Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

I enjoyed Gladwell's The Tipping Point, but Blink not so much. I think Outliers is more interesting than either of those two best-selling books. In it, he talks about opportunities enabling 'geniuses' instead of the typical story of a self-made success who appears to start from nothing. How is it that some Asian cultures seem to value hard work more and benefit from it in non-obvious ways? How is that so many Jewish families produced doctors and lawyers in their second or third generations in the US? Why do the children of wealthy parents seem to get a better education even though they go to the same schools as the less wealthy? There are several other interesting observations that might change your view of what makes success.

Shelter (2007)

At was a trip to see the familiar San Pedro views of the Vincent Thomas Bridge from Park Western & Channel, and of Catalina and St Clemente Island probably from the public space near Trump's golf course in RPV. The story is well written and acted. It's a nice beach cities surfing movie with a laid back feel, making me recall the high school language and attitudes of almost enforced cool from back home.

The guys in the love story are good looking too. What's not to like about this film? I think it's one of my favorites this year.

This is the third and by far the best film Jonah Markowitz has directed.

Robert Gates on PBS Charlie Rose

Is it because Charlie Rose is a bit of a softball interviewer that he gets some of his high profile guests to show up on his program?

It was informative to see how SECDEF sees the world and how highly he places diplomacy in his toolkit. (Link)

Earlier this week, I caught British Secretary of State David Miliband on the show. The guy somehow looks like a little punk kid despite being 43, I think. Perhaps it's the slim suit. Amazing. (Link)

4:13 Dream: the Cure

There are a number of excellent tracks on this new album from the mainly 80s band, the Cure. I liked Underneath the Stars, The Only One and The Hungry Ghost.

Dec GQ article on David Petraeus

Interesting little piece on the guy who salvaged (along with Robert Gates) the situation after the invasion of Iraq. It's worth reading to get an idea of the basic pragmatism and discipline of the guy. http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200811/leader-of-the-year-general-david-petraeus-war

...
[2011 Update]
Here's a recent Wired article:  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/petraeus-legacy

Bill Ackman on PBS Charlie Rose

A hedge fund manager views governments through the lens of business and says that the US is very solvent despite the huge deficits.

He says that GM should be allowed to go bankrupt and restructured to remove debt from the balance sheet by having creditors relinquish claims to be paid back in exchange for equity in the new company which has a chance to make money after redoing all the labor contracts. They repeated a discussion others are having calling the current GM essentially a health care company. One might summarize this by saying he suggests GM go into bankrupcy to wipe out the creditors/bondholders also. If gov't does a bailout, equity holders always get wiped out, but creditors/bondholders (counter-parties) don't. Ackman says unless this is done, GM will limp along under very onerous loans to be paid back and need to be continuously bailed out by gov't.

On housing prices, he says 50% off and low interest rates begins to look attractive! (would be funny if it weren't true...)

But overall, he says equities seems to be on sale. Time to buy!

## March 8, 2012 # #

Well looky looky here.  Was Ackman wrong?  The gov't bailout of GM turned out well and the gov't, while still in the hole a billion here or there, looks to have done the right thing.  Did the gov't force GM to do something more like what Ackman is advocating or not, I guess is the question.

Live Flesh (1997)

Not among Almodovar's best, but still an interesting human drama about a pizza delivery boy who falls for a drugged out girl. He confronts the girl after she has a change of heart and doesn't want to see him anymore and somehow the cops show up to arrest him. There's a struggle for a gun and a cop is shot. The boy goes to jail for six years. Now that he is out he wants revenge. The story is from a novel by British author Ruth Rendell. A young, almost handsome Bardem plays the cop. He's eclipsed by the pretty Liberto Rabal who plays the boy. Oh, but both girls and boys get naked in this flick.

# # #

On another topic: bad artsy foreign films. Looking at foreign films' dvd covers, those films typically seem better than they actually are. Sure, you probably don't recognize the actors or maybe even the director, so you don't have that to go on. Foreign film cover art always shows awards from random film festivals. Still, when you watch these films, many suck donkeys. I am starting to realize how to figure out if you've got one of these bombs early on. First off, they take only single words from critics reviews, like: 'beautiful', 'stunning' and put them on the cover (probably even if the critic said: "any movie would be more beautiful than this piece of sh*t", the word beautiful gets put on the cover). Then if they waste a ton of film on a scene where a person is doing something mundane and uninteresting, and they shoot that mundane thing for the first 5 minutes of the movie after the titles. Then you know to skip the movie entirely or at least run it at 60:1 speed.

Leonardo Da Vinci @ the Tech Museum

A local show to Silicon Valley's Tech Museum attempts to clarify a little about the artist. Is Da Vinci a bit hyped as a genius artist? His paintings are a little too studied, too perfect. Like an engineer doing painting. He used mathematical methods, and mechanical devices to create realistic paintings. Still, if you look at his Last Supper or Mona Lisa they are unquestionably beautiful, and there is a soul behind them. His greater strength in this display especially was his investigations in anatomy, optics, engineering and inventions.

Not mentioned in the exhibition, Da Vinci was probably a homosexual. At the age of 23 he was charged with sodomy along with 3 other young men, but acquitted (possibly because he knew well how to curry favor among the wealthy and powerful -- later in life, he was friend and advisor to kings). It is believed also he had relations with his male assistants, and he wasn't known to have intimate relations with any females. (Oh, and he was a lefty.)

California Academy of Sciences, GG Park

It's a natural history museum, but there are no dinosaur bones. Instead the highlights are the aquarium with unusual fish and plants, the exuberant penguins, the fancy and amazing six-projector planetarium, and the green roof.

Splash, NYC

The truly awful DJs refuse to play a danceable set in this NYC gay danceclub. Perhaps they just want you to head to the bar for more drinks, where, as expected, the drinks are outrageously priced. I guess rent must be steep for such a huge place, including the sprawling basement of about equal size to the main level. A couple cool things about this place: (1) the bartenders are incredibly well built, attractive and wear very little, and (2) the downstairs mens' urinal stalls are, um, unique. On the dance floor, getting rubbed up against in private areas without prior consent was astonishing -- those NY guys are fearless.

It's sad that I couldn't find a good gay bar in the few days I was in NYC. It could be that I couldn't stay up late enough. I'm not so young anymore. Recommendations for next time? Anyone?

PS1 Contemporary Art Museum, Queens

One subway stop from Manhattan, the PS1 museum is easily accessible, inexpensive (get a free admission on the back of your MoMA admission), and stimulating. The recent Scandinavian modern art exhibition is unique and diverting, especially the white rabbits and the video of the lasso guy. The huge mirror by Eliasson is amazing in its ability to change your perspective. And check out in almost "The Matrix" bullet time fashion the 360 degrees of weapons from the perspective of the attacker (what a power trip!) and the victim.

I regret having missed the other Eliasson exhibits -- notably those with water. I was only able to see photos of them in a book at the store.

X Saves the World by Jeff Gordinier

The book takes the argument and draws distinctions quite a bit further between Gen-X and both Boomers and Millennials. Dividing lines: those born before 1960 are boomers, and those born after 1977 are Millennials. Gordinier sees Nirvana as the height of X culture; I'm not sure I agree, but Nirvana's emergence coincides with the point where the alternative rock genre went mainstream. The author disses mostly appropriately in my opinion on both the Beatles and Britney Spears.

Then he talks about the greatness of 90s films, among them none of my particular favorites: Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, Lost in Translation, Office Space and The Matrix. Okay, I did like the Matrix, but the rest is mostly forgettable dross.

He does have a great point about it taking a Gen-Xer to finally put a boomer President, Dubya, in his place: Stephen Colbert and his brain warping, earth shattering performance at the White House Correspondents association dinner. You have to reread the transcript or see the video again to feel its unbelievable righteousness.

And another good point, the current Presidential election is a first between a boomer Silent Gen-er and a Gen-Xer. Interesting that in the end there may only be two boomer Presidents: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, although the window is 18 years. Still I sort of doubt it will only be two. After 2008/2012, perhaps Hillary or Biden or one of the 2008 Republican primary roster? With X being a window of 17 years, we'll be lucky to have two as President.

Overall, it's an interesting perspective which I do agree with on some points. Like how the sarcastic, cynical, slacker X generation, was the last to have real TV, not the cheap reality knock-off stuff copied from Europe. How Gen X knew to set the bar low for themselves and others, because they'd seen how bad marriages and bad economies can happen.

Note: okay, okay, I changed the dates to make Barack Obama an Xer (post-boomer), but others have done the same.

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night, MoMA

A number of famous and stunning Van Gogh pieces, many from European museums anchor this presentation. After staring at the paintings for awhile, I realized Van Gogh is pretty big on nature. His most beautiful pieces are dominated by stars, sky, and land. If there are humans in this pictures, excepting portraits, they are often small, dwarfed by their surroundings.

It makes sense then perhaps that his life story seems a bit lonely. Though he developed an attachment to fellow artist, Paul Gauguin, it seems Gauguin didn't really return the favor.

Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam

This longish and data intensive book was quoted in some NYT article, and it sounded interesting and somehow vaguely related to something I've encountered. It's about how Americans have become more disengaged and less social over the generations. Americans now by large measure prefer to spend a quiet evening at home rather than go out and talk or meet with friends or other people. This seems like a bad thing the author points out because we have much less 'social capital' and as well much less desire to interact with points of view differing from our own. There is also less generalized trust.

According to the author there are several main causes: women moving into the workplace (by desire or by necessity) [since women are much more social than men in general, this has a big impact on connectedness], television addiction soaking up everyone's free time, those who are well off working longer, and other reasons.

I haven't finished the book, but I think the observations are generally very relevant even though the book was written in 2000. This is somewhat before online social networking really took off, but online interactions don't seem to have quite the quality of face-to-face friendships. I think it's still a bit unclear whether online social networks will get us all more truly connected in a way that mimics the more social past century where large percentages of people belonged to social clubs or visited weekly or daily with neighbors and friends. One brief observation is that sites like facebook seem to help cultivate so called 'weak' ties, but how many of these put together could ever equal the benefit of even a single more intimate friend?

Stop-Loss (2008)

Seems to be a reasonably even handed treatment of the fictional story of American soldiers coming back from Iraq, despite the unfortunate circumstance of being stop-lossed.

This is small government by the Republicans. Let's not do a draft. Let's not provide appropriate danger pay to encourage people to re-enlist. Let's screw them in the back end of the process when they think they'll be let out. Let the poor bastards mop up our stupid decisions.

My own illiberal thoughts here: it does suck, but it's in the contract, and everyone who signs such a contract should be aware of it's contents, no? They should consult a lawyer if there was a question? Of course, these guys are young and imprudent to sign up, or just wanting to be patriotic. There was never a declaration of war by Congress, but US judges seem to be saying such a declaration is not necessary for the President to invoke the stop-loss clause. Soldier beware.

Overall, I liked this film, not least because of pretty boy Ryan Phillippe.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Johanssen plays the ingenue and younger sister Mary, and Portman the manipulative and aggressive older sister Anne. (Somehow, I never fail to become alarmed when seeing Portman's eyebrows. Is this why she gets the edgier roles?) I like period pieces, so probably that's why I liked this film. It probably should be obvious, but there are a lot of advantages to being king. You certainly could get a lot of people beheaded.

Where the Light Is: John Mayer

A number of tracks are nicely done acoustic versions of some of Mayer's better songs. Also included is a minimalistic but great sounding cover of Tom Petty's Free Fallin'.

Rainbow Six Vegas (PC)

Another in the first person shooter series. Again the same storyline about going up against criminals and terrorists. I like the interface updates like the ability to look from behind a wall, the ability to scan behind a door and have teammates attack from one side while you go in from the other.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

I only just now watched this film. Polished over many years, Gore's line of attack is well reasoned and easy to follow. I was particularly struck by how disinformation campaign driven by the oil companies and the current administration leads people to believe there is an controversy of the possibility of global warming when out of almost 1000 peer reviewed articles in this field there was not a single article which disputed the finding that global warming is happening. It is also stunning how melt from major ice shelves in Greenland and/or Antarctica would raise worldwide sea level by 20 ft. The street my home is on would probably be close to being underwater at that point.

Viva La Vida: Coldplay

I'm used to exotic sounds and disharmony from Coldplay. And I tend to like only the most melodic bits of their songs. On this album a couple songs are more conventional and very conventionally melodic, but they totally work for me. I'm addicted. They are: Lovers in Japan and the title song.

Narrow Stairs: Death Cab for Cutie

I saw the lead singer of this group on TV, and realized that he looks quite different than I thought he would. It's good he's a singer... Anyway, on this album, I liked the song: 'Your new twin sized bed' among others.

The Bubble (2007)

A gay interest film, but one which educates about the history and politics between Israeli and Palestinians. Sounds right up my alley, and it is. In any case at least, those looking for a gay interest film won't be disappointed.

Goya's Ghosts (2006)

Somehow I've never been a big fan of Ms. Portman, and here she's barely passable playing two roles, the character Ines and Ines's daughter. The background of the story is interesting and one which I don't know well, about how the French came and stopped the inquisition and then the British came and reinstalled the Spanish monarchy. Actually, the movie could have been great, I think, but falls quite short of its promise. It's still watchable though.

No Country For Old Men (2007)

A film about a depraved mercenary with a horrifically botched haircut, a cop tired of it all, and a not so bad guy who finds a lot of drug money.

The characters are quirky perhaps as is supposedly expected from the Coen brothers. The bounty hunter is a completely illogical character following his own rules so different from everyone else.

I'm inclined to say I didn't like the film. But actually it was just okay. It surely doesn't deserve the Oscars it received.

-- Major spoilers --

The sheriff talks to his uncle and in answer to the question about why he wants to retire, says something like that he expected god to step in [to stop the bad guys], but he never did. But in some minor way, does god step in somehow? The bounty hunter has an accident towards the end of the film, where his car is hit by another one running a red light. But of course, the guy doesn't die, but certainly was in pain. Divine retribution? The annoying thing about this idea is that if god bothered to see all this, and that's all that happened to the bastard, god really didn't go all out there. I suppose there is a line of argument that god wouldn't just go and kill the dude -- i.e. he's too subtle for that. Well, maybe...

Which reminds me that it seems that god saved the guy who happened on the money. There was a lightning strike which happens just before the time he makes his escape from the Mexicans who are also after the money. And in fact he does miraculously get away on foot with the Mexicans behind him in big truck. They should have easily run him down, but somehow didn't. He had in fact gone back to do a good deed, i.e. give water to the dying Mexican.

And then of course god is mad at the guy later because he seems willing to cheat on his wife with some woman near the pool. And so it goes downhill from there for him. He dies.

All of this is very annoying to me as, god doesn't exist, remember? I guess it's unavoidable to see a movie made by believers. But someone needs to warn us non-believers beforehand.

Frontline: Bush's War (2008)

This is a totally awesome program, so complete in its indictment of the Bush administration, and the doctrine we should all now follow: that you should always vote for a President who is smarter than the stupidest of his cabinet, especially the vice-president and his secretary of defense.

And we should never again buy the argument that the President doesn't need to be smart, he just needs to pick some smart advisors. This is, on the off chance, that he is inclined to listen to the inevitable one or more seemingly smart, but really stupid ass advisors. Bottom line: a smart cabinet on a stupid President is lipstick on a pig.

A couple other observations: (1) wow, was that an incredible lineup of white guys running the Iraq show -- no wonder there was no diversity of opinion, and (2) people around this issue -- journalists even -- seem to have not so good teeth, not sure what the reason for that is, perhaps my hdtv, perhaps they did meth to compensate for the horrors of this debacle.

For some reason, I really like the Frontline narrator's voice despite its somewhat nasal quality.

Michael Clayton (2007)

Why do the writers take away the drama by giving away the story in the beginning? I'm not sure about the strategy of the writers in doing this, but overall, it brings down the intensity level of the movie several notches. Perhaps they test marketed the normal non-flashback version of the movie, and people liked it better this way. Sure, we wouldn't believe that Clayton's story would end in a certain way -- hollywood movies stubbornly refuse to be tragic --, but somehow this ending was lacking in punch. Clooney plays the cool as a cucumber, never a misstep fixer well. But is that acting?

# # #

I've seen Sydney Pollack, who just died today, in many films. Here he's quite good with just touch of the corrupt boss.

Lust, Caution (2007) / The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Neither of these was very good, but neither were they bad. There is a strange sort of linkage between these two. There are 'criminals' in both who someone wants to kill. Both criminals are charming in some way. And obviously the viewer should care what happens in the end of these, will the killings be successful and how will they be accomplished.

-- Spoilers --
The Lust, Caution criminal does not seem at all charming to me, but perhaps to a woman he would be. What was his big attraction? He seems to know a lot of sexual positions. Big whoop. But more importantly, he has money and power. I don't know exactly why the woman decides to save him, but perhaps he seems to truly love her and trust her. As a spy for the resistance, her facade is so solid, perhaps it's become truth. She does love him. She doesn't immediately realize perhaps that she is causing her own death by warning him off. Of course, for me, the guy is definitely not worth it -- he's completely unattractive --, though the diamond is certainly an expensive bauble, it wouldn't sway me. But in the end, what good would killing the guy have done anyway? Just someone else would have taken the guy's place. This whole assassination mission of the Chinese resistance to the Japanese wasn't worth the trouble.

As for Jesse James, I did start rooting for the brothers trying to kill him, and in a way, he perhaps wished to be killed by 'a friend' rather than by law enforcement. But really this Jesse James seems unworthy of admiration, unless one hailed from the defeated South.

The Kingdom (2007)

Intriguing movie drew me in despite the seemingly controversial subject matter. Action keeps moving. Acting is good enough. I wondered that one of the actors playing an officer in the Saudi army might have been played by an Israeli though, by his Israeli sounding English accent. ( And in fact, looking at imdb, the dude was born in Israel! Wow, I could be a CIA operative. A low level one maybe. Alright maybe not. )

Anyway, the movie is well done, and I wonder if Arabs will appreciate the seemingly even handed portrayal.

# # #
A NYT article about young Saudis. An interesting snippet: '“If you want to know what your wife looks like, look at her brother,” Nader said in defending the practice of marrying someone he had seen only once, briefly, as a child.' Also, I didn't realize that Saudi men can marry more than one woman. But, man, this idea of marrying without even seeing your wife sucks.

High School Musical 2 (2007)

This is a super cheesy movie, but still strangely watchable. Man, Zac Efron and his fancy moves. Such eye candy cannot be denied. Without him, the movie is complete sugary and superfluous confection. With him, it is also, but just slightly worth watching.

# # #

Back in 2007, a hilarious review at Advocate.

Iron Man (2008)

Yet another Marvel comics based film. It doesn't feel too original with the wealthy unattached bachelor superhero who's so smart he can design superhero armor and weapons. It's Batman, but just slightly different. Not sure why it earned so much money, probably just a dearth of mildly acceptable movies out there. Needs a hotter actor, and maybe even a hotter babe.

NIN: The slip

Nine inch nails is building social capital with their free download of their recent album: the slip. It's unusual in that you can get better than CD quality and lossless downloads. Strangely, it encourages you to use BitTorrent software. I liked the songs: discipline and echoplex.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Anchoring, false choice marketing, how getting something for free skews your purchasing choices, social context versus market context, attachment to unowned auction items as highest bidder, and how one reasons differently while aroused. Also fascinating how people will pay in order to keep options open, even if they've proven to be lower quality options (supposedly this is in order to avoid a sense of regret or loss later). In a way, it explains how corporate marketers and used car salesmen mess with your thought process. Another of those books where I say to myself, I think I've read about this before, but really I haven't. Probably because it sounds like a lot of common sense, but I've never really thought these particular issues through.

Atonement (2007)

Not a bad little film about what happens when a jilted and jealous girl decides to get revenge.

I am Legend (2007) / Death at a Funeral (2007)

Two bad movies.

Legend: What is it about vampire-like behavior that interests people? This is yet another vampire movie, but built on Will Smith's super stardom. Unfortunately, the story is flimsy, worthless, and beyond believable.

Death: A family of crazies has a funeral for a father. Desperately unfunny with jokes which can be foreseen from miles away.

Frontline: Sick around the world

An interesting review of national universal health care plans outside of the US, including in England, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Switzerland. All these plans spend much less than the 15% of GDP spent by the US. Japan only spends 6% (!) of GDP. Of course, in Japan the hospitals are failing and doctors make much less than those in the US, but still the result is health care far better than we have it here.

How to do it?

1. Volume negotiation for drug prices.
2. Force everyone to participate, including the rich
3. Dramatically reduce the amount spent on administrative costs (20% of health care $ in the US) -- essentially eliminate the insurers, or make them non-profit.
4. Encourage prevention and stricter chronic care to avoid costlier life saving measures later.

Vampire Weekend

Liked three songs on their recent album including Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. A little exotic tropical island music-ish and casual, but catchy.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

I haven't seen the original, but this version is definitely worth seeing for the action, bravado, and drama.

# # Spoilers # #

While this version is a fun ride, a key element of the story, which is the internal struggle of a charming and ruthless criminal with a conscience seriously considering a turn for the good, seems to run too far ahead of the viewer, and without real compelling externalities to mark the change, it seems to come from nowhere. The ending was completely compromised for me as being false and unrealistic.

Obviously any internal struggle like this is extremely difficult to convey on film, but the movie doesn't even seem to give it an honest try. Of course, something like a Shakespearean soliloquy was out of question, but there must be other ways.

Nevertheless one interesting aspect of the movie is how Wade seems to win over the group -- despite their efforts to get him to shut-up -- by his charming talk and even his actions. It's perhaps instinctual that his captors seem to trust him. And in an ironic turn, later he is convinced by the words of the rancher. So the respect is mutual.

Is it just that the rancher wasn't convincing to me as a person that Wade would admire to the extent of switching sides? I am too cynical perhaps. Sure the rancher was mostly honest, hard-working and pitiable, but there should be plenty of such persons around even in the old West.

Alright, so the rancher is the only obviously married person with children in the movie. Perhaps, Wade is longing after the life he never had. This seems to be an artificial and contrived situation.

The blond lieutenant to Wade is insanely loyal to his 'boss', but then does he go too far and thus into the region of a (heavily veiled) gay subtext? He's got a light-footed and jaunty dismount and flashy dress. And of course, he dies -- at the hand, of the boss, no less! Was it by design that this fellow was not deserving of any sympathy because of his ruthless killing throughout the film? Perhaps, I'm too sensitive, but damn it, if this kind of unsympathetic and fatal role seems too often to happen to gays.

Continuing along this line of thought, is there a sort of homophobic message of the movie that you should get married and commit hate crimes? Okay, maybe it's just my overactive imagination.

American Gangster (2007)

A bad guy with morals? A good cop with personal problems. Sounds like a true to life story. It's well played by Washington and Crowe, and despite its length was engaging mostly as a drama rather than an action flick.

The girl who played Frank Lucas's wife, Lymari Nadal, seems pretty -- and I'm talking strictly above the neck here -- but I wonder if most straight guys would not agree, because it's pretty almost in a boyish sort of way, with the long face and angular features.

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Getting Brian Cox and Albert Finney confused seems difficult, but I had to look it up on IMDB to really be sure that they didn't somehow recycle the same actor which was killed in the previous movie. Is the series making a statement about old fat white guys being ruthless and corrupt?

Matt Damon seems to have gotten more comfortable in his role, and I suppose his acting was a bit better in this last one. I liked Julia Stiles hair in this one, no real reason, but I just did.

Overall a neat action flick.

The Brave One (2007)

Actually you don't need sound to watch this movie. Somehow the plane noise was too loud for my iPod, so I just watched it without my headphones, fast forwarding through the portions with dialog. Later I read the spoiler and caught up on what I missed. It's pretty good: full of testosterone filled action. Perhaps not a surprise with Jodie Foster as the lead in a story of, well, revenge.

# # #

Minor spoiler:

I had a problem with the ending. How can anyone have someone else shoot them point blank in the chest no matter how much one trusts the other person? It's simply crazy. How can you be sure that you won't be dead from blood loss or other complications or even if not immediately, have some long term nerve or other damage. Perhaps if it's a smaller caliber weapon the round could ricochet around internal organs, and with a larger caliber the wound is larger and the damage could be fatal. In the movie's case, no precautions were taken. Shit, you could be hit in an important artery or puncture a lung and die in minutes. Crazy. Improbable.

Gerrit Engle: Manhattan New York

A pretty picture book to be sure, but it is somewhat amazing the way the book is able to capture the changing architecture and scale of construction in New York starting from 1793 to today. He is even able to make the twin towers seem more intimate: by placing nearby smaller buildings closer in frame and making the towers like slightly bigger brothers to them.

Beowulf (2007)

The sort of animated blond Beowulf isn't exactly hot, but he does strut around naked a lot. The real star is apparently Angelina Jolie who as mother to monsters is -- I think -- made to look younger and more attractive in this film than in real life. But did I mistakenly detect a sort of gay story line with Wiglaf?

The Valet (2006)

Well done little chick flick, but a bit absurd to my gay little head. Would a rich supermodel of seemingly upright morals go for an utterly unattractive (almost repulsive) married billionaire CEO? With expensive gifts and trips and a promise of a divorce, I suppose it's within realm of possibility.

BTW, is Kristin Scott Thomas french? She seems to speak well enough.

Frost / Nixon (2008)

[Film not yet released] You might think W. has a lock on worst Presidency in recent history, but Nixon would probably rate a close second. Ron Howard brings those days back to life in this sometimes hilarious film and remake of the Broadway show about David Frost, a British talk show host, who was granted the only major interview with Nixon after he resigned.

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

An eye opening book about the history of the Democratic and Republican parties, the New Deal, and movement conservatism. I had heard many of the ideas in this book from disparate sources before. Krugman references the Frank book: What's the matter with Kansas, and confirms the belief stated in that book that conservative scaremongering about 'values' issues such as abortion and gay rights was used to win the election, but the result of lower taxes on the rich was effectively hidden by the distraction of going to war. In Conscience, I also hear echoes of the Carville/Beluga book Take It Back, about the impressive and scary movement conservatism machine which has taken over the Republican party.

But as an economist, Krugman brings it all together well (and really it's about money and cheapness), by bringing in history to demonstrate how the Republican party has essentially been put back together starting with Reagan really, after years of defeats, by the rich businessmen fighting against unions and the party has essentially been bought by m/billionaires who have created a money driven political machine which rewards loyal Republican politicians with patronage jobs in conservative 'think tanks' even after they've been voted out. The single minded goal seems to be to take apart FDR's New Deal and lower taxes on the rich (and their estates). And holy bejezzus, how scary is William Kristol.

Krugman does mention that the overreach of the Republican parties strategy to call on Southern white racist leanings is resulting in significant backlash. It may yet mobilize blacks and Latinos to vote solidly Democratic for years to come. And hopefully they will in fact go out and vote, something which was discouraged by Republican secretary of states.

Krugman holds out hope for future Democratic party victories and for universal health care which would move forward a big piece of the progressive agenda left unfinished since the New Deal. In this pre-2008 book, he does mention a key piece of any plan is mandated coverage which eliminates administrative jobs spent determining whether a person is worthy of coverage -- will not cost the insurer more money than premiums. This inefficiency and the lack of long term health vision or focus on prevention is why the US program is so costly. People end up changing insurers often enough and then going on medicare that insurance companies see it as monetarily favorable to avoid even low cost prevention options. Later patients end up costing the system more in life-saving measures as well as having a lower quality of life.

East Side Story (2006)

A gay-interest film with Latino flavor similar to Quinceanara. Both are set in LA. The protogonist is hotter in this film though.

Blake Lewis, Audio Daydream

I never thought I'd like a singer from American Idol. Lewis doesn't have a great voice, but apparently someone gave him some good music to sing to.

Gallery walk SF

There are a huge number of well hidden galleries along Geary and neighboring streets selling and exhibiting art in SF. One has a great print of a vulnerable looking Marilyn Monroe portrait by Richard Avedon which though not as large as any of his stunning portraits in the 'American West' exhibition is still $60k. Cheap college wall poster reproduction anyone?

My favorite was the abstract modern architecture paintings by Anibal Catalan at gallery 415, like this one (as poor resolution crops, these images purposely don't do justice to the real thing). And not terribly expensive... uh, relatively speaking that is.

Transformers (2007)

The movie shows a government and military which, contrary to usual Hollywood norms, isn't utterly incompetent in the face of alien invaders. Well yes, someone should've questioned the idea to put Megatron in a place where he isn't naturally frozen and where it takes enormous amounts of energy to keep him frozen. At least the story is somewhat believeable. Okay, maybe not, but I did like the cartoons when I was a kid, and still the movie gets a pass in my book.

Angels & Airwaves: I-empire

I was a bit suspicious of the group because of their name and the worry that I'm probably missing all the hidden Christian meanings in the lyrics, but anyway they play some really catchy tunes in this new album. Perhaps ignorance is bliss. Apparently, it was started by a guy from Blink-182 [wikipedia]. My favorites on the album: Breathe.. and okay, Heaven.

On the Wealth of Nations by PJ O'Rourke

Adam Smith wrote a book on capitalism in the late 1700's, but hardly anyone has read it. Mostly it's because the book, the Wealth of Nations, is so long-winded. O'Rourke summarizes the book for us, tells us which parts have been debunked and which parts still make sense today. There seems to be a very relevant part of the book which relates to trade deficits. Adam Smith says that no importance should be placed on trade deficits. Trade deficits were a concerns of old mercantilists. (I'm not so sure that Smith was right about this, but perhaps it's true that trade deficits aren't as bad as they might seem.) Also, the book questions why should Americans care if the Chinese keep their currency too weak. It's like complaining about a discount that you're getting. Other exporting countries might complain about the Chinese luring Americans away as customers, but mega-consumer Americans shouldn't.

O'Rourke's book is actually very funny and entertaining, something which the original book perhaps was not.

Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Imelda Staunton is very good here as the overzealous perfectionist minion of the ministry of magic. Radcliffe seems to have gotten dramatically older.

As with the rest of the series, it's a tough slog to try to believe the whole whatchamacallit. I'm just too old I guess -- yeah, yeah, I should just enjoy it, I know.

But I was reminded again of the strange parallels with Lord of the Rings in Harry Potter lore. I've mentioned before the invisibility cloak vs the one ring of power, but in this book, the mind to mind connection of protagonist and villian is manifested via some sort of spell rather than via a device, but seeing something so similar seems disappointingly stale. Did Tolkien use all the interesting ideas in the fantasy genre?

James Blunt: All the lost souls

Somehow I really like this album. He's got a really strange yet melodious voice. Well, perhaps it's an acquired taste.

Apocalypto (2007)

Taken as a plain old action flick, it's fine, great even. Think about how it depicts pre-colonial South American cultures, and you might be troubled. Perhaps it's accurate, perhaps not. Did they really enslave other tribes, treating them horrifically, and behave so capriciously and superstitiously? And is Mel Gibson, an arch-nemesis to all sensitive things in this world, homophobe, anti-semite, and xenophobe the right person to produce such a movie and lend confidence to its accuracy and sensitivity to these cultures. I think the answer is no.

The Good Year (2007)

Another chick flick. It's the slow and easy French way of life with an emphasis on wooing the woman against the British (American, really) life of making money money money and non-monogamy. Of course, we know how this ends. But the trip isn't all bad.

Sicko (2007)

I feel really bad about the American health care system now. Surely Moore exaggerates a little, but still, the whole thing seems so barbaric compared to other countries. You have to wait for the last part to feel really sad about what the American system has come to. I have a new respect for Hillary Clinton after this film even though while praising her early efforts as first lady to bring universal health care, Moore also slings some dirt in her direction about her accepting money from big pharma and HMOs in her Senate campaign.

Pacifica Quartet

I'm pretty into classical music, but for some reason I didn't dig the choices for a recent performance of this quartet. It was mostly Beethoven and Smetana. And too bad the cello seemed to have some strange squeaking sound coming from it.

It seemed to me a big contrast versus the Jupiter Quartet at the same venue. The Jupiter Quartet had much more interesting, strange and yet wonderful pieces and sound.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Updated for modern days with battles in the Middle East and Russia, it has very similar gameplay to the old WWII Call of Duty games. I guess Activision was right that perhaps WWII FPS genre was getting a little tired. But somehow I don't feel as excited playing COD4 as previous games. It's as if the 'Good War' made good and evil clear cut and made killing enemy soldiers in war more acceptable -- of course, there's just no real reasoning with why playing a war simulation is fun at all, but somehow it still is. The graphics are excellent, and the game continues the usual seamless cutscene to gameplay segues. There is a darkly hilarious part the game where it makes a joke of air-to-ground missile induced death and destruction -- from C-130 aircraft. There's a running commentary of detached killing: "there's some combatants exiting that building, engage them", "ka-boom", "you got 'em", "you're free to engage all those", "ka-boom", "wow! this will make quite a hilight reel".

You: On a Diet by Mehmet C. Oz and Michael F. Roizen

I don't particularly like the trend of the 'for dummies' series. And while this book isn't one of those, it has very similar aspects with tons of sidebars, weird and ugly diagrams and illustrations, and keyed highlight points. It's as if it's catering to an audience of idiots (oh that's right, it's almost in the series name) who won't pick up a book unless it has enough pictures. These readers seem to need a summary statement for every page. But I never understood the side bar idea. It just distracts you from the main content, and forces you to lose your place and makes it take even longer to get through the book.

As far as the content, it was surprisingly interesting to me up until chapter 11, discussing the biology of human weight gain, hormones and all. But after chapter 11 (the exercise chapter), the book starts talking about the psychological traps of real dieting -- which thankfully I've never done or had a need for. Probably it would be good for those who need to lose a lot of weight though.