odwalla

Hello Rage Comics

2010-06-19T04:46:00.002-07:00

My first rage comic!

En Route: 19+ Hours from SFO to Singapore

2008-11-26T19:27:00.003-07:00

Ravi and I boarded quite smoothly at SFO for our midnight flight to Singapore. Most flights to India from SFO run late in the night so there were few lines. At the departure gate the most striking feature was the large number of elderly Indians seated in wheelchairs, lined up to board the plane before all other passengers. After 10 or so elderly passengers boarded another pattern emerged, the 15-20 families with young children lined up for pre-boarding. It was quite a contrast to the typical New York or LA domestic flights to which I'm more accustomed.

Traveling Economy Class on Singapore is not bad at all. TV screens behind every seat, with audio/video/gaming options have been standard ever since my earliest memory of flying Singapore as a young boy. The quality of food is good and there are great snacks and cocktails available at any time. I'm thinking of living largely as a vegetarian on this trip so kicked of our in flight meals with the tasty "Indian Vegetarian" option. I got about 5 hours of sleep, otherwise I mostly read thru my India and SE Asia Lonely Planet guides.

After a 1.5 hour layover in Hong Kong we continued on to Singapore. Ravi and I each sipped a refreshing "Singapore Sling", the only cocktail either of us consumed on the whole 19 hour journey. The last, and perhaps most important point to note with Singapore Air's service (just kidding guys) is that essentially all the hostesses are demur, polite, and beautiful and all wear a traditional one piece Singaporean dress. Also essential to my sanity on the very pleasant 19 hour flight (can't stress the duration enough) was the awesome selection of movies, Batman I & II (the new ones), Wall-E, Entourage the tv show, so forth and so on.

Nov 5 Obama makes every Headline, Case Closed.

2008-11-23T16:04:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to tie up the factual, but satirical newspaper-hunting essay from a couple weeks ago. In short, several days after the election I found a single Nov 5 SF Chronicle in a random liquor store in the Richmond district. I was somewhat tipsy and it was quite late so my mind wouldn't allow me to purchase it. I may have been totally incredulous at the time as well. Fear not, there is a happy ending. At 3x the original cost, I purchased 5 copies of the Nov 5 SF Chronicle edition from their website. I received the copies yesterday straight to my house with 5 "special edition" inserts (whatever that means). Last but not least, out of all the comments I received from the previous article, this story is the best: my friend in LA purchased 300 copies of the LA Times very early in the morning on the 5th, 2 weeks later he'd sold all the copies at a marked up price (anywhere from 2x-20x his original cost) not a bad profit! That's definitely a "hustle", if I've ever seen one.

PROMO: This week I'm starting my backpacking trip through Asia. Please visit gurublogstheworld.blogspot.com to keep abreast of my experiences.

God Speed.

More Megapixels, lower quality photos?

2008-11-13T02:53:00.002-07:00

An explanation of why more MPs is not always a good thing for small digi-cams or digital SLRs. Undoubtedly, a good Christmas recession article.

Why My Hope & Optimism Flickered but Only for an Ephemeral Moment Yesterday: A Tale of Self Imposed Idleness and Newspaper Production Treachery

2008-11-06T11:18:00.012-07:00

I was elated at Mr. Obama's election Tuesday Night. It became a Tuesday that surpassed even the most super of Super Tuesdays. When my drunken revelry ended I returned home and dozed off, dreaming of black sheep and change and the stuff fairy tales are made of (viz. Obama's sweat and the water that's collected in his shower drain). When I woke up it was a new day. A bright new day with infinite happiness producing possibilities all at my fingertips. I had a smile on my face and a spring in my step and I basked in all the post election reporting that was going on. I was consuming all the news: online, on cable TV, on the Radio... all the news, save for one exception: "all the news that's fit to print". Where was my morning paper? My family doesn't get the paper regularly anymore, who does these days? And that beckons a side note: yes, I live at home with my family. And yes, I'm almost 30 years old. I don't currently have a job and in my case that really does mean I do absolutely no "productive" work. Consequently, I have TONS of free time on my hands. It's a lot like that song by the Styx, which for some reason I always thought of as being by Foreigner until I actually wrote this essay. The chorus is "Too Much Time on My Hands". Ah, the power of the Internet to educate AND simultaneously destroy the newspaper industry's pursuit of revenue and growth. So where was my hard copy? My "GOBAMA" headline. Where was my November 5th edition of the WSJ or NYTimes or more realistically in the East Bay my Tri Valley Herald, Mercury, or Contra Costa Times? At 11AM I set out to find a copy; happy go lucky, carefree, optimistic of the bright future ahead... or was I? It seemed that I was already feeling the cold unforgiving burden of a looming shadow. I soon realized it was just our typical 60 degree Fall California weather, not a cold unforgiving burden. Whatever that is.

Before starting my quest for the election paper I ate lunch. I started my search at the Safeway complex where I'd eaten lunch. Not surprisingly the metal paper holder thingy that works on the honor system was completely sold out. It's noon, I thought to myself, I'll find a paper elsewhere. Little did I know how desperate I'd become.

An hour later I'd scoured 5 other locations, covering a 5 mile east-west stretch of the City. No one had the paper. I chatted cordially with Barnes and Noble customer service employees, gas station attendants, and even one other poor soul I encountered who was on an identical quest at the Valero near the end of Town. No one could give me answers, no one could give me a paper. I had started the bright beautiful day full of hope and earnest optimism. By afternoon my life was becoming quite dismal. And let's be clear I'm not exaggerating by saying my whole life was looking bleak. This quest for the morning paper - with the election headline, "Obaminator Wins!" his face proud and smiling on the front page -this quest consumed every fibre of my being. I have no job, I have lots of free time, the paper search was my sole objective and the singular measure by which this bright new day would ultimately be judged. And things were not going well at all. So it is no exaggeration when I say that by 3PM yesterday November 5th nearly all my optimism and hope saw a dramatic reversal to utter despair and hopelessness. Hope + lessness, not Hope.

Empty Metal Newspaper Containers Are Really A Public Eyesore. Seriously. They Need better upkeep.

I returned home dejected, feeling trodden upon in a downward fashion. I had no election paper, I failed in my quest. Around 4PM I started to become increasingly paranoid about this whole sordid affair. Maybe Obama and his campaigners were in cahoots with newspaper execs. Those corporate fat cats with their big cushy expense accounts and fancy wing tipped shoes, and they're who-knows-what newsy attitudes. Maybe Obama and the Dems were in bed with the liberal media after all. Conspiracy theories were multiplying at a pace akin to Sarah Palin's family. And by that I truly do mean I had about 1 or 2 new conspiracy ideas the whole day. It seemed as clear as a half empty glass of water to me that the Newspaper Industry big-wigs, what with their big wigs and cushy jobs and big salaries, had gone as far as to mastermind the election of our nation's FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT with only one purpose... to increase the revenues of the ailing newspaper business. It was clear as day, indeed, people were waiting in lines as long as the voter lines from just a day prior, to buy the election paper. Some were hoarding and purchasing as much as 50 at a time in the Washington DC area. It was like a post Great War German Bread line except without the wheelbarrows of horribly inflated German money.

There was something even worse than the thought that big wig liberal media corporate fat cats having masterminded and enthroned a black president just for profits. It ringed very wall streety like to me, that's for sure, but there was something even more unsettling. What if only a few people had emptied the tin-metal old rubbish looking newspaper dispensary units that are commonly found in grocery store complexes and strip malls? What if some opportunistic liberal fat-cat-aspiring SOBs had inserted the $0.75 or $1.00 for the morning paper and instead taken ALL the copies... that would certainly have been against the honor code set up for the metal newspaper dispensary contraptions... and it also provided a conspiracy theory to compete with my earlier one about the Dems and the newspaper industry colluding to increase sales on Nov 5th. Because why would the newspaper companies want their papers to be stolen... why would they want to increase revenues at corner newsstands in New York City and other places like New York City, while at the same time losing suburban newspaper post election day revenues from their metal tin can newspaper box units?

It's a mystery I have yet to solve with all my free time today, this Wednesday November 6th, 2008. And I have a lot of free time. I lost money in the stock market, I don't work at all, I live at home with my parents... saying that I have free time is an understatement of the facts.

I will say this though: my "healthy cynicism" in our "nation" has been successfully "restored".

My friends... Hope + Lessness... Hope + Lessness. My friends.

Vacant Strip Mall from the 90s Boom that now has no anchor store.

Napa Free Evangelical Church Billboard

2008-10-14T18:46:00.005-07:00

A couple of us visited my friend's Cabernet grape harvest last weekend in a Napa family vineyard. The closest parking lot was the Napa Free Evangelical Church parking lot and I snapped this photo, it's a message that speaks for itself. I recall this strategy being used by Will Ferrell's character Ricky Bobby on Cal right before their last race towards the end of the movie.

Wamu & Karma; Slant Rhyme or Bad Coincidence?

2008-09-27T12:42:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to get something out here after the Wamu failure. I was near-sightedly invested in Wamu and my shares were wiped out, which made me very very very sad. Thursday night the FDIC takeover and JP Morgan sale were announced and my stomach twisted up and plummeted down an abyss. Ok, dramatics are over now. The next day I made a couple deposits at my local wamu and it was business as usual. On my way back to San Francisco, I had forgotten my wallet and needed toll fare so I stopped at another unfamiliar wamu and haggled with the teller jovially, to please give me $100 despite not having any identification, she asked me several security questions and after making several notes on my account relented and gave me the money, which I primarily needed to pay the $4 toll (but I figured why not take out 100 while i'm at it). I'm glad everything has worked out seamlessly for depositors despite my being wiped out as a shareholder. I also wanted to say that there was a Sikh private bank security guard sitting at the entrance of the East Bay wamu I visited without ID and when I walked in to fill out my deposit slip I noticed he was fervently, to himself, reciting and singing in a low tone a constant religious hymn. Woohoo.

Nap's - The Best Bar in the Mission, So Far

2008-09-13T01:30:00.002-07:00

We went to Nap's on Thursday, total fluke, wasn't even supposed to be out that late. A regular and his friend (Barry/Bear) the bartender M-Th were outside checking out the action on the street and enticing customers to check the bar out that night (business was slow that night thanks to parties at the flanking bars El Rio and another place where there was a UC Berkeley sponsored party). The regular said he'd buy our first round of drinks, we were confused, but realized he was totally sincere. The bartender, bear/barry, also provided us with several rounds of drinks/shots. I didn't even know these guys! Talk about good luck and good company. Barry/Bear, we'll call him Bar from now on, made great conversation about the history of the mission as he'd been there his whole 45 years of living. His preferred drink was jack daniels shots and I also had my first shot of fernet's luxorda (sp?) whereas at most bars I'm usually drinking fernet's branca...

There was also a 5 car accident that invovled a drunk driver and a taxi among others, such as parked cars, on mission street in front of Nap's it was interesting to see all the police activities.

Sometimes Recycling is Not a Good Thing

2008-09-10T11:07:00.004-07:00

The day before yesterday I returned to the Google SF office after a long hiatus to have lunch with an old co-worker. The views of the Bay Bridge and Embarcadero were spectacular even from the 4th floor dining hall at the new Google offices. Of course, at the end of our meal, we bussed our own trays and separated trash into the 2 or 3 containers that are ubiquitous at Google: organic waste, inorganic waste, and plastic/aluminum recycling. It's awesome that Google does this, my post here has nothing to do with Google's recycling program. When I left the offices and walked down Spear towards Justin Herman Plaza to meet my friend, Keenan, for a basque and chat I noticed my inspiration for this post.

An older homeless woman was carting her belongings down Spear away from Market Street right around the One Market building. All along that sidewalk there are nouveau-stylish trashcan-cum-cigarette-repository where you can trash your cigarette butts in a small sea of black sand. Despite my horrifically embellished description of these trash cans, you know what I'm talking about, you've seen these around the mall, downtown, etc. This woman proceeds to the trashcan, my immediate hunch is to dumpster dive for recyclables: cans, discarded-but-edible-food, trashed keepsakes, whatever. However, she instead carefully searches among the discarded cigarette butts, looking for one perhaps discarded a little prematurely, a longer, less crinkled cancer stick. With her trusty lighter by her side, she finds the best of the lot and lights the discarded cigarette up. Put simply, a harmful case of recycling/reusing.

Palin Bristol Bush McCain Christian Conservatives Evangelicals AND Abstinence

2008-09-03T14:49:00.005-07:00

At the end of the day [yes I'm using a hated office phrase] I do not care too much about young bristol palin getting pregnant out of wedlock. However, I do take major offense to the hypocrisy I see perpetrated by the same god-fearing Christians who denounce proper sex-ed in favor of abstinence or abstinence only programs. As a sidenote, I'm also wary of federal funds going towards faith-based programs, abstinence related or otherwise. Both Palin and McCain have supported Bush administration abstinence programs. I'm continually hearing supporters quoted as saying: "we support abstinence, but teens will be teens" or "young love cannot be contained". If at the end of the day "teens will be teens" regardless of how they've been educated or how christian or evangelical or religious their households might be, I think it's safe to say they'd be better off learning about safe-sex rather than the christian virtues of virginity and abstinence before the sacred rite of marraige.

There's still a dearth of liberal ranting over the hypocrisy I'm discussing here, but I found the following:

Head Scratcher
The Silver Ring Thing Abstinence Program
Church groups will be vital partners in getting ready for a Flu Pandemic (I just threw that in there for good measure)

And as a very honest disclaimer since I really never post about religion here: regardless of my own religious persuasion, I DO NOT denounce religions in general and I believe that if individuals can find a moral compass, drive and purpose through religion that excludes aspects of hate, intolerence, and biggotry, in my opinion that individual's religiosity is a great blessing. However, it's very hard for me to sympathize with those people whose religious views neccisarily preclude the validity of other practices and beliefs which may also lead to purposeful and moral living and whose religious views engender hate, fear, intolerence of "the other".

Marching Powder

2008-09-01T17:06:00.002-07:00

My friend heard about our Bolivia story and loaned me Marching Powder a true story of friendship, cocaine, and South America's strangest jail. It was printed in 2003 and chronicles the life of San Pedro inmate Thomas McFadden, english tour guide at Bolivia's san pedro penetenciario. The scariest thing for me right now is that the harsh realities contained within just the first three pages of the book are NOT surprising to me based on our recent experiences in South America. Maybe someday we'll write a 10 page short essay as our own personal addendum to this book.

Take the BBC Photo Tour of the prison...

Biden's from Scranton, PA, I made a funny tshirt about it.

2008-08-30T00:23:00.002-07:00

Biden's from Scranton, 'nuff said. by gurupundit
Design a personalized t-shirt On zazzle.com

NEED SOME CONTEXT? check out the scranton party video

Lima

2008-08-19T06:19:00.003-07:00

Arrived in Lima yesterday from Cusco. Its a city of 8 million, one of the largest desert cities, although I dont quite understand how this is a desert right next to the Pacific Ocean. I am staying in Miraflores, which is the ONLY district in Limas 25-50 or so districts (people have given me different estimates) that anyone has reccomended within Peru or without. The parque kennedy square is littered with american fast food restaurants, pizza hut, macdonalds, KFC (where I posted up for dunch) in addition to malls, joyerias, and decently large crowds of people. I hired the hostels airport pickup service (US $15) to get to my hostel safely as friends had warned me of taxi scams and the general unsafeness of the 20 km between the airport and the affluent beachside district of Miraflores. At the airport the taxi driver picked up another passenger, which was unexpected, apparantly he knew her from before, an elderly Korean woman who spoke fluent spanish, japanese, among other languages. She mentioned that she had lived in New Jersey, but now lived in Chile and was visiting friends in Lima, her children had also entered the diaspora to other spanish speaking countries for school and work. mundo pequeno. After having some difficulty negotiating a few speed bumps (es. rompe muelle) we dropped her off and the drive and I had some conversations about expressiones idomaticas e.g. black sheep.

The hostel is like a fortress or barracks, thick concrete walls with barbed wire on top, sparse, but ample common areas, two tvs with lots of pirated dvds, table tennis, kitchen, etc. my room is one of three new portables constructed from wood slats, good construction, but not well sound proofed so I mustve woke up 6 or 7 times last nite from the sounds of big rigs rolling down the road, cars honking (remember that developing world honking etiquette is quite different from the US, I dont know about europe yet). In cusco it was dogs barking and bombas por la virgen carmen that woke me up every morning, here its sheer traffic.

Last nite after two Francas, a new Peruvian light light pale ale I hadnt seen on my travels till now, we went bowling at larcomar with some guys from the hostel. Well first we went to a bowling alley near the miraflores central square which was really an oversized pool hall with mini bolwing lanes of which only 2 were fully functional... we decided to head to the swankier larcomar mall on the coast and ecnountered lots of revelers and the first movie theater Ive seen so far in latin america, larcomar is a spitting image of an american mall, something like 3rd street promenade in santa monica. of course the bowling alley was black lit for cosmic bowl and the food was overpriced, so I went hungry.

The franca beers are large at a whopping 700 ml and only cost 3 soles each at the hostel! thats just a shade over a dollar for each beer... which opens up a new topic of culture and costs of different lodging options in Peru, maybe Ill devote a few lines to how I think it adds up in a subsequent post

hasta manana

Jon's Wedding in Yucay, Boda en Valle Segrada!

2008-08-16T08:30:00.002-07:00

I'm at the Casona de Yucay hotel's internet lounge, this place is beautiful. It's right at the feet of many imposing sacred valley mountains which sometimes have gaps between them that reveal even taller more majestic snow capped cordillera mountains further in the distance. We just had our clothes pressed and since I woke up this morning I've picked up a pair of maroon dress shoes at the market in Urubamba (a bigger city north of Yucay) for the equivalent of $16 US, I probably should have got them for $10 but he'd asked for $20 so I don't feel too bad, yet. At the request of Jon's mother who's alergies were acting up due to smoke in the air Jon and I walked down the dusty main thoroughfare of this little town over to the compound of a local farmer who was burning a pile of wood and some crops, he invited us in and although I speak very little spanish I understood the whole conversation. They liked the quiet feel of Yucay, they'd lived in Cusco before, come back for fresh fruit on the trees if we had the chance, sure they'd put out the fire but the water didn't come back on until 9AM (it was 8:30). We offered them 10 soles for their kindness, the elderly farmer, Cecilio, kept saying I was bonito, hmm instead of guapo, and that he was very excited to see foreigners and that he loved diversity, we're all brothers he said. His wife Augusta was equally cordial and they invited us to stroll around the small compound, but we had to return to hotel.

At the pharmacia in Urubamba, I learned that you can't get pesudophederine without a prescription, you can get pretty much ANYTHING else at a Peruvian Botica... crazy international meth schemes...

The road from Cusco to Urubamba was quite smooth and the van that brought us here had great shock absorbers, very much UNLIKE my experiences on shitty inter state highways in India. More on the uncanny resemblence between Peru and India later... it's not just that there are buddhists and Hare Kirshna's here... or that Curry is a popualar dish in Cusco restaurants...

The wedding is in about an hour so I'm off to get ready.

First Week in Peru

2008-08-12T18:15:00.002-07:00

Well, I´m finally writing again. Here are my key takeaways. Peru is a neat country with too much natural beauty and fascinating pre-colonial history. The colonial architecture in Cusco is awesome and the narrow, cobble stone streets of the artisan and tourist quarter of Cusco, known as San Blas, while they wind me every time I walk up to my hostal, are extremely pleasant. The first day we spent around the city center known as the Plaza De Armas, I felt pretty out of it due to the high altitude here (nearly 11,000ft). At first I was worried about water on the brain or the lungs, but towards the end of the day (last Wednesday) I was feeling much better and think I've acclimated to the altitude OK. On Thursday we climbed to an even higher altitude (12,566ft) when we took a bus to the south of Peru, Puno City on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The maximum altitude we've hit so far is around 14,000 ft! When you're that close to the sky the sun, moon, and clouds take on a different meaning. I can only imagine how things are above 20k on the snowy mountains we've seen along the way.

Here's another takeaway. Bolivia is not a tourist friendly country for Americans. It's also not too safe. But it's natural beauty is unparralled. More on Bolivia later.

A few other takeaways: 1)cell phone plans are expensive here, as expensive as $80 for 450 minutes, however, you only pay for the calls you make and txt messages are free, stupid USA nickle and diming for both receiving and sending calls and texts!! 2) You have to pay for your liqour and get a receipt (at the caja) before presenting it to the bar tender who then takes a long time to mix your drink 3) There's an indian restaurant in peru which claims to be the only curry house in Peru run by real Indians, I spoke with the owner and she said she had know idea how they ended up in Peru, it's really not part of the Indian diaspora's destination list...

I'm finally hitting up the Sacred Valley (lots of Incan Ruins) and Machu Picchu tomorrow thru Thursday.

Peru: Ante-Trip Scribbles

2008-08-05T02:16:00.006-07:00

I'm embarking on my journey to Peru later this morning. Starting with a 6:30AM flight from Oakland. Roughly 26 hours later (non-timezone-adjusted) I'll bee in Cusco, and in the heart of the Incan Sacred Valley, very close to Machu Picchu. I began preparing for this trip by purchasing a ticket in late June, quite an early commitment for my usual tastes, but my friend Jon's wedding was far too compelling. Yes, the wedding is in Peru! But after purchasing the ticket my preparation largely halted, impeded by the usual San Francisco revelry and hot and cold summer weather. Preperations resumed more intensly over this past week and really I should be sleeping now, but I just wanted to get something written down here to kick things off. I must say I'm pretty excited about the trip, but also rather incredulous and therefore a bit nervous; it'll hit me when I get there. See, I haven't been out of the country for over 5 years, so international travel, viz. travel to a country outside of Asia where I do NOT have relatives, is quite a foreign concept to me. But I hope that will all change and that a travel bug (and not a mosquito carrying Dengue fever) will bite me and set me off on a course of international trips that I'll find fulfilling.

I've done little critical reading on Peru, however, I've purchased two small spanish language books to help me revive the Spanish I learned in Mrs. McGuire's class back in high school. I've also been doing a bit of internet reading to augment the Lonely Planet guide I plan to devour during my full day+ of travel and layovers (in Miami/Lima). Notably, I've found that Peru's most recent ex-president, no not the corruption-embroiled nihon-octagenarian Fujimori, but rather Alejandro Toledo, is a Stanford Alum (2 masters, PhD, gave the '03 commencement speech) who loves soccer and was back on "the farm" and living like a normal penninsulite as recently as mid 2007. Also notable is the discovery that a few hostels, roads, and other features of the Peruvian city, Cusco, have the name Amaru. Tupac Amaru, I recently learned from wikipedia, was the last of the line of Incan Kings pitted against the Spanish colonial presence in Peru. There's also a character who shares his name from the 1700's, who lead some type of resistence, but I don't know much about the latter Tupac yet. This brings me to the third and final Tupac, Tupac Amaru Shakur who was apparantly named after the second Tupac I mentioned...

Needless to say I will be collecting as many Tupac Amaru photos & trinkets as possible... but I didn't really intend to digress in such a crass way, it's just an interesting connection. OK, time to get at least 1 hour of sleep! Finally, congratulations to Jon and Guili, whose wedding I'll be attending August 16th in Yucay. And to those of you who read this post and read the one's to come, I hope you enjoy my travel-log... stardate... engage...

Berating Society

2008-03-26T13:32:00.002-07:00

I just shot a casual email off to a good friend with just two words and no salutation:

jack ass

About 7.52 seconds after, I started to feel guilty about that email. My friend had just bought us all tickets to a cool concert, forget the fact I didn't know he was putting me up to $50 dollars in advance, but ultimately I want to go to this show so it was a nice gesture.

I, however, responded, even if totally tongue in check, with just that, a tongue in cheek lash out, supposed to be taken as hilarious machismo in today's vernacular.

Let's face it we're berating each other constantly in today's friendships, derogatory remarks-in-jest, passively humorous insults, there's a lot of self-deprecating humor out there, too. What I'm getting at is it may not be all that positive for our day to day lives and our relationships.

I'll augment this essay with studies on this topic if we can find any soon

First Bike Ride!

2008-03-16T19:20:00.004-07:00

My first bike ride in San Francisco!

Castro, Noe Valley, and Mission!
Funny how the first ride looks like an upside-down hand showing the middle finger.
Few hills, but great sunny day. Ended up at a couple of my favs: Sidewalk Juice and Jay's Cheese-steak on 21st and Valencia.

Browsing Noe and West Mission
Find more Bike Rides in San Francisco, California

Derome Brenner - Haute Couture Eyewear

2007-12-17T00:20:00.000-07:00

I purchased a set of Derome Brenner frames from Spectacles for Humans earlier this year and was sold on their thick layered acetate construction, attention to detail, and overall unique design. This Sunday I got a chance to chat with my optometric-aesthetic heroes as I perused their new line up and sipped a beer at their trunk show at SFH in Noe Valley.

Xavier Derome was very friendly and informed me that his father was in the industry and that the designer has one factor near Paris that produces the frames and other accessories. We also chatted a bit about how they advertise and I suggested that he think about ways to utilize the creative and hilarious video shorts created for the Derome-Brenner website.

a few Trunk Show Pictures
Spectacles for Humans

1 last minute

2007-08-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

end of an era

god speed

A Double Whammy

2007-07-31T00:58:00.000-07:00

July 30, 2007 - two great men passed away yesterday. One to old age the other to cancer.

Ingmar Bergman (89) to whom "All These Women" mattered so much and so little. (which I watched on laser-disk in the dark university library basement and did not find on DVD till tonight - turns out it was released by Tartan on DVD on 26 Jul 2004)

Bill Walsh (75) who found success much later in his career. Go Card.

Love,

Charon

Rope (Hitchcock, 1948 - Library Interlude D)

2006-09-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

The Rope was and incredibly powerful and visceral movie. In this movie (which I gather to be a large departure from the rest) Hitchcock does something I absolutely love to see in movies (I know Wes Anderson does this too) he films the movie in such a way that it seems we're watching a play right up close. It also takes place in only one room; decor, set, place, all very important to this movie. Upon further research (which I conducted while watching the movie, which is quite a marvelous feat in and of itself - a testament to the achievement of modern information systems) I learned that it's based on the real life events of two brilliant U of Chicago students who were ironically inspired by fiction, in the form of Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra's ubermensch.

The transition of concept-matter is mapped in the following way:

philosophy becomes duty becomes didactic becomes art-fiction (Nietzsche) becomes hastily consumed knowledge (aka shoddy knowledge) becomes philosophy becomes duty becomes action-person or person-action (Leopold and Loeb) becomes horror-legendary-analyzed
-sensationalized becomes art-fiction-story (Compulsion) becomes art-fiction-play (Hamilton) becomes art-fiction-movie (Hitchcock) becomes hastily consumed knowledge (once removed aka O.R. shoddy knowledge) becomes my-obscure-epiphany becomes this brief film-life-essay-review (Charon)*.

What a powerful movie to have appeared in 1948. It makes me temporarily shameful of wholesome cherished comedies like the Andy Griffith Show and Leave it to Beaver - essentially, the shows of black and white that we've come to associate with that period of time.

This has certainly sparked an interest in reading up on these anti-nihilistic existentialists. To paraphrase Jimmy Stewart from the movie, it's giving me cause to achieve clarity in a world where a relentless, but fallible shroud of darkness has clouded my judgement. In regard to James Stewart, I have a newfound respect for him and his acting career, only two weeks ago (before viewing Vertigo and Rope) I had simply thought of him as the Tom Cruise of yesteryear, a portrait purely based on his performance in It's a Wonderful Life.

*(add " becomes utter self-aggrandizement ")

I am Better than you (Library Interlude C)

2006-08-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

Becuase you like radiohead and while they may have a great following and a critically acclaimed music career, they were so inspired by the Talking Heads that they took the name Radiohead from a Talking Heads song. And I am a huge fan of the Talking Heads. Which simply indicates that I'm "emo-reveried"(registered word) by their music the way one should be by George Harrison, Prince, Aimee Mann, or the Beastie Boys.

People are always asking me for proof for all the wild tales I tell. I tell them that I'm almost always right, when in reality I'm about 85% right. Of course, people who know me really well think I'm only 50% right, some of the time.

David Byrne also has Asperger's Syndrome. Listen to quite possibly the best love of the last 25 years (if not more). If you don't listen to lyrics when you listen to pop music you're not listening to anything. I'm tired of zombie listeners.

Here's your proof from the Wikipedia (aka "the Gospel of Truth") article on Talking Heads:

Influence

Talking Heads' body of work has been extremely influential, with bands as wide-ranging as Radiohead (named after a Talking Heads song), Phish (covering the songs "Cities" and "Crosseyed and Painless" at numerous shows, as well as the entire album Remain in Light at a 1996 Halloween show), and Red Hot Chili Peppers acknowledging them among their roots. Living Color covered "Memories Can't Wait". Both The String Cheese Incident and The Arcade Fire have regularly covered the song "Naive Melody", while the band Widespread PanicTrue Stories performs cover versions of "Life During Wartime" and "Papa Legba" (from the album).

Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, Ringo (Library Interlude B)

2006-08-26T01:03:00.000-07:00

What do all these last names have in common? I don't know. However, there's one plea I must make with all the Beatles fans out there. Please do not die without having sampled each and ever album created during the Beatle member's solo careers. In the aftermath of the destruction of the beatles, there were four individual musicians. Not all albums were created equally, similarly, not all musicians were created equally. But this matters not. Heed my words. For the spiritual listen to Harrison's "All things must Pass" remastered double CD set where the cover art is all GARDEN GNOMES.

For the spiritual part II listen to Lennon Legend and cut the Lennon crap (like everything else on Mindgames other than the title track, Mindgames)

For the materialistic, "life-is-ephemeral-so-love-it-like-ice-cream-tastes-sweet", listen to Paul - especially the "back in the US" Live 2002 double CD set. If you listen to nothing else by Paul please listen to C-Moon, it's soul-reggae at its finest.

For happy times (like those acheivable when taking uppers and downers) listen to Ringo Starr, the only solo song of his that I've memorized is the one with the chorus, "and you know it don't come easy". It sounds like the song that goes, "Let it rain... let it rain, let your love rain down on me". by Eric Clap-dog. WHO IS THE BEST and who married George Harrison's wife. The two remained good friends even after George's death in 2001 of cancer. "Oh George" was a tribute to George written by the Foo Fighters.

I love the Foo Fighters. BTW - none of this musical connect the dots would've been made possible for me, had it not been for my free local library membership. I'm the proud member of 8 libraries in my region.

Mafia Films (Library Interlude A)

2006-08-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

Something everyone (especially tough guys, and girls who want me to appreciate them for who they are and not just their looks) should do is watch all the great Mafia movies over the course of a couple years. For example, this includes the HBO series the Sopranos and Hispanic mafiostory Carlito's Way, but does not include Carlito's Way: The Early days or whatever the prequel is called.

In my meager years on this planet, I've pretty much exhausted all the greats, now I all I have to look forward to are the following Mob hits and Hitchcock films:

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Tutti dentro (1984)
The Death Collector (1976)
Blade Runner
North by Northwest (1959)
Vertigo
The Birds
Man Who Knew Too Much
The Big Shave... or, Viet '67

Don't ask me why blade runner is in there. Also, I've included the big shave as homage to Martin Scorcese.

I would've never been able to accomplish all this (watch all 5 seasons of Sopranos and all the mob greats: Casino; Godfather 1,2,3; Bugsy; Mean Streets; Goodfellas; Carlito's Way; Scarface; A History of Violence, Usual Suspects, etc.) without my library card. Actually, I saw a History of Violence in the movie theater.

Library, Part I: It's better than Blockbuster Video

2006-08-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

This is part one of a three part primer on your local library. Forget your college library, forget all the stereotypes about how libraries are uncool. In this new fangled, hi-tech era, libraries have become something the likes of Blockbuster, Starbucks, and the INS have never seen. I've been meaning to spread the word on this for a while now: EXPLOIT YOUR CITY'S LIBRARY RESOURCES TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT.

as a card carrying member of your local library you can typically do all these things for FREE...

rent 10 dvds at a time and keep them for a week.
place umpteen holds on dvds, books, etc. and renew and keep tabs on your checkouts online with ease.
if your library's in a larger network (with other cities or your whole county) you can request materials from any branch and pick them up at your convineince.
rip CDs (I've found the library to be one of the best ways to sample unfamiliar genres like jazz)
free wi-fi
fun events - my library recently held a "write your own comic book" class

did I also mention that you can study peacefully and get books at the library? Yes, you can do these things too.

Imagine...

2006-07-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

I sent this to a friend earlier, but it captures the way I feel this sweltering sunday evening-

I'm listening to the Beatles after a few week hiatus and I'm just so thankful for them. In this time of religious conflict and unfettered hate, I'm happy to find hopeful (if not also tearful) solace in the poetry of John Lennon's "Imagine".

Click the link to listen to the oh-so-crunchy song. Take a drive over to another big Beatles fan.

Don't take "in this time" to indicate the naive conception of a recently synthesized struggle, but rather, a long cultural memory ingrained in my being - in the immortal words of Pete Townsend, "Meet the new boss... same as the old boss!"

Amateur Historians & Family Trees

2006-07-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make. All my friends know me to be an avid supporter of public broadcasting, however, what they may not know is that I recently began a love affair with two PBS shows: Antiques Roadshow & History Detectives. I love it when the woman with spiky hair and thick rim glasses uncovers a dark secret of congressional proportions simply by researching the origins and curious intersections of antebellum coinage and Nordic royalty... Intriguing eh? Recent episodes of this show plus a timely visit by my paternal uncle, have inspired me to do some family-history sleuthing myself. I've learned some fascinating stuff:

[the following revelations were inspired by a family photo taken in 1954]

1. I can now trace my paternal line back to the mid 1700s!
2. Turns out that my oldest known great^nth power grandfather was an important revenue collector of a medium sized kingdom.
3. My great-grandfather died in 1901 of the plague during the bubonic plague of the late 19th and early 20th, century, also known as the Third Pandemic.
4. Aforesaid great-grandfather died around his son's (my grandfather) 1st birthday.

The last fact is rather exciting to me, because it suggests that I may not exist today had my great grandfather died around 1899 or earlier. Of course, my excitement presupposes that I'm not a determinist and that I believe in free will. Free will? Now there's a silly thought!

Do you like either Antiques Roadshow or History Detectives? Are you interested in tracing your family roots? I'd love to hear specific or intentionally vague details about where YOUR ancestors hail from.*

*So long as you don't write that you're 1/32nd native american or that Wyatt Earp is your direct maternal ancestor.

Women & The LARGE Sunglasses Trend

2006-07-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

As an avid admirer of women, I've been wondering whether or not I like the haute couture of wearing large over-the-eyes-lashes-brows, sunglasses. I've come up with a simple hypothetical syllogism to deduce my reaction this new trend.

Regardless of the absolute attractiveness of a woman...

1. All women who embrace the accoutrements that negate their superficial blemishes, become more attractive to me.
2. The large stunna shades women wear these days hide, from the admirer, any flaws in the eye, bridge, under-eye, eye-brows.

Therefore, I am more attracted to women who wear the large stunna shades in question.

... Especially when they're otherwise hot.

GITMO

2006-07-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

Geronimoooo... I mean... Guantanamoooo!!!

People have many quetsions about this US prison for POWs in the war on terror. Liberals/Doves want the place closed down, they say there are too many 10 year olds there who are undernourished and who are clearly unable to take up jihad and mount surface to air missile launchers.

Hawks have this to say "We caught that 10 year old launching a missile on tape, but we cannot produce the tape just yet, the NY times has to leak that tape for us. And then we have to chastise the leakage." Blah blah blah. In any case, as I said earlier, sheeple, especially average Americans, have many questions.

All along I have only had one question about GITMO. Only one. Why the hell does this military installation have a lame ass nickname - I see it on TV and I always think GIMPMO or just GIMP. Ok, I lied that wasn't my real question.

But seriously folks, I've always wanted to know only one thing about GITMO - Why the HELL is it in Cuba !!?? Are you not freakin' asking yourself how the hell we have an 8,500 person strong military base on the soil of our arch nemisis? Gitmo is bigger than all those mountain towns on the way to Tahoe, combined!

Strange how the post WWII world works... Again I must ask... How does the USA have a base in Cuba - not on some island that's close to Cuba, mind you, not in Miami, FL... but on the eastern end of la isla de cuba!!!

Some fast facts about GITMO (or GTMO):

It was founded in 1903 as part of the resolution of the Spanish-American War
Fidel hates it - read what he thinks.
Yes, it's part of an indefinite lease-back program and we send Fidel a rent check every year in the amunt of $4085.
Fidel only cashed the first check he received upon his rise to power, he has reportedly never cashed a single check thereafter.
I love the Buena Vista Social Club - they are awesome, especially "Chan Chan".
Menlo High School (the snobby private one that costs 30 k per year to attend) sends students to Cuba on field trips to learn about Jazz and really old water distribution methods.
My HS spanish teacher went to cuba, but she had to go through Panama first.
Every documentary I've ever seen on cuba makes it seem like a time capsule stuck in the 1950s (this includes Godfather II). In this respect Cuba shares a lot in common with N. Korea (and S. Korea is like our GTMO on the Korean Penninsula - we even have a mine ridden DMZ there!!! YAY!) Apparently we've gotten rid of the US mines in our DMZ with Cuba.

<-- Stanford Frat Rush OR Gitmo-sumo training camp? You be the judge. For more learning visit: Wikipedia Entry
Official US Navy Website on Guantanamo

Next time... What in the heck is going on in Sri Lanka, who or what in the name of God are the Tamil Tigers, and why do I even care?

3 Fallacies of Social Networking

2006-06-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

I entitle this brief diatribe against social networking as a precursor to future award winning essay, "The Fallacy of Social Networking"

Fallacy 1: Online Social Networks (OSNs) have real value ($$$).

I) Social Networking is a true bubble technology / economy. It has no true long term or external (i.e. to its own bubble) value.

Fallacy 2: The general public (in this case adolescents and young adults) derives a large value from participating regularly in online social networking.

I) Perceptions and reality are key here: People perceive the value they derive from social networks as being far greater than any actual value. The component parts of this perception lie in professional networking, romantic pursuits, social 'climbing', and increasing magnitude of social network (friends & acquaintances)

II) Additionally, social networks provide an unequally attractive non-conventional mode (UANCM; pronounced "you-ain-cummin") of communication and socialization. It neither enhances nor outpaces standard modes of communication such as face to face interaction or phone calls.

Fallacy 3: Social networking operates on economies of scale. It's an efficient way to provide mass amounts of information about you to massive amounts of people. And the hit rates are wild!

I) In reality its a huge time-waste. A horrible time-pass. A pursuit best left to mice whose brain's have been wired to pleasure center inducing stimuli. I'd be very interested in seeing the hours spent by the average High School student, College Student, Young Professional on any one of the major OSN services. Time perhaps better spent at a local Starbucks studying, jogging in the park, or speed dating at Canvas Lounge in the inner sunset.

II) The bottom line here is that we're not replacing phone, texting, emailing, in person with OSNs exclusively, we're adding OSN participation to an already hectic life schedule, and that's bad.

Tell me I'm wrong, recommend some relevant literature leads, agree and still play devil's advocate. I've had it with these OSNs.

The one truly great thing I gained from thefacebook was learning about Stanford feminist turned suburban rap queen, http://www.kflay.com/ .

NewsFlash::: Mexican-American Woman Disparages All Indian-American Men!!!

2006-05-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

this just went down tonight on Gtalk:

Diana: i knew i shouldn't have started this topic indian men and their egos
Charon: hahaha where do you get your info from? about "indian men" hahaha; me and ramit, we're are so anomoulous its insnane
Diana: haha whatever you guys have tainted my view of indian men forever
Charon: tainted!
Diana: i've been spreading the word that indian men have no sex drive. rather [they] sleep next to their moms, are lazy, like spicy food, and should only be pursued when looking for marriage
Charon: HAHAHAHA thats going on my blog despite my lack of readership, I don't want to forget this
Diana: hahaha
i was going to say... you have a blog? here's a question. is a blog a blog even if no one but the writer reads it?wouldn't you just say your diary?

***yes, she's right, it's basically my diary, especially because I'm a self centered egostistical megalomaniac with advanced narcissictic personality disorder.***

Unbeleivable Bush Roast...

2006-05-03T00:49:00.000-07:00

If you like the colbert report or the daily show you'll love this...

you've got to be kidding me: the president's inner circle allowed THIS to happen?

same link from text above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II&search=cspan%20colbert%20bush

Someone please comment on this with a linke to an article that confirms this is true, otherwise I'll end up posting that comment about a week too late!

PS - coming soon...

1) my take on Star Wars Animated 2 disc series: "Clone Wars"
2) Boo YAH, I finally wathced Munich (for $5 !!!)
3) The LA Book Festival (@ UCLA sponosred by the LA Times) it's seriously KICK ASS...

Anchorman: Bob dole says, "Just Don't Do It!"

2006-04-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Wanted to get this quick review in: Don't watch Anchorman unless you unconditionally love Will Will Ferrells' typical comedy routine. The plot is about a shauvanistic san diego news crew and the addition of a woman to their staff... You'll hear a lot of this kind of slapstick... "Oh by the name of Clytemnestra Jehovahsons!" and "My thats a large erectosuarus."

Final Tap: It's funny and good to watch with friends, but objectively speaking I give it two thumbs down for a far too fast advancing plot & no creative writing talent. Wedding Crashers, Old School, Elf, Zoolander - now there are some kick ass movies in the same vien.

- Charon

12 Monkeys - Not to be confused with Natural Born Killers

2006-03-19T01:29:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching 12 Monkey's (yet another great library rental - totally free and totally renewable a max of two times which means a low radar, but high quality movie like this can be in your possession free of charge for up to 3 weeks!) ok enough with my parenthetical pitch for one of the greatest resources your city or county has to offer. Where were we? ah, 12 monkeys - its an incredible movie starting Bruce Willis and brad pitt (jeez these guys are all that and yet manage to always play the 'understated' artsy roles) and a really demur brunette who's name escapes me (even though I just spent the last half hour on rottentomatoes.com and imdb.com doing movie "research")

Right, 12 Monkeys; I've been talking a lot about time travel with folks, I guess its been coming up lets, see where has it been coming up...

1) Discussing with N******** about how he likes time travel related sci fi (subsequently noting how shoddy most time travel entertainment really is)
2) Friend, M********** turns on Marty McFly and Back to the Future I, I'd never seen it before and the while its so highly touted, the time travel is so penultimatley intellectual.

Right, so back to 12 Monkeys - it’s got a GREAT time travel plot and plot twist(s) think total recall if total recall had a time travel twist. In any case it’s got great questions about the nature of reality, sanity, and love. No steamy scenes, which is great for this movie cause it really doesn't sell out. Hey, it was also directed by the director of Monty Python, but its by no means a comedy.

So I was talking about this movie called "12 Monkeys" - Bruce willis plays an convict, forcibly turned "volunteer" for a deranged set of scientists who are trying to undo the happenings of a plague that kills off most of the human race back in 1996 (Willis' version of the present is 2035). So maybe in 1995 - this timeline made sense - but today we're thinking - director of Monty Python - you think 2035's going to be crazy? but who knows, I'm totally deviating here.

He's forced to volunteer to gather info from the past on this plague (an unknown virus) and a group known as the 12 monkeys that is allegedly responsible for the unleashing of this virus in 1996. He's unwittingly locked up in a mental asylum and befriends (and I'm using befriends VERY loosely here, you'll know what I mean after you watch the movie) the lovely psychiatrist whose-name-I'm-forgetting. He keeps eluding the folks in the present because, well just watch the movie it’s awesome. Also, please note that the mad scientists trying to improve the fate of the "future" world don’t quite have this time travel thing down right, and it causes Bruce's character some serious pain, mentally and physically during his ordeals...

Final Tap: 12 Monkeys- watch it. If you even have a hint of nihilism in you, a hint of "this is all Maya" if you reject the "I can bend the spoon" bullshit and realize that reality is your prison - you'll love this movie. I did.

HBO Rocks

2006-02-13T01:30:00.000-07:00

the SOPRANOS tv show on HBO is incredible. I feel like I've already posted on this, but I've probably been remiss and forgotten. I got into this show over a year ago and finally caught up to complete season 5. Can't wait till the March premier of what'll prove to be the last season? 5 was def weaker than previous seasons, less bloody, more nonsense bickering, but still first rate plots and acting.

Also, I've completed season one of Entourage. It's funny and mildly addictive (somewhat acquired taste, but its worth the effort)

Lastly, Curb your Enthusiasm - in-freakin' credible. did I already say that about sopranos? Larry David (seinfeld) is the king of in your face, painfully good comedy.

*Rent DVDs from your local library! they're free, they'll notify you if you put discs on hold, and you can rent for a week (or more if you renew online at your library's website)*

Movie Update

2006-02-13T01:05:00.000-07:00

*good movies in recent memory (DVD and Theater):

Road to Perdition - you will cry if you like mobsters and families
Syriana
Team America
8 1/2
Boogie Nights - crazy movie about the unmentionable-film-theater industry
Four brothers

*very odd, unexpected:

Fight Club (nope, I never saw it till a couple weeks ago!)

*not so hot:

- Carlito's way (like scarface all over again but this time Pacino's not cuban)
- Super Troopers (people always quoting the damned movie, but it was very odd and sometimes very excruciating, in the tradition (albeit milder) of naked gun, police academy, dumb and dumber, farley/spade movies, etc.)
- King Kong: friggin' gorilla fighting t-rexs over and over and over and over again. I already saw the stories of Jurassic Park I and Ko-Ko the singing primate, no need to merge the two stories even if its crudely film noir...

2005-10-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

I hear this is an awesome seminar. Sally's really good at motivating people and helping them remain complacent with their abominable stagnation.

Wow blogspot's SpellChecker is a Psychiatrist as well!

2005-08-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

Erotisism always results in heartache. Just ask Hesse's poor Siddharta. Additionally, lust is one of the seven cardinal sins.

I'm on a roll here - CHARON

Samehada otoko to Peach Hip (momjiri) onna

2005-08-16T00:49:00.000-07:00

I first saw this wonderful movie, 'sharksin man peach hip girl' at 3AM after completing final exams. I was wasting away and a friend (super sleuth dvd expert) had lent it to me in bootleg VCD format. The movie originally debuted in 1998 - wow that's a long time ago - and we just watched it again in 2005. If you like Snatch/Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie) you'll love this movie. It also has Tarantino connections, stylistically (dono which way the influence goes) and the director is guest credited on Kill Bill (Vol. 1 or 2, I don't know).

Choppy throughout, unrelentingly humorous and satirical - yet there are some very down to earth scenes - this movie catalogues the escape of a rogue Yakuza member (Kuroo Samehada) and his encounter with a repressed/dejected/abused hotel clerk (Peach Hip Girl). His Yakuza rank and file pursuers are a motley crew of expert knife thrower down to epileptic bat wielder. The dialogue/translation is accessible and the overarching themes of rebirth/liberation, anti-establishment, and odd erotisism (think of Yamada-kun when you read this), make a great east-west fusion.

Final Tap: Snobs out there may think I've given this movie a over-generous commentary, but believe me it's definitely a fun view and a great cannonball-pool-dive introduction into trendy Japanese culture. - CHARON

The Satanic Verses

2005-08-16T00:30:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' for over 3 months now. It seems like an eternity. The book is amazing, however, I never thought I could read this slow and still enjoy the literature behind the fatwas and political innuendos. Salman is an amazing author, I've mentioned before that I admire him above all other reasons because in his writing I see my own and I realize that I may have an audience after all. Albeit liberal, expatriated, netherworldic souls, transmigration through life like they have no scruples, no patience, and plenty of self-doubt.

Roughly 555 large pages, its a long read, but its also dense with Steinbeck 'inner chapters' telling a pseudo-religious tale of islamism, freedom, and treachery against one's own nature. It's very much magical realism, so much so I think it takes itself more seriously than Marquez's 'Cien Anos de Soledad' or Allende's 'La Casa de los Espiritus'. The basic story is about the intersecting identities of Desiness (Indianness/South Asianess), Islam, Fundamentalism, liberal decay, cultural escapism, Diaspora, and High Tea Britiannia (aspiring to banter and gain the English mannerisms of our favorite butler in Ishiguro's 'Remains of the Day')

But its a roller coaster ride of culture, sensuality, oddity, and rejection. In some parts, quite frankly, throughout most of the book, you're essentially drowning in Rushdie's vividly portrayed sea of religious/stereotypical/Anglo-Indian cultural aphorisms and anecdotes.

I'm only on page 314. More on my progress with this 'wrestling-with-god-harrowing-tale' in the near future. Some moments in this book are as unnerving as your typical episode of Larry David's 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. Rushdie has an uncanny knack for expressing the awkward and the unmentionable. He's also married to an extremely attractive model/cook - Padma Lakshmi

Batman Begins

2005-06-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

Need I say more? Who else is getting emotionally pumped to watch this movie-that-will-bring-back-the-franchise?

Goodfellas (made in 1990 - first viewed by me in 2005, fifteen years later)

2005-06-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

Finally saw Goodfellas at 4AM last nite - my friend's on demand service rocks. Not sure why the movie's called Goodfellas - seemed like it should've been called 'wiseguys' or 'shadydealers' or something like that. It's an awesome movie, and a must see gangster film. I don't have much to say about it other than the fact that there are some pretty grotesquely violent scenes and I was surprised that robert dinero played such a low key character in the movie.

Final Tap - Lorraine Bracco (ray liota's wife, Karen, in the movie) and Michael Imperioli (very brief role...) grow up in real life to have large roles in one of my favorite HBO series, the Sopranos. Lastly, throughout the film I couldn't help but smirk every time the dialogue reminded me of the Goodfeathers sketch from the Animaniacs (viz. joe pesci asks, "what do you mean I'm funny?")

Star Wars Episode III - ROTS

2005-06-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

I saw Star Wars Episode Three opening day, May 19, 2005. Revenge of the Sith is an awesome movie with intense action scenes and cliched character development dialogue. I'm an unconditional lover of all things star wars and dressed up in the Darth Vader voice changer mask when I attended the movie with my family that Thursday. Nothing else to the get up though - target and walmart had run out of the scrumtrellescient Darth light saber with battle action sounds and my mom forgot to bring my black graduation gown; someday I will buy a deluxe collector's outfit.

The movie left me dying to see 4-6 again, but unfortunately I don't have any of the movies on DVD - I vowed many years ago to wait for the ultimate box set to arrive on shelves before I invested any money in actually buying the movies.

Lastly, I watched volume one of the animated clone wars series. It appears to offer a different angle on the interim saga from the Dark Horse comics; skimpy on dialogue, and somewhat frivolous - but the battle scenes are awesome and any franchise element that helps develop Ki Adi Mundi (if even in the slightest way) is fine by me.

I hear Lucas made a general comment on a series focusing on the early years of the old republic - I think it would be incredible to learn more about that idyllic time when the wonderful 800-generaian we all love, Yoda, kicked some serious dark side butt.

Boxing at the Oscars or Bowling for Buzzards?

2005-03-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

**fyi - there'll be a slew of posts including a variety of commentaries, reviews, etc. that are totally out of order. in short: time of post does not indicate time of literary conception.**

Today I saw 2 great boxing movies. Raging bull by martin scorsese featuring Tribeca's finest, Robbie D. & the second movie, The Great White [American] Hope feat. the very talented James Earl Jones (aka long ago and far away, aka Darth Vader). Scorsese's film is visceral, it hits you where it hurts, it starts out all fun and games and goes into a downward spiral of human depravation, degradation, and destitution. Robbie D gives an excellent performance. In both movies, the fighter, the hero, the protag. ends up a loser, not a winner, not a winner in any sense of the word. The irony, La Motta loses to Sugar ray and Johnson loses to some caucasian guy (read: not Italian)

In raging bull, joe pesci gives an A+ performance as La Motta's brother and manager. He also sports a nice mustache towards the end of the movie. Basically, Jake's a middleweight prize fighter, goes down in the end loses everything, ends up in jail, ends up a big fatso opening shows at various nightclubs. The last scene is about as emotionally real as it gets, that's what hits you about the movie, its so damn visceral, so damn down to the nitty gritty of human nature - human emotion. We're all inclined to think, "nah that La Motta is borderline OCD, he's borderline Schizo..." but I'm telling you we're all like him. It's a sad, but human state of affairs.

Final Tap: Whats the obsession with boxing? What are its origins? This whole bit reminds me of another great boxing movie - Guy Ritchie's Snatch. On another train - I've never seen Rocky straight thru & don't have much motivation to check out million dollar baby. Turn me into a believer... if you can.

Things what I like about.

2005-03-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

an all encompassing window into the ultimate house of cards (and I'm not talking texas hold 'em). I'll be reviewing books, movies, and restaurants. I'll also include episodic musings, rants & I'll do my best to avoid sounding disjionted or kerry-esque, in my vain attempt to write how I speak.

Hopefully, this endeavor will be as useful to you as it undoubtedly will be to me.