Howl's Moving Castle, music
On Friday night, I saw Howl's Moving Castle with Jeffy, Ryan, Mike, Nicolle, Monbon, and Max. The movie was so great. In my opinion, it was better than Spirited Away which many others claim to be better (not to say Spirited Away wasn't an awesome movie, because it was). The dubbing far surpassed my expectations and Billy Crystal played an awesome Calcifer, who aside from "Turnip-head" was the best character in the film. Everything about the film made it great, there were various parts that were laugh-out-loud worthy. Parts that immediately come to mind is the senile Witch of the Waste randomly staring at the screen and Howl obsessing over his hair, pretty-boy to the core. Also, in an unprecedented move in a Miyazaki movie, the main characters actually kissed! This is a very big deal, it seemed to me like a Ghibli taboo or something, but it actually happened, twice in fact. I blame Nicolle for the observation that the other movies never had any kissing, she always seems to anticipate it. Wonderful film though, forget about ranking it among anime films, as far as movies in general go, it has to be my favorite this summer next to Batman Begins.
Definitely worth buying the DVD when it comes out, hopefully it'll stand next to this on my shelf, an awesome Ghibli DVD set Ryan found online. I try so hard to tell other people just how great the movie is, but sadly people don't want to go to a movie theater to watch a "cartoon", bleh. At least when it comes out on DVD I can force people to watch it then, that plan worked with Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.
I'm working on looking for new music to listen to while I'm in Spain. I actually found alot of great music in the past day just by looking through Internet Archive Audio, it's amazing how much good music can be found on there. Aside from that, I've been hunting down music people have recommended to me that I haven't had time to look at before. I'm in love with the self-titled Franz Ferdinand album, I really can't believe I haven't listened to any of their stuff earlier. If anyone has any good recommendations before I leave for the Old World, comment. I'd really appreciate it.