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February 28, 2007
asian american film festival
so maybe i didn't make it to any of the indie films, but i'm totally hitting some of the asian american offerings. there's one about a kick ass cheerleader high schooler fighting demons, an anime movie, and two films starring aishwarya rai!
so i hereby present to you, (my potential film buddies), the 4 films i MOST want to see and then all the other ones i kind of want to see.
march 17, Saturday
Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, AMC Van Ness, 12:15pm
Wendy is the popular girl in high school and has her heart set on winning the Homecoming Queen title. Her world is turned upside down when a monk from China, Shen, arrives at her front door with news that she is the latest descendant in a line of powerful female warriors. Her mission is to defeat the evil sorcerer Yan Lo, who re-emerges every 90 years with intentions of world domination. Can Wendy put her Homecoming dreams aside long enough to save the world?
amazingly, this is a Disney original movie that they're playing at the festival. ha ha ha! it's like my dream come true.
March 17, Saturday
Mistress of Spices, Castro, 3:30pm
From the creative team of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Opening NIght, SFIAAFF ‘03) comes this magical and heart-warming adaptation of Chitra Divakaruni’s celebrated novel, THE MISTRESS OF SPICES. Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai is Tilo, a beautiful but lonely “Spice Mistress,” one of a secret group of women trained in the healing powers of herbs and roots. From her fragrant spice shop in Oakland, California, broken hearts, strained relations and runs of bad luck can all be contained within the remedying powers of fenugreek, chilies and cinnamon. Tilo is bound, however, by the rules of her craft: she may only use her powers for others, can never leave the spice shop, and must never touch another’s skin.
film #1 with Aishwarya Rai. she's so pretty that i'm pretty much willing to see anything she's in. though the addition of dylan mcdermott to this film does make me suspicious. and it's setting in oakland
March 18, Sunday
Umrao Jaan, Castro, 8:30pm
Director J.P. Dutta remains largely faithful to the novel and earlier film as he retells the life saga of Ameeran, who is kidnapped from her village at age eight and sold to an upscale kotha (brothel) in Lucknow. There, in the sophisticated cultural capital of North India, Ameeran is renamed Umrao, trained in music, dance and social etiquette, and groomed to become a courtesan. Years later, and now a stunning adult, Umrao debuts with a breathtaking solo performance before a local dignitary, Nawab Sultan (Abhishek Bachchan, now Rai’s real-life husband). Against all the rules, they fall for each other. But before long, Umrao’s life takes some dramatic, unexpected turns; Sultan is forced to leave town, another dignitary pursues Umrao and the British invasion looms.
film #2 with Aishwarya Rai and in this one she's a prostitute in period clothing! with arm bangles and the head jewelery and oh man, that's some good shit.
March 22, Thursday
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, PFA, 7:30pm
Makoto (the niece of the original heroine) is a vivacious—if klutzy—17-year old tomboy who spends her days playing catch after school with her guy pals Kosuke and Chiaki. Her carefree summer days are literally thrown for a loop when she discovers a mysterious ability to leap back through time. Her trivial temporal maneuvers—undoing little blunders or finding out exam questions in advance—soon lead to complicated wrinkles that have an inevitable impact on those around her. And when Chiaki confesses his love for her one day, she not only finds their delicate friendship triangle crumbling, but also that there are some things time can never change—or prevent.Hosoda is a remarkable new talent who, together with a stellar creative team including art director Nizou Yamamoto (PRINCESS MONONOKE) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (NEON GENESIS EVANGELION), has crafted a magical and surprisingly affecting film full of humor, warmth and the bittersweet pangs of first love.
wanna see! wanna see! eeee!
Other films I kind of want to see:
thursday, 3/15: finishing the game (comedy spoof about casting for bruce lee's last role after he died)
friday, 3/16: big trouble in little china (on the big screen. tempting)
saturday, 3/17: shanghai kiss (oddly, it's got the cheerleader from 'heros', and then kelly hu and the kareoke salesman from 'keeping the faith'.), the end of the world as we know it (shorts, some of which look hilarious)
sunday, 3/18: american pastime (baseball in concentration camps! who doesn't see the fun in that?), pavement butterfly (silent film from 1929), footy legends (australian rugby has-beens and a dream), king and the clown (south korean homosexuality and court jesters), Third I South Asian Shorts 2007 (mostly i'm interested in the animated scenes from the 'Ramayama').
wednesday, 3/21: exiled (big names from hong kong but it's a thriller/drama about hit-men)
Posted by michele at 05:13 PM | Comments (7)
February 24, 2007
sushi wa daisuki desu-YO!
it looks as if my invitation to fight did not actually drum up interest in the CH birthday party. it did lose me kim as a friend though. in hopes of rectifying my banning from sushi zone, i've taken some photos.
my brother gave me a plastic model sushi set (since he knows how much i really love sushi) and kim, here's puppy eye begging at you, kid. look how sad i am eating only rice! let me have some delicious raw salmon!
in one final, (truthful), attempt to gain party-goers, i also present you with a photo of my brilliant (and disgusting) CH-themed jell-O shots. i tried one of the pink ones and almost puked. though i could see the alcohol fumes wafting out of my mouth. i might be drunk. all right, i'm not drunk. but if i ate like...4, i might be tipsy. the yellow ones do smell worse, but maybe they taste better. here's hoping.
so come celebrate the 5th birthday of cementhorizon. rsvp at cementhorizon.com for the address if you don't have it already. 8pm tonight.
and no punching!
Posted by michele at 01:27 PM | Comments (3)
February 23, 2007
i'm practically asking for a punch in the face
today i bought the jello with which to make jello shots. flavors: strawberry kiwi and island pineapple. this is going to be revolting. i'm no longer sure why i volunteered to make these. i don't plan on really eating/drinking/oh come on, just slurping, many of them. AND i realized they'll be full of horse hooves thus negating their appeal to the vegetarians of the group. but people, do you not remember the oreo cookie cheesecake fiasco of 1998? can you really afford to pass up anything i make with gelatin in it? that cheesecake was a taste sensation, all right? i can still remember the looks on your faces when you bit into it and it tried to wiggle away from your bicuspids. good times, good times.
(maybe we could just have a jello food fight? shh, keep it on the downlow, if the hosts find out they might disinvite us)
why am i pre-emptively trying to cause a riot? why?
Posted by michele at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2007
i better czech myself before i wreck myself
and so the sand in the hourglass of our life pours pornographic gold into my lap.
i'm perusing the high school newspaper/magazine thing today when a story about a visiting exchange student catches my eye. in it he is describing a traditional easter ritual from his home country.
he says,
"Easter is a very fun holiday in the Czech Republic. All the girls stay home and decorate the eggs while the men put together twigs to make decent whipping sticks [already you can see this story going somewhere beautiful, can't you?]."The guys then go around like trick-or-treating [!!!] and gently [!] hit the girls on their bottom and ask for eggs."
boys, we're instituting a little czech this easter. who's with me?
.............................................................................when's easter?
Posted by michele at 04:35 PM | Comments (5)
we gonna scrap?
in preparation for the knock-down, drag-out fight i know is coming this saturday at the CH birthday bash, i've been taking instruction from some of the punk high school girls i work with. yesterday at the library, they showed me the many, many scars on their knuckles from punching other girls in the face who had braces. now, former friends, aren't you glad none of us has metal teeth straighteners? no one has to get permanently marked here. let's all remember that when the fists start flying.
Posted by michele at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)
February 21, 2007
it's worth a punch in the face out of your day
for five years now i've been lying. for i am an evil care bear deciever (which you would understand if you too had endured the ridiculous ghost rider movie). the thing is that i don't even like sushi. raw fish? that's disgusting.
in retribution for this five year long deception, come to the CH 5 year birthday party and punch me in the face. see you there.
WHEN: Saturday, February 24, starting 8pm
WHERE: the Castro, San Francisco. email rsvp at cementhorizon.com for the exact address.
more info in previous post here.
Posted by michele at 04:17 PM | Comments (5)
February 20, 2007
black heart: the bad care bear
the whales may have been going to mate in baja, but some of the dolphins mated right in front of us.
pictures of me, sean, gene, kristen, and nuala whale watching (for free!) in santa barbara here.
Posted by michele at 12:47 PM | Comments (2)
February 14, 2007
alcohol doused flames
yesterday i met a hot fireman at the local safeway.
"hey." he said to me in the checkout line.
"um. hi?" i replied while fixated on the 40s he held in his hands. was he going to drink it all? on duty? what if he tried to put a fire out with his pee? his pee-pee might explode!
Posted by michele at 04:45 PM | Comments (6)
February 09, 2007
indie film fest?
fido
roxie
2/18
7pm
http://www.sfindie.com/site/node/84
Welcome to Willard, a small town lost in the idyllic world of the 50s, where the sun shines every day, everybody knows their neighbor, and domesticated rotting zombies carry the mail. Thanks to ZomCon’s patented domestication collar, zombies make excellent gardeners, milkmen, servants, even pets.Timmy Robinson is an awkward loner who spends so much time in his room even his own parents don't notice him. So when Mom (Carrie-Anne Moss, “The Matrix”) buys the titular zombie (Billy Connolly) to help around the house, Timmy is surprised when the beast wants to play catch. When the zombie saves him from the local bullies, a true friendship is born, and Timmy names him “Fido.”
But when his collar goes on the fritz, the neighbors start paying the ultimate price. To complicate matters, ZomCon's notorious zombie-control specialist has moved in across the street. What begins as a small town story about a boy and his best friend becomes a biting satire about our world, the price of fear, and the rewards of risking love.
forgiving the franklins
roxie cinema
2/20
7pm
http://www.sfindie.com/site/node/306
Forgiving the Franklins is the sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic story of a repressed God-fearing southern family who undergo a radical spiritual change, putting them at odds with the conservative values of their community. The Franklins are a stereotypical North Carolina family: Frank is a lawyer, Betty is a homemaker, and the high school-age kids Caroline and Brian are a cheerleader and a football star, respectively. An auto accident turns their world upside down—in a state somewhere between life and death, Frank, Betty and Brian meet Jesus who, for reasons known only to himself, removes them from the burden of Original Sin. Left out of the equation is Caroline who, in the throes of adolescence and pain from her injuries, must figure out why her family has suddenly embraced their repressed sexuality.
Posted by michele at 05:37 PM | Comments (5)
February 06, 2007
CAHSEE
at the high school, students are taking the california exit exam. unlike my job in the library, this is not akin to a porn video. it could be because it's too early for porn. how can it be too early for these kids and thier hot-running libidos?
good morning, kids, where are your hormones? check them at the door! and turn off your cell phones!
luckily i'm being paid 2.25 as much as i make to watch the asian twins in the library after school. this, in case you're interested, means i'm making $25/hour to sit in a chair and watch for exam cheating. a cushy duty? perhaps. though this chair is quite uncomfortable.
(oops, just had to yell at a kid, no ipods while test-taking, punk!)
i swear that kid is over 6 feet tall. his feet are enormous! is it wrong of me to consider their feet? is it foolhardy of me to write this down ON school grounds? yes and yes, friends. but if CAHSEE isn't going to give me porn, then i'm going to make it.
Posted by michele at 05:06 PM | Comments (1)
February 01, 2007
do i even have any lurkers?
it's cementhorizon's 5th birthday this month! which means that it's pretty much nyataimori's 5th birthday too. and it's certainly my actual 28th birthday (not that we're celebrating that). let's not mention it again. fucking 2 years till 30.
THE PARTY INFO
WHEN: Saturday, February 24, starting 8pm
WHERE: the Castro, San Francisco. RSVP to rsvp@cementhorizon.com for the exact address.
what there will not be:
- food
- drinks
what there will be:
- A CH birthday cake (thus negating that no food thing above. there's not going to be any other food though. don't get ideas above your station.)
- A new, improved photo booth
- A chocolate fountain (which may or may not remain hygenic) from I Fought the Law
- Superstar bloggers wandering the party signing autographs
- CH-themed jello shots provided by me (thus negating that no drink thing above. this doesn't apparently count though because of the jiggly wiggly.)
Posted by michele at 10:19 PM | Comments (2)