Oh! How depressing my last blog was... my sister, I talked to her the morning after I got the news, she was going for one of those things whereby they have to do some sort of clensing of the uterus. She looked very tiny and very tired but she told me that my nephew had been more affectionate than usual, which left me to wonder how amazing it is that a child who is not even two years old could sense such a change in the mood of his mother.
I guess it was an instinct like the one animals show sometimes.... I don't know, but anyway I found myself telling her, that she can have another one anytime she wants and if she can't.... that bay right there was worthy seven children altogether. I am pretty sure she'll have another baby as soon as the occasion shows up, she is young and beside which baby wouldn't wanna have my sister as their mom. Not because it's my sister we are talking about, if she were not my siblings she would still be one of my favorite person on this planet. A person I would want as a friend. Maybe I never compltely saw my sister as just a sibling, it's pretty hard to describe this feeling I have. I was telling my auntie I think of my dad as my dad and my mom as my mom and her as my auntie but Olivia was never only my sister. She was first of all a childhood friend, someone who was always there for me when i needed and as long as I can remember too... then she also became the first person to accept me for who I was and came to understand me more than anybody else. She was someone I could rely upon, someone who took care of me... and after a while the roles kind of switched. This balance stayed unchanged fo many years, until she got married and I lost part of her to another person, and when she got a baby I lost one more part of her to this little kid.
For a long time, seeing my nephew I could not connect him to my sister. I knew he was familiy, but I could not conceive my sister (who I still see as an 8 years old little girl, since her face never changed in all these years), someone I saw as a child, could have had a baby. So, somehow, it was like... when you get a new pet, although this pet is a person (a miniature one, but indeed a person)!!!
Although I am crazy about my nephew because he is the son to one of my favorite persons in the world, there was always this feeling of envy in the back of my mind. He was like a black hole and sucked all of her attentions, all of her feelings, all of her energies to keep her all for himself. Once that was my role. In a way, he was hostile to me too... for some reason.
If he has to throw something at someone and there's twenty people in the room, you can bet he'll end up throwing the thing at me. So everytime we meet we study each other, after a while he looks at me with a look that says: I can see that you are my equal. I can foresee his actions and prevent them. He alwasy stare at me, in utmost surprise: how did you know I was going to do that? I always tell him: I know what you are thinking, I would have done the same.
Most people don't remember how they were like when they were children, that's why children seem most umpredictable to them and they end up treating children like aliens. To me whatever my nephew is about to do is crystal clear... because I myself had thought of doing the same thing a second before he did. Once I grabbed a table cloth and was about to pull it down and I put my hand on it and did not say anything, nor to scold him, not to alarm my mom.
So he looked at me and I say: come I give you a cooke but don't pull the tablecloth to steal the one I have, just ask for one.
He sat and I gave him cookie and he ran away with it. My mom said...: how can you keep your cool? he was about to spill hot cappuccino on himself!
I simply thought: If I yell he get scared and cries, if he can understand without me yelling so why getting all wokrd up about something it did not happened?
Unfortunately I cannot keep up with him all the time, I don't have the stamina, so I gladly hand him over to other people... and still sometimes I like him very much and sometimes I still don't.
Lately he has developed a temper very similar to my own, without my knowing.
My sister told me the other day: after I finally got rid of you I had to bear a clone of yours!!! It's a curse.
So she calls him Dedino, and she tries to keep him connected to me, she shows him pictures, my drawings and then we use the webcome.
She says sometimes he asks her if I am asleep, since the computer is off, but if she says no, then he asks her to turn it on and see if Deda is there.
I wonder if just thinks of me as the little lady who lives in the box. Once he looked at me and said: ugly!
Another time when he saw me he said: hello child!
Lately, everytime he sees me, he brightens up and laugh and shouts my name: dedaaaaa! dedaaaa!
Might have to do that I show him my Nemo toys, and he has some too, so he goes fetch his toys and shows them to me. Beside when he goes to visit my mom he plays with my toys and it's impressive to see that when my mom tells him not to damage them he shakes his hand and says : nononono no break, Deda toy.
So throught toys we finally found another connections, we both like the same things. So that's why he came to develop a new form or respect that makes me even more equal to him.
The other things he likes is the fact I sing to him. He likes to sing, for being only 20 months old, he is very much in tune and never forget a lyric of a song and sings with the right tempo too. This makes my sister very proud.
I spoke to him on the phone the other day, he was not going to talk back to me and looked at hims mom, confused.
He is still confused by the fact my sister and I have the same voice... only I kept repeating: this is deda! this is deda!
And when my sister told him: yes, it's deda!
Then he started yelling my name and made me laugh so much, I though if I were to open my window I could hear him without having to use to phone... so loud he was!!! hahahahaha
So then he sang and then, since he was going to sleep, of his own initiative he decided we had to hang up so he said: goodnight deda.
Leaving me and my sister surprised. So that's when she told me, alright, he wants to go to sleep, I've got to hang up.
This baby is lucky I am not close to him right now. I think until he is 3 years old he needs to be mywith my sister alone, so that she can help him build good morals foundations. If I were to be nearby I would monopolize him and allow him to do things my sister will never allow him to do: like drawing on the wall, for example.
On her point of view, it is vandalism, it is unpolite, he might end up doing it in someone else's house and that would be embarrassing.
On my point of view, creativity should not be stopped at any level if it is expressed in an artistic and none vandalic way.
A wall it's only a wall, paint costs nothing, giving too much importance to a wall that could be painted over and over again is stupid... there are more immanent things that are more valuable than material things... we don't own anything we buy, we simpli cross life borrowin a material body and not even our body his our, since we leave it behind when we die.
We should not care to much of it's tangible as... we should just let our knowledge grow and detach ourself from concept like, getting more... and more and more... while our spirit maybe starves and persihes.
What is the point of having a house with 20 bathroom when we only poop from one ass?
Monday, May 03, 2004
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
for once a typical day in my life.
The mailman did not pass... I know I ma obsessed with the mail and the post office but... I have been waiting for a package 3 weeks already, it should have been here 2 weeks ago. sigh, and there was Howl's castle in it (the book) and a pirate Mickey Mouse, and an Osamu tezuka manga. sigh sigh sigh
I spent the whole day listening to Chage and Aska, put my winamp on random. Yeah, some of you might think it's cheap, commercail music... I like them though, it feels relaxing. It helps me with my Japanese too.
I understand many more words than I used to.
Then what else did I do. Send out some emails, taken a freelance, read some manga, read a book....
talked about my friend's love's trouble, talked about life and philosophy with my menthor.
and got the news that my sister had a miscarriage...
a typical day.
The mailman did not pass... I know I ma obsessed with the mail and the post office but... I have been waiting for a package 3 weeks already, it should have been here 2 weeks ago. sigh, and there was Howl's castle in it (the book) and a pirate Mickey Mouse, and an Osamu tezuka manga. sigh sigh sigh
I spent the whole day listening to Chage and Aska, put my winamp on random. Yeah, some of you might think it's cheap, commercail music... I like them though, it feels relaxing. It helps me with my Japanese too.
I understand many more words than I used to.
Then what else did I do. Send out some emails, taken a freelance, read some manga, read a book....
talked about my friend's love's trouble, talked about life and philosophy with my menthor.
and got the news that my sister had a miscarriage...
a typical day.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Italian movies.... well... and Disney too.
Mi piace lavorare is a movie about mobbing. I was shocked something like mobbing would get to Italy, but my mother was a victim of mobbing for a while and that is why I think this movie was really interesting. It is more on the documentaristic side and at the same time tries to be too simpatetic with the protagonist of the movie.
Other than that, the movie is almost sprouting out of neorealism and some scenes reminded me of De Sica's Umberto D.
Sometimes it's too socialist. In general though it keeps its distance and leaves the spectator develop ideas, feelings and opinions about what's going on. To a certain extent it left me with the same feelings that were given to me by a movie called 13 conversations about one thing. although the stories were different, the timing and the storytellinf was very similar.
Agata e la tempesta is really an adorable movie, although it kind of fails the viewer in the ending... somehow it felt they did not know how to end the movie so they killed the one character that ignites the story at the beginning (although he is not the protagonist). The ending was kinda Almodovar'ish feeling... but it did not match the feel of the movie so it was a bit of a let down... other than that, there were some pretty good ideas (except for the mayor of Stokholm who was merely dropped in there and I still haven't figured out why) and I found it very pleasant to watch and absolutely to my liking.
L'imbalsamatore that is a movie that felt likethe first Visconti. It is nice to see how good culture is showing through these young italian directors' opus. On one hand it felt like watching Osessione or L'avventura from Antonioni.... on the other end it felt this one too should have been a short. (I had the same feeling about Whale rider, just like Elephant the director had not enough story to make a feature but indeed ketp shooting and add water to the soup).
On a persona note, the young protagonist looks too much like my father when he was young, so watching the movie freaked me out, had he had blue eyes as well I would have switched the movie off right away in horror (to see my father kiss another woman, would be too much to handle).
Le fate ignoranti very nice film, it starts too slow and takes a while to take off. The themes about homosexuality and belonging somewhere were the right ones and the metaphor of the glass breaking was the right solution for the ending... I reaaaally loved that choice for the ending. But at first, the whole set up and how it's approached felt like a movie produced for TV and maybe hte writer should have jumped in the plot point one a little faster. I still don't know why, but I wasn't hooked up for some good 20 minutes or so but after that it becomes less painful and really an enjoyable watch.
Home on the Range God it felt good to hear Alan Menken's songs again!!! instead of those tedious, no melody, no talent, whining songs from Collins and Elton John. We are talking of an 8 times oscar winner here... and is he worth it!!!! Hell yeah! Okay so the movie was cute but had its flaws. Considering what it went through during production, the story was all over the place, there were way too many dialogues and the main character wasn't appealing at all. But in general I would say every single scene was like a colorful bead for a necklace and taking some beads over others... there, some beads were really pretty and overall the necklace wasn't cmpletely bad. The song were not sang by the characters.... good! The only one to sing is the villain but there's a reason to his singing. that was the smartest choice... my friend did not like it, they said it was stupid but i think it was too surreal for them to accept something that isn't as obvious as a bad guy doing kung fu. Y.odle yodels and hypnotizes cows to kidnap them. The wholel yodle scene was like the pink elephant of dumbo it was a great omage.
I like side characters better than the main ones, especially Grace. I did not get the lucky rubbit at all, but I do love the Villains, all of them. And some of the gag in the saloon were... too weird and twisted not to laugh. The horse was a little annoying, but not less annoying then Shrek's donkey. So who cares?
Too bad it was disney's last but.. thank God this was their last and not that horrible horrible Brother bear.
Mi piace lavorare is a movie about mobbing. I was shocked something like mobbing would get to Italy, but my mother was a victim of mobbing for a while and that is why I think this movie was really interesting. It is more on the documentaristic side and at the same time tries to be too simpatetic with the protagonist of the movie.
Other than that, the movie is almost sprouting out of neorealism and some scenes reminded me of De Sica's Umberto D.
Sometimes it's too socialist. In general though it keeps its distance and leaves the spectator develop ideas, feelings and opinions about what's going on. To a certain extent it left me with the same feelings that were given to me by a movie called 13 conversations about one thing. although the stories were different, the timing and the storytellinf was very similar.
Agata e la tempesta is really an adorable movie, although it kind of fails the viewer in the ending... somehow it felt they did not know how to end the movie so they killed the one character that ignites the story at the beginning (although he is not the protagonist). The ending was kinda Almodovar'ish feeling... but it did not match the feel of the movie so it was a bit of a let down... other than that, there were some pretty good ideas (except for the mayor of Stokholm who was merely dropped in there and I still haven't figured out why) and I found it very pleasant to watch and absolutely to my liking.
L'imbalsamatore that is a movie that felt likethe first Visconti. It is nice to see how good culture is showing through these young italian directors' opus. On one hand it felt like watching Osessione or L'avventura from Antonioni.... on the other end it felt this one too should have been a short. (I had the same feeling about Whale rider, just like Elephant the director had not enough story to make a feature but indeed ketp shooting and add water to the soup).
On a persona note, the young protagonist looks too much like my father when he was young, so watching the movie freaked me out, had he had blue eyes as well I would have switched the movie off right away in horror (to see my father kiss another woman, would be too much to handle).
Le fate ignoranti very nice film, it starts too slow and takes a while to take off. The themes about homosexuality and belonging somewhere were the right ones and the metaphor of the glass breaking was the right solution for the ending... I reaaaally loved that choice for the ending. But at first, the whole set up and how it's approached felt like a movie produced for TV and maybe hte writer should have jumped in the plot point one a little faster. I still don't know why, but I wasn't hooked up for some good 20 minutes or so but after that it becomes less painful and really an enjoyable watch.
Home on the Range God it felt good to hear Alan Menken's songs again!!! instead of those tedious, no melody, no talent, whining songs from Collins and Elton John. We are talking of an 8 times oscar winner here... and is he worth it!!!! Hell yeah! Okay so the movie was cute but had its flaws. Considering what it went through during production, the story was all over the place, there were way too many dialogues and the main character wasn't appealing at all. But in general I would say every single scene was like a colorful bead for a necklace and taking some beads over others... there, some beads were really pretty and overall the necklace wasn't cmpletely bad. The song were not sang by the characters.... good! The only one to sing is the villain but there's a reason to his singing. that was the smartest choice... my friend did not like it, they said it was stupid but i think it was too surreal for them to accept something that isn't as obvious as a bad guy doing kung fu. Y.odle yodels and hypnotizes cows to kidnap them. The wholel yodle scene was like the pink elephant of dumbo it was a great omage.
I like side characters better than the main ones, especially Grace. I did not get the lucky rubbit at all, but I do love the Villains, all of them. And some of the gag in the saloon were... too weird and twisted not to laugh. The horse was a little annoying, but not less annoying then Shrek's donkey. So who cares?
Too bad it was disney's last but.. thank God this was their last and not that horrible horrible Brother bear.
When it comes down to the European movies I have been watching... I was very much impressed by the quality of the stories.
with My name is Tanino I discevered Virzi'. And what a discovery, the guy is brilliant! My name is Tanino is the story of this very simple sicilian guy who goes to America and everything that could possibly go wrong... does go wrong.
He is envolved in so many surreal situation that the whole adventure will end up caving in and things get so bad, in the end he si thrown out of the country!!!! The movie is simply hilarious, make fun of cliches by drowning you into the cliches themselves. It was like watching a reborn Dino Risi.
Elephant is something halfway between a documentary and a short film. I believe is like 1 hr and 20 mins long. It won an award at the Fetival of Cannes for best direction I think. Well, it's the story of two kids who go to school and shoot, like it happened in Columbine. The director follows a few kids in their everyday life, and when I say follow... i mean he phisically follows them cuz 75% of the shots is camera following these kids walking in the hallways, we almost see more of their back then their faces. He divides the story by chapters using the names of the kids and actually some of these chapter are a whole sequence with no cuts in between. The camera continuosly moves, following this or that person and never cuts away. The result is, after a while you are totally aware of this: there's no cuts between scenes. It becomes too exploited and it feels like the director is trying to water down the soup. In fact, there's enough material for a nice short and with tighter timing I believe a very nice one would come out of all this footage... but... it's not a short. He stressed so much the fact the story is shot almost in real time that... it makes it way too heavy to viewer. For the rest is a really scary story... really shoking. I have to confess the idea of how the kids cross each other's path during the same day, by showing the same scene, shot from different points of view and in different part of the movie is a really nice expedient.
I fiumi di porpora 2... I haven't seen number 1. They are a series of thriller movie, protagonist is Jean Reno as a detective. In this one there's a story about the end of time, the Apocalipse and other escatoligcal stuff. Errr... for being a movie writte by Besson it really has some bad dialogues and it's way too linear. I mean the moment Christopher Lee shows up you know he is the bad guy, furtermore he is German. It is nice how they related the story to the Maginot, so it would be hard to adapt this kind of story to another country, and this makes the movie really french. But it still is way too simplistic, and it is very easy to figure things ahead.
L'auberge Espagnole is another very pretty French commedy. Very hard to expalin, it is very european. Well you see the protagonist he gets a scholarship called Erasmus to go study to Barcelona for a year. If you have never been in an experience like that, where you live in a foreing country, with foreign people for a while, then you will not understand the movie and you will take it for the usual silly comedy. But it is not, actually there are some very good observations in the story, one of which is the fact that you only know the true nature of a person if you throw him/her in a unfamiliar place, doing unfamiliar things, sharing his life with unfamiliar people. It's all about surviving cultural clashes and growing up to be a perfect child of the beautiful United Europe. It's a movie about following your dreams, finding who you are and becoming Cosmopolite. We say, the world is interesting cuz everyone is different. I particularly enjoyed the movie and share the final decision of the protagonist, seen I myself went through the same kind of emotion and took the same path.
with My name is Tanino I discevered Virzi'. And what a discovery, the guy is brilliant! My name is Tanino is the story of this very simple sicilian guy who goes to America and everything that could possibly go wrong... does go wrong.
He is envolved in so many surreal situation that the whole adventure will end up caving in and things get so bad, in the end he si thrown out of the country!!!! The movie is simply hilarious, make fun of cliches by drowning you into the cliches themselves. It was like watching a reborn Dino Risi.
Elephant is something halfway between a documentary and a short film. I believe is like 1 hr and 20 mins long. It won an award at the Fetival of Cannes for best direction I think. Well, it's the story of two kids who go to school and shoot, like it happened in Columbine. The director follows a few kids in their everyday life, and when I say follow... i mean he phisically follows them cuz 75% of the shots is camera following these kids walking in the hallways, we almost see more of their back then their faces. He divides the story by chapters using the names of the kids and actually some of these chapter are a whole sequence with no cuts in between. The camera continuosly moves, following this or that person and never cuts away. The result is, after a while you are totally aware of this: there's no cuts between scenes. It becomes too exploited and it feels like the director is trying to water down the soup. In fact, there's enough material for a nice short and with tighter timing I believe a very nice one would come out of all this footage... but... it's not a short. He stressed so much the fact the story is shot almost in real time that... it makes it way too heavy to viewer. For the rest is a really scary story... really shoking. I have to confess the idea of how the kids cross each other's path during the same day, by showing the same scene, shot from different points of view and in different part of the movie is a really nice expedient.
I fiumi di porpora 2... I haven't seen number 1. They are a series of thriller movie, protagonist is Jean Reno as a detective. In this one there's a story about the end of time, the Apocalipse and other escatoligcal stuff. Errr... for being a movie writte by Besson it really has some bad dialogues and it's way too linear. I mean the moment Christopher Lee shows up you know he is the bad guy, furtermore he is German. It is nice how they related the story to the Maginot, so it would be hard to adapt this kind of story to another country, and this makes the movie really french. But it still is way too simplistic, and it is very easy to figure things ahead.
L'auberge Espagnole is another very pretty French commedy. Very hard to expalin, it is very european. Well you see the protagonist he gets a scholarship called Erasmus to go study to Barcelona for a year. If you have never been in an experience like that, where you live in a foreing country, with foreign people for a while, then you will not understand the movie and you will take it for the usual silly comedy. But it is not, actually there are some very good observations in the story, one of which is the fact that you only know the true nature of a person if you throw him/her in a unfamiliar place, doing unfamiliar things, sharing his life with unfamiliar people. It's all about surviving cultural clashes and growing up to be a perfect child of the beautiful United Europe. It's a movie about following your dreams, finding who you are and becoming Cosmopolite. We say, the world is interesting cuz everyone is different. I particularly enjoyed the movie and share the final decision of the protagonist, seen I myself went through the same kind of emotion and took the same path.
I am watching many movies lately, a lot of them are european, so hard to get around here... some other I go the movies.
If I were to make a list these are the movies I watched in the last few weeks: Hellboy, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, Kill Bill 2, Elephant, Secret Window, The Barbarian Invasions, League of extraordinary gentlemen, L'auberge Espagnole, My name is Tanino, I fiumi di porpora 2, L'imbalsamatore, Mi piace lavorare, No man's land, Le fate Ignoranti, Agata e la tempesta and Home on the Range.
Let me see, I got the impression I am developing immunity to special effects so in a way I am not impressed by them anymore and I am able to fall asleep during an action movie. So far I was so craving for movies with a good script and good dialogues and an unusual story, I don't feel appealed by the way a movie looks anymore. It is not enough.
Thinking this I have to say Hellboy was probably the worst movie I saw this year. First of all I don't think it was even close to the mood of the comicbook (which I don't really know well, but I read some of it... and frankly I think it's one of those stories that work pretty well as a comicbook but is not cinematic enough). If you haven't seen it dont' read this it contains big SPOILERS. Take on hellboy was that the movies tried to move forward without an engine. Hellboy spends hours fighting demons in the subway, we don't see him defeating all of them but we see him going to Russia to hunt the big guy instead... so my thinking was: what about the guys you left in the subway? Once he gets to Russia it takes the pyro girl nothing at all to burn the demons down... duh... and in the end.... when the big Bad guys, the squid comes out, one things... there goes the huge battle scene, but no, we get fried calamari in less than 5 minutes.
Plus always the same kind of jokes: how many times do I have to kill you? Haven't I killed you already? Ouch, this is gonna hurt....
Boring! I fell asleep. Beside all action heroes movies dun have twist anymore in the end, he kicks ass and kisses the girl. that's it. LXG was no execption... or maybe it was a bit worse then HB... at least HB had milk and cookies on a rooftop discussing his love problems with a kid.. throwing rocks at his rival.
I so don't want to go see Spider man 2, I-robots and Van Helsing now...... as for the other movies.
I was very much impressed by Barbarian Invasion, great story, great dialogues, great display of culture and great observations of the surroundings. Maybe the movie just lacked a little bit of emotional crescendo in the end, but the lack was due to inadeguate soundtrack I suspect. definetely an oscar winner.
Same goes for No man's land which ran and won against Amelie. Now Amelie is an adorable movie, but no man's land is one of those stories that truthfully tells you in a war, no one is right, everyone is wrong, enemies cannot become friends even after they discover they both are human beings and the third party can only but watch as a helpless spectator. The ending was astonisling brilliant. Another oscar winner.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. there are no words to describe genius. My friend's comment on the movie was: nowadays it's so easy to figure out when a movie begins from its end. Well, yeah< iw ould say Kauffmann really gave enough hints to the public, and he knows how to play his game of making the spectator feel smarter than what he really is. The spectator things "i know wha't going on!" they feel smart but truth is... all the hints were there, left behind like thumbelino little crumbs. What I like was the sane pessimism with a vein of sudden optimism, hidden again pessimism again. When the protagonist decides to erase his girlfriend, there's good and bad memories he wants to get rid of, of course when the whole process begins the bad memories are the first ones to go. As a results Joel (the protagonist) begins his race against the process of erasing to keep what's left of his good memories. Of course we hope with him that he might do it, that he might stop and keep the memories... but is a mere illusion: first of all his desire to suceed is dictated by the fact his bad memories are gone, so the idea of love and good relationship now in his brain is not a whole image of what the relationship truly was. If he were to succeed and keep his memory of his girlfriend we would be wishing him bad. But at the same time the movie was telling us that maybe we love with our body as well, not only with our heart and mind and maybe as a quote to Chomsky, Joel's body retained the informations of the image of her body and definitely felt attracted to her all over again and fell in love all over again. Are we maybe destined or condemned to fall in love with the same person over and over again, if we were given second chances? I dunno, but truthfully, no matter how many time we were to start over we will still be lead to the same conclusion: if it did not work once, chances are it never will unless we change along the way. Maybe that was the meaning of that little repeated scene in the end.... maybe Joel and his girlfriend went over the same processo of losing and finding each other over and over and over again. a gorgeous movie!
Kill Bill 2 is not as entertaining as the first one, for the action movies lovers.... but somehow is smart pants enough to put you in front of the dilemma... should BB really kill Bill? Well, there are no way out, first of all because that is the name of the movie after all, second of all because there's no room to forgiveness in a revenge story, but only room for understanding. I was amazed to see Tarantino thank so many Italian moviemakers in the end, included Leo Corbucci, and frankly some scenes I enjoyed more than other cuz they reminded me of italian mafia and western movies from the 70's. Also I think he was leading the public by the nose, giving them what they wanted.... but making fun of it, although lots people still think Kill Bill is an action movie.... Tarantino is a second picasso to me.
secret window is a nice King's story, with the usual lack so typical of King: the impossiblity to wrap it up nicely and in satisfactory way. My thinking on the movie was... they revealed too soon and too much the truth about Morty. I would have exploited the creepy Turturro longer... used Shooter more, to haunt down the wife, until a few seconds before he hits her, when he says the line: it was his idea, it was Morty's idea. She should then say: you are morty. The the camera turn around TUrturro, we use is shoulders as a transition/wipte thingy, wee see Johnny Depp with his hat on and we realize.... shit it's split personalty. The we put the we put the flashbacks of how he killed everyone else and then he hits the wife he hits the lover and he gets away with it. Nice and clean. the ending was way too quick at revealing you the truth.
If I were to make a list these are the movies I watched in the last few weeks: Hellboy, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, Kill Bill 2, Elephant, Secret Window, The Barbarian Invasions, League of extraordinary gentlemen, L'auberge Espagnole, My name is Tanino, I fiumi di porpora 2, L'imbalsamatore, Mi piace lavorare, No man's land, Le fate Ignoranti, Agata e la tempesta and Home on the Range.
Let me see, I got the impression I am developing immunity to special effects so in a way I am not impressed by them anymore and I am able to fall asleep during an action movie. So far I was so craving for movies with a good script and good dialogues and an unusual story, I don't feel appealed by the way a movie looks anymore. It is not enough.
Thinking this I have to say Hellboy was probably the worst movie I saw this year. First of all I don't think it was even close to the mood of the comicbook (which I don't really know well, but I read some of it... and frankly I think it's one of those stories that work pretty well as a comicbook but is not cinematic enough). If you haven't seen it dont' read this it contains big SPOILERS. Take on hellboy was that the movies tried to move forward without an engine. Hellboy spends hours fighting demons in the subway, we don't see him defeating all of them but we see him going to Russia to hunt the big guy instead... so my thinking was: what about the guys you left in the subway? Once he gets to Russia it takes the pyro girl nothing at all to burn the demons down... duh... and in the end.... when the big Bad guys, the squid comes out, one things... there goes the huge battle scene, but no, we get fried calamari in less than 5 minutes.
Plus always the same kind of jokes: how many times do I have to kill you? Haven't I killed you already? Ouch, this is gonna hurt....
Boring! I fell asleep. Beside all action heroes movies dun have twist anymore in the end, he kicks ass and kisses the girl. that's it. LXG was no execption... or maybe it was a bit worse then HB... at least HB had milk and cookies on a rooftop discussing his love problems with a kid.. throwing rocks at his rival.
I so don't want to go see Spider man 2, I-robots and Van Helsing now...... as for the other movies.
I was very much impressed by Barbarian Invasion, great story, great dialogues, great display of culture and great observations of the surroundings. Maybe the movie just lacked a little bit of emotional crescendo in the end, but the lack was due to inadeguate soundtrack I suspect. definetely an oscar winner.
Same goes for No man's land which ran and won against Amelie. Now Amelie is an adorable movie, but no man's land is one of those stories that truthfully tells you in a war, no one is right, everyone is wrong, enemies cannot become friends even after they discover they both are human beings and the third party can only but watch as a helpless spectator. The ending was astonisling brilliant. Another oscar winner.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. there are no words to describe genius. My friend's comment on the movie was: nowadays it's so easy to figure out when a movie begins from its end. Well, yeah< iw ould say Kauffmann really gave enough hints to the public, and he knows how to play his game of making the spectator feel smarter than what he really is. The spectator things "i know wha't going on!" they feel smart but truth is... all the hints were there, left behind like thumbelino little crumbs. What I like was the sane pessimism with a vein of sudden optimism, hidden again pessimism again. When the protagonist decides to erase his girlfriend, there's good and bad memories he wants to get rid of, of course when the whole process begins the bad memories are the first ones to go. As a results Joel (the protagonist) begins his race against the process of erasing to keep what's left of his good memories. Of course we hope with him that he might do it, that he might stop and keep the memories... but is a mere illusion: first of all his desire to suceed is dictated by the fact his bad memories are gone, so the idea of love and good relationship now in his brain is not a whole image of what the relationship truly was. If he were to succeed and keep his memory of his girlfriend we would be wishing him bad. But at the same time the movie was telling us that maybe we love with our body as well, not only with our heart and mind and maybe as a quote to Chomsky, Joel's body retained the informations of the image of her body and definitely felt attracted to her all over again and fell in love all over again. Are we maybe destined or condemned to fall in love with the same person over and over again, if we were given second chances? I dunno, but truthfully, no matter how many time we were to start over we will still be lead to the same conclusion: if it did not work once, chances are it never will unless we change along the way. Maybe that was the meaning of that little repeated scene in the end.... maybe Joel and his girlfriend went over the same processo of losing and finding each other over and over and over again. a gorgeous movie!
Kill Bill 2 is not as entertaining as the first one, for the action movies lovers.... but somehow is smart pants enough to put you in front of the dilemma... should BB really kill Bill? Well, there are no way out, first of all because that is the name of the movie after all, second of all because there's no room to forgiveness in a revenge story, but only room for understanding. I was amazed to see Tarantino thank so many Italian moviemakers in the end, included Leo Corbucci, and frankly some scenes I enjoyed more than other cuz they reminded me of italian mafia and western movies from the 70's. Also I think he was leading the public by the nose, giving them what they wanted.... but making fun of it, although lots people still think Kill Bill is an action movie.... Tarantino is a second picasso to me.
secret window is a nice King's story, with the usual lack so typical of King: the impossiblity to wrap it up nicely and in satisfactory way. My thinking on the movie was... they revealed too soon and too much the truth about Morty. I would have exploited the creepy Turturro longer... used Shooter more, to haunt down the wife, until a few seconds before he hits her, when he says the line: it was his idea, it was Morty's idea. She should then say: you are morty. The the camera turn around TUrturro, we use is shoulders as a transition/wipte thingy, wee see Johnny Depp with his hat on and we realize.... shit it's split personalty. The we put the we put the flashbacks of how he killed everyone else and then he hits the wife he hits the lover and he gets away with it. Nice and clean. the ending was way too quick at revealing you the truth.
Monday, April 12, 2004
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
I am overflowing with ideas recently.
I recently finished my second drafit of one script and am working on the third draft of another one... I am still working on these two and already have an idea for a new one.
How would I say this, I want to write a thesis about people who loves animals... but depict the bad and good things this love causes to animals. Sometimes to train a dog it's not the best thing you can do to him... and sometimes to love an animal as if it were a person it's the worst thing you could do to him.
I think animals should be loved for what they are. Love given in the right proportion, in the right ammount will not spoil and rot. It's a matter of honesty, a dog cannot replace a person so it should not be treated like one, a person should not act like a dog cuz it would make the poor animal confused.
I had confused pet before. A tortoise who was born and grew up in an aviary and thought to be a bird.
A bird who thought my dad was his mother and my sister was his wife and hated my mother with all his guts to the point he will chew on the leaves of her favourite plant, out of jealousy... and talk behind her back making faces as soon as she turned her back to him: che che che che (the most spiteful sound I can think of hehehehe).
A dog who thought everyone else was a dog too.
A cat who thought to be a dog.
Belive me, messing up with an animal psyche isn't nice, just let them be!
I recently finished my second drafit of one script and am working on the third draft of another one... I am still working on these two and already have an idea for a new one.
How would I say this, I want to write a thesis about people who loves animals... but depict the bad and good things this love causes to animals. Sometimes to train a dog it's not the best thing you can do to him... and sometimes to love an animal as if it were a person it's the worst thing you could do to him.
I think animals should be loved for what they are. Love given in the right proportion, in the right ammount will not spoil and rot. It's a matter of honesty, a dog cannot replace a person so it should not be treated like one, a person should not act like a dog cuz it would make the poor animal confused.
I had confused pet before. A tortoise who was born and grew up in an aviary and thought to be a bird.
A bird who thought my dad was his mother and my sister was his wife and hated my mother with all his guts to the point he will chew on the leaves of her favourite plant, out of jealousy... and talk behind her back making faces as soon as she turned her back to him: che che che che (the most spiteful sound I can think of hehehehe).
A dog who thought everyone else was a dog too.
A cat who thought to be a dog.
Belive me, messing up with an animal psyche isn't nice, just let them be!
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Was there ever anyone who did not thank people at the Oscar acceptance speech?
I think I might be the first one... If I ever win an Oscar.... I wanna just go up there, make a few names and just go
:pPpPp
or actually
XPpPpPpPpPp
People who gave me troubles in the most difficult times of my life, I absolutely don't want them to go around to say they knew me for some reason and be proud of it.
Don't fill your mouth with my name, yoy bastards, all I have to say to you is: XPpPpPpP
hahahahahaha that would be an interesting Oscar acceptance Speech.... well, first, we have to win one huh? ^_^
I think I might be the first one... If I ever win an Oscar.... I wanna just go up there, make a few names and just go
:pPpPp
or actually
XPpPpPpPpPp
People who gave me troubles in the most difficult times of my life, I absolutely don't want them to go around to say they knew me for some reason and be proud of it.
Don't fill your mouth with my name, yoy bastards, all I have to say to you is: XPpPpPpP
hahahahahaha that would be an interesting Oscar acceptance Speech.... well, first, we have to win one huh? ^_^
Monday, March 29, 2004
I wonder a tag works... let me try....
http://tynstudios.com/firma_light.jpg
Uhm it doesn't.... I'll leave the link then to the Image I drew for a sentence I wrote in my story called "Neither side story".
I think it's a funny way the main character professes his feelings to the heroine... he basically doesn't tell her what he feels but asks her to choose how to feel. He says:
"There's a subtle separation between happiness and despair. A single word can make the difference. As simple as that: I love you... I love you not! Which one will you choose?"
the girl simply replies: Not... not.
heheheheh Ayah embarrassing... but so hard to write love scenes so I have to come up with something original all the time right?
http://tynstudios.com/firma_light.jpg
Uhm it doesn't.... I'll leave the link then to the Image I drew for a sentence I wrote in my story called "Neither side story".
I think it's a funny way the main character professes his feelings to the heroine... he basically doesn't tell her what he feels but asks her to choose how to feel. He says:
"There's a subtle separation between happiness and despair. A single word can make the difference. As simple as that: I love you... I love you not! Which one will you choose?"
the girl simply replies: Not... not.
heheheheh Ayah embarrassing... but so hard to write love scenes so I have to come up with something original all the time right?
Friday, March 26, 2004
Bonding, not bondage.... hehehehe.
Male bonding or collaboration bondings. People bonds in the weirdest way and for the werdest reasons I think.
Yesterday I spent almost 3 hours on the phone with this guy from a phone/dsl company trying to figure out why my conection stopped working.
See my roomate and I share phone line and dsl, so we got a router. For few days now this router has been working properly, yesteday, all of sudden the little bastard decided to forfait on us.... but, at first, I thought there was something wrong with the modem or my connection, since the router had been working efficiently up to that moment.
I ran my trouble shooter, I turned on and off everything.... I thought maybe the storm screwed everything up. In the end I gave up and called support. So this guys who replied to me was really nice and helpful and we tried everything to fix my problems.
We reset the modem, he checked his computer, I checked mine. He did his troubleshooting I did mine. In the end two of the little light on my modem would just not turn on and he said: it's the connection to your computer not the line itslef.
So I disconnected the router, plugged the computer directly to the modem and he helped me set up new settings and all. After 3 hours on the phone, the internet was working again... and when I said: it conncted (to my great surprise and simay)... we were celebrating as if it were the beginning of a new millenium.
Yeah, we did it, you were great! No you were, you did everything perfectly! No man I could have never have done it without you!!! Oh no biggie really, you followed me perfectly... and sooo throwing complimets at each other and to our great satiscaftion the internet was working and bonding was created.
Now I have to tell my rommate to find a way to fix the router so we can both connect at the same time, cuz I could not figure out how to make the thing work. Bet one vs ten she'll get pissed, will not trust me (although she heard me talk to this guy for 3 hours) and totally ignore the thing (so we'll have a router for nothing) and... more than that she'll probably get revengeful and do something like... unplug my cable to plug her own and not tell me, like she did last night, telling me she needs the internet.... then lay on her bed and go to sleep, with her computer off and the internet not running... while I could have spent the night downloading!
I wonder why.... I cannot create these types of bonding with her.... maybe I just can't deal with paranoia!!! 9___9
Male bonding or collaboration bondings. People bonds in the weirdest way and for the werdest reasons I think.
Yesterday I spent almost 3 hours on the phone with this guy from a phone/dsl company trying to figure out why my conection stopped working.
See my roomate and I share phone line and dsl, so we got a router. For few days now this router has been working properly, yesteday, all of sudden the little bastard decided to forfait on us.... but, at first, I thought there was something wrong with the modem or my connection, since the router had been working efficiently up to that moment.
I ran my trouble shooter, I turned on and off everything.... I thought maybe the storm screwed everything up. In the end I gave up and called support. So this guys who replied to me was really nice and helpful and we tried everything to fix my problems.
We reset the modem, he checked his computer, I checked mine. He did his troubleshooting I did mine. In the end two of the little light on my modem would just not turn on and he said: it's the connection to your computer not the line itslef.
So I disconnected the router, plugged the computer directly to the modem and he helped me set up new settings and all. After 3 hours on the phone, the internet was working again... and when I said: it conncted (to my great surprise and simay)... we were celebrating as if it were the beginning of a new millenium.
Yeah, we did it, you were great! No you were, you did everything perfectly! No man I could have never have done it without you!!! Oh no biggie really, you followed me perfectly... and sooo throwing complimets at each other and to our great satiscaftion the internet was working and bonding was created.
Now I have to tell my rommate to find a way to fix the router so we can both connect at the same time, cuz I could not figure out how to make the thing work. Bet one vs ten she'll get pissed, will not trust me (although she heard me talk to this guy for 3 hours) and totally ignore the thing (so we'll have a router for nothing) and... more than that she'll probably get revengeful and do something like... unplug my cable to plug her own and not tell me, like she did last night, telling me she needs the internet.... then lay on her bed and go to sleep, with her computer off and the internet not running... while I could have spent the night downloading!
I wonder why.... I cannot create these types of bonding with her.... maybe I just can't deal with paranoia!!! 9___9
Sunday, March 21, 2004
My niece Linda had another epiphany.
We were talking about shampoo and she was stressed about the fact she has to strecht her hair every day.... you know with that hot plate thingy... whatchamacallit.... that one.
So she first complained: why can't we do dry shampoo... like spray dry shampoo (kinda like dogs).
Deda says: that's what I want to know...
Deda says: only dogs can.
and there goes the epiphany.
Linda says: truth is when I was a child. I used to buy Barbie's magazine.... and there I found the recipe to dry clean the hair! But it was the stinkiest thing ever, with eggs, sugar and vinegar as ingredients. When I tried... my mom wanted to shave my head! XD
Deda says: there goes another of your epiphanies....
Linda says: yes yes... lately I have plenty....
Deda says: I've noticed... I must write a book on your ephiphanies
Linda says: one is not enough
Deda says: actually no (but let;s start with one huh) it is the way u express them....
Linda says: ahahahahah
Deda says: every time you start... one wonders... what the heck is she talking about, out of the blue... we were talking about shampoo and there she goes with Barbie's magazine.
Linda says: would you like to know the one I had at the beginning of the week, it was about the first time I was a biatch!
Linda says: So I was playing with my little pony (the toy) with a friend of mine... I was five and I was playing with my favorite pony. All of the sudden, she wanted to play with it and I didn't want her to, so she pulled its tail and pulled it off!>__<
Deda says: nuuuuuuuuuuu (that is noooooo)
Linda says: The first time I went to her house while she was in the bathroom or something like that... I took the Barbie's horsie she just got... scissours... I cut its tail off and made a new one for the pony.
Deda says: hahahahah
Linda says: I put the story in my website too
Deda says: vendetta tremenda vendetta (it's a line from and Opera Rigoletto, it meas Revenge is terrible but it's revenge)
Linda says: http://www.minty-mylittlepony.com/home%20page.htm (link to her website)
I don't want to say... but if you ever go to her webiste and see her little ponies collection and the incriminating pony of the story... go see the credits: she blames me for starting her on this pony thingy!!!!
We were talking about shampoo and she was stressed about the fact she has to strecht her hair every day.... you know with that hot plate thingy... whatchamacallit.... that one.
So she first complained: why can't we do dry shampoo... like spray dry shampoo (kinda like dogs).
Deda says: that's what I want to know...
Deda says: only dogs can.
and there goes the epiphany.
Linda says: truth is when I was a child. I used to buy Barbie's magazine.... and there I found the recipe to dry clean the hair! But it was the stinkiest thing ever, with eggs, sugar and vinegar as ingredients. When I tried... my mom wanted to shave my head! XD
Deda says: there goes another of your epiphanies....
Linda says: yes yes... lately I have plenty....
Deda says: I've noticed... I must write a book on your ephiphanies
Linda says: one is not enough
Deda says: actually no (but let;s start with one huh) it is the way u express them....
Linda says: ahahahahah
Deda says: every time you start... one wonders... what the heck is she talking about, out of the blue... we were talking about shampoo and there she goes with Barbie's magazine.
Linda says: would you like to know the one I had at the beginning of the week, it was about the first time I was a biatch!
Linda says: So I was playing with my little pony (the toy) with a friend of mine... I was five and I was playing with my favorite pony. All of the sudden, she wanted to play with it and I didn't want her to, so she pulled its tail and pulled it off!>__<
Deda says: nuuuuuuuuuuu (that is noooooo)
Linda says: The first time I went to her house while she was in the bathroom or something like that... I took the Barbie's horsie she just got... scissours... I cut its tail off and made a new one for the pony.
Deda says: hahahahah
Linda says: I put the story in my website too
Deda says: vendetta tremenda vendetta (it's a line from and Opera Rigoletto, it meas Revenge is terrible but it's revenge)
Linda says: http://www.minty-mylittlepony.com/home%20page.htm (link to her website)
I don't want to say... but if you ever go to her webiste and see her little ponies collection and the incriminating pony of the story... go see the credits: she blames me for starting her on this pony thingy!!!!
I have to write this down, I was told this very cool story and I want to use it for a script (so don't steal it because I know the source!!).
I was exchanging messages with one of my "nephews" and we were talking about what's the craziest thing you ever did for love... so he told the conversation went like this:
"To hide a Xmas gift next to the door of the girl I liked in high school, I was caught by her mother while I was hang on the gate to theur garden and i was trying to sneak in like a thief. Ah, her mother was my Ancient Greek (the language) teacher.
So I got off the gate, with my best smile on my face (and I really wanted to dig up a hole and hide myself in it), I asked her and her husband: could you give this to your daughter? Then I said goodnight and ran away like a hero... cool huh?"
Comments were: did you run away shouting "to infinity and beyound"?
the reply was: yeah in Greek!
A note, if you are in classical studies high school you will leanr both ancient Greek and Latin. Usually the Greek and Lating teacher are the same person... and usually... they are the student's worse nightmare.
I was exchanging messages with one of my "nephews" and we were talking about what's the craziest thing you ever did for love... so he told the conversation went like this:
"To hide a Xmas gift next to the door of the girl I liked in high school, I was caught by her mother while I was hang on the gate to theur garden and i was trying to sneak in like a thief. Ah, her mother was my Ancient Greek (the language) teacher.
So I got off the gate, with my best smile on my face (and I really wanted to dig up a hole and hide myself in it), I asked her and her husband: could you give this to your daughter? Then I said goodnight and ran away like a hero... cool huh?"
Comments were: did you run away shouting "to infinity and beyound"?
the reply was: yeah in Greek!
A note, if you are in classical studies high school you will leanr both ancient Greek and Latin. Usually the Greek and Lating teacher are the same person... and usually... they are the student's worse nightmare.
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Long time no write, neh!
Today was my last day of my Japanese class. It was fun, so enrolled for next semester too.
When the sensei asked us what we enjoyed most about the class I thought about what brought me there.
Long time ago when I was a kid I had a thing for Asia. When I was five we saw Seven Samurai... I remember my grandma expressing doubts about the movie... she kept repeating: it will get complicated soon... (it does not really... it's a pretty straightforward movie to me...).
I loved it... especially Toshiro Mifune running around in underpants... it was freaking awesome (there too my grandma expressed her concern, chuckling: he runs with his ass in "plein air"!)
1) Although I never liked barbie (I started collecting them when I moved to this new hous where all my neighbours were girls and I had to adapt) I had a Chinese babrbie... who I called Xiao Ling. (dun ask me how I came up with the name... it was totally made up).
2) Whenever we watched American movies... I was the one rooting for Toshiro Mifune.
3) I kept reading books of Chinese fairy tales.
4) I loved the music from the movie Furyo.
5) Turandot was my favourite Opera.
6) I could not help but watch kung fu Movies.... I totally loved Bruce lee.
When I was 8 I went to Rome, it was one of my first time, and I saw a Japanese girl on the train. Her skin was so fair and her eyes were so long I got so impressed and turn to my mom to say: yay they exist, they are not made up for movies... soooo pretty!!!!
When I was in high school, Bertolucci had the very good idea of making a movie called: The Last Emperor. It was love at first sight.... the movie was stunning... the music was Ryuichi Sakamoto's. I watched it over and over again... and when we went to watch it with school, i was so entusiastic about I advertised it soooo much (by then I was going to watch it for the 4th time!).... that, afterwards I was teased for weeks: say deda can u do that dance thingy.... say deda can you singe that song thingy... say deda... do you bathe like that?
Apparently my classmate did not appreciate it and blamed me for it!!!
Japanese anime were importet and aired on tv already in the early Seventies... Giant robots and candy candy contributed a lot to my attachment to Asia.
In 1991 I studied history of film and watched all of Kurosawa's movies. At the same time I took an interest in Chinese movies and Zhang Yimou.
In 1993 I found a comicbookstore and saw Dragon Ball on the table... I am not a big fan of the whole serie, but the first part I really liked. That's when I started collecting manga and anime.
In 1998 I moved to France and bought more, in 1999 I moved to the states and got attached to the internet....
I made my first Asian friends in Florida.... and many of my friends in San Francisco are Asian Americans... once I was asked to represent a white minority at a studio, as a part time job, they asked me if I knew another caucasian person I could invite... and I could not think of anyone. I think I have 3, only 3 caucasian friends.
So within a few years my gravitation towards Asian culture was aggravated by my friendship with Grace (my best friend is Chinese from Singapore) who got me started on music, more movies, tv shows and so forth. I got her started on anime, manga, and of course we both share a visceral love for Studio Ghibli and Satoshi Kon.
So in these past 3 years, actually almost 4, that I spent in San Francisco I turned... more and more... into an egg.
Well, hopefully my friends say this about me in a nice way.... but still cannot deny that sometimes my parents connect thorugh messenger, hook up the webcam and catch me eating natto with my chopsticks!!!! heheheheh So eeer.... studying Japanese was the next step.
So when my teacher asked today.... my brain connected to the first memory I have of Asia... and my reply was: I'd have to say... because... when I was five... I saw seven samurai.
I think I will miss Omi sensei, he is awesome, and thaught us a lot about culture and gestures and what is to be like to be attentive and caring and respectful. I hope I will have fun again in my next class.
Today was my last day of my Japanese class. It was fun, so enrolled for next semester too.
When the sensei asked us what we enjoyed most about the class I thought about what brought me there.
Long time ago when I was a kid I had a thing for Asia. When I was five we saw Seven Samurai... I remember my grandma expressing doubts about the movie... she kept repeating: it will get complicated soon... (it does not really... it's a pretty straightforward movie to me...).
I loved it... especially Toshiro Mifune running around in underpants... it was freaking awesome (there too my grandma expressed her concern, chuckling: he runs with his ass in "plein air"!)
1) Although I never liked barbie (I started collecting them when I moved to this new hous where all my neighbours were girls and I had to adapt) I had a Chinese babrbie... who I called Xiao Ling. (dun ask me how I came up with the name... it was totally made up).
2) Whenever we watched American movies... I was the one rooting for Toshiro Mifune.
3) I kept reading books of Chinese fairy tales.
4) I loved the music from the movie Furyo.
5) Turandot was my favourite Opera.
6) I could not help but watch kung fu Movies.... I totally loved Bruce lee.
When I was 8 I went to Rome, it was one of my first time, and I saw a Japanese girl on the train. Her skin was so fair and her eyes were so long I got so impressed and turn to my mom to say: yay they exist, they are not made up for movies... soooo pretty!!!!
When I was in high school, Bertolucci had the very good idea of making a movie called: The Last Emperor. It was love at first sight.... the movie was stunning... the music was Ryuichi Sakamoto's. I watched it over and over again... and when we went to watch it with school, i was so entusiastic about I advertised it soooo much (by then I was going to watch it for the 4th time!).... that, afterwards I was teased for weeks: say deda can u do that dance thingy.... say deda can you singe that song thingy... say deda... do you bathe like that?
Apparently my classmate did not appreciate it and blamed me for it!!!
Japanese anime were importet and aired on tv already in the early Seventies... Giant robots and candy candy contributed a lot to my attachment to Asia.
In 1991 I studied history of film and watched all of Kurosawa's movies. At the same time I took an interest in Chinese movies and Zhang Yimou.
In 1993 I found a comicbookstore and saw Dragon Ball on the table... I am not a big fan of the whole serie, but the first part I really liked. That's when I started collecting manga and anime.
In 1998 I moved to France and bought more, in 1999 I moved to the states and got attached to the internet....
I made my first Asian friends in Florida.... and many of my friends in San Francisco are Asian Americans... once I was asked to represent a white minority at a studio, as a part time job, they asked me if I knew another caucasian person I could invite... and I could not think of anyone. I think I have 3, only 3 caucasian friends.
So within a few years my gravitation towards Asian culture was aggravated by my friendship with Grace (my best friend is Chinese from Singapore) who got me started on music, more movies, tv shows and so forth. I got her started on anime, manga, and of course we both share a visceral love for Studio Ghibli and Satoshi Kon.
So in these past 3 years, actually almost 4, that I spent in San Francisco I turned... more and more... into an egg.
Well, hopefully my friends say this about me in a nice way.... but still cannot deny that sometimes my parents connect thorugh messenger, hook up the webcam and catch me eating natto with my chopsticks!!!! heheheheh So eeer.... studying Japanese was the next step.
So when my teacher asked today.... my brain connected to the first memory I have of Asia... and my reply was: I'd have to say... because... when I was five... I saw seven samurai.
I think I will miss Omi sensei, he is awesome, and thaught us a lot about culture and gestures and what is to be like to be attentive and caring and respectful. I hope I will have fun again in my next class.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Since this is a log, beg your forgiveness, I need to log in some stuff...
I registered at the copyright assosiation and with the wga my latest script .
The script was at first 13 pages long, which I did as a homework for my screenwriting 1 class. As it often happens to me, Sometimes when I get an idea I'll write it down in short form... but I feel like I need time to have the thing sit in me and then one day I'll get like enlightened and I find out the missing link... or the one idea that could solve the story completely.
So I felt that for this one story, about, smells and scents, and memories and how some people envisions things.
In time I figured out the solusion was in the vision, the perspective about things and I made it into an 89 pages script. I am pretty happy about it but now that it is registered I am going to send the script around to my friends for some feedback.
There are still a few things that make sense to me cuz I am inside the story, I need to know what someone who reads the story for the first time sees it.
The title is... I'll put it in italian... IL NASO.
it's a thing and a job description too.
I registered at the copyright assosiation and with the wga my latest script .
The script was at first 13 pages long, which I did as a homework for my screenwriting 1 class. As it often happens to me, Sometimes when I get an idea I'll write it down in short form... but I feel like I need time to have the thing sit in me and then one day I'll get like enlightened and I find out the missing link... or the one idea that could solve the story completely.
So I felt that for this one story, about, smells and scents, and memories and how some people envisions things.
In time I figured out the solusion was in the vision, the perspective about things and I made it into an 89 pages script. I am pretty happy about it but now that it is registered I am going to send the script around to my friends for some feedback.
There are still a few things that make sense to me cuz I am inside the story, I need to know what someone who reads the story for the first time sees it.
The title is... I'll put it in italian... IL NASO.
it's a thing and a job description too.
Friday, February 27, 2004
My dear future employers, these are my
"Employement Characteristic."
My friend send me a link to a website that calculates your employement characteristic through numerology.... so I was reading it and I thought: Wow if it wasn't me I would hire this person!!! So these are the fun results... of the little test.
They just make me wanna ask: Don't you just wanna to hire me or marry me on the spot?
Natal Year number: 9
A cheerful soul, Deborha is an attractive individual whose humour and charm can inspire others to follow her ideas. Although her active brain can generate many bright ideas, she cannot be guaranteed to finish one idea before starting on the next. Although money tends to burn a hole in her pocket, Deborha will always maintain the impression that all is well.
Ahem... this is saying way too much... alright I spend a lot... and I am not constant... but if something is due is due and I always end what I begi........
Natal Month number: 7
Deborha is a good communicator and enjoys discussion, but she will avoid stressful situations and arguments. She is a fund of new ideas that spill from her active brain with great rapidity, but her business dealings will always be constrained by her desire to be liked. She therefore lacks those long-term goals that would bring her prosperity.
but you like me... you all like me... don't you? DON"T YOU?
Natal House number: 7
Life is likely to provide Deborha with many different challenges, but in the end she will overcome the difficulties and make solid progress. She is prone to talk about subjects on which she has little knowledge, but her communication skills are such that she can be quite persuasive. She needs to focus on her long-term objectives.
No no long term objective I have figured out... (I have my life planned till I will turn 90...) but you see... it is the hows that I haven't figured out yet. I mean, I know I wanna take over the World, but I need a good plan!!!! Oh well, I need to focus... focus... focus...
Although Deborha may be reasonably talkative in public, she finds it difficult to express personal feelings to those closest to her. In employment terms, this inhibition is of little consequence.
See that? O flittle consequences... if I hate you... I won't tell you!!!... if I love you I won't tell you either... muahahahah!
Sensitive to criticism and naturally intuitive, Deborha has a natural ability to detect insincerity in others. Because she is a sensitive soul, Deborha can be a solid friend and a good listener. As a result, she will get on well with colleagues, whilst being more than capable of handling office politics.
Don't lie to me... I will know... Your nose will grow long and you legs will go short... lies have short legs. (now I feel like the blue fairy from Pinocchio) O_o
With a creative mind and a good memory, Deborha is honest, straightforward and optimistic. She will achieve her aims. She is capable of creative thought, and will appreciate art and music. She also enjoys an excellent memory - a significant advantage in any employment.
I would like to underline the last one!!! Thank you... thank you very much!
A practical individual, Deborha is a neat and tidy craftsman who can organise others to achieve her plans. She should use those practical skills and organisational ability in an office management, or secretarial function, or by applying such skills to self-employment. In general, Deborha is a neat and tidy individual - qualities of value to many different jobs.
that doesn't mean you can put me to do everybody's job... but everyone's job is fine.... although... I have a tendency of getting exploited.... hey!!! Dun take advantage!!!!
Deborha will find life's lessons hard to learn. She will suffer from loss (of possessions or those she loves) before questioning the cause of that loss. It is likely that Deborha will develop a faith of some sort, and although it need not necessarily be a religious faith, it will nevertheless be something that she holds onto against all the evidence. Potential employers need to find out what that faith entails.
I'll be honest... I believe in Dedaism.
Enjoying high intelligence, Deborha is inclined to look down on those who are not as intelligent as she. Hence she does not mix well with society in general, and in particular with different social strata. Yet Deborha is very ambitious to improve her lot, and will constantly strive for a better standard of living. She also possesses strong humanitarian ideals that may find expression in charitable work.
You inferior beings.... how dare you.... errrr.... no no poor thing don't cry!
Although less interested in the detail, Deborha is a well-organised individual who plans ahead. If she absorbs knowledge through study, she will achieve great success, quite possibly in an artistic field. The essence however of this combination is her desire to plan, and to organise herself to achieve her goals.
As I previously mention... I will take over the world.
Good with her hands, Deborha is a natural craftsman who will work for as long as it takes to secure a perfect result. Capable and practical, she gets on well with others at all levels of society. If Deborha does not pursue a practical trade, it will be important to develop a subsidiary practical interest to complement her main employment.
I addition to that I would like to say: I KNOW HOW TO COOK... I am a really good cook.
Of course there's still to considere my good looks and my winning personality. (they are always a plus).. and the fact that I make good coffee.
"Employement Characteristic."
My friend send me a link to a website that calculates your employement characteristic through numerology.... so I was reading it and I thought: Wow if it wasn't me I would hire this person!!! So these are the fun results... of the little test.
They just make me wanna ask: Don't you just wanna to hire me or marry me on the spot?
Natal Year number: 9
A cheerful soul, Deborha is an attractive individual whose humour and charm can inspire others to follow her ideas. Although her active brain can generate many bright ideas, she cannot be guaranteed to finish one idea before starting on the next. Although money tends to burn a hole in her pocket, Deborha will always maintain the impression that all is well.
Ahem... this is saying way too much... alright I spend a lot... and I am not constant... but if something is due is due and I always end what I begi........
Natal Month number: 7
Deborha is a good communicator and enjoys discussion, but she will avoid stressful situations and arguments. She is a fund of new ideas that spill from her active brain with great rapidity, but her business dealings will always be constrained by her desire to be liked. She therefore lacks those long-term goals that would bring her prosperity.
but you like me... you all like me... don't you? DON"T YOU?
Natal House number: 7
Life is likely to provide Deborha with many different challenges, but in the end she will overcome the difficulties and make solid progress. She is prone to talk about subjects on which she has little knowledge, but her communication skills are such that she can be quite persuasive. She needs to focus on her long-term objectives.
No no long term objective I have figured out... (I have my life planned till I will turn 90...) but you see... it is the hows that I haven't figured out yet. I mean, I know I wanna take over the World, but I need a good plan!!!! Oh well, I need to focus... focus... focus...
Although Deborha may be reasonably talkative in public, she finds it difficult to express personal feelings to those closest to her. In employment terms, this inhibition is of little consequence.
See that? O flittle consequences... if I hate you... I won't tell you!!!... if I love you I won't tell you either... muahahahah!
Sensitive to criticism and naturally intuitive, Deborha has a natural ability to detect insincerity in others. Because she is a sensitive soul, Deborha can be a solid friend and a good listener. As a result, she will get on well with colleagues, whilst being more than capable of handling office politics.
Don't lie to me... I will know... Your nose will grow long and you legs will go short... lies have short legs. (now I feel like the blue fairy from Pinocchio) O_o
With a creative mind and a good memory, Deborha is honest, straightforward and optimistic. She will achieve her aims. She is capable of creative thought, and will appreciate art and music. She also enjoys an excellent memory - a significant advantage in any employment.
I would like to underline the last one!!! Thank you... thank you very much!
A practical individual, Deborha is a neat and tidy craftsman who can organise others to achieve her plans. She should use those practical skills and organisational ability in an office management, or secretarial function, or by applying such skills to self-employment. In general, Deborha is a neat and tidy individual - qualities of value to many different jobs.
that doesn't mean you can put me to do everybody's job... but everyone's job is fine.... although... I have a tendency of getting exploited.... hey!!! Dun take advantage!!!!
Deborha will find life's lessons hard to learn. She will suffer from loss (of possessions or those she loves) before questioning the cause of that loss. It is likely that Deborha will develop a faith of some sort, and although it need not necessarily be a religious faith, it will nevertheless be something that she holds onto against all the evidence. Potential employers need to find out what that faith entails.
I'll be honest... I believe in Dedaism.
Enjoying high intelligence, Deborha is inclined to look down on those who are not as intelligent as she. Hence she does not mix well with society in general, and in particular with different social strata. Yet Deborha is very ambitious to improve her lot, and will constantly strive for a better standard of living. She also possesses strong humanitarian ideals that may find expression in charitable work.
You inferior beings.... how dare you.... errrr.... no no poor thing don't cry!
Although less interested in the detail, Deborha is a well-organised individual who plans ahead. If she absorbs knowledge through study, she will achieve great success, quite possibly in an artistic field. The essence however of this combination is her desire to plan, and to organise herself to achieve her goals.
As I previously mention... I will take over the world.
Good with her hands, Deborha is a natural craftsman who will work for as long as it takes to secure a perfect result. Capable and practical, she gets on well with others at all levels of society. If Deborha does not pursue a practical trade, it will be important to develop a subsidiary practical interest to complement her main employment.
I addition to that I would like to say: I KNOW HOW TO COOK... I am a really good cook.
Of course there's still to considere my good looks and my winning personality. (they are always a plus).. and the fact that I make good coffee.
Friday, February 13, 2004
I am so lucky my friends have such interesting personalities... they turn their life in somthing to talk about... ergo ... a story.
I always wondered: what was so mysterious or incredibly fascinating that brought me to like stories?
I think in storytelling there are two main things: great stories and great storytellers.
In the first case the story survives its creator and becomes something that belongs to everyone: like myths and legends.
In the second case the creator was so good that transformed something very banal in something worth telling over and over.
I like the second case a lot. For Example if I say Homer everybody thinks Iliad and Odissey (well, somebody thinks The Simpsons) right away. This association is what I like the best... if we consider how entertaining his stories were... well, yes they were pretty nice, but not different from many other stories.
Take the war of Troy for example, which is maybe a prototype to a soap opera, where an unfaitful woman runs away form her husband with a younger man... and that causes a major war.
Well, the whole war lasts 10 years during which we have betrayal, loylaty, love and passion, heroes and cowards...
but deep down the key to this story might be Achillis and his behaviour the fact that his death and the death of Hecotr might have ended the war... and how capricious the King fo the Mirmidoni is. Achillis, okay... a hero? I dunno he cannot be killed so there's nothing heroic in going to battle and kill people if you don't put anything at stake.
Was in love with Patroclus, was in love with Briseide or Cassandra... maybe he was just horny all the time?
and what's with Polissena. She sees him choke her twin brother Troilo (well actually, crash his chest during an attempted rape) and what she does... she plans revenge... she wants to marry him and discovers his weak point.... and as an excuse for her wanting to be hisi wife is the fact... : she got fascinated by the passion he embraced Troilo with. (and he believes that?)
Supposedly Helen too, after Paris dies, gets married with his brother Deiphobo like... tow hours after the funerals?
If this isn't a soap opera kind of story... then tell me, what is it?
It's an ephic... but why is it?
Because Homer told it the right way...
there a big difference in saying:
"So these is the story of these acheian guys and this dude called Achillis who was always might pissed!"
"cantami o diva del pelide Achille l'ira funesta che infiniti addusse lutti agli achei"
(sing me, oh diva, of Achillis son of Peleis and his sad/funereal rage that so many mournigs caused to the acheians)
Now you must agree with me: words sing in the mouth of this Homer fella.... ^_^
and Since the narrator, a good narrator, is the think that makes the story good... or better... I am guessing... if those guys in Hollywood don't make the word sing.... my guess is Troy will flop or totally be a brain farth!
I always wondered: what was so mysterious or incredibly fascinating that brought me to like stories?
I think in storytelling there are two main things: great stories and great storytellers.
In the first case the story survives its creator and becomes something that belongs to everyone: like myths and legends.
In the second case the creator was so good that transformed something very banal in something worth telling over and over.
I like the second case a lot. For Example if I say Homer everybody thinks Iliad and Odissey (well, somebody thinks The Simpsons) right away. This association is what I like the best... if we consider how entertaining his stories were... well, yes they were pretty nice, but not different from many other stories.
Take the war of Troy for example, which is maybe a prototype to a soap opera, where an unfaitful woman runs away form her husband with a younger man... and that causes a major war.
Well, the whole war lasts 10 years during which we have betrayal, loylaty, love and passion, heroes and cowards...
but deep down the key to this story might be Achillis and his behaviour the fact that his death and the death of Hecotr might have ended the war... and how capricious the King fo the Mirmidoni is. Achillis, okay... a hero? I dunno he cannot be killed so there's nothing heroic in going to battle and kill people if you don't put anything at stake.
Was in love with Patroclus, was in love with Briseide or Cassandra... maybe he was just horny all the time?
and what's with Polissena. She sees him choke her twin brother Troilo (well actually, crash his chest during an attempted rape) and what she does... she plans revenge... she wants to marry him and discovers his weak point.... and as an excuse for her wanting to be hisi wife is the fact... : she got fascinated by the passion he embraced Troilo with. (and he believes that?)
Supposedly Helen too, after Paris dies, gets married with his brother Deiphobo like... tow hours after the funerals?
If this isn't a soap opera kind of story... then tell me, what is it?
It's an ephic... but why is it?
Because Homer told it the right way...
there a big difference in saying:
"So these is the story of these acheian guys and this dude called Achillis who was always might pissed!"
"cantami o diva del pelide Achille l'ira funesta che infiniti addusse lutti agli achei"
(sing me, oh diva, of Achillis son of Peleis and his sad/funereal rage that so many mournigs caused to the acheians)
Now you must agree with me: words sing in the mouth of this Homer fella.... ^_^
and Since the narrator, a good narrator, is the think that makes the story good... or better... I am guessing... if those guys in Hollywood don't make the word sing.... my guess is Troy will flop or totally be a brain farth!
dedasaur: wah jeremy
dedasaur: the funniest thing happened to me today
jrmyntvdd: what?
*** Auto-response sent to jrmyntvdd: I am currently away from the computer.
jrmyntvdd: what?
dedasaur: wahahahaha
dedasaur: so you know we have a guest here, now...
dedasaur: and we cannot duplicate the keys to our gate
jrmyntvdd: yah
jrmyntvdd: yeah
dedasaur: so she takes the chordless with her and she buzzes
dedasaur: the apt and then opens the door form outside with the phone
jrmyntvdd: hahaha sweet!
dedasaur: so I was on the phone with MCI cuz they are billing me for my old phone line
dedasaur: and they are wrong and I want my money back... and I am talking to this lady who sounds pretty pisssed
dedasaur: and I cannot understand what she says, cuz I think she is black and I cannot understand what she says... T__T... and I am gettin frustrated
dedasaur: and all of suddent i hear... bzzzz bee beep beeeeeep
dedasaur: and then Ha Jin's voice: dedaaaaaaaaaa open the dooooor!
jrmyntvdd: lol
dedasaur: and I can't cuz I am on the phone so I cannot dial # 9
dedasaur: so I tell her: I am on the phone and cannot hang up.... don't ring no more... your sister is coming for you.
dedasaur: but she keeps yelling: dedaaaaaaaaa pleaaaaaaaaaase open the door open the door.
dedasaur: so I am like: stop that you sis is coming to open... hang up!!!
dedasaur: and the lady on the phone all panicked: what is that! what's going on!
dedasaur: and I say: scuse me hold on is my rommate Ihave to open the gate
dedasaur: and the lady all stupid says: ia hear voices I head a voice...
jrmyntvdd: lol
dedasaur: so I say: good you are the new Joan of Arc
dedasaur: so I get pissed and hang up...
jrmyntvdd: oh man. you are fucked up
dedasaur: and I am thinking by now Ho Jin is downstairs...
dedasaur: so I dial mci number again and I begin to talk with another operator....
dedasaur: and all of a sudden I hear bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz beee beep beeeeep
dedasaur: and it's
dedasaur: the sister now... hahahahahaha (she did not carry the keys with her!)
jrmyntvdd: hahaha
jrmyntvdd: okay that is a good story
dedasaur: so with the other operator online... i just shout: wtf, girl ...
dedasaur: I told you to open the gate not to get locked outside
jrmyntvdd: bwhaahahahaaha
dedasaur: and the operator is all like: beg you pardon?
dedasaur: so I hang up again and open the door
jrmyntvdd: that's awesome
dedasaur: and when they get upstaris I am rotfl
jrmyntvdd: that's brilliant
dedasaur: and the girl runs to the bathroom with the phone
dedasaur: so she was in a rush cuz she needed to peee....
dedasaur: and then I was like: man, if when we are on the phone someone rings the apt number at the intercom we are fucked up
dedasaur: and the sister says: eh?
dedasaur: and I am like: yeah... they cut in the conversation...
dedasaur: and she is like: no no... she was talking to you through the phone!!!!
dedasaur: hgahahahahahahahaha
dedasaur: that's why I could hear her on the phone!!! hahahahahaha
jrmyntvdd: hahahaahhha
jrmyntvdd: that story is awesome!!!!
jrmyntvdd: make a short film
dedasaur: it's so so funny and the timing of it all was just like a cartoon
dedasaur: hahahahaha
dedasaur: the funniest thing happened to me today
jrmyntvdd: what?
*** Auto-response sent to jrmyntvdd: I am currently away from the computer.
jrmyntvdd: what?
dedasaur: wahahahaha
dedasaur: so you know we have a guest here, now...
dedasaur: and we cannot duplicate the keys to our gate
jrmyntvdd: yah
jrmyntvdd: yeah
dedasaur: so she takes the chordless with her and she buzzes
dedasaur: the apt and then opens the door form outside with the phone
jrmyntvdd: hahaha sweet!
dedasaur: so I was on the phone with MCI cuz they are billing me for my old phone line
dedasaur: and they are wrong and I want my money back... and I am talking to this lady who sounds pretty pisssed
dedasaur: and I cannot understand what she says, cuz I think she is black and I cannot understand what she says... T__T... and I am gettin frustrated
dedasaur: and all of suddent i hear... bzzzz bee beep beeeeeep
dedasaur: and then Ha Jin's voice: dedaaaaaaaaaa open the dooooor!
jrmyntvdd: lol
dedasaur: and I can't cuz I am on the phone so I cannot dial # 9
dedasaur: so I tell her: I am on the phone and cannot hang up.... don't ring no more... your sister is coming for you.
dedasaur: but she keeps yelling: dedaaaaaaaaa pleaaaaaaaaaase open the door open the door.
dedasaur: so I am like: stop that you sis is coming to open... hang up!!!
dedasaur: and the lady on the phone all panicked: what is that! what's going on!
dedasaur: and I say: scuse me hold on is my rommate Ihave to open the gate
dedasaur: and the lady all stupid says: ia hear voices I head a voice...
jrmyntvdd: lol
dedasaur: so I say: good you are the new Joan of Arc
dedasaur: so I get pissed and hang up...
jrmyntvdd: oh man. you are fucked up
dedasaur: and I am thinking by now Ho Jin is downstairs...
dedasaur: so I dial mci number again and I begin to talk with another operator....
dedasaur: and all of a sudden I hear bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz beee beep beeeeep
dedasaur: and it's
dedasaur: the sister now... hahahahahaha (she did not carry the keys with her!)
jrmyntvdd: hahaha
jrmyntvdd: okay that is a good story
dedasaur: so with the other operator online... i just shout: wtf, girl ...
dedasaur: I told you to open the gate not to get locked outside
jrmyntvdd: bwhaahahahaaha
dedasaur: and the operator is all like: beg you pardon?
dedasaur: so I hang up again and open the door
jrmyntvdd: that's awesome
dedasaur: and when they get upstaris I am rotfl
jrmyntvdd: that's brilliant
dedasaur: and the girl runs to the bathroom with the phone
dedasaur: so she was in a rush cuz she needed to peee....
dedasaur: and then I was like: man, if when we are on the phone someone rings the apt number at the intercom we are fucked up
dedasaur: and the sister says: eh?
dedasaur: and I am like: yeah... they cut in the conversation...
dedasaur: and she is like: no no... she was talking to you through the phone!!!!
dedasaur: hgahahahahahahahaha
dedasaur: that's why I could hear her on the phone!!! hahahahahaha
jrmyntvdd: hahahaahhha
jrmyntvdd: that story is awesome!!!!
jrmyntvdd: make a short film
dedasaur: it's so so funny and the timing of it all was just like a cartoon
dedasaur: hahahahaha
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
My friend Linda, the other day, just out of the blue messaged me on msn this message:
"prima ho avuto una specie di epifania...
ero sotto la doccia
e mi è venuto in mente il moento
in cui studiare ha iniziato a non piacermi +
in 4a sup"
"Just a while ago I kind of had an epiphany...
I was under the shower
and I remember the exact moment
I stop liking studying.
It was during fourth year of high school."
There was such a drama in this revelation I had to laugh. She then explained to me the cause of her disliking, like... this very evil Math teacher who lived to torture her students...
Still the way she introduced the topic was mighty phenomenal!
I think I am having a good week! ^_^
"prima ho avuto una specie di epifania...
ero sotto la doccia
e mi è venuto in mente il moento
in cui studiare ha iniziato a non piacermi +
in 4a sup"
"Just a while ago I kind of had an epiphany...
I was under the shower
and I remember the exact moment
I stop liking studying.
It was during fourth year of high school."
There was such a drama in this revelation I had to laugh. She then explained to me the cause of her disliking, like... this very evil Math teacher who lived to torture her students...
Still the way she introduced the topic was mighty phenomenal!
I think I am having a good week! ^_^
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Wow I am so happy... lately everybody is sending me such cool messages and I have so many interesting conversation that.... I fall in love with writing and language over and over again.
My best friend Grace just described her busy week like this:
saw a trapped bird.. thiking of wat i can do to help free it..
saw a caterpillar.. it grew bigger... crawling across my path...
same one last week... except it grew bigger...
It is fantastic... she is so taken by her work... but the only things worth talking about were these little moments where her eyes moved away to non-job realted things.
My best friend Grace just described her busy week like this:
saw a trapped bird.. thiking of wat i can do to help free it..
saw a caterpillar.. it grew bigger... crawling across my path...
same one last week... except it grew bigger...
It is fantastic... she is so taken by her work... but the only things worth talking about were these little moments where her eyes moved away to non-job realted things.
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