Myth Busted / Beardo Attack!
Danger, nerd content ahead:
Here is a recent slashdot article about Mythbusters.
The article says that Jamie and Adam (the two beardos on the show) are not friends in real life — their relationship is strictly professional. The slashdot thread also seems to state that they really don’t like each other very much.
This revelation sort of upset my love for the show. I don’t watch it so much for myths or explosions or science, but because I like the characters — which is kind of a weird thing to say since these are real people.
But I suppose that a real person, once shot on camera and edited into a tight series of segments, is automatically distilled down to a character. People are more digestible as characters since their complexities and traits are boiled down to serve the puzzle or conflict at hand.
Real people are much harder to follow. Also, sometimes they do heroic things and then do selfish things, making them difficult to root foor. They tend to not have easily distinguishable arcs.
Anyway, I’ve always been obsessed with great characters. I love quirks and odd personalities. That’s why I like these Mythbuster beardos so much. I’m thinking about being Jamie Hyneman for Halloween. I will have a beret and a huge moustache made from a hard-bristled broom.
My mom arrived, we went to the Getty and saw some Rubenesque ladies. Then she gave me a sack of food.
In there was a bag of Corn Nut-like crunchy garlic things from the Phillipines.
I spent my whole Saturday working, drinking diet coke, and eating the entire bag.
In my heart I know it was wrong, but it felt so very, very right.
You may have noticed that these entries have taken a massive Ghibli-centric route lately. I’ve been watching all of Miyazaki/Ghibli’s movies (particularly the ones I haven’t seen yet) to try to figure out what makes them so durned good.
Highly Recommended: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
This one’s gotta go on my top 75 list. It’s been around since 1984 and I can’t believe I’ve missed out on seeing it until just now. It’s epic, extraordinary looking, and the world that Miyazaki has created here is beautiful, cruel, and unique.
Plus it’s full of beardos:
Studio Ghibli Museum
Link here to a very well put together article on a visit to Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan.
Take a look for yourself. I know I’m going to have to make a pilgrimage there at least one in my life.
Also, Nausicaa.Net is an amazing resource for everything Studio Ghibli.
I didn’t really have any heroes or role models when I was growing up. I think this was almost a point of pride for me, being a wanna-be edgy cool kid that didn’t need anybody.
But if there’s anyone whose sense of storytelling I idolize and admire, and whose work I have learned from the most, it’s probably Hayao Miyazaki’s.
As we launch into this weekend, my mom is on a 12 hour layover at the airport tomorrow so I’m going to pick her up and we’re going to the Getty on the hill. Then after that I’ve got a lot of work to do.
By the way, I just discovered sugar snap peas. You can buy them pre-washed for you and ready to eat at Ralph’s — they’re crunchy and good to eat raw, and they deliver a high level of green nutrition. Recommended!
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Spirited Away is probably Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece, but Kiki’s Delivery Service is my favorite story of his.
Based on the book by Eiko Kadono, the movie is about a thirteen year-old witch girl that sets off on her own (as is tradition) to find a new town in which to live independently and practice her craft. In this world (a blend of European villages and 1950s technology) witches are rare but common enough to be recognized and tolerated by regular people; Kiki’s mom (also a witch) has a thriving business in potion making. However, it’s also a world whose rapidly advancing technology and way of life may mean that it’s outgrowing its need for witches and their abilities.
In fact, Kiki hasn’t honed any specialties like fortune telling or spellcrafting; her only skill is in flying, and even then she still needs practice. So when she arrives alone in a bustling coastal city, she starts a business doing the only thing she’s good at: An air delivery service.
But loneliness creeps in; she’s behind the times in manner, speech, and clothing, and the ability to fly isn’t that magical anymore (airplanes are commonplace and a zeppelin is central to the story). Kiki begins to lose her purpose and confidence, and ultimately, her ability to fly. The world is leaving her behind.
And that’s where Kiki’s Delivery Service goes from being a charming little story to one that strongly resonates with anyone that has had to search out and struggle with their purpose:
Ursula: Painting and magical powers seem to be very similar. Sometimes I can’t paint a thing.
Kiki: You mean it? Then what happens? [...] Without even thinking about it, I used to be able to fly. Now I can’t even remember how I ever managed to do it.
Ursula: At times like that, you know what I do? I paint. That gets rid of my frustrations.
Kiki: But still, if I can’t fly -
Ursula: Then I stop. Take long walks, look at scenery, doze off at noon. Don’t do a single thing. Then, suddenly, you’ll be able to fly again. [...] To fly, you don’t chant a spell or something, right?
Kiki: Mm-hmm, we fly with our spirit.
Ursula: That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The artist’s spirit, the witches’ spirit. I suppose it must be a power given by God. Sometimes you suffer for it.
It’s that little exchange that I love so much — it’s Miyazaki telling us to wake up and not be afraid of the thing that is central to whomever we are. The story is telling us to relax, that whatever makes us magical will return in time. And Kiki does eventually regain her ability to fly, summoned back by her need to rescue a friend.
Miyazaki is so damned good at finding the charm in every day things — the way animals and people move, the underlying connections between us that show in our expressions. Hell, he’s so damned good at finding good in people and communicating it through animation. There are so many little layers and touches in the movie to leaf through — statements about how new people we come to love are often very much like the people in the past that already love us; about putting on airs and finding our way through them… Searching out and connecting these details is a wonderful experience.
Above all the movie is about a world that wants to believe that it has outgrown witches and magic, but in the end it’s still a world that needs them very much. And it’s about how dealing with something that you love — be it something that you do or someone in your life — will always be a struggle and will never be easy. But you still love it, so really, all you need is faith in it.
All you need is patience and faith, and when the time is right the magic will return.
Sidenote: The Disney dub for Spirited Away (featuring a brilliant Daveigh Chase and Jason Marsden) is excellent. The Disney dub for Kiki’s Delivery Service is… Not as good. I recommend the subtitled Japanese version, as the voices are a much stronger complement to the film.
Talkback
The folks at Silk Road forwarded a greeting card someone sent me:
Dear Michael,
I attended the reading at the Chicago Temple theatre yesterday and found it very thought provoking and entertaining and a bit disturbing because…
I’m bewildered by the insertion of the “MF” words, the many uses of the “F” word as adjective, verb, noun and the use of God’s name to be “damn”ing. I found it all to be unnecessary to make the point of the performance, used presumably to stand in for words that could have been more descriptive of feelings, words imparting emotion without being offensive to anyone.
I thought about this card carefully on my run tonight; it is often true that a person resorts to profanity when he or she can’t come up with more appropriate words. It is especially true if that person is me, since I am often a vulgar fellow. My only friends are sailors and prison inmates.
So I really have no excuses for being so profane sometimes. But I think the only explanation I can give in this case (the play is Cowboy Vs. Samurai) is that as much as the play is about love, it’s also a lot about anger. Anger and alienation — and when you get anger as a byproduct of love (because of unrequited love or lost love or painful love that you’re in the middle of) it’s the worst kind of anger there is.
And those are the words you get (in my mind anyway) when you’re dealing with that sort of anger. Love gets you poetry, and anger gets you profanity. Sometimes profanity can even be poetic. That’s the best sort of stuff there is.
So anyway, the last couple of full length pieces I’ve written have pretty much been profanity-free. In fact, in the most recent one the very worst swear I use is the word “nuts”, and not even in reference to a person’s testicles! It’s just the simple exclamation of the word — NUTS!!! Like if a gang of squirrels pelted you with a hundred walnuts at once. “NUTS!!!” you’d scream.
Yes, I always listen to whatever audiences have to say, be it during a Q&A or in a letter or on a note tied to a brick that is thrown through my window. I “try it on” (as Gehry says in his documentary), see how it feels and try to understand it.
So Yee Murray, I feel you and I understand. You have a valid point. Sometimes the language is appropriate and sometimes it’s not, and I do indeed carpet f-bomb sometimes. And yes, I do sometimes write filthy plays, it’s true. And though not all of them are filthy, if they are, at least they’re part of a very long tradition.
Lunch Box
I’ve been searching for the perfect lunch box. Ideally it should insulated and have a funny hand-painted phrase on it like the one above.
Recommended: Sketches of Frank Gehry
“Sketches” is an up-close documentary on Frank O. Gehry filmed by his friend Sydney Pollack — a great piece to watch if you’re interested in creativity and how the architect has struggled with it all his life.
I picked this doc up because I’ve always liked Gehry’s work, and having recently seen the Pritzker in person, I wanted to know more about him. He’s a crafty old dude, sharp and searching, and the film goes in deep to discuss his work with both his admirers and detractors.
It must be really amazing to walk inside a building that you designed. It’s permanent, set pretty much in stone. People, the neighborhood, the world has to live with whatever you created — both the beauty and the mistakes (the documentary omits the sidewalk-frying aspect of the mirror-like Disney Concert Hall, a bug that has recently been fixed).
Giant Anime Sweatdrop
Every now and then I need to visually express my disbelief or embarrassment at the current situation. Since my face isn’t very expressive, I have developed the following piece of papercraft that can be handily printed, mounted, cut out, and held up to your head at the right moment:
(Click for printable version)
Portable and convenient, it has thousands of uses:
Action shots coming soon.
Going to Seattle in a couple of months. Question: What are the Must-See/Must-Do/Must-Eat things there? What’s the best way to get around? Someone told me it’s basically a lot like San Francisco. San Francisco is pretty hard to beat, so my expectations are set high. If they are not met I will jump off the Space Needle and fly away.
My Work in Print
Year Zero
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.com
Cowboy Versus Samurai
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.comFor a complete list of books containing my work, please click here.
