BillSaysThis

Flush with the excitement of the Sweet One’s passing her road test this morning, we decided to take in a matinee of the latest from Paul Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), starring Adam Sandler. Sandler wears an odd shade of blue suit throughout the movie, as in every scene, though he can never really explain why even though several other characters ask. This kind of serves as a representation of the movie as a whole.

In other words, Punch Drunk Love fits well with the kind of major studio art house film that is Mulholland Drive, the previous film I saw. Completely opposite in tone and tenor, filled with love and light where Mulholland was filled with violence and darkness, but once again a film that works (and it does work) on a deeper level than just putting out a linear plot.

Sandler spends much of the film running. Which put me in mind of this week’s episode of Smallville as Clark ran the 450 or so miles from Smallville to Edge City. He also falls in love with Emily Watson. Maybe it was the makeup and lighting Anderson used, perhaps a deliberate device, but even though Watson is a year younger than Sandler, she appears to be much older than him, not enough to be his mother but perhaps his mother’s younger sister. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who must have damaging photos of Anderson in a safe deposit box, plays a phone sex operator/scam artist; Sandler runs from the movie’s San Fernando Valley base to Hoffman’s Utah store to conclude their argument in person.

The film also uses some very odd transition graphics, swabs of slowly moving colors, which can be scene on the official website’s page of downloads. Since the whole site is a Flash app (like most movies, unfortunately), I can’t really link to them. The site also offers mp3s of a number of the odd background music used, very reminiscent in several cases of early ’70s Cage/Riley-influenced found jazz experiments.

Not, in other words, a typical Hollywood movie. Plus, Sandler proves he can really act though I don’t expect him to morph into the next Tom Hanks (i.e., Bosom Buddies to Philadelphia). Anderson, younger than either Sandler or Watson, will clearly be seen in 10 to 20 years as one of the more important directors around.

Recommended

Yesterday was such a complete cockup that I needed 24 hours to relax enough to write about it! The Reds threw themselves out the Champions League window with a 3-3 draw against FC Basel. Manager G. Houllier stated afterwards that “we’ll be back” and they surely will since all that’s required is a fourth place or better Premiership finish.

But the boys have certainly hit a road bump! Yesterday’s result looks better than it was as three goals were given up in the first 30 minutes and none were put in the plus column until the second half! Finally the team woke up and made a ferocious charge but to no avail as the Swiss were able to hold Owens and Co. off just enough. So the final group standings are Valencia first and then Basel claiming the other slot in the Round of 16, and Liverpool and Moscow sitting home to sulk.

This followed a very sad weekend loss to Middlesboro, with no goals at all scored, but LFC still stands first in the EPL. Next up is a match at Anfield against Sunderland on Sunday; this should be a relatively easy three points, given the visitor’s poor showing all season plus several key injuries, but apparently no match can be taken for granted with the topsy turvy play of late!

Jesus swings his heavy arm

Sometimes, I wonder in the recesses

Walk, walk with a diamond broach upon your lapel

Turn and talk to the woman on your right.

Take a moment to check a clock

Set it back to front, firmly

Grasp the hand when extended

Listen closely for skittering animals.

Running across the flat slate roof

Soft grey clouds pass along a powdery blue sky

I wonder what the color-blind man sees

Looking up, does he cry?

Tears are fat and wet with salt

Then absorb, pain recedes, recurs, redolent

An interior monologue revisits a childhood

Sadness will find a mate in a fierce, fearsome widower.

A path appears at the edge of a meadow

To one side a red and yellow bird screetches

To one side a green grass snake hisses, slithers, flicks its tongue

Can the color-blind man see the arm waving him on?

Inflation is one thing, but the price on some necessary items are increasing at far more than that rate. I just got the renewal notice for my auto insurance policy, for example, and there is a 15% price increase. My agent said to blame it on investment losses and years of price cutting to win market share. Similarly, our homeowner association’s insurance policy (covering common areas and the like) increased by a similar amount when the policy renewed last month. This morning in the Merc, an article explained that due to fears of war with Iraq the price of gas has gone up substantially in the last month here in California. Fears of war? Nothing has actually changed, in other words, but maybe it will and so we should pay more today? Cha-ching for somebody, eh?

What is Marmoleum?

I know I do. Hate is such a strong word but so appropriate in this instance. When I first grew facial hair, around age 17 or 18, I didn’t even attempt to shave, just grew a beard. Curly, all over my face since I made little or no attempt to trim it. Boy did everyone hate it! Except Carol, my girlfriend during freshman year in Pittsburgh, who somehow liked it. Fortunately, no pictures exist from this period of my life.

In fact, I think if I’d been born ten years later and had some tiny little bit of aptitude for biochemistry, I would have gone into research. My subject? A chemical solution (liquid, gel, who cares which) to remove facial hair. I suppose any hair though I would personally only want it for my face. Preferably something that lasted about a week or so. What about Nair, you ask? I don’t know except that I’ve been told that it just doesn’t work for men at all or even well for women.

I do wonder why no company has ever come out with such a product. Can’t be impossible. Wouldn’t some rich person want to sponsor the research? There must be one who hates shaving as much as me. All the cuts and bruises on my face, it just sucks!

Some people make up their minds first and try to fit facts into a supporting structure afterwards, even scientists who would claim they have no vested interest in the result. Take, for example, Dr. D. Paul Robinson and the work he did that’s reported in US Teen Dies After Following High-protein Diet.

The research concerns a 16-year-old girl who collapsed suddenly and died after spending one to two weeks on a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. The doctor admitted “there might be other explanations for the teen’s death, including an abnormal heart rhythm,” but claims a diet she was on for less than two weeks did so much damage to her heart that she passed away.

On the other hand, the Atkins people (contacted for comment on this story) pointed out that they were not aware of this situation’s particulars but “that the Atkins approach has been used by millions of Americans for 30 years now, and there have been no documented cases of serious reactions or fatalities.” There is no evidence presented that the girl actually followed the Atkins plan or followed any specific plan and in any case the plans do not even suggest that individuals should eat no carbohydrates and they should also take supplmental vitamins and minerals.

Maybe it’s me, but I just see this as another attempt by the medical establishment, specifically the American Dietetic Association, to denigrate and slander the low carb Way of Eating whenever or wherever they can. As time goes on, and their objections are more and more taken as foolish objections based on emotional commitment to previous pronouncements to a plan that actually works, I suppose these people just get more desperate. Sad, really.

Nearly a week later and the analysis keeps pouring in, along with related news that makes one wonder if anyone other than the extremely rich will ever prosper again.

Bob Herbert goes Behind the Smile to make clear to us that he sees nothing to cheer about in the prospect of Republicans being able to pack the courts (possibly including two or more seats on the Supreme Court), further drain federal entitlement programs of funds (and you were already certain that Social Security and Medicare would be flat broke before your turn, weren’t you?), and make a mockery of environmental and consumer protection laws.

Dan Gillmor, in the unlinkable (and currently unreachable) SJ Mercury News, goes with a straightforward headline for his Sunday column: “Election will make life better — for the rich.” You should know that Gillmor is fairly radically anti-establishment but I always wonder a little about why his bosses keep him around. Anyway, he’s in Hong Kong lecturing at a university there and likens what we’ll be facing here soon enough (in his opinion) to the “cartel economy” that scoiety has developed. “In reality, Hong Kong is largely a cartel economy, where essential parts of the business structure are controlled by a few powerful companies. Elites in business and government are collaborators, sometimes for the public good and sometimes to ensure their own continuing dominance and wealth.” He actually doesn’t go much further than Herbert.

Finally we have a review (in yesterday’s Merc) of Rich Dad’s Prophecy, the latest book from the authors of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. To show you where the book goes, there is the not at all subtle subtitle “Why the Biggest Stock Market Crash in History is Still Coming… And How You Can Prepare Yourself and Profit From It!” Short short is that in about 14 years our investments are going to get swamped by the other side of the same coin that drove the market to such heights in the ’90s: 401(k) and other direct contribution plans. Remember, the law (ERISA) requires that holders begin making withdrawals from these accounts no later than the year in which they reach age 70 1/2.

Right now most people reaching that age are covered by the previously-prevalent direct benefit pension plans–Gretchen Morgenson actually has a good column in the NY Times about current problems with this type of accounts–and so the flow has been all into investments. More money looking to buy has been a force driving stocks higher for years. But in the next decade the huge wave of baby boomers will begin retiring and reaching the age where they must withdraw. What happens when more people want to sell? You guessed it. Seems like there will be time to fix this, since it will be in the interest of the cartel to do so, but otherwise will be very scary!

The afore-mentioned San Diego. Chicago. Pittsburgh, sort of.

San Diego was, after all, playing against the third strong St. Louis quarterback, Marc Bulger, and gave up two touchdowns in the last six minutes of the game. Bulger set a team record–this is Kurt Warner’s team, isn’t it?–with 36 completions (on 48 attempts) for 453 yards passing. Jeff Wilkens kicked about the perfect on-side kick after the first score and Dre Bly plucked the ball out of waiting Charger hands. The offense, with Marshall Faulk standing injured on the sidelines, just couldn’t be stopped. San Diego: 6-3 on their way to 8-8 and an early tee time?

Chicago had a 21 point lead in the third quarter against New England. But Peninsula native Tom Brady is showing he’ll be the next…Drew Bledsoe but with the bonus of being a winner and he took the game in his hands, with some help from the finally woken up Patriot defense. Plus, the Bears offense left the building, unable twice (twice!) to pick up a first down when either one would have given them the chance to run out the clock, the Patriots having no timeouts left. New England: 5-4 on their way to 10-6 a wild card slot?

Technically this was a tie, not a loss, but it might as well have been since the Steelers missed an easy W. Pittsburgh was up against hot new quarterback Michael Vick. So who would be surprised that Atlanta rallied from a 17 point deficit? Probably anyone who checked the Steelers’ defensive results from the last month. And talk about bad coaching blowing a game! Bill Cowher is often called a genius, and he is one of the longest-serving head coaches in the NFL, so you tell me, why did he leave both overtime timeouts on the shelf when he could have given Tommy Maddox 40 more seconds? That should have been plenty to move the ball 25 yards for a field goal try; Tommy Maddox already had a Pittsburgh-record 473 yards passing and four touchdowns and Amos Zeroue had 123 yards rushing. But instead they ended up with the NFL’s first tie since the Giants and Redskins played to a 7-all stalemate on Nov. 23, 1997. Steelers: 5-3-1, playing in the league’s weakest division, will surely make the playoffs but one wonders if they’ll escape their wild card opponent.

Sound the hoo-rays, the 49ers beat the Chiefs 17-13 on a tremendous defensive effort by linebacker Julian Peterson. Garcia threw for no touchdowns, scoring came on short runs by Hearst and Barlow but neither had close to 100 yards, and even Terell Owens was fairly quiet (leading receiver and two rushes for 23 yards even so).

Peterson was everywhere today, most especially taking All-World tight end Tony Gonzalez completely out of the game–one catch for six yards. He also was strong on run defense and put enough pressure on KC QB Trent Green so that Andre Carter made a key 4th quarter sack. Props too to fullback Fred Beasley who for the second game in a row did nothing but pick up first downs and throw excellent blocks (well, he does that every week). On five rushes, Beasley had four first downs and 21 yards. The Niners still had problems stopping third and long, particularly Mike Rumph against Eddie Kennison, though by the end the defense had it together enough to make our 17 points stand up.

7-2, baby, a three game lead in the division over Arizona and St. Louis, and next week a road matchup at San Diego, a 6-3 team that couldn’t hold a 27-14 lead with less than six minutes to play today. Seems like we have a really solid shot at no worse than 12-4 and that means the division title since everyone else already has five losses.

If you’re a user of the free version of Blogger or Blog*Spot and need help, a new and probably useful source of help is the Yahoo! Group started by Phil Ulrich, blogger_user_support. Note that this is not an official channel nor is it affiliated with Pyra and no one from the company is even a member. This is a place for user to user support and although it’s new, so far people seem to be getting answers. Better than using the Blogger API group, that’s for certain.

Another meat run to Costco, The Sweet One holding (most of) the proceeds. That box is filled with salmon (raw and smoked), cod, chicken breasts and thighs, ground beef, steak, and pork chops. Not shown are two whole chickens, cause they just didn’t fit into the box’o’meat. Notice how thin she is after two months on Atkins? What a hottie! Tonight we’ll be feasting on steak and asparagus, tomorrow she’ll be roasting a chicken in a homemade, low carb version of teriyaki sauce accompanied by whatever fresh greens we find at the Mountain View Farmers Market. Homemade teriyaki sauce, you ask? Well, soy sauce is clearly the base and has no carbs. I’ll need to taste test along the way but I’m thinking Splenda as the sweetening agent, some sesame oil, and a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. Will let you know how it comes out.

Firefly, Alias, Birds of Prey. What do they all have in common? Not just that I watch them. All have such complex backstories that an explanation must be repeated at the beginning of each episode. Not the opening credits but “After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system and hundreds of new ‘Earths’ were terraformed and colonized.” Birds explains the origins of our three heroines. Alias, which changed up from last year’s explanation, gives us the scoop on how Sidney Bristow came to work for the evil men at SD-6. I find this…strange. If one simply watches the show, these facts are known and repeating them every week gets under the skin of regular viewers.

Firefly also has a weblog!

Just spent a couple of hours coding up a contact form to replace the more or less direct email addresses on this website. Too many robots crawling the web looking for addresses to add to their “unsolicited commercial email” lists for my taste and no matter what address I put up, one or another found them in a matter of days. So it’s a little less convenient for some of you, if you don’t have my email in your address book, but one use of the form will get that for you. Good thing I have the ability to create unlimited email addresses on my server and block the ones that get too much spam.

Tivo used the following description of this film: “An aspiring actress in Los Angeles for an audition with a young director helps the amnesiac victim of an automobile accident.” Now, I realize they have limited space but that’s about the least useful description I can imagine for this one. At first, I was going to end this write up with the previous two sentences but I’ll go a little deeper.

Simply put, Mulholland Drive is one of the stranger movies of the past few years. Compelling, raw, surreal, emotional, vivid, sensual, sure, but strange. I couldn’t even begin to explain the plot to you. Things happen on screen, and they seem to be connected to each other, like a word that’s just on the tip of your tongue but you can’t say it. As Roger Ebert said (in his 4 star review): “The movie is a surrealist dreamscape in the form of a Hollywood film noir, and the less sense it makes, the more we can’t stop watching it.” Such a response is completely expected since the film was written and directed by David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man).

Naomi Watts (currently in theaters with The Ring) and Laura Elena Harring (she’ll be co-starring in next year’s remake of Willard) play the lead roles and Lynch demands, and gets, excellent performances from both. There are, by the way, a few lesbian scenes between the two, hot though not as much as a friend of mine claimed. The women play actresses and the plot(?) also involves a director played by Justin Theroux–yeah, who is he–and Monty Montgomery as Cowboy, who has one of the more memorable lines, which is spoken to Theroux’s Adam: “Now, you will see me one more time if you do good. You’ll see me two more times if you do bad. Goodnight.” Another actress earlier in the film is shown playing a character named Camilla Rhodes, and then towards the end, Harring plays an actress named Camilla Rhodes. Watts is introduced as Betty Elms, then later plays Diane Selwyn.

Don’t expect to understand this, just go along with the flow and you should enjoy it. Perhaps if you read the Ebert review linked above you can get a better sense of the film though I doubt it.

Recommended

garret says that “hantavirus and bubonic plague are things we live with every day” in New Mexico (in regards to the article I sent him) and my reply is: keep it in New Mexico, don’t get on a plane to New York when you’re infected. That’s just sick.

Update: via email, garret explains that Bubonic plague and Hantavirus are both pretty common down his way, carried by the local insects, and usually treatable when caught early. Residents do need to be fairly careful with their pets; he has an on-going rodent problem and uses gloves to load mousetraps, a respirator when cleaning the garage. Eek!

As if there wasn’t enough to worry about these days, we have further agita thanks to voters yesterday who returned control of the Senate to the Republicans. Specific to California, Ah-nuld was able to use his name recognition and political ambitions to foist a foolish initiative on us. Lautenberg was able to save the New Jersey seat but Mondale couldn’t hold on to Wellstone’s and Jean Carnahan proved she wasn’t her late husband. A Kennedy lost a safe Democratic seat in the Maryland governor’s race. In the realm of Pyrrhic victories, Gray Davis won re-election as governor of our fair state.

I need some breakfast.

Which Founding Father Are You?

[via Karl M]

Robin Williams has been taking roles that are more and more interesting as the years go on, getting further away from his early ‘jumping out of his skin’ parts. Insomnia, Jakob the Liar, What Dreams May Come. Not that he’s given up on comedy entirely, he had Death to Smoochy earlier this year.

In One Hour Photo, Williams plays as far from type as he might possibly go. Seymour Parrish–Sy the Photo Guy–is a nearly complete non-entity, right down to his pale skin, cropped short blonde hair, and plain solid clothing. We’re talking about a man with no life, no friends, no family, nothing except the fantasies he has where he is Uncle Sy to 9 year old Jakob Yorkin and his parents. Parrish, who mans the photo counter in a chain drug store, has been developing this young couple’s photos since before Jakob was born and he’s kept copies of their photos to enshrine on his apartment wall.

Dylan Smith, Connie Nielson, and Michael Vartan (Alias) are fine as the family, Gary Cole is fine as Williams’ boss at Sav-Mart, and Eriq La Salle as the detective. But all of them are really secondary, barely material except to give context to the world inside Williams’ mind. Robin, Parrish, is the only actor with a chance to shine and, of course, he does.

The other star is writer/director Mark Romanek in, essentially, his first feature outing after working in music videos (R.E.M., Madonna, Nine Inch Nails). One can imagine that Romanek spent quite a long time getting a the little details down, figuring just the visuals to accompany his words. The recurring shots of Williams walking down aisles in the store, into or out of the picture, for example, are quite striking. The elaborate voiceovers by Williams that seem to be almost a second character and sum up to more dialogue than any other role except for Williams’ main dialogue.

To top the pleasure off, we saw it in Milpitas at the Cinema Saver for the Terrific Tuesday $1 admission after chomping on In’n’Out burgers.

Definitely recommended

Recently one of the good people at RMAS was good enough to burn me a copy of an outstanding Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul concert–August, 25, 1984 at the Rockpalast in Lorelei, Germany. But no cover art, not like the massive amounts that are out and about for Bruce’s shows.

So I made my own using Paint Shop Pro. I started with a very cute photo of Steve posted to the Little Steven discussion board. Add a little text, a little poorly copied background color, and an hour or two of playing with the software and voila: