Girl Detective

Hellboy II is a crazy visual feast from Guillermo del Toro, who also directed Pan’s Labyrinth. I was mesmerized again and again: the tooth fairies, troll market, the Miyazaki-influenced elemental, and more. The story is fine, if a bit thin. Selma Blair’s Liz has an unfortunate haircut and fashion sense. But the mix of humor, horror, and the fantastic made for a very fun film.

Geekiana: From his bio at IMDB: Doug Jones played Abe Sapien in both Hellboy and Hellboy II. His dialogue was dubbed in the first one by David Hyde Pierce, who declined a credit because he felt it would detract from Jones’ excellent performance. Jones spoke his own dialogue in Golden Army, and played multiple characters, as he did in Pan’s Labyrinth. Jones was the villain in the Emmy-nominated “Hush” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now, THESE are what young-adult graphic novels for girls should be. I have been disappointed again and again by DC’s Minx books, but I highly recommend Salamander Dream and Chiggers by Hope Larson, author/artist of Gray Horses, which I also enjoyed. Larson’s books are beautifully illustrated stories about young girls coming of age. They have elements of nature and magical realism that called to mind the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Like those, Larson’s books are about and for pre- and early adolescent girls, but able to be appreciated by adults as well, which is what characterized really good YA fiction, to my mind.

Salamander Dream begins with 8yo Hailey, who explores the woods and hopes to meet her friend Salamander and hear a story. As Hailey grows older, she sees Salamander less frequently. The story, of growing up and away from the magical friends of childhood, has been told many times. But Larson’s art style and combination of words and pictures make it new and vibrant.

In Chiggers, Abby returns to summer camp, but it’s not a completely happy experience. She struggles with insecurities about her friends, annoyances with her bunkmate(s), and shyness around a boy she likes. Her old friends feel distant, and she’s not sure how she feels about the new girl. In straightforward black and white, Larson recalls the emotional ebbs and flows of early adolescence, and depicts a summer camp experience (complete with instructions for card games and campfire activities) both bitter and sweet, as in real life. Chiggers is something more, though, because some of Abby’s flights of imagination are beautifully drawn and lend an element of magic to the mundane.

Geekiana: Larson is married to Bryan Lee O’Malley, writer/artist of the very funny Scott Pilgrim series, which I love.

And so is his geek initiation. Last night was a pretty typical night in our house. We put the boys in bed by 8:30pm, then my husband G. Grod and I repaired to the basement to watch television, which is about all we feel up to after wrangling the boys (2 and 4) into bed. Earlier this week, SciFi reran a few Doctor Who episodes from Season 1 that introduced Captain Jack Harkness (not yet of Torchwood), as well as references to the phrase that ended last Friday’s US airing of “Turn Left.”

It is not unusual while we’re watching to hear the pitter patter of little feet overhead on our creaky hardwood floors. G. Grod and I take turns to go up and tell 4yo Drake to go back to bed. He’s usually grabbing some toy cars to take upstairs. He calls them his “contestants,” a la PBS’ Fetch with Ruff Ruffman. I’ve learned to search his bed after he’s asleep to remove the cars. More times than I care to count, G. Grod and I have been startled awake in the wee small hours by the sound of a Matchbox car falling out of Drake’s bed onto the hardwood floor.

Last night, though, all was quiet. We watched the two-episodes that ended Season 1 of Dr. Who, and that had some pretty dramatic events. G. and I were discussing them afterwards, when Drake appeared in the hallway of our basement, with a please-don’t-yell-at-me-for-being-awake-because-look-how-cute-I-am! smile on his face. We admonished him for still being awake, when he got a grumpy look on his face, crossed his arms in front and moved them up and down, as if he were in a hip-hop video.

“What,” he enunciated slowly, “was that city flying across the sky?”

G. Grod and I exchanged a look. Drake clarified.

“That building, I mean.”

“How long have you been watching, there?” G. Grod asked with some concern.

A quick interrogation proved he’d watched the entirety of the last, pretty scary episode, and he had many questions.

“What were those things? With bumps?”

“Daleks, Drake.”

“And that thing with one eye, it said it couldn’t die. Hey, I made a rhyme! But, what did it mean?”

“Um, that it thought it would live forever.”

We shooed him up to bed. He fell asleep quickly, I removed the cars from his bed.

I think we’re going to have to get a motion detector in our basement. Dr. Who is one thing, but I’m thinking of renting Apocalypse Now sometime soon. Yikes.

It’s not hype if it’s true; Dark Knight is the best new film I’ve seen this year.

Unfortunately, star Christian Bale appears to be in some trouble.

At The Edge of the American West, a Cookie Monster clip from The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert is upset that cookies are no longer the number one snack of children in the US. He blames Cookie Monster, who comes to defend himself. Letter of the Day on Sesame Street, his appearance on NPR, and now this; Cookie is definitely my favorite monster.

Thanks to my friend Blogenheimer for the heads up.

(Mostly unrelated, other than they all interested me)

When to wear sunscreen? Almost always. (Sheesh. Next they’ll tell us to wear it to bed.) (Link from The Morning News)

How to store bread? Only for a day or two, loosely in plastic, or in ceramic.

You can too wash mushrooms!

Josh Whedon’s internet comedy, Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog, is coming July 15, 2008. (Preview here. Link from Everybody Loves Saturday Night)

At Where the Hell is Matt, Dancing 2008. I loved this. It made me laugh and smile. And I bet 4yo Drake is going to love it, too.

Link from Jim Walsh at MinnPost and Morning News

This graphic novel, Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom, reminded me why I stopped buying individual issues of Hellboy, the darkly humorous horror comic. Publisher Dark Horse does a fabulous job of collecting them, and author/artist Mike Mignola adds lots of interesting extras. The first short story, “Pancakes”, featured a two-year-old Hellboy, and made me laugh out loud. And the last story, “Box Full of Evil,” not only gives interesting background on Hellboy (those aren’t goggles on his head) and contains some of the funniest panels of series, I think:

Hellboy: Hey…what’s that in the corner?
Abe Sapien: Is that a monkey?
Hellboy: HE’S GOT A GUN!
Monkey: [BLAM BLAM]

The days of overdue books, hefty library fines and interminable waits for best-sellers are over in Chicago.

The city of Chicago just got a big tech upgrade to its library system. Patrons can now reserve and renew books online, resulting in fewer overdue books. (Link from Blog of a Bookslut)

Not, to gloat, but we’ve had that at the Minneapolis Public Library for ages. (Suck it, Chicago! Heh, heh. Just kidding.) It’s a great system. I hate to burst the bubble, though, but there are still interminable waits for bestsellers. For example, I’m 116 (of 163) on the request list for the Into the Wild dvd, and I placed the request in January.

Have you visited your local library lately?

Minnesota is home to many famous writers, many of whom aren’t even on that list, like Kate DiCamillo, Faith Sullivan, and Alison McGhee. Minnesota is also home to many great comics writers and illustrators, as this article at MinnPost notes.

I figure it’s the tough winter that makes a happy home for artists.

Remember a few weeks ago when I celebrated a mother’s trifecta? Well, yesterday’s good fortune went on from there. Uninterrupted night’s sleep; hot coffee and pastry for breakfast; time to read in peace; kids playing independently so I could practice yoga; a double espresso (our machine’s still in the shop. Sigh) on the way to the park/pool; kids left pool without a fight; nap, reading and writing time; grilled Caesar, Duck confit and grilled duck on a date with my husband at St. Paul’s new Strip Club; browsing at the bookstore without buying; excellent chocolate desserts from Nick and Eddie’s excellent pastry chef. It was lovely.

Then last night was interrupted by 2yo Guppy crying for water in the wee small hours, and he was awake before 6am demanding love, attention and books. And today’s trip to the pool involved fights on either end. So life is more like usual. But yesterday was really great.

I’ve begun to reread Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels, prompted by my recent viewing and reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare is but one of many sources the author draws on in this sprawling tale of Morpheus, the King of Dreams. Milton, mythology, and magic are a few of the others. The series of 76 total issues has been collected in ten graphic novels.

Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes.

You say that dreams have no power here? Tell me, Lucifer Morningstar–ask yourselves, all of you–what power would hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of heaven?

The first volume plants the seeds for both the mood of the series, and many of its later stories. Morpheus is captured and imprisoned for decades. Once released, he seeks revenge and to regain his power. It’s sometimes hard going, but the whole is well worth the reading. Don’t stop before issue #8; you’ll miss something wonderful.

Sandman: The Doll’s House. From the introduction by Clive Barker:

There is a wonderful, willful quality to this mix: Mr. Gaiman is one of those adventurous creators who sees no reason why his tales shouldn’t embrace slapstick comedy, mysterical musings, and the grimmest collection of serial kills this side of Death Row.

The tales diverge, and Rose Walker, an American teenager with a peculiar provenance, becomes the heart of the story, with Morpheus appearing on the fringes.

Sandman: Dream Country. Of four standalone short stories, my favorite is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, based on and around Shakespeare’s play, and beautifully illustrated by Charles Vess. It was the first, and last, comic book to win a World Fantasy Award. (They changed the rules for the award so it would not happen again.)

Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.

May and June mark several personal anniversaries:

10 years ago: I moved to Minnesota and met friends Big Brain and Blogenheimer, and the future Mrs. Blogeheimer.
8 years ago, I began practicing yoga. Still can’t do a headstand or crow pose–8 years of humility.
6 years ago I started blogging, after my friend M. Giant told me about his blog, Velcrometer.
4 years ago, I resigned from my job to stay home with my son Drake, who’ll be 5yo in August.

All good things.

On a whim, I unearthed my Hellboy graphic novels: Seed of Destruction, Wake the Devil, The Chained Coffin, and Conqueror Worm. I was surprised to find that one of them, Conqueror Worm, I’d never actually read. They were all a lot of fun. Hellboy is a demon with a mysterious past who grew up to be the “World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator.” He tracks down monsters, demons and their ilk. Creator Mike Mignola has a distinctive art style, oft imitated and perfectly suited to his pulp-y monster comics. The cast of characters is fascinating and keeps growing with the stories. Hellboy is for fans of old-time monster movies like Bride of Frankenstein, and newer works that are scary, sharp and funny.

From TV guru Sepinwall, a video of one of my favorite bands that references one of my favorite television shows: Old 97’s sing “Dance with Me” while a Battlestar geek pursues Tricia Helfer.

Spoilers below, as I discuss who won and who didn’t.

I found a lot of drama in the finale. I was surprised and impressed to see Lisa show us the chef she could be–not only getting along with her sous chef, but psyched to work with a pro, doing things she’d done badly before, but doing them well, like the prawns, the soup and the dessert, and overall having a sense of calm, and finally deserved sense of self confidence. She almost won; I don’t think ANYONE saw that coming .

I cry foul that they were required to do dessert. Dessert should always be extra credit for a chef.

I felt terrible for Richard. He’s a much more talented chef than his meal showed, and I think he put too much time into being clever (e.g., the dish titles) and not enough into making just really good food. His comment that he choked impressed me with its integrity, as it did Ted Allen. He didn’t bluster, he didn’t get defensive, he spoke out honestly in a way that probably was to Stephanie’s advantage.

Stephanie won for her pork, and in spite of her dessert. But I think her meal and her win show what we’ve seen all along–she’s a calm, steady, skilled chef, who impressed quietly with small innovations like the pistachios that Ted couldn’t stop talking about, rather than with big ones like Richard’s nitrogen and smoker. That she only won the one quickfire was an index of this, too. As far as I can say without having tasted her food, she deserved the win, and I think it’s weird that so many in the blogosphere assume shenanigans behind the scenes in the judging.

So, to Stephanie: good luck and well done! I hope to visit Chicago and eat in your restaurant someday.

To Richard: you are an honorable person and a great chef. You had a bad night, but you will have many more great ones.

To Lisa: you finally showed some positive spirit and some consistent cooking. Keep moving in that direction, and good luck.

Fables is one of the consistently best comic books in any genre. A worthy successor to fantasy comic Sandman, by Neil Gaiman, Fables is the ongoing saga of fairytale characters in our “mundy” world, and their ongoing struggle against The Adversary, a powerful Fable intent on conquest. “The Good Prince” stars one of the series’s most sympathetic supporting characters, janitor Ambrose Flycatcher, better known as The Frog Prince. For years he subsisted in a barely conscious fugue in order to forget how he saw his family killed and home stolen by armies of The Adversary. As he returns to himself and faces the truth, he is presented with a quest, which he faces without flinching.

“The Good Prince” is a well-nigh perfect story. Strong characters, powerful story elements–villains, love, intrigue, chivalry, redemption–and beautiful art combine in a compelling whole. I had problems with the previous Fables graphic novel, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, I read, but not with this one, which I enjoyed tremendously.

these awesome mugs from Penguin. At about 40 dollars US apiece for mug and shipping, I will have to admire them from across the ocean. (Link from The Kitchn)

Justice League: The New Frontier is the direct-to-dvd adaptation of the DC Comics graphic novel collection of Darwyn Cooke’s excellent miniseries. Set at the dawn of comics’ Silver Age, the film visits each of the members of what would become the Justice League: Wonder Woman, Superman, Barry Allen (Flash), Martian Manhunter, Batman, and Hal Jordan (Green Lantern).

This is a standalone tale that introduces each main character so they are familiar to comic-book regulars, but also accessible to newcomers. This is not a movie for small children; it has several scenes of death and violence. The heroes come together when faced with the growing threat of something known only as The Center. As subtext, they also struggle to find themselves and their place in the postwar United States. There’s a good balance of humor and drama. The voice casting is excellent, particularly David Boreanaz as Hal Jordan. There’s also a well-done feature in the extras on the history of the Justice League and its characters. For older children, of all ages. (Heh.)

My sister Ruthie sent me a card with this message for Mothers Day, and it’s so true. Today I’ve cleaned up vomit, diarrhea, and snot, none of which was mine. This is not a glamour gig.

But there are compensations, however brief, like the snuggling of a small, warm head against my shoulder while we read three new finds from the used bookstore:

The Guest by James Marshall
Fox, Outfoxed by James Marshall
Minnie and Moo: Night of the Living Bed by Denys Cazet

For myself, I was delighted to find a slipcased set of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights by the Misses Charlotte and Emily Bronte, with engravings by Fritz Eichenberg. From 1945, they’re fragile, but lovely to look at. They’ll display nicely on my recently created Bronte/Austen shelf, and bring me much bookish geekjoy.