The Girl in the Cafe

It is an HBO feature that will be shown again in Thursday March 30th at 22:30 on HBO2. Set you Tivo if you haven't seen it. The screenplay was from Richard Curtis, who also has Love actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, the two Bridget Jones, and Notting Hills under his belt.

Not so much a love story, but it is a good story about how you can be the person you always wanted to be: start doing whatever you got to do for that NOW.

Some quote:

Lawrence: We get into the habit of compromising and therefore we are always compromised.

Gina: I do now know four things about Reykjavik - Bjork comes from here...
Lawrence: Spassky played Fisher here...
Gina: Zips shrink here and it is possible in Reykjavik to have a night of something quite close to love.

What's the difference between pretty and beautiful?
It's about bone structure. Pretty is for young and beautiful is for for ever.


In the end of the movie, it quoted Nelson Mandela on world poverty:
"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation."
Nelson Mandela, 2005

One last thing, the music is awesome.

Pride and Prejudice

I have to confess that I never read the book, though know the story quite well through many movies, mini-series, etc.

The new movie adaptation of Jane Austen's most famous work is by far the best to me. Mostly thank to the beautiful Keira Knightley, who now established herself as a true actress with an Oscar nomination for this role.

Back from China

The 13 hour direct flight did made a difference from what was a 20-hours long trip. Again, Continental's new 777-200ER jet is also great. Although you can't check-in online at Beijing, the advance seat selection is a real plus. Besides, I've got two big boxes that need to be checked-in anyway, it Didn't bother me much.

Google Mars

What's next? maps.google.mars?

Watching the Oscars from China

It's amazing that I watched part of the show from a LCD TV on a Metro transit bus this morning in Beijing.

The best surprise is Crash won the best picture. Although it's my favorite, I didn't realize the Academy sit on the same side. See the stories from the Times and the Guardian.

The other not-so-surprised results are:
Best Documentary: Match of the Penguins
Best Leading Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Best Director: Ang Lee

For that,

Thank you, the Academy.

Jon Stewart put up a decent act to host the show. He is no Billy Crystal, but he sure matches what Steve Martin did a few years ago.

Here's some of this memorable one-liners quoted from Newsday.

On "Capote": "The movie that showed the world that not all gay people are virile cowboys; some are actually effete New York intellectuals."

On presenters: "Bjork couldn't be here tonight. ... She was trying on her Oscar dress and Dick Cheney shot her."

On "Walk the Line": "'Ray' with white people."

On "Crash": "Raise your hand if you are not in Crash", refering to the 100 or so LA actors in the movie.