NY TIMES ARTICLE

That article today in the Arts Section? About USC film school? Here's what should've been quoted:
Q.
A. David Arnosk...Aronosky...Arofsky...His name escapes me right now but, in any case, he was the genius behind "Requiem for a Dream." I saw that when I was 20. It blew my effing mind! I knew right then that I wanted to make visually arresting movies about real people doing real things to each other a lot. The scene that really convinced me that a movie can be a work of art is the one where Jennifer Connelly gets a baseball bat shoved up her...well, if you haven't seen it, you got to Netflix it. It's awesome. So's the rest of the movie. Really really real. Really.
Q.
A. Probably "Crash." Again, so real. Easily the best film of the year. I want to make movies like that; not trite piffle like "Munich." By the way, Spielberg is such a sentimental hack. When's he gonna get real? Anyway, I want to make real character-driven films that deal with real issues like race and stuff. In a word: drama, capital D. That's why I'm at film school because you know, I'm a human being and as a human being that interacts with other human beings on a daily basis---at school and in life--- I can't help but care about other human beings. Their lives, you know? Like in "Crash." God, thinking about that film makes me tingle. Don Cheadle is so good. I'd take him over Denzel any day.
Q.
A. I'll pay it off when my screenplay gets sold.
Q.
A. I'm juggling a few ideas but right now, the one I'm most into is a character-driven ensemble coming-of-age musical about a down and out heterosexual who finds love in the unlikeliest of all places: outer space. I googled some terms, so I'm pretty sure it's a story that hasn't been done before. My dad's half-sister's neighbor's dog walker's acting coach's manicurist's homosexual friend used to wait tables at Koi so he knows some agents who'd be interested in taking a look. It's all about who you know, you know?
Q.
A. Life's not fair. To be honest, I know most of us won't make it. That's just the truth.
Q.
A. Because, well, I'm confident that I have what it takes. USC has nurtured me and continues to do so. The faculty's world class and the students are all really smart. And they're so nice. But most of all, it's because really, despite the "reality ends here" sloganeering, reality does matter and I'm engaged in that. Hello? 9/11?
Q.
A. Alex Chung? Off the record?
Q.
A. Well, not to burn bridges, but between you and me, he's a huge

LOVE
ALEX

JAMMED THUMB

Suffered one minor injury over the weekend: a jammed thumb. It's oh two times fatter than it normally is. A chubby. Chubby. Chubby. Chubby.

And I don't know what the hell happened, but I've been trying to unclog a toilet for like 2 hours. Oops.

LOVE
ALEX

MAMMOTH

Gone skiing! With church friends!
I've been hemming and hawing the past few years about purchasing a helmet. I thought this would be the year but it's not. Maybe I'll just don a friend's bicycle helmet and make do.
Have a sweeet weekend.

LOVE
ALEX

GETTIN' ON

Friday morning, I spoke to my parents who are visiting Korea. They met with the doctor who supervised the battery of tests I underwent a month ago. My mother gave me the basic run down:
1. I have above average levels of mercury in my blood. I should stop eating salmon/tuna for a while and switch to mackerel. (unlikely to happen as mackerel is too oily for me to cook at home unless I want to spend the rest of my life scrubbing stovetops. Plus, I have 5 salmon filets in the freezer that I ain't gonna throw away just because there's poison coursing through me right NOW.)
2. I should cut back on coffee to one cup a day because my bone density/calcium levels are low/depleted. (that too is unlikely as I am addicted to coffee. Plus, I consume calcium rich foods like an osteoporotic nana!)
3. I have to eat less pork and eggs because my cholesterol levels, though fine, need to be minded. (GET OUT OF TOWN! Ain't no way I'm giving up speck, lardo, pork belly, pig's feet, prosciutto, scrambled eggs in the morning, Jean Georges' soft boiled egg with creme fraiche and caviar, WD-50's 58 minute poached egg in parmesan broth, no way no way NO WAY!)
4. I should eat more greens. (I consume greens like no one else's business. just let me cook for you and you'll see, or you can just look at my black deuces some time.)
Saturday night I took an old high school friend out to dinner for his 27th birthday. At one point in the evening, he told me one of our other friends from high school is sick (it's not a cold). Then this morning, I woke up and my legs weren't working right probably due to the fact that I didn't stretch after playing 2 hours of ultimate yesterday.
All four---test results, 27th birthday, sickness, creaky joints/sore muscles---confirm what I've been dreading for a few years now: we're getting on. 27 wasn't a big deal for JMandel, but for me, when I turn 27 in a few months, I'm most definitely going on the walk of reassessment. It's more a physical thing, getting old that is. Mentally I still feel like a 12 year old, which is coooooooooooooool.

LOVE
ALEX

Thundertrain vs. Trainbird vs. Night Thunder

Here's the deal...

Dave came to town. Friday night, we Omakase'd at Kiriko. Dave picked up dinner! That was amazing... We drank and drank and drank... I fell asleep on the couch of his hotel room and woke up with a vicious headache. Praise be to Gatorade. Dave and I grabbed breakfast with J4-Hart and A-Scards. Then after driving A-Scards home and J4-Hart to her hotel, Dave and I embarked on a mission. In a liquor store on Pico, we purchased a bottle of Thunderbird and a bottle of Night Train. We went back to Dave's hotel room (1 in the afternoon), put Guns N' Roses on repeat, cranked up the volume and proceeded to the mix the two disgusting beverages into one. Like Peanut Butter & Jelly, French Fries & Ketchup, Simon & Garfunkel, this is an amazing pairing. But what to call it?

Dave's vote: Thundertrain
My vote: Night Thunder
J4-Hart's vote (that doesn't count 'cause she wasn't actually present during the birthing of our creation*): Train Bird

The photos are, predictably, kinda silly:






It's probably the longest I've hung out with Dave one-on-one since high school... And it was just a fantastic weekend... After a post-Thundertrain nap, we headed to Alegria in Silverlake for dinner... We then tried to go to a friend's birthday party but finding parking proved difficult, so we ended up stopping by the nearby Jumbo's Clown Room (which is a tiny dive bar that has a stage where burlesque dancers shake it like a polaroid picture; Courtney Love apparently worked here in the days before Kurt, and before recording the yes-I-think-it's awesome "Celebrity Skin" album...) After seeing a lady in a bikini dance to The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want", Dave and I headed back to the westside. We parked the car at the hotel, and then I proceeded to drink too much gin before falling asleep on the couch. I woke up on Sunday and the sun was shining bright! We guzzled water and aspirin, headed to Doughboys, had breakfast, and then just hung out in Santa Monica and wandered around Japanese markets on Sawtelle before I drove him to the airport.

I always get sad after dropping people off at the airport. Who doesn't? So I drove home, went to sleep, woke up and went to a dinner in honor of J4-Hart, in for the weekend from New York. Cobras & Matadors is a tapas place that has a great wine store next door, but honestly, if you like small plates, I highly recommend hitting up A.O.C. instead... Got to see a bunch of people I don't see enough (A-Scards, J-Leb, A-Nicks, Spragooey, etc.)... There was some karaoke, but I was pretty tired...

And here comes something you didn't see coming: No work on Monday. Schlebs and I decided to head to lunch... Parking my car, I scraped some guy's bumper. Should I drive away and flee the scene of the crime? I considered it, but ultimately left a note with my name, phone number and e-mail, saying I'd cover the repair costs. This kinda sucks, but maybe I'll be more careful parking now. Mostly, I'm just proud of myself for leaving the note. And at least i scratched the bumper of a honda civic and not something ridiculous like a bugatti veyron or ferrari enzo or a pagani zonda or whatever... I'm guessing it'll be around 300... No dent to bumper, just needs to be re-painted.... Anyone else have a guess about how much my lousy parking job will cost me?

"Paralegal" is down to 14:50. I've cut out a lot. Just showed Schlebs the most recent cut and she liked it; which makes me feel really happy... Just gotta find a place in L.A. to record ADR and do the sound mix so I can finish this shizz... Anyone have any good experience with not-too-expensive sound mixing dudes out here?

Alright, going out to dinner with my cousin. Everyone be well, Eric

* So it's clear, J4-Hart was the one to first bring together the Absolut Vanilla and Dr. Brown's Cream soda... a drink we all (we all being me and that dude writing his disseration on the rise & fall of M.C. Nuggets) now know as "The Flux Capacitor".

CHINA

Man, is China the next America or vice versa? So Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and a few other tech/web companies have willfully complied with the Chinese government in its attempt to silence dissent. Blogs, newsgroups, etc., have been shutdown and/or censored. Some Chinese have been thrown in jail. The decisions these US-based multinationals make are morally questionable but as we've seen the past few years, ethics and business ain't got jack to do with each other.
Then, we've got the Bush Adminstration breaking the law with its whole domestic wiretapping scheme that's not so much about finding leads---as the NYTimes reported a few days ago, the info that's been fed to the FBI has been pretty worthless---as it is an obvious excuse to spy on journalists, lawyers, and dissenters (i.e. librarians and UCLA professors!).
Hey, at least we don't live in Cuba right?
Of course the Chinese have it far worse off than we do, but then again, we really haven't been that beacon of democracy that we need to be if true reform is to take place in China.

LOVE
ALEX

MATHIEU ALMALRIC

This brilliant French actor is featured in the two best films of the year: KINGS & QUEEN and MUNICH. In K&A, he plays a slightly off cellist who's been in and out of mental hospitals. In one random albeit wonderful sequence, he breakdances in front of his fellow mental hospital patients. It's impressive stuff. Hilarious. Rife with life. And in MUNICH, he plays Louie, a shadowy French informant who sells Avner (a soulful Eric Bana) information regarding the whereabouts of his targets. His performance is subtle, elusive. He has very black eyes which allow him to toe the ambiguity-line quite convincingly. I don't know, but there's just something about his face and height that make him immensely watchable.

So, I've just about seen everything I want to see except THE NEW WORLD & THE INTRUDER (comes out in March over here in we-hate-subtitles-Los-Angeles (not true, but still, come on, THE INTRUDER is a major work by a major filmmaker and so, should've come out the same time it did in NYC)). It was a pretty excellent year for foreign films and a career year for Spielberg who's shown in 2005 that there isn't an American filmmaker that comes close to touching him. Not a one.

LOVE
ALEX

CULINARY GOAL

I'm not one for mixing and matching too many different ingredients together when I cook. A typical dinner for three I prepared recently:
PROTEIN: broiled flank steak marinated in lime juice seasoned with dry herbs, kosher salt, pepper
VEGETABLE: sauteed spinach with garlic, olive oil, rock salt
VEGETABLE: sauteed chanterelles mushrooms with shallots, olive oil, rock salt, pepper
CARB: half loaf of fresh whole grain bread
FAT: double creme brie
DRINK: chianti

I enjoy eating simply at home but this year, I'm gonna try to perform some straight up alchemy. A feast I see in the near future:
PROTEIN: braised pig's feet stuffed with fennel and foie gras (ARoss had something like this at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal and said it was dope)
VEGETABLE: roasted asparagus with capers and eggs
VEGETABLE: radicchio with guanciale and rosemary
CARB: truffle mashed red potatoes (skin on)
FAT: butter flown in from Thomas Keller's French Laundry
DRINK: a really weighty Cabernet to cut through the swine and goose liver.

Any takers?

LOVE
ALEX

HOLDEN CAULFIELD = I'M NOT TAKING THIS CLASS

Thanks to BJ for that bit of humor. See, last night, I attended my writing class and much to my and BJ's disappointment, it was chock-full of sycophantic knuckleheads that were not in our section from last semester. I think the three other guys who were in my class last Fall and had to suffer alongside BJ and I last night probably harbor similarly negative sentiments viz. the unfunny dorks. Lots of old and tired and gag-inducing red state blue state jokes. Lawd I can't stand those jokes anymore. Then this one guy was stupid enough to mention Holden Caulfield and tell us how he modeled his protagonist after him. That was BAD. What was worse was the nods of approval he received from his fellow morons. Holden Caulfield? HOLDEN CAULFIELD! First off, that book is wack. I tried reading it after college and lawd was it shit. Second, Holden Caulfield is wack. WHAT A LOSER. 13 year olds can empathize with H.C. because all 13 year olds are losers but man oh man if you think there's still any sort of affinity between you and the catcher in the rye when you're in your mid 20s, then you are a bigger loser than you were at 13! So basically, there are a bunch of schmos in this writing class who don't read books and are not funny and if you don't read and ain't funny, then you deserve to eat ass that's just loosed logs.

On a positive note, KVondy and I caught BREAKFAST ON PLUTO. Really excellent and that Cillian Murphy! I wish there were subtitles in some scenes, especially those with Brendan Gleeson. His Irish brogue is unintelligible. But the film is so well directed that it didn't really bother me that much in the end.

LOVE
ALEX

HERE WE GO

It's Monday, the first day of the new semester. I hope this semester will be light in comparison to the three previous ones. Goal: polish decent drafts of both screenplays and submit the indier one to the Sundance Labs and then cross fingers. In terms of school work, have fun, pass, and not get stressed I guess. The past two months, I've woken up nearly every morning with a sore jaw, the result of nocturnal grindage of teeths. Several people have attributed it to stress though for the life of me, I can't figure out what could possibly be stressing me out. Sure, I've worried about my future on occasion, but honestly, not often enough to feel like that would be the root of problem. But anyway, less stress I guess.
Oh, last night, ELane, Hil, and I caught BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Liked it a lot. A guy came into the theater wearing a straight up for real cowboy hat. Go figure.

LOVE
ALEX

The price of stamps goes up...

Do you have a bunch of 37 cent stamps sitting around?
Better get around to buying some 2 cent stamps!
The cost of sending a 1oz letter in the U.S. just went up to 39 cents!
Why can't the Post Office have their price increases yield nicer looking numbers?
Honestly, 40 or 50 cents would be fine with me. Especially if it meant a longer delay before the next price increase.
This is gonna have such little effect on my life that I'm not even sure why I'm writing about it. I just had no idea these price increases were coming. The 39 cent stamp thing isn't gonna throw me into financial hardship, but just wanted to make the readers of this blog aware, in case they are as unaware as I am of such boring news. - Eric

P.S. My ipod came. It is now plugged into my Bose ipod dock at my cubicle desk. Now listening to "Strange Little Girl" by the Stranglers. I like listening to music at work sans headphones. How long will this last before someone puts in a formal complaint (comments-on-coworkers-suggestion-box) or they move me into an office (read: storage closet) that keeps my co-workers shielded/safe from getting tortured by the incredibly huge 51 track "The Association Anthology: Just the Right Sound". I've been listening to it a lot lately. "Never My Love" is great, but the fantastic "Windy" is easily capable of driving people insane.

GOTTA GAIN IT BACK

So I'm back in very sunny very warm LA and it is good. I had a good time in Asia though I would've had more fun and seen more were it not for the fact that I was ill 19 of the 21 days spent across the Pacific.
I fought through most of yesterday and lasted much longer than I thought I would but I suspect at some point this afternoon, I will be taking a very long nap.
I have a lot to get done before school's back in session on Monday. Tops on the list is to see everything that's in the theaters. Second is to gain back the 5 pounds or so I lost due to my illness and the small portions of the meals back East. For some, coming back from vacation a little lighter would be a good thing but when you're shooting for Mr. Universe in 2020, well, that just won't cut it.

LOVE
ALEX

the rock song i was making up while driving home from santa barbara last week went like this:

one was in the army! one was in the navy!
one made candy canes! the other delivered babies!
one has a beard, the other has no hair on his head.
one is named george, the other's name is Fred.

Chorus:
My grandfathers! My grandfathers are wonderful men!
I hope I grow up to be just like them!

- Eric

my ipod is en route from Shanghai...

Just wanted to share,
I've had an ipod shuffle for a bit of time. I've bitten the bullet and purchased a video ipod. It arrives next week from China (shipped out yesterday). The engraving is going to read:

Nuggets, Keep rhyming!
Keep smiling! Love, 2pac

With love from my cubicle, Eric

Rough Cut. Check.

Monday, I had no power in the house. With Alex gallavanting around Asia, I had nobody to send out in search of firewood, so I ventured out into the wilds of Hollywood, where I saw "Munich" and then "King Kong". "Munich" worked for me... I admire the movie a lot, and was pulled in the whole time... That movie has a lot to say; a friend compared it to an opening salvo in Spielberg's fight for peace...

Work is back in full swing... (I worked a couple of days last week) but it's pretty busy... I have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow, and here I am at damn near 1 am, caffeinated, having just finished the rough cut/assemblage of "Paralegal". It's gonna be a 12-15 minute short film eventually, I hope. Right now, it's a cringe-worthy 19. At least it's shorter than the F-de-Saugatuck 35 minute rough cut...

There's a lot of anger and weirdness in "Paralegal". I hope it gets into festivals and makes people cry. I have no idea what this movie is about, except my sadness related to being a paralegal for 3 years of my life. Anyone wanna come over, watch the flick and gimme some feedback?

- Eric

88 WONG MA KOK

Hong Kong. A sweet sojourn. A welcomed respite. I am such a glutton. Hollerluyeah for good genes.
I went to HK to run an errand for my dad. Basically, he wanted me to cover the outdoor furniture on the roof decks of the condo he owns with these custom made rubbers that he had me bring over from Korea. That was the reason but for me, it was an opportunity to get some sun and eat some kill-ah chinese food with some friends. That I did. We are talking elephantine shits.
But first, my dad's place. It's out on Stanley Island. Very nice location: remote, serene, right on the water. It's about a 30 minute drive from Central. Very windy (not windy, windy) roads and drivers there---taxi drivers, minibus drivers, bus drivers, my dad's friend---well, the word reckless doesn't exist in their vocabulary (though you figure it would considering the shitload of characters that are in use these days). So yeah, every time I'd commute to and fro, I'd get car sick. Plus folks there drive on the left side of the road so that was just sweat...sweet.
Yeah, so my dad's place: ridiculous. Brobdingnagian (sp probably). No one really lives there so it felt more like a museum than a residence. And being preserved like that, all the furniture and sheets and blankets and pillows etc. etc. reeked of that awful chemical odor that at first tells you that the thing that smells like that is new, but after awhile of rolling around and sitting on and sleeping in the things that smell like that, well, motherfucker done gave me a splitting headache!Two times! Other than that, it was nice not having to talk to anyone in the morning.

I met up with a fellow SCer who treated me to the following:
1) xiao long bao (soup dumplings)
2) shanghainese rice cakes
3) fried eel crackers
4) dan dan noodles
5) vegetable dim sum
6) wine soaked chicken
7) ma po tofu (spicy bean curd with pork)
8) steamed milk with 2 films served hot
9) mango and taro tapioca in milk

It was actually quite funny eating items 1-7 in one sitting. The two couples on either side of us on the 6-seat table ordered at most 3 dishes between them, but William and I, being gluttons/gourmands/epicureans/ASSHOLES, well we just had to get everything. (and I don't want to mention the lunch my dad's friend took me out to early that day: whoa.) All of the above were delicious though the Chinese in LA do a fine job as well.

The next day, I walked around Causeway Bay, Central, Lan Kwai Fong, Soho, and Kowloon before meeting up with ETing (that's for you BTalbs!) for dinner. I had visited Hong Kong 4 years ago so I soaked up the sights then but it was nice to walk around and see how much had changed in the past 4 years. Restaurants that I had gone to then are no longer there but the tailor shop in the Mid-Levels Escalator terminus was still thriving. The major difference is that there were more Chinese tourists than before. You can tell them apart because the men all wear grey suit jackets and have greasy short hair and the women carry around LV, Chanel, Balenciaga etc., shopping bags. For lunch, I hopped into a random noodle shop that was packed. They had an English menu, but it was obvious that their customers were exclusively Chinese. I ordered noodles with tripe and tendon. It was delicious. The tripe and tendon were cut generously. The tripe was amazing tender, sort of like the stewed tripe you'd get at an Italian restaurant, and the tendon was like eating warm stiff jello. Actually, those were two of the more conservatives meat items available. I'd had congealed blood and intestine before, but I don't particularly care for either. Surprise.

ETing is an old NY friend. She took me where young professional HKers like to go: AQUA. It's on the 30th floor of some building in Kowloon and as you can imagine, the view of the harbor was terrific. It has a club feel not dissimilar from Matsuri or Koi. The menu was split into Italian and Japanese. Weird combo. Overpriced and not particularly tasty but the view and the company made it well worth it. It was great to catch up with her over a huge ass scoop of gelato after dinner.

The next day, I met up with a nice lady who's family developed the condo complex as well as heads an international hotel chain. She treated me to a ridiculous dim sum breakfast at one of her family's hotels in Causeway Bay. Dim sum I've never seen before. Like this fried miniature gourd that was to die for.

GOD I LOVE THE CHINESE AND THEIR FOOD!

LOVE
ALEX

Feliz Dos-y-Seis!

2006 arrived in Los Feliz!

I should lie and tell you how amazing my New Year's Eve was.

The truth is, I got food poisoning, stayed home and watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's". At midnight, I could see fireworks going off all over the city. Not only that, but I could hear gunshots going off in the distance. Apparently, those stories of people in Los Angeles shooting guns straight up into the air on New Year's Eve are true stories. Scary. Regardless, it was, aside from being sick, a really nice evening to just sit back and think about the good & bad of 2005...

Yesterday, I watched "Labyrinth" with Shlebs. It's weirder than I remembered. Schlebs's neighbors have a one-eyed cat that was super friendly. But first, pre-David-Bowie-w/-Axl's-Welcome-To-The-Jungle-Coiffure, we had lunch at Musso & Frank's, which is a lot like PJ Clarke's mixed with Sardi's. I recommend it highly. I do not recommend the hot corned beef sandwich at all. The Club Sandwich however, was stellar that one other time I ate there...

Today, I'm feeling exhausted, despite doing close to nothing last night. I've been editing "Paralegal" and it's looking like the first cut might break the half-hour mark. How am I gonna cut this down to something watchable? Maybe someone out there would like to give feedback on the rough cut?

I'm going on a long walk now (sort of a New Year's tradition) to reflect on the past year, and what I can do to make 2006 as wonderful a year as possible. Happy 2006! - Eric

P.S. You're my boy, Blue!