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Film Festival: Film #1

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 04:53:07 GMT

Saw John Carpenter's new film The Ward today at the film festival. It's about teenage girls trying to escape from a mental institution. The best thing I can say about it is that it made me nostalgic for how well written Sucker Punch was. There was literally nothing clever or scary about this thoroughly unambitious horror film. Even the cast, Jared Harris from Mad Men and a bevy of young actresses from minor roles in various CW/WB shows,seemed bored. Carpenter is supposed to receive an award later at the festival... via Skype! I'm tempted to show up for the Q&A so that I can say, "Mr. Carpenter, speaking of phoning things in, I saw your new movie..."

"Dr. Chandra, will I dream?"

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:43:30 GMT

As you've likely noticed, I've allowed this blog to slip into sleep mode. All is well with me. I just found it to be competing for the same mental energy that I was needing for my novel writing. I may well pick it up again some time in the near future, but for right now it's going to have to hibernate.

In an odd and unrelated bit of synchronicity, exacademic who has hosted my images all these years has decided to shut down his website, so all the old pictures have now vanished from the site. Thank you for being my silent partner throughout all this, E. I've really appreciated it.

And thanks to everyone who has read and commented over the years. You've been a great audience.

long time, no blog

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:38:56 GMT

I've been ignoring this poor blog lately, so here's an update on what I've been up to.

Saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World two weekends in a row. Love that movie. Our friend Patsy from Michigan (formerly known as our friend Patsy from Malaysia) came and stayed with us for a while. I made fig ice cream with freshly harvested figs from our tree last week. It's intensely figgy! Saw Dean Wareham play a whole night of Galaxie 500 songs, which was absolutely amazing.

The writing has been going excellently. I think I've averaged 10-15 hours per week this month, which is freaking huge for me. I'm way past the halfway point on the first draft and finally cruising along at a respectable speed. Writing at home is still hard for me, so I've been taking my little netbook over to a bar called Lucky 13 and working there. The good music, surrounding conversations, and ballgame on the tv provide a nearly ideal level of distraction for me. The only potential downside is my waistline, but I've been upping my salad intake and sticking to light beers, so it should work all right.

a man called zeeke

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:23:13 GMT

With K's niece and my brother both home from the hospital and recovering nicely this weekend, I was really feeling like we'd dodged our share of potential tragedies for the year. But then Monday night there was a message on our answering machine. Our friend Dave, known in various corners of the internet as zeeke, had been found dead in his apartment near Salt Lake City. He was only 37.

We had met as residents of an international web forum full of blasphemous, dirty-minded, sarcastic jokesters that oddly evolved into a very real family that's still going strong even though the website that brought us together is long gone. It was hard to break the news to them, but hearing their memories and testimonials about him has really helped me with Dave's passing.

K. and I met up in person with Dave and his wife for the first time in Las Vegas some time back in 2003 and the four of us got along like gangbusters. After that we never went more than a year or two without seeing each other, usually in May. In 2004, he and his wife came out to stay with us and we took them to New York City. In Spring of 2007, K. and I went out and spent some time in Utah with them. They took us to Moab and showed us a great time, even as their marriage was sadly falling apart. And in Spring of 2009, he came out to stay with us and we tried to convince him to move out here permanently, a step he seemed always just on the verge of making.

Dave was as passionate about fishing, hiking, kayaking, sports, dogs, and beer as any man I've ever met, but what he really loved was people. He was passionate about his love for his family and friends. K. says pointed out that when Dave was talking to you, he was always fully present, fully engaged, fully experiencing that moment of his life, and it's true. It's easy for me to think of him as happy go-lucky just because he was so lovable and fun, but that's just a sketch, a cartoon of who he was. He'd had plenty disappointments and worries; he just always made the effort to be positive. He was one of the sweetest, funniest, greatest guys I've ever known.

I'll think of Dave whenever I drink a Yuengling lager, Philly's local beer, which Dave loved with crazy zeal whenever he was visiting. I even have a Yuengling hat that I was saving to give him the next time I saw him.

Dave and I generated inside jokes at a ludicrous rate when were together, silly stupid phrases that—for a time at least—will make me a little sad when they pop back into my head, but remembering Dave will never make me feel bad.

I've been weighing whether or not to go Utah this weekend for the memorial services and the scattering of his ashes over his favorite lake. I'd really like to be there, but the trip would end up costing about a thousand dollars and I'm not really certain what the benefit would be. I think Dave would have rather I spend that money enjoying the company of the living. I can mourn him almost as well from here, drinking to his memory with friends nearby and sharing testimonials of him on the internet with our mutual friends around the world.

If I'm feeling the need for a touch of ritual to mark his passing this weekend, I think I'll do it with a few bottles of Yuengling, just as I would if he were here with me.

I love you, brother.

gold lamé wings

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:07:38 GMT

Another night's sleep disturbed by dreams about my brother (who should be getting out of ICU today). And as I'm waking up from each of them, my chest is tight and my heart feels as heavy as a bowling ball. Because, of course, while the dreams may seem to be about him, they're mostly thinly-veiled admissions and admonitions of my own mortality.

In the most transparent example, I had one last night where he confessed on his hospital bed that what bothered him most about being so close to death was that he might not get to finish this art project he had in mind. He said he wanted to photograph nudes in a bowling alley wearing gold lamé wings. This is especially funny given that my brother has never expressed a single artistic desire in his life. I assured him I'd do whatever I could to help make that happen.

more hospital talk

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:56:46 GMT

Well, we got the good word that the lumps on K's niece were not cancer or leukemia, just a staph infection, which they were able to catch in time. If she didn't get infected at the hospital where she was born, as we suspect, then she might be horribly allergic to something in their house, so drama is likely to continue. We're not sure when they're going to let her home.

My brother's surgeon ended up performing a triple bypass on him yesterday, harvesting veins from one leg, one arm, and his chest to replace the occluded ones. The surgery went well, but my parents are pretty worried that he's going to try and rip tubes and wires out of himself if he's not doped up enough. The sight of him after surgery was apparently pretty horrific as his youngest daughter, who has barely left his side since he went in, could bare to look at him. Poor kid. I can handle seeing a cracked chest, but hopefully the ventilator tube will be out when I get there to visit tonight.

I'm having a lot of dreams lately, but my sleep hasn't been good at all. I wake up feeling more tired than when I went to sleep.

hospital talk

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:02:51 GMT

Well, K's niece came through surgery great. They removed the bumps and the initial guess is that they're from an infection that got under her skin at the hospital where she was born. Poor little cutie has a big long cut on her neck and bruises around her eyes from having them taped shut. But, with any luck, she'll be be back home soon.

My brother, on the other hand, is under the knife as we speak, getting his chest cracked for bypass surgery. I'm a little nervous about it and of course I've chosen this time to lose my cell phone.

the weekend

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:59:13 GMT

It's amazing how coming out of a heat wave can make an 89 degree day like today seem an ice cold paradise. Had some sweet bicycle riding the past 16 hours. Bless that little rain storm's heart.

Saturday, woke up and did some a hilarious amount of research in order to write a description of a car for the novel. We went over to Childrens Hospital, where K's newborn niece and her parents are going through nightmare of procedures to diagnose a couple of skin bumps. Then we went over to a backyard barbeque for my youngest niece's high school graduation, on the hottest day of the heat wave, that ended in my brother being hospitalized with breathing problems that seem to be heart related. K and I are sure appreciating our health this week.

Sunday was far more relaxing. K. and I spent a nice morning together, then she shut herself into the air-conditioned bedroom to catch up on some paperwork and I headed out to local air-conditioned bar to do some writing and keep an eyes on the Phillies game. Then we went to a lovely birthday potluck dinner where there we drank cocktails of gin, pureed cucumber and lime juice (so refreshing!) and way too much yummy food.

the novel is progressing

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:09:33 GMT

The writing's been going pretty well lately. Since late February, I've been working on converting my extensive notes into prose and I'm now more than halfway done. And that's with a massive lapse from late April to mid-June. So I've fairly realistic reasons to believe I'll actually have the first draft done by the end of the year (which will be almost exactly eleven years from when the concept for this particular novel first occurred to me). There's really no reason why I shouldn't, even though my notes become far less comprehensive the closer I get to the end.

Still, I feel momentum and that's rare for me. Must keep at it though, more dedication, and no more long lapses. I just wish I could make myself write late in the evening before bed. It's a perfect quiet time for writing, but my brain gets so lazy during those hours.

thoughts about Inception (SPOILERS)

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:56:45 GMT

So, I thought Inception was pretty great. I'm not going to bother discussing what it's about, like I normally do, because frankly if you haven't seen it yet, you should stop reading this right now and just go see it. Plus I'm going to spoil some crucial stuff.

***SPOILERS***

I spent a lot of enjoyable time during the weekend kicking the movie around in my head, particularly the kicks themselves. For instance, I'm still not sure why Arthur wasn't kicked out of the hotel when the van drove off the bridge. Can the kick be intentionally ignored? If anyone could do that, I suppose it would be Arthur, who seems both very determined and highly professional (at least when he wasn't stealing kisses from Ariadne).

And then there's that damned top. Was it about to fall or not? It was certainly wobbling. I walked out of the theater wishing they hadn't shown the wobbling, so that the viewer could fully make up their own mind. But in the end I decided that it doesn't matter if it keeps spinning. What matters is that Cobb set it down and left it there, a gesture that clearly shows he's accepted the reality that he's in. Besides Saito totally handled it while they were talking in the beginning, so he could have simulated a false replica.

And I'm pretty sure the kids were dressed in the same clothes as they were in his memories, although I'll need to see it again to confirm that. So, yeah, I am inclined to believe that Cobb is still in a dream. (I also kind of like thinking that Mal really did escape back into reality by jumping off that building and that she hired Arthur and the others to go in after Cobb, with the intention of either rescuing him or incepting him with a dream level he'd could find peace in. Although, admittedly, there isn't much in the movie to back that particular theory up.)

I was surprised for a while that Nolan didn't make the dream worlds more dreamlike, but that was pretty much necessary to pull off the repeated "Am I still dreaming?" cons. And there were a few points where the audience couldn't really know the consequences of what the characters were doing, which drained a bit of the drama. The only thing that really bothered me about the movie, however, was there were way too many shots of people in snowsuits shooting guns in the third level of the dream. Those parts made me feel like I was trying to feign interest in other people playing some multiplayer video game.

more festival films

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:17:29 GMT

Finished off the Q-Fest/Danger After Dark Festival with three films last week.

On Thursday, I saw You Should Meet My Son!, a zany, low budget, fish-out-of-water comedy about a conservative Southern mother venturing into the gay lifestyle to find a new man for her son. It was pretty cute.

Then later that night, I saw Enter the Void, a film which really freaked me out. In a good way. It's one of the trippiest films I've ever experienced. Establishing it's uniqueness early on, the entire film is shot in the first person. Through the eyes of the main character, a young Canadian drug deal living in Tokyo, we take hallucinogenic drugs, commit crimes, and get killed. And that's where the movie really gets started. Much of the movie is about what happens to his consciousness from the moment of death until the moment of his next reincarnation.

Saw Red White & Blue Saturday night. It was a hard film to enjoy, but an interesting one to watch. It's an unusual revenge story set in Austin, Texas, following two residents of a boarding house. I mainly went to see it because Noah Taylor (from Flirting and The Year My Voice Broke) was in it, but now I wish I could disassociate it from my memories of him.

I also saw Inception Saturday, but I'm going to have to save that for another post.

more movies

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:47:16 GMT

So, upon returning home from New York last week, the Q-Fest/Danger After Dark festival had begun here at home.

On Friday, I saw a Greek film called Dogtooth about three adult siblings who had been raised since birth with no exposure to the outside world except what they're parents selected. Secluded away in a country house, they live in fear of being exiled, exploring the limits of their limited world and inventing strange games to pass the time. It was bizarre and intriguing and probably worth the price of admission for the dancing scene alone.

On Saturday, a bunch of friends and I went to see RoboGeisha, which was even worse that you'd think. Just like it says on the tin, it's the story of geishas being turned into cyborg assassins. Never attempting to be more than a B-movie, it eventually stopped being so bad it's funny and became so bad it put me literally to sleep.

Then on Sunday, K. and I biked uptown, hoping to see James Franco play Allen Ginsberg in Howl, but it was sold out, so we saw the non-festival The Girl Who Played With Fire instead. It was a good flick. I didn't like it quite as much as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, possibly because the twisty plot was tied up into too neat of a bow, but it was definitely a good movie and I eagerly await the final chapter.

New York Asian Film Festival

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:36:08 GMT

Had a great time in New York last week. Got a couple hours of writing done on the bus ride up. Held in the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, The New York Asian Film Festival was great. I even won a prize: a giant pack of ramen noodles with black bean sauce that tied into one of the movies.

SCANDAL MAKERS was a cute Korean comedy about a bachelor whose life is turned upside down when he discovers he's a father and grandfather.

SYMBOL was a strange and funny Japanese film following two storylines: one about a Mexican wrestler's family on the day of a big match and the other about a man who wakes up trapped in a bizarre white room that is featureless except for little baby penises covering the walls.

DOMAN SEMAN promised to be good, a contemporary Japanese mystical adventure with little details that reminded me of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles. Unfortunately, like most movies shot on digital video, the direction was aimless, the acting weak, and the editing virtually non-existent. I gave up half way through and went to a fancy, yet surprisingly affordable sushi bar. Came back for the Q&A with the filmmakers though which was actually pretty interesting.

The Korean film CASTAWAY ON THE MOON was the big winner of the day. It was about a regular guy who has sunk into debt and decides to kill himself, but the bridge he jumps off is too low and he washes up on a little island in the Han River in Seoul. Unable to swim, nor convince the police or his ex-girlfriend that he's not joking around before his cell phone dies, he's stranded there right within view of the city's skyscrapers.

The next day, I strolled through Greenwich Village until the heat got too annoying, then holed up at a bar called Amity Hall, where I did some writing while waiting for my buddy Joel to get into the city. We had some tempura spring beans and buffalo chicken eggrolls. After a few more drinks there, we headed uptown to The Breslin to continue drinking somewhat nearer to where I was catching my bus home. We noshed on the terrine board, which included guinea hen, rustico pork, rabbit, and head cheese. It was all very soft and jellied and strange, but went down surprisingly easily.

And then when I got back to Philly, the Danger After Dark film festival began here in Philly. I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Manhattan Bound

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:42:33 GMT

A lot of minor calamities this weekend, but nothing that stopped it from being a fun holiday weekend. We got to visit with three different groups of friends, eat lots of good food, and even dared to bake in this ridiculous heat wave, so we have lemon cupcakes with cherry icing to help us ride out the rest of the scorching weather.

To make matters even better, today is the only day I'll have to be in the office this week. Tomorrow, I'm going up to Manhattan for day 12 of the New York Asian Film Festival. I'll be watching SCANDAL MAKERS, SYMBOL, DOMAN SEMAN, and CASTAWAY ON THE MOON. And then since my last movie runs a bit to late to make it back to Philly, I booked a cheap hotel in the city, so I'll spend Thursday bumming around the city before making my way home. Should be fun.

back on wheels

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:56:49 GMT

Ah, spring weather, how I missed you! Finally got back to riding my bike to work today. It's funny. Just a couple weeks without riding it and it suddenly becomes a real workout again. Feels good though.

weekend

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:54:36 GMT

Saturday, I managed to drag my slightly hungover self out of the house for the US vs. Ghana match. Such a bummer. They really did outplay us, but I feel like if we could have held to that draw a little longer, Landon Donovan would have won a shoot out.

Finished the sour cherry frozen yogurt, so at K's request, I took a stab at a lemon-blueberry batch that came out quite nice.

On Sunday, K. and I zipped up to Feasterville to watch our friend Poppy skate in the East Coast Extravaganza roller derby event. It was great fun to see her. After that K. and I grabbed some grubs at Nifty Fifties and then hit the outlet mall for some air conditioning and summer clothes. And then home again to fry up some chicken.

Watched the season finale of Treme (a week late). Sad, but still great. Can't wait til season two.

Can't wait for the for this hot spell to break tonight. Supposed to drop nearly twenty degrees in the next couple days and stay around sweet 80 for the rest of the week. Bring on that storm!

world cup, sour cherry frozen yogurt, writing

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:32:38 GMT

I'm getting psyched for the USA v. Algeria match in an hour. Wish I could be following it from the bar instead of my cubical. Maybe I'll use an hour of personal time for the last hour of it. England and Slovenia will be playing at the same time, so Group C will be decided by lunchtime. And we'll know who we'll be clashing with out of Group D by the end of the afternoon.

A month ago, my parents gave us their old cream maker and last night I finally made use of it. I whipped up a delicious batch of sour cherry frozen yogurt, a super refreshing combination of tart and sweet. K. and I are already debating what to make next. Cake batter ice cream? Tangerine sorbet? Mojito gelato?

Writing's gotten back on track this week. Worked a couple hours a day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I have no idea how this novel is going to read as a whole, but I like it scene by scene.

extended weekend

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:52:25 GMT

Friday, while working from home and watching some highly-riveting World Cup action, I had the latest in a series of plumbers out to fix our pipes which have been draining ultra-slowly for well over a year. We liked this guy because unlike the others he didn't want to just snake everything until the sinks drained long enough for us to write a check. No, this guy wanted to cut out a big chunk of our soil pipe and replace it. As loathe as we are to spend big money, we were ready for some extreme measures. And guess what he found when he cut out the old pipe? A freaking tennis ball! Covered in greased and lodged in place. Unbelievable.

And a bike guy found the sneaky piece of glass that had been giving me flats. Then went out to celebrate with a night of drinking at Lucky 13.

Saturday, K. and I shot up to Northern Liberties bright and early to get breakfast at Honey's Sit & Eat before it filled up. After filling myself with pecan pancakes and sausage, we walked around a bit and found a lovely fresh farmer's market. I bought sour cherries which I'm going to make sour cherry frozen yogurt with this week. And there was a truck selling fresh meat too, so I bought some lamb, potatoes, onions, shallots, and shrooms, then went home, threw it all in a crock pot and made lamb stew. Went in a coriander, cumin, and cinnamon direction with the spices and it turned out pretty darn good, except I should have cut the potatoes into even smaller pieces.

While that was cooking and K. went off to a graduation party, I went out and saw Hirokazu Koreeda's Air Doll. It's about a inflatable sex doll who comes to life and sets off to discover a new life away from her owner. Once alive, the doll is played by the adorable Bae Doona (the archer from The Host). She gets a job in a video store, connects with one of her fellow employees, and spends a lot of time just jaunting around in cute dresses. Ultimately it's about feeling empty inside and how we need other people. Definitely an interesting one, sad and beautiful.

On Sunday, K. took me up to New Hope and Lambertville for my birthday. We ate barbecue at a new place called Bitter Bob's, which was pretty tasty, hiked along the canals, shopped for used books, got ice cream from Gerentser's, bought spicy mustard and spicy pistachio brittle at the hot sauce store, and then finished it off with a slightly weird dinner at Karla's.

world cup

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:33:29 GMT

So, how about those vuvuzelas, huh? I don't think I could be in that stadium without ear plugs. At first I was digging them, but now I pretty much wish ESPN would filter them out. I actually skipped a song on my radio station today because there was a vuvuzela-like sound at the beginning of it.

I've been disappointed in the the arrangement of the matches. There's a huge gap in play from 12-2, so I don't get to watch any of the action while drinking my lunch down at the pub this year. Fortunately, the USA games are co-operating. I watched the USA tie England while out drinking Saturday afternoon and I work at home tomorrow so I can see their next match too.

Still can't believe we tied England. That's like a win for us. It would be so strange if USA advanced instead of England.

dusting off the blog

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:43:53 GMT

As people have been reminding me, it's been ages since I've posted anything, just three posts in five weeks. I've been busy at work, catching up on things that built up during vacation. And I've been slowly sinking into a depression since coming home. I'm become thoroughly unmotivated and am spiraling into anhedonia.

I haven't done any new writing on the novel since April and the time off hasn't exactly recharged my batteries. In fact, just the opposite. I'm right back to the paralysis I was feeling back in February. The few times I have made myself sit down to write, I basically just edited chapters I've already completed.

Needless to say, resolutions are all but forgotten. I'm eating poorly, watching too much television, and wasting idiotic amounts of time on the internet. I haven't even been riding my bike lately because it's been getting ultra-frequent flats, probably from the heat. I keep the tires underpressurized and try to park it in the shade, but no luck. Maybe there's something hidden in the tire.

Well, with any luck this is the low point of my current funk and I will resolutely start bouncing back.

The Southern Journey, Part Two

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:40:53 GMT

After New Orleans, it was back on the road for a long day's drive to Austin, Texas. The hotels were packed with prom-goers, so we went across the river to the South Congress area (now called SoCo), which turned out to be very good luck indeed. Sixth Street, which I remembered as being full of bars with great live music had turned into little more than a lame frat party street like Bourbon. SoCo, however, had undergone a real revival since I lived there, great food, music, bars, and shopping. Crashed at cheap little place the first night there, then moved to excellent Austin Motel, which I'd recommend to anyone visiting.

Our first day there, we grabbed a fantastic breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe, which it turns out had been featured (rightly so) in Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, then strolled through downtown Austin, including a fun little Museum of the Weird. Then we found out about the Etsy-sponsored Renegade Craft Fair, down in SoCo of course, and headed down. There was some really nice live music and beer to entertain me, while K. browsed through aisle after aisle of cute things. We bought some very afforadable art and I met the guy who does the Wondermark comic strip. Then we we went back for a swim in the pool and grabbed dinner up at a little smokehouse on the north side of the river.

The next morning we went up to a doughnut place in Round Rocks that happened to be featured on another Food Network show we saw the previous night. Pretty much the best glazed doughnuts ever. I won't even tell you how many I ate. After that we drove out to Hamilton Pool, my favorite place in Austin. It's a natural spring, with a huge cave and a waterfall way out in the woods. So beautiful. Unfortunately, they weren't letting people swim that day because of the water quality, so we just chilled out there for a couple hours and then went down to Reimer River to swim, which was pretty fun too. Then we grabbed dinner at the only surviving branch of the family-owned Mexican restaurant chain I used to wait tables at when I was there.

Then we just had to go see a film at one of the Alamo Drafthouses. There are currently four in the Austin area. It's a movie theater that serves beer, cocktails, and food. Picture a normal theater, but remove every other row and replace with a long narrow table. Whenever you want another drink, just jot it down on a piece of paper and stick it to the end of the table, where a waiter quietly picks it up and fulfills your request. It's so nice to drink quality beer and food at the movies for about what you'd shell out for coke and popcorn at an East coast multiplex. Oh, and get to your movie early because they show 45 minutes of shorts prior to the film. We were seeing Iron Man 2, so it was bits from the old 60s Iron Man Cartoon, a Black Sabbath music video, interviews with Stan Lee, and a film of two of the theater's employees (one in a low-rent Iron Man costume) shooting bottle rockets at each other in the parking lot.

The next day, we were back at the Magnolia Cafe for another breakfast. Then we played some miniature golf, and packed up the car for the ride home. But first we hit a few thrift stores and grabbed one last lunch (including a couple margaritas for me) at Guerro's. We had some great meals in Austin, but sadly (or I suppose happily) I now make better guacamole and chile con queso at home than most of the restaurants we ate at there.

Our original route home took us through Tennessee, but with the post-flooding problems they were having, we decided to just shoot straight across to the coast and hit Savannah and Charleston on the way back.

Savannah was excellent. We stopped into the visitor's center to find a place to stay and, while perusing brochures, noticed a guy with a folding table and a plate of cake. The bed and breakfast he was representing was right in our price range, the pictures looked great, and the cake was good, so we booked it, which turned out to be a great move. A beautiful house in a gorgeous neighborhood, just down the block from Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil's murder house. There were fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies in the evening and French toast and sausage with pecan gravy in the morning.

Savannah is such a walkable city, full of little parks and lovely architecture. After checking in, we grabbed lunch at the Crystal Beer Parlor, where I had the best mashed potatoes ever, so much butter and cream! Then we spent the evening exploring the riverside.

The next morning, we toured the aforementioned Mercer House, where we expected great scandalous tales of drag queens, hoodoo, gay love, and murder. Sadly (since the house is still owned by the Mercer family), the tour was strictly about the architecture and art collection. Boring!

Fortunately, we got an unexpectedly salacious tour of the girl scout museum! Turns out Girl Scouts founder (and Savannah native) Juliette Low's husband was a big philanderer and, while dying in England, changed his will so that his mistress inherited his vast international wealth, but as he was about to die, he summoned the mistress who refused to see him, instead sending a note reading, "Why? You've already signed the will." Burn! Fortunately, for Juliette, he only had two witnesses to the will, which was enough in England, but not in Georgia, so she at least kept his American holdings. And it's rumored that after that she became lovers with Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts.

After lunch we drove up to Charleston, where we were annoyed to find that lodgings were twice as expensive as anywhere else we'd stayed and generally unimpressed with what we saw of it (typical suburban sprawl), so we got back in the car and kept driving. K. was dying to stop at the infamous South of the Border (on the North Carolina/South Carolina border), which turned out to be pretty awesome. I was picturing just a big shack that sold fireworks, but it's more like a miniature, ultra-campy version of Vegas in the 50s. Tons of neon and oversized statues decorate the restaurants, motel, amusement park, and gift shops selling an array of kitsch and fireworks. A nifty stop, especially at night. And we made it back to Philly by sunset on Saturday.

The Southern Journey, Part One

Wed, 26 May 2010 14:54:39 GMT

Sunday, drove to Charlotte, lunch at a Sonic off the highway, dinner at Waffle House, which has really gone down hill: fake butter, fake syrup, limp waffles. Monday, woke up just outside of Charlotte. On the way South, we stopped at a town called Belmont, NC where we visited a fantastic hardware store and an excellent Botanical Garden. The garden was great time, really beautiful. A perfect antidote to all that driving. Hitting the road again, we stopped only for gas and Mexican food. We had plans to do Atlanta, but rush hour traffic and heavy rain made us keep driving and we made it almost to Montgomery by the time we finally felt tuckered out. K. relaxed while I went out and grabbed a couple Fosters at the Outback across the highway from our motel.

On Tuesday, we got some great barbeque at a place called the Shed and made it to New Orleans by the afternoon. Wandered around the French Quarter and found the guesthouse where my buddy Scott and I had stayed nearly twenty years earlier and booked a room there for a couple nights. Walked around with a beer listening to street performers, drank some wine with the owners of our inn, ate some fried gator and red beans & rice at a place on Bourbon Street.

Treated ourselves to beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde the next two mornings. Took in the galleries, stores, and the French Market. We had a nice dinner at Galatoire's (soft-shelled crab for K, crawfish etouffee for me). Oh, and apparently I drunkenly told off some bartender for making lousy Hurricanes and he was all "Well, we're the bar that invented the Hurricane." Perhaps, but I'm pretty sure they were mixing real fruit juices and three varieties of rum (light, dark, and spiced) back then, instead of just stirring up some powdered fruit punch mix with light gold rum in those days. But that's kind of Bourbon Street in a nutshell: an artificial facsimile of something that used to be great.

Did a great cemetery tour. In New Orleans, they don't bury the dead, the let them cook in a hot mausoleum for a year and a day (exactly) and then the move the remains into a shared mausoleum. Saw the reputed resting place of Marie Laveau, New Orleans' so-called voodoo queen, which is covered in ritualistic graffiti. The idea is that you write three X's on her grave and make a wish, then when the wish comes true, you circle your X's. Our guide said he never saw any circled X's in his life until the Saints won the Super Bowl.

Two days in the French Quarter was more than enough, so we moved out to a nice place in Faubourg Marigny, which had a sweet swimming pool in a blessedly cool garden enclosure. After moving our stuff, we took a streetcar ride through the garden district and grabbed dinner in the neighborhood, before catching a cab out to Vaughn's to see Kermit Ruffins play. He's a regular on HBO's Treme if you watch it and the guy who plays Antoine Baptiste was in the audience. Kermit does an incredible show, playing trumpet and singing. He did a lot jazz standards, several originals (mostly about smoking reefer), and put his own jazz twist on some pop songs. The best was when he did a mix-up Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" with Rob Base's "It Takes Two."

On Friday, we rode bikes up through Treme to the New Orleans Museum of Art, which was a lot of fun. That night, we did Frenchman Street, which is the perfect antidote to the non-stop frat party of Bourbon Street. Frenchman Street is two solid blocks of great restaurants and bars with really good bands playing for tips so you can just wander in, listen to a few song, drop them a couple bucks, and move on to another joint. If you're there in a Friday night, definitely check out Mykia Jovan at the Blue Nile. Her voice was just amazing. Then we had an awesome dinner at Adolpho's, a Creole-Italian joint, which was one of the best meals ever. Started with frog legs in a spicy remoulade, then K. had some sort of whitefish covered with spinach and crabmeat and I had grouper covered in crabmeat and crawfish. So good.

The next day, it started to rain and we headed west for Austin. To be continued….

Lost finale (spoilers)

Mon, 24 May 2010 15:43:15 GMT

Well, we're back from the trip, which was great, and I'll talk about that soon, but first I've got to talk about the final episode of Lost.

I thought there were some really sweet moments between the characters and I found most of the awakenings very affecting and emotionally satisfying, especially the one between Charlie and Claire. Unfortunately, I was ultimately disappointed that they flaked out on explaining what was going on. The creators clearly lied about knowing the whole story from the beginning, clearly lied about the alternate universe being real, and clearly lied with their whole "There's nothing supernatural going on, it's all science" pledge even though we still really have no idea what the hell was going on. Of course, the writers clearly didn't know either. Even Jacob was probably just echoing poorly understood ideas he heard from C.J. Cregg and who knows if even she knew what she was talking about.

It was also weird who they decided to include and not include. It's too bad Michael & Walt didn't love each other enough to go to Super Church with the rest of the original castaways. And poor Daniel and Charlotte didn't get to have the love flashback when they touched. What was that about? And does Ben staying outside mean that he's not ready to let go or that he never died? Did he take over as protector for Hurley (after they turned the island back into a spaceship and flew off to have adventures in outer space)? Oh, and I really dug Hurley giving Ben the relationship he never had with Jacob. That was good stuff.

I actually sort of liked the hokey idea of a world they created in order to find each other again after death, but why did they make it so grim and violent? And why show us the island under water and have Juliet say the bomb worked? Maybe Christian was lying to Jack. Maybe he's still the man in black and he's finally got all the candidates trapped!

I of course liked the symmetry of things ending just the way they started, Jack laying in the reeds, being startled by Vincent. I'd accuse the whole show of being Jack's pre-death hallucination, only I'm not convinced Jack was interesting enough to dream all that.

What did you think?

Lost (spoilers)

Fri, 07 May 2010 14:43:09 GMT

Well, that was a poor episode of Lost this week. No real plot advancement, no real revelations. And it sure was a bad time to not be white on that show. Poor little Kate can have a gun to her head, get shot in a fight, almost bleed to death and almost drown, but of course she's totally fine at the end. Our two Koreans and our Iraqi on the other hand? Not so much.

I can see the writers wanting to redeem Sayid by making him die a hero, but what was the point of killing Jin and Sun? I didn't find them dying together nearly romantic or moving enough to justify their deaths. Especially when one of them should have survived to raise their child, instead of leaving that task to her evil mobster father.

The only way that scene gets even partially redeemed is if Lapidus swam back down and saved them after the scene ended, and even then it's cheap piled on top of cheap. And I'm no submarine expert, but wouldn't three-and-a-half minutes give them enough time to surface the sub and throw the bomb overboard? I mean they obviously weren't down so deep that Hurley couldn't swim back to the island carrying Kate.

And the off island storyline was completely lame.

Oh, my god, a million little kids are suddenly marching down my street, right in the middle of the street, all babbling at once with their little kid voices! What is going on?

Well, leaving for the trip on Sunday. Might post a bit while gone, but no promises.

catching up...

Wed, 05 May 2010 13:44:23 GMT

Been a while since I updated. Been battling a spell of depression, which usually doesn't hit me so hard in the springtime, and awful allergies, which have me popping a 24-hour pill ever 12 hours (and considering more), but I'm hanging in. I'm doing a pretty good job of forcing myself to write, because the depressions gets a lot worse when I don't. The resulting prose hasn't been quite as satisfying as it was a month or so ago, but it's good enough for a first draft I guess.

K. and I leave on vacation Sunday. This is the road trip through the South that I mentioned a couple months back. With burning oil slicks in the gulf and flooding in Tennessee our timing is pretty bad, but what the hell, we need some time off. A little traveling should be good for the depression, although probably not for the allergies.