Black Eyed Peas - South San Francisco

A health-focused company turning Thirty.
A sunny Bay Area afternoon party.
Unannounced! Just hints enough to tease,
Unexpected! The Black Eyed Peas!

click to enlarge

Safe for Travel

Here's a shoe company looking to up sales: "Security Friendly"

Thankful for new security measures at the airport over the resulting lighter carry-on payload, I wasn't expecting more bargains, but found to my delight a much faster boarding process with less junk to packup in and around the cabin. Much faster disembarkment, too.

Moreover, your touchdowns are cheered by near-empty overhead bins as they rattle carelessly free of luggage.

You'd think UPS, FedEx and the USPS would open up kiosks at the airport to handle your liquid-based purchases and other no-no's.

Pity the travelers who don't read books 'cause that's about the only items allowed in the cabin from airport terminal shops. Oh wait, there are magazines with pictures.

Funny the first few days when all potentially dangerous liquids were being thrown in one big receptacle where mixing them up would ignite the very threat being avoided.

Long-lasting lipsticks sales are on the rise.

Spouses and girlfriends would love a ban on cell phones, now that all your football, baseball and basketball games are just a phone key away from robbing them of attention after they've read thru their People and US magazines.

Ban not the iPod, for it is holy.

Laptops are OK to carry-on, but Quantas and Korean Air, for a short time, asked that Dell laptop owners can't bring their exploding Sony batteries on board.

Jimmy Kimmel complained about the Baddies as to why they had to use liquid threats that ended up with the liquid and gel ban. Imagine instead, men from all over: If they used bras as weapons and then bras get banned!

The Jetta Report

A series of Volkswagen crashes on commercial air time has managed to unnerve the TV-watching population of America: Jetta driving through a suburb lane, passengers talking nonsense, then suddenly, unexpectedly crashes with another automobile.

Powerful images, but spooky.

On a brighter note, there are the Jetta driver stereotyping commercials: A dad suggests a Jetta driver take a hike on a beautiful day, and Mr. Jetta driver loses it because "not all Jetta drivers love to hike." Tee-hee.

And here's the more interesting part: Volkswagen is conducting a continuing social survey on-line, pitting Jetta drivers against all others. Interesting experiment. Sounds scientific enough.

Take a look at that Jetta Report here and compare yourself.

Perhaps maybe, it can overshadow the Jetta driver stereotype suggested starting about two years ago by Volkswagen commercials themselves: Remember, two guys in a Jetta blasting "Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto..." Two guys in a Jetta moving residences.

Two guys driving a Jetta this. Two guys driving a Jetta that. Always two guys.

Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Snakes on a Plane

Samuel L. Jackson will call you.
Samuel L. Jackson will warn you.
Samuel L. Jackson will use whatever he can to make you watch Snakes on a Plane.

Well...more accurately, you can ask Sammy to call your friends and tell them to go watch those mf snakes on the mf plane!

Do it now, here.

Before it's all over.

A Michael Mann Production

I count four starring roles in Miami Vice (2006). In order of appearance: Farell, Foxx, Miami and Michael Mann, who stayed expertly behind the lens. Just as there were four in Collateral (2004): Cruise, Foxx, Los Angeles. and Mann. As it was in Heat (1995): Pacino, DeNiro, Los Angeles and Mann. Far from coincidental.

More importantly, amid the lowly reviews and confused movie-going audience, I found a certain, pleasing familiarity to again sit to Michael Mann. Same one I find re-running Heat or episodes of Miami Vice or Crime Story.

The sweeping views of the blue ocean from high and wide glass windows. The blue light draping the characters. In general, the over-all use of colors to convey the atmosphere.

The soundtrack that shape the scenes, excusing actors from doing what they're paid to do and simply look ahead to the yet-unseen waypoint, or look helplessly downward, while letting the music define the mood.
- Best exemplified by Phil Collins and "In The Air Tonight" as Tubb's girlfriend struggles mootly from a booby-trapped car that she eventually triggers to a sickening explosion, while arch-enemy Calderone slips away (again).

The best-of-the-best of the good cops, the protagonists, the cast, and even the subcontractors who command the top of most everything they do. Consider a quote from the CEO of Adam Aircraft:
- "The Adam Aircraft A500 is the ideal airplane for 'Miami Vice." The A500 signature twinboom profile reaches the level of high style and high performance necessary to meet the standards of a Michael Mann production..."

The loud guns. (Hey, they're supposed to sound that way)

The seemingly climactic set-ups detached from the end of the film (replaced instead by the obligatory resolution thru an un-impressive shoot-out). Cases in point:
- Heat: Shoot-out in rush-hour L.A., tucked right in the middle of the storyline.
- Collateral: Club confrontation, to Paul Oakenford' "Ready, Steady, Go", again far from the ending.
- Miami Vice '06: I vote for the trailer park hostage rescue, where emotions were at its peak (on and off the screen), yet removed from the loud shoot-out ending.

Though admittedly, the movie seemed like a TV episode, as in, made-for-TV, rather than summer blockbuster... and while, perhaps, quite a lot of people we're looking for "Bad Boys 3" (and strangely enough, I enjoyed reading the critics' reviews and the blogosphere's takes as to what to make of it) , I was very happy with this...........
a Michael Mann production.

See also Manhunter, Thief, The Last of the Mohicans, Ali, The Insider, L.A. Takedown.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

Robert Downey, Jr.
Val Kilmer
Michelle Monaghan
Shane Black
Fun movie.



Memorable Dialog:
Harry: Don't worry, I saw Lord of the Rings. I'm not going to end this 17 times.

Perry: Look up "idiot" in the dictionary. You know what you'll find?
Harry: A picture of me?
Perry: No! The definition of idiot. Which you...are!

Perry: Did your dad love you?
Harry: Only when I dressed up like a beer bottle, how about you?
Perry: Well, he used to beat me in morse code, so it's possible, but he never said the words.

Harry: I swear to God, it's like somebody took America by the East Coast, and shook it, and all the normal girls managed to hang on.

Your Own South Park Character

Me.

If you can't beat them, join them.
Make your own South Park character here.

Your Own iPod Billboard

Make your own iPod billboard, here.

Radiohead - Berkeley Greek Theater

Once, my dear cousin drove eight hours to see them in Boston; proudly proclaimed how awesome a show they put on.
Once, they played the Shoreline on my birthday, the first I saw them live.
Once, New Order was my favorite band...
"Green plastic watering cans"


Radiohead, Berkeley Greek Theater, June 24, 2006.

Hard to describe Radiohead live. Add the Greek Theater as the sixth man, and I'm doubly at loss of words. I just remember tonight a welling-up smile that never left. Thru anthem, guitars, piano and two encores. Then after, tongue-tied.

Set list:
Airbag
2+2=5
Where I End And You Begin
15 Step
Kid A
Dollars And Cents
Down Is The New Up
Nude (Thom stops mid-song, re-starts "let's take it from the top.")
Paranoid Android (Possibly the best crowd energizer.)
No Surprises (My highlight)
The Gloaming
All I Need
Climbing Up The Walls
Go Slowly (Thom: "Some of our new songs are sketchy, Very sketchy.")
Myxomatosis
Bangers 'N Mash
How To Disappear Completely

Encore
Fake Plastic Trees (Another highlight)
Arpeggi
Black Star (Surprisingly beautiful live!)
True Love Waits
Everything In Its Right Place

Encore 2
Bodysnatchers
(Thom: "The fog's come in. Its time to go home. If you invite us into your apartments, we can keep this going.")
The Tourist

Thanks to green plastic radiohead.

Missing: Lift, My Iron Lung, Creep

The Futurist - James P. Othmer (2006)

A book (of fiction) about a futurist that's very much about today, honestly critical of the blind optimists, embarassingly familiar to the materialists, and self-validating for the realists. A swipe on American arrogance. A satire of cool.


A book (of facts) about very familiar instances, about the history of our extravagant selves, lately.

J.P. Yates, sage, authority on trends, peddler of cool.

...his real talent was holding on to...information until the time was right, knowing the exact moment at which to drop it into the flabby lap of a mass-market, mall-addicted America that wanted to be a fraction of an inch above average...when it was the absolute best to deem that-which-had-long-been-cool-to-cool-people cool for the rest of us.

J.P. Yates, master of ceremonies, master of bull.

...not necessarily true, but [that's] what they wanted to hear.

J.P. Yates, our vigilant inner voice that reminds us to think for ourselves. Reminds us that the guy with a stock proposition that can't miss is a futurist. The all-promises political candidate is a futurist. The time we lay our discretionary income down for Black Jack, we're futurists.

So, whenever we play the role of early-adopters, are we being duped by futurists within Apple or Sony or Microsoft's marketing machine? Are we always foolishly in line for Version-Dot-Next?

Ponder the questions. Enjoy the book.

Business Week's '06 Industrial Design Excellence Awards

Now, back to the future.... link here

My Travels - Paris (2006)

Paris. The City of Lights. The City of Love.

Notre Dame by the Seine:

Place Vendome:
The Louvre:

Champs-Elysees at night:

The Tour Eiffel at twilight:

Paris. Exactly as advertised!

(For more photos, check my Photo Blog)

As for the Un-advertised...

Yeah...they eat French bread. They really do.

People line up for the main Louis Vuitton store at the Champs-Elysees. Just like for museums. Damn keyboards! They're AZERTY, not QWERTY. Apparently, after 9/11 American protests of everything French, all new keyboards were changed in France. Messes the brain.

But there are "French" fries! In numerous Pomme de Pain sandwich bistros around the city, you can order "French" fries. In Leon de Bruxxells restaurants, there are "French" fries. Unlimited, with a bucket of mussells. Available with Heinz.

Place Vendome--wide square plaza lined with the Ritz and expensive shops---biggest plaza I've seen without pigeons.

There is no Bastille prison to see. Nope. Move on.

There can't be any new construction more than 4 stories high around the Eiffel tower as it needs to stay prominent in the Paris skyline. It is the skyline!

From the Orsay Museum...I present to you...Cosmo Kramer, Sr.

Also learned that Polo was in vogue in the 18th century:

From the Louvre...the Venus de Milo is taller than me. Contrary to what I thought.

The Mona Lisa is smaller than you think.

There is a Da Vinci Code tour at the Louvre. From the tour guides' experiences, American tourists give us a bad name. THE BOOK ISN'T REAL! Please...if you go, don't ever ask "Is this where the curator died?" or "How do you secure Mary Magdalene's sarcophagus now that everyone knows where it is?" Sounds smart. But...really.(Disclaimer: I don't like Dan Brown and his writing style. Brain drain).

And one more from the museum...the Eqyptians apparently inspired The Jetsons:

All the 'hoods I've gone to, I didn't see a gas station. Champs-Elysees. Notre-Dame. Tour Eiffel. Champ de Mars. Trocadero. Ecole Militaire. Les Invalides. Arc de Triomphe. Opera Garnier. Louvre. Musee d'Orsay. Quay d'Orsay. Madeliene. Place Vendome. St. Honore. Place de la Concorde. Tuileries Garden. Pompidou Center. St. Germain, Latin Quarter. Moulin Rouge. Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.

The French love crepes.

Know who else loves crepes? Tom-Kat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, for the un-initiated). Check them out kissing and lining for the French taco:

In Paris, NBA star Tony Parker is huge.

You know who else is huge? Steven Segal. Hmm...

Fantasy Sports (Enhanced)

Ask a twelve-year old: what are the four seasons of the year?
It would be: Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey.

Playing fantasy sports adds a more intimate level of involvement all season long. I find it an escape when my crappy San Francisco 49ers or Golden State Warriors stink it up for months at a time (Thank God for an always-competitive San Francisco Giants). Fantasy sports provides you a custom team you pit against someone else's, and in the process involves you with everything that happens elsewhere, not just with your crappy, old hometeams.

And then I found this: WhatifSports.com.

Oh what fun!

PC World's Top 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

Check out if your brick phone made it:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125772,00.asp#

Mission Impossible III

What I hate most: How much mileage can you get out of the mask trick and voice mod? Maybe in parts one and two, it's forgivable, But, c'mon...it's tiring.
But perhaps as a consolation, we get shown how the mask is created and the voice replicated. Making it somewhat believable. Somewhat.

What I liked:
(1) The progression of enemy intelligence and how our heroes adapted to it. We've seen the MI team infiltrate a building, coming from the air, via chopper, via something that will get them on the roof...but this time the roof is guarded by armed men---like finally, the baddies have learned their lesson that the roof needs to be secure. How do you get to the roof and thru? Well...very good writing here. The whole sequence focused more on planning and ingenuity. How Hunt developed the plan and proceeded to swing and sling himself from a neighboring tower to the target. Never had to use an easy-to-spot chopper, which the team couldn't get anyway in such a short notice on foreign land. And then intentionally never showing what happens in the building, thus preserving our appreciation of the brilliant plan, even for a moment longer, until Hunt dives out from up high with the objective in hand and into the next action segment.
(2) And Maggie Q.

Badminton is Back!

Spring! And I'm staying indoors. Playing badminton. It's back. If the San Francisco Chronicle says it's back, I guess it went away and came back.

Overheard:
Someone: I haven't played since high school.
Another one: Me, too.
Me: I haven't played since 2nd grade.

Someone: Hey, its our turn in this court.
Someone else: I don't think so. Check the queue.

Another one: Hey, its our turn in this court.
And another: I don't think so. Check the clipboard.

And another: Look, I don't want to fight. I just got here and you're kicking me out already?

And an observant one: This queue-ing system sucks.

One more: Hey! You're not Chinese!

Ya!

Look for Smash City in Milpitas, Golden Gate Badminton Club in Menlo Park and United Badminton Club in Fremont.

David Blaine

If only his stunts were interesting.
News flash! Lame-o!