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Are you tone-deaf? You can take a test and find out here.
I scored high (91.7, if I remember correctly) (see scores from other composers at the Northern Sound Source forum), and it makes sense since I’m a musician/composer. If the test had allowed replay of each segment during the test, I’d likely have scored 100%, since concentration is probably the hardest part of the test (the segments can be very long and at a fast tempo). Elena scored very low (I’m not even going to say what the number was), and even upon replaying the failed questions at the very end, she still can’t tell whether a segment had the same or different notes. I can’t even imagine how low my mom or my brother Dennis would score, since Elena can at least hum in tune, while mom and Dennis can’t do it to save their lives.
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Posted some recent family/friend photos. Yeah, these are boring to the people who don’t know anyone in your life, so if you don’t know the people in my life, skip them and move down to the next section.
My bud Emory’s B-day photos, taken at Gulliver’s in Burlingame, CA.
My brother Dennis had his first kid a couple months ago.
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When people think about California, they think about the sunshine and the beaches, but as Elena discovered in the last several days, the autumn leaves are quite beautiful as well. For a few days last week, we’d go for a drive around 4 PM and then snap a ton of photos of all the nearby autumn colors. Why 4 PM you ask? Well, any photographer worth his salt knows that late afternoons and early mornings are two of the best time slots for shooting scenery, since the sun creates a dramatic golden glow at a very distinct angle for beautiful shadows and sunlit spots. Click on the picture to see the whole set:
These autumn leaves inspired Elena to start a blog of her own. Unfortunately, it’s in Chinese only.
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Some mini-film reviews from recent viewings:
l’enfant (The Child) – This film is so similar in tone to Rosetta, a previous film that Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne worked on, that I can’t help but feel like they are retreading familiar waters. The moral of the story is quite similar (misfit committing a bad deed, but don’t feel remorse until the very end of the film–it’s all very existentialist a la Crime and Punishment, and frankly, a bit simple for today’s cinematic climate). The film itself isn’t bad at all, but having seen Rosetta years ago, this one just feels too similar.
Millennium Actress – I enjoyed this Japanese animated feature film, although it didn’t blow me away or anything. Breaking down the 4th wall in a film is usually interesting by default because you don’t see it often, and in the case of Millennium Actress, it’s done with a sense of humor, so the feat was both interesting and funny. The message of the film I can relate to (the journey is more rewarding than the destination), since I often feel that way when I’m doing something creative or simply out and about.
Tokyo Godfathers – Another animated feature film from Japan, and it was entertaining and heart-warming, but like the previous film, didn’t blow me away (then again, to be fair, it’s been a long time since I’ve been blown away by any Japanese animation. The last title I loved probably goes all the way back to Cowboy Bebop). The ridiculous number of coincidences in this film is something you have to just accept as a storytelling device that drives the plot, and if you can’t accept it, then you probably won’t enjoy the film.
Thank You For Smoking – Entertaining enough, but lacking the kind of impact I expect from these types of films. Even for a social satire, I expect some kind of emotional or moral resonance, but I never felt the main character was faced with any relevant conflict that would create enough tension for the film to make an impact.
The New World – This is probably highly subjective, but I think Terrence Malick is one of the most pretentious directors in film today, and all the monologues narrated by his characters feel heavy handed, contrived, bland, and annoyingly enigmatic. If he just cut back on all the pretentious narrations, he’d improve his films by ten folds immediately.
The Interpreter – The plot wasn’t anything I’d write home to anyone about, but Sydney Pollack is a good director, and the execution of the film is technically well done. This might sound a bit shallow, but I think the thing I enjoyed the most about the film is probably how beautiful Nicole Kidman looked in it. Although Kidman is the kind of woman that leaves me cold, it’s hard to deny that she’s a stunning beauty physically.
Heartbreakers – I love Sigourney Weaver as an actress, but I think in this role, it’s stretching it a bit. They should’ve gone with someone who’s physically more of a conventional beauty (not that Weaver is hard on the eyes–it’s just hard to sell her as some stunning middle-aged femme fatale). Acting-wise, there’s nothing to complaint about though–I think Weaver is an underrated comedy actor (she’s more than proved herself in Galaxy Quest). Why have I not mentioned Jennifer Love Hewitt? Well, what else can you say about her besides her being a tight little package? She’s never proven herself as a noteworthy actress, and all the roles she played have more to do with her cleavage (not that I’m complaining) than anything else. I always enjoy seeing Ray Liotta on screen, although I think it’s too bad he’s been typecasted ever since Goodfellas.
Last Days – I usually like Gus Van Sant, even when he’s going way out there doing his artsy thing (for example, I liked Elephant), but this one just didn’t work for me. It takes a very similar approach to Elephant, but lacks the genuine sincerity that I feel Elephant has. It’s also a far less coherent film compared to Elephant.
The 6th Day – Some of the film critics I respect gave this film a positive review, so I went for it. I couldn’t believe just how lame some of the dialogues were (for example, the one about the media don’t need more depictions of violence). For me, Arnie has lost all credibility as an actor (not that he was a real “actor” in the first place, and I bet that lame dialogue was his idea), and I guess it’s a good thing he picked up politics instead.
Gotti – Good story (this is the real life story that Goodfellas was based on), but I thought the directing was very vanilla. If this film had been directed by one of the more stylish auteur directors, it would’ve been a much better film.
The Fog (remake) – I only watched it for Maggie Grace, because I think she was really cute in Lost (despite the character’s outward prima donna personality), and I couldn’t even make it through the first third of the film. This is probably one of the worst films I’ve seen in a long time–horrible directing and writing–not in an incompetent way, but in an utterly ineffective and bland way.
Blonde (TV mini-series) – I don’t now just how much artistic license they took with the life of Marilyn Monroe, but the series was average. I think they way they glossed over the whole JFK connection was a cop out–I rather they’d have gone off the deep end Oliver Stone style and just boldly said “Yeah, this is what we think happened–that Monroe was murdered by the government, instead of hinting at it. Face it, if it wasn’t for her mysterious death, Marilyn Monroe probably would’ve been forgotten long ago.
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I had posted the first English panel that Olivia had at the PMX before, and I was already very giddy about that. Now, someone has posted the private press conference as well, and it’s got much better video and sound. I find it a little odd that Olivia’s not very articulate, and I don’t think shyness has anything to do with it. She seems to be a lot more articulate with her song lyrics, which I’m sure is how she prefers to express herself.
Olivia private press conference at PMX:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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Now I’ll leave you with a little raunchy joke–something that happened today.
Elena gave me a vitamin B pill and told me to swallow it for the sake of combating stress (we’ve both been very stressed out lately). I asked her, “For combating stress, is it a specific type of vitamin B–like B12, B6, or as long as it’s a B, it’ll work?” Elena then proceeds to read off all the types of B complex that the bottle contained. When she was finished, I asked, “Does is also contain your mama’s B?” She just about died. (The joke is that in Chinese slang, B stands for vagina, and one of the most common swearing phrases that people throw around is “Your mama’s B!”)
