Month: July 2006

Today wasn’t too bad – hitting 90-odd degrees F, although the so-called real feel temperature was some 5 to 7 degrees more. Otherwise, I took my sort-of vacation, without leaving town…
–> Saw “Superman Returns” yesterday. Okay movie. Well done, in that art-y sense, evoking memories of the Christopher Reeve series. Major spoilers from here on, although note that I won’t discuss actual plot so much as it relates to my opinion; if you don’t want to know, just scroll on down…

So, anyway, Kevin Spacey clearly enjoyed himself as Lex Luthor. Very eee-vil. Parker Posey as his moll Kitty – aww, she has a sort-of conscience after all, in the tradition of past Luthor-twisted sidekicks.

Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane – she had the requisite moxie of Lois. More “issues,” since she had to deal with (what else?) the return of Superman. The return of Clark Kent – well, apparently that’s not an issue for her (poor Clark!).

James Marsden as Richard White, Perry White’s nephew and Lois’ erstwhile fiance – showed some moxie too. Impressive, considering that Superman’s been the Guy of Lois’ life. Considering that he got shafted as Cyclops in the third X-Men movie, he should feel a little vindicated. (yeah, Cyclops, the love of your life kind of treated you as badly as Lois treated Clark, so don’t feel so bad!).

Brandon Routh as Superman/Clark Kent – well, he did okay. Felt like he had to pay homage to Christopher Reeve, which I don’t have a problem, but Routh gave no sense of making the character his own or displaying actual acting talent (well, sort of, but not nearly as much as I’d like).

For me, it felt like this: Clark was put off on the wayside in favor of Superman/Kal-El – except to Ma Kent, for whom Clark/Kal-El/whoever is and always will be her son – it’s like there is no Clark – Clark is just the secret identity for Superman/Kal-El, long-lost son of Krypton, not vice versa. Superman II or III (or was it IV? It’s been sooo long since I last saw them) had pretty much addressed or resolved the Clark v. Superman/Kal-El issue; even “Smallville” of WB (soon-to-be CW) makes it clear that you can’t have Superman without the aw-shucks, all-middle American values of Clark Kent (who is as much the product of Pa Kent than Marlon-Brando as Jor El, who ironically is voiced in “Smallville” by the actor who played a bad guy in the Reeve Superman movies).

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought by now we’d realize that Clark becomes Superman; Superman can’t exist without Clark. Even the old Teri Hatcher/Dean Cain “Lois and Clark” series made it clear: Clark is the one with the dreams of journalism and fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way (or as this new movie put it “Truth, Justice and the other stuff” – check out a recent NY Times Op-Ed about that issue – we’re kind of losing sight of Superman’s motto, I’m afraid). Only Lois is clueless not to see that Clark’s a good guy (geez, there’s got to be a reason that Jimmy Olsen cared about Clark, after all).

Ultimately, there’s more to Clark/Superman/Kal-El than the Kryptonite (which the movie made every opportunity to point out, in a pretty heavy-handed way).  At some points, the CGI made Superman look a little wax-statue-y, but, special effects are what they are.
Oh, well – I do take my superhero stuff a little too seriously (then again, I’m more of a Batman kind of girl – there’s so much angst coming out of a superhero who’s too aware of his personal flaws; Batman doesn’t need Kryptonite to make him collapse considering the extent of his problems). I believe a planned Justice League cartoon movie will finally address the rather twisted relationship between Clark Kent/Superman and Bruce Wayne/Batman (they’re friends, really, if only Bruce can get over his problems with trust and psychotic tendencies; and – according to the cartoon series anyway – if Lois can finally realize Clark is the man, not Bruce, but Bruce is too easy a catch, as the millionare playboy (with hidden serious problems); well, there is that Wonder Woman thing, but this is again why the two guys will be rivals and friends for quite awhile).
–> Oh, and for today – heat index be damned; I took in the ambiance of NYC, feeling like a tourist. Okay, not really, but it was nice to enjoy time on my own. Window shopped at Saks Fifth Ave and FAO Schwartz; kudos for the air conditioning!!

Enjoy the rest of the work week; picnic coming on the weekend. Mmm-mmm!

I can take the heat; but not the humidity. The insane rainstorm isn’t any better. At least the high temperature wasn’t there today, but next week will be a scorcher…

More summer reading: C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters – wherein Screwtape, a certain high level official of the Underworld, writes letters to his nephew, Wormwood, a rookie member of the Underworld’s bureaucracy. Uncle Screwtape, you see, is giving Wormwood advice on how to keep a “patient” from going to Heaven. Really interesting writing. You could either take it as literature (as satire, there’s lots of great wit, and one wonders: boy, is Uncle Screwtape screwed up or what? And is Wormwood really making stupid rookie mistakes, or is he just not cut out to be a devil?), or as theology/religious thinking: what does it really mean to be a Christian?

Some mild entertainment: the current run of Chrysler (more accurately, Chrysler Daimler) commercials, wherein you ask Dr. Z (a.k.a. Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board) how Chrysler’s merger with the German company Daimler has been great. He even takes you in for a test drive in a Chrysler car, all but ramming you into the test wall. “Any more questions?” says Dr. Z; “Are you an actual doctor?” Well, in the commercial, Dr. Z doesn’t answer the question, getting out of the car with an amiable “Auf Weidersehn!” Since I kept wondering if Dr. Z was real and I thought his bushy mustache made him look like a nice, friendly kind of new company mascot (kind of like how Lee Iacocca was Chrysler’s longtime corporate leader and mascot for the commercials’ schtick), I checked the web (always quite the handy resource) on Dr. Z. Sure enough, he is a doctor, with a doctorate in engineering (auto engineering, I guess). I have to say, though, as AskDrZ.com noted, “awesome mustache”!

Went to the Teabag NYC Film Show yesterday with P to support one of my friends. He was showing the intro to a movie that they want to produce, “Pretty to Think So”, and promoting the DVD to their documentary on the Korean/Chinese party scene in New York, “Party“. Good stuff.

Afterwards, went to Jaya, a Malaysian restaurant. We had Roti Chanai, Ipoh Hor Fun, Yee Noodle in casserole with Black Mushroom, and a Chendor bing ice. Ok, not anywhere as good as Ipoh, but pretty good for New York, and we didn’t even break $20, so you can’t complain.

I think that the whole point of the New York Times is to give a New York view of the world, and a world view of New York. Otherwise, it might as well be USA Today with the Life magazine insert.

In this week’s New York Times Magazine, there is an article celebrating Gazpacho, when the late NYT food critic Craig Clairborne first popularized the Spanish cold soup in 1968. Gazpacho has to be one of my favorite delights, especially for a light late summer meal.

They then proceed to update it for the 21st century by providing a deconstructed version. Who do they go to for the task? Michael Tusk, who has an Italian fusion restaurant in San Francisco. I’m sure the guy is a fine chef, but you mean to tell me they couldn’t find anyone in New York that could do a deconstructed gazpacho? It wasn’t even like Tusk wanted to do it:

Earlier this summer, I gave the Málaga gazpacho recipe to Michael Tusk, the chef and an owner of Quince Restaurant in San Francisco, to see what it would inspire in him. Deceit, at first: Tusk said he had to sneak around the San Francisco farmer’s market in a hooded sweatshirt with a bag of local hot-house tomatoes, hoping that none of his watchdog chef friends would catch him with the contraband.

An Italian chef having a bag of tomatoes is going to pique the curiosity of other chefs? Come on. And they don’t read the NYT food columns, either. Right.

So, earlier this week, we had the heat wave that a NYC summer is never complete w/o; one day of near perfect summer day (ok heat, not too humid – excellent!); and then end the week with a few days of on-off rain; torrential rain and thunderstorms (severe pouring, as if you turned your faucet to the end) with sucky humidity. Argh.

And, in other news, Con Edison gets public ridicule because Queens hasn’t been getting the electricity sorely needed, due to outages (well, now it’s “blackout”), and even after the heat wave has been over (and meanwhile, the not-in-my-backyard people aren’t thrilled over letting Con Ed build transformers or power plants and such). The power problems got so bad that the MTA actually slowed the trains down to preserve power (so, MTA can’t handle heat, power outages, and floods. This week can’t possibly be a very good week for the guys who run the subways). And, City Hall approved of changing the way we get rid of garbage, but how is still debatable (as in, where would you like to put a recycling station that serves the five boros? “Not in my backyard…” some people cry. NIMBY is sooo popular.)

Bottomline: NYC needs to change its sanitation practices (like, let’s recycle more, you know?) and improve the electricity generation (umm, alternative forms of power; uh, say fix the 100-year old infrastructure – stuff like that). Oh, and my favorite rant target: the MTA (could you be a bit more efficient?). We may be a big city that never sleeps and have cool buildngs constructed and renovated every day, but we can’t hide the fact that we’re a 300+ year old city and we’re not cutting edge in some areas.

NJ is telling lawyers they can’t advertise themselves as “Super” or the “Best Lawyer” (even if the leading lawyer publication assess that these lawyers really are the “best” and/or are “super”).  Super Lawyer.  🙂  Sorry.  Sounds like a funny kind of comic book hero.  Although, so far as I know, the only superhero lawyer I know of is Marvel’s “Daredevil,” who’s a lawyer and a person with a disability.
For restaurant week this week, the gang and I went to City Hall – the Restaurant. I had the prix fixe special: roasted veggie salad (mmm, vinagrette); the poached salmon with couscous entry; and the red velvet cake dessert. Mmm. Yummy. Loved dessert. And, the bread – I could arguably live on bread and butter and water, if the bread is good bread. And, the ambiance – gorgeous. High ceilings, earthy woodiness, and pictures of the by-gone era (but we’re in a smoke-free environment, so old Boss Tweed and Tammany hall folks of the 19th century City Hall wouldn’t feel that comfortable, I’m sure). Oh, and the restrooms – honestly, fantastic. Clean and beautiful. Thumbs up on that alone.

Oh, and with the weather today, hard to see if the NY Mets will play – but they’re doing so great. Sports Illustrated did a cover article on them two weeks ago that I just loved, regarding the clubhouse’s chemistry and confidence. Like a nicer version of a frat, but more baseballier. Let’s just hope that the so-called Sports Illustrated cover curse won’t apply here (there was this odd trend where people on the cover find lack of victory thereafter; so very much don’t want that for the Mets). Go Mets!

Hot. Hot. Hot. The news today had power outages on the 7th Avenue subway lines, power lines blowing up in Astoria, and parts of LaGuardia without power. Stayed cool by slurping a crazy sized Jamba Juice and watching Colma: The Musical again (sans technical difficulties) from a free ticket courtesy of P’s friend YKC. I think the second time around I appreciated the movie much better (seeing the first 15 minutes that actually explained Colma were probably a good idea).

Boy, is it hot, and it isn’t even the worst of it yet.  Heat wave in NYC…

Last Saturday, saw “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”  If you’re a Johnny Depp fan, you’ll be delighted.  Personally, I thought that Stellan Saarsgaard, Bill Nighy and Jonathan Price, as talented actors (of non-action/special effects movies), would’ve deserved some more scenes (or, in Nighy’s case, scenes where the CGI tentacles wouldn’t have to mar his face).   The movie had action, more action, and lots of action.  Can be annoying.  And quite long.  (2:30).  And, it’ll be a year before we get the resolution (the sequel will presumably answer all questions).  Ah, well.

Summer reading:

The Final Solution, by Michael Chabon.   A novella wherein the retired Sherlock Holmes is confronted by the second World War and the Holocaust.  The mysterious numbers, a sad boy, and the England that will never be the same again.  I liked the writing and the richness.

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni.  An early Italian historical novel.  The betrothed 16th century Italian couple.  An Italy in conflict.  Plague.  Famine.  War.  Many meandering pages (if you read early English novels – Moll Flanders, or others of the 18th Century), you’ll have felt like you’ve seen it before, but this is a book that apparently influenced Italian literature since.   It’s okay reading.

Back to feeling broiled…