Category: Journal

Film Festival: Vexille

*[Vexille](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970472/)* ([trailers](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK6UwzLSQwk)): is a CG anime from the people who brought you (the 2004 CG version of) Appleseed (which I keep meaning to sit down and watch. Great visuals, cool mechs, big explosions… Vexille was pretty cool. For some reason, though, it didn’t do a whole lot for me. Am I getting old and jaded or something? I’m sure my 17-year-old self would’ve thought this was the best thing ever, but the plot stretched credulity and I didn’t end up caring all that much about the characters.

I think I had roughly the same feeling coming out of seeing [Wonderful Days](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_Days). Not that that (or this) was a bad movie. I was just… I dunno… unmoved.

I’d probably call it a rental. It’s worth watching (if you’re into CG mecha anime, of course). It’s something CTRL-A could show without controversy. Maybe it just didn’t meet my expectations (whatever those were).

Vexille was the Midnight Madness showing on Sunday. I stayed over at Rin and Kyle’s Sunday, and Kyle and I went to the Pacific Mall to kill time Sunday afternoon.

We stopped and had supper at the [Great Khan Mongolian Grill](http://www.mongoliangrill-gk.com/main2.html) in the parking lot there, making it a Ghengis Khan weekend. It doesn’t look like it’s affiliated with the Waterloo Mongolian Grill. Same general idea, although they had an additional buffet table, just in case you weren’t able to get your fill from the grill. I think I preferred the layout a bit over Waterloo, although the differences were pretty small. Not fantastic, but I certainly ate my fill (and perhaps a bit more than that as well).

I got home around 3:30 Monday morning. Staying awake for work on Monday wasn’t easy, but I managed to get stuff done. I only had to go back and fix some of it on Tuesday, too.

Film Festival: Mongol and Silent Resident

I went back to Toronto Saturday, hoping I’d get a chance to go to the sci-fi book sale at the Toronto Research Library with Rin, but ended up miscalculating a bunch of things falling behind so late that I had to miss out on that and head to the theatre to find Kyle. Rin was nice, though, and did my shopping for me, including picking up some of [the late Madeleine L’engle’s](http://www.bowjamesbow.ca/2007/09/08/madeleine-lengl.shtml)’s books.

**[Mongol](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416044/)** ([trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6VCcJe9gyE)): Kyle calls it “Young Ghengis in Love,” which is pretty apt. I had a hard time figuring out what this movie was trying to be. Bits of the first half reminded me strongly of [Atanarjuat](http://www.atanarjuat.com/media/trailer.php?size=high) (Young Ghengis spends a lot of time running across the Mongolian steppes). The ending features a cool, epic, cast-of-thousands type of battle oh so popular these days (although the gathering of that military strength is largely glossed over). There’s a kinda kung fu revenge story going on (without the kung fu). And, of course, there’s the love story between Ghengis and his wife, who he doesn’t actually see very often and who usually ends up bearing other peoples’ children. Odd, unconventional, but still worth watching, I think. It’s a bit of a mishmash, but the way it plays out is still pretty satisfying.

Kyle and I ended up having dinner at [Little India](http://www.littleindia.ca/home.html) on Queen Street. Probably the best butter chicken I’ve ever had. I ate too much.

**[Silent Resident](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848613/)** ([website](http://www.kgp.co.at/index.php?option=com_moviedb&task=viewmovie&id=29&Itemid=63)): This movie made no sense. *Perhaps* it might make more sense if most of the important exposition wasn’t written in white subtitles on a white background, but I get the feeling fixing that wouldn’t help much. It reminded me of the 1987 Doctor Who episode Paradise Towers, although a little bit of cannibalism might have livened it up a little.

It’s a descent into madness story set in a near future fallen utopia. There are some distinctly weird bits, but it spends more time being brooding and not enough time being weird. I could probably forgive it for not making sense if they cranked up the weird a bit more.

Some good points, though: the setting was really cool. It was filmed in a real, honest-to-goodness utopian socialist housing complex in Austria. It was built in the 80s, proving that even in the future we will still have ugly bathroom tiles. That gave the movie a lot more authenticity than if they tried to build their own CG thing or something. Also on the good side, there was lots of boobies. Yes, I said it.

Film Festival: Persepolis

The [Toronto International Film Festival](http://www.tiff07.ca/) is well underway. I’ve been going with Kyle and Rin the last few years. I really couldn’t do it without Kyle, who handles all the really annoying administrative stuff, and points out decent films to watch. I tend to just follow his lead.

**[Persepolis](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/)** ([trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxu0h8R8iUg)): The festival opened on Thursday and I drove down Thrusday night to see Persepolis, which is based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. My impression of the book was that it was one of those arty, “important” sorts of graphic novels that had somehow managed to find a mainstream audience, so it didn’t strike me as something I really wanted to read. Watching the movie, what I found was a bitter-sweet coming of age story that takes place amidst the tragic recent history of Iran. It was pretty wonderful. I’ll probably be dragging people out to the Princess to see it if it comes out there, and buying the DVD and probably picking up the book too, as apparently the film was very faithful to the source material.

Ms Satrapi was at the screening and received a sincere and warm ovation at the end. I kinda wanted to go over and give her a hug.

Overseeding

This summer’s been pretty hard on my lawn. I don’t water the damn thing, because seriously, if it can’t cope on its own, it deserves what it gets.

While I’m doing quite a bit better than most of my neighbours, the bald patches have been growing and weeds are moving in.

Since I’ve moved into the house, I’ve been researching and mulling over ideas of gardening and lawn care as essentially ecosystem management. Let’s face it, the average suburban lawn is about as unnatural as you can get. But I can make my life a lot easier by doing a kind of horticultural judo. I provide the conditions by which a nice-looking lawn-type-thing can prosper, and by which annoying non-lawn things are naturally disadvantaged.

About all I’ve been doing since I moved in has been mowing infrequently (I should do that more, albeit at the mower’s highest setting), and hand-pulling dandelions (and thistles and crab grass, but mostly dandelions). I hate dandelions.

This weekend, I put down a bit of top soil and sowed a hardier, drought-tolerant grass seed.

Apparently Labour Day weekend is a good time for overseeding, since the dew in the morning will help the seedlings without me having to water. I’m watering a little bit to get it germinating, but after this week, it’s on its own.

This is an experiment. We’ll see how it goes. I’m thinking I’ll repeat the process in the spring, although I think I need to get a bit more aggressive laying down the top soil. Even though I’m a bit loathe to do it, I think I’m going to fertilize in a month or so.

If all goes well, my lawn should be all green and wavy next year.

Another cat post

I promise this isn’t a trend. Really.

The mouse came back last night. Haru’s been wanting out in the garage periodically, and I’ve been indulging him, despite the mess he makes getting his dirty feet wet in the bathtub. I left him out there for a while last night before checking up on him. When I did, he was nowhere to be seen, and when I called to him, I heard a little squeak instead.

The poor mouse was terrified, and had stopped trying to run away. It was standing stock still. Haru was staring at it, pacing back and forth. Occasionally, he’d take a paw and pat at it, at which point the mouse would squeak, scurry two inches and stand stock still again. Not an optimal survival technique, but Haru didn’t seem too interested in actually eating him.

I scooped him up in a kitty litter bucket and drove him out to the far end of UW’s north campus. When I dropped him out in the grass, he stood stock still there, as well, looking up at me. I’m not optimistic about his survival chances, but at least he’s out of my garage, and I didn’t have to personally draw blood.

In other kitty news, Haru has a dentist appointment on Tuesday. He’s getting a couple teeth pulled due to [neck lesions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_odontoclastic_resorptive_lesion). Poor thing.