refreshedInsight brought on by a Saturday spent pandering to my inner child, starting off with a several hour marathon of Saturday morning cartoons. Ever since I was a wee girl, I have loved spending Saturday mornings camped out on the floor in front of the TV, basking in animated goodness. Sure with the cartoon network, the Disney channel, and other cable cartoon outlets, I can (and often do) watch cartoons whenever I like, but there's something special about waking up on Saturday for them.
Netflix sent both Madagascar and MirrorMask. Perfect inner child food.
I'd heard some questionable reviews about Madagascar, and I'm way underwhelmed by Chris Rock and Ben Stiller, so I went in not expecting much, but I ended up totally charmed. The penguins were brilliant, but even the Rock/Stiller dyad was well done. And, of course, the various homages stuck in for the parents to appreciate were gigglesome. Very much enjoyed it.
MirrorMask was gorgeous. I loved the fairy tale mood, although there was a certain "This is a metaphor! *bam bam* We're being deep! *thump*" happening too. But aside from the ham-fisted extolling to revel in the symbolism NOW, it was absolutely lovely. Reminded me of Labyrinth, which I guess is an inevitable comparison, since the hand of Henson was in both. But MirrorMask is an older, more sophisticated movie than Labyrinth, with characters that are unnerving and alluring instead of just cute and fluffy.
And I got a package in the mail from
zhai, a GoPets t-shirt for Hobkin! An opportunity to inflict "dress up" upon the fuzzwit. Mega thanks, zhai! Now Hobkin isn't exactly receptive to the idea of wearing clothes, so my first foray into getting him into the shirt was a dismal failure:
"You want me to do what? No way."
"I said no!"
"No means no, woman!"
But I'm not giving up. I'm waiting to ambush him when he's sleeping.
Writing Stuff
Received:
- Word from Spider magazine that "The Tax Collector's Cow" has been slotted for their June '06 issue. Yay!
- Email from my Aberrant Dreams editor that "Nobodies and Somebodies" is slated for their July issue, so I've got plenty of time to work on the rewrite.
Also a call to spread the word that they're trying to find a local (i.e. Georgian) artist to do a color illustration for a new project they're about to embark on. Without giving away the details prematurely, this artist would be asked to illustrate a new story written by Mary Rosenblum, S.P. Somtow, Alastair Reynolds, or me. So if you're a Georgian artist who would like the opportunity to break into the fantasy illustration biz, drop my editor, Ernie Saylor, a line.
- A bunch more crits for "Honor is a Game Mortals Play" (thanks wbledbetter, wistling, keesa_renee, and dream_wind!). I'm now no longer classifying it as being "well received," but have bumped it into the being "glowingly received" category. Happiness.
Editing:
Editing continues apace on "Honor is a Game Mortals Play.
