My Spirit Animal

I once dated a semi-crazy girl and she told me that my spirit animal was a mole.

While I see her point, I can't agree with her opinion.  

So I asked my brother what he thought my spirit animal was.  He said a pot roast.

To be fair, I'm not sure he understood the question.

From time to time I tried to figure out what my spirit animal is but I never could quite figure it out.

Until tonight.  I'm sitting here eating my dinner (not a pot roast) while listening to Biz Markie and wondering if I want to keep watching Bleach or House of Cards when BLAM! out of nowhere I knew what/who my spirit animal is.

Eeyore.

Yeah.  I'm good with that.  Eeyore it is.

Waiting For Ben Hur Part III

Good news everybody!  The Ben Hur long wait has been reduced to a short wait!  I have renewed hope that I will be able to see Chuck's Chariot Chase before I die.  Well, probably.  Maybe.  Eh, who cares?  I've been having a good time watching other stuff in the meantime, so, y'know, whatever.

Here's the most recent rundown of stuff that I've been watching.

Brave.  I liked it.  Not quite the sheer bolt of awesomeness that say, Toy Story/WALL E/the Incredibles etc., but really quite nice.  Gorgeous to look at, some laugh out loud moments, and very nice voice work.  Tonally a bit uneven, but that's minor quibbling.  Will watch again.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  Very, very British.  And in case you didn't know, to me, that's a good thing.  We Americans don't do much in the way of 'understated' but it is something the Brits do quite well.  Brilliant cast, complex espionage story, and ultimately, really well done.  Will watch again.

Killer Joe.  I don't know if I liked this one or not.  I mean really.  The disc was 'unreadable', so I never watched it.  Thanks a lot Netflix.  Will watch again, um, for the first time, someday.

The Bourne Legacy.  Not bad.  I expected this to not be good at all, but I was pleasantly surprised.  A smart, decently acted offshoot of some of my favorite action movies, the original Bourne trilogy.  Jeremy Renner is a fine actor, but he didn't quite caputre Matt Damon's Jason Bourne humanity.  Also, the car (and motorcycle) chase at the end was not up to snuff.  Might watch again, but...maybe not.

Hard Boiled.  I've seen this many times, but honestly I hadn't seen it since I watched my old VHS Letterbox copy in the mid-90's.  John Woo (who has a rather forgettable cameo, and I say that because I had totally forgotten about it) may have reached his zenith with this film.  Insane action, a few laughs built from character, compelling (if mostly over-the-top unbelievable) crime story.  I was pleased to see that it has held up.  Will watch again.

Holy Motors.  I...I am confused.  Here are the facts: I laughed, I was completely blown away by how good some of the scenes are, and I have absolutely no idea if I liked it.  This needs a re-watch.  My small brain hasn't processed everything yet.  Is it bad that I don't know if I liked it or not, yet already gave it a four-star rating on Netflix?  I'll get back to you on this one.  One last thing.  Even though I don't know if I liked it, I am glad that I watched it.  Does this make any sense?  No?  Didn't think so.  Sorry.

Bleach.  My old roommate Larry used to watch a lot of anime and I saw a lot of this show with him.  Lately I have found myself wondering what had happened beyond the parts that I had seen.  So I've been watching again, and I have to say that while it's not for everybody, I really like it.  It's aimed for a younger audience than I am, so sure, some parts are juvenile (meant for younger audiences, not immature work) but the fantasy elements are often awesome, the characterizations are sometimes broad, but routinely well done, and some of the animation and design work are top notch.  Not to say that there aren't some less than stellar moments, there are, but most things of an episodic nature have this problem.  I've watched 51 episodes and there are hundreds more, but I will continue to watch as long as it keeps rewarding me for doing so.

Okay kids, time for food and Bleach.

Have a wunnerful weekend,
B

Well, crap.

Roger Ebert died today and the world is poorer for it.

I'm not a sentimentalist, and I usually don't get too worked up over the death of a celebrity, which is probably not how Ebert viewed himself, but today when I saw that he had passed, I had to take a moment to breathe deeply and right myself because I didn't want to go all emotional at work.

I just tried to write a paragraph or two about how awesome Ebert was both as a critic and as a human being, and I just couldn't do it.  Nothing I wrote seemed good enough to accurately illustrate my affection for the man and the critic.  Suffice it to say that there will never be another like him, and that I shall miss him dearly.  I knew I would never meet him, but now that I have not and shall not, I'm getting a little weepy.

To Roger: Godspeed, good sir.  Be glad you have left that accursed cancer behind.  May your theater seat in heaven always be comfy, the screens large and vibrant, the concessions plentiful, and the movies, well,  may the movies all be worth five stars.