(M) Arven (The Inheritance). (Per Fly, 2003) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen) has the perfect life - a great job running a restaurant and a loving wife Maria (Lisa Werlinder) until one day his father kills himself and everything changes. He inherits the family steel business and now must alter his life completely. The film spans over several years and it was extremely engrossing to watch the rise and demise of a man and his family and the changes running a business and money can do. Apparently this is the second of a trilogy of films about Denmark’s social classes but Netflix sucks and I cannot rent the other two. I might have to go to some uppity video store to get it.

(M/TV) Scener Ur Ett Aktenskap (Scenes from a Marriage). (Ingmar Bergman, 1973) Grade: A

Thoughts: This film/tv series was shown in Sweden over 34 years ago and yet it is still very profound and effective. Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) have been married for 10 years and have two daughters. They seem to have the perfect life until Johan breaks the news to Marianne he has began seeing another woman and is leaving Marianne for her. Over the next few years, Marianne learns to become more independent and confident in herself while Johan realizes how much he took for granted what he had. It was a well-made look at married life and how marriage is something that needs to be worked on all the time.

(M) RV. (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2006) Grade: D-

Thoughts: Sitting on the bus heading to NYC they put in RV for our viewing displeasure. I could have slept through it but apparently on a bus sound is played everywhere so unless you don’t want to hear it you better put on your earphones and blast that iPod. I decided to be a trooper and watch it. It was bad but I had fun recognizing all the random people in the film. There was JoJo that young singer girl, Jeff Daniels from Dumb and Dumber and many other movies fame, Kristen Chenoweth from Wicked fame, and Will Arnett and Tony Hale from Arrested Development.

Movies Count: 65

R.I.P. Ingmar Bergman

I just came back from spending 4 days on the Island of Maui. It was my first time visiting Maui. I stayed at the Sheraton Resort and Spa Hotel. The front desk was great cause they gave us a room that overlooked the ocean....so when you are laying on a bed, you can still see the ocean. It was awesome. On Maui, there's only one street that's super busy with tourists....Front Street. It's always packed with people...people in rash guards, even though they are not surfing. I don't get why people wear rash guards like normal t-shirts. It behoofs me. Anyway, the nightlife in Maui is definitely a C- at best. Everything closes by 11PM. It's nothing like Oahu, where the bars are open until 4AM. However, Maui is such a relaxing island that you feel well rested after visiting.

Topic: Washington D.C. / NYC

*I'm just going to write random thoughts about my fun trip to Washington D.C. and NYC :)

Day 1: early at airport, little kid complaining on the plane (I want games!! .. I want soda!!), sitting on plane waiting to take off in Dallas for an hour (not fun), finally getting to D.C., eating Five Guys (great stuff), walking to Adam Morgan area, lots of bars, two fruit beers (yummy!) at the Reef.


Day 2: went to the Mall area, Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle, tried to get Cure tickets but failed, back to the Mall to walk around more, saw a protest in front of Capital for Falun Gong, Congressional tour by our Congressman Adam Schiff's staff, laughing at our national debt (yea cause we can pay that off), starting to realize Andrew Jackson is hot, went to Georgetown (like Old Town Pasadena but with a river), it started raining, went to see the monuments at night.





Day 3: Arlington National Cemetery, JFK's grave, Robert E. Lee's house, many graves, changing of the guards, went to Chinatown for Five Guys, National Portrait Gallery (one of the highlights of my trip), Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot, went to a National game (it was actually a decent turn out), watched the racing of the presidents - apparently they don't let Teddy Roosevelt ever win, went to Chinatown for some drinking at RFD Washington that has over 300 beers, I had four beers and a good buzz :)



Day 4: got up early to try to catch cheap bus to NYC but no luck so went with Greyhound, arrived in NYC 4 hours later, very nice Sherton hotel right in the middle of Manhattan, walked around Central Park (very nice), counted how many people were reading the new Harry Potter book, went to Times Square (eh), went to Toys R' Us, went to Serendipity 3 and sat at the movie table, met up with my cousin and friends to drink in East Village, took a cab back (interesting), got to see how NYC parties at night.

Day 5: street fair on 7th Ave so got some food and had a nice picnic in Central Park, had a deep fried Oreo (yum), went to WTC to look at hole/construction (very sad), went to Chinatown and wandered around, closest thing to HK for me, lots of pirated stuff like Transformers dvd, got some boba or as they call it bubble tea, caught bus back to D.C., 4 hours later in D.C., went to get some food and saw drunk girl and guy on a date(?) which was scary.


Day 6: went to National Zoo to see the pandas and other animals, went to Mt. Vernon - George Washington's Estate, GW sure knew how to live the good life :), very nice home and estate, met with a friend and my cousin for dinner, celebrated my cousin's birthday by eating at a Chili's that had just opened, had some Krispy Kreme doughnuts.




Day 7: Washington Monutment, Vietnam Veterns, Korean War Veterans and World War II memorials, grabbed a quick bite to eat, walked around the Postal Museum to kill (hee hee) some time before heading back to wait for our shuttle to take us to Baltimore airport, hit rush hour traffic, Darth and I VERY worried we would miss our flight, but we made it by a hair, flew home and was glad to be sleeping in my own bed.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed Washington D.C. quite a bit. I love how all the museums are free and how educational everything is. The Metro is great and the city does feel diverse. The downsides are the weather there is GROSS and I'm sure if I lived there I would get tired of how many tourist and transplants move in and out of the area.

I've gone to a number of websites like digitalcity or citysearch or what have you to read restaurant reviews. I've always wanted to give my two cents but never have. Well, along comes Yelp.com and for some reason, I'm in. So now I want to start writing reviews for everything or everywhere I go. It shouldn't take long for me to run out of places to write about though since I only go to a limited number of places.

Starter for 10 (James McAvoy, 2006) Grade: B New Wave should enjoy this film because it has so many Cure songs playing throughout. By the mid-way point, four had already been played (the soundtrack has five Cure songs). Toward the end, The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” was in the background of the main character’s turning point moment. Beautiful. The actual film itself was alright. Rebecca Hall, the dark-haired love interest, is cute. I didn’t like the blonde too much. It played like a British John Hughes movie, so it was predictable and had that silly British sense of humor. But I just loved the soundtrack.

(G) Sonic Youth [Greek Theatre]
Sonic Youth did a "special" performance of their album Daydream Nation. I believe this was their first major label album. They played every song off the album, even the answering machine message song. I enjoyed the opportunity to hear such a classic Sonic Youth album from start to finish live. The sound was too low in my opinion, I am sure that is due to the close proximity of rich people who live near the Greek, but it was okay. After they finished their set we were treated to a 30-minute encore of songs off their last album that came out, followed by a single song second encore. It was fun all around and my seats were in the fourth row, though off to the side, but I didn't mind. During the opening act Kim and Thurston were out in the audience watching the performance which was really cool. Thurston had a glass of wine in hand.

I have also been keeping up my insane movie watching schedule, though due to picking up extra hours at work it has restricted the amount I get to watch. This weekend I watched the following films: Code Unknown, Mosquito Coast, Cleo from 5 to 7, 400 Blows, New Love In Tokyo, and Fallen Idol. All the films were enjoyable but nothing was stand-out great.

(M) Pay It Forward
Grade: Horrible

This movie really could have been something. It started out with a scene in a classroom that made me think this could be worth watching, sadly it was not. The movie which has the idea of social change (a topic I enjoy) instead focused on the personal relationships between a child, his mother, and a teacher. The characters were not interesting, Haley-Joel-Osmand or whatever his name is was not that great of an actor. Helen Hunt as a white trash mom who was a stripper and a casino-drink-server was unbelievable. Bon freakin' Jovi as the alcoholic boyfriend... Jim (Jesus) Caveso (or whatever his name is) as some homeless guy was the only role that seemed okay. I really did not enjoy this movie, but I didn't hate it, therefore I watched it to its completion. Oh, and the ending was ridiculous.


(M) On Golden Pond
Grade: B

This was a really enjoyable movie. I LOVE old people! The old man (played by Henry Fonda) reminded me of my Grandpa a lot. It was great. It deals with a couple who are aging and having to accept that their lives will soon be over. Jane Fonda plays a daughter who feels her dad never really cared for her and works to re-establish that relationship. It's a feel good movie, a small cast and enjoyable.

(TV) SYTYCD - Top 12 (Fox, 2007)

This week was important because the top 10 dancers get to tour with the show this fall. My sentiments are pretty much the same as last week in that everyone is good, so I don't know if that is causing me to be bored. No one really shined this week for me.

I will say that some of the choreography was STRANGE. I don't know if that's because Wade Robson was a guest judge and the choreographers wanted to appeal to his twisted dance mind, but a couple of the pieces went over my head. I really wish I had video...I'll post them later I guess. I'm just blogging now cuz I might forget since I'm on call on Saturday. One was a weird jazz number to Queen's "Body Language" and another was a contemporary piece to Citizen Cope's "Kick the Drummer."

There were two guest performers on elimination night: Enrique Iglesias and Jason Samuel Smith(tap dancer.) Enrique Iglesias was odd in that there was no dancing in his performance at all. Usually there's some sort of tie in to dance, but he sang a slow song with his band--no dancing. Jason Samuel Smith was awesome.

The two dancer eliminated tonight were: Anya, latin ballroom dancer who was ousted because this is a solo competition and she wasn't a strong enough soloist since she is used to dancing with a partner, and Hok, a unique Japanese breaker with a British accent, who wasn't as versatile as his b-boy/b-girl counterparts(Sara and Dominic.)

I don't have a vidoe of any of this weeks performances but I do have Hilary Duff's gawd-awful performance from last week:

I could write about this movie, but instead I am gonna write about what I was thinking about as I watched this movie. I have noticed that a LOT of the movies I have seen deal with unhappy couples and unhappy marriages. People say if you want to understand a time in history, look to the art that was created. In a society where divorce is more than 50% and films and novels are pumping out material that centers around affairs and unhappy marriages, I wonder, are we holding on to something that does not work any longer?

Yes, the idea of that "soul mate" and perfect love, and fairy tale rapture has delighted hearts for years and years. But when marriage was created around economics and survival, things that most people no longer need from a marriage, what happens when the passion dies? In most tales, it is the loss of that rapture you had for somebody in the beginning of a relationship that fuels an affair. With people living so much longer, and less men going off and dying in wars and less people dying of disease, marriages last a REALLY long time (or are "supposed" to). Is marriage a dying institution? I know a number of people who do not want to get married, they will choose to live with somebody for the rest of their life but don't want marriage. Commitment comes from inside, not from a contract is what I hear.

In Little Children there is a scene where a group of women are at a book club discussing Madame Bovary. The breaking of societal roles is addressed in the discussion. I just find it interesting that there is such a wealth of material dealing with marriages, and it is really not a new topic. This movie just made me think about it some more I guess.

Subject: Making the Band 4, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I heart Dan Sky. Hehe, this is one of those 13 year old girl posts. I've been watching making the band 4 and am officially addicted. I dunno if it's all the guys and watching them interact and sing or if it's watching people compete for the top spot, but I enjoy watching it every time. :D Plus, I heart Dan. He's not the hottest guy, but he's definitely very cute, can sing and seems cool. Ok I'm done. lol.

My friend sent me a "copy" of this on a pdf file. I freaked out at first, but then I researched and found out it was a fake. Then I read some of the beginning, scrolled down and the writing was just not JK Rowling's style. What makes me even more upset is that someone sat there and WROTE 659 pages out, to release this to people. I'm not expecting to read this book until my one weekend off...so we'll see. Stupid people.

(M) 71 Fragments / (M) Benny's Video
Grades: B

Michael Haneke (director of Cache, Funny Games, and The Piano Teacher) brings you more horror of human nature. King Video (the distributor of Haneke's DVD's) includes twenty minute interviews with the director about the film you have just watched and these interviews really make his movies come alive.

In 71 Fragments you watch what I assume to be 71 different scenes about a couple of characters. Most shots are static shots, no camera movement. Within the screen you watch the detachment of humans amongst each other. The conclusion of the film ends with a random act of senseless violence. Within the film scenes from news broadcasts are cut in, mainly dealing with the senseless wars and nature of man. Haneke says his films are to point a finger at the evils of human nature to inspire change. He does a pretty good job at this.

In Benny's Video you have a child who lives his life in solitude watching movies and videotaping what goes on outside his window, in his room, and wherever he goes. He lives his reality through video which creates a detachment from reality, as it is something viewed and not something lived. While on vacation he videotapes the slaughtering of a pig. Intrigued by this he ends up killing a girl out of curiosity. He has to hide the body but later confesses to his parents what he has done. The parents are then faced with a moral question of whether to protect their child they love or turn him in. They choose to protect their son. What the son does at the end is infuriating to me, but I am sure his actions again were "just to see what would happen".


(M) Shall We Dance?
Grade: A

I think most people on here have seen this movie. So, I'll just say that this movie was great. I laughed soooooo much during it. The characters were awesome. I loved using dance to explore emotions. One of my favorite moments was when the main character was telling the beautiful dance instructor that he was married at 28, had a kid by 30, and bought the house he wanted at 40. He did what you would expect to be the "fulfilling" things in life and yet was left empty. Truly a gem of a film.

(M) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (Alfonso Cuaron, 2004) Grade: B

Thoughts: Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is on his third year at Hogwarts and has to deal with a new Defense against the Dark-Arts teacher, Professor Lupin (David Thewlis) and the escape of convicted murderer Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). I thought I would enjoy this because of the director Cuaron, who did Children of Men, but I didn’t. I was distracted by the editing and the story was a bit dull. Oh and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) is turning into one ugly kid.

(M) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (Mike Newell, 2005) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is on his fourth year at Hogwarts and finds someone has thrown his name into the Goblet of Fire to compete in the Triwizard Tournament against other schools of magic: Beauxbatons and Drumstrang. I enjoyed this fourth installment of HP quite a bit. I liked the different tasks of the tournament and the Yule Ball. I think what I started getting tired of in HP3 was how immature Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Herminone (Emma Watson) still were. In this installment, they are growing up, developing crushes, having teenage angst and trying to figure out who they are. I am looking forward to how HP 5 plays out.

(M) Stranger Than Fiction. (Marc Forster, 2006) Grade: C-

Thoughts: IRS agent Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) leads a very dull and boring life until he starts hearing a voice in his head narrating his life and learns the voice is planning to kill him. Now he has to figure out if he is losing his mind and how to stop from dying. I did not care for almost any of the characters in this movie, especially the main one Harold. Maggie Gyllenhaal as Harold’s love interest was annoying; Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah were pointless. The only character I did was enjoy was Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), the writer/narrator and there was not nearly enough of her in the movie. Oh and random Tony Hale appearances were nice. This movie was like some sad version of Punch Drunk Love, which was brilliant. Even the bright blue suit Harold wears at the end reminded me of the one Barry Egan (Adam Sandler)wore.

(M) Transformers. (Michael Bay, 2007) Grade: B+

Thoughts: I hate Michael Bay movies. With that said, I enjoyed Transformers quite a bit because Michael Bay does know how to make a good action movie. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) gets his first car, a yellow Camero and can’t wait to go and try to impress hot girl Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). What Sam doesn’t know is his Camero is actually an Autobot named Bumblebee. So begins the story of battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. Hands down Optimus Prime is AMAZING and so cool. The best parts of the movie were with the Transformers. The humans were just filler and some parts regarding them dragged but overall it was a fun summertime popcorn flick.

Movie count: 62

(B) Sound Bites: Eating On Tour With Franz Ferdinand (Alex Kapranos, 2006) Grade: B
This book is a must-read for foodies (which I am not) and die-hard Franz fans (also not me). Why did I read this then? I found it at the library. I appreciate a good writer, and Kapranos’ passion for food is apparent (i.e. in describing a bacon/cheese/apple pancake: The streaks of bacon and slivers of apple are contrasting characters, but couple well. His salty directness is offset by her sweet, forgiving nature, making their relationship complex and complementary.). I also enjoyed hearing about the different places he has traveled to while on tour, including Croatia and Brazil, among others. Mildly entertaining but not good to read whilst hungry.

(B) No One Belongs Here More Than You (Miranda July, 2007) Grade: B
Miranda July’s short story collection is quirky, oddly humorous and overall enjoyable. I found the stories especially entertaining when I heard her reading them aloud, but that might be just because she’s a performance artist and is good at that sort of thing.


(B) Women (Bukowski, 1978) Grade: B
I don’t think this will be my favorite Bukowski book, which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it but just that my attention did flag at some points. Here’s a bit I liked: I detested that type of swinging, the Los Angeles, Hollywood, Bel Air, Malibu, Laguna Beach kind of sex. Strangers when you meet, strangers when you part. A gymnasium of bodies namelessly masturbating each other. People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to love. So they became swingers. The dead fucking the dead.

Topic: Best Kwik-E-Mart Ever!!

*So after a long day at work, I left and head over to Pigern's apt so I could check out the Kwik-E-Mart near her. Pigern had gone earlier to secure me a few cans of Buzz cola and she had already been a few time before so this trip was nothing new to her.

I, on the other hand, was pretty excited because I kept reading all these stories and seeing pictures of people's experiences there. Well once we got there there was a fairly small line. I was a bit bummed I had to wait but the line moved fast enough and soon I was inside the store. I got myself some pink donuts (of course), Simpsons movie cups, a Homer cookie and more Buzz cola. They didn't have anymore Krusty O's cereal but that's okay ... I'll go back.

Overall, the trip was fun and silly ... I mean it is still a 7-11 and they still sell regular stuff but it was cool. It was nice to see families and kids going. I'm going to try to hit up the Burbank one and when I go to Washington D.C. next week I'll stop by that one. Oh and side note ... the pink donuts are REALLY, REALLY sweet. Ha ha.

And for Darth's entertainment:
Meanwhile, at the Kwik-E-Mart, Ned is buying groceries from Apu.
Making sure he's not observed, Homer gets a doughnut from the
"Self-Serve" doughnut cabinet and fiddles with it, chuckling. He
nonchalantly goes to check out, but Apu soon realizes that there's
something wrong. It seems that Homer tried to sneak various other
candies on top this doughnut to pass them off as sprinkles.

A Mounds bar is not a sprinkle. A twizzler is not a sprinkle. A Jolly
Rancher is not a sprinkle, sir. Perhaps in Shangri-La they are, but not
in here.

(TV) SYTYCD: Top 14 (Fox, 2007)

Sorry guys, no videos this week. For one, the performances I liked weren't posted on youtube just yet or the quality was really bad. The other being, there weren't any real standout performances. Maybe it's because the top 14 is really good, but since they were all the same caliber, it's hard to pick what was special. Dance partners Cedric and Shauna were sent home this week. I was sad to see Shauna go, but there are other dancers that have just as good technique with bigger personalities.

I'm a little smitten by Sara, who is a b-girl that is very versatile. She can dance pretty much anything and for that she rocks. I don't think, however, that she will win the competition. I haven't quite picked a winner in my head.

This week the guest judge was the director of Hairspray the movie. Needless to say it was an endless plug to see the film, which included the cast of SYTYCD going to the Hollywood premiere, conversely the cast of Hairspray attending the SYTYCD results show and the opening performance being a number from the movie. I actually can't wait to see this movie. I loved the original version with Ricki Lake, and would like to see this new interpretation of the musical.

Hilary Duff was the guest performer. Yeah, I know. She looked either sad or mad while performing. It was kind of odd. I have a few theories on why she was angry:
1. She was pissed at whoever made her wear the bright hot pink genie outfit
2. She was embarrassed because she had to lip sync her song
3. She was pissed at whoever did her makeup
4. She stepped on something sharp that was left on the stage

One cool thing about her performance was they did this weird thing with their hips(almost Shakira-ish) that looked really cool. I'm gonna have to watch it again and try to copy it haha.

Sorry this post was so bland...but I guess it reflects how I felt about the show this week. Also could be that I'm tired. Until next week!

In the last two weeks I have probably watched nine movies. However, two movies have stood out above the entire group of films. Walkabout and The Browning Version are true pieces of great cinema. The Browning Version was made back in the 1950's in Britain and Walkabout was made in Australia in the 70's and is shot amazingly. The Browning Version may take a good 45 minutes to get into but the payoff is great. Walkabout is a film that you will probably think about days after you have finished watching it. I recommend them both and both are Criterion Collection films.

Saw this article in my news section and fondly thought of you guys in the house who love to go to shows and often(mainly everyone in the house except me :D) In this article they list most of the reasons why I don't really like going, besides the fact that I have no money and no time.

10 things that take the fun out of live shows

Stay tuned for my SYTYCD review....per request of New Wave lol.

I am usually behind the times, so you may all know about this. But if you don't want to pay for 411 calls, google has started their own FREE service. 1-800-GOOG-411.

Topic: Working, bowling, Sonic, drinking
*I haven't really been blogging so I just I should talk about what I have been up to. Work is busy now because people have been quitting. It sucks but hey what can you do. I don't paid enough to really care though.


*I went bowling at this place called Shatto 39 Lanes a week ago. The bowling alley has been around FOR AGES. My parents remember going there during college so yea. The alley is old now and everything is dated in a kitschy way. Oh and some girl stole my bowling ball. Okay, okay it was my fault for not putting my equipment away properly after bowling but I didn't think some girl would mistake my ball for an alley ball. Go figure. After a "nice" discussion with her of when I purcahsed my ball and how long ago, I placed my ball back in my bag and went on with my night.


*Have any of you guys had Sonic? Darth has been RAVING about it for awhile so we went and I have to admit the shakes are pretty darn good as well as pretty darn bad for me. But they taste so good. The food is okay but next time I know to order tater tots and not fries. The funny thing with Sonic is there is hardly any around where we live.

*On Friday, I went to some bar called the Prince in K-town. It was interesting because the interior is set up like a British pub yet it is all Asian in there. Well except for the strange Silverlake/Echo Park hipster/indie kids who have to come in and act like they discovered a new bar. Apparently the place is more for older Korean men to drink. They hire young atractive waitresses to flirt with the customers. Odd. Oh and soju can really mess you up the next day.

*On Sat., Darth and I head to Villa Sorriso in Pasadena for a friend's birthday. The place is pretty nice but expensive and they close early (1:30 am). What gives! Oh well. At least we got taco truck in the end. Hmmm tacos.


*I saw Transformers on Sat. and I have to say I Heart Optimus Prime! My review will be up later on.

*So at the end of Sept. I'm heading to Toronto to visit family ... and to see the Cure at Air Canada Centre. Hee hee. I like how I worked the Cure into family but yea. It should be lots of fun :)