Things I like (they make me go squeee!)

(EDIT: Another thing I like - ADVENT CHILDREN! OH HOLY TAPDANCING JENOVA, it is NICE!)

In other words, I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at a preview screening last Friday and I've been meaning to write about it ever since. Actually, I'm going to see it again on opening night tomorrow with my sister. From that you might have guessed that I liked the movie.

The first thing I'd like to mention is the music. Danny Elfman certainly delivers, like he always does. I've missed his music, and so listening to this movie made me happy.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the added backstory of Willy Wonka. While I agree that it was completely redundant, it didn't actually bother me. If the filmmakers wanted to invent a past for him, okay, have fun, but the movie didn't need it and would have worked fine without it. Hopefully someone had fun making it up.

Hmm... it seems that I don't have much to say about the movie after all. Johnny Depp was delightful and hilarious, and his Wonka was even weirder than I thought based on the trailers. And I want some of dem chocolate bars.

To all you Finnish people out there, I want to add this line that I smiled at in the subtitles:
"Olen aina tehnyt karkkia fiilispohjalta."

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Another thing that makes me happy is Susanna Clarke's book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I finished it about a week ago and I loved it - the plot, the characters, the footnotes. I especially liked the language of the book and I can't believe this was Clarke's first novel. Ooooh, it was so good. *shivers* It's tragic and exciting and funny and witty, and you just want to know what happens next. Even when "nothing" happens the text flows enjoyably onwards.

(I liked the portrayal of fairies, and just wanted to mention that nowadays every elf is in my head drawn by Ted Naifeh. I can't help it. The gentleman with thistledown hair was "drawn by Naifeh".)

I had only heard good things about the book before reading it, but I still didn't have any huuuge expectations. It is always best to read things for yourself instead of believing reviews. The last book I read that everyone had only said good things about was China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and I didn't like it. I was bored and wasn't sucked into the happenings of the book, and I couldn't have cared less about the characters. There wasn't a single character that I gave a crap for. It wouldn't have moved me one bit if they had all died. Characters are very important to me in a book, or in any story. In Jonathan Strange, on the other hand, I liked each and every one of the characters. Jonathan Strange, Vinculus, Drawlight, Childermass, the gentleman - just to name a few.

It's not even that characters have to be nice and likable for me to like them - I have liked many an 'evil' character in my times. I know a person who didn't watch Farscape because she thought every character was so unpleasant. I liked them because they all had flaws of character. But in Perdido Street I couldn't relate to the characters, I couldn't quite grasp them, I couldn't find any characteristic in them that I liked. So I ended up not caring about them.

o_O Aaaanyway, it seems I complained more about Perdido there than gave praise for Jonathan Strange. I just want to say that I don't believe that Perdido is a badly written book or anything. It just didn't relate to me at all, when there has to be a lot of people out there to whom it does, because they are different people and perhaps can find something in the characters to grasp onto.

But I want to say that I *loved* Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I will recommend it to each and every person I meet. They can make their own decisions, but I think they should at least open the book. It might work for them as well as it did for me.

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That Ted Naifeh comment earlier on there reminded me of another thing I liked: Courtney Crumrin Tales - A Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man (loong title). If you Courtney Crumrin -fans out there haven't read it, do so now! I mean, it has Uncle Aloysius as a young man (I'm such an Aloysius fan girl)! The mood of the comic is different from the other albums, but different doesn't mean bad. Actually, in this case at least, it means very good. And of course the whole album is filled with delicious art. I love his style so much.

(I hadn't even noticed that I had a shortage of Naifeh-drawn young men before I read this - in Courtney you don't see that many of them. Aloysius Crumrin is teh hot - as well as the epitome of cool.)

Okay, signing out now. Phew.
I shake you warmly by the hand.

Blonde

I. Am. Blonde. Well, reddish. And my hair is short.

I'm getting used to this freakishness - actually I will colour my hair red in a couple of days, and that is the reason of my sudden attack of the blonde.

No, I don't own a camera. (So this entry was pretty much pointless.)