hwan.com

Wall Street I didn't bring my hat, which perhaps is just as well: the weather in New York was cloudy and wet. Drinking at night, sleeping in the morning, walking around the city during the day, resting in front of the TV and getting ready for the next night. Throughout it all I got to know my cousins a lot better, we not having much contact for the past, oh, 17 years? That's really the thing I take away from this trip. Oh, sure, I took some  pictures . There are a bunch of that High Line walkway, a section of raised train tracks converted into a park around a mile and a half long. It reminded me of that Ray Bradbury story, the one where the man travels back in time to shoot dinosaurs and accidentally steps on a butterfly, changing the course of history. Anyway, it was nice to see the park before it is inevitably ruined for everyone. I have, somewhat against my will or inclination, been playing Civ3 again. I had decided to not drink for the rest of September, but I ...

I have, thanks to the generosity of a co-worker and friend, been able to see no less than four TIFF films thus far. Ghost Town , the new Ricky Gervais romantic comedy of a jerk who can see ghosts, a kind of Sixth Sense, only replace the scary bits and whispering with Gervais' signature awkwardness. He was actually at the showing (no pictures, sorry), but he didn't speak. Also there was the director, an editor, as well as Kinnear and Kristen Wiig, who was wearing this great electric blue dress with lacy black stockings. Oh, the movie was mildly good. It's a romantic comedy, has a "feel-good" message. Detroit Metal City , a story of a country boy moving to the city in the hopes of becoming a "trendy" pop music star. Instead, he finds himself as the lead singer of a death metal band Detroit Metal City. Eh, it was fun and all but I often find with these Japanese films that for all their quirkiness there's an equal amount of lulls and missed joke...

I went to a TIFF Midnight Madness show to see Sukiyaki Western Django, the latest from Takashi Miike (Rekka, Ichi the Killer, Audition, Full Metal Yakuza). Actually, I haven't seen any of his previous work, though after this film I'm curious to see what they're like. Sukiyaki was, well.. like a heavy metal rock video version of Ran , except based on Shakespeare's Henry VI (The War of the Roses) instead of King Lear. It made me laugh, anyway. Oh, and I guess it's also loosely based on Django, the old Italian western. But I hadn't seen it. Buh yeah.. eh, not much else going on that I haven't already mentioned. Maybe I'll bring back a story or two from Washington.