I probably never understand why people want to camp out a store on Thanksgiving night waiting for the store to open on Friday morning, sometimes even risking their lives. That's okay. There are so many things that I don't understand in this world anyway. This might be the least important items on a very long list.
To better understand the world, I have been reading a The Straight Dope book, that I checked out from the library. It gives me a few chuckles when I am on an elliptical machine in the gym. So far, I have not fall off a machine yet, but I did learn a thing or two. For example, I have learned the answers for questions like:
If you burp, fart, and sneeze at the same time, will you die?
Which end of the egg comes out of the chicken first?
How did "gay" come to mean "homosexual?"
What is the term for people who lack the sense of taste? Tasteless?
......
However, I am not sure if my question gets asked or answered yet: Can somebody sneeze or fart in his sleep?
I will sleep on that tonight.
I spent the Thanksgiving at Tony's (another Tony), overlooking the foggy city from Twin Peaks. I had a lot fun. At one point, I said to Calvin:
"When I touch mine, it is fun. But when I couch yours, or touch my friends', there always a problem."
People started to laugh, because they didn't realize that I was talking about the touch screen input on my phone and on their iPhones. I will keep my hands to myself.
I had plenty to drink and eat at Tony's, even I didn't cook on Thanksgiving Day at all. I thought about making mash potato, but then I changed my mind. Because if I carried the mash potato over, it would be cold. Reheated mash potato is just not the same as the freshly made. I want to retain my reputation. Scratch that. I was lazy and didn't want to make things complicated.
However, that doesn't mean that I have not been cooking. Even I almost going to movies every night, I still manage to make some kimchi the other night. All from scratch, inspired by a recipe.
Being myself, I can never really follow a recipe entirely. So, this is MY version of kimchi.
I blend garlic, ginger root, onion etc in a food processor.
Then add chili powder, sweet rice paste, and chop all the vegetables such as cucumber, turnip, chive, and kohlrabi.
Mix together, and put in the big jar. There I have it. Next to my kimchi is a big jar of salty eggs I made couple days earlier.
Now I am like a squirrel, stock up all the goodies and ready for the winter.
However, one disappointment I have is that the kimchi I made (on the left) doesn't seem as red as the kimchi I bought from a store (the right). It's either the chili powder I got is not red enough, or the one I bought has added food color.
Luckily, they all taste delicious and very spicy.
This morning, when everybody else going crazy shopping, I was sleeping and got up really late. That's what I call a day off. I didn't do much either except going to the gym and shopping for groceries. I love it. At night, I made some chicken wings I marinated last night. It was delicious.
It's great that after two days off, the weekend just started. I hope that it will be warm and clear on Sunday so I can hike in Marin Headlands and lie down on the beach before I head to the screening of "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (staring late Heath Ledger as Tony) in the evening.
Almost every Chinese has heard, if not read, the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义) which was written in the 14th century. The novel is about the civil war among three war lords that took place more than a thousand year ago—at the end of the Han Dynasty (汉朝 206 BC - 220 AD). After the novel, those historical figures become household names, such as intelligent Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮), boorish Zhang Fei (张飞), sensitive Liu Bei (刘备), devoted Guan Yu (关羽), bright Zhou Yu (周瑜), and arrogant Cao Cao (曹操). They have appeared in numerous plays and literatures for hundreds of years, and everybody seems have his own images in mind about them. If the novel is made into a motion picture, anything short of a grand epic is unjustified.
Legendary director John Woo's (吴宇森) "Red Cliff" (赤壁 | China 2009 | in Chinese | 148 min.) takes up the challenge and tells the thousand-year-old story to the world audience. With a budget more than $80 million, this is the most expensive film ever made in Asian.
However, John Woo wants to tell the story to audiences in the entire world, even they are not familiar with that period of Chinese history and with those war warriors. Therefore, for the Western world, including the US, he combines these two films into one "Red Cliff" to be released, cutting the running time into half.
The combine version is faster paced and the story line is easier to follow, without losing any spectacular battle scene.
In 208 A.D., ambitious Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi), the Primary Minister of Eastern Han Dynasty, leads millions of well-equipped soldiers to invade much weaker warlords Sun Quan (Chang Chen) and Liu Bei (You Yong). In order to fight Cao Cao, Liu Bei sends his chief advisor Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to convince Sun Quan that making an alliance is the only way to confront Cao Cao. Relying on intelligence, opportunities, the higher morale, and the art of war, even with smaller army, the alliance defeats Cao Cao in this historical battle.
John Woo is a master of choreographing splendid fighting sequence, even in the most chaotic settings. Although Battle of Red Cliffs is a great story to begin with, John Woo magically brings that piece of history to the modern world one more time with fantastic art design and vivid imagination. One should see this film only on a big screen to fully appreciate its magnificent scale. (In that regard, playing any film on a tiny screen in an aircraft should be a crime.)
The Oscar season has definitely started. There are so many high profile films are about to open in theaters. I had screenings every day this week, except on Wednesday. Actually even on Wednesday night, I headed out to Delancey Screening Room for the screening of Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos).
I have never been to this theater, so I looked it up on Google Map, but the stupid Google Map points me to this wrong place! I turned around and went home.
I think I mentioned this before that Google's service has been lousy lately. The annoying java scripts on their pages are getting out of hand, they are causing more trouble that good. I completely quit using Google Calendar because of it. Now I know that I need to double check on Google Maps' answers from now on. On Sunday night, I am positive that I will find this theater for another screening.
President Obama picked a gloomy day walking on the Great Wall in China. I definitely had a better weather when I climbed the Great Wall. I also think he picked the wrong section to go as well. That's not his fault—it's all arranged by his Chinese host. I am glad that he is able to see the magnificent Great Wall in person, and visit China in person. I want to visit China too.
When I was watching Obama having state dinner in Beijing with Chinese President on TV, I don't understand why no journalists bother to take a picture of the food! I want to see what they are eating. Although I didn't see the food at the dinner, but I saw a clip of the stunning performance by Cai Yong (蔡勇), an actor from Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe Circus. This 13-year-old-boy is absolutely amazing. How could somebody have so much strength yet so elegant?
I found a clip where he won the championship in an international competition last year.
No matter how many years I practice yoga, or practice whatever, there is no way I can be remotely near to his ability.
Even I have been busy watching films this week, I still need to eat, but something quick and easy. The other night, I bought a (humanly killed - I hope so) young chicken (童子鸡), and let it comfortably rest on a nest of rape. Then I made a bunch teriyaki tofu to hold a vigil for the chicken.
It was so good, I mean the food. I am sure the service for the chicken is not bad either.
I ran out of flour last week. Finally Sandy helped me to get 50lb of rice and 50lb of flour. Now I am fully armed with ample ammunitions, it's time to cook. I have been craving for dumplings for a while, therefore, I made dumplings tonight for dinner.
I boiled some rape, and used most the stem portions for the dumpling fillings. The rest, I drizzle some oyster sauce as a side dish.
Then one by one, roll the wrapper, stuff in the fillings.
With some garlic sauce and kimchi, I am completely content with my freshly made and boiled dumplings.
I am not sure if Obama is eating something better than I do. However, at least I have pictures to remember my enjoyment. Now, I want to make dumplings for the president. Will he come?
Thanksgiving is next week, so I will have a short week at work. I am so looking forward to it, even I have so much on my plate to do, besides to eat.
Italian director Marco Bellocchio's "Vincere" (Italy/France 2009 | in Italian | 128 min.) is a visually stunning biopic about the little known tragic life of Ida Dalser (1880 - 11 December 1937), the notorious dictator Benito Mussolini's first wife.
At the turn of the last century, Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) opens a beauty salon in Milan. After she meets the ambitious and magnetic Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi), she passionately falls in love with him. She sells everything she has to support him, and gives birth to a boy Benito Albino Mussolini in 1915.
After Mussolini returns from World War I, not only he abandons socialism and founds fascism, he also marries to another woman Rachele Guidi and shuns Ida and their son Benito Albino Mussolini. Heartbroken Ida refuses to compromise and stubbornly demands the right as Mussolini's wife, even when Mussolini becomes the dictator of Italy and she can only see him in movie theaters or in newspapers. Eventually, she is interned in a psychiatric hospital away from her son.
Love can bring happiness, it also can crush the heart and mind. Even Ida knows this too well, she continues her courageous fight, to the very end. She never gives up.
The film seamlessly blends vast amount of historic footage into its beautiful cinematography, and constructs a fantastic visual rhapsody. Adding the haunting music and the terrific performance from Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Filippo Timi, the film is nothing short from a grand opera.
I am still exploring the functionality of my new phone Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. I love it! I can actually begin to practice writing Chinese instead of using pinyin (拼音) on a keyboard all the time. I can also taking decent pictures, listen to radio and music, or even shoot a video. I love the fact that I can edit the label for a phone number. Now I can have my frequently visited bus stops programmed into my phone. I also enjoy the calendar on the phone, much better than the Google Calendar.
However, AT&T's signal sucks! They are much worse than Sprint I used to have. Luckily, I can get by most of the time.
A few days ago, when I stop by the store in Chinatown to get this phone, I saw a very old Chinese lady, perhaps in her 70s if not 80s, digging a trash can for food. Her exposed legs were so thin that they are probably thinner than my wrists. It is extremely sad.
I dug into my bag, all I could find was an apple. I handed the apple to her. She took it and replied with a perfect "Thank you!" Her pronunciation tells me that either she is an American born Chinese or she has been in the US for decades.
Her image stayed with me for a long time. I wonder if she is warm tonight. I also wonder why there are so many homeless people in this richest US of A. China is poorer and have more people, but I have never seen as many homeless people as in the US. What gives? I wonder what would happen if the Chinese lady were in China. I doubt that she would have to dig a trashcan for food.
Okay, that's depressing.
Couple days ago, I read something ridiculous. Remember the guy who drove too fast on the Bay Bridge and flew off the bridge and plunge to his death? The family of this guy now blame the Caltrain for the accident. How predictable! Of course, people never take responsibility for their own action. If they drive exceed the speed limit, they blame on no extra measure is taken to slow them down.
WTF?
Why are these people drive so fast anyway? Hurry for what? To death?
The most irritating drivers I see every day on streets are those who run yellow lights, sometimes, red lights too. They see the light is changing, they slam on the gas to beat the light. Very likely they fly over the intersection risking of hitting a few pedestrians. What happen after they beat the light? They immediately slam on the brake so they don't hit the car that is stopped at a red light. So all they are rushing to is to stop behind a stopped car, but risking other's lives?
When Japanese invaded China, they committed horrific acts to Chinese people, especially to people in Harbin (哈尔滨), my hometown. When the War is over in 1945, many Japanese orphans are abandoned. Chinese people took these orphans in, and raised them as their own children, despite what the Japanese just did to the Chinese people during the war. That's humanity and empathy! After 1972, thousands of these orphans returned to Japan and started new lives. Now these orphans returned to Harbin to visit their Chinese parents who saved their lives and raised them.
Okay, that's also not very cheerful. So, let's cook.
Cooking something at home always make me happy. I am out of rice last week. With hesitation, I bought a big 50 lb bag of Thai rice from the shop outside the apartment. I took a chance hoping that I would like it, because it's very convenient. All I need is to get in the elevator and come up stairs. It's not the short grain I like. Despite its sweet aroma, I don't like the texture. However, they are very good for stir-fried rice.
Tonight, instead of normally stir the eggs in the rice, I put them outside for a change. I want to be different.
Ops! I forgot to sprinkler some seseme seeds.
There! Ops again, I dropped some rape. It looks like I need a maid.
Chilean director Sebastián Silva's second feature "The Maid" (La Nana | Chile/Mexico 2009 | 95 min.) is an absorbing character study about a fascinating maid. The film wins the Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Dramatic) at 2009 Sundance Film Festival and continues to collecting trophies around the globe.
The film opens with the awkward celebration of Raquel's (Catalina Saavedra) 41st birthday. She appears to be shy, unhappy, grumpy, mysterious, and haggard. After 20 years as a live-in maid in a wealthy family and taking care of four children and the two adults in the family, she disappears in this family's life as if she is part of the family. Or is she?
Despite her falling health, she refuses to allow any new maid to step into her territory or to share the domain that she fiercely guards. She becomes the most difficult maid to work with. As a result, none of the new maid can work with her long, except an upbeat and free spirited Lucy (Mariana Loyola) who inspires her to find her life again.
Catalina Saavedra gives an outstanding performance as the intriguing protagonist. Her expressive eyes reveal her mind every time when she looks into the camera. She intelligently creates a rich and complex character—Raquel. Like Raquel's employer, the audience might be perplexed about where to place her in the heart. Appreciate her work? Love her dedication? Pity her life? Condemn her behavior? Admire her strong will?
There is simply no easy answer.
Raquel is perhaps the best maid in the world when it comes to keep a house tidy. However, actually having her in the house as a maid may not be as blessed as it sounds. One thing is certain though—she will be the maid that no one can easily forget.
"Would you like a clean towel?"—the girl asked me with a big smile when she was checking me in at the gym, emphasizing on the word "clean."
"That would be great!"—I giggled when I replied.
I appreciate more about her small effort to bring me smiles than her little humor. I enjoy the tiny little pleasant things when I interact with people around the city. Since people's attitude can be contiguous, I normally enjoy being around happy people more than grumpy ones. Maybe I am one of those who always see half glass full.
Here is another example. On Halloween night, on the bus to Castro, I saw these two cheerful couple who worn fabulous costumes made by that lady. They act like two love birds even they are quite mature in terms of age, and they are definitely happy, so are everybody else on the bus—maybe somebody else could hold a straight face when seeing these couple. I can't. My mouth was stretching from my left ear all the way to the right ear.
Speaking of Halloween, the party is indeed over. Since last year, the City is determined to crash the block party in Castro. They certainly succeeded. The crowd was quite small, if there is any at all. The fun is all gone. Oh, those old good days!
Although the Halloween is no longer fun on the street of Castro, luckily, the City still have plenty to offer. For one thing, the weather has been gorgeous like the true summer days.
Yesterday morning, I walked to a neighborhood cafe and sat outside on the sidewalk, just like traveling in Europe. I ordered my breakfast under the bright sunshine and the relaxing atmosphere.
Then I heard the lady at the next table describing her dog at her feet to her friend: "He is awesome, and he is pain in the ass." I wasn't sure she likes her dog or not, but I surely liked my egg and green.
I think it's a crime to stay indoors under this kind of weather.
Last Sunday, I spent like 5 (if not 6) hours in Marin Headlands. Not only I hiked very long distance, I also baked in the sun lying on the warm sand for a long time, reading a book, among other things.
Today, it looked like a carbon copy of last Sunday. I began to repeat the same route, and planned to lie on the beach again.
Well, to my surprise, the beach was missing. The giant wave and high tide pulled the spots where I used to lie down into the water. The wave was loud and powerful, as if it is very angry for my taking its spot last week...
It's spectacular!
After staring at the tides for awhile, I marched on to the top of the mountain, to see the City on the other side. Suddenly, everything is calm and peaceful again, without any trace of violent waves. The Golden Gate Bridge is just as elegant and fabulous as usual.
After each hiking, I am not tired. Instead, I am recharged and exuberant.
However, that doesn't mean that the entire week has been like this beautiful. On Wednesday night, it was quite chilly. I was craving for something warm. Besides, I was in a rush to go to a film screening, naturally a big bowl of noodle came to my mind. Since I had some leftover broth of winter melon, carrots, frozen tofu, tomato, and pork, so I poured it on top of the noodle and garnished with boiled egg, scallions, and jalapeno pepper.
That was delicious. I have to cook it again sometimes. Tonight, I cooked some juicy buns (小笼汤包), braised eggplant with black bean garlic sauce (豆豉蒜汁煸茄子), white fish miso soup, Japanese sweet potato 红地瓜. Darn! I think I ate all the calories back after I burned them today during the hiking.
And, I also ate so much yesterday after Jason and I cooked dozen dishes. It was a feast.
With all these food in my stomach, I hope I will have a good dream tonight, because I have a lot dreams lately. Hello, new week! And, hello November! (Do I really update so infrequently now?)
Like the whole month, this week vanishes quickly. Even the daylight saving time is going to be over tomorrow night. It's about time. I have been waking up when it's not as bright as it used to be. I am ready for the winter to come, when it's dark and raining outside, warm and cozy inside the apartment. But right now, I just sit back and enjoy the blue sky and green bay.
Speaking of governor, there is something in politics in California that provides a comic relief. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano from San Francisco yelled at the governor: "Kiss my gay ass!" However, Arnold didn't quite kiss his ass, he "fucked" it. He vetoed a bill that Tom Ammiano wrote and in his veto letter, "I fuck you" is imbedded in the first column. That's pretty funny. In respond, San Francisco Chronicle hides a message "Grow Up GirlIE man" in its Editorial piece. That's just so lame. It's not as direct, effective, and informative as "I fuck you." Plus, it's a shame for a newspaper to mess up its copyedit.
It was entertaining and fun, but of course, I don't believe a word the host was saying, holding a "Book of the Dead." I don't believe in ghosts, nor God.
Next week is the election day, which is a boring one. Just a few measures on the ballots, so I mailed in my ballot long time ago.
I already said, it's a boring election. But, I voted! I believe every single vote counts, and I won't waste my power.
That makes me wonder how I will vote next time when it comes to issues related to the bicycles. I was annoyed by Critical Mass today. They not only provoke drivers on the streets, they also block buses deliberately. WTF?
I have been a supporter for cyclers, and I don't drive a car to fight roads with them. But, when they purposely block a bus, that's turning their backs to their allies and turning their friends into their enemies. They lost my sympathy and support, right there. I will no longer support their causes because of their stupidity. They ask for it.
Fame has become such a hot commodity for some people that they are willing to go extra miles to be in the spot light. Remember the hoax about the 6-year-old boy flying away in a balloon a few weeks ago? However, how to explain the phenomenon if the fame does not involved appearing in talk shows but staying in a prison cell? That famed person is Charles Bronson, the most famous and violent prisoner in Britain.
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's operatic film "Bronson" (UK 2008 | 92 min.) might not provide answers to the question why Bronson behaves so violently through out his life, but it certainly presents a truly fascinating and deeply troubled individual, brilliantly (not British usage for this word) played by Tom Hardy.
The film begins with Bronson's fights with classmates at school. Before the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves" finishes playing in the background, Bronson grows up into a young man (Tom Hardy) and is sentenced to seven years in prison for armed robbery of only £26.18 at a post office. His forgiving mother comforts him: "Don't worry son, you'll be out in four." That's not quite the way it turns out. After almost 35 years and a few hostage taking episodes in prison, Bronson is still in prison up to this moment, mostly in solitary confinement. In between jail cells, he is only freed twice, for 68 days and 53 days respectively, before being sent back to jail. In most scenes in the film, he is extremely violent and fighting with anybody in his sight. During rest of the time, he makes art. Who exactly is Bronson? What's in his head that makes him acts violently and peculiarly?
Nobody seems to know.
For any sane mind, certainly fame is not a plausible motivation for Bronson's behavior, although he has certainly achieved that status. Bronson has a personality that his body is too small to hold, and he must explode whenever he is with another human being. Perhaps that is also his unique way to express himself and his art.
You might have different interpretations about Bronson, but everyone can certainly agreen on one thing—you are fortunate to learn about him through a film, not in person. And, he indeed is somebody that you cannot forget easily.
