so yeah, like we said, instead of staying in town for springfest or going up to the ranch for memorial day, we opted last-minute to go to new york. why? because NATURE IS FOR PUSSIES.
instead of smelly grass, we got to hang out with our friend jo for the weekend, go see some plays and shows and art, and shop and eat and drink. take that, mister ranger! you can keep your stinkin’ picnic baskets.
after the redeye on friday night, we woke up in nyc. and then took a nap, and again woke up in nyc. brunch at son cubano, and then a little bit of shopping where hmc bought me a birthday month gift of a lovely little brown daybag, with an ingenious zippered flap, in case you only want something on the right half of the bag. or the left. it’s beautiful. it’s so beautiful that you’d cry if you saw it. maybe it’s better if you didn’t.
after that over to 59e59, where they were having a brits off broadway festival of british plays, some from the fringe festival. we saw the race which was somewhere between cirque du soleil and notting hill. but with less water. very entertaining.
the next day was mostly shopping. tg-170 on ludlow south of houston is where hmc goes every time she comes to nyc, because they’re always full of fabulous stuff. it’s also why we can’t afford to come to nyc very often. but irresistible, nonetheless. we tried to go see an exhibit of james bond posters from around the world, but the place was closed (LIES LIES LIES) so we turned around and went to the only thing going on, which was some bands at the rockwood music cafe, which turned out to be very nice jazz. the first band had a singer with a nice voice but distressing 70’s hair and bangs, but the second band was pretty great. then off to the east village for more jazz at the cornelia street cafe, from mostly other people doing the killing and the quartet of happiness. both hilarous fun! see them desperately if you get the chance. maybe more mopdtk, just because. oh, and the lobster ravioli and the rack of lamb at ccc are great, too.
monday was memorial day. day for bbq’s, right? FUCK THAT SUBURBAN SHIT. yummy brunch with allison, and then off the whitney to see some holes. only thing… the whitney’s closed on mondays. fuckers. so instead off to PS1, to see all the crazy shit. as it’s an old school house turned into a museum, i can’t help thinking about all the misery and crushed hopes as i climb the old old painted stairways. then again, i also imagine the endless joy and laughter of kids running around with their friends, their only worries being making it to recess. the wolfgang tillmans is not bad, and the reprocessing reality exhibit is interesting, but my fave was the clemens von wedemeyer “big business”, retelling laurel and hardy’s short but with prison inmates. pretty great. skip the john lurie.
then we were off to the airport as the thunderstorms started to pour.
perfect to get out of town as the rains come in…
we couldn’t decide what to do for memorial day weekend, so we ended up in new york at the last minute. portland? rainy and our friends went to seattle. la jolla? what’s the point of san diego beaches if it’s only 70? london? sure, but by the time we get there it’s time to fly home.
so here we are. it’s nice and warm and dandelion seeds are floating around like snow. or feathers in a las vegas show gone awry.
call us if you’re nearby…
this just in for your wearing/drinking pleasure:
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These tights have caused the biggest rush for products we have ever seen. The press phenomena and our customer reviews have been amazing.
How do they work?
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The fibre is impregnated with caffeine micro capsules. The body temperature causes the caffeine to act on the skin. Its been proven the active ingredients of caffeine stimulate the metabolism, help burn fat and tighten the tissue of the legs.
What can you expect?
Smoother and suppler skin
Improves the skin’s elasticity each time the tights are worn
Reduction in thigh measurement of up to 2cm after wearing the tights for 28 days (on a daily basis).
The appearance of the skin is visibly improved.
85% Polyamide, 15% Elastane
according to this myheritage website which analyzes a photo of you and compares it to celebrities, i either look like leslie chung (is that the only asian they have in their database?), sidney poiter (what?), or christy turlington (uh…).
at a certain point, it’s just better to summarize so we can catch up and get on with our lives:
after two weeks of solid film festival, i flew out to chicago for our sales kickoff, but got there a couple of days early in order to spend some time with roo, who was frantically preparing for her mfa show to go up the weekend after. we spent many a long hour despeckling digital prints in photoshop, as she’s now a digital convertee. instead of endless hours printing in the darkroom, she now scans her negs high quality, and then gets rid of all the dust etc. in photoshop, where she can also crop and play with the color balance and all those other curves i’m too lazy to understand. but where do we get the toxic fumes?
also got to have brunch with lixian, who’s as adorable as ever, and surprise steph s at her birthday gathering as well.
then off to the hyatt for a week of rah rah sis boom bah! being at a sales kickoff is like watching seabiscuit for an entire week. it’s very motivating and melodramatic, and you know they’re motivating you with inspirational stories and the like, but all the same you end up feeling great and motivated and excited about the next year. except for the broken leg part. thank goodness this year they moved the tech part to the beginning of the week, so we were still fresh and smart (read: not sleepy and hung over) for all the brainy powerpoint stuff.
and then after that, off to las vegas to meet hmc and mamaluna for a weekend. why? to see strippers, of course. wet acrobatic strippers in cirque du soleil “O”, classic strippers in ivan kane’s forty deuce, and then stripper strippers in the stripper joint.
although what the fuck was up with all the tranny strippers? there were at least three working that night. big broad shoulders, manly faces, huge limbs, WTF? not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you’d expect that from SF, not so much vegas, right? maybe we need to step up to a higher class joint next time. and let’s not talk about the midgets.
our last one, added at hmc’s whim:
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros Auraeus Solito (Philippines, 2005, 100 minutes)
A gay pre-teen in a Manila slum causes his family of petty criminals grief when he falls in love with the handsome cop next door. This first feature transcends its indie low budget with its humor, gritty drama and charm.
this was pretty cute. i admit i fell asleep during the middle, but i was so tired. and then the movie veered unexpectedly, so i woke back up.
and i also forgot we saw:
All About Love Daniel Yu (Hong Kong, 2005, 96 minutes)
A dreamy doctor falls for the transplant recipient of his dead wife’s heart. Happens all the time, of course, but rarely with such stylistic panache or lovelorn romanticism as in this delirious Hong Kong hit that doubles the trouble and drowns in tears.
when i think of hk cinema today, i think of this. big fat melodramas. either action melodramas or relationship melodramas. big on the music, and then maybe the twist. or maybe the chance to see andy lau play not just one but TWO TWO TWO ROLES AT ONCE! is the the dreamy doctor? or the not-gay hairdresser? and does the woman who has his dead wife’s transplanted heart have some organ sense memory of him? oh, you know that old genre. it’s like 21 grams, but with a much prettier sean penn. the movie was shlock, but the best part was that andy lau was there live to send all the girls screaming towards the stage. we didn’t stay for the q&a because we had to make it to the castro, but apparently they all asked what kind of underpants he wore. and the funny thing is that i read later that during the screening, andy and the director hung out at the peet’s coffee up the street. to think all these people could have had a cup of joe with andy lau instead of watching that pap!
speaking of hanging out, we may have missed tilda swinton’s state of the cinema address, but we did see her hanging out late at night at the kabuki one evening. i do particularly like this bit of her speech:
Perhaps most significant of all, the systematic amping up of the high drama of daily life as disseminated via the “reality” of the news programming must only key up a population to expect and need the adrenaline rush of sensational (result heavy) political action from its leaders, its new bedtime storytellers. When we are used to seeing results of every story arc within 30 minutes, including advertisements, no wonder we get used to expecting a resolution within 90 minutes, including popcorn. Or a matter of months, including collateral damage. The rush for the third act denouement became, somehow back there, a political strategy.
A film like Crash, winner of best film Oscar this year, pleases (if it does), reassures, because of its resemblance to a familiar version of reality, TV reality, shot relentlessly in closeup, its encounters persistently hysterical, high (albeit melo) drama and nothing but, it delivers the punch of any primetime cop show/crime biography/closed circuit, documentary, law-and-order exposé. Its vernacular use of a “real” look at racial tension is fabulous oil for a souped-up old engine: So familiar as to be palatable, but twisted just enough to feel fresh.
alas, i was going to further expound on melodramas and their pervasiveness in cinema today, but that may have to wait for another day. in any case, twenty films in two weeks is pretty good. (although not as much as hmc’s 26!)
cool little documentary about the infamous bruce lee one inch punch:
favela rising - this was surprising for two reasons: 1. it was a documentary that was outstanding and 2. i actually picked a documentary! but honestly, it was really fantastic. it’s sort of like the anti-city of god. instead of getting beat down by the drugs and the violence in the favela, these guys start up community orgianization which uses music and dance to speak out against the violence, and then itself becomes a community project and an alternative for the youth to turn to instead of just becoming drug dealers.
clouds of yesterday - this was strange and odd. we really liked the old-timey parts. the filmmaker said that it took him nine years to make this film, mostly due to scheduling and budget woes. and then there was that problem where they didn’t get that crucial shot of the cherry blossoms two years in a row…
executive koala - this may be the BEST MOVIE EVER. how can you not love a movie about a koala salaryman, who’s suspected of killing his girlfriend (and maybe even his ex-wife), and then there’s the boss who’s a giant rabbit, the guy from the kimchee company who has the flying squirrel, and then the theme song! delightfully ridiculous. it’s too bad that yetra skipped this one; she would have loved it!
see you in space - this wasn’t bad at all, just a little quirky, but it’s a good illustration on how sometimes q&a with the filmmaker isn’t necessarily a good thing. because it’s disheartening to find out that instead of you just not understanding/agreeing with the director’s artistic choices, they just made the choices they did for practical or perhaps just no good reason.
q:”why did you choose to film this with barely connected storylines?”
a: “because i could basically film four films at once. it was very efficient.”
q: “can you talk about the ending where the woman floats up into space and what that meant to you?”
a: “well, i didn’t really like that at all. but i didn’t know how to end it otherwise. i might do it differently, but i don’t know how.”
ugh.
i’ve been holding off on posting this, but it’s a new (fiscal) year and it’s official now, so what the hell.
they’re moving me from oracle to yahoo!
i can’t tell you what a huge change this is for me. i’ve been on the oracle account for 4 1/2 years. in fact, i’ve been on the account the longest of anyone on the team. we grew that acount from the single digit millions to four times what was when we started. we just finished off a year where we hit about 168% of our goal. now, i’m moving to yahoo!, which is the biggest account in the company, direct revenue-wise. why? apparently there’s been some turmoil out there and some clashing of personalities, and they want me to come in and take over. they’re telling me that i’m the only one who can come in and make this work, which may be just idle flattery, but at least it’s nicer to hear than, “here you go. good luck, sucker!” i’m suddenly reminded that i got put on oracle back in the day because there were ‘personality conflicts’ as well.
when did i become victor the cleaner? or more properly, victor nettoyer? i don’t even look like jean reno.
after working on an account for so long, you’ve got it all down. you know who everyone is, how everything works, and what to expect (or at least what type of unexpected things to look out for). all of a sudden it’s all different. everything’s new, everyone’s new, and you have no idea what’s going on anymore. it’s like you were riding a bull, and you finally learned how to ride the bull, but now you’ve gotten off the bull and there’s a whale coming at you. and you’re wearing spurs instead of flippers.
alas, what can you do? you pick up your shovel and head towards the mine, mine sixteen tons of number nine coal, and the foreman says, “well bless your soul.”
