Kiki's Delivery Service

"Majo no Takkyuubin"

Aired: July 29th, 1989
Duration: 1 hr 43 min
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Coming-of-age
Rating:
Review: Kiki's Delivery Service ws my first introduction to anime without my even knowing it. Gifted on my 5th birthday, and gradually becoming obssessed with it until it became my nightly ritual by age 10. Kiki helped me discover my passion for what I love. One of the most intimate scenes is when Kiki visits Ursula's cabin in the woods during a rough patch in her training. Ursula encourages Kiki to take a break from flying, and "doze off at noon, look at the scenery." Taking breaks from what we love can help us refresh our minds and come back with a new force. I think that's a powerful message when we're surrounded by such an intense work culture.

Over The Garden Wall

Aired: November 3rd, 2014
Episodes: 10
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery
Rating:
Review: Over The Garden Wall premiered when I was in a fairly rough patch in life, and while I loved it then, it took me some time to fully dive into it. I didn't let it fully immerse me until around 2020, and since then it's a monthly watch. The inspired whimsical feeling I get when I watch this show motivates me to work on art (although I am half-distracted because the show is so good). Something about the music and the general pacing of the show gives just the right ambiance to create to. I often find myself singing or humming the opening theme, as well as several of the other songs. One night while visiting my dad, he played an old record of Swedish folk music. I slowly realized the rhythm was uncannily similar to 'A Courting Song'. It was without a doubt the same genre of music, bringing the show's history a little closer to my heart.

Mighty Joe Young

Aired: December 25th, 1998
Duration: 1 hr 54 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Rating:
Review: Mighty Joe Young is one of the first movies I could binge regularly. I must've been around 5 when I first watched it. I can still remember the awe and amazement I felt seeing Joe for the first time. Even today, his practical effects are outstanding! Sure, the acting is corny, and the plot isn't as groundbreaking as I remember. But there are some very well-acted moments, like in the beginning with Jill and her mother. And although Joe is a giant prop, kudos to the team behind controlling him. That 15-foot-tall gorilla gave a better performance than Bill Paxton could ever dream (love ya anyway Bill!!). The music is also fantastic, full of choirs and intense drum beats. The acting is the only thing holding this back from 5 stars, in my opinion. "MONSTRULE, MONSTRULE!"

Rock-A-Doodle

Aired: April 3rd, 1992
Duration: 1 hr 14 min
Genre: Animated, Fantasy, Adventure, Musical
Rating:
Review: This was my first introduction to Don Bluth's world of wonder. His stylistic fluidity shines through in anthropomorphic animals, blending with real-life footage (hot technique at the time!). A little boy named Edmund just wants to save his family farm, which has been flooded by storms since the sun stopped shining. It never occued to my child brain that this would impact the whole world, not just one family's farm! And it sort of addresses that with the city, but the city never faces an environmental impact... it's weird, it's magical, carry on. The sun stopped shining because the rooster, Chanticler, was bullied into believing his crows weren't rising the sun, so he left the farm. The villians are a giant, evil owl known as The Duke, and his psychotic munchkin newphew, Hunch. Plus a money-hungry fox who is using Chanticler's depression against him. The love interest to Chanticler, Goldie, made me question myself for a while. Did I like her or want to be like her?? The power of love and friendship wins in the end, but not without some silly songs and monologues from the Duke, or Hunch attempting to foil the rescue mission. I always thought he was saying, "Uncle Tooky, uncle Tooky!" but as I'm typing this I realized it's "Dukey". Good times, fun plot, don't question it too much!!

The Watchers

Aired: June 7th, 2024
Duration: 1 hr 42 min
Genre: Supernatural, Horror, Fantasy
Rating:
Review: I've been a sucker for Shyamalan's films since the beginning, so I thought his daughter might have borrowed some of that weird, messy, artistic jargon that I love so much. It was messy alright. I don't remember any other media leaving me as frustrated and "gotcha'd" as this film. Which is so disappointing, cause the story is very cool. Fairies used to inhabit the earth but humans drove them underground? Yes tell me more! Wait, don't spell out the twist for me, oh no please don't develop characters just for them to die to not even move the story along but just for death's sake, nooooooo!! Good actors became bad ones, probably because the director is new, but I digress. I actually didn't like Dakota Fanning for a few days after, only to remember it ain't her fault she was directed horribly, or that her character was written to be unlikeable! Maybe my hopes were too high? The premise sounded like an incredible journey, only to turn into a poorly-paced stumble through the woods on a pair of designer heels that keep sinking into the mud, but instead of mud, it's shit.

Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

Louise Rennison

Published: June 24th, 1999
Pages: 247
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Humor
Rating:
Review: I loved the entirety of this series; read volumes 1-6 in middle school, and bought 7-10 to finish by the end of my freshmen year of high school. None of my friends thought it was as funny as I did, but I know they would have enjoyed it if they just gave it a chance, since they laughed at my impressions of the characters... Over 2 decades later and I've still yet to meet another person who knows of this series! It's too funny not to share, and the characters feel so real. That's probably because the author interviewed and spent a lot of time with teens, and boy does it show. The dated slang, hilarious lack of self-awareness and general point-of-view of a teenage girl in the late 90s in the UK is wonderfully accurate. I was more in tune with British slang and how things function differently from America, and that made life more interesting for me. I was gaining perspective without even realizing it. It isn't just goofy shenanigans though, there is some drama between the girls and of course they have unhinged crushes on boys that lead to trouble. There's character growth, though, and it's natural and believable. It's clearly had an impact on me, as I think about it often and still have the last 4 volumes on my bookshelf.

Tips for Teens From Carnation

Virginia Piper

Published: 1967
Pages: 72
Genre: Advice, Cookbook
Rating:
Review: Given to my mother as a teenager and then given to me when I was about 15, this vintage booklet has served as an inspiration for baking and cooking, and as an unconventional drawing reference. While I loved the vivid photography and cheery disposition of the imagery, it was the sketchy illustrations that held my interest. I was nowhere near talented enough to copy the style 1:1 but it helped me discover a new style and that it's okay to leave your work a bit messy! With the right composition and colors, something made in a hurry can look interesting. The recipes and overall language of the booklet is another story, though. It is painfully old-fashioned in how it addresses the reader; the poor, sweet, over-burdened teen girls of the 60s... oh how their plights were minimized or outright ignored! The amount of work and effort put into cooking alone was insanity. And the amount of sweet treat recipes, despite the booklet repeatedly telling the reader that she needs to watch her weight? The audacity?? Ur tellin' may that these treats are not for the reader to enjoy as well? Everything she slaves away at that involves sugar (except the "sweet pizzas"), is made for who exactly? Little brother and dad and family members that are already fat?? The illustrations make this obvious, by the way... It's distateful, and even though it's a product of its era, I can't give it too much grace. There is so much wrong with the ideologies and back-handed comments and backpedaling on diet and self-care. OH and the obvious, it's literally a 72-page Carnation ad designed to be engaging and interesting to impressionable youths. Yippee!!

Full Moon

"Full Moon o Sagashite"

Published: December 1st, 2001
Volumes: 7
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Romance
Rating:
Review: Full Moon wasn't my first introduction to manga, but it was my first obsession with Shoujo. I had watched plenty of TV and read books with the main characters being girls my own age at the time (12), but none were quite portrayed the way Mitsuki was. She didn't act her age, feeling forced to grow up due to her illness and her parents passing away, while living under the strict, watchful eye of her grandmother. While I didn't relate to losing my parents or having a harsh grandparent, I longed for freedom like Mitsuki did. Her kind, fearless, passionate view of the world and of everyone around her made me want to do the same. Believing in herself and having faith in those around her allowed her to succeed.

Babyz

Released: 1999
My Play Time: ?
Genre: Virtual life
Rating:
Review: It's possible it was because I was quite young when I first played this, that I felt the game was confusing and difficult. The babies were sensitive and fussy, they were naughty!! and just did whatever they wanted if left to their devices. As an 8-year-old, this game was SO COOL and SO NEW. You can raise babies? That look different from each other? That babble?? And eat?? AND THEN POOP AND THEN YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO CHANGE THE DIAPER AND BATHE THEM!? It was a whole new world and I was hooked, even if I couldn't figure most of it out. All I really understood was that if I put an open jar of food in front of my baby, that lil' shit would immediately start flinging it. Place the jar away from them? They WILL crawl towards it. They were menacing but so, so adorable. I got attached quickly to all the babies I adopted, even at the very beginning before meeting them, when you go through the install process. There was an image for each install screen that showed a stork flying with a bundle of joy, and it got closer to the house with each one. I miss how interactive install setups were, probably because they took 5x the time, so we had to be kept entertained somehow!

Petz

Released: 2002
My Play Time: ?
Genre: Virtual pets
Rating:
Review:

Rimworld

Released: November 4th, 2013
My Play Time: 2,100 hrs
Genre: Simulation, Strategy, Colony Builder
Rating:
Review: I could spend half a lifetime playing this game. Especially with the DLCs, the possibilities are infinite. I have Ideology, Royalty and Biotech for now. I don't feel like Anomaly is my speed, and Odyssey is basically a revamped mod package. I play with over 100 mods so suffice to say I might not get Odyssey, unless I want to fly around in a spaceship! I think I was already at around 800 hours before getting them though, so the base game alone is worth every penny. I admit I play this game with a lot of help from DEV mode. In the beginning it was fun to challenge myself and watch pawns die of the flu instead of a raid, or watch as poor moods devolved into fire-starting sprees, or forgetting to remove roofs and cry as my favorite pawn died. But that's the beauty of this game; you can play it however you want.

Stardew Valley

Released:
My Play Time:
Genre:
Rating:
Review:

Grow Up and Blow Away

Metric

Released: June 26th, 2007
Length: 39:10
Genre: Indie rock, New wave, Post-punk revival
Rating:
Review: Recorderd between 2000-01, fully released in 2007, and then discovered by an impressionable 12-year-old-me that same year. Every song on this album tells the story of a broken person, and every one spoke to me with its own unique voice. Even the 3 bonus tracks, Torture Me, Parkdale, and Fanfare, but Fanfare is just the beginning instrumental of Parkdale. I didn't get the impression this album was romanticizing suffering; it was more of a found strength within yourself, to pull yourself up and push through the slog that is life. Witnessed a terrible event? Look for the good in the situation, even if it's crude, or, sympathize with the agressor. Bullied or teased in school? Don't be the victim, play along with their game, and make them think they're in control. The lyrics of each song felt less like giving in to the system of abuse, and more like rolling with the punches. You can't always escape, it's not always the feasible option... sometimes you have to make the best with what you've got, even if it doesn't look that way to the rest of the world.