But we all end up the remains of the day…

Some good and some decidedly undecided. Drove down into the West Village section of Dallas last night to meet up with revjim (Daniel) and his lovely wife, sivatonight (Jess). We kicked things off with dinner at Tom Tom Asian Grill And Sushi Bar, which was very good and causal and cool. Conversation was great as well. Daniel and Jess are great people and I’m really glad I got a chance to meet them.

We also went to see Mirrormask, at The Magnolia, after a stop at Starbucks just around the corner from Tom Tom. Mirrormask was, em. Well. Yeah. It was like this:

It was gorgeous. It is a visual assault, really. Stephanie Leonidas, who plays fifteen year old Helena, is absolutely lovely and probably has quite the future ahead of her. The movie is paced like Gaiman’s writing, in that it feels like Gaiman wrote it (as it should), and visually it is as though McKean breathed life into his portfolio and filmed it. The problem is that the two aren’t exactly chocolate and peanut butter. At least not in the way the two have previously combined in print. The film lacked a good editor, in my opinion, and could have done well by itself to be about a half-hour shorter. In the end I liked it because, as a fan, I am willing to forgive, and sit through, some rough bits to get to the juicy center. Unfortunately I just can’t recommend it to people who aren’t fans of Gaiman or McKean. I thought I was going to have to carry poor Daniel and Jess out of there. I felt so bad. Hopefully they won’t hold it against me too much. Heh.

Overall, I was really glad I got to meet the two of them. Hopefully we can do it again sometime, minus the artsy-fartsy movie.