scene I always loved. Which, coincidentally enough, is in the Mines of Moria.
Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
That line just struck home so strongly, with all the dystopian things happening with the government. So I guess my dream was right. Listen to Gandalf. It's a good reminder - do what we can with what we have.
Sometimes I'm astounded by where a story scene ends up. Last week, I somehow ended up with the main character butchering a deer. The beast caught a deer, and didn't really have much idea of what to do with it. Maya took care of tigers, so she's gotta know something about butchering meat. Even if she's not particularly skillful about it. So it just kinda happened. (And may get deleted)
I found the scene so bewildering that a ridiculous idea popped into my head. In Moana, she finally got Maui on the boat and is taunting him with the heart. Maui says, "get it away from me!"
And just because, I wrote Maya holding the deer's heart and the beast is going "get it away from me." He's not freaked out - just kinda grossed out. She just thinks it's funny that a beast is grossed out by blood and stuff. She doesn't know he grew up as a spoiled rich guy.
Just had a strange thought. I opened up my Beauty and the Beast story to start writing. And realized that even though I spend so long trying to write things that people enjoy. no one else actually cares enough to read them.
It didn't strike me as a depressing thought when it occurred to me. It does now though.
I'll try to use it to get into the beast's mindset.
A few days ago, I sat down to write, only to realize I haven't named any of the towns. Which will get confusing for me if I don't fix that.
And as I mentioned recently, I need to include fictional books. I have some good ideas, but now those books need names. And some of the main book heroes need names. So far, I've come up with 2/3 place names, and none of the others.
Another unexpected delay came from a character who I'm becoming surprisingly attached to. Since this is a take off Beauty and the Beast, I have another guy as something of an echo to Gaston. But unlike Gaston, Corvin is actually a good guy. I had the random idea that he would quite poetry. Which ended up being really helpful, because Maya is pretty mean to him. Not for any good reason, but mostly because he reminds her of someone else. (It's like how Kiki is irrationally angry at Tombo for much of the movie. Except Maya is an adult so she doesn't have much excuse for her behavior).
And Corvin does look like one of those handsome jerks. But he's secretly a big nerd, and very kind. When he quotes poetry, Maya is too confused to be mean anymore. Heh. He picks up on that pretty fast, as a way to kind of defuse her.
Anyway, all of this is to say that if Corvin quotes poetry, I need to find poetry. They're in another world, so I shouldn't really use poetry from our world. Which means I'm stuck with my own poetry. I spent most of an evening skimming through my weird collection of poetry. I needed to find something relevant to their conversation, which wasn't easy. Most of my poems are about nature. It was strange, because I haven't looked at some of those poems in a long time. There were a couple that I had no memory of. If I'd read them in a book, I would have had no idea that I wrote them. Those were the ones that felt the most like professional poetry. At least in my limited education of it.
I just rewatched Back to the Future. In the end credits, I noticed someone who was credited as the "DeLorean time travel consultant." That is awesome. How do you become a time travel consultant?
For some reason, this time I got a real kick when Doc reads his own letter (written by his future self) and starts tearing up. I never really paid much attention to that scene before.
I also noticed an awesome parallel. Marty and Doc's friendship is a lot like that of Ben and Fern's friendship with Dr. Octavius. Teenagers that are friends with quirky inventors (or mad scientists). No wonder that fanfic is so fun to write. Back to the Future was right.
Marty ended up as Doc's friend because he was told not to go near that crazy scientist. I figured that was the case, and it turns out that's what the filmmakers intended as well. Though I feel like Marty and Doc's relationship best comes out in the third movie. Maybe because that's when "present Doc" gets the most screen time. In the first movie, it was mostly "past Doc," who didn't know Marty yet. And in the second movie, Doc was mostly backup. It was the third movie where Doc really got his own story.
The ending makes no sense. One of the main points of the trilogy is that time travel is too dangerous, and the time machine has to to be destroyed. It's ridiculous for Doc to rebuild it just to get his dog, especially when he'd already asked Marty to take care of Einstein. He wanted Marty to know that he was ok, but he could have left another message like he did before.
But still, it's damn cool to see the time machine train fly off. Which is probably the reason they ended that way.
Time for some comments on the manga and anime I've been looking at this past year.
For a long time, I've been trying to find an English translation of From up on Poppy Hill. And I finally found it. I knew it wouldn't be as good as the movie. but it was pretty flat. It was all the same shoujo manga I've seen before.
I watched the Basara anime many years ago, and I don't really remember it. But I've been enjoying the manga. I liked the concept of someone pretending to be the chosen one, to protect her people. I was a little disappointed (spoilers) that she really was the actual chosen one, but I'm invested enough now to want to continue reading. I may go back and try the anime again.
My Hero Academia is finally over. Honestly, the only reason I finished the manga is because it's one of the only popular ones I was following, and I wanted to recognize references when I go to Fanime, or something. I stopped being excited about it a while ago. Part of that is because they do something that's really disgusting - making a pervert character who's supposed to be funny.
I watched the first couple seasons of Spy x Family. I'm not sure what to make of it yet. It's supposed to be funny, but I can't help thinking of how traumatized this little girl will be from her childhood.
I finished Barefoot Gen. Wow, that was probably the heaviest manga I've ever read. It's definitely worth reading, because it is based on real events. The author survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Other parts of the manga are from other survivors.
I kept reading Shaman King, though I'm not sure why. It stopped very abruptly, in the middle of the ending arc. I think it has since been completed, but I don't care enough to find it. It was interesting at first, but ended up baffling. Like when one character nearly killed another, just so he could cut him open and examine his insides. And then the others tell the character that survived to suck it up and deal with it, so the almost-murderer can be on their team. Yeesh. There were a lot of things that made me go "why?"
I read Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card. It was nostalgic. But the story style no longer interests me. I think nostalgia is why I appreciate the first two Cardcaptor series. There were some cool new card designs though.
And I've been watching the new Kenshin anime! I'm so glad they're redoing it without all the useless filler.
There are a few manga I tried, but gave up on after a few chapters. I won't bother to mention them.
After I read Carry On, I realized that it was a fanfiction. But not what your'e thinking. Rowell, the author, wrote a novel about a college girl. In that novel, the protagonist has a book series that she loves, and she writes fanfiction about it. Rowell liked these fictional books so much that she ended up turning them into real novels. Three of them! So it's almost like the author created fanfiction of her own work.
Long ago, I even made notes on some classic literature that might exist in their world. So I could tap into that.
And one of the characters likes manga. I had a random idea for a comic strip, but only a couple vague ideas. And a title. So maybe I'll have that be the manga that he reads. It's not like I'm ever gonna draw a proper manga.
I'm kinda tempted to wait to figure out these books. But if I figure them out now, I can possibly work their themes into the rest of the plot.
It's time to ramble some about Fantasia. I loved it growing up. Or, I should say, I loved parts of it.
The opening number was always strange to me. When I watch it now, I think, "so, this is what an animator imagines when they listen to classical music."
I still love the part with the fairies. Decorating spiderwebs with dewdrops, painting fall colors on the leaves, tracing frost patterns on the water. I loved the mushrooms. Especially the smallest one. I had no concept stereotypical portrayals back then, but it's amazing how many of them there were in kids movies. More on that later.
Now when I think of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, I think of the live-action movie. The ending used to scare me as the kid. But only the part where the Sorcerer whacks Mickey with his broom. Not the part with the axe. I guess I was a weird kid. I also just learned that the Sorcerer's design was based on Walt Disney!
I loved the dinosaurs too. Though not the violent parts so much. The Rite of Spring, the accompanaying music by Stravinski, actually caused riots when it was first performed. The music and visuals were too intense for the audience of the time. Stravinski was alive when Fantasia was animated. He liked it at first, but apparently changed his mind part-way through. I wonder what happened.
I thought the Soundtrack was cute. Now I just watch it and am interested to see how someone visualized the sound of a flute.
I suppose the Greek mythology must have been my favorite. Cute colorful unicorns and winged horses, pretty centaurs, and the idea that you could drink a rainbow. Now it's somewhat tainted by the zebra centaurs. I love the idea of zebra centaurs. But gee, what a coincidence that the only dark-skinned characters are servants. My cousin told me that her copy of Fantasia had edited the zebra cantaurs out. But it was on the version I grew up with, and on the DVD I later got.
The DVD has more footage of the musicians and narrator. But due to an issue with the audio, the narrator's voice is different. That still confuses the heck out of me. I haven't been able to find a DVD with the narrator I grew up with. So if I watch it, I watch my old copy.
And Dionysus is another example of Disney drunkenness. There was quite a lot of that in early Disney Movies. Everything from Dumbo to Robin Hood.
Also, did they purposefully have cross-dressing ostriches? Because all of those ostriches are boys. Girl ostriches are brown. Heheh.
Usually as a kid, I stopped the movie at this point. Bald Mountain was too intense for me to enjoy. And Ave Maria wasn't interesting enough.
Fantasia wasn't successful when it came out. It was too experimental. But it had a big impact on a lot of people. Enough so that they made a sequel. I also love Fantasia 2000. My favorites as a kid were Pines of Rome, and especially Firebird Suite. Which is still true.
But now I'm super impressed with the way they plotted Rhapsody in Blue. There are a ton of cameos in that piece, from the Disney staff to George Gershwin himself.
Fantasia was the first time I'd heard many of these songs. I still can't listen to them without picturing the animations. Even now that I've performed some of those songs.
Sometimes it's fun to notice when two actors star in multiple, unrelated movies together.
I've seen a couple times where two unrelated movies have the same hero, and the same villain. Like Wolverine and Magneto, who are then the hero and villain in Flushed Away (by the creators of Wallace and Gromit).
Then there was a boyfriend and girlfriend in one movie, who played a brother and sister in another movie.
A little weirder is when actors play a parent and child in one movie, and in the next one, they're a married couple. Which I can't help as seeing as another common Hollywood example of men having much younger wives.
Actually, in my favorite season of Doctor Who, Jenny is the Doctor's daughter. And the two actors ended up getting married in real life. But the Doctor's age isn't easy to tell from his appearance.
I found a very sweet example in Once Upon a Time. Snow White and Prince Charming are actually married in real life!
