Water Easy Reach

There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tuesday, May 25, 1999
One year ago: Buffalo
Two years ago: The Keys of Paradise

There's been a lot written about Weblogs in the web media these days. Weblogs are sites like Bill Humphries' More Like This, Jorn Barger's Robot Wisdom, or Dave Winer's Scripting News (the über-weblog), where links that interest the author are posted with commentary, on a regular basis.

Not all weblogs are tech-oriented. I found something yesterday from this funny one, Mister Pants. He links to Hoopla's Homepage Kits. These are incredibly funny, because they are so true! They are actually not bad for templates to use at getting your own site started, but the text written on the example pages is worth reading.

So I've been tempted lately to start doing this. (Jack noted, "Just what you need, another time sink!") I haven't made up my mind, though. A work-related one would be good on our intranet; one focussed on whatever interested me would have a place on this site. But for either, I'd need to find the system that would automate it as much as possible, since frequent, easy updates are what such sites are all about.

If you want to take a quick look at a lot of weblog-style sites, try My.Userland.com, choose your news, and customize away.

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I started the day's films at the Egyptian, after a stop at the grocery store on the way. I've really been enjoying the "neato burrito" wrap sandwiches. It's probably the amount of cheese that makes them taste better than the "Essential sandwiches" equivalent. I forgot to mention that Helen of Up From Sloth happened to drive by yesterday afternoon when I was waiting for a bus, and gave me a ride to the theater. It was fun to see her!

• Buena Vista Social Club
  (IMDB page for this film) I really liked this documentary from Ry Cooder and Wim Wenders. Cooder did a CD a few years ago, recording with older Cuban musicians, some who'd almost been forgotten in their native land. It had a lot of success, so he decided to do a film and some concerts with the same folks. The musicians were great technically, and great as personalities, too! (I suppose that if some were nasty or hard to work with, they'd have been filtered out in the original recording sessions.) There is a lot of moving camera work, but it didn't make me dizzy. Recommended. And get the soundtrack CD, too.

After seeing Buena Vista, film buddy A---- and I moved across the street to the Broadway Performance Hall. For some reason, it's hard for me to remember what film we are going to see, once the decision has been made to see it. I might have to look it up in the schedule several times! It's fun chatting with other film buddies in between shows. Tonight I caught up with Craig, Doug Ing, Hyper Dan and Anne, and Jon Newman.

• ID
  (IMDB page for this film) I think that here's a case where the untranslated title, "Pièces d'identités," is better than the title we saw this under, ID. It's a Belgian film, written, produced, and directed by an African, Mweze Ngangura. I really enjoyed it! An African king comes to Belgium to find his long-lost daughter. It's got a fairy-tale feeling to it, with all loose ends tied up. Very good humored and fun! The title refers to difficulties the king experiences when his shell-covered crown and neckpieces are in demand by curio dealers or misunderstood by customs agents. The regret and nostalgia that Belgian ex-expatriates felt about leaving the Congo was an unexpected note.

• Water Easy Reach
  (IMDB page for this film) This film was a last-minute substitution for one that never arrived, so there weren't very many folks in the audience. A Norwegian sailor misses his boat when he stays behind in a remote Spanish seaside town, to have an heirloom watch repaired. This really reminded me of the TV series "Northern Exposure," since the main emphasis was on the quirky characters he crosses paths with. The story takes a darker turn at the end, for no thematic reason that I understood. Worth seeing, if only for the weird affect of Nicholas "Bad Boy Bubby" Hope. This title is tough to remember, though! It's a Spain and Norway co-production, but it doesn't have that international co-prod curse on it, where the competing demands of money from different countries lead to blandness.

As we were leaving the theater, Jon offered me a ride home, which was a nice bonus. So we walked to where his car was. Or where he thought it was! We went from one end of the block to the other, and it wasn't there! Had it been stolen? Things were looking bad, until we started going step-by-step through Jon's motions earlier in the evening. He'd honked at me from his car, as A--- and I had been crossing the street from one theater to the other, so had he driven around the block from there? Finally he remembered that he hadn't parked on that street at all, but had gone directly to the parking garage a block away. Another crisis averted! But it had looked bad for a few minutes. He has a rather nice car, so it could have been a candidate for being stolen.