(Asian) "Posse"

Maybe it's just me but a scene involving a "posse" gets me all the time. Goes to show how much boob tube I watch and how much movies, in general has afflicted, I mean, affected my brain.

(via Google images, fanpop.com)

Take this weekend, for example. Stumbled upon the movie, The Last Samurai, by accident. When the above scene came up, I got the goosies. Ok, that's exaggerating. Of course it takes more than that for me to get the goosies. Anyhoot, where was I? Oh yes, that scene. That is the part when Algren, Tom Cruise's character, was returned to Tokyo as agreed, and a sea of people parted as they rode thru the street. See, in my mind, that scene conveyed perfectly what it was supposed to; power, honor, deference, strength, tradition all encaptured. And dare I say it, sexy.

(via Google images, fanpop.com)

The interesting part, for me, with scenarios like that, is that it's usually from a movie set in a time when women in general had no other place but inside the home. Ok, not all of them, just the period ones perhaps. But what's that got to do with it? I dunno. Maybe it doesn't. But why do I feel it does?

Does it having an effect on me goes against the "feminist" in me? And if so, why? What beliefs am I betraying? And if it doesn't, why do I feel it does? Is it because I'm not supposed to be affected by movies? But isn't that the point of a good movie? And I haven't even talked about musical scores, don't get me started.

Now what's the point of all this rambling? I've forgotten already...

Walk and a Movie or 2

Over the (extra) long weekend, I managed to squeeze in a walk on the Seawall. I figured since I spent a good part of the weekend doing household chores that it would be nice to get some sea air,  plus I haven't walked around there in a while.

False Creek

Burrard Bridge

... all under the bridge now:p

...somewhere, beyond the sea

Indeed!

someone's veg patch by the path... zucchini

... when you let the swiss chard just go, or grow...

What a lovely day!

Then last night and tonight, I was given tickets again for an advanced screening for 2 totally different movies. Hope Springs on Tuesday and Bourne Legacy earlier. Talk about dichotomy.

Meryl Streep, as always, was fabulous in Hope Springs, such a natural. It's funny though 'cause this is the first Streep film I've seen in a movie theatre, I think. And Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell were pretty good too. It was such a simple story but so relatable. I know I'm nowhere near the characters' age (they're more like my parents' I say) but I think any couple who's been married for a while, but not necessarily their age, will have a good chuckle here and there for sure.

Bourne Legacy, on the other hand, is a totally different ball of wax. I admit I'm a big fan of Matt Damon in the first 3 flix and was doubtful that Jeremy Renner can fill in his shoes. But not anymore! Oh yeah! Ok, it did start kinda' slow but it picked up, that's for sure. You get the same fast-paced chases, weaving in and out of traffic, quite a feat in this one considering it was shot in Manila (reprezzent!), HAH! And did I mention Jeremy Renner? Why yes I did, didn't I? hehe (I think I just saw hubs rolled his eyes)

Ok, I think I'm movied out for the summer... I think...

Local by Day, Tourist by Night, er, Afternoon

One of the nice things about working at a different office (to compensate at least for being away from my element and peeps), is the change of scenery, especially since I walk home. So, for the last 2 weeks, I've walked in parts of town that I normally don't venture into, not so much because they're far, I'm still walking after all, but more because I've never found a need, that's all.

What makes it nicer is the fact that along the way are tourist areas that as a local, should probably bother me because of the too many people ambling around but I actually enjoy, in moderation, of course. I thought it's quite interesting trying to see things from their eyes. It makes me appreciate my town even more, in a way.

Gastown Steam Clock

I say for the view, I'm willing enough to not focus on the more than usual number of people out and about, although for some reason, there weren't that many when I took these pix yesterday.

Anyhoot, earlier tonight, was able to get into an advanced screening of Total Recall. While waiting for the movie to start, I thought it was quite interesting hearing the conversation of the people sitting next to me. One of them said he's seen it and he guessed the effect was good for its time *gasp*. To which the other person responded that she's never seen the original *bigger gasp* Sheesh, am I that old?!? The movie itself, in my humble opinion, was more of an homage than a remake. Keeping in mind that I've probably seen the original bajillion times so I'm quite familiar with the scenes, I find they switched the scenes around. It didn't have as many funny scenes as the original either. Oh, and some of the funny parts were lost, I thought, on the audience 'cause they were alluding to scenes from the original and the "younger" ones didn't get it, I suppose. And most interesting part, for me, was casting Bryan Cranston as the baddie. Not that he was not good (hel-lo, Breaking Bad!), just wasn't expected, that's all, for me, anyways.

But do I like it? Heck, yeah. Colin Farrell, after all... HAH!

Where Did the Week Go?

Gah! Not sure what happened, but the week flew by in a blink of an eye, and here we are, Friday already. Ok, I do know what happened. These darn book(s), {un}fortunately, kept me so preoccupied, it just ate most of my night time. To this moment, I actually still don't understand why they just engage me so *ambivalent sigh*... More on that later (I think)...

Anyhoot, before I knew it, the weekend's come. Mind you, I have a very short work week this week as I took some vacation days so I guess there's another reason why it feels it flew by just like that. Wednesday was kinda' like my Friday.

Ahhh... rest... sleep... Since I really haven't gotten much sleep for the most part of this week, it was quite nice waking up late yesterday and this morning.

Yesterday, decided to meet a friend for lunch. It worked out that she happened to be working at a nearby office and I happened to be off.

Lunch Special @ Guu (fried chicken with vinegar & tartar sauce)

(Japanese soda... the marble inside makes it fun...
only in Japan, I tell ya)

It was a nice bonus getting the chance to talk to some other people at that office that I haven't talked to in a while.

Oh, and right before I was leaving to meet my friend for lunch, hubs informed me that he managed to get some special screening tickets for the same night.

I liked the movie, I think. Didn't think Andrew Garfield can fill in Toby's shoes (who I incidentally thought could not have pulled it off in the first place but he did, I eventually thought), but I guess he provided a different angle to Peter Parker. I didn't think the movie brought anything entirely different though to the franchise, but at the end, I still enjoyed it.

So that was a nice way to end the day.

Didn't do anything all day other than read some more, mostly, hehe, and now, off to meet some friends for some Friday libation.

Here's to the weekend...

Late Night Movie

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm saying it now. I'm a BIG fan of the movie, Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr., hel-lo!!! So, with The Avengers having come out just this last weekend, it went without saying that I we just had to see the movie. Movie theatre for us, these days, is an on-and-off affair. For this movie, it was obviously on the on side.

By the end of last week, hubs and I couldn't decide if we should watch it on Saturday or Sunday night. Saturday night became out of the question when it occurred to me that I was still in my jammies by early afternoon *embarrassed grin*. And since the plan for the whole evening, which included dinner, kinda' hinged on us watching the movie, which we ended up not doing, kinda' had to scramble around to make dinner. Thank god for Boursin! Hah!

This was inspired by this recipe I came across online.

Yummm!!!

Sunday then came. Didn't tell hubs but I came pretty close to changing my mind about the movie. (What is wrong with me, I'm getting lazy even for fun stuff *sigh*). And of course, ever the procrastinator, didn't set out on buying the movie tix until the early afternoon.

Why? Because thought I'd dilly-dally around town first, seeing that it was such a beautiful day.

Although did kinda' pay a price for that dilly-dallying. Serves me right for waiting last minute! We wanted to try the new Ultra 3D in the theatre, which I later learned has reserved seating, which I found out had barely any seats left for the screening time we want. And that's how we ended up with the 11 PM screening.

With what we paid for the ticket, darn right the seating should be reserved. And darn right those new seats lean back and are comfy.

The movie itself? Worth every penny!!! Totally satisfied the 8-year old boy in me, HAH!

(This morning, however, after managing to only get 4 hours of sleep, was a totally different story, but that's neither here nor there.)

Anyhoot, since our movie was on the tad late side, one good thing that came out of that was I had time to make dinner.

Hubs is a big fan of stuffed peppers, which I guess takes him back to his childhood. And I am not, unfortunately. So when I found this recipe from one of my regular reads, I knew I've found a happy medium.

I suppose I really should say that what I made was inspired by that dish. Had to tweak it a bit since I don't have the exact ingredients hehe. Regardless, it was another yummm!!!

I think imma go to bed now... O wait, dinner first. HAH!

"R"andom Things-- Rain, Respect the Shoes, Race

Weather's been weird the last few days. The temp can't seem to rise past double digits. It'd  be raining for the most part of the day, then it would kinda' stop in the afternoon, and the sun would come out just long enough to remind us that it's still there. So at the end of the day, deciding whether to walk home or not, you couldn't really tell if you'd be caught in the rain or bask in the sun.

A bit of sun shower tonight, for example, during the walk home.

Once I get home, a way for me to relax is to go the computer (yes, I apparently don't spend enough time in front of the computer at work) and get a dose of my blog reads. One of my fave blog, respect the shoes, (I love how her posts are so engaging) talked about her childhood and how her heritage played into that.

Which made me remember this documentary I once saw when I was just randomly flicking thru' the channels. It was a film about family, racial identity, inter-racial marriages. From where I stand, the creator of the film might as well be talking about me and my family, or what my family could potentially look like a generation or 2 down the road, give or take. My family plays a big role in my life. My family is an immigrant family. I'm in an inter-racial marriage. So is my sis, which makes my nephews and niece "half-races".

The most interesting part I found in that film was the part when the film creator "interviewed" his younger cousins, kids, and asked them the question "What are you?" (or something to that effect, it's been a while since I've seen the film). Most of them had these confused looks on their faces. One of them, I think, actually answered something like "I'm a person(?)". And when he posed the same question to his older cousins, in their late teens/20's, they all practically started their response with their race, as in half Japanese/half white, or part Japanese/part Irish/part something else, you get the idea.

(Of course, like I said, it's been a while since I've seen the film but you get the gist...)



That's quite telling, no? And very interesting...

A friend at work, who's Caucasian and married to an Asian person, once told me how the daughter was asking if she's mixed and how (because that's what she was asked at school), and the friend told her how she should respond the next time she's asked. That she's "shaken, not stirred". HAH! Love it!

Sliding Doors

Me and sis love love the movie Sliding Doors. Or I think she does. I know I do anyway. hehe

courtesy of imdb.com

Firstly, 2 words. Gwyneth Paltrow. I won't be the first person to speak out any famous name for inspiration for style, but if say I'm asked as if my life depends on it, her name's probably the only name that will pop out in my head. So, in my mind, that says a lot already.

O wait, I lied, now I can add FLOTUS to that (very short) list as well. hehe

Source: fabsugar.com via Loisa on Pinterest

Secondly, Helen (Gwyneth's character)'s fashion, ie, Helen with the short hair, is so up my alley (yes, gotta talk fash too). Mind you, she's 5'10'' (she is, no?) and blonde (she is, no?) so anything would look good on her and the same outfits will probably just look blah on me, but I'm just talking about the classic-ness (yes, that is a word in my world) of it all.

Thirdly, something about the movie just speaks to the everything-is-in-perfect-order-because-it-is-a-perfect-universe side of me. Anyone who's seen the film will know exactly what I'm talking about.

The whole idea of how our choices or say the choices thrown our way even for the most mundane, or what we think are mundane, of activities, creating life paths that takes us to unexpected directions, just begs the question of how much effect or affect these things have on our lives.

Is it just me?

(Very "Five People You Meet in Heaven", no?... Noticing a pattern?)

I had a bit of a "Sliding Doors" moment yesterday when there was a problem with the train during my morning commute. I took this train which went the opposite direction, which got held up for an additional 15 minutes, which made me 15 minutes late for work. What if I didn't get on that specific train and just took the next one which would have taken me 1 stop before my usual stop which would have required further walk to get to work? What if?

Now I can't help but wonder about those little events in my lives. Or do the little events really have that much impact, to begin with?

I wonder...