The giant gongs are back! After a three and a half year restoration, the Oceanic wing is back and larger and moved around a little and filled with more stuff and more little information cards and more maps.
For whatever reason, the arts of Oceania (everything from New Zealand to Borneo to Hawaii) have always struck a chord with me. I’ve thought long and hard about why this is and I actually came up with an answer – when I was very young my parents took me to stay at the “Polynesian Resort” at Walt Disney World and, somehow, that aesthetic imprinted on me.
Anyway, this remains my favorite room at the Met. I’m not a scholar so I won’t go into what exactly you’ll see (I’ll leave that to yesterday’s Times) – you should just go see it yourself. In the mean time, I am going to dig up a DVD of La Valee.
I won’t lie – the best thing about this restuarant is the location. It’s fun to be in the West Village as it reminds me of my youth (poor Ann, who must hear me tell the same stories as we walk the same blocks) but a very, very close second place reason to visit Do Hwa is the food. This is high quality Korean served up slightly fancier than the perhaps more authentic Flushing competitors. The dumpling soup and fried oysters were out of sight. The pork ribs were a little greasy, as was the beef tenderloin but, hey, sometimes that’s okay. I noticed that we got a few less of those little plates of appitizers than we do in Flushing, but what we did get was fantastic. We left completely full and didn’t have dessert. Around 4 AM I got up for a shot of Maalox, but I knew that was bound to happen. In all, a place I recommend.
I give this film credit for being somewhat unpredictable. A gang crew is ordered to kill one of their own, and when that ends in stalemate they all have dinner. They band together for some other jobs, do a LOT of slow motion shooting, have a funny little scene at an underground doctor’s (they bring one of their wounded in, five minutes later the other guys come knocking, too) then shoot some more. I had no emotional attachment to any of this along the way – it looks and feels like a comic book, but somtimes cool sunglasses, twangy guitar and fake blood are what you wanna see. The end has the most ridiculous product placement I’ve seen in a while (go Red Bull!) and lots and lots of shooting. This two hour movie should have been 90 minutes, but if you want to put this on late at night and kinda pay attention you will find some rewards. (Also – this movie is violent, but not disgusting. When people get shot – as about ten thousand do – there’s a spray of red and they just basically fall over. That’s a nice change.)
There are two points of pride for me here. One is that the house I grew up actually has a Steinway piano and two, obviously, is that I live one block from Steinway street. This doc, almost the dictionary definition of small gem, spends most of its time just up the road from me at the Steinway factory — the last major piano factory where everything is done by hand, essentially the same way as 100 years ago. The film begins, though, in Alaska as trees are cut and logs are sent down river. We then see the year-long process in Queens (which includes the entertaining “pounding room”), go to the showroom on 57th St and, finally, Carnegie Hall. That I actually have an emotional attachment to Steinway L1307 (the concert grand we see given life) is remarkable. The factory workers are fantastic. An array of artisans that might just be the best representation of Queens on film. We have the old school Irish-Americans, the Poles, the Croats, the Carribeans, Mexicans, African-Americans, old Jews all taking a sack lunch break and reading the Daily News. If John Sayles ever made a documentary, it would be like this. Indeed, with its soft sell, this a better labor propaganda film than anything the Soviet Union ever put out. Famous pianists (Marcus Roberts, Lang Lang, Harry Connick and more) give color commentary about their instrument of choice. Note by Note only has a brief run at Film Forum, but this is one that will surely show up on, say, Sundance Channel or PBS. Try and catch it.
When does a DVD featurette become a full length picture? When it is two-and-a-half hours long and is directed by the dude who made I Am Curious – Yellow. If you find Bergman funny, then you’ll like hearing him babble about God. So I was amused. Also: the scenes of him hitting rewind and fast-forward on his flatbed editing system (and kinda being obnoxious to his female editor) made me nostalgic. For cutting on film, not of sexism. Like most behind-the-scenes stuff, it is cool for a while, but ultimately you are left wishing you were watching the thing itself – in this case Winter Light.
I like time-travel stories as much as the next dude. . .but Data hangin’ at a cocktail party with Guinan and Mark Twain? Save it for the Holodeck.
And, frankly, I couldn’t follow what was happening. If there are malevolent aliens in an out-of-phase time synch, why isn’t this more of an issue all the time? One would think there are therefore an infinite amount of slight deriviations in time synch. Is there something like the Federation a few clicks off, too? And how is La Forge able to whip up a out-of-time-synch device so quickly? Isn’t this, like, a big deal?!? And when they get there (not that they go anywhere) — Are those glowy things soul-eaters? Why do they only eat 500 year old American souls? I guess we’ll find out in part two, but this better be good.
I like any episode with Ensign Ro in it — and there’s some cool shit here. But there’s some big problems with the logic on this one. I’ll quote from Memory-Alpha.org on this one: “This episode also suffers from one of the most frequently made mistakes in science fiction, the Ghost-paradox. If La Forge and Ro are out of phase with the universe, and can pass through matter, then why don’t they sink through the Enterprise bulkheads? And since air would pass through their lungs, rather than be absorbed by their lungs, why don’t they suffocate? Furthermore, since light would interact with neither Ro’s eyes nor La Forge’s VISOR, they would both be blind, and would not be able to see their surroundings, which they were able to do throughout the episode. (Not to mention the number of tables they absent-mindedly touched or chairs they sat in without thinking…)”
And then there’s another big problem. Why in the hell would the Enterprise be giving THIS much aid to a Romulan ship? Especially Worf? I mean — come on people!!
Get it? I, Robot. . .but also Cyborg. I, Borg. Ha ha ha.
This episode is fine enough but it is a little hard to fathom that Picard wouldn’t go ahead with the idea of uploading the taken Borg (”Hugh”) as a virus to destroy the collective. I don’t care how good he is. He should have at least contacted Starfleet Command. Ridiculous.
Criterion’s DVD of Days of Heaven has been shipped via Amazon and it is worth every penny. Watching the film on DVD allows you to hit pause and really drink in each shot. There is a misconception that Malick is a slow-paced filmmaker. That is so untrue. This film moves at break-neck speed – constant editing, no shot held for more than a short beat. Always leave ‘em wanting more. If you haven’t seen this masterpiece, now’s the time. It remains one of my ten favorite films of all time.
A few times during this insanely long alleged comedy I said aloud, “that’s kinda funny.” If that’s an endorsement, then go to town. Hardly a bright spot on Mr. Polanski’s resume, although one does get to watch Sharon Tate take a bath, like, three times.
This fun little doc highlights the most financially successful Midnight Movies (El Topo, Night of the Living Dead, Pink Flamingos, The Harder They Come, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Eraserhead) and tries to explain what made them and the “Midnight Movie Scene” tick. There’s some little button on the end where an attempt is made to prove that the common themes of these films (death of the ’60s dream, for the most part) has now been commodified by Hollywood and pop culture. Fine. Interviews with John Waters, Jodorowky, Lynch, George Romero and J. Hoberman are always welcomed in my world.
It’s Snuffleupagus in Space! A little girl’s imaginary friend isn’t so imaginary. In fact, she is going to cause some havoc. Very predictable, but the kid actors are surprisingly okay, all things considered.
Unlike some, I do not automatically dismiss a Lwaxana Troi-based episode. Nor do I instantly poo-poo an Alexander Rozhenko episode. When these two (the old bat and the little kid) get together, I do heave a heavy sigh. When their life lessons are interrupted ten minutes before the end of the episode by an unknown element playing havoc with the warp core, only to be stopped by La Forge & co. five minutes before the end, it doesn’t take much arm-twisting to write this whole mess off.
My day gig took me out to LA to meet with the online marketing strategists, publicists and overall media-folk at all the Hollywood studios. When there was time, we took some photos.
Yes, I’m a real cut-up in a business meeting:
From my favorite Flushing Meadows – Corona Park film.
And here’s that guy from ANOTHER movie set in Queens!
ZOMG! Here is the very sound stage where they shot Planet of the Apes. And Star!
Me sizing up with Kurt Russell’s hand.
Me molesting Minnie Mouse. This other dude was just a street performer in bronze paint taking a lunch break.
On the road and not much time to blog. Will report back in a few days.
Yes I am now on the Face Book. I can not deny that it is a “user friendly app” as they say. I had been ignoring it because I figured it would be like the My Space and I absolutely hate the My Space. The My Space always makes my computer crash.
Facebook, however, is relatively clean and neat.
I was supposed to clean the apartment on Saturday, but instead I spent all day on Facebook. I have two categories of friends there. Old college chums that I haven’t really talked to in ten years and the clowns I see at work every day. And that’s it.
I was able to get in touch with an old professor I always thought was cool and one old friend that I am truly excited to be back in touch with, as all other roads to him had disappeared. So, yes, Facebook is cool. But I refuse to look at it anymore today. Because I have to do something old school, like write in my blog.
