Stars Concert

• Commodore Ballroom, 2007.11.20
  
  
• Stars are amazing.
  
  
• Started a Stars chant and they came out for a 2nd encore. Woo!
  
  
• Amy Milan pointed and waved at some dude next to me as they had met on the road the week before.
  
  He started screaming like a little girl.
  
  I was secretly jealous :P
  
  
• The opening act was actually pretty cool. Still trying to remember what their name is. They're another band out of Montreal, similar musical style to Stars but with more percussion. Which is understandable since they had two percussionists.
  
  I'm also a percussion freak, so it's understandable why I liked them.
  
  
• Stars ended up playing a secret free show at the Media club on Sunday. I found out as I walked by and had to make a quick decision whether or not to hop in the line and cancel on my parents.
  
  I'm such a good son.
  
  
• West Van is more a Friday night thing than Saturday night.
  

Stars
Photo Originally uploaded by
melissa_sucks

Arrr!

When I get married, here's how it's going to play out:

1. It's going to be on a boat.
2. It will be happening in the middle of a sword fight.
3. It will be Geoffrey Rush conducting the ceremony.

(Pirates 3 Spoilers!)


I may be willing to budge on (1) and (2), but damn if I don't love me some pirate Geoffrey Rush.

--

Pirates 3 mini review:

• First half of the movie didn't catch my fancy but the movie grew on me as it continued
  
• Johnny Depp was predictably unpredictably amazing
• I still don't like the Elizabeth Swan (Kiera Knightley) character
• Geoffrey Rush's Barbarossa grows more on me every time I see it
• I still don't like Orlando Bloom
• Bill Nighy's Davy Jones was fun
• I'm still disappointed whenever Chow Yun-Fat speaks English without kicking somebody's ass or making gambling look cool
  

Infernal Affairs III

"After tomorrow, it will all be better."

I thought that was such a stupid line in the movie. The first movie, which detailed the middle part of the story, was the best part.

[hidden] ooh... parallels and analogies [/hidden]

Prison Break season finale sucked donkey balls

Honestly, in comparison to how the show started, the finale was dreadful. (Although Haywire + red helmet + "look ma, no hands" = thumbs up)

Review to come.

Maybe... if I get around to it.

Movie Reviews (Not from a plane!)

I actually don't go too far off-topic this time around.

Two sentence and partial phrase review of About a Boy and Crash:

Part-way through one made me disappointed in myself.
Part-way through one made me disappointed in others.
Fuck nuts.

About a Boy (thumbs up)
Yes, I can see the parallels. It's scary. But it's not always that way. I don't have the English accent or the barrels full of money to fall back on.

I think Rachel Weisz played her part well. It was just a bit part, but very complementary to the plot, characterization, and film overall. Although I think it would have been better had she been left out of the resolution. But I guess they wanted to end on a happy-fun-joy-joy note.

I dunno though... the kid seemed like a total dweeb to me. Sweet kid. But a total dweeb.

Crash (thumbs up)
Racism is a central theme, but the message seems to be condemn the act, not the people.

The main characters are complex: the ones introduced with racial beliefs and acts end up showing redeeming qualities or moments, and even the ones who appear to have the strongest moral compasses will end up make compromises or poor judgement calls.

It's one of those movies that tries to make you think, but doesn't go to lengths to cram its own moral lesson down your throat.

The dialog was well written as well, I thought.

Brokeback Mountain (meh)
Pacing I thought could have used some help. Run time is 2h 14m. Most every scene could have been shortened by 2 to 4 seconds... the movie seemed to drag on.

Also, I really didn't like Jack. I could appreciate the character, just didn't like him. (Yes, I can see the parallels there as well. Shut up.)

I liked the movie a lot more after they left Brokeback mountain the first time. Up to that point it was a nice-ish

The love story itself I don't think was that well developed. Hard to understand how such deep emotional attachments could survived after 4 years of separation and no contact whatsoever.

Or wait... maybe I can. No... no... I really can't. It's the continual contact that makes it hard. If I could just go cold turkey for 4 years...

Napoleon Dynamite (meh)
I was told by multiple people that this would be a movie I would love. That this just screamed "Bruce's sense of humour".

I don't really like this movie.

It's not that I dislike it, I just don't think it's that good. A lot of the humour seemed forced and as like it's making fun of the pathetic and socially inept. I can see why people would think I would love this movie.

Napoleon's dance scene, however, was 4 different kinds of awesome!

--

Darn it, I need to watch a testosterone filled flick (no, I don't mean Brokeback Mountain again).

Book Review: When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese woman's journey from war to peace.
Author: Le Ly Hayslip

Warning: I tend to drift off topic... as usual.

While the writing style left me wanting - especially after Wayson Choi’s endearingly crafted All That Matters and the entertaining perspective of Style’s The Game - the subject matter and content of Le Ly Hayslip’s Heaven and Earth was quite provocative.

The story recounts Hayslip’s life from peasant village girl to street-wise (or at least, less naïve) urbanite. From loyal Viet Cong beliefs to gradual appreciation for American GI’s, especially compared to the corrupt and amoral Vietnamese bureaucracy.

I had a discussion once with my parents about their distrust of basically everybody, even other Vietnamese people. Actually, ‘especially other Vietnamese people’ and especially when doing business. My father said the Communist government and societal structures not only encourage, but require illicit behaviour if you wish to live well. Really, I just think he thinks every world a person speaks is a lie unless it corresponds to his own thoughts.

Back to the book (kind of), apparently there is a movie rendition of Heaven and Earth directed by Oliver Stone. I watched it back in 1993 when it was released in theatres. I didn’t recall this until after I had finished reading it. Apparently the movie spans both of Hayslip’s autobiographical books (the second being “Child of War, Woman of Peace”) and takes many liberties trying to condense 2 books into 2 hours of film. That probably explains why certain parts seemed eerily familiar as I read through it. At the time, I just thought it was some half-remembered story of my parents that was tickling the back of my mind. The only thing I really remember was a bit part that Tai Thai had in the movie as Jimmy. Apparently it was a big thing that this Vietnamese music star had a 2 second scene in a Hollywood movie. Groan.

So to sum things up? Although I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I might (due to a certain somebody's personal recommendation) it's a good read full with insights. Warning: certain parts can get pretty brutal; however, it is never gratuitous.

[Book Review] The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

(Warning, this review gets tremendously off topic... and LONG!)

Yes, I've polished off another book. It's not a game. From this book, you can see:

• a narrative on the hamartia of apparently infallible idols.
• a warning of the devaluation of people resultant from the deconstruction of behaviours - viewing people not as "human" but as equations of various inputs and outputs to be solved.
• a lesson in evaluating changing goals and the goal fulfillment process.
  
• pointers to help you to "sarge".
• entertaining literary prose and laugh and smile along as you relate to AFC's, one-itis, and the desire to become a PUA.

The main theme I drew from this non-fiction book was as a warning to the dangers and temptations of becoming a social puppet rather than a unique person.

The narrator at one point comes to the realization that his desire to better himself, his friends, and his peers in his community never flourishes because their goals are all different. He wanted to learn so that he can pick up and sleep with any girl he wanted, yes, but also to bring that essence of confidence and execution to all other facets of his life. The others learning goals were aligned differently.

(And the off-topic-ness begins... feel free to stop reading here.)

edit: cut and moved to comments section. I didn't like what the length of the post did to the layout.

(Back on topic... resume reading.)

Oh, and as for the book? I liked it.

[Book Review] "All That Matters" by Wayson Choy

"Why not?"

Indeed.

--

Just finished "All That Matters," a Wayson Choy novel who's setting is Vancouver's Chinatown in the 1930's and 40's.

This time period of societal upheaval (The Great Depression, Japanese invasion of China, WWII) serves as the backdrop for a story that keeps a theme of balancing Old World beliefs and New World logic. The narrative has a sort of to-the-point yet very earnest quality to it that I positively adored.

However, I really don't think I have the time to write a full review that would do it justice, so I'll let Amazon try to say it instead.


(Time to buy Wayson Choy's first novel, "The Jade Peony," which, incidentally, follows the same basic story except from the viewpoint of the three other children in the family.)

Edit: Fucknuts, don't read the review for "The Jade Peony" on Amazon. Stupid spoilers...

(And "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" just keeps getting bumped on my reading list.)

You're not "special"!

So I've been using my PocketPC (Dell Axim X3) pretty religiously for the last 4 months, keeping track of appointments, contacts, and whatnot. Well, for the last 4 months minus three days. Three days that my axim lay sitting on top of my desk... not plugged in.

And for the third time in a year (you'd think I'd learn) my axim ran out of battery power and I LOST ALL MY DATA!

Running out of battery power I can understand. Designing a device that stores information in volatile RAM when it's a mobile device that most assuredly won't have continual access to an external power supply is one of the most retarded ideas I can think of.

That's right, not "special". Just retarded.

Yes, I have a working, up-to-date backup of my data, but spending the time and effort to roll out the data is more than I'm willing to take. When I was backpacking through Europe, there were a few near scares when I had to sneak quick charges at trainstations for fear of losing my data. Well, no more I can tell you that.

Pen and paper. That's the shit.

(Anybody out there interested in a Dell Axim X3? Despite my glowing review, it's actually pretty cool and useful! Really!)

The Beautiful Country (Movie Impressions)

I saw The Beautiful Country yesterday at Tinseltown (which, by the way... on second thought, I'll save this rant for another day).

It follows the story of Binh (Damien Nguyen), child of a Vietnamese mother and an American GI, as he searches for his mother, and then for a life in America. And while some loose threads are unresolved by the end, the final scene is very satisfying.

I did, however, have 2 problems with the movie.

Being Vietnamese myself, I understood most of the Vietnamese dialog and can say with some authority that the subtitling was terrible. If it was only couple lines here and there I would have forgiven it, but for the majority of the first act, Vietnamese was the only language spoken. I understand that translations are inherently difficult, especially going from languages that are completely unrelated. Differing idioms, sentence structure, and wordplay wreak havoc when trying to do a translation true to the original. Often what you end up with is something that is either all too literal to the meanings of individual words, or something that has taken a few liberties to try and maintain the spirit and convey the same meaning of the original work. What we had in The Beautiful Country was neither.

Most all lines were streamlined and simplified to 2 or 3 word sentences. Some lines took a lot of strayed so far from the actual spoken words that I had to scratch my head. And other lines weren't subtitled at all.

I've heard of bad dubbing/translations before, but what I don't understand is how this could happen when the people credited with the writing and directed are all Caucasion.

The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that the writers had some brief notes that were given to a Vietnamese dialog specialist to flesh out, and through miscommunication or time/budgetary concerns, those brief notes ended up being used as the subtitles.

The other problem I had was with a certain plot element. What kind of crazy ship sails from Malasia to New York, fricken New York. Instead of going across the Pacific to some sane destination like Los Angelos, let's take the scenic route below Africa and across the Atlantic. If the writers really wanted to have Binh in New York (although the story didn't really need New York. Any major metropolitan city in America would have sufficed), have the boat land on a Pacific Rim dock and then have the slave trucks drive him over.

Okay, maybe a third problem is that I don't understand people's fascination with China-Doll type women. Don't understand it, probably never will.

Other than these two (and a half) points, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. A friend said it was too slow paced, but I thought the pacing was fine. It's a drama, not a popcorn-action flick. Be glad it wasn't Dragonball Z proportions of epic sucky pacing.

Grow RPG

Grow was a Flash puzzle game I stumbled upon a while ago. The basic premise is to keep adding gadgets to a ball for it to continually grow and evolve. Certain gadgets have more growth phases than others, and certain growth phases have prerequisites, so using a little bit of grey matter and a lot of trial and error, you have to find the precise order that will evolve the ball into it's complete form.

Confusing? Just give it a try, you'll understand.

But the reason I mention it is that the maker has made a semi-sequal titled Grow RPG. Same premise, different animations and objects, but still amazingly addictive. Maybe even more so than the original.



Figuring the right order is all of the fun, so try not to spoil yourselves by Googling the solution. If you want a bit of a hint, I've taken screen shots of the end solution for both games:

Grow end shot
Grow RPG end shot

Edit: Fixed up unfinished thoughts and half-completed sentences. I used to be able to write coherently on the first try, I swear!

Gary Golf strikes again!

I was doing some cleaning when I happened upon my copy of SimGolf. I remembered loving this game way back when, so I decided to reinstall it for nostalgia's sake.

Now I remember why I uninstalled it.

This game has taken over my life.



Damn you Sid Meier! At the end of last year it was your remake of Pirates! that had me consumed. Let's just be glad I didn't pull out that other classic Sid Meier game I have in my closet, namely Alpha Centauri. I'd never see sunlight ever again. (never got into the Civilization series, but Alpha Centauri was pure turn-based heroin as far as I'm concerned)

SimGolf NEEDS a sequel. It DEMANDS a sequel. Or at the very least, a remake in the vein of Pirates!

Alright, now that I've gotten that off my chest, it's back to boozing and schmoozing I.M. Picky and Ivanna Richman. Gotta keep expanding my golf course and buy that snazzy airport!

(Somebody... for the love of all that is holy, help me kick this habit!)

I'm BATMAN! (updated)

You must see Batman Begins. Now. Seriously, get off your ass and watch it. If you've already seen it, go see it again. It's that damn good.

• Best superhero movie I've ever seen? Yes.
• Best action movie I've seen in years? Yes.
• Best damned movie I've seen in years? Hell yes!

For all the people who looked at me weird when I said the first Spiderman wasn't a great movie, Batman Begins is what every superhero movie should aspire to be. This wasn't an action movie that happened to have Batman in it; this was The Batman movie. Also, this was the first movie since the original Matrix that made me want to grab the person next to me and exclaim, "This is fucking awesome!" but wasn't able to because I was too engrossed in the awesomeness of said movie. (Hope I didn't just jinx the franchise)

Christian Bale is such an awesome Batman (giving Keaton a run for his money), and by far the best Bruce Wayne of all the movie incarnations.

Johnny Depp was an amazing Scarecrow (although like Kevin Spacey, I have a genetic bias to love anything the man does on film); Liam Neeson was awesome (as expected) as Ducard, and Michael Caine as Alfred was almost too perfect.

(update: Thanks, Kare, for pointing out it's actually Cillian Murphy, not Johnny Depp in the role of Scarecrow. But I'll be damned if I'm the only one who thinks they could be twins)

I was, however, disappointed with Ken Watanabe's role as Ra's Al Gul. No major spoilers here, but I was hoping he'd get more screen time than he did.

The fight scenes, although jerky, I thought were great for their purpose. The quick cuts styling lent weight to the whole fear/chaos concept, although I wish the Batman/Ra's Al Gul fight scene near the end should have been filmed smoother and with the camera pulled back a bit as to showcase their mastery over their own fears. But maybe I was reading too much into the fight scene cinematography.

Biggest thing that irked me concerned the Batman / Rachel (Katie Holmes) dynamic. And no, it wasn't Katie Holmes' acting (although she was terribly outclasses by most everybody else). My beef had to do with one action Batman took that seemed against his believes. I did, however, like how their relationship was resolved in the end. Again, no big spoilers, just go see the movie for yourself.

The only other small quirk I had about the movie is that the Batmobile wasn't as cool looking. Although I can forgive it since the tank fit so well into the ethos and storytelling of the movie.

Bottom line? I loved this movie. And that's not a word I throw around lightly.




Oh, and the sequel better have a proper looking Batmobile.

It's about perspective

I've discovered the readership of this blog is larger than I had thought, unknowingly caused by my own actions. I guess this means that I will start putting more time and effort into each post. Yes, maybe even enough time to write short posts instead of long ones.

*****

Watched an episode of Angel (Season 2, Episode 6: "Guise Will Be Guise") where he meets with a Swami in order to learn a bit about himself and heal some psychological wounds. Turns out the Swami was a fake, but the false wisdom imparted still had a good deal of merit. With controversy revolving around the validity of religion (**cough**Mormon**cough**) and other beliefs, perhaps what's more important than the validity of the source is what you can learn from it. A glib response may be "so the end justifies the means?" Well, no. It doesn't. And I'm not trying to imply that. What I'm trying to say is you can find value in any and everything, it's all about perspective.

To unilaterally dismiss an entire argument due to one particular attribute is foolish. It's not all or nothing, black or white, good or evil. At least, not necessarily. There can be shades of grey, shades of brown, or even a rainbow of colour (or texture! Texture is the new colour, don't you know); it all depends on your perspective.

Amazing(ly simple) Race

Just finished watching the first episode of The Amazing Race: Season 6 and I've peeved at how they've dumbed down the race and put more of a focus on the people rather than the race.

From the very get go, teams had to get to the airport and fly to Iceland; pretty standard fare, so far. However, before Phil even says "go", he points in the direction of the train they need to take to the airport and tells them of the three flights that they must choose from.

What happened to the days when all the teams would get is a destination and a wad of cash? The choke points were bad enough, but now the show doesn't just tell them where to go, it tells them HOW to get there. The "how" was what I found to be the most interesting; the journey, the discovery is what I enjoyed watching. But I guess this new format keeps teams closer together, artifically creating a heightened sence of suspence that presumably will be good for ratings.

And showcasing the relationships of the partners in each team? They're all disfunctional, I get that. That's why they're on the show in the first place.

Oh well, my Scotland-like memory has probably coloured my recolection of past seasons anyway.