Pics I took at Binh and Michelle’s Wedding Banquet.

Man, I took some piss poor photos that evening.

Got this at Amoeba the night I went to see Better Luck Tomorrow. Used, and for about as much as it would have cost me had I jumped on it early last year and bought it from Amazon Canada.
I remember liking this miniseries but thinking it rather slow in the middle. But when you watch it in essentially one sitting, the story works much better and you find it isn’t slow at all. I guess waiting an entire week to watch a new part dulls the sharpness of the content.
Upon watching it again, this time in its fullness, I find I like it even more. It’s an honest portrayal of soldiers — their highs and lows, the way they perceive “”the enemy”", and how they formed a bond with one another. And while I know ten hours is a bit much
for one sitting, you really don’t notice. I cut short my sittings just because I had somewhere to go… like work. But otherwise, you just won’t notice.

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So what to tell?

For those who’d rather just see the photos, then head on over.

Also, Kim has her own little album comprised mostly of art shots.

For those who like to read:

April 15, 2003
3:40pm - Super Shuttle picks Kim and me up at my place.
5:00pm - Expedia cafe. I have half a turkey sandwish and two Sam Adams. Kim eats the other half and has one Sam Adams. Why I remember this, I do not know.
6:45pm - Board the plane. It’s a new one, the 777. Smaller than the 747 but much roomier inside — not to mention it’s a much better plane than the 747. I try to assure Kim of this fact as she steels herself for the ten hour flight to London.
7:05pm - Plane takes off. The estimated arrival time is 12:50pm the next day. On the way over I end up watching Two Weeks Notice — not a bad film, not one I’d see in theaters, but definitely a good way to pass the time. The other films were Adaptation and 8 Mile, both of which I already saw and hell, can you imagine those movies edited for general audiences anyway?

April 16, 2003
12:50pm - Arrive as scheduled. But it takes quite some time to get out and through customs.
1:40pm - Heathrow Express to Paddington Station.
2:20pm - London Underground, Paddington Station. Waiting to take the Waterloo line to Picadilly Circus.
2:45pm - We surface and walk around. We end up seeing the National Art Gallery, Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Thames, and Buckingham Palace. No time for tea, though.
4:50pm - Back at Paddington Station. We check-in there and have Kim’s seat changed so we’re together.
5:20pm - Heathrow Express finally leaves Paddington Station.
5:35pm - We’re out the train and Kim sends me off to run to the gate as our plane leaves at 6:05pm.
5:50pm - I get to the gate. Kim is a few minutes behind me.
6:05pm - Plane departs London Heathrow. The trip takes a little less than three hours, with Finland ahead of London two hours.
10:45pm - Plane lands at Helsinki Vantaa airport. Katri and Kris are there, which Kim and I were placing bets on because we are cruel, evil friends. We take a bus to the city, and walk to the student apartments they are staying in near the train station. Free is free, and the small space was cozy and welcome. Besides, the bathroom had a heated floor. That is just plain genius, even more so than the Japanese toilet’s heated seat.

April 17, 2003
6:45am - Katri’s alarm goes off. It’s her last day of work at the children’s hospital. She lets it snooze for a bit, then gets up to go to work. Kris and I go out shortly after around eight to pick up some pastries from a bakery, which Katri wanted delivered to the hospital a little before nine as a sort of thank you and goodbye thing to her colleagues at the hospital. We walk into downtown to pick them up, then walk to the hospital. We don’t get back to the apartment till around ten.
10:30am - Kris, Kim, and I take a walk around Helsinki. We end up going to three cafes during this period.
6:00pm - Katri returns from work and we get ready for dinner. It’s a restaurant in downtown that specializes in garlic-anything. I had garlic beer and stewed lamb.
9:20pm - We take the subway just for kicks. What gave me pause was the lack of turn stiles. You could just walk in without bothering to put a coin in the box or wave your little pass card. Yeah — that’ll fly here.

April 18, 2003
10:00am - Breakfast. Featuring headcheese, which is really, really good. Honest. I end up laying on the bed for a bit… then fall completely asleep. Jet lag conquers all.
2:30pm - I wake up. We spend the day cafe hopping and at the end of that day go to this bar that pretty much takes all its design cues from the 70s. I personally enjoyed watching a man use the shoe buffer in the men’s restroom.

April 19, 2003
11:00am - Brunch. Cold meats, porridge, bread, and other things. I’m beginning to enjoy these breakfasts.
1:00pm - We spent the day walking around Helsinki, just chilling. Had things gone according to plan, we’d've been in Stockholm already, but alas, the tickets were sold out and we had to give up that part of our trip. I mentioned making a run for St. Petersberg, which I discovered was only 299km away (that’s 186 miles). No one seemed too keen on it, though. Oh, well. With gas being $5/gallon, I guess it was for the best. But I’ll get there one day — with the entire city renovated for its 300th birthday this year, St. Petersberg sounds like a great place to see.
7:30pm - For the evening we took a bus to the outskirts of the city for an Easter Bonfire. So here we are at an annual bonfire which probably hails back to some pagan ritual but has been transformed into an Easter fire. The little girls still dress up as witches, though some were in bunny attire. The island it was on was this little cultural place where a lot of old buildings have been relocated. It was a rather fun but lowkey affair, and I took a walk by myself to take pictures of trees.

April 20, 2003
4:00pm - We all get up really late and don’t get out the door till 4pm. I head out early and walk around the block, then come back just as everyone is ready and we head out.
6:00pm - A church hewn out of solid rock. Crazy Finns. On top is a playground, and Kris has fun at the swings. We then walk to the Sibellius monument and Kim takes a bunch of pictures. We walk back to town and look for a place to eat, as it is Easter Sunday and NOTHING is open.

April 21, 2003
1:00pm - Easter dinner at Katri’s aunt Totte’s out in Numalla. Ante picks us up and drives us the 40 miles to the house. Dinner isn’t ready so we’re kicked out and told to take a walk around town. So we all trooped out, Katri’s uncle Gupe, her cousin Pisku and Pisku’s boyfriend Ante, her cousin Mintu’s fiance Temo (Mintu being in Munich), and the four of us.
3:00pm - Dinner is ready. It consists of a mushroom soup followed by a very lovely lamb with potatoes and salad.
4:20pm - After dinner everyone wanted to take a break before dessert. So we went out to the backyard and set up some chairs. Temo promptly went over to the oak tree, picked up some acorns, and started harassing Kris. A war broke out, and I joined Temo and succeeded in scoring two major hits to the right ear. Ante joined Kris for a little bit and managed to hit me squarely in the back — the only big hit I suffered. From my view, Temo is the better marskman, I was second, and Kris is just a lousy thrower. Ante didn’t throw enough for me to judge. Later, we just lounged around till we felt like dessert.
5:00pm - Dessert consisted of a light pie and the traditional mammi, a pasty dessert that resembles gritty tapioca. We then went back to the backyard and relaxed.
6:00pm - Trivial pursuit. Katri and Kris teamed up, Ante and Pisku made the second one. Without Mintu, Temo picked Kim for her teammate, and I was left without a partner. I shrugged it off, stating I’ll go it alone. Kim wanted me on her and Temo’s team. Totte dragged Gupe out of his study and said he was to team with me. There were all these protests about it being an unfair match, what with Gupe being able to answer any Finnish-specific questions (the game was in Finnish and the cards
naturally had some questions only Finns would know) and I was purportedly a master of useless facts. I suppose their protests were well-grounded, as we kicked their asses.

April 22, 2003
12:00pm - The last full day in Helsinki was spent finishing up some errands. Buying trinkets, etc. Later we visited the modern art museum and the cultural history museum. Guess which one I liked.
6:00pm - Pisku joined us for dinner and we went to this nice Italian restaurant. The best part? The paper towel dispenser in the men’s restroom would dispense a certain length when you waved your hand in front of a sensor. The geek in me rejoiced. Pisku gave us a little concert back at the apartment — a bit of Sibellius and some Bach.

April 23, 2003
4:45am - I wake up.
5:50am - Kim and I board the bus for the airport.
8:00am - The plane leaves Helsinki Vantaa for London. We arrive in London with just enough time to connect to the LA flight. Bummer.
11:05am - The plane leaves London Heathrow. I end up watching Maid in Manhattan, perhaps the sappiest film I have seen in a long time. I then watch a BBC TV movie production of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, starring Bob Hoskins, Peter Falk, and James Fox. I rather liked it. Very true to the book, unlike the TV series on syndication these past few years (though I profess to liking that series as well). After that were a bunch of National Geographic specials follow by me taking a really long nap.
1:45pm - We arrive in Los Angeles ten hours later.
3:00pm - I open the door to my apartment.
5:00pm - I drive to Whole Foods and realize that after not driving for a week and being in other people’s cars, my car is REALLY peppy.
6:00pm - Dinner.
9:00pm - I read some more Robinson Crusoe.
9:30pm - I fall asleep.

Perhaps not the most spectacular of vacations, but considering I effectively spent as much money as I would have just being in Los Angeles doing jack shit, what do you expect? The loss of Stockholm definitely made things awkward through Easter weekend, when nothing was open. Jet lag didn’t help. But Kim suffered the most, jet lag bothering her early on followed by a cold that did not let up (she still has it). I regret not pushing for St. Petersberg — but honestly, not that many people would have been eager to join me on that particular journey, and going off by myself would not have been cool. Ah, well –next time.

As for these trips with the gang, next year appears to be the United Kingdom. Kim’s pushing for London - Dublin.

We shall see.

Big picnic down in Escondido at the Hodges Reservoir on Saturday.

Pictures galore.

Good movie. I could have done without the email campaign everyone kept sending to me, though.

I get the feeling that most who see this film will identify with the emotions and impulses they themselves encountered in high school. But many will not like the ending — which in my view was an excellent one.

Aside: when in line to validate my parking ticket I overhead these two girls, very much from Orange County, were discussing the film. Essentially, something similar had happened at their school (uh-huh), and the guy “”totally”" got away with it. “”And that was why this movie was so real, you know? Because it was really real.”"

My mind was nearly blown from that astute, well-said, observation. Kaff.

Forgive my elitism, but I’m pretty goddamn glad my high school was in South Central Los Angeles.

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Jet Li, Lau Ching Wan, and Karen Mok in one of the better superhero movies to come from Hong Kong.

Jet is a librarian by day, a masked crimefighter by night. Formerly an agent (alluded to as the US) belonging to an elite, psychologically damaged corps of super-soldiers whose feelings and emotions have been eliminated, he now fights crime in Hong Kong. Lau Ching Wan is Jet’s only friend, an inspector of the HK police and expert martial artist in his own right. Karen plays ditzy librarian caught in the crossfire and becomes Jet’s new friend.

Simple, short, and with action by Yuen Woo Ping (now famous as the dude who made Carrie Anne Moss look like hot shit), along with a really neat retro-soundtrack calling to mind 60s spy films and even the Batman TV series, it’s a good movie for a slow night. For an even slower night, you can even double it up with Heroic Trio (Tong Fong Sam Hop).

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Chow Yun Fat, Simon Yam, and Anthony Wong in a story of betrayal and vengeance.

Chow Yun Fat sports a crew cut, a dog, and a love for Desert Eagles. Simon Yam plays an evil weapons dealer who happens to be a magician, a crack shot, and gay. Anthony Wong is Simon Yam’s cousin and Chow’s best friend — until he betrays Chow to save his own life and sets up a basic story surrounded by slutty women, sleazy men, and gore. Not to mention the introduction of the now-famous Bullet-Cam and one of the best last lines ever said in a movie:

“”Well! Masturbate in hell!”"

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The second season of Yamato/Starblazers, original Japanese production.

Did a marathon for half a week on this thing. Thankfully ended on a less tragic note than the movie version, but still — adieu, Kato/Conroy.

This series continues to impress me. Sure the inconsistencies exist, such as damaged portions of the ship miraculously working in the next scene or the failure to use a particular weapon because it doesn’t work as a plot device the second time around, but the idea of Yamato remains fairly lofty.

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A decent film that comes in at 81 minutes, all of it in realtime. The beginning and ending weren’t terribly well done and, honestly, didn’t really need to be stressed. I could have done without the need to moralize.
But from the minute Colin Farrell steps into the phone booth to the minute he steps out it is one taut piece of storytelling. Sometimes that’s all you need, and the rest just needn’t matter.

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Another midnight show at the Nuart with Kim, along with her coworker Adeline and her boytoy Ian, as well as Ian’s coworker Brooks. Nice string of associations in one sentence, eh?
Like Goonies, I have this sucker on DVD, but how can you deny the appeal of going to a movie house to watch it?

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