movies: Watched Glory and Diva this weekend.

Glory stars
Matthew Broderick,
Denzel Washington,
Cary Elwes and
Morgan Freeman. Matthew Broderick plays the character Robert Shaw, a young officer in the union army who is promoted to the rank of colonel and is given command of the first all black regiment. Needless to say, the regiment faces prejudice and discrimination but gets to prove their worth in the end. I give this movie 4 stars on the netflix's scale.

Diva is a French flick from 1981. I first saw this in the 80's and recently decided to watch it again. I'm happy to say that after 20 years, I still found this film quite enjoyable. It is amusing to see a young skinny Dominique Pinon in this film. Dominique Pinon is (apparently) a favorite of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, as Monsieur Pinon has played memorable roles in several of Jeunet's films:

• the bubble wrap popping guy in Amelie.
  
• Louison in Delicatessen. Hmm, I fuzzy on this character. Time to watch Delicatessen again...
  
• underwater junk collector and the clones in City of Lost Children.
  

OK, back to Diva. Cynthia Hawkins, a renown opera singer who refuses to be recorded, is the diva. Jules, a young postman and opera aficionado, makes a high quality bootleg recording of one of the diva's performances. There is also a mysterious crime syndicate and a cassette tape, with evidence that threatens the syndicate. Unbenownst to Jules, this cassette is placed in the saddle bag of his moped. But hey, who cares about the plot? This movie is about the characters, frenchness and Parisian scenery.
I give Diva 4 out of 5 stars

drink: mexican screwdriver

1. fill a 750 working glass to the half way mark with large ice cubes.
   
2. Pour in a dash of Cointreau and then add two or three fingers of quality tequila (e.g. Herradura Gold or Patron).
   
3. Fill the remainder of the glass with orange juice (Odwalla with lotsa pulp is nice, if you've got it handy).
   
4. imbibe.
   
5. repeat steps 1 through 4 as necessary
   

I often have a mexican screw driver or three in the evening if I'm watching a DVD.

movie: Finished watching Crash. Crash is written by J.G. Ballard (sci-fi author). One of the main characters is named James Ballard (played by James Spader). Also in the film are Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette. The movie opens by showing that James Ballard and his wife are some what promiscuous and kinky. Later, James gets involved with people who are turned on by car crashes. Lots of explicit sexuality.

I give this flick 3.5 stars on the netflix scale.

Yesterday I had dinner at
Vasili's Greek Food and BBQ. I also picked up some scrumptous chocolate truffles next door at
Donnelly's Chocolates.. Just ate two truffles, Mmmmm.

Exciting things I did today

• Went to work. This is exciting -- it means that my start up company has not folded and left me unemployed (a rare thing in silicon valley these days -- not folding)
  
• walked my dog.
  
• listened to some of Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I got this (unabridged) audio book from audible.com.
  
• worked on this blog.
  

Still haven't figured out how to edit a blog entry after I've posted it.

News flash: I just broke the code and have done the post, edit, repost thing several times in a row now! Wow.

Came across a new article detailing a suprising method of reducing
breast cancer. Finally scientist studying something worthwhile!

movies: This weekend I watched El Mariachi and Desperado.

Both were quite entertaining. Not to long ago I watched Spy Kids and Spy Kids II. The common theme developing here is writer/director Robert Rodriguez (who, IMHO, is a genius).

El Mariachi and Desparado are both action flicks with a fair amount of gore and plenty of humor (has Rodriguez made a film that does not have ample helpings of humor?). El Mariachi was made for the minescule sum of $7000 and it shows -- the film has a very cheesy feel. Desparado had a real budget and feels like a real, well funded movie.

On deck: Cronenberg's Crash

this is a test of the national blogcasting system. If this had been a real emergency, George W Bush would be president and you would be crying in your beer.

Wait! G.W. Bush IS president.