curious case of the crystal skull

There is internet rumor floating about that says James McAvoy is going to be the lead in The Hobbit!!! That's all kind of awesomeness rolled into one. (Update: false rumor. Boohoo.)

I have nil interest in the Sex & The City movie. Apparently I am in the minority. The movie kicked Indy ass this Friday by making over $25M in one day. Holy crap! Lots of women and gays out there. I don't think X-Files 2 will have the same reception, unfortunately.

Watched Indy and the Crystal Skull Thingy tonight. It was underwhelming. I mean, it went thru all the right motions but there was barely a spark of magic. I still remember how wondrous those earlier movies were to me. Maybe it was just the wonder of childhood and summer vacation and standing in line for two hours and sitting amidst an enthusiastic crowd who applauded at every move Indy made. Maybe it had more to do with the time in my life than the movies themselves. But then again, I don't really believe that, because movies are still magical to me - my spirit still soars when I watch an epic like LOTR and still swoons when I watch a romance like Eternal Sunshine. Yeah, I'll just conclude that the Crystal Skull is simply not that thrilling.

Saw Iron Man a second time cuz I had committed to watching it with Ricky. The first half held my interest still but the second half or maybe the last third didn't hold up for me. Nonetheless I still think it's one of the best superhero movies ever.

David Fincher is one of my favorite directors, since his days of Madonna videos to Seven and Fight Club. His new movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, opening in Nov, looks awesome from the trailer. This guy will win an Oscar soon enough, not that that's a barometer of anything.

For the Oscars this year though, Benjamin Buttons will have to contend with another movie I am superhyped about - Revolutionary Road, which reunites Leo and Kate and is directed by Sam Mendes and is based on the book by Richard Yates.

what i like about you

People often ask me what I look for in a girl. I never have a good answer. I kinda know what I like in people:

1. Self-deprecating/humility.
2. Humor/not all uptight and shit.
3. Sense of adventure/free-spiritedness.
4. Work ethics.
5. Care about the world, but not in an extremist/PETA kind of way.
6. Talent, particularly of the artistic variety.
7. Cool taste in music.
8. Cool fashion style.
9. Nice hair.
(#7-9 are the superficial portion of this programming.)
10. Genuine, not superficial, kindness.
11. Chutzpah.
12. Love of Vonnegut, Madonna, Brit-pop, Lord of the Rings, Before Sunrise/Sunset, and everything else I like. It helps a lot that they don't instead like self-help books, Mariah, hip hop, Star Wars (Phantom Menace? Puhleeze), and Julia Roberts rom-coms.

So anybody with the above qualities, or enough of the above qualities, I would admire and love as a friend. Anybody with the above qualities and has breasts, would you marry me?

sharon stoned

Sharon Stone said earthquake in China that killed >80,000 people is karma for all the "not nice" things China is doing to Tibet. What a stupid, fucked up thing to say?????!!!!! So is Katrina karma for the Iraq invasion? That's just plain ridiculous. People's suffering should not be used as a platform for political rantings - she completely used the earthquake question to criticize China for its action in Tibet and showed absolutely no compassion for all the real life people who lost lives, families and homes. She claimed in the interview to be friends with the Dalai Lama. Well, the Dalai Lama needs to make better friends.

The only thing I know karma does is it gives you empty theatre seats when you give bad acting and bad movies.

madonna sticky & sweet? priceless.

So I think I helped raise at least a couple of Malawi children today, by buying a Madonna floor seat ticket to her Oakland Sticky & Sweet concert. Either that, or that's a lot of red Kabbalah strings I just afforded Madonna and family.

Actually I shouldn't feel so bad about spending the money. After, Brangelina just spent $70 million on their new home, Chateau Miraval, in France.

Here is a list of things that cost less than the Madonna tickets I just bought:
- A service trip to the Honda dealership.
- The new furnace sitting in my garage.
- One MRI for my bad knee.
- Hair transplant.
- A John Edwards haircut.
- Eliot Spitzer's one night with high class hooker.
- Louis Vutton sac chien (that's a dog carrier to you non-French speakers).
- One night at the Peninsula suite at the Hong Kong Peninsula (but that one comes with direct access to the helipad.)
- Marriage to Heather Mills.
- Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign.

See - spending a few hundred dollars on M tickets is nothing after all. A night watching her perform is more pleasurable and rewarding than all of the above (except maybe for the hair transplant, which I assume is the gift that keeps giving). Besides, her press release says "A special stage is being created to showcase Madonna, her band, and a stunning troop of dancers, all of which will give fans a breathtaking never before seen or heard once-in-a- lifetime experience." Well then - special stage? We are good.

g5, g5

10. The Quest For Your Heart - Bjorn Kleinhenz
9. Violet Hill - Coldplay
8. Give It 2 Me - Madonna
7. The Worrying Kind - Maia Hirasawa
6. Shut Up And Let Me Go - The Ting Tings
5. Sexual Eruption - Snoop Dogg featuring Robyn
4. Just Like Me - Staphan O'Bell
3. I'm Your - Jason Mraz



2. L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold
1. Leavin' - Jesse McCartney
(yup - my transformation into a teenage girl has been completed)



I really like the part where he sings "G5, G5."

the chemtrails

What I learned this past week:

1. Chemtrails are mysterious substance that conspiracy theorists are alleging the gov't is spraying across the sky.

2. I don't like lemon meringue pies. In fact, I don't really like meringue anything period. So why I went ahead and bought a lemon meringue pie from Safeway just because it's $3.99 is beyond me.

3. I don't worry about anybody else but myself. That's what a coworker said about me. Albeit it was a half-joke, but it was pretty harsh. He said that's what I've always claimed, which is complete bull. I always said you shouldn't trust anybody (at work), not that you shouldn't care about anybody. I hate it when people misinterpret my intentions and twist things around.

4. David Archuleta = New England Patriots. People don't like early frontrunners and tend to root for underdogs instead. The Archuleta actually outperformed the Cook in the finale, but no matter, he lost by a lot.

5. In America, you get discriminated against if you are caucasian, college-educated, religious, and heterosexual (a virile heterosexual). That's what a guy at work claims as his reasons for being terminated. Of course, he left out the part of him being nuts and refusing to take medication. Sometimes, despite what Tom Cruise tells you, drugs are good.

6. Blackberries >>> raspberries.

7. I am really bored with watching dvds. It's become a chore. I think I am going to quit my Netflix subscription when this month is done with.

8. Foxboro Hot Tubs = Green Day.

9. Kristi Yamaguchi != New England Patriots. She won the shebang on DWTS. Anything else would have been a travesty.

10. Crepes are easy to make:

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter (brought to room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1-1/2 cups milk
(milk and egg should be at room temp for mixing)

Place all ingredients except milk in mixing bowl. Gradually add milk while beating with electric mixer. Process until batter has consistency of light cream. Let batter rest in fridge for 2 hours.

To make crepes, butter a 7-in pan. Place over medium heat. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into pan and rotate and tilt til batter coats pan evenly. Cook crepe until lightly browned on underside, then flip and brown on other side. Remove and stack onto wax paper.

Top crepe with nutella, banana, raspberry and vanilla ice cream and you get this:
It's delicious. Like really delicious!

the king of popping

The new season of So You Think You Can Dance debuted. Yes, this reality show features the most talented people on tv, way more so than American Idol. Check out this amazing guy:

the pending arrival of betty white, hopefully

On Thurs, the CA Supreme Court lifted the ban on gay marriage. The gays rejoiced. It's a historic day, like when back then black people got freed from slavery or women got the right to vote. I think it's great. It sounds like a great idea to let people be and let people love whom they want to love. I really cannot think of any downside to this, or how this would negatively affect me, but that's cuz I am not religious. See, if you are religious, then you start judging how other people should live, and homosexuality is supposedly not provided for in the bible and most other holy text. Oh well, more gay porn and S&M and interior decorating genius for the rest of us...Next week I am getting my furnace replaced by Apollo Heating and then getting my electrical upgrade done by Yick's Electric. And then come August, it's the kitchen remodeling. Things are rolling along, and so is the dough. I hope it all turns out okay...Mandarin class is finito. I am no better for it...I am considering going to Japan this year to hang out at udon stands, chill with Hello Kitty and the harajuku girls (are they passe by now?), and buy a trunkful of Ultraman action figures. I am thinking of two cities. Tokyo being one, but not sure about the other. Maybe Kyoto, Osaka...Jaclyn Smith is going to leave by mid-July. I have a strong suspicion that her replacement, who will be permanent, will, instead of a Charlie's Angel, be a Golden Girl. Hope at least she's more sweet Betty White than tough-as-nail Bea Arthur...I notice I am suddenly allergic to sunlight. The back of my neck and my arms, after being exposed to the sun this week, have suddenly broken out in rashes. Allergic to sunlight? What the hell? Am I like a vampire now?...Kristi Yamaguchi, Jason Taylor, and that icky Cristian are the finalists on Dancing With The Stars, and the two Davids are facing off in to be the next American Idol. I am rooting, if you can call my lackluster enthusiasm that, for Kristi and David Archuletta. Jason Taylor is overrated, Cristian is just plain gross and can't dance, and David Cook is too smug. The good news is, Amazing Race is on CBS' fall schedule, so it is coming back sometime in Sept on Sunday nights at 8pm...My favorite tv show this current tv season is - Gossip Girl. The story is juicy and the people are pretty. I am thoroughly entertained. I don't ask for more than that from a tv show...The earthquake death toll in China has reached 30,000. So freaking messed up. There is one article where the son of a woman who died laments, "We have to value our lives everyday." So true...

death and all his friends

Vocabulary lesson:

CATASTROPHE - There are catastrophic natural disasters everywhere you turn. The 7.8 earthquake that hit Sichuan province, central China has killed at least 12,000 people so far. (In 2006, I was in Chongqing, which is on the outskirt of the majorly affected area.) Another 100,000 are either dead or missing from the cyclone in Myanmar (still Burma to me), while the military regime there are blocking foreign aid from reaching the survivors. On the homefront, we've got tornadoes ripping through the Midwest and the Southeast and wildfires in Florida. Maybe Armageddon is upon us. Is it time to start believing in God yet? (P.S. Despite all the lead in your children's toys, please find your way to donate to the China relief efforts!!!)

VINDICATED - The Boston Herald apologizes to the Patriots for a false story accusing the Patriots for taping the St Louis Rams Superbowl walkthrough. No such tape ever existed. But the damage is done. How much to bet that this apology won't catch media fire as the original accusation did? Such bullshit!

INJUSTICE - Amanda loses to Pavarti 3-5 on Survivor Micronesia finale. So freaking wrong. It's okay, Amanda. I love you, baby.

TRIPTYCH - Triptych means a lot of money. Francis Bacon's "Triptych, 1976" went for $86 million today at an auction - that's a whopping $28.7M a panel. Who buys this stuff? I mean, investing in a Heath Ledger Joker action figure would be so much cheaper.

POLYGAMY - All the rage in Eldorado, Texas. Polygamy is when a man has multiple wives. I mean, technically, it can mean any person having more than one spouse, but come on, when have you ever heard of a woman having more than one husband? Anyways, this Texas polygamy sect has been raided due to allegations of pedophilia and abuse. All of this under the guise of religion - this sect practices the teachings under The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Again I ask, is it time to start believing in God yet? Really though, why the hell would anybody want more than one wife?

OPTIMISM - Looks like Obama is gonna win the Democratic nomination, since all the superdelegates are jumping ship and getting all up in the momentum that is Obama. People think when Obama wins, their shit will start spelling like roses, Amy Winehouse will stop smoking crack, their friends will stop talking on the cell phone while having lunch with them, black people will stop being so angry and white people will stop pretending to be black people, ice cream won't melt all over your fingers and get them all sticky when you don't have a wet-nap to clean yourself up, and Barbara Walters will stop talking about her extramarital sex affairs (eeks!). Yeah, we are all dreamers. (P.S. Superdelegates are like these superheroes, or like the Rebecca Romjin mutant in X-Men. They can shape-shift: One minute I am a Hillary supporter, the next minute Obama. You can't tell who I really am. Catch me if you can.)

the iron is hot

Iron Man rawks!!! And yes, just like everyone says, Robert Downey Jr totally makes the movie. His Tony Stark is as charismatic as Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is enigmatic. I think Iron Man ranks right behind Batman Begins as my favorite comic book superhero movie. The only complaint probably is the third act where the movie sort of becomes a typical superhero battling supervillain movie, but that's just quibbling. The first two acts are terrific and thrilling. Now bring on Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight and X-Files!!!

BTW - The official X-Files: I Want To Believe trailer just got released today:

don't give up on me yet

Mummie Dearest: Happy Mother's day. I've made it thru another year of disappointing you. And you've made it thru another year of being disappointed. Was it good for you too? Ah, I kid, I kid. It wasn't all that bad. I mean, remember that time when I took you to Costco and we didn't say a word to each other the entire ride there and back? Or the time when I took you to the doctor and we didn't say a word to each other the entire ride there and back? Yeah, good times. But you know, as Madonna says in Bedtime Story, words are useless, words lose their meaning. I don't believe in words as a form of communication. You know I love my mum. It's telepathic love, baby. More magical than your typical white-people, in-your-face, oh-look-I-sent-my-mommy-a-big-fancy-bouquet love.

In all seriousness, I honestly am sorry that none of your attempts to force a village-accented, mainland-Chinese girl on me has so far yield a happy ending. I am sorry that I am so damn westernized that I want a girl who appreciates Vonnegut and Dostoevsky and Godard. Actually I am sorry that I am such a pretentious prick. And superficial too. I am sorry that ironically, for my being such a fancy dreamer, my life has turned out to be so modest. I haven't given you much to work with; it's rather difficult to brag to your friends at the coffee shop in Chinatown or to our relatives about a son who has so little. Hey, at least I am not some drug addict who steals your Social Security checks or some pimp who runs a Southeast Asian prostitution ring (actually know someone from middle school who did this). I will never be a disgrace for what I do; I'll probably just be a disgrace for what I don't do. I go to the office, do my job, come home, watch tv, surf the web. Yeah, good times.

Yet, despite grumpy appearances, despite the rough exterior, please know that I am trying, in my very own way and my very own pace. I really do want to be a good human being, a good husband and a good father. I know it's hard to package this for the relatives, but I really have good morals and good ethics. And I really do appreciate your raising me and coming all the way to America just to give me an education and doing it all without a husband and working fourteen hours a day at the sewing factory. The depth of appreciation for all that I can never tie up all pretty with a bow, but if you are getting this telepathically, please know some of that effort did do some good. It's a mountain I am climbing, slowly and surely. I don't know how to do it another way. I only know how to follow my heart and love my art and daydream about big things. If the expectations are too lofty and the dreams too silly, it's not coming from a bad place. Misguided, maybe, but never bad. So don't give up on me yet. There is more to this fictional story. Stick around for the rest. With many happy Mother's Day to come.

jackie jackie

This one is dedicated to my coworker's mad-crush on the Jaclyn Smith-lookalike, a.k.a. the warm breeze that's blowing thru our office:

i ain't fakin'

Another three four three songs you should like:

NEW COLDPLAY - VIVA LA VIDA (it's awesome!!!) Ah, screw it. Those evil record company people took the audio off youtube, so you have to be more creative and seek this one yourself.


Santogold - LES Artistes


Robyn - Be Mine


Ting Tings - Shut Up And Let Me Go

7 ate 9

Barenaked Ladies doing children's song. Absolutely delightful. Makes me smile!

They told this joke on Regis & Kelly this morning:
"What did zero say to eight?"
"Nice belt."
Hahaha.

it's already may

Still sick. Still wondering how it's already May. Another half of a year gone without much to show for. Life really is like sand slipping thru your fingers. Mandarin class is almost over. Still have not mastered the z words. I still can't keep promises to myself, or to open myself to others. Still aches from October 2006, a dark, dark month in my life. Still remember the good times and still feel betrayed. People are so disappointing, especially when you have expectations. How can you not have expectations, when you become tight with someone? I intend to fulfill my end of the bargain, so why can't others? That scar is not going to heal anytime soon. My faith, what little that I had of it, is now depleted. Expectation is just another form, a more pedestrian form, of hope. Hope is the basis for progress. And progress can never be bad, right? I suppose that's where failures come in, because progress does not come without risk of failures. You hope, you expect, you get disappointed, and life goes on, and on. And that way, another five months are spent in another year. You spend four days sick, you spend a week in a bad mood, you spend two hours watching a crappy dvd, and soon, it's already May. It's already half way done. You look for your pills for temporary relief. Less pain, less noise, less feeling. Just let it wash over you like electromagnetic waves. You become the prism. All the darkness refracted into splintered, broken dreams. You trace your fingers along the dreams, and you find that there is no end point. They just fade away into oblivion. Light and darkness and dreams have no beginning and no end and no borders. They just appear and disappear without announcement, without definition. Sometimes like time, sometimes like people. I am still sick and I think the drugs are not working. I can still feel the cut from October 2006. But what do you do? You do like you always do, get up and go to work and act like a robot and pretend you've got something worth living for and worth waiting for. You practice hope and expectations. Until the next disappointment. Gosh darn it, what a roundabout way of exclaiming, it's already May.

i want my life to make more sense

Three songs you should like -

The Frames - Pavement Tune:


Leonard Cohen - Anthem


Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction:

smiley faces

Eeks. There is a serial murdering gang called the Smiley Face Gang that's been killing college men by drowning them and then leaving a painted smiley face at the scene of the crime...Our temporary new boss is a Jaclyn Smith-lookalike, and my coworker is crushing on her big time. He's like skipping around like a school boy in love, fetching her donuts. I think his heart about stopped when, upon receiving a Diet Coke from him, she said to him that she would like to take him back to Kansas City (where she's from) with her. It's actually kinda cute and amusing. I think coming to work has become fun...Mariah Carey marries Nick Canon. WTF? Maybe meltdown #2 is coming soon. Let's hope...Radiohead says it's not gonna give away its stuff for free anymore. Meanwhile, Coldplay is allowing free download of the first single from its new cd. The song's called Violet Hill - and I like it very much...How cool was it that Amanda played the Immunity Idol on Thurs nite and in effect eliminated Alexis? While I would have rather seen diabolical Natalie or manipulative Cherie, I am still happy to see Alexis go. Go, Amanda!...Iron Man is at 90+% fresh on the rottentomatoes meter and grosses over $100M in its opening weekend. It's the first blockbuster of the year. I predict this, Indiana Jones, and Batman will be the big hits of the summer, while Speed Racer and the Hulk will bomb. I like the people involved in Speed Racer and the Hulk but the previews really have not looked good...I've already failed to commit to my shopping ban. Two days into May, I already broke down and bought a North Face polo and pants from REI's latest sale. They were items I have been eyeing for a while. Ugh...Ian McKellen is set to reprise his Gandalf role in the upcoming Hobbits movies. Yay! I can hardly wait (or is that can't hardly wait?) for the day I get to set my butt in a theatre and return to Middle Earth again...Madonna's Roseland set received great press reviews. I thought it was just okay, but then again, it's kinda hard to feel the effect when you are looking at a tiny, blurry rectangle on a computer, with the sound out of sync by a couple of seconds. I did love the 4 Minutes set design though. What is disturbing though is that an early, unconfirmed list of cities that she is touring later this year excludes the Bay Area, which means that I rejoined her fan club for nothing and that for the first time since the Girlie Show, I will be missing a Madonna tour...I have jury duty coming up at end of May. I actually won't mind a small break from work, as long as I don't get stuck on a case with a bunch of dumbasses to decide the fate of some mafia boss...I've been sick for the past few days. Started with a sore throat and escalated to coughing and congestion and slight fever and headache. I took a sick day on Thurs but went to work on Friday. I lasted okay; I actually have a lot to do at work so taking two days off in a row would not have been prudent. I spent Saturday and likely will spend today holed up in my house watching bad movies (The Nines? I like Ryan Reynolds but what a piece of pretentious crap!) and catching up on my Tivo'ed shows (the white teenage girl in me is just loving Gossip Girl - it's just so dreamy and pulpy)...Murakami is having an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It looks really cool. When is that show coming to SF?...I was reading Men's Journal, and when Jeff Bridges was asked the question of how he deals with heartbreaks, he responds with the lyrics from a Leonard Cohen song Anthem that go, Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in. That's freaking brilliant, and inspiring. I spend so much time fretting over the imperfections that I often fail to move past them and just appreciate life and things and people for what they are...Finally, to extend my enjoyment of Once and the Swell Season concert, I found an NPR interview with Glen and Marketa and also a podcast of the concert in D.C. back in 2007. These people really put a smiley face on me.

some things cost more than you realize

All I Need is my favorite song off Radiohead's In Rainbows. This BRILLIANT video is made for MTV Exit (End eXploitation and Trafficking), a campaign to stop the trafficking of children into the sex trade or slave labor. Amen.

One of the reasons I didn't really enjoy Thailand was the bad taste left in my mouth seeing fat, bald, old white men strolling arm in arm with young Thai girls. It's so freaking sad that I don't understand how these men can derive any jolly from the situation. The very fact that men actually do confirms my belief that there is indeed evil in this world. I honestly wish I were some rich guy who would swoop in and save all these young kids and send them to college to become doctors or something. But alas, I am not some rich guy. I am just some bloke who writes about how I feel. Maybe one day, those feelings will cumulate into something worth the world's while.