And Venus Was Her Name

Recent Netflix viewing has been quite tasty. The Good Shepherd, De Niro's history of the CIA as seen through the eyes of Matt Damon, though lengthy and a bit dry, held my interest throughout. The Queen, starring Helen Mirren in a stellar performance. Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro's dark fairytale about the Spanish Civil War. These are just a few of the highlights of my recent viewing. All recommended to varying degrees, depending on your tolerance for violence and British royals.



The last DVD I viewed was Peter O'Toole in his Oscar nominated performance as an aging actor who falls in love with a young girl in the film Venus. It is one of those character driven British films that you don't see very often any more. Not much happens and it takes its time in doing it, but it is such a pleasure to watch a great actor like O'Toole, who is still at the top of his game, do that thing that he does best.

The scenes between O'Toole and Vanessa Redgrave as his estranged wife, are worth the price of admission. Lordy, these people can act. And how refreshing it is to see.

What's round on both ends and high in the middle

A few weeks ago, the wife and I made a whirlwind trip to visit relatives of hers in Southwestern Ohio. While there we took a couple of drives to see a bit of America that us coastal types don't often see.

In Adam's county along the Kentucky border, there are a number of what they call "quilt barns". Traditional quilt pattern panels have been painted on the front of the building.











Shooting a bit of video out the window of the car (I was not behind the wheel) as we drove along inspired this bit of nostalgia.

Chinese Doughnut?

Just for kicks I googled my all-time favorite Chinese waiter the other day. I knew that he had been immortalized by Herb Caen in the SF Chronicle, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the internets contain a variety of fond memories of the man that had the title, "the rudest waiter in the world", Edsel Ford Fong.

Edsel waited tables at Sam Wo's in San Francisco's Chinatown. The restaurant was probably ten feet wide at most, you entered through the kitchen and went up the stairs that brought you to several dining floors. If you knew how it worked and wanted to truly get the Sam Wo's experience, you asked for Edsel's floor. As soon as you were seated, the floor show would begin. Edsel would yell at you, insult you, throw his pencil and pad on the table and bully you into writing down your own order. Insulting him in return was expected, even encouraged.

The food was greasy and really nothing special, but Edsel's entertainment value made it an experience you would never forget.

In my little bit of research, I sadly discovered that Edsel has gone to the Chinese restaurant in the sky some years ago. Sam Wo's is still there.

Some interesting essays on Sam Wo's and Edsel.

AT&T park, home of my San Francisco Giants has a restaurant named for Edsel Ford Fong (scroll down to Food and Beverages).

AAA's Via magazine features Sam Wo's in their San Francisco food tour. Strangely enough as a breakfast stop.

Views by the Bay Blog has some pictures accompanying a post on Sam Wo's.

A nice description of what it was like to be served by Edsel can be found at Fudcourt.

Friday Roadster Blogging

After this I'll shut up about my car, at least for the time being.

I'm almost through Mazda's brief break-in period, and have a trip up the coast to Pescadero under my belt (or hood, as the case may be) for a tasty lunch of Duarte's famous half/half artichoke and green chile soup with their hot and crusty sourdough bread followed by ollieberry pie. Mmmmm, pie. Oh yeah, this was about my car.

A roadtrip is already planned to head south down highway 1 to Cambria for a weekend gathering of fine friends and dining in July.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took last weekend.

Crouching Convertible, Hidden Roof

A few 12 second videos featuring my new car. I'll post some real photos of it one of these days.

Thought... who wouldn't buy a GPS unit that had William Daniel's voice? "Hello Michael, turn left in 100 yards."

Life's Little Conundrums

I have actually asked this very question, and the Onion tackles the issue on my behalf.

How does Radio Shack stay in business? I occasionally stop at the one in my neighborhood, mostly because it is close to my house and sometimes you need an extension cord or a coax cable really fast. There is never anyone there. The salespeople manage to either ignore you, be rude to you or are just plain ignorant. And there are never less than two of them, regardless of the fact that there are rarely customers around.

Money laundering? Vanity business? CIA front? Just askin'.

Oxymoron?

Building on the San Jose State Campus.

Gee, our old LaSalle ran great

In my household quiz shows were a contact sport with everyone yelling at the screen, especially for Jeopardy, but Password and College Bowl were also favorites. What's my Line and To Tell the Truth and the erszatz quiz show, You Bet Your Life were often on the tube, a 25" RCA in a massive wooden cabinet. Some of these I saw in reruns (like You Bet Your life, which was canceled before my birth) and others I watched in prime time with my parents and sisters. So when I heard that Kitty Carlisle Hart had passed away, it brought back quite a few childhood memories.

I was glad to see I am not alone in remembering those golden days. Terry Teachout eulogizes Kitty Carlisle Hart, the widow of the Moss Hart, she always seemed like a classy lady and part of a bygone era.

I also discovered that Terry and I both played Beverly Carlton in productions of The Man Who Came to Dinner. He in college, me in High School.

God Bless You Mr. Rosewater

Saddened to read this morning that Kurt Vonnegut has passed away. The world is a poorer place without him.

Poo tee weet.

Update: I logged this early yesterday, upon my first shocked reading of Vonnegut's passing. Since then the blogs have been filled with eulogies far more eloquent than I could muster. Friend George at Fool in the Forest expresses many a shared sentiment.

Julie Andrews!

Via the permalink free DVD Journal (scroll down to the April 9th disk of the week), is a glowing review of the original version of Bedazzled that has just been released on DVD. Not to be confused with one of the most useless and irrelevant remakes of all time, the 1967 version stars Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in fine form as the Devil and his unwitting Faust, featuring Raquel Welch as what else but, Lust.

As DVD Journal rightly points out, what makes this film so classic is not the extended flights of fancy as Stanley Moon (Moore) attempts to achieve his dream of marital bliss with his love interest Margaret (Eleanor Bron,) only to be repeatedly thwarted by the Devil's trickery, but instead the scenes of dialog between the comedy duo of Cook and Moore. The final scenes of Peter Cook railing against God are hilarious as well.

And by the way, Julie Andrews is the Devil's magic incantation by which he grants Moore his ill fated wishes.

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Drumming in the Rain

A typical rainy day in Portland.



From a recent excursion.

Guilty Pleasures

First of all, before I begin my rant, I've got to admit to a couple of things. My wife and I are American Idol viewers. Secondly, as if you did not already know this, I am addicted to political talk tv, Olbermann, Matthews, MTP, etc. etc. Now of late, political talk TV, Joe Scarborough being the worse culprit, has turned into American Idol TV and my guilty pleasures have intersected.

The advent of Sanjaya Malakar, he of the insane hair and less than stellar singing ability, has prompted a virtual nightly segment on a number of these shows in which serious and not so serious people discuss the completely unserious topic of whether Howard Stern and the website Vote for the Worst are "corrupting" the voting process. I wish they spent that much energy on the Florida recount.

To this, I have one thing to say, any process that allows people to vote multiple times, only limited by their obsession and speed dial is already corrupt.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Oh, Rochester

I just came across a link to the online collection of the George Eastman House Musuem in Rochester, New York. A varied and eclectic list of photographers, of whom I am only familiar with a handful. Certainly an enjoyable way for any photography lover to idle away a bit of time.

The online collection can be viewed here.

The museum's website is here.


Robert Parke Harrison

Escher is my favorite MC

The San Jose Museum of Art is currently exhibiting a collection of the work of MC Escher.

It is an interesting exhibit that includes much of his early work, as well as the more familiar pieces that have graced many a dorm room wall over the years.

The official MC Escher site is worth a visit. There is a fairly extensive picture gallery and a download section with a free interactive puzzle.

Movie News

Coming Soon to a Theater near you

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodrigues team up again for the double feature Grindhouse. I'm sure this will engender as much debate as Kill Bill.

Coming Soon on DVD
Via DVD Journal

Our friends at The Criterion Collection have announced a two-disc release of Lindsay Anderson's 1968 If… starring Malcolm McDowell as hell-raising schoolboy Mick Travis — expect a new transfer from restored elements; a commentary featuring McDowell and film historian David Robinson.

If... is the predecessor and companion piece to Anderson's 1973 film, O Lucky Man! If... is the better picture, but the Alan Price soundtrack from O Lucky Man! is a classic.

Recent Viewing
The Departed and Hollywoodland are the two most recent DVDs that have found their way into my player.

As a longtime Scorsese fan, I am happy that he finally won the Oscar, and The Departed is definitely worth watching. The dialog, the performances, the story are all engaging and it is one of the fastest 150 minutes I've spent in a while. But it is not the film that Raging Bull or Goodfellas were. It feels a bit like a pity Oscar when you look at it in the context of Scorsese's earlier works, but it is a mile above the Aviator and is still worth watching.

Hollywoodland is the story of the death of George Reeves, TV's Superman in the fifties. Ben Affleck inhabits the vapid personality of Reeves and turns in one of his best performances. The film, unlike the over-the-top Black Dahlia, that came out around the same time last year, does not propose to offer a solution to the mystery of Reeves' death. A bit slow at times, but for lovers of tales of old Hollywood and fans of the old Superman series, well worth your time.

Schmaltz will clog your arteries

Leaky truck on Louisiana highway leaves trail of chicken fat.

Quick, bring me some chicken livers and a Ritz cracker.

Via SFGate.com read about it here.

The google led me to this site, a list of road songs on the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration web site.

Good fun.

All things Bob

Nice to see that, in a qualified sense, the current Pope has acknowledged that Bob Dylan is a prophet.

And here is Weird Al's version of Subterranean Homesick Blues done completely in palindromes.



In the words of friend George, who sent this my way, this is totally inexplicable. Dylan hears a Who!

Baby's got a Major-General

Gilbert, Sullivan & Sir Mix-a-lot



via Salon.com To irresistable not to share.

...into this

Charles Bukowski (dinosauria, we)



I was just in that kind of mood. Enjoy.