Monday, May 31, 2010

Tudors 4x07

Is it me, or did Henry turn grey overnight? If Anne of Cleves looked like a Flanders mare and Catherine Howard like a neighing foal, Catherine Parr reminds me of a white filly. The new queen requests that Henry’s children visit her at court so she can be a proper stepmother to them, to which the king consents. When Henry’s suppurating boil bursts, Catherine nurses it with great care. Already Bishop Gardiner is plotting against her – and for good reason: she soon appoints a protestant as her personal chaplain. At court there’s another sumptuous ball, in honor this time of the Duke of Najera, arriving in England while preparations are made for the oncoming war against France.

Before embarking on his French campaign, his last grand stand to regain lost lands on the continent, the king installs the queen as his regent in his absence. The campaign is all bravura: “we brought enough canons to conquer hell,” Henry brags. Then boom, bang, whiiizzz, crash, aarrrggh! It’s almost Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And soon, completely in line with those sentiments, it starts raining, the field turns into mud, and they can’t fire their guns or canons. While the English are trying to dig their way into the fortress of Boulogne, a French sortie has dug their way out, leading Lord Surrey into a trap out of which Lord Suffolk needs to rescue him. A nice skirmish ensues. Not much later, though, the English forces are beset by dysentery. Will the King be forced to abandon his campaign?

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Dexter 3x02

Gotta say, the set-up of the third season of Dexter is quite interesting: He has broken the Code of Harry (his foster father) by accidentally killing someone, not someone who “deserved to die” (whatever that means), but Oscar Prado who never hurt anyone – even if he was a junkie. Dexter feels remorse and begins a friendship with the dead man’s brother ADA Miguel Prado. To give the murder even greater depth, Rita discovers she’s pregnant. Debra has been taken off the Prado case, but is given the case of a “Jane Doe” (who only Dex knows was Freebo’s girlfriend) who was found strangled, with a piece of square skin cut off her shoulder. Could this be the victim of another serial killer? The hunt is on to Finding Freebo! But it’s not the Miami Dept. of Homicide that should find him. Dex needs to find him first! His chase picks up the trail from the “Jane Doe” Teegan. It leads him to a sorority house (red cups and topless co-eds included), where some dumb blondes give him Teegan’s address. Who does he find there? None other than Freebo himself! Naked. Hahaha!

Deb is desperate for a lead on the “Jane Doe” case. So she turns to Det. Quinn’s snitch Anton, who likes her foul mouth. This hawt Yuki from Internal Affairs keeps harassing Deb for information about Quinn. Anton talks to some people and soon enough some low life pimp Javier tells her “Jane Doe” was with Freebo. With his brother’s help, Miguel is able to trace Freebo through a stolen cell phone. He walks in Teegan’s place – with gun in hand. What Miguel doesn’t know is that Dex is in the toolshed performing his horrible ritual. Miguel can’t find Freebo inside, so he walks to the backyard. Dex hears the door slamming. They meet in the yard. Dex lies that he was following a lead, accidentally found Freebo, and killed him in self-defense. Miguel thanks him from the depth of his being for killing the murderer of his brother. Damn exciting, I could barely handle the excitement! If the premiere started nice but slow, I’m already hooked after this great episode. Now I’m curious who this new serial killer may be, what’s the deal with Miguel, why Quinn’s under investigation, how Dexter is going to deal with his family life...

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Gossip Girl – recap

This is a tough one: Why do I enjoy Gossip Girl? There are a few simple explanations: number one being Blake Lively (she’s worth watching without sound); it’s a guilty pleasure, for sure; I love New York City which is almost like a supporting cast on its own; but I don’t think any of that explains why I’m actually enjoying Gossip Girl, why I feel giddy watching it, why I am eagerly looking forward for another episode. Mind you, we’re talking over 60 episodes since the show started two and a half years ago! What could pass for story lines are mostly the trivial trials and tribulations of New York’s Upper East Side elite, of privileged teenagers and (by now) early twenty-somethings. I’m not usually fascinated by the lives of the rich and famous, I’m not wont to tear up the tabloids for juicy celebrity scandals and paparazzi photos of superstars caught in compromising situations, and I don’t normally enjoy these teenage soap opera melodramas. So, why am I so interested in Serena and Blair? Nate and Chuck? Dan and Jenny? Vanessa and Georgina? Beats me. Admittedly, I found the second half of the past season becoming a tad tedious. So, it doesn’t exactly surprise me that the ratings dropped recently or that they cut two episodes. But I will be there when Gossip Girl returns for the fourth season in September, glued to the screen. Stay tuned for the Cricket’s Chirps!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Requiem for a Dream

I don’t care what you say, I think Requiem for a Dream (2000) is a terrific film – a terrible trip into drug-induced nightmares, but a good movie. True, I don’t care much for the cinematography, the split-screens, extreme close-ups, time-lapse scenes, and body-cam shots, or the quick-cut montage shots of drug use (dilation of pupils, pill swallowing, heroin cooking, etc. etc.). I understand that the style is meant to visualize the character’s isolation, alienation, to draw us into their subjective experience, but in my view the film would have done better without. At any rate, the story is about Harry (Jared Leto), his mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn), his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) and his best friend Tyron (Marlon Wayans). They all live in Brighton Beach, N.Y. Harry and his friends are heroin addicts who start pushing drugs on the street, hoping to help Marion open her own fashion store. Harry’s mother is a TV junkie addicted to infomercials. All alone, her life regains new meaning when she receives an invitation to participate on a game show. She goes on a diet, taking weight-loss pills, uppers and downers, gradually losing grip on reality. She begins hallucinating about food, the fridge starts moving, pastry starts flowing around the house.

Months pass and Sara never hears another word about the game show. In her desperation she increases her dosage, soon taking pills randomly. She believes Harry has found well-paying employment and will soon marry Marion; he gives her a new TV set; and soon she believes she’s the central character in her favorite infomercial. Tyron gets arrested in the middle of a gang assassination and Harry needs to use most of their earnings to bail him out. Drugs become scarce because of the gang violence. Marion is pushed into prostituting herself to make at least enough money to support their addictions. If things appeared to be fine in the summer but started to go badly by the fall, when winter hits they really descend into a nightmarish abyss. Sara completely loses it and ends up wondering the streets until she arrives at the TV studio. She ends up in a mental hospital, where they eventually resort to electric shock therapy when all else fails to get her better. Harry and Tyron drive away toward Florida hoping to score enough dope to sell back in New York, but on the way Harry’s arm gets more and more infected from shooting up. When Tyron takes Harry to a hospital to have his arm treated, they get arrested instead. Marion slides deeper into prostitution, performing perverse acts at an orgy full of men in suits. Tyron faces racism and forced labor in prison. Harry’s arm has to be amputated to save his life. The film ends with scenes of all four characters falling asleep in fetal position.

“Requiem for a Dream” is a beautiful title. A “requiem” is normally an elegy or ode sang at the funeral of a deceased. The deceased in this case being the dreams of the four characters. – Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine (“Grant them eternal rest, O Lord”) – While we’re given some impression of these American Dreams, the movie rather depicts the character’s plunge into the nightmare, their descent into the abyss. The film is actually more critical of American consumerism than of drug use; it doesn’t scream: “Drugs Are Bad!” Nor would I judge anyone giving in to the temptations of food and drink, sex and drugs, or rock and roll – the pursuit of happiness. It’s when the addiction takes over, when we lose control, that we run the risk of losing ourselves and our minds. What director Darren Aronofsky illustrates admirably with this story (based on the novel by Hubert Selby jr.) is that the descent is so gradual it’s indiscernible – it’s impossible to tell at what point they have lost grip, when the rot has set in, and the fall has become inevitable. Because the story is so compelling, the dialogue and acting so enthralling, that I found this nightmare such a rush to watch. I recall when I first walked out of the cinema ten years ago, the experience left me shocked and repulsed, fascinated and high.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Tudors 4x06

War is brewing in Tudor England, and King Henry VIII is itching for a fight, whether with the Scots or the French. The Spanish Ambassador offers just the right pretext for war: the alliance between France and the Turks. James, King of Scots, has been ravaging the English countryside along the border for a while, and now Henry sends Edward Seymore, Lord Hertford, and Henry Howard, Lord Surrey, to issue a warning. (Actually, Thomas Wharton was sent as commander of the British army.) The Brits win a victory against the Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss, and several noblemen are captured on the field. As if that isn’t enough, the Scottish King soon dies, while his wife had just given birth to their only child, a girl. And so it’s another season to be merry at court, and the king instructs his daughter, Princess Mary, to oversee the Christmas festivities. (Not to turn on the History Channel again, but Mary and Elizabeth were actually restored in line of succession after Edward only two years later, at the instigation of Catherine Parr.)

Meanwhile, Thomas Seymour (Jane’s younger brother) pays a visit to Lord Latymer, who is slowly succumbing to old age. Thomas has an eye on Lady Latymer, Catherine Parr, and she returns his sentiments. When the king realizes Lady Latymer will soon become a rich widow, he immediately begins courting her and removes Thomas from court by sending him away as Ambassador to the Netherlands. Catherine is by no means pleased by the king’s attention, but cannot refuse. On his deathbed, her husband’s last words to her were: “Go to Hell.” She is still officially mourning his passing, when the king extends his hand in marriage. Once Henry agrees on a treaty with Catholic Spain, Bishop Gardiner launches another round of religious persecutions against evangelical protestants (Lutherans and Calvinists). In short, political and romantic intrigue, reeling and dealing, and a good measure of entertainment have returned to the show, thankfully.

Benidorm - Series 1

Another British comedy series my buddy Sander recommended is ITV’s Benidorm – a comedy show that plays on stereotypes of British tourist at an all inclusive Spanish poolside resort. We get the bickering and complaining common folks, the Garveys; the sarcastic and miserable middle class people, Martin and Kate Weedon; the dirty old swingers, Donald and Jacqueline Stewart; and a couple of others. The jokes involve stuffing faces at buffets, pop quizzes and karaoke nights, rooms with no view, teenage pregnancy, marriages breaking apart, a little partner swapping (and the confusion the insinuations cause), blackface Dixie night, latin lovers chasing blondes, or gays, rip offs on the beach, and floating turds in the pool... What can I say? It’s mildly funny and it slowly grows on you – like fungus, but in a pleasant way. LOL. I’m not going to say it’s hilarious, but the show’s been winning awards in the U.K. You might like it.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Dexter 3x01

Somehow it still troubles me I’m watching a tv show about a serial killer... But, truth be told, I’ve become fascinated. Apparently, since the Bay Harbor Butcher’s case was closed, Dexter has had a busy summer, killing at least half a dozen people. He is already planning his next victim: some guy nicknamed “Freebo,” who got away with murder – twice: two blond co-eds. Freebo’s a drug dealer; Dex first approaches him for a fix to check out the scene; but when he returns and breaks in, Dex walks in on Freebo fighting with some stranger; and Dex ends up killing the stranger! Who the hell is he? He’s the younger brother of a Miami state prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado! Oh, man, of all people! Both Deb and Dex suspect there’s something more going on... What was this guy doing in a drug dealer’s house? Moreover, Miguel the prosecutor wants to know why Dex has been searching databases for information about his dead brother Oscar. In the conversation that ensues, they form a bond and Miguel invites Dexter to attend Oscar’s wake.

Dex’ buddy Angel Batista is made Sgt. (replacing Doakes). At Lt. LaGuerta’s suggestions, Batista takes Deb off the Prado case, because she lacks the tact to deal with such a high profile case. She’d already blurted out Oscar was a junkie, right when Miguel Prado walked into the office. There’s also a new guy on the team, Det. Joey Quinn (the actor who plays Jack Bass on Gossip Girl), who takes a liking to Deb. And hawt Yuki Amado (the Asian chick, Ivy, from The Dollhouse), an Internal Affairs officer, is offering Deb a chance at promotion if she informs on Quinn. But Deb being Deb, she refuses to rat on a colleague, because she wants to become Detective on her own accord. Meanwhile, Dexter is back with Rita, playing dad for her kids, settling into a nice routine. They often make whoopee between the sheets, and Rita is starting to crave chocolate pudding all the time. Then she realizes, she must be pregnant! This was a slow but fun premiere of the season, not the explosive excitement of last season, but interesting enough.

Gossip Girl 3x22

Awww! It’s the Season Finale of Gossip Girl! And who’s that arriving at Grand Central? It’s Georgina! Back from “Ditch the Bitch” in Belarus, she knocks on Chuck’s hotel for help, but he sends her out cold. Jenny keeps scheming to be with Nate, and gets an opportunity thrown in her lap when she walks in on Dan and Serena sleeping in his bed at the Dumbo loft. But, you know what? I don’t give a hoot about S anymore. Whatever. All her daddy issues and her pouting lips are getting on my nerves. Although Nate’s a little too sensitive about that silly kiss S and Dan shared, he’s had enough, too, and he’s probably waiting for a chance to be with Jenny anyway.

My big question is if Blair will be at the top of the Empire State Building before 7:01PM. Will Chuck close his heart to her forever? She spends all her time resisting to go. Her maidservant Dorota’s water broke, so she has to rush to the hospital. When she does decide to meet Chuck, it’s too late. Lonely and forlorn, the brokenhearted Basstard is kind to Jenny for once... And, smack, the two are kissing! We are meant to believe they slept together, and while Jenny’s still in Chuck’s bedroom, suddenly Blair walks into the hotel!

Chuck takes her on a night out, and just as he is about to propose, Dan punches him in the face for sleeping with little J! Ahahaha! Stellar! Blair is furious and promises to ruin Jenny’s life if she ever again sets foot on Manhattan. In the end, Georgina’s shocking news turns out to be that she’s pregnant: and claims it’s Dan’s ... which, though possible (they dated, only god knows why, earlier in the season) still seems unlikely. The real cliffhanger, however, happens when a drunk Chuck gets shot in Prague by some petty thieves, and is left bleeding on the street! Now I have to wait until season four to find out if he’s going to live! I’m going to miss you Gossip Girl! You know I love you! xo xo

Monday, May 17, 2010

The Scent of Green Papaya

It’s been a long time ago since I saw the Oscar-nominated & Cannes prize-winning) film The Scent of Green Papaya (L'Odeur de la Papaye Verte, 1993) in the theater. So, I’m glad I caught it again a while ago. It’s directed by Anh-Hung Tran and stars his wife Yen-Khe Tran Nu. The plot revolves about a young peasant girl, Mui, who is hired as a servant in a shopkeeper’s family in Saigon. We’re made clear that it’s 1951, i.e., time of the First Indochina War – and throughout we hear sirens announcing the curfew and airplanes flying overhead. Mui performs her chores diligently and obediently; she’s inquisitive, taking in everything around her – the sounds of birds and insects, the music made around the house, the smell of food and the scent of the green papaya growing on the tree in the courtyard; she keeps two crickets in a little bamboo cage as pets; and she silently endures continuous taunts by the family’s youngest son. On the surface, the story is tranquil, scenes take their time, the camera lingers on plants, fruits and leaves, insects, toads and birds. The first half hour is merely introductory, getting to know who’s who.

But the tension and violence that we hear in the air also makes its way into the home. The boys torture ants and lizards; the grand-mother continually prays in mourning for the loss of her husband and her granddaughter (who would have been Mui’s age); the father has a habit of leaving without a trace for days or weeks, taking with him the family money; the mother tells Mui she is like a daughter to her (yet keeps her as a servant). Then the husband is found dead. Gradually the mother has to sell more and more possessions as they cannot make sufficient money selling cloth at the shop on the street side of the house. Women in this film suffer in silence. The music is incredible, it’s often hard to tell if we are listening to someone playing around the house or if it’s the supporting soundtrack; sometimes cellos mimic the planes in the air, or violins imitate the curfew sirens. And so the silent tranquility interweaves with the violent undercurrent within the family and outside in Vietnam.

Ten years later, 1961, Mui (now 20) is sent to work for a family friend as they can no longer support her. Mui has admired him all these years. He’s a trained pianist and about to be engaged to a woman who’s the only modern individual in the story: she a frivolous trollop; not much of a poster-girl for liberated Vietnamese women. Soon the man is drawn to Mui, breaks off with his fiancée and begins a relationship with Mui. He teaches her to read and write, and soon Mui is pregnant with child. To me, the ending is as abrupt as it’s unsatisfying... It’s almost tagged on as an afterthought. The romanticized view of women sympathizes with their silent suffering, but the only alternative, a Westernized modern woman, flutters by like a pesky nuisance. Men are even more distant and one-dimensional. We never learn why the father kept leaving home with all the money, his sons just pass by, torturing insects or bothering Mui, and the man Mui eventually marries (well, I’m assuming the marry) remains a mystery: we only know that he plays piano handsomely. So we are left wondering what drew them together, other than that they are painfully attractive and charming. Despite all these complaints, I honestly think this is well worth your trouble watching.

Life: Fish

Part four of BBC’s marvelous nature documentary “Life” is all about fish! The opening shot? Oh ... my ... gawd ... !!! A surfer riding a wave, then the camera zooms out, until we can barely see the guy at the foot of a wave five or six times his height! Wow. Astounding! Naturally we are privileged to witness beautiful underwater shots of rich reefs and their even more vibrant habitants. I was gazing in amazement at sea dragons, sea horses, stargazers and stingrays off the coast of Southern Australia; flying fish soaring above the water on their elongated fins to evade their predators; the tiny rock-climbing goby intend on colonizing the waterfalls of Hawaii; mudskippers excavating deep burrows in the soft Japanese sediment to hide from predators and to lay eggs inside a sealed chamber; convict fish digging a labyrinthine underground tunnel work in the south western Pacific for an extended family of, well, juvenile convicts; the quarrelsome sarcastic fringehead fish aggressively defending his found shell along the colorful Californian coast from an attack by an octopus; a shoal of sailfish (the fastest swimmers of the seven seas) shown in slow motion catching a bait ball of sardines; various sharks and myriads of other fish. Simply stunning!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Breaking Bad - season 1

A little while ago I started watching Breaking Bad (another AMC drama show). Oh, my goodness, this is a profoundly compelling series! (At first I was worried this would be a Weeds wannabe, but not funny. It isn’t.) This is the story of 50-year old Walter White, a highly over-qualified high school chemistry teacher, living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His wife Skyler is several months pregnant. Their son, Walt jr., suffers from a mild form of cerebral palsy. Then Walter is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, but is afraid to share the news with his family, as they have enough problems as is (not in the least the lack of money to pay for his treatment). He breaks down bad, quits his job on the side at the car wash, and through sheer serendipity comes into contact with a former student, Jesse, who deals crystal meth. Walter figures he can earn enough money to support his family after he passes away if he starts cooking crystal, and so doesn’t have to tell his family about the cancer.

Walter’s product immediately becomes a success, as it turns out to be of highest purity. Since Walter and Jesse lack the underworld connections they need to find some criminal to arrange the distribution for them. And so Walter unwittingly slides farther and farther into the world of crime himself. The two are soon forced to kidnap and eventually kill small-time gangsters (dissolving the body of one of them to avoid getting caught)! Gradually the show gets better and better, as his family learns of his illness, offers help, which he refuses, and he builds lies upon lies to hide the truth – all because he loves his family. Skyler’s sister, Marie, is a self-centered kleptomaniac, whose husband, Hank, is a DEA agent trying to hunt down the new meth kingpin, not realizing the man he is looking for is right under his very nose. We learn that Walter once contributed to Nobel Prize-winning research, and his former partner offers him to pay for the chemo and other medical care, which Walter resoundingly declines (he somehow understands the offer as a bribe for the wealth his partner made on Walter’s research) – but he starts using the offer as a cover-up to his family. Walter and Jesse eventually team up with some violently psychotic drug distributor called Tuco. The series offers entertaining action, satisfying psychological depth, and occasional comic relief. I can warmly recommend the show to anyone who isn’t already a devout viewer.

Tudors 4x05

Some heads are gonna roll on The Tudors! Don’t you just know it? Henry has received an anonymous letter accusing Catherine Howard of licentiousness while staying at Lambeth with the Dowager Duchess, maintaining intimate relations with her music teacher Manox and that derelict Dereham who’s now her majesty’s personal secretary. The king disbelieves the allegations, but nevertheless demands a thorough investigation and places the queen under house arrest. The British Inquisition goes into full swing, and soon people start admitting the truth, if only after severe torture. Dereham claims that he was contracted to marry Catherine, before she left for the royal court, but denies that he had intercourse with after she became queen. Soon, though, Catherine’s adulterous affair with that charmingly cunning Culpeper is discovered. The king responds swiftly and coldly refuses to grant the queen mercy. First Culpeper and Dereham are executed for treason -- the later hanged, drawn & quartered. And while Catherine prepares herself for her execution, Henry has invited two dozen lovely ladies for a lavish soiree. At last Lady Rochford and Catherine are publicly beheaded. I can’t say I’m sad to see that annoying little lass gone. After four increasingly tiresome episodes, this was a welcome injection of excitement. Let’s see what this Catherine Parr is all about!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Dexter 2x12

Oh, man, I’ve been eager to find out what happens in the finale of Dexter! How are they going to solve the case of the Bay Harbor Butcher? Is Dex going to frame Doakes, who can easily be proven to be innocent? Is Dex going to get caught? No, that can’t be. I’ve been so damn curious I watched the last few episodes in a row back in March! And, o-o-o-o-o-ohhhhh, this one is going out with a BANG, let me tell you that! Wow! That psychopathic pyromaniac Lila with the luscious lips and an obsession with Dexter has found the secret cabin in which Dex has been holding Sgt. Doakes in a cage. Crazy as she is, when she learns from Doakes that Dex is the Bay Harbor Butcher, she sympathizes, feeling even more strongly that they’re soul mates... So she lights the stove and leaves the gas running! And BOOM the whole cabin goes up in smoke with Doakes inside!

The rest of the episode is wrapping things up, tying loose ends. Things between Dex and Rita seem to be back to normal. Deb has to decide whether she will follow Special Agent Lundy to his next case, or whether she’ll stay in Miami. But that decision is made for her when Rita calls that her kids are gone! Dex immediately rushes to Lila, who’s threatening to kill the kids by burning the house down (yet again) ... and while Dex is able to set the kids free, he gets trapped in the fire himself, but ultimately breaks out. Lila escapes to Paris, where Dex finds her and turns her into another one of his victims. Whoa! This season has been awesome. Dex has been forced to face his demons: dealing with the death of his mother and the suicide of his father, confronting his serial killer brother, probing deep into his psyche through his contact with psychopath Lila. And throughout the course of these emotional explorations we’ve been shown feelings even Dexter didn’t know he had. He is still faking feelings most of the time, but beyond his concern not to get caught, the heightened anxiety involving the case of the Bay Harbor Butcher, he’s demonstrated attachment to Rita and her kids, concern for the well being of his sis Deb, and anger toward Doakes. Dexter the serial killer has become, well, sympathetic.

Gossip Girl 3x21

OMGG!! So, we already know that Dr William is messing with his ex-wive’s prescription, we just don’t know yet why – other than to come up with a terrible excuse to be with her (after all those years) ... weirdness... Although Jenny is grounded in Brooklyn’s Dumbo, she employs Chuck to find out what medicine Lily is getting. In his ploy to confront the psychiatrist who has been scheming with William, Chuck asks Blair for help, but she refuses. Doesn’t this sound just a tad convoluted? What do you think? It’s Gossip Girl, duh. Then there’s that co-op woman called Holland Kemble (really a black woman called “Holland”? Whatever, anyway she’s the actress who played the over-protective mom in the second season of In Treatment). She’s willing to claim in front of everyone that she slept with Rufus when his relationship with Lily was on ice! Nate instinctively knows something ain’t right, and together with Dan, he too goes to Blair for advice. And here’s the shocking clinger: the psychiatrist Jenny and Chuck are looking for is none other than that Holland Kemble! I find Lily treacherously obliging to be around William, while he is actually making an effort to be with Serena more than his ex-wife.

As so often on Gossip Girl, things come together at some big party (a benefit ball this time at the Library), where Chuck confronts Dr Kemble about prescribing the wrong medication to Lily. Apparently she owed Dr William a favor...? When William finds out they are on to him, he flees the scene, taking Lily and Serena with him, pretending he needs to return to Palm Beach for a patient! Hahaha! Have you ever heard such crazy nonsense? Only on the Upper East Side, my friends! Heehee! Rufus then confronts William in front of their shared family, and Eric forces William to prove that Lily is in fact sick, but instead of getting his files, he just runs out. Serena feels that Nate has been going behind her back in all of this, and now that she has finally found her father after all these years – only to discover he’s a lying, scheming son of a gun – she still tells him she loves him! What? Girl’s got daddy issues! I’m sure I missed a few twists in the plot, but can you blame me? This episode was packed with curve balls! Now I can’t wait for next week’s season finale!!!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Eat Drink Man Woman

I found that a much more interesting movie than The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, is Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). Of course, of course, attractive Taiwanese women ... I get it! But that’s not the sole or even primary reason. This movie is charming because of the simple yet effective story of a father, his three daughters, and their relationship with, and through, food. The father is a semi-retired master chef, who lost his wife sixteen years ago. His oldest daughter is a high school teacher who spent the past nine years nursing a broken heart. The middle daughter is a successful business woman who recently bought an apartment and then got offered a job in Amsterdam. The youngest of the three is a twenty-year old working the counter at Wendy’s. At the beginning of the story all three women still live at home, complaining about their father’s elaborate Sunday dinner banquets as if it’s a form of torture. First the youngest suddenly finds a boyfriend, gets pregnant, marries and moves out. Soon the eldest follows, finding a man to marry and move in with. The middle daughter considers staying at home to care for their father. But then things take an unexpected turn. And with such a beautifully simple story, and wonderful acting, you get a remarkably satisfying movie experience!

Life: Mammals

The third installment of BBC’s breathtaking nature documentary “Life” is all about mammals. As always, this show offers astounding images of the Earth’s environments. For that alone it’s worth watching. But this episode also shows us the life, habitat, and behavior of some darn fascinating creatures: a rufous sengi (elephant shrew) in equatorial Africa running for her life; an aye-aye (lemur) on the prowl for food at night in Madagascar; meerkats nodding off on a warm day in the Kalahari Desert; coati, a South American kind of raccoon, rummaging for food in a gang of forty; fruit bats flying in their millions across the Congo forest through a thunderstorm on a full-moon night to Zambia; a clan of spotted hyenas attacking a pride of lions to steal their prey; a Weddell seal, the only mammal able to survive on Antarctica, the most hostile environment on Earth, feeding her youngster while shielding him from a blizzard; millions of reindeer trekking across the Arctic tundra; polar bears competing over the huge carcass of a bowhead whale; and forty-ton humpback whales (the largest animals on earth) rivaling with each other in a heat run for the favor of a single female. Just incredible.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Spooks - Series 2

In the second season of BBC spy series Spooks Tom, Zoe, Danny and the rest of MI5 are dealing with terrorism of various forms – Irish, Serbian, Islamic –, war criminals, computer hackers, anarchists, money laundering, Russian organized crime, a visit from then-president Bush, petty thieves (except they stole the MI5 bossman’s suitcase that contains highly classified information), arms deals, military insurrection, uranium transport, a Columbian drug cartel moving into London with the protection of a British oil corporation, and whatnot! Last season ended with a cliffhanger, when Tom Quinn’s girlfriend Ellie was trapped inside her home with a time bomb. Even though it turns out to be a dud, Ellie can no longer face the complications of her relationship with Tom. New faces appear, wonderful new characters. A new MI5 employee, Sam, seems to have a thing for Danny. Then there’s doctor Vickie, who flirts so hard with Tom, he decides to date her, but after a severe test at work he decide to break things off. At the office, there’s also Ruth Everglade, who’s replacing Tessa (who was fired because she was running phantom agents), but we eventually learn she is actually a mole reporting to Downing Street. Tom’s CIA liaison Christine Dale also has a crush on Tom, but he’s ordered not to fraternize with foreign liaisons. Some Italian banker Carlo has the hots for Zoe, but thinks she’s called Emma; at some point he was helpful enough to assist MI5 with a money laundering scheme; but Zoe has to break things off. On his part, Tom is slowly unraveling, sympathizing and identifying with those he comes into contact with during his field ops. At long last, he is set up, framed for assassinating the minister of defense, pushed into a corner, and shoots his boss Harry. There’s nothing left for him then to swim to his death...

Tudors 4x04

King Henry VIII has reached Yorkshire on his tour of the North. But rather than dealing with such pressing issues as the impending war between France and Spain, or the impertinent incursions of James, King of Scots, Henry prefers to frolic with his youthful queen in her bedchamber. That annoying twat, her royal majesty, is still maintaining that sordid affair with her charming Culpeper. Things heat up, though, with the arrival of Francis Dereham, her former lover when she was staying at that licentious Lambeth House. He’s a well right petulant prick who blackmails her into giving him a position as her personal secretary. Then he goes about brawling and bragging how intimately he knows her, and generally acting like a buffoon. Lord Surrey keeps fulminating at the upstart nobility promoted by the King’s favors which he fears endangers the true aristocracy such as his own premier lineage. The episode was perhaps not as tedious as the previous one, but I’m afraid I don’t find the plots and subplots terribly compelling.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Dexter 2x11

Plots are thickening on Dexter, the serial killer show, taking left turns, twisting this way and that. What a great show! So, Dex his holding Sgt. Doakes hostage in a remote cabin, and planted fake evidence to incriminate him as the Bay Harbor Butcher. With the new evidence, another Washington FBI suit is brought in on the case. Complicating things for Dex, Doakes has found a way to break out of his cage in the cabin. But once out, he doesn’t just bump into an alligator, he also encounters gun-toting Mexican criminals looking for the cocaine that’s hidden in the cabin. So, back to the cabin he goes. And right when Doakes and the Mexican gangster arrive at the cabin, so does Dex. Exciting scene. Too bad for Doakes he ends up back in the cage after they kill the criminals. And then Lila the pyromaniac psychopath steals Dex’ GPS (global positioning system) and finds the cabin! Whoa!!! Now I really must see the finale!!!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Gossip Girl 3x20

On Gossip Girl there’s another one of those comfy and cozy breakfasts at the van der Woodsens with Lily and Rufus, Serena and Eric, as well as Jenny and long-lost father William – no matter how good those waffles are, that must be pretty awkward! In fact, I find the whole situation excruciatingly tedious... It’s obvious William is up to something and Lily is acting agonizingly ignorant. After last week’s Tisch fiasco, Dan and Vanessa remain painfully uncomfortable in their relationship, skirting around, oh, I don’t know, her internship in Haiti... For Blair things seem to have hit rock bottom: she never liked being an NYU student, and now she’s pretending to attend Columbia, just to regain some measure of credibility as the Queen B. And whaddayaknow she finds herself admitted even if she never applied to Columbia herself – but Chuck did months ago on the spur of the moment. Yeah, that’s life for the Upper East Side elite, dammit. Wish I were so lucky.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Progessive Metal

Last week progressive rock, this time progressive metal! Recently your Music Cricket made a new discovery: the early-nineties progressive death metal band Nocturnus. If, like me, you enjoy your Atheist, Cynic, mid-career Death and mid-career Carcass, you will certainly appreciate Nocturnus, too. I can’t believe no one ever mentioned them before. They hail from the same Florida scene as Atheist, Cynic and Death, as well as Deicide, Morbid Angel, Obituary, and countless others. With their raging whirlwinds of blistering guitar riffs, lightening fast thunderous blasts of drum beats, virtuoso solos, odd time signatures, and complex song structures, Nocturnus have also been instrumental in the development of technical and progressive metal. What’s more, they had a keyboard player who added spacey atmospheres, and their lyrics uncharacteristically do not deal with the ghoulish and macabre, screaming bloody gore, death-dealing Armageddon, or hell-raising Satanism, but rather with occult science fiction themes, reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft. What an amazing find! Please get yourself a copy of The Key!

A friend of mine first mentioned Opeth to me already five years ago now, knowing better than I did then how much I would appreciate their music. Opeth’s sound is a unique blend of progressive rock and (melodic) death metal with hints of gothic rock, folk, classical, jazz and some blues, taking cues from Yes, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Faith/King Diamond, Slayer, Death and Morbid Angel, as well as fellow Scandinavians Arch Enemy, In Flames, and At the Gates. I guess it’s hard to top their classic masterpiece Blackwater Park (2001), even if Ghost Reveries (2005) comes close. Lately, I have been listening to their most recent album Watershed (2008). On this outing, Opeth treats us on songs averaging seven-and-a-half minutes, meandering compositions, shifting time signatures, beautiful melodic acoustic passages alternating with heavy riffing, thumping bass lines, thunderous drum blasts, mysterious keyboard swaths, and deft guitar solos. I’m particularly fond of “Heir Apparent,” but can recommend the album to any fan of heavy metal.

I’m not sure why I never picked up a CD of Liquid Tension Experiment. It’s not like I never once had one in my hands. Three-fourth of the project consists of (current) members of Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess, plus longtime King Crimson bass player Tony Levin (who’s also Peter Gabriel’s favorite bassist). How can you go wrong? How about never? At least, not in my book. Well, some tunes are a little tacky, like “State of Grace” and “Hoursglass.” But mostly, we’re talking about hard hitting instrumental rock, mixed with a dose of heavy metal and hints of jazz fusion. All musicians involved are incredibly proficient – not only in the vein of the virtuoso metal of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, but also like jazz fusion masters John McLaughlin and Al di Meola. The guys feast us on dramatic mood shifts and dynamic tempo changes. We get the overly self-indulgent noodling, otherwise known as musical improvisation, or extemporized group jams – a prime example of which is the near-half hour of “Three Minute Warning” in five parts! Favorites are “Paradigm Shift” and “Universal Mind” from the first album, and “Acid Rain” and “Chewbacca” from the second. I don’t think I need to say more, you already know whether you’re going to like the LTE. So, go ahead, and find ‘em!

Horizon: The Universe

In the Beginning there was Nothing and Nothing was in the Beginning. Then, in one Cosmic Explosion Everything was Created and in a Big Bang the Universe came into Existence. Energy became Matter and out of Darkness came Light. And when Darkness was Night and Light was Day, so there was Time. Then Stars moved across the Universe, and so there was Space. This is the Creation Myth of Modern Science. Is it wrong? Doesn’t it sound frightfully familiar? Is Everything We Know About the Universe Wrong? That’s the question the most recent installment of my favorite program BBC Horizon asks. First of all, this Creation Myth cannot explain the origin of Time and Space; it leaves open the question what came Before and what is Beyond. A while ago we spoke about the Inflation Theory of the Universe, which implies that there are an infinite number of universes infinitely expanding. This theory helps to explain why temperature remains constant throughout the universe, which shouldn’t be the result of a giant explosion, but could be due to inflation.

Another problem is that galaxies do not behave according to the laws of gravity: they move like a disc, with all the stars within a galaxy going at the same speed, rather than going faster the closer they get to the gravitational center. So another theory was proposed to account for this behavior. Can you guess what they called the theory? “Dark Matter”! Ooh, how sinister! Recent observations, moreover, appear to have discovered a motion of galactic clusters in the same direction (i.e., rather than outward), which has been dubbed “Dark Flow.” Evil, dark flow! Even more recent observations have lead to the conclusion that the universe isn’t just expanding infinitely, but is in fact expanding at an accelerated rate. This can only mean that there is some mysterious increase of cosmic energy, which – as you can guess by now – has been dubbed “Dark Energy”... A cosmic big bang, invisible dark matter, evil dark flow, omnipresent dark energy... It does make you wonder... we must be missing something, because this can’t be how the universe operates. There are too many exceptions and additional explanations required to make the theory work. Perhaps one day our children or our children’s children will learn an entirely new Creation Myth in school!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

A movie I have been meaning to see for twenty years, but never got ‘round to, because I always forgot and didn’t really know what it was about ... is Peter Greenaway’s 1989 film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (resp. played by Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren and Alan Howard). Visually, the movie is a lavish and grand spectacle: the cinematography, the sets, the décor, the food displays, and the costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. (Every set has its own color, and costumes change in color along with the sets: blue outside, green in the kitchen, red in the restaurant, white in the restroom, brown in the bookshop.) I cannot say I’m a big fan of the score composed by Michael Nyman... It’s all very theatrical and formalist, but tedious as a result. Most annoying is the titular thief who has a violent oral fixation of Freudian proportions and who just keeps jabbering on and on about how brilliant he is, and how stupid everybody else is. It’s already terribly annoying after five minutes, but alas we have to endure his boorish bawls throughout ... practically on end... You can essentially guess the plot just from the title: the wife of a thief is having an affair in the cook’s restaurant, and then the thief finds out... Food, sex, and violence; life, love, and death... Hmmm... what was all the fuss about? Pray tell.

Tudors 4x03

In the Tudor England of Henry VIII and his fifth wife Catherine Howard nothing much is happening it would seem... While Henry is indisposed due to the ulcerating boil on his leg, his tweeting queen, this neighing foal, caves in to the seductive charms of that cunning Culpeper and takes him as her lover. On his part, Henry grows a liking to his former queen, Anne, and visits her bedchamber. Moaning and groaning apart, the King stirs up some dirt by touring the North, forgiving the populace for the recent uprising (the Pilgrimage of Grace which he had suppressed ruthlessly), gaining much needed popularity in preparation for a confrontation with James, King of Scots. In this endeavor, Henry has brought his eldest daughter, Lady Mary, who displays true regal composure – despite her resentment for the new queen – in striking contrast to her royal majesty’s lowly demeanor. Meanwhile, Lord Surrey is brewing up a storm against the Seymour family. To be honest, I cannot say I particularly enjoyed this rather tedious episode.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Dexter 2x10

The second season of Dexter is shaping up nicely for the season finale, so plots need to start twisting, curve balls need to be thrown. The two pressing questions we’re dealing with, that Dexter is dealing with, are: How to avoid getting caught as the Bay Harbor Butcher, and what to do with Sgt. Doakes who’s locked up in the remote cabin on the Miami Everglades? Honestly, the suspense is killing me! It’s a good thing the homicide department is suspecting Doakes and not Dexter! The remarkable thing about this show is how compelling the narrative is: imagine the conversation Dex and Doakes are having in that secret cabin! Who’s going to live, who’s going to jail? Dexter has been raised by his foster father Harry to believe in two primary guidelines: never to get caught and only to kill deserving victims. Doakes doesn’t fall in the latter category, but setting him free goes against the first and more important rule... Oh, the dilemma!

Meanwhile Dex’ sis Deb is forced to think of her future with special agent Lundy, as he won’t be around after the Bay Harbor Butcher’s case is settled... Rita approaches Dex again, but she doesn’t want to rush things ... she just wants to hang ... not date. That psychopathic pyromaniac, Lila with the luscious lips, is hooking up with Sgt. Batista (Dex’ buddy) ... in a twisted way to get back at Dex ... and sets Batista up for date-raping her! Through his conversation with Doakes and some further research, Dex learns that his father Harry (who he thought died of a heart attack) committed suicide when he found out his son had murdered his first victim. Even though he had trained his son all his life for this, when it finally became a reality, he couldn’t face the monster he had created. Now Dex finally knows what it means to have a guilty conscious: he feels he killed his father. You see, this is why this is such an incredible show. It snuck up on me, but I’m liking it more and more.

Gossip Girl 3x19

So, the big shocker on Gossip Girl last time was that Serena caught her mother, Lily, in a Palm Beach hotel room with her long-lost father William van der Woodsen (Billy Baldwin). In Serena’s absence, of course sly little Jenny is scheming to get with Nate. (Remember, this is the boy tramp who has been with all the girls – Blair, Vanessa, Serena, you name it!) Now that Blair and Chuck broke up, they can go back to their old lives! She’s inviting about a dozen eligible bachelors for a luncheon, a rebound reception, and he’s, well, having a busy few days, getting wasted and bringing cheap girls home. But the bachelors never show up, and Chuck knows he’s merely filling up the emptiness left by Blair. Rufus sure isn’t ready for meeting his wife’s ex, but Lily confesses she has been ill and only her ex could give her the medical treatment she needs... The kind of warped logic only an Upper East Sider can follow: even Rufus is confused, since they live in the epicenter of medical expertise... Dan and Vanessa both applied for NYU’s highly selective Tisch School of Arts, but only she got in... Then there’s some Bushwick art party, oh, Bushwisk, where everything comes to a head. Seems like all our couples are on ice again. And of course, we all knew there’s something odd when Lily’s illness relapses: William’s been messing with her prescription. Ah, the scandalous lives of the Manhattan elite. I’ll admit, it’s getting a tad tedious, even for me.