Last night I went to a bar and saw a girl who looked like Katherine Heigl. It turns out her name was Kara and was from the Netherlands and had no idea who Katherine Heigl was. Today, I was at the gym and they were showing a movie staring Katherine Heigl (yes, my gym used to be a movie theater and they still show movies on the screen). This was a very peculiar coincidence, so I decided to watch this movie tonight.
The movie in question, 27 Dresses, fits the romantic comedy formula like Cinderella fits her shoes. The premise revolves around this woman, Jane (Heigl), who has been in 27 weddings as a bridesmaid, who finds herself caught in a unbelievably weird love triangle between her young blonde sister and her awesome rich boss (who she is madly and secretly in love with), all the while pursued by a handsome wedding writer. Okay, got all that? Good. Now we apply the romantic comedy formula.
The formula is simple. First, we have a lovable main character, who is defective in someway or caught up in a funky situation somehow. Then we introduce a potential solution to this person's love problem. But just as things are working out, something terrible happens. We are left wondering: how could they possibly get back together and reach the happy ending? Then something more extraordinary happens. The characters reveal something new, metamorphosize and takes a giant leap by exposing their most vulnerable trait. Lastly, this leap of faith is rewarded and we have our happily ever after.
I hesitate to admit that I enjoyed the movie. I hate to acknowledge that my emotions are so easily manipulated by this formula; shameful really. But I think deep down, this formula is something that everyone can relate to. We are all a little bit broken in parts and get involved in depressing situations at times. We all desire happy outcomes. So the formula works. This movie was especially enjoyable because it was well done. It was funny and touching at the right moments.
But the one thing romantic comedy absolutely doesn't touch is love. Everything in the movie revolves around love, but it's not about love. Love is more than a series of nicely arranged coincidences, nor does it always have a happy ending. Unfortunately for us, we run the risk of mistaking what we see in these movies for love. A proxy for love is a poor substitute for the real thing. The stuff that they skip over in the movie, in between when the characters resolve their conflict and their wedding, is the really interesting stuff. That's love. That's never shown in movies.
Yesterday I found a song while listening to an internet radio station, and it has become my favorite of the moment. The song is A Girl Like That by Lucas Prata featuring Jeannie Ortega. I love it because it's upbeat, great to dance to, and the lyrics are awesome. And yes... I want a girl like that too.
I found the only copy on youtube, so you can sample it for yourself. I've already purchased my copy from iTunes.
Also, I didn't find the complete lyrics to this song anywhere online. So I decided to post it myself.
(I wanna a girl...) [4x]
One look i’m hooked, like out of a dream.
And her lips burning
She looks tight, so right, if you know what I mean.
Heads are turning.
My jaw just drops when she’s walking away.
And my head is spinning.
She’s out there somewhere, but I don’t know her name.
Think I’m going insane.
[Chorus]
Cuz I wanna a girl like that. (I wanna a girl)
A Heart like a maniac.
And I wanna a girl like that. (I wanna a girl)
A girl that’ll have my back.
I wanna a love that’ll still be strong,
After loving her all night long.
Cuz I wanna a girl... I wanna a girl... like that.
(I gotcha back... gotcha back... baby)
She hangs out, no doubt, like one of the boys.
And there’s no mistaking.
But when we’re alone she likes to make some noise.
And the walls are shaking.
My heart can’t stop, it’s running away from me.
She’s wild, so hot, but she’s only a dream, that I gotta see.
[Repeat Chorus]
The type of girl that just can’t get enough.
Gasping for air and she’s calling your bluff.
She does her nails but she like to play rough.
So hard to get that you’ll falling in love.
She blows your mind, and she’s class tho you’re acting crazy.
Another kind not too wild but she’s still a lady.
The kinda girl like the one in your dreams. (oh yeah, that’s the one)
I’m that girl baby.
[Repeat Chorus]
There are a few lines toward the end that I'm a bit hazy on. Maybe someone can correct me...
When I was a kid, I loved Indiana Jones. It's one of the first movies I saw in English, and the third Indiana Jones movie (the one with Sean Connery) remains one of my all time favorites. So I was very excited in the weeks leading up to the opening.
Well, I can't say that I was totally disappointed. The fourth installment is still a lot of fun, plenty of action, and quite family friendly. However, I must have grown up in the mean time.
The movie is only enjoyable once you shutdown your brain. For example, I know Indiana Jones got Hitler's autograph and found the Holy Grail and all, but as soon as he survives a nuclear blast, well, it set the tone for the rest of the film. The plot was thin, and no one hid the fact that this movie is all about fun, and not believability. Cate Blanchett's Russian accent was atrocious. All the characters were one dimensional (some, even inter-dimensional). But for a fun two hours, sure, it's worth it.
The one cool thing about the movie was the previews for some of the movies coming out in the summer and in the fall. This year, we're gonna have a great movie season. I'm super excited.
It has been quite awhile since I read any literature of this caliber and I was thoroughly impressed. Gao manages to elicit the gamut of emotions from the reader: lust, anger, sadness, passion, regret, fear, confusion and at the end, peace. The narration, alternates between telling the story in the second person and the third person. The flashbacks, temporally interspersed and at times chaotic, are told in the third person to further the sense of detachment between the author telling the story now and the author who lived in a totally different world.
This novel touched me deeply because the content, his life during the Culture Revolution, is so close to me personally, and yet just out of reach. No one who hasn't lived through it could truly understand it. Both of my parents and all of my grandparents experienced (and survived) this great calamity first hand. My understanding of it, will obviously differ from theirs, but hopefully not too far. However, I wonder how many western readers will really get terms like "Ox Demon and Snake Spirit" (牛鬼蛇神). Things like that evokes completely different emotions from people who lived through the times from those who did not. I remember one time, after mom learned that I have never heard the song The East is Red, she simply said, "how lucky." I think I understand now.
The author showed me everything. Nothing was left out. It was ugly and refreshing and disturbing and intriguing all at the same time. I was emotionally drained by the end of it. I found it very interesting that Gao wrote his autobiography as a work of fiction. He explains:
It is he that you must allow to emerge from your memories, that child, that youth, that immature man, that daydreaming survior, that arrogant fellow and that scoundrel who gradually becomes crafty... While observing and examining him unmasked, you must turn him into fiction, a character that is unrelated to you and has qualities yet to be discovered. It is then that writing is interesting and creative, and can stimulate curiosity and the desire to explore.
This was literature at its finest. It can be read as a progression of his relationship with women, far and near, past and present. Or it can be read as a reflection through two different, but identical persons, one struggling to forget, the other to remember. Or it can be read as a movement through time and place, from the China of yesteryear to the West of today. At the end however, you're forced to conclude that Gao has finally found his freedom, his truth, his meaning, and his life without "isms". But at a terrible price. Is he happy? Only he knows.
My favorite webcomic is xkcd. It's not only hilarious, intelligent, and nerdy (in a good way), but also incredibly deep. Or perhaps, I read more into it than there is to read. Nevertheless, I'm plunging into the nascent field of literary criticism of webcomics. Since we all have short attention spans nowadays, it seems like a good idea (at the time).
This is the one from today, included without permission:
Yes, it's funny. But also a little sad. In between the setup and the punchline, was a story. But it was never told, and left to the imagination of the reader. The setup is beautiful. An emotional connection between total strangers is so rare because most of the people we meet we never get past the surface. Yet somehow to have created such a connection only to be destroyed when the punchline comes around is incredibly shocking. Which achieves the emotional message of the comic. To me, it's a bit too shocking. Life is too short to have "[fallen] recklessly in love" only to lose it. So there comes the sadness and maybe even bitterness.
I found it interesting that the target of the narration changes. At first it appears that the you addresses Megan. Almost as a jab that he says "now that you're married you'll never experience it again." But the last sentence makes it clear that you addresses the man that just married Megan. It is almost as if the intended target of the speech switched just before the end. Which I thought was an especially nice touch.
Perhaps, even better, the title of the piece should have been Bitter instead of Jealousy.
This weekend I celebrated the start of the summer movie season (as defined by yours truly) by going to the premier of Ironman. The movie was sold out, so it was good that we got tickets before hand.
I was pleasantly surprised. I expected the movie to be mostly silly and possibly "suck ass". It did not. It wasn't as good as Transformers of last year, in my opinion, but a thoroughly enjoyable movie nonetheless.
If you haven't seen the movie yet, I won't ruin it for you, but here's a sneak peak.
I never read the comic book as a child, since the theme of a billionaire turned superhero is antithetical to the communist ideology of the country of my birth. I was told there were many inside jokes and references for those who have.
My only beef with the movie is the lack of female characters. Spiderman had the perky and beautiful Kristin Dunst and Transformers featured the amazingly sexy Megan Fox. Ironman had Gwyneth Paltrow. To be fair, she's an extremely talented actress. But this movie is Ironman, not Shakespeare in Love. Even so, her character was pretty minor compared to the female characters in the movies aforementioned.
After all that we’ve been through
When everything that felt so right is wrong
Now that the love is gone...
Last night I went to the David Guetta show at Slide. The concert was sold out, and the line was around the block at 10pm. I don't usually go out on Sundays, but I suspect this is somewhat atypical because David Guetta is really freaking popular right now.
But of course, David Guetta didn't start spinning until after midnight, so technically the concert was on Monday. All the technicalities aside, he's a pretty chill guy and I submit the image below as proof (I don't know who was flashing the hook'em horns sign). And he's 40 years old, but looks like he's still 22. How does he do it? He's not even asian!
I really like his music and I love dancing to it. The crowd was pretty good, considering it was mostly dudes. The boy girl ratio is about 4 to 1, which is definitely weird considering it's at Slide. Slide is notorious in San Francisco for turning guys away if they don't bring an equal number of girls. But the girls that were there, some of them are pretty hot (the whole euro crowd). There's something about a really skinny girl with big boobs that just intrigues me. But I digress...
Now, while everyone was getting hammered by $10 drinks and awestruck by David Guetta, I observed something interesting. There's this private table behind the DJ booth. There, sat two old dudes (like 80 years old) with bunch of younger women (young is relative to the aforementioned dudes). It was kind of hilarious as they're grooving to David Guetta or at least, trying to. The real question is who are they? So, I took a picture (and you thought I was taking a picture of David Guetta... NOT).
Anyways, I had fun. David Guetta is awesome. Now back to work everyone... but watch this video before you do.
Last night I watched Back to the Future in my lab on the large screen projector. It's part of the weekly 80's movie night that a friend of mine puts on. I'm not a big fan of 80's movies personally. I like 90's movies and 80's music. But this 80's movie night is pretty fun because we get a nice lively crowd of friends and we get to make fun of the movies.
I haven't seen Back to the Future in such a long time, probably since before puberty. So, it's like a new movie. I did notice a lot of references to famous American plays. For example, the bully's name is Biff, which happens to be the name of the older brother in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Also, when Marty gets hit by the car and passes out, the man gets out of the car and yells "Stella...", which is totally from Tennesse William's A Streetcar Named Desire. Ah... the things you didn't know as a kid...
Next week, I'm going to show my favorite James Bond movie at the 80's movie night. You're welcome to guess which one it is, but unless you come to 80's movie night next week (or you know me really well), you won't know for sure.
I found these two awesome videos of saxophone performance on YouTube.
The first, is a quintet called Quintessence from Germany. They play Bach like you've never heart it before. When the baritone sax enters... damn... wow!
The second, is a solo by Nobuya Sugawa, probably the best Saxophonist in Japan. His technique is just absolutely amazing.
I must have played those videos ten times today. I'm just in awe.
I practiced my saxophone for an hour and half today. I do not sound like that. I don't know how I can get that crispy metallic sound out of my sax. Maybe it's not possible (I need a better mouthpiece and a better saxophone and probably better lungs). I'll keep trying... one of these days, I'll play like them.
I really don't follow this stuff, but it's all over the news today. The Dixie Chicks won quite a few awards at the Grammy's last night. Their song I'm Not Ready to Make Nice won the award for best country performance by a group.
The song is about the controversy that erupted after Natalie, the (somewhat cute) lead singer, criticized Bush in an London performance a few years ago. The group had a difficult past few years no doubt, but they never backed down. Unfortunately for them, the world of country music never forgave them. But instead, they found a more mainstream audience both in this country and abroad.
Now I hate to admit this, but I went through a country music phase in my life (it was a long time ago, and I'd rather not talk about it). But it did give me an insight into what the world of country music is like. It's a totally parallel universe, with it's own celebrities, awards, and merchandise. People who don't listen to country music really wouldn't know anything about it (or care to find out). The one thing I did learn is that the people who do listen to country, are very wholesome but at the same time stubborn as hell (and most likely fundamental born again Christians). A liberal atheist Chinese-Canadian who writes about sex just didn't fit in that scene. But I'm glad that the Dixie Chicks got recognized, even though I don't think that particular song was that great.
So that was my rant of the day. And please, don't ask me who my favorite country singer is... that secret I will take with me to the grave.
