Short notes: Fourth of July Edition

Some notes about this past weekend:

• I attended no barbecues, witnessed no fireworks and barely saw any sunshine, but it still felt like a pretty decent Independence Day weekend. Usually, staying at home would hardly be an appropriate prescription for the long weekend, but I needed the rest, and the weather was terrible anyway. One thing helped: I bought a pack of hot dogs (not the nitrite-free kind that they sell at Whole Foods, but the ones made from floor sweepings -- you know, the really good kind) and had my own hot dog eating contest, in which I competed against myself. Okay, perhaps it wasn't as extreme as this one, but you have to understand that I don't eat many hot dogs any more, so this was a special thing for me.
• Lesson learned the hard way: If you want the most satisfying hot dog-eating experience, never buy whole-wheat buns.
  
• Summer time would seem incomplete without seeing a Will Smith film, so to honor the tradition, the wife and I saw Hancock. It was aight.
• That reminds me of an idea I had for a blog called One Word Film Reviews. For example, the review for Wall-E would be: Heartbeeps.
• On Thursday night, we went out with some friends to Corner Bistro, where I was out-eaten by a 98-lb film actress and out-guzzled by a Maori guy who named his dog after a New Zealand pale ale. Details will definitely not be forthcoming.
• The weekend ended on a good note. By "good note" I mean that the Yankees beat the Red Sox 5-4 in extra innings tonight. Yes, I have officially become a Yankees fan.
• And finally, a shout-out to my buddy over at Wonkitime who, along with his lovely wife and kids, took us to a Thai restaurant in the Upper West Side for lunch today. I ordered pineapple fried rice (with chicken) and spent the better part of two hours trying to figure out what made it taste so good. It didn't hit me until I was on the 2-train heading downtown, still licking my lips. We never used much of this in our kitchen growing up, but lots of Malaysians did: Maggi Seasoning Sauce.

By the way

Today, after work, I walked by the apartment building where Heath Ledger died. I wasn't expecting much. It's a nondescript building on Broome Street (as are most of these tony flats in this part of town), a block away from many of my favorite lunch spots. In all honesty, I didn't intend to walk past. I'm not particularly drawn to news scenes, but it was the easiest route home tonight because I was coming from the company's other office.

There were news vans parked on the block; I noticed vans belonging to Fox 5, My9, and the CW. Flash bulbs were going off among a small group of people gathered at the front door of the building. There was a huge pile of flower bouquets at the door as well.

Show business makes strangers into friends. If you watch someone on the movie or TV screen often enough, you start wondering if you might really know them. If you're taken by a piece of art, like a motion picture, you're also drawn to the one who created it. It's a human response. So here were all these humans, responding to a stranger's untimely death in the best way they knew how. Perhaps they'll go home and host a Heath Ledger film festival for their friends, as well. It doesn't seem like a bad way to remember a man.

In the field of clover

This post, despite the pilfered lyric of a title, is not about "Joker & The Thief" by Wolfmother. I sort of wish it were, though. That song rocks.

Today I saw Cloverfield. I have some brief thoughts on the movie, but they involve certain plot elements that you may not want to read about before you've seen it for yourself. So I've set my thoughts in black below. If you want to read them, just highlight the text, starting here: This was a bleak film. As promised in the trailer, the Statue of Liberty is spectacularly beheaded, and lots of very big things fall or explode, like helicopters, buildings, and a monster. Sounds like a standard action thriller, right? Wrong -- this film was depressing as all get-up. After it was over, I left the theater and walked around lower Manhattan, reliving images from the film in my head, not because I wanted to but because it was unavoidable. I know the film wasn't real, but for almost ninety minutes, I had subjected myself to the inner reality of the film. There was something horrible about watching New York City get trashed -- it was like watching my hometown get trashed. At least in I Am Legend, we don't see the city deteriorate -- we merely see the aftermath. In Cloverfield, there is no aftermath.

An evening with Michel Gondry

Tonight, I saw Michel Gondry speak at the Apple Store in SoHo. I only found out about his free presentation a couple of hours before the event, and I couldn't leave work early enough to grab a seat in the front. So I ended up standing in the back among four hundred other people, who, judging by the number of men with impressive growths of facial hair, were mostly film geeks and would-be filmmakers.

I'm not exactly a huge fan of Gondry, but I've enjoyed the music videos he's done for Björk, and his 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was pretty good. I can't wait to see his next film, however. It's called Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def. Watch the trailer here.

To understand why Be Kind Rewind is on my must-watch list, I have to tell you about School of Rock, another Jack Black vehicle. I relate to virtually everything in School of Rock. Wanting to be in a band? Check. Teaching kids how to be a band? Check. Playing at the local Battle of the Bands? Check. Being housemates with Sarah Silverman? Let me think about that one. Actually, the thing I relate to the most is the real-world musical education part. And that's because even though both my parents were educators, I never took a day of guitar lessons in my life. It's not about which fingers go on which frets. It's all about joy and attitude.

But when I was growing up, I was also a film geek. How geeky? I built a full-scale Jabba the Hutt puppet in the living room with my brother (complete with moveable tail). I made papier mâché zombie heads with light bulbs for eyes after watching Night of the Living Dead. I could recite every line from Flash Gordon. I pilfered my dad's Bruce Lee posters. I made a cassette tape of the Conan the Barbarian orchestral score. My heroes were Frank Oz, Stan Winston and Rick Baker. I built a wire-frame T-Rex head when Jurassic Park came out. And, in what I submit as the ultimate proof of my geekiness, I'd watched Arnold Schwarzenegger's first motion picture Hercules in New York at least ten times before my sixteenth birthday. (That's probably just proof of my dismal standards.)

I'm no filmmaker, but I'm as enamored with the process of filmmaking as anyone. Which is why Be Kind Rewind, in which two video store clerks set out to film their own cobbled-together versions of classic movies after the real tapes get erased, holds such hilarious, romantic potential.

Back to Michel Gondry. He spoke for about 90 minutes about, among other things:

• The place of improvisation in filmmaking: "It's the job of the actors to be in the moment, and the job of the director to be around the moment."
• The importance of being flexible: "Sometimes the unscripted moments in filming are funnier than the things you planned for."
• Sequels: "This new movie is a reaction to the fact that sequels nowadays cost more to make than the original."
• Childhood creative outlets: "My parents really encouraged me."

Gondry also showed short clips from the new film, and also this Björk video he directed late last year ("Declare Independence"), a stunning piece of video art depicting a stunning bit of performance art inspired by a stunning song:

Shopaholics wanted

I found this sign taped to the front door of our building this evening:

Attention Residents:
Disney Pictures and Bruckheimer Productions are going to be filming a new movie this fall entitled, "Confessions of a Shopaholic". As research for this film, we are looking for apartments belonging to women between the ages of 21 and 28. We would like to take pictures of the apartment for our art department so that they can get a sense of how to design the main character's apartment. This is NOT for filming. If you fall into this category and are interested, please contact Malaika Johnson at 347.528.6709.
Malaika Johnson
Locations Department

We get signs like this one all the time. And film crews set up lighting and filming equipment on our street, on average, about once every two months. Since Sarah is outside the specified age range, we certainly won't be calling Ms. Johnson. But Sarah is likely to be in the target audience for this movie, which, I'm guessing, is likely based on Sophie Kinsella's book of the same title. It may end up being a fluffy chick flick, but at least you'll know the main character's apartment will be based on a real home in one of the best shopping districts in the city.

Are you experienced?

For years, I've wanted to come up with an "Experience List" -- a collection of things to do. I'd have to put it online, I thought to myself, and make it interactive so people can check off the things they've done, and get an Experience score at the end. Swum with a pod of killer whales? Check. Climbed a coconut tree? Check. Driven a yellow Ferrari more than a hundred miles? Check. Run in ten inches of snow with no shoes on? Check. You are more experienced than any living person ought to be. Consider a career in outer space exploration.

[This reminds me of the fact that even though I love watching films and consider myself a movie buff of sorts, I still haven't seen Raging Bull, It's A Wonderful Life, On the Waterfront, Casablanca, Taxi Driver, Seven Samurai, Scarface, Annie Hall, North by Northwest, or Ben-Hur. Yes, yes, it's a shame...]

I haven't come up with the Experience List yet, but I have thought about the many things I haven't yet done that are virtually essential to living in -- or even visiting -- New York. Some of them are a bit "touristy" but it doesn't make them any less worthy of doing. I'm sure I will think of many more in the year to come, even as I try to check the following experiences off the list:

• Dine at Nobu.
• Get a pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli.
• Tour the Statue of Liberty.
• Visit the Bronx Zoo.
• Attend Shakespeare in the Park.
• Run the New York City Marathon.
• Catch a major league baseball game involving these guys or these guys.
• Be a member of the Museum of Modern Art.
• Listen to Les Paul play at the Iridium Jazz Club.

"Wow," you might think as you peruse the list, "this fool hasn't done anything!" Not true -- I have done some things, including:

• Rollerblade down Broadway.
• View the city from the top of the Empire State Building.
• Hike the largest remaining natural forest area in Manhattan.
• Visit the Brooklyn Aquarium.
• See dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History.
• Dine at Peter Luger Steakhouse.

Anything else I should add to either list?

The director speaks

Quickly now: here are Rocket Science director Jeff Blitz's thoughts on the premiere we attended this week (via Gothamist).

Lights and cameras

Things I learned from last night's Rocket Science premiere:
1. Paparazzi lining the red carpet have no idea who it is they're taking pictures of until someone yells the person's name. Then they all seem to not only know his name, but be his best friend as well. This is especially true for relatively obscure actors, like much of the cast of Rocket Science.2. New Yorkers are not the friendliest people in America, but they become much nicer when standing outside a theater waiting to catch a celebrity sighting. This is because they may have to ask the stranger standing next to them who that woman walking down the red carpet is. Some New Yorkers also happen to lack normal observational skills, like the guy who asked me what movie all this hubbub was for, just as we stood by this poster:
3. Being a celeb is hard, because you have to smile and look good all the time. Ah, but maybe it comes naturally to them. And maybe this is why I am not a celeb.4. I wish I learned more, but that's about it. Oh, I also learned at the after-party that warm figs and goat cheese are a magical combination that will set off divine little fireworks in your mouth. Just like kalbi and kimchi.

Coming to a theater near you

The first and only movie premiere we've attended was the New York City premiere of Spike Lee's She Hate Me. What, you've never seen or even heard of the film? It's probably because She Hate Me had most critics saying, "We hate this." I myself was appalled by much of the film, but I applauded its technical merit and thought-provoking content. It inspired this film review I wrote for Pixelsurgeon, a review I convinced Roger Ebert to read (but that's a subject for another post). The bottom line was I enjoyed seeing the film before anyone else in the world had seen it, and seeing it in a theater with Spike and many of the other cast members.

Tonight, Sarah and I will be attending our second NYC premiere, but it's for a movie that we've already seen: Rocket Science. We saw this at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT, earlier this year and thought it was fantastic, especially since my brother-in-law is one of the leads.

I'll blog about our experience at the event. In the meantime, watch the trailer here.