interesting shit

blah blah blah

by m3ntal

current selection | madeleine ost – track 17 (i cant read korean!)
feelin’ | the munchies

m3ntal note: amino calpis tastes like water! no wonder its not bad for you. grr. also of note, calpis soda is not good for you, but lemon/lime calpis soda is. and they taste the same! go fig. but the lemon/lime calpis is also harder to track down. can’t remember whether i found it at jasmart or sunrise. er. while we’re on the topic of do’s and donts…those gyozas in the fancy colored bags? day-lee i think? they suck…the skin is like pudding and the filling is mediocre. yokohama gyozas (the ones that come in 4 trays of 12) use a better skin, but their fillings bleh! top choice is and always will be yokohama chinatown (which i can only find at m2m). tastes jus like the ones my mom makes! so unless she intends on coming into the city in the near future and making a big batch for me, yokohama chinatown gyoza’s the shiz.

random occurrences
funny how yesterdays topic was how shaolin soccer was being shown in cantonese. upon a friends recommendation, i bought the korean movie il mare yesterday. mmm…ji-hyun jun. im all excited and shit…so after i get back from the gym and take a shower, i cook up some tortellini and pop in the movie. as the movie starts, ji-hyun suddenly starts spouting mandarin! im like, stupid default settings. i go into the audio menu and change the settings. ni hao….di ma lei….ni hao….di ma lei. its only in mandarin and cantonese? argh!! who does that? the least they couldve done was to include the original korean audio! so i spent all day today running from dvd store to dvd store. kims video had the same version that i had…and the 2 stores down in chinatown didnt even have it. grr. so now im jus going to order it over the internet. buggers.

anyhoo…so im back in union square and im about to head over to catch a bus in front of the palladium. as im about to cross 14th, i hear someone holler my name. im like, eh? i turn around and shit, i ran right by grace, my old roma cohort! we’d kept in touch a little after graduation, but we more or less jus lost contact with each other b/c we both sucked like that. we talk as we walk over to virgin, where grace was meeting dre, another cornellian. we talk, trade numbers, and then split. ok…so hopefully this time we’ll actually do the keeping in touch thing.

cin3ma | international

global shaolin update

by m3ntal

wow…apparently miramax does listen to the fans. according to this article at kung fu cinema (no relation to kung fu cult), miramax is scrapping their dub release of shaolin soccer and releasing it (albeit in a limited run) in its original cantonese. coo beans! while i didnt oppose the dub (and stephen chow not only approved, but also helped with the dub) original languages are always preferred over dubs. yay for not dubbing!

now the next step would be for miramax to actually jus grow a spine and do the right thing from the outset without pressure from fans.

science + tech

me wants p2

by m3ntal

current selection | black eyed peas – where is the love
feelin’ | wide awake

look at me…im listening to justin limberlake! woo! so im still scouting could-be bday presents. for some reason im fixated on this bad boy…the kowa td-1.

kowa td-1 3.1 megapixel digital camera with 30x zoom lens
when u absolutely need to get shots (5 blocks away). that, and its jus sleek and all bond-like. wouldnt that look nice in my possession? *cough cough patty*

gaming + toys

me wants

by m3ntal

current selection | caccini’s ave maria
feelin’ | lethargic

*yawn* summer doldrums. august is like that. anyhoo…since my bday is coming, i thought id start m3ntally shopping for happy happy things. today’s featured item is this baby, which has been on my wishlist for nearly 2 years. yea, its a toy…fuck you. toys rock.

bandai 1/144 hguc gp03 dendrobium orchis
the mother of all gundam models, this baby clocks in at over 3 feet long and over $200. woo.

journal

eugene sucks!

by m3ntal

i hate i hate i hate pretentious clubs. fuck…if only arson were legal. or at the least dirty beatdowns. today was sallys bday celebrations at eugene. i had jus gotten back from nj (my sis’ bday lunch)…met up with marisol for an early din at yokochos. afterwards we watched madeleine at my apt…and then met up with liz, dora, and alfred at republic for frozen lychee martinis (not as good as angel’s shares) and then we were off to eugene. while waiting in line for the self-important bouncer to let us in, the guy deciding whos breasts were nice enuf to let in pointed me out and said i was underdressed. this is while other mooks in t’s and sneakers are strolling in. to be honest, i wasnt exactly crying. everybody else headed in while i strolled off. alice rings me up and says i should go home, change, and come back. in any normal situation, i wouldve said bollocks to that. but shit…its a bday celebration. argh! so i taxi it back to alphabet city, change into my “all-black all-dirty looks” outfit, and taxi it back. after being deemed pretentious enuf, im graciously let in by the fucking spank-monkey that i will find the address of and torch his fucking apt. it was fun once inside…we had our own little seating section with the rest of the bday crowd. it was like a cornell asian frat and sororities reunion. super. we stayed til 2ish, and then a few of us left and grabbed snackies at l’express. mmm…french toast. oh btw, eugene sucks. die die die!

archive | favorites, cin3ma | international

global shaolin

by m3ntal

current selection | queen – bohemian rhapsody
feelin’ | toasty

two bdays are coming up this weekend…sallys and my sis’. both are being celebrated on saturday. super. so i went hunting for my sis’ bday present, a shaolin soccer dvd. i stopped by kims video first…but they didnt have it. (i did pick up my friend tutor tho…whups!) so i started treking down towards chinatown. in chinatown i happened to run into liz, dora, anna, and alfred…all waiting around for din. co-eenkeedink. so i join them for din at pho bang after picking the dvd for my sis. it was a dinner gathering of some of the third years that jus graduated (ok, theyre not third years anymore, but in my mind theyre frozen at the year they were in when i graduated). a few of them jus got jobs, while the rest are jus starting their job hunt. so congrats to them. afterwards we walked northwards toward union sq. after grabbing some bubble tea at st. alps me, anna, and dora lounged around in union sq park talking and people watching. very relaxing. afterwards i went home and popped in my tutor friend.

ok, while we’re on the topic of asian cinema…ive been having some discussions of late with a friend about the merits of bringing over a movie like shaolin soccer and dubbing it. we’re both big asian cinema fans…and while i generally watch asian cinema and anime with subtitles, i dont necessarily mind dubs. my friends opinion is that dubbing is archaic, and that it denigrates the original film. on this regard, i feel that its a give and take. dubbing or retaining the original dialogue is dependent on the context of the film. crouching tiger was released with subtitles, and hopefully hero will be too. so what makes them bring over shaolin with dubs? my thought was that while cthd and hero are art-house movies (with the chinese dialogue lending itself to the feel of the movie), shaolin as a comedy has more mass appeal, and as such would be marketed towards as broad a market as possible. which i think would in turn bring more attention to asian cinema. considering that all 3 of these movies dealt with martial arts (which you could say is a narrow cross-section of what asia cinema has to offer) its still pretty premature to say that asian cinemas becoming mainstream here.

in a prior entry i also mentioned roy lee and his industry of marketing asian movies to hollywood for remakes. my friend didnt particularly like remakes, and i would probably share the same thoughts. while i liked the ring alot, and i think it did alot to expose the original to the u.s., i wouldve liked the original ringu to do what it took the remake to do. theres alot of ridiculously good cinema coming out of japan, south korea, and hk. and itd be great if they received more attention in the united states, rather than their (eventual) americanized counterparts. nanako matsushima instead of naomi watts, eun-kyung shin instead of queen latifah, and ji-hyun jun instead of whatever girl takes her place (she’d better be super-cute at least!)

in the meantime, i’ll still go see the dubbed shaolin when it comes out, even tho i have the dvd already. so that hopefully it’ll kick alot of um…grass and they’ll bring over more asian cinema intact.

journal

you’ve got mail

by m3ntal

current selection | bjork – bachelorette
feelin’ | like a monday

mmm….sleepy. super. met up with dora and anna last nite. din was pushed back to dessert since their moving stuff around took longer than originally planned. so we met up in the upper west side at cafe lalo. it was apparently featured in this kaiju movie called you’ve got mail, featuring tom hanks as gojira and meg ryan as mothra. we got drinks and a cheesecake with berries and an amaretto tiramisu to share. yummy. i also ordered apple kristal (juice) which tasted jus like apple sidra! except it was swedish…but i wont hold that against them.

things to do for this week…
01. find sally a bday present
02. pick up shaolin soccer (or an equally good asian movie) for my sis’ bday
03. do laundry

journal

we’re from idaho

by m3ntal

current selection | l’arc~en~ciel – pieces
feelin’ | tuckered out

mmm…chow keuh teow. i luv leftovers. if only all weekends could be like this…woo. half the things on the agenda kinda happened, kinda didnt. i got out of the apt around 2pm…headed to macy’s and picked up a nice soft blanket from the “h” line. walked around some more and hung around union sq, since i hadnt had one of my “marinating in union sq” sessions since i moved. got back to my apt and msg’d jane for a while. i met up with her and her b/f john in williamsburg to eat at sea. i normally stay away from williamsburg…or brooklyn in general since working in brooklyn 5 days a week is enough for me….but sea was very coo. immaculate interior (apparently the same owners as spice in e.village), and our food came in like 2 minutes! jane says thats not normal. i want that buddha. we split up afterwards…i headed back into manhattan and doted around my apt. i then headed to chinatown to check out the mini-gr party at void. lemme jus say that knowing nobody at a party sucks. i kno…ur supposed to be all social and shit and talk to ppl. whatever, u go and try it. after about an hour and 2 gimlets (the second one was vicious!) i left and walked back up to union sq. to wait for jane since she was crashing at my apt. we meet up around 3am and head down to st. marks for late-nite munchies (again…yay!). we headed to yakitori taisho (3 times in 2 weeks…go me) and ordered 5 assorted yakitoris and ika-yaki. we finally head back to my apt around 4am and start watching my sassy girl. things get blurry and trail off around 5 in the morning. oochies.

10:30 sunday morning…we get up and restart the movie. woo. we make it out of the apt by 1:30 and head down to chinatown for brunch at the singapore cafe. we decided sometime between the roti canai and the chow keuh teow that we were going to go on one of those bus tours of nyc on a double-decker. so after brunch we head up to midtown and got on gray line’s “downtown loop” tour that snaked from port authority up to columbus circle, down the west side all the way to battery park, and back up the east side. very coo. we were ducking low traffic lights left and right while munching on snacks from aji ichiban. yum. afterwards we went starbucking and then walked over to grand central. we’re trying out the uptown loop next time janes in town. central park…woo!

journal

holy crepe

by m3ntal

current selection | si*se – bizcocho amargo
feelin’ | the opposite of sleepy

mmm….sleeping without an alarm. i luv weekends. so our plans last nite got adjusted a little. we ended up not going to the d+b party. well, actually…we did. but it hadnt started yet…they were late setting up or something. *shrug* me, pho, and pho’s friend peter didnt feel like doting around outside, so we made the decision to head to the les for drinkies. we head to swim since peter hadnt eaten din yet…and oh yea, i wanted sushi. first round consisted of 2 rolls of spicy yellowtail with tempura flakes, a cosmo, a gimlet, and a 007. second round of 2 gimlets and another cosmo. third round of another roll of spicy yellowtail, a vodka tonic, and um…other hazy details. least to say, the waitress was luvin’ us. pho was pounding down the drinks and makin’ me proud. or making me look bad. whichever…s’all good. we left around 3am and headed over to the creperie for late-nite/early-morning munchies. mmm…crepe.

on todays agenda…go to macy’s and look for a nice new blanket (comforter’s killing me), finish rosen’s stories, tentative din with jane, and gr mini-party….