Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Persepolis


If you haven't seen a good movie in a while and are down with being slapped in the face with realness that may not be super familiar to you but that undoubtedly shakes you to your human core, go see Persepolis.

Serious, fun, sentimental, real and cute. And it's a cartoon.

It's been a looooong time since I've watched an animation that was so excellent at delivering a message through it's lines. And we're not talking overly realistic, team of 200 just to make one face muscle move kinda Pixar 3D animation....we're talking by hand...yes I said that. And I don't mean hand on keyboard, I mean hand on pencil then on paper. If you don't believe me, check out the DVD and watch the extras.

Persepolis quietly grew on me and blew a puff of smoke with it's eyes half open right on my face and before I could blink it had taken one of the very coveted top 5 movie spots on my personal list. :)

Go see it, putain!

"Pwoject Oneway"





I used to really not like fashion shows and the like and used to be forced by my sister and mom to watch them on TV.

Until the day that I screamed "This is shit, garbage, crap, craziness...who would wear this?!"

And my mom looked at me with that typical mom look and calmly said.... "Would you wear a Picasso?"

...And before I could inhale a bit of air and spit out a mid-adolescence-nonsense come back she said: "Didn't think so".

I've been hooked ever since...


Auf Wiedersehen

Alma Mater


back to mon routes... this past weekend I was in Oregon with Eriquinha and Matze-Katze visiting Rita and Wayne. Such good times.

I have so many incredible memories of that place and the way the weekend unfolded was like a magically orchestrated symphony through the best of my memories.

On Friday we did a walking trip around campus that included a quick stop at the new business school, a brick hunt outside the EMU (see the pic below), an intro to the Mills International Center and a peek at 2 of my old homes: The ISA and the ASUO offices. It almost brought me to tears. To top it off, I even bumped into Kellen (who I had only met via phone) and got to give him a well deserved hand shake for all his incredible work in helping mobilize international students and alumni to demand transparency on the whole Magid and Kathy deal. And we really closed the day in the best possible way. An hour visit with Magid in his office. Everything felt so perfect, so familiar, so serene.





On saturday we fired up some old bikes and did "the loop". Basically from their house through Amazon park, through campus, by the river, through the park, to VRC ending at Saturday Market downtown. The weather was incredible and doing that route 12 years after I had done it the first time was just priceless. The smell of the fresh grass, the sound of the river, that familiar burn on my bike-loving legs and even the smell of the beer as we rode by McMenamins were like an ode to my past.






And speaking of, a wild salmon sandwich with a pint of Hammerhead, was exactly what I was thinking of to wrap up another awesome day. And guess what? That's what we did! :)



Sunday started with a trip to the Glennwood for breakfast and then a quick trip back to the house for packing. Before I even felt like I was awake it was time to head over to the airport.

Rita and Wayne continue to be as sweet, energetic and welcoming as on that first day they picked me up from terminal A at the Eugene airport...at around 3pm on September 12, 1996 to be more precise :)

This trip at this time of my life really meant a lot to me. Last time I visited was 5 years ago and at that time I was consumed with feelings of defeat and even managed to fire up the rental car after everyone had gone to sleep and drove around town to all my favorite spots and said good bye to all of them. Looking back I can't believe I had really convinced myself that that was the last time I would be there. It still makes my stomach turn just remembering what that felt like. I fought back the tears all weekend long. Bitter-sweet doesn't even begin to explain it.

As I said to Wayne this weekend, this last trip felt like I had come full circle and that all the pieces of my puzzle were finally back in place. From the day I left, a month after graduation, I had told myself I would go back and make it all right once I knew I could stay. I wanted to go back and nod my head at Magid, at the EMU, at Johnson Hall, at the college of business (heck, even at the school of Biology! :D), at the ISA office, at the ASUO office and at the Library and say thank you for what those 4 years did for me.

As I said good bye to them at the airport this past Sunday I stood there and thought of that afternoon that I sat at my parent's dinner table with a U of O envelope closed and heard my mom say "well, even if the lady said the UO didn't give you a scholarship, let's open the envelope and read it anyway". And of course I also though of the moment I opened the envelope and read that I had received a full tuition scholarship for 4 years. At 1:30pm this past Sunday I smiled to myself thinking that the resilience and curiosity in me had taken me to that place 13 1/2 years later. All of a sudden the last 8 years (till 06/06/08) didn't seem that bad at all.

As long as I can continue to open envelopes, hold back my tears, keep on plugging and come back for a micro-brew and bike ride, I think I'll be ok.

I'm a friend of Laphroaig

The other day I ran out of Scotch...ok ok, of GOOD Scotch! :)

So an emergency trip to the booze store was in need.

I got in my car with not much in mid other than to go browse, read the little labels and buy something. The only commitment I had at that time was to get something new.

After about 20 minutes of browsing, I had my eyes on a very humble-looking white and green box and thought "heck, a Scotch from a small island within an island seems like fun".

Little did I know I was embarking on a true journey.

To cut to the chase, I ended up getting a bottle of Laphroaig, which happens to be the MOST smoky scotch made AND also Prince Charle's favourite. (Yes the "u" here was intentional ;) )

But also each bottle comes with a certificate for a square foot of land on the island where the distillery is located. You just go online, type in your code, claim your plot and you even get to see a satelite picture of where your plot is. Brilliant!

Just yesterday my certificate arrived in the mail and it is super cool. I can also check out online who my "neighbours" are and chat with them.

For those of you wondering if I am going to visit my plot soon, my answer is a quiet nod and a giggle.

Slainte Mhath!

http://www.laphroaig.com/

Marcelo Katsuki

Not too long ago I bumped into a blog from one of the columnists at Folha de Sao Paulo.

His name is Marcelo Katsuki and he's an architect turned DJ, turned silk-screen t-shirt maker, turned foodie, turned food and drink columnist for one of the larges newspapers in Latin America.

Anyway, his blog is just awesome. Filled with reviews of the latest and greatests Sao Paulo restaurants and food and drink related events. He's also genuine and elegant enough to give the small holes in the wall the same play as he does to the big places and that's just too cool.

To top it all off, he's a "nisei" (maybe "sansei", don't know for sure), so it's neat to get a peek into the culture of Japanese Brazilians.

Enjoy!

http://marcelokatsuki.folha.blog.uol.com.br/

The little alien in me

When I was a kid I used to stretch my neck out on my bed towards my bedroom window till where I could see the sky.

I used to look at the stars and be CONVINCED that I was either from another planet or going to another planet.

Little did I know that was just an undying want to travel abroad.

These days, some 20 years later and 6616 miles away, when I look out my bedroom window all I can think of is that and it makes me smile.