Sita Sings the Blues

I really enjoyed Sita Sings the Blues, an animated adaptation of the Hindu epic The Ramayana. It's got great Annette Hanshaw songs and beautiful animation. Plus it's funny.



Here's a torrent. I think it'd be good to watch stoned.

New Coen Bros. PSA

Reminds me I haven't seen Burn After Reading.

Season Two

I've caught up on the new season of Flight of the Conchords. Generally I'm liking it... first episode seemed kind of weak, but maybe it had just been so long that I had to get back into it... episodes 2 through 6 have been good. The show doesn't really have any development though... the characters don't grow and nothing has changed since the first episode of season 1. But I still like it.

Also watched Rhys Darby's standup performance (Imagine That!) that was okay, but much more physical humor. Imagine a New Zealish Robin Williams doing impersonations of robots and dinosaurs and you get the picture.

Find

Yo, someone link me to Mickey Rourke's acceptance speech at the Independent Spirit Awards. I can't find it.

Doctor Octopus

In Korea they eat raw octopus that is killed and chopped up just before you eat it. Yesterday in a restaurant with my co-workers I tried some. The piece of octopus was still moving when I put it in my mouth. I chewed it well.

My final chunk of vacation: 11 days between now and March 2.

I think I'm just gonna play these mp3's of Obama cussing over and over (from his audiobook).

INSOMNIA!!!

A sickness slowly climbed upon me as I returned to work. I think I'm off work again from this Tuesday till March 2 so maybe I can recover. But it's hard to sleep when you're nose is plugged up. I think I'm kind of sick of this country too. I have about four months left and I probably would abandon ship if I didn't get bonus pay, a pension refund, my apartment deposit, and a plane ticket home at the end of the contract. So I'll stick it out.

You all saw Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman, right?


I've heard some people say it was all a hoax for the documentary Casey Affleck is making about Phoenix's transition to rap, and other people say he's drugged out and needs help. My theory is that the whole hip-hop transition thing is semi-orchestrated a la Borat for the documentary, but that to really immerse himself in the role he actually believes it himself and may be on some kind of drugs to flesh out the role, and that he won't even realize he's acting till he comes out of it at the screening of the documentary and he'll snap back to something like his former self like someone coming out of hypnosis.

I don't think Letterman was "in on it" and believe he was genuinely annoyed by Phoenix. But who knows, eh.

I watched Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It. Starts out kind of weak by about halfway through I began to like the actors and thought it finished nice. Good music and atmosphere. I like the version with Laurence Olivier better though, even though Olivier didn't direct it.

I tried to find a torrent of the soundtrack but could only find another Patrick Doyle OST: 1998's Great Expectations. It's a good soundtrack too.

I think I will try sleep again now.

A Perfect World

Lately I've been thinking about how I'd set up my life in a perfect world, and I realize I wouldn't really use computers much. I realize that being on computers isn't something I actually enjoy. In a perfect world I wouldn't use computers more than an hour a week.

So I'm trying to cut back. It's difficult not because I'm addicted but because I use the computer for so much that my livelihood depends on. But I'm still trying to cut back.

BTW

Fuck! Back to work!

It's been six weeks since I've been on the 8:30 to 4:30 grind. Six weeks since I had to see all my co-workers and all the students at once.

I think I liked vacation more.

Changeling

Changeling is kind of like a mix of Silence of the Lambs, In the Line of Fire, and Terminator 2 (when she's in the mental hospital). I guess the stuff I didn't like about it were how easy it is to find the bad guys, and how it feels like a newspaper editorial. Oh, and I don't really think much of Angelina Jolie's acting. Still, it's okay, just long and self-righteous.

Copperfieldian

Man, there are some crazy plane ticket prices right now. I was thinking about visiting the US at the end of the month (I'm not) and just looked and could get a round trip for $700. I also found a ticket from San Francisco to Ireland round trip this month for $380! I think people are cutting back on travel. I hope these prices hold out through the rest of the year when I'm actually traveling.

I feel my vacation taking its last gasp. I was in Seoul the other day and got a copy of David Copperfield to immerse myself in a 900-page Dickensian reality. Maybe it's my favorite Dickens book I've read. Tomorrow I'm bowling. I don't know what to make of Korea anymore. I think I've forgotten whatever I knew about teaching, it's been so long since I've had regular classes (mid December?). And I think my teaching quality has gotten progressively worse through the year. C'est la vie. After this I'm done working with kids. After this I won't ever do contract work, and even try to avoid housing leases for longer than six months. I just like to move on.

Did anyone see the 40-minute The Office the other day? I thought it was pretty good after some weak episodes, and found the pirated Jack Black movie especially creepy/awesome. Also found it funny they would watch a pirated movie in a major national sitcom.