I'm glad I just rented "Once upon a Time in China" before I saw "Kill Bill Vol. 1". "Once upon a time in China" starring Jet Li is your classic Hong Kong Kung Fu movie. The kung fu fighting is just amazing, but parts of it are really, really bad.
The dialogue is bad and stilted, but all Hong Kong kung fu action movies have bad dialogue. The movie music is like this bad 70's drivel, and I laughed when I heard it because I'd forgotten how bad the music gets in these kind of movies. And some of those characters, you just want to slap them all sometimes because they're so silly and stupid. But overall, "Once upon a time in America" is one of the better Hong Kong kung fu action movies.
Talk about time warp though. Watching the movie made me feel like I was 14 years old again, and in a movie theatre at home with my parents.
So I'm watching "Kill Bill Vol 1", and I get the same thing; bad stilted dialogue and horrifying yucky 70's music. And I'm like, this is cool, this is just like watching a Hong Kong kung fu action movie, especially the really, really bad music.
If you're not used to watching Hong Kong kung fu action movies, you'd never get why the bad stilted dialogue and bad cheesy music are so great. The reviewer for the NY Times didn't get it.
And all that blood spurting and limbs flyjng around, I mean that was really funny, and again classic Hong Kong stuff. In fact the whole movie looked so familiar, like I'd seen those scenes somewhere but it's been a long, long time.
Watching "Kill Bill" makes me want to watch every Hong Kong kung fu and japanese samurai movie I can get my hands so I can get the references I know Tarantino is making in this film.
There's even a japanese teenage assassin that I know is a ference to something. She's the stereotypical looking girl that's depicted in japanese movies, even in the porno ones. Guys love to fantasize about young japanese school girls in their uniforms, with those big eyes, straight hair and bangs, and those long eye lashes. She was such a classic.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
I went to check out the Nanowrimo party in the Mission this afternoon. I'd never been to any of the Bay Area events before, and it was fun to see all the people from the forums.
Chris Baty, the founder of Nanowrimo, was there and gave a little talk about how Nanowrimo founded in 1999 during the heady days of the dotcom boom. Did anybody even guess back then that about five months later the dotcom boom would all come crashing down and a trillion dollars would be lost in the market, and many more trillions to follow.
Lots of businesses and ideas are gone now, but Nanowrimo is still going strong, five years later with people participating from all over the world.
There were writers from all over the Bay Area, with municipal liaisons for San Francisco, the East Bay and the South Bay. The liaisons organize writing parties at cafes all over the Bay Area, as well as other get togethers.
Writing is such a lonely endeavour, and if you're a group person Nanowrimo is a great thing to do. You can write in groups, participate in online forums, go to informal get togethers, and be part of huge write group for a month.
I've never gone to the writing parties. I've written with other people before in cafes, but it hasn't been that productive for me. I have to be by myself, with my thoughts, in my head to write.
What I like about Nanowrimo is the thought of other people all over the world, struggling to do exactly the same thing I'm doing. I don't have to know them, I don't have to meet them, I just have to know they're there struggling along like I am.
Because writing is lonely, and you always feel like you're the only who is struggling, who is trying to write and be creative with a full time job and a thousand other life distractions.
But just for one month, I'm one of thousands of participants (14,000 did it in 2002) and I don't feel so lonely anymore.
Chris Baty, the founder of Nanowrimo, was there and gave a little talk about how Nanowrimo founded in 1999 during the heady days of the dotcom boom. Did anybody even guess back then that about five months later the dotcom boom would all come crashing down and a trillion dollars would be lost in the market, and many more trillions to follow.
Lots of businesses and ideas are gone now, but Nanowrimo is still going strong, five years later with people participating from all over the world.
There were writers from all over the Bay Area, with municipal liaisons for San Francisco, the East Bay and the South Bay. The liaisons organize writing parties at cafes all over the Bay Area, as well as other get togethers.
Writing is such a lonely endeavour, and if you're a group person Nanowrimo is a great thing to do. You can write in groups, participate in online forums, go to informal get togethers, and be part of huge write group for a month.
I've never gone to the writing parties. I've written with other people before in cafes, but it hasn't been that productive for me. I have to be by myself, with my thoughts, in my head to write.
What I like about Nanowrimo is the thought of other people all over the world, struggling to do exactly the same thing I'm doing. I don't have to know them, I don't have to meet them, I just have to know they're there struggling along like I am.
Because writing is lonely, and you always feel like you're the only who is struggling, who is trying to write and be creative with a full time job and a thousand other life distractions.
But just for one month, I'm one of thousands of participants (14,000 did it in 2002) and I don't feel so lonely anymore.
Saturday, October 25, 2003
I'm glad the Florida Marlins won the world series against the game's highest paid team. I'm glad that money can't buy the best team in baseball.
It's been two years now that the NY Yankees have lost to lesser paid younger teams. I wish I knew where the Marlin payroll stands compared to the rest of the league. I hope they're a small market team like the Oakland A's. I know from the news stories that their payroll took a big hit in 1997, and they had to rebuild from scratch.
Heads are probably going to roll in Gotham City, but who cares! The Florida Marlins won the world series and the Minnesota Twins won the central division chapionship after being on the verge of almost having their team closed down.
Maybe now things will change in major league baseball. Maybe now they'll think about revenue sharing and even parity in the league. Maybe that huge steroid scandal brewing in Burlingame that the mainstream sports media seems to be avoiding like the black plague will really shake the league up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Talk about having Watergate like overtones; that steroid scandal will be huge,
It's been two years now that the NY Yankees have lost to lesser paid younger teams. I wish I knew where the Marlin payroll stands compared to the rest of the league. I hope they're a small market team like the Oakland A's. I know from the news stories that their payroll took a big hit in 1997, and they had to rebuild from scratch.
Heads are probably going to roll in Gotham City, but who cares! The Florida Marlins won the world series and the Minnesota Twins won the central division chapionship after being on the verge of almost having their team closed down.
Maybe now things will change in major league baseball. Maybe now they'll think about revenue sharing and even parity in the league. Maybe that huge steroid scandal brewing in Burlingame that the mainstream sports media seems to be avoiding like the black plague will really shake the league up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Talk about having Watergate like overtones; that steroid scandal will be huge,
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