Ironically, it must be said, to make sense of all this grief

[sovay]

Rabbit belated rabbit! It has been pouring all day, which I hope is cutting down on the wildfire particulates. Physically I am not doing so hot, hence spending my time on the couch with a bowl of ramen and a forbearing cat. Yesterday I watched my niece and her best friends run back and forth between their houses with a trio of squawking walkie-talkies; in the evening my mother and I showed her the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–08). As soon as Aang cracked out of the iceberg with no knowledge of the last hundred years' war, she said with the confidence of trope savvy, "So he's the Avatar." She already wants an otter penguin. My mother remains team sky bison. I am sort of amused that the Criterion Channel's July collection of Elvis movies does not include the one I actually want to see, although I have heard good things about King Creole (1958). Have a forbearing cat who isn't even investigating my soft-boiled egg.

Comments

[nineweaving]

Excellent cat! Splendid niece!

Criterion seems to have added a leaf-load of Méliès (all very brief, so heavy only in aggregate): besides the iconic A Trip to the Moon, they have dozen others, including The Kingdom of the Fairies and The Merry Frolics of Satan and The Inventor Crazybrains and his Wonderful Airship, and a Breton-inspired The Witch.

Nine

[sovay]

Excellent cat! Splendid niece!

I appreciate them mightily!

and a Breton-inspired The Witch.

Did you watch that one already? How was it?

(We watched The Inventor Crazybrains and his Wonderful Airship!)

[nineweaving]

Did you watch that one already?

Not yet! It's my carrot for tonight.

Nine

[nineweaving]

Pretty awesome! Hand painted. The witch is played by a guy in a magnificent maroon mantle. Mostly she hops about on her broom like a rachitic grasshopper, but there's a brief glorious sequence of her sailing across a bluegreen sky. (Relatively: it's the sky that's reeling backward.) I love that the troubadour is cod 15th-century but the rescued princess is more or less Lillie Langtry. I love the menhirs and the translucent ghosts and the paper monsters (especially the cockatrice) and the witch's Munchkin-like minions and the druid with a golden sickle. Ça vaut la visite.

Nine

[sovay]

I love the menhirs and the translucent ghosts and the paper monsters (especially the cockatrice) and the witch's Munchkin-like minions and the druid with a golden sickle.

I'm so glad!