Phrenia

While I had some issues with the filming style, the plot and acting were great. I walked away from the film having a small but gritty and moving view of what it might be like to live with schizophrenia.

Well-known critics dismissed this film; some saying it wandered and that the dialogue was not cohesive. Others criticized the multiple, simultaneous voice tracks as not adding value and detracting from the drama. Granted, those aspects are not entertaining, however I have to imagine people suffereing from this mental illness are not entertained by it either. Schizophrenia does not so much lend itself to linear thought process or scheduling internal voices to talk serially. Besides, sometimes there needs to be a break from entertainment for some other activity, I dont know, lets just say learning, for example.

Its a good thing I routinely ignore anyone who is a self-professed expert or critic, they often miss the larger more important message for surface deformities and other irrelevant details.

Jamie Foxx, who has racked up some stellar performances, definitely captures the dischord and misalignment with reality whole heartedly. He has moments of bone-crushing brilliance that make the film worth watching. Even Robert Downey, who frankly has never rated very high in my book, captured what I can imagine to be the frustration of trying to communicate with someone who can be several personalities at once and prone to spontaneous and sometimes violent espisodes.

This story of the prodigy Julliard cellist turned LA homeless man is based on a true story, and it is not uncommon. Since I started walking my 7 miles a day to and from the Cancer Shoppe, I too have run into my share of mentally ill and homeless in Houston. Watching this film doesn't change their plight in any way but maybe I understand what they face just a little better.



The Soloist
8.5/10

Pathetic

Wow, I am a pathetic blogger. Its been so long that blogger did not automatically log me in and I had to go searching for my username and password! Sheesh.

High level summary: Work, School, Work, School, cook, WorkSchool. Cook is intentionally written with a lower case "c" :) Work and School are one in the same since both involve digging into the representation and processing of genomic cancer data. Good thing I love it since I do it about 90 hours a week.

More later (later as in sometime before Thanksgiving!)

Cincinnati

Cincinnati by night and day
Cincinnati isn't a bad town after all. I had been growing to hate it with every fiber of my being but that was largely due to a culturally imposed, illogical and unneccesary migratory pattern in the dead of winter, otherwise known as going home for Christmas. But that tradition is cooked and served.

Since I will be sitting by the beach, climbing volcanoes and sailing through treetops on a thin wire during the holidays this year, I did Christmas in September with my sister and her family in Cincinnati. Sister's girls were thrilled with their present, a Wii. We spent about 4 hours making Mii's and I was pretty impressed with my niecelettes ability to kick ass on Wii boxing.


Niecelettes discover they are Wii owners

Since it was also my birthday there were a few birthday treats.

Freedom Center
50 E Freedom Way
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513.333.7606

I'm not going to say go to Cincinnati to see this museum but if you are in the area, definitely make an effort. The building design and layout combined with very interesting and innovative multimedia content make the Underground Railroad Freedom Center one of the best single-focus museums I've seen.


Freedom Center, Portrait


Freedom Center, Fiber Art


Freedom Center, Downtown Cincinnati

Nada
600 Walnut St
Cincinnati, OH
513.721.6232

Downtown Cincinnati is kinda happening. I didn't see that the last time I stayed downtown because it was winter; a season during which noone should be further north of Houston. Nada is a new entry into the downtown arena. I'm not sure about the food, since we only stopped for drinks, but the drinks were well-done. Definitely opt for the Passion Fruit Caipirihna, which will no doubt be delivered by an impossibly cute server.



Nada, Downtown Cincinnati

Bootsy's
631 Walnut Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513.241.0707

Ever wonder what happened to the king of late 70's, early 80's funk? Bootsy Collins apparently took his collection of crazy sunglasses and music awards back to his hometown and opened a restaurant. A Spanish-laced restaurant with a fun, hi-vis, lounge-esque feel. I dont know why this happened but despite the tacky advertisement clad exterior and an interior requiring a pair of polarizing sunglasses, the food here is mostly excellent. Applause for Patatas Bravas and Ceviche. Total walkout on Paella, it was uninspired.



Bootsy's, Downtown Cincinnati

Party City
You have to love a Home Depot sized liquor store that has wine tastings on Sunday. It was Argentinian wines at this tasting. Frankly I have not had good luck with wines from Argentina. Apparently I just needed to try the right wines, thanks to Party City's wine expert, Danny Gold, I found them. I was impressed with this wine tasting. 8 wines and a delicious collection of high brow nibbles for $15. Danny was personable and informative; you could immediately tell he absolutely loved his job. If you are wondering how Party City could put on a wine tasting like that for $15, I will tell you that I spent $100 in the store afterwards and sister spent close to $400. Clever, very clever.

Deweys
Oakley Square
3014 Madison Rd
Cincinnati, OH 45209
513.731.7755

You simply can't visit Cincinnati without a stop to the indigenous pizza parlor. Get over the small, crowded conditions and get ready for pizza that rivals NYC's most authentic. Thin crust, numerous vegetarian options, friendly staff and a mind boggling array of microbrews make Deweys an entry into my pizza favorties.



Lastly, I wanted to mention that sister has a new addition to the family, Rex. This is the world's largest puppy. He's 105 pounds but only a year old, another 50-60 pounds to go. Despite his appearance, he has the friendliest personality, which is good since he outweighs both of my nieces significantly.


Rex, the puppy

Moon

I didn't go see Julie and Julia this weekend like the rest of the world. The film I did see, people had told me was like 2001 Space Odyssey. It wasn't. Sure, it took place off-planet and there was a talking computer involved but that is where the similarity ended.

The story line is clever and it will ambush you somewhere mid-film. I think just the title gives the impression that this will be about sci-fi space exploration, possbily involving high technobabble and perhaps aliens that need a good thrashing. Not even in the right ballpark. Juxtaposition of the waning humanity of corporate ethics and the rising humanity of a systematically oppressed population define the ballpark.

Filming style is great; some of the moon-to-earth scenes are simply beautiful. Choppy, grainy segments capture an expected reality of traversing the moon's surface on foot and vehicle. Framing of Sam Rockwell in the particularly emotional scenes was tight and angular, tweezing even more tension out of an existing hand-wringer.

Sam Rockwell does an outstanding job, considering he is only person on film for 2 hours. I've heard his performance in this film compared to Tom Hanks' in Cast Away. Kind of, but Sam Rockwell plays two characters simultaneously, both different personalities and motivations, both come across in a frighteningly believable way.

So far, post Oscar, Moon is my favorite film - brilliant.



Moon
10/10

If (Mercy > Law) Then

It wasnt well received in theatres and I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as the original, but I did. The filming style is modernized, the storyline is pushed forward 50 years to something more salient to the region and time but the questions this film poses are still as thought-provoking now. 50+ years later we still asking but no closer to answering the better-or-worse questions posed in 12 Angry Men. Fate boxing Choice, Situational Ethics, The Uncertainty Principle, Intuition dueling Reason. And of course, the ever popular Upholding The Law vs. Showing Mercy.

These are good questions. Its not necessary to answer them but it will be forever necessary to ask. We are, and in this case, we are asking them in Russian.





12
9.0/10

XMAS09

I decided what Im doing for XMAS break this year. It will involve leaving the country, zip-touring over city and forest (that would be wire flying), coffee, pre-Columbian art and beaches. Anyone know where yet? :)

July

Catching you up.

The parents came to Houston for a visit. They just came to see me this time, not the collection of friends they made in their 10-year stopover before moving on to New Orleans. It was fun! We did a small culinary tour of Houston, which included Frenchy's fried chicken at my dad's insistence. He liked.

While return visits to SOMA, Voice and T'afia were wonderful, the big winner from the culinary tour was new-to-us, Reef, a comfortable but sophisticated seafood venue in Midtown. I could go on about the menu and what we tried but the menu changes. If available try the Yellowtail Ceviche with Mango, Avocado and Smoked Paprika. This is awesome; the lime marinade imparts a clean, crisp flavor which then folds into complex layers with the addition of creamy avocado, earthy smoked paprika and sweet mango. The novelty item here is the fried mac and cheese. Right, lets just take an already heart bomb side dish and fry it up. Good but its soooo heavy!


Reef

The weekend following a group of friends and I went to see the touring Cirque in Houston, Saltimbanco. This was my 4th Cirque and I have to say one of my favorites. Definitely not the same drama factor as O at Bellagio but very enjoyable just the same. Saltimbanco is a stripped down Cirque with no integrating theme with a much lighter presentation. There were the requisite high-flying acrobatics but there were some very one-off acts that were fascinating!




Other than that, the work and school thing is going well!