Oh, June. You silly month.

How you amuse with your rain, and typhoons, and shoe-destroying rain. And "amber" rain. And umbrellas open to dry on the office floors. And middle-aged women in rubber shoes. And rain.

need...more...storage

A story in the WSJ today said some U.S. states have started auctioning license plates as a way to generate income. This paragraph tickled me:

Other countries have already mined this vein, with big results. A businessman in Abu Dhabi bought a license plate with "1" at an auction for $14.3 million in 2008. Last year, in England, a retired businessman bought "1 RH"—his initials—for about $400,000. Hong Kong sold a plate that read "STORAGE" for $12,000.

lol

Why I didn't like X-Men: First Class

Let me start with a shout out: the secret lair behind the strip club booth is the house in Kill Bill Vol. 2! Bill's Mexico house.

But basically, I have to compare this movie to X2, by far the best of the X-Men movie franchise. And I liked X2 a lot better. It was slicker. It moved quickly without feeling rushed. It wasn't all action but never felt static. There was lots of tension among the characters. You could tell a lot about them when you first meet them. The bad guy was awesomely evil, but his son pure creepy, the short anecdote about the mother said it all. The early, rather simple scene in the White House was fun to watch, a huge step beyond any effects action scene in the first film. And of course Wolverine! Love.

First Class was just plodding and overwrought. The characters were annoying, and their abilities weren't presented with that sense of cool, matter-of-fact, show-don't-tell. Instead we learn about the kids' abilities through a series of show-off sessions. Ack! Remember the first X-Men? When Wolverine is in a cage fighting? His claws come out to slice in half a gun that was pointed at him? And Rogue asked if that hurt? And he said "every time"? And how Rogue almost killed her boyfriend and how miserable she was? And how the first time we meet Jean Gray we see her use her mind to move an object? Those were natural exposition scenes. But in First Class, the kids just show their powers as powers. Gross! Also the movie doesn't even try to conform to the most basic laws of physics. The flying chick's wings - no way could they lift her off the ground. (Also, her tattoo of sorts looks very much drawn on by Sharpie up close.) They also completely ignored the glaring impossibility of Beast retaining his ability while looking normal on the outside (meaning his feet), as he thought would happen if his cure serum worked.

And the bad guys. What is UP with the longish-hair dude in the light-colored suit?! I know these are villains and this is a comic-book movie, but seriously, I expect a little more respect than the level of caricature here. Like how he would just do some SNL Antonio Banderas parody, whoosh around, not break a sweat and have every hair fall perfectly in place with the one smug expression on his face. Ar! Barf. And the red bad guy? The twin of the demon in the Buffy musical episode (which was brilliant, by the way)! But this is why I think there was poor editing or just crappy action, because I could never really keep track of what he was doing during the fight scenes.

I couldn't stand Rose Byrne as the CIA agent. Why didn't they cast some tough chick who could do a whole Sydney Bristow thing a la "Ima gonna kick your ass and then go home and cry."(I love Sydney Bristow.) You know what I mean, any recurring female character in the Law & Order franchise would have been more appealing than an even-frailer-than-normal, deer-caught-in-headlights Rose Byrne. And how gratuitous was the strip-club scene when she took her clothes off? I also found January Jones' character unbearably lifeless, although I was captivated by those eyes of hers. As for the big bad guy, well, casting Kevin Bacon was just too easy. Was it a toss up between him and Sean Bean? Something must be said for the "sexy newcomer" (reference to a short-lived recurring SNL skit - again) who played a snaggle-toothy young Magneto. He looked good. But...his whole character was based on pain and emotion, yet wow were his pivotal moments cheesily done. Moving the radar and submarine, Xavier getting him into the zone, how lame were those scenes.

Back to the relationships between characters. In the first two films, you could feel the crazy tension between Wolverine and Jean Gray, the crush Rogue had on him, Mystique's resentful jealousy, Cyclops' devotion, how much everyone looked up to Prof X... and I just didn't care about any characters in First Class and wasn't convinced that they cared about each other. It was emotionally PG-13. Young Mystique's crush on young Xavier seemed shallow. The relationship between her and Beast...based on little. When Alex vengefully said, "They killed Darwin," it just felt like a plot device.

As for the whole 60s era... the film it didn't feel retro. It felt dated. Including the effects.

It feels good...

closing the 20 tabs open in my browser window pertaining to a just-filed story. (I have a major tab problem.)

What's wrong?

You know what I freaking hate about Starbucks in Hong Kong? No? Well let me tell you. It's that they freaking heat up any food by default, with the exception of only salad, I think. Allow me to elaborate. Hong Kong people generally like to eat things hot, all the time. This preference is related to a Chinese medical belief that cooked food, which is close to body temperature, is healthier. At Starbucks, sometimes they do ask first to make sure you do want your muffin or pie or whatever hot, but oftentimes they do not ask and I forget to say Hold the heat. Then they put your order in the oven to heat it up. When it's the chocolate danish/croissant, I usually let it go even though I am secretly pissed. Who the frick wants a hot danish?? But when it's the hummus vegetable wrap, I always go aarrrrr I FORGOT TO SAY NO HEAT! Seriously. HOT HUMMUS IS JUST WRONG.

Today’s grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.


--Excerpt from NYT column "It's Not About You"