Magic Month for Movies

It is good that the last month of the year, all the studios release their Oscar hopefuls. Roger Ebert's reviews of movies opening in Chicago this week ran as follows:

• CATCH ME IF YOU CAN / *** (PG-13)
• CHICAGO / ***1/2 (PG-13)
• RABBIT-PROOF FENCE / *** 1/2 (PG)
• SINGIN' IN THE RAIN / **** (G)
• TALK TO HER / **** (R)
• THE HOURS / ***1/2 (PG-13)
• THE LION KING / *** 1/2 (G)

That's a lot of positive reviews--Roger must be feeling the holiday spirit, or it's a fun time to be a movie lover.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:55 PM | link

Congratulations Rich

Old roommate Rich is engaged to Christina! Smiles all around.

Alan and Sharon's baby, Dan and Lori, Rich and Christina...it's a happy holiday season where love is in the air.

Indian party at the HOB

Went with Karen, Mike, and Joannie to an Indian party at the House of Blues tonight. We didn't know it was an Indian party until we arrived. We were headed there to see Karen's old college dance group perform.

What do the Indian-American youth enjoy? The same thing other party kids do: hip hop and mixed drinks. It was fun to hear some Indian music mixed by a DJ, and not so fun to realize that lame DJs dance around on stage at these parties as well, trying to rile up the crowd by shouting, "All the motherf***ing Punjabis in the house, let's hear some motherf***ing noise!!!"

Scene it anywhere?

This movie trivia board game with some questions requiring footage from a DVD is turning out to be really hard to find. It's only carried by Nordstrom and Toys R Us/Amazon.com, and I've tried 3 Nordstrom stores and it's sold out at every one. Amazon finally has it back in stock but it's too late to ship for the holidays, when you can play with your family. I'm not even sure it's all that fun, but when you can't find something after several moderate attempts, it gains an allure which is entirely disproportionate to its actual value.

posted by Eugene Wei at 12:17 AM | link

Six Towers

I saw The Two Towers with my family today. It was my third time seeing it, and I have to say, that's enough for a while.
posted by Eugene Wei at 5:49 PM | link

Notes from family time

Something my sisters pointed out and which I've realized is true: have you ever played in a Pictionary game that hasn't resulted in a few heated arguments? Everyone's cut throat when it comes to that game. It's to the point where I don't think it's worth playing with family and friends.

Joannie and Mike's new condo is huge!

Everytime my sisters and I see each other it's like we're all 15 years old again. We still call each other "dork" all the time--it's our favorite word. And we're still too chicken to really flip each other the bird so we're always flipping each other the ring finger. Sometimes I think we'll be doing this even when we have kids of our own and we'll be like those embarassing hippy parents who are less mature than their kids.

Ow!

I lost in Scrabble to Karen tonight because I challenged her on the word "ow." I'm sorry, but that is not a word. According to the official Scrabble dictionary which my dad bought me in 1983, it is a word. It's an exclamation of pain. Huh? More like "ouch" to me.

The weather outside is frightful

It was fairly mild when I arrived at the airport yesterday, so I was actually quite happy to see the snow falling this morning. Whoooooo-eeee! It's cold out there.

L'idiot

The new PIN for my dial-up account on my laptop was on a post-it note, and that note fell off my computer sometime in the last few weeks. So I go to dial into work this morning and I enter my old PIN several times in a row, and the computer rejects me each time and finally locks me out altogether. So the rest of my trip, I can't dial into my work account.

Typical male, I am. Won't take no for an answer from the computer so I enter the same PIN over and over, like a bird trying to fly through a glass window and bouncing off of it like a dodo (I love that Far Side where a dinosaur is lecturing to an entire room of dinosaurs. "Bad news folks: the earth is warming, food supplies are dwindling, and we all have brains the size of a walnut.").

So if you want to reach me over vacation, use my personal e-mail address.
posted by Eugene Wei at 12:43 AM | link

How do I bottle this?

I’m in good mood. Too good a mood. I’m not just in a good mood. I’m high. This does not happen often. I have to write this down now, because this will not last. It always goes away, but for now? Good times.

It’s a combination of having had a lot of fun this past week, heading out to Christmas vacation where I’ll see family and friends I love, and having even more vacation planned in the distance after Christmas vacation. It’s the elation of feeling like I’ve come a long way from where I was, and realizing I probably have even further to go. Both are wonderful things to feel. I’m happy like Dicky Fox from Jerry Maguire,.

I hate being in such a good mood when getting on a plane. I always inevitably think, what if the plane goes down? Even writing this now, while on the plane, is spooky. I mean, if the plane goes down, no one will be reading this anyway, which is even crazier. Oh well, #*&$ it. I’m in a good mood.

It was a good week. On Friday evening last week I dined at Café Juanita and had this foie gras appetizer. It was so good I nearly stood up and walked out of the restaurant to stand in the street and wave my fists at the heavens in triumph. Then after dinner I went out with a party friend I haven’t seen in a while and partied like a rock star, which in hindsight wasn't such a good idea because I felt terrible the next morning, but at the time it was fun. Then Saturday I spent an afternoon researching New Zealand for my upcoming leave of absence. Brian gave me a whole bunch of books and told me of all the places I should go, and I felt like a general in a movie looking at a crude map and plotting out war victories (isn’t it funny how simple the maps have to be in movies and how easy war strategy seems? It’s a limitation of the visual medium of movies and having to let your audience understand what’s going on with one simple closeup of a map. “They’ll attack us from this direction, so you go around back and we’ll surround them. Bloody brilliant.”). Then I saw the terrible new Star Trek movie, but who cares? I felt superior to all the other Trek nerds in the theater who did enjoy the movie. If they think that’s a good movie then they haven’t lived.

Then a wonderful Xmas party Saturday night. I think it’s like the first Xmas party I was invited to in all my years in Seattle, and that’s progress. A real Xmas tree, too, and a Christmas ham! At this Xmas party, impromptu, I started singing with friends, and Bill suddenly performed this crazy physical comedy routine that was pretty much the funniest thing he’s ever done in his life. Going to a Xmas party helps to get your mind off of all the other Xmas parties you didn’t get invited to, and wherever I am, that’s where the fun is.

Sunday, I slept in, got up and watched some football, then at night I went to a screening of About Schmidt with Peter. Jim Taylor, the co-screenwriter, was there, as was his family, and Peter and I sat behind his family. The movie was funny in an "I'm smarter than hicks from small towns of America" sort of way, but what I really enjoyed was watching Jim Taylor’s family whispering to each other with delight during the movie. They sat in the row ahead of us. What fun it must be to have a successful person in your family, and how proud they must have been to have a brother or son who got to write for Jack Nicholson.

Monday night was the charity screening of The Two Towers. Happiness is priority valet parking, having waiters bringing you glass after glass of fine wine and plate after plate of appetizers and desserts prepared by Tom Douglas, and meeting some new friends over a few drinks. These new friends tell you to enjoy life before you have kids because they have kids and can't do as much as they used to, and I realize I don’t have kids and can enjoy life and my personal freedom. Yeah!

Then, The Two Towers itself. If happiness is seeing a movie opening night, then ecstacy is seeing it ahead of opening night. I’m slightly drunk and totally giddy and I’m not sure I process the whole movie, but it’s awesome, and John Rhys Davies is there. And the crowd is fired up! They clap when Gandalf the White appears to Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli in the forest. When Gandalf and Eomer and his men come riding over the summit down towards the orcs outside Helm’s Deep, I let out a whoop. And after the movie we receive goody bags with DVDs and books and stuff related to the movie and the sponsors of the event. Gimli is signing autographs by the door. I don’t get his autograph, but I give Gimli a hug. Then Gimli grabs a few goody bags and hands them out to the first few people waiting in line for the next evening’s opening midnight show. You have to see the looks on these fanboys faces at the appearance of Gimli the dwarf, bearing gifts. Priceless. And then the woman who sat next to me at the movie asks me out for drinks, and I stay out too late having drinks, and I can’t sleep for another couple hours because the pace of my heart now matches the pace of the movie.

And then Tuesday night, Jason organizes a surprise “going on leave” party for me at The Garage. And I’m almost surprised, until Jason tells me he’s gotten reservations for Jamie and the two of us at Tango, a tapas restaurant. It’s not American or Italian food, so I’m surprised he agreed to that suggestion. And it's funny how you can sniff these things out. We all read body language so much better than we think. But it's times like these we're happy to play along.

And everyone’s there, Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, Zeke, and Hank. It’s so good to see everyone again, including so many old-timers. David, Lauri, Jodie, Jen, Keith, Rick. Friends new and old, from the very first people I worked with to the newest folks on my team. The next night I run intp someone who recently left Amazon who lamented the fact that her manager didn’t organize anything for her when she left, and I realize with some gratitude that these things only happen when someone take the initiative to take care of you. So thank you Jason, for organizing, and for all who came.

Then I'm up at 3:30am, and I literally topple into the shower to try and wake myself up. I'm in line at 4:00am and realize I’m fifth in line for the 7:45am showing. Fifth! I’ve never been as far ahead in line for any opening day movie showing. I’m standing in the rain, my legs and feet are frozen, and I’m shivering with a bunch of hard-core LOTR geeks, and the whole time I’m thinking I’m fifth in line and it’s going to be awesome! I’ve seen the movie already and I’m as excited to see it again because this time I get to see it with forty of my favorite people, and I’m thinking about how much they’re going to love it, and it’s just going to be freaking awesome. Two dudes behind me in line are asked by a few people behind them, “You’re not saving spots for like 200 other people, are you?” They say no, of course, not, they hate those kind of people. I’m sitting there trying not to laugh, wondering where my ring is so I can go invisible. Yep, I’m the asshole saving spots for a hundred of my closest friends. What are you going to do about it?

And everyone starts showing up. First Dan. Soon Jason arrives with coffee and hot cocoas. Then Brook with donuts and bagels. We’re not just fifth in line, we’re sixth, and seventh, and eighth, and ninth, and tenth! I lay out the game plan. The best seats in Cinerama are center section, back half of the theater, from the first row on back. I’m going to stay out on the sidewalk and wait for stragglers. The rest of you spring in and flank the first several aisles from both sides and lock them off.

Soon even Jeff shows up. So I’m standing out on the sidewalk with former Time Man of the Year, and both of us are giggling like a bunch of fanboys because we’re so excited that we’re about to see the freaking Two Towers. Yeah, this qualifies as name dropping, but screw it, Jeff’s the freaking man and I serve at the pleasure of his presidency.

Finally Jeff and I walk in and can you believe it? We have the first three rows of the center section, back half of the theater! My favorite seats in the whole world, the ones I’ve never been lucky to sit in for any movie, at my favorite movie theater in the whole world, the Cinerama. 3 and a half hours of standing on the sidewalk have not gone in vain. My friends have come through. Things are so good I actually can afford to leave the two seats ahead of me empty so no one will block my view. The screen occupies exactly 75% of my field of vision, my favorite ratio. And Andy buys me a box of one of my favorite candies, Sweet Tarts. I’m now positioned exactly so that sound from all speakers in the theater will reach my ears at the exact same second, providing the optimal audio fidelity and impact. We own this freaking theater!

And then the New Line logo flashes on screen, and then the first strains of Howard Shore’s score kicks in, and suddenly we’re in Middle Earth, and then suddenly Gandalf is kicking Balrog’s ass all over Middle Earth to the chanting of a boys choir. And then Frodo is walking the earth with his faithful companion Samwise Gamgee. And then all our familiar friends appear again: female heartthrob and archer extraordinaire Legolas, brooding romantic hero Aragorn, the dwarf with a healthy appetite, Gimli. What a perfectly cast movie. The Shakesperean comic sidekicks, Merry and Pippin. And all those wonderful moments. The miracle that is the CGI character Gollum. Legolas grabbing the neck of a horse in full stride and swinging himself on back (the crowd always claps at that moment). Gandalf appearing to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in a flash of white light. The awesome spectacle of the battle of Helm’s Deep, one of the most incredible battle scenes in movie history. Hearing Jeff’s loud laugh resonate through the theater.

This is the best Xmas present I could give, and it’s totally selfish because I have my friends with me to see the movie. Legolas tells Aragorn, before the battle of Helm’s Deep, “Your friends are with you, Aragorn.” I feel the same as I sit in that darkened theater. It’s my favorite moviegoing experience ever.

Finally I’m out into the bright sunny day, the first in a long time in Seattle. My cell phone rings off the hook as I hear from everyone who was there, everyone who loved the movie. Life is good.

Then, the evening comes, and I get offered tickets to the Sonics Spurs game, but my cup runneth over as Rachael has tix to the symphony. So it’s off to hear the most beloved oratorio in the world, Handel’s Messiah. It’s my first time hearing it performed live by a symphony, and it’s glorious. Of course, since I've been up since 3:30 in the morning, I fall asleep during parts of the first act, but I pound a Pepsi at intermission and I’m awake the whole second half, laughing at the funny way the bass holds his hands as he stands to sing. Hallelujah! I didn’t realize you’re supposed to stand up when they sing Hallelujah (later my dad tells me it's because some king once stood during that portion of the Messiah, and all his pandering subjects followed suit). Rachael tells me to stand, and I don’t believe her. But she sounds serious, so when they start singing I stand up, and no one else stands up except me and I look around in horror, thinking Rachael has played a terrible joke on me, until, much to my relief, everyone else stands. Guess it takes older folk a bit longer to get up off their butts.

Now I'm on the plane, and the joy ride continues. My flight is ahead of schedule! I get put in Economy Plus with its healthy four inches of extra legroom and I’m not in a middle seat! I didn’t get security screened!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

What did you call me?

I divide the world into two classes. People who pronounce my last name correctly the first time around, and people who don’t. It’s basically how I judge if you’re an ignorant fool or an educated, classy citizen of the world. Wee?!? Has anyone, anyone, every met anyone whose last name is pronounced Wee?!? I don’t even think there’s a Chinese person in the world whose name is pronounced Wee! C’mon people! Jiminy Cricket.

posted by Eugene Wei at 11:04 AM | link

What a day it has been

Notes on revisiting The Two Towers for a second time:
--Gollum is just as captivating the 2nd time around. He has the most expressive eyes this side of Elijah Wood, and his physical motion is amazingly distinctive and lifelike. CGI characters are a new art form, and Gollum is its new Mona Lisa.
--You have to see the movie twice just to see every detail in every part of the screen. Those swooping, soaring camera shots contain frames that show so much, especially during the battle of Helm's Deep and the attack of Isengard by the Ents. If you divided the screen into three quadrants, left, right, and middle, something different is occurring in each.
--The battle scenes are incredible in their scale, and Jackson shows that using computers to animate soldiers allows you to stage a battle with literally 10,000 soldiers on one side without having to hire out half a country to don costumes.
--Despite the scale and complexity of the fight scenes, you always know exactly where each character is and what's going on. That takes skill. The overhead crane shots illustrate exactly how Helm's Deep is laid out and where different battles are occurring. In one incredible shot, you see Orcs rushing through a breach in the wall in the left third of the screen, archers repelling Orcs on ladders in the center of the screen, and Orcs pounding at the main gate in the right quadrant, all in one 5 second shot. It's an amazingly skillful shot, pulled off using a combination of CGI and actual camera footage.
posted by Eugene Wei at 5:55 PM | link

What a night it has been

I have so many stories to tell, from this past weekend, tonight. And I can't tell any of them. As much as a blog is public, so I am such a private person. What an odd hobby for me. Someone told me once that she always felt that there was this part of me that was alone and hidden away, and she was probably right. Some people have this fascination with trying to peel away all the layers of this cocoon I live in, to see what's hidden in there. Others probably just think I'm dull.

Tonight I attended a charity screening of The Two Towers. How I got a ticket is one of those stories maybe I'll tell someday. Anyway, I won't give away any plot spoilers about the movie because I want everyone to see it fresh. Robbing someone of seeing this movie for the first time would be a first-degree crime. But I just want to say that it was so much fun I nearly soiled my pants.

Peter Jackson has figured out how to tap the majesty of the heroism at the heart of the books and channel it on screen with grandeur that pulls LOTR geeks and the average Joe and even film snobs' hearts out of their chests. The animation of Gollum/Smeagol is brilliant--what Jar Jar Binks wishes he could be as a fully-realized digital character.

Two flaws. One, this movie is clearly part of a trilogy. As a stand-alone movie it is exciting but would lose some dramatic tension. Second, as a rip-roaring action movie it lacks some depth and complexity of character. When Gollum is perhaps your most sharply conflicted character, you know it's a plot-driven tale. The rest of the cast have become almost character actors.

Still, every character's face is perfect for the role, and if the adventure and action tale are the heart of this movie, what a rousing payoff it is. A couple times the audience burst out in applause or gasped with pleasure, and the sheer love of movies and joy in the theater was palpable. I'm taking 39 of my Seattle friends and favorite coworkers to see it as a Xmas gift this Wednesday morning and I can't wait to see it in their company. Watching a movie with friends and seeing them thrilled is more fun than enjoying it myself, and I'm sure others know what I mean. It's the only time I can say that the happiness of others is better than my own happiness and not sound like a phony.

(I'm finding it hard to sleep recently, as you can tell from the time of my posts. Before I leave for holiday vacations, I always find it hard to sleep. The excitement of seeing family again, going home and hanging out with my brothers and sisters, it's a natural shot of adrenaline. And then there's the added emotional confusion of taking this leave of absence, and the realization that the movie screening might be the last time I see some of them for a long time. Forever? I try not to think that way, and yes, I haven't decided for sure one way or the other, but the possibility, small or large as it may be, is hard to dismiss. There's a scene in The Two Towers which discusses whether or not someone will see someone ever again, and the words weighed on me (read too much Tolkien and I'll start writing lines like that. "His words weighed on me like a dark portent. My face turned ashen." Melodramatic, but ah, such gravitas when read by a sullen Viggo Mortensen. Okay, no more nested parentheticals.) If it is a last dance, though, what better way than to spend it at an opening day showing of a huge blockbuster movie at a state-of-the-art audio/visual arena like Cinerama in the company of comrades? Those who know me know how many of my buttons that presses.)

I have the soundtrack to The Two Towers (another winner from Howard Shore) and have been listening to it non-stop in my car, and there's one track which I latched onto today. Track 16, "Forth Eorlingas". There's a stretch of it that's just magical, from 2:14 to 2:42, and I listened to it probably 10 to 15 times today before seeing the movie. I had no idea when it would be used. Then, suddenly, I heard it in the background, and wouldn't you know it, the scene just happened to be perhaps the climax of the movie, a point when your spirit just goes soaring, and when the music reached its stride my throat was somewhere on the ceiling. Sometimes in life we experience these small emotional coincidences and the human mind can't help but see them as epiphanies. I'll always remember it as one of my favorite moviegoing moments.

I was sitting in the fifth row, and at the immense Cinerama theater that's overwhelming, especially for an action flick. The battle scenes with handheld shots left me dizzy, but the overall experience was one of being swallowed by the screen, overwhelmed by the pageantry. John Rhys Davies, Gimli the dwarf, voice of Treebeard, made an appearance and welcomed us to enjoy this masterpiece.

After the movie, we all got goodie bags. I felt like I was at the Oscars. I haven't flipped through my bag yet, but I saw a copy of the DVD of the first movie, a copy of the Two Towers novel, and some other stuff. It's a bonus awaiting me in the morning, like Prince Charming waking up to find a glass slipper in his hand to let him know it wasn't all some dream.

And then, after the movie....well, there's another story for another night. I'm exhausted. Time to sleep. Suffice it to say, what a night it has been.

About About Schmidt

I took Peter to a special screening of About Schmidt on Sunday night. Jim Taylor, the co-writer, was in attendance with his family. A few thoughts (minor spoilers ahead for those who want to see it fresh):

• Jack Nicholson gives a first-rate performance. No doubt. As Jim Taylor noted in Q&A afterwards, Jack was told by Alexander Payne (co-writer with Jim Taylor and director on this and Citizen Ruth and Election and Jurassic Park III) to "play a small man" and he does. In doing so, he proves that he still earns his keep, unlike others from his generation. He does so much in this movie, from the pacing of his line readings to actual physical comedy, and it's all superb.


• Still, I didn't believe that he was anyone other than Jack. Not because of his performance, but because he's Jack. I'm not sure there's anyway around that other than to cast someone else. In fact, it was funny because when Jack's wife first comes on screen I thought it was his mother, perhaps, because I'm so used to seeing Jack with the Lara Flynn Boyle's of the world. Nothing in his actual acting screamed "Jack" but someone with his career and pedigree and fame just can't be an ordinary person. He's larger than life.


• Taylor and Payne have smart, razor sharp knives in their arsenal, and they use them all to slice their subjects to pieces. There's this line from the movie, "Dear Ndugu," and I laughed like a madman every time I heard it, and it appears many times. The small-town folk from Omaha Nebraska are hilarious in their provinciality.


• I felt a bit uncomfortable by the end of the movie because watching obviously smart and clever city guys like Taylor and Payne pick apart small-town folk like the ones played by Kathy Bates and Dermot Mulroney (unrecognizable!!) would be like watching Alan Dershowitz cross-examine George Bush or something like that. It's a heavyweight bullying the village idiot. I've read reviews that claim this is a humanistics movie, and someone even thanked Taylor for making these characters sympathetic. Huh?! Please watch the movie (it's quite entertaining) and see if you agree with me. I though those characters were set up for merciless ridicule.

posted by Eugene Wei at 2:25 AM | link

It was, uh, neat

Is it okay to diss a play or concert or whatever if someone gets you tickets for it? Maybe only if I was Larry David. I think it would make a good episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld. Someone takes you to a movie or play, and then afterwards they ask you what you thought. Are you allowed to say you didn't like it?

On the one hand, any opinionated semi-snob feels it's beneath themselves to praise mediocrity. After all, there's the sanctity of one's taste and intellectual integrity to preserve. On the other hand, it does seem somewhat rude. I mean, here you are, enjoying the pleasure of a friend. Why go cause all that unpleasantness? Plus, they might not invite you out next time, and who knows, maybe they'll pick a winner (that last line sounds so much like something George would think).

I admit, I try to avoid the situation by asking the gift horse what they thought first. If they didn't enjoy it, I'm more likely to let loose with my true feelings. If they enjoyed it and ask me what I thought I'll try and find a few things I liked. Seriously, it's like someone asks you if you enjoyed the music at their wedding. What are you going to say?

I'm going to write this into an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I know they supposedly improvise all that, but I'll send it in anyway.
posted by Eugene Wei at 1:15 AM | link

The kid can play

Caught some Lebron James action from his high school hoops game, televised on ESPN2 tonight. Let's run down the resume.

He's got Jordan's cell phone number, and Jordan invited him to scrimmage over the summer. He's 17 years old, 6 foot 8, 240 lbs. What do they eat there in Akron Ohio? He's the consensus number one pick in the NBA next year (has his voice cracked yet?). He's on the cover of ESPN magazine, and he's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. NBA professionals fly out to Ohio to watch him play. His high school sells tickets to his games for $35 each. He led his team to an upset of the number one team in the country tonight, beating them by twenty.

Watching him play tonight, I think it's safe to say, the kid can play. I saw Shaq play in college in the NCAA's when he was at LSU, and I saw Kevin Garnett play in the Illinois High School Association playoffs when he was at Farragut. Lebron's better than they were at that age. That behind the back pass in transition between two defenders tonight? Insane. His signature move is skying high to grab the board over everybody, turning and starting the break, and before he crosses half court, threading a long bounce pass between a few defenders and hitting a breaking guard in full stride for the layup. Pretty, pretty.

He's a bit of a showboat on defense, always going for the steal, so let's see if he can stay hungry. I always think one of the reasons Jordan was so great was that he just had this huge competitive chip on his shoulder and constantly improved fundamentally with the sole goal of dominating his competition. Maybe it was because he was cut in high school. Who knows? Lebron has so much at this age...it's easy to lose your edge when the world opens its vaults to you.

I keep in my head a set of four or five memories. Slights against myself. Losses. Times when I was passed over for this or that. Mistakes I've made. It's the easiest way to motivate myself, to live in this angry place where the sun doesn't shine and my blood races.

I should spend my leave seeing if I can be Lebron James' agent. It could be a variation on the Jerry Maguire story. I help Lebron harness his talent, steer him clear of trouble. He teaches me a thing or two about, mmm, I'm not sure. Something.
posted by Eugene Wei at 9:18 PM | link

Sam Seaborn leaves The West Wing

Today I announced my upcoming leave of absence from Amazon.com. You tell everyone you're taking a leave, and they hear "I'm leaving." Maybe I should use the term sabbatical instead.

I haven't decided what to do when my leave ends. I'll come back to Amazon, see if there's a place for me, see if I can find something that interests me and adds some value to the company. It's easier to decide to take a break than to start it. The closer I got to pulling the trigger, the harder it was to actually follow through. And it's not just walking away from a steady paycheck in a lousy economy. I've worked here for five and a half years. That's the longest I've done anything in my life besides serving as a die hard Cubs fan. You don't work that long some place and not grow attached. I've met some amazing people in that time, made some great friends, and been part of something bigger than I could have ever imagined. I'll always remember my mother asking me when I told her of my plans to move away to this strange city where I knew one person: "You're taking a pay cut to go work for who? What do they do? What's the Internet?" God bless her, she had long since set me free and trusted me to do the right thing.

I haven't quite nailed what I'm going to do during my leave, either, but I've got a few ideas. Some of those things on my 30 things to do before I'm 30 list which some of you may have heard of. Places to see on my own. Friends to visit. Just pack a bag, grab a walking stick, and hike the world. There are certain things I believe about myself, and I've got to see if I'm right. And there are probably quite a few things I still have to learn about myself, and the only way to do that is to change the test conditions, blow my world. Amazon is the control, the shoes that fit me so well that I'd repair them a thousand times over before buying a new pair.

I've always loved learning new things, embracing new challenges. This will give me the chance to learn a few new tricks. I didn't realize it until just now, when I checked, but today (Dec. 11th) was the 2 year anniversary of my weblog. Is it a coincidence? The word itself denies its own meaning; the human mind does not believe in such a thing.

For all of you readers, my sabbatical changes nothing. I'll still be here, as always.
posted by Eugene Wei at 12:17 AM | link

They came bearing gifts

There are people who claim to not like receiving presents. When their birthdays come around, they ask you not to bring gifts to parties they host. If you ask them what they want for their birthday, or for Xmas, they say that your company is present enough.

What's wrong with these people?

I love getting presents. Things wrapped in colored paper. Cards, hand-written notes. Sometime later, after reading this, you may suddenly feel, "Gosh, that Eugene, he's a swell guy. When's the last time I showed him how much I love him? I need to get him something."

You'll want to act on this impulse. Trust your heart.

But instead of getting me something, what would really make me happy is if you'd make a donation to the American Cancer Society. Everytime someone I know loses someone to cancer, or someone I know passes away after a long battle from cancer, I think to myself that cancer is the most cruel teachers of the randomness of tragedy and suffering in this mortal sphere. Not as sudden as a heart attack or a fatal car accident, but longer, slower acting, more painful to the ones you love. it's not a sudden shock to your system. It begins as a shock to the system, then it's followed up by a series of emotional setbacks, then one final loss that you're almost numb to but aren't because you've convinced yourself that anyone that hangs on that long will pull through somehow. Physical and emotional attrition. All the time, you can hear the question being asked: do you still believe?

Music from a dream

The music in the new Two Towers trailer is from Requiem for a Dream. Good soundtrack, that was. You hear the music in this context and think it was from an action or adventure movie, but no, it's from an ensemble epiphany (think Magnolia) where a whole bunch of drug addicts are suffering from all sorts of horrific trauma.

Google Viewer

Can anyone get this Google Viewer to work? I just get a whole bunch of Javascript errors.

Google Labs are constantly cranking out wacky new services, like Google Webquotes. Must be a fun group to work in.

Hasselblad H1

So yes, I've slowly lost patience over the past few years. So the part of me that used to relish scanning negatives and slides and editing the images in Photoshop and then posting the images to web pages? It's dying. For a gadget freak, I've been very patient in holding out on the whole digital camera craze. The quality just hasn't been what I'd want yet. But cameras like the new Hasselblad H1 are oh so tempting. Fortunately this one would cost eighteen grand with a Kodak digital back so it's not as tempting as it could be.

Motorcycle wearable airbag

Saw this in slashdot today: a wearable motorcycle airbag vest. I've got to get one of these to wear during snowboarding! If I had one of these, who knows what sort of crazy things I'd be launching myself off of in the mountains.

As a motorcycle safety device? Well, I'm not sure how much good it would do. You'd bounce into the street and lay there like a giant bubble before a semi truck would run you over.
posted by Eugene Wei at 9:35 PM | link

Move me up in Google!

A service I provide for family...a link to my sister Karen's dance troop's website to move them up the Google charts. She made this website herself. I think that has to be a modern character, a combination website programmer and hip-hop dancer. Like a combination of Julia Stiles from The Bourne Identity and Save the Last Dance.
posted by Eugene Wei at 10:43 PM | link

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

That cliche about being a child of the MTV generation and having a short attention span, being used to rapid video cuts and the instant gratification of the Internet over a broadband connection? I think it applies to me. I border on attention deficit disorder these days. I can't finish any books but have started eighty, I can't wait for anything without losing all patience. I was watching some guy make my sandwich at Subway a few days ago and nearly jumped over the counter to make it myself. Can you call to pre-order your sandwich there? I don't think the guy was working all that slowly, either. I hate driving places--I wish I could just teleport over. And when I do drive, it's a race to the catch every green light, to rocket through every yellow light, find every possible shortcut which will prevent me from having to sit at a red light, drumming on my steering wheel in frustration.

My laptop at work was ancient, four years old. It was an dinosaur, and booting up into Windows 2000 was ridiculously slow. I'd boot up my laptop, wait five minutes for the login screen, type in my password, then go away for breakfast. About fifteen minutes later my laptop would be ready for use. So every morning begain with frustration. Finally I got a new laptop with Windows XP and now it's booted up and ready for login in about a tenth of the time. Much better. Then I upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows XP on my home computer (to enable Remote Desktop Connection from my Mac) and now it takes forever to boot up. You just can't win.

I need to take a long road trip where I see nothing for miles on end, just to force myself to slow down.

Jen saves Ben

A new video game, Jen Saves Ben, features Ms. Lopez rescuing Mr. Affleck from kidnappers. Is anyone more overexposed right now than J. Lo? Did Ben agree to the premise of this videogame? I thought it was Posh Spice, or was it David Beckham, that was the one who was a victim of a kidnap plot.

Intervention

Caught myself up on The Sopranos this season. If you haven't watched it yet, you might not want to read ahead.

I almost snorted up my lunch watching Christopher's intervention scene. That was one of the funniest five minutes of television I've ever watched.

The Sopranos has a distinctive way of ending its episodes. The camera frames a shot and holds it for a few seconds, then the music comes on. It's not the type of neat ending you see on television normally, or some sort of suspenseful cliffhanger. Usually some emotional realization, often unpleasant, has descended on one of the characters and the music and visual still-shot combine to make a wry comment about the travails of mob (read: modern) life. Creative stuff.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:06 PM | link

SI's 2002 Sportsman of the Year

Ah, finally some American appreciation for cycling. Lance is SI's 2002 Sportsman of the Year. I can appreciate it even more, having been there to witness him putting the hammer down on his opponents in the Pyrenees and the Alps this summer.

It recalls that scene from Zoolander. "For the past four years, the world of male cycling has been dominated by 3 syllables: Lance Arm-Strong."

Kelli Anderson, whoever he or she is, writes a memorable metaphor of the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees, which I watched tonight as I rode for an hour on my bike on the trainer: "One by one the Posties burned themselves out and fell away like booster stages on a rocket launch as they led Armstrong on a chase of 33-year-old Laurent Jalabert of France on the final climb to La Mongie." And that's how it was on seemingly every mountain stage. Hincapie would be out front at the base of the mountain, then someone else like Floyd Landis would pull for a short bit. Then the daily Spanish special, Chechu Rubiera would lead out and lift the pace to shatter the chasers, leaving only Beloki. Finally Heras would come up front and lift the pace yet again, pushing Beloki to the redline and allowing Armstrong to attack and separate to the finish.

I've decided I must return to France next summer to see Lance chase five in a row. It will just happen to be the 100th anniversary of the Tour, and the French need few excuses to party.

Matchpedia.com

As I book flights for holidays, I think to myself, how nice would it be to be able to select what stranger you sit next to on a flight. Aaron agrees, having recently been seated next to an old man with what Aaron diagnosed as tuberculosis for a long flight. My last flight to San Francisco I was seated in the same set of 3 seats as an androgynous 15 year old (okay, turns out he's a boy) who couldn't stop dancing to the Japanese techno pop on his walkman and who confessed to everyone in his general area that he was bisexual and on medication. Thankfully some United pilot bumming a ride on the flight was seated between us.
posted by Eugene Wei at 6:07 PM | link

Word Smith

Words are like viruses, and certain phrases catch on quickly at Amazon. The word of this month is "deprecated," as in retired or eliminated. I think it's just a fancy way to say that we're removing some feature from the site.

By the way, I'm still curious as to why and when everyone started saying "he is wanting to" instead of "he wants to". Somewhere, Hemingway moans at this flaccid English.

posted by Eugene Wei at 1:46 PM | link

See what?

I'm always intrigued by movies that draw a sharply polarized critical response. Solaris and Femme Fatale are two notable examples.

Bill gave me a copy of the DVD of Tarkovsky's version of Solaris--any movie that spans two DVDs is intimidating to even contemplate. I definitely think I'll need to be in a meditative mood to absorb it, and right now is not that time. But it's a movie about loss, and how we know if other people are real, and those are interesting questions.

Meanwhile, I don't think I'll make it out to see Femme Fatale because anyone you ask to go see that movie thinks it's some soft porn film. The fact that it stars Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in a variety of skimp outfits doesn't help. Man, doesn't anyone in this generation know who Brian de Palma is? Oh well, I guess it's a rental.
posted by Eugene Wei at 12:41 PM | link

Ready, AIM,...

I signed up for all those instant messaging services a long time ago and never used any of them. It didn't seem to offer that much more than e-mail, and it all felt a bit of a waste of time, especially since most people I'd IM were in the same office as me.

But now that the holidays are approaching and more people are on vacation, and as I realize that I've lost touch with some of my college buds, I'm going to get back in the game. Don't call it a comeback.

My AOL IM username is eugenewei. Ping me late evenings and you have a good chance of catching me during these dreary winter months.

Yoshimi does battle

One of the cool things about Seattle's symphony hall, Benaroya, is that they occasionally allow rock acts to perform there. Such was the case tonight as Beck and The Flaming Lips paid a visit.

I'm a big fan of both, but I didn't have tickets to this concert which sold out long ago. But how often do you get to hear two groups you love in an acoustically pristine symphony hall? I headed out to scalp myself a pass. I don't know any Flaming Lips fans so I decided to play lone fun-man for a night.

Seattle has been coated with a Hound-of-the-Baskervilles-worthy fog for several days now. Outside Benaroya, a group of scruffy, malnourished Seattle alterna-folks created their own fog of cigarette smoke, standing around looking as if they were hoping someone would hand them a ticket, a veggie burger, or sandwich bag full of weed. I weaved in and out of this group, looking to make that special kind of furtive eye contact that you make when you're meeting someone for the first time in a strange bar and you don't know what they actually look like and you're working off a description ("I'm blond, about five foot four, and I'll be wearing a red sweater"). It's the same kind of eye contact you make when you're looking to scalp tickets.

Tickets were $35 face value, and my first offer was from a particularly malodorous heroin addict in a blue Adidas jumpsuit with a seat in row W, orchestra level. He asked $125. I offered $40. He asked for $100. I offered $40. $80? $40. $75? $40. $80? Uh, you're going the wrong direction bud. $60? I'll think about it.

Some other guy came along, asking if I'd pay $80. Where are the seats, I asked. He pointed at the guy in blue Adidas jumpsuit.

That guy has the seat.

Gee, thanks, who are you, the Ticketmaster of the sidewalk, a NASDAQ market maker?

Another guy came along, asking $85 for a seat in the third tier, nearly the back row. Just about the farthest seat in the auditorium. Man, I thought, there's some irrational exuberance in the scalper's market today. I assessed my competition for these two tickets I'd been offered and realized that these slackers were probably unemployed and wouldn't be able to pay top dollar. If I wanted these seats would be here when the concert started and I could name my price.

By now I had been standing outside in 45 degree weather for about 20 minutes, and in my light jacket I was getting cold. I went inside to stand by the Will Call window, looking to pick off on a more affluent breed of alternative music goer, the kind that thinks, "Wow, Beck is playing at the symphony hall, that should be a nice safe way to sport my alternative stripes." Often these are the folks who buy one too many tickets and who are novices at scalping so they'll take whatever they can get because they're desperate to sell.

Bingo, some guy had an extra. I picked it up for face value. Box seats on the second level, stage right.

The only bummer about scalping tickets at the last minute for this concert is that I didn't have time to get there early to try and volunteer to be one of the stage animals for the Flaming Lips set. I've never seen the Flaming Lips, but I've heard about their stage menagerie. They grab people out of line or out of the crowd before the concert, and those folks dress up in these furry animal suits and dance around during the performance.

This time was no different. The Lips started their set by tossing about 25 beach-ball-sized balloons colored lime green and light pink into the crowd who responded by batting them around. The animals showed up on stage, Wayne Cory and the gang showed up and started cranking away, creating the overwhelming sonic landscapes which make their albums such great demo CDs.

The band members played and danced gamely while balloons from the audience flew on stage and bounced off their heads and equipment. They must be used to it. Their set bordered on performance art given all the colors and eye candy. All the band members, with the exception of Wayne, were dressed up as pink rabbits or some other types of animals. When they played one track from their latest masterpiece Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots a scene from the Japanese movie Battle Royale projected in the background (it's the scene where the girls are in the lighthouse and gun each other to death). Wayne picked out two audience members who were celebrating birthdays that night, covered his face with fake blood, and led the audience in a round of Happy Birthday for the two lucky fans. For another song, Wayne sang while wearing a fog machine around his neck so that he was basically hidden from view. You get the picture--it was wacky stuff.

Wayne is half front man for the Lips (who are from Oklahoma City!?) and half cheerleader. Everytime he felt the crowd settling down he'd hold out his arms in front of him and to the sides and wave them up and down, palms up, as if trying to get us all to stand up. The orchestra crowd would respond with a loud cheer every time.

Beck came on for his solo set after a long stage overhaul and started with a few tracks from Sea Change before cranking up the action with the Lips joining as backup band. He did a healthy mix of old classics (Devil's Haircut, Loser), funky Midnite Vultures tracks, and the new and mellow from Sea Change. He did a Flaming Lips cover, a Velvet Underground cover duet with Wayne, and yes, he did all that weird robotic dancing everyone was waiting for. It was all quite a contrast from Sigur Ros who I saw earlier in the week. They didn't speak a single word to the audience that night.

Beck is proof that anyone can be cool if they're good enough at what they do. If you saw him just out somewhere, from a distance, you'd think he was, well, a loser, and he plays off of that in his lyrics.

There's something really satisfying about spending your evening at an event that you had to scalp tickets for on the day of. It's even better than buying tickets far in advance. It feels like a stolen moment, one with the cachet of spontaneity.
posted by Eugene Wei at 9:43 AM | link