Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke + Adventures

On Friday night, I met up with a friend I met nine years ago while traveling in South America. I'd never been to the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax and I'd been wanting to go for a long time. So, I was happy to finally experience it - it's fun, casual - a very friendly environment. It feels like you are in a friend's personal movie room. It's not "nice" or fancy, but funky.

http://www.cinefamily.org/

The film we saw was Princess Mononoke. One of my favorite films is by the same guy - Miyazaki. It's called Spirited Away. However whereas Spirited Away is magical and has wondrous odd characters, Princess Mononoke is much darker and heavier.

We were such an international group! My friend Peter, who is from Germany, but lived in Buenos Aires for many years and is fluent in Spanish, English, and enough Mandarin to spend all day speaking only in Mandarin was there. His Mandarin teacher, who is from Beijing and whom he met and studied under in Beijing, was there. His fiance joined us - from the US, but she and Peter met couch surfing in Argentina. A Brazilian guy none of us had met before, but who was a friend of a friend, from couch surfing, joined us. 

Meeting the woman from Beijing and the guy from Brazil reminded me how much I love traveling and especially meeting new people. They're like a breath of fresh air. I'm not sure I'd want to have complete strangers in my home, staying on my couch (that is what couch surfing is), but I love the concept - basically if you sign up on the website and make a profile, you can stay with someone or host someone by offering a couch when someone is in your city. It's a way for people from different countries/states to get to know different people and about different cultures. I'm glad it exists. As the guy from Brazil said - some people are crazy, most are nice, and you realize that most people in the world are good. He ended with the quote "A stranger is just someone who hasn't become a friend yet."

Noteworthy - I was the only one who used a car to get there. Peter and his Mandarin teacher showed up on a tandem bicycle. His fiance also biked over. And the Brazilian guy came by bus.