Pocky!

Pocky!
"Pocky is a Japanese snack food produced by the Ezaki Glico Company of Japan. It was first sold in 1965, and consists of a biscuit stick coated with chocolate. Pocky was an instant hit among Japanese teenagers, and brought in sales of 30 billion yen in its first two years. The name was changed to "Pocky", after the Japanese onomatopoetic word for the sound Pocky makes when bitten, pokkin. The original was followed by "Almond Pocky" in 1971, with an almond coating, and "Strawberry Pocky" in 1977. Today, the product line includes such variations as milk, mousse, green tea and coconut flavored coatings, and themed products such as "Decorer Pocky", with colorful decorative stripes in the coating, and "Men's Pocky", a dark (bittersweet) chocolate."



Boxes of this delicious confectionary, as well as actual pocky sticks, can be seen in various anime productions and printed manga. This includes Spirited Away!! "In the beginning of the movie when Chihiro and her family are driving to their new house a empty box of 'pock' can be seen bouncing around the back seat." -- quote taken from one website that is dedicated to Pocky -Pocky Shrine.

Asian foods @ Bealeton Library

These photos were taken before the Teen Anime Party on Monday, October 22 at Bealeton Library. Obviously, this is pre-decimation* by ravenous costumed characters. The tables were nearly licked clean, implying the food was indeed tasty and we may need a greater supply next time.

Pocky, pocky, pocky. Strawberry sweet, bitter dark chocolate "Pocky for Men", regular milk chocolate-dipped pocky, extra long pocky to weild in the air like a samurai sword before eating...ah, pocky. And for the brave, many a mouth tasted wasabi straight from the tube. Or tempered their tongues with the dried and coated wasabi peas. Thank goodness for the cool soda that flowed like a Japanese mountain spring and soothed the expressions on pained faces. Similarities to Bunraku puppets not withstanding, all costumes were superb.

*American Heritage Dictionary

dec·i·mate (děs'ə-māt')

To destroy or kill a large part of (a group).
To inflict great destruction or damage on: The fawns decimated my rose bushes. (The teens decimated the delicious food.)
To reduce markedly in amount: a profligate heir who decimated his trust fund.
To select by lot and kill one in every ten of.

YuBaBa in the Bealeton stacks

Teen Coffee House - Anime Art design

Thank you everyone who drew and cut and glued at Bealeton Library on Monday, September 24th!

The children's story time area will soon be transformed into Howl's Moving Castle. Calcifer will warm the entrance to the castle, clinging to a log in the fireplace. Turnip Head (a.k.a. Prince Scarecrow) will hop on the wall nearby. And Heen, the dog, will stalk beside his friends along the stones. Who knows who/what else will appear.

Teens from Culpeper, Bealeton, and Warrenton middle and high schools are creating these paper creatures. The ghostly forest spirits (from Princess Mononoke) stare at the transformed baby (from Spirited Away) above their heads. Calcifer grins as he burns through the carpet, just kidding.

Poor Turnip Head still needs a body (paper, not human)! Taylor and Cedar Lee Middle School artists will fix that in time for the Anime Party.

Sen and Haku crouch in perfect poise as a local teen artist begins to sketch.

Oil pastel blended over colored pencil creates another (of many to be drawn) forest spirit from Princess Mononoke.


The Anime Party will be held on October 22 at Bealeton Library.
Arrive in costume (Rated G) at 6 o'clock and stay until closing at 9 p.m.
Watch a special Anime presentation, taste Japanese delicacies, draw Manga, and more.

By poet Shikiori Morikami

The wind strokes the me who merely crawls the ground.
Feathers and leaves dancing in the wind whirl around me...
I raise my flightless wing to block the mocking sun.
I pluck a feather and throw it into the wind -
Only to have it fall, spinning to the ground.
I finger the key tied around my neck;
not knowing what it is that is locked.
Dreaming of the world to which my love disappeared...
Is the key to unlock the gate of which it spoke
the parallel universe under the same sun?
End the breath of sadness
End it with the sound of a lock falling -
Driving insane for the moonlit starry sky
with all the heavens above the ground that I walk;
Fearing both light and dark
Trying to hold my own against the raging memories of the past -
Torn apart glowing memories flying with the stars
I hear wolves howling in the far off distance but...
My mind tells me it's a hawk's call for its young.
Should I believe what my mind tells me?
Or maybe I'll follow my heart instead.

Anime @ the Library

Check out Anime films by Hayao Miyazaki in Fauquier County Public Library's collection.


If you aren't Spirited Away by the exquisite art, the story line will take you to a world unlike any. Chihiro loses her parents, her name, and her childish whining in this fantasy film. Haku, a young prince rescues her from dissolving into thin air. A multi-armed boiler man gives her a job near hundreds of invigorated dust balls that carry coal chunks to stoke the fire. The bath house for spirits comes alive. How will she recognize the greedy pigs that her parents became? With No-face seeking her friendship, who will she be at the end?


Read Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones first and then watch it come alive on Miyazaki's animated version of Howl's Moving Castle {DVD}. View these incredible photoshop and paper crafted images of the interior, exterior, and complete construction of the castle that Calcifer moves for Howl.




Challenge:
-Try to build your own paper craft of Howl's rickety, odd castle.
-Bring it in to be judged at the Bealeton Library during the first Anime Party.
-The best one will remain on display (if you can spare it temporarily) in the Young Adult section.


Sample: