Lucius

Sex and the City, season 1, eps. 1-3

2008-04-09T03:53:17Z

Wow. When this show first came out, I had seen bits of it since my sister watched it, but I really didn't get it. Now, I'm in my 30s and still single, it's so much more funny.

The dinner parties and days spent at the beach house with married friends. The nights out in New York with single friends. Being considered a "nice guy, maybe too nice." Being fixed up by your friends, and it never working out. The intricacies of real estate in Manhattan. Ten years ago I hadn't yet gone through these experiences, and not even 4 years ago, when I was still living in a safe suburban lifestyle.

But there's a lot that I haven't experienced, like going to a fashion runway show, or to a party surrounded by models.

I've only watched the first three episodes, but from what I've seen so far, it's really good. It's funny, poignant, and relevant to my dating life, though in some ways, like the technology and the neighborhoods, it's dated. From what my New York friends tell me, the neighborhoods have changed in 10 years and most of those people have moved to Brooklyn.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

2008-01-28T06:36:54Z

Choices. This movie is ultimately about choices, the ones we make all the time even though it seems like we're not making them, and just following orders or expectations. This movie is also about the fashion industry from the perspective of a magazine, but if you really want to see how the industry works, Project Runway is a lot more informative. At first, it may seem that the dilemma is between being fashionable and having integrity, but the real dichotomy in this film is between the career and your friends and family, and what has the highest priority and what gets the most time. Fashion is just one industry, and the plot could very well have been played out in any other high-stress industry.

Is work just a job that pays the rent so you can enjoy life with your friends or family, or is work something fulfilling and an escape from the pressures of home? The people who are passionate about work aren't necessarily workaholics nor do they become burnt-out wrecks, they're people who are able to do good work and have that flow experience which makes them happy, and at the same time also pays the rent.

It can be either way. There are people who choose to stay where they are so they can be with their friends, instead of stepping on other people to advance their careers. But by taking chances and doing things you have never done before, you can have new experiences which make life much richer and find happiness. It's better to have gone out and tried new things, and to make a fully informed decision than to just stay where you are just because it's easier, and I think when you're voluntarily making such decisions and working things out with the people around you, instead of just letting things go, everyone is much happier in the end.

It's also great that they used New York as an essential part of the story about both publishing and fashion, and all the great locations there. It also sets up a great contrast between the expensive, high fashion in Midtown and the bohemian life of the Lower East Side and the Village.

Palm Beach Story (1942)

2008-01-04T12:22:47Z

If you're a fan of the historic New York Penn Station before it was demolished, you'll be delighted to see some shots of the grand old station as well as one scene set inside of it. It also has some witty dialog and funny quotes, such as this one from Gerry:

You're married to me; that's like saying, you're blind to me. For a long time, I've been a part of you, just something to snuggle up to and keep you warm at night, like a blanket, but you can't see me any more than you can see the back of your neck.

Otherwise, it was a rather uninspiring movie. The plot was contrived and the ending was deus ex machina.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

2007-12-27T05:21:19Z

What is it like to have parents and family culturally different from the culture of the place where you live? What is it like to have ambitious parents who want the best for you but maybe because they want to protect you from the harsh reality of the world and the suffering they had to go through to get where they are now? And how do you assert your own individual choices, find your own voice, and take responsibility for your own life? Sometimes your parents don't know what's best for you, only you can decide that for yourself. But in making your own decisions, you'll make mistakes. You'll overreact to situations when you should keep your cool. But you won't say anything at times when you should speak up. It's not as easy as doing just the opposite of what your parents expect, nor doing the opposite of what your culture expects.

This movie doesn't have an easy answer for this, though it does wrap up nicely at the end. What it does is explore these questions, and show the value of taking chances, and going out and trying for something more than what's expected. And the value of being honest with yourself and with other people. And how ultimately your family and your friends are there because they want what is best for everyone, even if they are misinformed, have misunderstandings, and have only a limited vision of the world from their perspective. Instead of condemning them for their ignorance, sometimes you let it go, and sometimes you confront it.

I've been struggling with my own identity. How my parents came here from China and still have their Chinese cultural expectations, and how it is to be brought up and live in a completely different culture which values different things, different ideals. How it is to want to be "like Beckham" and yet to live every day knowing that you're different. To have people say things that highlight how you're different, and how they don't even realize they're doing it, or worse, for them to intentionally do so to get you angry and riled up.

I think we all bring our own experiences into the interpretation of any movie, and this one is no different. My own life experiences don't get neatly resolved after two hours, nor do I have any extraordinary talents in sports, but I do confront the same situations and ask the same questions of myself.

50 First Dates (2004)

2007-12-15T18:03:32Z

I had recently finished reading "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" and now when I see this movie, I see the writer must have taken one of those case studies as inspiration for this movie, for the basis for Lucy's condition. They take this idea and with a dash of "Groundhog Day" make it into an exploration of what it might be like to meet someone whose forgets everything she did each day when she goes to sleep, and experiences each day anew.

It's set in Hawaii and has great songs and covers of 1980s songs. "Love is a very loaded word." I don't want to spoil the ending, but obviously a movie is a form of fantasy and like most other Hollywood movies, it neatly wraps everything up in a happy ending, even if it's not realistic. Maybe it's because I've been watching a lot of art-house films with unresolved endings (which is more like real life), but it's a big stretch to make the ending believable. Only someone with a strong will, supportive friends and family, and lots of time would be able to do all the things Lucy did, and even then it wouldn't have been easy and would have taken a lot of luck.

Overall it was a good movie, with a great script, great actors, great music, great locations, and great photography.

Persona (1966)

2007-12-07T20:37:32Z

Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece is cinema as art. Sparse, ambiguous, and can be interpreted many ways, this film makes you work to understand it. It easily falls prey to a Western psychoanalysis, which seems to put raw emotion, often negative or afflictive ones, as a sort of "real" part of the persona, and the cold silent empty silence of stoicism as the "fake" part.

Externally, one generally keeps his mouth shut to be polite and avoid controversy, but internally one may harbor thoughts and feelings which want to be expressed. I do not believe that the thoughts and emotions of fear, anger, jealousy, hatred, longing, or attachment are beneficial, and expressing them only reinforces and habituates these feelings, making one more prone to experience them again.

Another way to look at this film is to look at the interplay of the two characters. One talks, and the other is silent throughout the film. At first, it's therapeutic, as if the silence meant that one is listening and understanding everything that the other says. One feels that one can tell her deepest darkest secrets, and get these burdens off her chest, without any attachment or judgement.

Then it becomes annoying, like the silent one is hiding something, silently watching, analyzing, and passing judgement, but without giving the talker the benefit of the results. Because one has told all her secrets, she feels close, and she starts to become attached to the silent one. The attachment becomes a sort of clinging, and then anger at the other because she won't reciprocate by telling her secrets.

At last the anger becomes hatred, and she would do anything, including the threat of physical harm, to get a word out of the silent one. But this doesn't resolve anything. Later scenes with the silent one's husband and in a monologue explaining her past don't offer any resolution. They only further strengthen the silent one's silence, and the talker's descent into neurosis.

Maybe I'm trying to fit this film into a narrative of my own choosing, but I've also read a film review which tries to shoehorn it into a Freudian psychoanalysis, and everybody brings their own experiences to the interpretation.

There's also some deeply disturbing imagery and a graphic description of an orgy, plus the film is self-referential in showing a film reel and film crew and other things that try to be clever, but I just tried to ignore that stuff since it's annoying. "Yes, I know we're watching a film, and it's just a story."

I don't see the need to wrap up this commentary with some profound conclusion, since most of the films I've watched, and life in general, don't have any profound resolution. People move on with their lives, and the film ends when there isn't anything interesting left to tell.

I have been reading up on Buddhism, specifically the Dalai Lama's recent writings, and I have come to question the dominant mode of Western psychoanalysis which posits that many negative emotions such as anger, fear, hatred, jealousy, craving, and attachment are fundamental parts of the human mind. These afflictions, as the Buddhist call them, may exist since birth in most people, but they are not a permanent part of who you are, and through training one can minimize their effects on your life.

Margot at the Wedding (2007)

2007-11-26T03:50:25Z

Everybody brings their own personal experience to the interpretation of any book or movie, and for this film, it's my own experience living in a beach house in Connecticut, both with and without the owners being there, each time for a week. That, and the references to New York and Vermont, and to Williamsburg: "You don't want to live in Williamsburg. Only young people live there." And the references to writing, and the social dynamics of family, friends, past and current lovers, and how emotion makes us do unexpected things. These are all things I've been going through in the past few months, trying to make sense of it all, trying to see where I'm going. This movie isn't going to give you an easy answer and it doesn't neatly bundle all the loose ends, but for me it did resolve a few things I've been worried about in my life, and reminded me of how much I miss hanging out with certain friends of mine.

Dark Victory (1939)

2007-11-24T04:34:27Z

"Vermont? You don’t mean that narrow, pinched-up state on the wrong side of Boston?"

A fascinating blend of science, romance, and the preciousness of life... Though it is based upon a morbid subject matter, that of a terminal case of glioma, it is also a sentimental and moving work. Should one to tell another the horrible truth or let them have their blissful ignorance, even though the truth will be discovered eventually, and with more anger and maybe loss of trust? And how do you confront death, and live your life? Do you pretend it doesn't exist, and live to avoid thinking about it. Or do meet it face-to-face, and have the strength and courage to say that you are not afraid of it?

There are many great quotes in this movie, but I leave you with the one that the title is based on:

"Nothing can hurt us now. What we have can't be destroyed. That's our victory - our victory over the dark. It is a victory because we're not afraid."

Blowup (1966)

2007-11-23T23:44:06Z

Swinging 60s London in all its glory. Actually, it wasn't so great. The movie was a sort of deeply philosophical look at Swinging London and how empty it is behind the glamor of supermodels, drugs, and sex. They do have a great wardrobe of outfits from the 60s and the great mod styles. There's not much music in the movie, and the story had a lot of ambiguity, so you were free to interpret much of what happened in different ways. That's part of what makes it a great movie, but also makes it hard to talk about it.

I rented it because it was recommended by Tim Gunn in his book, and this movie was a good source for 1960s fashions.

Joy Luck Club (1993)

2007-11-17T01:38:36Z

I must have seen this movie about 10 years ago but I don't remember it, and then a few months ago I read the book. And today I saw the movie again. The book was better: more detailed, with more depth to the characters and less of an impression that all the old Chinese women did was dispense old Chinese wisdom in broken English. The original book was a collection of short stories, each one with enough material to fill out a 2-hour feature film, so single movie of the 16 stories is going to be missing a lot of detail, or even entire stories that didn't make the final cut.

What's there is good, though it really only scratched the surface of each character. A movie can convey visual, audio, and emotional content much better than words on a page.

I find myself thinking about my own parents and the parents of other first-generation Chinese, and everything they've had to deal with, and the things we take for granted. Our parents, the ones who gave up everything in China to start anew in a strange country, are not the kind of people to be satisfied with what they have. They needed ambition and discipline to go through the long and expensive trans-Pacific journey (flight, in my parents' case), and then to stay in a land where they could hardly speak the language and faced discrimination in the wake of the conflict in Vietnam.

There are many other issues that the book touches on, and while the movie gives a very emotional treatment on a lot of them, the book is where you really start to ask yourself the important questions. Questions about your own relationship with your parents. I still disagree with many of their values and beliefs, but at least I know to ask about where they came from and how they came to their beliefs before I judge them.

And it makes me want to write a memoir of their lives.

Philadelphia Story (1940)

2007-11-17T01:15:43Z

Another romantic screwball comedy with Katherine Hepburn, coming after Bringing Up Baby (1938), which I thought was pretty funny. This one is a much better, without the extra stuff that detracts from Bringing Up Baby. It's a movie which you can interpret on different levels. One of the best.

Auntie Mame (1958)

2007-11-05T03:25:56Z

What a wonderful story. At first I was thinking why the excess, what good could it do? But slowly thorugh the story I was won over by Mame, her life, her outlook. How petty the haterz are, how small their world and concerns, and how little they accomplish. How sad the lives of the upwardly mobile, the middle classes aspiring to be rich and exclusive snobs. And how strange and unusual our real friends are, and how strange and unusual our relationships. Auntie Mame is the same person at the end as at the beginning, more or less, maybe a bit slowed down in her talking at the end, but it is the audience that has changed. "Life is a banquet, and most people are starving."

This movie makes me want to experience the world, take horse riding lessons, travel to strange new places, and not be afraid to take a chance.

The Fountainhead (1949)

2007-11-04T13:42:46Z

Ayn Rand wrote both the novel and the screenplay for this movie. Classic men's and women's fashion throughout. The words are true to Rand's vision, but the emotional, unspoken bits tell a different story. But the central idea still holds, the idea that one must be true to oneself and not compromise one's integrity in order to appease others.

The Many Ways to Skin a Cat

2007-10-26T04:11:03Z

Models vs Drawings

Watercolors
Charcoal
Computer Rendering
Repetitive Line
Inked Line Drawing

Axonometrics
Plans
Sections
Elevations
Perspectives

In a group
Alone
Everyone drawing the same cat
but with different results

Frames:
1,2,7,9,11,13,17,
28,32,33,36,37,38,39,
41,43,44,47,48,50,
51,53,55,56,58,59,60,
62,63,64,66,70,72,75,
78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85

Darjeeling Limited

2007-10-24T15:04:13Z

I saw "Darjeeling Limited." It reminded me in some ways of the book "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K Jerome. I found the movie hard to follow, though I would see it again when I'm a bit more calm, and it pales in comparison to "Into the Wild." It was good, but not as deep.

I probably should go see it again, when I'm not so overwhelmed with emotion, because I just came back from New York and I saw a lot of old friends and made new ones in the past week. A movie, any movie, pales in comparison to real life, and real, new, raw experiences.

Into the Wild

2007-10-24T14:59:59Z

I saw "Into the Wild." I approached this movie from a Buddhist perspective, one which is aware of the illusion of self. "Alex" only breaks through this illusion in his dying moments, by that time its too late. He keeps cutting away layers of this illusion of self that is perpetuated by society by giving up the comfortable, conformist lifestyle of his parents, burning his money, traveling the roads, and going to Alaska. He has his moments of love and compassion, but also cowardly selfishness, in his search for the "self" which leaves no room for relationships with other people. But when you cut away everything to try to find this "self", you find it's empty.

I rebelled against my parents by majoring in Architecture, though I really wanted to go to art school, and yet I had been dependent on them, living in their house, until about 4 years ago, when I got my own apartment and then bought my own house. I'm still too close to them, and New York was an escape. In the past couple of months I've been reaching out, making myself available to others, after 4 years of living alone.

Like "Alex," I find that when I get some idea or some longing for something, I obsess over it and feel a compulsion to reach out and grab it whatever the cost. When I meet someone I like, I want to be with them all the time, even though I really should have patience and give them some space. And when they don't want to respond to or see me, I swing the other way and start to have negative emotions towards them.

It's a good movie though a bit long for one sitting, at nearly 2 hours 30 minutes. I find I can relate to this experience, but I took a different path from the one that "Alex" took. I'm still thinking about the movie and how it relates to my life, and I find no easy answers, no easy explanations. Every thought I have would need to be backed up with several paragraphs of context in order for me to be understood well enough so that there is no chance of misunderstanding.

Most of the when having conversations, we keep it on a superficial level, and hide away the deep pain and loneliness, because it's hard to explain in a few sentences. I'd really like to be able to talk on a deeper level, and I'm not afraid of death, of dying, since I've come to accept Death as my only true friend, the only one whom I know is always waiting for me, and will never fail.

Babouche Moroccan Restaurant

2007-10-14T22:56:29Z

After the Prospect Heights Historic House Tour, I had dinner at Babouche, a Moroccan restaurant at 2 Lincoln Place, Park Slope. The food and service were excellent. I had Salade Mediteraneen, roast duck, an apple tart, and mint tea. The salad was actually something you scooped up with the pita bread and came with arugula, sliced tomatoes and olives. I had the duck cooked well-done, and it was a perfect blend of a crispy outside with the inside still juicy. It came with a cherry sauce that was perfect: it didn't overpower the duck, and it wasn't too salty or sweet. It also came with mushrooms, cardamon-spiced carrots, string beans, and broccoli. The apple tart was more like a slice of apple pie with ice cream, and not really what I expected with the word 'tart.' The mint tea came with fresh mint leaves and was brewed in a silver teapot. The service was always prompt and the interiors were very nicely done.

New York restaurants

2007-10-11T03:03:14Z

The past two weeks I have been to many great restaurants in New York.

Virage in the East Village (118 2nd Ave) is a favorite.

Kai Kai Cafe, also in the East Village (131 Ave A), has good bubble tea, though it's a tiny place because the main room is being renovated. St Mark's Place has seen several new restaurants open recently, and one of them also serves bubble tea, but I haven't tried it yet.

Zoe in SoHo (90 Prince St) is "an institution," says my friend Jo, and it's great but expensive. They have a good selection of wines, and have special dishes prepared in their wood-fired oven, but the highlight was the dessert I ordered called "The Bomb" which was frozen yogurt covered with white chocolate and a sauce that included diced strawberries.

Another great but expensive place is Blue Ribbon Sushi (276 5th Ave, Brooklyn), which Jo recommended to me.

If you're looking for something less expensive nearby, there's J Pan (287 5th Ave, Brooklyn). Their avocado-cranberry salad is great.

I've also been to several mostly unremarkable places on 7th Ave in Brooklyn, but you can get good burritos at La Taqueria at 72 7th Ave.

And finally, it's not a restaurant, but Union Hall (5th Ave & Union St, Brooklyn), a fine bar with two bocce courts and live music and performances downstairs, is one of my favorite places for just hanging out. And they have bocce league on Monday nights, so if you want to play competitively, here's your chance. They have my favorites Brooklyn Lager and Chelsea Blonde on tap.

Blue and white floral print shirt (H&M)

2007-10-02T20:07:03Z

More Fashion...

Zoë Restaurant SoHo NYC

2007-09-28T20:43:04Z

Yesterday I had dinner at great restaurant in SoHo, Zoe on 90 Prince St. They have a wood-fired grill and oven, and a good selection of food and wines. It's also fairly pricey with small portions, but I like that.

Desperate Housewives, season 1

2007-09-24T17:42:08Z

I'm only halfway into season 1 of Desperate Housewives, and so far it's both funny and intriguing. Maybe it's because I live in a suburban area with detached single-family homes with families, some with stay-at-home moms, others who work, and you get to know that behind the thin veneer of niceness there's something simmering below, just out of sight, which maybe you catch a glimpse of or hear distant shouting.

Certainly, the TV show takes it to a bit of an extreme, but I can relate to the characters on this show. I can't wait to see the rest of the episodes of this first season.

Project Runway, season 1

2007-09-13T03:06:34Z

Project Runway is a reality TV show where the focus is on designers who make clothing, with a secondary focus on the models who walk the runway and show the designs. But it's clearly a show about designers, and not something like Survivor or American Idol.

It's a very compelling show to watch because they show the process of design and the dynamics of the group in the workspaces as they design and fabricate their creations. It reminds me of my own time in architecture studio classes where we would have a challenge and limited time to complete the assignment. Then we would have to defend our work as judges commented and asked questions about the design.

Queer Eye — Carson's Style

2007-09-13T02:50:39Z

This one's good. It's like a highlights reel from the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy TV show. One hour of the best of fashion tips from Carson Kressley. I also have the both the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy book and Carson's Off the Cuff book, but often it's easier to see the various styles than to read about it.

While there are some basics explained in the show, other parts have more advanced style tips. The books make it more clear where to start first and have everything categorized into sections to make it easier to refer to later, while the TV show is a lot more entertaining, but both are effective.

I also got Tim Gunn's book on Quality, Taste and Style, which another useful book. though it's targeted more towards women than men, it also has advice that applies to all people.

Lost, season 1, episode 1

2007-08-28T02:36:41Z

Lost: Season 1, episode 1

I really do like Lost after watching 6 episodes. The first episode though was full of unexplained mysteries that seemed to live in a parallel universe where Hawaii is an uncharted, unoccupied island, and highy improbably things happen all the time.

It starts off with a totally unrealistic scene of a plane crash on the coast of Hawaii. You know, the jet engine mysteriously still powered and able to suck a person into it, which promptly causes it to explode in a huge fireball. Totall unrealistic.

Then it gets into stereotypes. The black single parent with child. The untrustworthy, immoral asian man who's only looking out for his own kind. The docile, obedient asian "China Doll" woman who agrees to everything that her man says and doesn't say a word. Meanwhile, all the people who are helping each other out are white folk.

But it gets better later on. Some things are explained, some are simply questions asked but left unanswered, particularly the probability of anyone surviving the supposed plane crash.

The Simpsons Movie.

2007-08-23T23:34:23Z

While I was in Chicago I saw the Grand Theft Walrus movie, a.k.a. the Spider-pig movie. a.k.a. The Simpsons Movie. And I had a pink-frosted donut with sprinkles. The movie was great, like a good Simpsons episode that was stretched to feature-film length. There was a lot of 3-d camera moves like in Futurama, but the overall look was the Simpsons. The plot was a usual convoluted Simpsons plot. And that's probably its weakness. If you don't like the TV show and expect something different from the movie, you're going to be disappointed. There are no grand truths revealed, no overarching message. It's really just another Simpsons episode that takes advantage of some things you can do in a feature film that you can't on TV. I'd give it four out of five stars.