eveninghawk’s links

Last week I watched Monsoon Wedding, a movie I heard about when I was living in China, but never had the opportunity to see. I’ve lived through American, Puerto Rican, and Chinese weddings, and I’ve seen them all as daunting traditions that involve an insane amount of work.

I have to say I think the task pales in comparison to what goes on for this wedding in Delhi. Seriosuly though, I liked this movie. I’m not a big fan of weddings, and those feelings give me great reservations about movies focused on weddings. Still, I think this is a great movie and belongs on a list of films to see for folks contemplating a wedding.

Vernon God Little was much fun for me as a title because the strength of the title does not become apparent until the last two chapters of the book. I’m not much of a person to get hung up on titles, but it was a bit of a question rattling around in my head through the whole book.

There’s much talk about the book being a foray into satirical comedy pointed at the US. This is very true and very admirable in the book. Still, in reading the book I felt like I was reading a hip contemporary version of The Stranger, written in vernacular. This book was written by a man who was born ain Australia, lived in Mexico and the US, and currently resides in Ireland. I can’t help wondering if folks who aren’t American by passport are better suited to telling the world about America. Interesting that the author seems closer to his characters than I would have imagined.

The news is often filled with disturbing stories and sensational episodes that people would just as soon not think about. Fortunetely, there are people out there who still try to wake us up in the face of this common denial.

Nicholas Kristoff is a New York Times writer who has written an interesting series on two Cambodian girls who were sex slaves. There’s also been a follow-up editorial in the International Herald Tribune.

I finally got a chance to check out Tokyo Godfathers, a film from Satoshi Kon. I love this kind of movie because it’s layered in a haphazard way that unravels throughout the film. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the movie gives you just a little more.

The film is based on the 1948 movie “3 Godfathers,” and what better than this beautiful little plot premise:

Three homeless people — an embittered alcoholic, a middle-aged transvestite and a teenage runaway — find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve.

I am doing a little research project on cool t-shirts, and in looking through things I found a very amusing strip from 2003. Go check out goat’s look at overclocked lemons.

I just finished reading The Bridegroom, a collection of short stories by Ha Jin. The book read really quickly for me, three sittings altogether.

This collection includes 12 stories, all speaking about life in 1980’s Harbin, China. The context of the stories is well handled, and enough background is woven into the stories to give the reader unfamiliar with Chinese history and idea of the societal backdrop of the time. There were only one bit of language in the book that loses its meaning for the non-Chinese speaker. I find that universal grace of Ha Jin’s writing very refreshing.

The stories are all dark, and deeply sad or unfortunate in one way or another. Of the stories, while I particularly enjoyed “The Bridegroom,” my favorites were “In The Kindergarten” and “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town.”

I don’t know about anyone else, but I just can’t get enough good looking anime wallpapers. I suppose I’m a desktop wallpaper slut… I change them all the time and I just can’t get enough of them. That said, if this is the type of stuff that floats your boat, but you have discriminating tastes, I highly recommend DA! Desktop Anime + v.6.

I watched the DVD release of Get Backers vol 1 last night. The series is really a lot of fun. It’s a little frustrating that so early in the series there is a 3 episode adventure, since it seems a little detailed that early in the game, but the characters are quirky enough for it all to be worth it.

If you’re good with Japanese, you can check out TBS’s site on their series.

I watched Before Night Falls today. The film examines the life of Reinaldo Arenas growing up as a writer in Cuba and facing persecution for his homosexuality and his art. His poetic turns of phrase are very strong, and sit well within the film, the film in turn trying to show the harshness of Cuba amidst moments of joy.

I’m very glad to have seen the movie, and I’ve added the memoir to my library request list.

If you haven’t seen Donnie Darko but like dark flicks like Heathers and appreciate sci-fi, then you should check out this movie. There’s a lot there, and it’s much fun, but to talk about it too much is to give it away. Keep that in mind if you go clicking the link to IMDB’s entry… spoilers abound.