Tiresome:




Exciting:

Back in Aug. 2004 I posted the following:

cure news: so i'm not sure if the whole house knows but i'm going to three cure shows - SD, LA and SF. the SD one is with rancid girl and LA is with pigern and the SF i'm doing the solo bit. the best part is how everyone keeps telling me they are going to play the same songs. WRONG. so far the cure has played a different setlist every night. how freaking awesome is that. OH YAY. granted about 70% of the songs will be the same but there is that 30% that will be different. ROCK. LOVE THEM !!!

It is four years later and the Cure is in town again and this time I am going to five shows - Santa Barbara, Hollywood Bowl, Shrine, San Diego and New York City. The funny part is everyone is still telling me the band is going to play the same songs and I am disagreeing AGAIN. I am pretty pumped and in about 2 days I'll be at my first Cure show to start off Cure week :) YAY!!

Steven Patrick Morrissey turns 49 today! There’s an “Unhappy Birthday” event at HOB Sunset with Sweet and Tender Hooligans, but alas, I will not attend. “And if you should die, I may feel slightly sad, but I won’t cry!” I wonder what the Mozzer is doing for his birthday.

(M) Blood Diamond (Edward Zwick, 2006)Grade: B

Thoughts: Danny Archer (Leonard DiCaprio) is a diamond smuggler for a big company similar to DeBeers and Soloman Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a simple fisherman who gets separated from his family during a rebel raid. The two men form an alliance – one to get a priceless pink diamond; the other to see his family again. The subject matter was fascinating but how the film was executed was a bit too stylized and not realistic enough. In addition, the love interest played by Jennifer Connelly felt weak. It made me hate diamonds even more and the way society perpetuates this desire for these rocks.

(M) The Prince & Me. (Martha Coolidge, 2004)Grade: C

Thoughts: Modern day Cinderella story where pre-med student Paige Morgan (Julia Stiles) meets and falls for Eddie (Luke Mably), only to find out he is Prince Edvard of Denmark. This is a pretty silly chick flick BUT I really like Julia Stiles so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and it was entertaining.

(M) Hellboy. (Guillermo del Toro, 2004)Grade: B

Thoughts: A demon name Hellboy (Ron Perlman) grows up to become a defender against evil. With the help of Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) they try to fight the dark forces. An entertaining film, however it spent too much time on Hellboy’s back story in regards to the Nazis.

(M) Seung Sing (Confession of Pain). (Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, Alan Mak Siu Fai, 2006)Grade: C

Thoughts: When I was in Hong Kong in 2006, I wanted to see this movie so bad but I left before it came out. Now I’m thankful I missed it. Hei (Tony Leung Chiu-Wei) is a well respect police detective married to Susan (Xu Jinglei). Her father and close servant are violently murdered and Susan hires private investigator Bong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to find out what happened. It was a mess of a movie where the audience knew early on who the killer was. The only enjoyable part was looking at Tony and Takeshi, both so dreamy.

(M) Ngor Yiu Sing Ming (My Name is Fame). (Lawrence Lau Kwok-Cheung, 2006)Grade: B+

Thoughts: Poon Ka-Fai (Lau Ching-Wan) is a semi washed up bitter actor who has more to say about the industry than he puts into knowing his lines. Enter Faye Ng (Huo Siyan), a bright-eyed, young up and coming actress who takes to Poon quickly. He reluctantly takes her under his wings and grooms her to become a great actress and in the process rekindles his love for acting. One of the more sincere and honest portray of the movie industry.

(M) Hollywood Chinese. (Arthur Dong, 2007)Grade: A-

Thoughts: A highly informative and very entertaining documentary regarding the representation of Chinese Americans in Hollywood, going back to the 1930’s until now. It was filled with archival footage and interviews with directors (Ang Lee, Wayne Wang and Justin Lin), actors (James Hong, Joan Chen, B.D. Wong) and writers (David Henry Hwang and Amy Tan). It made me think about what it is like to be Chinese in America and how we are viewed in Hollywood and overall in society. They are actually doing screenings of this film in the next week or so. I encourage you guys to check it out.

Movie Count: 44

Topic: Hello Kitty, Justin, Fro-Yo

*Since this is Asian Pacific American Hertiage Month I'll talk about random Asian items:

*I found this random video of old school Hello Kitty. I remember watching Hello Kitty and friends tell fairy tales. Good stuff and recently Hello Kitty has been choosen to be an ambassador.


*I really want to go to HK in October to see the Air Justin 08 Live concert. (sigh) I guess I'll have to wait until December and hope Justin comes to Las Vegas.

*Lately I have been hitting up Pingo, a local frozen yogurt place, a lot. Their yogurt is not as tart as PinkBerry and I quite like the rainbow sprinkles as a topping. Not sure why the frozen yogurt craze has taken off but it has easliy now overshadowed the once popular boba.

So as you may have heard, Scarlett Johansson recently released a debut album of Tom Waits covers. Stereogum did a story on it, so out of curiosity, I watched the videos of her AOL Sessions. The most entertaining aspect is all the negative comments below. If I was Scarlett, I would be pretty embarrassed. It’s funny cos in the interview, she talks about how they add a lot louder sound to Waits’ songs, which Entertainment Weekly said in its review is used “to disguise her expressionless voice.” Experience all the goodness, er, badness at AOL Music.

(M) Iron Man. (Jon Favreau, 2008) Grade: B+

Thoughts: Wealthy weapon designer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) builds an amored suit when his life is in danger and eventually uses that knowledge for good instead of evil. Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts did nice jobs and Robert Downey was great in his role. The movie was more a set up and becoming of Iron Man, which was actually quite interesting. After the credits there is a nice peek into what Iron Man 2 will be about.

(M) Forgetting Sarah Marshall. (Nicholas Stoller, 2008) Grade: B-

Thoughts: Apparently bromantics are the new thing (romance comedy for the guys). Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) gets dumped by his hot TV star girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) and is devastated. What better way to forget her than go to Hawaii where he runs into Sarah and her new boyfriend Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). Oh and Mila Kunis is thrown in there as a love interest, who was quite charming. In addition, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and Bill Hader are peppered throughout this Aptow heavy cast. It was okay but could have been shorter.

Movie Count: 38

*Anyone going to watch the "Untitled 90210 spin-off"?

Topic: HIMYM, China

*The earthquake in central China is terrible and sad.


*What happened to How I Met Your Mother?? I use to love the show but this past season has been one disappointment after another. The main character Ted is a douche and the whole use of Britney Spears as guest to bring up ratings was not executed well. On the flip side, Big Bang Theory is a great, funny show so at least I still have that. The fall line-up is suppose to be announced this week. Thank goodness. Bring back my freaking Life show!!


*Vegas was fun. Our bowling league did well and we had a good time. I actually came away from Vegas with some money in my wallet.

*Was talking to an old friend today and found out a bunch of people I knew are engaged. I'm really happy for them ... only bummer part is weddings galore. Fingers crossed I'm not invited to any of them :)

(M) Third. (Portishead, 2008) Grade: B+

Thoughts: I never really got into Portishead back in the 90's but their latest album, after 11 years, is some excellent shite. I dig the beats and sounds and Beth Gibbons' voice is amazing. Some of my favorite tracks are : Slience, Machine Gun, Hunter and We Carry On.

Topic: Kung Fu Panda, The Only One

*At first I thought this movie looked so dumb but now I think I might actually go check it out :)


*The Cure are releasing a single each month leading up to the full length album coming out in Sept. The first one comes out May 13th entitled The Only One with a b-side NY Trip. Originally the song was called the Please Project but they renamed it. The lyrics crack me up.


*Yesterday, I found out my dad's long time good friend passed away. He had some heart issues and fell into a coma, then passed away. He was 67. I am pretty bummed because my dad is sad and because he was such a good family friend. I remember calling him Uncle all the time when I was a kid. Death is depressing.

Topic: The Cure, Vegas, Wicked

*The Cure kick off their US tour this Friday in Fairfax, Virginia. Anyone who lives there (Jim) are lucky people. I have to wait until May 29th to see them at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I'm still trying to find someone to go with me, I have a lot of maybes.

*Going to Vegas this weekend for my bowling league. I'm actually glad my league is coming to a close because as much fun as it was it did cost a lot of money and the drive every Sunday was far especially with gas prices where they are. Due to a whole mess of things Darth and I are flying to Vegas (and paying a lot for it) and driving back. My wallet is crying.

*This past Saturday Hedwig and I went to see Wicked .. again :). This was my second time and her third. I still enjoyed it as much as the first time and with sixth row seats even better. It is a really well done musical and quite enjoyable.


*Obama did really well in the primaries this week and increased his lead over Clinton. I like Clinton but at some point I think you have to know when to quit. Oh well. According to CNN, Obama is ahead of Clinton in total delegates: 1,842 to 1,686.

(M) "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (Stoller, 2008) Grade: B

I'll keep it short and sweet. This film was written by the Jason Segel, of HIMYM fame and also stars as the leading role. It's your typical bromantic comedy with gratuitous sexual euphymisms, graphic sexual references, and outright vulgar sexual comments.

Memorable moments:
-seeing Jason Segel's junk like 3 times within the first 10 minutes of the film.
-the supporting cast was very good: Mila Kunis, charming and very tan. Kristen Bell, supposed to hate her, but she made you feel for her a little bit. Russell Brand who plays Kristen Bell's lover is comical. And I love Paul Rudd period haha.

I recently decided to start my Chinese movie kick again. It has been awhile so yea.

(M) Sheng Si Jie (Stolen Life). (Shaohong Li, 2005) Grade: B-

Thoughts: Yan’ni (Xun Zhou) has been left to be raised by her aunt and grandmother. She makes it into a local university where she meets Muyu (Jun Xu), a local delivery boy. They fall in love and he gets her pregnant, however Muyu is not who he pretends to be. It was a sad disturbing look into what is going on in parts of China. One review of the film stated it was a commentary that intellects should not associate with working class people because they will try to wrong you.

(M) Fu Zi (After This Our Exile). (Patrick Tam, 2006) Grade: B-

Thoughts: Shing (Aaron Kwok) takes the award for worst dad ever when his wife Lin (Charlie Yeung) walks out on him and their son (Goum Ian Iskandar). Done in a very art house movie style with gorgeous shots of Malaysia, we watch the father and son try to pull their lives back together, with little success. Goum Ian Iskandar does an excellent job as the young boy and Aaron Kwok wasn’t too bad either considering he is a pop star.

(M) Luen Oi Chor Gor (Love @ First Note). (Dennis Law, 2006) Grade: C+

Thoughts: I am obsessed with Justin Lo. So much so that I decided to rent the one film he starred in. Kristy (Kary Ng) and Kei (Justin Lo) are best friends. Kristy falls for rich boy Tony (Alex Fong) but will she realize Kei is her true love? The entire premise is much like Pretty in Pink, however with singing. The acting and plot was pretty terrible but I added the plus to the C due to Justin’s singing.

(TV) The Wingless Bird. (David Wheatley, 1997) Grade: B

Thoughts: Based on the novel by Catherine Cookson, Anges Conway (Claire Skinner) is a good daughter and older sister. She meets Charles Farrier (Edward Atterton), a weathly gentleman, who comes into her family candy shop and they fall in love. I enjoyed the mini series for the most part but the ending dragged a bit.

(TV) Rag Nymph. (David Wheatley, 1997) Grade: B

Thoughts: Based on the novel by Catherine Cookson, orphan Millie Forester (Honeysuckle Weeks) is taken in by street lady Aggie Winkovski (Val McLane) and her young teenage warden boy Ben (Alec Newman). Another entertaining mini series and I really liked seeing Alec Newman because he was Paul Atreides from the Dune.

(TV) The Fifteen Streets. (David Wheatley, 1989) Grade: C+

Thoughts: Based on the novel by Catherine Cookson, John O’Brien (Owen Teale) lives near poverty in the Fifteen Streets area. He falls in love with well-to-do Mary Llewellyn (Clare Holman), a local school teacher, however their love is doomed due to social classes. This series was not as well done as the other two and a bit dull at times.

(TV) Emma. (Diarmuid Lawrence, 1996) Grade: B+

Thoughts: Emma Woodhouse (Kate Beckinsale) is in the business of playing matchmaker, especially for young Harriet Smith (Samantha Morton). Unfortunately, she doesn’t realize her own true love is waiting for her in Mr. Knightley (Mark Strong). This was a great adaptation and it was interesting to see a young Beckinsale and Morton.

Movie Count: 36