Coraline is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Like the director’s previous animated films, James and the Giant Peach and the beloved The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline is an incredible combination of whimsy, creepy, and visual brilliance. This film goes above and beyond the now-ubiquitous Pixar-style computer animation, and impresses with stop motion miniatures. The level of care and minute details add to the film’s transcendence. Everything in the film is hand-made. The clothing was hand-knit with tiny knitting needles and the cherry blossoms were hand-painted pieces of popcorn.

The plot itself resembles that of the Wizard of Oz: quirky, yet easily bored Coraline finds magical world where nothing is at it seems; this world is wonderful and then scary, and Coraline realizes that there truly is no place like home. This new world is one of circus mice, decadent food, magic flowers, and dark secrets: a sort of Alice in Wonderland meets Beetlejuice meets Big Fish. Story-line aside, the technical brilliance and visual splendor make it worth watching again and again.

I love the photographs of Anthony Goicolea. He creates elaborate self portraits usually displayed at large scale. They are strange and whimsical at the same time. Love them!

Click for his website

Kaden and Steph came in town for some delicious turkey legs and Renaissance fun!

I love to organize. I think I like the actual process of organizing better than having my things organized. We’ve been putting together our home office and I finally took on the task of downsizing and re-organizing my CD collection. I still haven’t taken the leap to “digital only”, as I have a pretty intense fear of getting rid of things. I needed a system where I could keep all the original booklets and artwork and where the CDs are easily accessible. I’ve tried the giant binder of CDs, but it just isn’t quite right.

I settled on a CD “filing” system from Memorex and I am quite satisfied with how much space it saves. I also love any opportunity to use my label maker! To the right are all the jewel cases that once held my CDs, and to the left are my new CD files. I’m about two-thirds of the way done with my CDs and I am so happy with it, I may do the same thing with our DVDs.

This was our fourth Valentine’s Day. I’ve never been happier.