A Goddess Cel / Cousin Emily on Leno / 48 People
I keep buying these animation cels off the Internet. For the first time, however, I've landed a production cel from something other than Tiny Toons. I give you the Goddess First Class Belldandy:
This cel comes from the Japanese anime film, "Ah! My Goddess," which was released back in 2000 and is based on the popular long-running manga and television series of the same name. The plot concerns a painfully average and lonely college guy who is suddenly blessed by heaven for years of selflessness. He is granted one wish by a goddess but instead of asking for riches or power, he believes it to be a prank and sarcastically asks for the goddess herself to remain with him on Earth forever. To their horror, the wish is approved and granted by heaven and hilarity ensues as adventure and cultural incompatibility follow them in their new lives and friendship together. Slowly, they end up falling in love.
I'll admit that the idea of the show is cheesy, melodramatic and seemingly like every man's ultimate fantasy, but what really draws me to the franchise is the same thing that draws me to the new My Little Pony series: The quality of the storytelling, the memorable characters and great animation. As you can see from the cel pictured, it's gorgeous stuff. This is my first cel from a real motion picture, too. The cel came alone so I had to buy a frame and glass and mat board. I also had to come up with the background, which is an assemblage of screenshots of the actual background from the same scene in the film printed on some really nice matte-finish paper. Seriously, it turned out better than I thought it would. Can't wait to get it on the wall somewhere!
Last week was spring break for my cousin, Emily. The last time I saw her was on my epic 2005 road trip when I swung through Alabama to visit my father's brother and his family. For spring break, Emily was in LA and on Monday the 19th, she was at a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Jamie Lee Curtis was the main guest and during the show, she talked about her fascination with using empty plastic cups as musical percussion instruments. Emily is no stranger to "Cup Games" and sitting in the front row of the audience, she began miming cup movements herself when this happened:
Isn't that simply the most incredible thing? What a spring break highlight! On the couch with Jamie Lee Curtis and being able to say she was an on-air guest on the real Tonight Show. I would have been so far less composed. She's the family celebrity now!
Finally, a little talk about my job. The hiring freeze at my workplace is still in full effect and every week, we seem to lose more and more people across the four shifts. This week, my shift alone lost two people. One quit after finding a job that will pay him double and another simply stopped showing up to work beginning last Thursday. For the first time in years, our shift had a headcount of 48 people. It's sad to see people leave but it's scary to think that with each person that leaves, that's more work the rest of us have to figure out how to do. It's stressful and unfair to a degree considering we're not being compensated for the constantly expanding work load. I'm hopeful the hiring freeze ends soon. I can feel people beginning to burn out. I'm one of them.
This cel comes from the Japanese anime film, "Ah! My Goddess," which was released back in 2000 and is based on the popular long-running manga and television series of the same name. The plot concerns a painfully average and lonely college guy who is suddenly blessed by heaven for years of selflessness. He is granted one wish by a goddess but instead of asking for riches or power, he believes it to be a prank and sarcastically asks for the goddess herself to remain with him on Earth forever. To their horror, the wish is approved and granted by heaven and hilarity ensues as adventure and cultural incompatibility follow them in their new lives and friendship together. Slowly, they end up falling in love.
I'll admit that the idea of the show is cheesy, melodramatic and seemingly like every man's ultimate fantasy, but what really draws me to the franchise is the same thing that draws me to the new My Little Pony series: The quality of the storytelling, the memorable characters and great animation. As you can see from the cel pictured, it's gorgeous stuff. This is my first cel from a real motion picture, too. The cel came alone so I had to buy a frame and glass and mat board. I also had to come up with the background, which is an assemblage of screenshots of the actual background from the same scene in the film printed on some really nice matte-finish paper. Seriously, it turned out better than I thought it would. Can't wait to get it on the wall somewhere!
Last week was spring break for my cousin, Emily. The last time I saw her was on my epic 2005 road trip when I swung through Alabama to visit my father's brother and his family. For spring break, Emily was in LA and on Monday the 19th, she was at a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Jamie Lee Curtis was the main guest and during the show, she talked about her fascination with using empty plastic cups as musical percussion instruments. Emily is no stranger to "Cup Games" and sitting in the front row of the audience, she began miming cup movements herself when this happened:
Isn't that simply the most incredible thing? What a spring break highlight! On the couch with Jamie Lee Curtis and being able to say she was an on-air guest on the real Tonight Show. I would have been so far less composed. She's the family celebrity now!
Finally, a little talk about my job. The hiring freeze at my workplace is still in full effect and every week, we seem to lose more and more people across the four shifts. This week, my shift alone lost two people. One quit after finding a job that will pay him double and another simply stopped showing up to work beginning last Thursday. For the first time in years, our shift had a headcount of 48 people. It's sad to see people leave but it's scary to think that with each person that leaves, that's more work the rest of us have to figure out how to do. It's stressful and unfair to a degree considering we're not being compensated for the constantly expanding work load. I'm hopeful the hiring freeze ends soon. I can feel people beginning to burn out. I'm one of them.