: Birthday presents :
I forgot to mention in yesterday's post all the wonderful presents that my family got for me - some of them I requested, and others that fall into broad categories I gave them to shop in. Here are some of the ones with more interesting footnotes:
Tampopo - this Japanese movie is one of my all-time favorite movies (it's listed in my blog profile). It is a wonderful combination of drama, comedy and philosophy, all wrapped up into what's been called Japan's first "noodle western" (a la the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone). The opening scene sets the stage - a young man takes an old man out to a noodle shop to learn the proper way of eating noodles. The elder gentleman instructs him to first observe the entire bowl, paying special attention to the three slices of pork - they are the soul of the dish, he says. Then the next step is to caress the food lovingly with the tips of the chopsticks - to express affection, he intones. Then he proceeds to pick up the pork and move it to the soup on the side of the dish, as if to say, "see you soon". He then starts eating, first some noodles, then some of the pickled bamboo shoot, then sips the soup once, twice, three times. However, as the tale is completed, it is clear that he is not quite the expert that the young man thinks he is. I used to own this on laserdisc, and I'm thrilled to have it on DVD now - can't wait to see it again.
The Making of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story - I recently posted my impression watching this movie, but this award-winning documentary chronicles behind the scenes in recording Berstein's first-ever conducted performance of his classic musical. As he says in the movie, he chose to use opera singers because he always felt that the parts he'd written were too challenging for the singer/dancer/actors that were usually called upon to perform them on Broadway or in the movie. This choice of using opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Jose Carerras and Tatiana Troyanos was highly controversial, and sparked many debates among the opera fans of my old life. Actually, I don't really care for the recording itself, but watching a genius like Bernstein at the podium, in the studio and barking out orders is like, in Te Kanawa's words, "like having Mozart there in the studio with you." It's a fascinating look at how a modern musical genius practices his craft.
Dracula by Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano - this is a book I only picked up recently at the big Barnes & Noble in Paramus, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it was something I wanted to read. I have a long fascination with vampire tales (Anne Rice, Joss Whedon and the modern retelling by Francis Ford Coppola) yet I'd never read the original Bram Stoker text. It's one of those books I've always intended to read, and I must have picked it up and put it down at least 10 times in my life. But this version, with its beautiful black and white illustrations, captivated me to no end. Even though it has been months since I first saw it, I never forgot about it and it made its way to my birthday list (it's rather difficult to find a clean copy). The monochromatic art reminds me of Sin City, From Hell, Strangers in Paradise and other graphic novels I've been reading in the past year, and of course, the story is the wellspring from which everything else has flowed. I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - it may come as a surprise to some of you that I've always been fascinated with sailing ships and naval warfare, so this movie captivated me from the start, and I am looking forward to seeing the special features as well. It brings to mind our trip to the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut earlier this year, and the tour we took below the decks of a whaling vessel. On the other end of the history timeline, this weekend we are going to visit the Intrepid Museum in New York, a modern aircraft carrier. In addition to this movie, my interest was sparked by the movie Captain Horatio Hornblower starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo (which I encourage everyone to vote for DVD release on Amazon) and Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer (although that's more about the Battle of New Orleans than naval warfare per se).
Of the new things that my family picked out for me, I'm most intrigued by The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, which continues my string of fantasy fiction I've been reading, which includes last year's present The Mists of Avalon, Lord of the Rings, Stardust, the Sandman series, Neverwhere and my current book, Imajica.
So much time, so little to do - wait, strike that, reverse it...
Tampopo - this Japanese movie is one of my all-time favorite movies (it's listed in my blog profile). It is a wonderful combination of drama, comedy and philosophy, all wrapped up into what's been called Japan's first "noodle western" (a la the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone). The opening scene sets the stage - a young man takes an old man out to a noodle shop to learn the proper way of eating noodles. The elder gentleman instructs him to first observe the entire bowl, paying special attention to the three slices of pork - they are the soul of the dish, he says. Then the next step is to caress the food lovingly with the tips of the chopsticks - to express affection, he intones. Then he proceeds to pick up the pork and move it to the soup on the side of the dish, as if to say, "see you soon". He then starts eating, first some noodles, then some of the pickled bamboo shoot, then sips the soup once, twice, three times. However, as the tale is completed, it is clear that he is not quite the expert that the young man thinks he is. I used to own this on laserdisc, and I'm thrilled to have it on DVD now - can't wait to see it again.
The Making of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story - I recently posted my impression watching this movie, but this award-winning documentary chronicles behind the scenes in recording Berstein's first-ever conducted performance of his classic musical. As he says in the movie, he chose to use opera singers because he always felt that the parts he'd written were too challenging for the singer/dancer/actors that were usually called upon to perform them on Broadway or in the movie. This choice of using opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Jose Carerras and Tatiana Troyanos was highly controversial, and sparked many debates among the opera fans of my old life. Actually, I don't really care for the recording itself, but watching a genius like Bernstein at the podium, in the studio and barking out orders is like, in Te Kanawa's words, "like having Mozart there in the studio with you." It's a fascinating look at how a modern musical genius practices his craft.
Dracula by Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano - this is a book I only picked up recently at the big Barnes & Noble in Paramus, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it was something I wanted to read. I have a long fascination with vampire tales (Anne Rice, Joss Whedon and the modern retelling by Francis Ford Coppola) yet I'd never read the original Bram Stoker text. It's one of those books I've always intended to read, and I must have picked it up and put it down at least 10 times in my life. But this version, with its beautiful black and white illustrations, captivated me to no end. Even though it has been months since I first saw it, I never forgot about it and it made its way to my birthday list (it's rather difficult to find a clean copy). The monochromatic art reminds me of Sin City, From Hell, Strangers in Paradise and other graphic novels I've been reading in the past year, and of course, the story is the wellspring from which everything else has flowed. I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - it may come as a surprise to some of you that I've always been fascinated with sailing ships and naval warfare, so this movie captivated me from the start, and I am looking forward to seeing the special features as well. It brings to mind our trip to the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut earlier this year, and the tour we took below the decks of a whaling vessel. On the other end of the history timeline, this weekend we are going to visit the Intrepid Museum in New York, a modern aircraft carrier. In addition to this movie, my interest was sparked by the movie Captain Horatio Hornblower starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo (which I encourage everyone to vote for DVD release on Amazon) and Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer (although that's more about the Battle of New Orleans than naval warfare per se).
Of the new things that my family picked out for me, I'm most intrigued by The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, which continues my string of fantasy fiction I've been reading, which includes last year's present The Mists of Avalon, Lord of the Rings, Stardust, the Sandman series, Neverwhere and my current book, Imajica.
So much time, so little to do - wait, strike that, reverse it...
