Water Hazard at Fort Point

Last Saturday, I joined one of my friends on a random picture shoot around the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marina areas. The idea of this photo day was to practice and to learn the features of our various cameras, which was good for me, because I had essentially put my camera to rest for nearly six months.

My friend who had invited me was essentially a photo novice up until a year or two ago. But since that time, he has purchased nearly every piece of camera equiment ever to have left the Nikon assembly belt. He has lenses and flashes galore, memory cards that could perhaps store photos for generations of his future family, and a battery pack that could fuel the USS Enterprise. Luckily enough for me, he allows me to use the equipment that he isn't using, which is nice, because it gives me an opportunity to learn the equipment and to freeload at the same time.

On a normal day when a camera is around, I am the one who is usually holding it, which means that I am not likely to be in many of the photos. If I am in a photo, that is because I had to ask someone begingly to take my photo, with the end photo result being a microscopic me in the corner of a larger and more vivid image of some sort of tumbleweed. But on this photo Saturday with Kevin, he was able to go against the grain and to capture me most vividly in peril. Magnificent stuff. In his series of five photos, shot at Fort Point, he was able to capture me, as he says, 'against the wave.' Way to go Kev.


Now Playing the De-Lovely Soundtrack

No Laughing Bandidas

I got the movie Bandidas (PG-13) in the mail today, it stars two of America’s biggest stars, Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz. Because of the high talent associated with this hour-in-half production, I asked my dad if he was interested in watching it, fully alerting him as to the powerful charisma that the two actors naturally exuberate. He said, yes, and I then put it on for him right before I left the house for basketball.

When I got home a few hours later, Bandidas was sitting on my chair at home, and posted onto it, was a short bullet review of the film that my dad had watched while I was away. Here is what he wrote:

Bandidas:

Buddy movie with no chemistry.

Comedy with forced acting and no laughs.

The Star- A horse

Best Supporting Role: 2 pushup bras.

Dagger through the heart award goes to the nude scene: A male actors behind.

“I dare you to watch it!”

And you know what, I most likely will. If I can sit through films like Boat Trip and Talledega Nights, I can sit through Bandidas, even if the highlight is only the horse.

Now Playing Backdraft by Hans Zimmer

Emotional Saturday Divide

It is odd to have ‘a day off.’ Almost everyday of the week, I am committed to either work or school. It has been only for the past few months that I have had Saturday’s completely free, which more or less, has left me rather quizzical as to what to do with this time.

Half of the time, my thoughts lean towards being alone and catching up on all of things that I am unable to do the rest of the week. The other half, I spend wanting to be in the company of others. Oddly, it is during the ‘alone’ and the productive time, that I begin to feel, how shall I say, rather lonely.

I know that I can attribute this feeling of alienation to the fact that I am nearly never alone, at all, the rest of the week. From the early morning to the late at night, I am usually surrounded by my fellow homo-sapiens. So like Cameron Diaz in the recent the Holiday, it only seems natural that my emotional state takes a deep plunge when I finally manage to get away from it all, on these jolly, holly Saturdays.

Still it would be nice to be able to be alone, and to be able to cherish those moments of quiet, where I am unneeded to perform, without the worry of needing to be with others, when every other moment is usually occupied with my fellow man.

McCourt Tells it Again

I cannot remember what drove me to read Angela’s Ashes when I did, but once I finished with it, I had an immense liking for the author. I loved the ‘innocence’ that seemed flow in the telling of the tale, and the ‘innocence’ in the way it was written. That Frank McCourt, I thought, now he seems like a nice fellow.

A couple of years later, he continued wrote Tis, a follow-up to his previous memoir, that wasn’t received all that well, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The innocence was still there in the book, but I think because the critics had lavished so much upon him for Angela’s Ashes (including the Pulitzer), that a new book, no matter how well written, was going to be doomed to a lesser reception than his previous juggernaut. Tis, ’there would be no movie from this title.

Now along came his latest memoir, Teacher Man, which I had wanted to read for year, but struggled with, because I tried to stay away from reading altogether. Finally last month, I was able to pick it up and to read about his thirty year story in the New York school system, as you guessed from the title, as a teacher, and again I am very impressed.

McCourt candidly talks about his highs and lows in the teaching profession, and admits to all of the crazy and sometimes, insurmountable issues that arise in the classroom that he has trouble dealing with. It could be anywhere from an unruly pupil, to a uncouthly principal. But whatever it is, McCourt is able to make things easy for the reader, and easy for the students in his classroom, who endlessly seem like they want to take advantage of him.

Although he may not have been the best teacher to ever have entered New York, a notion that he will admit openly, he is perhaps one of the smartest teachers to have ever written about his profession, perhaps more successfully, than any other teacher man out there, making his efforts as a teacher, a very good one.

Recognization at the Bay

Has it already been a month since my last posting? Wow!

It is the new year and I am a day back from a brief Las Vegas adventure. There are many people out there , who like to criticize the lack of talented movies that I embark on. However, it was yesterday morning at the Manderlay Bay casino that my investment into those unwise and unpopular films came to fruitation.

It is because only a week ago, I had rented the latest American Pie movie (the Naked Mile) through Netflix, so I could catch up on the iconic Stifler family. I enjoyed a bunch of moments from it, because it manged to maintain the juvenile behavior that made the others so darn popular.
So as I am walking through the casino at 2:30 in the morning, I look over at the blackjack table, and I spot none other than one of the stars of The Naked Mile- The lead dwarf. I was with my friend V when I spotted him, and he had no idea who he was, but I went up to him, and I told him that I had just seen him in his film, and he seemed quite pleased that I had recognized him, because I just don't think there are many out there at present to have seen his straight to DVD film.

I still do not know what his name is, and it fails to list him in the credits at IMDB, which is odd because he had a significant part in the film. Nevertheless it was exciting for me, and one of the highlights of my trip to Vegas.

Although my guy does not receive a lot of credit recognition, you can view him on the bottom of this poster wearing the football uniform.


Now Playing 1492: Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis