Recently in cin3ma | international Category

heres something to geek over...

the second season of haruhi is in full effect...word! they secretly snuck it into the 're-airing' of the first season. the marketing team behind haruhi is admittedly a little fucked in the head, with all their retarded antics, but whatever...season 2 is on. the first episode can be found if you hunt a bit for iso's....

and for those wondering what the fuck is up with something like haruhi, id say its a choice example of the heights an anime can achieve...original, intelligent, well-written, funny, and not full of robots and/or panty shots...yea. tho they do stuff asahina into bunny/maid/nurse outfits...

hrmm...holding judgement on this one. i mean, it has ji-hyun jun, so i want it to rock. but theres something about the trailer. maybe the cheeky "since the dawn of time....*pause*" just doesnt fit the tone of the movie.

my constant anime ingestion continues...so i thought i'd do a follow-up post about whats been piquing my interest. im still sifting thru my collection too. my supply is far past my ability to consume...yar! must...watch...faster.

one thing i have been doing however for a while is getting back into anime. i was more or less out of the loop for a while...i think the last series i got was noein. but i4 sort of got me back into anime (inadvertently) when he gave me macross frontier. since then i've just been rolling thru series after series. some really good, some fucking terrible. seriously theres panty shots everywhere. apparently every single female character can only wear mini-skirts now (and in some cases, dont even wear pants)...who knew? i'll also freely admit to digging the romance comedy genre. i know, i just damned myself...

k, i reeeally meant to post this earlier. shit, i even post-dated this entry for the 10th. but i was distracted for a bit...see below.

yea, i still play, and i pimped out my ride. but now that i got that out of my system, i can resume my (semi) normal posting regimen. i leave for amsterdam next sunday for a month and a half...word. im slowly building up excitement, and im hoping the work-aspect of the experience wont cramp the whole thing. well, too much anyhoo, since the whole reason im going IS because of work. anyhoo, rewind.

BIG APPLE BBQ
ya word, last weekend was the big apple bbq festival. fish and i made it a point to check out some texan goodness. its the texan in me. the first stop was salt lick bbq and their beef briskets from driftwood, texas. yuuuuum. since we were in the midst of a giant bbq fest, we sucked it up and headed out for a second round. we went to check out some carolina pulled pork from blackjack bbq of charleston, south carolina. the sauce choices were a little dodgy (vinegar or mustard...?), but the pulled pork was rock. after scarfing as much as we could, we (slowly) headed south to relax at croxleys. after chilling out to a few rounds of beer, we headed north to look for some chess and starbucks. i was on the verge of kicking fish's ass (first time in a looooong time), but time ran out and i had to jet. sad face...=( next up was a farewell dinner at yakiniku for dora before she heads off to the big red motherland. k, yea...i was about to die. too...much...food...

i did nothing the rest of the weekend. oh, i did take the new york age test. my new york age is 47...i dont know what that means.

PAPRIKA
i was gonna go nuts this weekend (for once), but then i had to work over the weekend. poopsticks. i was actually supposed to work saturday because i was meeting my sis sunday. but er...she called me to let me know shes been having "morning sickness" alot recently, so couldnt come in. morning sickness...er. yes i know what morning sickness is. and yes, im in denial...argh!!! h'ok, so anyhoo, most of the work i could work on would be with the crew coming in sunday, so i headed out early.

i caught a later showing of paprika at the angelika with jess. shit, satoshi kon is one fucked up guy. but the movie was amazing. ive been mulling over the movie in my head since last nite. the movie is about paprika, the dream-state alter-ego of a scientist who uses a device that allows users to enter peoples dreams in her psychotherapy sessions. when 2 of the prototypes go missing, she and her colleagues have to hunt down the culprit before the device can be used to break down the boundaries between dreams and reality.

the movie is in many respects a spiritual successor to the matrix (channeled thru michel gondry), except whereas matrix had distinctions between the real and the virtual, paprika leaps in and out of the dream realm at whim. youre never sure whether you were viewing the real world or the landscape of someones dream. and even if you knew you were in the dream, you were never sure whos dream it was. my mind is still processing it, so you should just watch the movie if you get the chance. and for those who arent familiar with paprika, check the trailer below.

spider-man 3=hmm, ok. fish and i hit up the imax in nyack for some spidey action. we'd been to the one near lincoln center numerous times, so we were up for trying out a new place...the imax in the heart of the monster palisades mall. that place is frightening...a mall on steroids. but anyhoo, the movie was pretty coo. i just wish venom got a bit more action. sandman and gwen seemed expendable too, and peter parker shouldve been a dick in more scenes. the few where he was a cock and a half rocked. we roamed the place for a bit after the movie, then grabbed seafood from legal seafoods. i dont know what illegal seafood tastes like, but the legal varieties pretty good...

NYAFF
oh and i keep forgetting to make this post, but the nyaff is back in action! woot! and it starts....ah fuck face, right when i leave for amsterdam. oh right, i never mentioned that. ill be working in our amsterdam office for a month and a half at the end of june. just when the nyaff starts. cockbag. i completely missed last years nyaff, and i guess im missing this years too. meh. welp, those that are in nyc...definitely go check out the movies. theyve changed up their venue again. theyve moved from the anthology/imaginasian over to the ifc and japan society.

so hot...gah. im stuck to my seat...in a bad way. so lets be honest, ill probably make this one post, then slax for the rest of the week...unless something super-interesting happens between now and the weekend. and even then itll still be 50/50 whether i exert enough willpower to make the post. so ill just load up this monday post with everything floating around my head and/or stuff from last week. its pragmatic, c'mon.

BBQ
we had a bbq on doras rooftop wednesday nite. grills and lawn chairs...i <3 rooftop bbqs because 1) theyre relaxing, 2) theyre fun, and 3) i like grilled hot dogs. we had two grills going...one for veggies and the other for meat produce. then we grilled s'mores with tree branches from the backyard. cub scout training in effect...word. ah, so nice and chill.

GAME ON
thursdays do-not-disturb gaming nite. and now you know. mm-hmm.

FRIDAY
i met up with di for dinner friday nite. they finally decided to let her out of work, so we got some french at l'express, then relaxed at 71 irving. shes still new to the city, so im starting with the staples of my usual hangouts. very chill. we were talking about random things from college, and it kinda frightens me how i cant even remember what i had for lunch, but i can remember specific projects and what people did for said projects in detail, as well as other really random memories here and there. stupid brain...work correctly.

SATURDAY
...was teeth-grinding agony at home. it was a combination of a belated mothers day and early fathers day lunch. which is fine and all, but it was blah blah blah wedding all during lunch. die die die! we had japanese at least, and then we roamed the cavernous willowbrook. oh, and more of my family from taiwan are coming to the wedding than originally anticipated. its something like aunts one, five, and six from my mothers side, and aunt number five(?) from my dads side, along with her entire family. have fun squeezing into our house guys...yep, good luck with that.

ZAHA HADID
in an unrelated note, zaha hadid has an exhibition at the guggenheim. woot! it runs from now to october 25th, and you'd better believe im gonna go see it. i <3 zaha hadid. her work anyhoo, not her herself. shes like an ogre...wearing a dress...who makes beautiful buildings.

NYAFF 2006
wooha the new york asian film festival is coming up! it runs from june 16th til july 1st...wait, holy shit...thats next weekend! bollocks. ive been fairly out of the asian cinema loop for a while now, so all the movies listed are new to me. i recognize like 2 movies from the entire list, and one i saw on the plane ride over to tokyo (shinobi). anyhoo, all those interested, make it known to me! ill be sending out emails to the usuals anyhoo this week. that is all.

(picture blatantly nicked from sean)

m3ntal note, showing up early for "surprise" birthday events may have to be reconsidered in the near future. ;p satty nite was m's birthday lushage at obivia in soho...and people were supposed to show up before 11 so when she got there, there'd be that whole "omg, people! surprise!" blah blah blah. i get there a quarter before 11, and while i do get to sit in the nice cushy armchair of our reserved area, im chugging stellas and talking to myself for about half an hour. george shows up next, so now i have company...woot. its way past 11, and sean and anna and one of chris's friends shows up too. the birthday dinner party finally shows up sometime after midnight, and im already on my third bottle...blah. hehe, ah well. fun times still, even tho someone in particular *cough marisol* really needs to get their tolerance back to their peak. how far they've fallen...*sigh*. and look at that...no pics! how far ive fallen. yar.

oh and friday and sunday...yea, bummed. buuuuummmmmed!

addendum | you know what else i did this weekend? i caught up with alot of dvds i'd bought that i hadnt gotten a chance to watch yet. has anyone else seen karas: the prophecy? holy shit craziness...eye candy up the ass. the stories a bit convoluted (and vaguely told), so i had to look up some info on my own. but its downright gorgeous to watch. the first fight scene that opens the movie makes the entire movie worthwhile...tho i didnt know there was second dvd coming out til it ended kinda abruptly. bastards.