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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 1667740" data-attributes="member: 2205">The Great Dyal Vacation of 2004 Trip Journal Entry #3: July 4thThis was a slower day; we didn't have to drive much of anywhere, so we got up somewhat late, went to church with Kristen and Aaron and then came back and hung around the house all day.  The kids played outside on the trampoline a lot.  After four years, our kids have become unacclimated to Texas summer days though; indeed Spencer's the only one really old enough to remember one anyway.  So after about 45 minutes or so of constant door openings and requests for something to drink, we decided to break out the inflatable pool and let the kids keep themselves a little bit cooler.All of the girls wanted to stay busy; Julie and Rhonda (my mother in law) wanted to repack and transfer all the stuff to her parents car for their extended stay while we went to Florida, Kristen wanted to make dinner.  Meanwhile, all the guys wanted to watch Princess Mononoke which Aaron had just picked up from Netflix.  Both of us (unknown to each other) had a hankering to see what the big deal with this movie was anyway.  For me, it was kind of a last chance with anime; I had watched a lot of stuff that I thought was OK, but nothing that compelled me to watch again, including Ghost in the Shell, Fist of the North Star, Ranma 1/2 and several others of the "highly recommended" crowd, not to mention tons of stuff that is not highly recommended nor recommendable, most of which I watched as a kid.So, Princess Mononoke was kind of the "last great hope" of anime; one that was supposed to transcend the style and all that jazz.  So, we threw that in the DVD player and tried our best to watch it despite the myriad of distractions (wives wanting help, kids wanting help, etc.)  For the most part we did pretty good, although I may want to rent it again sometime to watch it undisturbed.  But I'm not sure.I found the movie to be interesting from a setting and ideas framework, but poorly concieved from a character and story framework, much as I do most anime that I watch.  There were too many dropped balls; who was that punk fellow voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and what was he really after?  How about the noble-lady who had her arm bitten off and her remarkable turnaround from villain to sorta nice person without any explanation?  What's the deal with her?  Why the heck did the main character go live in Irontown when they were presented as evil (or at least annoying) throughout the entire movie?  What about the village he came from, and his sister, and his promise to return?  Do he and the titular "princess" have some kind of relationship or not?In an American movie, leaving the experience with these kinds of questions would be sloppy storytelling, but with anime somehow it's OK?  I don't think so.  So, Princess Mononoke, which has often been held out to me as the one anime movie that even the most dedicated non-anime fan could like, failed, I think to live up to that promise.  It has the same strengths and yet also the same weaknesses as a lot of other anime I've seen.After watching the movie, and getting the car all repacked (a job which Julie did mostly on her own, I'm afraid) it was about time for dinner.  Now my last journal entry may have given the impression that I prefer food in Michigan to food in Texas.  Let me clear that up right now; Texas has the best food I've ever eaten in my life, and I miss it terribly.  You simply cannot get the kind of stuff in Michigan that you can in Texas.  For example, Julie went to buy some skirt steak at our local grocery store, and asked for a cut of it from the butchery department.  The butcher told her that they don't stock that cut, those just go to restaurants for fajitas.  No kidding, pal, what do you think we were trying to make?Another very difficult item to find in Michigan is beef briscuit.  Kristen made beef briscuit for us Sunday night (and I'll only take off a few points for the breach of tradition that husbands are the BBQ cooks, but otherwise fairly incompetent around food) and it was delicious.  It had been way too long since I'd had a good briscuit smothered in a thick, reddish brown BBQ sauce.After this delicious dinner, which left me feeling a bit bloated, we swapped positions with Julie's folks; they took the kids in the Suburban to go see the fireworks while Julie and I went to their hotel room to spend the night and get some sleep before our extended drive tomorrow to Orlando.</blockquote>

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