Dial M for Murder - 4.0

Man, these people talk a lot. Like a whole lot. The whole movie basically takes place in one room, and the people in the room will not shut up. I admit that the 4.0 I'm giving this is probably completely unjustified as I was doing something else while this was on and only half paying attention and this is not a movie to only half pay attention to. Still, I can't help but feeling like this would've worked just as well on the radio as on film. The visual aspects of the movie were almost non-existent. Oh, and the twist ending sucked. Bah.

The Bank Job - 6.0

Ah, first class. The hot towels. Peanuts in a little dish instead of in a little bag. The not-as-inedible food. The fully reclining seats. The still-mediocre movies. Heeeey, wait a sec. Shouldn't we have a stewardess carting around the Criterion Collection or something? Asking if I'd care for director commentary? Perhaps popping some fresh popcorn? Nope, no dice. I got the same crappy movie selections as coach, just with a slightly bigger screen.

The Bank Job was the cream of the crap in this case. And it was fine. A standard well-executed heist movie with no glaring flaws, but pretty much completely devoid of action or excitement. It was a true story which I guess buys it some kind of credibility. Anyway, it killed a few hours on a flight and really was rather decent, but otherwise it's a pretty forgettable flick.

In Bruges - 5.0

In Bruges was another one of my lake house movies. Over much bitching, I made Ben and Alexa watch this one with me, and I think it is safe to say that everyone was pleasantly surprised. Let's not overstate that pleasantness though - they had expectations somewhere slightly to the north of a mid-90s Christian Slater movie, and mine were only marginally higher. We were all pretty impressed at first as the first hour or so of In Bruges was genuinely funny, and that strong start earned the movie enough goodwill to carry us through the rather unfunny conclusion without being too pissed off.

Unforgiven - 8.5

I'd somehow never seen this until I was sequestered at the lake house for a few days, but it's just about as good as everyone says it is. In fact, I'd say it might even be a tad underrated after 10+ years on the shelf. The set up is better than the inevitable mindless explosion of an ending, as is the case in so many action-drama hybrids, but damn if the build up isn't sublime here. I'm certainly not a connoisseur of the genre, but I'd have to say this is displacing the field as my favorite western.

Enchanted - 6.5

So, after our second day of canceled flights we were debating between Margot at the Wedding and Enchanted and in the end we went with Disney's live-action/cartoon hybrid over Baumbach's bitter humor. And you know, I think it was the right choice, although, on most days this wouldn't be my cup of tea, it was just what the doctor ordered after our second day serving as Air Canada's punching bags.

So, the movie was more than the sum of it's parts. The songs were just as bad as they seemed at the Oscars, but the movie itself was equal parts ridiculous, overly silly and genuinely clever. Still, in the end, it was a rather pleasant, if cutesy, turn-your-brain-off affair. It's certainly something that parents could tolerate watching with kids and not an unpleasant way to numb the brain after a lousy day.

Picture of the Day - 7/26/08

A Santiago church at dusk.

Chile - Week 1

Nothing huge to report here, but I thought I'd throw some random bullet points about our first few days out there, just because -

• So, things are going well. We've been here for 3 full days, but it feels like a lot longer. We're completely unpacked, and I am going to work this weekend on setting up an office space so I can start my grand experiment in telecommuting on Monday.
• We've begun looking at potential apartments to rent. It looks like we'll be paying somewhere between $500 and 700 a month. The places are pretty nice though. We've also browsed places to buy, and you can get a *NICE* condo for around 180k. It actually seems like rent is a little high considering how cheaply you can buy a place that would cost millions in the states.
  
• My Spanish is pathetic but slowly progressing. Alexa's grandma speaks perfect English, but slips in to Spanish about 40% of the time, which is a good ratio. It gives me a chance to learn some new words and not be completely lost.
• We've spent most of our time so far running errands (grocery stores, home good stores, cell phone stores, etc), and looking for Spanish classes for me. I think I found one I like ... Actually, speaking of Spanish school ...
• I actually got thrown in to an oral placement exam at one of these places which I proceeded to crash and/or burn in. The first thing she asked "Cual es su numero de telephono?" took me like 10 minutes to answer, even though I know my numbers perfectly well. I was literally counting from 1 to 9 under my breath - oy. It kind of sucked, and this chick was brutal - just kept coming after me in spanish.
  
  Her (after 10 minutes of stuff I didn't understand) - "blahblahblahblahblah"
  Me (after nodding my head for 10 minutes) - "Que?"
  Her (more slowly) - "b l a h b l a h b l a h b l a h"
  Me (sweating) - "Uhhhhh, no entiendo"
  Her (mercifully, in half-english) - " Tienes hobbies?"
  Me (drenched, hyperventalating slightly - "Ahhhhhhhh, uh .... no tengo."
  
  Like a damn pop quiz on a day when you didn't even know you had class. Anyway, I recovered somewhat and told her a lot about my family, but the damage was done. I got placed at level one. Lots of "Buenos Dias" and "Como esta usted?" for me.
  
• Alexa's aunt has a massive social network in Chile that is descending on us with surprising speed and friendliness. Everyone has been really nice though. We met one of her best friends, Yvonne, a few days ago, and she invited us to visit her at the beach after we get back from Argentina, which we definitely will. And then last night we went to Coffee with another one of her friends Marie Carmen and she brought two of her co-workers (one of whom also knew Momo) who were our age to meet us as well. We ended up going to a few bars with them and staying out till 2:30 or something. I feel a little bad for stealing these people away from thier lives to entertain these random friend-or-a-friend-of-a-coworker gringos, but they were great and very hospitable and it was honestly a lot of fun to get out of the house and see a little more of the city and meet a few people. Hopefully, they weren't tooooo bored. Anyway, another one of Momo's clan called a 2 days ago, so we are going to meet him sometime soon as well. Craziness.
  

OK, that is more than enough rambling from me. Per my mother's orders, I'm going to carry my camera around when we go out this weekend, so I'll have some pictures and thoughts about the city sometime in the next few days.

Mis Primeras Palabras

As we were leaving the grocery store today, the taxi driver and I were tying off the tops of our grocery bags so that they wouldn't spill in his trunk. He had finished like 4 knots and I was still working on my first, so I looked up from my still untied bag and said:

"Mas rapido que yo"

He kind of glanced at me and continued tying bags.

Pictures of the Day - 7/22/08

Ah, first class. Pure isolation. My very own matrix-like human-battery pod. Never in my life have I felt more loathed than when my fellow passengers were walking past me to board the 10.5 hour flight from Toronto to Santiago. Basically everyone under the age of 18 was audibly oohing and aahing (Two seperate kids said: "That's what I am talking about") while everyone older than 18 was invisioning, if not actively plotting, my death. Anyway, once the proletariat was out of my hair, I realized the situation was more like Wall-E Hoverchair than the Matrix BatteryPod and settled in for some nice Buy & Large sponsored mind-numbing entertainment. After watching a decent movie (The Bank Job) and eating a crappy-but-not-as-crappy-as-coach meal, my Pod magically spread out and became a fully horizontal bed, well, maybe not quite a full-blown bed, but it was a least a somewhat bed-ish padded area, and I settled down on for 5 hours of frequently-interrupted-but-waaaay-more-comfortable-than-coach sleep (Alexa, who slept for like 9 hours, is demonstrating below).

So, the decent sleep is all fine and good, but the best part about flying first class was that I was literally the first person off of the plane, so I was first in line to buy an entry visa, amongst the first at immagracion and we had our bags and were in a Taxi no more than 20 minutes after the plane landed. Pretty damn sweet. Not worth an extra 3 grand or 2 days of abuse (I would still never ever ever pay for 1st class, btw), but damn nice none-the-less. So, now we're in Santiago - Thank goodness. The next few days will mostly be spent running errands, unpacking, setting up stuff for my work and generally starting to get our new lives in order.

If nothing else, all of the crazy flight drama has me really excited to be here. Honestly, I'm glad to be anywhere other than DC metro area airport Air Canada counters right now ... Would I rather be in the middle of the Sahara or with Sid in Baltimore? Take me to the desert. Bottom of a well? Sure. Stuck behind an overturned tractor-trailer on an LA freeway at rush hour? Pre-meltdown Chernobyl? A Denny's bathroom. Yes, yes and uhh ... yes. How about in an awesome apartment in Chile looking out a window at the snow-covered Andes? Uhm, yeah, I think that will do nicely.

Chile Calendar

OK, now that I am almost in Chile*. It's time for you all to come too. I've posted a Google Calendar with dates of all of the visits that I know about. It is unacceptably barren. So, if you want to come to South America - or even if you just think you might want to come to South America - email me or call or respond here. Do something to let me know. Give me tentative dates if you can, or if you can't just tell me you are interested and I'll pester you periodically. But seriously, come.



* - Actually, I'm in Toronto instead of DC, about 500 miles further away than I was yesterday, but lets not split hairs.

Pictures of the Day - 7/21/08

We're in Toronto now. Thank goodness. We're in the first class lounge, which is nice even if it mildly pisses me off that I can only come in here once I've been abused for a few days. The scene above is located directly to my right and Alexa is reading and munching on something pickled to my left. All in all, a marked improvement from the last 2 days.

The flight here was ok, although we were flagged by our airline for a additional security screening which didn't make either of us too happy. Our friend Sid sending his foot down from Baltimore for one last kick in the ass, I'm sure. Our boarding passes for DC (below) look like a cross between Hester Prynne's label and my 9th grade English homework - Mrs. Self was tough. More tomorrow, hopefully from Chile.

Really really ill tidings

So, if two wrongs make a right, then two really crappy omens must make an awesome omen, right?

Our flight yesterday got canceled. That flight was the carrot. They held it right in front of our faces, let us get on the plane, to the runway even, and then pulled it away - canceled. We got nothing, but at least it wasn't entirely painful - just life.

Today, the carrot was gone, we got the stick. Repeatedly. So, we were supposed to be on the same flight as yesterday. We got to the airport with our 300 lbs of luggage and - POW - flight canceled - weather. The woman (the same one as yesterday) says there is a flight from Baltimore to Toronto that gets in early enough for us to make our connection. It leaves in 3 hours. She tells us to hurry and gives us a voucher for the taxi.

An hour later, we get to Baltimore and as soon as we walk in to the airport - WHAM - flight canceled - weather - written in huge 2 foot letters across the wall. We get to the counter and Sid, useless jackass Sid, tells us - BOOM - there are no other flights. In fact, we aren't even booked on the canceled BWI flight - today's flight has been canceled for hours - DC screwed up and booked us on tomorrow's flight out of Baltimore. CRACK - no, he can't look on another airline - they only do that for mechanical problems - he can't control the weather. POP - no, it doesn't matter that yesterday it was mechanical - his flight was canceled because of weather. SMACK - no, we can't even just go home - he can't give us a taxi voucher - he can't control the weather. Does it matter that we just got a taxi voucher to get to BWI less than an hour ago? Of freaking course it does not. Does it matter that we've had 3 flights canceled in 24 hours and haven't gotten anything other than a free hour long taxi ride in the wrong direction. Naaaah. Sid is useless, and we're not getting a cab ride home. We ask for his last name and he takes off his badge and hides it in his hand. We ask for a phone number and he gives a sheet of paper with a fax number on it.

So at this point, Alexa is either going to start spouting blood out of her ears or get herself arrested. She curses. We leave. Get a cab ... again. $120. Back at Alexa's house, I call the airline and speak to someone more helpful - not a huge hurdle to clear, but Tony was pretty decent. He wasn't going to do anything at first, but he called the DC airport to find out what happened and after an hour or so, we got upgraded to first class on the long flight tomorrow. Now, I'm off to bed to prepare for round 3.

My ratings - 7.5

Ill Tidings?

After 3 hours at the airport, we were on the runway, about to take off for our glorious future in Chile when the pilot came on and told us that we had mechanical problems and might have to go back to the gate for a few minutes to check on something. Five minutes later, the flight was canceled. Then after 2 hours of standing in line, 15 minutes of shlepping luggage and a 30 minute drive, we were back in McLean, resting up to try the whole ordeal again tomorrow.

Picture of the Day - 7/19/2008

Here is the final Wildfire family portrait for a few months at least. Everyone came up to DC to see me off which was really nice. Now, it's time to travel. I'm off to the airport in about an hour and arrive in Santiago tomorrow afternoon. If you need me, here's my South American contact info.

Address:
Carlos Antunez 2520
Dpto 92
Providencia, Santiago Chile

Chilean Phone Number: 0015622311287
Vonage Phone Number: 919 619 0901

The Dark Knight - 7.5

The Dark Knight was surely one of the half-dozen best superhero movies ever, but was pretty clearly only the 2nd best superhero movie this year. In fact, comparing it with Iron Man is informative since one's strengths are the others weaknesses.

Both Iron Man and Batman Begins shined as birth-of-a-hero stories, but featured weak villians that felt like an afterthought and as a result both movies fizzled a bit down the stretch after near-perfect first hours. In fact, the surviving villain from the first Batman, gas-mask boy - or whatever his name was - *was* an afterthought in this The Dark Knight, with no more than 5 minutes of screen time. Well, Batman's opposition was certainly not a problem in The Dark Knight. With a slightly better make-up job, Two-Face, the secondary nemesis here, would've been more than capable of carrying a sequel on his own. In fact, I wish they would've saved him for a sequel because he was completely outclassed in this movie, but then again Heath Ledger pretty much outclassed every supervillian that has ever been concieved.

Heath Ledger's take on the joker was terrifying and the effect was only compounded by the real-world events surrounding the movie. I was genuinely a shaken after the movie, and still can't think of a way to adequately describe just how creepy Ledger's take on the Joker was. The joker didn't get the backstory or the closure he deserved, but who knows how much of that had to be cut from this movie due to Ledger's death or was left for the now-impossible sequels. Ledger's Joker was irreplaceable and if anyone else tries to reprise the role it will be a huge mistake. Ledger was captivating and will more than deserve the posthumous Oscar nomination (and quite possibly win) that he gets for this movie.

I'm a little short on time, so I'll be brief about the bad stuff. In fact, lets got to the bullet-points; these are roughly in order or descending importance:

• The movie was way too preachy and wandered across the fine line between tense action movie and overwrought psychological thriller line a bit too often for my liking
  
• The Ferry sequence fizzled miserably and killed all of the momentum for the decent, but not spectacular finale.
  
• The action scenes were largely forgettable.
• The pacing was off. The first half of the movie pretty easily outshined the second.
  
• They built up Two Face nicely and then kind of wasted him.
• Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is great, but his Batman is boring as hell.
  
• The dialogue was just so-so.
• The FISA supercomputer bit was stupid.
• Katie Holmes > Maggie Gylenhall (sp?)
  

So, while Iron Man didn't have the Joker it did shine in pretty much all of the categories listed above, and as such I think it was probably an all-around better movie. Still, Heath Ledger's Joker is the defining movie moment of the year, and is not to be missed.

Picture of the Day - 7/17/2008

Alexa and I leave for Chile on Saturday, but Nala is staying in DC. It's a little sad, but she's having fun at Alexa's parents house. I just hope we're able to successfully reclaim her whenever we get back. We've had a busy month getting ready to move, but we're pretty much there now. We're about 85% packed and still need to deal with getting health insurance, but the dominoes are mostly on the table and we've got a ride to the airport, so yeah, we're moving to Chile. Crazy.

So instead of rambling about Chile in a completely unorganized kind of way, I'll ramble underneath pictures from my new camera with the tag "Chile". In fact, if you only want to read about Chile and nothing else this link will let you ignore my other blog nonsense. "Picture of the Day" might as well read "A Picture from a Day", but I'm not going to bother pretending I'll have new photos daily. I'll aim for at least once a week though, and will likely do bigger picture sets when I travel.

Zodiac - 5.5

Finally got around to watching David Fincher's (Fight Club, Se7en) well-reviewed commercial-failure Zodiac yesterday. It was a well-told story, but in the end it felt more like a TV mini-series, both in length and style, than a movie. I still liked it well enough, but I certainly understand why it flopped at the box office. Anyway, if you're a big Law and Order fan, watch this puppy in three sittings, otherwise I'd say you could take it or leave it.

Round 11

It's weird how I can listen to an album a bunch and be completely unimpressed and then for no clear reason, listen again and really like it. The Boxer by The National got immaculate reviews, but I couldn't get in to it the first 10 or so times I listened since it was released last year. Well, listen number 11 (and 12 and 13) has been great.



Also, a cardinal has been throwing itself at the lake house window at least since I woke up this morning. Anyone have a Springsteen Album?

I'm Not Here - 3.5

So, I didn't like the Dylan Biopick. I guess I got it - actors are all different aspects of Dylan - La Deee Da - but it just wasn't fun to watch. In fact, I thought all of the avant-garde-ness of the movie kind of flew in the face of Dylan's straight-forward style. Cate Blanchett did do a nice job and maybe deserved the Oscar nomination, but it was the only bright spot in an otherwise fairly dull film.

Hellboy - 4.5

Not an altogether horrible action flick, but really, I don't see what was so great about it. The dialog was above average, but the action scenes were well below average. It's definitely the weakest of the 3 Del Toro movies I've seen. I'm hoping that Hellboy:Hellboy 2::Bourne Identity:Bourne Supremacy.

Messy Jesse

Is anyone else convinced that Jesse Helms died 3 months ago and was just defrosted yesterday?

Declaracions

The first 4 callers on 96.9 "La Ley" didn't know the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.* From the little I could gather, most thought it was in the 1780s. I would've called in to win the camiseta that was rightfully mine, but it would've taken me at least 10 minutes to say "July 4, 1776" in Spanish and I was borderline on whether a t-shirt was worth the associated public humiliation.

* - This is not in any way meant to belittle Durham's Spanish-speakers; I'm sure gringos would've missed it too, and we have no good excuse since we learned it in elementary school. In fact, the only reason I knew the year off the top of my head is because that stupid David McCullough book has it plastered in 250 pt font across the cover.

Sashaism #42?

-Sasha, who has apparently been calling himself Dmitri while working on his Greek accent in San Francisco.

Hard To Imagine

Feeling nostalgic as I pack, so here is a misc Pearl Jam video for you.

Le Crepe Nanou

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We had a great weekend at Lauren and Kimball's wedding in New Orleans, and I wanted to give a quick shout out to the incredible, not-too-expensive crepe place that we ate at on Saturday night. If you're ever in New Orleans, it's only a block away from the St. Charles streetcar and well worth the trip.

Wall-e - 8.5

I'm packing like crazy this week, so instead of writing a long (glowing) review of Wall-E, I'm going to rank the Pixar movies, and say that I think Wall-E has a decent shot at an Oscar nomination ... for Best Picture. It's a great movie. Without further ado, my Pixar rankings:

Tier 1
1) Finding Nemo
2) Wall-E
3) Ratatouille
Tier 2
4) Toy Story 2
5) Toy Story 1
6) The Incredibles
Tier 3
7) Monsters Inc.
8) Bugs Life
9) Cars

I absolutely love the first 3 movies, kind of like the next 3, and don't really care for the last three. I wouldn't argue with any arrangement within those 3 tiers, but I don't think I could be convinced to change a movie from one to another.

PS - "Presto," the short at the beginning of Wall-E, is probably Pixar's best. Hilarious.