Blind-Sided Ninja

I suppose that in some alternate universe--or perhaps even this one--it is theoretically possible for a human being--or alternate-universe equivalent thereof--to see two more different movies back-to-back than The Blind Side and Ninja Assassin. If so, I would like to know what they are. Such was the case at the majestic Parkway Cinema Theater last night in beautiful Natchitoches, Louisiana. When people used to ask me what I missed about DC, my answer was usually "free museums and Sign of the Whale." I have since amended that to include "10:15am movies on Saturday." I could go to a movie and be out by lunch and have the day still ahead of me. It also allowed me to avoid crowds of people talking, crinkling plastic wrappers, rummaging around in popcorn buckets, and checking their cell phones for text messages (I have a cousin who does this, and I'm going to be arrested one of these days).

Though Natchitoches has progressed greatly, it has not, alas, adopted the weekend morning movie. So last night I paid $7.50 twice to see movies of vastly different subject matter and quality.

NOTE: I used to be able to see an afternoon matinee and eat a small bucket of popcorn for $5.00. As I mentioned to a friend online the other day, there are things that I loved that are no longer, and I have to find new things to love. She lol'd me.

Before we get to the movies, as in real life, let's do a preview. Invictus is coming out this, which I may or may not see. In the preview they play a song that started flipping switches in the back of my head. It was the Ladysmith Black Mambazo version of a song called "Hamba Nathi", and I've heard this song a thousand times.

I used to go to sleep at night listening to their CDs, so I was very happy to recognize it in the movie. I saw them in person at the House of Blues in New Orleans when I was in college, and the lady sitting next to me said, "You seem to know all the words." Not bad for songs that are in a sub-Saharan language, right? Some stuff I've read online says we can expect to hear it a lot during the runup to the World Cup in 2010, which is being held in South Africa. On to the movies:

The Blind Side is based on a book of the same name by Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball, which I think is a fantastic look at baseball's economics and lesser-known stats. (At least they used to be lesser-known. Now every club probably has somebody paid to pay attention to on base percentage (OBP), value over replacement player (VORP), runs created, and defense independent pitching statistic (DIPS). I always liked secondary average, but when I emailed Rob Neyer about it he said he didn't pay much attention to it.)

The Blind Side investigates the evolution of the left tackle position into the second most important position on the field. The particular object under study is Michael Oher, the current left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. The story is about how a kid from the poorest part of Memphis ends up being coveted by SEC football powerhouses and ends up playing for Ole Miss. the movie takes things a bit further and includes footage from the 2009 NFL draft. It also takes a little bit of poetic license with his life. One thing I heard was that he had played football for years before getting to his new school, while the movie makes it seems like he'd never put on pads before.

The movie's a lot more of a people story than a football/position/stats story, and I guess it has to be. I'd heard a lot about Sandra Bullock being really good, and I was doubtful. I was wrong. I think she actually was really good. I had to remind myself that I was watching the same woman who starred in two "Miss Congeniality" movies. I think it was the blonde hair that threw me off. Quinton Aaron doesn't say a whole lot, but maybe Michael Oher is supposed to be really quiet. The movie is touching, funny, emotional and pretty darn good. It felt like most of the teary parts come towards the beginning. I heard some people say they'd have thought it was cheesy had they not known that it is based on a true story, and I think they're right. Knowing that it really happened adds a lot to the experience. If you're looking for a Natchitoches connection, the Ole Miss coach in the movie, Ed Orgeron, is an NSU graduate.

One of my favorite aspects of the movie is how many coaches appearing for their team don't coach there anymore. Nick Saban was at LSU, then went to the Dolphins, and is now at Alabama. Philip Fulmer was fired from Tennessee and is out of coaching. Houston Nutt was fired from Arkansas and is now at Ole Miss. Tommy Tuberville was fired from Auburn. Lou Holtz retired from South Carolina and works for ESPN. Orgeron was fired from Ole Miss and coaches the defensive line at Tennessee.

I got another kick out of recognizing Kim Dickens, who was so good as Joanie Stubbs in "Deadwood." I love it when that happens.

At the other end of the spectrum we have Ninja Assassin, the bloody tale of a man raised as a killer who turns around and kills the killers for whom he previously killed. Good movie? No. Anybody you've ever heard of? No, but the Tattoo Master in the beginning is the same guy who played the Keymaker in Matrix: Reloaded. I'm kicking myself for missing that one. The story is simple, but the whole thing is put together terribly. I'd like to tell you the action is good. However, ninjas do all their fighting in the shadows, so you can't really see anything. Lots of blood, though, if that's your thing. I've seen worse, but save your money.

NOTE: My favorite part of Ninja Assassin was the scene with the nightingale floor, which I recognized from having read--quelle coincidence!--a book called Across the Nightingale Floor, a fantasy novel set in a place much like feudal Japan. The floor takes its name from the chirping sound it makes when anyone walks on it and steps in certain spots. Apparently you're not a real ninja until you can walk across one without making a sound. Arbiter of all truth Wikipedia says that they are also mentioned in Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times, which means I'll have to read it. Again. For about the sixth time.

Two Nights in Bangkok

Chocolate

If one night in Bangkok makes a hard man crumble, what does watching two Thai martial arts movies do? The first was Chocolate, which follows the violent adventures of a young autistic Thai girl named Zen who has the ability to learn any martial arts style just by watching it. Her ex-gangster mother is sick, so she pays visits to her mom's former clients to collect on their debts. When they refuse to pay, the fight scenes take over. Zin is played by Jeeja Yanin, who studies Taekwondo in real life. I thought the fights were fun to watch. My favorite is when she fights another twitchy autistic kid. After he knocks her around for a while, she learns his style for herself, twitching and all.

Ong-Bak

A few weeks before this movie came out, a friend of mine paid a visit to DC and stayed with me while he was in town. This particular friend is my most trusted authority on Asian movies. If it gets his seal of approval, it's good enough for me. When the 1994 version of The Legend of Drunken Master was coming to American theaters several years ago, I read some nonsense about it having a 20 minute fight scene at the end. Knowing he would have already seen it in Chinese, I decided to test Leon by sending him an email.

"Hey Leon. Should I go see the Drunken Master movie? Is it any good? I hear it has a 15 minute fight scene at the end."

"Scotty. Yes, it's good and you should go see it. And it's a 20 minute fight scene."

Now it's my favorite martial arts movie. Trust in Leon. So when he said, "Make a point of going to see Ong-bak. It's good.", I should have listened. I just never got around to it until the other night, when I watched it instantly on Netflix. It's really, really entertaining. There's not any sort of cringe-inducing injuries, just guys getting punched, kicked, kneed, and elbowed--especially elbowed--by Ting, the small village lad/Muay Thai expert who has to go to the big city to get his people's sacred statue's head back. We've all been there, haven't we?

The fights are great. Really great. Muay Thai doesn't show up much American theaters, especially compared to karate and kung fu. In addition to fists and feet, it makes use of shins and elbows as well. I don't think any of the cage fighters use it right now since their sport's more about grappling and "ground and pound" strategies than striking. (Lyoto Machida excepted) I sort of knew what it looked like, but the movie worked in a lot of athleticism and stunt work that really raised the energy level.

Ting seems like a nice enough fellow, and his fellow villagers are a sweet bunch of people. That's about all the analysis I have that doesn't involve something along the lines of "Holy crap, that was an awesome move." If you see one Thai martial arts movie this year, make it this one.

Google

Note: when I use the Google taskbar to search for something, I often stop in the middle of a word or phrase to see what the suggestions are going to be. Search for the lyrics to "One Night in Bangkok", I typed in "one n" and stopped. Three of the suggestions were about the Paris Hilton horizontal tango video, and two were for the song. A few weeks ago I put in "jon " with the space, and 8 of 10 suggestions were "Jon and Kate Plus 8" related. Now it's up to 9. The only intruder on the list is Jon Stewart.

If you have any suggestions for me to check out, let me know.

Stalking Zombieland

Monday Night Zombies

I have often said that the best time to go see a movie is Saturday morning. When I say it's the best time, I mean the best time for me, of course. Saturday afternoon and night, then all day Sunday you get the crowds. I realize that these people paid their money just as I did, but I just want to run most of them out of my theater so I can watch the movie in peace. I've been to opening weekend blockbuster movies at 10:45 on a Saturday morning at Tyson's Corner, and there's maybe ten people there.

I have less often said that the second best time to go see a movie is Monday night. There ain't nobody who wants to go to a movie on Monday night. They've come back from a long day at work and are just yearning for Friday, or at least Wednesday. Going out isn't on the agenda for most people, so there's not a big crowd.

As you might have guessed, I went to see a movie Monday night. I was curious about what Zombieland would be like. I figured it would be sort of a silly zombie-killing adventure, and that's pretty much what it was. It was a bit gruesome at the beginning, but a bit funnier than I expected, and I liked that it was made "differently." There are some creative bits to it that show that somebody in the production or writing crew was willing to add a little something special to the film's landscape. And of course, it's got Bill Murray. I thought it was a fun hour and a half.

Stalking

Earlier this week Tracee Hamilton wrote an article about being the victim of a stalker for many years. I don't have any experience in this area, so I'm not going to get into any analysis of what she wrote. I just think that it's a great piece of work that took a lot of guts to write, and I think it's worth a few minutes of your time.

Watch Instantly

It's becoming clear in a hurry that Netflix's Instant Watch option is going to be trouble. My current account plan allows me unlimited instant viewing per month. I see myself bringing up movies I like just to click forward to the parts I really like before moving on to something else.

Movies, Movies, and more Movies

When I posted about Iron Man last time, my intention was to do a post for each of the movies I'd seen recently. Change of plans. Instead I'll just do a short bit on each one. This will save you some reading time, as well as allow me to start writing about New Orleans sooner.

After Iron Man came Incredible Hulk, which was okay. Hulk movies have the same problem as Superman movies, in that it's tough to create real drama because you never doubt that the Hulk is going to smash the bad guys in the end. Ed Norton is solid, Liv Tyler is about as good ("meh" good) as Jennifer Connelly was in the Hulk movie they made about half an hour before this one. One advantage the prior movie had was its inventiveness with the screen, where they split it up to make it look more like a comic book. I did like William Hirt as the scheming-yet-probably-not-altogether-evil general. Tim Roth acted the part of the Hulk's opponent well, but I've seen The Legend of 1900 too many times to see him as anything but a piano player.

After Hulk came Get Smart. Expectations were low, as I'd watched and enjoyed the TV series when it ran on Nick at Nite ages ago. The show was quirky and funny, with a good deal of inventiveness to offset the standard Cold War storylines. I just didn't think the movie version would measure up in any way. I was wrong.

They managed to plug in just enough homages to the old show--shoe phone, "Missed it by that much!", "Would you believe . . ." while at the same time updating the storylines and character attitudes for today's audience. You wouldn't have had to see the old show to enjoy the movie, but you would have enjoyed it more. The villains aren't scary or malicious, but Get Smart isn't a seriously intense world. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway are good as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. I was very pleasantly surprised with Carell, who managed to meld the Don Adams original Max with his own quirks and personality. It was marvelously done, in fact. I laughed and laughed.

For a period of time, one of my movie buddies in DC was a college friend who enjoyed going to the theater as much as I did. One more than one occasion we doubled up and saw two movies in a day, and on one memorable day we saw not one, not two, but three movies on one day. I think one was a Star Wars movie and another a Scooby Doo. The third escapes me at the moment (and likely for eternity). After she left for another part of the country, my cousin Catie became my movie buddy. This greatly helped her case in being named my favorite cousin. (though I don't think we ever doubled up. She had things like "a life" and "friends" to take care of...)

Alas, I am 1200 miles and a whole time zone away from her now, so I've had to find a new buddy. Or in this case, buddies. Three of my Sylvester cousins are remarkably reliable on short notice when asked "Hey, do y'all want to see Wolverine this afternoon?" So off we went. In short, it's all right. I think they massaged some of the timeline to update it, but I'd have to look into it to be sure, and I don't feel like, and it's not terribly important anyway. The fight scene at the end is pretty good, and I wish it could have lasted a bit longer.

Note: I just can never buy Ryan Reynolds as a tough guy. I've seen Smokin' Aces (and regrettably heard a girl on the metro say, "That was such a good movie." No, it wasn't. It was good for four minutes, then bad for the next five. Good for three, bad for four. Good for four, bad for three. You get the point. It could've been so much better) and Blade: Trinity, and I just don't buy it. If the ladies and alternate lifestyle gentlemen want to rave about his abs, that's fine. I just don't feel the tough guy.

I Netflixed The Departed and was prepared for a solid movie that went nuts at the end. This was based on the buzz and commentary I'd heard about it. The commentary was right. "Wha...??" I don't mind twists and yowza moments to wind down a film, but my gripe is that they should always make sense within the context of what's come before. You don't have to tell me it's coming, but I should be completely blindsided by someone who's been on screen for maybe 120 seconds till now and suddenly shows up to change the whole world, either.

It won Best Picture, though I thought The Queen was better. Scorcese won Best Director, but a lot of people said it was more of a lifetime achievement award than for this one. the story's a little shaky, but on the plus side, I felt like it was extremely well-acted. It's tempting to dismiss Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor because we may think of him as a pretty boy, but he's been really good in some really good movies, going back to at least What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Note: DiCaprio's IMDB page shows 21 titles "under development" for him at the moment. Is that high? I have no idea. Anyway, one of them is titled "Akira." As we all know, Akira is one of the classics in anime film, based on a manga of the same name. The movie is great. If they're remaking it or making a live version, they'd better strap themselves in, because they've got their work cut out for them.

Additional note: A FB friend of mine (who I didn't speak to or even know the whereabouts of for at least the last 20 years, and don't speak to now except to comment on a status update or posting--you know the drill) posted a list of movies that have remakes planned:

Alien, Predator, Vally Girl, Romancing the Stone, Karate Kid, Cliffhanger, Red Dawn, Fright Night, True Grit, The Thing, The Crow, and Total Recall.

I strongly advise against trying to tackle the following:

Alien: it's a classic of sci-fi horror and doesn't need "updating" with any special effects, and you're not going to improve on the story. You'll only confuse things if you try.

Predator: You'll never be able to replicate its Arnoldness.

Romancing the Stone: Come on! You think you can make a better romantic adventure movie than Douglas/Turner/Devito? I repeat: Come on!

Karate Kid: The ghost of Pat Morita will haunt you. Besides, there's no Japanese actor who can pull it off right now. Ken Watanabe? Too big. Mako? Dead.

Red Dawn: Don't you dare. Don't you bleeping dare. What are you going to do, have terrorists take over the town of Calumet, Colorado? I enjoyed this note from wikipedia (some of which might be accurate):

"Red Dawn was the first movie to be released with a Motion Picture Association of America PG-13 rating.^[1] At one time, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and The National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute."

Really? Red Dawn as the most violent movie? Nightmare on Elm Street came out the same year, Texas Chainsaw Massacre ten years before, Friday the 13th in 1980, and thousands of war movies before that. And Red Dawn was the most violent movie?

The Thing: Already been remade once. My dad tells the story of going to the theater in Natchitoches in 1951 (he was 7) to see the original. When he got home, he latched onto the housekeeper's leg and wouldn't let go.

The Crow: Cursed. Jason Lee will haunt you.

Wrapping up The Departed, I noticed that Mark Wahlberg was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and as far as I can tell, it's for his ability to curse in rhythm whenever he's on camera. Thank goodness for Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine.

I went to see Star Trek the weekend before I left Natchitoches. Good movie. Probably a really good movie. It does a great job of setting up characters and their relationships. Like Get Smart, it includes a good bit of the catchphrases people want to hear. They even have the throwaway guy go on a mission with Kirk and Sulu, so you can guess what happens to him. (I always heard him described as the "Ensign Johnson" character. "We're sending an away team to battle the hordes of man-eating monsters on Chronos 9. The team is Kirk, Spock, Bones, Chekov, and...Ensign Johnson." Guess who gets eaten?)

It's smart, funny, and enjoyable. The villains aren't terrifying, but that's sort of a secondary element in a movie like this. They did a pretty good job of tying things together without being herky-jerky about it.

Finally, Angels and Demons. I hadn't planned on seeing it, but the Sylvesters texted me at 9pm one night asking if I wanted to see the 9:30 show. As I was only busying myself by bowling perfect games on the Wii, I agreed to go. Solid movie. I don't think you'd need to have read or seen the DaVinci Code to get it, but it might help to be familiar with the Robert Langdon character. It moves quickly and doesn't get bogged down with symbolism out the wazoo. Well-acted for the most part, and it manages to use our assumptions about character types and turn them against us. It's got a good amount of excitement and daring-do to keep you entertained.

That should be it with the movies for a while, though I hear that Up is outstanding.

Three Really, REALLY Different Movies

I've seen three movies in the theater over the last month or so, each of which is much different than the others and was seen under different circumstances. So here we go:

Wall-e.

I saw this on a Monday afternoon at Gallery Place in Chinatown while I was wandering around DC taking pictures of things I didn't have on digital camera yet. It's well done and kind of funny, and I could see some people maybe getting a catch in their throat watching the parts meant to be emotional. But overall I just didn't see the big point of the movie. If it was just to show off what Pixar can do, then good job. But Pixar's reputation is already established, so it wasn't really necessary to prove anything. Was it to tell me that pollution is bad and that we should take better care of the planet? I already knew that, and seeing Wall-e didn't pound it home.

I also think that Wall-e is for really, really obese people what 300 was for Persians, just not in the really mean way.

Best thing is getting to experience the work of Ben Burtt, who did so many sounds and voices for the Star Wars movies.

The Dark Knight.

I saw this one at Tyson's Corner with my friends Kathy and Adam on a Saturday morning. It is currently on its way to smashing the box office into tiny bits (in thy mercy). You can make the argument that it's too long, but it's not like the extra 15-20 (or 35-40) minutes were that bad.

A lot of attention was paid to Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, and I'd say it was richly deserved. I'm sure somebody out there has talked about him exploring the dark recesses of his soul to come up with this version of the bad guy, which was so much different than Jack Nicholson's. I'd resist comparing them simply because each guy was asked to do such different things with the character.

While watching it I was thinking about some of the "ideas" of Batman. I thought about Gordon, and how Commissioner Gordon is one of the reliable characters. I really like what Gary Oldman has done with him in the last two movies. He's played some really crazy/creepy/whacked out characters (none more so than Beethoven, who seemed even stranger than Dracula), so it's a little odd to see him as someone relatively normal. By the way, Immortal Beloved came out in 1994, the same year as Leon, called The Professional in the US. Good movie.

I thought about one of the things that people forget about Batman: Batman doesn't kill, and he doesn't use guns. It's been that way for almost 70 years. The Joker references this once or twice, but I don't know if people understood what he was getting at. Batman could have run over the Joker or let him fall to his death or blown him to smithereens, but he doesn't. Among other things I think it helps keep the plot interesting.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Ugh.

I saw this on a Wednesday afternoon at the Parkway Cinema in Natchitoches. The "ugh" is not for the venue, though it's certainly not comparable to the other two. It's not even for the loud commenter sitting in the row behind me or the walrus making and taking phone calls in the row in front of me. The "ugh" is for the movie expecting me to suspend disbelief enough to allow for Brendan Fraser holding his own against Jet Li in a fight. It's not a good enough movie for that to happen. I wish Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh would stop making movies for American audiences. Their straight Chinese stuff is so much better.

On the other hand, I did get to see Maria Bello. I love me some Maria Bello, even if her British accent was just atrocious. I see from her IMDB bio that there's now a director's cut of Payback, a movie I really, really enjoy watching. I'll have to look into that.

Movies and Museums

These two things have taken up a rather large chunk of the time I've spent in the DC metropolitan area. I don't regret that at all. Good thing, too, since that's what I did yesterday. I saw Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I would tweak the title to read The Golden Duet instead. The duet designation can refer to my two favorite scenes in the movie, which ran back-to-back, or to the actual duet that occurs in movie. You can't go wrong either way. Both were reminders of why I like going to see movies in the theater, because they were just so much fun and so well done. For me, going to the movies is supposed to be an entertaining experience. I don't mind the serious stuff now and then, but I'd rather enjoy myself. The torture porn and scary stuff isn't really for me. I have an overactive imagination as it is, so I don't need any help dreaming up horrible things that could happen to me.

As for the film itself, it's directed by that nice Spanish gentleman who also did Pan's Labyrinth, which got such good reviews. He brought that same visual creativity to Hellboy, and it looks wonderful. The action was okay, nothing that thrilled me. I would like to have seen more of Jeffrey Tambor's character, but I guess I understand why they didn't use him that much.

Two other things that bothered me: 1) Selma Blair is a real downer. She never smiles or looks happy. Maybe she was depressed by bad acting. 2) I never felt any real threat from the bad guy. In movies and in pro wrestling, they say the hero is only as heroic as the villain in villainous (only they probably use simpler words like "good" and "bad"). This bad guy didn't seem all that remarkable. Good fighter, but that's about it. There's no real sense that this guy actually can win, even though we know he's the bad guy and will lose in the end.

This is sort of the opposite of the problem I had with the recent Superman movie, if you will allow me the hubris of quoting myself:

"The only major critique I have would be that I didn't really feel a lot of suspense or danger. He's Superman, for crying out loud. He's going to save the day, and come out pretty much unharmed in the end. Not anybody's fault, but it's just the nature of the adventures of Superman, I guess."

It's hard to feel suspense with Superman vs Luthor because he's Superman. It was hard to feel suspense with Hellboy 2 because Prince Nuada is not like a Doomsday or Darkseid or any of the other titanic bad guys that have challenged Superman.

One more note: I found the Elvish language interesting. It's not the soft, gentle, flowing stuff you get in Lord of the Rings. It's a bit harsher, more earthy. I don't know what they based it on, but it sounded a little Teutonic to me, a reminder that elves originated in Germanic mythology.

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Some years ago I started to think that everything in life could be related back to one of two things: The Simpsons or Hitler (who said anything about Hitler?). So it was no surprise when I was playing this scene over in my head yesterday:

Professor Frink takes over the kindergarten class, drawing equations and
free-body diagrams on the blackboard to explain the workings of one of
those things that kids push which makes the balls pop.

Frink: N'hey hey! Ahem, n'hey, so the compression and expansion of the
longitudinal waves cause the erratic oscillation -- you can see
it there -- of the neighboring particles.
[a girl raises her hand]
[sighs] Yes, what is it? What? What is it?
Girl: Can I play with it?
Frink: No, you can't play with it; you won't enjoy it on as many levels
as I do.
[he chuckles as he plays with it] The colors, children!

After the movie I wandered over to the Ripley Museum to see the exhibit of Jim Henson's creations, the Muppets first and foremost. It was nice. Not mind-blowing, but nice. They have an 18-minute film showing highlights of Henson's career. At one point a little girl was sitting to my right. As scenes from the old Muppet Show (one of the five greatest TV shows of all time) and Sesame Street and The Dark Crystal rolled by, I wanted to tell her, "You have no right to be watching this. You don't appreciate it on as many levels as I do." I somehow managed to restrain myself.

The Great Captured Wonder

Over the weekend I wandered into DC with the intention of seeing a movie at Gallery Place, probably Wall-E. But jeezum crickets, the lines were long, and it's not something I want to see that bad. Long lines means crowds, crowds mean crowded theaters, and crowded theaters get on my nerves. And people younger than me, to make it even worse. Bah.

So I kept wandering on over to E Street Cinema, stuck my head in, and was pleasantly surprised to see Mongol starting in about 20 minutes. I've always found Genghis Khan and the rise of the Mongol Empire to be a very interesting subject, so I was pleased yet anxious when I heard they were making a movie about his life. I hadn't really paid attention to release dates, so it was a bit of good fortune that I stumbled on it when I did.

Let's get the standard stuff out of the way first: This is a really good movie, very well made, which tells a very specific story in a very specific way. I think the acting is good, though I sometimes have trouble determining such a thing in foreign-language films. I don't know what the dialogue is supposed to sound like, so it throws me a little bit. The scenery is great, the girl playing Borte is pretty (at least I thought so, an acquaintance disagreed), and all aspects of the movie come together well.

On to particular thoughts on the story:

When I think about Genghis and his eventual empire, I think BIG. At its height the empire covered over fifteen and a half million square miles. The phrase "Mongol Horde" brings to mind visions of vast numbers of men on horseback thundering across the steppes. So I was a little caught off guard at how little of that there is in the movie, mainly because the story focuses on Genghis as a man and his individual relationships with a select group of people: his father, his wife, and his blood brother Jamukha. For the most part, it's very small in scope for a man who would cast such a large shadow later on in his life.

Another thing that keeps the vast armies off the screen: Genghis is always getting captured by his enemies and put in chains. The guy is good at getting away, but largely stinks at staying free. That may be some of the "liberties" that the director took with the script to fill in some holes, but I have done some reading that mentioned at least to imprisonments of Genghis before he became the Great Khan.

My acquaintance said that this was just the first in a trilogy about Genghis, but I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere else. I hope it turns out to be true, and wonder if it will follow just Genghis himself or extend beyond into the later conquests of the horde. I'd sort of like to see the battle tactics that Mongol generals used to conquer China, conquer Central Asia, and kill tens of thousands of Western knights in a single battle.

Forbidden Home Companion

In the past few weeks I had the opportunity to see two things for which I have particular fondness: a Chinese martial arts movie and Prairie Home Companion. The movie was Forbidden Kingdom, and PHC was playing at Wolftrap, where I'd never been before. Movie first:

I was very excited back in March or so when I heard that Jackie Chan and Jet Lie would be in their first movie together. The 1994 version of Drunken Master is my favorite martial arts movie, and Fist of Legend comes in at second. They've both done a lot of great work over a long period of time, and in pretty different ways. I'd say that Chan is more of a stunt-comedy performer, and Li more straight martial arts, and that may be a reflection of their training backgrounds. Chan was brought up in the Peking Opera, and Li was a Wushu champion. So they have different styles, and it makes for an interesting matchup to watch.

As for the movie itself, here's what I liked:

--The general storyline. Find magic staff, free Monkey King, defeat evil warlord and assorted minions. That works for me.

--Any fight involving Chan and/or Li. The matchup between the two of them was quite good. I got to see Drunken Boxing vs Wushu and Crane vs Tiger. I could have stood a little more.

What I didn't like:

--The kid from Boston. I had a hard time buying him as the "chosen one" character.

--English. Jet Li can't speak it well, and neither could the pretty girl.

--Dialogue. Awful, cliche stuff. Tough to listen to.

I thought more could have been made of what was a pretty solid storyline. Why the first Li/Chan film is in English and made for American audiences is beyond me. I believe it would have been better had it been a straight Chinese movie. It would have allowed a more natural performance from Jet Li, and I wouldn't have had suspension of disbelief issues with the American kid. I think the villains could have been a bit more evil, but this seemed to be a bit kid-friendly, which held it back. I'm glad I saw it for the Chan/Li stuff, but it could have been better.

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Prairie Home Companion was a lot of fun. Wolftrap has an interesting setup, with people able to sit out on the grass and still see the stage.

I saw the show several years ago in Baton Rouge, and it hasn't changed much since. What was a little different is that this was the Friday night show, rather than the taped Saturday show. The first 15 minutes was us singing along with Garrison Keillor. "Let's sing O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies." So we all sang that for a while. Everybody knows the first verse. Some people know the second verse. Nobody knows the third verse.

"Let's all stand up and sing the national anthem." So we all stand up and sing the national anthem. No fancy arrangement that you get at sporting events, just the straight anthem, just the way I like it.

"Since it's getting close to summer, let's sing 'Summertime'." So we all sing the first verse of the song. The acoustics at Wolftrap are great, so everybody sounds good. I am amazed at the number of people who know the lyrics to "Summertime". It's a great song.

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

They also had Raul Melo, a tenor from the Metropolitan Opera singing Italian love songs and a couple other things. It got me to thinking about singers and performers. If there's somebody you hear on the radio singing R&B, or hip-hop, or rock, or easy listening type of music and you think they can sing, then listen to somebody like Raul Melo and let me know what you think. A lot of the people we like listening to have their blemishes covered up by excellent production techniques. Get them in front of live people, and it's a different story. For guys like Raul Melo, that's not the case. They can SING. They spend all their time perfecting their voice and training it to do exactly what they want it to do. They are a pleasure to see in person.

No Country For Old Men

"Pretty good movie, though they could have cut off about a half hour or so and it would've been just as good." That's one of the comments I had for There Will Be Blood. Well, No Country For Old Men clocks in at about two hours, which works out well.

I'd heard that Javier Bardem's character was really spooky and terrifying, but I didn't find him to be that frightening. He's certainly an impressive villain, however. His face and voice reminds me of Raul Julia. His face is a little rounder and fleshier, but his voice has that same soft elegance to it.

I think the plot is pretty solid, if you ignore the missing motivation and background to the overall story. Certain things seem to be picked up in medias res. I really liked Llewelyn as a character.

How great is the Internet? It allows us to know that Llewelyn and its variations mean "oath of Belenus". Belenus is an old Celtic god associated with fire and healing.

Before seeing it I heard some people say they didn't like the ending. This would be the third movie I've seen this year that has an "ending without an ending", with Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood the others. Maybe saying they don't have an ending isn't the best way to put it. Let's just say they're abrupt, and some people find them unsatisfying.

The movie is still darn good, and I think probably deserving of Best Picture over There Will Be Blood. It's just a tighter movie, and that's something I don't see enough of.

Tightest movie I've seen: 12 Angry Men.

Five movies

After a hiatus from the movies, I've seen five in recent weeks.

Movie #1: Cloverfield. The best recent example of why I consider the type of movie and what it's trying to accomplish when evaluating it. This is an experimental kind of movie, shown from the viewpoint of a hand-held camera. If you don't like the jarring motion and all that, you'll hate the movie. It did give me a headache. But all in all, I thought it was done okay. People in the theater with me didn't like the ending, but endings are always tricky. Part of me thinks that movie makers have struck back against high expectations by deliberately leaving the audience hanging and unsatisfied. The guy acting as the cameraman was really funny, like your nice-but-stupid friend who can't keep a secret and always says the wrong thing at the worst possible time. I saw where it was called an American Godzilla movie, and that's kind of accurate. There's a little bit of creepy-crawly things that I'm not fond of, but it was effective. I don't expect everybody to like it, but it was all right.

Movie #2: Charlie Wilson's War. Very funny and fun. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are good, as they often are. Philip Seymour Hoffman is very entertaining, and I heard several people comment on how good he was. And in case you didn't know, it's about how a Congressman managed to wage war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Or something like that. It's based on a true story, so you can't really mess around with the ending too much.

Movie #3: I Am Legend. I saw this mostly because my sister raved about it. It's not really my kind of movie, since it involves creeping around in the dark, waiting for the bad things to jump out. Once the fighting started, I was okay. But the anticipation isn't for me. Will Smith is good. The whole thing is pretty well done, except for the ending. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you LOVE Will Smith and zombie-type movies. And I mean really, really love him.

Movie #4: Bucket List. Touching and funny. It's a comedy, but it does a pretty good job of showing you how serious it is to be in a hospital with cancer. There are some touching moments. But mostly it's funny with a bit of insight. Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson (maybe you've heard of them) appeared like they were having fun with each other, at least on screen. Ending was a bit of a cliche, but it was good. Just because it's cliche doesn't mean it can't work.

Movie #5: There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis is great. His character's persona just reaches out from the screen and grabs you. Part showman, part ruthless businessman. It's a long movie, listed at 2:38. The first hour and fifteen minutes to hour and a half are good. Then it gets a little clunky. But the last hour has some pretty good scenes. The final scene, even with a sudden ending, is a great scene. Pretty good movie, though they could have cut off about a half hour or so and it would've been just as good.

Incidentally, this movie has Fletcher Hamilton, who played Julius Caesar in Rome. I could not for the life of me remember where I'd seen him. Turns out he was also Firmin in Phantom of the Opera.

There's something that bothers me about the movie, though, and it's not anything that appears on screen. It's rated R. Why? There's very little violence. There's only two things you could really consider a "killing", and they're not gory or terrible to look at. There's a couple of other instances of people dying, but it's nothing awful to watch. There's no nudity. I remember exactly one curse word. The MPAA warning on the movie says "Rated R for some violence." There's way more violence, sex, nudity, and foul language in dozens and dozens of movies that will be rated PG-13 (or even PG!) this year. I just don't get it.

June Allyson Sounds Like Rocky the Flying Squirrel

That's my initial impression of The Glenn Miller Story, anyway. That, and the music is great.

Looking at the date of my last post, I have been terribly lax. Let's get down to business:

I was in Louisiana, then drove to the beach in Alabama. My parents ordered a 50-piece box of Popeyes to bring on the trip. A friend had heard that there was a place called the Flora-Bama, and asked for a t-shirt. But please, please don't go out of my way. So where do we end up staying? In a condo right next door to the Flora-Bama. I got a few good pictures, went into the water a few times, picked up some shells. The water in the hot tub was REALLY hot.

We drove back to Natchitoches and went to my cousin's wedding on the 28th. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. May as well give it a shot: I enjoyed it very, very much. The reception was at the plantation my aunt used to have. The band's lead singer was a girl I went to high school with (good to see she's still singing). I danced. A cousin asked why I didn't dance like that in DC. I said, "I needed the heat and humidity to get me going." It was a hot, sticky, nasty Louisiana Saturday night. It was great. I was encouraged to go to a bar afterwards, but I had a relatively early flight the next day, so I had to decline. Broke my heart, I tell ya.

Browsing my recent Netflix activity, here's a quick rundown:

Man of the Year. Couldn't even finish it. Just didn't care.

Howl's Moving Castle. Good movie. Well put together. Fun. Wonderfully animated.

Extras: I watched about three and a half episodes. It's really good, really funny, but I just can't watch it for any long period of time. It's uncomfortable, cringe comedy. I can understand why people love it, but I just can't handle it.

Ordinary People. Darn good movie. Solid story, maybe a template for similar movies that followed. Superb acting. I can see why it was nominated for so many things.

12 Angry Men. I love this movie. It's got Henry Fonda, the Man Himself. Wonderful cast up and down the line. Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, John Fiedler to name a few. The story is comelling, and the acting is intense. Something I really liked about it that may go unnoticed: it's 96 minutes long, so there's really no wasted scenes. the whole thing comes off tight as a drum.

Bourne Identity/Bourne Supremacy. Big blockbusters. They're good. Very well made. Acting's good, cast is good, most everything is believable to a certain degree. I just can't get excited about it. The story doesn't mean anything to me. Other people love it, and that's okay.

A Patch of Blue. Sidney Poitier is good. Elizabeth Hartman is quite good. Shelley Winters won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. It must've been very controversial when it came out.

Witness for the Prosecution. Ah, what a good movie. One of my favorites, and probably my favorite courtroom movie ever. Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power (they said my grandfather looked like Tyrone Power back in the day), and Marlene Dietrich. Suspense. Tension. Drama. Twists and turns. Humor. Loved every minute of it.

Digression: Many moons ago, back when the world was young, I came up to DC on a school trip. We went to the Lazy Susan Dinner Theater one night and watched a live performance of the play. Fantastic. I sat with a good friend of mine during the evening, so WFTP has a special place in my heart.

Lifeboat. I'd never heard of it until I saw it on Netflix. It has two people I'd heard of: Tallulah Bankhead and Hume Cronyn. It has one person who I'm glad I learned about: Canada Lee. What a great name, but not as good as what his real name was: Lionel Cornelius Canegata. Holy cow, that's a good one.

Auntie Mame. Rosalind Russell. Worth watching a movie just to say "Rosalind Russell". Fun and funny at times. I can't honestly say the movie added anything meaningful to my life, but that's not the worst thing in the world. However, Pippa Scott was a good-looking woman.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In the annals of film, it's got to be tough to find a leading duo that can compare with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Throw in Lee Marvin playing a dastardly villain, and you've got yourself a winner. A good movie, and probably a good study for learning about what movies used to be like and how they spoke to us in days gone by. There's a strong patriotic tint to it that reminds the viewer what America is supposed to stand for.

I'll end this post here and talk about some other stuff a little later.

Stranger Than Fiction

I really liked it. It's a very clever concept, and easy to lose control of if you're not careful. For those of you not familiar with the story, here's an overview in 25 words or less:

Harold hears writer Karen's voice narrating his life. She says he's going to die. He tries finding her to convince her not to kill him.

25 words, and it was tough.

Will Ferrell is quite good, and not because he's funny, but because he acts the part very well. A little subdued (very subdued, by his standards), very under control. Not really any physical comedy, which can be a crutch for a comic actor who tries to play it straight without cracking jokes verbally. I know I said this about Montgomery Clift, and I certainly don't want to seem like I'm putting Ferrell at Clift's level, but his success comes from how well he uses his face. Saying an actor uses his face well is like saying a soccer player has good feet. It should be obvious, but it often goes unmentioned.

Emma Thompson plays the writer who is knowingly/unknowingly writing Harold Crick towards his death. She's great. The moment when she sees Harold in person for the first time is wonderful.

I'm not sure why Queen Latifah was playing her assistant. It's a bit of an underwhelming role for an actress who was nominated for an Oscar in Chicago a few years ago. Maybe her best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor (if they have that anymore).

Maggie Gyllenhaal is the love interest, and I thought she did a good job with a good character. She was better than attractive, she was appealing.

Digression: I think the desire that comes from appeal is stronger than what comes from attractiveness. It's a lot rarer, for one thing. And I think it's more individualistic, whereas the other is more general. A girl who can appeal to a man (and vice versa of course, ladies) is so much more special to him, though she may not appear so to others.

So Ana Pascal appeals to Harold in a very special way. She bakes cookies. She helps people. She's smart. And she's not bad lookin', either. She's a special thing in Harold's world, which is mostly lacking in anything that's not dull. Very nice.

I'm sort of wondering why Dustin Hoffman played the role of the lit professor who Harold goes to for help, but he was good. He takes sort of a twisted interest in Harold's "plight", though I can't tell if he believes him at the beginning or not.

"It's a very clever concept, and easy to lose control of if you're not careful." Quoting oneself? Ach, the last refuge of the scoundrel.

I thought that was patriotism?
Shut up.

Okay, so you've got this idea that a character can actually hear the narrator's voice in his head. And not just the narrator, but the writer herself. It would be very easy to overuse the device and ruin it by hammering the viewer with it at every opportunity, trying to get as many laughs as possible. A great quality of the film is that this does not happen. It happens here and there, but we're hardly beaten over the head with it. I think the writers' management of the "voice in the head" factor was excellent.

A really good movie all around. Not too many characters, not a quirky and complicated plot that tries to be too clever, and solid acting from all players. Good stuff.

Bah, the Cubs are losing and the Brewers winning. Could be back to a 5.5 game deficit at the end of the night for the Cubs.

"...it's root, root, root...

...for the CUBBIES!..."

was heard loud and clear the last four days at RFK. The Cubs were in town for a series against the Nationals, taking three out of four. I went to the first three, including having seats six rows behind the Nats dugout on July 4th. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" wasn't written about or for the Cubs, but Cubs fans feel that it's still our song because Harry Caray sang it at Wrigley Field for so many years. So when the line comes around, we drown out whoever the home team is. It helps that the Cubs have fans pretty much everywhere.

Devil Wears Prada was good, but I can't say I liked it too much. Meryl Streep was very good, Stanley Tucci good, but Anne Hathaway's acting didn't match the quality of the part. I thought the part of the assistant was well thought out and well written, but I just couldn't get attached to her. Whatshisface from "Entourage" plays the boyfriend. I've seen a couple of episodes, and everybody on it annoys me, so I don't watch.

My Neighbor Totoro is an animated movie from Japan about a big furry thing that makes friends with two young girls. It's nice. It's pleasant. It's very well put together. And of course, it's got a great Japanese title, "Tonari no Totoro". I liked it.

Over the weekend I watched The Last King of Scotland, which got Forest Whitaker an Oscar. He was very, very good. Jovial, cunning, wild, intelligent, all over the place. He did a great job of being a presence on screen whenever he was on. Somewhat jokingly, I sometimes tell people that one of my life's goals is to avoid going to Africa. So I really liked this quote:

Is there anything that you have done that is good, Nicholas? You came to Africa to play the white man. But we aren't a game. We're real. This room is real. Your death will be the first real thing that has happened to you.

If I went to Africa, that's all I'd be doing, playing the white man. I wouldn't do any real good. They're much better off without me sticking my nose in.

I didn't remember seeing James McAvoy before, but IMDB says he was Mr. Tumnus, and now it rings a bell. He was good.

Smokin' Aces. "Oh, that's such a good movie!" someone said to me the other day. "No it isn't." I don't think it's actually bad, though. I thought it would be good for three or four minutes, then bad for five, and it just went on like that the whole way through.

Jeremy Piven, I hear, is very good in "Entourage". I believe it. I didn't like him much here, though. I can see him being good in a role where he engages other people energetically on a consistent basis, but that doesn't happen here. He may have been miscast or just misused.

Andy Garcia's a good actor, but his character (and his phoney-baloney accent, wherever it was supposed to be from) was terrible.

Apparently there's a rapper named Common who I've never heard of. He was okay as the target's bodyguard. Alicia Keys (who I have heard of) was better.

I was very happy to see the guy who played Buliwyf in The Thirteenth Warrior cast as the Swede. I like that guy. Which brings us to my favorite and least favorite performances in the movie:

Jason Bateman (favorite) and Ryan Reynolds (not favorite). Bateman's character is sort of a pathetic loser, and he just oozed losing patheticness the entire time he was on screen. I loved him. On the other hand, Reynolds is supposed to be the tough guy hero. I don't think he can play tough. Yeah, he's got muscles. Maybe he's tough in real life. But on screen, I just can't buy it. And if you don't let him drop an f-bomb, then he may as well not say anything at all. I think he'd have been better as one of the killers, rather than an FBI agent. It's like they got his role mixed up with Ben Affleck's. They'd have been better off reversed, though Affleck wasn't bad as the bondsman.

I really liked Stranger Than Fiction, so I'll give it its own post.

I Do Not Wear Prada

But apparently the devil does. So I'm watching The Devil Wears Prada now. I'll cut it off in a little bit to watch the PBS special for Paul Simon that Mr. Tony went to. Stanley Tucci's character is one I like.

The mighty Cubs have won six games in a row and are a game under .500 right now. They've really heated up coming into the stretch before the All Star Game. A couple of LSU players have been playing rather well, Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot. Fontenot went 5-for-5 the other day.

A couple of weekends ago I saw a two movies in the theater: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Day Watch. The first wasn't very good, but it had its moments. I liked the Surfer. This may be the picky geek side of me coming out, but am I really supposed to believe that an elastic man, invisible force-field woman, flying fire-man, and strong rock-guy can beat THE Silver Surfer? Come on. He's the Herald of Galactus. He wields the power cosmic. He's way too powerful for them to take down. Ach.

Day Watch was much better. I thought the events that took place were more interesting than what happened in the Night Watch, though that was pretty good too. I'd never heard of Zhanna Friske before, but then I don't pay much attention to Russian pop music.

On the Netflix end of things, I watched Run, Lola, Run (Lola Rennt, auf Deutsch). I thought the boyfriend was annoying. The flash parts where they showed the different futures for various characters was a neat idea. A friend from C&A really liked it. I'm a bit on the fence.

Flags of Our Fathers, I was a little disappointed in . Didn't see all that much to get excited about. I think the story is a good one, but I just wasn't feeling it (I sound like Randy Jackson). I prefer Letters From Iwo Jima.

And Ghost Rider, which was awful. Bad story, terrible acting, horrible ending, bleh. I thought it looked good the first time I saw a preview for it in the theater, but it was all downhill after that.

I was in a meeting today where we were given the option of telling our favorite movie quote. I said "the entire opening speech from Patton, which isn't really a quote, and "Among women I pass for one, Your Grace", from A Man For All Seasons. It's really the context and how it's delivered that make it so great.

Thomas More made sure that his daughter Margaret received an education the equal of any man, better than most. When Henry VIII pays a visit to More's estate, he is introduced to Margaret. They have the following exchange:

"Why Margaret, they told me you were a scholar."
"Among women I pass for one, Your Grace."

That's great. Social context, wit, humility, pride, all wrapped up in just a few words. Love it.

One more note before I go: Transformers comes out on July fourth. I don't expect it to be a very good movie. But I have to go see it. This was it when I came home from school. Bought the toys. Saw the animated movie in the theater. Pretended to be Optimus Prime. So I'll pack myself into a seat and watch with glee. However, a world where Megatron doesn't have a giant fusion cannon attached to his arm isn't a world in which I want to live.

Restarting Netflix

I watched Curse of the Golden Flower, which was pretty good. Not as much action and fighting as I'd thought, but a really good story, good acting, and what action there was was very well done. Lots of great visual scenes. And the ending after the great climactic battle--ah, it was good.

I finished watching Little Miss Sunshine last night, which everybody and his brother seemed to gush about. It's good and funny. I wanted to bash Greg Kinnear's face in the first half of the movie, but came around on him the second half. Liked the kid who didn't talk, thought the country's preeminent Proust scholar was good, thought the grandfather was a little annoying (but Alan Arkin won an Oscar for playing him), and thought Toni Colette's character was a pretty good one. I know everybody loved the little girl, but other than being cute, I was a little indifferent to her. Sure, she drove the story, but I'm not as smitten with her as lots of other people seem to be. The little girl playing her was good, though. Don't know if I'd fawn over her the way others did, but that's okay.

The Queen

Before I get to The Queen, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End over the weekend. I thought it was pretty good, better than the second and probably as good as the first. I'd heard people talking about how long it was and I knew it was supposed to be around 2:40 or so, but it moved pretty quickly. Lots of fun all around, I thought.

I'm about in the middle of The Queen, and I'm really enjoying it a lot. Too bad there's something wrong with the DVD. Here's my notes so far:

They call hunting "stalking".

Prince Philip comes off as a sort of bartardish character. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I don't.

Tony Blair appears nervous and unsure of himself when around the queen, but comes off pretty good. He seems like he really wants to help Her Majesty.

Cherie Blair: I'm sure she's a nice lady in real life, but she comes off as a bit bitchy in the movie. Doesn't like the Queen, takes every opportunity to pick and prod and jibe at her, and mocks her husband whenever he expresses any sympathy for her.

The Queen Mum is funny, fun, and likable.

The Queen's secretary, Robin Janvrin, is a great character. He has to balance between serving the queen and advising her in her dealings with the public. His speech, his mannerisms, the way he carries himself--I think it's all great.

Prince Charles: I think he comes off better than everyone else in the movie, with the exception maybe of Herself. I wrote down "sensitive, emotional, vulnerable, sympathetic." He realizes that the public's reaction over Diana's death isn't going to subside and knows that the royal family has to treat her memory with respect. Post-divorce, he seems to hold a higher opinion of Diana than his parents do.

The Queen is the Queen. I don't know how to describe her. Helen Mirren is great and won the Oscar for Best Actress.

This is a really good movie. No really tough, unwatchable parts that make me pause it in the middle. I like it.

Garcon! Oh Garcon!

Uh, I mean Waitress! It was pretty good. Funny. Sometimes sad. Sometimes angry. Andy Griffith is fun. Keri Russell is good as the centerpiece. Her supporting cast does their jobs well. I'd go see it again.

I've discovered a treasure trove of youtube clips of Broadway musicals. Well, I say "Broadway"... The twist is that they're not in English.

Click here to see "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables in Japanese.

Click here to see "On My Own".

and here to see an absolutely fantastic rendition of "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera in Korean. The song works well in Korean and the signers are excellent. (Edit: I see it has been removed for the ever-popular "terms of use violation". Sigh)

Lou Piniella got suspended for four games for kicking dirt on (and making contact with) an umpire. We went 3-1 with him out. I was wondering if management was going to ask him to stay suspended a while longer, like maybe till we got back to .500. But he came back today, and the Cubs beat the Braves 2-1, so maybe that's okay. Four out of five since losing about six in a row. They're getting Felix Pie in the lineup some more, Soriano moved back to left where he belongs (as far as the outfield is concerned, anyway), and punching Michael Barrett seems to have settled Carlos Zambrano down a little bit. Hang in there, boys.

S-P-E-L-L-B-O-U-N-D

I'm sure that title's been used somewhere before. It's not very original.

I don't believe I've talked about this before in any length, but I love the National Spelling Bee. I was a good speller in school and like to watch other kids go at it. I was nowhere near as good as these guys and girls are, though. The competition has become popular enough to be televised in prime time on ABC. One contestant just missed girolle, but the next one just got rascacio.

Here's a Slate article about how bees work in some other countries. Here's one about whether religious girls have more or less sex.

I highly recommend the movie Spellbound, if you haven't seen it. It follows about nine kids through their regional competitions and into the nationals. I think it's fantastic.

There's the girl from Texas whose parents are Mexican immigrants who have been here 25 years but don't speak any English ("That's just lazy!" a friend of mine said). Her brother's got a thick, thick Texas accent. And here she is, competing in the National Spelling Bee.

A little kid from New York (if I remember correctly) who Tony Kornheiser would call a "twitching little freak". He makes all sorts of strange faces and sounds while spelling.

An Indian kid whose sister actually won the competition a few years before, so he has the added pressure of living up to her standard. His dad hired coaches in Spanish, German and French so he could figure out what words are supposed to look like in different languages.

There's a girl from DC that they follow as well. She just studies after school with one of her teachers, nothing fancy.

Other words missed so far: zacate and bouleuterion.

Stuart Scott is interviewing kids backstage after they get eliminated. I think that's a little bit much.

They just gave this kid the word punaise, leading to the following exchange:

Kid: "Aw, geez."
Reader: "It's another word for bedbug."
Kid: "I like bedbug better."

He got it right. Great look on his face when he found out he got it right.

Urgrund is up next. A little tricky, because sometimes in German the d takes a sound more like t in English. Toughie. She missed it when she added a t to the end.

Cilice. A word which gained a certain amount of publicity when it was talked about in The Da Vinci Code. The albino assassin guy wore won as a sort of permanent penance. She missed it.

This girl just asked for the word origin of pelorus, and the reader said it was "unknown". That doesn't seem--I don't want to say "fair"--but come on. That's a real kick in the balls.

The last two movies I've seen have been Spiderman 3 and Once. S3 is okay. Good action, so-so acting, meh story, some funny parts. There's a scene I think is really funny with Bruce Campbell in a French restaurant, and anything in any Spiderman scene with J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is great.

Geez, another word with unknown origin. But the kid got rigaree.

Ooh, I bet there are people out there loving Isabel Jacobson, who says one of her favorite words is kakistocracy, which means "rule by the worst people possible". She got helodes correct.

"I don't really like it. I just have to be in it." Yowza. Evan O'Dorney just laid down the hammer. He likes math and music better, he says. And he just nailed schuhplattler.

I think there has to be more than just family present at the competition. There's a pretty big crowd there. I'd love to go.

"You really have to know your German elements to get this word." Well, I do know my German elements, but I would've been killed by abseil.


Fauchard. I got that one, but the kid left off the d. The kid before missed cachalot by one letter, putting an e in place of the second a.

Aw, they're closing Ford's Theatre for 18 months. They do some good stuff there.

Isabel just got epaulement, as did I. The word epaule (with an accent aigu over the first e) means "shoulder" in English. "Epaulettes" are those things worn on the shoulder of uniforms.

You know you're good when you spell laquear. A kid from Canada just blazed through rognon.

cyanophycean. A blue-green alga. I would have gotten the cyan- part from the definition. Greek means it's -phy-. The rest would've killed me. The -cean ending is tough. She missed it. Got the ending wrong. Really hard.

The Canadian kid in the final two says he "metaphorically picks the wings off the butterflies in his stomach", according to Robin Roberts. Yowza. The word vituline seems to be giving him trouble. If he misses, the other kid still has to spell another word correctly to win it. The competition can't end on a missed word, they say. Like "proving it" in a game of H-O-R-S-E. He got it.

ABC has Robin Roberts, Stuart Scott, Mike Golic, and Mike Greenberg working this event. You've come a long way, baby.

If ever you wanted to see "I Dreamed a Dream" sung in Japanese, here's your chance.

Oh come on. It looks like they're going to commercial after every round. There's two kids left! Each round takes maybe three minutes now. Let them go for a while. Jerks.

The Canadian kid missed coryza, but the polymath Evan still has to get serrefine. I bet he knows it. He does.

Coming up next: Grey's Anatomy. Bleh. I'm not saying it's a bad show, I just don't care about it at all. My cousin watched it over last summer. It's great, intense, personal drama which I try to avoid at all costs

Evan doesn't seem too excited. Either he expected to win all along or it's taking a long time to set in. Stuart Scott asked if he wanted to reassess his opinion of the Spelling Bee now that he won. "Am I supposed to say I like it now?" Ha! Congratulations, Evan.

Weekend After Busy Weekend

It's been busy on weekends. Jeezum crickets, what have I been doing?

Last weekend I had one of the great alone days since I've been in this area. Took me down to Chinatown for Chipotle, then to see Hot Fuzz, which was really funny. I think it was funnier than Shaun of the Dead. It makes fun of big action cop movies, but changes the setting to a small town in England. It's actually got a lot of people you've seen around in this and that. And for whatever reason, I never would've recognized Timothy Dalton if I hadn't seen his name in the credits. I totally missed that one. I knew he looked familiar, I just couldn't pin him down.

Haagen Dazs on the way out to make the walk a little more pleasant. Saw a girl in there who I should have offered to buy ice cream. Anyway, it was a gorgeous day, the first great weather weekend of the year. I walked around the National Mall for about three hours, just watching people and enjoying everything. Finally, it was off to Pentagon City and the first Popeyes I'd had since Lent ended. Magical.

Back into DC for a few hours at SOTW. The bartender ate four saltines in under a minute, which is a great accomplishment. I freaked out the waitress by showing her the "short arm trick". The rest of the evening was very pleasant.

Sunday my cousin and I went to the Kennedy Center to see Coriolanus, which was very good. It ought to be, since it was put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It's always nice when you look at the playbill and see a listing that says, "Patron: Her Majesty The Queen". When I see things like plays or musicals, I tend to go in just thinking about the acting and storyline. I forget about the production itself and how they change the scenes and set the backdrop for different times and places. It was very well done and did a great job of enhancing the action, drama, or emotion of each scene.

After the play we went over to Eastern Market. The food was good. It's an active neighborhood. Our waitress was cute. She was nice. She was from the Midwest. And she was terrible. I won't name her or the place, since I don't want her to somehow get in trouble. But man she was awful. Did I mention she was nice? She needs to quit that job and come live with me.

I'm going to run to bed so I'll talk about New Orleans and the Jazz Fest later.

April 14

I spent most of the day in downtown DC. The Freer Gallery was running a free anime marathon, so I went to the first film. As a result I got to see the grand epic of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie. Reagan Building for lunch, then wandered around the street festival for the Cherry Blossom Festival. A group of drummers and dancers was performing on the big stage. They were pretty good.

I moseyed on over to J-Pop Land and watched Mitsu Massyu. I think they pulled off something pretty tough: it was really, really, really loud but still managed to be pleasant. I could actually see myself listening to this stuff at home. I wouldn't understand a single thing, but it was nice. Speaking of not understanding a thing:

It seemed like only one member of the band spoke English, the male guitar player, but he didn't really do any talking. The lead girl did most of that. The thing I really liked is that for the most part she didn't even try to speak English. She just went on and did her thing in Japanese. There seemed to be plenty of people there who understood her, and not just native Japanese folks. (I did understand whenever she said "Genki deska", which is like "How are you?". Standard reply: "WOOOOOO!!") Now and then she'd say a couple of things in English and the crowd would go wild. Reminded me of what they say about Americans traveling in foreign countries like Italy or Germany. If you even try to speak the native language, they love you.

After that it was off to Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The song at the beginning was worth a big chunk of the price of admission. There's no point in me talking about the rest. You can see Stephen Hunter's review here. Or the Slate review here.

Then it was back over to the street festival for more Mitsu Massyu, this time on the big stage.

I started a sort of one-man, metro-based mini bar crawl. A burger and a couple of drinks at Sign of the Whale started the evening. A traveling salesman bought a round of shots, so I asked for Wild Turkey (puts a fire in your belly, it does). The bartender suggested Wild Turkey Honey. Very nice. Instead of setting your eyes on fire, it sort of makes the area under them warm and tingly. I'll have to try that stuff again. Went to Whitlow's for a drink, which was a complete waste of time. Whitlow's is loud and crowded, and there is absolutely nothing going on unless you're there with a group of people. Then over to Bailey's for a couple more drinks and watched a few games on TV. That sort of crawl is a nice idea, but I've got some refining to do before it's as good as it can be.

Sunday I sat on my butt all day and didn't do anything except a little laundry. WHEEEEEE!