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On our six week quest to catch up on the past year’s movies for the Oscars, P and I finally saw RENT – the Movie from Netflix this week.

P is something of a RENTHEAD, but I actually haven’t had the chance to see the theater production, even though I am a musical theater junkie. I do have the soundtracks and the piano book, though, which pretty much is really the whole thing.

OK, one year ago we swore that we weren’t going to see the movie. The RENT film crew towed P’s sister’s car (we had borrowed it) when we rushed over to my parents’ house that awful night. For all of the panic of thinking the car was stolen and then the $45 ticket, it wasn’t worth it, since the subway scene ended up only being 15 seconds walking down the steps of my old station (this is about 1 hour into the movie before “I’ll Cover You”).

Well, we didn’t see the movie in the theater, and they’re not getting anything they weren’t already getting from us from Netflix. However, I’m kind of glad that we did get to see RENT (in the comfort of our home).

While the movie was not exactly like the show (they dropped three big songs), it did do a good job of portraying the feeling of that time, so in that way it was a success. Having gone to NYU during la vie boheme of the the late 80’s and early 90’s, I can say the squalor was real, the clubbing was real, the death was real. Yet, the music was real, the people were real, the joy was real. Love and acceptance are the eternal themes that runs through both La Boheme and RENT.

Saturday we’re all going to the cemetary for my dad’s one year anniversary. I don’t have all of the words, or all of the minutes. The best that I can do is to cover you with minute memories.

The coral reefs are in trouble, no thanks to the oceans’ rise in temperature. They turn pale and pasty. Makes me wonder what this may mean. It’s like the canaries who die first in the mines – this can’t possibly be good.

TV viewing:

Well, there’s American Idol. Simon’s still a mean man, but when he likes the contestant, he gets downright annoying. I mean, really: “Yes, that was really good. You will win this competition…” Dripping with… sincerity? Yikes.

I watched most of tonight’s NCIS episode. Hmm. The one big weakness in their plots is that they have to devise any possible way to bring NCIS into a situation. High school hostage taking situation – sort of a Columbine thing where the confused teen is strapped to a bomb to wipe out his homeroom – wouldn’t involve NCIS in real life, since NCIS gets involved in military-related incidents (“N” stands for Navy, duh). But, Special Agent Gibbs and the gang got involved because the high school is… located in the local Marines base and harms the lives of military brats. Ok. Sure.

Obviously, you just have to suspend your belief in reality, just a bit, to see how NCIS gets involved, but otherwise, the suspense was well done and the characters – well, I like anything where there’s respect for the characters and who they are and what they care about. NCIS isn’t a perfect tv series, but it’s okay tv. (unlike, say, JAG, where their sense of smugness got a bit grating for me).

NCAA March Madness brackets – hmm. I’m torn between choosing what will likely happen versus what I’d like to happen (a few weird upsets). Maybe I’ll make up multiple brackets. Hmm.

Digg.com pointed out the silly new mathematical holiday “Pi Day“, which celebrates the number that is about 3.141509… The official moment is on March 14 at 3:09 PM (15:09 in 24 hour clock). Mazel Tov!

Ever since I moved to the border between Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill, I’ve used a private mailbox service. When I moved in, it took the landlord 6 months to get a new mailbox key installed in the lobby, and I had to have some way to get mail. I found a Mailbox Etc. store that had just opened. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because having the service was like having a doorman – someone’s always there to receive packages, and you don’t have to worry about random things being left in hallways. In addition, the staff there gets to know you and they look out for your stuff. They’ve also let my 1 minute before closing (or even 15 minutes after closing) appearances slide, too. It also was my plan “B” if P and I had to make a quick move or were going to be travelling for a while.

The other thing that was great about the location was that it gave me an excuse to go down in the Atlantic Avenue/Carroll Gardens direction, which I almost never did during law school, but now know pretty well. Some lazy Saturdays would just consist of picking up the mail, and then going to the local pizzeria for lunch and reading the mail, and then reading at Barnes and Noble.

So after eight years, and a name change later, on Saturday I had a notice in my box that they were closing down at the end of the month. It wasn’t clear whether they weren’t making enough money or that the landlord was forcing them out. The company that owned the franchise got bought out by another company, and the new overlords thought that they needed to simplify the side businesses and use the space for something else. All I know they were so busy that I could barely step foot in the place between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. They directed us to the other store that is a couple of blocks farther away, but on the main strip.

It’s an end of an era, and I hope that all of the staff are able to find new gigs. Rob, Sam and Artie, I’m going to really miss you guys. You did good.

A warm March weekend in NYC.
Scientific news in this post:

Water found on a Saturn moon – so, what does that mean? It means, arguably, we could find a new form of life that exist in what we Terrans would call extreme conditions. Ok, more likely than not, it’d be weird microscopic life, or if more evolved, sort-of like the worms living off the sulfuric gases of Earth’s oceanic volcanos. But, it’d be a life form. And, ok, so I must have watched too much “X-Files” to think this, but we really ought to be careful with what we find (in “X-Files,” Mulder and Scully always ended up scrambling to find solutions to the weird extraterrestrial microscopic life infecting something or someone…)

The latest Mars orbiter – looks like it’s safely orbiting. The impending new pictures will be amazing, I’ve no doubt.

The whole Blackberry litigation settlement – wherein the makers of Blackberry paid off this plaintiff who accused them of patent infringement, when he never even made a product – well, the whole thing makes me wonder if patent law needs some reform. But, I’m no IP person (patents was the course I didn’t take; liked trademarks, but got bored with copyright).

A friend of mine e-mailed me this link. A sarcastic Precious Moments. Quite funny.

Oh, and last but not least – it’s about to be March Madness – NCAA Tournament. It’s Bracket Time!

I was watching JoJo New York, a travel guide show about New York City for Mandarin speakers (with English subtitles) on the ImaginAsian channel. It occured to me that there is a real lack of travel shows about New York, almost as if it just sells itself. When probably half of prime time TV uses New York as their backdrop, it almost does sell itself, but CSI: New York, Law & Order, King of Queens or Conviction can’t tell you where to get decent Greek food or vintage jeans. Sometimes you need a new perspective – you just need to have someone view things with the naive wonder that a tourist visiting the City can have.

Host JoJo Zou definately has that spunky look of wonder down pat as she explores aspects of the City that most non-English speaking Chinese — not to mention most visitors or natives — never have the courage to experience. She does unusual tourist things, like go on a bike protest with Critical Mass, play a saw with street performers, and venture to far flung eateries in the Outer Boroughs, like Astoria and Coney Island. That, of course, is something wonderful.