28 Nov 2009 :: The Best of Thanksgiving
In a broad appeal to the world of generalizations, all should try and realize everyone has something they keep hidden, at least on some level. I can only admit to being somewhat similar to this generalization, but there is a loosely guarded secret that I feel like I should share; I love Thursday morning.
Somehow the world changed the unraveling of time and calendars to give me a reason to really anticipate the coming of Thursday morning, and it made Thanksgiving memorable, on a stupid, superficial level.
When I was working at the Oregonian, Shawn Levy watched "Howl's Moving Castle," and really liked it. Given that it fell into a generic "anime" category, I was skeptical, but decided to watch it anyway. I certainly did like it, but wasn't so impressed with it that I would say I was in love with the film. It left this ache that I can't describe, but left me wanting to see others- I then bought or rented many of the same films by Hiyao Miyazaki, the director for Howl's.
Since then I've rolled through a lot of anime in an opportunistic fashion. Much of it is well done- Steamboy, Cowboy Bebop, Akira, Vampire Hunter D and Grave of the Fireflies are all fantastic. Everything by Miyazaki is as well- most notably Howl's and Princess Mononoke, both of which are top five films in my world.
Given this absolute fascination with the genre that combines incredible highs with terribly embarrassing and mind numbingly stupid shows, I watch new things when I can, usually leading to me getting really irritated in the first two episodes and walking away.
A year or two ago, Sam and I were bored and watched "Naruto" on hulu. It was terrible in a lot of ways, kinda good in another. I ended up getting hooked to a show with over a hundred episodes to watch- and I did, often staying up until 6am in attempt to finish story arcs.
Now I'm in the most recent format: "Naruto Shippuden," which releases most Thursdays. Sometimes I wake up early in the Thursday AM just to watch it and fall back asleep until I need to get up. Last Thursday they skipped a week in anticipation of a big event, meaning I would wake up on Thanksgiving and have an hour long episode, which I would watch before doing anything.
I did exactly that, and it was awesome. |
