big news in the cinematic arthouse world!

one of my all-time favourite directors, Hou Hsiao-Hsien (of Cafe Lumiere and Millenium Mambo), is making a fantasy chinese martial arts movie - a genre called wuxia.

this is the equivalent of Wes Anderson (of Royal Tenenbaums, Bottle Rocket) deciding to make the next Batman.

also, Hou is using Shu Qi (his female lead from Millenium Mambo and Three Times) for his wuxia film. this is just craziness.

in an interview with The New York Sun, Hou says this:

"I've made my share of art films, so I think it's time to switch gears," Mr. Hou said. "I'd like to devote the next 10 years to making wuxia films. Rest assured, they won't be your ordinary kung-fu movies that other filmmakers have been making. The Tang dynasty produced countless novels that are quite fascinating. The first one I've chosen is about a female assassin called 'Nieyin niang.' It won't be easy to film."

Three Times (2005)



Cafe Lumiere (2004)


Millenium Mambo (2001)


btw, if anyone wants to see any of these 3 movies, i have them for the lending.

debauchery

rob's birthday weekend extravaganza culminated in fine dining at chambar this past monday night. we were lucky to have terry and kelly accompany us to notch up the fun and frivolity.

all photos taken on my iphone

food, booze and shopping

here's my favourite memory of our trip this past weekend:
lattes with baileys

our good friend, ken, took us to this crepe place on capital hill and as we were waiting to order, a server came up to us with (what she thought) were our drinks: a coffee and a latte with baileys. we told her we hadn't ordered anything yet and she went to the next table.

but i had never heard of such a drink combining a latte and a splash of baileys so i ordered one and, OH SWEET HEAVEN, was it delicious.

other highlights were:
> drinking a smooth argentinian malbec at the portland ace hotel's restaurant, clyde common
> popping perfectly spiced and tender calamari at seattle's flying fish
> bringing a forkful of pastrami eggs benny to my lips at kenny & zuke's deli
> stepping into the anthropologie store in portland
> entering (for the first time ever) an apple store

getaway

why limit the celebration of your birthday to just one day when you can stretch it into an entire weekend of fun?

that's the idea behind our trip this weekend to portland and seattle. we'll drive down to portland to catch a twin crystals show friday night then drive to seattle saturday to hang with our good friend, ken. then back home sunday afternoon.

as with any trip, my MAIN CONCERN is what restaurants to visit. a co-worker already has me worked up over crawfish at mccormick and schmicks.

another exciting part of this trip is that we're staying at the ace hotels in portland and seattle. i've already been warned that the pictures on the website are better than the experience.

so there you go. please don't break into our place while we're gone.

bon's

rob and i thought it was a good idea to grab breakfast at the venerable Bon's Off Broadway this past sunday.

it is THE hipster hangout; we're talking current hipsters and hipsters of old. plus people like us who are there for the cheap breakfast special at $2.95!!

wonderful, right? well, there were a few problems:
1/ we arrived at 10am on a sunday and faced a lineup and a noisy restaurant. but the lineup wasn't very long and we got a table within 2 minutes. so we thought that was a good sign.
2/ it wasn't a good sign. we ordered right away and waited 35 minutes before the food arrived.
3/ the food was expectedly greasy and we, perhaps, ate a bit too fast.
4/ 30 seconds after walking out of Bon's, i experienced gastronomic regret as my stomach immediately felt heavy and weighed down.

oh well, i'm sure i'll be back after my restaurant amnesia kicks in after about a year.

the food is SO GREASY my picture is hazy. rob was pleased with himself as he ordered his usual which is: the special (ham, potatoes, poached eggs, english muffin) plus 1 pancake.



we can't always eat at aurora bistro.

aurora bistro

brunch at aurora bistro (main and broadway) is an experience i quite enjoy. there's only really 3 breakfast-type choices which are all prepared delightfully and served on gleaming white rectangular plates.




but then you have the little warm donuts. we're not talking pne-style donuts here. we're talking high-grade ingredients formulated together, deep-fried at the perfect tempurature, then drizzled with sugar.

thanks to bill for suggesting the donuts. or maybe i shouldn't be thanking him for another new addiction.

nice

Heima the documentary about Sigur Rós whom, upon returning to iceland from a world tour in 2006, decide to perform free concerts in various cities in their homeland.

the film settles you into the rhythms of each city/town and heightens your senses to the emotional state of each song.

the cinematography is mind-blowing, the editing fabulous and the music ethereal.

it was so inspirational that we're thinking of borrowing the concept of musicians performing in majestic/tarkovsky-type settings for a web series idea we're working on.


. . .

we also watched Michael Clayton last night and was pretty pleased with this effort although i didn't feel tilda swinton had a meaty enough role to warrant an oscar; her character seemed rather one dimensional, i thought.

what i love about MC was the cinematography (by Robert Elswit who also filmed There Will Be Blood and Magnolia) and a storyline that attempts to do something different with this type of genre (re: any grisham flick). my favourite actor is the kid who plays clooney's son and my favourite scene is the one with the horses.

weak areas in the film include an underdevelopment of all the characters and editing that didn't let you sink into this world.

but overall, a really good film.

the day after

Ladyhawk's second album, Shots, was released yesterday. some notable places where the album (and the film) are mentioned include:

The Province: the cover story for the entertainment section (see picture below)
Pitchfork: under "other news" but, baby it's Pitchfork!

and rob was referred to as a former record exec in Paste Magazine

now we just gotta somehow get the film into a film fest.

a couple of shots

two clips that rob and i uploaded to the interwebs this weekend, just in time for the release of Ladyhawk's album, Shots. btw, these are clips that didn't make it into documentary.



Ladyhawk Shots Promo 1 from Obsolete Films on Vimeo.


Ladyhawk Shots Promo 2 from Obsolete Films on Vimeo.