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| Sunday, February 6, 2005 12:39 PM |
| Pre-Super Bowl Weekend Round-Up |
 by Fëanor |
Friday night, poppy and I went out on the town. First we went to a great little bar/restaurant in Philly called Nodding Head and had an excellent meal. I had the Double Decker burger (which is topped with ham and swiss cheese--awesome), along with their tasty seasoned french fries, and a glass of George's Fault, one of their very own, home-brewed beers. Poppy had the spicy mussels and some fries. Everything was really good. We both particularly liked the George's Fault. A very nice, mild beer with a tasty finish.
After that, we headed over to a nearby Starbucks for some tea and a cookie, and then it was off to the ballet. The headline performance was Nine Sinatra Songs, a production choreographed by Twyla Tharp (what an awesome name), but it was preceded by The Waltz Project and 11:11. The Waltz Project was choreographed by Peter Martins and it was, unsurprisingly, a series of waltzes strung together. The dances were accompanied by live piano. The first was set to the music of John Cage, so it was brutal and modernist and strange and kind of choppy and mechanized. It was different and interesting. Some of the other waltzes were clever and funny, others were solemn and modernist again, but they were all entertaining and imaginative.
11:11 was a series of dances, each one done to a different song by Rufus Wainwright. I don't know much about Wainwright, and I don't think I'd heard him before that night, but I definitely want to get a CD or two of his now. His songs are quite beautiful, and the lyrics are pretty clever and funny. The first was called "Vibrate," and the chorus was, "My phone's on vibrate for you." The dancing was again lovely, imaginative, funny. 11:11 was even more engaging and enjoyable for me than the Waltz Project, and I think it's entirely because of the fact that the music playing in the background had lyrics. For whatever reason, I need some accompanying words to be really absorbed by a piece of music. I mean, I like jazz and classical, but they can put me to sleep if I'm not doing something else while listening to them. It's songs with lyrics that really connect with me.
So I thought there was a chance I'd enjoy the main attraction that evening, Nine Sinatra Songs. This was a series of classical ballroom-style duets set to songs by Frank Sinatra, with a dance in the middle and one at the end featuring multiple couples. Poppy and I had really come for the other performances, but we stayed for Nine Sinatra songs, despite the fact that we both find Sinatra's music dull, predictable, and dated.
Unfortunately, Tharp was too good at matching her dances to the music. The performance was also dull, predictable, and dated. There were a few moments where something cute or interesting happened, but pretty much the whole rest of the thing was totally unimaginative and boring. We were both pretty disappointed.
Yesterday, I spent the morning and afternoon running errands and then having lunch with poppy. Then it was off to Sarcasmo's to enjoy an evening of Hong Kong (or, really, Asian) films, organized by Super Tarzan. I was able to stay for only three movies (my wife had asked me not to stay too late), and I didn't enjoy any of them as much as I could have, but I still had plenty of fun.
The first movie we watched was New Legend of Shaolin, a favorite of my friend Dave's. It's a Jet Li action film wherein he plays a kung fu master looking for revenge for the slaughter of his village. He's accompanied by his young son, who's also a kung fu master, and ends up stumbling into a couple of subplots involving a mother/daughter con artist team and a map to secret treasure drawn on the backs of five young children. The movie, like most Hong Kong action flicks, can veer suddenly from slow, achingly solemn melodrama, to brutal fast-paced action, to wacky childish humor, sometimes all in the same scene. I still haven't learned how to deal with these sudden and constant changes in tone. I love the stunning action sequences in New Legend of Shaolin, but I could really do without a lot of the fart jokes and weepy death scenes.
Next up on the schedule was a film called Once a Thief, directed by John Woo. It was another film with a number of sudden tone changes, but it generally stayed in the realm of wacky comedy for most of its length, so I can't say I enjoyed it all that much. It was fun for what it was, though, and there were some great action sequences. I've never been able to quite get into John Woo's films, though. I think I've yet to see one that I really fully enjoyed. He does great action set pieces, but his movies get bogged down by corny dialogue and melodrama, ridiculous story twists, and puerile comedy.
The final film I saw was Gozu, by Takashi Miike. With Miike, you can expect only one thing: the unexpected. He will always disturb you deeply, probably also gross you out, but it will always be in a new and different way, so you're never quite ready for it. This movie was no exception. It was paced with an aching, tortuous slowness, and moved from one insane episode to another like some kind of painful, feverish nightmare. The basic story involves a yakuza knocking out his rather insane boss/friend in an accident, taking him to a freakish town full of weirdos, and then losing track of him. He spends the rest of the movie weaving his way through a long line of crazies and scumbags, trying to find his friend again. When he finally does find him, it's not exactly where or how you'd expect. And the ending is fantastic and insanely clever shift in tone and structure. But that's Miike--he keeps you on your toes.
I didn't actually see the entire film, however, since about half way through the viewing, the audience finally cried out in agony (and I can't claim to not have joined in) and ST agreed to skip to the end of the film and subject us to only a few more scenes--which were, of course, the most horrifying.
I can't say I loved the film, but I appreciated Miike's style, daring, and imagination. I kind of want to see the whole thing at some point. But I think I'll wait a while before I make the attempt.
In between films, we saw some trailers for other movies, and some fight and stunt sequences from a Jackie Chan film. We also ate pizza and drank beer (mmm...Yuengling...).
Anyway, after Gozu, the group wanted a good old fashioned action extravaganza to clean their palettes, so they decided to watch Master of the Flying Guillotine, which was one of the movies I brought, and is one of my favorite old kung fu flicks. I would have liked to have stayed and watched it with them, but it was time for me to go, so off I went.
This morning, I cooked up a bunch of pancakes and eggs and toast, and poppy made some bacon, and we chowed down on a nice big breakfast. It was quite excellent, if I do say so myself. Now I feel ready for a day of shopping, and an evening of football. Go Eagles! |
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