kiss the pavement that you thought had you protected...

So now I'm settled into my rather spacious dorm room on the Harvard campus. It works.

For the past four days, I've been getting acquainted with the "T", which is the name of the subway system here in Boston. Truly, one does not need a car here. Public transportation is safe, cheap, and dependable. Sometimes, it's even good for a chuckle. Last night, I got onto the last train at about 12:30am, and there was this really drunk guy sitting about 4 seats away. A middle-aged lady had the misfortune of sitting next to him. After the train started to run, he began talking to her about how his cousin was Frankenstein, and warned her about the coming alien invasion, which would naturally exterminate all of mankind, including the middle-aged lady. She just kindly, but oh-so nervously, smiled back, and promptly got off at the next stop.

I also saw the movies Dirty Pretty Things and Jeepers Creepers 2, both of which offered minimal redemptive value. The former I watched on the monomaniacal insistence of a friend, and the latter I watched on a whim. Lesson to be learned: Never trust anyone, including oneself. I hope to have some reviews of them soon. In the meantime, I will make it my personal telos to watch Thirteen, which has quickly and unexpectedly turned into one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year.

indeed it is!

Loving every minute of it...Harvard is the anti-Stanford in more ways than one. No time to chat right now though...I'm off to Fenway Park for the Yankees/Red Sox game.

c'est la vie...

I'm in a Stanford computer cluster right now. Just had a long conversation with a good friend from SLS...very refreshing, and sad. People like him aren't easy to find. Alas, he will be missed. Off to Harvard I go...

here i go again on my own...

My plane leaves in a little over eight hours. I need to sleep. But the fun is just beginning...

I probably won't be able to blog much (if at all) during the next week. When I come back, I'm sure I'll have plenty of horror stories to tell. I hate traveling.

but you see, i'm all tangled up...

So I have to go back to Stanford one last time, to get my stuff out of storage. What a drag. After that, I have to fly all the way to Boston (from San Jose!). Truly, this will not be a very fun week.

I'm a little nervous about the whole transfer thing. Ok, I'm really nervous. I'm not totally convinced yet that I'm doing the right thing. But I've never been one to sit idly by. Change is always good--at the very least, it keeps me from being bored. After 5 years in Palo Alto, I think I've exhausted everything that could be done in that town. But it's still a neat little town. Who knows? Maybe I'll end up in the bay area after law school anyways.

Also, I don't much like Harvard's class schedule situtation that they have for transfer students. Essentially, all the interesting classes have been "oversubscribed." Which means only one thing: I can't take them! Although I've been told I'll be able to get into one or two, that provides little solace, since literally all the interesting ones have been oversubscribed. The only ones that haven't been oversubscribed are ones like "Advanced Issues in Bankruptcy" and "Community Action." (What?) Funny how this isn't in the transfer application materials. Does this mean I'll have to take "one or two" interesting classes, and six or seven boring ones throughout the year?

Not quite. Luckily, some of my interests aren't as popular with the Harvard kids as would be the case elsewhere. There are several legal philosophy classes that I've been eying that are still available. There's a class that promises to examine the works of Heidegger, of all people. I kid you not! Mill and Rawls I can understand; they have much to say about the law. But Heidegger?? I'm going to have fun with that one...

yes, i know what you think of me, you never shut up

Added a review of Paul Thomas Anderson's magical little movie, Punch-Drunk Love. Fans of Adam Sandler are right to rejoice.

a little mental yoga, will they disappear?

A wonderful article on introverts from The Atlantic. Extroverts, take note.

the wind is still, in a moment it will be raging...

Today, for the first time in about a year, I heard the name of Ayn Rand. Wow. Such a high-school thing. Comically, the discussion was about intellectuals. I don't know of any respectable philosophy departments that teach her work. I think there was a class on Objectivism at Stanford once, but it was (unsurprisingly) taught by a student. An undergrad, no less. Ha. I fondly remember one famous and eminently respectable religious studies professor of mine (Thomas Sheehan) dismissing her philosophy as "garbage" during a lecture on Heideggerian authenticity. I almost lost it at that point. Too funny.

That is all.

now my soul is young, in a moment it will be aging...

"Friends go in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant." That's a quote from the final scenes of Rob Reiner's Stand By Me, wherein the adult Gordie reflects back (in a voice-over) on the ultimate end of the group's friendship.

Two things about that quote sadden me: (1) the fact that it's true, and (2) the fact that it's true not only for one's friendships as a child, but also as an adult. It's so difficult to maintain meaningful relationships with people over time. Especially in this oh-so modern world of fast-living and urbanization. Just think of your circle of friends 4 years ago, as compared to those that surround you now.

I used to live in a town where one's absence meant a complete breakdown of normalcy. If your neighbor moved away, your everyday existence had to accommodate that, and deal with that by altering your wants, needs, and desires. Life was built around people and relationships, not around successes and advancement. Back then, people mattered.

Of course, that was ultra-rural Texas, where the town's population could not have possibly exceeded 50 heads, including my own. Time stood still there. There was no rush; there was only life. I think back to those times with fondness, and cherish that lifestyle in my heart of hearts.

Who in this age is even capable of friendship? Polite indifference is the new standard. Alas.

Modern man has become wholly autonomous, independent, and self-reliant (our most prized virtues!). But in the process, he has also become wholly uninteresting.

only want to see you laughing...

Is anyone else obsessed with The Family Guy? I'm a devout Simpsons fan, and today they were showing a rerun of The Simpsons (on Fox) opposite a rerun of The Family Guy (on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim). I felt as if I had stumbled upon a moral dilemma of cosmic proportions. Tellingly, I chose The Family Guy.

Stewie, the 1-year-old whose sole purpose in life is to kill his mother (and achieve world domination in the process) is simply the freshest character on TV today, although the show has been cancelled. There seems to be an online consensus that the reason for the cancellation was the extreme political incorrectness of the series. Alas. This just highlights the fact that notions of political correctness (lauded by liberals) are inherently inconsistent with the anti-censorship movement (a decidedly liberal movement). One for the libertarians!

Some favorite Stewie quotes of mine:

Chris: Hey birthday dude, you want some ice-cream?
Stewie: Yes, but no sprinkles! For every sprinkle I find, I shall kill you. (Episode 103)

Stewie: You'll prance about this house like a cock on a walk, but will you be prancing when, when, when there's nothing to prance about? Hm? Will you be prancing then? (Episode 107)

Stewie: [reading the Bible] My my, what a thumping good read. Lions eating Christians, people nailing each other to two by fours. I'll say, you won't find that in Winnie the Pooh. (Episode 202)

Meg: Hey everybody, guess what I am.
Stewie: Well the, the end result of a drunken back seat grope fest and a broken prophylactic? (Episode 305).

Stewie: You know mother, this could almost have passed for a palatable banana pudding, but without 'nilla wafers it's just another one of your wretched culinary abortions. [knocks it off the table] Now clean it up! (Episode 322)

Meg: Mom guess what. I made Flag Girl squad.
Stewie: Flag Girl? Um yes, good for you. Now you can be somewhere else when the boys don't call. (Episode ?)

Stewie: I say, mother, this hotdog has been on my plate for a full minute and it has not yet cut itself! (Episode ?)

Lois: Now Stewie, why don't you play nice?
Stewie: I don't know Mother, why don't you burn in hell? (Episode ?)

Stewie : Oh my God I can't believe Lois is going to die, there are so many people to thank. God of course and...oh this was completely unexpected.....lets see here.....oh yes, Satan. (Episode ?)

Stewie: Yes, yes... I rather LIKE this 'God' fellow... A plague here... A pestilence there... OMNIPOTENCE! I've got to get me some of that... (Episode ?)

Short-lived, but brilliant.

never meant to cause you any pain...

So I'm taking this online defensive driving course to get rid of a speeding ticket from my record. I think the aim of these kinds of courses is just to scare the hell out of you. Or to make you really depressed. Observe:

"By the time you finish this [five-hour] course, 3 people will have died [in Texas] as a result of car crashes."

Now, will that be on the test? It kind of makes me a little reluctant to finish the course, given that kind of information!

never meant to cause you any sorrow...

Added a movie review of Andrew Fleming's sexually-charged tragi-comedy, Threesome (1994). The similarities of theme and philosophical bent to Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mamá También (2001) are rather striking, now that I think about it. Would make for an interesting analysis. One that I have no time for at the moment!

I think I need to get vaccinated. How tragic.

balmy day, sweet sangria...

Added a movie review of the all-too comically absurd Freddy vs. Jason.

it can't be that cold....can it?

I'd like to thank Jeremy Blachman and Waddling Thunder for kindly welcoming me to the Harvard fold.

Now I just have to find some good winter clothes. Given that I'm in Texas right now, where 75-degree weather is considered cold, I think I better wait until I get to Boston for that. Heh.

i wonder if you can bilocate...

Okay, so I'll spill the beans. I submitted a transfer application to Harvard Law School back in late July, and I was accepted on Monday. I have decided to accept their offer of admission into the class of 2005.

My reasons for transferring from Stanford Law School are really quite specific to my own interests, and have very little to do with Stanford's quality of life or quality of education. In fact, I'm kind of sad to let go of the laid-back, perfect-weather living that happily sustained me for the last five years in Palo Alto. (I went to Stanford undergrad as well.) Stanford's quality of life was probably the most significant reason why I chose to go back there for law school last year (not to mention its sterling reputation).

Suffice it to say that Stanford's size became oppressively limiting to me. When I received my course packet for the 2003-2004 school year, I was extremely disappointed. There was all of one course open to second and third year students on issues of constitutional law. This is due to two distinct elements: (1) the small size of the school dictates that the number of courses offered will be correspondingly small, limiting variety; and (2) Stanford's constitutional law faculty has suffered two losses in the past year--Gerald Gunther (who died of cancer last summer) and Kathleen Sullivan (who has decided to discontinue teaching for some time on account of the fundraising duties of her Deanship.) The only other serious constitutional law scholar on the Stanford faculty is the infamous Larry Lessig. But his teaching interests of late lie mainly in IP law and the law of contracts.

But don't get me wrong here--Stanford's size is also its greatest asset, and for good reason. There was certainly a sense of camaraderie among many of the students that could not have been possible at a school twice the size of Stanford. Things are just more pleasant when you know everyone. At least, in theory.

I certainly don't regret spending my first year of law school at Stanford. I would do it all over again if given the chance. It was worth it for the few friends that I ended up making, and the lessons learned from them. There were some truly inspiring people, and some truly unbearable ones. The unbearable ones I expected. But the inspiring ones always surprised me.

I just came back from the post office. It was raining, and it was midnight. Inside the lonely building, I carefully placed a stamp on a thin white envelope. Inside the envelope were two checks: one check next to the line stating that I would enroll at Harvard, and another check for the $500 deposit. As I opened the mail-drop box, I couldn't help but feel that letting the envelope drop would mean that my life would be forever changed. It would mean that I would probably get a different job after law school, live in a different city, meet different people, and perhaps even marry a different woman. The fickleness of it all terrified me. And yet I could not deny the feeling of unbridled excitement at being on the brink of so much possibility.

As I heard the soft rustle of the envelope hitting the bottom of the drop-box, Nietzsche's words--always close to my heart--reverberated throughout my entire being, inspiring and frightening me all the same: "There is yet another world to be discovered—and more than one! Embark...!"

so that coin was right after all...

So on Monday, my life was altered. I got a call that will have the effect of essentially changing the face of my everyday existence for at least the next two years. Suffice it to say, at least for now, that I will no longer be attending Stanford Law School. However, that's a good thing. Trust me.

I will have a new home for the next two years. I'm really excited right now.

the last rose of summer is gone...

Added a review of Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty, starring Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch, Martha Plimpton, and the late River Phoenix.

And in case you're wondering why I've only been reviewing old movies, it's because I'm currently in a rural town in Texas, where the nearest major movie theatre is 140 miles away. So instead, I've been reviewing movies that I've either just seen on television, movies that I own on DVD, or movies that I've just gotten from Netflix.

Also, I think I should create a separate menu page of the film reviews...they seem to be taking over the focus of the entire site (they are quite enjoyable to write!)...maybe even a whole new website would be more appropriate, I don't know. I'll give it some thought.

speed kills but beauty lives forever...

Added a review of William Friedkin's The Exorcist.

she never let on how insane it was...

Added the promised review of Bergman's Cries and Whispers.

And my interview went well yesterday.

I'm doing it again...

Added a review of Peter Weir's gothic classic, Picnic at Hanging Rock.

I'll be in San Antonio on Thursday, interviewing with a firm (already!).

more movie mania...

Added an old review of Larry Clark's Bully.

Today I also watched Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers. Still trying to fully comprehend what I just saw...very powerful stuff. I admire Bergman's consistency of theme throughout all of his works: He is the existentialist filmmaker par excellence. My review of the movie shall follow shortly.

where have you been?

I added an old review of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Mind you, it's old! My writing style is much less obtuse now. heh.

xx/xy (2003)

xx/xy is a modern tragedy that thrills as it kills. I was amazed with how utterly provocative and honest this movie was to its subjects, its victims, and ultimately, its audience.

This movie tells the story of three friends who experiment with each other in the ways of love and sex in college. Ten years later, they find that their experiences have not only haunted them, but have also bound them--tragically so. The more they try to escape their carefree lives of yesteryear, the more they are drawn to each other.

Unfortunately, nothing in their present-day lives allows for them to exercise that spirit of destructive authenticity that first united them a decade before in college. As adults, they find themselves trapped by their circumstances in tragic lives of inauthentic formalities and unreasonable expectations. Austin Chick's movie stands for the almost-unbearable proposition that what once was found has now been lost.

The relationship between Coles and Sam is the most heart-wrenching that I have seen since that of Ben and Sera in Mike Figgis' Leaving Las Vegas. We sense a certain sado-masochism at play: When Sam finds out that Coles has slept with another girl, she goes and sleeps with another guy to get back at him. And yet the outcome of this sadistic power-play is a strengthening of their relationship--for they force each other to recognize the power each has over the other's heart. It is through pain that they show their love for each other. And certainly this is not absurd or nonsensical, for the people we love are also the people most capable of hurting us. In Coles' and Sam's logic of love, the one who can most hurt is also the one who is most loved.

Mark Ruffalo delivers a breakthrough performance as the engimatic yet sensitive Coles, while Maya Stange is perfect as the sweet and emotional Sam. Together, they have a chemistry rarely seen on screen that just oozes with the rough kind of passion that the story demands. This dark movie was meant for these two bright lights.

"There is no room for honesty in a healthy relationship," Coles laments at one pivotal point in the movie. Exactly so. Honesty isn't reserved for healthy relationships, but rather for full ones--those that encompass the pain as well as the pleasure, and the hate as well as the love; those that take life as it is, warts and all. For this reason, the end of the movie, tragic as it may be, could not have been any other way. It is precisely this sincerity of storytelling that makes this one of the best movies of the year.

I'd give Austin Chick's xx/xy an A.

i'm alive, for sure

I've been creating new pages for the individual movie reviews. Check them out by clicking on the movie titles to the right.

home is where...

So now I'm back at home in what can best be described as rural Texas. I decided to spend some time with the family, as opposed to remaining Austin. This new situtation should keep me entertained for all of...2 days. The obvious consequence is that I can no longer watch newly-released movies and review them. There are no theatres here! Don't worry--this is only temporary. I go back to law school at the end of the month. The Palo Alto area has some pretty decent theatres, both independent and mainstream. In the meantime, I shall mainly be reviewing DVD movies that I get from Netflix. I just got XX/XY, so I'll probably watch that and review it soon.

a moment of zen

Today is my last day of work. Good stuff.