4. Get Low Dir: Aaron Schneider 3 stars
5. The Transporter Dir: Louis Leterrier, Corey Yuen 3 stars

*The last time I blogged on here was almost a year ago. Since then I've gone through a tragic loss and much sadness. Reading the blog made me realize how time and things I use to care about, basically life in general keeps happening/moving. Sigh.

*Figured I would use this blog to track the movies I watched for part of 2011.
3. Dinner for Schmucks Dir: Jay Roach 1 stars
2. Perfect Wedding (Po Po Chiu Kai Yan) Dir: Chun-Chun Wong 3.5 stars
1. Captain America: The First Avenger Dir: Joe Johnston 3 stars

Back in 2005, I began watching The Decalogue by Krzysztof Kiwslowski. I was only able to get through 3 of the 10 films he made. My goal before 2010 is over is to watch all 10 films.

My movie count for 2010 is well short of what I use to do in the past. Mainly due to a number of factors - lack of movies I have any interest to see, time spent on TV series, time spent on computer games and just plain not motivated. I'm going to try to pick up the movie watching before 2010 comes to a close. I have 4 months come September so let's see how I do.

*The seventh season of Project Runway ended with Seth Aaron Henderson winning it all. I was pleased he won ... not sure if I loved his collection but he did put on a good show. Emilio was a bit of a snob when he found out he lost but you could tell he thought pretty highly of himself and his work.

*Speaking of Lost, the show is slowing coming to an end. Although the direction they are going in is not what I thought I am glad the show will be finished. I think some people give that show more credit then it deserves; stupid Lost-ies.

*Work still is sucking but I have stopped caring. There is only so much I can do ... and I just drink tons of coffee now.

*I have not been on the running thing. If anything I think I have been drinking more beer. Ha ha go figure.

There was a neo-Nazi protest at City Hall in Downtown L.A. today, which unsurprisingly created a lot of debate about the guarantees of free speech. I was reading the coverage online, and there are four republished photos from Associated Press. I thought it was interesting which photos were chosen by which news source for the main image (Fox News and MSNBC). I'm a bit disappointed that the counter protesters didn't engage in peaceful opposition, though I understand how emotions can run high.

*Sadly if MTV makes this into a reality show I might watch - Koreatown Jersey Shore. Although I am a bit disturbed you do not have to be Asian to get on the show -
"But you don’t need to be a Korean or even Asian to join the show. Although Asians are preferred, as long as the person has experienced Koreatown life and is “obsessed with Asian culture”, they may be considered for casting."
... obsessed with Asian culture?!? Ick.

*Conan O'Brien heads to TBS. This is interesting news considering I thought he would go the route of FOX but I guess not. The thing with the networks is you have to deal with the affiliates which is one of the reasons why Leno failed at 10 pm on NBC. Does that mean TBS is now a cool station?

*On May 23rd and 24th, two major TV shows end - one I care about (24) and one I am lukewarm towards (Lost). It should be interesting to see how they wrap up.

*I am slowly realizing I am in an abusive relationship .. with work. I am not happy here, the hours are shite and management sucks yet I have not left. Instead I justify to myself it is not that bad and better than nothing. I need to take some action and start looking to see if there is anything else out there, though I think the job market is pretty crappy right now.

*I went running twice this week. The first run I was feeling pretty good and surprised how not winded I was considering I have not run in almost six weeks. But the second run I felt it and was more sluggish and slow. Ha ha I guess I need to just keep at it.

*Doc Martens turn 50 this year. I love these boots and own three pairs - my beloved green ones that I wore to my high school prom and all during high school, my black ones that I wore in college and currently and then my lovely white ones that I wore on my wedding day :) So apparently DM is working with 10 musicians to cover classic tunes and make videos of them, one of them being the Raveonettes who will cover The Stone Roes I Want to be Adored!! Although they will not have a video until September.

*I have not gone running since the end of February. I need to get back on that. Sometimes it is good to have a big run to train for otherwise you just become a lazy bum.

*It was announced a few weeks ago that 24 would be cancelled and although I am disappointed the show has been suffering in ratings and storyline. However the last few weeks, the show has gotten good again. Oh well Jack Bauer forever and there is talk of a feature film so that's good.

*Happy Easter!!

*Well we are four months into 2010 and the whole blogging all the time thing lasted me the first 13 days of January. Oh well. I am not sure why I could not keep up blogging. I have not been doing anything interesting, aside from my trip to London/Scotland. Let's see how long I can keep blogging now.

*I am realizing marriage is an interesting thing. It has nothing to do with being married but more what happens after with friends and family. Basically all family things double up because you now have twice the obligations and friends pretty much drop off, especially married friends and definetly married friends with kids. It is not a bad thing, completely understandable but it does bum me out from time to time. I know things will just get worst if I were to have a kid or something of the sort. I guess that is why Facebook is so great ... helps pepole stay somewhat connected.

*Still on the hunt for a house. It is going but it can get you down when you try for a place and lose out. It is disturbing to see how people are willing to price some homes that clearly are not worth that much, people are crazy.

*Watched Sunset Blvd. the other night and loved loved loved it. The film really holds up even after all this time. Yes it was a bit over the top and camp but it worked and Gloria Swanson was amazing.

(B) The Best American Non-Required Reading 2009 (Ed. by Dave Eggers, 2009) Grade: B
The Non-Required Reading series usually introduces me to some new writers whom I have not heard of before (i.e. Jhumpa Lahiri), and the collections are a diverse mix of fiction and non-fiction. One of my favorite pieces was "The Chameleon," which was originally published in the New Yorker and discusses a real-life Frenchman who pretended to be all sorts of different people, mostly orphaned children. There were a lot of standout non-fiction pieces, including Jonathan Franzen's farewell to David Foster Wallace and "A Product of This Town," about the Jena Six.

(B) Nine Stories (J.D. Salinger, 1953) Grade: B+
The death of J.D. Salinger renewed my interest in his work, of which I have only read Catcher in the Rye, and that was years ago. I didn't know Salinger had only four published books; for some reason, I thought he had more. Well, perhaps his unpublished stories will one day be released to the public. Of the nine stories, my favorite was "For Esme--With Love and Squalor." It really depicted the affects of war on the main character.

I was reading this Reuters article and came across a very sloppy mistake: "Dear John" stars Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried as lovers whose romance is curtailed by the September 11 attacks. It is directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom and based on "The Notebook," a novel by Nicholas Sparks.

Dear John is not based on The Notebook, but on the book Dear John. But only someone like me would care about fact-checking. I think I'm missing my job.

(B) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Alan Sillitoe, 1958) Grade: B
The first book by British writer Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night concerns a young lad named Arthur Seaton, whose motto is "it's a great life, if you don't weaken." He carries on with little concern for what others believe is wrong--he sleeps with two married women, who happen to be sisters--but despite this, you still empathize with his character. He toils away all day in a factory at a job he dislikes, just to help his family and enjoy some pints on the weekend. You don't completely agree with his actions, but there is something to admire in his fighting spirit. Sillitoe's second novel, The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner, also is about disaffected, working-class youth (and inspired a Belle & Sebastian song).

I forgot to write this on Friday, but "Happy Birthday, New Wave!" :)

(B) What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Raymond Carver, 1981) Grade: A
My first introduction to Raymond Carver was probably the foreword he wrote for "On Being a Novelist," a book by John Gardner, a tutor of Carver's who had told him "to use 15 words instead of 25." This brevity works, and there is little, if any, fat in these short stories. Carver is efficient in bringing the reader into the moment, into his characters' lives, and then just as swiftly ending the story. The title story was my favorite, and interestingly, it was not published as Carver had originally written. You can read the original version at The New Yorker. The other original short stories from this collection are available in a book from Library of America.

This is a bit late, but Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian last month listed his Top 50 Films of the Decade. I've seen all of his top 10 with the exception of two. Good to see Ghost World on there. For brevity, here's the top 25.
1 Gosford Park
2 Amélie
3 L o s t i n T r a n s l a t i o n
4 O Brother, Where Art Thou?
5 E t e r n a l S u n s h i n e o f t h e S p o t l e s s M i n d
6 The Royal Tenenbaums
7 The Squid and the Whale
8 Almost Famous
9 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
10 In the Mood for Love
11 Secretary
12 Sideways
13 Charlie Wilson's War
14 The Son's Room
15 No Country for Old Men
16 Mulholland Drive
17 Talk to Her
18 Ghost World
19 T h e A v i a t o r
20 Persepolis
21 Burn After Reading
22 Me and You and Everyone We Know
23 The Devil and Daniel Johnston
24 Munich
25 Milk

(B) The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri, 2004) Grade: A-
My first introduction to Jhumpa Lahiri was her debut collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, which won her the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I went on to read her second collection, Unaccustomed Earth, released last year, but had not tackled her first novel until now. Adapted for a film starring Kal Penn, The Namesake is just as effective as her shorter narratives, all of which tend to focus on the immigrant experience. Namesake follows Ashoke and Ashimi, two Indians who move from Calcutta to Cambridge. The novel details their struggles to adapt to American culture and to raise their two children with some knowledge of their heritage. The movie stays pretty faithful to the book, but elements of the story aren't as fleshed out, so you don't get the relevance of some things as much. Still, both are recommended.