And so does the Washington Post!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Grab Bag of Goodies
No entry today, just some highlights and discoveries of the past week that I wanted to share with my friends:
Film
Family Ties
I caught this at the Korean Film Festival on Friday. I must confess, I had serious doubts about this movie before watching it; a friend had sent it to me for my 25th birthday and for 5 months I let it sit by the TV unwatched while I blamed region encoding for the neglect. But can you blame me? Look at that DVD cover illustration - it screams cheesy Korean melodrama! And it was with that mindset that I reluctantly went in to watch "Family Ties" as its beautifully flawed, tormented, yet endearing characters proceeded to utterly charm me from start to finish. This film is the story of several 'families', all defying the conventional depiction of the Korean family, and all serving to remind us how family can provide the context behind even the most frustratingly cryptic and inscrutable individual. Unfortunately, I don't know have any suggestions on how else to catch this film. Unless you have an All-Region DVD Player or codec that allows you to view Region-3 DVDs, in which case, I'll gladly lend the film to anyone interested.
Television
Acceptable TV
Have you ever had someone jokingly insult you, and as much as you try to summon up the anger and indignation to punch them in the face, you can't help but laugh because it was actually pretty funny? That's kinda what Acceptable TV is like. It's a show that pokes fun at our complete inability to invest the attention-span for anything more than a gimmick. The premise is that the show airs five 3-4 minute long sitcom 'pilots' and allows the viewers to vote off 2, while the rest stay on to show the follow-up to their pilot in the next show. Catch this show while you can, b/c with VH1's shitty Friday @ 10PM timeslot, it probably won't survive much longer.
Music
Taxi Taxi - Maps & Legends
Solid songwriting AND polished production. You CAN have both, it is possible.
Blog
Puberty Sucks by Michael Kang
After seeing West 32nd, I decided to revisit Michael Kang's irresistably charming and impressive debut feature The Motel. And afterward, as is the natural and universal response after watching a great movie, I started Google-ing the crap out of it. I stumbled upon Michael Kang's supplementary blog which shares his personal recollections of his awkward/mortifying/lonely pubescent teen years, as well as some guest blog entries from others brave enough to share. And it's all pure gold (excerpt follows):
"“It’s tough for girls to imagine themselves with you,” he said.
I don’t think I had much of a reaction to this. I think the truth of it was too painful for me to even acknowledge. But I knew it was true. Somewhere deep down I knew that no girl in school ever had fantasies about me as the guy that asks her to the prom, or showing up to their house with a bouquet of flowers. I had to accept my fate as the high school eunuch. The friend to girls. The funny but non-threatening buddy to the guys. A supporting character in my own life."
One day I might summon the courage to attempt to recall the horrors of my teenage years, but for now I'm thoroughly enjoying reading other people's traumas, and anxiously awaiting the next installments.
Film
Family Ties
I caught this at the Korean Film Festival on Friday. I must confess, I had serious doubts about this movie before watching it; a friend had sent it to me for my 25th birthday and for 5 months I let it sit by the TV unwatched while I blamed region encoding for the neglect. But can you blame me? Look at that DVD cover illustration - it screams cheesy Korean melodrama! And it was with that mindset that I reluctantly went in to watch "Family Ties" as its beautifully flawed, tormented, yet endearing characters proceeded to utterly charm me from start to finish. This film is the story of several 'families', all defying the conventional depiction of the Korean family, and all serving to remind us how family can provide the context behind even the most frustratingly cryptic and inscrutable individual. Unfortunately, I don't know have any suggestions on how else to catch this film. Unless you have an All-Region DVD Player or codec that allows you to view Region-3 DVDs, in which case, I'll gladly lend the film to anyone interested.
Television
Acceptable TV
Have you ever had someone jokingly insult you, and as much as you try to summon up the anger and indignation to punch them in the face, you can't help but laugh because it was actually pretty funny? That's kinda what Acceptable TV is like. It's a show that pokes fun at our complete inability to invest the attention-span for anything more than a gimmick. The premise is that the show airs five 3-4 minute long sitcom 'pilots' and allows the viewers to vote off 2, while the rest stay on to show the follow-up to their pilot in the next show. Catch this show while you can, b/c with VH1's shitty Friday @ 10PM timeslot, it probably won't survive much longer.
Music
Taxi Taxi - Maps & Legends
Solid songwriting AND polished production. You CAN have both, it is possible.
Blog
Puberty Sucks by Michael Kang
After seeing West 32nd, I decided to revisit Michael Kang's irresistably charming and impressive debut feature The Motel. And afterward, as is the natural and universal response after watching a great movie, I started Google-ing the crap out of it. I stumbled upon Michael Kang's supplementary blog which shares his personal recollections of his awkward/mortifying/lonely pubescent teen years, as well as some guest blog entries from others brave enough to share. And it's all pure gold (excerpt follows):
"“It’s tough for girls to imagine themselves with you,” he said.
I don’t think I had much of a reaction to this. I think the truth of it was too painful for me to even acknowledge. But I knew it was true. Somewhere deep down I knew that no girl in school ever had fantasies about me as the guy that asks her to the prom, or showing up to their house with a bouquet of flowers. I had to accept my fate as the high school eunuch. The friend to girls. The funny but non-threatening buddy to the guys. A supporting character in my own life."
One day I might summon the courage to attempt to recall the horrors of my teenage years, but for now I'm thoroughly enjoying reading other people's traumas, and anxiously awaiting the next installments.
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