movie talk...

saw "before the devil knows you are dead" a couple of weeks ago... and it was wonderfully depressing... not to spoil anything, i'll just say that this movie questions the nature of relationships that are supposed to be unconditional such as one between parents and children, especially between a farther and a son... also the marriage and intimacy... the acting from everyone, i mean everyone is so intense and real you cannot help sympathizing with everyone... the only thing i had to complain was that the sound effect that occurs whenever the movie jumps back to different times in the past start to get on my nerve after a few times... but other than that, it was absolutely brilliant... sidney lumet hasn't lost it at all...
also saw "no country for old men" two nights ago and thought it was pretty great... have to say javier bardem is definitely one of the best actors out there... he plays this cold blooded killer for hire to the bones... once in a while i couldn't notice how pale even blue his face looked through out the movie... also josh brolin whom i had crush on while i was in high school watching "the young riders" on tv did an excellent job... and tommy lee jones is again great playing somewhat solitary sheriff... kind of similar role as he had in "the three burials of melquiades estrada" though... kelly macdonald who plays josh brolin's wife here had a great on screen presence... she had a great texan accent considering she's a scottish... the only problem i had with this movie is though that while i was in the theater it was totally gripping yet when i left the theater somehow it didn't stay with me as much as other movies i liked recently... i wonder why... i might have to watch it again...
oh, watched "lust, caution" as well... i wasn't really interested in watching it in a theater until a friend of mine told me how hot tony leung was in the movie... and she was right... thought it was pretty good despite all the mediocre reviews it received... the sex scene which caused all that controversy was really sincere and absolutely needed to show the nature of the relationship these two characters had... like "brown bunny"... if you just go beyond the fact that you see people naked doing sexual acts on large screen, you'll be able to feel the emotions that goes with the scenes... well, that's what i think anyway... tony leung is hot...
uh... i'm totally distracting myself from writing music... yikes...
still i'd like to go to see "american gangster" although a couple of people told me how trashy the movie was...

the kitchen performances...

hew...
just finished 2 nights at the kitchen with andy... it went really well and we indeed succeeded in making some people uncomfortable... hahaha...
there were definitely moments before the performance when we thought "uh, oh, it's not going to work..." although i know it's rather natural to go through that doubt when you are "creating" something totally from scratch... however we sure are glad we went through with it... and i think one of the qualities we so-called artists need is not giving up... even if it doesn't look like it's going the way you want, you still have to keep doing it, looking for the ways to make it work... then after certain moment, you could see something merging from what seems to be a jumble of disasters... and you start to have so much fun... also doing what i do, making music that's so not main stream, i really need that in me... also because the only way to decide if something is working or not is totally up to me... you know what i mean...
i have one more big project coming up in a month that i'll have to do so much work for it... and i'm sure there'll be many moments i'm going to say "i'm fucked..." hopefully this time i'll have less moments like that... i doubt it though...
but when it's so much fun doing it, how could i stop... and when there are so many amazingly talented people helping you out, you really cannot just give up...
ok, cheesy moment... but big big thanks to cornelius, trevor, miguel, jared, emily and andy... it turned out to be so much fun...

tonight in phily...

just got back from a gig in phily...
after the gig this guy came up to me and said...
"considering how unfriendly you are, i was really shocked to see how sensitive you played."
for a second i wasn't sure if i heard him right then realized he did say what i thought he said, i said,
"oh, i'm shy but if you want to be judgmental about me, go ahead..."
he came back toward to me and said,
"i'm not judgmental. i came to the conclusion over the course of the evening" or something like that...

ok... here are some of my after thoughts which i really wish i was able to say it right away but i guess i didn't want to create a scene...

a. he wouldn't have said that to a guy...
b. where the hell did he get that bull shit theory that being friendly has anything to with playing sensitively...
and
c. fuck you...

seriouly...

for all the cello players out there...

a couple of weeks ago, i flew with northwest to ann arbor... i think that was the first time i flew with a cello flight case on northwest... when i checked in, the woman at the desk asked me what it was and i said cello... and since i was checking only one bag and cello case was NOT overweight, i was sure i wasn't going to be charged... however she told me that i had to pay $80. each way and showed me a print out of their policy stating all the checked cello/bass will be charged $80. on domestic flights and more on international flights... which means it doesn't matter if it's undersize or underweight, which some of cello flight cases are, but as long as it either cello or bass, you'll have to pay... i should've told them it was viola da gamba... i've been flying so often and this was the most outrageous case... usually i rarely get charged... on top of all that, miya's koto which was also checked in for the same flight didn't get any extra charge although it was bigger and heavier...
so if you need to fly with your cello, please AVOID northwest... they are worse than delta...