the illusionist - a ‘talk cinema’ presentation where we didn’t know what film we were going to screen. it turned out to be a cool little movie with ed norton and paul giamatti. i won’t spoil it, but it was very well done and pretty entertaining. they introduced the series as “films that we trick you into seeing, since you probably wouldn’t come if you knew what it was about.” which is true as we agreed we may not have been interested in it based on the plot description, but it ended up being quite enjoyable.
three times - the new work from taiwanese master filmmaker hou hsaio-hsien. quite lovely, detailing three different love stories in different periods in china, but with the same two actors. one was set in modern times, one back in the 60’s, and one while taiwan was still under japanese rule but just before the wuchang incident that lead to the chinese overthrow of the qing dynasty. lovely to watch, really. very nice.
(although this did raise a thought in my mind: every year they have an award for best feature and best documentary. how would it feel if you’ve spent years toiling away and you finally make your film, and it even gets picked to be in this big film festival, but suddenly you’re there competing against hou hsaio-hsien who’s released another masterpiece? what the fuck? ed harris talked about the times he’s been nominated for an oscar, and that if he’s going to bother to go to the ceremony, he WANTS TO WIN, right? but he said that it’s really a strange thing. to make a film and suddenly someone wins and someone loses? it make sense in sports, but in art? who’s to say whether film x is better than film y, if they’re both the best film they could be? they’re different things— how do you quantify that? is 100 in the x-axis more than 100 in the y-axis? it’s a strange thing to put competitiveness towards art.)
belle de jour - hmc was upset that we didn’t see this on saturday since the famous screenwriter jean-claude carrière was going to be at that screening. however, it turns out he was at the pfa for the sunday screening as well (as i suspected he might be), so it all turned out all right. it was a pretty insightful q&a, and it’s just fun hearing him talk about buñuel and catherine deneuve and others. and now i know what’s in the mongolian wrestler’s box! girls, you don’t really want to know. or do you?
princess raccoon - every time i think i’ve seen the weirdest film at the festival, another one just comes along and blows them away. sachiko hanai, wayward cloud, even drawing restraint 9, none of them has anything on this. not that i would expect anything less from seijun sukuzi, since he’s absolutely nuts now. like pistol opera a few years ago didn’t tip you off. this time he’s telling the tabuki legend of those raccoon-dog spirits, but as a musical. a serious musical. well, not “serious” musical, but filmed almost like a stage play. very strange. thank goodness i had seen pom poko so i was already down with the tanuki/raccoon-dog and their lore. and their giant testicle attacks. word. (actually, there weren’t any testicle attacks in this movie, and it STILL was the weirdest one so far. what does that tell you?)
after being out until 3am watching barney and bjork go at each other with flensing knives, i had to get up at 7am to make it down to work for a 9am meeting. whee! and then back to the castro for an unscheduled sfiff film:
House of Himiko/Mezon do Himiko Isshin Inudo (Japan, 2005, 111 minutes)
At a seaside rest home for gay men, a young woman confronts the father who once abandoned her to become proprietor of a transvestite bar. An offbeat comedy that offers a rare look at Japan’s older gay community.
this was actually really lovely. a quiet little film about a girl who didn’t want anything to do with the drag queen father who had abandoned her and her mother as a child, but who comes to reluctantly work in the gay retirement home he’s set up. really quite sweet and nice and just wonderful. maybe my favorite film of the festival so far!
and then tonight, because too much is never enough:
ed harris & a flash of green - ed harris was really entertaining and funny. as for a flash of green, i don’t know. i slept through a lot of it. hmc posits that maybe it’s not the movies themselves, since i’ve slept through a lot of great ones at the castro (lessons of darkness, taxi driver, rififi, le cercle rouge), but maybe the fact that it’s too stuffy and hot in there and that’s what actually puts me to sleep. perhaps i just need one of those personal cooling systems
after taking tuesday off for a snow day at kirkwood (a SNOW DAY!! april 25th and still lots of snow up there. ok, it was a little slushy, but still!), back to the film festival for a couple more on wednesday night:
werner herzog & the wild blue yonder:
at the sold-out castro, it was a live interview with the nutty werner herzog to talk about his film career and all the things that he’s done. it was wonderful and wildly hilarious, with him recounting tales of getting shot with an air rifle, and painting eleven thousand rats black and then having to blow-dry them all. who knows how much of it is true or exaggerated? much like his documentaries, the truth can be manipulated and amplified for dramatic effect. he pretty much said that he didn’t like to categorize his films as fiction or documentary, but they’re all cinema in one version or another. as for the new film, it almost seemed like he cobbled together leftover footage from some other projects and then made some silly story around them. lots of underwater shots, lots of nasa footage, and then brad dourif, the creepy doctor from dune & alien resurrection. i must admit i took a nap, as much as i like pretending to be underwater.
drawing restraint 9:
i think the comment on my ballot read, “what the hell? seriously.” but the more i think about this, the more i liked it. it was certainly super weird, vaguely telling the story of a whaling ship being launched and the making of this large sculpture out of petroleum jelly and ambergris. but then there’s this whole other thread with matthew barney and bjork as these occidentals who come onto the ship, participate in this big tea ceremony, and then they become the tea ceremony, and then slowly and ceremonially carve each other’s legs off. which wasn’t creepy or gross, but just weird. regardless, the visuals were really wonderful and pheonomenal and just beautiful. hmc said i liked it because of the japaneseness of it all, and i have to agree.
(side note: the best part of the festival so far for me is being able to lay in bed at the end of the night and talk about these films with hmc. that rocks.)
they chose china - i actually liked the short doc before this about artist thornton dial. just because that guy is a old crack up. as for the china doc, it wasn’t bad, but the director notes about how he made the film were just tedious (well, i proposed it to everyone. hbo said no. the cbc said no. ifc said no. and then i went and made something else and got and oscar. so i tried my other project and hbo said no. and then the cbc said no…)
viva cuba - what a bunch of fucking melodramatic pap. this was like a bad afterschool special. does cuba have a hallmark channel?
quick reports:
lower city - pretty great. gripping love triangle set in brazil. the actress, alice braga (niece of sonia braga) was there for the q&a, and was nice and engaging, and managed to take even the stupidest questions and make them into interesting topics. hmc remarked, “she has really nice breasts.”
the glamorous life of sachiko hanai - it’s interesting how porn is funny to people until it crosses this invisible cultural line, which in this case is a depiction of rape. this is a pretty common porn fantasy in japanese, and here as well, although much less socially “acceptable” than it is there. sure, it’s hilarious to people when the hooker keeps getting fucked by the cloned finger of george w. bush (which takes forever to twist out of a lipstick case!), but when the bad guy rapes a housewife, it’s not funny anymore.
the eagle - what do you say about the 1925 rudolph valentino silent film screened with a live soundtrack performance, except that IT’S FANTASTIC. why this wasn’t sold out, i’ll never know.
the wayward cloud - for our second porn film in two days, it’s the new work from taiwanese director tsai ming-liang, who’s done two of my favorite ones, the hole and what time is it there?, and one of my hated ones, good bye, dragon inn. how can i describe this? it’s like lost in translation, if it was a porn film with really big musical numbers and a watermelon fetish. that about sums it up.
i would have seen more, but i opted to stay at home during the daytime to watch the opening weekend of the nba playoffs and watch the important parts of 7 out of 8 games. hallelujah!
i hate these stupid blog memes. they’re blogging for the lazy, i tell you! instead of coming up with your own topics (e.g. “my date with a chupacapra”, “how i beat my addiction to ramen flavor packets”, “that’s the last time i ever call crispin glover a ‘nerdy errol flynn’ in front of werner herzog”), you just follow some easy little idea, fill in a survey, copy and paste, and voila! a generic post like everyone else’s. it’s LAZY, i tell you, LAZY. you don’t see dooce doing this, do you?
that being said, my lazy-ass wikipedia birthday meme:
may 14th
three events (just three? how about four?):
two births (how about groups of two?):
film-men:
one death (just one? sure, everyone loves frank, but i think i love rita more):
this is what happens when i stop reading my comics subscription for a month: i miss things like this:
meanwhile, taiwan continues to fight for independence. however, it looks that now china is trying to retake us not only politically and militarily, but geologically as well:
Meanwhile, as the Philippine and Eurasian plates converge at eight centimeters a year, the island’s mountain zone keeps gradually growing on its west side. Some parts of the strait are becoming shallower and narrower, said Dr. Byrne of Connecticut. It’s impossible to predict how the plate interactions will change, but if current patterns hold, he said, in a few million years “Taiwan Strait will be gone, will be dry land.”
Will the island and the mainland ultimately reunify? Asked the question at a recent scientific meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Lee smiled enigmatically and chuckled. “If the Chinese can be that patient,” he said.
interesting article in the nytimes today about kate moss, detailing her recent fall and rise (or more aptly, her recent fall and not fall). more than being a puff piece on how we still love little waifs because they’re sexy and cute, it makes some interesting points around the fact that celebrities are almost immune to fallout from misdeeds, because they’re essentially contextless: they’re characters but without a plot, so good/bad events aren’t really attributable to them in the long run.
And even before the model had checked out of the drying-out clinic, she was inundated in attention and work. W magazine ran a cover story on Kate Moss in November 2005. Vanity Fair made her its cover subject the following month. An issue of the influential fashion magazine French Vogue was dedicated to Ms. Moss, who also served as guest editor.
If her notoriety was bad for the brand, it is hard to see how. Even as the London police were questioning Ms. Moss in January, clients were clamoring for her services.
…
“Her image has a life of its own. What was interesting when she had all those troubles with the tabloid press about her drug-taking was that the image and the drug-taking didn’t fit and people couldn’t take that.”
Yet just as likely the reverse is true; Ms. Moss’s tabloid adventures added to the nest of magpie details that, wittingly or not, we all now seem to accumulate about celebrities and then mold into specious narratives about people we’ve never met. “And that, after all, is what a brand is,” said James Twitchell, an author and professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida. “Celebrities are these extraordinary characters who have no plot, but who are in many ways the easiest characters to follow. They don’t violate expectations because there really are none.”
…
“Edge denotes shame,” said Dr. Brody, the kind invoked when, for example, one is caught by a camera huddled over a mound of white powder, neatly chopping lines. “People use cameras to take all kinds of pictures now,” he added, alluding to the proliferation of too-intimate images widely available on sites like Craigslist.com or MySpace.com. “If you’re selling a camera in our celebrity-obsessed culture, why not use a celebrity and one who was captured at the scene of a crime?” he said.
from espn the magazine’s article about barry bonds and baseball:
Octopuses can exert precise control on their arm muscles to create part-time joints that help them guide food to their mouths.
By Bjorn Carey
Updated: 3:44 p.m. ET April 17, 2006
A three-jointed human arm has only seven degrees of freedom, which are defined as the types of movements each joint can perform. Your shoulder and wrist each have three degrees of freedoms—each can tilt up and down, turn left and right, and can roll in a circular motion. Your elbow, however, only has one degree of freedom, which is tilting up and down.
Scientists consider each of an octopus’ eight arms to possess a virtually infinite number of degrees of freedom, allowing them to bend and twist freely. But when it’s time to eat, octopuses use their flexible muscles to form temporary, quasi-articulated joints that work similar to how human joints function.
Researchers recorded muscle activity in octopus limbs, and found that an arm generates two waves of muscle contractions that propagate toward each other. When the waves collide, they form a part-time joint.
This process occurs three times, forming a shoulder where the arm meets the body, a wrist where the suckers have grasped their food, and an “elbow” somewhere in between. The elbow typically exhibits the most movement during food retrieval.
The researchers say this is a remarkably simple and apparently optimal mechanism for adjusting the length of arm segments according to where the food item is grasped along the arm.
The similarity of structural features and control strategies between jointed vertebrate arms and flexible octopus limbs suggests that these configurations evolved separately in octopuses and vertebrates, a result scientists call an example of convergent evolution.
fine. i love the sports guy. who can not love someone who makes pistons basketball analogies with lost?
For instance, “24” wouldn’t work without Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer; nobody else could play that part. But “Lost” relies on a number of quality actors, all of whom play a role in the show’s success to varying degrees: Jack, Sawyer, Locke, Kate and Hurley (that’s their starting five). Personally, I think Sawyer is the best character, not just from an acting standpoint, but from an entertaining/interesting/dramatic standpoint. He’s the Rasheed Wallace of the group, someone who doesn’t need to carry every episode, brings a ton of stuff to the table and takes nothing off (and they’re both funny as hell). As for the rest, Locke is probably Ben Wallace (does all the little stuff); Kate is Tayshaun Prince (the token chick/fifth man); Hurley is Rip Hamilton (totally underrated, always rises to the occasion); and Billups is Jack (the leader of the group).
So here’s the question: Does the show work because of Jack, or does it work because of the group as a whole? Obviously, it’s because of the group. Well, the same goes for the Pistons; calling Billups a bonafide MVP candidate demeans the contributions of everyone else involved. Would they slip that much with Jason Terry in Billups’ spot? Probably not.
(Of course, if Jack ends up taking down The Others, and Billups takes down every contender this spring, maybe we have to re-evaluate.)
how lovely. of course i still want a scooter, because as you can see, scooters are so kicky and fun! now if i wasn’t so old and frail and afraid of breaking…
i know, this is a little ordinary, but i have to admit that i’ve spent a lot of aggregate time thinking about two things over the past few weeks:
1. the flip-up ice question
when we’re in tahoe, i notice that often when people park their car at the resort or in the lodge or whatever, they flip their winshield wipers up into the air, to prevent them icing over and being frozen to the winshield when they return. it’s a simple little thing, but it makes a lot of sense. however, i can’t ever recall doing this a single time while i was growing up in michigan, nor did the thought even cross my mind that this would have been a good idea. did somehow a simple meme of wiper-icing prevention suddenly take hold after i moved to a sunnier climate? or is it just something we do because no one owns a decent ice scraper? (except for me, which is useless because i always forget to bring it to tahoe.)
2. the replacement question
a month or so ago, i got a big WHACK while driving my car, and the end result was a big impact star crater on my windshield due to some rock or whatever. i kept meaning to go to get it fixed or patched so it wouldn’t spread, but then i recently noticed yet another crack in my lower passenger side corner, which is slowly creeping towards the impact mark at the top. the question is, how big does the crack have to be before you really need to replace the sucker? hmc has a crack in her winshield which has been slowly zigzagging for months now, but not getting appreciably bigger. my friend brett has one that goes up from above his speedometer about two inches, and then shoots all the way across the winshield about 2/3 of the way. perhaps it’s like qix, where as long as the crack doesn’t go back and hit the edge to carve out and claim a section, then you’re ok. as long as i avoid the qix, because that sounds like trouble. or am i the qix?
from the sunday times:
09apr06
FEW women would claim to have the perfect bottom. But for those in need of reassurance that it is within reach, a scientist has come to the rescue by working out a mathematical formula they believe adds up to the perfect posterior.
The magical figures are (S+C) x (B+F)/T = V. Though the equation looks rather complicated, it is, according to the scientist, simple.
It assesses shape, bounce, firmness and symmetry – all factors that add up to the bottom line.
S is the overall shape or droopiness of the bottom, C represents how spherical the buttocks are, B measures muscular wobble or bounce, while F records the firmness.
V is the hip to waist ratio, or symmetry of the bottom, and T measures the skin texture and presence of cellulite.
David Holmes, a psychology lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, England, devised the formula.
He asked about 2000 women across Britain to assess their bottoms using a simple points scale.
For example, those who believed theirs resembled a trodden doughnut scored just one point for shape, whereas those with a small peach scored the maximum five.
Points were then entered into the formula and the closer a bottom scored to 80, the nearer it was to posterior perfection.
“The perfect female derriere has firmness to the touch and a resilience that prevents undue wobble or bounce, yet looks soft with flawless skin,” Dr Holmes said.
“Slender thighs and a hip-to-waist ratio of 0.7 will frame the perfect bum, well perfectly.”
Dr Holmes said that Kylie Minogue, whose celebrated bottom relaunched her career with the help of a pair of hotpants, would almost certainly score a perfect 80.
“Kylie would score amazingly well on sphericality and symmetry. Her bottom is pretty much perfect in these areas, more so than the likes of Charlotte Church or Jennifer Lopez, who have more curvy posteriors,” he said.
“While no one, of course, can be sure of the firmness and texture of Kylie’s bottom, from the exposure it has been given in the newspapers it is obviously muscular and is likely to score highly in these categories also.”
Dr Holmes’s research revealed that men and women had different opinions when it came to deciding on the best bottoms.
While women preferred the larger, curvier behind of Lopez, men found Minogue’s pert symmetry more agreeable.
as always, theoretical math is interesting, but applied math is even better. this may call for a special trip for “field study”.
for whom it may concern, here’s our san francisco international film festival schedule so far:
Friday 4.21.06
Lower City Sérgio Machado (Brazil, 2005, 100 minutes) @ Kabuki, 7:30pm
A steamy ménage à trois among two lifelong friends and a tempestuous prostitute is fraught with passion and violence in this sensual melodrama set along the gritty waterfront of Salvador, Brazil’s “lower city” of sin and, just maybe, salvation.
Saturday 4.22.06
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai Mitsuru Meike (Japan, 2004, 90 minutes) @ Kabuki, 11:15pm
In this riotous amalgam of political satire, apocalyptic comedy and steamy erotica, an escort specializing in teacher-student scenarios acquires a mysterious cylinder that could cause nuclear havoc. A fervid example of the Japanese pinku eiga genre, for mature audiences only.
Sunday 4.23.06
The Eagle Clarence Brown (USA, 1925, 82 minutes) @ Castro 7:00pm
The dashing Rudolph Valentino rides roughshod over Russia’s dastardly villains while seducing its lovely daughters—and its jealous queen!—in this risqué Zorroesque adventure, with a new score composed and performed by Alloy Orchestra.
The Wayward Cloud Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan/France, 2005, 112 minutes) @ Castro 9:30pm
A genuine masterpiece and the most audacious work to date from visionary director Tsai Ming-liang, this provocative and humorous film is about a porn actor and the woman who enters into a strange relationship with him.
Monday 4.24.06
They Chose China Shui-Bo Wang (Canada, 2005, 52 minutes) @ Kabuki 6:45pm
A revealing documentary exploring the courage of American dissidents who, as POWs at the end of the Korean War, opted against repatriation to McCarthy’s America and instead chose to make Communist China their home. With short, Thornton Dial.
Viva Cuba Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti (Cuba/France, 2005, 80 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:00pm
Eleven-year-old Malú runs away from home with her best friend Jorgito on a quest to find her father in this charming, fairytale-like story that was Cuba’s candidate for the Oscars.
Wednesday 4.26.06
An Evening With Werner Herzog: Directing Award w/ The Wild Blue Yonder Werner Herzog (Germany, 2005, 78 minutes) @ Castro 7:30pm
This unclassifiable, luminous and at-times comic science fiction/fantasy blends Herzog’s trademark romanticism with an ecological tale of space travel, both true and false. Like Kubrick’s 2001, it’s a space oratorio of sounds and visions, earthly and unearthly.
Drawing Restraint 9 Matthew Barney @ Kabuki 11:30pm
Matthew Barney is expected to be in attendance to introduce the film. Those familiar with Barney’s landmark Cremaster cycle can expect to immerse themselves in similar extraordinary visuals, with the added pleasure of a soundtrack of new songs by the always-enchanting art-pop singer Bjork.
Friday 4.28.06
An Evening With Ed Harris: Peter J. Owens Award w/ A Flash of Green Victor Nuñez (USA, 1984, 122 minutes) @ Castro 7:30pm
Ed Harris gives a nuanced, true-to-life performance as a small-town newspaper reporter bribed into helping an unscrupulous land developer in this atmospheric, Florida-set character drama.
Saturday 4.29.06
Three Times Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 2005, 131 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:30pm
Three different time periods, two lead roles and one eternal love: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s romantic new film moves across the history of Taiwan—and the arc of the director’s career—to explore the memory of love in 1966, 1911 and today.
Sunday 4.30.06
Belle de Jour Luis Buñuel (France, 1967, 101 minutes) @ PFA 5:00pm
In this subversive erotic fantasy cowritten by Jean-Claude Carrière and Buñuel, Catherine Deneuve plays a frigid housewife who indulges her masochistic desires by working in a Paris brothel. However, nothing is quite as it seems…
Princess Raccoon Seijun Suzuki (Japan, 2005, 111 minutes) @ PFA 8:00pm
“We are all raccoons!” Glory in the spectacular design and exuberant wackiness (plus the stunning Ziyi Zhang as the Princess) of this madcap anything-goes pop opera by Japan’s premiere film trickster.
Monday 5.1.06
Favela Rising Jeff Zimbalist (Brazil/USA, 2005, 80 minutes) @ Kabuki 6:30pm
In one of the toughest barrios in Brazil, a drug trafficker turned social revolutionary musician leads his community into an art-inspired war against the drug trafficking army holding them captive. An inspiring story of redemption and survival within a battleground of drugs and violence. With short, Phoenix Dance.
Clouds of Yesterday Takushi Tsubokawa (Japan, 2005, 95 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:15pm
This impressive and original debut feature tells the story of a reel of silent film hidden by a young boy in the 1930s. Now a grandfather, he searches for the missing reel in order to complete his life.
Tuesday 5.2.06
Executive Koala Minoru Kawasaki (Japan, 2005, 85 minutes) @ Kabuki 4:15pm
A dutiful employee with a giant koala head must contend with complex office politics while worrying that he may be responsible for his girlfriend’s death in this unforgettable genre hybrid from Japan’s leading director of meatball, off-the-wall comedies.
See You in Space József Pacskovsky (Hungary, 2005, 91 minutes) @ Kabuki 8:45pm
Four tales of love unfold over a multinational terrain, including a space station orbiting Earth. Peppered with moments sensual, contemplative, bleak and surreal, the lovers attempt to suppress their desires until their attractions become incendiary.
hmc was going to take mike to tahoe for spring break, but then she pushed it back a day so i could go as well. got a couple of great days of boarding in at squaw, but now i’m beat. i haven’t been at home for more than 10 hours in almost a week.
let’s do a quick travel recap, shall we? starting from thursday, march 30th:
3/30: tahoe
3/31: working from home
4/1: tahoe
4/2: drive to lost angels
4/3: fly to austin
4/4: austin
4/5: austin
4/6: fly to sfo 5:25am pdt, sunnyvale
4/7: tahoe
4/8: tahoe
i’m exhausted and beat up. soon, there will be a day where i stay in bed and sleep all day.
after tahoe and kid koala on saturday, quick drive down to lost angels sunday for melissa’s birthday party. stayed in town on monday hanging out at the moca, and then flew out to austin for work monday night.
for some reason all the good hotels in austin were sold out this week, and i couldn’t seem to get anywhere decent downtown for three days in a row. i ended up booking the park plaza.
when you hear “park plaza”, you think of a certain level of quality. sure, it’s certainly not going to be the super fancy prestigious hotel in new york, but you’d think there’s at least some level of vetting going on.
let me posit three nuggets:
i wanted to kill it, but with what? i’m in a hotel bathroom. toilet paper? fuck that shit. do you see the size of this thing? i end up trying to smash it with the trash can, which i’m sure delighted the guy next door. BAM!! BAM!! two in the morning and i’m smashing the tile floor with plastic can. the roach manages to escape me, runs into the main room and makes a dash for the bed.
FUCK THAT.
i manage to trap him before he gets there, and end up with a wastebasket in the middle of the room, covered with a tourist guide to austin on top. in case it decides to lift the trashcan up with its proportionally huge strength or something.
i end up leaving it there, with a note on top that says, “COCKROACH UNDERNEATH WASTEBASKET”.
i think the moral of the story is that i need a smaller cell phone. or don’t stay at that park plaza.
i’m on a snowboarding frenzy recently, as i went out both last thursday and then again today! thursday was good, although we were ridiculously tired. hmc had just gotten off working on that indie shorts on tuesday, and was severely sleep deprived from her days-nights-days schedule. and given that i end up helping her get out of the door, i was running a little low myself. however it had rained all week and it looked like it was going to rain this weekend as well, with thursday being the only clear day, so we pushed through and went up to northstar for a fine sunny day, with some fresh snow. hmc got in a lot of good runs to practice her turns, and i got a few good blues towards the end of the day.
today i went up with someone from oracle, and we headed to kirkwood where i haven’t been in a couple of years. we spent the day over on the left side, which has my favorite long blue runs all the way down the peak. whereas i didn’t fall once on thursday, i biffed today. repeatedly. i fell more today than i have in the last two years. once i fell so hard that my goggles were covered with snow. on the inside. and inside my glasses. did anyone get the number of that mountain? sure, it’s covered in soft fluffy snow, but it kicked the shit out of me.
i was having a lot of trouble navigating the layer of fresh powder, and i thought maybe i just need more practice in the rough instead of being so comfortable on groomed runs. however, the more i think about it, what i really need to do is to overcome my fear of going so fast. where i ended up getting in trouble was not turning in powder, which i could do, but as you need to go fast enough to not get stuck, i would get scared and try to slow down, which is significantly harder in deep powder, and that’s where i’d catch and biff.
fear is the mindkiller. i must not fear. fear of speed is the boardkiller. i must not fear speed.
