Jean Tatro, Writer

Posted By Jean on July 24, 2010

It seems like, this year, that the weather is a month ahead of itself. It has done nothing but pour rain this entire month, with only a handful of sunny days scattered between the downpours. This is the sort of weather we usually have in August, and at this rate I’m expecting snow for my birthday. This sort of weather doesn’t bother me – I love rainy days, and the stronger the storm the better.

One day this last week on our way back from Eagle River we stopped in Palmer for dinner. It seems it’s always raining when we go to the Valley Hotel, and this night it was absolutely pouring. The sky was black and the road gleamed. Times like that put me in mind of something that happened when I was about five. It was during a trip to Minnesota – I, my mom, and my grandma, were on a day trip to a Waldorf school in Wisconsin. There were flood and tornado warnings that day, but a little weather stopped my family from having fun.

It was overcast and deep grey, as we passed over the bridge we were very impressed by how high the water was – only three or four feet below the bridge. On the other side we stopped at a little shop, where we bought a painted clay eskimo Christmas ornament. After we left the shop we hurried quickly into the car. I don’t recall what prompted our flight – a radio announcement? good old fashion instinct? But we turned around and headed back the way we came as quickly as possible. I remember black clouds, and looking out the back window to see a twisting spiral descend. When we passed over that bridge again the river had risen, and the water was surging over the road. The bridge seemed twice as long as we went over it at an agonizingly slow pace, and the rain came down so hard we could barely see anything. We were one of the last cars that made it across the bridge that night.

At no point do I remember being afraid. Weather does not scare me – instead I was fascinated. During the entire flight from the storm I pressed myself to the windows, filled with awe at what I was seeing. My paternal grandmother was a meteorologist, so I suppose it’s in my blood. Anyone for a drive in the rain?

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Tags: autumn, Christmas ornaments, family adventures, memories, Minnesota, storms, summer, weather

Posted By Jean on July 9, 2010

So this week I’ve been playing a lot of Professor Layton and the Curious Village – and I finished Final Fantasy XIII, but I don’t have all my thoughts put together on that one yet. Honestly I might never have all my thoughts together on that one. It’s like one big, tangled ball of Christmas lights and barbed wire.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one of those games that doesn’t seem like much at first, but then turns out to be darn near perfect. The story reminds me of something that I just put my finger on. The warm coloring and charming aesthetic take me back to golden-washed afternoons, curled up with thin mystery books – The Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown, Hawk the Cowdog… With a heavy British flavor added. There was one huge, spoilery plot element I saw coming a mile away, but it knowing it hardly ruins the fun. The puzzles are deceptively difficult – they are challenging, but not impossible. Most usually have some trick to them, which is worked into the description and hints.

Therein I discovered something about myself, one of those revelations that makes me sit up and go ‘wow’. As I played the game I started to notice that I’d have an answer for every puzzle reasonably quickly, but then I’d second guess myself and in some cases spend hours struggling with a puzzle. Basically the dyslexia kicked in, jumbling up the wording of the instructions and causing me to doubt the answer I’d come up with, which was usually the right answer.

It’s damn frustrating. I’m not sure how I finished that game without breaking something – probably because I knew it wasn’t a problem with the game, but a problem with me. It seems the more I turn a critical eye to what I read and play the more I come to grasp not only the elements of writing, but elements of myself as well. I didn’t even know that my dyslexia was effecting my reading as strongly as it was until I picked up Carol Berg’s Flesh and Spirit. It doesn’t come up often, so I forget that I do have this problem and that it does affect just about everything I do. It seems to me that instances like this one are good, as they remind me to pay attention to these things, to read carefully when something just doesn’t make sense, and to trust my instincts as well.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a wonderful game, the right mix of challenging and fun. I’m itching to save up to get the next in the series. Oh DS, why must you have so many wonderful games?

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Tags: dyslexia, final fantasy, gaming friday, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Video Games

Posted By Jean on June 21, 2010

Just as sort of a minor up-front disclaimer – I have not seen the original Karate Kid movies. I don’t know why, and I intend to fix that at the earliest available opportunity. I guess this means that I can judge this movie on its own merits? Either that or talk complete BS. There will be some minor spoilers.

The Karate Kid is one darn good movie. It’s only major flaw is that it is so in love with it’s shakey cam during the first hour or so of the movie that I actually had to leave the theater because I got too motion sick. After the half way point, and Dre (Jaden Smith) starts to train, the shakey cam smooths out. I suppose because you really can’t show the smooth motions of kung fu while the camera is bouncing around like there’s a 7.0 earthquake going on. For that first half the plot mores at a leisurely pace, with just enough action that I wouldn’t have noticed how how it was taking to get to the heart of the story if I hadn’t been feeling ill. It didn’t manage to hold any of the younger kids in the audience. It could have been trimmed down and reworked a lot in places to speed things up, but at the same time I can’t think of a scene I’d complete cut.

Though it is called The Karate Kid it is set in China and Dre learns Kung Fu instead of Karate. On one hand it annoys me because it encourages the confusion, but on the other I see why they went that route – they lisenced for a remake, but during writing they wanted to do something new and modern and ended up in China. At least they lampshaded the difference, so all is forgiven. I can’t blame them because China has some beautiful locations – Wudang Mountain was particularly impressive to see on the big screen – and the cultural bits were wonderful.

The one thing that really stands out about this movie for me is Jackie Chan’s performance. It was wonderful to see, for once, him being used as an actor and not as Jackie Chan, proving that he is a truly talented actor – Mr. Han is tired and beaten, and the reveal of his Dark And Troubled Past had a heartbreaking intensity. It was such a change from his usual roles that I didn’t even recognize him, and it is a welcome change – I want to see him in more roles like this.

The Karate Kid is a movie that stands on its own two feet even as it nails its modernization. Well worth going to see, though not one that is a must-see-in-theaters.

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Tags: karate, martial arts, movie monday, Movies, Reviews