Rants: April 2008 Archives
The Wang has almost been in the City by the Bay for 1 year now. The relocation and new gig is one of the reason that the blog is getting less luv than its glory days of daily posts. The other of course is laziness. As with all great blogs, the reason for today's post is of course bitter ranting. SF is great city by most parts, but today the Wang will bring two of the most irritating things plaguing the Wang's peaceful and happy life. The Giants and "Limited Releases".
(photo by Antman)
First of, the Wang takes a nice and laid-back drive to work, daily via the beautiful stretch of the east side of the SF proper. This involves passing through the middle of tourist travel routes to the pier 39, the Ferry Building, The Infamous Giant Spider, and the Hell of Pedestrians, (The Chinese have like 18 Hells...) AKAPacbell Park SBC Park AT&T Park. Now the Wang isn't one to comment on baseball. He was rather bored at that one game which he was invited to go see the SF Giants @ the park, he really could care less about Berry Bond's "allegations" of steroids use (though the whole Elk semen thing is rather funny.) and he clearly wasn't impressed by the famous hot dogs at the park. So, pretty much the whole Giants and AT&T park existence has brought nothing to the Wang's happy life, but misery. This bring us back to the Hell of Pedestrians.
The AT&T park is located in a nice stretch of the 2nd largest freeway exit area for Downtown SF. Basically, the cooler hipper 280 exits right on to the street that leads to the ballpark. This is also the gathering spot for the Caltrain and the end of the line for a pretty well used Muni light rail. So with all this, this means that the none-car-loving SFians love to walk fill up the 3 small intersections that spans between the park and the Caltrain station. This of course, backs up all the cars trying to exit the 280 freeway. Now this is going one way. The other way of the street is jammed packed with people trying to park, more pedestrians, and the general slowness of the cars in the area. So come baseball season, (and why cant they play on Sundays like the football ppl do? They r nice enough not to bother me...) the whole area in front of AT&T park becomes an even lower level of hell, The Hell of Slow Traffic. One can see an example of this on the 405 between the I10 and El Segundo in LA, but then LA is like a whole other lvl of Hell. (That's needs an entire blog post of its own, one day... Don't get me wrong, I luv and miss LA, no hate man) So baseball season, though happytime for some, utter chaos on the Wang's schedule. And this is the main reason why the Wang has the Giants Schdule as a bookmark, just so he can keep track of the times where baseball becomes the national traffic time.
The 2nd wine and cheese moment for today's post is the whole issue of "Limited Releases". Now when a foreign, indie, art house, or early release of film gets a "limited release", they usually mean LA/NY. So being once a melancholy citizen of the greater LA metro, the Wang was happily partaking in the early release of films that others won't see for weeks to come, or at all. With places in LA like Laemmle chain, the Arclight, and other art house theaters, LA was pretty much a Mecca for films that the studio won't market to large Cineplexes. It took awhile before the Wang discovered all the art house theaters in SF, but they r there, just buried in neighborhoods less traveled. Most of the time the Wang isn't a rush to catch films early, but the Wang has like 2 favorite directors from the 90s, and 1 of them is Wong Kar Wai. Mr. Wong's latest film after his epic 2046 is his English debut, My Blueberry Nights. So the fact that its Limited release means that its is shown in LA RIGHT AT THIS FRAKKING MOMENT and not in SF till 4/18 is pissing the Wang off, only slightly less than the fact that the Giant's baseball season has started.
Now we move to the less whining and more comment portion of the post.
The Wang has always been a fan of Wong Kar Wai, even though some of his films r truly hard to digest. But as w/ 2046, the Wang followed and waited for all the rumors and news about My Blueberry Nights. Much like the matrix and any other esoteric things, Wong Kar Wai's movies are best experienced. So here's a beautiful clip from the My Blueberry Nights... I guess it might be a spoiler since it shows who and who hooks up, but I doubt any of his movies really lives story progression. The Kiss This of course is a scene between Jude Law and Norah Jones. Yes Ms. Jones not only lends her sultry voice to the soundtrack, but also her debut-acting gig. This movie is supposedly done in parts, dealing with difference couples and their stories of love, relationship and companionship. As with all Wong Kar Wai films, he enjoys slow slow editing, saturated lighting, layering of subjects and defining music. And since the lucky folks of NYC and LA have alrdy have their limited releases... (note rant above), the Thighmaster has alrdy graced the web with his review. The Wang hasn't seen it, but much of Wong's films do not disappoint if u r in a certain mindset to absorb all his stuff. Though slow and chaotic, he tends to shine in scenes, characters and ambience, rather than grand stories and plot. So if u don't live in LA or NYC check ur local weeklies or movies showtime sites and see if u r lucky enough to be graced by My Blueberry Nights.
Here's another one Wong Kar Wai's latest work. He did a series of short movie/commercials for Philips Aurea HDTV:
There's only One Sun
A nice collection of clips from the Wang's favorite Wong Kar Wai film, Fallen Angel.
And in case u still haven't gotten enough, here's a great MTV for the Nationals' Fake Empire, which really carries a Wong Kar Wai feel, and should have been directed by him anyways:
THANKYOUs:
Achtung Baby!
(photo by Antman)
First of, the Wang takes a nice and laid-back drive to work, daily via the beautiful stretch of the east side of the SF proper. This involves passing through the middle of tourist travel routes to the pier 39, the Ferry Building, The Infamous Giant Spider, and the Hell of Pedestrians, (The Chinese have like 18 Hells...) AKA
The AT&T park is located in a nice stretch of the 2nd largest freeway exit area for Downtown SF. Basically, the cooler hipper 280 exits right on to the street that leads to the ballpark. This is also the gathering spot for the Caltrain and the end of the line for a pretty well used Muni light rail. So with all this, this means that the none-car-loving SFians love to walk fill up the 3 small intersections that spans between the park and the Caltrain station. This of course, backs up all the cars trying to exit the 280 freeway. Now this is going one way. The other way of the street is jammed packed with people trying to park, more pedestrians, and the general slowness of the cars in the area. So come baseball season, (and why cant they play on Sundays like the football ppl do? They r nice enough not to bother me...) the whole area in front of AT&T park becomes an even lower level of hell, The Hell of Slow Traffic. One can see an example of this on the 405 between the I10 and El Segundo in LA, but then LA is like a whole other lvl of Hell. (That's needs an entire blog post of its own, one day... Don't get me wrong, I luv and miss LA, no hate man) So baseball season, though happytime for some, utter chaos on the Wang's schedule. And this is the main reason why the Wang has the Giants Schdule as a bookmark, just so he can keep track of the times where baseball becomes the national traffic time.
The 2nd wine and cheese moment for today's post is the whole issue of "Limited Releases". Now when a foreign, indie, art house, or early release of film gets a "limited release", they usually mean LA/NY. So being once a melancholy citizen of the greater LA metro, the Wang was happily partaking in the early release of films that others won't see for weeks to come, or at all. With places in LA like Laemmle chain, the Arclight, and other art house theaters, LA was pretty much a Mecca for films that the studio won't market to large Cineplexes. It took awhile before the Wang discovered all the art house theaters in SF, but they r there, just buried in neighborhoods less traveled. Most of the time the Wang isn't a rush to catch films early, but the Wang has like 2 favorite directors from the 90s, and 1 of them is Wong Kar Wai. Mr. Wong's latest film after his epic 2046 is his English debut, My Blueberry Nights. So the fact that its Limited release means that its is shown in LA RIGHT AT THIS FRAKKING MOMENT and not in SF till 4/18 is pissing the Wang off, only slightly less than the fact that the Giant's baseball season has started.
Now we move to the less whining and more comment portion of the post.
The Wang has always been a fan of Wong Kar Wai, even though some of his films r truly hard to digest. But as w/ 2046, the Wang followed and waited for all the rumors and news about My Blueberry Nights. Much like the matrix and any other esoteric things, Wong Kar Wai's movies are best experienced. So here's a beautiful clip from the My Blueberry Nights... I guess it might be a spoiler since it shows who and who hooks up, but I doubt any of his movies really lives story progression. The Kiss This of course is a scene between Jude Law and Norah Jones. Yes Ms. Jones not only lends her sultry voice to the soundtrack, but also her debut-acting gig. This movie is supposedly done in parts, dealing with difference couples and their stories of love, relationship and companionship. As with all Wong Kar Wai films, he enjoys slow slow editing, saturated lighting, layering of subjects and defining music. And since the lucky folks of NYC and LA have alrdy have their limited releases... (note rant above), the Thighmaster has alrdy graced the web with his review. The Wang hasn't seen it, but much of Wong's films do not disappoint if u r in a certain mindset to absorb all his stuff. Though slow and chaotic, he tends to shine in scenes, characters and ambience, rather than grand stories and plot. So if u don't live in LA or NYC check ur local weeklies or movies showtime sites and see if u r lucky enough to be graced by My Blueberry Nights.
 |
Here's another one Wong Kar Wai's latest work. He did a series of short movie/commercials for Philips Aurea HDTV:
There's only One Sun
|
A nice collection of clips from the Wang's favorite Wong Kar Wai film, Fallen Angel.
|
And in case u still haven't gotten enough, here's a great MTV for the Nationals' Fake Empire, which really carries a Wong Kar Wai feel, and should have been directed by him anyways:
THANKYOUs:
Achtung Baby!
