Hey, another week. What have I been up to? Busy. Wednesday I took over a new job for my colleague who is going on leave for a week, so I got the hang of some of that work. That was OK – a bit of trouble, but nothing too bad. one of my stories was among two I worked on and got sent out. Went home, watched a bit of Zatoichi, but to too sleepy and couldn’t finish watching it.
Thursday went to work, took off for a press conference at the new downtown branch of Dutch bank ABN AMRO. They may be a bank, but if you look at their bold sign and the colour scheme, they seem more like a gas station than a bank, at least that is what Naoko said to me today. Nice opening, cool presents, great food, but very crowded and noisy. Oh well. Went back to the office and worked on more stories. Stuck around until 7:45, then went off to my ex-colleague’s place for dinner. I knew he lived in a nice part of town, but when I saw the house he lived in my jaw literally dropped to the floor. Yes, literally! Hardwood floors, Chinese furniture, a den, a library, high cielings, rafters, a wide staircase, a pool out back, a garden, a driveway. It was like a huge house back home, but by Singapore standards that is a mansion. Amazing. Huge library with all sorts of novels, massive bedroom with his ‘n’ hers bathroom/dressing area, a room for each kid, cool stuff like that. Wow. Five of us with our host, i.e. one colleague, two ex-colleagues and a wife. Lots of people who were invited didn’t show up. Their loss. Great food too – kebabs, fritters, salad, bread. Yum. Drank beer until midnight, then took a cab home. Snagged the Sopranos Season 3 on DVD and the new Harry Potter book. Nice.
Friday was a busy day – a 10:30 coffee meeting with someone from Deutsche Bank, then back to work to finish up another e-newsletter. One of the interns had her last day, so we went out to lunch with her. Worked on the e-newsletter, but lots of delays. I had to get home so I could pick Zen up from school, so I finished up work from home. OK. Had a nice dinner with Zen, took him for a walk, Naoko came home from work late at 9:30. Zen went to sleep around 10, and we finished watching Zatoichi together. Nice.
Saturday… went downtown early because Naoko had a dental appointment – consultation on braces, which she probably won’t take. Nice doctor’s office and Zen had a cool time playing on the crocodile see-saw and reading Japanese kids books, then we all went off to eat kaya toast and coffee breakfast in a crowded place. Nice. Went to the botanical garden for a while, but Zen seemed tired, so we went back home. He fell asleep on the bus, so we got home, put him to bed, and tidied up, rested, read. I finished the Joe Fante book, started Harry Potter. Zen woke up before 2, so we hacked around here for a bit, went for a swim, then a bike ride, had some dinner, and a long walk after dinner. Seems like we got it all done fairly early, but now it is already 9:00. Zen is watching Spiderman, nice. We want to watch Picnic At Hanging Rock tonight, should be OK…
Sunday – grocery shopping day. Zen woke us up at 7, we watched Spiderman once, at 9 went out to get the groceries, Zen was upset that we only took the bus a short distance. Got lots of yummy stuff, then back home by cab. Cabbie was very nice. Hung out at home, Naoko and Zen napped, I did 4 hours of work, then went for a swim, then a bike ride, dinner, a walk after dinner, the usual routine. Very nice sunset tonight. Tonight I recorded 1 minute video clips of 3 nice songs – “Roadrunner” by Jonathon Richman and the Modern Lovers, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot, and “the Tomato Song” by Stompin’ Tom Connors. That is, the OTHER “Tomato Song,” the one recorded in 1971, THAT one. Watched Welcome to the Dollhouse on video late at night, and here I am blogging it up to present. Hey!
By the way, let me know if you want me to send you the clips of any of the above-mentioned songs. Easily done. I can also send other songs – please refer to the list posted previously… scroll down a bit… yeah… there it is. Got it!
Film Review – the Story of Zatoichi. This is the original story of Zatoichi, the blind yakuza masseur swordsman, from 1962. Black and white, of course. Nice intro to Zatoichi, as he joins the war of two squabbling yakuza groups. He is hired by one side, then befriends the swordsman hired by the other side, a noble samurai dying of TB. Of course, there is a showdown at the end of the book, and it is quite good. Something reminds me of the themes of Twilight Samurai too, somehow. Nice romance potential between him and a lovely pharmacist.
Film Review – Welcome to the Dollhouse. A tale of the bitterness and pain of youth, in a suburbia so bland and unappealing, so soaked in despair that even the happy moments are horrific. Opening scene, an ugly girl is asked point blank if she is a lesbian, is then called “weiner dog” for the rest of the movie. One of the lines is telling – “Why do you hate me?” “Because you’re ugly.” What kind of a sick mind would produce a screenplay like that? Yet it is brilliant. The twists of the ending are good, although the pain is a bit thick and biting. Scary, funny, sad.
Well, a few days have gone by, and I find myself still thinking about this film. Amazing how you can have films like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Moonstruck,” seeing these ugly ducklings suffering so much in their oppressive home environment, then you see this film and it’s a bit more like the real thing. One big long bad day that never seems to end is what this is. “The Five Million Dollar Blockbuster.”
Film Review – Picnic At Hanging Rock. Another, totally different view of adolescence, the priviledged children of this Australian boarding school for girls dance off to a poetry reading at a spooky piece of volcanic rock, disapper, and the mystery that results shatters lives. Fantastic early film by Peter Weir, although some of the psychadelic aspects of it, however minor, do date the film somewhat.
Book Review – The Wine Of Youth, by Joe Fante. Great Italian-American growing-up-poor-in-America stories, maybe along the lines of Angela’s Ashes, but not so hard. Father is a tough bricklayer, mother is long-suffering, everybody is poor, there are priests and confessionals, etc. Some stories are not autobiographical, but all are good. Of particular note is the story “One Of Us,” which is about the death of a 10-year-old boy, which is very sad, very well written. Interesting thing – he tells the same story twice at the end – it is about a man wooing a floozy, but in one case the guy is a successful man, in the other case a dumb labourer who works from job to job.
Picture – Zen and I in front of one of the recent frames I put up. I put up six frames, three of them are framed artwork, three of them are framed collages of CD liner jackets, i.e. 24 CD covers in one frame. I think it looks nice. Here is one of them. I know it’s kind of hard to make out, but the albums featured are from the groups Faye Wong, Machines of Loving Grace, Pixies, Timers, Osaka Monaurail, Coa, Neil Young, Boredoms, Garadama, Lin Chiang (inside album art spread), Nick Cave, Fernando Rodriguez, K. K. Null (double spread), Iron Butterfly, Wu Bai, the Surfers of Romantica, Henry Rollins, Shonen Knife, PWEI, and the Mekons. The frames are cool, and each of them has at least one album by Coa, the Mekons, and Henry Rollins.