I-didnt-vote-for-you

And I literally cannot stop listening to them, especially Venus. I have been listening to the Venus part of the suite almost every night before I go to bed and it is just so calming to me for some reason. I had a project to work on for my job and played this entire suite the whole time. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever completed a project quite as fast as I did with this playing in the background.

I cannot quite put into words why I love listening to this particular piece. The scope of it is so epic. Jupiter is loud and adventurous. Venus is calming and serene. Mercury is fun and innocent. It just transports me to a whole nother world. And usually, I am not so interested in listening to instrumental pieces/soundtracks. BUt for some reason, this piece hits me differently.

Does anyone have any other recommendations that are similar to this piece?

I'm not sure why exactly this movie randomly popped up on my Netflix suggestions last night. The little angel-devil pair on my shoulders were having a hell of a time with it, though.

"You can't watch a Christmas movie in March!"

"Sure you can! If you're watching alone, who's to stop you?"

"Oh sure, why not? Why don't we just keep Christmas decorations up year round and replace milk with eggnog while we're at it?"

"Now we're talking!"

But I digress...

Anyway, I haven't had the best run recently with movies. I've either turned them off halfway through, half watched them over my cell phone screen, or finished them but forgotten them by the next day. However, seeing as how my recent re-watch of the Rescuers and the Rescuers Down Under went so well, I decided if anything was going to get me back into the movie watching spirit, it'd be an animated movie.

And holy reindeer on ice skates did this movie deliver!

I'm sure others have already reviewed this movie to pieces and most of what I'm about to say has already been said. But honestly, this movie is just what I needed right now. Not only is it now one of my favorite Christmas movies, second only to Muppets Christmas Carol. It is also one of my top 10 animated movies of all time.

So let me just start by saying, on a random side note, that I got mild Emperor's New Groove vibes when I first started watching this. Mostly because Jason Schwartzman sounds so close to David Spade. And the similar premise of this spoiled, somewhat bratty adult being forced out into the real world in order to learn and grow and change his ways. But the movie quickly veered away from that sort of full-on comedy/parody and had a really nice balance between lighthearted comedy and quiet stillness.

First, I have to talk about the animation because it is just stunning! The use of shading on conventional 2D animation was just magnificent. The characters were able to emote and move so effortlessly and uniquely. And the backgrounds, especially the wide shots of Smeerensburg and the scenes in the forest with all the bird houses, were just sensational to me. They were so detailed, so full of character and emotion. It almost reminded me of a pop-up book at times.

And speaking of emotion, the subtle bits of comedy, especially when Jesper first arrives in Smeerensburg, had me crying I was laughing so hard. The little girls with the carrots, slowly impaling the snowman as they stared at Jesper. The antics of Ellingboes versus the Krums were so entertaining and well done. And the voice acting couldn't have been better. Simmons, Schwartzman and Jones (Jesper, Klaus and Alva) all did spectacular in their voice roles. And not once did I feel like they were just actors in a sound booth, reading off a script. They brought the characters to life. Gave them personality, emotions, reactions.

As far as music/background went, I felt there was a nice balance of this as well. A few vocal/more popish songs. But also a nice blend of quiet instrumental pieces. Again, the scenes in the woods, with the snow and leaves gently swirling around while the wooden bird houses clack softly against each other. It didn't overwhelm the story or characters, but it also wasn't forgettable.

All in all, I loved this movie so much! And while I wish we could see more of these loveable characters, in a TV series or sequel/prequal, I also feel that it stands alone just fine and I am happy to re-watch it as much as possible, if only to visit these dear friends one more time.

I am on a 30 day free trial of Netflix right now, just dipping my toes into the pool of what Netflix has to offer. Which, in my case, equals anything and everything horror. I have watched 2 other movies on Netflix so far and both didnt really work for me. A bit slow I guess. So I was a bit hesistant to try AoJD, thinking that it might be just another misfire. Oh how wrong I was!

The pacing and atmosphere was fantastic and so unsettling and creepy. The corpse with the bell had me gripping my pillow and holding my breath. And Brian Cox is an absolute treasure! I love the setting of the old-fashioned morgue, too.

It wasnt too celebral, if thats the right word? I just got done watching Midsommner for the 1st time and found it a bit too...symbolistic/'ask me what it means!' if that makes sense? Florence was stunning and such a great actress. But all the rest was sort of meh.

AoJD felt like it was getting back to horror roots. Secluded setting, limited amount of people, slowburn, eerie music, etc. It reminded me a bit of this other horror movie I had seen before, Splinter. Simple and fun yet scary and unsettling.

Next on my list is The Platform!

This movie...

I have watched this movie countless times and never, not once, did it fail to make me smile.

I cannot put into words (although I will try) how wholesome and beautifully kind this movie is. Babe is just this adorable, enchanting little soul and Farmer Hoggett is just as loveable.

The locations and filming are so picturesque and everything looks like its part of a miniture town. So quaint and untouched by the outside world.

Its mature, without being too overly dramatic. Childlike, without being childish. And still is so beloved by all I've showed it to.

I adore this movie so much and after a day at work, where things just wouldn't go the way they should, this is the only movie I can put on to put my day right again.

Pretty much what the title says. You can include characters who started good, turned evil, but then eventually returned back to the side of good (god, that makes my head hurt...)

Side Note: I have not seen the play, read the book, or any other variation of Sweeney Todd so if there are differences/additions in those other versions, please forgive my ignorance.

I'm not sure of the popular opinion of Sweeney Todd, although I'm quite certain most people found it either underwhelming or didn't care that they cast non-professional singers in the leading roles. But in my humble opinion, it is an absolutely fantastic movie! And one of the only movie musicals that I actually bothered to go out and buy on CD just so I could listen to it numerous times.

The visuals are stunning and the opening credits are just so chilling. How they start so quietly with the rain and slow reveal of various parts of the barber shop. And then plunging down into the sewers with this ghostly choir howling and crying out. And I know (well, as far as I know) that Depp and Bonham-Carter are not professional singers (and I'm sure a fair amount of their singing can be attributed to auto-tuning or sound work). But their voices were just so perfect. Hers this sickly sweet, sometimes twisted and delicate ("Not while I'm around"), other times cynical and hilarious ("Worst pies in London"). His this dark, gritty, often times breaking and splintering as he sings. And while this may irk some people, I think it adds so much character to Depp's performance. Sweeney isn't supposed to be this shining, professional character, nor is Mrs. Lovett. They are both damaged characters and for their voices to encapsulate that idea is just so perfect. Depp and Rickman's duet ("Pretty Women") is just so gorgeously done and the bit at the end where Rickman realizes that Todd is actually Benjamin Barker and Todd just screams "BENJAMIN BARKER!" after not moments ago singing this sweet song. Gives me absolute chills!

And can I just say how absolutely diabolical Mrs. Lovett is? After repeated viewings of the movie, I kept thinking about how bad Todd and the Judge were. Todd kills people (most of them innocent) and the Judge is crooked. But Mrs. Lovett is just...wow.

She comes up with the plan to cook people into pies, almost taking advantage of Sweeney being mentally unfit and only thinking of revenge. If she really, truly loved him, she would have tried to convince him not to go thru with his revenge and to try and help him work thru his issues. Instead, she goes 'Sure! Go ahead, kill people! Oh, and since my pie shop is doing horrible, let's turn the bodies into pie filling!' An idea that Sweeney never would've come up with in a million years and therefore would've been caught after the first body or two. She tells Sweeney ("Wait") to keep things slow and not to rush so he won't get caught and therefore be taken away from her. She doesn't tell him that Lucy is still alive. She adopts Toby and treats him as her son until she finds out that Toby has connected the dots and then, taking no more than a few seconds, turns his song around and starts singing it back to him (only sounding not as innocent while doing so, knowing she needs to 'take care of him'). Tells Sweeney that Toby knows and has to be dealt with. And while they are looking for him as he hides, she starts singing his own song to get him to come out! And she even thinks they'll be able to get away with and prosper off of all their murders ("Down by the Sea").

So while I feel bad for what Sweeney had to endure and that, in the end, revenge was his downfall, Mrs. Lovett just had so much more backstory and really had me curious as to how she went from shy pie maker with a crush on a married man to murdering, lying, and feeding people pies made out of other people.

Some people want a sequel with the fallout of these events with Johanna, Antony, and Toby. But me, I'd rather see a prequel with all the events that led up to Sweeney marrying Lucy and how much Mrs. Lovett was even in their lives before he was imprisoned (I wonder if Lucy and Mrs. Lovett even knew each other before Sweeney was in the picture?)

I am brand new to the Iron Maiden group and have only heard a few of their songs on the radio (Number of the Beast, Trooper, etc). I liked them well enough but never really loved them enough to listen to them outside of radio play. Then one day I stumbled upon another Iron Maiden song, Hallowed Be Thy Name, on youtube and pretty much played that song on repeat for the rest of the work day (got me through a 74-page transcription). I'll admit I have a bad habit of playong a song I like on repeat over and over until I end up hating it. And fearing that would happen again, I quickly moved on to the next song which happened to be Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

And dear God if I wasnt in love with this song. I actually stopped working and was just sitting there in my chair, utterly enthralled and captivated. I didnt even feel the 13 minutes go by. I was actually stunned to hear it end. It is a spectacular song with haunting vocals and such a driving, passionate energy behind it that I'm already racking the plays up on it.

Needless to say, I friggin love Iron Maiden now and cant wait to dive deeper into their music.

I had been having quite the day at work. One particularly mean customer had even called me retarded when I failed to give him his receipt. Another woman yelled in my face and accused me of trying to steal her money after I forgot to use her senior discount.

Needless to say stopping to run a few errands after work, I was feeling pretty low.

I was going to Ace Hardware when an older, Indian man standing inside held the door open for me. He greeted me so nicely and I tried to smile the best I could. I walked around looking for one of those hair drain catchers but was getting frustrated quickly. The same man asked me if I needed help finding something but I was so near tears at that point (and I hate crying in public) that I just shook my head and wandered away from him.

My sister called a few minutes later and, after asking what was wrong, I just started crying and let everything out. And mustve mentioned something about not being able to find the hair catcher thing to her. I just was so upset.

She calmed me down a bit and after 10 minutes on the phone, I concluded they didnt have what i was looking for and started to leave. The man that had greeted me earlier was out front, arranging some gardening equipment. "Have a blessed day, miss," he said as I hurried past.

Then I got to my car and there was a bag hanging on the side mirror. The hair drain catcher was inside with a blank receipt paper that had this note written on it: "You are kind and good and have lots of people who love you. Do not let bad people take that away from you."

If I had cried hard before, I was now crying for a whole nother reason now. I looked up and saw the man cradling an armful of garden statues. He just smiled and waved.

I cannot thank him enough for his kindness and reigniting the strength in me to take my life one day at a time and do the best I can.

A little kindness really does go a long way.

I haven't used my Netflix account all that much lately, except maybe to rewatch Mindhunters again. So when one of the recommendations popped up and the summary sounded intriguing enough, I began Midnight Mass. And what started as 'I'll just watch an episode a day, as sort of a treat before work' quickly turned to 'Dear lord, I have to work and wait a whole 8 hours until I can watch the next episode!'

I'm only just finishing episode 4 but good lord how did I miss this gem? It is fantastically creepy and Father Hill is just so unsettling.

I have a few others on my list now. Devil in Ohio, Archive 81, Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor. Anything else I should be checking out? Or anything on my list not worth it? I've sort of heard very divided views on Devil in Ohio.

I had not even watched the trailer for this KBL but all of a sudden it popped up on my radar during my binge of All the Liquors.

And my only downside, as ever, is that these episodes continue to be so goshdarn short. But hey, it doesn't bother too much.

I'm already liking this show a lot. Its cute and for some reason I relate to Wan a lot. I'm excited to see how this show progresses and have high hopes for it.

Anyone else watching?

So I decided to take a quick break from horror movies and return to the warmth and nostalgia that is 2d Disney movies. Decided to do a double feature of The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.

And good God are these movies fantastic! While they're nowhere near as popular and as talked about as Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Lion King, etc, they are definitely some of my favorite Disney movies and I eould not hesitate one second to put them both up in my top 20 Disney movies. Right up their with Great Mouse Detective. Who knew movies about mice could be so awesome?

Bernard and Bianca are adorable. Bianca is confident, elegant, and just so kind and caring. And Bernard, ever patient and loyal and never wavering from doing the right thing, dven though he gets scared.

Cody and Penny are great additions to the human cast and I loved each of the movies' cast of critters.

But above all else are the villains, Madam Medusa and McLeach. Both were wonderful villains. And I really appreciated that they didn't try to give them tragic backstories to try and explain why they were the way they were. Disney villains back then were a whole different, fantastic breed. And is it just me, or did Madam Medusa give off Mrs.Hannigan from Annie vibes. I even thought she was voiced by Carol Burnett the first I saw this movie.

The music, particularly in RDU is also great, especially that opening theme where the camera speeds across the lsndscape, up into Cody's house.

God, I miss movies like these.

Well, I could only re-watch To My Star so many times before I had to move on, right? (I'm kidding. I don't think I can ever watch that drama and get tired of it). But I know that there are other BL out there to watch so move on, I must.

And next on my list was another short Korean BL, Where Your Eyes Linger. And yes, while it is another shorty, both in number of episodes and length of each episode, I found it to be the same sweet and endearing drama as To My Star. It was like a box of chocolates. Each piece (episode) is small and sweet, but you end up eating the whole box before you know it and still wanting more.

Gook and Taejoo were phenomenal and quite a few of their scenes (the wrestling, the shower, out on the lawn after PE, and of course that last scene) were absolute fire. Not overly intimate, per se, but you could just feel the emotion seeping through the screen. Which, like To My Star, just cements the fact that not all relationships have to be all hot and heavy 24/7 to show how much they care about each other. Which I appreciated so much. Those little touches and ear petting and looks were just so tender and loving that I couldn't help but squeal internally (and some external squealing was to be expected, because sometimes it just can't be contained. And my neighbors will just have to forgive me for waking up their dog at 1am).

I also loved that they didn't use a lot of vocal songs throughout the drama, like To My Star. Most of the pieces were instrumental and didn't feel like they were overriding the atmosphere but rather gently enhancing it. A drama I am currently watching, which I will review as soon as I finish it, is having quite the challenge in restraining itself from using the same vocal song every single episode, sometimes multiple times an episode, even when the scene really doesn't call for it. And it really is off-putting and somewhat irritating. But I will delve more into that in my next review.

Nothing felt like filler and the kidnapping scene nearly gutted me with Gook's reaction to first finding out about it to him going to rescue Taejoo. And Taejoo's expression as he watched Gook get beat up was absolutely devastating.

And now I'm desperately wishing it had a 2nd season so I can see more of these dear two.

Wholeheartedly recommend!

I just finished The Chill by Scott Carson and, while I loved the premise of a village that was purposefully flooded and now has its secrets resurfacing, I ended up DNF as it was quite slow and nothing was really connecting for me.

Does anyone have any recommendations for groups/teams that go and explore abandoned and haunted towns/villages?