Thanks

[randy_byers]

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes. I had a very nice day, which began once again with breakfast at Roxy's.

I managed to find time before the big game to watch Mothra (Mosura, 1961), which it turns out I had somehow never seen as a kid. What a sweet monster movie! Shades of Miyazaki in that Mothra is a kind of nature god protecting the noble

Comments

[e_compass_rosa]

oh my goodness -- I missed it! sounds like a wonderful day though. happy 49!

[randy_byers]

Thanks! Sounds like you've been a busy girl!

[don_fitch]

Many happy returns on (and of) your 49th Birthday -- though I'd suggest (and testify) that life isn't a bell-curve and everything isn't downhill after 50. Maybe not even most things, though I'm less sure about that.

[randy_byers]

Thanks, Don. I guess I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. The 40s have been very, very good to me, so I'll do my best to enjoy them while they last. 364 more days!

[profgeek]

Nothing better to celebrate a birthday by than watching gawd-awful Japanese sf monster flicks. I can't begin to imagine what you'll do next year for the big 5-0. Kurosawa?

[randy_byers]

Well, I'll have to try a gawd-awful Japanese sf monster flick *next* year. Mothra is actually pretty good, bearing in mind that it's a kids film.

As for Kurosawa, I still have High and Low sitting on my piles, so to speak. Kurosawa is great, and he was a good friend of Ishiro Honda, the director of ... Mothra! In fact, Honda was a second-unit director on a number of Kurosawa films, including Ran and Kagemusha.

Well, you never know when this will come up in a trivia quiz. Now you're prepared.

[alces2]

Happy Birthday from here too.

I was looking for another video I just saw on Imagemakers on PBS and found this. I was amused and thought I would pass it on.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1295852544

Ah, here's the first of two, "Pierre, a hole with a view"
http://www.spike.com/video/pierre-hole-with/2887162

Hm, couldn't find "Mickey and Maria" directed by Steffen Reuter but maybe you get Imagemakers on PBS up there too.
I think I was most entertained by it.
http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/imagemakers/

[randy_byers]

Thanks, G. I only have limited time for watching online videos, but I'll try to check those out later. (As Andy said yesterday, "I went searching for an Elvis Costello video on YouTube, and emerged seven hours later.")

[reverendjim]

That sounds like a pretty good birthday and some mighty fine beer.
I've had a couple of Mikkellers and keep meaning to try more. In fact I very nearly had a bottle of the barley wine he made with BrewDog on Saturday night. Apparently the It's Alive is his "answer and tribute to the trappist beer Orval", which means I should really seek it out. The beer flavoured with that incredibly expensive civet-cat-shit-coffee was pretty special too. And I saw recently that there's a version of it aged in Islay whisky casks. I think I know who'd like a bottle of that one.

Anyway, here's to another year of fine beer. You'll have to find something amazingly special for your next birthday.

[randy_byers]

Hm, that civet-cat-shit-coffee beer sounds familiar. Have you written about it before? I had never heard of Mikkeller before, but I was impressed. Somehow I'm not surprised that he's worked with BrewDog!

[reverendjim]

I think I mentioned the civet cat stuff at some point, yes. It was one of the very fine beers that suaveswede supplied for a "special" beer tasting at Eastercon.
Mikkeller seems to have worked with virtually everyone on my mental "they sound interesting" list. Though collaboration seems to be a bit of a thing recently on the beer front. Seems to be a bit of a US led thing but not limited to them. I think one of the first I came across was Brooklyn and Schneider of Germany. BrewDog and Stone have done a couple of brews this year but I'm yet to see any results of it. On a purely UK front I'm sure I heard talk of Dark Star and Thornbridge combining on a beer, which sounds good to me, but again haven't seen any results.
There's plenty of beer out there!

[randy_byers]

Yeah, no doubt about it. Last night I had a Trip III, which is something the brewer from New Belgian Brewing has done at the Elysian here in Seattle. He's doing small batches of interesting stuff there. Trip III is a sour dark beer.