I am Your Sunshine

Miles, played by Paul Giamatti who was the peculiar Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, is a middle age English teacher and a never published writer. He is your ordinary neighbor who lives one day to another and seems to be insignificant in every single aspect in life. He is the quiet type with occasional drink-and-talk outburst. But if you get to know him, he is more than a plain face nobody. Miles is not a character you’d like the first time you see him, but you’d gradually understand him. His ambitions, his frastrations silently protested inside of him and when he explained why he adore Pinot Noir, you know he doesn’t just love Pinot, he identifies with Pinot.

Um, it’s a hard grape to grow, as you know. Right? It’s uh, it’s thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It’s, you know, it’s not a survivor like Cabernet, which can just grow anywhere and uh, thrive even when it’s neglected. No, Pinot needs constant care and attention. You know? And in fact it can only grow in these really specific, little, tucked away corners of the world. And, and only the most patient and nurturing of growers can do it, really. Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot’s potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they’re just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and… ancient on the planet. – Miles Reymond in Sideways(2004)

The movie was mainly about the getaway week Miles and his college pal Jack spent together, which was sort of like a bachlor party. It began with Miles being woken up by his neighbor on a Saturday morning, realizing that he was very late for his date with Jack but still taking his time to poo and shower and buy breakfast. (Very disagreeable.) Their idea of this trip were apparently different. Jack was hoping to make the most of his last week of freedom which involved with a lot of wine (good or bad) and women. Miles, on the other hand, wished to give Jack a quality time with quality wine and friendship. During this week of craziness, they had good times and bad, they encouraged each other and fought, but they never abandoned one another, dispite how different they were. It was only a few pages in the book of their lives. A lot had happened before the week, and a lot are gonna happen afterwards. You got a glance of one moment of life and it touched you because it was so real and filled with all kinds of emotions, ups and downs.

It’s said that in the book, Pickett used a lot of wine metaphor to describe life, sounds interesting. I’m gonna read the novel after I finish Jane Austen Book Club.

昨天送琪與家眷去機場，今早起來忽然覺得很空虛。
不再需要上樓去看他們起床沒了…

這幾天:
8/19 Jazz Festival + Fantasia + Tanto

表姐跟 Andrea 星期五晚上先到，星期六中午從 SJC 接了琪他們，我們一起去吃 Banana Leaf，吃完再去 downtown San Jose 的 Jazz Festival。花了五塊錢，本來覺得有點不值，但後來去的 Salsa stage實在很不錯。傍晚先去夢咖啡喝茶，再到 El Camino 上的 Tanto 吃晚餐，超好吃!

8/20 Sonoma + Secret Garden
略

8/21 Valley Fair + CPK
早上請表姐送他們去 Valley Fair，傍晚我們一起吃 CPK，然後又小逛了一下。

8/22 SF + Stinking Rose + Bubble Lounge
早上送他們去坐 Bart，約在北灘附近的 Stinking Rose。我跟 Cindy 開車到 Stanford 找李晃，然後他載我們一起上 SF。等到 charly, Kevin 他們出現之後，我們終於可以進去吃啦! 我們點了… 等等，這天也寫過了。略。

8/23 Berkeley + Sideways + Rose Cabernet Sauvignon
早上送他們去坐 Bart，接回來後買了菁菁回家吃。跟 Kedi 一起看 Sideway 喝 Rose Cabernet Sauvignon。

8/24 Zzzz + dim sum + Great Mall + D&B
中午帶他們去吃 Mayflowers，下午他們逛逛 Great Mall，晚上在家喝雞湯吃牛排。吃飽喝足後 chun 跟 Kedi 還有我們大家一起去 D&B 打電動，喝半價調酒。打出了前面一篇的水泡。

8/25 SF + Costco + Ramen
早上送他們去坐 Bart，晚上去 Costco 買東西，吃 Warm Spring 上的拉麵。

8/26 Alameda wine tasting + e-sushi + Snakes on the Pland & Accepted
中午去 Kedi 邀的 wine tasting，在 Alameda 的 Rosenblum Cellar 舉辦，共有13個酒莊參加。有食物有酒還附 Riedel 杯子，很不賴。傍晚去 Sushi House 吃，叫了好大個 Sashimi Cruise，還有各式各樣的 Roll，還點了 unfiltered sake。(晚點附圖)

8/27 Brunch + Farmer’s market + Santana Rwo + Emmy’s
到 Santana Row 的 Rosie McCann’s (Irish) 吃早餐，然後又逛逛 Santana Row 上的 Farmer’s Market。好多好吃的桃子，我跟琪家眷都買了一些。下午還是太昏又跑回家睡覺，傍晚起來 Eugene 借重機給琪家眷騎，七點半趕回家看 Emmy。

8/28 SF + Oakland A’s v Boston Red Sox
早上送他們去坐 Bart，傍晚在球場碰面。略。

8/29 Macaronni Grill + great mall + Stanford + Japanese food + SFO
早上在家收行李，中午去吃 Macaroni Grill，下午聽說又去逛了下 Great Mall，傍晚到 Stanford，李晃帶我們逛校園，然後去吃一家在 El Camino 上的日本料理，然後就送他們去 SFO 了 :~

Can you tell what it is?

Got it when I played MAZAN at Dave & Buster’s last Thursday. I scored 140K and got three “water ball” on my fingers.

Another good shot of that.

58th Prime time Emmy hosted by my favorite late night show host, Conan O’Brien. This was his second time hosting the Emmy, pity that I missed the first time. He hosted Emmy in his late night show style; therefore I was fully entertained. He’s just my cup of tea.

The opening skit was hilarious. If you are familiar with TV shows to a certain leval, you should have no trouble distinguishing one from another.

Some are going to file complaint about the opening skit. In the skit, Conan was on a plane heading LA and was asked if he was nervous. Right after he answered, “Nervous? What could possibly go wrong?” and the plane started to shake. And then Conan appeared on the shore of a island which resembles the one in LOST. It was hilarious, but people in Kentucky didn’t share the laugh. The same day, prior to the opening skit, an airplane crashed in Kentucky resulted in 49 death. People there were shocked and outraged watching the skit. I don’t mean to be insensitive or lack of sympathy, but if you were still overwhelmed by the tragedy, why the hell were you watching Emmy and got offended? It’s clearly a parody of LOST, Office, 24, House and etc. Relax, people.

Enough for the politics.

Watching Conan hosting an award show made me think of Jon Stewart’s tragic Academy Award. (By tragic, I didn’t mean he wasn’t good, but the evening was wihout a doubt awkward.) I know it’s not fair to say that Conan did a better job than Jon. Afterall, Emmy is for TV people and Oscar is for movie, and it’s my belief that people work in TV have better sense of family then movie people. Both of them are from TV and it’s understandable that those Hollywood super stars didn’t click with Jon’s New Yorker irony.

After defending for Jon, I still have to say, Conan O’Brien made it a super fun night. You’ve all seen the hilarious opening skit, Conan brought us more than just a skit. During his prologue, he started to sing “We’ve got trouble” adapted from The Music Man (video at the bottom). And it was really great! I even clapped in front of the TV. And the way he reminded people to keep their acceptance speech short was brilliant too. (picture on the right.) He put I-forgot-his-name in an air-tight tube saying the air’s only enough for 3 hour. It was way much better than “beaten by orchestra” thing (I forgot who did it and on which award show.)

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewert presenting the award for “Best Reality/Competition” show was another highlight of the night.

Stephen was awesome. He’s my another cup of tea. Standing next to Stephen, Jon looked much shyer and restricted. I just don’t know why he kept winning the awards. Guess I haven’t touched the essence of his show, who knows.

Acceptance speeches tend to be the same, but some managed to entertain the audiences while giving thanks. One mentioned several people that he didn’t want to share the award with and some just made it simple and great.

It was overall a very great award show. (Except the fact that most of the people I wished they’d win didn’t win.)

Great award show I can remember: Continue Reading »

{Sport’s infiltrating into my life.}

Our plan was to visit Stanford yesterday evening. Huang kindly promised to give us a tour. But The night before we changed our mind, thinking, it’d be a shame going back without watching an MLB game. So our understanding tour guide agreed to postponed our tour to Tuesday, and we bought three tix to the A’s v Red Sox game!

I was kinda reluctant, to be honest. I wasn’t feeling well and I was never a big fan of baseball (except for the four years in college). But I had to be there in order to take Will Call ticket no matter what, so there I went. I took Bart instead of driving, knowing on game day the traffic might be a hassle. On my way, there were plenty of A’s fan and some Red Sox fan aboard. When I arrived Coliseum, it was crowded and people filled the tube leads to the stadium. All green and yellow in sight, strangely, I started to grow excited. “I’m going to a ball game!”

The day was really nice, but trust me it was chilly. I had a long sleeve T-shirt and a jacket. Then I put on another sweater with hat and my Chelsea scarf. I looked totally out of place. “Wearing Chelsea scarf to A’s and Red Sox game? What’s she thinking?!” I know, even wearing Raider shirts make more sense. But what the heck, I’m proudly out of place. And I was kinda happy that some Red Sox fan recognized Chelsea.

The first two innings were fast. But in the third, A’s started the kill. The old gentleman sitting next to me were die-hard A’s fan from Hawaii. He was so busy cheering and yelling and high fiving with other A’s fan, but he still took some time to chitchat with me. (Though I was kinda afriad that he might hit me when I cheer for Red Sox. btw, we totally sat on the enemy’s side.) Anyway, I managed to hide my allegiance so he was fairly nice to me. (I’m not a real Red Sox fan anyway. I just support whatever team that’s from east coast cuz I hate this freaking California.) He also told me that there was a Raider game last Friday, which explain the yard marking on the grass.

Til the 8th inning, Red Sox did managed some great catch, but 3 up 3 down didn’t help the game. So we left at the begining of the 9th inning, by then it was already 9-0, cuz we believe the Red Sox was not going to revive all of a sudden (though J said, baseball games begin on 9th inning second half, clearly there wouldn’t be a 9th second half.) and by leaving early we can avoid the traffic. It was a nice experience overall. Oh, and did I mention that A’s hit 3 home runs?

There were 30109 people last night in McAfee

好幾本好久之前就想看的書，到現在都出中譯本了，我還沒看。
像是 Time Traveler’s Wife，The Dante Club 等 (至少終於看完了 Burglar on the Prowl, The Jane Austen Book Club 也看了一半)，但又不甘心去弄中譯本來看，如果非英文還說的過去。而且聽說 Dante Club 翻得很爛。

最近一堆人來訪，更沒時間看書。而且還要撥空計劃十月的事。
時間不夠用。

有趣。

台灣電視的字幕算是一個特色，因為其他國家大部份都是沒有字幕的。美國大部份可以選擇開關 caption，但它主要是為了聽障人士而存在。剛剛在文化衝擊板看到討論，有人說當初廣電法規定節目要加上字幕是為了使人民快速學習中文 <= Urban Legend 1。 又有種說法是，因為蔣介石愛看京戲,所以電視上會播。京戲演員都是吊著嗓子唱的，很難聽懂在唱什麼，所以蔣介石要求電視播京戲時要加字幕，後來就變成所有節目都有字幕了 <= Urban Legend 2。又有人說，加字幕是因為台灣使用的語言眾多，所以才會有字幕 <= Urban Legend 3。 於是有人說，所以台灣人大多有水準以上的中文速讀能力XD 聽說因為看慣字幕，台灣人比其他國家的人更能夠適應看有字幕的外語片。 我覺得這樣很好。

(Some are waiting for this post)

A friend with two last name told me that our mutual friends were visiting SF, so I brought Christy and her bf along with Cindy to SF to meet with them. We went to Stinking Rose for dinner. I’ve always wanted to try it but somehow there’s always someone against the proposition. We waited til almost 8 for everyone to arrive and we were starving. On our side of the table, we ordered Bagna Calda (not what I thought it was), Shrimp+Mussel+Crab Iron Skillet combo (fresh and juicy, super tasty), Silent of the Lamb (yea, it’s lamb) and clam pasta.

Then we walked few blocks to the Bubble Lounge on Montgomery St. Bubble Lounge is a champaine bar. Live Jazz every Tuesday night. We sat down on cozy sofas and looked through their menu and were overwhelmed by the selection. I can say that I know a bit about wine, but when it comes to champaine, I’m like an illiterate. So we asked the waiter to recommend something nice for beginner and we had Pierre Gimonnet, which is a blanc de blanc (means Chardonnay grape only). It was refreshing with distinct fruit flovor. And we opened a A. Margaine demi-sec cuz some of us thought the Pierre Gimonnet was too sour. The demi-sec was indeed sweeter but really, the blanc de blanc was in all aspect better. And the guys still considered it not sweet. Alas.

Later Lee recalled that Ester recommended their chocolate fondu, so we decided to give it a try. And it was great!!! We can smell the strawberries from 1 meter away. Nice evening, but I was exhausted. (I was the only one who has to work the next day. ai~)

(最近寫的速度趕不上事情發生的速度。)

You gotta have a girl friend. You grow up together, you love and hate together. You fight, and make up later. You vow never to be apart. You share memories and experience. You call each other three times a day, and no one can be closer to you than she is in this life time.

Marina is wild and dominant while Holly is more of a quiet and intelligent type. They are extremely different but they stick together. They laugh, share fun moments, but they also crash, hurt and get hurt. It’s a story about love, hate, jealousy, betrayal, lust and above all female friendship. Friendship between women is always more complex, and at some point, the friendship brings pain only.

The movie is extreme and intense and real.

Been busy lately, almost forget about Emmy’s. I wonder why it’s so early this year. It was in mid-Sept last year.

8:00PT NBC (again, the inferiority being in the west coast)

Category that matters: Continue Reading »

European kit

胸口的隊徽質感很好。

Continue Reading »

gather all my friends (“friends”, not just people I know) and family (“family”, not just relatives through blood or marrige)

it’d be a world filled with really nice people (as chun observed)
how nice would it be.
if only

工作/睡眠不足/RM問題/有待溝通
然後還輸球 可怕的米堡 (其實是自己太散)

今天可不可以跳過
直接跳到周末是最好的

煩

急怒時腎上腺素暴增讓我做出使我處於明明是受害者卻看起來理虧的位置。

這樣實在吃虧。

誡之。

昨天九個人兩車由小乖領軍浩浩蕩蕩前往 Sonoma。

上次到 Sonoma 是跟 chun 及 Jo 她們去做 Spa，因為 chun 不喝酒，所以我們逛逛 downtown 做做 spa, 回家的路上晃了一下 NAPA outlet，如此而已。

這次可不同，眾酒鬼只有三個目的：　酒莊，酒莊，酒莊。

Sonoma 行成員如下:
小乖車: 小乖, 小乖的室友 Dolly, 我, 琪, 琪的家眷
Jas車: Jas, Jas學妹Andrea, 強尼, 強尼的小朋友包子

第一站是 Mayo Reserve Room，但因我們太早到，食物還沒準備好，所以先去漂亮的 Chateau St. Jean 逛逛照相。

Mayo 除了本身酒莊外，在 121 上還有間 Family Reserve Room，是專門做 food & wine pairing 的試酒。要價不便宜，但整個經驗非常的棒。Food & Wine Pairing Tasting 的流程下來試了總共七種酒，包括 Late Harvest 的 Gewurztraminer (完全把 Mondavi 的 Muscato 比下去了，大家一制認為 Mayo 的 Gewurz 狂勝 Muscato)。

它們分別是 Sauvignon Blanc 配 Bruschetta，非常清爽 （但 Bruschetta 雖然本身好吃的不得了，但並沒有讓 Sauvignon Blanc 更好喝。)，Chardonnay 配 chicken lolipop (Chardonnay 是比一般的好喝一點點，但我還是始終如一地不喜歡喝 Chardonnay，生菜雞肉棒棒糖很好吃), Zinfandel 配小 pizza (他們的 Zin 讓大家驚豔，但後來歸納的結論是，它喝起來像 Cab，但比起真的 Cab 卻又遜色許多。) 接下來三杯分別是 Cabernet Sauvignon 配蕈類酥捲 (酥捲超好吃，Cab 很好喝)，Syrah 配忘了 (一向沒有特別喜歡 Syrah)，及 Cabernet Franc 配牛肉塔。吃喝至此，大家都有點茫了。我是第一個開始漱酒的人。大家還覺得我遜，真是的。要知道自己的極限才能夠喝的長長久久啊! (到最後一家酒莊時已經只剩下我，Jas，小乖三個人還繼續喝，其他人都不行了。)

最後就是Gewurz 配 MAYO 自製的 goat cheese cheesecake，兩樣大家都讚不絕口。如果 cheesecake 有賣的話，大家應該會搬個好幾大盒回去吧! (最後大家買了一堆 Cab 跟 Gewurz)

另外還去了 Kaz，Landmark 等，
及Kunde，主要是要參觀它建在山洞裡的酒窖，天然的低溫讓他們省了空調的錢!
還有 Ledson， 城堡頗漂亮，酒普通。但是我們還是分別買了 Sauvignon Blanc 與 Orange Muscat。

回到灣區之後吃秘苑，好好吃。

—
copy cat不要學我

Hooray!!!!

Yesterday evening after work, I finished the last 7 chapters of the latest Burglar. It was such an establishment! Bernie is not like Scudder who would make you think of life and all the stuffs happen in life, but it’s always fun to read Bernie. I can’t quite recall when was the last time I read a Bernie; I’m pretty sure it’s more than 3 years ago. Therefore, I wasn’t sure if it is his style to “I suppose you’re wondering why I summoned you all here…”, like some high school kid’s “In my grandpa’s name, I will find the killer.”

It started out slow but page by page, I found myslef not able to put the book down until I was really starving. The story was intriguing, delicately interwove with all the seemingly unrelated characters, including a starwannabe, a plastic surgeon, 2 lawyers, a paralegal, mafia, second hand book store owner/burglar and etc. In the story, Block managed to use a whole bunch of coincidences and justified it with “the long arm of coincidence”. There’s nothing wrong with coincidence. Coincidence happens, or people wouldn’t create the word in the first place. And I wasn’t annoyed by the frequency of coincidences. Still, I like Matt Scudder series better. If you’re like me, prefer a better human touch in everything you read/watch, you should definitely try Lawrence Block’s Scudder.

*In fact, I finished the book like 2 weeks ago, but it took me this long to finish the post.

The movie was only released to limited theatres, I’m so glad that there are theatres in the Bay Area show it. After seeing The Boy from Oz, I’m almost a Hugh Jackman fan, cuz he’s not only handsome but also charming and intelligent and funny and charismatic. And Woody Allen’s films always have a strange touch that I love. (My fav Woody Allen movie: Bullets over Broadway)

It’s quite good. It gave us laughs from the begining to the end. Some said that they expected much more from Woody Allen. I’m not a big fan of his, I didn’t expect anything deep. As long as it doesn’t give us cheap humor but some decent good laugh, I’m contented.

Let me talk about the actors.
Hugh Jackman’s performance is mediocre. It’s not like he can’t act, but the character itself is pretty flat. All he had to do is to be charm and innocent and show some slyness and a touch of evil. On the other hand, Scarlet Johansson sparkled. When she first appeared as a young American student jounalist, she expressed the dorkiness beautifully. As for the dead jounalist, Ian McShane played the character pretty vividly. And Woody Allen is still a weird old man.

ps. Scarlett Johansson’s younger than I am? Are you kidding me… /_\

I love dance movies. There are quite a few dance movies (along with musical adaptations) lately, I bet it has more or less something to do with raving reality show Dancing with the Star. Great show to follow every week and dance movies, I sure am glad.

Step up is a movie about Tyler, an underprivileged white kid who lives in Baltimore’s Hamden with his foster parents and doesn’t have any hope for his future, and Nora, a dancer whose senior showcase partner broke his leg. But we don’t really care about the story, do we? It’s just a feel-good movie you can relax, laugh and enjoy the music and dancing.

It’s not a perfect movie whatsoever. It’s cliche, but it’s a pretty and enjoyable cliche. And it’s too fairy-tale like. But they don’t really matter, cuz it’s brilliant!

ps. Century theatre in Mountain View is hidden and magnificent.

拖了一年猶豫不決到底要不要買下手的 Newsradio，今天忽然降價到 $19.99 了 (原價$39.99，後來一直保持在 $29.99-31.99之間) 最近幾天 Amazon 一直在影集 DVD 大減價! 主要是減去年出的 DVD (如 House 第一季, Boston Legal 第一季，還有我前幾天買的 Sports Night。很久以前的 DVD 像是 Babylon 5 之類的就沒有減)，真是非常誘人啊。