Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Some more good movies from Studio Ghibli, the home of Hayao Miyazaki: Whisper of the Heart and Howl's Moving Castle. Whisper is a sweet coming of age story. Howl's is an interesting story of girl who, early in the story, gets turned into an old woman by a witch.
Mountain bikes caught my interest lately as I've done some maintenance on mine to get it into shape. A local shop carries Specialized bikes, of which, I got a look at the Stumpjumper and the FSR cx. I've found links to other less expensive bikes by Schwinn and Ibex as well. As a teenager, I always dreamed of being able to build a full suspension bike. A new bike may be in my future.
On books, I just finished Delany's Empire Star. I found more interesting ideas in there in its brief 90 pages than in most books five times that long. As always, I love his writing style. I don't know of another writer I admire as much. Dhalgren is possibly his most famous book and the most thought provoking book I've ever read.
In a different vein, I'm about two thirds into Will Eisner's Contract with God trilogy, the books by which Eisner reputedly invented the graphic novel. It's hard to imagine a similar work done any better. I also read the first volume of Akira by Otomo Katsuhiro. Another work of similar quality that I enjoyed. I'll likely pick up the other five volumes that complete the story eventually as well as the movie. Also read volume one of Kaze Hikaru. While not of the caliber of the others I mention here, it's seems representative of manga in general and I enjoyed it. It's targeted at teenage girls, something I vaguely suspected when I bought it, but didn't pay any attention to. Still a fun read.
Mountain bikes caught my interest lately as I've done some maintenance on mine to get it into shape. A local shop carries Specialized bikes, of which, I got a look at the Stumpjumper and the FSR cx. I've found links to other less expensive bikes by Schwinn and Ibex as well. As a teenager, I always dreamed of being able to build a full suspension bike. A new bike may be in my future.
On books, I just finished Delany's Empire Star. I found more interesting ideas in there in its brief 90 pages than in most books five times that long. As always, I love his writing style. I don't know of another writer I admire as much. Dhalgren is possibly his most famous book and the most thought provoking book I've ever read.
In a different vein, I'm about two thirds into Will Eisner's Contract with God trilogy, the books by which Eisner reputedly invented the graphic novel. It's hard to imagine a similar work done any better. I also read the first volume of Akira by Otomo Katsuhiro. Another work of similar quality that I enjoyed. I'll likely pick up the other five volumes that complete the story eventually as well as the movie. Also read volume one of Kaze Hikaru. While not of the caliber of the others I mention here, it's seems representative of manga in general and I enjoyed it. It's targeted at teenage girls, something I vaguely suspected when I bought it, but didn't pay any attention to. Still a fun read.
# posted by goldpython @ 8:34 AM 
