Month: January 2006

Much catching up with friends and routines this weekend. Saturday, started the gym again for the first time. I’m still sore today. We saw the Fra Angelico exhibit at the Met. This early Renassiance artist produced spectacular religious artwork, one of which demonstrated some of the first modern usages of perspective. Afterwards saw Syriana, which left P and I uncharacteristically ambivalent — as all of the characters were acting in their own self interests, none of the characters are at all likable or relatable. I didn’t get anything new out of the movie when I left.

Afterwards, we ate at Heidelberg, a legendary German restaurant next door to the German deli at 86th Street. The food was excellent – a touch better then Rolf’s and much better then the generic biergarden in Astoria.

Sunday meant the re-union of the schk dim sum club at Golden Unicorn, which has been meeting for the last 10 years or so. Everybody doing ok, just older and with more ideas. Talk about mini-storage, salon culture, domestic espionage and Google subpoenas dominated the afternoon. $75 of dimsum and a few bubble teas later, we adjourned after 3 hours. Afterwards, P and I visited P’s sister’s dogs.

At home, saw on DVD Jay Chau‘s racing movie Initial-D. Wasn’t bad – based on a Japanese manga comic book, it translated well to the screen. You can find lots of info on the Special Features disk. Turns out almost 100% of the driving scenes through the downhill hairpin turns were live action, not CGI. Half of the cast was previously in the “Infernal Affairs” series of movies, and the female lead was in “Snow Falls on Cedars”. Also finished “Lost” season One – that series’ extras disk pointed out that Yunjin Kim, the actress that plays Sun, had 1. originally auditioned to play Kate, and 2. is a superstar in Korea, playing the lead in the action blockbuster Shiri. The producers decided to create a role especially for her, and cast a husband for her.

Another Monday morning rapidly approaching….

The whale that managed to get up the River Thames has died. Sad.

A brief summary on the whale drama, in the NY Times.

Almost entirely caught up on watching ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” (my VCR working overtime, as usual). That Sandra Oh’s quite an actress – as much as her Christina Yang character’s such an annoying thing, you get caught up in Yang’s quirks. Is she serious about Dr. Burke? (Burke, while her boss, is at least not married, unlike what happened to Meredith Grey and Dr. Shepherd (the ever dreamy Patrick Dempsey)). Is Yang really in love or lust or what?

And, while Grey’s just about over over Shepherd (maybe!), he’s still in love (was in love?) with her. Personally, I think Grey needs a new man. Where are the twisty love triangles already? (no, I don’t think there should be one with Grey, Shepherd and Shepherd’s estranged wife, Dr. Addison Shepherd – Addison’s turning out to be a non-evil character). The executive producer behind “American Embassy” who’s also behind “Grey’s Anatomy” – well, he had a pretty weak love triangle there (weak, because it was so easy to root for the rather-well-defined cute CIA agent over the rather undefined British aristocrat-brothers who fell for the blonde American diplomat). Not that I’m suggesting Grey gets a CIA agent (well, why not?), but she needs time away from “McDreamy” Shepherd. A Grey-Shepherd (who really shouldn’t still be holding the torch for Grey anymore)- ? man – that’ll be curious to watch. Addison can roll her eyes over her husband’s stupidity (he can’t cry victim anymore if he’s the one straying this time, since Addison is no longer cheating on him).

The creator of “Grey’s Anatomy” – being a woman who likes her cast diverse and occupied – well, I think she knows what she’s doing. The characters are all flawed but aren’t one-dimensional. And, while I can almost see the love triangle developing for Dr. Alex Karev (the jerk you got to love) and Dr. Izzie Stevens, well, you almost want Karev to move on (not necessarily to Grey; he and Grey seem more like buddies). And, poor Dr. George O’Malley – he’s so sweet, and has the biggest crush on Grey, who won’t really see him in that way… And, I really like Dr. Webber, their chief of surgery, who had a past romance/affair with Grey’s mom – the successful surgeon who now has early Alheimer’s. Can’t believe this is the same actor who played the creepy Kersh on X-Files. And, considering the drama of Webber and Grey’s mom, I wonder if Grey’s dad (Dr. Grey Sr.’s ex-husband) will show up. And, Dr. Bailey – ahh, they slowly let us get to know her – that under that tough surgeon exterior is a kind but tough woman.

The medical plots aren’t that interesting (ER had already done the hermaphrodite patient; the disaster plots and gruesome injuries), but the show’s really more about the characters – they’re really amusing to watch.

Got caught up on Alias – poor Sydney. Can’t imagine what they’ll do to get her and her baby out of the mess when they come back from mid-season hiatus/Jennifer Garner’s maternity leave.

And, while it’s great that Hugh Laurie won a Golden Globe for his work as Dr. House, thanks to American Idol, I’m really missing episodes of “House.” It really is turning into the one show I won’t miss and will watch in its actual time slot.

A whale in the River Thames in London.

And, looks like we’re on our way to Pluto.