Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

Working on Sunday

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

This morning, Ben and I went to Trolley Square (a shopping center in SLC) to purchase tickets to the Sundance Film Festival.  Sometimes the director or actors in the movies attend some of the screenings during the festival. We got tickets for a thriller (scary) movie called “Black Rock.” We hope to take Mary Jo and Dave to see this movie when they come to visit. We also got tickets for a humorous movie called “Predisposed,” which plays the following weekend. I plan to write reviews of both movies in the upcoming weeks. The showings we chose are playing at the Tower Theater, which is about 2 blocks away from our current apartment.

After picking up the tickets and a few groceries at the Whole Foods in Trolley Square, Ben and I ate brunch at a new restaurant, Eggs in the City. It was very crowded and popular. Ben ate eggs benedict with crabmeat. I ordered the huevos rancheros. Both dishes were delicious. We sat at the “bar” which overlooked the kitchen and enjoyed the lively, colorful ambience.

This afternoon, I went to work for about 6 hours. It was painful and long, but I got one experiment completed. While waiting for my data collection to finish, I watched Youtube videos of some old episodes of the Food Network show, “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.” Specifically, I was interested in clips from Salt Lake City restaurants, Blue Plate Diner, Ruth’s Diner, and Pat’s BBQ. The show makes all these restaurants look quite tasty and I plan to visit each one someday.

Tonight, I am making a cornish hen soup with ginger, ginseng, Chinese cooking wine, and salt. I purchased the bird from Whole Foods this morning and got the recipe from my mama.




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Temple Grandin

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

I watched the movie Temple Grandin today. I thought it was well made and well acted. I highly recommend everyone watch it. It’s available at Redbox for $1. (Oftentimes cheap Redbox rentals are not worth spending 2 hours watching, but this one certainly is.) I first heard about this movie on NPR Fresh Air. Terry Gross interviewed Temple Grandin in 2009 and they re-broadcast the interview recently when the movie was released. Click here to listen to the interview.

After growing up in Texas and making several drives down highway I-5 through the central valley of California, I was curious to know what really happens on cattle feedlots and slaughter houses. I enjoyed reading books by Michael Pollan about where my food comes from.  This movie followed a somewhat related vein. I got to see a woman with an incredible mind and determination redesign/ transform an industry to become more humane and efficient in handling and slaughtering cattle.

On a separate but related note, in my short academic career, I have interacted with a lot of really smart scientists who are socially shy or awkward. I think there are a lot of famous and brilliant scientists (perhaps many with Nobel prizes and Macarthur genius awards) who have mild forms of autism (or Asperger’s syndrome). These geniuses have an incredible ability to focus and process information in a profound and creative way, leading to new, innovative ideas.

According to wikipedia, autism is 4 times more common in males than females. I wonder if the lack of women in science/academia is due not only to a tenure system which often discourages family/personal life. But another reason is this: the number of males who have mild autism is slightly higher than those of females and the nature of academic grant-writing and paper-publishing requires intense focus and encourages scientists to stay holed up in their offices for days and interact with other humans only when absolutely necessary. These factors may favor those who work well in an environment where an autistic mind may thrive. However, since socially awkward people encounter so many other difficulties throughout their lives, my observation/hypothesis may not be valid.

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Movie reviews

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

I watched 2 redbox movies this weekend (with Ben, via Skype).

1) Big Fan

2) The Last Station

I don’t think I would recommend either of them. The first one, Big Fan, was quite disturbing and depressing. Patton Oswald, who played the main character, did a great job of acting and the story was non-traditional. However, I would not want to watch this movie ever again. I felt incredibly depressed afterwards.

The second movie, The Last Station, was boring and confusing. Why do people playing Russians (Leo Tolstoy and his entourage) have British accents? Weird period film that contains scenes that remind me of a 1970s Berkeley hippie commune. Both movies got decent reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, which means that perhaps I don’t always agree with other peoples’ opinions about movies.

(Ben really liked Big Fan, but I think it’s because the main character had the same kind of football themed sheets that he had when he was a kid).

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Looking forward to new adventures in 2009

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Last night, Ben and I were planning on having dinner at Mercat a la Planxa on South Michigan Ave. However, we found out that they were doing a fancy New Year’s Eve celebration with DJ, dance floor and a $125 per person minimum (not including drinks) but included “party favors” and decided we’d go there another time. Instead, we had dinner at Province again. It was kind of hectic and our server was inattentive (he forgot to bring Ben’s dessert wine even though he charged us for it). But it was still a nice excuse to get dressed up and go out. We even saw the chef (Randy Zweiban) talking with some other customers.

In 2009, we plan to go check out this some restaurants in Chicago such as

Mercat a la Planxa

Schwa

Mado (we’ve been here but we love it and can’t wait to go back!)

Today Ben and I walked to Michigan Ave., shopped in the mall (bought some cards at Papyrus) and watched a movie at the AMC (Quantum of Solace). We both enjoyed it and had low expectations because several friends had given it bad reviews compared to the previous James Bond movie (Casino Royale). However, we decided it wasn’t bad at all. Very similar in quality to the previous JB movie and I enjoyed it more because it was shorter (I have a very short attention span). It was kinda cold walking the mile to and from Michigan Ave. but I felt very lucky to live so close to downtown.

I’m also planning on cooking some broccoli this weekend. I have a nice recipe for Broccoli Cheese Soup. Elaine left me a head of the vitamin-rich vegetable and I bought 5 pounds of frozen organic broccoli at Costco in Middleton on our way home from La Crosse (after Christmas). In addition, we had a nice under $10 Cabernet Sauvignon (Santa Rita, Medalla Real 2005) with our dinner (chili made in a crock pot). This is one of my favorite chili recipes. It’s very easy to make and full of spices and flavor!

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The Incredible Hulk

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

The most recent incarnation of the Incredible Hulk franchise sucks pretty hard, particularly compared to the semi-poetic Ang Lee-directed version of a few years back.  Edward Norton couldn’t (or didn’t try, or wasn’t given enough of a chance) to carry the film, and Liv Tyler was in it, which gave the film a huge disadvantage from the outset.  It was all predictable banal build-up to the Hulk vs. bad guy showdown at the end (which was certainly the best part of the film), with the typical romantic sub-plot and whatnot.  It was a stand-alone Hulk film with too much time wasted in the comprehensive retelling of the Hulk saga.  I was particularly disappointed with Edward Norton, who I expected to do better than Eric Bana did in Ang Lee’s version.  Too bad Norton had half the script and direction to work with than Bana did.

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