Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008)

It's an in your face message to men, including gay ones, about the incomprehensible need women have for 'romance', the perversely increasing desirability of a man when he is already loved by another woman, and womens' disregard for men's looks. Let's just say Bardem is quite far from the gay male ideal. I didn't get this movie. Perhaps, I just don't want to. This is a Woody Allen film, no wonder. I've never liked his films, except maybe Match Point (and that one just a little), sorry to say.

Gran Torino (2008)

The midwest neighborhood is extremely volatile with teenage thugs around every corner in gangs of all races, seemingly egged on in testosterone filled quests to display dominance and carry out violence. The movie does a good job of side-stepping the need to explain this lack of chill behavior by focusing on old Korean war veteran Walt played by Clint Eastwood. A fascinating, direct, seemingly racist, somewhat tortured and crusty old man who just lost his wife, now seems disconnected from almost everyone except his barber perhaps. But violent happenings in the neighborhood come to pull him out of his isolation. A great story, and of Eastwood's recent films as an actor, actually I liked this role the best.

Revolutionary Road (2008)

It could otherwise be entitled, something like: the strange and unhappy things that happen when you marry a strange person. Both DiCaprio and Winslet are very good in this film about a tumultuous marriage. The movie does surprisingly well at allowing the viewer see this from both points of view. Later it becomes clear to the practical and realists in the audience, that one of them is a villian and far more strange than the other.

The Proposal (2009)

Several years ago, when there were sitcoms and I watched more tv: 2 guys, a girl and a pizza place had Ryan Reynolds in it. He was easy on the eyes back then. In this movie, he's in as good a form. The story has the usual romantic comedy contrivances, but overall funny and engaging, and pleasant to watch. Actually, it's too bad I saw it on a tiny screen on a plane.

I Love You, Man (2009)

The mysterious male bonding ritual as portrayed here is actually at points shown at its most powerful, where a male friend can be a great ally, sounding board for ideas, fun. Of course, we all know this, but its interesting in this story of a man who never found it interested him enough to try to develop such friendships until his fiancee worries that he'll be groomsmen-less at the ceremony. Nicely done.

Male clothing shopping in Paris

Department stores in Paris are generally very expensive and don't hold sales except twice a year. This seems very stupid, but it's the way they work. So generally I suggest not to waste time in the department stores unless you don't mind paying more than what you would pay in the US. There are a few standalone clothing store chains, not boutiques, which had men's clothing for more reasonable prices. These were:

• H&M, a Swedish clothier, is in the Forum Les Halles and on Rue de Rivoli. Of course, H&M now has many US locations.
  
• C&A, a chain started in the Netherlands, is on Rue de Rivoli
• Celio, a chain started in Paris, has several locations including Forum Les Halles and Rue de Rivoli
• Jules, a French chain, is in the Forum Les Halles

Actually, I'm sure these chains have other Paris locations, too. These were just more convenient for me.

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

Very interesting book. It discusses the instinctive versus thinking mind. There are pitfalls of the 'thinking' brain such as loss aversion and difficulty with high complexity. The book highlights that very experienced people, quarterbacks, poker players, have instincts which can be correct and these have to be relied upon in some brief decision window situations rather than the slower 'thinking' process. Nevertheless, other people in more life/death situations need to be mindful of pitfalls of their instincts and override them or disregard them, for example, in panic situations. In a way this book is a lot like parts of 'Blink' and 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell, but somehow it seems more cohesively written.

# # #

A few people coming to this post are asking if Lehrer is gay. Though he's somewhat cute, I believe he is married to a woman. Besides on his latest book jacket, he's obviously straight, wearing the horrific fashion faux pas of two tone plastic glasses frames.

# # #

Lehrer has since had a big downfall because of made up information in his more recent book Imagine and rehashed/reworked blog posts.  This book How We Decide has been pulled by the publisher because of similar inaccuracies.

SFMOMA: Avedon and Adams/O'Keefe

You might think Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe would be more exciting than Richard Avedon. You'd be wrong. I'd seen Avedon's American West at the Cantor (Stanford) exhibit a few years ago, and I knew he was good. But the SF MOMA exhibit has those as well as some photos from other times and with famous people, including Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Truman Capote, and an ensemble portrait of Andy Warhol and Members of the Factory. As it happens some guys are nude in that last one. There's also the photo of Twiggy with the massive and awesome hair all in the air. The photos are all from large format film and large prints.

If your strapped for time, I'd almost skip the Adams and O'Keefe which wasn't terribly new and was horribly crowded.