Driving Range Connections [Golf]

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What do you do when you're picking up someone at the airport and at the last minute, their flight gets delayed?

Well make sure to pack an club or two and drop by the Burlingame Golf Center. It's a lot better than cruising the airport or baking in the cellphone lot. Burlingame golf center is only 5 minutes away from the airport and worth checking out.

Be careful when looking for the place. The turn into the parking lot is right next to the 101 on ramp. I almost made an unnecessary loop the first time I went. On the flip side, it's great, because its insanely easy to get back onto the freeway for your airport pickup!

I dropped by the other day on a lark; I think I'll be going "early" from now on when I have to pick up somebody at the airport!

Burlingame Golf Center
250 Anza Blvd
Burlingame, CA 94010
(650) 548-2447

[Movie Reviews]

Movie Reviews:
Son of Rambow: [4 of 5]

boys watch rambo film

make believe epic movie

boys find family

Planet B-Boy: [3.5 of 5]

break dancing indie

kinetic, motion, street art

doc, great story arc

Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: [3 of 5]

old Indy, back again

same bits, even a son!

but somehow, bit stale

I was really looking forward to this film. Having grown up with the films in this franchise, I expected the action from my younger days. To be fair, I think it's a straight-line production of the traditional Indie series. But in the modern context, it lacks the kinetic energy as the series did before. I gave it a rating for ole time's sake.

Unfulfilled Darkness After... [After Dark book review]

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

My Haiku of the book:

one lone Tokyo night

lives tied together by chance

stock murakami

I'm still on the fence on this one. I first found Murakami in 1999 when I picked up a copy of an elephant vanishes while teaching English in Taiwan.

His books tend to explore the same themes, such as: loneliness, how random threads are tied together, and what lurks metaphysical darkness lurks behind reality.

After Dark is written like a neo-noir film, taking place in diners, love hotels, and empty convenience stores. The book takes place over seven hours of a Tokyo night. The chapters track the passing of time as we are are voyeurs in three stories strung together by bizarre coincidences.

As Michael Dirda describes:

At times, the novel recalls those unsettling films of Jean-Luc Godard or Michelangelo Antonioni where something dire seems always about to happen, even as attractive young people, full of anomie and confusion, meander aimlessly through an ominous urban landscape.

Murakami's literary spiderwebs remind us that, though we may not be aware of it, something profoundly disturbing sits behind the mask of reality, that we are being stalked from its other side and that we are connected to our past the same way the ground under our feet is connected to the depths of the earth, through wells and tunnels.

Overall, for someone who has read most of Murakami's work, I wasn't particularly thrilled. I have already read mirror images of the content in his other work. However, I've always enjoyed reading his books again and usually find more meaning from a second read. For the time being, I'll have to give After Dark and average rating.

Rating: (2.4/5)

Haiku (俳句) [Haiku Reviews]

I was rereading a lot of my reviews and realized that I'm one wordy kid. While I am moved to write about a book or a movie, I want to find a succinct way of getting my way across. I've settled on writing a Haiku (俳句).

According to Wikipedia, Haiku is:

a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 Japanese on (a phonetic unit identical to the mora), in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively, and typically containing a kigo, or seasonal reference. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines, to equate to the Japanese haiku's three metrical phrases.

I was telling K, yesterday, about this great new idea. However, after a quick search, the law of the Internets prevailed. The one that says that any idea that you may have is already in the Internets. You can find how unoriginal my idea is here, here, and here.

A Slum O'Kay Rags to Raj-ah Tale [Slumdog Millionaire Review]

There's been a lot of buzz about the film. However, this is no typically bollywood film. Slumdog is a heart-warming crossover directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and the underrated Sunshine).

Typical bollywood films have the following characteristics and themes:

• Love and betrayal (on a scale of 1 to 10 in melodrama, they're typically as high as south korean soaps
• Exploration of family dynamics
  
• And always always always... a dance sequence

To be honest, I liked the film, but didn't love the film. You can see Danny's hand through the entire film. Maybe I walked in with expectations too high, but I found the film a little predictable.

However, maybe the best films are predictable. K loves watching Love Actually around this time of year. There is something clever about how the film is constructed and warm about how the main character's (Jamal) journey to be with his destined that will make this a repeat film watched on a movie night between a couple.

[3 of 5]

I want to try something new, i wrote a haiku for the movie:

boyle in bollywood

boy seeks girl melodrama

rags to raj-ah tale

No country for old men

I finally got to see No Country for Old Men this past weekend. After all the hype from my friends, I trudged up to the Landmark Century Centre Cinema. After wading through the insane crowds (it was Juno's opening weekend), I was pleasantly surprised that the small theater was completely packed.

The Coen brothers have created another hit. Set in the Lone Star state, the nihilistic thriller is about the a cascade of events that is often beyond our control. Inertia builds as Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds money from a drug deal gone wrong. As Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a sociopath killer with a beatles haircut tracks down Llewelyn, the local sheriff, played by Tommy Lee Jones attempts to catch up with the two in the hopes of preventing the inevitable. As the story unfolds, you're pulled into a round-robin cat-and-mouse chase.

As it relates with faith, each assumes a different perspective: Llewelyn tries to change his, Anton believes that he is just a messenger of it, and Ed Tom Bell (Mr. Jones) attempts to catch-up with it.

As the supporting cast meet their untimely demise at the hands of Chigur, they all plead, "You don't have to do this." As they attempt to change fate, Chigur represents the heavy hand of the tide that can't be changed.

Rating: (4.5/5)