Red and Black Party

I still don’t understand exactly what it was, but it was a lot of fun! Thanks, Tony!

L’Auberge Espagnole

Saw this flick again last night. The first time I saw it, I was in Germany, seeing a version with Spanish subtitles alongside someone who understood most of the French in it. And I thought it was funny then! I don’t have to tell you how great I thought it was when I actually comprehended the [at times] quintilingual epsiodes, thanks to some English subtitles!

Having a bad day? Miss being a foreigner? Don’t miss being a foreigner? Watch this movie!

The Andersons

A small, personal achievement for me, as of late: I’ve now made it through the entire oeuvre of feature-lengths by Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson. I’m not going to lie; it wasn’t easy. Some of those movies are hard to watch! And, yet, all the pictures by those two make them a couple of my four favorite directors (the Coen brothers make up the other half, but I still have a good lot of pre-Fargo films to check out there). The Anderson highlights for me remain Magnolia (PTA) and Rushmore (WA), two very different must-sees:

With these guys, I would also argue things just seem to keep getting more interesting. 2007 saw thrillers There Will Be Blood (PTA) and No Country for Old Men (the Coens) hit the screen, while 2008 entertained with The Darjeeling Limited (WA) and Burn After Reading (the Coens). That’s likely my favorite thing about the four directors. From Sydney to Blood, Bottle Rocket (okay, well, Rushmore) to Darjeeling, and at least (still have to go farther back here) Fargo to Reading, there’s a number of fantastic movies. Better yet, not even one clear progression, I would argue, rather just one, long row of individually great films…in quite different fashions.

If you’ve sinned enough not to have seen any by any of the aforementioned, I’d start with Rushmore (WA), Magnolia (PTA), and O Brother Where Art Thou (Coens). Coming up this year? Wessy hits the scene again with Fantastic Mr. Fox and the Coen bros. are of course working on four things simultaneously (including a Michael Chabon adaptation!). 2009 should be a good year to go to the theater!

Best Invention of ‘08?

So Time put Peek at the top of its list. I had actually never even heard of it when I read this article, but found it pretty interesting because Apple Gazette had just been talking the day before about how many iPhone users wish they could have a plan that is only data, i.e. no voice plan.

I guess Peek was already trying to dip [in a small way] into that market, offering the $100 device that would let you write unlimited emails, anywhere, for only $20/month. It’s an interesting idea, yet the greater range of features on other devices still trumps Peek, in my opinion. Even if you only end up using Maps or Yelp or even your phone once or twice per month when you’re lost or running late to meet someone for dinner, always having at least that potential of being able to compensate is likely worth the more expensive monthly plans. Once you’ve used Maps just once in a pinch, you beat yourself up a thousand times over if you ever forget your phone.

Just my two cents, though. Thoughts?

The Lemon of Pink

So, as much as I hate to feel like an idiot, I continued the life-long ritual last night. Suffice to say I wasn’t wholly satisfied with my Maimon presentation. Perhaps it wasn’t planned quite well enough. On the other hand, the real disappointment was that even the best planning in the world is not going to overcome a permanent language barrier.

You know, you study something for nearly a third of your life now, but know that, just because you didn’t start until 14 years old, you will always be slightly more in awe of the mechanics of a foreign language than in control of them. I take heart in the fact that my philosophical approach to the reading was sound, and I believe that was communicated as well; it’s just that it kills me to have to sound out ten extra imperfect sentences to qualify each point because I just don’t feel I can ever make the one terse, precise utterance that would wrap it all up so much better.

One of my favorite short stories is “Who’s the Chef?” by David Sedaris, and, in it, he suddenly bursts out in an English rant in the midst of a dinner with French guests in Paris. The line goes something along the lines of “It’s one of those times when you really notice the difference between speaking and expressing yourself. The words in French I knew—rubber hand, volunteer work, election year—but they were just vocabulary. In English, my sentence could do double-duty with its tone: 1) explain the situation, and 2) berate Hugh for not listening to the single interesting thing that happened to me all day.”

Oh, how I love David Sedaris! Yet another forlorn nerd, not at all oblivious to the fact that is a total klutz. But, why, then, does he always have the coolest friggin’ cover pictures on his books? Oh how marketing will always overshadow the truth!

In the meantime, I’m consoling myself today with a healthy listening to The Books. I go back and forth on my favorite song by them (“Vogt Dig for Kloppervok”, “Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again”; even their album titles are great: Thought For Food, Lost and Safe), but today it’s “The Lemon of Pink” off of The Lemon of Pink.

The last line of the tune is just done in this marvelous voice, sort of simultaneously carrying off and tying it up: “Allllllll’s welllllll that ends well…well, well…well, well”. It leaves me completely befuddled. Am I to believe all’s well that ends well? Is that “well, well” an inquisitive “well, well?” or a “well, what do we have here?” sort of “well, well”?

Well….