The Edge of Heaven

6/29/08

Kendall Square Cinema

I'm not really up on Turkish filmmakers, so Fatih Akin is another director that I might not have ever been exposed to had it not been for my ticket taking days at the Brattle. But Head On happened to be showing one night a few years ago when I was working, and I was floored by it- completely loud, violent, intense, and surprisingly affecting.

So I have been eagerly awaiting the follow up, The Edge of Heaven, which opened locally this weekend. The over the top and bombastic tone of Head On is replaced with a much more contemplative and slower moving story here. Like in Head On, the issue of Turks living in Germany serves as a backdrop. And again I wish I knew more about this, as well as the greater political situation in Turkey, since it seems to impact so much of what is happening in the film.

This is a tough movie to write about without spoiling things (though Akin does inform us of the impending deaths of characters in the titles of two "chapters" of the movie). As always I am so grateful that I walked into this without having read a thing about it, so i'll leave out details here. I can say that there are multiple linking storylines that indirectly or directly impact each other, but this is not a Turkish version of Crash (though I would wager that some reviewers will lazily compare the two solely because of this similarity in structure). In fact, my only real criticism of the film is that these coincidences and near misses feel a bit forced and predictable at times, which is frustrating since that really wasn't what the movie was about. For me, at its heart this was a film about redemption and forgiveness between families, strangers, and cultures, and the emotional weight of these issues is stronger than anything I've seen recently.

The closing shot of this film is absolutely beautiful and left a crowded and otherwise chatty theater (old snooty Cambridge people and foreign movies are not a good mix) absolutely silent. This was easily one of my favorite films so far this year. 

Fon To Due

I'm not a big South Park fan- casual at best, as in when I happen upon it, I might stick around to watch the episode (or flip back and forth to it from something else). Like other shows that have been on forever, it's too inconsistent to really pay steady attention to. 

But oh my, was last night's episode amazing- cat pee induced acid trips that take people to the bizarre world of...Heavy Metal?

But this begs an important question for me- how is it possible that I was completely unaware of this movie? Maybe I was too young when it came out? I certainly wouldn't have been allowed to watch it when I was younger, and apparently it was out of print for a long time. But bad animation, ridiculously overt "boobage", characters named Taarna, Sammy Hagar songs- how did this escape me during college? I feel like I have failed. I must watch this film.

Red Sox vs Diamondbacks

(crappy picture of a beautiful sunset courtesy of my cell phone)

6/24/08

Sox 5 Diamondbacks 4 

In attendance: Paul

Forget about 1918 or any other curse- the Jimbama Red Sox losing streak has finally ended! As previously reported the Sox had a dismal record when I attend games- 2-8 since the beginning of the 2007 season. This looked like it was going to be more of the same, but the Sox managed to come back in dramatic fashion. 

I didn't even think this game was going to be played considering the bizarre weather that rolled through earlier in the night. I left work at 5:00 to somewhat dark skies but nothing too ominous. By the time the red line came above ground over the Longfellow Bridge, it was like armageddon- black skies and wild wind and rain. It basically looked like someone was spraying a hose against the side of the subway car. But as quickly as it moved in it made its way out, so Paul and I dodged some downed trees and started our walk over to Fenway where the game was only delayed by 45 minutes. 

From the beginning this looked like the Sox lineup that I had resigned myself to witnessing in person- limp and lifeless, scratching out a few hits with nothing else coming of it. Masterson pitched well for the Red Sox, but gave up 2 home runs which led to the 5-0 Dback lead going into the 8th. And out of nowhere, the Sox picked up steam and started putting together hits- Lugo, Ellsbury, Pedroia, my long lost brother Mike Lowell, and even Varitek, who was previously in a miserable slump. By this time it had gotten very cold up on our rooftop seats, so we moved down to the grandstand, where it was slightly warmer. The view from the rear grandstand may be lousy (poles blocking your view and an overhang that blocks the view of any ball hit more than 10 feet in the air), but it is a fun and incredibly loud place to be for a Sox rally. 

So we're looking at a 5-4 lead, and Jonathan Papelbon coming in to close out the 9th. Papelbon enters to "I'm Shipping up to Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys, which you may recognize as an excellent music cue at the beginning of  "The Departed", or if you're from Boston, the song that you heard a million times during the 2007 Red Sox postseason and are completely sick of. But I have to say, when Papelbon comes out in the 9th to protect a 1 run lead and that song is blasting through Fenway, you would have to be unconscious to not get fired up. Anyway, Papelbon closed out the game, Sox got the win, and my streak was broken. 3-8 is nothing to get too excited about but i'm happy for now. 

I had a blog once...

...and I even updated it from time to time. And then a somewhat hectic few weeks happened. But despite what the disturbing weather report of my last post would suggest, I did not wither away in the heat, and will be back in action soon. 

Luckily my sitemeter reports that I have plenty of visitors who spend an average of zero seconds after searching for tips on what to do with dead crawfish or trying to find out where to see the new Werner Herzog movie. So for all of them and everyone else I will charge on starting this evening. 

This can't be good.

Mercifully, this is 2 degrees cooler than what I arrived home to tonight at 7:00. And as I write this now at 10:15, we've dropped to a balmy 95 degrees in the living room. 

Of course this is nothing new- I essentially live in a converted attic, so it doesn't take much to get hot up here. And I do have an air conditioner that will cool down my apartment to an at least manageable 80 or so. But I have been inexplicably stubborn about putting it in the window so early- I'm convinced that the warm spell has to break soon, at which point i'll be appreciative of the ability to still open my window and get fresh air. This has been my argument since Saturday. 

So in the meantime I continue to torture myself, with window fans uselessly blowing around warm air, and sucking in enough pollen to give everything in my living room a dull yellow sheen. Apparently we'll finally get thunderstorms tonight that will break the heat, but until then I remain confined to the icy comfort of my bedroom where I did drop in an a/c unit (I'm stubborn but not masochistic), trying to forget about the unpleasantness that lurks on the other side of the door. 

Way back when

Going through some old photos and found this one, taken on a drive to Florida in December 1987.

Granted, gas was always cheaper down south. And I assume this struck us as especially cheap even for then (we don't usually take photos of gas signs on our vacations). But 21 years isn't that long of a time, yet it's almost impossible to remember this expense being almost a full 5th of what it is now. 

Opposite of Possible

I was starting to run dry on blog ideas but then watched this and have since been inspired to take this site to the next level.

Actually just been traveling a lot over the past few weeks but have a big backlog to get through this weekend, so regular (this of course being relative) posting to resume then. 

In the meantime, don't forget to cross out the losers.