July 29, 2008
· Filed under movies
i’ve seen a bunch of movies since last week, and here are my quick takes on them:
the dark knight: better than expected, but also unexpectedly depressing and scary. definitely not pg-13 material. should be viewed more as a christopher nolan film than as a batman film. i like how batman isn’t really the central character; rather, this is more of an ensemble film involving multiple compelling characters (as well as the hint of a bromance for sure.)
the one bad thing? christian bale still has that stupid raspy voice as batman, and aaron eckhart feels compelled to mimic it. at one point, the hoarseness got so bad that i wanted to throw a throat lozenge onto the screen.
stepbrothers: dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, with only the thinnest outline of a plot to cling to. and i still enjoyed it. the constant stream of absurd babble that comes out of will ferrell and john c. reilly’s mouths just makes me laugh really hard. unicorns? cops? a lifelike chewie mask? yeah, it all made me crack the hell up.
exodus: no, not the paul newman film from the 1960s. this is pang ho-cheung’s exodus, which showed as part of the amazing made in hong kong series at the freer. simon yam plays a cop who stumbles onto a plot that may involve women trying to kill all men. or it may just be a series of coincidences. he decides to investigate, much to my chagrin. as one of the characters tells him, “if women were really trying to kill men, it would take forever!” yes. yes it would. and this film takes forever before the audience learns anything. up until that point, it’s a lot of simon yam brooding, a lot of solitary stakeout shots, and a lot of boring. 3/4 of the way through, we get a flashback which is everything the rest of the film is not – funny, crafty, and a joy to watch. the one plus of the film is that pang ho-cheung knows how to frame his shots, and the hong kong he brings us is one of modern buildings and geographic shapes. this stylish flare, however, is not enough reason to sit through the rest of the film.
July 28, 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized
i know i need to update here with three movie reviews and a list of all the culinary adventures i had this weekend (new foods and lots of time in the kitchen) but i just had a coffee explosion in the kitchen due in part to some of those culinary adventures in trying to make cold press coffee. i should probably just break down and buy the $30 machine, rather than have coffee grounds flying across my cabinets. (thank god for japanese bathhouse shoes.)
so two quick things:
1. i saw brian williams on the today show this morning interviewing mahmoud ahmadinejad, and the money quote was this:
“nuclear weapons are so 20th century.”
my initial reaction was, “you know what’s 20th century, mahmoud? your members only jacket.” my second reaction, however, was an urge to run into the closet and hide.
2. the other thing that caught my eye on the today show this morning was the virginia madsen ad for botox. the tagline of the ad was something like “free to express yourself.” that makes NO sense whatsoever. botox is a toxin that paralyzes face muscles and makes you less able to express yourself. i’m sure there’s some snappy angle to this (no! you can express yourself more because you’re not worried about forehead wrinkles) but it’s way too convoluted for a 7:30 am ad during the today show.
finally, i’ve started aggregating all my blogs onto a single tumblr page, which can be found here. so if you want to keep up with this and pievcake and cry me an ice rink, head over there.
oh crap i am really late for work now.
July 23, 2008
· Filed under movies
last night, i watched – or tried to watch – the good german on dvd. this was my second attempt. i fell asleep during the first one, and i fell asleep during this one as well. admittedly, i was really tired this time, and didn’t think i’d make it through, but for pete’s sake. this movie is really bad. so bad that it makes me angry.
steven soderbergh, i appreciate your willingness to take chances. i like the fact that you’re not limited to making commercial films. and i love the look of this movie – the way that the black and white images are flat on the screen, like it really is the mid-1940s.
but for cripes’ sake – i’ve read the novel this was based on, and it was a gripping whizbang of a novel. and then you took it and added tobey macguire, who is insanely miscast. i wanted to smack him three minutes after he made it onto the screen.
at any rate, steven, i’m glad you are making movies. you’ve made some good ones. but next time, try to recognize when you’ve got a good thing going on, and don’t embellish it needlessly.
kthxbai
July 22, 2008
· Filed under movies
went to screen on the green last night to catch the candidate.
here are the takeaways:
1. mosquitos will eat you alive.
2. it’s easy to get a seat, even if you show up late. head to the sides, where the view is still good and it’s not as crowded.
3. the candidate? kind of meh. i can see how it was groundbreaking in its time, but watching it now, and watching in it washington dc, i was just kind of struck by how much of a dick robert redford’s character was. “oh my goodness – instead of flat-out saying, ‘i support busing!’ i’m going to rebel against a longer answer that contains an pretty compelling indictment of inequality in our schools! look at me! i’m so principled!”
i know i’m probably missing the point, but the so-called shocking changes that the candidate goes through are the ones that pretty much any candidate goes through as they get used to the trail. the real shocking changes in the film are never ones that the handlers endorsed for the candidate, but ones he chose himself. if they are supposed to represent his descent into corruption through politics, it doesn’t really work – it just represents a guy who thought too well of himself getting a chance to bring his ego onto the larger stage.
July 21, 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized
spent the weekend going to and recovering from a wedding in connecticut, so i don’t have much to report, aside from the fact that getting married on a beach at sunset in a circle of rose petals – well, that’s about the most romantic thing out there. there was welling up of tears.
just a reminder, dc area people, that screen on the green will be showing the candidate, which i am really excited to see, if i can avoid melting.
July 18, 2008
· Filed under movies
yesterday, it started to pour rain around 5 pm, and in my tired work state, i thought “oh good. this means that i can skip the fort reno show tonight.”
GUESS AGAIN!
i managed to drag myself out of my cubicle desk chair and get on the metro to tenleytown, where it hadn’t rained an inch. and boy, as i shook my ass to the ass-shaking greatness of the apes and police and thieves.
police and thieves are good, solid, mid-90s emocore – the kind that sounds more like atari drive in than anything mentioning relationships. i love this type of music. it always always makes me happy. so getting to listen to it on a night that wasn’t too hot and humid was delightful.
then the apes came on. the vegan kept describing them as “psychedelic” so i expected some sludgy sullen mix a la dead meadow. well, holy crap! they started off their set with their keyboardist using a voice box. she ended up sounding just like will ferrell, and she waded out into the crowd, delivering ferrell-esque non sequiturs. and then the band started, and they were loud and surly and clanky and just plain wonderful. more spazzcore than psychedelic, and i danced away my whole foods buffet and smiled.
NEXT WEEK – night of a thousand cakes at fort reno! but it’s the same night as the mike green fan night with the capitals! WHICH TO CHOOSE?
and many thanks to the vegan for dragging me to the show.
July 17, 2008
· Filed under miscellaneous
i just had some delicious grilled corn on the cob, consumed while sitting on a roof deck with a lovely view of washington dc, on a night when the humidity wasn’t all consuming.
sometimes summer in dc can be enjoyable.
did i mention how delicious the corn on the cob was? let me put it to you this way – take the word delicious, multiply it by a thousand, and you’ll start to approach the awesomeness that was this corn on the cob. hot damn mmmm.
July 16, 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized
i went to go see a baseball game last friday in a complete lack of humidity. it was a 10-0 rout of the houston astros (sorry, amit!).
however, i didn’t go to the game as much to see the players as to see the new stadium, which is close to my house.
it was much smaller and more intimate than i expected, and, contrary to what the lerners might allege, fully functional. certainly nothing to withhold rent over.
the food lines were kind of long, but that’s because i was in the one spot in the stadium where one could seek out veggie dogs. AWESOME! and the vendors at the food stand were unfailingly wonderful – they were friendly and willing to meet my crazy food demands (like the one for lettuce on my hot dog.) i can’t give them high enough marks.
the best part of the game? fireworks immediately following the win. please note that they were regularly scheduled fireworks, and not contingent upon the performance of the nationals, but they were still a treat. i stood in a parking lot and watched them explode. it was beautiful. and i’ll be back in a parking lot on august 1, when more will appear.
so yes, it’s nice to have a new stadium, but the owners are disappointing me with their stonewalling on the rent. listen, guys, we understand that you are angry about your losing team, but that’s no reason to take it out on the city – especially because washingtonians continue to flock to your new stadium, win or lose.
July 14, 2008
· Filed under sports
today, i thought i would do something productive and give my old beater bike a touchup paint job. i have wanted to brighten it up for a while, since the silver paint job i did about a year and a half ago was on its last legs.
i rode up to logan hardware, had them mix up some bubblegum pink rustproof paint, and headed home in the blazing hot sun to touch up my beater. i set everything up on my balcony and started painting away. things went swimmingly until i was on the last little bit. then the wind kicked up and the clouds rolled in and i realized that dc was about to be hit by a rainstorm.
so now i have a beater bike drying right next to my sofa. let’s hope i don’t die because of paint fume inhalation this evening. however, i’m sure you’ll agree that the color is BEAUTIFUL.
July 13, 2008
· Filed under movies
the movie i have been looking forward to all summer has been hellboy 2: the golden army.
the original hellboy was irreverent, funny, and one heck of an action movie. mike mignola had created a compelling character within the confines of the superhero genre – hellboy had a compelling origin story, interesting quirks, and a built-in tension due to his desire to be accepted by a world that was scared of him.
and the problem i had with hellboy 2 is that it didn’t have enough of the hellboy. don’t get me wrong – i think the movie is well worth seeing, because director guillermo del toro has piled on phenomenal set piece after phenomenal set piece. he’s created entirely new universes to populate in his own inimitable style. the only problem is that in exploring so many new, funky looking characters, we don’t get to spend enough time with the characters we already love – namely hellboy, abe and liz. indeed, the best moments in the film are some of the quieter ones – watching hellboy receive his comeuppance from a new staff member, and experiencing the interaction between a drunken hellboy and a lovelorn abe. i found myself wishing the film would be longer to give us more scenes like those.
still, hellboy 2 is the most original superhero film to hit the theaters this summer. the fight scenes in the movie are amazing, and the special effects are second to none. and doug jones is amazing in his multiple appearances in the film, although you’ll never be able to recognize him under the layers and layers of makeup.
so go see it already, okay?
