My Big Apple!!

I haven't posted in a while and that's because I have been on a much needed R&R vacation. This is partially true as I did go on a vacation but it was for my cousin's wedding. I'll be posting pics on my site so check it out. I just realized that I didn't have any pictures of my pink dress at the wedding, that I was so desparately trying to match accessories to prior to the vacation. MAN!! In any case, I probably look more classic in the black dress I wore at night anyway. I felt like such a clepto because I borrowed many jackets and shawls from my aunt to compliment my look because I needed to keep WARM! I wore her raincoat for the ceremony, her long black matrix jacket for the dinner and her shawl on one of the random days. I believe Hurricane Wilma was heading to NY while I was there so I didn't even anticipate this rainy and windy weather. Thank you I am back. The weather here is much nicer, thank you very much.

I had a great time while I was there. More so than any other time in NY. It's probably because I could finally explore and get to know the city on my own. I even navigated with some help from the unfriendly train folks, but I made it through with limited difficulty. I was able to finally find Soho when it was too late and I was late to meet up with my cousin. I was like..."where was I all this time, going in the wrong direction!" What was wrong with me? Nothing because the subway map I had was not sufficient to bring to the right streets! Sheesh. In any case, I got to check out the latest H&M Stores, Macy's, Canal St., Soho and Lower East Side. I got to try some really good French (Bacchus) and Italian food (Lupa). I even got to see the BLUE DIAMOND from Tiffany's on 5th avenue. It is to die for, I wish I could go there everyday. I didn't bother asking for the price because it's probably way out of my price range. I mean look where it's situated. It's in the middle of the most expensive brands around: Rolex, Ermenegildo Zegna, Salvatore Ferragamo, Hugo Boss, Brooks Brothers, Cartier etc. I decided to go to H&M and Zara, the least expensive brands on the blocks.

I got to meet up with Steph, one of my best friends doing architecture in NY, and Derek, Dex's friend from Calgary.

To top off my stay, I had Lychee Martinis at Verlaine that I have not been able to find except here in NY. Yum!

iBlogger

They announced the new Apple Video ipod to the masses today. Man I want one but do I really want to watch episodes of shows or music videos on such a small screen? Pictures I could see, but why don't I just bring my camera??

Nevertheless, I have succumbed to the Apple Giant and bought/ordered an ipod mini. It hasn't come on my rewards system from work, so I think I'll just cancel it and actually buy the ipod nano. Instant gratification baby! Yes yes I just commented about the merits of seeing my photos on a different device than my camera. But alas it's the novelty. It's all about the novelty. Will I ever use my nano? Yes, maybe, yes I definitely will.

More reviews from the Film Festival

Bambi (heart) Bones: This is disturbing! i tell you it's very disturbing. It's about parental physical and sexual abuse and how the family deals with this situation. Ultimately it chronicles how it affects the kid in his interactions with his friend when they play. I mean it's pretty sick if you make a cardboard cutout of a person and throw rocks and mud at it! It's hard watching the father sexually abuse the kid because it's not so much graphic as it is uncomfortable. The director of the movie was there and the heart inside the bambi bones was meant to describe the heart inside that relationship (contrived because they're family-- you have to love them). I wouldn't watch this one again (1 chip).

China Blue: This was fascinating and makes me contemplate where our jeans come from. Would I even consider buying cheap clothes made in China anymore? This film documents how life is living in a jean factory and the conditions the workers are subjected to when working there. You get penalized out of your pay if you skip work, if you sleep at work, and eat at work. YIKES. and you have to work almost 48 hours without sleep if they need to meet a deadline. Can you imagine that the jean sellers are selling their jeans for $200+ when in China they make it for almost $1 a pair. That is absurd. Of course their major customers are big name department stores like Walmart and Gap but the management who visit the factories are only concerned about margins and lowering the wholesale price! Who cares about someone who has to sit there all day long and pull thread out of jeans? I will reconsider before buying my next pair of jeans....j/k! (4 chips)

Familia: I loved this movie! It's a film set in Montreal about dysfunctional families and how we are all interconnected. Of course some of those connections between brothers and cousins are a bit far fetched but hey it happens. The main conservative woman Beatrice befriends a younger woman and finds out her husband's been cheating with this younger woman. Beatrice also takes in her messy (and messed up) sister in law and her troubled daughter because of physical abuse. But in the end she kicks them out because the sister in law has tainted her own perfect but repressed (and well-educated) daughter. Look at all these webs. I cried, and cried a lot...very emotional, touching yet shocking. Definitely 2 thumbs up and a must watch! (5 chips)

Peacock: This one details the trials and tribulations of a Chinese family living in rural China and how each of the children grow up through the years. There are three children (2 boys and a girl). The peacock only plays into the film at the end but throughout you get a guilty sense of emotion cover you because you live such a good life with so many choices (by just living in a good city). You don't need to be a bottle washer because that isn't the only job available. You don't need to be a street vendor because you are educated and have enough money to raise yourself. I really liked how each person tried to "unrepress" themselves and it worked out really well for themselves. (3 chips)

April Snow: This was more of a Korean "check this hot guy out" movie. The characters were apparently movie stars well known in Korea but unknown to the Western world. I liked it although it was rather slow throughout. I thought the story line was interesting and unique but Dex was still thinking it moved very slowly. At several points in time, we thought it would be the end already but it kept going on. I would watch this again for the good looking people (yes I can be a bit shallow! ahaha). (3 chips)

Horloge Biologique (beating the clock?) : I found this one oddly amusing with the "neanderthalian" beginning. This raw theme surfaces at specific times in the movie where the male instinct kicks in, letting the audience know that we should disregard all subsequent actions as they do not correctly represent the male in it's sane form. This story follows 3 guys and their lives hanging out with each other. Each one in turn gets turned out of their house because of the "stupid" things they do to piss their girlfriends off. Let this be a lesson to all guys about doing stuff behind your girlfriend's back! hahaha.... (3 chips)

VIFF overload!

Okay so Dex and I planned out our schedule of Viff shows to go to. From the span of Friday night to Sunday, we watched 4 shows: The Bridesmaid (France), Heart Beating in the Dark (Japan), The District! (Hungary), Lie With Me (Canada). With a lot of these there are hits and misses. You can read about these in the links, but here's my take on them:

The Bridesmaid: I would say this is on the extreme side of eternal love...needing to prove your love by murdering someone. But hey, what isn't extreme in these indie flicks?! Overall I think they had a cohesive story but I just didn't like what happened to each of the characters. I would rather them have a Romeo and Juliet ending and it would have been more satisfying. (3 chips)

Heart Beating in the Dark (1982 version): Granted I missed the first few minutes...okay maybe an hour of this film, I can't give an accurate depiction of what this is about. It's about a couple, who after getting married and having a child, kill their baby and need to deal with the consequences of their actions. I can see how most of this story can be believable, Japanese men are notorious for being deceitful and abandoning the family for greater, younger pleasures. It's interesting how they take it from the man's point of view, a sort of tell-all without being ashamed. He basically forces the woman to give up her body at his beck and call. Why were the women so submissive (back then) ? This was quite disturbing to me but yes, this part of the movie left you hanging as to what their lives became of after the killing. (3 chips)

Heart Beating in the Dark (2005 version): So I managed to see the entire film for this (not late!). This is like a documentary (almost mockumentary) of the 1982 version where they would intersperse scenes of the original film, with scenes of the actors in "meetings" as how to approach filming this. There wasn't too much commentary on the thoughts of the actors themselves, more just about portraying the story that was already written. I would have liked it more that way. It was unique cinema because of the way they cut the scenes. You would see what happened in the old film (and most of these scenes I really did see in the 20 minutes of the old version!) and then they would cut to a modern couple who were reinacting the exact same scene in a similar setting (a ryokan in the suburbs of Japan). Then it would cut to the documentary part of film (what I find the most interesting and hilarious parts) where they discuss possible actions to the scene. As if there weren't enough parallels, they then jump to the actual couple in the original film reuniting 23 years later. Their exchanges are somewhat forced but I still enjoyed it. Recommended! (4 chips)

The District!: This wasn't as I anticipated. I think I am too spoiled with the wonderful animations of Pixar, Warner and Disney that I didn't really enjoy this made-for-adult cartoon from Hungary. My first complaint is that they need to do something about their subtitles. They put them in white for the entire film, when in certain scenes the background is white and you have a super difficult time reading what they are saying. Then you have to watch their actions on screen at the same time. Just very busy and made my eyes very tired. I liked how they tried to incorporate that hip hop gangsta theme with the rap songs in Hungarian but the characters aren't very impressive. It's about fueding brothers who find out their district is built on top of an oil mine. Of course they fight over the money and who gets all the returns from this. (1 chip)

Lie With Me: Raw emotion, I tell you, raw emotion. This film was done very well but at the beginning I thought it was something out of a porno movie. I mean the girl was watching porno, so it led me to believe that it was this type. However, it starts off with a minor infatuation between the lovers and then it was a type of obsessive "I can't have anyone else but you" love. I loved it and it was a sold out show...Dex and I had to sit separately because there were no seats left for us AND we managed to get there 10 minutes early. The main actor, actress and the director were all there for the Q&A session afterwards. I mean really, how DO you prepare for this role to bare all (lots of nudity in here)...how DO you prepare your significant other that you would be in such a film...how DO you rehearse for such intimate scenes. Watch this if you can! (5 chips)