"Brave" by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman & Steve Purcell (2012)

Merida is the oldest daughter of Fergus and Elinor. She is a tomboy, a bit of a rebel, opinionated and wild. She happily lives with her parents and triplets until she is asked to fulfil her destiny, comply with her clan's tradition, and choose a husband from the allied clans' suitors. In constant conflict with her mother, Merida visits an old witch in search for a potion to help her escape her destiny. However, what she finds is a curse of cosmic proportions. How is Merida going to save her mother, herself and the kingdom?

 Pixar lost a bit its essence and idiosyncrasy when was engulfed by Disney. Since then, every second Pixar movie we get a real Pixar movie in conception, ideas and originality. The in-between years are for movies like Brave, which follow a template with structured predefined characters, values and jokes that are very much modern Disney.

Brave's animation is amazing from a visual point of view: the colours, layouts, backgrounds, the rendering of the landscapes and characters movement, the camera angling, the 3D design and even the movement of Merida's hair are spectacular. Still, a good animation movie needs of a good script with a sound story and narrative to be successful: what it tells and how it tells it are always more important than how it looks like.

Brave's script -by Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman and Irene Mecchi- is, a priory, a winner. It mixes many European folk legends and human archetypes (like the ones we see in Anderson or the Grimm Brothers' tales) with modern attitudes and sensibilities. Moreover, Merida is in a way, a combination of all old Disney's heroines. 

The film is entertaining and beautiful to watch, and some of the characters are very funny. There are many funny moments especially those involving the witch, Merida's triplet brothers, and the lady bear.

All the cast of actors do a good job at dubbing their respective characters: Kelly Macdonald as Merida, Billy Connolly as Merida's father, Emma Thompson as her mother, and Julie Walters as the Witch. To be fair, Billy Connolly's dubbing always sounds like himself not as the character he plays.

Still, Brave does not deliver beyond the artistic qualities of the animation, because the story sends contradictory messages. It feels as if the writing team had done bit and pieces separately, and then stitched them together without further adjustment and polishing. Being so, the movie can be labelled, depending on the moment, as feminist, sexist, retrograde, modern, advanced or conservative. Two main messages are sent to the world. 1/ "Obey your mother". That can be a revolutionary message in a world in which children are spoiled-rotten and disrespect their parents. However, going from there to deciding that everything mammy says is good for your future and that the tradition has to be respected no matter how senseless it is, it is a bit reactionary. 2/ On the other hand, the story tells us that you can be brave and daring, but until certain point - bravery is subversive, and subversion is not good. What?! Be brave and make your own fate, free will do exist, but fate is fateful and will crash you if you subvert the status-quo. What! What? What?!

Too much is always too much. Brave is a beautiful senseless sermon that gets lost in its own wordiness and senseless preaching. It is perfect for small children, as it has lots of action and some funny moments that the little ones (and your inner child) will enjoy. More sounded boys and girls, our just your sound self, could get a bit puzzled at the moral of the story and the wordy ending.

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"Kiki's Delivery Service" by Hayao Miyazaki (1989)

Kiki's Delivery service is a Studio Ghibli's traditional hand-drawn animation movie loosely based on Eiko Kadono's eponymous book, but with important additions by Miyazaki. It tells the story of Kiki, a 13's y.o. witch who leaves the family home with her cat Jiji to get a life of her own and start her training as a witch in a big city away from parents and friends.

It is a Ghibli's trademark the detail and artistic drawing of the scenery and cityscapes, and Kiki's is no exception. It has a precious and colourful drawing. The European city where Kiki goes is a mix of Northern European architecture and Southern European lighting and mood. The time frame is an imprecise point in time, a golden-era of peace and tolerance, set around the 1950s, but with elements that go from the 30s (the zeppelin) to the 60s (B&W TV), with other elements that can be placed in between.

Three elements stand out in this movie beyond the hand-drawn precious animation. The first one is Kiki's story - a metaphor of the changes that take us from childhood to adulthood, from being in the family's womb, many times taking for granted what we have, to being alone, unprotected, standing by ourselves, defining who we are and want to be as individuals. Jiji's evolution with regards to Kiki is just the result of Kiki's transformation into an adult, not of the cat's changing ways!

The second element is very Miyazaki's - the presence of magical and non-magical elements combined harmoniously in a world of good-natured tolerant humans that accept magic as a natural thing,  like Kiki's flying her broom through a city making courier deliveries.

Thirdly, this is a movie about women, female nature and sisterhood. Except for Tombo -Kiki's admirer and good-natured inventive friend- the main characters are powerful savy women: Osono, the pregnant baker, represents acceptance without questions, maternal care, the City, hard work and determination. Ursula the painter, on the contrary, represents freedom, personal independence, individuality, the wild, the follow your heart and explore your soul message. Finally, the two old ladies in the blue-roofed house -Madam and Bertha- are examples of kindness, carefulness, attention to the detail, old manners and class. In fact, Kiki finds a mother, two grandmas and a big sister in the city. Miyazki's Europe is, it seems, a a matriarchal society.

There a few points that I would have liked further explored with extra footage, as the movie is enjoyable, and the ending was unnecessarily hasted and leaves you with a big sweet and sour after-taste. Still, Kiki is an adorable story with lovable characters, that is entertaining and good for both children and adults, especially if you love magic realism and Ghibli and Miyakazi's magic worlds.

A warning - Some of the DVDs come with several dubbing versions and several captions. Beware, the original first dubbing of the original was done without respect to the original, and changes and mutates the dialogues without respect,  changes the tone of the movie and even transforms Jiji into a sarcastic adult cat.  It is not a proper dubbing but an interpretation with additions to the original made by Disney. It is shameful and disrespectful and you better ignore it. There is a second American dubbing that is truthful to the original. Watch the original Japanese with captions, and choose the captions that follow the Japanese script not the invented superposed American. Who wants to watch an adulteration when the original is perfect?

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Fashion Prices

Fashion businesses have to make a living out of their trade and get some profits for their hard work. I am fine with that. However,  we are paying too much for almost everything in Australia. Our wallets are assaulted every day with a charming smile and a discounted label.

In a time in which most of what we consume is mass-produced in China using cheap labour working on hard strenuous conditions, there is no excuse for paying what we pay for fashion items, many of them of bad or mediocre quality. Even if they are of good quality, they are still overpriced.

1/ Just look at the sales. Two examples. Last year, I bought a pair of sandals by Donna Karan from David Jones (no fakes, no damaged, good!) for 17 bucks. Yep. 17! The original price was close to 100! That is the tenth of the original price less, and they are still making profits out of it!

Yesterday afternoon, I bought a lovely sequinned Alannah Hill's cardigan, also at David Jones, valued at 200 dollars, for 64 bucks! 

2/ On the other hand, there are perennial discounts and sales in stores like Myers, Ojay, Jacquie E, Review, to mention some places I visit often. Products are priced way over what they are worth, and after two days or two weeks on the racks at impossible prices they are discounted - 20 or 30%. Discounted? Or is it more rightly priced?

3/ There is a more dangerous trend - tested by me and my two eyes. You go to your fav shoe store because you fancy, say, a pair of shoes valued at 109 dollars. Being the bargain hunter I am, I drop by often to see if the price is reduced. Then, yesterday, I drop by again at seeing the sale sign. I enter. I check the price of that very same pair, and the sale sticker says.... 109 bucks. Isn't that insulting? Isn't that unethical? Isn't that a complete lack of respect towards the same very hand that feeds you? 

These shops and chain stores are still making lots of money out of their discounts and sales. I am not saying to they have to sell below cost, but perhaps 5 times more instead of 10 times the price they sell. The workers in China are not becoming rich from their work, if you know what I mean.

We are living in the Matrix of a shopping retail fantasy. The harsh truth is that we are not getting a discount. What they call discount is something closer to what I call the ethical price of a product. I call ethical prices to those prices that provide a good revenue to the business, but do not overcharge consumers; in other words, the consumer pays what the product is worth (quality and real value) plus the business' profits and wages, plus a bonus for the exclusivity of the brand.

Ethical prices are missing in action in our normal non-luxury stores. Why are overcharged five, ten or twenty times the price of a product? Why do they overcharge us, and then complain that sales are not going well and that people are shopping online too much? Ahhhh, yes. It is called greediness and a short-sighted approach to business.

I rarely buy anything full-priced unless it is well-priced, something I really need, or something hand-made locally that is worth my hard-work-earned money. The interesting fact is that those people crafting unique pieces in Western Australia are still producing affordable and even cheap items, despite their producing costs being higher. How can that be possible? Perhaps they are less greedy and have their craft more at heart and treat their customers with a bit of more respect not just like a money-making number.

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Portmans (Hay St, Perth WA)

661 Hay St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9321 2522
http://www.portmans.com.au/

THE GOOD
+ They have very girlie trendy classy stuff, with lots of colour, plus a good selection of work clothing.

+ Their accessories section is small, lovely and well priced, with pretty trendy pieces. Their scarves are among my favourite things here because, unlike other chain stores, they have texture, volume, the right length, and awesome fabrics. They always have a huge selection of belts.

+ The staff are a bunch of no-fuss, friendly and helpful girls, no matter the day or the hour you visit. I always prefer this shop to the one on Murray St just because of their terrific service and friendliness.

+ They open before 10am.

+ They have nice changing rooms.

+ They have an exchange policy of 14 days, so you can drop by, grab something without trying, and return it if the size or style does not suits you. This is especially convenient if you work most shopping hours and take advantage of your lunch break for shopping! So very convenient.

THE SO-SO
- The quality of the apparel and most complements is poor to medium, with a few exceptions. The fabrics are very thin and not good quality, although they look fantastic on. I have bought many things there, and except for the scarves, they tend to deteriorate soon. For example, I bought a couple of stockings this year, and they torn apart quicker than the ones I bought from Coles! Their belts are synthetic and very "plasticky" and the same can be said of their wallets, bags, and so on. They are so pretty, though!

- The prices are a too high for the quality of the products sold.
 

***

Good for fashion fixes and emergencies, Portmans at Hay St offers what other Portmans shops sell, but the shop is smaller and the service way better than in other branches of the chain.

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Le Bistro des Artistes (Subiaco, Perth WA)

424 Hay St
Subiaco Western Australia 6008
(08) 6141 8761
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Hours:
    Tue-Thu 10:30 - 23:00
    Fri-Sat 9:00 - 23:00

 
Subiaco is blossoming, with very European style shops and restaurants, beyond the chains you find elsewhere. There is a nice vibe going on at Subi at present, and the opening of Le Bistro des Artistes is just a proof of it and a worthy addition to the always very charming Subi. At least a reason to visit Subiaco again.

Recently opened, Le Bistro des Artistes is an authentic French Bistro managed and operated by two real French chefs (Alain Fabregues & Emmanuel Mollois), that offers good quality decently priced food in a very nice relaxing setting.

*** THE PLACE ***

The bistro is very pleasant, has a relaxed and luminous atmosphere, lovely decoration details and paintings. The main seating area is small, but the mirrored wall tricks the eye and gives the impression of the place being double the size that it is. The tables are spread also by the wall, by the bar and kitchen area, and there is a reserved area for private functions with a wonderfully celled wall. They do have nice cutlery and linen napkins. Ohhh, I wanted to cry when I got those. They will put a little wooden tray with bread and butter on arrival, and have water bottles provided to the table. 

The bistro attracts people of all ages, from the smartly or poshly dressed to the casually dressed. I always  consider this a sign that the place is appealing and good per se, and that the attraction is based on the virtues of the food and place, not on hype. 

***  THE FOOD ***

They have 2-course meals at 45 dollars and 3-course for 55 dollars during the day (from 12pm-3pm), which is a bargain having into account that we could pay that for mediocre food elsewhere. Dinner courses are more expensive, though.

Everything I tried was delicious, well prepared, and gorgeously plated. Among the entrées, the Salad Niçoise is huge and yummy with pieces of fresh tuna, while the Veal Pressé -a sort of chunky veal terrine slice- was very delicate but flavoursome and wonderful with the Jean Pierre Sancho's bread. 

Among the mains, the Salmon Sausage was delicious, again delicate and flavoursome. It is a salmon mouse sausage on a bed of pureed potato, and a yummy sauce, plus rocket and a half-moon pastry. It looked so pretty that I was like, gosh, I have to destroy this beauty to eat it. I finished with it in a microsecond. 

The Venison Mijoté is a man-sized serving of a home-style earthy casserole full of flavour, with big chunks of tender meat, veggies and potatoes. It is served in a little casserole pot, which makes everything even more charming. Perfect for winter!

The desserts are, perhaps, the star of the place, as they are are good-looking,    gorgeously plated, and with the right amount of sugar in them - scrumptious! Some of them are outstanding, all of them yummy. I have tried the lemon brûlée tart, which was delicious, served with two sauces that were divine in colour, texture and flavour, and made me want to lick my plate like a dog. The creme brûlée was truly foodorgasmic and beautifully presented. I was so excited and flabbergasted by the artistic view and by eating one cooked by a real French cook, that I forgot to take a picture and even to offer a try to my table partners! The Floating Island was nice, huge in size, and very good, but less wow than the other two.

Their coffee is well prepared but, unfortunately, one of those widespread "weakies" we find in Perth, which does not make any favour to the accompanying sweets. No sugar added, and it did lack in flavour.

There are so many sweets and dishes I would like to try at Le Bistro!

*** THE SERVICE ***

Let start by the good things. What impressed me the most is the fact that, if you happen to be at the bistro at the last hours of lunch or dinner, the chefs come out and chat to customers. We talked to Emmanuel, the pâtissier, and he was so humble and lovely! That is a high class gesture, as they are not small cooks but proper chefs.

The staff are gorgeous-looking, smiley, very friendly and eager to please.

However, that is not enough to provide a good service, as the staff are not properly organised or trained. This really puts down the great job that the chefs do at cooking. I will mention just a few issues:
+ They forgot to bring water to my table the first time I visited, and when I approached the counter to pay my bill, there was a buzz about who would attend to me.
+ When asked which type of wine a French one was, the waiter could not tell us and had to ask another one.  
+  There was an old couple who arrived after we did, ordered after we did, and were served before we did and were treated like royals. I guess they were somebody important as they were given fast, first-class treatment. There was a young couple beside our table, they arrived after we did, they ordered way after we did, and they were served first.
+ They forgot to bring my dessert and had to be reminded, but did not apologise.
+ They forgot to put the cutlery on the table when bringing the dessert to my friend, and had to be reminded, but did not apologise.
+ They wanted us to keep cutlery between courses because they are running an energy-saving program... At least ask customers what they want, no? 
+ My friend got a hair, long as a spaghetti, in her casserole dish. It was not hers. When the waiter was called, he asked her if she wanted the dish removed and gave a lame excuse about why the hair might be there, no apology. What sort of questions is, "Do you want it removed?" What you have to do in this sort of cases is you apologise sincerely, you retire the dish without asking and bring another. This is not a charity shelter serving food for free! I find revolting finding my own hair in my food, can you imagine other person's in a restaurant?!
+ My debit card was charged credit without even asking me what I wanted.

*** ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT ***

# It costs nothing having sachets of sweetener for customers who request them.

# The desserts cabinet has tables by it. When people want to check out the desserts, they have to approach your table, and get literally over you and your head to see what is in the cabinet. It just makes sense moving the cabinet elsewhere. Otherwise, do not put any table by the cabinet!

# At the moment, the cashier is an unfriendly spot located at the bottom end  of the counter, a tiny area between the kitchen area and the counter, surrounded by waiters moving in/out the kitchen and café areas. It is inconvenient for them having people moving along that alley, and it is not good for customers being there, either. It just makes sense having the bread area at the entrance relocated by the kitchen, and the cashier separated from the kitchen and placed close to the exit. Zen. Organic. 

#  One tiny lonely sausage in my main dish. Do not worry about my health, I am slim and fit, give me another sausage. I think my stomach can handle it. 

# Service needs to be properly managed  and reorganised to avoid the chaos we experienced during my second visit. Basic rules:

• If you make a mistake or forget something, do apologise with a smile. 
• If a client find a hair in his/her dish, retire it immediately and apologise without even asking. 
• They need to be told in advance which sort of wines they are serving, especially if the variety of grape is not mentioned in the wine chart, so when the Australian customer asks, the staff can tell without hesitation. 
• They also need to pay attention and be sure that people who arrive first are served first, that you treat everybody the same, because you do not know if the lovely person seating there is going to write a review of your place :O.

 ***

I do not want to give the wrong impression. Le Bistro des Arstistes is a great place, one of those places you want to return over and over, which has great food and desserts at very good prices, a nice atmosphere, and two very down to earth chefs. However, the service has to improve to make the visit something special and not the chaos it is at present.

MIND
** Their breakfast are French style, therefore no eggs or cooked meals are served.

** If you order the three-course meal, be patient because it can take a while for your dishes to arrive and need a partner of table to fill in the minutes.  If you are on a date, I hope you have lots of things in common to talk about!

** Bookings are recommended, especially during lunch weekdays and dinners, but walk-ins are welcomed, especially during weekend lunches, if you are just on your own or coupled.

Location 7/10
Layout 7/10
Ambience 7/10
Food 8.5/10
Sweets 8.5/10
Coffee 6/10
Service 5.5/10
Pricing 8/10

Update 3/7/2013
I have returned a couple of times since my first visit to the Bistro just after their opening and first months of life. Le Bistro is still a little jewel of a restaurant, worth the trip to Subiaco just to visit it.

The service, which was a big chaos at the beginning and put down the work of the chefs, has been sorted out. The staff, at present, are lovely, smiley, efficient, fast and attentive, so you can focus on your meal and your company.

I love the mix of home-style regional French food and dishes that are more sophisticated and creative. They change menu quite often, so you will be delighted at finding new dishes on the menu together with the stars of the house, like the salad niçoise or the creme brulee. I cannot tell you of anything that I haven't liked there, which, in itself, an statement that surprises even me!

The pricing is great for what you get. If you have the 3-course lunch, for 50 bucks, you leave with your belly full and a big smile of satisfaction on your face.

I love the place, and their toilets, and the mix of busy-ness, quietness and easy-going-ness, which explains why Le Bistro can be full for lunch on any given weekday.

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"Little Miss Sunshine" by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris (2006)

 Little Miss Sunshine is a road movie about a dysfunctional family trying to take their seven-year-old Olive to an interstate beauty pageant from Alburquerque NM to Redondo Beach CA in their yellow Volkswagen Van.

Little Miss Sunshine is an fresh, witty and enthralling movie with freak and quirky characters, brilliant dialogues, great performances, and an original story. It is an entertaining funny crazy film that makes you think about subjects that are never confrontationally presented.

What makes a family dysfunctional? At the beginning of the film our family seem to be dysfunctional and freak, although they are  depicted in an empathetic way and epitomise, in a way, the dysfunctions that most so-called-normal families have. The thing is, the family does not push Olive into the pageant, does not force her to dress or behave in a certain way, does not dress her as little prostitute, does not expect anything from her, just supports her the whole way, even when everybody turns against her. The other parents, the "normal" ones, appear as real freaks after all, projecting their frustrated dreams and personal failure into their little kids. All of the sudden, the dysfunctional family is quite sound, warm and caring, the others just the opposite.

There is a subtle but clear criticism of the ideal of the American dream and of the self-help books and coaching focusing on becoming rich. The character of Richard epitomises the bullshit that these sub-culture has, pushing people to fight for money success following recipes that frequently lead to failure for which they do not prepare anybody. Sheryl the mother is instead the voice of common sense and more successful in her approach to life and its problems.

There is also a very cleaver non non-confrontational criticism of child beauty pageants. The script poses a rhetorical question to the viewer: what is it freakier, a beautiful child sexually dressed wearing sluty make up who poses and moves as a sexy adult, or an innocent child who sings and dances to a raunchy song that she does not understand? What happens to Olive at the pageant is the answer that the script gives to that rhetorical question, and surely the one you would identify the most.
 
The movie provides the viewer with many iconic movie images, which will imprint your retinas and stand the pass of time: The pushing of the van and the music, the girl singing "super freak", the escape from the hospital, among many others.

If this was not enough, all the actors give unforgettable performances in their respective roles: Toni Collette as the family's warm-hearted sound mother Sheryl, Greg Kinnear is her unsuccessful husband Richard, Alan Arkin as Richard's dirty father Edwin, Steve Carell as Shery'ls gay suicidal scholar brother, Abigail Breslin as the sweet innocent Olive, and Paul Dano as Olive's half brother silent rebel Dwayne.

A modern classic.

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Standing Room Only (Perth WA)

Shop 7, Piccadilly Arcade
Hay St
Perth 6000
Phone:  Ring Ring No Ring
Hours:
   Mon-Fri 7am-3.30pm
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I  discovered the SRO café in one of my visits to the Piccadilly Cinemas. I was instantly attracted to it by its Italian concept, the vintage super-stylish look of the place, and its location in the lovely Piccadilly Arcade. Then, I saw their blackboard (see the photo), stating very seriously what they do and what they stand for - Infatuation in five seconds. I told myself, this is the sort of café who cares and caters for coffeeholics of the world. Yet, here I am, a bit disappointed.

THE PLACE - I triple-love the place. It is the class of it, its vintage ambience and music, the coffee addict messages on the mirrors, the painted chalkboards, the wonderful flowers painted on the lamps, that awesome ice-dripping syphon for ice coffee and glass steamer that look so very artistic, the gorgeous coffee machines and coffee grinders... almost everything!  I say almost, because the coffee cups are plain and look out of place here.

THE SERVICE - The young staff are not only gorgeous looking, but friendly and smiley, especially the girl, who really pops up because of her genuine friendliness. All of them are courteous and operate the machine with the precision of a surgeon operating on a dangerous ill patient, but my coffee deserves their concentration. 

THE COFFEE - This should be the first thing to comment about a café, right? Especially this being a place that claims that steams the milk just once, roast beans to order and has very professional baristas who take very seriously anything coffee. Perhaps my expectations were too high after SRO's self-promotion and my fatal attraction towards style with capitals. 

Their coffee is well prepared, but OK in flavour. Sometimes, my three-shot flat white is weak and bland (how can that be possible?!), others it is stronger and nice, always better without sugar or sweetener. Never wow in flavour. It might be the "Five Senses" beans, which are not that sensual to me, the roasting of the beans, the age of the beans, the grinding of the beans, the milk, or the barista operating the "machinery". Dunno. My royal tongue wants a more creamy flavoursome coffee that is consistently prepared and has always the same flavour disregarding the day I visit. I cannot explain why their coffee does not taste better, SRO having all the paraphernalia they have and the enthusiasm they put into preparing our coffee.

***

SRO is perfect to grab a cup before heading to the cinema or your are in a hurry and want a takeaway right now. You will love their coffee if you like Five Sense beans and smooth/weak coffees that do not need of sugar or sweetener. However, if you like well-rounded creamy coffees consistently prepared and with a distinct flavour, you might need to wow yourself on your own. At SRO, the place is amazing, the staff are lovely, and the coffee is OK.

***

I stand in the room only to tell you that I do want to love you more, honey, but you do not give me what I need. I hope you get fit for summer and wow me with your sexy syphon.

MIND
The place does not have EPFTOS. I asked one of the guys if it is temporarily, and I was told that no, that the place and location is not set properly for using EFTPOS. I wonder how the other shops in Piccadilly do have it, then.

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