• Film,  Now This

    From Up On Poppy Hill (2011)

    July 19, 2026 /

    When Umi Matsuzaki (Masami Nagasawa), a girl living in a boarding house that was once a hospital, meets a member of their school’s newspaper club, Shun Kazama (Junichi Okada), in their mutual effort to clean up the school clubhouse, they form a bond and begin to unravel their mysterious past. Set in Yokohama, Japan in 1963, this is a story of determination, friendship, and family. From Up on Poppy Hill was directed by Gorō Miyazaki (also known for directing Tales from Earthsea and Earwig and The Witch), with screenplay written by Hayao Miyazaki (who also wrote and directed Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service, among others) and…

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  • Film,  Misc J

    Arrietty (2010)

    July 16, 2026 /

    Arrietty, Arrietty the Borrower (JP) or The Secret World of Arrietty (US) is a Studio Ghibli animation about Arrietty, a tiny girl who befriends a human boy, Sho. Arrietty and her tiny family live under the floors of Sho’s house and borrow little things that go unnoticed from the “human beans” who live above them, however they must keep themselves out of human sight in order to survive. The story is based on the book The Borrowers by Mary Norton with screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. The animation was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Consistent with Studio Ghibli, this is a beautifully animated film with a lovely story, and it is the…

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  • Film,  Now This

    Exit 8 (2026)

    July 10, 2026 /

    Liminal spaces, often empty, sterile, fluorescent-lit rooms and hallways, represent places of in-between, of transition, or on the threshold of one state of being to another, and seem to be a growing theme in movies, especially with the recent A24 release Backrooms (2026) which solely focuses on these places. Increasingly, viewers want to take a deep look into these spaces and process the eeriness. Often, these are rooms or hallways that we pass through quickly, without giving them much thought, but when the Lost Man (played by Kazunari Ninomiya, known from 2006’s Letters from Iwo Jima) gets stuck in a subway station, he realizes he must take a closer look…

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  • Crochet

    Woodland Wonders Blanket Finished & New Crochet Books

    July 8, 2026 /

    Only two years after starting the Woodland Wonders blanket by Eleonora at Coastal Crochet (highly recommended for original and beautiful crochet patterns), I have finally finished it! And this is why I can never participate in a crochet-along, which in this case was supposed to last for six weeks. I don’t know how they do it. I do want to give a crochet-along a proper go at some point, but I’m not sure if I have the time for that kind of devotion to a project right now. As I was nearing the end of my blanket, I did some shopping for new crochet pattern books and found two absolutely…

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  • Music,  Now This

    “Love Plus One” – Haircut 100

    July 4, 2026 /

    Released in 1982, “Love Plus One” was a single from the album Pelican West from Haircut One Hundred. The band was formed in Beckingham, London in 1980 by singer-songwriter and guitarist Nick Heyward and bassist Les Nemes. The song “Love Plus One” is known for being one of the great one hit wonders of the 80s, even landing at 90 in VH1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 1980s. I haven’t done an inventory of my favorite one hit wonders of the 80s, but I have a feeling it would be much higher on my list, because “Love Plus One” is such an 80s gem, and to me, this song and…

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