Weekend Shows

It occurs to me that I never have good titles for my entries anymore... Oh well.

Anyway, this weekend had a few things to it. There were a couple of Smithsonian exhibits that caught my attention. There was also a company bowling thing that I just got back from. Thought I might as well continue my summer movie review thing here with Hancock, too.

Smithsonian Views

There are two exhibits at the Freer & Sackler Gallery currently that are really interesting. The first is Muraqqa': Imperial Mughal Albums, a display of Mughal-era portraits centering around the main lineage of Akbar - Jahangir - Shah Jahan - Alamgir (link here). I think particularly fascinating is how much the art commissioned by court tells about how the monarchs reigned, and how they viewed themselves in relation to the kingdom. Of course there are some pieces that are easy to interpret, such as Shah Jahan standing atop a globe holding the world in his hands. But, there are others such as the commissioned artwork for Jahangir reflecting Hinduism, Jainism, and Christianity (through Jesuit missionaries in India), in addition to Islam. Yes, the Mughal Empire was a bit untenable considering its reliance on an absolute monarch, but it's a fascinating period of history brought out through the artwork on display.

The second is a more recently-opened exhibit, Yellow Mountain: China's Ever-Changing Landscape (link here). This one centers around how the Yellow Mountain has figured so prominently in Chinese art.

Moving on to the Hirshhorn Museum... The funny thing is, I don't really like modern art. I think far too much of it is haphazard, with more attention paid to justifying why it should be considered art than to the actual creative process. But, there was a two-parter at the Hirshhorn that caught even my attention. Part I was entitled Dreams, and had a lot of very surreal and... "odd" pieces on display. There was much use of light, mist, contours, and projections, and an overall ambience that was meant to confuse and misdirect the senses. I really enjoyed that, so I thought I'd go back for Part II, entitled Realisms (link here).

Now, I wouldn't do it much justice trying to describe it. But the basic focus is on how "reality" is portrayed, from different angles. There are a few rather surreal bits that stand out, such as Lonely Planet by Julian Rosefeldt, in which an intentionally-stereotypical backpacker goes through India:

It turns from amusing to absurd when he takes camera techniques designed to make India seem "exotic", such as slow-motion and slightly blurred images with dramatic music overlayed, and applies it to a more mundane scene in India, like the office of a call center.

There are a few others that stand out, but it's better to try seeing the exhibit for yourself. Try also viewing each work first, before reading the title and description; I found that to be more enjoyable.

Move Movies...

Before I forget...

Hancock
Overall: good and unique superhero story, but not much more (worth it, but low priority)

It seems like there are way too many superhero movies this year again: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (with Edward Norton), Hellboy II, and of course Dark Knight. The even weirder thing is, all the superhero movies this year seem to be really good. Hancock I think deserves to be up there. Even though the theaters are kind of full with superhero films at the moment, it's a much more unique story that's markedly different from the others. There's only a little focus on the background (which works, since the "origin story" is beside the point in this one), and more focus on a superhero who hates all the expectations placed upon him.

The main problem with it, though, was that the story wasn't expanded as much as it could have been, leaving you feeling like there should have been "more" to the movie: more events, more action, more chances to see the main character's irritable nature come out, that sort of thing (I've heard, though, that the director and creators did want to do this, but for some reason--budget or time constraints--they weren't able). I am glad that they only gave you bits and pieces of Hancock's origin, enough to advance the plot, rather than spelling it all out to you. That way, the focus is maintained on the characters and not the artifices that led them up to this point.

Basically, it is a good movie. If this were another year, it might be higher on my list. But as it stands, there are many other superhero movies that are probably worth seeing ahead of this one. So, I'd say it's worth it, but it's a pretty low priority considering what it's up against.

Well, that's it for now. Dark Knight is in theaters this Friday, and one of my friends is having a wedding reception on Saturday. So, I should have a bit more to talk about next week. KF

Escape the 4th

I was really happy to get away from DC for the 4th of July this year. Part of it was because I really miss my family and wanted to see my parents and sister. Part of it was because DC gets real flooded with tourists this time of year. That last bit is a rant that I'll save for another day; I want to make this update positive.

So... I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures to show for it. But anyway, I came in on the 3rd and had dinner at home with my parents. On the 4th, my sister came up from Atlanta, so we got to spend some time together as well. We went with my cousin (the one who recently got married--and flew in from Houston that weekend) to go see Hancock as well. We did see some fireworks on the way back to Smyrna to drop her off. It wasn't as grand as the fireworks over the National Mall, but after seeing those for a few years, I don't really feel as if I'm missing much.

On the 5th, me and my mother went to my father's place in Murfreesboro for a cook-out. Chicken, hickory-smoked salmon, grilled shrimp, grilled corn... Between all of that, I definitely had my fill of meat for some time. It was also great to spend more time with my father.

I know I've been all up on posting regular movie reviews. But I think I'll save the review of Hancock for later, maybe after seeing Dark Knight or something else in the meantime.

Oh! One more thing. I completely forgot about getting a new computer when making my update last week. I got it over two months ago, but never really made a proper update on it, so it didn't quite occur to me at the time. Anyway, I edited last week's post with that. KF

Flush with New

Over the past month I've been gradually getting... "new stuff". I have a tendency to hold onto things as long as they still work, out of a sort of cheapness in getting anything new to replace it, even when I really should. But, I hit a point where there were just a few things I'd wanted to replace for so long that it was high time I did it already.

So, for starters...

I got a new car!

It's a 2009 Toyota Corolla LE. Small, economical, and reliable, it seemed really well suited for me. I won't bore you with details (you can check the usual specs online anyhow). But here are a few photos:

Interior:

Exterior:

I think I got a pretty comfortable price for it. I really dislike the idea of having to negotiate out a price, since that brings back memories of me sitting in a crappy waiting room with hard plastic benches, a broken television that only got 3 channels--2 of which were half static--and a vending machine with nothing but crappy candy, all for 6 to 8 hours while my dad would go through the entire process of getting the salesman down to a ridiculously low price.

...I digress. Anyhow, I did get advice from my dad on when to buy. But, to skip the hours of negotiating, I just went straight to Edmunds and got price quotes from three dealerships in town to see who could offer me the best price. From there, I figured out what my budget was, what price I could afford, and went in to take care of the rest. The entire process took me only 2 hours and very little stress.

And now I got my first new car.

...I still need a name for it, though...

And a new phone

My old phone I'd had since 2004. It was time for an upgrade. After a huge headache with finally finding a place that would get me a new phone with the same long-distance number (it's easy if you have a 703/202/301 area code, not if you have another state, though), I finally got one for juts a $40 upgrade price:

This one also has Bluetooth. So I got a new earpiece while I was at it. However, since my hands still work fine, I just wear it around the apartment when I'm on the phone while cooking or whatever. I'd rather not look like a moron wearing it while walking down the street, looking like I'm either way too self-important, or just talking to myself.

Or looking like a cyberman...

And behind door number 3

The folks at my apartment also replaced my ugly-looking balcony door with a new and shiny one. Yes this isn't something I did myself, I know... but that old door was so ugly that I had to cover it up with someone. This new one is shiny. Literally:

Plus a notebook

This was over two months ago, but I never updated on it, so I nearly forgot. I got a new computer, too:

It's great: 4GB of RAM, HD screen (and HDMI input), Blu-Ray... It's another HP, like the last one I had.

The reason I got a new one was because my old computer completely died on me. Fortunately, I had everything backed up, and more recent files saved on my MP3 player, and ended up losing nothing.

Making regular backups is something I learned from an incident that happened a few years ago. Definitely comes in handy.

That's that. This weekend I'm heading back to Nashville to see family. More on that when I return. 'Til then, feel free to offer any name ideas for my new car. I'm particular to anything based on classic (1980s or early 1990s) video games. KF

Weekend Shows

This past week has been busy; a major thing did happen, but I'm going to update about that later this week (before the 4th of July). I'd like to make a little entertainment-related update this time around.

Outsourced

First, Thursday before last (19th), one of my friends, J, came into town and we went to go see my favorite comedian, Russell Peters, at the DC Improv. His big thing is Indian/Subcontinent/Asian jokes, but me trying to repeat anything just butchers his stuff. So check out his YouTube-popularized tour, Outsourced: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3712334209880055660 The thing I liked was that his routine was like 30-40% ad lib, like playing off the audience, and most of the rest was new material. Lots of Arab jokes this time, too--funny ones, since he's like the only non-Arab who can pull off jokes like that and still have them being funny. He's also the only one I've heard nail down the difference between an Indian and Pakistani accent. I didn't even realize the difference accent-wise 'til then.

Besides J, another one of my friends, G, was in town as well. G's someone else I first met online and, since he's moving back to this end of the country (details omitted, sorry), and J was in town, we decided to meet up in Georgetown. ...not much to say on that. I mean, we had lunch and went over to my favorite teahouse (Ching Ching Cha) afterwards--where, coincidentally, my former Chinese teacher was working that day.

More Movies...

And, earlier today, I got to see another movie I was really excited about. So, I thought I'd add on an extra to the Summer Movie Reviews update from last week:

Mongol
Overall: incredibly engaging movie, and it's not all violence (see it if you can)

Check the trailer first:

Folks who know me know that I have a huge interest in anything tied to the history of older civilizations. So, Mongol seemed like my kind of movie. It's on the early life of Temujin (who we now know as Genghis Khan), focusing on the struggles between rival clans and going up until his uniting all Mongol tribes. It is meant to be theatrical, but they tried to keep it as close to history as they could. My favorite aspect of Mongol was that it's not all violence and not all fighting. There's definitely blood in there, but there's far more focus on Temujin's life, his wife Borte, and others close to him. The few fights there are pretty intense and well-done. Speaking of which, most of the cast was Mongolian, although a few of the main characters were Chinese, and Temujin was played by Tadanobu Asano. Most of the dialogue was also in Mongolian, with some parts in Chinese. (The director is Sergei Bordov, so the film is probably classified as Russian, though it was filmed in Mongolia and Kazakhstan.)

Anyway, my final recommendation is to watch it where you can. Since it's a foreign film, it probably won't be in regular theaters--in DC, it's showing over at E Street Cinema. But it's worth watching.

So, that's all for now. I'm going to make a huge "new stuff" update this Wednesday or Thursday. I hope. 'Til then. KF

Currently Watching Mongol: The Early Years of Genghis Khan By Tadanobu Asano, Khulan Chuluun, Ying Bai, Aliya, Tegen Ao see related

It's over a month since my last update. No excuse this time. Some things have happened, and things are going well. But, I just didn't feel like updating. I'll try to do two this week, starting with this.

To begin, I don't see a lot of movies. But, over the last few weeks I've managed to catch a few that have come out, since we're at the start of the summer movie season. Some are good, some aren't, some I'm still looking forward to, and some were rather disappointing. Let's go...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Overall: if only they hadn't tried so hard (wait for Netflix)

I grew up watching Indy. It's one of those things me and my father were able to enjoy together. I even liked Temple of Doom, even though it gave me nightmares for a decade. Though, part of that might be because when I acted up, my dad, instead of hitting me, just held his hand over my chest and started going "mukti deghi kali ma, kali ma shapti he, kali ma, kali maaaaa!" And then I ran up to my room crying. Ok, no, really, back to the subject, off the bad stereotypes, and onto some funny ones.

So, Crystal Skull. Let's start with some of the things I did like... Harrison Ford's age, for one, was handled well. There were still stunts, but his 'age' showed when he couldn't pull them off (like falling back on the whip in the warehouse). Also, the bad guys were sufficiently ridiculous. I mean, it's Indiana Jones; if the Soviets were not some silly Boris & Natasha stereotype, I would've been disappointed. Next, some action sequences were pretty fun: swordfighting, the escapes, running away from ancient Mayan warriors... Finally, Central America was a good change-of-pace from the previous ones in the Middle East or India.

Now, the things I didn't like... The two minor things were the vine-swinging scene, and Indy surviving a nuclear blast and 500-foot fall in a fridge. But those I could overlook. The worst aspect dwarfed everything good about the movie and, unfortunately, made the entire movie rather... lousy: the aliens.

It was odd at first. I mean, God shoots ghosts out of an ark? Fine. Evil cults with power drawn from the god of death? Fine. The cup of Jesus that grants eternal life? Fine. But aliens? Hell no...

Then I realized why aliens (or "transdimensional psychic beings", whatever) are so out-of-place in Indy. It's supposed to be about the fantastic and inexplicable. Aliens are out of the realm of the fantastic and into science fiction. And, in sci-fi, things are explained--perhaps by unrealistic pseudoscience, but they're explained nonetheless. But Indy is about the adventure, not the random artifacts or explanations behind them. Crystal Skull tried to put way too much importance on the crystal skull, trying to make it "believable", rather than just leaving it unbelievable. If they'd just said the crystal skull was magic, it would've been better. Leave it at that.

Anyway, overall... It was ok. But, they tried too hard, and ended up making it a really weak movie that didn't feel like Indy by the end.

Iron Man
Overall: great action, even better costume (see it)

Now Iron Man... This was last on my list of movies to see so far. Then, everyone started saying good things about it. Constantly. So, I decided to see it... and was really impressed. There isn't a whole lot to say here. I mean, the action sequences are great. The hero is great. Robert Downey Jr. makes a perfect Tony Stark. And the costume... is the best superhero costume in any hero movie ever made. Oh, and a nice bonus is how some of the baddies were part of an Afghan warlord's outfit, yet they didn't start getting all stereotypical.

It should still be in theaters. Check it out if you can.

Prince Caspian
Overall: too much fighting, too little story (don't bother)

I really liked the first Chronicles of Narnia movie (I even drew up a plan for conquering Narnia in response). So I was hoping that this would be somewhere near as good. But the weird thing is... this had too much fighting and not enough story. And I usually say the exact opposite about movies. Basically, it was trying to be too much like Lord of the Rings, I felt, instead of being its own thing. So, they tossed in as many (3 or 4) epic battles as they could, even at the expense of having background and story in it. The characters didn't interact much, and what little story there was felt just like filler in between battles.

It was still ok, and I enjoyed it enough. But... feel free to pass on it. It's not worth that much.

Kung Fu Panda
Overall: holding my sides from laughing (see it)

Not sure where to begin... I mean, Kung Fu Panda is really funny, and really entertaining. I even had high expectations going in (especially with the list of voice actors), and it didn't let me down. The action scenes were enjoyable, the background story was classic--without trying to take itself too seriously--and it was really funny.

So, go see it. It might be a family movie, but it's still really good.

Dark Knight
Overall: will see it, perhaps multiple times

It's not out yet, but I'm almost certain it'll be my favorite movie this summer. It's certainly the one I'm looking forward to the most.

That's all for now. I'm not sure what else I'll try to talk about at the end of this week. I might make another cricket-related update. KF

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