How’s your year so far?
I give my students narrative assessments every three weeks or so recapping what we have accomplished (or what I wanted to accomplish anyhow), work that should have been submitted, highs and lows, general accolades and concerns, and a preview of what’s coming up – hopefully to add some context to what we have been doing all along… It is a help for the kids, probably, but really it is an important thing for me as an instructor to check myself and make sure that there is a larger narrative I am working with and to afford a little metacognitive review of what I need to focus on, or I can relax about.
Sitting at the kitchen table with a nice glass of wine last night (I do know how to rock a Saturday night) I was putting their post-vacay review together – we are embarking on a crazy-cool-ambitious-intimidating-cross-curricular project for the month of January – and I got distracted thinking about my personal narrative assessment of 2012 so far.
What I wanted to accomplish was getting a jump on the planning for the interdisciplinary units we are teaching this month – and though not much got done over the holiday, the week was productive. Things look good and I am excited to teach the material. I have a little more grading to do, but not too much… I have a few things hanging over my head to take care of for paper work and such – changing banks, completing a long overdue evaluation of a class I completed in December, signing up for yet another test to prove to the state of California that I am qualified to teach, this time English Language Learners (no, five years teaching overseas does not merit any sort of pass on this.) Plus there is the planning for the spring semester… Economics and the second half of World History… but you know me – I love a good planning session.
Accolades for making time for the things that make me smile: yoga, the gym (okay, that makes me laugh more than smile, but it’s all good), family, friends, travel… I saw my coach on Friday night and it was awesome. He is still just the kind of balance I have always needed in my life – and I swear the man was right about everything he ever said to me. Eerie. Also planning some trips soon – Southern California, HK, y quién sabe que mas… México? Europe? Sometimes it really does feel like the world is my oyster.
However, I will be getting my head together with a financial planner from USAA this month (to talk myself out of a lot of that fun I suspect.) Sensibility it so banal. I suppose this goes into areas of concern. For now though, just remembering to maintain some semblance of balance and reflect on the things that make me smile.
I found a daily/diary on my bookshelf from who knows when, and decided I would fill it out. One more place to list things that maybe don’t really need to be posted on the internet (see mom? I have limits.)
So far 2012, you have been nothing short of a sunshine daydream.
I resolve to keep it coming.
I do love a good list. Happy New Year….
New Year’s Day is a holiday that really suits me. I mean, the whole new beginning concept and the collective assessing of another year gone by, and its natural inclination towards listing – of course. People make all sorts of lists: What they did. What they did not do. What they wanted to do. What they will do. What they won’t do. What they wish they could do.
Inherently satisfying, if total baloney in practicality, I must admit.
Still, I do love a good list. And in keeping with my tradition of listing, some twenty-plus years and counting (and, yes, of course I still have all the lists, what kind of Virgo do you think I am, man?) I give you 2011: My Year in a List.
1. 2011 began with The Great Fall. It was prophetic in terms of the drama, but more notably, the reality that even a seemingly deadly fall left nary a scratch on me; quite literally as D said at the time, I bounced. The year was the same, everything that seemed like it might be the thing that finally was too much landed me in exponentially better circumstances.
2. Hong Kong overnight. I went back to the 852 for the briefest of visits. Oddly I shortened the trip feeling like I really had nothing else to do there. In an strange way the visit did offer closure, but more importantly, it showed me that there can be closure without totally extricating something from one’s life. Another blow to mutual exclusivity. 852, I will see you in March.
3. Americanization. After eighteen months, I have been taken back into the fold of the American reality: a failing economy, deep national angst, and growing consternation over, well, everything. I no longer have the disposable income and the flexibility that life in the 852 offered. But I love being home in the midst of what I hope is a harbinger of things to come with people finally standing up and admitting that we can be better. Or at least don’t need to suck this hard.
4. The Switch. In the most classic case of “everything happens for a reason” that could have been written, a certain short man decided that he did not want me to teach at his school for a second year. Though it rocked me hard (and he stood alone in that decision), it turned into one of my greatest professional opportunities ever. Berkeley, you have made all the difference.
5. Max. I thought that getting a new kitten would be – what – a way to improve Matilda’s life in the city? Matil clearly thinks I am the hugest idiot ever. Max is beautiful and kinda dumb and super endearing and totally destructive. Matil recently submitted her own list for what would improve her life in San Francisco. It included no cars, a private jungle for hunting and stalking, subtropical climates, total feline autonomy, and a litter box for one. Nowhere on the list did it mention a companion. But Max is staying and we are going to make this work, and hope that he gets it together.
6. Festivus for the rest of us. Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bridge School and all points in between. Back to land of big shows, big music and lots of fun. Thank you D and A. [Not to mention the ESPYs and the SF Film Festival and all kinds of fabulous elbows to rub.] Looking forward to hitting the domestic road again in 2012.
7. Occupied! The sentiment of dissent continued to grow and I must say, strange things are afoot – and thank fuck for that. While many continue to shake their heads and condemn those who would step up and take action, I am reminded of the dangers of a somniferous halcyon age and the catatonic side-effects of complacency.
8. My photo book finally came to fruition. A year after I thought it would be finished, I did in fact finish the book. 365 days of photos, in order: the good the bad and the ugly. But it was finished. And it turned out, my photography habit is what got me my new job… Apparently I am an artist.
9. Many full circles. I lost my gramma; my parents came back to the Bay Area and I saw my dad; I rediscovered sports injuries and I went back to the gym; old friends led to new friends; I went back to the scenes of several crimes and closed the (storage unit) door on all of them; even the Muppets came back..
10. The end of some days just brings on more days. I remembered what I needed to remember and let go of what needed to be cut loose. It kind of feels like I finally came home.
Just in time for the apocalypse.
Think I am gonna let it be.
Thoughts while reading Vanity Fair on a rainy Sunday morning
- Johnny Depp
- Is it ironic that this advertisement presents Angelina Jolie is posed on what I imagine is some tributary to Tonle Sap with a Louis Vuitton bag that cost the equivalent of several years’ annual income for a local in the area? [Or is she giving the money back to Cambodia? I don't know, but if I had a US$ 2,000 handbag I sure as shit would not be lugging it through the backwaters of Southeast Asia.]
- The Burberry model looks a bit syndrome. That is not PC, but it doesn’t make it less true.
- I need a watch. Probably not Patek Philippe, but you know, a watch would be good.
- I should be grading papers.
- I wish there actually was a lip gloss that looked like the one in the Tom Ford adverts in real life. There is not, so don’t try to sell me on that.
- JOHNNY Depp.
- Emma Watson has done quite well for herself. Still, wish she would not have cut her hair. I wish my cats could refill my coffee even more than that, though.
- An “all business class airline” offering a $150 discount. That is funny. However, it made me look and though useless to me as it is only gonna get me from JFK to Paris, it is not that expensive.
- Guess has gone totally back to their 1980s ads. I guess it works, but I don’t really look at them because I feel like I have seen them all before. And Anna Nicole was such a hot mess she really brought that extra “something”.
- Elizabeth Warren and Stockard Channing look a lot alike. Interesting that they embedded the article on Channing’s play into the Warren article. I think Warren is a total BAMF. [Warren article is really good. Vote for her, MA.]
- So, because a lot of the Occupy Cal protestors were carrying signs that said, “I stand with Bartleby.” I investigated and am now reading the Melville short story, Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street and Melville’s Moby Dick is profiled in the mag this month as a masterpiece that “remains supremely relevant – a survival manual in times of crisis, a challenge to the Ahabs of every century, and an expression of democracy’s “divine equality”". I love synchronicity.
- There is such a thing as “voguepedia”? Not sure how I feel about this.
- I need to grade papers.
- The article on Norman Mailer is excellent.
- Michelle Williams and Dougray Scott are well cast as Marilyn and Arthur Miller in the upcoming film.
- An entire article on how messed up California is. Obviously from the desk of “No Fucking Shit”. Using Vallejo as your case study seems especially silly. Vallejo? Have you been there? Sheesh.
- Courtney Love is 47? Shit. She is a guilty pleasure of mine but she is seriously Mickey Rourke-ing her face. And this quote is agitating: “I am not punk rock anymore, I’m the liberal elite.” Maybe because that seemingly unavoidable transition has become cliché.
- Johnny DEPP.
- Grade papers.
- But the article is called: “The Hunter in Johnny Depp.” Like I am going to leave that for later? No.
But now, I must get more coffee and so perhaps I will grade some papers. After all, it is still raining and the cats are not fucking up anything at the moment.
Rather #winning for a gray Sunday.
Top photo: California College of the Arts, Saturday, November 19, 2011 by author
Bottom: “FanFare” from Vanity Fair Magazine, November 2011, photo of photo, by author
[Yay Hipstamatic.]
A compromising position.
I was talking to T on the phone this morning as she drove to work. A major benefit of having summers off is increased phonability. Like, for instance, yesterday as I was finishing up the last-minute of “really fun” stairclimbing at the Gym (more on this soon, you can be fucking sure) my phone buzzed with a +44 number. I will never not pick up a +44 because it is going to be either Fun Bobby, RG, J, or the goddamned Queen of England. Obviously I answered. It was not the Queen. But, thanks to modern technology and my inability to be shamed into cell phone silence after five years in Hong Kong, J came along as I finished my workout, got changed, went to Safeway and entertained the checkout lady, walked to the nail place and helped me pick a color. So, this morning as I was finishing up my coffee and contemplating the mysteries of catttitude, I was pleased to see T calling in. I figured she could hang with me while cleaned the cat box, did the dishes, watered the plants and headed to yoga.
I was not disappointed. Among other subjects, in what is always worthy conversation, we began to consider the things that are fundamentally necessary for us in a relationship. More to the point we were looking at deal breakers. Or, maybe those are the same things. It’s hard to tell.
One thing we agreed on was that as we get older, (and I don’t actually mean this as a disparaging comment about aging, but rather a statement about how people change over time and perhaps, if they are lucky they get to know themselves a little better too) we seem to have developed more stringent, umm… let’s call them “standards.” It may be true that some people develop their “standards” with more expedience than T and I have, and I am not going to speak to advantages or disadvantages of efficiency in standards-establishment. However, throughout this conversation it seemed to me that the habit of compromising I had cultivated has done little to help me accurately evaluate any of my relationships.
It got us to the fundamental point of confusion. When does having a standard = being stuck-in-your-ways (rigid, frigid, cold, etc.)? Or, again from the more familiar opposite point of view, when does compromising in a relationship = compromising… yourself? I immediately took to the comfort of list making. What have I determined that I simply will not compromise?
Here is how it goes when you are trying not to have it go that way:
I decided I did not want to spend money for the rest of June. This is both smart and highly irritating: it is the right thing to do, but it is pissing me off. And, as it would be, the minute I made the seemingly reasonable declaration, here came all the reasons why it was unreasonable. In the average day I do not really need to spend much money. I have all of my needs met. But here are the things that I instinctively considered spending money on in a single 24-hour period:
- Laundry (service – not the machines)
- Mani-pedi (I really am due)
- A facial
- Fresh pastry (as if I need this)
- Beers at Zeitgeist in the sunshine (it *was* the Solstice after all)
- Bottled water (see above)
- Photo book project (finally finished, want to share with everyone)
- Lunch (have food at home)
- Aesthetician
- New bag at Timbuk2
- New Marc Jacobs perfume
- Wine at Whole Foods (gift)
- Airline ticket to LA
- Drinks with someone I want to have drinks with
- External hard drive for Mac Book (need this, for real)
- Airline ticket to Reno
- U-Haul rental (for emptying storage unit in Reno, a net savings in the end…)
- Baseball tickets
- New brand of sunscreen
- Concert tickets (for three separate shows)
- Food at the movies (I have free tickets)
- New kitten (yes, I am serious)
- Dinner (have food at home)
- Drinks with someone I should not be having drinks with
- Tickets to a loft party
- Dinner for someone I should be treating
Seriously. This is ridiculous. I feel like I am part of a Twelve-step program.
[photo from Tobias Wong exhibit, SFMoMA]
A Playlist for Joanie
These songs were the ones that came up, in order, while I listened to my iPod as I flew to New Mexico to say goodbye to my Grandma. Random? Eerie? Perfect.
Happy New Year!
It seems impossible to believe that 2010 has come to an end. I remember Gust Proutsos, back in my first year at Procter Hug High School in Reno, told me that I was going to be absolutely blown away at how fast the years would speed by. I was unsure if this was a comment on age, perception, or working in a profession that is so totally locked into a temporal relativity. Regardless, Mr. Proutsos knew what was up. I cannot believe that I started this year in Bali, still a Hong Kong resident, then meandered through Burma and India, then found myself Stateside again in the exact circumstances I had abstractly described as a goal in September of 2009.
It is nothing short of fascinating.
Everywhere I look I am hearing people talk about how they cannot wait for this year to end. They are so over 2010. 2010 was so bad/hard/unfair/miserable… I guess, again, I am an anomaly. Sitting at the Latin American Club last week enjoying a cold beer on a rainy night with a very cute and inappropriate compadre, I was considering things, my life and the like. He looked at me and said, “You are such a positive person. I mean, you love your job, your house, your family. You really love your life.” He kind of chuckled and I smiled.
Yes. Yes, I do.
And then he said, “You’re like a guy…”
I am still working out if this is a compliment or an insult. I suppose both, depending on the context. [I am not gonna share the context here, so you can just wonder about that.] But seriously, I’m like a guy??
Let’s think about this for a while. What kinds of attitudes do we generally associate with men and women? I used to have my students take a list of fifty words and very quickly go through them assigning either an M or an F to each as a general survey of gender roles/stereotypes before we began our unit on Women’s History. Nurse = F, Doctor = M (unless the student actually had a female doctor in recent history); Secretary = F, Senator = M; Law Officer = M, Social Worker = F; Chef = M, Cook = F; Teacher = F, Professor = M. The pattern was predictable and obvious. The items designated as “M” worthy tended to be higher paid and more powerful, and those with the “F” marker more personally significant perhaps, but generally lower paid and certainly subservient. Clearly this is not scientific, but it is interesting and there is plenty of literature on the subject if you are interested.
According to one [clearly dodgy] source, a woman should “put her family’s welfare before her own; be loving, compassionate, caring, nurturing, and sympathetic; and find time to be sexy and feel beautiful.” While a man should be “the financial provider. He is also to be assertive, competitive, independent, courageous, and career-focused; hold his emotions in check; and always initiate sex.” Frankly, I am not sure which one of those sounds preferable. It reminds me of when I was an undergrad at UCSD and I was being introduced to the Greek system and I realized that sororities cost a lot more than fraternities, did not have parties, did lots of service and work, and were all together high maintenance. Fraternities were basically dilapidated houses where they rolled the kegs out every weekend. And everyone got to go to frat parties. It was apparent to me who was getting the better deal there. We can go back even further to the hallowed halls (or bleachers or backseats or backrooms or bedrooms) of Petaluma High in the 80s. Guys got to have all the fun. Okay, not all the fun, but definitely none of the headache. Again, unfair. Fast forward to, well, now for instance. There are all these nicknames for women: cougars, pumas, milf (those would be the less offensive) but again, the men skate free, no embarrassing nomenclature for the skeevy middle-aged dudes who prey on the local pre-pumas, amazingly referred to as cheetahs [try not to barf] or are generally not doing all those things we associate with adulthood.
Some things I know I’m going to miss about Hong Kong
Cheap utilities including phone service – remember that year we all got our electricity subsidized? That was cool. [Seems fair anyhow since our little island provides HK with ALL its power.]
Everywhere you might want to travel seems to be 2.5 hours away by air.
Anna introducing me as “Amanda, my friend from Hong Kong”.
In-town Check-in/Airport Express/Cathay Pacific.
Tirumala Septentrionis Butterflies.
Getting your drink on in the street.
The Inland Revenue Department.
Public transportation.
The Rugby Sevens.
My yoga teacher.
My amigas.
My view.
Norman.
I need a job and you should really hire me. Here’s why:
I am a teacher. I mean, I am a lot of things, but one of the more significant ones is that: Teacher.
There are all sorts of teachers. In fact, some of my most influential teachers have not been found in school. But I was lucky enough to have a few teachers in school who were all that, and in so being, mildly altered the course of my life. I have also had some really unfortunate teachers. Mostly those were people who didn’t want to teach because they didn’t like kids and/or what they were teaching. I am not sure what it was that sucked me into teaching, but the result has certainly made my life a lot more interesting. Teaching in Asia has also taught me a tremendous amount. In Asia lots of people are teachers who might not be teachers in other places. They are teaching their native language to people who want to learn that language and they make good money doing it. Those facts apply to me as well, but I happen to also love teaching, not because I speak (a derivative of ) English, but because… well, why exactly I am not sure. It just fits for me. I think it is the non-static nature of it, for better or for worse (I’m talking to you Texas.) I have been teaching high school Social Studies since 1995 and in many (most?) ways my work has defined who I am. I guess I think that is pretty cool. I have always worked in public schools and philosophically completely advocate for public education. This in spite of NCLB (education reform categorically opposed by teacher organizations and unions across the country) and offensive budget cuts and California laying off 22 thousand teachers this spring (after 26 k got pink slips last year…) So, philosophy aside, I may need to look elsewhere, but that’s cool.
So, considering the dismal job outlook, the untold numbers of teachers looking for work, and the apparent dearth of funds to educate our citizenry because the budget is “just not that into you,” why should you hire me instead of… well, all those other people? Here’s why:
Dudism: I hear it said that I have a “type.”
Yesssssssssss.
Ideal.
Dichotomy to die for.
Full frontal.
I'm your Huckleberry...
I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically.
“TYPE” includes some hefty combination of the following:
- Smart
- Cool
- Tall is beneficial (RDJ is forgiven on account of… um… STFU, he is Iron Man: Overheard on the Playa ’09 : “I’m a dyke and I’d totally do Iron Man.” Enough said.)
- Dark and dirty (ish)
- Funny
- Well-read
- Political
- Irreverent
- Controversial
- Probably totally problematic on myriad levels
That would be it.
*sigh*
Holy Crap. This guy is my hero. (Well, one of them…)
I had heard of Romanpoet (also here) somehow, not sure how. It sounded kind of, you know… cool. But being neither Luddite nor particularly motivated to explore the tech-underworld I never really investigated.
Should have.
Here is a kid with some ingenuity <– understatement. And he has used it in a pretty effective way <– ditto. So, he is a PhD candidate at Caltech (don’t worry, not getting fished in again [at least not yet]) and he is studying computation and neural systems. He says his life goal is to make a computer that feels. While I have a few comments on emo computers, I am absolutely fascinated in contemplating (maybe someday I’ll move beyond that phase) the way in which our brains take in, understand, manipulate, infer. categorize, utilize, store and apply information. And all the attendant variables.
In the mean time, this (just) 27-year old has been referred to as The Internet Man of Mystery and gotten the attentions (lawsuits) of the powers that be. He certainly does appear to have some panache. He is young, smart, creative and well-groomed. Win. He also came up with an application, WikiScanner (now on version 2) to see who is editing Wikipedia entries, and it is not who you might think. He told the Times of London, he did it “to create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike.” Like it Centurion. Like it.
In his spare time he hangs out in Santa Fe at the Santa Fe Institute. Now this is a place that is thinking about some very cool shit. They focus on complex systems research. That is like, the total shit of synthesis: “Complex systems research attempts to uncover and understand the deep commonalities that link artificial, human, and natural systems. By their very nature, these problems transcend any particular field, for example, if we understand the fundamental principles of organization, we will gain insight into the functioning of cells in biology, firms in economics, and magnets in physics. This research relies on theories and tools from across the sciences. Part of the rise of the complex systems research agenda can be tied to the use of theoretical computation as a new way to explore such systems.” Um. Yes, please. Would that I had a PhD that might be my dream job.
And then… he is the man behind the Musicthatmakesyoudumb and Booksthatmakeyou Dumb. Best graphics EVER (concept here.) I am frightened by the placement of the Book of Mormon and in honor of The Dude, I am going to have to question how Eagles can have less of a dumbing effect than Queen, though I suppose Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are the Champions fucked that statistic up. I think the next one should be clothes that make you dumb, there would be a complex system, and all the raw data is here.
But don’t let me be the judge and jury (or do, I am fine with that…) have look for yourself after the jump (or via the above concept link.)
The brief and wondrous life of Oscar – WOW!
Sunday there was quite a lot of pre-Oscar speculation at my house as we all completed our ballots to see who could pick the most winners of the 24 major award categories for the 2010 Academy Awards. I find that just about everything is more fun when you have a wager on the line. [Sue won with a tie-breaker over Vickie, both having guessed 12 correctly...] One big disadvantage of living in Asia is that we do not get a lot of the hype associated with the movies nor do we get a chance to see a lot of them in the theaters, certainly not prior to the Academy award telecast. [Though, The Hurt Locker is coming now, and as I was walking through the Causeway Bay station on my way to work about an hour after the end of the live telecast in Los Angeles, I saw the poster for it and it says winner of 6 Academy Awards - that was fast! (On second thought the sign is in Chinese so I suppose the "6 blahblahblah 9" could mean something else...)] On the other hand one of the big advantages is that we have almost all of the movies (save for foreign films, documentaries, and shorts – far too, what? Too cultural? I don’t know…) on DVD thanks to our very industrious pirated entertainment industry. So, among us we had seen a pretty significant number of the films up for awards.
It made for a very lively discussion (along with whether or not my neighbor, now living in Saigon would vie to defend his impressive win (21 of 24) from last year, via the interwebs. (He did not…) Sue was sure Mo’Nique would win, Vickie and Andre had their money on Sandra, I knew this would be the year The Dude would Abide, Jerry was simply convinced that Avatar was not good enough for a Best Picture win, but conceded that it might… We vacillated between The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Coraline lot about the animated features, which in hindsight was kind of lame since, as Neil Gaiman pointed out, when one of the cartoons is also nominated for Best Picture, it is probably going to get the nod in the Animated Feature category. Personally, I was totally pulling for the regional flavors in the documentaries and I didn’t get either with Burma VJ or China’s Unnatural Disaster.
In general, the whole spectacle is just an excuse for a party and a chance to banter on pop culture phenoms. I have always loved the Oscars and I am not entirely sure why. The telecasts can be terribly tedious, the hosts can be painful, the politics too much or not enough, and the Red Carpet interviewers (hosts?) generally make me want to punch something. But still, I love it. The clothes, the couples and the speeches.
Oh, and the “In Memoriam” part always makes me cry. Serious. This year they did not include Farrah Fawcett and some people were pissed about that, but I am not sure she was ever in a movie, was she? I don’t know, maybe they should have put her in simply because her death got totally overshadowed by MJ. I am always amazed – and saddened in a strange way as I certainly do not know any of these people – when I watch this segment. I guess it serves to remind me of the fragility or the inevitability of death. Doesn’t matter if you are a SuperStar or drive a big fancy car…
Brief and wondrous.
And in the spirit of brevity, right after the touching images and voice overs, we’re right back to the best and worst dressed. As I mentioned, not “watching” the awards live but through various live feeds (this year substantially bolstered by live Twitter feeds from a variety of sources, most notably the aforementioned Neil Gaiman) I saw mostly still images. I thought Sandra Bullock, Rachel McAdams and Penelope Cruz looked stunning. Nicole Richie! No idea why she was there, but she looked amazing. JLo <– WTF? Demi Moore was making it work and Charlize Theron could probably not look bad if she tried… oh wait, she actually did try once, but not here, though her dress was totally boobie-centric. Not interested in the dudes, sorry – all looked the same-ish. Oh, except RDJ, he always brings it and his wife’s dress was AWESOME. Kate Winslet looked hot too… why is everyone always on her case? The Grande Dames were working it too… Helen and Meryl FTW.
Everyone was loving on Cameron Diaz and Zoe Saldana… I am not sold. And that Twilight girl – gack. Oh, and SJP? The color was ace, but, um… yeah. And could someone please tell me what Whiney Cyrus is doing at the Oscars? On that note, Kathy Ireland? I tripped right back to 1986 on that note. Mariah Carey… eeewwwww. This link pretty much indicates that I do not share my taste with the majority of people polled. Good thing I don’t care. And these links are more interesting.
After the fashion brigade, I like to contemplate the books or stories that I would like to see make it to the big screen. And there are a few. Of course the much mentioned Steig Larsson books would be a good time (the Swedes already made them for T.V. I think), The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie would be very good, or Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn – I would like to see some modern Native American young-adult stories. And one that I have been contemplating as a great screen play for some time now is The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. On a semi-realted note, I am hoping to go to see Junot Diaz next Tuesday in Hong Kong when he delivers a talk as part of the Man Hong Kong Literary Festival.
Would that I were a screen play writer…
Brief and wondrous sounds okay, for a day: at the Academy, followed by a party at Morton’s…
Sporty (&) Spice(y)
+
=
?
Winter Olympics. They are happening, at least I think they are still going on. Not to be a complete hater, but really they are just taking up airtime until the main event commences on 14 March 2010. I am a total sports fan, f’real. People who know me would certainly substantiate this, but I have a hard time getting on board with curling. And men’s artistic figure skating. [Apolo Ohno is working for me though, and not just because his last name is Oh!No!, and in spite of his 5'7"-ness.] Sport has always been about the competitive value for me, so I can get into just about anything if there is some element of – “onohedint!” and I was going to try to jump on the Winter O bandwagon too, but then SPalin started getting all excited about it because of hockey and I threw up a little in my mouth and moved on.
I follow sports as much as I can in the athletic wasteland that is Hong Kong, but it is a challenge for various reasons: I do not have cable and cannot abide the local channels, I am still struggling to accept a sport that takes daaaaays and they break for tea seriously, cars don’t really strike me as sporty and horse races often make me sad, I find ping-pong goes better with cheap lager and frat boys than national competitions, and while I can get with soccer, it is the last 90 seconds I care about – unless there is no score, then… snooooooze. But mostly it’s because people here don’t do NCAA Basketball.
Shame. But I do enjoy the benefits of Asian cuisine, so in many ways this has been the trade off: Sports for Spice. Ok.
The lack of interest in the NCAA tournament in Hong Kong is no longer a major dilemma for me. Every year I make further adjustments so in spite of the complete dearth of interest in my immediate geographical confines, I have managed to work out how to stream most of the feeds via the internet and I know I can adjust my sleep patterns to catch the key games if need be. And so, here I sit anxiously anticipating Selection Sunday which will kick off late late late on Sunday night March 14 (for me).
I can’t wait. It is and has always been the best way for me to beware the ides of March, that longest and dreariest of months holding summer at arm’s length.
This is likely one of the most fun times to be fanatical in my opinion. Other times that rate nearly as high include extra-innings in the sunshine (gotta be live), high school sport championships a la CIF, the 4×400 at any event – best ever (on the track not in the pool so much, though relays add a lot to most races.) I have not found a better venue for pure vitriol or maniacal ardor than putting up the classic basketball powerhouses against the little guys or each other. College basketball fans are some of the most creative fans ever. And while not always bastions of intellectual greatness, they bring everything they can when it comes to basketball of which the pinnacle is, of course, the tournament. These guys even get nicknames. And I love that some of my most loathed teams are some of the best known… what a great bull’s eye to hone in on. The eRUPPtion zone, the Izzo-ne, the Grateful Red, the DogHouse, the Pit, the Zoo, and I reluctantly admit, the Cameron Crazies (of which old Dickie V. certainly has a lifetime membership as he sails the seas of subjective sports reporting.)
There is so much that college hoops have to offer… and as I love a list, here are ten very cool things. I am not sure why college basketball is not taking off over here, I mean all of the people I work with want to go to school in the US, they should get an education in this stuff. They are always asking me where I think they should go to school [bear in mind, if it is not private, expensive or über elitist, it is likely not under consideration, but that hardly limits some key hoop schools...] I resist giving them this list and sigh as I stick with the US & World Report Rankings. Nothing underscores the misunderstanding of college sports over here better than this story. One of my students who was heading off to USC a few years back told me in passing, that he thought he might play football at USC. I stopped in my tracks.
“You mean soccer?” I inquired.
“No, American football.”
“Umm. Oh. Do you play football?”
“No, but I play rugby for my school here in Hong Kong.”
“Well, intramurals, are fun, you will love them.”
“No, I mean play for USC.”
*pause*
“The football team for the University of Southern California?”
“Yeah.”
*gigantic pause*
“You know, USC has a very storied football program, they are typically one of the strongest programs in the US.”
“I know. That is why I think it would be so cool.”
*pause pause pause*
“Wow. Well, the thing with NCAA sports is that you have to complete the NCAA clearing house (paperwork) and, well, for some of the bigger programs, like USC football, the coaches have generally sort of worked out who will be playing for them a little bit ahead of time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh. So, like do you think I could try out when I get there?”
*PAUSE*
“I am not entirely sure. You may want to look at the intramural sports though. You know a lot of the universities in the states offer all sorts of sports for recreational competition.”
“Oh yeah? Cool. Then I’ll just do that.”
More recently a student was telling me how pissed off she was that one of her classmates got into a fairly well-known Big 12 school “Just because she can swim! I mean, she doesn’t EVEN have the grades. It is so unfair. And she is, like, totally getting a scholarship!” All I could think about was how diametrically opposite this view was from so many places I have taught in the States where my students would not even be impressed by someone getting into a “good” school on academic merit – but an athletic scholarship! Oh.My.God.
Ah, the East and the West… ever the twain shall meet? Will there ever really be full Sporty & Spicy fusion?
I certainly am not endorsing subscribing to a jocko-meathead point of view, but at the same time, I cannot imagine what it would be like to be totally unaware of the talent that these athletes posses. Not that they are all great students/people/pro-candidates… but for a few short years, they bring March Magic to life and I am so down with that. In two weeks I will have all of my students fill in their NCAA brackets, and most of them will have no idea what they are doing, but they will do it all the same, and then as the tournament progresses one thing they will understand for sure is the idea of having picked the right “answer.” Everyone understands the concept of winning and losing, and losing is not how it is done over here. And they will be (to varying degrees) more interested in my obsession with the little tiny live feed that never gets shut off on my desktop while we plug along through literature, essays, social sciences and interview preparation.
It’s the best way I can think of to mix the sporty me with the spicy me. And just so you don’t feel like Sporty up there was a total ruse.. I give you this:
Reading Machine + Addendum
I am back to the books in a big way. I seem to have drifted from reading for a while as I was pursuing other endeavors, or being lazy, or being annoyed by reading certain things, or just being tired. But lately the literary mojo has returned. One reason my reading goes in fits and spurts here is that Hong Kong has totally shitty bookstores. I guess people all must order on line or they just don’t read (I will hold my tongue for which I think is the more likely answer.) So, of course, I too turned to the internet to solve my problem (or actually to increase my problem if you consider that at some point I am going to be moving all these books back home with me across the Pacific, pound for pound.) And while all is readily available on the interwebs, getting it here seems to be a bit of a costly conundrum. I default to Amazon because, well, they are so bloody easy. [Though they have been a little sucky lately.] But international shipping is a biyatch. So, I tried a site my friend Josh recommended, bookdepository.com. I liked it one for the name alone, felt a little Lee Harvey Oswald-ish and thought it might work out as they suggested free international shipping. But, they are clearly making up shipping costs with the price of their books. Fair enough, we all need to make a living, but it was back to Amazon I went.
And the generosity of Mom’s postal service to cover the shipping.
The playlist:
- 2666 by Roberto Bolaño (finished. Epic.)
- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (re-reading. Always worth it.)
- Ficciónes, Jorge Luis Borges (eventually.)
- The Corrections, Franzen (I don’t know why though.)
- Steig Larsson’s Trilogy (nearly finished. Total guilty love/obsession/pleasure.)
- Memory of Fire Trilogy (next.)
- Running in the Family, M. Ondaatje (for work. Love him.)
- An Imaginary Life by David Malouf (Ovid revisited… coolio.)
- Infinite Jest (the next tome to take on. I read This is Water all the time. It is amazing. Read it.)
- How We Are Hungry, Eggers (Need I say more? It is Eggers.)
- Standing Up to the Madness (autographed copy from Amy Goodman via mom. Bitchin’.)
- Bryson’s Shakespeare (good fun.)
- Reading Like A Writer from Francine Prose (totally kicking it in to gear for work)
- J.M.G Le Clézio: the interrogation (no explanation needed… but it was due to revisiting Camus and Beckett for work. Why do they call L’Étranger “The Oustider” here? I don’t know, but I guess it works….)
- A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul (a birthday gift from a long time friend, and I am now very interested in the Theroux/Naipaul fracas.)
Addendum: I rarely modify a published blog here (save for catching those elusive typos) but I had a funny conversation with one of my students yesterday that made me reconsider this blog with a chuckle. We were discussing how to answer a question for a university application supplement that asked for a favorite movie and a favorite book. The student said that this question was really initially, but then realized that actually saying, or rather admitting, his favorite book might not “Say the right thing” about him. I said, “Come on, authenticity rules.”
But does it?
We got to talking again about the rationale for a university asking such a question; they must be looking for something, he insisted, this was not just small talk – they don’t really have time for chit chat. Or do they? I certainly do not purport to have much to do with university admissions, but could they really just be trying to flesh out some sort of feeling as to the students personality – or is it really a chance for the student to ‘prove’ they have some sort of edgy, intellectual, sophisticated understanding of the world and consequently what matters…? Inevitably the conversation turned to [bloody] Facebook, as it always seems to lately, and we reconsidered all of those memes, the quizzes, the iPod shuffle games, the “turn to page X, paragraph X, line X of the nearest book” posts. Were people being authentic or were they carefully constructing an image of themselves… or are the two more similar than we give them credit for? Looking at my book list I have to say, those honestly are the books sitting on my shelf, relatively in the order they will be or are being consumed. But, he said, why did I want those books in the first place?
Good question.
Image crafting? Brain-bragging? Tyring to appear a certain way in the eyes of a certain person? I definitely had to admit that the collecting of at least 75% of the list had not been coincidental. There were reasons for all of them.
Hmmmm… I guess that line that I used to win free tickets to San Diego Street Scene last year might be more true than I thought:
“She’s crafty… “
Smells and Boys. Sometimes Smelly Boys.
Where I live is quite fragrant. Hong Kong, after all, translates to “Fragrant Harbor.” This can be a good thing, though more often than not, it is a bad thing. This is mostly because I have a very sensitive sense of smell. So sensitive in fact, that I cannot turn it off and I aggravate the problem by intentionally smelling everything and then proclaiming that it smells this way or that way. And the fragrances of a harbor can be, you know… GROSS. There are some things that really, really make me wretch: the red tide in the Aberdeen Harbor, Dried Fish Street in Central, the fermented tofu stands in Wan Chai, and the garbage trucks. Tobacco cigarettes go without saying, but fighting that is an exercise in complete futility around here. Oh, and there is also the pollution. On the 29th of January we set a new pollution record over here with 2,000,000 parts per liter (this lady tracks it on her Twitter feed.) Sweet. In the past Hong Kong has realigned the pollution index in order to avoid the smelly truth about the air.
So, anyhow, there are a lot of fragrances around this (shrinking) harbor.
However, in the vein of relative objectivity, it must be said that I live outside of the serious pollution situation on the north side of Lamma Island, and it is cleaner there, if for no other reason than abundant (vermin producing) foliage. [Though I do work in Causeway Bay, the consistent winner in the most polluted area of HK...] Anyhow, where I live is not so smelly (except for Po Wah Yuen – which I not-so-affectionately refer to as Poo Wah Yuen because of the amount of dog poop that is all over.) In fact, where I actually lay my head smells pretty nice. We have more than a dozen Frangiapani [Plumeria] trees around, a huge veggie and herb garden and tons of flowers around our lychee, papaya and mango trees. [I am very grateful that my landlord is into gardening, because even though I thought I kind of was - it turns out - - not so much.] And when it rains in the subtropics, as it did the other day, two things happen: 1) the air gets cleaner and 2) the smells on Lamma – the good ones – really come out in that wet, floral, earthy way. It is really pleasant and kind of makes you close your eyes and take a big ole breath.
As I was walking home from the ferry two nights ago I was totally immersed in that jungle flower smell – even through Poo Wah Yuen. And, as smells often do… it took me right back to the first time I remembered really identifying that part of Life on Lamma. I was walking from Tai Peng to Wang Long (haha – and you thought my living in Pak Kok was funny… ) to meet Ex #5. It was a beautiful morning. I was, well, I guess I was unemployed. I was heading out on the road for points and durations unknown within a matter of days and I was in high spirits. I felt really free. Now when I smell that smell I feel that way again – enough so that for a moment I almost get nostalgic for #5.
Almost.
But as I recalled that moment, I started to think about the other smells I associate with boys. Not boys in general of course, but certain boys. Like for instance, I associate the salty smell of Pacific Beach combined with the smell of rental apartment paint and carpeting in my Emerald Street apartment with Ex #1. Oh and also Taco Salsa (now Taco Surf, but it was better back then when Pete L. and crew referred to it as T-Sals.) I associate several smells that will remain unnamed here with Ex #2, but the smell of Marin or a ski shop always brings him right back to me. And also the hoppy smell of a good micro-brewery. Ex #3 just smelled clean. Always. It was nice. Ex #4… well, he was obsessive about hygiene, something definitely for another blog, but he was very into products with too strong of a smell too. And too many of them. Super strong soap, shampoo, deodorant, cologne, Bounce dyer sheets. It was just a plethora of mid-range cosmetical fragrance that could sometimes make eyes burn. Ex #5 was earthy. Not smelly at all, in fact he mostly smelled good, but different (in a lot of ways.) He also liked very expensive cologne. He must have stolen it because I sure as shit did not buy it for him and he had zero dinero; but he smelled alright.
Some other smells that I catch olfactory glimpses of on occasion in totally out of context situations with equally powerful effects include:
- Fair food
- A certain kind of HK smog that reminds me of LA
- Jameson’s Irish Whiskey
- Public schools and the wax they use on high school gymnasium floors
- Sauteing garlic and onion
- Recycled airplane air
- Salt water
- Baking bread
- The stale smell of Vegas casinos at 4 a.m.
- Fine leather
- Clove cigarettes
- Barbecues
Everything on that list reminds me of a very specific person or place. You may even be able to identify whom or which. I like that it doesn’t even have to be a good smell necessarily to have the intended effect. Like here. Though I suppose that could lead right into an entire discussion on the gag-reflex. Case in point: I got an email the other day that reminded me of another smell:
I know I have mentioned the smell thing before. And I have had some very entertaining questions with regard to smell-obsession. But I think the instant recall that smell can engender makes it very dear to me, especially as I wander further afield. When I teach sense of place in Geography, and now in Literature courses, I always do sensory activities that require students to identify smells with places and scenes and characters and scenarios. And even when they we there is no smell to identify – there always is. And really, it can make all the difference.
It’s beginning to look a little kung hei fat choi-ish
Inevitably, I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming Lunar New Year. The idea of a lunar new year is appealing to me because it seems less arbitrary than one based on the numbers assigned by [Hail!] Caesar. Plus, I take issue with the whole 0.25 of a day thing that leads to Leap year. Paradoxically, I love the idea of a leap year, just not the required accounting to arrive at one.
But, I digress.
The Chinese Lunar New Year is based on the lunisolar Chinese Calendar, generally falling between the last half of January and the first half of February. This means you have to do a little research on your animal sign if you birthday falls early in the Julian year. [However, in spite of your astrological ambiguity, according to Malcolm Gladwell, you are far more likely to end up one of those superlative outliers.] Chinese New Year is the main holiday here and not only for lai see. [Lai see is supposed to be handed out to "young people" be married people. I think this is a grand tradition. Except for the fact that according the Chinese standards I am no longer young and therefor the offer of lai see to me is a suggestion that I need to get my shit together and get married. Bummer.] It is known as the Golden Week and this is a great benefit for all of us as the factories in Guangzhou shut down and so we usually have a week of really nice, relatively unpolluted weather. Some of the other things that I love about the Chinese New Year festival include the flowers, the orange trees, the lights… vacation… and of course all the superstitions. Meet me, the Dog:
To this end I get a kick out of looking into my Chinese astrological predictions for the upcoming year. Several of my local Chinese friends are absolutely fanatical about seeing their astrologer or fortune tellers prior to the start of the new lunar year. [This spills over into business too as everyone makes a very concerted effort to conclude all business dealings initiated in the current year before the new one begins regardless of it having nothing to do with the fiscal calendar at all.] I think astrology is great fun and sometimes I get a little uncomfortable with its accuracy (one reason I have not yet deigned to see a fortune teller – do I really wanna know?) Looking at my horoscope, because I’m a Dog – which always reminds me of Peter Venkman, going, “So… she’s a dog…” – I am pretty excited for this year. According to one site, for Dogs, the year of the white metal Tiger is:
Hell yeah. That sounds like a year to behold. (Or be old, as one of my students just said… Nice one, kid.) We used Chinese horoscopes as fodder for creative writing today – we have been studying superstition, allegories and Gothic traditions in literature – and so we all got look at our horoscopes and determine what we though of the accuracy. Most people thought they were more accurate than not… for me.. I found it absolutely spot on.
Here are some of the high points from the site we used:
The Dog is the most likeable sign in the Chinese zodiac… loyal with a capital “L”… the one who people are most likely to turn to when they need help… will come through every time… sensitive to others and empathizes with them, particularly if someone has suffered an injustice, reacting quickly with the same feeling, as though he/she had been personally offended… honest, intelligent and straightforward… will take on any responsibility that is given to them and you can be sure that they will do their job conscientiously and well.
Dog people are often born old and get younger as they age.
… a great sense of integrity and fair play… idealistic, and dreamers to the core… tend to be easily upset and shocked more often than the other more realistic zodiac types… a pessimistic side to their character… their spirit is drained when they hear of situations beyond their control, such as natural or human disasters… natural to long for everything to be done in the best possible way and is often anxious about the potential problems that may occur… a strong sense of duty and responsibility…
If you need anymore proof that I am a total Dog… check out what they say my positive and negative traits are:
attentive, well-meaning, helpful, warm-hearted, altruistic, modest, devoted, philosophical, dutiful, discreet, intelligent and enthusiastic.
but also can be…
nasty, mean-spirited, disagreeable, bad-tempered, self-righteous, judgmental, quarrelsome, accusing, nervous, anxious and impossible to live with.
Freaky.
I would certainly be curious to see how accurate you found these lunar renderings (mine or yours…) Until then, I leave you with these fabulous lyrical stylings à la Survivor, straight outta 1982… which was, for the record, the year of the D-O-G.
(Tiger photo from here.)
I’d like to thank the Academy…
Every year, I host an Academy Awards party on Oscar® Sunday©. In the States it was kind of different because my party actually incorporated the awards telecast and we could do silly things like dress up or whatever. Over here in GMT +8, we do it differently. They do televise the awards eventually, usually on Monday night after everyone has worked out who won, who looked like shit and who won the coveted Red Carpet Douche-Bag award.
Some things remain the same though: we still pick the winners and have a little pool to see who can out guess the guessers Academy. This year I think I am going to add some categories like Best/Worst dressed, Best/Worst lines, or Best/Worst audience appearance, just for a little more variety. And we have champagne, ’cause we are classy like that. Oh, and one other thing we can do here, thanks to the fabulous Asian copyright laws, is that we can hand out the movies as swag because they are easily purchased in any SE Asian locale. We have ‘em all. [Okay, except Avatar.]
And so, as the necessary prelude to the March 7 (or 8th) event, “The Academy” announced the Oscar® nominees a couple of days ago. [Their website has a countdown in case you have lost the ability to use a calendar.] This of course precipitated the standard litany of commentary on the oversights, the poor judgment, the obvious make-up calls, the general dissatisfaction with the list. It’s predicable and fabulous and a part of the cultural fabric to which I always look forward.
Additives: Good/Bad/Dirty
What’s your favorite “just add water!” food?
- “Just add water” food sucks. And I know that there will be mad HK backlash for all the Cup Noodle lovers out there. I do not advocate for reconstitution. In schools or food. I guess I am my favorite “just add water food”…
What’s your favorite thing to add vinegar to?
- Buffalo mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and basil salad. D-freaking-licious. But is has gotta be balsamic.
What’s something weird you’ve added to normal food?
- Hm. Define weird. For that matter, define normal. I have added Cholula to almost everything at one time or another. I am not sure I eat normal food. Or if this question is just looking for a gross food combo. I ate a deep fried locust in Thailand. Is that a weird additive or a abnormal food?
What’s your favorite thing to add whipped cream to?
- My mouth.
What’s something you refuse to add anything to, even though most people add something?
- Tea. Plus it is totally pointless because adding stuff to it defeats all of the health benefits. Oh, and I prefer bagels plain… and untoasted/heated as long as they are fresh and real.
My year in lists…
It is a new year again. And this one began with a Blue Moon too – pretty auspicious beginning, I would say. [Actually, I understand a true Blue Moon is a fourth full moon within a season (quarter), not just a second full moon within a month... but I am wondering how the two are not one and the same...] Regardless, it was a gorgeous, cold, full moon New Year’s Eve in Hong Kong this year. I was supposed to be on a junk in the harbor for the third year in a row, but variety prevailed and instead I found myself in the company of good friends – old and new – in Luk Chau on Lammado. It was just… lovely. I do not imagine too many people take their own water taxi to and from their New Year’s Eve function, but I did.
I thought a lot about the New Year this year. For a lot of reasons. I mean, I sort of always do, because I am prone to like this kind of stuff , new beginnings and such. But this year was one of particular interest to me – lessons and observations and weirdness and work and total realignment of mind and body. I am absolutely amazed at how ridiculously fast time seems to be going, and I am consequently very glad that I am starting to see how little point there is in letting other people determine how you spend your fleeting moments. There has been a lot of discussion about paradigm shifts and apocalyptic endings (or beginnings, depending on your point of view) and intentions and energy and goals… And that is just here on this blog.
I had some experiences this year that were positively shocking, and I am not talking about electricity, but I am trying to avoid the judgment of calling them awful (or awesome). I am trying to get to the point where they just are: It is what it is and only our reaction to it that can a/effect judgment. At least that is what I am aiming for. So, for starters, I guess that is my first ‘resolution.’ But before I even get to my revisionist take on the resolution situation I have My Year in Lists to take care of. A long time ago a family friend who is more family than friend gave me an idea for New Year’s Eve. I no longer remember the context or rationale for why she suggested this – if she does it or if she just knew at that young of an age that I was destined for a life in lists… Regardless, Marcia J. suggested that I write down ten things that happened to me in the year just ending. I loved the idea and have been doing it since about 1985. That is a long list of lists.
So… 2009:
1) I visited Vietnam, not once but twice. And it was very nice.
2) I finally visited Japan – or at least a part of it in Kyoto.
3) I got to see the Man Burn, and there will never be enough opportunities for me to thank Mike V., Reece C. and all the other people that helped to make that happen.
4) I went HOME. Really and truly HOME. And it saved my life… I got the chance to reconnect with some people who might never really get how important they are in my life.
5) I lost myself in some really dark places that I suppose I had to see, but it was really difficult and forced me to acknowledge some unpleasant stuff. About myself and the world/people around me.
6) I chose to make my life a priority and not my job. Sorry work, but that is going to be how it goes now. I saw the light and it is way better from outside the plate-glass façade.
7) I began my Project 365 adventure and am now contemplating book opportunities.
8 ) I realigned my mind and my body – mostly through the yoga direction of a very special human being. Again, if there were only a way to express the levels of gratitude.
9) I blogged. And so, therefore, obviously I am somehow. Whatever.
10) I stopped being afraid of the inevitably unknown. No longer really all worried about how it is all going to work out, because you know why? The only reality is that it will.
Wow. That was deeeeeeep.
And for 2010? ‘Sup witchur bad self? No resolutions here promising for early morning sprints across continents and retirement saving and macrobiotic eating. No way. However, if I were prone to guessing, prognosticating and listing – oh, wait…
- I’m gonna be 40. No sense pretending I don’t see it coming.
- Burma. In four short weeks my Aunt Nancy and I will embark upon the road to Mandalay.
- India. Don’t ask for details yet, but it is happening. For S-U-R-E.
- Writing.
- Moving.
- Livin’. L-I-V-I-N.
On your request, I compile a list
Of my top five resolutions for this year (one!)
I declined ’cause I decided that I (two!) did not believe in the new year anymore (three!)
And I must confess that at times like these hopefulness is tantamount to hopelessness (four!)
And I accept that it’s time for a change but not in places like this with people like these (five! five! five! five! five!)
The “Best” Movies Of a Decade…
I love movies and I love lists, so how great is this? I have been mulling over this thing for about a month, doing the things that list obsessives do, like counting how many movies on this list I have seen, want to see, would never see, etcetera. Of course also thinking about movies that should have made the list or maybe should not have.
Some highlights:
- In the Loop
- Me You and Everyone We Know
- Memento
- Anchorman
- Shaun of the Dead
- Y Tu Mama Tambien
- Eternal Sunshine
- Team America [#5!]
Some WTFs:
- Knocked Up
- Minority Report
- United 93
Some “Really? Serious?”
- School of Rock
- 28 Days Later
- Borat
- The Bourne(s)
This list was supposed to be the best 100 movies of the decade, so not of all time, therefore when I started thinking of movies I thought should definitely have been on there it was a little more challenging… Not to mention I have yet to see the majority of “Just Released” movies (though I bought them all in Vietnam totally legally I am sure.)
Some I thought should have gotten a nod include the following (and I fought hard from including Tropic Thunder…):
- Almost Famous or High Fidelity
- Chocolat
- Snatch
- Motorcycle Diaries
- Big Fish
- Kill Bill
- Iron Man
Just sayin’.
{Feel free to contribute, I am looking for the top recommendations form the last two years, my veritable movie blackout.}
Five Questions and some thanks for giving.
QUESTION #1: Who thought this was a good idea? It is not. It is actually a very bad idea. Sort of like this. I am aware of Movember and realize that it is probably necessary to fund men’s health in light of the current health care crises, and of course the cessation of funding to education, which actually – believe it or not – contributes to the sorts of stuffs people need to know in order to make discoveries to help men’s health… but I digress. Am I: A woman who loves a Mo and wants to support the efforts of a Mo Bro in their life?
Not a whole lot of love for the Mo going on up in here.
[QUESTION #1 part 2: Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard? For real.]
QUESTION #2: If you are clearly a hipster by visual design, but you did not accomplish this momentous feat intentionally, it just kind of happened, are you in fact, a hipster?
QUESTION #3: Sarah Palin? Seriously? I stand by my assertion that one should not use words they can neither spell nor define. You are out on called strikes Palin. How Glenn Beck of you.
QUESTION #4: Why can’t I get this in Hong Kong? I feel cheated.
QUESTION #5: What is the meaning of life? I suppose this is as good an answer as any. Unless it is yoga. Then I like that answer better.
And on that note: I am thankful for the infinite ways that my students make my days unique, challenging and interesting… giving hope that there might be more than “bugger all down here.”
Amanda
