What drug(s) were they on?

Some of my recent media experiences have been the products of seemingly drug-induced minds.

Mirrormask: I saw this movie yesterday and I recommend it very highly. The main thing it reminded me of was Alice's Advenutres Through the Looking Glass, although the trappings were different (the circus stuff, no flamingos for croquet mallets, etc.). I actually felt a little dizzy coming out of the theatre, as some of the trippy visuals triggered some of my motion sickness detectors, but those feelings soon passed. I read complaints in LA Weekly that Mirrormask moved too slowly, but I didn't get that impression at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it. (Of course, LA Weekly and I have been disagreeing a lot lately, which bodes well for the new David Mamet play I'll be seeing soon.) The visuals were way cool but I really liked the Alice-style trippiness even independent of the graphics.

We Love Katamari: If there was ever a game for which the obvious reaction is "What the fuck?", this one is it. I never actually played the first game in the series (Katamari Darcy), but I was aware of its unexpectedly large popularity in the US. (My understanding is that the game was initially considered "too Japanese" for a US audience and was not originally going to come out here.) In this game, you control a ball (or a sumo wrestler, or who knows what else) that rolls around the place picking up stuff. You start out really small, but you get bigger as you accrue various book, pegasi, schoolgirls, bums, cars, and giant buddhas. Eventually, you have your way with the entire planet (or more, I am told) and classic monsters like Nessy and Godzilla (and the planet's islands) run away hastily as you approach. One big appeal of this game is when one can suddenly annihilate things that used to have their way with you when you were smaller. Rampaging over playground and nailing an entire basketball game in progress is also key. And then when you get huge, it's fun to pick up the landmarks and (a little later) the giant monsters. Oh, and I can't talk about this game without discussing the warp zones---especially the one with the bum that you can't pick up otherwise. That part of the game is key, even though some of the people watching the Gazebo and I play the game the past couple days didn't seem to appreciate how cool the warp zone was. Instead, they were mocking us for always going back there, not being able to navigate, becoming stuck, and other such nonsense. I'm not sure I'd want to play this game long-term, but as a short-term diversion, it was definitely very fun.

In terms of other drug-induced things, I have a Depeche Mode album to review in the near future. (While DM is hardly what I'd call trippy, their lead singer does have a pretty lengthy drug history and has almost died from ODing on at least one occasion.)