Rewatching Better Off Dead

I recently picked up an external BD-rom drive (I'm not getting an HD TV until my current set bites the dust, so it's useless to get a regular blu-ray player), which means I can now take advantage of my library's blu-ray collection.  And they just happened to have Better Off Dead, which I watched a few years ago when I was going through a "watching movies with John Cusack in them" phase, and have been meaning to rewatch ever since I learned that Curtis Armstrong, the voice of Dan in Dan Vs., was in it, yet I didn't remember his character at all.  So here are just a few observations I wanted to share.

• First off, CBS Blu Ray, I am disappoint.  Seriously, the only special feature on this disc is the theatrical trailer, when I distinctly remember the DVD I rented before having at least a director's commentary, if not a featurette or two.  They didn't even hide a commentary track under the audio options.  Would it have been that hard to copy the special features from the earlier DVD release?  I mean, the main reason I got a BD-rom is because all the good special features are on blu-ray nowadays.  Way to drop the ball, guys.
• Any time Curtis Armstrong's character, Charles, was on screen, I was filled with the desire to make Dan Vs. dubs.  It didn't help that a lot of his lines were things that Dan would say (i.e. "I've been going to this high school for seven and a half years! I'm no dummy!")
• I wasn't sure whether to save this for another Surprise Crochet post or not, but since I have no idea when I'll be making another of those, and since it isn't exactly flattering, I'll just post about it here.  Lane's neighbor, Ricky Smith, is twice defined as a typical loser nerd type because he crochets (among other things).  And for Christmas, he crochets a picture frame (for a picture of himself) for Monique, the foreign exchange student his mother is trying to hook him up with.
• I don't remember whether or not I knew the first time I watched this movie that David Ogden Stiers was Lane (John Cusack)'s dad, but it surprised me this time.  Though that's because I mostly know him from his voice acting. He definitely did not look the way I pictured him.  

Surprise Crochet Again

New Girl is a show that I feel like I should like, but the few times I've caught an episode, it just doesn't do it for me.  Granted, this may be because I only tend to watch the episodes that appear to have a particular interest of mine.  Case in point, the very first time I decided to watch it was because the episode featured handbells, and I was in a handbell choir when I was in high school.  And the main reason for this post, an episode from a couple of weeks ago that featured Jess and her friends having crochet time:

I love that it is explicitly called crochet time in the episode, and crochet hooks are definitely being used.  All the stuff they're working on appears to be crocheted, although I'm not entirely sure what any of them are making.  And then Zooey Deschanel has to ruin it by knitting.

Keep crochet time pure, Jess!

While working at the library the other day, I noticed The Borrowers on the return cart, and since I knew the new Studio Ghibli movie, The Secret World of Arietty, was based on the book, and since I had never read the books when I was a child, I decided to give it a look.  Imagine my surprise and delight when crochet was mentioned on the very first page.  The book starts with the framing device of the story of the Borrowers being told to a girl named Kate by her elderly relation, Mrs. May, while they work on crocheting squares for a quilt.  Kate mentions losing her crochet hook, even though she knows exactly where she left it, and this reminds Mrs. May of the little creatures her younger brother told her he saw, back when they were children.  I admit, I only finished reading the book to see if crochet was mentioned again, and while it was never part of the Borrowers' story, it did show up again in the framing device near the end (they finished all the squares).  I also read the second book, partly because I knew that the Ghibli movie involved some of it (or so I guessed from the trailer) and partly to see if crochet came up again.  And it did, but only as part of the recap from the first book.  I don't know if crochet shows up in any of the adaptations (of which there are more than I thought), but as most of them appear to disregard the framing device, I highly doubt it.

And while I'm talking about crochet in unexpected places, I'd like to point out the Handmade Ryan Gosling tumblr, which is part of the Ryan Gosling Hey Girl thing (is it a thing?  I only know of one other tumblr with this format, with a library theme), for crafts of all kinds, including crochet:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Episode 31

After the craziness of the past few episodes, this one takes things down a few notches, focusing on the sisterly duos of Rarity & Sweetie Belle and Applejack & Apple Bloom.

Sisterhooves Social
Rarity awakens one morning to the smell of a delicious breakfast and...smoke?  It can only mean one thing: Sweetie Belle's cooking.  Sure enough, Rarity finds her sister in the kitchen, annoyed that her surprise breakfast-in-bed plan has been found out.  Rarity also finds her parents, pleased as punch at the charred work of their youngest daughter.  They're dropping off Sweetie Belle, since Rarity promised to watch her while they're on vacation, which Rarity had completely forgotten about.
As soon as their parents pull away, Rarity heads back into the kitchen to cook them both a proper breakfast.  Though she promises Sweetie Belle can help, she ends up doing most of the work herself, until Sweetie Belle complains.  So Rarity lets her place the garnish on the plates.  However, she micromanages the whole process, which causes Sweetie Belle to slip and knock everything off the table.  The garnish does land perfectly, though.
By the time the kitchen is cleaned up, it's time for Rarity to get to work, so she has Sweetie Belle take the used towels to the laundry room.  Her little sister, wanting to be useful, takes it upon herself to do the laundry, which wouldn't have been a problem, except that she included Rarity's incredibly expensive, one-of-a-kind designer crocheted wool sweater.  Which promptly shrinks.  With great effort, Rarity manages to control her anger, and heads back inside, warning her sister to stay out of trouble.
But Rarity's boutique is not that kid-friendly, and Sweetie Belle soon finds herself bored out of her skull.  Remembering her sister's warning, she spots some crayons and paper, and since she's never been yelled at for drawing, gets to work.  She feels her artwork needs a little something extra, and she proves she is most definitely Rarity's sister when she decides that something is pretty light blue gems, and Rarity just happens to have a whole trunkful.  But when she shows Rarity the finished product, it creates screams of horror rather than delight.  It seems that these were no ordinary gems, but extremely rare baby blue sapphires, which Rarity procured for a very important client's outfit.  And Sweetie Belle used every single one.  Going off to get more, if she even can, Rarity instructs Sweetie Belle to clean up the art supplies, and to try and find something to do that doesn't end in a big mess.

Fortunately for Rarity, she was able to find more (they can't be that rare, then), which has her in high spirits once more.  But not for long, once she sees what Sweetie Belle did to her workshop.  The entire room is tidied up and organized, much to Rarity's dismay.  Sweetie Belle is confused by Rarity's reaction, since normally the unicorn is all about cleaning and being organized.  But her workshop is the one place Rarity needs a mess for inspiration, and now she has to start all over.  With even greater effort, Rarity keeps her temper in check, telling Sweetie Belle she just needs some alone time.
So Sweetie Belle, feeling low, heads into town, where she runs into Apple Bloom, who is promoting the heck out of the Sisterhooves Social.  She plugs it as the sisterly bonding activity Sweetie Belle and Rarity need, and Sweetie Belle immediately agrees.  However, when she brings it up to Rarity, her sister disagrees, mostly because it's being held at Sweet Apple Acres.  Sweetie Belle insists that any sisters who care about each other go to the social, but Rarity counter-insists that playing around in the dirt is just too uncouth for her to deal with, sisterly or not.  This is the last straw for young Sweetie Belle, who renounces Rarity as her sister.  Rarity is shocked and annoyed at this, feeling that if anyone should be renouncing sisterhood around here, it should be her, based on all the trauma Sweetie Belle has put her through.  Tempers flare, and Sweetie Belle storms out, which suits Rarity perfectly fine.
Sweetie Belle airs her woes at Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Big Macintosh are getting things ready for the Sisterhooves Social.  Applejack advises her to just give Rarity a little time to cool down, and asks her to help them get ready.  Sweetie Belle is hesitant, considering her earlier forays into "helping," and is mystified when she sees how Applejack and Apple Bloom have turned collecting bruised apples into a game.  Her try doesn't go as well, and seeing how well Applejack and Apple Bloom work together just reminds her of how Rarity wouldn't let her help out.  Speaking of Rarity, she's still fuming over Sweetie Belle neatening up her workshop, until she notices how her fabrics are now lined up in rainbow order.  This inspires her for a new line, which she dubs Full Spectrum Fashions.  Despite this, she's still miffed over Sweetie Belle's unsolicited help.
Back at Sweet Apple Acres, Apple Bloom gets a turn at stomping on grapes for grape juice, but gets a little overenthusiastic and splashes Applejack.  To Sweetie Belle's surprise, Applejack doesn't get mad, but just joins her in the tub to get her covered in grape juice, too.  Meanwhile, Rarity prepares to wash her latest creations, but spots her shrunken sweater and fumes again.  Until she realizes it's the perfect size for Opal now.  Still, she isn't quite ready to forgive her little sister.  Applejack and Apple Bloom corral some sheep, amazing Sweetie Belle with their oneness of purpose.  And Rarity finishes up her commissioned outfit, but needs just one more sapphire.  Again raging at the Sweetie Belle-emptied trunk, she goes to see if she can't pry one off of her sister's art project.  And is rendered speechless, as this time she actually sees the image: her and Sweetie Belle, surrounded by a heart of sapphires.  Seeing this, she dramatically agonizes over the way she treated her one and only sister, and with a speech inspired by Gone With The Wind, she vows to get Sweetie Belle back and make it up to her!

Night falls, and Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle gather around a campfire, which is where Rarity finds them.  Sweetie Belle is still miffed, but when Rarity apologizes, she tells her that spending the day with Applejack and Apple Bloom has shown her she needs a sister.  Just not Rarity.  So instead, she's decided to make Applejack her new sister, which is a shock to everyone.  Applejack tries to get her to reconsider, and Apple Bloom refuses to share her sister.  So Sweetie Belle suggests that Rarity take on Applejack as her new big sister, to show her what a sister should be.  Rarity insists she doesn't need lessons on sistering, and to prove it, offers to teach Sweetie Belle all manner of things that she (but not necessarily Sweetie Belle) enjoys.  Sweetie Belle is having none of it, and huffs off.  Rarity complains to Applejack for making her look bad, but Applejack just explains to her that being sisters is like apple pie: it's only together that they become something special.  Once this sinks in, Rarity realizes what she has to do!
On the day of the Sisterhooves Social, Sweetie Belle checks out the various competitions with Applejack and Apple Bloom, and considers what her sister would think of it.  As the starting time for the big obstacle course race arrives, Applejack gives her their surprise: she gets to be Applejack's honorary sister for a day and run the race with her.  Sweetie Belle is overjoyed, but Apple Bloom is quick to emphasize the "for a day" part.  Repeatedly.  Granny Smith announces the beginning of the race, and the five sister teams get started.  Sweetie Belle skips across the mud, but Applejack falls in, covering herself head to toe.  But she continues on, and the two of them move on to the next obstacles, passing each one with ease.  Though they seem to have the lead, another team comes up from behind, giving them a challenge.  In the end, it was close, but the other team made it across the finish line first.
Sweetie Belle doesn't care, though, as she just had such a good time.  She leaps up to give Applejack a hug, knocking off her hat and revealing a horn?  Sweetie Belle pushes more of the mud off, revealing it was Rarity all along!  Applejack explains that they switched places at the mudhole so that the two sisters could compete together.  Even Apple Bloom was in on it.  With their sisterly bond repaired, Rarity suggests celebrating at the spa, but no one takes her suggestion seriously.
After a week's worth of sisterly activities, Rarity and Sweetie Belle have Spike take a letter for the princess detailing what they've learned about being sisters: it isn't easy, it takes teamwork, compromise, and accepting each others differences, but mostly it's about having fun together.  The two fail to agree on how much dirt that should entail, so Spike intervenes, and all ends happily.

This one was really sweet, and it was great to see the sister relationships between Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Applejack, and Apple Bloom.  And Rarity's parents!  And of course, I loved that the sweater that got shrunk was crocheted.  Even if you can't really tell from the art style.
I'll admit, the first time through, I totally did not pick up on the whole Rarity and Applejack switching until the reveal, but if you go back and watch, sure enough, "Applejack" has Rarity's blue eyes.

Misc. Screenshots:
Applejack and Apple Bloom
Right?
Sweetie Belle is touched

What I Read - Waking Up in the Land of Glitter

Waking Up in the Land of Glitter gets an endorsement from me just for the very fact that one of the characters finds her salvation through crochet, but it's a pretty good book anyway.  Basically, the plot follows three ladies through the disasters of their lives from August to December: Star, a would-be artist who has six months to get her life on track and sell 347 pounds of glass glitter, Ofie, who dedicates her life to crafts of all kinds even though she has no talent, and Chloe, an up-and-coming TV personality who uses crafts as her springboard, yet hates the very thing that is her claim to fame.  The three come together, along with Benecio, a high school boy with an interest in designing handbags, as part of a craft group thrown together by Star, with the sole purpose of creating the centerpieces for the upcoming Craft Olympics.
When everything was going badly, I couldn't put the book down, eager to see how things would work out, or if they even would.  And of course they do, which is slightly to the book's detriment.  It isn't that I didn't want to see the ladies succeed and come out happy, but everything wrapped up just a little too nicely.  *Spoilers Ahead* Star finally has an art show, and of course everything sells, plus she finally gets the love of her life and doesn't even have to try and make a long distance relationship work.  Ofie discovers she's a natural at crochet, and of course she wins the speed crochet tournament at the Craft Olympics and ends up with all kinds of endorsements and a book deal.  Chloe not only discovers true love, but, despite being completely disgraced on her own news show, gets an endorsement from a Rachel Ray-alike and a potential TV show.  Even Benecio gets endorsements and guest spots, and his dad, a former workaholic, dedicates the rest of his time to his son.
And there's one thing that keeps niggling at me: at various points in the book, Ofie's mother-in-law tells her to take up crochet and offers to teach her, yet Ofie turns her down.  But later, she has Benecio teach her (for no mentioned reason), without the book ever addressing that fact.  The mother-in-law doesn't even bring it up.  Not to mention the fact that Ofie claims to only know one stitch, double crochet.  Wouldn't she have started with single crochet?
So yeah, while I enjoyed reading this book, the too-neat ending keeps me from really loving it.  Still, it is very nice to have a book where crochet plays a good-sized part of the story without it being a mystery.

Surprise Crochet!

I was flipping through a volume of Peach Girl, a manga I read years ago, and was pleasantly surprised to find Momo, the main character, crocheting a cellphone holder for her boyfriend (read right to left):

The translation says "knit," but the same verb is used for knitting and crochet in Japan (it also means "to braid"), so I'm chalking this one up to the translator not knowing what crochet is.  Probably an accurate assumption.  I can't tell you how many times I've had people ask me what I'm knitting, even if I've already told them that I don't knit.

I checked out the anime (which I didn't bother to do when it first came out) to see if this made it into the animated adaptation (since it seriously condenses the story), and it did!

Both the fansubs and the Funimation translation use "knit," which kinda proves my point.  People see yarn and a stick and instantly think "knitting."  But it's a little more irksome in the anime, since it shows Momo's pattern book, which clearly has "how to crochet" instructions...

...and shows her chaining in action:

(Wish I'd thought to make an animated gif before sending back the disc).
The finished product:

 While working on getting the images for this post, I ran into another instance of crochet in an unlikely place.  I was watching The Big Picture, the first film directed by Christopher Guest (whom I like due to his improv movies, i.e. A Mighty Wind), and in a scene towards the end, the main character's agent (played by Martin Short) is crocheting away his stress:

That's one big granny square.
Truth be told, I was a little more surprised to find crochet in an American movie from the 80's than in an manga/anime from the late 90's/early 2000's.  Crochet is very popular in Japan, and is the namesake for amigurumi, crocheted stuffed animals.  In fact, why haven't I seen more crochet in anime?  Granted, I did most of my anime watching before I got into crochet, so it could be that, like the translators for Peach Girl, I saw it and just didn't recognize it for what it was.

Crocheted Gift

You may have noticed that April was pretty light on posts, and that I'm not fairly behind in my MLPFiM recaps (the rest are coming, don't worry).  The reason for this: I spent most of my free moments crocheting up a storm, working to finish up a blanket for my nephew's birthday at the end of the month:

(All-Star Blanket from Crocheted Gifts)
It took me ages to find a decent pattern for a kids blanket that wasn't a baby blanket, and that would look good.  For the record, my nephew loves it, and it even matches the rocket ship sheets he got.
One thing that I liked about this pattern was that the squares were all joined together as you go, rather than sewn together at the end.  Sewing things together is my nemesis, hence why my Crochet-Along blanket is still a pile of squares sitting in a bag.

What I Read - David Sedaris

I got into David Sedaris relatively recently.  It was last spring, when I was working on a bridal clutch for my older sister's wedding, using crochet thread and a steel hook.  Usually when I crochet I like to watch TV or a movie, but I had to work too closely with the thread to really pay attention, so I turned to audio books instead, including Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, which was what put him on my radar, so to speak.  So when I came across his latest book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, I was inclined to read it, though I knew I preferred his essays based on his life rather than his fictional stories.  I learned this while reading Holidays on Ice this past Christmas.  I was grooving along with the hypocritical humor of "Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" until suddenly there was Dead Baby.  *shudder*  The other stories were less blood-draining, but their jokes grew old pretty quickly.
Fortunately, most of the stories in Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk are fairly short, so this isn't really a problem.  Most of the stories are slightly unsettling, which didn't really surprise me, and some stories are made even more so by the illustrations, which develop into yet another layer of disturbing when you find out that they were done by Ian Falconer, best known for the Olivia series.  But there are a few that are close to heartwarming, especially the last, "The Grieving Owl."
I guess that what I'm trying to say is that in general I like David Sedaris, but he's an acquired taste.

Mystery Crochet-Along Clues Seven and Eight

Remember when I started posting about Bernat's Mystery Crochet-Along?  I took a break for Christmas, but here's the last of the clues.
Since most of us were still working on the squares for Clue Five, it was a bit of a relief to see that we only had to make one square for Clue Seven, but it was a big one.  A big granny square to be exact:

I have to admit, I was more than half-way done with this square before I realized that there was only going to be one.  There was a lot of speculation that this would form the center of the afghan, a prediction that turned out to be right.

Clue Eight, the last square, was a bit controversial.  The flower part was a little tricky, but a lot of people just plain didn't like the way it looked and made their own square.  Personally, I thought it was nice, though I'm not really sure I'm sold on the colors.  But I picked my colors at the start, and I'm sticking with them.

 So that's all the square clues.  The next post will be coming sometime in the future, though I don't know when exactly, since I still have to sew most of the squares together first.

Mystery Crochet-Along Clues Five and Six

The fifth clue brought a surprise: not only was it the hardest pattern so far (a mitered square), but we had to make 16 of them!  Bernat assured us that this was the most squares we'd have to make, so it was okay if we didn't finish them by the time the next clue came out.  Which was good to know, because I wasn't even halfway done by the next Wednesday.  Or the next, even. (Though that's partly because I kept working on the other clues whenever I couldn't stand this one anymore.)

Most people were surmising that since each square made a kind of L-shape, we would end up putting them together in groups of four, making a ring of squares, as it were.  And as the placement for the squares has already been released by now, it turns out that was correct.  Due to the whole L-shape thing, too, I had a miserable time getting the squares to actually be square.  In the end, I just made sure to be looser on the second half, but I never really achieved a perfect square.

Now, while most of the posts for the clues have shown up at midnight EST (or pretty close), clue six didn't show itself until after 9 am!  Fortunately, it was a pretty easy one this time around, and in only one color, a welcome relief, after the last two squares.

A nice, lacy stitch.  It took me a little bit to get the pattern down by memory, but once I had it, all was well.  Or it was, until I discovered that I had forgotten the last row on the last two squares and had to add them on. OTL

Mystery Crochet-Along Clues Three and Four

Continuing with Bernat's Mystery Crochet-Along, clue 3 brought a stitch I hadn't used before, the v-stitch:

Unlike the previous two clues, we had to make 8 squares, though I only photographed two (and I'm probably going to make that the standard for posting).  The squares worked up pretty quick, although it's hard to see a distinct V with a chunky yarn.  Or maybe it's just me?  I'm not worrying about it.

Clue 4 was the first to have more than one color, and gave everyone a huge headache.  For some, it was all the ends to weave in at the end, while for others it was the annoyance of trying to figure out gauge.  It seems like everyone was modifying the pattern in some way, whether it was flipping it to make a mirror image, changing the triple crochets to doubles, or just stopping once they had 8 inches.  Even I had to go down a hook, and I changed the last row of triple crochets to double.  Fortunately, we only had to make four this time:

I really like the way the colors go together.  Kind of a southwestern look, don't you think?

Mystery Crochet-Along

 A couple of weeks ago, Bernat started their Mystery Afghan Crochet-Along, so named because only they know what the finished product looks like.  Each week, a new piece of the pattern is released, and those of us participating talk about it in the comments section.  It's been pretty fun so far, even though the first two clues were pretty simple.  But Bernat has promised that the squares will get more and more difficult as we go along, making this a good project for beginners.  A lot of people are using the colors recommended, but I picked out my own, seen above, so hopefully the end result will look nice.  (For the curious, they're Redwood, Pumpkin, Berry Red, Emerald, and Grape.)

 Each clue is released on Wednesday, and so far they've been two solid color squares.  Square one was a simple single crochet/double crochet square, while square two was a granny.

I'll be posting my squares each week (or so) from here on in, with a photo of the finished result sometime in December.

Crochet - Small Things, mostly

Another thing that kept me away from blogging these past couple of months was the various crochet projects I've been working on.  I can't show you the big one that took up most of the month of May (since it's a gift that hasn't been given yet), but I can show off a few of the smaller things I've done lately:

The Lion Brand weekly e-mail has been including a washcloth pattern each week for the summer, since they're small, portable, and a good way to practice new stitches.  The top set (South Beach Washcloths) I made for my younger sister, but the bottom two I kept for myself.  You can't really tell from the picture, but the South Beach ones have a kind of slanted ribbing effect going on that's achieved by alternating half-double crochet stitches and slip stitches.

This dishcloth is a contemporary take on a classic design that was in an issue of Crochet World.  It looks cool, but with all the color changes, there were a million loose ends to weave in on both sides, so I don't think I'll be making any more of these.

Another Crochet World pattern, done more on a whim than anything else.  Still, it's an awfully cute little bag, and I finally found a use for that button.

Planet Blanket & Granny Squares

Since March is National Crochet Month, I've been turning my efforts toward making granny squares for Planet Blanket. Planet Blanket is the brainchild of a woman in England who is aiming to make the world's largest blanket, with squares from people all over the world. Below are five of the squares I've made so far, and that I'll be sending at the end of the month.

The first square is modified from a pattern I got from Michael's, called Granny Motif Mania Wrap, but the rest are all from Granny Crochet Favorites. The top two are regular granny squares, but the bottom two are a puff granny square and a log cabin square. I like the last one best, it has a nice stained glass effect.

In case you're wondering why I've only gotten five squares made after supposedly working on this all month, just chalk that up to the trial and error process. You see, the squares for the Planet Blanket need to be 5x5, and as I learned, not all granny motifs have the same gauge. So I have a number of squares lying around here that are too big (never too small orz), including some of the wagon wheel square, which I've yet to make within the size specifications using this particular yarn (Red Heart Super Saver in black and artist print). I'm hoping to get a couple done (the book includes three versions) using Vanna's Choice, but we'll see how that goes.

Crochet - Recently Finished Projects

Still working on the last of my Favorite Musicals posts, but what I want to say about it is not coming easily to me right now, so in the meantime, here are a few things I've made recently:

A rose potholder. The rose part gave me some serious trouble, but with some help I figured it out. Still not sure I pulled off the picots, but I like it. I feel like it came out bigger than it was supposed to, though.

Now, this waterbottle holder really comes in handy at work, but when I started making it, I just wanted to make something, and I already had the right yarn. A few people have commented on it, though, and it was fun to make.

A shopping bag, although it's not very big. This took longer to finish because the handles are made by crocheting with two strands of yarn, and with two sc in every third chain stitch. I could only put up with that for so long. And the first handle turned out way smaller than the second, so I had to make a third one. But now that it's finished, it's pretty nice.

Another shopping bag, but I'm pretty sure that this one turned out smaller than it was supposed to, even though my gauge was right. Then again, the pattern calls for crochet thread and a steel hook, but the pictures looked like regular yarn to me. so maybe that had something to do with it. The pattern (from a Crochet-a-day calendar) was missing a line, so I had to e-mail the patternmaker to ask what was up. And she got back to me promptly with the missing info. The handles were way wonky to make, though, but not because of missing info.