Once upon a time, Wayne and I had a learning-experience with Isaac Stern. We learned......absolutely nothing. The following quote is from Wayne's website:

"...There was the Heifetz period, when I used a lot of fast vibrato and fast tempi; the Oistrakh period, when I tried wide vibrato and sensuous rich tone, and the Stern period -- when I didn't vibrate for a whole year."

- Itzhak Perlman

I am disgruntled, no longer naive, exhausted by bureaucracy, politically jaded, burned by faith.

From the little remaining respect I had of authority, I have smashed it to the ground.

Some people will stick their neck out for you. Others will assfuck you. I am mature; grown - I have developed the ability to recognize bureaucratic evil.

I am sick of learning the hard way.

Goodbye.

Test: In which movies do the following characters appear?

A) John Kimball
B) Dr. Venckman
C) Leeloo Multipass
D) Stanley Goodspeed
E) Johnny Tran
F) Sean Archer
G) Sarah Conner
H) Uncle Benny (multiple answers)
I) Erik Lehnsherr
J) Li Mu Bai
K) Tequila Yuen
L) Marcellus Wallace

If you get 100% on this test without using extra sources, you have my ultimate respect. I only know two people in the world who can do it easily: Stanley Lee and Peter Bergman. Take a shot at it.

Promises that I make to my mother:

Cjambalos: mozart will be good-but if u hate the teacher-u willl be fucked
Cjambalos: will u promise to do it and get an A- regardless
Cjambalos: even if the professor sucks or an asshole
car LOCO 69: yeah i will
Cjambalos: u promise to lick his ass-just to get A-
car LOCO 69: yeah
Cjambalos: u promise to lick his ass-just to get A?
car LOCO 69: yes already i said

Screenname withheld:

[a-friend-of-mine]: man i had the craziest dream that i got it on with some playboy playmate.
[a-friend-of-mine]: i was SO PISSED when i woke up.
car LOCO 69: HAHAHAHhahahhaHAHah
[a-friend-of-mine]: she was so damn hot.
[a-friend-of-mine]: anyways.
[a-friend-of-mine]: all day i wished i was back in teh dream.
car LOCO 69: damn do you purposely try and get onto my blog
[a-friend-of-mine]: huh.
[a-friend-of-mine]: fuck dude.
[a-friend-of-mine]: dont post that!

Movie reviews continued: Immortal Beloved

It's difficult to judge a film that creates inspiring emotional impact through the vehicle of historical deceit and falsification, though it brings up two major issues: the latter may carry more importance, but the former is essentially more critical.

In Immortal Beloved, I choose the former. May historical integrity fly out the window; who cares?

In effect, the premise of Immortal Beloved is based on documental fact - the Heiligenstadt Testament as the first will, the Immortal Beloved letter as the last, the custody battle for Beethoven's nephew, the Napolean crisis surrounding the composition of the Eroica, Schindler's ridiculous quest for the sole heir, etc. The interpretation of the documents, however, are nothing short of blasphemy; it throws in the face all the common sensical extrapolations regarding the Immortal Beloved, and barely addresses Antonia Brentano, who has come to be regarded (after Solomon's exhaustive research) as the rightful dedicatee. Everybody knows that Johanna von Beethoven and Beethoven were long-standing enemies, proven blatantly by the custody battles for her son, and though Schindler proposed (ridiculously) that Giulietta Gucciardi probably stood the best chance, she married even before the Heiligenstadt Testament was written, and what's more, the film inaccurately claims that Schindler disregarded her completely.

But then again, who cares?

The film is well done; emotionally powerful, musically brilliant, incredibly acted (did anybody notice that the guy who plays Schindler is the same guy that plays the bad-guy Doctor in The Fugitive?), and definitely serves as the paradigmatic example for a movie set to music. All the most brilliant works are included, and in the most appropriate setting: the slow movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Fur Elise, the Moonlight Sonata (as the cause of his breakup with Giuletta Gucciardi), the 9th Symphony (obviously the climax of the film), the Kreutzer Sonata, the Pathetique, the Eroica, and of course (on his deathbed no less) the Cavatina from his Op. 130 String Quartet.

If anything, the film showed the most important aspect about Beethoven: the ethos, blinded to the public by his temperament. Here we see Beethoven (Gary Oldman), hated by all his loved ones, living in a world of complete silence, alienated from public consumption, plauged by memories, solitarily writing for the greatness of humanity. We see that beyond his temperament and his collosal ego, Beethoven genuinely selflessly strove for humanitarian redemption. And the music they chose shows it.

Contrary to popular opinion, this is not a bad movie. It may be grossly incorrect, but it's not a bad movie.

The following is an excerpt of the Solomon translation of the third Immortal Beloved letter. It is the heart of the Romantic era - a look into the creation of pathos, single-handedly developed by the most influential composer in music history.

"Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits. Be calm, only by a clam consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell.

Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

Ever mine.
Ever thine.
Ever ours."

You know you're at a San Gabriel restauarant when: you walk into the maggot-infested, shit-covered bathroom to find a slightly-less-than-innocent Asian gangster taking a piss with his hand resting on the hilt of his silver 9mm gun, a not-so-paranoid precaution in the event of an attempted wacking.

The city of angels, the street's my companion. Take me to the place I love, take me all the way. (Five dollar reference)

Movie Reviews continued: 25th Hour

This was by far, the most introspectively done masterpiece of the year; a subtle elegiac ode to a post-9/11 New York through the vehicle of a simpleton story. It requires no plot (it doesn't have one), no melodramatic sentiment, and no victim tears. Spike Lee delivers in one of his only non-African-American set films, his tribute and contribution to the already-piling-up art works dedicated to the memory of New York. 25th Hour is Spike Lee's cinematic version of John Adams' "On The Transmigration of Souls".

Literal parellels to 9/11 are present, but not omni-present, and more importantly, they are important, but not omni-potent - and that's where Spike Lee makes his bridge from cliche-film to contemporary-America's new-age "Cannery Row." The 9/11 tributes function as a dedicatee basis, the images of its devastation a pervading constant through the film, and ultimately always an appropriate aura for the meat-message of the movie: re-evaluation.

I was especially hit by Edward Norton's "fuck you" schizo-dialogue to the diversity of New York, which is always a Spike Lee staple, and always powerful. This is a must-see.

For the nerdy-musician out there:

Josef Suk, Yo-Yo Ma, and James Dick used to be in a Piano Trio together. They were known as the Suk-Ma-Dick trio.

Health advice from my mother, the nurse:

Cjambalos: i guess-just drink lots of water
Cjambalos: also good to weigh yourself when u havent eaten and u drop a big bomb in the plumbing

Short Movie Reviews: The Pianist and Spike Lee's He Got Game

The Pianist: The most optimistic of the Polanski films, yet still deathly dark and disturbing - I enjoyed the themes of crossing German help in Jewish concentration camps witih Jewish help in German prisoner of war camps, though it still ended up comming across as a typical World War II and Holocaust film, which I hoped it wouldn't be. Some of his musical choices seemed contradictory to his thematics: at the climax of the film, the Polish man is seens playing Chopin (a Polish composer) and the German Nazi playing Beethoven (a German composer), though with his central theme of music as an elevation past humanity, it would make more sense for those two to switch composers.

He Got Game: This film is living proof that even the most horribly acted film can still have meaning - why Spike Lee chose Ray Allen to play the lead role of Jesus Shuttlesworth, we will never know. Ray Allen acts like a zoo-gorilla on steroids. I did enjoy Spike Lee's overall choice of laying the entire Coney Island basketballs scenes to the music of Aaron Copland, but I don't really understand the point - does the music of Copland (a dead white man) somehow epitomize the working class ghetto of aspiring hoop dreams in Coney Island? Or is it just Spike Lee trying to be pseudo-intellectual and originalesque by being the first director to NOT lay a basketball movie in 100% hip hop?

Musical Shoutout for today: This goes to my homeboy, John Craske, who spent a considerable amount of time creating and recording (over his own voice) his own version of Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River" - by Johnstin Craskerlake. It's hilarious and well done, so IM me if you want it.

hahAha. Convos with Justin.

car LOCO 69: ammunition with biblebeater chicks is so different
car LOCO 69: you gotta bust out weird ass lines
chink15: "nice bible!"
car LOCO 69: "you know, i'm homeboys with jesus"

I have been getting strange compliments lately.

quepenl: so i told him how PSATs are such a big deal at gunn
quepenl: and how palo alto ppl are just nutsos when it comes to SATs
car LOCO 69: yeah
quepenl: so he asked me my score, and i told him, then he got all scared and thought he was super stupid or something so i told him that it doesn't mean you're smart - and i used you as an example
quepenl: LOL
quepenl: what!!!!
quepenl: i mean
quepenl: you're no genius!
quepenl: but you got 800

I was greeted by the surprise of good news and bad news this morning.

The good news: My car had been transformed into a pseudo-convertible! Finally, my dreams come true. I have a convertible - the plush fresh air and wind shall finally blow in my face as I drive.

The bad news: This was the result of some punk-ass little bitch bashing the back window of my car to pieces.

Fuck this shit. Charcoalj, as you all know, is my mom.

charcoalj: carlos-get over this age business
charcoalj: old people fall in love and they still have sex
charcoalj: i know that from being a niurse
charcoalj: i have men in their 70's getting penile implants
car LOCO 69: ewww
car LOCO 69: i don't wanna hear that shit

The Return of the Drungken Munkee.

On "28 Days Later"
car LOCO 69: the only scene i thought was pointless was the very beginning scene
car LOCO 69: the monkey scene
car LOCO 69: that scene didn't neeed to be in the movie
drungken munk ee: hey, monkeys should be in every movie, alright?
drungken munk ee: shut the fuck up.

On "Terminator 3"
car LOCO 69: but actually, aside from arnie, Claire Danes was the most powerful actor in the film
drungken munk ee: truly.
drungken munk ee: i don't know... i was very moved by kristianna.
drungken munk ee: moved in my pants.

On Romance
car LOCO 69: plus the only time i saw you last time was once when you grabbed my ass and then bounced into the darkness
car LOCO 69: i ican't stand being used like that
drungken munk ee: you gaymunk!
car LOCO 69: you can't just mess with someone's heart like that
drungken munk ee: yeah, i've been told i'm quite a tease.

Movie Reviews continued: Ronin

Even though Matrix Reloaded is getting the hype for the most insane car chase ever, it's interesting to see where the influence comes from - surely there is a 'pioneer' or a 'revolutionary' in every aspect of cinema, and for car chases, it's Ronin. Hands down. No movie before it or after it ever captured the finesse of an Audi S8 and a BMW M5 speeding down Parisian highways on the opposite lane, with the camera zoom on the shifts and drifts. Rekhanize!

Also, I always thought that scene where Deniro performs surgery on himself without drugs is just another scene to exemplify his own self-badassness, but I figure now that it's actually a Japanese Samurai reference to the Ronin who disembowled themselves in an honorable form of suicide by plunging the sword into the exact same spot Deniro plunges the surgery-scalpel. And he's a badass.

Jean Reno will never be able to rid himself of the type-cast he has molded - forever an assassin.

What a badass movie.

I think I understand the ending to T3 a little better now.

Contrary to my last opinion of the T3-ending, I think it was actually done in the James Cameron-school of thought, though it might have resembled Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes a little too heaviliy (complete with the President of the United States emblem and everything). The overall moral of the Terminator movies rests in the anti-technology thought that machines will inevitably take over - thus, if the TX was destroyed and judgement day was stopped, it would have been retarded in a way; it gives an infinite plot-hole to continue the transport of terminators back to kill John Connor indefinitely.

This ending works better I guess, after I thought about it a little more. It ends pessimistically, with the world destroying itself, a victim of the machines it creates - hence, the moral of the film socialistically represents the old-school moral of the original Planet of the Apes: humans will fight each other until they destroy themselves. And it actually happens!

I know y'all probably think I'm analyzing Terminator too heavily, but James Cameron isn't a brainless director. His socialist thoughts permeate every film he makes, including Titanic, and Terminator is the archetype of his method of living out the hypothetical through the fantasy of cinema. At heart, Cameron is a pessimist, a cynic of capitalist technology that he uses Arnie to eradicate.

Goodnight.

Contrary to the popular notion that diversity remains a prevalant attraction at UC Berkeley, there really are only a few types of males.

The AZN - of Asian decent, boasts a 'fade', knows the locations of every non-carding underground Korean bar/club in a 30 mile radius, may or may not be a frat boy, is usually from Socal, frequent employs AZN-nomenclature and vernacular ("dawg" "fool"), sOmEtImEs tYpEs LiKe dIS, brain usually infected with Hite and Soju, frequently complains about the status of norcal chicks, knows who Tai Mai Shu is and can usually finish the following song lyric: "It's the A-Z-N, nigga, fuck ________"

The BibleBeater - also of Asian decent, also usually boasts a 'fade' though a more conservative one, is a member of a complicated acronym that means nothing to the normal man (EBC, KCPC, ABCDEF), contains scriptures of odes to Him in AIM profile, knows what 'small group' is, boasts humility and servitude (though usually in a money-making major like business)

The White Boy - wears bug-eyed sunglasses, thinks every asian girl that resembles non-wookie form is a 'babe, dude', frequently in a major you've never heard of, drinks beer....lots of it

The Sikhs - (did I spell that right) obviously turban-wearing hipsters, extroverted but ugly, usually racially-monogamous and exclusive

The Stoners - uh smokes lots of weeeeed, duuuuuuuude, can be of any ethnicity

The Black Guy - usually very stylish though attempts to still speak 'from the ghetto', surrounded by other well-dressed black men, sometimes but not always an athelete, hung long (ok I made that one up)

Movie Reviews, continued: 28 Days Later.

If anything, this movie gives new profound meaning to the insulting cliche: "I wouldn't have sex with you if you were the last woman on Earth!" They've used it many times before (see Dogma), but never as powerful as in this movie.

Aside from the vomit-stricken diseased zombies, the trademark dead baby (Danny Boyle really likes using that baby corpse - in fact, I think it was the same infantile corpse used in Trainspotting), and the pedophile gang rape, there was only one truly unrealistic point about this film.

She's the last woman left in the world, it's just you and her and vast emptiness, and she's HOT. No no no no. She's not hot. She's a BABE. Horror film? It sounds more like the premise for a high-school porno fantasy. (We all remember that designation in the High School year book polls: "Person with whom you'd most like to be stuck on a deserted island.")

That said, this movie was shit-in-your-pants scary. I recommend seeing it with a chick who will grab onto your arm when she freaks out. It combines multiple premises from different movies to formulate the disturbance of hell. So for the avid movie-goers, let's examine the influences. It starts with "Outbreak" (remember those diseased monkeys?), it moves on to "From Dusk Til Dawn" (hilarious movie), and ends with the most striking resemblence to "Apocolypse Now."

I actually liked the Vietnam parallels - to me, it showed human nature at it's most primordially disturbed. And it was scary as shit. Anyway...enough! Before I give away the whole film. Suffice it to say that Alex and I had to hold each other for comfort during the movie.

Go away.

First and foremost, I wanna give a birthday shoutout to one of my oldest and faithful homeboys, Jaakko Alajoki. Happy 22nd, dawg.

Next: Memory Test. Can you remember what you have done for the last 7 4th of Julys? IM me.

2003: Los Angeles, CA. Tonight we celebrated in the traditional fashion, with twenty dollar Hite, NRB Karaoke, and Marlboro Lights at K-Town. Thanks Norling for the BBQ. Alex/Grace/Norling/Peter/Flora.

2002: Santa Barbara, CA. Celebrated by watching fireworks on the Santa Barbara beaches, with a King Cobra 40 and the incredible view of amazingly hot almost-naked white chicks. Moni/Sean/Jia/etc.

2001: Banff, Canada. The solitary trio - Alex/Jim/me, on the docks of a romantic lake in Canada.

2000: Berkeley, CA. The Berkeley Marina, watching fireworks with Stan/JM/Alex/etc.

1999: Palo Alto, CA. Evening with Katie, watching fireworks and renting a movie.

1998: Aspen, CO: Spent the evening with Grace, expensive dinner at the base of Mount Aspen finishing with a concert of Mahler's Fifth Symphony.

1997: Lenox, MA: Tanglewood all-Tchaikovsky concert, spent on the grass of Koussevitzky Hall, beers, cigars, and the works.

What about you?

Movie reviews continued. Terminator 3. For a more in depth review (not to mention more qualified), please check Stan's blog at http://leemur.blogspot.com.

I don't really wanna talk too much on the details of the film, cuz Stan did that already and I agree with everything he said.

To the point: all in all, I came out of the movie theatre satisfied, though maybe a bit saturated with a high-concentration of explosive razzle dazzle (but hey, it's the 4th of July). As a strict summer action movie, this one goes at the top of my list, tying closely with Matrix Reloaded, and with X2 coming in a very distinct second. The eye candy was enormous, and if you think I'm talking about Kristanna Loken, I'm not. Anybody who knows me well enough should know that I, like any other Terminator fan, came to see the real live pectoral gigantasor affectionately known as "Arnie".

The detail flaws of Terminator make it a very sub-par Terminator film, which is a holy legacy-esque entity that ideally shouldn't be touched unless it can emulate the perfection in the archetype: T2. Well, it didn't; in fact, it didn't even come close. For a large part of the film, I put serious question into whether or not Jonathan Mostow had even seen the other two Terminator films - the same question I had about Francis Ford Coppola when he decided to do the terrible Godfather 3 (that was a little worse, considering Coppola had done the other two as well).

So, I don't want to echo what Stan said, and other than his complaints, I only really have one more.

The ideology behind the Terminator premise rests in a certain space-time continuum that more or less coins it's catch line: There is no fate but what you make. Well, Mostow must have seriously fucked up, because he tarnished the idea of fate into a hopeless hole of pessimism; the new catch line? You can't do shit about your future. It's set, echoed ridiculously by John Conner's soon-to-be-famous line regarding his future death: "Well, that really sucks."

That would be cool and all, if Mostow's fate-is-set idea had some sort of philosophical premise to vouch for it, but I became more concerned with the fact that he conjured up the overhaul for the sole purpose of leaving a gap open to do a T4. Everything boils down to money, even if creative flair has to suffer for that cause. Other sidenotes:

Claire Danes is actually pretty good. I was surprised.

The TX wasn't at all intimidating.

The movie is completely worth it just to see Arnie tearing the shit out of a car with his bare hands.

Why the hell is the TX a woman? If it really had to be a woman, they could have gone in two directions: 1) Put Sigourney Weaver in it. After Alien Ressurection, she was made to be a Terminator. 2) Put Pamela Anderson in it and make her get naked. 3) Bring back Robert Patrick. He's not that old - Arnie is certainly older. Besides, all that fool is doing these days is a retardo-replacement act for David Duchovny in the X-Files.

Anyway, go and see it. If you liked Matrix Reloaded and X2, you'll definitely get a kick out of T3 - but when you buy the DVD Trilogy, be sure to ask if you can get a discount by buying only 2/3 of the package.

I just saw Spike Lee's Bamboozled. Thoughts...

The issues that contemporary blackface minstrelsy ensues with its high charged images of twisted nostalgia were very clear, albeit the use of them formed a controversy in itself. But herein lies the problem - too many 'albeits'.

The condemnation of blackface through popular satire seems like a brilliant idea, but how do you satirize contemporary blackface minstrelsy by making a movie satirizing contemporary blackface minstrelsy?

Just as the word "nigger" is too negatively powerful to use in jest, for it's obvious historical legacy, blackface is too negatively powerful to use in satire. (And although I am also a fan of Quentin Tarantino's, his concept behind the it's-just-a-word mentality formulates the necessary ingredients for the paradigmatic racist.) I became more concerned with the contorted idea that Savion Glover and the "Porch Niggaz" actually had to apply blackface (in the traditional cork-style of the pasat no less) to film the movie than to allow myself to dig into the satire itself - had the Damon Wayans blackface show actually had a slight bit of humor to it, I'm sure the NAACP would have performed an elaborate strike against "Bamboozled" in much the same way Reverend Al Sharpton did in the actual film.

So good going, Spike Lee. At least your blackface show wasn't funny. God help you if it was.

I found it more than especially ironic that the defying protestors who murder Savion Glover at the end of the movie also used blackface to protest blackface. When the ideological basis of the movie strings down to its most structural level, you have a director using blackface making fun of another director using blackface disturbed by murderers also using blackface, who ironically also protest blackface. It's a miracle. Everybody hates the blackface minstrelsy project, and yet, everybody uses it. The satire seems lost in its own tools.

I think there would have been many other more effective ways of denouncing blackface minstrelsy without resorting to it. Chris Rock (though they touched on him, but only briefly) would have been a perfect example. Take his "Blacks vs. Niggers" monologue, which most definitely was the sparking ignition for his rise to comedy-fame. Who are the biggest fans of that monologue? White people - not just white people; white racists. Why? Because Chris Rock says everything in that monologue that they wish they could say and not get shot for it. "Niggers can't read; books are like Kryptonite to a nigger....Niggers always want credit for shit they're supposed to be doing...Niggers are always blaming the media...etc." Or how about use the same type of intellect that Spike Lee is so famous for in interviews. Why not satirize blackface minstrelsy by satirizng the white suburban (and asian) kids dancing to black gangsta-rap videos, and specifically for the reason that they contain entertainment value through racial stereotypes? There are many ways, and blackface seems like the most primitively in-your-face method of doing it, and it works the opposite end of the ideology (which is always a bad thing).

My blog has been down for some reason, so I apologize for not having posted anything in the last few days. I'm in Los Angeles now taking summer school.

I've found out painfully that the UCLA class I'm taking on Beethoven is a pathetic 10 steps down from my last three weeks at Carnegie Hall, though I should have probably expected that much. The focus of the class is on personal expression and historical context as it relates to Beethoven's music, but it ends up appearing like something more out of a 10-dollar psychiatric experiment.

On a painful note, I saw Daredevil on the plane. I think it would have been a good movie if the Daredevil not been a pansified Ben Affleck, the plot didn't represent a vomit-covered disjunction of formulaic points, there had been a gratuitous implementation of shameless nudity, and the Kingpin didn't represent a gigantic negro teddy-bear. Other than that, it was great.

I'm a bit scared to watch Terminator 3. Please check out Stanley's review if you have time at http://leemur.blogspot.com. I will post some excerpts of it, as it is a very well written review. There is not a soul in the world who is more qualified to opinionize the Terminator 3 movie, as Stanley has spent the last 12 years wet dreaming about Cyborg systems and constructing make-shift terminators out of organic chemistry cell models, much to his girlfriend's disgust and dismay. Please do read his full review.

Problem #1: "One of the most important things is lighting. T2 was entirely bathed in cold blue light, with contrasts of red. This movie is not. In contest to other reviews on the Internet, this movie is not darker. The entire film takes place in broad daylight, or brightly lit indoors. Mastow you IDIOT! A Terminator is a harbinger of death, it shouldn't be bathed in white angelic light!"

Problem #2: "Second, music. Marco Beltrami's score? More like underscore. This guy also scored the Scream movies, he is not qualified to score the Terminator series. The music does not accent the film heartily as Brad Fidel's music did in T2. Mastow thought Fidel's music made you think of T2 too much, but guess what? Mastow's an IDIOT."

Problem #3: "My third complaint is the T-X. She is hot. Too bad that's not the purpose of a Terminator. Menacing she is not. Bland she is. Robert Patrick was hundreds of times more threatening as the T-1000, and unstoppable. I remember feeling dread everytime he got back up in T2. I did not get too much of the 'Oh my God, she absolutely will not stop' feeling from Kristanna Loken."

Pete, if he were at Carnegie Hall:

car LOCO 69: i left it to the other students to buy barenboim a present
car LOCO 69: and they bought him a 300 dollar bottle of fucking wine that i have to chip in for
peterlsb: wtf?
peterlsb: that's some crystal shiet
peterlsb: you better be drinkin that too
peterlsb: watch him down that shit in front of you guys
car LOCO 69: they don't have 40's of wine, dawg
peterlsb: then pour it on the carnegie stage, 'this ones for the homies that couldnt be here'