More Winter in Munich

Today I ended up spending far more than I intended in Munich. Despite the freezing cold, Becca and I couldn’t resist picking up a variety of beautiful things.

First, I bought two Japanese films on DVD. One was Kiki’s Delivery Service, a Studio Ghibli classic in the vein of Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle. It tells the story of the young witch Kiki and her mischievous black cat, Jiji, as they start a small delivery service at the bakery of the kindly Okino. It’s charming, whimsical, and utterly delightful. In contrast, I also picked up Izo, a much darker film about the ghost of a samurai who exacts vengeance on everyone in his life—his mother, his lover, his friends—and ultimately confronts God himself.

I added two CDs to my collection as well: Hikaru Utada’s Be My Last, complete with a bonus video DVD, and Tommy Heavenly6 by the frontwoman of my favorite band, The Brilliant Green. Beyond music and film, I grabbed an issue of the Japanese magazine Popeye, a copy of Muteen, two posters featuring Kagerou and Merry, and an iPod cassette adapter, finally enabling me to listen to my iPod in the car—yes, we still have a cassette player. I also picked up the Mac game Tropico 2, where you play as a pirate king developing an island, reminiscent of Anno 1502.

Lunch was equally indulgent: the largest sandwich of my life at Subway, complete with double cheese and bacon.

A quick note to Basti: thank you for your kind words. You’re right, the links page could use a refresh—I’ll see what I can do. And a brief response to my friend André, who had some strong opinions about GQ: I’ve been collecting that magazine since 2002, so don’t be so cheeky.

With that, I’m off to conquer new adventures—perhaps even as king of the pirates.