final days in chitown

though i hate the cubs, i have to say that i love wrigley field itself.

i wonder what the size limit is for this blog.

are you kidding me?

bush is being ridiculous

for those of you troublemakers, username/pass = mynameischris

basically, bush has isolated the US by refusing to agree to reaffirming UN's policy of rights for women because it does not want abortion to be a woman's right. pretty stupid if you ask me, even politically, because it would be throwing away all of women's rights for the one right of abortion. to follow this position of all or nothing is just plain stubborn and won't result in anything getting done. that may be how US politics work now, but definitely not how international politics work yet.

recent movies

black narcissus: 8 out of 10

this movie is about nuns trying to successfully run a convent in india but thwarted by their inner passions supposedly brought out by the exotic environment. if you're interested in a movie that exists in 'the other', 'primitive/barbarian natives', 'the exotic orient', and 'the mysterious, unknowable east' tropes, this is it--a time capsule into the thoughts of mid 20th century western imperialists. aside from that, the movie's cinematography (which won an oscar for color cinematography--they had both black and white and color awards for this, since it was the early days when color was first introduced) is luscious and the saturated colors are as much a part of the plot as the dialogue and acting--they bring the pictures to life and accentuate the emotions of the characters, especially in the feverish climactic scene. another more impressive feat is that this movie was completely shot in a studio, not on location in india. finally, i was surprised at the movie's naughty sexual innuendoes regarding the nuns, subtle digs at organized religion. Filmed in 1947, I expected it to be more innocuous.

easy rider: 7 out of 10

another time capsule type movie, this time of the liberating 60's. i liked the paranoid story of a couple friend's trying to live freely, but in the end unable to due to the squares of society. it's a movie with a political message and a critique of american society, almost didactic in its message(there are dialogues that seem like the words coming out of the characters' mouths are not theirs, but a summary of the liberal slogans of the time). didn't like the drug inspired editting. i usually hate editing that calls attention to the hand of the editor and distracts you from the world of the movie and which has no purpose other than aesthetics.

to live

Ikiru: 9.0

if a movie ever explained my current mindstate and the overwhelming anxieties that monopolize my time, this would be it. A movie about a man who realizes he's about to die and at the same time, that he hasn't really been living, it's yet another wake-up call to me that, as the movie states, i have only been passing time, and not living, hence, not alive. even though i have more than at least a year left in me, there is that urgency still. perhaps i am reminded of my mortality through other means, but that's getting off topic. After he finds out that he's wasted a whole lifetime, we're taken through a journey to find some purpose or meaning to life with this poor man. The journey is colorfully told through an excellent combination of camerawork and editting, and a key moment is ironically conveyed through the use of a certain song. Also, underlying his struggle is a similar theme to tokyo story of the changing times that bring with it general alienation and conflicts between generations.

My only complaint with this movie has to do with its structure. This movie is divided into two parts, the first told through the subjective view of the main character. The second part of the narrative switches to the viewpoint of others. Much like Rashomon, the administrators that the main character works with try to piece together how the great change in his personality came about. In doing this, we get pieces of what happened after the first part and how it was viewed by his peers. The bigger effect that this produced was to create a unnecessary(though well done) sort of social/political commentary on the bureaucracy. I think the movie could have been more cohesive as a whole if it had continued in the vein of the first story, but I have to admit that the second part did add a worldly dimension to his struggle. That is, the protagonist's personal struggle is minimized in light of how it affected (or how it didn't affect) most everyone else; it didn't change how the rest of the characters lived, but it focuses on the point that each struggle is your own, and in the end, what really matters is whether your own self is happy.

we love drugs

does one really have to dope to be effective in curling?

some of that secession talk

there's some interesting revisionist history on lincoln and the motivations for his actions during the secession erahere.

movie review: school of rock

i picked this up on netflix as an ongoing project (yes, i'm reduced to calling entertainment work) to watch all of richard linklater's work (he's done before sunrise, before sunset, slackers, dazed and confused, waking life). i pretty much got what i expected. this was one of linklater's hollywood movies, and it was successful in it's goals to just be funny and entertain. that's not to say that it didn't exist on any other levels. throughout the movie, linklater treats the kids as if they were adults, in terms of trust and respect. there is an underlying message that even though adults may know more than kids, they have the upperhand in being pure, naive, simple, honest, basically the ideal that we should all seek to achieve. and if the children represent some aspects that we should once again acheive, jack black, who plays the role of teacher/slacker hilariously, is the one that points it out to us. he's the child-adult that is the link between us and the children. he explains what it is that we should be aspiring to, when he is teaching the children, and music is the medium with which he explains it. and what we should aspire to is doing things for the things themselves and not for someone else. you love music for the music and not for the popularity, drugs, sex, or whatever else. fuck posing and pretense, just be your pure self. don't get bogged down by stereotypes and presumptions, but keep your mind open.

okay enough of that bullshit. really though, the movie was good. jack black is a riot. joan cusack is funny in her usual understated psycho role. actually, all the supporting characters were quite good, except for the parents. the kids were good in the sense that they didn't annoyingly play out that 'cutesy kid' thing that's in disney movies. meaning, they could realistically be kids.

7.0

tom

i'm sad to inform you that your beloved prince is a nazi.

is this really happening?

past few years, i've had the sickening feeling that history was repeating itself over again, and nothing could be done to stop it. here's another item that adds to that sickening feeling.

west vs. east

Great timing...a movie about the crusades. I wonder who wins in the end.

ashleeeeeeeee

This is funny, especially the part about ashlee simpson at the end.

merry christmas

hope this didn't happen to you guys. props to the parents for putting their foot down; it really doesn't happen much these days.

maybe i should buy one too

at first i thought it was a typo. a cat earning an mba? maybe cat was an abbreviation or acronym for something. in the end though, it was just a cat. maybe mo should go there and make something of himself.

lima time!

didn't know you could get sued for this.

notre ty

good article debating whether race had any effect in ty's firing

wi-fi shiz

it's amazing how in taiwan, you walk around and at first sight it's the rankest, dirtiest, nastiest, place ever, with old tile covered buildings, 80's era scooters everywhere, old men at every park, an industrial atmosphere accented by intense smog, and pushcart food vendors. you can't even drink the tap water there. but yeah, if you look carefully, they kind of have their shit together. i guess it's all about where you have your priorities.

this is for you, fu

(and rocky, of course)

nyc

i might be able to score a ride to nyc over thanksgiving break...more to come later.

weddings in the internet age

wow, i did not know that you could purchase wedding gifts online, until now. they even ship it to the bride and groom's address. talk about the convenience of giving and receiving. it's kind of evile, though. definitely allowing the possibility of unimpeded spending, with the ease of a click and preventing the guilt of pulling out the cash. wait, why am i speaking this way about gifts for the wedding of two friends?

MNF locker room interracial love scene!

The racial backlash to the MNF pre-game skit incident...He does have a valid point.