culture
April 09, 2004
Eternal Sunshine? most definitely.
I've got a new title to add to my list of ravagingly beautiful romantic films: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is so stunningly good that like all great art, it humbles the viewer. I know I sound over the top, and I know art is partially what you bring to it, but I really loved this film… Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are both amazing. As an actor you must dream about getting the chance to do a project like this…
I know, ick, such a simple rave… but I can't help it… it's great… I don't need to construct an intellectual reason why, it's just excellent. It makes me wish I could make something half as good.
FYI, the other movies on my greatest romantic films list: Out of Africa, Moonstruck, Wonder Boys, Lost in Translation and Manhattan.
September 19, 2003
Heat and Vice
Yeah, I know… people in the bay area are wimps when it comes to heat… but it's been hot for far too many days. I actually went out to buy a fan today, that's how hot it is… I'm just not sure where we'll put said fan on the 350 days of the year when it isn't being used. Anyway, I didn't move to San Francisco for the heat, I moved here for the FOG! So bring it on, I want my icebox back.
Despite the weather I have been enjoying the soundtrack to Lost in Translation. It is most excellent. I really want to go see the film again… it's a perfect movie. I can't say enough good things about it… run, don't walk to your local theatre and all that…
Total change of subject ahead: the vice that is gambling. I have been thinking about this lately because, as I noted last week, a friend and I recently visited a small casino in Tucson, AZ and played a bit of blackjack. Amazingly, we both won, and I remarked that it might have been better to have lost because then we would have been soured by gambling and not tempted to return again… my friend thought this notion was absurd (or at least wrong) and we argued about it for a bit before agreeing to disagree. It's no temptation to me now because it's in Arizona, but if I was only 20 minutes away I would probably be tempted to go back and have some more fun winning… except that casinos don't exist to give out money, they exist to rake it in… In any event, I am happy to have won a bit, but I am also somewhat comforted by the fact I can't go back every week.
September 12, 2003
Review: Lost in Translation
This afternoon I went to a early showing of Lost in Translation, the new film by Sofia Coppola starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. This film is easily one of the best films I have seen in the past couple of years. The photography is stunning and the story and acting are superb. This is a quiet film, full of lovely, gentle, charming moments that leave you feeling transported and inspired. It is subtle, and Murray and Johansson make what is exceptional and difficult look easy. Sofia Coppola has created characters with a depth that one rarely sees in films today. The picture inspires because these two people in very different places in their lives and gripped by serious existential issues, find in each other a comfort and understanding that reassures them that they are not alone. Everything about this film is so perfect… I will be seeing it again.
A Traveling Man
I have been traveling for work this past week and I am constantly reminded that internet access in general and wi-fi in particular are not as widespread in some places as they are in San Francisco. I can't believe more hotels haven't jumped on the bandwagon with wi-fi or ethernet jacks in every room… I read some article last week that stated that this is the number one request/consideration among business travellers when choosing a hotel. Yet it is still the exception rather than the norm. Equally annoying are hotels that advertise “High Speed Internet Access” in every room but fail to tell you it isn't included in the room rate and you'll have to pay another $10/day to use it…. lame!
Good things that happened: I saw some friends, did some (but not enough) business, won $115 playing Blackjack in a casino outside Tucson, Arizona, played golf (I still suck, but it's fun), and had a few good meals.
While in Los Angeles I ate alone most of the time, which doesn't bother me in the least, it's good people watching. I had dinner one night in a good, but not great (considering the price) Italian restaurant on 3rd Street in West Hollywood. I had one of those great rear corner tables (power tables) that face the entrance and let you survey the entire room… great for the solo diner and observer of weird details.
I was entertained that evening by the Japanese woman that received numerous phone calls during dinner, answering each with “moshi moshi.” (I believe this is the typical way of answering the phone in Japanese.) I thought about the word “cabal” which came up earlier in the day when I was speaking with a fellow dealer about the market and auctions and such… it's a fun word. I noticed the cook who sat down a few tables away to quickly eat his meal before returning to the kitchen… he was wearing a floppy style chef's hat that made his large ears all the more evident… nothing wrong with big ears though… Then, I watched this big guy that looked like a cross between a professional wrestler and a dandy get some marinara on his white silk shirt, he preceded to dab it with water the entire time I was eating my dinner, while his similarly bleached blonde female companion chewed away.
One of the waiters must have been a not wholly successful realtor by day, as he spent a good 15 minutes at one table explaining to an older couple what a nice condo he could sell them… odd. I finished dinner and the check came, I put my credit card down and the waiter picked it up and walked over to the machine and proceeded to kiss my credit card before he swiped it… why he did this is a total mystery to me, but whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, LA is a fun, weird place to be sure. My number one recommendation is King's Road Cafe on Beverly Blvd @ King in West Hollywood… Amazingly strong, rich coffee and very decent breakfast.
August 25, 2003
Words and their meanings
The other night at dinner I caught myself using the word “panoply.” Obviously, there's nothing wrong with the word, and I didn't use it incorrectly, but I felt slightly guilty the moment I said it because it is one of those words (not unlike “epiphany”) that is are easy to use without knowing exactly what it they means… so when I got home I looked it up, actually I looked them both up, but everyone knows what epiphany means, so let's focus on panoply. I had used it to mean something like “a colorful assortment”… as you can see from the definition, I wasn't wrong, but I did not know that the word has protective(armor) undertones, and that the “assortment” might have a more ceremonial feel to it. Language is a living thing and all that, but it seems only right that if you are going to be part of its evolution that you make an effort to know where its been before passing through your lips.
August 22, 2003
Details
My mother is fond of telling me that I don't “give enough details” when I'm reporting news and such during our regular phone calls. She attributes this failing to gender, assuring me that my sister meets or exceeds her expectations in this department. I guess sometimes I'm feeling chatty and sometimes not, it's a mood thing.
There is no question, however, as to the value of details when writing prose or making photographs. In a sense, that's what it's all about in fact. When writing is good, details construct the scene… they transport you. The same multiplicity of detailed elements makes up imagery, be it painting, drawing or photographs. Most importantly, in both cases the writer or the artist has chosen the details they present. This construction is both what makes the end result creative, and necessarily from a single point of view. The things I write or the images I make are slices of my reality, but they are also the slices I choose to present… the details I choose to share.
A moment I observed almost ten years ago still surfaces in my mind every now and again. I was taking the bus home from downtown on a unusually warm Saturday afternoon. I was sitting in the back, and directly in front of me was a man and woman, obviously a couple, probably in their late twenties. They looked both comfortable and content in their own skins, and with each other. I don't remember any other specific details about their appearance, except that the woman was wearing a tank top of sorts, showing the skin of her upper back and shoulders. I think they were attractive but not at all exceedingly or stereotypically so. What I really remember is that they weren't really talking or even looking at each other, but that the woman was very softly touching the back of the man's neck, right at the hairline, a sort of gentle, all most absent-minded caress… I thought it was the most beautiful instant… I remember wishing that I could somehow paint that moment, so that looking at the result might make people happy in a quiet and deep way.
That's today's detail.
August 18, 2003
Vandalus phantasticus
We all have fantasies that we can't act upon… I often walk past a Hummer H2 parked on the street in our neighborhood and want to kick it. It might sound silly, but the damn thing's existence just makes me want to kick it. I mentioned this to my wife and she confessed to similar leanings… though hers are slightly more confrontational. I characterize the typical Hummer H2 owner as “a dweeb with a lot of money (or credit) and no taste.” Also, the guys that own these things (and they must be 99% guys) must have small penises. I hate saying that, but only because I fear the googlebot and it's indexing of the P word… but it must be said. So my fantasy tonight as we talked about this is that I make up a nice little stencil that says “small penis” and that in the middle of the night we go out and spray paint it on the side of the Hummer H2's doors… of course we can't really do it… because I believe in the rule of law and private property… but it's tempting nonetheless… My wife thinks things like the Hummer should be against the law and we would be justified in these actions… but that sort of rationalization is a slippery slope… before we knew it we'd be stenciling every SUV in San Francisco (hmmm). Anyway, I'm not up for anarchy just yet… and if this idea creates copy-cat type events I am not responsible. Ideas don't spray paint stencils on Hummer H2s, people do.
August 06, 2003
Please remove your dog from the shopping cart
Has it always been the case that only half the people in the world know how to behave properly? Or is it simply a symptom of our narcissistic times…? Tonight I saw a couple at the grocery store that were straight out of Best in Show. That, in and of itself, would be fine, even amusing, but in this case they had their dog in the grocery store… and not just in the grocery store, but they had put their forty pound dog in the shopping basket. Am I the only one that thinks this both bizarre and totally inappropriate? I love dogs… but a) they aren't allowed in the grocery store and b) even if they were, does it seem polite to one's fellow shoppers to use the store shopping carts to carry a dog? Can we all step back and practice a little common courtesy? Ok, end of rant. In tomorrow's episode we'll examine the people that graze the bulk food bins as if they were at a buffet…
July 23, 2003
Ammonia on cup rim = bad
I frequently go to a Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood for lunch. I go because the food is good and fresh, they don't use MSG, it's close by, and the price is right (the lunch specials are about $6 with tax and tip). There is just one thing that keeps it from being perfect: the place makes a big deal about being clean, and after every table leaves and is cleared they procede to clean the glass table top with some sort of Windex type stuff and wipe it down with a cloth napkin. Then they set the table for the next customer. Part of the standard setting is a teacup which they place rim down on the table. Here's the problem: they wipe up the ammonia cleaner with a polyester-type napkin, which doesn't totally absorb the spray. It eventually evaporates, but not before they place the teacup rim down. Thus the rim of the teacup is coated in ammonia cleaner, and smells like it. Also, if they are cleaning a table next to you while you are eating you get a good whiff of the ammonia smell as well. The teacup is the problem for me though, because I like tea, but I don't like a blantently sanitized cup.
The real question then is how much of a picky freak am I? I'm really not sure, but this place has been in business for around five years now and apparently no one has complained about this practice. This includes me, because I can't think of a way to bring it up with the manager that doesn't sound like I am a) really wierd and picky, b) just complaining, or c) a know-it-all. I have even thought about writing an anonymous letter to the owner to point out this defect in their cleaning protocol… but that sound's like something a crazy person would do.
It's hard to know how aggressive or assertive to be in the world today. Last night I was quite assertive about securing a “first-come, first-serve” table in the cafe portion of a nice place we frequent because I was in the right and in that situation people will take advantage of you if you are not somewhat aggressive. But the teacup ammonia thing is different, maybe I am the only one that can smell it, maybe I am a freak. I don't really lose any sleep over this, but I was thinking of it yesterday because it's hard to know when to assert and to lead and when to not be a particular know-it-all.
July 20, 2003
aka "The City"
Well, Ernie seems to have gotten his knickers in a twist over a recent U.S. Census Bureau report in which San Jose gets top Bay Area billing because of population… some funny stuff.
About ten years ago a friend of mine moved out here from North Carolina. He found a nice little place in Oakland. The first time he crossed the bridge to meet me for dinner I said something about being happy to finally see him in the City. He said “The City?”, and I explained that in the Bay Area people just referred to San Francisco as “the City.” Well, he didn't like that at all and in the typical stubborn fashion of my group of friends attempted to not call San Francisco anything like “the City” for the next few years. Eventually, like river water smoothing a stone, he gave in and started calling it what everyone else did.
July 19, 2003
small business is an art
Just one of many reasons to patronize small, independently owned businesses: they are an art. Seriously, small business is raw creativity. Nothing gets run through a focus group or given special corporate marketing polish… small businesses are the unfiltered artistic expressions of their owners and operators. For example, I just ate for the first time at this little place a few blocks away from our apartment. I had always sort of wondered about it, so I decided to give it a try. It's on a strange block of businesses and not what I would consider a great location for foot traffic. The food was fine, the service was good and the decor was not to my taste but you could tell someone had a vision and designed the space accordingly. This place was the little bistro that the owner had always wanted to open. It was more than just a business, it was someone expressing themselves, making choices and putting the result on display for acceptance or rejection. It is almost impossible to have the same intimate experience in a large chain store where things are filtered down to a dull and homogenous finish. I like the feeling of being in someone's place. It makes the transaction so much more human.
June 19, 2003
Mob Project
Via Wired News :: E-Mail Mob Takes Manhattan
That is a great idea. The whole business of the spontaneous (or I guess in this case somewhat planned spontaneity) organization of a “Mob Action” makes my heart leap with joy. Seriously. Connectivity and networking truly are the killer apps. Add in some wireless email… which activist/political organizers have already used to great effect… and you have got yourself some serious spontaneous action. Of course what is wonderful about this project is that it isn't political at all, it's art for art's sake.
June 09, 2003
Japanese Monster Trucks
Having grown up in West Virginia, I'm no stranger to the American “Monster Truck” phenomenon, but this gentleman's efforts are truly something new to me… unlike the WV trucks, these seem to be neither muddy nor do they have a gun rack that I can see. [via my pals on #macintosh]
June 06, 2003
Three very good movies
I have recently started going out to the movies again… it can be such a nice experience if the film is good and the theatre isn't insanely crowded, which in San Francisco means going to a matinee, or an evening show during the week… Weekends are strictly for the hoards… in any case, here are my three most recent winners:
Spellbound: you may have read about this movie in the NYTimes or heard about it from a friend already… suffice it to say, it's riveting, wonderful and sweet…. better than 95% of Hollywood's movies and made for .001% of the price. See it NOW!
The Italian Job: My wife was skeptical, but this is a GOOD action/caper film… lots of nice homage to the 60's and tongue in cheeky stuff… beware the massive Dell and Mini-Cooper product placement though (as if I need more temptation from those Mini-Cooper people).
Bend It Like Beckham: Sweet, funny, multicultural… with a soundtrack that pays homage to Bollywood. Take your daughter, wife, girlfriend, mother…
April 25, 2003
making me laugh...
via boingboing, this little transcript is too funny… regarding Santorum's misstep into a pile of “being himself,” it will be interesting to see if the Republicans decide to eat one of their young over this… I tend to think not, but this certainly has the potential to haunt Santorum in the future.
background is here: NYTimes article (free registration required).