While we're all waiting for Howl's Moving Castle, there's this just in: Katsuhiro Ôtono (director of Akira and writer of Metropolis and Roujin-Z) has his latest, Steamboy, finally opening in the US. w00t! Steampunk!! I'm pretty much resigned to seeing this on DVD since I doubt it'll play any theaters in Durham. Which, while I'll miss the scale and spectacle, will also allow me to miss the no-doubt unimpressive English language dubbing.

And for today's petty annoyance: I recorded Fellini's I Vitelloni and have been watching it on the installment plan for a few weeks now. Finally got the chance to finish up tonight only to find that TCM ran long so the DVR ended before the movie did. Argh, I tell ya, just argh... Still, well worth watching. It's an obvious template for many later movies, esp. Mean Streets. I was a bit surprised that even in his first movie Fellini was already capable of turning out such masterful visuals. I was somewhat disconcerted throughout by the resemblance of the actor playing Moraldo to Gary Sinise.

And for tonight's blogerati update: Sarah and I ran into the MacVentrils at Q Shack. Always a pleasure! Got to hear more about their impending move to the Land o' Spats & Bushmills. (side note to this side note: while at Q Shack we found out the story behind the recent closing of Q Shack @ Southpointy -- apparently the mall bought them out. There was someone that wanted the space next door, formerly occupied by the not-lamented Big Bowl, and that prospective tenant also wanted some or all of the Q Shack's space and Southpointy apparently came up with an offer large enough to convince Q Shack to move on. No word on whether they're planning to open another branch out that way. But it at least answers my question as to why the restaurant closed when it was frikkin' packed every time I went there)