Persepolis   10/21/09

Wow, this was a great animated film.  And it was a full-length feature, filled with anxiety, joy, fun, sadness; the life of an Iranian girl.  The music and sounds were great.  Following in the long-ago footsteps of Dorothy on the yellow brick road, only in reverse, the majority of the film is in black and white, and we end with the color scene in the airport.  All of the scenes in the airport, in fact, are in the present and done in color.  They are a well-done pivot point for the bulk of the story.  The animation never lets up with the different creative angles, the darks/lights, movement and layers.  Reviewing the film now by memory, it did not feel flat at all, as some black and white animated films have seemed.  The humor will floor you at times.  The comedic timing was perfect, exemplifying the meaning of "comedy relief".  If it were not for the judicially dispersed comic moments the remainder would have been drear.  Very wise.  This scores a big hit for animation.

The politics: I will need to think them over, as I'm sure the director intended.  Everyone loves to hate the West right now.  It's popular to attribute the world's ills to the Western world and to attach blame to the big gorilla on the block as contributing directly to the hatred in the rest of the world.  I'm just not so sure that's accurate.  After all, you can give a person a gun, but that doesn't mean they have to shoot.  I'll come back to this.

Heroes 10/19/09 - warning: rants involved here

The direction that the latest season is taking is probably not the best for viewer retention, however interesting it is.  It's too slow.  I like it because I know all of the inside characters and previous plot lines that sometimes interweave into the current story, however there isn't enough of that to keep us previous watchers interested either.  I think the circus plot line for Syler is very interesting, and that whole group of people of course is intriguing, but they had better come up with the goods on who those people are soon or we aren't going to put up with it.  That guy who leads the whole circus family is mysteriously evil and likeable at the same time, and that's great character development, but I'm sure he's not the "devil", just like Linderman was not God.

As for the whole cheerleader lesbian thing, well, that's despicable and an unnecessary development thrown in for titillation and appeasement of the homosexual community (I reserve the right to retain the original meaning of the word 'gay' in my writings, and I like the old version, which means 'happy'.  I refuse to allow a politically radical group to steal or destroy my language!).  Next episode: Syler goes in the tent with the beautiful girl and discovers he doesn't like her, so he admits that he is homosexual as well.  Just kidding.  So I'm interested to see though where that whole thing with Claire Bennett goes.  Let me guess: She liked it somewhat, and it interested her, but she's not a lesbian, so she at first is revolted and turns on the new roomate, maybe even moves out for a day or two with another girl, or off-campus, but then discovers that the girl is crushed and has these genuine human feelings and desires, and comes to grip with them, so then agrees to live with her but stay at a distance.  In fact, Claire will threaten her at one point that is she comes near, she will throw her out a window.  Also just kidding.

Never can tell where this show will go with a plot.  But I can generally tell that the vertical direction of the show this season so far is not up.

As for philosophy, it would seem that the direction is still leaning against non-intervention as far as genetic manipulation.  "Don't mess - we want to be normal" seems to be the theme here.

Sons of Anne Archy pt. 2

On 2nd thought, I knew I'd heard that name before.  I went to highschool with Anne Archy, and now I hear through this TV show that she has sons!  Wow, I should write her.  I've checked and it seems she's living in Hollywood CA.  Wow, what a step up for her!  Here is the last known picture of her from my yearbook:

Anne Archy
1998

Sons of Anarchy comment:

Well I haven't seen the show at all, just heard of it, but if the description is anything like the content it could be a waste of time. The reviewer just isn't thinking, I believe. I mean please, oversentimentalization here: "...as its members struggle to balance family life and weapon-trafficking business." What? You're trying to balance family life and a weapons-trafficking business. Riiiiiight. And Marylin Manson went to church last week.

Here's my son of anarchy.