Love/Hate

Tonight I came home to our apartment as it was being packed up. Things once on walls and shelves were now nested in neatly stacked piles: frames, books, dishes, Netsuke critters, seed pods. ODA sat partially hidden behind a pile of boxes and two huge rolls of bubble wrap. Busy, busy...

As with all of our moves in the past - east to midwest, midwest to east, east to west, west to northeast, then further south to Stinky Town - this period of packing triggers an inevitable bout of both nostalgia and anxiety. I realize what I'm going to miss, but also just want to get it over with and leave. It's like a break-up. Good or bad, they always ache.

We leave in 18 days.

Ten random things I'll miss (in no particular order):

1. Friends (the dwindling KC clan as well as the NY newbies)
2. The privilege of calling NYC "home" (particularly Brooklyn - the BEST borough!)
3. Leaves in October (a.k.a. Autumn)
4. Free chocolate from Mrs. Kim at the corner store
5. Good art & star sightings (they often go together)
6. Living in a prime terrorist target (it's soooo exciting here, to a fault)
7. The abundant but exceptional sweet shops (you know who you are)
8. Central Park (esp. its beautiful mid-section in Spring)
9. Excursions to the (unfortunately all-too-white) Hudson Valley
10. The distant sound of the early morning F train out our bedroom window as it emerges from underground and heads south*

One thing I won't miss:

1. *Everything else about the MTA

Il buono, il brutto & il cattivo (Movie Review #5)

The Good: While swimming in bouts of unbridled goofiness, Into the Wild is forgiven for its remaining moments of truth. While it's been done endless times, mostly by male media makers, it doesn't seem to get tired - ever. It's Kerouac's On the Road and Hopper's Easy Rider all over again, but from a 23 year-old's perspective circa 1992. Yes, always cliche - but this one is sweet and silly and sincere. While you want to kick the kid - "Alexander Supertramp" - in the head at times throughout the film, once in a while - if you're honest with yourself - you see a bit of you in him and his reckless, selfish actions. If you don't, you're a big liar. Either that or you simply wasted your youth. For all the bad "I'm the King of the World" scenes, there are almost as many wonderful ones. Moments where Alex is utterly alone in the Alaskan wilderness, witnessing immense beauty, but unable to share his joy with anyone else. The Bad: After seeing Vincent Gallo cut off our bus in LA with his GTO, I just had to give this film of his a chance. I was one of the few fans of Buffalo 66, so I recently rented Brown Bunny (oddly, a "long wait" on NetFlix). Yeah, yeah - I heard all the hype surrounding the BJ scene. No, no - I didn't rent it because of the BJ scene. It was actually the worst part of the film, sadly where it all finally came totally, unforgivably unraveled. While it was really a bland, uninspired movie, Gallo does have an eye for the beauty of everyday stuff: driving alone on the highway, people's ordinary features, mediocre American architecture, bad decisions, etc. Plus, I like that he ignores entertainment timing altogether. I'll give him that. The Ugly: I've already mentioned it, but the prize goes - claws down - to D-War. I still can't bring myself to illustrate its ugliness in any detail... but maybe in 10 years it will be funny. Maybe. (Did I mention its publicity budget matched the entire production and post budget combined: $30M?)

Commuter Complaint #4

While religious yammering by crazy yet passionate folk on the subway ranks in the top 5 annoyances of commuting, often these subterranean mystics can be quite entertaining. The other night, on the trek home, after an especially loud and nonsensical Bible beater departed the F train, two 20-something guys started chatting to each other. The younger dude, hair pulled back wearing a grimy FedEx Ground shirt, did 99% of the talking. At first, it was hard to single out their conversation in the midst of the rush hour roar, but I slowly began to decipher words and chunks of sentences (heavily censored here for your delicate eyes): "Yo, yo - n___er, he was like laid out, for real, no f___ing kidding." The other guy nodded, eyebrows slightly raised. "F__k, yeah - in some like little cave or something, for like three f___ing days and nights, n___er. Totally toasted, ya'll." His friend looked puzzled. "Then, like BOOM! F___ing big ass boulder like split in half! N___er just f___ing stomps his ass outta the cave and is all "Yo, yo - here I yaaaam!" to all those motherf___ers who like f___ed with him. Roman n___ers. Then, he like flew up and sh_t... up there, somewhere. Heaven, I guess." Now, several other sardines were listening in, almost enthralled. "Awesome," his pal said - now completely converted. "F___ing right. And, yo - that n___er's coming back. But not like that old hippy sh_t. He be back as a f___ing kick-ass lawyer or like some banker dude. F___ing kick all ya'lls ass." Perfectly timed, the story ended at 2nd Ave. and the two enthusiastic young Christians exited the train, disappearing into the thick crowd of agnostic hipsters. Now, that's how you spread the good word!

48 Hours in Beacon

With ODA being AWOL in CA, I ventured up to the always pleasant 'ville of Beacon - just north of Stinky Town - and spent the weekend with some Hudson Valley pals!

One of my favorite new people up there is little Charlie Z (belonging to Beth & Jim). I took about 2,478 pictures of him, give or take. He's quite adorable. Sorta hard to take your eyes off him.

Beth's dad, Gary, pulled into town on his way to CT and showed off his big rig (he left the trailer at a nearby rest stop).

Toby & Frank's daughter, the amazing Sophia, performed some sparring whoop-ass for us before taking home her super cool Black Belt (three years in the making)!

Later, we celebrated her victory at Soul Dog...

But first, more pics of Charlie!

Jim seized the rare opportunity to see a trashy movie with me, and we went to a late show that night. What happened next cannot be mentioned... It's not that we're embarrassed to reveal what flick we saw - I mean, I've seen some real suckers and still live to rejoice in discussing their merits and flaws - but I do not possess the energy nor the necessary catalog of words for a review of this monstrosity of a film. Not fun. Let's just flash-forward to the next morning...

The next morning, we took Charlie to his very first car show! Fun!

The little man thoroughly enjoyed himself. Here are a few of his favorites...

Charlie's Pa checking out the '34 Ford coupe.

Mom inspects the '38 DeSoto next door.

But after nearly three hours, even Jimmy Z - Charlie's gear head Dad - had burned out.

In the end, the little man had settled on a sweet SS Nova for his 16th birthday, much to Mom's shagrin (apparently, she was holding out for a T-Bird).

What a swell weekend (despite the Dragons)!