| Mo' Flicks |
[Oct. 13th, 2007|04:25 pm] |
Readers,
I just saw Michael Clayton at the Consolidated Majestic 20 in Silver Spring, and I have to give it the thumbs up. In fact, I daresay that it was the most professionally executed big-money movie put out by any of the major studios since probably Million Dollar Baby, the winner of the 2004 Academy Award for Best Picture. The film, which stars George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson, tells a dramatic story about a the challenges gripping a high-powered law firm and its resident "fixer" when one of its members loses his tolerance for defending a toxically polluting corporation. The film may be hurt in the Academy Award competition by its familiar subject matter, but if you haven't hit your limit for dirty corporation vs dirty law firm drama, then be sure to check it out. I give it an "A-", because it's probably too good for my standard "B+".
Earlier in the week I caught an advance screening of We Own The Night at AMC's Mazza Gallerie. Blah. By the ads, it looked to be a sharp film, starring Robert Duvall, Joaquin "Johnny Cash" Phoenix and "Marky" Mark Wahlberg, in a gritty urban drama about a family divided with one brother in the NYC underworld and the other on the police force. The final product is a letdown though. It's set in the '80s yet nothing about it seems authentically '80s, Phoenix and Wahlberg play brothers, but don't really seem related, and parts of the story seem really contrived. That said, Phoenix does a fine job with his role, and the director sets up several really interesting scenes, including a thrilling car chase through a driving rain, a chilling walk through a drug den that was reminiscent of a similarly great scene in New Jack City (1991), and a final showdown in the marshy reeds of a New York swamp. Based on those positives, I'll give it a "B-" (Fair).
Also recently, I saw advance screenings of The Kingdom and Things We Lost In the Fire. The Kingdom has been getting tepid reviews by the big names, and I don't get it, because I thought the film was capital-E Excellent. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner and Jeremy Piven are good. Ashraf Bahom steals the film, and the story is both worthwhile and well-done. I give it a "B+" (Memorable). Things We Lost In the Fire on the other hand, is dreck. Halle Berry is OK. Benicio del Toro is pretty good. But the film didn't do anything for me, as I didn't really care about any of the characters or anything that happened to them. Yawn. I give it a "C+" (Flawed but Worthy). |
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| Making a good movie out of a bad one |
[Sep. 12th, 2007|10:32 pm] |
I've heard complaints that I 'blog too much about movies. I need to work on that.
So anyway, I just saw a movie! Actually, I think I saw a meta-movie. That is, a movie about movies. Actually, I guess, a documentary about documentaries. Or better yet, a documentary about representations in general. In My Kid Could Paint This, fledgling director Amir Bar-Lev follows the story surrounding the rise and fall of Marla Olmstead, the young child from Binghamton, NY, who achieved fame at the age of 4 as a child-prodigy painter of modern art, but fell from grace after a "60 Minutes" expose raised questions about whether her parents, in particular, her father, himself an amateur painter, had contributed to her works. The movie is a decent investigation of the scandal, but the story on its own merits probably doesn't deserve a 90-minute movie treatment, and was told more succinctly and efficiently by the "60 Minutes" presentation. The interesting story in this movie is its self-analysis and self-searching about questions like "what does video really show anyway?".
Initially the director set out to chronicle the story of the girl prodigy painter, but as the controversy breaks, he finds the wall between documentary subject and documentarian breaking down --he gets drawn into the story he tries to tell. Naturally, when questions about the authenticity of the girl's work arise, the opinions of the guy who has been watching her and her parents for weeks come into play. The cool thing is, he is aware of it and makes it part of the story. Professional documentarians might call it amateurish, but believe me, the flick wouldn't be very watchable without the story within the story.
The filmmaker doesn't film the family 24/7, and he has never filmed a painting from conception to completion... so somewhere along the way he starts to wonder himself whether the girl is for real. In this way, we are let into the documentarian's world to see behind the scenes and viewers are privy to his thought process throughout the scandal. So, the movie becomes a kind of documentary about documentaries, a sort of study of how he studies his subjects.
The parents take it to another level. When the film evidence leaves open questions about the daughter's authenticity, they suggest that the daughter behaves differently on-camera than off. In quantum physics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle implies that one cannot simultaneously measure both the position and direction of a particle. The parents claim is based on a related concept, the Observer Effect; essentially that the very act of observing changes the observed. So in the end, how can we know the answer?
And should it matter? I mean, it's still the same painting regardless of who painted it, right? Well that's where it gets interesting. Since it's modern art, which is just a bunch of random splashes of paint here and there on a canvas, the question of authorship is relevant.
Are the paintings a real representation of the thoughts and feelings of the 4-year-old girl, or her dad? Is the parents' presentation of their daughter as a child prodigy true, or just some wild fabrication spun from their minds? Was the "60 Minutes" representation of the family more fair and accurate or entirely unfair and imbalanced? The film itself is, in the end, little more than a representation of the film editor's interpretation of the events. And ultimately, this 'blog is not even about what actually happened in the movie (which wasn't actually this complicated), but more about whatever random thoughts its presentation started bouncing around in my head.
I guess I do watch too many movies. |
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| Tuning In |
[Sep. 2nd, 2007|11:00 am] |
Alright, I'm flipping back to ESPN. I had all but forgotten that network over the last 3-4 months, but I might be ready to take them back. The thing is, in addition to being a movie-lover, I'm also a huge sports fan... but not just any sport, and there really just weren't any sports worth watching for the most of the summer.
Of course, that's a condition not unique to ESPN or the sports world. Summer television in general is a vast wasteland. Between episodes of "So You Think You Can Dance?", re-runs of "House, M. D." and whatever has been going on most recently over at the "Big Brother" house, there really is very little watchable programming available.
Nowhere, though, is this condition more pronounced than in the sports world, where the programmers have been serving up an unappetizing menu of Major League Baseball, pro golf and the WNBA. Honestly, for my money, the World's Strongest Man competitions make a more entertaining sport than the woefully uninteresting Major League Baseball.
But, as summer gives way to fall... or, at least, as the summer wasteland gives way to the Fall TV Season, things start to perk up. College football, my favorite sport, launched with a flurry this weekend. And, without gathering too much fanfare, the USA Senior National Basketball team, composed entirely of NBA players, has, for the last two weeks, quietly gone about turning in the most impressive performance in international basketball since the early Dream Teams of '92 and '96. It's enough to get me to consider re-launching my separate sports blog. If I do, I'll let you know.
In the meantime, it's time to look into getting TiVo.... |
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[Aug. 19th, 2007|08:34 pm] |
So, if you've been reading this weblog, you know I'm a movie fan. If you haven't, I'll recap. I'm in the Regal Crown Club and the AMC MovieWatcher Club. I have a Consolidated Movie Awards card, and hold Landmark passes. I'm a member of the American Film Institute and the DC Film Society. I trade DVDs on Peerflix and Barterbee, in addition to my Netflix subscription. Despite all that, I still definitely set a personal record a few weeks ago by watching 6 theatrical film presentations in 7 days. The results are as follows:
I also caught Alpha Dog ('B' - Good) on DVD somewhere in there too. Good times.
Peace. |
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| Shock To The System |
[Jul. 4th, 2007|09:22 pm] |
Friends,
Go see
SICKO!
Ebert's Review
I caught this feature on opening night last Friday, June 29 at Landmark's E Street Theatre downtown, and was quite impressed. Folks, it's a helluva good documentary. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll learn. Well, at least, I did.
It's one of those docs like Super-Size Me and Maxed Out where you hear the subject matter and think you know all about it, only to find out that you really didn't know the half of it. In fact, I'd further the analogy with Maxed Out, which I highly recommend, by the way. Both Sicko and that movie, which investigated the credit card industry, were so alarming as to inspire the viewer to say, "This is crazy! Someone's got to DO something about this shit!". I'd put it right up there in the top 3 of must-see documentaries of the last year or so. My rankings:
| #1. | An Inconvenient Truth |
| #2. | Sicko |
| #3. | Maxed Out |
So, do yourself a favor and check it out! |
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| Summer Block-Bluster |
[Jun. 17th, 2007|09:07 pm] |
OK, I've now seen most of the early summer blockbusters, and it's time for some reporting:
Summer Flix:
- "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" - I just took this one in today at the Majestic, and was treated to a disappointment. I had high hopes, mainly because the Silver Surfer was one of my favorite characters from childhood comics, and also the star of a very entertaining 1998 animated series. Nonetheless, this story falls flat. The Surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne, and played by Doug Jones of Pan's Labyrinth fame) is still cool, but the Fantastic Four aren't very believable (even for a sci-fi fantasy film!), their chemistry as a team is nonexistent, the casting is bad (Julian McMahon and Michael Chiklis are out of their depth here), and the story? It's too loose with the original text to satisfy us die-hards, and too light on the action to entertain casual viewers. Jessica Alba is still money, though. Yeah she is.
Nevertheless, Thumbs down. Or, in my/yahoo's rating system - "C" - Mediocre.
The Boston Globe's Wesley Morris has another excellent review of it here.
- Next up: "Ocean's Thirteen", third in the series launched in 2001 w/ Ocean's 11, which itself was a remake of the 1960 original of the same name. El Presidente and I had the pleasure of taking in this feature at the area's newest theatre, Consolidated's Royale 14 in Hyattsville (near College Park). The huge spacious theatre was excellent, but the film was a bit of a dog. Well, actually, it's not bad. It's maybe even decent, but just not really to my liking. The players just spent way too much time yakking incessantly about the minutae of their unnecessarily complicated plan to hoodwink another Vegas schyster. It's a waste of time, too, because plot and acting have never really been what the movies in this series are about. They're about CELEBRITY. The fans are just supposed to strap in and giggle w/ giddy glee as the stars pass across the screen. Oooh, there's Brad Pitt. Wow, it's George Clooney. Hey, isn't that Don Cheadle? Isn't Matt Damon in this? And hey, look, it's Bernie Mac, too! Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin are the guest stars in this edition, and they must've missed the memo, because those two actually ACT in their roles. Seriously! That puts them really out of place. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewer Bob Longino summed the film up quite well when he wrote: "The first half, tedious; second half, watchable." Grade: "B-" - Fair.
- "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". What the hell? This mofo is like nearly three hours long! 2hr 45min to be exact. That's simply flat-out too much movie for this topic. When people saddle up for a "Pirates" movie, I think they want to be entertained and amused for a while and they go about their day. Does anyone really care about the plot of these movies enough to want to sit through three hours to see how it plays out? Not I. I was amused for an hour or two, but in the end I was just exhausted. Schindler's List can be three hours, The Godfather can be three hours, cheesy summer action flicks should definitely not be. Grade: "C+" - Flawed, but worthy.
- "Spider-Man 3". Yet another disappointment. Not a bad movie, it's the just the ill-considered results of taking two perfectly good spider-man movie plots and smashing them into one film. "Spider-Man Settles The Score w/ the Green Goblin & Sandman" would've been a good 2hr third movie, and "Spider-man vs Venom/His Dark Self" would've been an excellent 1hr 45min 4th movie. Instead we got one jumbled, confused, hodge-podge 3+hr film that suffers under the weight of too much plot in too little story space. Definitely a departure from the brilliant first two episodes of this film series. Grade: "B-" - Fair.
Ack. So, as you can see, the Summer Blockbusters of 2007 have been a let-down so far. Fortunately, I've been catching some excellent films on DVD, including "In America" (2002), "Spartan" (2004), "The New World" (2005), and, to a lesser extent, "Night Shift" (1982). I also caught an advance screening of "You Kill Me" (2007), which was also great. Perhaps I'll review them in a subsequent posting. More to come! |
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| Moving Pictures? |
[Jun. 11th, 2007|10:20 pm] |
I like movies. I like 'em so much that I even watch movies about movies. Short ones, anyway. Short films about films called "trailers" or "previews". I watch 'em. Sometimes I even watch lots of 'em. There's a feature on my digital cable provider's video-on-demand service that allows viewers to watch the coming attractions, and I often do. There's nothing quite like the excitement that a good trailer can provide; it's often a better experience than watching the movie itself.
So it was in that spirit that I made the trip downtown to Landmark's E Street Theatres on Tuesday, May 15th for the Washington DC Film Society's "Coming Attractions Night" for Summer 2007. This is a twice-yearly event where members (at a discounted price) and the general public (at full price) sit down to watch a few hours of previews for the upcoming season's films, vote on which catch their interest, and make off with lots of free movie-related schwag (posters, t-shirts, hats, lunch-boxes, etc.). Folks, I went, saw the trailers for the Summer movies, and have to report that the outlook is grim.
Lots of dreck to look out for this summer. In the month since "Coming Attractions" night, we've already been blasted with the horrid likes of "Georgia Rule", and the painful "License to Wed" is right behind it. "Underdog" is coming later in the summer, too, and trust me folks, it is nothing like the cartoon you may remember from your childhood (if you're old enough). Most of the flicks weren't terrible though, they were just "blah", like the mostly uninteresting "Crazy Love" (about the weird love affair of a couple of old-timers), "Fay Grim" (a Parker Posey comeback vehicle), "No Reservations" (a lame romance between two chefs), "Jindabyne" (a full-length movie similar to a minor subplot in Robert Altman's award-winning 1993 film, Short Cuts), and on and on.
Also, the crowd totally marked out for the trailers for "La Vie En Rose", "Harry Potter & The Order of The Phoenix", and "Live Free Or Die Hard"... none of which really blew me.
So what did I like? Many of you have already seen it by now (and so have I), but I enjoyed "Knocked Up". "Eagle vs. Shark" looks... well, interesting; "Evan Almighty" looks to be light-years better than its predecessor Evan Almighty; "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" appealed, if for no other reason than that it reminds me of my youth. I'm curious to check out "September Dawn", a film about the 1857 Mormon massacre of a wagon train of travellers seeking passage through the Utah territory. And, of course, there is, at long last, "THE SIMPSONS MOVIE". Coming to a theatre near you. |
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| Yakov Smirnoff |
[May. 29th, 2007|09:15 pm] |
In Corporate America, Charity Pays You!!!
Yes, such is the world I live in. You see, at my workplace, the fastest way to some quick swag is to sign up for "charity". Generally, whatever the charity event, the company pays whatever registration fees are involved, and the other event sponsors provide lots of free goodies to the volunteers to make it worth their while. In the end, as a volunteer, you give up a few hours of your life, and walk off with a full belly and a sack full of nice loot. Kinda goes against the grain of giving of oneself to charity, but if it really involved sacrifice, I wonder how many would do it? Besides, the company is paying the charity, the volunteers are just the warm-body instrument through which the giving is executed.
Anyway, you'd think my principles would prevent me from queueing up in this gravy train, but, if so, my dear chumps & chumpettes, you'd be wrong. I do these deals all the time! And now for the best part: if one participates in enough of these charitable events, then that one starts getting invited to the special "thank you for volunteering" celebrations. In 2004, that meant a free trip on a lunch cruise down the Potomac. In 2006, it meant tickets to a private tent at the Legg Mason tennis classic.
So it is in that spirit that I took in the 55th Running of the Potomac Hunt Point-to-Point Races on Sunday, May 20th with El Presidente. It was my first ever live horse-racing (and horse-jumping) event. The event was held at the Kiplinger family's estate in distant Seneca, Maryland.
I don't know if Seneca is a real town or just what these people call their neighborhood but it was a good drive west of town. To get there one must travel through potent Potomac, Maryland as well. For those who aren't local, Potomac is the place where... well, when you head west from DC/SilverSpring, past the $900,000 homes of Chevy Chase, past the $1,000,000 homes in Bethesda, you get to the place where the really wealthy people live. You know, the kind with the $10,000,000 mansions. OK, that's Potomac. And past Potomac, you get to Seneca, and the Kiplinger estate, and the Potomac Hunt Races.
I'd like to tell you that El Presidente and I had an entertaing day at the races, watching all sorts of equine activity, but that'd be a stretch. Really, the event turned out to be a glorified lunch. We parked, went to the company tent, schmoozed a bit, chowed down on a delectable picnic-themed buffet, and then seconds, and then dessert, and our share of drinks. We schmoozed a bit more, then wandered the fields for a while getting the lay of the rustic lands, and then, at the first ominous sign of dark clouds, we packed up and high-tailed it back to civilization. So yeah, we were there for all of two hours. But a good time nonetheless. A little bit of how the other half lives; see kids, charity does pay! |
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| April (and March) Movie Recap |
[Apr. 29th, 2007|09:49 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | The Theater | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Indigo Girls "Least Complicated" | ] |
OK, it's been so long since I posted anything about movies that I'll have to drop a few lines in here. I've been on a lengthy movie drought in '07 for the most part, but I have picked up a few here and there. So here's a little update:
- Grindhouse (2007) - Quentin Tarantino is still a genius and his buddy Robert Rodriguez ain't half bad either. This movie is a 3hr,11min double-feature extravaganza featuring, first, "Planet Terror", directed by Rodriguez, and finally, "Death Proof" directed by Mr. Tarantino. Both films run about 85 min, and are separated by an intermission filled w/ faux "coming attractions". Those trailers were hilarious, were directed by other hollywood big names, featured various big-name celebs, and are all for movies that are entirely fictitious. My favorite was for a film called "Thanksgiving". In a take off on the horror movie "Halloween", this film purported to bring the same sense of horror to turkey day. The tagline was "You'll be coming home for the holidays... in a body bag!".
OK, you get the idea. The trailers, like the both features, were simultaneously awful and awesome. Every component of "Grindhouse" was a spot-on homage to the trashy drive-in films of the '70s. None of those films were that good on plot and such, and so these send-ups didn't have to be either.
I'm actually old enough to remember going to the drive-in movies w/ my parents way way way way back in the day, so this all struck me as just so, so right. Grade: "A-" (Almost Perfect). Look for multiple roles through the movies by Kurt Russell and Rose McGowan, a cameo by the Black-Eyed Peas' Fergie, Sidney Poitier's daughter Sydney Poitier, and stuntwoman Zoe Bell, playing herself!
- Disturbia (2007) - "B" (Good). A very taut teen thriller, and the coming-out party for Hollywood's next rising star, Shia LeBouf. This young one's got skills. And don't sleep on Aaron Yoo and Sarah Roemer, as well. Former matrix dominatrix Carrie-Ann Moss must've had a good make-up job, 'cuz she looks like she's aged 20 yrs since the last "Matrix" flick, and that was only four years ago. David Morse absolutely nails the "creepy older neighbor" role. I'd love to give this one a higher score, since I really liked it, but a lot of plot nonsense at the end sank it a little bit.
- Blades of Glory (2007) - "B-" (Fair). I didn't really want to see this one, but sorta got dragged. J'Amy and El Presidente were already going, so why not? Anyway, I have to say that I laughed the whole time. This is about as funny as you can make a movie about a male-male ice figure-skating duo. So props for that. :-)
- Breach (2007) - "B-" (Fair). Good movie; technically excellent, but for whatever reason lacked the sizzle to earn it a really high score. Chris Cooper is excellent, as usual, and Ryan Philippe disguises himself so successfully that you can watch this without even realizing that it's a Ryan Philippe movie! No higher praise than that!
- Notes On A Scandal (2006) - "A-" (Almost Perfect). Excellent.
- DVD: A Scanner Darkly (2006) - "B-" (Fair). Alright, but somewhat disappointing.
- Blood & Chocolate (2007) - "D-" (Truly Awful). One of the worst of all-time.
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| Flame-Broiled Pie? |
[Apr. 29th, 2007|09:34 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | the hizzy | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Rick James "Give It To Me Baby" | ] |
*I know this will sound like a Piser-posting, but bear with me... :-)"
The internet's a wonderful thing. There is not yet a page devoted to every item or concept known to man, but we are getting there. In particular, we are already to the point where there is a fansite for everything that has fans. And every major product that was around for any length of time, but was eventually discontinued, definitely has fans.
So, naturally, there are several websites devoted to McDonald's Fried Fruit Pie.
As you may or may not know, McDonald's now sells BAKED pies of apple, cherry, and occasionally various other varieties at most of its locations. The company used to sell FRIED pies, but phased them out in favor of the baked pies over 15 years ago.
If you're like me, you never even noticed. This only came to my attention in '04, when traveling in Italy. I already know that I'll offend many of you by admitting to patronizing a McDonald's at all while in the home of some of the world's greatest cuisine. But, I have to be honest. Despite enjoying so many of Italia's delicacies, at some point in my week-long trip, I yearned for familiar comfort food... and the McDonald's outlet in the train station in the town of Napoli provided it. I ordered an apple pie and was surprised to find it crispy & fried. I wasn't bothered, just amused briefly at it's anachronistic novelty.
Now I find out that McDonald's pies in most of Europe and around the world are still fried. The US leads the way in McDonalds pie baked-ness, and naturally, there is a group of domestic customers who are none to happy about it. They seek out fried pies at the few stateside Mickey D's locations still provide them. A compilation of their findings is on the web, here: http://www.ccytsao.com/friedapplepie.htm.
Enjoy! |
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| Wilmington's Finest |
[Apr. 29th, 2007|09:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Avril Lavigne "Girlfriend" | ] |
Just realized that in my Texas posting, I didn't say anything else about visiting w/ my former UNC contacts, fLiz and Cate.
Basically: they're the bomb. I know no one says "the bomb" anymore, and it just reflects how I'm about a decade out of touch, but yeah, they're really cool. The gals who were undergrads when I finished grad school at UNC are grad students themselves now at U.Texas. We hooked up one night for a crazy game of Scrabble, of all things, at some alterna-hip bar/hang-out near the campus, and another evening we took in Austin's finest, most-affordable Indian food and dropped by the office of the local GEICO Field Rep. Good times. I can use more friends like those two. One doesn't find 'em that often though. |
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| The End of The Innocence |
[Apr. 29th, 2007|11:07 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pensive | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Cat Stevens "The First Cut Is The Deepest" | ] |
So, back in late March, I made my first-ever visit to Texas, the former vassal of Mexico, former independent state, largest of the lower 48, and previous home of the current president. In fact, it was only my 4th-ever visit west of the Mississippi River, or 5th if you count New Orleans, which is kinda south of the river, but anyway.... the occasion for this trip was work. I traveled to Austin to attend the Part 4/C CAS/SOA Actuarial Exam-Prep Seminar. The seminar was offered by UT-Austin's Professor Jim Daniel, and paid for by my employer. A side benefit of the location was that it provided the opportunity to meet up and reunite w/ my long-lost friends, fLiz & Cate, whom I hadn't seen in the six years since I left Chapel Hill, NC.
The trip marked the beginning of a revelatory and introspective period for me. A sequence of various events inspired me to reassess things; we'll see where it goes.
Just before the trip, I learned that a friend & co-worker, G-Money, was making good on previous plans to move away for a new job. Considering that G-Money's arrival nearly two years ago coincided, perhaps not coincidentally, with a substantial improvement in my morale at work, this was a cause for concern.
I enjoyed traveling with my co-workers, and we hit several fun spots, including The Library, Iron Works BBQ, The Iron Cactus, the UT-Austin campus, and a few other spots. Nonetheless, the fact that most of these folks were more acquaintance than "friend", reminded me how few good friends I have remaining at the workplace.
This was reinforced during the trip and afterward with news of other departing associates. During the trip, G'mo, a friend of mine from another work department, announced that he was leaving the company to move to NYC for a job, ironically, with G-Money's new employer. After the trip, I learned that "Buzz", another co-worker from a different department was leaving the company to pursue other opportunities (including much higher pay) in Delaware. "Buzz", by chatting me up in the new hire session on our mutual first-day-on-the-job, was effectively my first friend at my current workplace. So the ranks dwindle further.
The Texas seminar was itself a shot of reality in many ways. At the most basic and obvious level, I was reminded by the depth and breadth of the material that I had (and still have) quite a bit of studying yet to do to have a viable chance of passing the exam. On another level, I was reminded of how little I enjoy hanging out w/ professional actuaries. Of course, my co-workers were great, and I managed to meet some interesting folks at the seminar as well, but too many of the other seminar attendees came across as pompous and conceited future middle-managers, much much too proud of themselves for having stayed up all night reading the text book the night before. These personality traits for whatever reason seem most commonly manifest themselves in yuppies from Chicago and other midwestern cities. As an undergrad (so long ago that it seems like another life) in the Chicago-area, half my motivation to excel in academics was to outdo these blowhards. So many years later it hardly seems worth the effort.
In general, I view the actuarial exams as learning opportunities. The process of developing an understanding of the material is itself edifying. Taking the exams is part of my job, and is a part of my job requiring sacrifices, but providing benefits as well. Exams are such a small part of my life and who I am, though, that they are practically irrelevant. So, people who define themselves by their exams, or value the exams so much as to measure their personal worth by how well and how often they pass them, strike me as so detached from reality that it's absurd. And I find swimming in a milieu of such thought, as in texas, to be oppressive.
In the end, the combination of so many friends going away along with so many reminders of many of the less-pleasant aspects of my job, have been enough to make a guy question whether he's in the right place. Time will tell. |
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| More Flickery |
[Feb. 15th, 2007|10:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home, finally | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | the TV's on mute | ] |
OK, I've been away for a while... I'd like to say I'm back to this in a strong way, but you never know. Anyway, I just have to say: go see "Black Snake Moan". That's a helluva fine movie. It might be 'cuz I grew up in the South (the movie's tagline is "Everything's hotter down South"), 'cuz SLJ (Samuel L. Jackson to the uninitiated) is my favorite actor, 'cuz I've been a fan of Christina Ricci since she was a little kid in the Addam's Family movies. Or maybe the movie is just that damn good. Decide for yourself; it gets an "A - Outstanding" from me.
The film opens February 23rd; be there! And if you need anyone to go with, give me a buzz, 'cuz I'd definitely see it again.
I don't think a film has so strongly resonated with me since... well, since "The Pursuit of Happyness" six weeks ago. But, trust me, before that it was a while! :-)
Anyways, since then I caught another notable flick. Earlier this evening I attended the DC Film Society screening of "Amazing Grace". It sounds like a cliched title, but the film actually involves the story of the very man who wrote that song. That's not the primary plot though, it just helps to set the theme of what was a very inspirational telling of the much-forgotten story of William Wilberforce, the English nobleman who coaxed, cajoled and prodded the British parliament into outlawing the slave trade, many decades before the US fought a civil war largely over the same issue. This movie, set in the UK around the turn of the 19th century, isn't a great film necessarily, but if you don't walk out of there feeling motivated to pursue and fight for the principles that you believe in, then you actually may not have a pulse.
Give this one a try too.
More later,
-C |
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| Cinematic |
[Jan. 10th, 2007|10:56 pm] |
Yeah. Just got back from an advanced screening of "Pan's Labyrinth" at the AMC Georgetown 14. Nice overall experience; G'town may just have the swankiest theater in the entire Washington, DC metro area. I just don't go that often 'cuz G'town's such a pain in the ass to get to/from. This screening, for a change, was not sponsored by the DC Film Society, but instead was a special show for members of AMC's MovieWatcher Club (a sort of "Frequent Flyer" group). As with any mass ticket giveaway like this one, one must make sure to show up early to have a decent chance at getting a seat. Unfortunately, I had to work a bit late, and take the bus to G'town so as to avoid the parking mess, so I ended up arriving after the cut-off time. Fortunately, El Presidente was present to work her magic, and admission was granted and seats were found.
Pan's Labyrinth was a very entertaining, thoughful, and, really, weird movie. I have to say that I can't recall the last time I saw such high production values and smooth and impressive and creative special effects in a foreign film. The story is really creative, and the telling is quite engaging, but I wonder if this movie will find a domestic audience. It's a violent, political movie, so it's clearly for adults, but then again it's a fantasy about a fairy tale, so it must be for kids, so... yeah, that's confusing. On paper, it sounds like a children's fantasy tale, but it's set in 1944 Spain, against the backdrop of the period immediately after the Spanish Civil War in which Generalisimo Franco's victorious nationalists are carrying out a brutal campaign to stamp out whatever remnants are left of the leftist rebels. The visceral and, at times, gruesome violence depicted in some scenes over the course of this film are in some ways hard to reconcile with the idea of fairies and fauns. Director Guillermo del Toro makes it work, though, and partly by making the fantasy scenes as dark and creepy as the domestic repression and conflict in the real world.
I could go on about this one, but in the interests of space, I'll just give it a grade: "A" (Outstanding). This movie really worked for me. Check out Ebert's excellent review here.
In general, I'm way behind on my "movie blog". I need to post reviews or comments about a number of films that I saw in the theater ("Rocky Balboa", "Children of Men", "The Good German", "Black Christmas", and, last but certainly not least, "Dreamgirls") and on DVD ("Spanglish", "My Bodyguard", "The Family Stone", and finally, at long, long last "Citizen Kane"). Perhaps in a few days.
For now, Peace! |
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| Art Imitates Life |
[Dec. 24th, 2006|11:03 pm] |
Damn, yo. I just saw "The Pursuit of Happyness" tonight (at the Regal Sandhill 16), and that shit hits close to home. Too many of those scenes were too familiar for me. Check it out if you haven't already. |
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| Trading Places |
[Dec. 24th, 2006|04:47 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Sow Cacky-Lacky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Hellogoodbye "Here (In Your Arms)" | ] |
I just got back from cruising the town in a Mercedes-Benz. You know what that means, right? I'm back home in South Carolina. Home with the parents and siblings. Returned to the land of my youth. Ah yes. Returning home is always a challenging experience for me. The environment is not the most hospitable... physically, it's great; emotionally and spiritually, though, well... yeah, it's challenging.
Anyway, my parents and siblings occupy a universe of luxury that is generally beyond my normal range of conception. My sister generously loaned me the Benz to drive while I'm in town; instead she'll drive my father's Lexus. He'll be OK, though, he's got a couple of other cars. In my normal life, I drive a 10+ yr old toyota corolla that was bought used about 8+ yrs ago. So, as you can imagine, this is a bit of a change for me.
Since I only make it home about once a year, I notice all the things that've changed. My younger brother has moved out (he bought a house earlier in the year), my parents have become wine connoisseurs (new collection and the electronic chiller), there's a new refrigerator (it reminds me of the kind you see in MTV cribs), and many many other eye-opening items. Now don't get me wrong; I don't begrudge my parents any of this. My father was grew up on a farm in a small poor town of about 1,000 in rural South Carolina, while my mother was reared in the inner-city of a large, urban midwestern city. They came not from wealth, and are just now getting a chance to enjoy some of the finer things. It's just a sharp contrast from my mostly frugal, penny-pinching DC ways.
And that's not the only thing to get used to. I've already been mocked a bit for wearing a coat. "Take that off before people start thinking you're from out of town", I think, was the comment.
Yeah, so it'll be interesting to see how the next few days go... nice weather, nice cars,... nice holiday? We shall see. More to come! |
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[Dec. 10th, 2006|11:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | unwinding | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Gwen Stefani "Wind It Up" | ] |
I've been hella busy with work lately, so I haven't had time for much in the way of updates. What have I been up to when not at work? Not too much, here's the rundown:
On November 30th, I joined a few co-workers in dining out at the infamous Pampanguena Cafe (pronounced pam-pan-gay-nyah). It has often been commented in my social circle that while many East Asian cultures are well represented in the local area by their cuisines (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Burmese, etc.), we didn't know of any Phillipines restaurants. So, G-Money, who has the inside info on these things, found such a place that she likes and invited a few of us to check it out with her. El Presidente, Hutch, AC and his wife, Mateo and Blue Thunder all attended. And how was the food? Well, in the interests of protecting the delicate sensibilities of some readers of this weblog, the less said about the food, the better.
Speaking of G-Money, I finally penetrated the veil of secrecy surrounding her personal abode. The occasion was the season finale of "America's Next Top Model", Cycle Seven, and El Presidente and I were in attendance. The show was great; our preferred candidate won the grand prize and a good time was had by all. How was the place? Pretty swank, actually. And the timing of the visit was critical, as it would be our last chance to enjoy the swank furniture before Brillat Savarin swoops in to whisk it all back to his stately southern manse. Good times.
In films, I've seen a few of late. On Tuesday, I was able to score a guest ticket to an advance screening of "Blood Diamond", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, at the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre in Silver Spring. The screening included a live taping of an interview of the producer (Marshall Herskovitz) and the director (Ed Zwick) by Fox News journalist Juan Williams. As for the film, it was pretty intense. My friend and bloggerbuddy JAmy has a pretty good review of it here.
Here are my ratings of films currently in theaters:
- "Blood Diamond": Not exactly pleasant viewing, but a damn good film that's definitely worth seeing. "B+" (Memorable).
- "Babel": Clever premise, intelligent story, recommended! "B+" (Memorable).
- "Stranger Than Fiction": A very original, creative film. "B+" (Memorable).
- "Casino Royale": The Bond franchise is reborn in a more physical, more realistic, less effete and elitist fashion. More popular, more like Jason Bourne! Richard Roeper's review in the Chicago Sun-Times (here) charts it out. My grade: "B" (Good).
OK, that's enough for now. More later, though. PEACE. |
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| Photos from the Road |
[Dec. 10th, 2006|10:53 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Young Dro featuring T.I.'s "Shoulder Lean" | ] |
A while ago I mentioned that I intended to post some images from my trip to Louisville KY and my subtrip from there into Southern Indiana. Finally that promise is made manifest:
Image #1: Southern Indiana's knock-off version of Wal-Mart:
Image #2: Southern Indiana's knock-off version of Chuck E. Cheese:
How hard up do you have to be to have a knock-off version of Wal-Mart and Chuck E. Cheese's???
Now, you've surely heard about Alaska's "Bridge To Nowhere" as a prototypical example of pork barrel politics. Well, here's Indiana's version of the Bridge to Nowhere...
The bridge literally went nowhere!
Nonetheless, I had a good time in Southern Indiana. It's a fun place full of surprises. When we climbed over the earthen levy to view what lay beyond, this is what we saw:
Yeah, if you lived here (wedged between the levy and the Colgate plant), you'd be home right now! |
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| Ascending... |
[Dec. 2nd, 2006|11:17 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sore | ] |
I survived the Maryland Heights.
Today was the annual hike of the census bureau employee's outdoors group in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. El Presidente invited me and several others to join her and her coworkers on the climb. We all met up at a bagel shop in Cleveland Park this morning where SDC picked us all up in her SUV for the ride out west. The path to Harper's Ferry goes up to Frederick, MD and then off on a side road that dips from MD through VA and into WV all in the space of about a mile. As we rolled into the tiny hilltown at the confluence of the Potomac River and the C&O canal we were greeted with the sight of dozens of people meandering about in 19th-century period costumes. Harper's Ferry was the site of multiple battle engagements between the Union and the Confederates during the Civil War, and this weekend the locals dressed up for re-enactment. It reminded me of Williamsburg, VA.
I'd done this hike before, about 3 yrs ago, and remembered it as being grueling. And I was in much better shape then. These days I'm totally out of shape. The whole of my preparations for the event this year consisted of 20min on the stationary bike on Wednesday, and remembering to take the stairs at work. Yeah, so, as you can guess, I was woefully unprepared for the hike. Add that to the fact that I'm still battling a bronchitis/laryngitis-esque respiratory infection that leaves me totally congested most of the time, and you can imagine how mightily I struggled.
The hike started at 10:30 and covered a 5.3-mile path, as described in the diagram here. The route began with a march alongside the rail tracks on the bridge over the Potomac, alongside the canal for a few paces, and then right up the trail. And I do mean "up". The website linked here describes the elevation of the hike as 1,299ft. It seemed like more.
I definitely had to stop several several times along the path to catch my wind (and clear my sinuses), but my group was very understanding of it and many of them needed to catch their breath as well. It worked out well as these momentary pauses allowed us all to take in our surroundings. Northeastern West Virginia/Western Maryland is one of the most beautiful areas on the east coast, and in our gorgeous setting covered with fall leaves in the forest upon a hill overlooking the rustic pastoral lowlands of three states, the view was quite a treat.
There is one particular stretch of the trail where the path takes a very steep vertical incline and practically goes straight up. SDC and El Presidente helped me find a sturdy branch for use as a walking stick, and we forced ourselves up to the next landing. We found a historical plaque there describing how President Abraham Lincoln came to Maryland Heights during the Civil War to address the troops, and after getting to that point, decided he wasn't going any further up that insane incline, addressed the troops at that level, and headed back to Washington. Lincoln turned back, but we pressed on. It took quite a while, but we ultimately reached the ruins of the Civil War fortress at the top and finally took a break. I thought about the tremendous effort it took for me to get myself up to the summit, then pondered a bit what it must've been like for the company of Union soldiers that literally had to drag a 2.5-ton cannon up that very same path. Madness!
The hike down was significantly more treacherous than the trip up. It featured lots of narrow narrow footpaths along sheer rocky mountain faces with little room for error in avoiding a hundred foot drop. It was harrowing, but eventually we made it down. And by the time we made it back to town, I was exhausted. We slumped into seats at a local old-timey period-style eatery, chowed like ravenous beasts, told each other a few random stories, grabbed some souvenirs, and then hit the road back. After that ordeal, I slept most of the way.
At some point, there may be pictures... |
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| Manayunk or Bust |
[Nov. 16th, 2006|12:11 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | exhausted | ] |
| [ | music |
| | HelloGoodbye's "Here In Your Arms" | ] |
OK, just got back from a DC Film Society screening of "Deja Vu" at Silver Spring's Consolidated Theatres' Majestic 20. It's only the second time in recent memory that the film society has had a screening in my fair burg of Silly Spring (the first was "Little Children" at the AFI Silver Theatre), so I felt obligated to attend. And I was not let down! 'Twas a good show. The film stars Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer in a twisty thriller that plays tricks with time. I like all (well, almost all) the time-warping flicks, so there was no doubt that this one would keep my attention. Denzel turns in another strong performance in this one, a solid follow-up to his work in "Inside Man" (2006) and "Out of Time" (2003). The direction is the real winner in this one, though. Everything looks great and the pacing keeps the audience firmly locked in from the movie's kickoff to its very final scenes. And there's one particular car chase scene which is utterly ridiculous, and completely beyond anything you've seen before in movies. I'll let you find out how, when you get to the theatres.
The advertising for this flick is quite deceptive, though. The story actually has absolutely nothing to do with the concept of deja vu, but the ads make it seem like the central point of the plot. Ultimately, it gets a rating of "B" (Good).
Other films I've seen of late:
- "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". I caught this one at AMC Wisconsin Avenue 6 a day before it was released via another DC Film Society screening. It was a packed house full of film societiers and college students and everyone roared with laughter. This was quite possibly the funniest movie I've seen in the last several years. Check out these reviews from The Boston Globe and the LSU student newspaper. I wanted to give this one a grade of "very niiice", but instead I'll settle for:
"A+" (Oscar-Worthy). Yeah, that's right. If there was an Oscar for Best Comedy, this would be the top candidate.
- "Saw III". Just about the goriest film I've seen in a while. I caught this one in the afternoon after I sat for my actuarial exam; it just seemed like the right thing to do. Anyway, everyone knows the story with this series of flicks, but I will say that this one is the best of the bunch. This one actually has some semblance of a plot! Also, check out the rather stunning Iranian actress Bahar Soomekh; she makes the film by herself. "C+" (Flawed But Worthy)
- DVD: "The Lake House". This film was utterly ridiculous, but also quite earnest. "C" (Mediocre)
- DVD: "What Dreams May Come". A unique film about which I could say very, very much were I not so tired right now. "B+" (Memorable).
Alright, I was also going to use this post to go into my recent activities: which have included a friend's birthday, my birthday, studying for my exam, my exam, a very memorable dinner party, as well as my thoughts on the recent elections... but I've been sick for two weeks now and I'm exhausted right now, so... there's always next time!
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energetic