A Reporters Life by Walter Cronkite

This book on tape is narrated by Cronkite himself. He was present a wide sweep of television news from the beginning through Reagan years. Fascinating listening to a person from another era -- it's almost other worldly.

Breach (2007)

The current highlighted imdb review is correct -- the pacing of this film is slow, and it's more of a drama than the action flick many might expect. Still Chris Cooper is pretty good as the uncharismatic and unappreciated traitor Robert Hansen. Ryan Phillippe plays the young agent clerk to Hansen, actually put there by the FBI to spy on Hansen. Phillippe relies heavily on his good looks, but as an actor, he's rather one-dimensional. His acting at play-acting anger at Hansen's constant suspicion of him even rings as artificial. He does serious or ironic looks okay though.

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But actually Phillippe was not bad as a gay teen many years back on One Life to Live as reported by OhLaLaBlog.

Shooter (2007)

Mark Wahlberg probably worked out a lot for this film. He's got huge shoulders and arms. It's compensation for his lack of height, and for me actually it works to some extent. Overall, a dumb action flick.

** Spoiler ** Vigilante justice in the end seems a little morally bankrupt.

[Temp location: Howard Street] California Academy of Sciences / Steinhart Aquarium

This natural history museum is currently shoehorned into a tiny space next to Moscone center. Most of the current exhibits are of fish, snakes, turtles, frogs or lizards. The tropical fish tanks with coral are amazing and beautiful. There's a tank with a huge bass, probably magnified significantly by the special aquarium glass, but still quite impressive. In all, it's quite surprisingly entertaining, but only good for about an hour or so.

Will be curious to see the transformation when it moves back to permanent (LEEDS platinum) digs in Golden Gate park, but that's in 2010 Sep 2008!

A review of the new French museum of architecture

NYT Sarkozy opens the new museum which is across the river from the Eiffel Tower.

Crocker Museum, Sacramento

Judge Crocker was one of the big four Sacramento businessmen and railroad magnates. Stanford, Hopkins, Crocker, and Huntington are all depicted in paintings in the large main salon. Crocker is the one with the unconventional facial hair: a long pointy beard of all white hair without a mustache. It makes him look like a KKK member, but anyway...

The main salon is where more than 100 paintings are stacked floor to ceiling on all four walls. Thankfully for my neck there are no paintings on the ceiling. While this method of presentation does allow density of paintings, it does make the upper paintings very difficult to see. And paradoxically, they seem to have placed the smaller paintings up there. The reason might be that the larger paintings are more famous and well known, and it makes even less sense to have them put way up and out of the way.

Overall the museum is in much need for the expansion -- which is planned to be complete in 2010 -- to make room for more of the collection which seems reasonably good, although judging on the samples on view Crocker's partner Stanford clearly has a much more varied and higher quality collection at the Stanford University campus.

Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter

The book on tape is narrated by President Carter himself. It gives a history of the Palestinian question. Carter comes across as a man seeking to trust others and seeking peace. Here he takes a stance more critical of Israel than the conventional Western opinion. He deplores Israel's confiscation of Palestinian land, its building of the winding, segregation barrier within the disputed territory -- ostensibly to protect (illegal) Israeli settlements, and poor treatment of Palestinians in general. He compares the second class citizenship of the Palestinians in occupied territories to that of Apartheid.

I actually think Carter is right and the comparison is apt. Israel is very strong country with a strong economy and military and should follow the UN resolutions to revert to its internationally recognized borders.

But regardless of your opinion on the matter, the history of the region is fascinating and enlightening as he gives the background of Israel, the surrounding nations, and then describes the situation with the various American Presidents and their administrations.

It's all too much by Peter Walsh

A good philosophy about stuff. Interesting, that it's not just tips on how to put stuff into boxes and how to sort and rearrange stuff. It kind of shows how a philosophy towards stuff can drive a better relationship with it and avoid overfilled houses of stuff, and even a less stressful and less guilt ridden life.

Alpha Dog (2006)

Really? Based on a true story? It's about some young drug dealers funded by one of their dads. The little brother is innocent and cute, and believable as a woman trap. Still he's pretty dumb. The other guys however are more complete idiots. One of the thugs is impotent and perhaps gay. Homophobic slurs and insults are used liberally throughout the movie, but there is also homophobia driven self-hatred and violence. The story is yet another example of: get a bunch of teenage boys together, and they will just plain do stupid things.

It's weird how despite the guns, they manage not to kill each other outright. In strange scenes of vandalism, they pretend not to see each other. There is a weird restraint or truce in place, at least in the beginning.

A comparable drug dealer movie, Brick, is better. Not my favorite genre though.

The Holiday (2006)

A complete chick flick. Jude Law, who seems to be a cad in real life, has only fleeting moments of pretend charm here -- with the winning and innocent smile. Cameron and Kate are better and somewhat convincing as women completely out of luck in the romantic world.