January 21, 2004 | 4 comments
i'm traveling with my mom next month to taiwan for a few weeks. we'll be staying in taipei with my aunt and uncle and i'm sure we'll be eating lots of good food, i'm very excited. we are really going to visit a sick relative and spend some time with the rest of the family. mom told me upfront there won't be a lot of time for her to take me sightseeing so i think if i want to get away at all, i'll have to do my own research and find my way around. i went to barnes and noble tonight to find a travel book on taiwan. in the entire travel section they had one book about taiwan: lonely planet taiwan. i grabbed it, cringed at the $19.99 price tag, walked over to the information booth and asked the man if there were any other books on taiwan. after looking really hard at his computer screen, "china?", he asked. "no, taiwan only." "there is only one", he said, and i had it tucked under my arm already. just for kicks i checked a few of the china travel books to see if there was a taiwan or "people's republic of china" section. you know, in case there was something they knew that i didn't. no luck. i sat down with it as i waited for my ride and flipped through it. i noticed the publication date was august 2001. i decided not to buy it thinking there would be a newer edition on amazon. turns out there are only two other taiwan travel books on amazon that have publishing dates after august 2001 and one of them isn't even published yet. there have been only three books written on travel in taiwan in 3 years. this doesn't seem right does it? i looked at the other option, insight guide taiwan, with less than stellar reviews. i'm a travel book snob. i have been spoiled by my collection of my favorite travel books ever, the eyewitness travel guide series. they are chock full of information, but are not densely boring, have whole sections about the cuisines of different regions with full color pages and detailed maps. and the typography and layout found in these books are beautiful. they could easily serve as coffee table books. unfortunately the eyewitness folks haven't made their way around to taiwan yet. the lonely planet books are my backup. this insight series is no where near my back up list. so now i have to choose between a third-rate brand book i've never heard of or a lonely planet edition that is almost 3 years old. did taiwan sink into the ocean? no one informed me.
January 21, 2004 | 0 comments
the austin film society is currently running its italian cinema series, neo-realism and beyond, through march 9th. i've only seen a handful of these films so i can't recommend much, but if you haven't seen the bicycle thief, i highly recommend catching the screening of it next month. it is the most heart-wrenching tale i've ever seen, and is absolutely beautiful on the big screen. i've watched it for years on vhs, but a few years ago i saw it for the first time in a theater at the brown auditorium at the museum of fine arts in houston and it was breathtaking. i think i'd prefer to watch it without the english subtitles. the pure emotions and little moments throughout the film express everything the characters are trying to say.
January 12, 2004 | 14 comments
remember ricky schroeder's smarmy friend, derek, played by jason bateman on silver spoons? yeah, he's the one that i had the crush on, not ricky. in fact i don't remember any girls i knew that crushed on ricky. jason was definitely the hearthrob on silver spoons. sadly, his next show, the extremely funny it's your move, was cancelled after a year. it was sort of the precursor to married with children. then years later you could only catch him on the very disappointing the hogan family. i occasionally would wonder about him whenever i caught a rerun of family ties with his sister, justine. it wasn't until recently that i rented the sweetest thing did i realize how underrated of an actor he is. he just has a small supporting role in this awful flick, but he made a definite impression on me. he plays the obnoxious brother really well and pretty much stole the two or three scenes he was in. there is something charming about his whiny wit that makes me LOL. i started wondering about him so I looked him up on imdb. he's been in a few random films and tv movies with small parts but nothing really good. i decided to rent a recent straight-to-video movie he co-starred in, one way out, starring jim belushi (maybe the worst casting choice ever). um, yeah, it was kind of really bad. even though jason was excellent in it (again playing a kind of whiny coward), the writing was just awful and i don't think it was worth sitting through the short but painful sex scene starring good ol' jim whose character is supposed to be a corrupt, slightly metrosexual cop. no one should have to go through that.
so apparently jason starred in his own sitcom a few years ago, where he played a gay man called some of my best friends. it was supposed to be cbs' answer to will & grace. i don't ever watch cbs, except for letterman, so i totally missed it and the show is now cancelled. i suspect it was pretty awful. the several other sitcoms he's been in never took off and i dare say it was not because of him. well, now he is in an excellent, nearly unheard of, new show called arrested development on fox co-starring ally mcbeal's portia di rossi and my favorite ever, the funny funny funny david cross. unfortunately jason doesn't get to exercise his slimy smarminess he is so good at in this role where he is supposed to be the moral and responsible dad trying to save the family business. however he is so damn funny with the slow burns the writers give him. really this show is surprisingly good, and if it weren't for bateman (and my obsessive tendencies), i never would have discovered it. the bizarre, dark humor along with the acting and fast-paced camerawork sort of lends itself to an improv feel that fans of christopher guest's "mockumentaries" will like (spinal tap, waiting for guffman, best in show, a mighty wind). i think it's almost too good to succeed on network television. so, before this show is cancelled and we never see the likes of him again, i think this is the appropriate time for an official jason bateman come back. he's good looking, has excellent comedic timing, and he already has a warm place in many women's hearts out there (including mine) that grew up with him. hollywood, you can't lose. make him a star, please.
January 8, 2004 | 5 comments
nathan was admiring my new protective case for my GBA SP that my dad got me, to which i responded, "i think it's ugly, but i guess it's better than patrick who keeps his in a plastic baggie*." to which nathan fired back with "that's because patrick thinks it's crack." well said. nathan can be really funny and poignant at the same time when he tries.
speaking of patrick, congratulations and best wishes to erin and patrick on their engagement! it's about fing time. and good job on the ring, pat. erin nearly blinded me with it in the dark inside club deville tonight.
*it's true. he whipped out the baggie in a dark bar one night to show me.
January 5, 2004 | 2 comments
when everyone was in nyc except for me, they stayed in an apartment in soho/nolita right next to a mogu store! i nearly flipped when they told me. now that i've studied this picture, i realize that i walked right by this store on elizabeth when i was in nyc in november on my way to j&l game trading in chinatown. i distinctly remember the window decal design and seeing all the colored cushions, thinking that it looked odd/slightly intimidating and didn't go in. they are just cushions, who cares? i thought to myself. i had bigger and better things to discover. i am so stupid. little did i know what pleasure awaited me just beyond those glass doors.
one of the loveliest things about new york city is that specialty stores like this that only sell mogus can actually survive. look at the selection! all the different shapes and sizes and colors! ulf reports that urban outfitters now has round mogus (i'd link to it, but their web site is whack) that are cheaper and have a bit more bead filling. this is a hot topic of debate for us as to whether the mogu neckrolls at brookstone are bead deficient or not. in any case, this must mean that mogus in a variety of shapes and sizes should be hitting texas in about 6 months. i can't wait!
January 4, 2004 | 8 comments
granted, i don't know much about dean and his policies in depth, and don't have the liberal fervor many people i know do, i have become rather suspicious of this man. all of the things i overhear from his critics i've found to be more and more true as i am researching presidential candidates (i'm trying to be more mindful of political goings ons). before i even heard any of his critics say how he's changed his position on nearly all platforms, i had discovered it for myself one evening when i first heard about him and that he was possibly running for president. i had looked him up on the internet and found a site that consolidates all candidates' platform stances based on previous policies if/while in office, or from sited interviews and then weeks later, after doing more research pondered how drastically his platforms have changed. i brushed this off for the time being; everyone sure seemed to like him. and he blogs.
then i started hearing all of these things about him like how he is confrontational, uncompassionate, a metrosexual. not to mention he doesn't look like a president. maybe the critics are right. and maybe i'm one of them.
1. Dean: There is a report, which the president is suppressing evidence for, which is a thorough investigation of 9-11.
Rehm: Why do you think he’s suppressing that report?
Dean: I don’t know. There are many theories about it. The most interesting theory that I’ve heard so far -- which is nothing more than a theory -- i don't think -- it can't be proved -- is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis. Now who knows what the real situation is, but the trouble is, by suppressing that kind of information you lead to those kinds of theories, whether they have any truth to them or not. And eventually they get repeated as fact. So I think the president is taking a great risk by suppressing the key information that needs to go to the Kean commission.
i have no respect for a man that could possibly be my president, repeat such volatile rumors on air and then claim how damaging repeating those very rumors can be. i cannot help but think he is using any means possible to plant seeds of doubt in the thousands of swing voters out there.
2. White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back ought to be voting with us, and not [Republicans], because their kids don't have health insurance either, and their kids need better schools too.
there are so many things wrong with that statement on so many levels that i can't even begin to comment.
3. I will have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.
now, i understand the courts uphold the basic tenet that you are innocent until proven guilty, and rightly so, but give me a fing break. bin laden admitted on video that he masterminded the attacks on 9-11. i'd like to see dean give his little sweet speech on tolerance and old-fashioned values to the thousands of families that lost loved ones and see how many seconds he has left to breathe. does he have any understanding of what happened? does he understand how the rest of us were ripped open and mourned for all of those lives that tragic day? show some anger. and maybe show a little compassion. more people were supposed to be murdered that day than the mere 3,000 that he seems to have swept under the rug with all that glass and concrete.
4. Dealing with race is about educating white folks. Not because white people are worse than black people about race but because whites are in the majority, and therefore the behavior of whites has a much bigger influence on hiring practices and so forth and so on than the behavior of African-Americans.
and so forth and so on exactly. where can he possibly be going with this other than someplace very very not good. is this his attempt to win over the african american population? by claiming the whites need to be educated? educated about what? about black people? and who's going to do it? last time i looked, dean was white.
...I suddenly realized I was the only white person in the room, and literally the hair went up in the back of my neck. 'Cause I thought, what if it was always like this? What if everywhere in your world you were the only white person and everyone else was black? For one instant I had some tiny inkling what it was like to be black in America.
oh, well then i guess he IS qualified.
if bush loses, it better not be to this man. i want the next president to win because he is better than bush (is that so hard?), not because he isn't bush. i really feel like dean is manipulating the liberal population full of anti-bush/war mongers to turn the election into being only about bush losing, while at the same time, ineffectively pandering to the neo-confederates by promising healthy neo-confederate babies, offending americans (white and black and southern alike) with his educate-the-whitey-fo'-shizzle speak, and giving bin laden the benefit of the doubt. i think i deserve much better than this.
i've always been leaning towards wesley clark anyhow, but if dean really gets the democratic nomination i'm not sure what i'd do. i think i may actually have to vote for bush, Lord help me. and him, too.
January 2, 2004 | 0 comments
nate and posse went to new york and boston for new years. regrettably i could not join them. oh how i wanted to. in addition to the hambone, i stole his isight also. here nate and russ are with and at gabe's in boston. it's just like i'm there with them! see how technology brings us all together? i'm so happy.
