I got up early this morning and watched the first half of Seven Samurai on DVD, and am really enjoying it so far. I didn't realize this film came out in 1956 until I started watching, and I can see techniques that other filmmakers have nicked. Does anyone know the first film to use slow-motion? Because I thought it was a fairly recent thing, but it's used in this film. I also like the camera shots that are used, and the moments of silence or stillness.

I'm glad Janet told me that Kurosawa was attempting to tell a movie as a novel in this film, since that is how I'm approaching it. This is a movie that requires patience (especially at a length of 208 minutes) as the story unfolds and the characters are fleshed out. Right now, Toshiro Mifune is stealing the show, and doing a great job.

Saturday, we met up with Ol' Mike and Elizabeth at the Ren Faire, and had a great time. We ate giant roasted turkey legs, drank some mead, watched the hilarious "Manly Art of Epic Duelling," saw a Punch & Judy show, watched belly dancing, participated in a witch trial (I yelled out, "My sister's neighbor's friend overheard someone say that she cast a hex on the Queen!"), and rooted for our favorite knight in the joust at the end of the day. I bought a cool little purple dragon, and Mike smacked a giant plush croquet ball through a wicket made of people. Janet posted a few pictures at ImageStation, with more to come, so keep checking back. It was my first time at an honest-to-god Ren Faire (I went to a medieval festival when I was a kid, but that was slightly different), and it was also Elizabeth's first time, but all of us seemed to have a lot of fun. As we were walking out the gate, a girl selling roses was standing on top of a concrete pillar, shouting, "Buy a rose and I'll stop singing!" ad infinitum to the tune of "Happy Birthday".

That night, coincidentally, A Knight's Tale was on TV, so we watched it and got to see some more cool jousting and duelling.

Yesterday it was over to the parents' to have brunch and pick up the proofs for the formal wedding photos. I'll be scanning them and will post them by the end of the week. I also worked on two papers which are due tomorrow, and started a third; this in addition to reading all four of Virgil's Georgics and re-reading Kelly Link's "Lull" for a paper in Narrative Analysis. My sister also called, and it was really nice to talk to her, as I hadn't since the wedding.

And now to work, to work.

"The deepest friendship often comes through a chance meeting."
--Gorobei Katayama (Yoshio Inaba)

Now Reading:
Show World by Wilton Barnhardt

Stories Out to Publishers:
5

Books Read This Year:
23

Zines/Chapbooks/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
7