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I'm with Coco

Image courtesy Mike Mitchell.

Jan 13, 2010 |

I Watch Too Much Television

These are the shows that I watch, ordered by preference:

  • Lost (currently off the air and far and away my favorite, if I could only watch one show, this would be it)
  • Heroes
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm (currently off the air and, yes, Larry David is working on another season)
  • The Office
  • Entourage
  • 30 Rock
  • Weeds (currently off the air)
  • Gossip Girl (yes, I admit it, I watch this and I love it)
  • Ugly Betty
  • The L Word (currently off the air)
  • Desperate Housewives (there were a couple of crappy seasons in there, but this season's "reboot" has been good)
  • Pushing Daisies (I love, love, love the set and costume designs of this series)
  • Big Love (currently off the air)
  • My Name Is Earl
  • Smallville (I hate myself a little more every time I watch this shitty show)
  • The New Adventures of Old Christine (mindless traditional sitcom, sometimes that hits the spot)
And then there are shows I watch every weekday without fail:
  • Late Night with Conan O'Brien
  • The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
  • The Colbert Report
  • PTI (I actually only listen to the podcasts instead of watching the show)

You add it up and I consume about 15 hours of television a week, give or take two hours, depending on what's on repeat. That's nearly one whole day (minus sleep) gone from my life due to TV. Scary. Good thing all commercials are zapped out, otherwise, I would be spending closer to 20 hours a week watching TV.

That's why I haven't started watching Battlestar Galactica, despite multiple recommendations (or Mad Men, or any other good show you might be wondering why I don't watch). I just can't add another show to my mix. Once I get invested in a show, it's nearly impossible for me to stop watching it, no matter how lame it becomes (see: Smallville... oh god please, let this be the last season... and I may have been one of ten viewers who watched every episode of Enterprise... that's about a hundred hours of my life I'll never get back). The only time in recent years that I have stopped watching a show has been Prison Break. I need to watch less TV, not more.

Nov 2, 2008 |

Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle

Just watched 宮崎駿/Hayao Miyazaki's latest—ハウルの動く城/Howl's Moving Castle and it didn't disappoint. (Well... I did think the ending was a bit too deus ex machina for me, but that's a minor quibble. I mean it is a fantasy after all.) I won't know how I'll rank this amongst Miyazaki's masterpieces until I've had some more time to mull it over and watch it again. I do know this: I was spellbound by this magical tale for 2 hours.

Unlike most of his other works (i.e. My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke), this movie's not an original story. Instead it's based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel of the same name. I've never read it (or even heard of it until today) and supposedly this is a loose interpretation. Anyway, in this story you'll find: a young girl in a 90-year-old's body, a fire demon who powers a moving castle (my favorite character!), a kid who can transform into a tiny old man with a huge beard, an old witch with a neck that looks a little like Jabba the Hutt, a wizard who turns into a giant bird (voiced by 木村拓哉/Takuya Kimura, last seen canoodling with 王菲/Faye Wong in another wonderful film, 2046), a scarecrow that hops around, flying battleships, and so many other wonderful and weird things that make up Miyazaki's trademark style. I think it's best to just go in with a clean slate and enjoy the magical ride so I won't rehash the plot (kind of hard to do anyway given the complex multi-layered story).

Howl's doesn't open in the States until June 10th in NY/LA (blame Disney).

Official sites: Japan | Korea | Taiwan | France
Japanese trailer [13.4mb QuickTime file]
French trailer [13mb QuickTime file]
Taiwanese trailer [5.1mb QuickTime file]

And if you read Chinese, this is the best fan site I've found so far (well, in English or Chinese anyway): 移動城堡台灣興趣版

Continue reading "Howl's Moving Castle"

Feb 25, 2005 |

2046

2046

I saw 2046 today. I loved it. I'm not sure when you suckers in N. America will get to see it. I'll probably bring back a DVD from 大陸/Dalu so come by if you want to borrow it. I'm not a movie critic so I'm not going to try to "review" it for you. Some random thoughts:

  • Stylistically, the movie is very similar to 《花樣年華》/In the Mood for Love, but while that movie was very simple story-wise, this one is a lot more complicated, more like 《阿飛正傳》/Days of Being Wild. There are lots of storylines and characters.
  • Even though it's more story driven than In the Mood for Love, it's still very much a mood piece.
  • WKW himself says 2046 isn't really a sequel to Mood. But I think it's fair to think of 2046, Mood and Days as three different looks at "love" through the milieu of 1960s Hong Kong.
  • 章子怡/Zhang Ziyi is beyond gorgeous in this movie. So. Beautiful. So beautiful I want to cry.
  • 鞏俐/Gong Li looks awful. What the hell happened to her? Once upon a time she was pretty. I know she's a 老女人 now, but still... Speaking of which, 劉嘉玲/Carina Lau looks pretty bad too, but I suppose it's kind of her character. She plays the same character from Days of Being Wild, but kind of all spent and tired from all that happened previously.
  • Since I'm critiquing all the women: 王菲/Faye Wong looks good. The andriod look suits her.
  • Just like Mood, the soundtrack is beautiful.
  • While not necessary, I would recommend watching Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love again before seeing this one. It ties together stories from those two previous movies.

2046 Official Site
Article about the movie in Asian edition of Time Magazine
Beautiful hi-res stills from the movie

Oct 2, 2004 |

Tivo and Netflix to Join Forces

Tivo+NetflixNewsweek is reporting that Tivo and Netflix are about to announce a partnership. While I don't use Netflix, I have been a loyal Tivo owner since their earliest days; and if they don't mess up the pricing and execution of this Netflix-on-Tivo idea (a big if, but those are two pretty cool companies), I just might become a Netflix subscriber as well.

This could help give Tivo some independence from DirecTV (an astounding 78% of new Tivo subscribers from the last quarter were DirecTV customers). Or this might just piss DirecTV off enough (by stealing their PPV movie business) that they stop promoting DirecTivo and drop Tivo altogether after their current deal expires.

9/30 Update: It's official.

Sep 6, 2004 |