Damn, I love this movie

Reasons why I cry watching Kiki’s Delivery Service

1. I wish I lived in that world — world where magic realism exists, hardships are eventually solved, people are friendly and the only douchebags are other girls who don’t appreciate their grandma’s baking, and I can live in a quaint town on the edge of a beautiful sea. And live rent-free.

2. When Kiki says, “If I lose my magic, I’ll lose absolutely everything.” It make me think of where I’m at; I’ve given up on music and film. If I fail at writing, what will I have left? I’ll have exhausted all possibilities and be left with nothing.

3. The music. Cue music, cue tears.

4. Kiki’s trying and failing to fly after losing her powers. I’ve done so many different things and failed, over and over again. I’m still writing and failing.

5. I really, really wish I could live in the film and not in this world.

Finale

This is what resignation of fate sounds like.

 

Take me far away…

and I’ll never look back…

Kiki’s Delivery Service — “Message of Rouge”

Watched Kiki’s Delivery Service on the big screen tonight. There’s something about the worlds of Miyazaki’s films that feel so nostalgic and yet timeless at the same time, like children’s books where you wish you lived in. I felt that feeling of longing, of wishing I lived in Kiki’s calm, relaxed seaside town, or hanging out with Totoro in the forest, or even exploring the mysteries of Laputa. But alas, I live in Vancouver, where some people are jerks.

Anyway, this little ditty was playing during the opening credits of Kiki and I thought it was adorable and really fun. When I got home, I opened up my Studio Ghibli piano book, found the two pieces from the film, including this one. I may not know what the words are, but I still love it.

Black Sheep

For the past little while, I’ve been super into Scott Pilgrim, if only because I read the first of the series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley and loved it. I proceeded, naturally, to watch the movie again, and loved it even more than when I originally saw it. For some reason, the following day, with Scott Pilgrim still in my DVD player, I checked out the extras just for fun, watched the gag reel, and then was surprised that there were 4 different audio commentary tracks. One featured actors playing minor roles in the film: Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Keiran Culkin, and Mark Webber. Curious, I selected it, thinking I was only going to to watch/listen to about ten minutes and then pop in Jane Eyre because it would be due soon at the library. Ten minutes became twenty, and then thirty, fourty-five– you get where I’m going with this.

I couldn’t help it! It just sort of happened, and I couldn’t stop the movie because they were so funny… and since then, I’ve been listening to the awesome soundtrack, particularly the Sex Bob-omb songs and this one, ”Black Sheep”, sung by Brie Larson (in the film) and Metric. I shall be reading the rest of the series when they arrive at the library for me, but in the meantime, here’s a kickass song from a kickass film.

Castle in the Sky medley

Can’t get this out of my head, especially after watching Castle in the Sky on Friday.  This is medley of the different themes played throughout the film.  I’ve already learned to play two of them on the piano.

Joe Hisaishi: if it was possible to love you more, it has happened.  Enjoy!

Obsessing is not good

I have never been quite obsessive about many things.  But for some reason, I’ve been watching endless interviews with Tom Twyker and the Wachowskis for Cloud Atlas.  I don’t know why I am so obsessive either, which is partly bothering me.  For example, I have been checking its rating on imdb every few hours, trying to see if it is going up or down, which is pretty useless because it’s not even released yet (although almost 3000 users have voted so far).  I have been listening constantly to the soundtrack — or rather, the few pieces available on youtube.  Today, I saw someone reading the novel and I wanted to ambush her and talk about the notion of reincarnation, destiny, fate, and all these big ideas and to start a philosophical conversation, but alas.

In other news, I’ve started reading Watership Down, which is fantastic so far.  Maybe I’ll start obsessing about that soon.

Comme une rosée de larmes – Ludovic Bource

I imagine this being played as a guy is waiting in a restaurant on a date.  He nervous — fidgeting with the tablecloth, and adjusting and re-adjusting the utensils on the table to their exact place.  He constantly turns to look at the front of the restaurant, hoping, wishing to see his date.  He waits and waits.  Couples are all around him, laughing, smiling, and enjoying themselves, while he sits alone at his table with a candle burning.  A bottle of red wine sits unopened at the table.  A loyal waiter comes to check on him now and then, but the guy only gets refills of water in his glass.

Hours have passed.  The last couple leaves the restaurant, while the guy still sits there, the last bit of hope in his eyes dying.  He gives the restaurant a last look around, searching for that one person, then lets out a sigh of defeat.  He puts money on the table, gives the waiter a smile for tending to him the entire night, and trudges home.

The waiter goes over to the table, and blows out the now-short, barely flickering candle.

The Dead Kid Detective Agency — Ch. 1 audio score

I’ve been meaning to post this for a long time (since I completed it last year), but haven’t gotten around to it until now.  I took a Children’s Lit class in college, and our final project was one we created ourselves.  It was left very open to what we wanted to do; I decided to write some music for one of the novels we had studied in class.  Here is the description of my project, and a link to the music on youtube.

All the text is from Evan Munday’s book, The Dead Kid Detective Agency, and obviously, I do not claim to own any of it, although I would certainly like to claim to be able to write so wittily.

“Think Like a Child” Independent Project

As a fan of movie soundtracks, I thought it would be fun to write some music for Evan Munday’s The Dead Kid Detective Agency.  I found that the book had a good mix of emotions and moods (ie. scary scenes were still humorous and light) as a book for young readers, which could be reflected in a diverse sound.  A movie soundtrack is, I find, largely underrated in the effects it has on the audience: it can enhance the atmosphere of scenes, making the film feel creepy or funny or whatever the desired mood.  Music can also manipulate audiences’ emotions; we cry when we hear a lamenting violin over a break-up scene, or feel scared at the sound of low murmuring instruments.  Music can even increase our adrenaline during a high-speed car chase with loud horns, like in Inception.  Since movies have the advantage of a soundtrack to enhance the film, and since readers imagine characters, settings, and actions while reading a novel, I thought having music playing while reading or being read to would also enhance the reading/storytelling experience.

Although I intended this project to be played in the background while someone would be reading to a child, I also realized that the readers of Dead Kid might be of an age where they may no longer be read to (ie. between nine and fourteen).  However, the music would still work even for those reading the book silently, as it would play in the background, and would, hopefully, enhance their reading experience.

I picked three scenes for which to write the music: the beginning, in the middle (when October meets the dead kids for the first time), and the end.  I thought the beginning and end of the novel would serve as good bookends musically, where I could use the musical theme in two different ways, to show how October changes throughout the novel.  Therefore, I had the opportunity to pick another chapter in the book on which to write, and ultimately picked a scene that I thought was supposed to be the spookiest, yet one of the most interesting and revealing chapters in the novel, which contrasts with the other two scenes I had picked.  As such, I tried to incorporate the spookiness and fear which October feels when she sees the ghosts by, first of all, writing the music in a minor key, and second, by accelerating the tempo of the music until it climaxes and slows down again, just as October realizes the dead kids are actually kind of cool and that there is no need to be scared of them.  The tone of both the chapter and the music changes when October wants to be friends with her new acquaintances, which I thought would also be a good contrast between the previous spooky scene.

Lastly, I decided to narrate some of the story as a guide to where the music was supposed to follow.  This incidentally made the project seem more like an audio book with music, which was an interesting revelation, and another possibility for the use of this music.