Category Archives: magpie

Letter of Recommendation: FOOD⭐️STAR

Ever since we lost Japanese Style Originator from Netflix, I’ve been missing their deep-dive videos into traditional ways of making and doing things. Fortunately, I found FOOD⭐️STAR, which fills part of that gap for me. They’re particularly strong on artisan bakeries in Japan, both traditional and Western style ones, but they also feature wagashi (teaContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: FOOD⭐️STAR”

I Have Notes…for “First Love (Hatsukoi)”

Jen reminded me about this one. We’re both big fans of Satoh Takeru of Rurouni Kenshin fame, so when “First Love” appeared on Netflix, I gave it a shot even though rom-coms are not generally my jam. I’m not sure I would even say that Satoh is a great actor. He’s good, but not great;Continue reading “I Have Notes…for “First Love (Hatsukoi)””

Cartoons for Grown-ups: My Happy Marriage and Delicious in Dungeon

I’m starting another series on the blog to log the anime I watch because I’ve watched and continue to watch a lot of it—ever since (a) I discovered Tranzor Z on TV in middle school and (b) Blockbuster opened in my neighborhood in 1988 and I could start renting VHS tapes of anime. I’ve alreadyContinue reading “Cartoons for Grown-ups: My Happy Marriage and Delicious in Dungeon”

Friday Favorites: Blessed Machine–The First 50 Years

There was this nice older lady at my church growing up, Bea Eschelmann, and she told my mom a story once about when her immigrant mother got her first washing machine, she petted it and whispered reverently, “Bless-ed machine.” Thus, my mom used to occasionally bless some device that was saving her time in theContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Blessed Machine–The First 50 Years”