Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Game On, You Basterds!
Yikes, sick again. I just had a cold around Halloween, how can I have another one so soon? It's not fair! I keep telling myself that as long as there's no fever, I don't have the flu and I've got no excuse to stay home from work. Am I nuts?
Bronchial issues aside, I had a terrific weekend. On Saturday we dropped Go off with Mako's parents (with their blessing!) so the two of us could just spend the day together. Mako was nervous that something would go wrong and that they would never agree to watch him again but I can't imagine why. If anything, Mako's mom is better at getting the baby to fall asleep than either of us!
The first errand of the day turned out to be buying my birthday present. I have been without a wristwatch for the better part of three years now, perhaps longer. I guess when my last watch disappeared/died/whatever, I figured there was no rush to replace it because I already carry around a device that keeps time: it's called a mobile phone. Why bother strapping a completely redundant device to my wrist for a singular purpose?
What I've come to realize during that time is that using a phone as your primary timepiece is a major pain in the ass. First of all, it's always going to be in a pocket somewhere, which means to check the time I have to pull it out. This can not be done in a subtle fashion and we all know there are a variety of social situations where noticeably looking at a clock is a faux pas. Standing in front of a room full of children is certainly one of those situations, and while they are not offended per se it is impossible to look without creating a major distraction.
So after a few months of contemplating a watch, my wife listened to my murmurings and decided it would make a good birthday present. She also wisely realized that picking a watch without my input would be foolish, so we chose one together in Yodobashi Camera. It's probably the most expensive watch I've ever owned, but that's not saying much because I have always favored low-end digital watches. In my mind, wristwatches are like sunglasses: they are entirely too fragile to bother spending a lot of money on. But not this watch! It's a G-Shock with a stainless steel band, black with bronze "highlights" if you will. It feels heavy and looks good.
After buying the watch we went upstairs to Yodobashi The Dining (I love that name for a floor of restaurants) and had a terrific Chinese buffet lunch. It cost too much money, I suppose, but it tasted great and it was a special occasion of sorts. Here's a brief glimpse of our food and my watch as seen on Twitpic:
The main event of the day, by far, was our trip to the movies to see Inglorious Basterds which only just opened in Japan. Given Tarantino's fame here and their absolute adoration for all things Brad Pitt, I'm really surprised it took so long to show up in theaters. Then again, compared to most of the movies I wanted to watch in 2009, it arrived relatively quickly. A three month wait to see Inglorious Basterds is nothing compared to, well, FOREVER for the various indie movies I've been reading about all year. If I'm lucky, District 9 might show up on DVD sometime next winter...and that's a big if.
This sounds like griping but there is a point: in a movie-starved year for me, Inglorious Basterds was the best movie I've seen in a long time. I was a little uneasy about the premise, if only because I feel like I've seen enough World War II movies to last me until World War III, but Quentin Tarantino somehow made a war movie without much of a war in it. Even though nearly all the characters are soldiers, there are no scenes of combat and only a few minutes of gunfire ("few" being relative to the film's substantial length). Nearly all of that action takes place in the finale which is all the more powerful given the scarcity of violence leading up to it.
This is not to say the movie isn't tense; I would argue it's his most riveting film to date. The opening scene felt like it was an hour long but I say that because I was going out of my mind waiting for the hammer to drop. It's ostensibly a conversation between a high-ranking German and a French dairy farmer, full of conversational pleasantries (i.e. "Would you mind if I smoked my pipe?") yet I was on the edge of my seat. I don't know how he does it, but QT's dialogue continues to impress me with each and every picture he makes.
There's also the little things, small moments and quick shots that have no apparent meaning to me but I delighted in each one: Brad Pitt's character has a giant scar on his neck that is never explained. Julie Dreyfus' ridiculously gaudy wardrobe, particularly that leopard-like hat. Landa forgetting about the cream for the strudel, then insisting on waiting for it to arrive, followed by close-ups of it being served. Zoller's increasingly ostentatious uniform. The SS officer drinking beer out of a glass boot. The dwarf painting Hitler's portrait. Hitler's fucking CAPE.
The only thing that really confused me about the movie was its title. Not the misspelling of "bastards" but the decision to name the film after such minor characters. The team is introduced early in the film but few of them have any lines and none of them are on screen for very long. I suppose a few of them are integral to the finale but without giving anything away, there's a larger story at work which they are completely independent of. They are largely forgettable as characters with the exception of Donny and perhaps Hugo.
The real star of the film, both from a character and acting point of view, is Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz). He's mesmerizing and I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever used that word (I had no idea how to spell it). From his conversation with the dairy farmer to his strudel moment to his extended laughter in the theater lobby to his last moment on screen, I could not take my eyes off of him. Here's a guy who has never been in a Hollywood movie before, playing a goddamn Nazi, and yet he's so charming he's almost sympathetic. He owns every scene that he's in, easily outshining Brad Pitt for sure. I hope when the time comes he is lauded like no other actor has been lauded before.
So yeah, I love the movie. Loved it. I spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday just thinking about how much I loved it. I didn't have much else to do at the time, which helped.
On Monday I made a hell of a long trek down to southern Osaka (yes, past KIX) for a gaming party thrown by fellow JET Graham. With the baby around and my relative isolation from other JETs, I suppose it was also the closest thing I'd have to a birthday party this year, so I was pretty excited about it. I was among the first people to arrive although my unfashionable earliness was intentional. Since it was so far away I knew I'd be leaving pretty early, so I wanted to get in as much gaming/socializing as I could before making the trek back home.
Graham's setup was really impressive. There was a big screen TV with a PS3 and all variants of plastic instruments hooked up in the main room of the party, which obviously spent most of the afternoon engaging in one kind of music game or another. However there was also a Wii and an Xbox in additional rooms, plus a computer with all sorts of emulators and two gamepads. Truly, there was something for everyone.
The first game I played was one I was kind of excited about, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Graham and I played through the entire first world together, taking advantage of the game's simultaneous co-op mode. It's funny how easy it was to accept a two-player Mario game even though it's a completely new experience in the twenty-five year history of the franchise. Sure, we got in each other's way a few times and maybe he grabbed a mushroom that totally should have been mine, but for the most part we were working together in delightful ways. Your characters have a lot of interactivity potential, from bouncing on one another to outright picking up another player and throwing him.
My biggest complaint was, sadly, my predominant one with Wii games: controls. The Wiimote does not feel comfortable when held sideways. It might resemble a classic controller in that position but it certainly doesn't feel like one. Also, the inclusion of motion controls (shaking, twisting, etc) is downright obnoxious. I understand the fun of pretending to swing a baseball bat or a golf club, Nintendo, but don't force me to jerk my hands around just to spin jump. Considering how often the simplicity of Wii controls is touted, this strikes me as a grievous miscalculation. Still, if I can convince Mako to try it I will absolutely buy this game for our home.
Next up was an "oldie" (from five months ago) that I had been very curious about, Prototype. You might remember it hit shelves around the same time as inFAMOUS did with a very similar premise: ordinary dude gets extraordinary powers in an open-world city environment. While inFAMOUS had a demo (which I absolutely detested) Prototype did not and I didn't really hear enough glowing praise to make me take a chance on it. I was also in the middle of BioShock at the time and, let's face it, that's a hard game to put down.
I'm happy to report that Prototype is a lot of fun. It opens in medias res with your character Alex rampaging in Times Square. There are soldiers, tanks, helicopters and mutant things all around you and none of them are friendly. There are also hundreds of civilians, taxi cabs and other elements that are neutral towards you but you are free to dispatch them if you feel like it. Indeed, a well-aimed automobile is the easiest way to take down a gunship.
The carnage abruptly ends and you return to the start of the story with Alex waking up in a morgue. While many of the outrageous powers you just used are no longer available, Alex is still perfectly capable of leaping tall obstacles and running up the sides of buildings. The game gives you a few quick objectives (elude the military, find Alex's sister) but it quickly opens up and lets you do whatever the hell you want. I spent a good half-hour or so running around (and up) Manhattan fooling around with Alex's super powers. There is a Grand Theft Auto-esque warning system where you can attract the authorities' attention by acting suspiciously, but it's refreshingly lax. It wasn't until I started smashing police cars together that anyone seemed to take notice and even then a few minutes of not acting like a monster was enough to make everyone calm down. Compare that to GTA IV where I swear a single bump of a patrol car can force you into a high-speed chase.
I suppose the big moment of the day was when I caved to peer pressure and picked up a fake guitar to play Beatles Rock Band. I am absolutely terrible at rhythm games and would have been much more comfortable grabbing a microphone instead, but my throat was pretty raw from coughing all day so I was in no condition to sing. At the very least, I can handle the bass on the Easy setting as there's only three buttons to worry about. I had fun despite my gross incompetence, especially as the game allows for up to six players (three on instruments, three on vocals) and we had more than enough willing participants for that.
The overall party experience was most pleasant. I am, as always, a poor mingler but I had a few nice conversations about games while indulging in junk food and many glasses of Coca-Cola. I honestly came home feeling like a kid because that about summarizes most of the parties I attended in my youth. The only thing missing was the pizza and the chance of a sleepover.
So to sum it all up, I ate delicious Chinese food and saw the best movie of 2009 on Saturday, lounged around the apartment on Sunday, then gorged myself on games and snacks on Monday. Pretty great weekend if I say so myself. And hey, I just realized that I'm flying home in a month!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Bronchial issues aside, I had a terrific weekend. On Saturday we dropped Go off with Mako's parents (with their blessing!) so the two of us could just spend the day together. Mako was nervous that something would go wrong and that they would never agree to watch him again but I can't imagine why. If anything, Mako's mom is better at getting the baby to fall asleep than either of us!
The first errand of the day turned out to be buying my birthday present. I have been without a wristwatch for the better part of three years now, perhaps longer. I guess when my last watch disappeared/died/whatever, I figured there was no rush to replace it because I already carry around a device that keeps time: it's called a mobile phone. Why bother strapping a completely redundant device to my wrist for a singular purpose?
What I've come to realize during that time is that using a phone as your primary timepiece is a major pain in the ass. First of all, it's always going to be in a pocket somewhere, which means to check the time I have to pull it out. This can not be done in a subtle fashion and we all know there are a variety of social situations where noticeably looking at a clock is a faux pas. Standing in front of a room full of children is certainly one of those situations, and while they are not offended per se it is impossible to look without creating a major distraction.
So after a few months of contemplating a watch, my wife listened to my murmurings and decided it would make a good birthday present. She also wisely realized that picking a watch without my input would be foolish, so we chose one together in Yodobashi Camera. It's probably the most expensive watch I've ever owned, but that's not saying much because I have always favored low-end digital watches. In my mind, wristwatches are like sunglasses: they are entirely too fragile to bother spending a lot of money on. But not this watch! It's a G-Shock with a stainless steel band, black with bronze "highlights" if you will. It feels heavy and looks good.
After buying the watch we went upstairs to Yodobashi The Dining (I love that name for a floor of restaurants) and had a terrific Chinese buffet lunch. It cost too much money, I suppose, but it tasted great and it was a special occasion of sorts. Here's a brief glimpse of our food and my watch as seen on Twitpic:
The main event of the day, by far, was our trip to the movies to see Inglorious Basterds which only just opened in Japan. Given Tarantino's fame here and their absolute adoration for all things Brad Pitt, I'm really surprised it took so long to show up in theaters. Then again, compared to most of the movies I wanted to watch in 2009, it arrived relatively quickly. A three month wait to see Inglorious Basterds is nothing compared to, well, FOREVER for the various indie movies I've been reading about all year. If I'm lucky, District 9 might show up on DVD sometime next winter...and that's a big if.
This sounds like griping but there is a point: in a movie-starved year for me, Inglorious Basterds was the best movie I've seen in a long time. I was a little uneasy about the premise, if only because I feel like I've seen enough World War II movies to last me until World War III, but Quentin Tarantino somehow made a war movie without much of a war in it. Even though nearly all the characters are soldiers, there are no scenes of combat and only a few minutes of gunfire ("few" being relative to the film's substantial length). Nearly all of that action takes place in the finale which is all the more powerful given the scarcity of violence leading up to it.
This is not to say the movie isn't tense; I would argue it's his most riveting film to date. The opening scene felt like it was an hour long but I say that because I was going out of my mind waiting for the hammer to drop. It's ostensibly a conversation between a high-ranking German and a French dairy farmer, full of conversational pleasantries (i.e. "Would you mind if I smoked my pipe?") yet I was on the edge of my seat. I don't know how he does it, but QT's dialogue continues to impress me with each and every picture he makes.
There's also the little things, small moments and quick shots that have no apparent meaning to me but I delighted in each one: Brad Pitt's character has a giant scar on his neck that is never explained. Julie Dreyfus' ridiculously gaudy wardrobe, particularly that leopard-like hat. Landa forgetting about the cream for the strudel, then insisting on waiting for it to arrive, followed by close-ups of it being served. Zoller's increasingly ostentatious uniform. The SS officer drinking beer out of a glass boot. The dwarf painting Hitler's portrait. Hitler's fucking CAPE.
The only thing that really confused me about the movie was its title. Not the misspelling of "bastards" but the decision to name the film after such minor characters. The team is introduced early in the film but few of them have any lines and none of them are on screen for very long. I suppose a few of them are integral to the finale but without giving anything away, there's a larger story at work which they are completely independent of. They are largely forgettable as characters with the exception of Donny and perhaps Hugo.
The real star of the film, both from a character and acting point of view, is Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz). He's mesmerizing and I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever used that word (I had no idea how to spell it). From his conversation with the dairy farmer to his strudel moment to his extended laughter in the theater lobby to his last moment on screen, I could not take my eyes off of him. Here's a guy who has never been in a Hollywood movie before, playing a goddamn Nazi, and yet he's so charming he's almost sympathetic. He owns every scene that he's in, easily outshining Brad Pitt for sure. I hope when the time comes he is lauded like no other actor has been lauded before.
So yeah, I love the movie. Loved it. I spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday just thinking about how much I loved it. I didn't have much else to do at the time, which helped.
On Monday I made a hell of a long trek down to southern Osaka (yes, past KIX) for a gaming party thrown by fellow JET Graham. With the baby around and my relative isolation from other JETs, I suppose it was also the closest thing I'd have to a birthday party this year, so I was pretty excited about it. I was among the first people to arrive although my unfashionable earliness was intentional. Since it was so far away I knew I'd be leaving pretty early, so I wanted to get in as much gaming/socializing as I could before making the trek back home.
Graham's setup was really impressive. There was a big screen TV with a PS3 and all variants of plastic instruments hooked up in the main room of the party, which obviously spent most of the afternoon engaging in one kind of music game or another. However there was also a Wii and an Xbox in additional rooms, plus a computer with all sorts of emulators and two gamepads. Truly, there was something for everyone.
The first game I played was one I was kind of excited about, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Graham and I played through the entire first world together, taking advantage of the game's simultaneous co-op mode. It's funny how easy it was to accept a two-player Mario game even though it's a completely new experience in the twenty-five year history of the franchise. Sure, we got in each other's way a few times and maybe he grabbed a mushroom that totally should have been mine, but for the most part we were working together in delightful ways. Your characters have a lot of interactivity potential, from bouncing on one another to outright picking up another player and throwing him.
My biggest complaint was, sadly, my predominant one with Wii games: controls. The Wiimote does not feel comfortable when held sideways. It might resemble a classic controller in that position but it certainly doesn't feel like one. Also, the inclusion of motion controls (shaking, twisting, etc) is downright obnoxious. I understand the fun of pretending to swing a baseball bat or a golf club, Nintendo, but don't force me to jerk my hands around just to spin jump. Considering how often the simplicity of Wii controls is touted, this strikes me as a grievous miscalculation. Still, if I can convince Mako to try it I will absolutely buy this game for our home.
Next up was an "oldie" (from five months ago) that I had been very curious about, Prototype. You might remember it hit shelves around the same time as inFAMOUS did with a very similar premise: ordinary dude gets extraordinary powers in an open-world city environment. While inFAMOUS had a demo (which I absolutely detested) Prototype did not and I didn't really hear enough glowing praise to make me take a chance on it. I was also in the middle of BioShock at the time and, let's face it, that's a hard game to put down.
I'm happy to report that Prototype is a lot of fun. It opens in medias res with your character Alex rampaging in Times Square. There are soldiers, tanks, helicopters and mutant things all around you and none of them are friendly. There are also hundreds of civilians, taxi cabs and other elements that are neutral towards you but you are free to dispatch them if you feel like it. Indeed, a well-aimed automobile is the easiest way to take down a gunship.
The carnage abruptly ends and you return to the start of the story with Alex waking up in a morgue. While many of the outrageous powers you just used are no longer available, Alex is still perfectly capable of leaping tall obstacles and running up the sides of buildings. The game gives you a few quick objectives (elude the military, find Alex's sister) but it quickly opens up and lets you do whatever the hell you want. I spent a good half-hour or so running around (and up) Manhattan fooling around with Alex's super powers. There is a Grand Theft Auto-esque warning system where you can attract the authorities' attention by acting suspiciously, but it's refreshingly lax. It wasn't until I started smashing police cars together that anyone seemed to take notice and even then a few minutes of not acting like a monster was enough to make everyone calm down. Compare that to GTA IV where I swear a single bump of a patrol car can force you into a high-speed chase.
I suppose the big moment of the day was when I caved to peer pressure and picked up a fake guitar to play Beatles Rock Band. I am absolutely terrible at rhythm games and would have been much more comfortable grabbing a microphone instead, but my throat was pretty raw from coughing all day so I was in no condition to sing. At the very least, I can handle the bass on the Easy setting as there's only three buttons to worry about. I had fun despite my gross incompetence, especially as the game allows for up to six players (three on instruments, three on vocals) and we had more than enough willing participants for that.
The overall party experience was most pleasant. I am, as always, a poor mingler but I had a few nice conversations about games while indulging in junk food and many glasses of Coca-Cola. I honestly came home feeling like a kid because that about summarizes most of the parties I attended in my youth. The only thing missing was the pizza and the chance of a sleepover.
So to sum it all up, I ate delicious Chinese food and saw the best movie of 2009 on Saturday, lounged around the apartment on Sunday, then gorged myself on games and snacks on Monday. Pretty great weekend if I say so myself. And hey, I just realized that I'm flying home in a month!
Labels: Beatles Rock Band, but I love gatherings, Inglorious Basterds, movies, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Osaka, poor health, Prototype, PS3, video games, Wii, Xbox
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
First Impressions
The skies over Akihabara are cloudy this morning. I've got a view of the famous electronics district from my hotel room on the 17th floor, and considering the crowds and the proximity to the JR tracks, it's incredibly quiet up here. I'm slowly starting to come to accept this city which I once felt was an incomprehensible chaotic mass.
I got in yesterday afternoon after what felt like the shortest plane trip I've ever taken. I barely had time to eat a sandwich and listen to one podcast before we were making our descent into Haneda. My bags were ludicrously heavy (seriously, what the hell am I carrying?) but I made it from the airport to Akihabara in a flash. My room here at Remm is very compact and stylish. It has only one odd flaw: there are no drawers for me to store my clothes, not even under the bed.
I went out to hang with Richard for a few hours. We had a fabulously decadent curry "dinner" (it was 3:30) at CoCo Ichibanya. Yes, that's chicken AND cheese. They charge you a bit more if you want the curry to be spicy, which I think is a clever way to make it seem more significant. I only ordered a 4 on their 10 point scale, and that was plenty spicy for me.
Richard, by the way, is doing great. Have I mentioned his video channel on YouTube yet? He's been making these funny little clips for a few months now. He told me he was working on two different ones this week so he's keeping himself quite busy. It was good to see him in such high spirits.
After playing some games and watching a bit of TV, I had to leave to get to a party on the other side of Tokyo. Chris Kohler had gotten my name put on the list for an informal gathering of video game professionals. For some reason, in my mind I thought it would be a very small, quiet affair. I have no idea why I thought that would be the case; I suppose when he said there was a list, I assumed it would be a single sheet of paper. There were instead hundreds of people in attendance, so there was a large line at the door and smaller but certainly inconvenient lines at the bar.
Those of you who know me in real life know that I am easily intimidated by parties and that intimidation factor is directly proportional to the number of guests. What you might not understand about this party was that a number of the guests are, in video game circles, rather famous. When you read and follow podcasts concerning video games as much as I do, there are certain names who loom over all the others. Some of them are writers I really admire or extremely knowledgeable about gaming history and trends, so I was essentially star struck as I saw all these familiar faces. Throw in the fact that there was this other guy wearing the exact same shirt as me (one of UNIQLO's game T-Shirts) and I was kind of a nervous wreck.
Chris Kohler is one of those people, but I had good reason to talk to him as he hired me and invited me to the party in the first place. I didn't know how to approach the others who I had no connection to. After a long while of absurd contemplation, I came to realize that I didn't need to be self-conscious about saying hi to someone I looked up to. I wasn't an autograph seeker or a paparazzo, I was just someone eager to pay a compliment. This is not something to sweat about.
Eventually, I did manage to greet and shake the hands of a couple different folks. Our meetings were brief and I had real trouble spitting out actual sentences instead of vague yet glowing remarks. When I did manage to say something (or better yet, ask something) it went a lot better. After all, everyone at the party was involved with games. We all shared a massive common interest in that regard, which is more than I can say for most parties I have attended. It took me a long time to figure that out, but once I did it made for much smoother sailing.
Today is the day I put all that behind me. The stammering and anxiety is out of my system now. The show starts tomorrow so I'll be meeting with Chris again to discuss the ins and outs of the job. That's the whole reason I'm here!
Hey, the sun came out. Awesome.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I got in yesterday afternoon after what felt like the shortest plane trip I've ever taken. I barely had time to eat a sandwich and listen to one podcast before we were making our descent into Haneda. My bags were ludicrously heavy (seriously, what the hell am I carrying?) but I made it from the airport to Akihabara in a flash. My room here at Remm is very compact and stylish. It has only one odd flaw: there are no drawers for me to store my clothes, not even under the bed.
I went out to hang with Richard for a few hours. We had a fabulously decadent curry "dinner" (it was 3:30) at CoCo Ichibanya. Yes, that's chicken AND cheese. They charge you a bit more if you want the curry to be spicy, which I think is a clever way to make it seem more significant. I only ordered a 4 on their 10 point scale, and that was plenty spicy for me.
Richard, by the way, is doing great. Have I mentioned his video channel on YouTube yet? He's been making these funny little clips for a few months now. He told me he was working on two different ones this week so he's keeping himself quite busy. It was good to see him in such high spirits.
After playing some games and watching a bit of TV, I had to leave to get to a party on the other side of Tokyo. Chris Kohler had gotten my name put on the list for an informal gathering of video game professionals. For some reason, in my mind I thought it would be a very small, quiet affair. I have no idea why I thought that would be the case; I suppose when he said there was a list, I assumed it would be a single sheet of paper. There were instead hundreds of people in attendance, so there was a large line at the door and smaller but certainly inconvenient lines at the bar.
Those of you who know me in real life know that I am easily intimidated by parties and that intimidation factor is directly proportional to the number of guests. What you might not understand about this party was that a number of the guests are, in video game circles, rather famous. When you read and follow podcasts concerning video games as much as I do, there are certain names who loom over all the others. Some of them are writers I really admire or extremely knowledgeable about gaming history and trends, so I was essentially star struck as I saw all these familiar faces. Throw in the fact that there was this other guy wearing the exact same shirt as me (one of UNIQLO's game T-Shirts) and I was kind of a nervous wreck.
Chris Kohler is one of those people, but I had good reason to talk to him as he hired me and invited me to the party in the first place. I didn't know how to approach the others who I had no connection to. After a long while of absurd contemplation, I came to realize that I didn't need to be self-conscious about saying hi to someone I looked up to. I wasn't an autograph seeker or a paparazzo, I was just someone eager to pay a compliment. This is not something to sweat about.
Eventually, I did manage to greet and shake the hands of a couple different folks. Our meetings were brief and I had real trouble spitting out actual sentences instead of vague yet glowing remarks. When I did manage to say something (or better yet, ask something) it went a lot better. After all, everyone at the party was involved with games. We all shared a massive common interest in that regard, which is more than I can say for most parties I have attended. It took me a long time to figure that out, but once I did it made for much smoother sailing.
Today is the day I put all that behind me. The stammering and anxiety is out of my system now. The show starts tomorrow so I'll be meeting with Chris again to discuss the ins and outs of the job. That's the whole reason I'm here!
Hey, the sun came out. Awesome.
Labels: awkward firsts, but I love gatherings, celebrities, friends, Richard, Tokyo
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, July 20, 2009
Dot to the Head
To celebrate the end of the semester, one of my schools had a office get-together on Friday night at a restaurant. We do this kind of thing every few months and it's always been at a Japanese place or the occasional neighboring cuisine, like Chinese or Korean. This time, however, we went to an Indian restaurant and that apparently changed everything. I know this sounds like another food post, but really, it's about my coworkers' behavior more than anything else.
I knew things were a bit off when I arrived and saw that all the women were wearing little press-on sparkly things on their foreheads in some kind of attempt to look Indian. No one had attempted to dress up for our previous meals (I saw no one in a hanbok when we ate yakiniku) and I was at a loss to guess why. I started to piece it together when I looked at the expression on people's faces as they gazed at the menu (often with their mouths agape) and when I kept hearing the question "Have you eaten Indian food before?*" Eventually, I figured it out: despite its proliferation, Indian food is actually exotic to the average Japanese person.
*Not to digress, but I must point out the choice of words here. Japanese people love to ask foreigners if they can eat Japanese food, a question that makes no sense when that foreigner has been living in Japan and eating school lunches for nearly two years. I fielded a variant of that question that same day in fact. Yet with other cuisines, it's always "have you eaten this" or "do you like this" which is just small talk. What's with the double standard?
This is something I find very surprising. Curry is absolutely integrated into the Japanese diet at this point. It's so common that it shows up in our school lunches at least once a month. Whether it's due to Japanese short-sightedness or simple ignorance, it would seem that few Japanese people actually consider curry's foreign origin. They just know what "curry" is and rarely consider what's in it; the way these people looked at the list of available dishes, you'd think that they were looking at an advanced chemistry textbook.
As for me, I love Indian food and I have been to many different Indian restaurants in and around Osaka in the past few years. I had not been to this particular one, of course, but the menu was pretty standard so I was not surprised by anything I saw (I was disappointed they had no vindaloo though). As a result, I found myself in a rare leadership position where people were looking to me for advice. Even though the menu and the waiter explained everything in Japanese more clearly than I ever could, it was up to me to recommend dishes and drinks for all. For example, no one applied that green spicy sauce to their food until after I did it, and then suddenly it was all over everyone's plates. I only wish they had followed my lead on the silverware, but instead every single one of them used chopsticks whenever possible. Tell me that isn't strange.
I'm sure you're thinking, "But Dan, don't you work in the sticks? Of course they were intimidated by the exoticism of Indian food!" I may work in the rural fringe of Osaka but I don't live there and neither do a majority of the teachers in Hana Town. Lots of them have traveled abroad and one teacher in particular lived in Holland for four years, so these are not hill people who are easily frightened by modern conveniences or the outside world.
I hope this doesn't come off as me making fun of anyone or expressing my disappointment with how the evening turned out. The food was quite nice, the drinks were free (few things in life are as wonderful as a Kingfisher in one hand and a mango lassi in the other) and it was kind of fun to be in a position of power for once. I'm just surprised at how intimidated they all seemed in the face of a commonplace cuisine like Indian food. I hope they came away from it as satisfied as I did, because I'd love to have more variety in our gatherings. Not just for the sake of variety but for value. Our typical Japanese dining experience runs me over 5500 Yen and I'm usually a bit hungry at the end. On Friday I only spent 4500 and I was stuffed. And at the risk of being selfish, it felt good knowing exactly what I was eating for a change.
The only downside to all this was I was too full and it was too late to go into the city afterwards to try and attend a sayonara party for the departing JETs. I will try to make it to this Friday's pub quiz for one last chance to bid some folks farewell. I can't say I was completely satisfied with my social life this past year but I'm glad I made a greater effort to make myself visible. The baby is going to make it harder to go out this next year but I'm not going to make any excuses. We'll find out soon enough, as the new JETs arrive next week. Bring on the newbies!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I knew things were a bit off when I arrived and saw that all the women were wearing little press-on sparkly things on their foreheads in some kind of attempt to look Indian. No one had attempted to dress up for our previous meals (I saw no one in a hanbok when we ate yakiniku) and I was at a loss to guess why. I started to piece it together when I looked at the expression on people's faces as they gazed at the menu (often with their mouths agape) and when I kept hearing the question "Have you eaten Indian food before?*" Eventually, I figured it out: despite its proliferation, Indian food is actually exotic to the average Japanese person.
*Not to digress, but I must point out the choice of words here. Japanese people love to ask foreigners if they can eat Japanese food, a question that makes no sense when that foreigner has been living in Japan and eating school lunches for nearly two years. I fielded a variant of that question that same day in fact. Yet with other cuisines, it's always "have you eaten this" or "do you like this" which is just small talk. What's with the double standard?
This is something I find very surprising. Curry is absolutely integrated into the Japanese diet at this point. It's so common that it shows up in our school lunches at least once a month. Whether it's due to Japanese short-sightedness or simple ignorance, it would seem that few Japanese people actually consider curry's foreign origin. They just know what "curry" is and rarely consider what's in it; the way these people looked at the list of available dishes, you'd think that they were looking at an advanced chemistry textbook.
As for me, I love Indian food and I have been to many different Indian restaurants in and around Osaka in the past few years. I had not been to this particular one, of course, but the menu was pretty standard so I was not surprised by anything I saw (I was disappointed they had no vindaloo though). As a result, I found myself in a rare leadership position where people were looking to me for advice. Even though the menu and the waiter explained everything in Japanese more clearly than I ever could, it was up to me to recommend dishes and drinks for all. For example, no one applied that green spicy sauce to their food until after I did it, and then suddenly it was all over everyone's plates. I only wish they had followed my lead on the silverware, but instead every single one of them used chopsticks whenever possible. Tell me that isn't strange.
I'm sure you're thinking, "But Dan, don't you work in the sticks? Of course they were intimidated by the exoticism of Indian food!" I may work in the rural fringe of Osaka but I don't live there and neither do a majority of the teachers in Hana Town. Lots of them have traveled abroad and one teacher in particular lived in Holland for four years, so these are not hill people who are easily frightened by modern conveniences or the outside world.
I hope this doesn't come off as me making fun of anyone or expressing my disappointment with how the evening turned out. The food was quite nice, the drinks were free (few things in life are as wonderful as a Kingfisher in one hand and a mango lassi in the other) and it was kind of fun to be in a position of power for once. I'm just surprised at how intimidated they all seemed in the face of a commonplace cuisine like Indian food. I hope they came away from it as satisfied as I did, because I'd love to have more variety in our gatherings. Not just for the sake of variety but for value. Our typical Japanese dining experience runs me over 5500 Yen and I'm usually a bit hungry at the end. On Friday I only spent 4500 and I was stuffed. And at the risk of being selfish, it felt good knowing exactly what I was eating for a change.
The only downside to all this was I was too full and it was too late to go into the city afterwards to try and attend a sayonara party for the departing JETs. I will try to make it to this Friday's pub quiz for one last chance to bid some folks farewell. I can't say I was completely satisfied with my social life this past year but I'm glad I made a greater effort to make myself visible. The baby is going to make it harder to go out this next year but I'm not going to make any excuses. We'll find out soon enough, as the new JETs arrive next week. Bring on the newbies!
Labels: but I love gatherings, food, Indian food, Japan, JET
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Night of 1,000 Songs
Well, last night was certainly an adventure. Probably the last such adventure...ever?
I went into Osaka last night to attend a birthday get-together for Alex. The plan was two-fold: we were going to meet in a bar in Shinsaibashi and then we were going back to his neighborhood karaoke joint where we would sing until morning. I went ahead and added a third-fold by coming in early and eating dinner. Rather than go for the usual bar food, I was hoping to track down a special van Mako and I saw on TV this week. Two college students take their mobile kitchen to different areas and serve "healthy burgers," in this case the main ingredient being not beef but fugu. Now that I've come to understand that fugu is delicious and it won't kill me, I'm now on board with eating it whenever possible. Unfortunately, since I was armed only with an address and not a map, finding the van proved impossible. I recovered and simply ate a surprisingly tasty calzone at the bar.
I hung out and waited for people to arrive, all the while slowly making my way through a series of cocktails. Eventually people turned up, but until Alex was there I had no idea who was there to meet up and who was just there for the hell of it. As it turns out, he knew nearly everyone in the place even though most of them weren't expecting him or anything. One guy in particular I recognized as a regular from my favorite spot, Captain Kangaroo in Umeda. It's funny, I knew his name from a conversation we had during my Kansai Gaidai days, but in all the times since then that I saw him in the bar, we never really spoke. Then last night we suddenly had occasion to sit there and talk about a dozen different things.
It was just past 10 o'clock that we left the bar and rode the subway to the karaoke place. Between waiting for more people and waiting for the discount night prices to begin, we didn't actually enter the karaoke room until 11. Once inside I was pretty impressed. Alex was expecting a fairly large group so we had a really spacious room, complete with a slot machine (not for profit, just for fun). We started singing with only three people but over time it swelled to about eleven, most of whom were Japanese and none of whom I had met before. I lost count but I don't think anyone sang more than me or Alex, at least not in the early hours.
As the night went on and I kept drinking, I gradually started to fade. It wasn't that I felt drunk, I simply felt tired. I rarely have cause to stay up past midnight these days, so being awake and trying to sing "Baby Got Back" at two-thirty in the morning proved to be nearly impossible. Fortunately, the room was so big I had enough room to stretch out and lay down across the seats. I don't when I went down for good, but I know we were in there until 5 AM.
Unfortunately, the long night of drink mixed with a smattering of snacks did not sit well in my stomach. For the first time in years I had to throw up. While that is never a good thing, I am happy that at this point in my life I can tell when it has to happen and just deal with it, which means it's over quickly and I feel better right away. It would have been nice if I had taken care of business before the karaoke counter turned off their drink machines, because when it was over I really, really wanted a glass of water.
Our group had shrunk to only five people at this point and we all wanted to sit down and get something in our stomachs. McDonald's proved to be the most popular choice, considering time and proximity to our location, so we went over there and ordered breakfast. I was still out of it, more or less, but being me I went ahead and ate a Mega Muffin. It didn't go down my throat easily but once it was in my gut I felt a lot better....rather, I felt as good as you can after eating McDonald's.
It was a pretty strange scene, honestly, reminding me of the old Larry Miller routine about the "five stages of drinking." Everyone seemed a bit tipsy and a couple of folks wanted things that weren't on the menu (such as gyoza) and they were reluctant to take "no" for an answer from the staff. Then one of these guys, a man about ten years older than me, said that holding the tray reminded him of the time he spent in prison as a child. I didn't ask why he went to prison, probably because he brought it up so casually I don't think it struck me as odd until after I left.
It was a fun night, and I'm glad I went, but throughout the ride home I thought about what I should have done differently. For starters, I should have stopped drinking booze before midnight, perhaps even earlier. I would have been just as eager to sing while drinking soda as I was drinking beer. Once you start second guessing yourself though, the big question comes up: should I have stayed up all night? Part of me says no, because the trade off is I spent a large portion of today making up for lost rest. But the part of me that enjoys, you know, fun things says yes because it's not like I would have gotten anything special done today anyway. I basically concentrated my weekend in a long Saturday night and had an abbreviated Sunday as a result. That's a fair trade in my book, especially when staying out means lots of singing while an ordinary Sunday does not.
However, I must be realistic. There was a time where staying up all night was basically normal, but at this point in my life I don't have the energy for it anymore. I was out all night but I wasn't up all night, yet I spent all of today feeling as if I had not slept. Add a forthcoming baby into the mix and that's a living, breathing, screaming reason for me to make sure and catch the last train.
But before the baby gets here...maybe I'm not done trying to push it to the limit.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I went into Osaka last night to attend a birthday get-together for Alex. The plan was two-fold: we were going to meet in a bar in Shinsaibashi and then we were going back to his neighborhood karaoke joint where we would sing until morning. I went ahead and added a third-fold by coming in early and eating dinner. Rather than go for the usual bar food, I was hoping to track down a special van Mako and I saw on TV this week. Two college students take their mobile kitchen to different areas and serve "healthy burgers," in this case the main ingredient being not beef but fugu. Now that I've come to understand that fugu is delicious and it won't kill me, I'm now on board with eating it whenever possible. Unfortunately, since I was armed only with an address and not a map, finding the van proved impossible. I recovered and simply ate a surprisingly tasty calzone at the bar.
I hung out and waited for people to arrive, all the while slowly making my way through a series of cocktails. Eventually people turned up, but until Alex was there I had no idea who was there to meet up and who was just there for the hell of it. As it turns out, he knew nearly everyone in the place even though most of them weren't expecting him or anything. One guy in particular I recognized as a regular from my favorite spot, Captain Kangaroo in Umeda. It's funny, I knew his name from a conversation we had during my Kansai Gaidai days, but in all the times since then that I saw him in the bar, we never really spoke. Then last night we suddenly had occasion to sit there and talk about a dozen different things.
It was just past 10 o'clock that we left the bar and rode the subway to the karaoke place. Between waiting for more people and waiting for the discount night prices to begin, we didn't actually enter the karaoke room until 11. Once inside I was pretty impressed. Alex was expecting a fairly large group so we had a really spacious room, complete with a slot machine (not for profit, just for fun). We started singing with only three people but over time it swelled to about eleven, most of whom were Japanese and none of whom I had met before. I lost count but I don't think anyone sang more than me or Alex, at least not in the early hours.
As the night went on and I kept drinking, I gradually started to fade. It wasn't that I felt drunk, I simply felt tired. I rarely have cause to stay up past midnight these days, so being awake and trying to sing "Baby Got Back" at two-thirty in the morning proved to be nearly impossible. Fortunately, the room was so big I had enough room to stretch out and lay down across the seats. I don't when I went down for good, but I know we were in there until 5 AM.
Unfortunately, the long night of drink mixed with a smattering of snacks did not sit well in my stomach. For the first time in years I had to throw up. While that is never a good thing, I am happy that at this point in my life I can tell when it has to happen and just deal with it, which means it's over quickly and I feel better right away. It would have been nice if I had taken care of business before the karaoke counter turned off their drink machines, because when it was over I really, really wanted a glass of water.
Our group had shrunk to only five people at this point and we all wanted to sit down and get something in our stomachs. McDonald's proved to be the most popular choice, considering time and proximity to our location, so we went over there and ordered breakfast. I was still out of it, more or less, but being me I went ahead and ate a Mega Muffin. It didn't go down my throat easily but once it was in my gut I felt a lot better....rather, I felt as good as you can after eating McDonald's.
It was a pretty strange scene, honestly, reminding me of the old Larry Miller routine about the "five stages of drinking." Everyone seemed a bit tipsy and a couple of folks wanted things that weren't on the menu (such as gyoza) and they were reluctant to take "no" for an answer from the staff. Then one of these guys, a man about ten years older than me, said that holding the tray reminded him of the time he spent in prison as a child. I didn't ask why he went to prison, probably because he brought it up so casually I don't think it struck me as odd until after I left.
It was a fun night, and I'm glad I went, but throughout the ride home I thought about what I should have done differently. For starters, I should have stopped drinking booze before midnight, perhaps even earlier. I would have been just as eager to sing while drinking soda as I was drinking beer. Once you start second guessing yourself though, the big question comes up: should I have stayed up all night? Part of me says no, because the trade off is I spent a large portion of today making up for lost rest. But the part of me that enjoys, you know, fun things says yes because it's not like I would have gotten anything special done today anyway. I basically concentrated my weekend in a long Saturday night and had an abbreviated Sunday as a result. That's a fair trade in my book, especially when staying out means lots of singing while an ordinary Sunday does not.
However, I must be realistic. There was a time where staying up all night was basically normal, but at this point in my life I don't have the energy for it anymore. I was out all night but I wasn't up all night, yet I spent all of today feeling as if I had not slept. Add a forthcoming baby into the mix and that's a living, breathing, screaming reason for me to make sure and catch the last train.
But before the baby gets here...maybe I'm not done trying to push it to the limit.
Labels: Alex, but I love gatherings, friends, karaoke, Osaka
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, September 08, 2008
Monster Envy
Good news, if a little late: today at work I finally had an opportunity to sort out everything that didn't get done last week in preparation for classes. I think I'm going to have to get used to the fact that nothing around here gets done before the semester starts. Even if you have an entire day devoted to preparing for classes during summer break, there's always going to be some crucial element left undone that will have to wait until after the students show up and the teaching staff is extremely busy.
I had some "me" time this weekend because Mako went to Kobe for not one but two B'z concerts, both times returning home around midnight. I turned my lonely-frown upside-down by renting a film that I could watch and enjoy alone that she had absolutely no interest in seeing. It wasn't until I got to the video store that I realized the perfect choice had just hit the shelves this weekend: Cloverfield.
I found the movie to be extremely compelling. As a fan of The Blair Witch Project, I was an easy sell for the "gimmick" of Cloverfield wherein all the action is presented from a single hand-held camera's perspective. They cheat a little bit with professional edits that don't jive with the notion that somebody is just sitting there recording everything, and there were occasions where the gimmick strained my suspension of disbelief (instead of "Don't go in that room" I found myself thinking "Put the camera down and run, asshole!") but otherwise the choice to use hand-held photography made the movie far more enjoyable than if it had just been presented like a typical monster-destroys-New-York movie (US Godzilla, I'm looking at you). The central characters weren't the most interesting bunch of folks but the gimmick forced them into the spotlight and kept them there for the entire story. The more time they spent on the screen, the more I couldn't help but identify with them, in at least some small way or another.
Cloverfield reminded me of the excellent Korean-made monster flick The Host (which I saw last year), in that both films kept the action tightly focused on a small group of people. The Host didn't use the first-person-cameraman idea but otherwise it and Cloverfield follow an extremely similar set-up: the audience meets the protagonists and gets a glimpse of who they are before things get crazy. Once the monster arrives, the audience and the on-screen characters have to deal with the situation together - that is, neither the characters on-screen or the people watching the movie know more than the other about the creature. Cloverfield slightly missteps here because the opening titles actually reveal more to the audience than we need to know about how the "footage" we see will end. I wouldn't call it a spoiler but it's decidedly unnecessary to try and "explain" why we are watching the events unfold from somebody's personal camera. The Blair Witch Project needed a reason as it was tied to the premise and marketing of the film as a documentary about still-missing film students. Cloverfield is obvious fiction from the first scene, so the framing device is completely superfluous.
By contrast, bigger, broader, and dumber disaster films insist on a giant cast of players, spreading themselves way too thin across standard character stereotypes. The loser trying to redeem himself in the face of sudden adversity, the clueless authority figure unwilling to make the hard choices to solve the crisis, the brilliant scientist who tries to warn others but is ignored, the hardcore soldier who puts his duty ahead of his own well-being, etc. etc. etc...none of these dullards show up in Cloverfield and I think the gimmick helped to keep them away. With a single camera recording the entire film, there can be no cutaways to City Hall or NASA or anywhere.
If I had a problem with Cloverfield, it was the far-fetched notion that these people could continually and apparently randomly keep running into the monster again and again. I know Manhattan isn't the biggest island but it's large enough to make me wonder how these tiny humans might possibly encounter the lumbering behemoth so many times, even when they are doing their best to run away from it. Slasher films do this a lot, but at least in those cases the slowpoke killer is actively chasing the protagonists. I'm not sure why the creature in Cloverfield seemed to happen upon the same unarmed civilians so often, because there's no reason to believe it was trying to find them.
However, I got more out of Cloverfield than a good thrill. As a New Yorker who has been dealing with his share of homesickness lately, I found myself getting a little emotional due to all the New York memories the film reminded me of. Right from the first scene near Central Park and Columbus Circle, I thought of a New Year's party my friends & I managed to get into in a penthouse a few years back in that neighborhood. The trip to Coney Island was a nostalgic one made all the more painful by today's news that Astroland may be closed for good. Even throwaway scenes like shopping in a New York deli made me feel like I was missing something in my life here in Japan.
Speaking of Japan, there was another element that spoke to me personally. All of the main characters are gathered at a surprise "farewell party" for one guy who's going off to Japan for a new job. While watching the party scenes, my mind wandered a bit and I started to feel sad that I've never had a farewell party, let alone a surprise farewell party. Then I started thinking about all the parties I have attended in New York and how awkward I always managed to feel, so even if I had such a party I don't think I would be able to enjoy it. This reminded me of the fun we did have this March when I came to town, followed by frustration by the fact that I came to New York to celebrate my wedding and I barely had any time to relax with my friends - arguably the main goal of the trip in the first place.
Wow...as you can see, the movie overwhelmed me for a variety of reasons. Let me just wrap up here with a strong recommendation of Cloverfield and add a forceful declaration that this November, things will be different. And if a monster attacks during our evening of karaoke, I volunteer to hold the camera.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I had some "me" time this weekend because Mako went to Kobe for not one but two B'z concerts, both times returning home around midnight. I turned my lonely-frown upside-down by renting a film that I could watch and enjoy alone that she had absolutely no interest in seeing. It wasn't until I got to the video store that I realized the perfect choice had just hit the shelves this weekend: Cloverfield.
I found the movie to be extremely compelling. As a fan of The Blair Witch Project, I was an easy sell for the "gimmick" of Cloverfield wherein all the action is presented from a single hand-held camera's perspective. They cheat a little bit with professional edits that don't jive with the notion that somebody is just sitting there recording everything, and there were occasions where the gimmick strained my suspension of disbelief (instead of "Don't go in that room" I found myself thinking "Put the camera down and run, asshole!") but otherwise the choice to use hand-held photography made the movie far more enjoyable than if it had just been presented like a typical monster-destroys-New-York movie (US Godzilla, I'm looking at you). The central characters weren't the most interesting bunch of folks but the gimmick forced them into the spotlight and kept them there for the entire story. The more time they spent on the screen, the more I couldn't help but identify with them, in at least some small way or another.
Cloverfield reminded me of the excellent Korean-made monster flick The Host (which I saw last year), in that both films kept the action tightly focused on a small group of people. The Host didn't use the first-person-cameraman idea but otherwise it and Cloverfield follow an extremely similar set-up: the audience meets the protagonists and gets a glimpse of who they are before things get crazy. Once the monster arrives, the audience and the on-screen characters have to deal with the situation together - that is, neither the characters on-screen or the people watching the movie know more than the other about the creature. Cloverfield slightly missteps here because the opening titles actually reveal more to the audience than we need to know about how the "footage" we see will end. I wouldn't call it a spoiler but it's decidedly unnecessary to try and "explain" why we are watching the events unfold from somebody's personal camera. The Blair Witch Project needed a reason as it was tied to the premise and marketing of the film as a documentary about still-missing film students. Cloverfield is obvious fiction from the first scene, so the framing device is completely superfluous.
By contrast, bigger, broader, and dumber disaster films insist on a giant cast of players, spreading themselves way too thin across standard character stereotypes. The loser trying to redeem himself in the face of sudden adversity, the clueless authority figure unwilling to make the hard choices to solve the crisis, the brilliant scientist who tries to warn others but is ignored, the hardcore soldier who puts his duty ahead of his own well-being, etc. etc. etc...none of these dullards show up in Cloverfield and I think the gimmick helped to keep them away. With a single camera recording the entire film, there can be no cutaways to City Hall or NASA or anywhere.
If I had a problem with Cloverfield, it was the far-fetched notion that these people could continually and apparently randomly keep running into the monster again and again. I know Manhattan isn't the biggest island but it's large enough to make me wonder how these tiny humans might possibly encounter the lumbering behemoth so many times, even when they are doing their best to run away from it. Slasher films do this a lot, but at least in those cases the slowpoke killer is actively chasing the protagonists. I'm not sure why the creature in Cloverfield seemed to happen upon the same unarmed civilians so often, because there's no reason to believe it was trying to find them.
However, I got more out of Cloverfield than a good thrill. As a New Yorker who has been dealing with his share of homesickness lately, I found myself getting a little emotional due to all the New York memories the film reminded me of. Right from the first scene near Central Park and Columbus Circle, I thought of a New Year's party my friends & I managed to get into in a penthouse a few years back in that neighborhood. The trip to Coney Island was a nostalgic one made all the more painful by today's news that Astroland may be closed for good. Even throwaway scenes like shopping in a New York deli made me feel like I was missing something in my life here in Japan.
Speaking of Japan, there was another element that spoke to me personally. All of the main characters are gathered at a surprise "farewell party" for one guy who's going off to Japan for a new job. While watching the party scenes, my mind wandered a bit and I started to feel sad that I've never had a farewell party, let alone a surprise farewell party. Then I started thinking about all the parties I have attended in New York and how awkward I always managed to feel, so even if I had such a party I don't think I would be able to enjoy it. This reminded me of the fun we did have this March when I came to town, followed by frustration by the fact that I came to New York to celebrate my wedding and I barely had any time to relax with my friends - arguably the main goal of the trip in the first place.
Wow...as you can see, the movie overwhelmed me for a variety of reasons. Let me just wrap up here with a strong recommendation of Cloverfield and add a forceful declaration that this November, things will be different. And if a monster attacks during our evening of karaoke, I volunteer to hold the camera.
Labels: but I love gatherings, Cloverfield, fuzzy memories, movies
つづく...(Click here to read more)
