Xenocinemaphile

I just saw the strangest Japanese film I've ever seen. Most likely, you will have not heard of it, or of this one either, but it was the same director as Sharkskin man and Peachhip Girl, and Taste of Tea. This film was called Party 7, and loosely follows the interrelated paths of 7 really dumb people, half of which are yakuza. The style is very flash and very odd, and the movie kind of reminds me of Guy Richie's style, although there's a lot more surreal humor. There's not much plot, really just enough to string together these really odd characters who were actually kind of fun in their own way. Here's the trailer:

Aztec Fridays

Yesterday on my recession Friday, we started off with a breakfast at our local Jack-in-the-Box, which was kind of nice as the uptown one on central made an attempt to upscale itself with high, cafe-style tables by the front windows. Next stop was the giant Fry's Electronics, the big box store that for some reason looks like a Aztec temple. It's beyond kitch, with the giant fake stone snakes, and the life size tableus of natives bearing consumer electronics, but the whole thing is so surreal and arbitrary, I actually find it much more preferable to the typical steaming piles of stucco I see everywhere. I'm sure I'm reading too much into it, but the fact that its an electronics store in the form of a temple strikes me as commentary on consumerism as nearly religious worship. Make sacrifice unto HD.

[Actually, I am reading way too much into it. Apparently, Fry's Electronics attempts to theme most of it's stores. There's a "pre-1960's Indianopolis 500" theme in Indiana, an oil-derrick theme in the Houston store, and oddly, stores that use an Alice in Wonderland motif with life-sized characters. Aztecs were a native group in Mexico, but as we're in Arizona, I don't see how they could make the connection. Saori was wondering where do you even find contractors who carve giant foam sculptures.]

Anyway, after Fry's we went to PV mall to look for a swimsuit for Saorichan. We had mixed luck- she found a suit she liked for a price she didn't so its off to the internet for some comparison shopping. I picked up a new hat, and we wandered through the various stores. PV seems to have stablized itself. Last time I was there about a year to two years ago, there were a lot of shuttered stores, and it seems like there were only one or two closed storefronts.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the indoor mall typology is on its way out the door. The retail trend which follows the financing trend is that they are being supplanted by outdoor malls. Typical form is a "district" or short pedestrian street lined with boutique retail, dining, and entertainment surrounded by a lake of parking and the entire thing ringed by a chain of big box retail stores. If you're in Phoenix; Desert Ridge, Tempe Marketplace, Mesa Riverview, San Tan, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

We finally got around to watching our latest Netflix disc, Chungking Express by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood for Love, 2046), which tells the story of two Hong Kong cops and their love lives. Tony Leung stars as one of the cops, and there was another Japanese actor I saw in John Woo's Red Cliff who played the other cop. Apparently shot in two months while Kar Wai was editing another much larger epic, this is a much simpler, lighter movie than his other works. The story centers around a food stand which sells everything from fish and chips and chef's salads to pizza, where the two cops, who never actually share the same screen, come to eat and relax. The story is okay, its more about the characters and their relationships. Singer and model Faye Wong is a lot of fun to watch as she plays one of the food stand staffers who secretly loves one of the cops, and she is constantly grooving to the same song, "California Dreaming." I liked it more than Happy Together, and 2046, but I didn't think it measured up to In the Mood for Love.

The style is great, his camera loves the culture and city of Hong Kong, its internationalism, its frenetic pace and neon signage, the packed vegetable markets in the tropical heat and concrete, the incredible density and labrythine urbanism, even the griminess. It makes me want to pack up and head straight to Hong Kong. American filmmaker Quinten Tarintino geeked out over this movie so much, he introduces the film, and actually created a line of special US releases to make sure that the film would be exposed to US audiences.

Thinking about Tarintino, it makes me wonder if there are "filmmaker's filmmakers," or possibly, "architect's architects." Can they be judged in the same way? Or is it only valid to evaluate and compare works? Tarintino might camp out at the theater to see the latest Wong Kar Wai work, as George Lucas might to see a Kurosawa film, or John Lasseter (Pixar) for Miyazaki (Ghibli), but so would so many other people. The cinema is so accessible and directly experienced that it makes me think that the reasons the Tarintino's and Lucas's go to the movies is not so different why you or I go to the movies.

Fundamentally, maybe its not so different with architects and architecture. Yes, if Tadao Ando designed a gas station a hundred miles from my house, I would drive to go see it just because it's Tadao Ando's work. Like a movie, architects and designers would be interested in the details and craftmanship, but I think really at the end of the day, what is most compelling is the spaces that are created, and I think everyone really does appreciate architecture in that same way, whether or not they even notice it. Perhaps people like being certain places and its just that industry people pay closer attention to the causes of what makes a space nice. There's differences of taste, and also of ambition of course. Scottsdale Fashion square mall has a nice atrium, you could say the sliding glass roof and ambient daylight and bridges are nice architectural features, but no one but architects will pay close attention to them. But people pay money to see Gaudi's unfinished Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, which is a space that grabs you and shakes you. Designer or no, most people say "wow."

Miscellany from the weekend

This morning, I got up relatively early, dropped a load of stuff off at Goodwill and hit the grocery store. While I was there, I noticed there was some beer I liked on sale, so I picked up a six pack. Unfortunately, I was a little too early. Arizona has a law that prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sundays between the hours of 2am and 10am, and between 2am and 6am the rest of the time. In fact, the laws are so rigidly enforced that when I got in line at 9:54, I was informed that the register computer would not ring up the purchase until 10am. Maybe bullshit, maybe not. It made me mildly irritated at the state legislature. I think that people of legal age and condition should be able to drink whenever they want, and after heavy restrictions on WHO can drink and WHERE you can drink, it seems unnecessarily nanny-state to say WHEN you can buy alcohol.

For the record, I am going to be moving from one of the more restrictive alcohol states to one of the least alcohol restrictive. For example, Missouri has no open container laws. Also, as long as your driver doesn't partake, the guy riding shotgun is allowed to shotgun along with anyone else in the car. There's an area of Kansas city that lets you wander from bar to bar or liquor store to liquor store clutching whatever booze you choose. In case you were getting concerned, at this point of my life, a real loose night is one where I have more than one beer. And that's only if I'm not working the next day.

Anyway, after dropping the groceries off at my house, I washed my car at the coin operated car wash, which is actually a lot of fun. The foaming brush, the high power rinse which threatens to leap out of your hands. When its dry and hot, its kind of nice.

Watched another stupid movie this afternoon- Mortal Kombat. Or at least part of a stupid movie since it got to the point where the stupidity factor overwhelmed the fun factor. It's got an enjoyable setting and the martial arts is fun, but the wooden acting and dialog is a shade beyond campy. Great theme song though.

Spent a long time this afternoon working on the Perkins-Yamane Design website, which you can see here: www.perkinsyamane.com. I learned the basics of HTML in middle school for a computers class where we had to code basic websites about the solar system. Really really simple stuff. I could show most people how to make a basic website in about fifteen minutes. Actually, if you want to see how I did Saori's and my website, follow the link and click the right handed button, and then click on "view source." As you can see, it's pretty simple stuff. Ok, there is CSS but you don't really need it for a website to work. 99% of what you see on the website is the stuff below
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I'm still working on it- I'm not happy with the way we're presenting our projects, but its going to take a lot more effort to change it to a logical and internet-ready form. Also, some the links are dead, like our resumes.

Perils of Wii Netflix

Quick- what movie has James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Paul Newman, aaaaaaaand Marcel Marceau?

One of the advantages/disadvantages to instant streaming movies is that it radically lowers the standards of what I will watch. If I have to drive to the rental store and then drive back later to return a movie, odds are I'm going to take my time, peruse the selection, and really figure out I really want to watch. With Netflix it's easier, but there's still decisions to be made online, and then you have to wait a few days. When I can turn on the TV and boom, watch whatever I want, right now, I'm much more open. I'd heard less than flattering things about Mel Brook's Silent Movie, but it seemed right for the moment, and I usually enjoy his stuff. My low expectations were exceeded, I have to say.

I think Mel should have really been a silent movie director. Mom was commenting that his humor is so obvious, it would have worked out well. The concept is pretty clever- Mel plays himself with buddies Dom Deluise and Marty Feldman (Igor, from Young Frankenstein) and they are trying to make a silent movie. They pitch it to the studio head who says (in a placard) "A silent movie?! In this day and age?! Doesn't he know slapstick is dead?". Then he sits down and his chair slides out under the desk with him in it and they crash into the far wall.

Marty Feldman is great to watch. In Young Frankenstein he had to hunchbackedly limp everywhere, but here he's wearing an all-black jumpsuit with white trim, big white tennis shoes and he's got great physical humor in how he moves, walks, and runs.

The plot is pretty simple, after they get the studio to agree to the picture, they have to get some A-list stars to agree to be in it, so they go after Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, and Paul Newman among others. Each star presents a different opportunity for hijinks. There's shades of Chaplin, and Buster Keaton silent movies. It's pretty ridiculous, but a lot of fun. There's a great scene where Mel, Marty, and Dom have a high speed chase after Paul Newman on motorized wheelchairs at the hospital, and he finally breaks free of the hospital grounds via a Great Escape ramp jump. In another scene, the studio head asks Mel to invite the famous mime Marcel Marceau to be in the film. The scene cuts to a phone in a Paris apartment with the curtains billowing in the light breeze in the background. Marcel Marceau struggles to enter the room against the wind and fights his way across in an imaginable manner. The big joke- how is the mime going to have a phone conversation? Mel asks Marcel to be in the movie. Marcel says "No," and hangs up. 

Banzai

last night our friend sal came over and we watched the movie "Buckaroo Banzai" which was actually a lot of fun. Even though the premise was kind of dumb, the over the topness of of all, including some of the campiest dialogue, plus a punchy timing, made the movie very watchable. The us president prepares to fill out "the declaration of war: the short form" for example. John lithgow as an evil alien possessing the body of a mad scientist with a horrible fake Italian accent. They built a jet car which can fly though matter and break the sound barrier out of a pickup truck with a rear stabilizer fin. The title character is a race car driver, neurosurgeon, and rock star. Occasionally he uses Japanese phrases. The whole thing is ludicrous, but it moves fast enough to keep you off balance and entertained. I don't think I would sit through it again.
Sal was wondering how we found this movie, I think it was recommended by netflix after I did a search for the movie "earth girls are easy" which is pretty similar in camp and feel.

Dad gave me an ipod touch for my birthday. Its actually petty cool. Its the size of an iPhone, about half as thick, but it uses solid state memory so it only has 8 gig. Its still doubles my old iPod nano which I got several years ago. The wifi is really cool, I set it up to sync with my google calender online, so I can use it as a schedule book. My friend Raun at work set it up that I can check work emails at home too, if I want. With the wifi it also becomes a chat device, although the keyboard takes some getting used to. I am actually using it right now to type this post.