I returned from visiting Xi’an on Sunday night and the trip was a success. The highlights of this week so far has been watching the mind-fuck of a season finale for Doctor Who and an awesome violent storm that occurred last night, complete with some of the most frequent lightning strikes I have ever seen in my entire life.
Today I stopped by Kubrick Cafe with a friend and saw that they are now selling some terrific new thingys: movie themed postcards! The two I immediately purchased were the Moonrise Kingdom and Annie Hall ones. Sweet!
What is a worst human? A term coined originally by the good folks of Nice Man, they have defined it as this. And today I saw the perfect example of it by the people of Hong Kong and one terrible young sir especially.
As I was walking home with my bag of delicious secret dinner, the cloudy skies above me had begun to drop light rain. But lo and behold, as soon as these tiny, baby drops of harmless liquid began to fall from above, umbrellas immediately popped up everywhere as if it were actual hard pouring rain.
Of course me, being somewhat normal, did not mind that little bit of dampness one bit and in fact appreciated the light sprinkles falling onto my head. Rain is fun as far as I’m concerned. As I waited at a cross signal to cross the street, there right next to me was a guy around my age without an umbrella looking completely mortified in his situation of being caught right below this light mist falling onto him. He was even covering his head with his hands and glaring at the sky in agony as he stood waiting.
Now c’mon dude, if a sensy like me is telling you to man up, you know something is wrong with your life. Stop being such a douche. I even saw an old couple a few minutes later walking around just fine, LOVING the rain. So you, guy at the crosswalk, for not being able to handle baby sky droplets makes you the worst human. As for everyone else with umbrellas… well I guess they’re just bad humans.
I’m typing this on a Wednesday afternoon sort of wondering what I should do today because I had no damn idea that it was going to be holiday. Best part so far was sleeping in. Since I knew I would be able to do that, I randomly decided to check out Iron Man 3 at 10:45pm last night. I was at the movie theater in this section of Hong Kong called Mong Kok. This area is pretty much known to be one of the most worldwide places in the world to be PACKED AS FUCK. The movie theater itself was just a bunch of escalators going up into the screening rooms. The room that was playing Iron Man 3 in 2D was really high – like on the 9th floor. At that point, the hallways stopped looking like a movie theater and turned into an abandoned building that needed a paint job.
As we all filed through (because remember, its PACKED) to the screening rooms, I felt like we were cattle heading to get slaughtered. And we kind were…. oh boy did Iron Man 3 suck.
So an editing project at my job has sent me to Shanghai again. It was meant to be one week but now it will be two. Which is cool. But while it is a beautiful city, all the work has kept me from seeing anything new that I hadn’t see on previous trips here. Hopefully that changes this week. Though one cool place I got to check out was area called Tianzifang. It’s pretty much a maze of lit alleys filled with cafes, pubs and craft shops. Unfortunately, being the non-camera crazy guy I am, I once again forgot to bring my camera for photos. So to give you an idea of what it looks like, this will have to do. I shall definitely be retuning to this place while I am here..
On the night before I arrived in Shanghai last weekend, Beijing band Hedgehog returned to Hong Kong almost exactly one from their last visit. With them being one of the first bands I had ever seen in Asia, I had to go see them again. And I LOVED IT.
Though I won’t be in Beijing until later this month, I’ve still have been blasting their tunes in my iPod for the past couple days. They are GREATNESS. And did I mention I am in love with the drummer, Atom?
We are already on the downhill slope to the end of January and I never even put a post about my thoughts of 2012. Those 15+ days of visiting home in California really took its up all chances write a post before the year has ended.
But yeah, 2012 was pretty much the year of changes. From moving out of the U.S. and into Hong Kong and meeting lots of new people, my life was full of new experiences and I loved it. Not only that, but living on the other side of the world allowed me to travel to places that a year ago would have been so much more difficult for me to visit.
Of course, the year wasn’t all peachy. I did lose a friend due to us outgrowing each other and though I sincerely hope that we can reconcile in the coming new year, I am personally fine with moving on with our lives. And then there was Captain Ahab, my favorite band from the L.A. music scene, breaking up. Both guys in the band will no doubt be moving on to great ventures but it was sad to see them go. Being able to visit home for one weekend in November to see their final performance was something I was so happy that I was able to do. Not only was that night the end of one of the best bands today but their breakup also signified an end of an era: the nights my friends and I would go and see Ahab perform were no doubt some of the best nights of my life. So like I said, all the stuff this year pretty much signified major changes.
Things have been quite busy since my last post two weeks ago. Last weekend I was suddenly asked to join a team for the 48 Hour Film Project as editor. I had done a similar project two years ago when a friend asked me to join the USC Ed Wood 24-Hour Film Festival back when he attended school there. The extra 24 hours for last weekend’s shoot definitely was much appreciated and I had a good time working and meeting lots of new good people. Below is a still from our film.
The concept of the contest is pretty much each team must pick a genre from a hat and go forward in creating the film. A specific phrase and prop must also be used. We picked out dark comedy and yesterday our film was screened at a movie theater (a 15 minute walk from my apartment – booya!). Now that the contest is over, I’d like to do some cleaner edits to the film since there aren’t time restraints. I’ll be sure to post it as soon as I’m finished.
With other things, I’ve been listening to a lot of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yelstin lately. Especially their track, Oregon Girl. Not sure if it’s because I recently decided Portland is a city I will move to in the near future or because I suddenly just remembered a good song. Though that song is from like 2006, I listened to it heavily during summer 2011 and it brings back a lot of fond memories, mainly of my bicycle and the girl I was crushing on at the time. Check the vid below.
It is already almost Halloween and my personal plan to watch nothing but horror movies for the month of October failed right after watching Shaun of the Dead. Instead of going for watching another horror flick, I ended up seeing Say Anything this week for some reason. Maybe because I’ve been feeling like a bit like Lloyd Dobler lately.
My younger brother had likewise been living abroad these past few months and had decided to visit me in Hong Kong this week before his return to Los Angeles. Though I’ve been getting lazy with taking photos of Hong Kong life, his visit prompted me to show him around some awesomely scenic places, including Lantau Island, where we went to Tai O Village and the Big Buddha.Though I had visited previously visited Tai O during the late winter and the Big Buddha in spring, it was still cool to see these places again. This time around I hiked a small ways beyond the Buddha on a trail that goes to an area called Wisdom Path.It was pretty much a pathway upon a hill with large pillars everywhere. Some of them can be seen in the final two photos below. And yes – there was a cow!!!
There were many other hiking trails that area too, some of which that lead to some pretty epic scenery sights of the gigantic hills of Lantau. I plan on returning for an all day hike once the weather cools.
Other things I showed my brother while he was in town that I did not capture on camera included bicycle riding in Cheung Chau, hiking in Lamma Island, going to the movies twice at the Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei to watch To Rome With Loveand Moonrise Kingdom (review coming up), and hanging out at a hardcore band night at Hidden Agenda.It was a week well done.
Ugh. Yeah, I know this movie has been out since forever but American releases in Hong Kong can be quite random. Sometimes we get movies way before everybody else or at the exact same time (which is the usual) or in the case for less mainstream films – months and months later. But with the end of July comes at last the Hong Kong release of Woody Allen’s latest movie. His 42nd directed film takes us out of France and into Italy with To Rome With Love. Though this movie’s plot is centered around a European city similarly to last year’s highly successful Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris,this is something completely different. The movie’s plot is split into four stories, which interestingly enough, never connect to each other in any way throughout the movie.
The first story begins with an Italian man named Michelangelo meeting a lost American tourist named Hayley. They seem to click together well and after a quick montage of their blossoming relationship, it is revealed that they are engaged. At this point, their part of the movie’s tale shifts from them to the real meat of their plot, which is the meeting of their parents. Hayley’s parents are played by Judy Davis and the director himself, Woody Allen. They play Phyllis and Jerry and quickly are shown to have a hilarious culture clash with Michelangelo and his Italian family.
As soon as Woody Allen appeared on-screen and got into the classic paranoid character that we all know and love, I could not shut the beaming smile on my face. His character, Jerry, is a retired music producer who hates being retired (because of course, in normal Woody Allen fashion, he equates it with death) and conjures up a plan to come out of it when he hears the great opera voice of Michelangelo’s father, played by Fabio Armiliato, while singing in the shower. This quest for fame leads to some interesting results later in the film.
Speaking of fame, the other main story of the movie follows Life Is Beautiful’sRoberto Benigni. He plays Leopoldo. He begins as a normal, Italian family man. He has a pair of kids, a middle-aged wife and a regular office job. But one day he wakes up to find a huge crowd of news reporters at his door and the world telling him that he is famous. He is not sure why, but finds himself doing television interviews, going to red carpet movie premieres and having beautiful women inviting him into bed. Though he loves this perks at first, he soon becomes overwhelmed with the lack of privacy that goes hand in hand with being a celebrity. I feel this plot may have been Allen’s critique of some people’s celebrity status without actually ever accomplishing anything.
The next story opens with Alec Baldwin as John, a successful architect who lived in Rome during his college years and meets Jesse Eisenberg’s Jack while re-exploring the neighborhood of his youth. Jack invites John into his apartment and introduces him to his girlfriend, Sally. Sally is played by Greta Gerwig. She is most well-known for being in Ben Stiller’sGreenberg.I had previously seen her in several mumblecore movies as well, including her starring role in Hannah Takes The Stairs.Though her part as Sally is small, it was great to see her in To Rome. As Sally, she mentions that her friend Monica is coming to stay with her and Jack for a few days. Monica is played by Ellen Paige and her character is revealed to be the typicalManic Pixie Dream Girl, to which Jack is instantly attracted to.
At this point in the movie, their story gets really interesting. All the while Monica is tempting Jack into a having an affair with her, John is in every scene with them, warning him about how it is clearly a bad idea. But is John really there? The way many scenes are set up, it feels like he isn’t and is just Jack’s voice of reason. Whatever the case, it is most definitely entertaining. Though I have yet to see the series, my friend whom I saw the movie with informed me that Alec Baldwin plays John pretty much exactly the same as his character on the hit show, 30 Rock.As this character, he picks apart Monica and other similarly written women in movies (Natalie Portman in Garden State, Zooey Deschanelin 500 Days of Summer) to reveal that they are not as deep as they same and are quite shallow.
The fourth story involves newlyweds Antonio and Milly, played by Alessandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastronardi, arriving in Rome after moving out of their hometown due to Antonio being hired by his uncle’s family business. While Milly leaves their hotel to look for a hairdresser, a prostitute by the name of Anna bursts into their room and mistakenly thinks Antonio is her pre-paid client for the day. Anna is played by Penelope Cruz and she immediately pulls a reluctant Antonio to bed. When a second room burst-in by his family occurs a few moments later, Antonio does his best to save face by telling them Anna is actually Milly. This leads to some funny situations, including Antonio having Anna accompany him to a business party, in most of the male guests are her previous clients.
Meanwhile, Milly finds temptation in the form of an Italian movie star and we get some entertaining self-dialogue of her trying to convince herself of how sleeping with a celebrity will be a good idea for storytelling with her future children.
Though the four stories cut in and out from each other throughout the movie, none of the characters from each plot meet. At first I found this confusing, as they are clearly going through different amounts of time. (Monica and Jack’s affair seems to occur over the course of a few weeks while Milly and Antonio’s Rome adventure happens over one single day). Once I realized that, the movie become totally easy to follow. The only other critique I have is that some comedic spots last a bit too long. Though they are not unbearable, I felt some of Woody Allen’s gags could have been cut short. But for the most part, I really enjoyed To Rome With Love. With 2012 being filled with so many action blockbusters and weak comedies, it was nice to finally watch movie that was more about people. Along with the gorgeous scenery of Rome, which totally made me nostalgic for my own memories of Rome from my trip three years ago, this is a great feel-good comedy.
The first official day of summer was last week and even though I’m not a student anymore, for some reason it is still something that gets me excited. As of now, I consider last year’s summer to be the greatest one of my life. It was a mix of just so many events. This included attending amazing shows every few days with my friends (which included the greatest 4th of July ever – Captain Ahab style – and the insane No Age/Black Flag show in McArthur Park), night swimming at the beach, camping amongst the beauty of Yosemite, receiving the editing training I’ve always wanted at my Moviola internship, going to random film shoots, reading some great books, meeting and hanging out with wonderful new people and so much more. I had never had so much fun over the span of three months in my entire life. In fact, I had always been happy to see autumn arrive but last year was truly the first time since I was a kid that I was sad to see August go.
So there it is. I consider summer 2011 to be part of the “big three” summers of my entire life. The great summer before that would have to have been when I was 15 years old. I was a freshman in high school and it was truly the final “childhood summer” of my life. Memories of that year include an obsession with illegal fireworks, sneaking into a gated apartment complex for use of their pool and egging an auto body shop for sweet revenge (they ripped off my friend’s mother. Revenge was a must!). It was one of those years where my friends and I pretty much only existed outside, even if it meant sitting on another friend’s porch all day…. when they weren’t even home.
The third greatest summer is a collection of summers – an era of my life between 1st grade and 3rd Grade. Though I always happy that my parents divorced during 4th grade (because they, my brother and I were all miserable with them together), one thing that I did not like about it was having to move away from our neighborhood of that time. It was truly the classic neighborhood in the sense that it was full of kids and we did almost everything and anything a kid could do outside: swimming, sports, bicycle riding, playing with dogs and cats, having a club house, EVERYTHING. And then there is all the inside time we had with our videos. It was a time that I am truly grateful to have experienced.
Now it is summer 2012. I’m not sure if it will top last year. My best summer before last year was when I was 15 and that is a huge lifetime gap. Between those two were summers that were awful and depressing and some that were awesome. And this year has a lot of good things going for it. I’m amidst my dream of living abroad and I’m in the easiest position ever in my life to try new experiences. June so far has been great and I know some awesome things are already planned. The next few months I am definitely excited for.
Now for summer songs!
First, In Memoriam by Everybody Else. This song is all about the nostalgic factor of being a kid.
Next is Laura by Girls. I actually associate Lust For Life more with summer but since I know I have posted that on here, I am going with Laura. Actually, I associate every song from their first album (called Album) to be summer related.
After which is Saddest Summer by The Drums. This amazing song isn’t sad at all.
Now for I Can’t Wait For Summer – one of my absolute favorite Captain Ahab tracks ever. I sing this passionately in the shower.
And finally Impossible by the Shout Out Louds. It’s a bit early to be posting this and that’s because everything about this song is about the sadness of a long summer ending. The music video makes these feelings even stronger.
This weekend was three days of non-stop wonderful rain. It gave me the perfect opportunity to finally do nothing except for watching movies and eating pizza for three straight days, an uneventful event that was MUCH needed. Okay maybe that was for two days – I went to a pretty good show on Friday night that left me sweating like heck from moshing.
Speaking of shows, I actually never posted pictures of the first show I attended in Hong Kong at this awesome venue called Hidden Agenda (which, by the way, is now my favorite hangout in the city). The place reminded me a lot of the venues back home and the bands were simply terrific. This was a night totally worth blogging about but I’ve been sooooo behind in updates that it was just sliding farther and farther into the past. I mean, this was an April event yet I’m not writing about it at the end of May.
But on to it: the main band that night was this fantastic band from Beijing called Hedgehog. Their songs were ear-gasmic and their performance combined with the insanely excited crowd that night made it a show I won’t soon forget.
Other music thingy worth mentioning: one of my favorite bands from 2008, Nightmare of You released their first new song in almost three years. I love their first self-titled album and their Bang EP from 2007 and am glad to say that their newest song is a return to form (and away from their disappointing 2009 sound from their Infomaniac album). The song is called Out Of My Mind and IT IS GOOD.
