This was an eventful weekend.

Friday was Roscoe’s and The Hulk. Han, Bryan, Kate, and Mark were the only confident souls who trusted Ang Lee to pull it off. Obviously, I think he did. Thankfully, Nadia went with Sunyoung to see Hollywood Homicide. Otherwise… well… Nadia has my appreciation. Heh.

On Saturday I drove down to Temecula and Mike Kim of Pure Motorsport installed a set of Vogtland lowering springs and Koni Yellow external adjustable dampers. These lower the car about 1-1.5 inches and make it a little more sprightly on the turns — as well as more feeling of the road, which may make my passengers grimace, but not too much. Along with that he replaced the stock manifold gasket with a NewSouth Performance PowerGasket, designed to prevent heat from the head to soak into the intake manifold. This should keep the manifold about 35 degrees F cooler than before, keeping air density higher as it enters the head. Gearhead talk for, more air, more fuel, more power. We’ll see.

As we were installing, my right front tire revealed a bump along the wall next to the rim. This was disturbing. I took out the full-size spare and am still riding on it. In a couple of weeks, when I have the wheels aligned after the suspension has had time to settle in, I’ll have the tire shop swap the spare’s tire with the busted one on the alloy wheel. Then I’ll start saving up to get better tires.

Also (can you believe it), as the car was lifted, Mike discovered that the attaching bolt for the front sway bar was missing on, you guess it, the right side. What the hell did I hit on that side of the car to lose a sway bar bolt and mess up my tire!?

Anyway, I got a new bolt and had RennerMotorsport put it in.

Sunday was a nice quiet day of eating. Sunyoung and I went to Monterey Park and had brunch at the Yi Mei pastry shop on Atlantic. Then we caught Spellbound back at the Laemmle Theater in Santa Monica, after which we hung out at my place for awhile. Sunyoung taught me the Korean Hangul alphabet, which was quite easy to pick up. The only problem now is detecting the unaspirated Ds, Ts, Ps, and Ks. These suck. That and the special rules regarding vowels and ending consonants and so on. Anyhow, later we were in Panorama City having a Filipino supper at D.J. Bibingkahan. Hehe. That’s quite a bit of traveling, eh?

Apparently, my brain had gone on overdrive learning Hangul, as it kept working on it after I had gone to bed. Sunyoung woke up in the middle of the night and discovered me asleep, with my left arm raised in the air, an index finger pointing and drawing out characters as I stated quite clearly syllables she thought were Chinese. She didn’t wake me up at that moment, so I have no recollection of what exactly I was dreaming. She figures I was saying Chinese since I don’t speak Korean… I am equipped with an alphabet for a language I do not understand. Yet.

Good little documentary following eight children on their way to the 1999 Howard Scripps 72nd Annual National Spelling Bee.
Lags a bit in the middle, but otherwise a great little film. The parents are nuts!

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Good movie. It moves with typical Ang Lee slowness, the kind that you know is slow and yet well-paced. The big green animation does not distract, and the story is well told. I liked this movie. I will own it on DVD. If I have anything to complain about, it’s the resolution between father and son. Nevertheless, this movie is solid, and delves deeper than most comic book films.
And the story? It’s more or less exactly how The Hulk canon in the comic books works. So for the geeks? Aces.

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Li Xinjie! Li Xinjie! Cute little Li Xinjie! Okay, aside from my actually knowing this singer during the period I got sucked into listening to Chinese pop (1998, it was one year, and it remains the only year), the movie isn’t bad. It starts off well, and it does a nice bit of spooking you out. Stephanie, sitting next to me, squealed at every trick.
Unfortunately, halfway through the movie the plot gets pedestrian and overly sentimental. Pretty soon we’re watching a simple drama that has a predictable ending.
Now come on, this is a simply “”I see dead people”" movie. Of course, we know how it will most likely end. It’s in the telling that hooks you… and this did until the second hour. And that second hour? It’s okay. It just doesn’t satisfy.

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This movie was fun as hell. While the first movie unbelievably has more depth and to be honest, a more interesting story, this one has a plethora of action sequences, more ridiculous dialogue, and the charisma of young, pretty actors to make up for it.

It also has introduced a great word to my vocabulary: hoasis.

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This movie was ….

Well, actually, I have no idea. All I got to see were a bunch of kiddie movie previews, plus the one about Radio (gah!), before the fire alarm cut in. Someone came in and said it was a false alarm and that the movie will be played shortly, and we all sat around waiting. The projector came back on and we watched most of a short film made by Pixar, but as it was wrapping up the fire alarm cut in again — this time for good.

The entire theater was fucked, and all these people were in line to get their money back. I asked an attendant about coming back later, and she said all I had to do was keep my movie stub and I could get in to watch any movie playing.

So yeah. No idea. But I hear this movie rocks.

Update:
Good movie. Not as all out funny as some of Pixar’s other efforts, but a good movie. Ellen DeGeneris effectively steals the show as the sidekick. Naturally, the animation is exactly what one expects of Pixar — raising the bar year after year after year.

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