Crouching Tiger

Even if I was banished to the darkest place, my love will never let me be a lonely spirit.
-- "Li Mu Bai" in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Monday, January 15, 2001
One year ago: Dungeon
Two years ago: To Jam or Not to Jam
Three years ago: Potlatch I

Friday night I'd planned to go to a dance at the Experience Music Project. Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums were playing at an all ages dance! But when I got home from work, I was too tired -- that new loveseat sucked me down and I watched TV and dozed instead.

Saturday morning I drove up to Jack's place in Bellingham. Jack was bugged -- he hadn't been able to reach his exwife on the phone to arrange about getting his daughter for the weekend. Very frustrating for him!

Jack and I went out to Walmart -- I'd suggested that he buy some of those plastic drawer units, at first to put some of his clothes in. Part of the clutter in his "bedroom" is having no place to put socks, underwear, pants and such. They stay in stacks on the bed in that room. He got the idea to buy some of these drawers and put his paperback books in them! So we drove up and bought a few. Jack really got into unpacking his paperbacks, which have been in his garage for far too long. So as he's unpacking, we are alphabetizing and getting rid of some also.

These drawers will work for him, I think -- they are easy to move around and stack, and you can see what you've got. They aren't that expensive, either.

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On Sunday, Jack and his daughter A---- and I drove across to Canada to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She hadn't made the trip before, so we teased her about "looking for the flying saucer", the large silver disk on top of the Colossus Theater in Langley. We were just in time for the show.

Wow! I really did enjoy it -- I've liked all of director Ang Lee's work, I think. He's got a clarity of vision when it comes to human emotion, along with patience and tenderness. I just always like the martial arts films, too. Special effects, energy, excitement!

I do laugh when I see complaints about "hokey" special effects, or it being too matrix-like. It's the other way around, of course -- the Matrix borrowed wire-work experts from Hong Kong. The end was ambiguous, and a bit disappointing. I don't think an unhappy ending is required to make something a serious story.

We got back to Bellingham in time for A---- to get to her meeting.

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Monday was a holiday, and the market was closed, so I didn't have to leave early; I woke up slowly and left around nine. It was very foggy until I reached Everett.

I stopped at Everett Mall, did some cruising around and bought a book I wanted and some hair thingies. I ate a slice of stuffed pizza that I'd intended for a late breakfast, but turned into lunch. That mall has a high percentage of empty stores, and some in the process of closing. It doesn't look good -- I guess more folks go to Alderwood mall, twelve miles south.