Secret of Kells movie review

This review that I wrote about the Oscar-nominated Secret of Kells ran in the University of Houston's student newspaper The Daily Cougar. Secret of Kells director Tom Moore linked to the review in the "Blog of Kells," a website devoted to the press and progress of the film and stated that it was the first review he had seen from Houston.

I enjoyed every moment of this film. It had the surreal fairy tale feel in Hayao Miyazaki's films, and I enjoyed the crisp, colorful artwork.

Moviegoers of all ages will delight in The Secret of Kells’ masterful story-telling and visual splendor.

The Secret of Kells is by far one of the most engrossing films to come out this year. Twelve-year old Brendan has never left the walls of Kells and is content to help out his uncle’s medieval monastery with errands.

Unfortunately, most of these errands relate more to the wall than religion. Abbot Cellach has become obsessed with fortifying the giant wall in order to protect Kells from the Norsemen.

When Brendan discovers that he must finish the manuscript of Kells, he must stand up to his uncle and venture into the feral nightmare outside the walls. Young adults will relate to Brendan’s struggle. He loves his overprotective uncle, but he knows that he must leave the walls of his small town in order to finish the book of Kells.

The story weaves fantasy elements, such as fairies and Irish pagan lore, into a message about the importance of openness in an increasingly cosmopolitan society. While some fantasy films stumble over their own settings, the conflict between the close-minded abbot and his adventurous nephew takes center stage in Kells.

Viewers will be swept away by this story about a character desperate to imprison his monastery within its own walls and will cheer Brendan on as he escapes to the forest to find ink for the book.

A 75-minute viewing time ensures that the adventure remains fresh and fast-paced with just the right mix of humor and darkness. It would have been nice to see more facets of these intriguing characters and their stories, but that could have detracted from the gravity of the film’s message.

The hand-drawn animation cannot be commended enough. The thick lines and distinct forms of Kell’s striking character designs are reminiscent of the minimalist animator Genndy Tartakovsky’s dramatic and colorful work on Samurai Jack. Take a closer look at the lush watercolor forests and geometric dungeons in the intricate backgrounds to be amazed by the craftsmanship in Kells.

Art lovers will immediately recognize the inspiration taken from medieval scribes in various pieces, such as the monks’ flowing robes, the spiral scales and agile limbs of salmon and deer in the forest, and the bright white stars that illuminate the night sky while Brendan draws. This colorful movie will look absolutely stunning on the big screen, and the many allusions to medieval design as well as the visual motifs will warrant multiple viewings on DVD.

However, there are scenes that may be too dark for younger kids. One of these scenes portrays the pillaging of a village by devil-horned Vikings who speak in nasty growls as they stab a major character. This is a movie that may be best for older children.

Few moviegoers had seen The Secret of Kells when the nominees for Best Animated Picture were announced. Fortunately, movie fans everywhere will be in for an amazing story accompanied by visual delight as screenings of The Secret of Kells emerge in major cities throughout the U.S. this spring

Good cafes

Getting to know the area around my parents' home in the suburbs has made me appreciate one aspect of urban living: Everything is mapped out.

The notion of an undiscovered treasure in the midst of urban sprawl seems to be a total myth to me. If a place isn't listed on Google or doesn't go out of its way to appeal to consumers with good service, I will probably never hear of them. Coffeegrounds, Taft Street Coffee, Agora, Te House--all of these places that get described as insular hangouts actually WANT to be discovered, as indicated by their well-designed websites and Twitters that promote their excellent hospitality.

However, the suburban sprawl seems to be a completely different story. There's a Starbucks on every corner here, but I don't want to pay for wifi that can be had for free at home and I want my cafes to serve something more filling than a piece of over-priced bread.

If I ask around my friends or do a search on any of the countless review websites for cafe sites, dozens of locations with recent reviews, photos and filled in information will pop up around and within the loop. The story is completely different for my suburbs unfortunately--four places that weren't Starbucks showed up between Spring, Cypress and the Woodlands, and few of them had done anything to promote themselves.

So, now I'm ready with a catalog of my thoughts on various cafes north of Houston. Expect this to be updated as I wander around town:

Crepe Paris Cafe

http://www.crepepariscafe.com

16870 Stuebner Airline Road

Spring, TX 77379-6207

(281) 257-5990

This is a cozy little nook that is perfect for get-togethers and hanging out. The service is so gracious and thoughtful to all clients, with great food to boot. All in all, a fun place to relax, and it looks like they schedule community events such as karoake nights.

It has free wi-fi (ask the manager for the password), but I felt that it needed more couches and more comfortable seating in order to become a cafe where one could veg out and read for hours.

The experience was also dragged down by service that was gracious, but didn't seem to really listen to me. I ordered something off the menu, and the cashier wouldn't ring it up until I told him the menu number. Then he brought out something a little different than what I ordered. It was still delicious, but I felt like those little errors brought down the experience.

A lost slipper

Apparently a chemical engineering sophomore found this single heel "in the middle of the road" last semester.

He brought it to his friends and asked if anyone recognized this black heel, but nobody spoke up.

So now the lone Ellen Tracy heel hides behind one of the computers in Engineering Building I, waiting to be returned to its rightful owner.

We spoke a bit about who could own this shoe. It has no size information, but it looks to me like a size 8 or 7. A quick google search reveals that Ellen Tracy is a brand carried by DSW and Nordstrom--so this is most likely a $50-$120 business shoe bought by a consumer with an eye for style.

Where are you Cinderella? Are you a random student who threw off her heel after a night of clubbing? A businesswoman whose heel fell out of her suitcase? A drag queen?

Wherever you are, I can't do with a fairy tale unless it has a happy ending!

Valentine's Day

How has everyone's Valentine's Day gone? I have friends who have tons of plans and others who are totally dreading it.

Why dread a Valentine's Day without a date, though? Doesn't everyone have a little bit of love in their lives already? Think of your friends and family.

We all have fights with our family and we all have days when our friends drive us nuts, but there must be someone who picks up the phone to listen to your struggles, who always has an open Friday night for cafes and drinks, who litters your Facebook wall or Twitter with stupid inside jokes.

This isn't the kind of love that's celebrated in movies and romance novels, but I argue that people need companionship almost as much as they need love. Companionship is a valuable connection that gets lost in an upward mobile person's fast-paced life. Our culture is in love with first kisses and little black dresses and wedding rings, but romance is fleeting and insufficient.

Friends and family are the people that you can truly count on when it's time to move out of a shared apartment and you need someone to let you cry on their shoulder as you piece together a broken heart. These are bonds that are based on years of shared experience and interests, not a fickle chemical reaction.

So, don't fret if you find your Valentine's Day plans to be lacking the romance shown on the television. Instead, seize the day and celebrate the love and caring between your close friends, or maybe make some new ones from your acquaintances.

'Zot!' cartoonist leaves mark at UH--Scott McCloud interview

Hello folks, below is an article that I wrote for The Daily Cougar, my university's student newspaper.

I wrote this article after having a phone interview with famous comics scholar Scott McCloud. As someone who worked through high school at a comic book store, I was excited about meeting this famous comics scholar and creator. During our phone interview, McCloud was very funny, easy-going and passionate about turning our community on to the potential of this growing art form.

Graphic novelist Scott McCloud presented a fast-paced, frenetic visual presentation on the evolution of comic books from superhero pulp to respected art form Tuesday at the Dudley Recital Hall.

“If you have ADD, it tends to work very well. If you’re easily bored by PowerPoint presentations, you might like this. I tend to throw several hundred different ideas up and let them fly,” McCloud said. “It’s kind of a brainstorming session that I hope people will enjoy. I don’t use PowerPoint like most people do. There are very few words, no bulleted lists. Just a blizzard of pictures with words besides them about every aspect of comics that I find interesting.”

The UH Creative Writing Program sponsored the visit from McCloud, who said that his presentation explores the effect of technology on the medium and its creators.

“I touch on comics culture, the different tribes, inside of comics and the different reasons we create,” McCloud said. “I talk about visual iconography, the effect of new technology on comics and a little bit about the art form and the business when I was a lot younger.”

McCloud said that his presentation touched on graphic novelists’ growing independence and the effect of technology on comic books.

“Thanks to bookstores, thanks to the variety of different kinds of comics that became movies and thanks to the fact that we have better comics now, generally and certainly manga and anime, have something to do with this too, comics are appealing to more people,” McCloud said.

McCloud had mixed thoughts about the future of newspaper comics.

“Newspaper comics have a proud history, but it’s a history that doesn’t have to end if newspapers end,” he said. “I think the relationship between newspaper and comic strips was what we might call a marriage of convenience. I think they wound up thrown together, but the relationship between newspaper business and comic strips was always a bit uneasy.

“If comic strips are thriving on the Web, I think they might find an easier home there. I don’t think newspapers have been hospitable to comics.”
He added that the Web could be a more convenient place for artists and connoisseurs to connect.

“You don’t have to worry about getting it published or getting it shelved or getting it sold. If there’s only 12 people that want to read something on the Web, then fine; you’ll find that 12,” he said.

McCloud said that one comic on his recent reading list are Scott Pilgrim, a comedy series by Bryan Lee O’Malley about a scrappy 20-something in Toronto who must defeat his commitment-phobic girlfriend’s seven past lovers in order to win her heart.

“It’s very home-grown, and it’s very much about his home life in Canada, in places like Toronto. It’s that mixture of America and Japanese stuff that’s exciting to me,” he said. “It’s also the funniest stuff on the planet.”

McCloud also mentioned David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp, a 400-page satire about an architect going through a mid-life crisis about his work.

Comics captivated McCloud in high school and piqued his imagination about what the art form could accomplish.

“Even when I was a young reader, I was more interested in what comics could do than what comics had done, and I still am,” he said.

The force of moving furniture

Hey folks, below is an article that I wrote for The Daily Cougar, my university's student newspaper. I would like to thank seeqq.com, a blog about interior decorating, for linking to it.

Interviewing these professionals was an honor. They were all very straightforward and funny, and even gave me advice on how to protect my career from my campus apartment's bad feng shui.

College students can still harness the power of feng shui with a few easy solutions.

Proponents of feng shui claim that this traditional Chinese interior decorating method can help people harness positive energy in their homes and lead lives marked by wealth, lasting relationships and fulfillment. Feng shui consultants advise homeowners to move furniture and decorations, re-paint walls or even renovate their homes so that energy can more easily flow in a more auspicious manner.

While UH may not allow students to make radical changes, college students living in smaller apartments and dormitory rooms still have many pleasing feng shui options that can help them organize their rooms and take control of their lives.

Katherine Ashby from Feng Shui Houston said that she sometimes uses a method of feng shui that was developed for Western homes. Using this method, students can gauge the auspicious areas of their personal living spaces by standing in their doorway and seeing which areas of the room correspond to a special map known as a “ba gua,” which can be printed off of feng shui Web sites such as http://www.fastfengshui.com.

A student sharing an apartment with multiple bedrooms should apply this map to his or her personal bedroom.

Ashby advised students with roommates to focus on their side of a dormitory room. The roommate whose bed is located far away from the front door could use the ba gua from the edge of his side of the room that he crosses when he enters the room from the front door

“In the upper left-hand corner (of your space) is the wealthy area. In the right hand corner in the back is the marriage area and love and relationships,” Ashby said.

Ashby added that she can do a feng shui reading based on a complicated and older tradition that takes into account the resident’s Chinese astrological sign and his most productive compass directions for sleeping and furniture arranging.

“There is a direction that is best for money, one that’s best for health, love and relationships and that’s for protection. There are other directions. There is a direction that is the most unproductive direction of all, and at all costs they should avoid sleeping in that direction,” Ashby said. “I think everybody should know their four good directions and four bad directions. Then, they can get a little compass, like a $15 compass at the store, like at Academy or Sports Authority, and figure out their directions.”

When arranging their room according to feng shui principles, Ashby advised students to soften sharp corners and jutting, uneven furniture with soft, pleasant drapery and to be aware of their interactions with the room. Wind chimes and crystal balls can also soften harsh corners, such as the jutting entryway into Quadrangle rooms and some Cullen Oaks floor plans.

“Sometimes you’ll have a dresser or an armoire or some big piece of furniture, a bookcase, and an edge of it is jutting out into the room. If you are looking at it the whole time or it’s aimed at your back while you’re trying to study, you won’t be able to concentrate,” Ashby said.

Local certified feng shui consultant Laurie Levin also had suggestions for students.

“You can still decorate with furniture and accessories. You can choose your bedding, any type of bedside table or lamp, throw pillows,” Levin said.

Levin spoke a bit about dispersing negative energy that collects in rooms, saying that students can spritz water mixed with 20 to 30 drops of lavender or peppermint around their room or even vacuum the floor. Students who live off-campus can consider lighting incense.

Levin advised students to pay attention to the five Chinese elements when designing their room.

“The main thing is to have a balance of earth, water, metal fire and wood. Those are really the five elements in nature that make us feel most comfortable indoors,” Levin said.

Students can incorporate the elements into their decoration through many ways.

Residents of Law Residence Hall have wooden bed frames, while Cougar Place residents have the element of metal in their metallic bed frames.

Certain shapes and colors are also associated with different elements, so students can work with a consultant to decorate their rooms and even use special procedures to activate the unique properties of different accessories.

“When you don’t have a lot of space or control over your space, just having a shelf with the elements can help the “chi” in your room. When you see the shelf, it gives you a good feeling. The two in combination really help to change things in your life,” Levin said.

However, Levin warned that change comes only with effort.

“Placing simple objects is not really gonna change your life, but when you have specific intention in combination with placing, that’s going to make it significant.”