05/21/2006: "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!"

DISCLAIMER: What follows is not spell checked, written with contacts as they dry in my eyes and on a laptop (smaller keyboard)...read with caution...=]

Well the weekend has come and gone all too quickly once again. I spent today clenaing the house while Jimmy was in Canada, Scott was skiing at Squaw, Justin was asleep and andrew was in Davis. It had reached ciritcal mass, and with allergies and pollen and such, in addition to it raining and me unable to spend time in the sun gardening, I dusted, scrubbed, mopped and vaccumed. I treated myself to huge amounts of chienese food, some wine and a soak in the hot tub.

The weather held out on Saturday though when Espe snagged free tickets to the Sunset Magazine Festival where I got some exercise walking about, fantasized about a big garden of my own one day, made a lay out of orchids, and saw the Shoalin Monks in a kungfu demonstration. This was HUGE. I had to laugh when my brother said, oh hey, there isn't enough Kung Fu in my life, we have to see these guys, but by the end of the demonstration I was in total awe. There were a set of 8 year old triplets who were doing things that you haven't even seen in movies. Out of control cool. And they did this Chi focusing thing that brought back memories of my attempt at Akido. One of the masters broke a metal plate on his head. One monk, about 19 or so did an entire exercise with a whip which was bitchin in every way. This group of monks is apparently the only sanctioned group outside china and they are starting a temple and kungfu school in San Francsico. I already know Espe and Sandy's kids will be taking Kung Fu. =]

You know you are hot when you get hit on by the man asking for change outside the coffeeshop. Oh yeah, not only did the man ask me how old I was, and how much I weigh, but also if I had $1.75 and if I was single. I told a bit of a white lie with a smile, flattered and yet, surprised that even when down on you luck, he still had time to hit on chicks. He was quite a catch. I wasn't worthy to be honest. I should be so lucky. But he was satisfied when I told him I was dating someone. I could just see the conversation going on much longer in a direction I think would have been even harder to get out of, and I was already late for work. Sometimes polite is easier, and I am sure I am dating someone in a paralell universe, so it wasn't all a fib.

What better way to to spend a rainy day then watching movies? And here are the reviews:

Went to see the Da Vinci Code with Martin, Nad, Lisa and Vanessa. Martin and I are in the bookclub and had read this ages ago as one of the selctions, and Nad had just finished it two days ago. Lisa is Nads wife, Vanessa is Martin's current....girlfriend? Coworker? uh... female companion. She was so very nice. Liked her a lot. Laughed a lot. The book I thought was okay, but either I'm smart or the author underestimated his audience. I knew the ending 60 pages into the book. How then is a movie that is supposed to be based on suspensse going to stay supsensful? Cheap cinematography tricks. After reading reviews about how it elicited laughs and hisses at Cannes I was prepared for it to suck major donkies. Perhaps it was the prickly pear margarita, perhaps it was my low expectations, but the film did not wholly suck. I'll let you all judge for yourself, but I'm going to give this 2 3/4 Rutger/Rockwell/D'nofrio. It follwed the book and though there were uber cheesy moments, I think they did a decent job. Not total crap for sure. I only looked at my watch twice. It did not however merit applause afterwards. Save it for real art please. I was more amused at saying good by to my iinternation crowd ( I'm a tad out of practice, but I got three out of the for right} NAd who is Indian, but grew up in England was a single kiss on the cheek, Vaness who is Chinese and I had never met was a handshake, Martin, British through and through (think Arthur Dent's doppleganger) a kiss on each cheek ( I missed this one, I went for the single cheek, he's been hanging out with the frenchies too much) and Good old Lisa, American, A hug. All good. But I digress... as usual.

Monster in Law: As uneventful as expected. I watched in my post jacuzzi coma until I saw something out of the corner of my eye run across the room. I spent the next 20 minutes looking for it. It was a mouse. I called him Pete. Pete was a bit discombobulated. I think I must be a mouse whiseperer and not know it. this is the second mouse in broad daylight that has run to my general direction. When I was in Miami on my layover to clearwater, there was a mouse hiding by the ticket counter at the gate. He ran right to me, stopped dead in his tracks and then ran back. he did this about 4 times. No one else in the airport saw him. I could hardly contain myself he was so friggin cute. And I wanted to help him. And then I thought about one of my favorite books when I was growing up, A Crikct in Times Square...which had a mouse named Tucker in it. And I thought what a playground for a mouse an airport must be...Free travel...now there's a good story. But the mouse in the airport didn't have a name that I know of. The one in our house now is named Pete, most definately Pete. Justin brought the cats in, (Destiny and ironically enough Mouse) to see if they would help to corner him. This was much against my pleaseding that I could get him myself or we could just leave him be. The cats were of no help though,completely oblivious. I gave up, I figured he got in, he can get out. I left a tortilla chip for him, just in case he was hungry and couldn't find his way out again before too long. But yeah... Monster in Law...Mice are more interesting. =] 1 1/4 RRD's

Casanova: Loved the scenes of Venice. They did justice to my city for sure. Music and costuming great. Could do without the plot, acting, and script. Venice was the star of the movie. Over all I was more impressed with the interview with heath Ledger who had a shaved head in the bonus features. I can't wait for that to come back into style. Yeah bald. Over all I'll give it generous 3 RRD's for beautiful lighting in a city I am all too fond of.

Family Stone: Suprising acting from some actors I'm not huge fans of. Sarah jessica parker is really annoying at first, so much so you really want to slap her, but it works. Luke Wilson's role is no stretch but he fun to watch. Diane Keaton, Claire Danes and craig T Wilson all do well with their roles. Rachel Griffiths wins though for biggest bitch. another one of these people you just want to slap, but she needs to be like that for the story to work. What surprised me was how emotional this film was but still enjoyable. Its not a Donnie Darko depressing ( which by the way, depressing as it is, its a BRILLANT film, 4 1/2 RRD's) but it's based in very real, unadulterated life, but it's heavy. Don't watch it alone, don't watch it if you need a pick me up, but see it for the acting and the message. Think similar but not nearly as good as the Royal Tannenbaums.

Next in the Queue is Broken Flowers ( Which Ihope reminds me nothing of Lost in Translation), Saint Ralph, and Tristan and Isolde, with palo alto high school grad James Franco. I'm still bummed I missed Jame's directorial debut at the cinequest film festival. I had free passes and I can't remember what it was but, I think I had to housemange that night or something.

Torn up about Barbaro the Kentucky Derby winning horse who broke his leg in the Preakness. His chance for survival after 6 hours in surgery is only 50%. I've always been skeptical of Horse Racing. I haven't spent nearly enough time around horses but I wager they have the same insticts as dogs. You can not take the herding instincts out of shepherd, this I know. But is a horse like a human when it comes to the thrill and determination to compete. The same way ( as a former athlete) I can't see why someone involved in sports would taint their accomplishments with drugs, I wonder if a horse is naturally driven or trained or both to compete even through pain. Its all a bit sketchy how this injury occurred. And yes you see olympians hurt themselves. But I guess becuase it doesn't seem as FREE, it makes me worried that it is abuse to some degree. I know I put my body through a lot, but at the end of the day when faced with surgury, physical therapy or quitting, it was a total no brainer to me. Can a horse just do that when egged on my a trainer, owner and jockey all wanting to profit. Horses in the wild run. They run for fun, they run becuase they can, and probably becuase they want to...I don't know. Bottom line, you can't tell a horse to stay off it's feet for 6 weeks to heal. This isn't uncommon, champs have been euthenized before, several times. I just hope he makes it.

And on a final note...every girl wants to feel desired. No one wants to feel used. I know there are times when it may be a fine line. I suppose I just ask the people in my life to act fairly towards each other. Try to put yourself in someone else's shoes and ask yourself if what you are doing is moreal, ethical and kind? And if you have even the smallest doubt it is not. Don't. I know it's all smoke and mystery, the details aren't neccessary to get into, there really aren't details but suffice to say, but I imagine I'm good enough to deserve honesty even if I can't have perfect or real ya know?

Must get my beauty sleep...long day of work and publicity photos for CA Suite tomorrow.