post-thanksgiving thanks

This Thanksgiving weekend, I am thankful that:

- Just got news that Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater are starting to discuss ideas for a Before Sunset sequel. That's news I've been waiting for ever since that day in 2004, when I watched the camera faded to black on Julie Delpy doing her best Nina Simone sashay in that Parisian apartment.

- The world didn't end yet. Please wait til I get a chance to hear the new Madonna album, watch both the Hobbit movies, and Dark Knight Rises, and of course the aforementioned Before Sunset sequel.

- Unlike last year at this time, I don't have looming business trips for the new year. While work will continue to be craziness, at least I am staying put for a while.

- Turkey leftover potpie! So easy - just dice up some potatoes and onions and throw them in leftover gravy. Cook til potatoes are almost tender, dump in frozen veggies and turkey. Put whole thing in frozen pie crust and bake til pie is golden.

- Black Friday bounty - which includes a Hoover Steam Vac, Zojirushi water boiler, LOTR Extended Edition and many other blu-rays, seasons 2-7 of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, bamboo chopping boards from TruBamboo, Timbuk2 laptop backpack from 6pm, etc. I love online shopping. It's better than crack.

- Canaan bread from Sheng Kee and cranberry/pear scone from Arizmendi - carbs rock!

- The Pats win again and lead their division - 2 games ahead of the Jets. Word.

the fairest of them all

Five upcoming movies that I am excited about -

Snow White & the Huntsman (Oh Charlize!!!!!)


The Adventures of Tin Tin


Hunger Games


Young Adult (Hey, it's Charlize again!)


Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

it's still all up to you

Top 10 songs I am listening to at the moment:

10. We All Go Back To Where We Belong - REM (goodbye, REM)
9. Back - Frank Ocean (Frank Ocean is a non-rapping Kid Cudi - it's a good thing)
8. In The Morning - Jack Johnson (Christmas song, Jack Johnson style - he is one guy who seems to live life the way I wish I could live my life)
7. Enough Thunder - James Blake (likely my favorite artist of the year just keeps cranking out golden dubstep nuggets)
6. Us Against The World - Coldplay (my favorite off the new cd - it's the Coldplay I like, not the Coldplay they want to be)
5. Give Me All Your Love (demo) - Madonna (super catchy but not the return to form I prayed for - where's Like A Prayer or Frozen?)
4. Waiting For Kirsten - Jens Lekman (who knew I would like a song about stalking Kirsten Dunst? actually who knew there would be a song about stalking Kirsten Dunst?)
3. Lonely Boy - Black Keys (these guys know how to rock a song for sure; advanced buzz on new cd El Camino is great)

2. Don't Let It Get To You - Rostam (I love Vampire Weekend, and I love Vampire Weekend side projects - I love the phrase "Please, don’t let it get to you/Even if you don’t realize it/It’s still all up to you")


1. One - Damien Rice (Damien Rice can melt your heart)

11-11-11

Following the lead of thefilmexperience.net, here are 11 lists with 11 items:

1. 11 favorite cities: Hong Kong, Tokyo, NYC, Kyoto, Vancouver, Paris, London, San Francisco, Prague, Venice, Macau

2. 11 favorite tv shows: Amazing Race, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Three's Company, Moonlighting, Twin Peaks, Wonder Years, X-Files, Dynasty, Veronica Mars

3. 11 favorite actors: Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christian Bale, River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James McAvoy, Ewan McGregor, Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Heath Ledger

4. 11 favorite actresses: Marisa Tomei, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julie Deply, Charlize Theron, Keira Knightley, Sandra Bullock, Audrey Hepburn, Kate Winslet, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Emma Watson, Naomi Watts

5. 11 favorite songs that starts with the letter L: Like A Prayer, Like A Virgin, Life Is A Song,
Love Will Tear Us Apart, Landslide, Last Christmas, Let It Be, Let's Stay Together, Live To Tell, Losing My Religion, Lovely Day

6. 11 favorite local restaurants: Mom's Tofu House, Akagi, Brenda's French Soul Food, Suzu Noodle House, Cafe Bunn Mi, San Tung, Hello Dessert, 100% Sweet, Loi's, Volcano Curry, Dosa

7. 11 favorite things to do: eating, watching tv, watching movies, drawing, writing, reading, purging, taking photos, listening to music, blogging, traveling

8. 11 treasured possessions: iPad, iPhone, music collection, Yoshitomo Nara Little Wanderer, J. Crew Ludlow suit, BMW 328i, my writings, Madonna Sex book, my Vonneguts, my Haruki Murakamis, Before Sunset postcard

9. 11 things on to-do list: buy batteries, file, reply to personal emails, read 1q84, burn Amazing Race episodes to dvds, put up curtains in living room, find someone to fix house leak, exercise, write, fix refrigerator door gasket, get proper haircut

10. 11 traits I wish I had: carefree/easygoing nature, fearlessness, faith, athleticism, altruism, charm, confidence, open heart, peace, eloquence, handiness

11. 11 words/phrases I overuse: cool, awesome, Madonna, what the, no way, to be honest, i hate my job, suck, crap, sorry, please

white powder christmas

I loved, loved, loved the first Harold & Kumar but bitterly hated the second. It was a horrible disappointment. I am ecstatic to say they went back and tried again, and, oh yeah, they are back to form!

Ten ways Harold & Kumar's 3D Christmas brings the good tidings:
10. Timely nod to protests of corporate greed (how'd they know?)
9. That joke about Harold not having any cash when Nana Perez brings him some roses (and every other racial joke in the movie)
8. Harold's Mexican father-in-law's flashback sequence, explaining why he hates Koreans and why Christmas trees are a big deal
7. NPH in musical number
6. Kumar's master plan to steal a Christmas tree from a church, involving distracting the Catholic priests with...what else but altar boys?
5. Harold's replacement friend Todd ("S.U.!!!") and his coked-up superbaby
4. Puffs of pot smoke in 3D
3. Uh, it's really about friendship and family.
2. John Cho & Kal Penn
1. I so want a Wafflebot!

crazy in stupid love

Just watched Crazy Stupid Love. It's as awesome, funny and sweet as they say. Everybody is great in it. Ryan Gosling is da man. Sorry dude, I still have to shop at the Gap (there is nothing wrong with their clothes if you buy the right size) and wear New Balance (okay, my funny feet don't give me many options - I tried to buy cool shoes, but they just don't work for me). My only complaint about Crazy Stupid Love is this: MORE MARISA TOMEI!!!!!!!! (Have funny feeling I am gonna be saying this about Ides Of March too.) A-

one in seven billion

Weather: Nice, mild November
Mood: Chilling (no workie this weekie)
Music: Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto (it's the first Coldplay album I wasn't excited about, given all the crappy sneak tracks I heard. It turns out better than I had feared, but it's probably still my least favorite. I want them to go back to being English, rather than hanging out Jay-Z and Rhianna and all that American non-sense.)
Last Movie: Geez - I honestly cannot remember the last movie I saw...maybe Drive?
Reading: 1Q84 (finally!!!)
Last Pleasure: Amazing Race is back. We are six episodes in. They were last in Malawi but didn't run into Madonna. I honestly don't know what I will do with myself if they ever cancel this show.
Last Worry: 1) Knowing that there are now 6,999,999,999 other people competing with me for earth's precious resources; 2) The demise of Australia due to global warming; 3) Too much seismic activities on the Hayward fault these last few weeks; and 4) Oh, and the Patriots...
Last accomplishment: I really, really like some of my new sketches.
Looking Forward To: Madonna new album, coming right at ya in 2012. I am ready to give her all my love again, but...
Not Really Looking Forward To: Ugh, Hard Candy repeat, with guest R&B vocals (Mia and Nicki Minaj are fine on their own, but I just don't want Madonna to collab with anybody - she doesn't need them!!!!!)
Gas Price: $4.079 per gallon premium
Clothes: Old Navy pink striped shirt, Gap 1969 jeans
Today's Headline: Greece risks meltdown after bailout vote bombshell
Current iPad Wallpaper: A sketch of The Dark Knight that I did a few weeks back
Last Website Visited: Amazon, but of course.
Last Meal: Crispy duck Vietnamese sandwich from Cafe Bunn Mi on Clement/6th Avenue (yummm)
Last Purchase: Accutire digital tire gauge from Amazon (my tire pressure monitor system was giving me warning)
Item Off My Wishlist: Bodum Brazil coffee press, and Ryan Gosling's satin scorpion jacket from Drive
Saying goodbye to: Steve Jobs and R.E.M.
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: R.E.M.'s final single We All Go Back To Where We Belong (thanks dudes for the music)

douchebag, gumbo, and twins

Me being me, even though I've been buried by work in the last few months, I still manage to keep up with my tv watching. Of the Fall 2011 new shows, here are the five I am watching:


New Girl - Zooey being all Zooey - it's adorkable, and I like one of the three male roommates - not the douchebag, or the black guy who became another black guy, but the one who pines after his old girlfriend. B+


Hart of Dixie - It's Summer aka Rachel Bilson, in the South instead of The O.C. Summer is an ambitious NYC doctor who is stuck practicing medicine in Hicksville. You got your alligators, your Steel Magnolias, your shirtless good ol' boy, your gumbo cookoffs, and your gossiping black ladies at the beauty parlour. It's sort of like a cousin of Northern Exposure and Everwood. It's charming, like it's supposed to be. B


Revenge - Speaking of Everwood, Emily Vancamp is now plotting revenge against Madeline Stowe for something she did against her father. It's something about some plane crash and framing her father (who in flashbacks is James Tupper, who was in Men In Trees with Anne Heche which is just like Northern Exposure and Everwood...). I don't know - I get kinda confused. But this is all very sudsy and addictive. I love watching rich people in the Hamptons plot against each other. A-


Ringer - This is not as fun as Revenge, but it should be. I mean, it's about SMG playing twins, one a rich bitch and the other a druggie stripper. The druggie stripper is running away from the mobs and the FBI agent who wants her to testify against the said mob. She runs to her sister who then suddenly disappears. So druggie stripper sister takes over sister's identify and it's just a rabbit hole from there. Meanwhile, rich bitch sister reappears in Paris doing something I don't understand. Ah, nevermind - it's Buffy! What more do you want? B-

X-Factor - LA Reid is better than Randy Jackson, but Nicole Pussycat Doll is extremely annoying and unlikable. Of course, Simon and Paula are just Simon and Paula. Nonetheless, I keep watching this stuff as I watch American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. I am not proud. C

Did you know that the 7-billionth human being was born somewhere on October 31? Let's hope that human being grows up to have more worthwhile habits than mine.