As the Trade Deadline Looms

July is an interesting month for baseball. Teams have until the end of the month to make any mid-season trades. The Giants have been struggling and if I could be general manager for a day, my wishlist would be to acquire:

• OF Eric Byrnes (Oakland) - the local kid hits well in SBC Park and is athletic, runs down any balls his way, and has batting potential.
• P Barry Zito (Oakland) - i think pitcher-friendly SBC Park can help him. Plus, the Giants need some improvement in their starting pitching and Zito would be a great addition. It doesn't hurt that he's got a Cy Young in his resume :)
• IF Shea Hillenbrand (Toronto) - he's played well in all the games I've seen him as a Diamondback and he's been a great player as a Blue Jay....he'd be a great alternate for 2B or SS.

Coffee and Cigarettes

I was watching Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes and midway thorugh the film I thought about the friendships that I've had in my life. It was quite intriguing watching Jim's short stories of people having coffee and cigarettes. People meet for some reason but they really don't know each other as much as society would normally dictate. Lives are in disdain and good conversations are hard to come by.

When I was a kid, I always thought I'd make a good friend. I was so sure of it I felt it was one of the only few sure things in my life. In my first venture into friendship when I was about 9 I started out ok. I had a friend who shared laughs with me and shared the same weirdness that I carried with me. Then one day I poked this bun he had on a stick and he was so upset that that was the end of it.

To this day I find it hard to remember. It feels like it never happened. Maybe I dreamed about it? I can't even remember his name for the life of me. I'm such a terrible friend. I don't think I said anything to him when it happened. I just froze. didn't appologize, just froze. I did realize then that I was not a social kid. I never really got close to anyone else for a long time after that incident. You want to know what's funny? On the last day of prep school the teacher felt like giving us all a special ribbon. Woohoo everyone wins! I think they had to give each kid a unique ribbon. Most Intelligent, Funniest, Best Math Wiz....would you believe I got Most Sociable Child?

I still have that ribbon.

I think it was in the 2nd grade when I had my next close friend. It started out the same way. We could laugh at the same jokes and silly ideas. Both eccentric kids I guess. We stuck together like peas and carrots as they say. Then one day we hit fifth grade and everything just went away. We didn't talk anymore, no phone calls, no argument. We just outgrew the friendship I guess.

In high school I think I made progress because I was part of a bigger group (or bunch). Well not really a gang, just four or five guys who just happened to be together all the time between classes and sometimes during weekends. I don't even remember how it started. We just stated to hang out and that was it. After graduation, we tried to keep it together. But we all just had to live our own lives. I guess thats just how it works in the world.

I did have another friend in high school. Another loner who I spent time with when I was't with the other guys. I guess we shared the same serious sides of life. We had more serious conversations than laughs I have to say. We talked a lot about life, family problems, and how twisted the world was. Of course, the same end happened after graduation. I tried years later to hook up with him, just to catch up, but the time that had passed between us just couldn't find common ground anymore, even though it seemed it like it would make for good conversation. Sometimes it just doesn't work anymore.

I was hoping college would bring forth more promise. I was finally entering a coed university and maybe a bigger mix of people would do me some good. While I absolutely know by this time that I was really a loner at heart, I was not out to stay away from anyone. I was like a hotel. You want to come by and stay a while, fine. Have to go, no problem. Need a 2am wakeup call, no problem. By this time I had already discareded this false notion of a perfect record when it came to being a good friend. It's not realistic, I think. Life has proven to me that like a lot of things in life, friendship, like marriage, is non-binding. It comes and goes. And you don't have to blame yourself or figure out so much why it all works that way. It just does. The ties that bind that last just do so because they happen that way. That ones that don't can never be tied together the same way again. Time never turns back.

I made some really good friendships in college. And to this day I still have a lot of my college friendships around. Am I still Morrison Hotel? yeah, sure. Do I have something to write on a scrapbook under Best Friend or Best Buddies? No. And thats not to be detrimental to all the friendships that I've had in my life. I just don't look at it that way. It's like asking a composer if the last piece he just finished is the best one in his career. You never really know until you die. You live life as it comes to you. You are grateful for the friendships that have come your way and you politely say goodbye to the ones that want to walk away. If you try to hang on then you're just plucking leaves from a tree that no longer bears any fruit.

I'm just thankful that the friends who have come my way have reached out and have been grateful that I was always in that corner where they would find me. I wish that I could be the one who could charge a crowd and be mayor, but I'm just not that person and people like me are doomed to be the subject of so much misinterpretation. It's just just the way it goes, I guess.

(walking away, whistling intro to Singing in the Rain) ;)

Jennifer Tilly wins in WSOP!

First, the scoop: (from worldseriesofpoker.com) (http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/latestnewsarticle.asp?id=1120038513007)

Woohoo! This is great!...though I don't really know what I'm feeling....am I happy for her winning the game or the fact that an actress has broken through and played with the pros? I guess both!

For me, Jennifer will always be Corky's girl (in Bound). That soft, seductive voice, cat-like eyes, sex-kitten personality....she's really fun to watch :).

Suit Yourself

Suit Yourself is Shelby Lynne's latest album. Ever since Identity Crisis I've been hooked on her music. All it took was a DirecTV Freeview event where they showed her concert.

Fenster

In retrospect, Benicio did such an amazing performance in The Usual Suspects as Fenster. He played that broken-down Brooklyn-type accent so well that, back then, I thought it was his natural speaking tone! It wasn't until after he became more famous with performances in Traffic and Hunted that it became apparent that he was a very versatile actor.

James Lipton certainly didn't miss in mentioning it when he was interviewing Benicio in his Inside the Actors Studio show.

Kevin Spacey: The Usual American Outbreak

While channel surfing, I bumped into The Usual Suspects and remembered just how good Kevin Spacey played the role of Verbal. While I am not truly impressed by all the other projects he has done since then, he still shines every now and then...especially with American Beauty ("I Rule!").

I'd also never forget his scene with Dustin Hoffman in Outbreak:

Maj Casey Schuler (Spacey): "Sam, why don't you get some sleep!?"
Col Sam Daniels (Hoffman): "Don't tell me to get some sleep! When was the last time you went to sleep?!?!?"
Maj Casey Schuler (Spacey): "I slept back in July!"

I Shot Andy Warhol

So I finally found the time to watch I Shot Andy Warhol yesterday and was just impressed at the intensity that Lili Taylor brought to the role. It's not a likeable character and she plays it to perfection. The self-destructive nature of Lili's Valerie reminded me of Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance in Georgia. You feel so uneasy watching her and that's what makes the performance a great one.

Actors who play villains can always measure their success by the reaction of people towards them. If people see them on the street and give em the evil eye, they know they've done their job. Lili made me feel irritated and I could feel my hair rise whenever she spoke.
I found the absence of tears interesting. She never broke down crying. The point of frustration was always climaxed with bursts of anger, which is probably fitting for the insanity that possessed her character.

I truly enjoyed Jarred Harris' portrayal of Andy Warhol. I have to be honest in that I don't really know that much about Andy Warhol, but whatever character Jarred Harris put out there was pure gold for me. Andy's character was somewhere between being sober and stoned and I find that a lot of people really are that way, including myself. It can be seen in many ways. It could be found in daydreaming, indifference, restraint, fetishism, or trauma. I'm sure it appears so weird to most, but so normal to me.

Logan's Run

Before going to bed I've made it a habit to set the TV to sleep mode and so finding a program to keep running while I fall asleep sometimes makes me drift to some of the my less-watched channels on DirecTV. Last night is was TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and Logan's Run was on.

I was faced with a dillema. Here i am trying to find something to put me to sleep and here comes this movie that i last saw when i was 10. I had totally forgottn the movie and if you had asked me the day before, i would have only known the title and that Michael York (a.k.a. Basil Exposition ;) ) was in it.

And so i had to satisfy my curiosity. It really is about man's fear of aging.

Jennifer Agutter is soooo beautiful, and she has aged gracefully(after looking her up in the internet, of course).

Lolita

Last night I couldn't sleep and decided to watch this DVD I bought on Saturday. It was Adrian Lyne's Lolita. I had seen it several years back when I was still living in San Bruno. It was on Showtime. This movie is so moving in its destruction that I find it difficult to watch. And yet I still sought to acquire it, and watch it again and again.

Nabokov's words are so beautiful, painful, and absolute.

She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.

I finished the whole thing and slept at around 2am, dreams tainted by the destruction brought forth by Lo and Humpert.

Kill Bill

On my favorite scenes is the anime.

When the little girl, hiding underneath the bed is inches from the blade that just killed her mother...she looks up and the mattress is slowly turning red...with the perfect Bacalov sountrack running, blood comes down like rain....

That was beautiful.

Dogfight

June 14, 2005 - I bought I Shot Andy Warhol out of my admiration for Lili Taylor. I haven't watched it yet and it's still there on my TV stand. I would have watched it by now but for some reason I'm saving it for a better time when I can watch it without any distractions whatsoever.

I loved her in Dogfight. The movie was intriguing but I can't rate it that high because I felt that the story was cut short in the end and the plot lost something in the middle, somewhere between River Phoenix fighting the war and eventually coming home. The build-up was really good up until River had to leave to fight the war. And then he comes home and meets Lili again and....well, the movie ends? I felt betrayed.

Lili is beautiful and she really is that person you could describe as the girl next door....if you lived ina middle class neighborhood, of course.

Blog Note: Tales from the Ricochet Room

The succeeding entries for Dogfight and Kill Bill are from my other, now defunct blog called "Ricochet Room".

Mos Eisley Cantina

Looking at the exterior of the Mos Eisley Cantina, few would suspect the bizarre and dangerous array of aliens seeking shade, business and refreshment within. Upon first entering the establishment, a patron steps into a darkened alcove. The period in which that patron's eyes adjust from the blazing desert sunlight to the dank interior gives the bar just enough time to check out the new arrival.

A few steps down into the main room, one finds a scattering of booths and free-standing tables. An all-alien band plays a lively tune in the corner, and a gruff bartender slings exotic concoctions from behind a rounded bar.

Most of the best freighter pilots visiting Tatooine can be found here. Deals of all kinds are made in the shadows -- most of them dangerous and nowhere near legal. Just about anything goes in this place, save for two standing conditions: droids are not allowed inside, and if you've got a dispute, leave blasters out of it.

Prior to his departure from Tatooine, Luke Skywalker got a first look at just what a life among the stars could promise. The fresh-faced farmboy had never seen so many aliens in one place, and the rough-and-tumble crowd could sense an easy target. Two thugs tried to pick a fight with the youth, but Obi-Wan Kenobi intervened, dispatching the brutes with a quick swing of his lightsaber.

It was here that Skywalker and Kenobi hired the services of Han Solo and Chewbacca. The smuggling duo were responsible for transporting the last of the Jedi Knights and the first of the new off the desert planet and into a galaxy of adventure.

(from starwars.com)