Buddha, Volume 5: Deer Park by Osama Tezuka

In the midst of all this server insanity, I went to two funerals this week. I found out on Saturday my friend Greg Dunlevy killed himself. Here's what I wrote on the View Askew board after the funeral:

'Evening folks. Just got back from Ventura. Greg's funeral was actually pretty great. Standing room only, over 30 or so of us from Disney showed up and we all wore our name tags. I really needed the closure. Greg's favorite scene in a movie was the Grey Havens scene in ROTK so his brother had them play "Into the West." It was during the chorus, sitting there, looking at the coffin containing my best friend, that it all became real to me. It was both horrible and a great relief at the same time. I knew Greg was at peace. The song was so damn beautiful

Lay down,
your sweet and weary head.
Night is falling.
You have come to journey’s end.

Sleep now,and dream
of the ones who came before.
They are calling,
from across a distant shore.

Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see.
All of your fears will pass away.
Safe in my arms,
you’re only sleeping.

What can you see,
on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea,
a pale moon rises.
The ships have come,
to carry you home.

And all will turn,
to silver glass.
A light on the water.
All souls pass.

Hope fades,
Into the world of night.
Through shadows falling,
Out of memory and time.

Don’t say,
We have come now to the end.
White shores are calling.
You and I will meet again.
And you’ll be here in my arms,
Just sleeping.

What can you see,
on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea,
a pale moon rises.
The ships have come,
to carry you home.

And all will turn,
to silver glass.
A light on the water.
Grey ships pass
Into the West.

I wasn't planning on it, but I got up and gave a eulogy. I just felt like I had to. The words just came. So it was good. Just can't believe I have to do it all again on Friday. Thanks again guys for all your love and support.

I just got back from San Diego and my friend Mark Gregg's memorial service. It was great to see people from high school I hadn't seen in almost 10 years and also to see Mark on screen in the movie The Pacific and Eddy. Sorry if posting is sparse for a bit. I just need some time to unwind. Big props to Danny for get things back up and running here.

Interesting post I ran across on Craigslist today (link):

Carpenter will work for organic cabbage. Medical condition requires cabbage use.
PLEASE HELP! (decks, siding, hardwood and laminate floors, rotten wood, built-ins etc.)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Buddha, Volume 4: The Forest of Uruvela by Osamu Tezuka

Buddha, Vol. 3: Devadatta by Osamu Tezuka

Sorry, everyone, the domain was having some technical issues and so my blog was down for a bit. I wrote a big update post yesterday that got deleted somehow in the process. Let's just say: the home search goes on, the current place has been plucked of all leafy greens that gave it character in order to make it look like a location ready for investors, the dad is going regularly to dialysis treatment and physical therapy, and Ric finally had a weekend without work or social obligations in which we relaxed and also got a trip to the beach. Oh, and The Office is back with new episodes, which makes me happy.

Lastly, I just wanted to say how sorry I was to hear about the loss of Brendan's good friend, Greg. I only met him a few months ago when we all carpooled to see the Hollywood Bowl Morrissey show, and then at Brendan's birthday party. He seemed so easy to talk to and I enjoyed how many interests we seemed to have in common. Anyway, I remember very well how happy Greg was when Morrissey sang "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" at our concert, which was his favorite Smiths song. I'm sure that now, his friends might think of him when hearing the song, and I just wanted to say how sorry I am that they lost such a valued friend. Here's a picture I took at the show, when I realized that Brendan and Greg's seats were only one row from where I was sitting; at the moment, I think they were being subjected to the atrocity that is Kristeen Young (you see, even now, there's a memory that can make us laugh!) It may just be a cell photo, but I remember the moment:

My prayers will be with Greg's family and friends as they enter the holiday season without their loved one.

Another checkmark on the Hithcock list, Murder! (yes, the exclamation point is in the title) is the story of a conscience-laden juror. Beware the dangers of jury duty negligence! Like many of us are tempted to do at the end of a trial, this juror let himself be pressured into voting with the majority so that he could go home. But, once home and giving himself a shave, Sir John, an actor, finally has some quiet time to think about the case, and realizes he truly thinks the defendant is not guilty; unfortunately for him, the young actress has already been sentenced to hang. Sir John, being a man of integrity, uses his influence in the theater to find the witnesses involved and piece together the parts of the story to figure out whether or not he is right.

Sir John is played amiably and commandingly by Herbert Marshall, and Norah Baring compliments him well as a confused and hopeless, yet beautiful, convict. The movie itself has a tendency to drag a bit, in the court as well as the long scenes between Sir John and the theater manager who tries to help him (more for monetary gain than for establishing justice).

Their eventual discoveries go in a direction I never would have predicted, and the reason for murder was a complete surprise as well. Even more so is the climactic scene at the circus, which I can't describe without giving anything away.

While the movie did teeter and test my patience a little, there were a couple of excellent scenes, one being the meeting of the juror and the convict across an incredibly long prison visitation table, another being a sequence of repetitive images of the juror, the convict, the gallows, and a weather vein that brought the movie from so-so to interesting. And, as I said, the climax is worth the watch, especially for its creepiness, weirdness factor, tension, and sadness.

It's not one I'll return to very often at all, but worth seeing as one of the earlier Hitchockian productions.

You may have noticed that brendoman.com was giving lots of errors this week. Our happy web host decided it was using too many server resources, so they throttled us. I was already looking for a new host, but this added some urgency. We'll have more to say about this once all of our sites are safely moved. Our new host should be faster and more reliable. You may see some strange things, but I'm working on them. If something is not working, please email me and I'll fix it.

Slapstick: Or Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut

Icky Thump by The White Stripes

I was just listening to this week's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! podcast and I learned that the name of the USA Patriot Act is actually a ridiculously long acronym: The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act.

Now I hate it even more.

And if you haven't already, you should listen to the full episode of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me to hear Kevin Smith kick serious booty in the "Not My Job" game.

Buddha, Vol. 2: The Four Encounters by Osamu Tezuka

If you like David Lynch movies, and you'd like to see Laura Dern turn in an impressive performance in a nightmarish movie in which she is unable to distinguish between reality and the movie she is making, then by all means, experience it. And I mean "experience" - this isn't linear storytelling, it's an experience. I can appreciate what Lynch accomplishes here, but can't say much more because I just don't feel any connection to 99% of his movies.

Oh snap....

I know a lot of smack has been talked about this one, but Richard Kelly has made a huge effort to tighten things up and got the money he wanted to do all the visuals properly. I personally can't wait. Looks great. The Moby soundtrack sounds amazing. Go here for the Hi-Def version. Check the move out in theaters on November 9th.

Update: Holy crap, check out a pic of Kevin Smith after the jump. Dude looks awesome!

Read more »

As most of you know, I'm a total follower when it comes to memes and blog trends so I had to jump on this BlogRush bandwagon. We'll see how it works out. Thanks to Dave for the tip.

I feel like I am so much more productive now that I'm listening to books while I jog. I was done with A Farewell to Arms in about two weeks, whereas it probably would have taken me a month or more to read in my free time.

I have always been more of an older world of classics fan, particularly 19th century English literature. But I'm starting to make some exceptions in my lists of favorites. I only read a couple of Hemmingway's short stories in my creative writing class in college, so this is basically the first time I have really read anything of his. I loved it.

The story follows an American named Frederick Henry, who serves in the Italian army in WWI. It chronicles his experiences with the war, and more prominently, his love affair with a Scottish nurse.

The audio book was narrated by Alexander Adams, whose calm, cool, slightly harsh tone of voice seemed to capture the spirit of the book perfectly. I've been realizing more and more how a narrator can affect the way one interprets a book (case in point: I would have hated As I Lay Dying if I had listened to the library version I checked out a couple of weeks ago. The narration was so annoying that I returned it to the library 20 minutes after I started listening to it.). Adams is splendid at delivering Italian accents, although it's funny to me that he did not give Catherine, the nurse, an accent. Oh well. I loved what he did with her voice anyway.

Critical evaluations of character and theme aside, Hemmingway captured my admiration in the way he described his scenes, as well as the quick-wittedness of his conversations. The banter between Henry and the people he encounters is what I enjoyed the most. He was also the most fluent when painting a scene of war, medical scenes, and the image of Catherine's beauty.

Henry's character is very matter-of-fact, no-nonsense allowed. I appreciated that in him, but also that he showed moments of vulnerability (while still describing them matter-of-factly). Catherine, who begins as more of a harsh person, becomes completely loveable in her playful endurance and desire to be a good wife. Some may say she was too submissive. I say she was searching for happiness and strove to better herself to make her life and her husband's life a good one.

I don't want to give away any of the gritty details for anyone who hasn't read the book, so I won't describe them, but those details combined with the main characters (not to mention a ton of interesting side characters) made this quite an entertaining listen. I was captivated instantly, and once the book was over, I was disappointed that there wasn't more. So, of course, the first thing I did the day I finished the book was to drive to the library and pick up Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises. I'll be reporting on that pretty soon!

I had posted before about seeing They Might Be Giants performing on Blues Clues. Well, now I was just watching "Yo Gabba Gabba" with my son, and I saw a live performance from Supernova. I saw Supernova some 8-10 years ago at Fireside Bowl. If I remember right, they were on Amphetamine Reptile Records, who also were home to Helmet, Boss Hog and the Melvins among others.

A lot of you might know Supernova from their song "Chewbacca" on the "Clerks" soundtrack. I remember hearing that song live. I also remember that their schtick was similar to Man Or Astro-man? in that the band members were aliens. Supernova's schtick included a love of tin foil, and they asked that people bring tin foil to shows.

Weird.

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition by Frederick P. Brooks

This has to be seen to be believed:

Never mind all the evolution talk, I honestly didn't know folks existed that didn't know the earth was round. Hasn't she seen a globe before? I fear for her children. Seriously.

Yarrrr! It be that time of year again. Hope ye celebrate in the proper fashion, ye scallywag!

It's Kelly's birthday! Wish her a happy one!

I am so excited! This week marks the slow return of new television on all the networks. Nerd that I am, I have plotted out all of my shows to make sure there aren't any big conflicts. Of course, there are conflicts, one of which is that The Office and Grey's Anatomy are on at the same time this year. That sucks, but thankfully, ABC is great at using the online episode option a lot these days. So, even though there are a few conflicts on the schedule, I can still watch all my shows because of TV downloads.

I plan to check out a few new shows, to see if they're any good, but I'm skeptical as always. The ones I plan to give a try are Chuck, Journeyman, Carpoolers, Back to You, Bionic Woman, and Pushing Daisies. I will continue watching The Simpsons, King of the Hill (depending on how good it is), Desperate Housewives (if I can stand it), Heroes, (possibly) Beauty and the Geek, House, America's Next Top Model, Scrubs, 30 Rock, The Office, and Grey's Anatomy. I'm guessing that list sounds pathetic to those of you who have lives, but the magic of TiVo is that I record it all and fast forward through commercials, credits, recaps, and boring moments.

I was planning to have an Office party for next week's season premiere, but seeing as we're living out of boxes and the place is a wreck right now, I don't think I'll be able to do that. How sad. Maybe I can do something for a Christmas special.

Well, I had a weekend, but don't feel rested much. I suppose that's how things will go for a while.

Let me back up just a sec to say that I had loads of fun last Thursday with all the people who showed up to see Raiders of the Lost Ark at the Fox Fullerton parking lot. Gron brought their nieces and nephew, and my sister, the Hutchinses, and Brendan were there too. In late October, there will be a screening of The Birds. I'm looking forward to that!

Friday night we went out to celebrate my mom's birthday. We had dinner at Red Robin, then ate cake and watched her open gifts at home. Sad to say, without my dad there, we all stayed at the table talking for a much longer time.

Saturday Ric and I went out looking for a place to live. The house we saw was huge and well-priced for the square footage, but after spending about 45 minutes talking to the guy, we figured out that there was a no-pet policy. Glad I got up early just for that. We drove to Kimmie's for breakfast, but it was packed. So we drove to Bernie's. It was closed. What the heck?! We ended up at the Pepper Shaker out of desperation, and had good eggs and coffee, but chewy pancakes. We drove to a couple of apartment complexes and basically scoffed at them when we saw their prices. Yeah. I'm gonna pay $1900 for a 2 bedroom apartment when I can rent a house for that much or less.

We drove around without seeing anything else and went home to rest a bit before I headed to my parents' place. I stuck in some laundry and then my mom and sister and I went to the hospital to visit my dad. He isn't out of it, but he's weak. The update on him now is that he has gout. No word yet on if he can start dialysis yet. They said they might try today, but I haven't heard any updates.

My sister and I killed the rest of the afternoon playing Super Mario 2 on the Wii. In the evening we went to Octopus in Brea for some awesome Japanese food (and incredibly loud atmosphere) and then went to Camelot in Anaheim for some good old-fashioned mini golf and games. I won. They need to re-carpet that place. Becky, they changed the tickets there before I had a chance to bring our stash over! I wonder if they would still honor the old ones? Jenny and I played the usual ticket-getting games. For a second, we thought there wasn't any more skiball, but we found it tucked away in a corner. We made a whopping 63 tickets and bought a cardboard glider and two plastic hand-propellers. I needed a night like that.

Sunday the university had Dodger Day. The first problem I found with their scheduling was that I had to skip church to go to the game. For a Christian university, I thought it was funny they hadn't thought about that. Second was the heat. It was great to see the Hutchinses, great to eat all-you-can-eat food, and even fun to see all the co-workers and alums out there in the stands, but it was SOOOOOO hot. We all got new, unattractive tans. Halfway through the fifth inning (and after our pitcher had walked umpteen batters) we ended up taking refuge in the shade under the stands. We all stood in line to spin the am/pm wheel. I won more Dodger tickets and gave them to the in-laws.

We all were tired from the heat, so we took off after we got our prizes. Ric and I went straight home and crashed. I woke up around eight and we went to the grocery store to buy dinner. We watched the old 3:10 to Yuma and Ric went to bed while I watched tv for a while.

I know it sounds like I got lots of opportunities for having fun and relaxing, but I don't feel like it. These are busy times, and packing takes a lot out of a person, as does the stress of finding a place to live. Right now I think we feel pretty lost, trying to figure out what to do with our future. Do we find someplace cheap so Ric still has the possibility of quitting his job when he needs to? Do we go for a house and trust that God will lead Ric to a job that will be able to provide for us financially? House? Apartment? Cheap? Moderate? I feel like every day my search for a place shifts focus, and every day we have some sort of new financial plan for our future. I know the future isn't set in stone, but I wish parts of it were, just so I could know which goal I should be working towards.

Up this week: looking at a place tonight, packing the rest of the week. Gotta find some time to meet with the landlord too, but I don't know if I've got the energy to have him come over, even if it's for an apology. We'll see.

After looking at the search cloud I'm starting to think we should just change our name to the Pinch Hitter 2 blog. They'll come in droves! We could sell game secrets and codes. At least until Pinch Hitter 3 comes out. Unfortunately all that stuff is blocked at work, so I can't continue in my pursuit to finish the freaking game.

Not much else to report. I went down to San Diego on Saturday. That was cool. Friday I'm flying up to San Francisco to hang out with my bro. We're going to see Arcade Fire instead of The White Stripes and Cold War Kids. Then next weekend Carson is coming down and we're going to the San Diego Film Festival to see The Pacific And the Eddy, which stars our friend Mark Gregg, who died last month. Then it's back up to L.A. for the poker tournament and Kevin's last signing at the West Coast Stash, which is closing its doors on October 1st. Kevin decided to close it since manager Bryan Johnson is leaving. At least we'll always have the memories.

From Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog:

Johannes Gower hath talked of professionalism and seyd that if Britney was an trewe professional she wolde have plesed the court no mattir what. Concerninge the mattir of professionalism, Mayster Gower, whan hath it been a thing of professionalism to openli sclaundre a soule that endureth grete paines and sorrowes?

STOP YOUR SCLAUNDRES OF BRITNEY!

O benedicite! O Weylawey!

STOP YOUR SCLAUNDRES OF BRITNEY ANON. For ich speke of the treuthe. If eny of yow hath a problem with Britney, thou kanst do battle with me, Geoffrey Chaucer.

Seth Green comes to the aid of Chris Cocker:

Gotta love that clever little plug at the end.

When I watched President Bush's Thursday night address, I expected to see him paint a rosy picture of the Iraq war. I expected to see him gloss over the difficulties and bend the truth as far as possible to avoid admitting that the war was a mistake. He did all of that, of course, but this time he went a step further and told a lie that is easy to debunk.

To the international community: The success of a free Iraq matters to every civilized nation. We thank the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq and the many others who are helping that young democracy.
(Whitehouse.gov)

Thirty-six nations!? Several sites have fact-checked this:

Talking Points Memo
FactCheck.org
The Washington Post
Wonkette
TPMmuckraker.com

The State Department puts the number at 25. The total number of non-US troops is around 11,000 and falling steadily.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Tonight we're celebrating my mom's birthday. I'm hoping I might be able to make a quick trip to the movies as well.

Tomorrow, we're looking at a couple of potential places to live, doing laundry as usual, and then I think the neighbors are throwing us a barbecue.

Sunday we're going to the university's Doger Day with the Hutchinsesses. The new president is throwing the first pitch. Should be fun, even though I don't like baseball - there's all-you-can-eat food, and there will be plenty of people I know, so I'll be satisfied.

Update on dad: he had surgery to have the fistula in his arm moved so that it's more accessible, and should heal in three days. They are going to keep him in the hospital to monitor his progress in case they need to do some sort of emergency dialysis (not through the arm), and if all goes well, he'll be able to start regular dialysis next week.

Update on the housing: obviously, we're still looking. I have packed a ton of stuff. Ric talked to the landlord on Monday and I sent him an email on Tuesday. Between the two of us, I think he realizes that he didn't communicate with us a bunch of stuff that he thought he did, and now I'm pretty sure he feels really bad about the whole thing. Still, feeling bad doesn't change the circumstances, so onward we go!

Good riddance.

SCO is best known these days for its baseless intellectual property claims against Linux companies and Linux users, but as it became increasingly clear that the legal cases against IBM, Novell, Red Hat, and others were without merit, the stock price dropped as investors stopped betting on the cash boon they were gambling on winning. The company's stock lost 43% of its value today, last trading at 37 cents, down from around $20 a share in 2003, shortly after the company filed its first lawsuit.

Thirty-seven cents! This should serve as a lesson to any other companies that are trying to make baseless lawsuits their main source of income [cough, RIAA, cough].

(via Linux.com)

Instant convert as I was to Ray Bradbury's writing when I started reading books alphabetically by author through my fiction collection, the moment I discovered there was a movie version of The Illustrated Man, it went right to the top of my queue. (By the way, there will be another attempt at adapting the collection of short stories on the big screen in a couple of years.) This movie contains a framing story that contains three short stories. As it opens, a young man named Willie (Robert Drivas) meets Carl (Rod Steiger) while hitchhiking. Carl is covered in tattoos, but insists that they not be called "tattoos" and seems very bitter about them. As the movie progresses, Carl narrates flashbacks of how he met a woman (Claire Bloom) who put these illustrations on his skin, and he tells Willie that the illustrations move and tell stories when one looks at them for too long, and that there is a blank place on his back in which one can see the future. Willie can't resist peeking into these stories, each of which stars Steiger, Bloom, and Drivas. Awesome concept, by the way.

Three memorable, futuristic stories are taken from Bradbury's book, the first featuring a family that has a room in which the children use their minds to create whichever setting they choose, to stimulate their creativity. The children choose a hungry-lion-infested African veldt, which makes the parents nervous and anxious to get the play room uninstalled, which in turn makes the children a little bit angrier and more dangerous to their parents with their power over the play room. The second features astronauts who have crashed off course on Venus, and they are trudging through the unrelenting rain in search of s a sun dome containing shelter and food. The domes are elusive, the rain is plenty, and the crazy abounds. In the last story, the end of the world is nigh, and two parents face a decision of whether or not they should euthanize their children to spare them a potentially terrifying death.

Sound like interesting stories? Well, you should read the book!

Rod Steiger underwent the longest makeup process in movie making history for this movie, each day undergoing many hours in the care of the makeup artists. I watched the featurette on this process, and it's almost like watching men in a science lab. They created stencils, inked them, stamped him with close precision, then filled in the black lines by hand-painting the color. That the movie wasn't even recognized with any nominations for makeup is incredibly lame.

Steiger also carries all four stories extremely well. He has different accents and personalities in each story, and undergoes a giant range of emotions. While I never thought about a southern-accented man when I read the book, his portrayal of Carl works for me. The only criticism I would have is that he yelled a little bit too much in the framing story and the story on Venus. But that's a small complaint, and I was really amazed at how much he transformed from story to story. Bloom and Drivas are very effective as well, and also undergo quite a few changes from story to story.

The set designs for all three futuristic stories are very imaginative and creative. Though they are slightly dated to the present-day eye, they actually still contain a lot of elements that still seem foreign enough to be futuristic and interesting. I particularly loved the scene where Carl's full body is revealed; he lounges on a pattern-covered couch that sits in front of a pattern-covered wall: he practically blends in. As the featurette on the makeup reveals, the intent is to show that he has lost his identity now that he is the illustrated man. I loved that. The cinematography, too, captures each story's feeling well, and is sometimes simply beautiful.

The movie definitely feels like a 70s-ish one in its oddness, and has some very slow moments, especially in the African veldt story. But still, the creativity of the stories, the creativity with which the movie makers approached those stories, and Steiger's acting made it good. It was so much different than I had imagined The Illustrated Man as a book, but this take on it was very unique and taken on so whole-heartedly by all parties involved that I can't help but admire it. I'm glad I found out it existed.

The first noon concert of the year featured a tuba quartet called Novus. I tried looking them up online and found nothing... that is, I found a trombone quartet with the same name. How unfortunate.

The musicians played an assortment of fun music: Rossini, Mozart, Brahms, Ramsoe, and Bach.

I had never thought about the possibility of a tuba quartet. It seems such an odd idea, since so often all we ever get to hear from a tuba is a kind of "brmp brmp, brmp brmp" in the background, often reduced to keeping the beat. The first sounds of a tuba quartet were a little bit jarring for me. The sounds are so low, and almost melt together in their depth. But, as my ears adjusted, I realized it was a treat to hear the music rumbling but also sounding wonderful.

Novus fit a lot into a short performance, and they were a great start to the new year's program. Too bad I was so sleepy - I might have had more to write!

Remember in the early nineties when guys would grow the hair on the top of their head long but shave everything else, so that their hair would hang like weeds over their shaved scalp? I have no idea what that haircut was called, but it was very popular at my school. And, as a ninth grader who cared very much about looking cool, I got this haircut, I must confess with embarrassment. It looked even worse on me than it did on most other people, because I have wavy hair that tends to flip out when it gets to a certain length. Fortunately all the pictures of me from that period have been either lost or destroyed, so you'll just have to take my word for me that my hair looked really, really bad.

This haircut drove my mom nuts and she would try daily to persuade me to get a normal haircut. Being a ninth grader, though, I was way to cool to listen to what my mom said, so I kept my hair the way it was. In fact, the more she bugged me to cut it the more I was determined to do the opposite. Eventually I started to grow sick of my hair because it was impossible to take care of and just looked hideous. By that point, though, I had committed myself to my rebellion and any change would be caving in to my mom's wishes, which is unthinkable for a ninth grader (if you're reading this, mom, I'm sorry for all of it). The only way out was for me to wait for a chance to cut my hair on my own terms, so it was clear I was not giving in to what my mom had wanted all along.

I bring this up because I think it's very clear this is exactly what is happening with the Iraq war. For the last several years the Bush administration has insisted that what was first advertised as a war of liberation must become a long-term presence in Iraq--a presence that has been planned since before Bush even came to power. The administration has been resolute in this position in the face all opposing voices.

We all now realize the war has not gone the way anybody hoped and opposition to it has grown to the point that it has become a major political threat to the party in charge. That become clear in last year's congressional races. I think it must have been sometime around then that the Bush administration realized we need to get out of Iraq. But like me with my ugly haircut they're committed to it. To simply pull out now would look like they are giving in to what the war opponents want. This they cannot do.

So in the last year we've been hearing more talk about the need to stay in Iraq, but with a few important variations. For one thing, there has been much more talk about benchmarks that Iraq's government must meet for a transfer of power. We're starting to focus on more specific goals in the war. Then there was England's withdrawal of troops from the area. Careful not to let this be seen as a sign of retreat, Bush administration officials announced it as a sign that Iraq is making progress and was part of the overall strategy in Iraq. I believe this was the beginning of a new political tactic: even as the administration was announcing plans for a troop increase, they were preparing for a new line of thinking that links withdrawal with victory. They are planning for withdrawal, but on their own terms.

And now another sign: President Bush has announced a slight decrease of forces in Iraq, again linking it with claims of success. But is it really a response to progress in the war? I would argue it is not. Reports on the effectiveness of the recent troop surge are conflicted at best.

I would argue this is the next step in the strategy to save face in Iraq. With a large majority of Americans now opposing the war, withdrawal is inevitable, and to avoid embarrassment the Bush administration is going to make sure that any withdrawal comes as the result of some measure of victory--real or imagined. It's important to note here that whether or not we actually achieve victory may be irrelevant. It's all about the public's perception of the war.

And while the Bush administration delays the inevitable in an attempt to save face, the war rages on.

Todd (the father-in-law) gets some perks as a university professor, one being invitations to cool events every once in a while. This time around, Ginny was busy at work, so I got invited to go with him to the Hollywood Bowl to see Esa-Pekka Salonen conduct the LA Philharmonic. I was told there would be dance. I thought it would be ballet. I looked it up online after I had committed myself to going, and found that there would be one treat for sure - one of the pieces being played was actually composed by Salonen. I was excited by the idea of seeing what a conductor, who has been exposed to so many pieces of music, would compose. What would his music sound like? The dance performance was secondary in my mind. I was excited to hear his music and also to hear Mahler's first symphony.

Above, you can see that, once Todd and I experienced the fastest drive to Hollywood EVER, parked across the street, and walked in to pick up our tickets, we had awesome seats in which to eat our picnic dinner and watch the performance. His former student turned out to be part of the dance company, Diavolo, and the company had awesome seats next to the booths near the front. It was the closest I've ever been to the stage at the Bowl. You can also see a cube sitting on the stage. That was the basis of the dance performance we saw last Tuesday.

Salonen's piece was called "Foreign Bodies", and the Diavolo group specially formed their performance to accompany the music. Now, I know nothing about dance, so if you'd like to read about the actual inspiration and interpretation of the music, you can read a review here. Reading the program before the performance and understanding how carefully crafted each movement was made it all the more special. Below, you can see a close up of the dancers and the cube itself.

All I can say is that, at the end of this combination of music and dance performance, the audience was completely awed, including me. I wish I could find a really good video of what we saw, but there are only two clips on youtube, partially out of focus. At any rate, you can see in these videos that the cube breaks down into three parts, which are re-configured in various set ups, spun across the floor, and used as jumping points and crawl spaces for the dancers as they interpret the music and tell their story.

I really loved the performance, and Salonen's music was amazing as well. It pretty much trumped Mahler's first for me, but I enjoyed that too. Actually, I was surprised to find that the beginning of that piece of music reminded me very much of James Horner's opening music in The New World. I wonder if that's where he got some of his inspiration.

Thanks to Todd for thinking of me, and thanks to his former student for such a great night!

Ric and I watched this last weekend. We've slowly but surely been watching classic westerns (I more than he) and I've been realizing that I tend to like them a lot. High Plains Drifter was always one I had heard about, and it was Eastwood, so I was in. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as great as I had hoped it would be.

The story begins as a stranger with no name (does Eastwood ever have proper names?) rides his horse into the small town of Lago. He stops in the local bar for a drink, where everyone eyes him severely, talks a little bit of disinterested smack, and goes to the barber, where a few men try to attack him while he's in the chair. Obviously, he destroys them. The opening shot and these first few scenes are actually very cool.

From then on out, the focus of the movie changes. Three infamous outlaws who once brutally killed a man in that town--and were subsequently arrested and held it against the townfolk--are going to be released from prison soon. The townspeople see the gun-wielding potential in the stranger and offer to let him have anything he wants in town, as long as he helps protect them. This is where the plot gets somewhat goofy, because pretty soon there's a midget Mayor, all the buildings in town are painted red and the city sign now says "HELL", and a big picnic is being organized to welcome the outlaws home. He also treats everyone in town like crap and destroys half their buildings in playing out his plan. These scenes are also interspersed with flashback sequences of a dark scene in which the three outlaws basically whip and beat a man to death. See where this is going?

How all of the stranger's plans really come together is beyond me. Most of it seems rather pointless, and the reasoning behind some of his decisions is never clear. If it's all basically intended to torture the town, then I guess it makes sense, but is still an odd way of going about things. The stranger, too, is hard to empathize with throughout the movie because of how callous he is, especially the way he takes advantage of a couple of women, one of them a married lady.

I think what the film lacks is enough character development to make the stranger's motives fully understandable as the first half to two-thirds of the story unfolds, and even then, some of his actions seem despicable enough that one can't necessarily root for him. And, (SPOILER) if all the townspeople watched this guy get killed, you'd think they'd remember him when he comes back to haunt their town.

High Plains Drifter has a lot of stylish scenes, Eastwood's usual, cool attitude, and a few funny moments, but it lagged a little bit and never fully fleshed out to its potential. Oh well.

Small Town Gay Bar

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli

LMAO

Admittedly, Kelly and I seldom watch the nightly news. We primarily rely on something called "the world wide web" or "internet" for news. So, today we were surprised to hear that a tropical depression had formed off the gulf coast of Texas. The storm rapidly advanced to puberty and will arrive as Tropical Storm Humberto, or as the National Weather Service likes to say, Teenage Hurricane Humberto. He is moving ever closer at 6 mph, meaning heavy rain in Houston overnight.

Six miles per hour doesn't sound fast, but in college I had this class that allowed you to test out of the early morning gym portion if you accumulated enough points in a number of events/exercises. One of those was a timed 1 mile walk. I had heard that it was a walk because too many people got sick or passed out trying to run a fast mile. Anyway, to get the maximum points for the mile walk, you had to complete it in 10 minutes. I finished in 11, even with the professor/coach yelling at me every lap that I was jogging. I'd alter my gait and head around the turn thinking that if I was jogging, I'd be done by now. If running were allowed I also wouldn't have had to listen to my roommate repeatedly remind me that my speed walk form makes me look like a praying mantis.

In other news, tomorrow morning my dad is having brain surgery. He has a small growth that has made its home for the last 6 years in the space between his brain and skull. It's benign and slow growing and hasn't caused any problems until recently, when he has started having what my parents call "events." Supposedly he's had them when I've been around. They're short in duration and an outsider can't notice, but I have the strange feeling that my parents only claim that they are a small nuisance and in fact the tumor allows my dad glimpses into the future. Or he can see through people's clothes.

The surgery will last about 4-5 hours. Kelly and I are headed to see him on Friday and will spend the weekend there. He will be in the hospital the whole time, but will return home on Monday or Tuesday. One positive is that he gets off work for 4 weeks, though I'm sure there are better ways to do that than getting brain surgery.

Why, oh WHY is this the first time I have seen this movie?!?!

I grew up watching Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies, but somehow Top Hat escaped me. And it's the best one of theirs I've seen. The story begins when Astaire's character, Jerry, spontaneously tap dances late at night in the hotel room above Dale's (Rogers) room. She calls management to complain, he comes down, and he falls for her instantly. He woos her over the next couple of days and she falls for him too. The only problem is an identity mix-up: a series of misunderstandings leads her to believe he's the husband of a close friend of hers.

The movie is awesome. With great supporting roles from Edward Everrett Horton, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes, the entertainment never ends. Both Astaire and Rogers are at the top of their game here, not just in playful acting, but in the amazing dance numbers they whip out. I don't think I've ever seen such complicated dance numbers, and so many opportunities for variety in their numbers as well. Dancing in the rain, dancing on sand from a cigarette tray, and dancing on some of the most elaborate sets I've seen in older movies, I was constantly surprised at the quality of production. Both move in ways it's sometimes impossible for non-dancers to comprehend, and it's all so swift and smooth as well. And, as Rogers once noted, her achievement is particularly special, because since Astaire got to lead, she had to perform all of the dance numbers backwards and in heels.

The most famous scene is probably that in which the couple dance to "Cheek to Cheek", which was nominated for an Oscar for best song (the movie was also nominated for Art Direction, Dance Direction, and Best Picture). Sometimes it's funny for me to see a movie where a famous song originated - a song like Cheek to Cheek seems like it's just always been around, but to see it where it was born is very special.

This is definitely one of those movies in which music and dance are spontaneously interjected into a regular conversation. It may be awkward in today's standards, but it's delightful as well. It's also got a brighter, smarter dialogue, full of unexpected quips that made me laugh quite a bit.

Well, enough gushing for now. Between acting, costumes, sets, overall choreography, and actual dancing, I thought it was quite a spectacle to behold, and a fun one at that.

The idea of Eric Steele's documentary, The Bridge, intrigued me when I first heard it: exploring the reasons why so many people choose to end their lives by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently, it's a very popular location for people to make this decision, and jumping is a mostly surefire way to die. Steele attempts to understand the appeal of the bridge, as well as the reasons behind the suicide decisions of the people he features, and fills the screen with images of the bridge and interviews of the jumpers' loved ones. Unfortunately, while the idea was appealing, the execution wasn't quite what I expected.

For me, the opening scene was enough to doubt my decision to watch this movie. It does, in fact, contain images of actual suicides. The sight of a person who has decided life is no longer worth living plunging into the depths of the bay is something I wasn't able to watch without crying. I thought the movie was going to be mostly interviews, so the shock was significant to me.

There were many debates when the movie came out about whether or not it was ethical for Steele to film these suicides. The jumps were in public, but one wonders if that makes it justifiable to record them and publicly distribute them, even if the victim's families have given their consent. I don't want to get into the debate personally, but my own take is that I don't like to watch people actually die. That's why I go to movies and read books. When it's real, it's much harder for me to handle.

The movie definitely has its strengths and weaknesses. Its strengths would be the artfulness and tastefulness with which the subject is approached. The images of the bridge, especially in the fog or at night, evoke an aura of mysteriousness to something that I've never thought of as anything other than a giant driving connector from point A to point B. The interviews with the families are usually in the comfort of their own homes, freely given, and sincere.

One weakness for me was that those interviews also appeared very detached from sentiment. This may have been a conscious editing decision, but to hear people speak so frankly about the behaviors of their loved ones was a bit jarring. Since the whole movie was filled with the stories of individual jumpers, it seemed awkward that their stories weren't easy to connect with emotionally.

Also, the pacing is sluggish. Most of the movie is framed with the story of one particular jumper, named Gene. The interviews with his friends were interspersed between all of the other stories, and the movie ends with Gene's dramatic drop from the bridge. Gene spent so long thinking on the bridge before he jumped that I felt like the movie makers could have intervened somehow, and the movie makers spent so long dragging out Gene's story that the movie seemed to lag. It almost felt like there wasn't enough content to fill the time, and seeing his story drawn out so much practically makes the audience anticipate his death, which is a very unwelcome idea.

In the end, my take on The Bridge was that it was successful in exposing the Golden Gate as a mysterious magnet to people considering suicide. It tries to understand reasons why the people chose to die, and reasons why the bridge was the place they chose to do it, but not as effectively as I thought it might have. And with its attempts to remain tastefully unbiased or intrusive, the movie left me feeling detached from the individual stories, but still appalled at having seen a few people die. It just wasn't for me.

Wow. I just found Wikipedia's list of fictional books, which reminds me once again that some people just have too much free time. And I love them for it.

These are books that have never been written, but have been mentioned by authors in other fictional works. Here are a few notable examples.

From J.R.R. Tolkien:
There and Back Again by Bilbo Baggins
Book of Mazarbul by Balin and other Dwarves
The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen by Barahir

From Bill Watterson:
Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie by Mabel Syrup
Commander Coriander Salamander and 'Er Singlehander Bellylander by Mabel Syrup

From Kurt Vonnegut:
A great number of works by Kilgore Trout, including The Gospel from Outer Space, Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension, and Oh Say Can You Smell?

But my favorite fictional book titles of all time have to be Oolon Colluphid's controversial series of philosophical blockbusters (via Douglas Adams):
Where God Went Wrong
Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes
Who Is This God Person Anyway?
Well That About Wraps It Up for God

So my brother got me a plane ticket to San Francisco for my birthday to see The White Stripes and Cold War Kids in Berkeley next weekend. I just found out this morning that The White Stripes canceled the tour. Appa