sovay | Well, we all originated in sea foam

After several missed weeks, mostly because I've been a mess, Viking Zen and I finally reconnected for Movie Night, so I brought cookies and she showed me Ponyo on the Cliff (2008).

Yes, obviously, Miyazaki, what I needed right now was a contemporary retelling of "The Little Mermaid" with Wagner and Devonian sea life and an overprotective ex-human mad scientist-magician who seems to have taken his dress cues from his wife, the red-haired, Kannon-like goddess of the sea.

No, seriously. That was exactly what I needed. I'd even spent an hour this afternoon looking through "Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea" at the Peabody Essex Museum after taking off my shoes to walk up and down in the surf at Revere Beach. (And cooked bluefish for dinner. Being denied Wiscon, I decided to be aggressively nice to myself, which means the sea. I just wasn't in any shape to do anything about it earlier in the weekend.) So much for a thoughtful post for Memorial Day, but I'm in a much better mood than I was even two days ago: still coughing myself blue and probably not helped by the smoke-haze from the wildfires in Quebec, but at least not landlocked. Maybe Eric and I will get back to Crane Beach for his birthday after all.

And on that note: happy birthday, my best cousin

gaudior, and goodnight.

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So very happy you're feeling better. Give the sea my love.

Nine

Give the sea my love.

Next time I'm near it—which I pray will be soon—I shall.

I'm glad you enjoyed Ponyo - and not an airship in sight!

I'm glad you enjoyed Ponyo - and not an airship in sight!

My experience of Miyazaki so far has been Spirited Away (2001), The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), and Ponyo. I think I've missed all the airships!

(But I've loved all of them, which has to count for something.)

If you've not yet seen it, please seek out My Neighbour Totoro which, along with Spirited Away, is IMHO his best. You won't regret it.

Thank you!

And yay, you feeling better, and yay, the ocean! And dear gods, if I had realized you hadn't seen Ponyo yet, we would have done something about that! The movie has "Made for

sovay written all over it.

Grin.

And yay, you feeling better, and yay, the ocean!

I can't do another summer where I barely see the sea. This year I'm going back to Maine.

And dear gods, if I had realized you hadn't seen Ponyo yet, we would have done something about that! The movie has "Made for sovay" written all over it.

If it had stopped after the first scene with the plankton-fall and the trilobites and Ponyo's school of sisters and Fujimoto flash-conversing with the squid, I would still have loved it. But then it kept going, and not always in the directions I expected, and this made me happier still. Thematically, I think I like best that it's not just a retelling of Andersen's fairy tale, it's an argument with it.¹ The original is a thesis on the impossibility of love across boundaries. Ponyo is an affirmation of that love, whether separated by species or work schedules or philosophy or generations. (Will not insert here entire essay about parenting in Ponyo, except to note that that Lisa drinks beer, drives like a speed freak, yells at her husband via signal lamp, and she's a great mother: this is cool. I could imagine versions of the film where her decision to leave Sosuke and Ponyo during the storm was evidence of her negligence as a parent; here it's the contrast to Fujimoto's constantly fretting overprotection, literally keeping his daughters in a bubble while Lisa trusts her son to stay where he's safe. Fujimoto blows a gasket over Ponyo being rescued from a glass jar by a human. Lisa doesn't even blink when her son's new best friend runs around the house shouting "Ham!") But it was also full of beautiful moments, in terms of art, in terms of character, both at once, and ~~I would so totally consider cosplaying Fujimoto if I were redheaded and a baritone~~ you and

rushthatspeaks were quite right in your assessment. Now I need to show it to my cousin Tristen.

1. I believe one could also make a case for it as a kind of Tempest: although if Prospero's Books is Miranda with the least agency ever, Ponyo is the most. Her father's great with Dipnorhynchus, but when it comes to children, Fujimoto is in way over his head.

I'm delighted that you're feeling well enough to do these things, that you got to visit the sea, and that the movie pleased you. Peabody Essex is a brilliant museum--I'll have to get back there, one of these days.

I hope you're coughing less soon--I thought of you when I heard about the southward-drifting smoke from the fires in Québec, and I'm glad it's not making your condition worse.

Happy birthday to your cousin!

I hope you're coughing less soon--I thought of you when I heard about the southward-drifting smoke from the fires in Québec, and I'm glad it's not making your condition worse.

Eh. It rained torrentially last night and today, which I think has knocked most of the ash out of the air. Thank you.

Glad the torrential rain was of use. You're welcome.

I'm sorry you didn't get to go. I hope soon there's a time when you're not ill and can come visit. :(

I hope soon there's a time when you're not ill and can come visit.

Tell me what your summer looks like. I miss you.

Well, there's ALA in the last weekend in June. I bet Sean could get you a badge if you ask him -- I think the deadline is today -- and you could spend time with us then. I think June is full otherwise, though, and we're usually away to Vermont for 4th of July, but should you like to come during the week I work from home on Tuesday and Friday to be with the Tiny Imperator.

We miss you, too. Come and be drooled on. Oh, and we don't have the appalling little dog any more. We really did take him to a farm in the country.

Well, we all originated in sea foam

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