How Does it Feel

to sleep on a concrete banquette while stranded in JFK for 20 hours? No, how does it feel in my arms...

I've been wondering who sang the song that I've been hearing all over Europe, and of course it's Kylie! At first, I didn't find it exciting or annoying- it was just there. But then the chorus got into my brain, and I started humming it after passing the last of the sausage stands all blasting it from the same radio station. Now I'm getting emotional listening to it. I'm in America now, where some people love Kylie, but where her face isn't plastered on public transit. Here it is:



And here's the video for her cover of "Locomotion," one of the first pop songs I remember hearing in my life. 1987. Whitney was my first tape, and Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine was my first concert. Hehe. Anyway, in between these two videos was the time period when INXS' Michael Hutchence made the famous quote about his favorite hobby- "corrupting Kylie." Hot. I once knew a guy who had At Folsom Prison and Kick prominently displayed in his room- I thought that was hot too. I digress.

I just wrote a paragraph complaining about missing the flight and blah blah, but fuck it. I am truly pissed about waking up every hour on the hour (to vacuums, screaming children, angry airport workers, snoring-of-dude-next-to-me, arcade games, men screaming into walkie-talkies, chipper early morning travelers, etc) for my 28th birthday, but I don't feel like expressing any further negativity. I'm anxious enough about returning to Seattle that it's easier to just take a Zen approach to it all.

In my waking times since arriving at this airport, I've read about Timbuktu and Patagonia in Vogue, gossip in the New York Post (why is Page Six on pages 11-12?), some fantastic Open Letters by former Czech president Vaclav Havel, and listened to some African jazz via Matos, as the sun rose pink and gold. I fantasized that I was off to another locale.

***

Aside from some hellacious cab fares due to my not-subway-friendly luggage, NYC was a lovely sojourn. Annie and I found each other pretty quick despite our phones not working, and made our way to Jersey City to stay with her awesome friends John and Beth. We hung out in the West Village and LES- piano bar, wine bar, and some burlesque at the Slipper Room for my birthday! Best stage name I've heard in a long time: Clams Casino. She did acts to Van Halen's "Jump" and Hendrix's "May This Be Love (Waterfall)" that were great. Janice de Milo did a hilarious act to one of my favorite songs, the Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" I can't give away the secret, but her sense of humor in regard to the song was perfect. I met a woman taking the workshop with Jo "Boobs" (NYC's Miss Indigo), the woman's bf formerly of Seattle, and then Jo herself. Awesome! Then Annie's friend Brian, who had joined us for the show, took us around and I felt like a local. I love it that every time I go to NYC, I spend time in completely different neighborhoods.

The show got me excited to get costume-crafty...right before I left Prague, I used my limited Czech to buy some very Bohemian/sound-of-music-esque ribbon, cloth roses and yellow rhinestones with which to make a hip belt. To have success with a transaction significantly more involved than "sunkou a syr bageta, prosim" was awesome. I actually had a few moments like that in my last week- the beginnings of what felt like conversation with people. Of course, when I'm about to go...

Two blog things I want you to see:
this picture post from Christine.
My new friend Fantastikoi Hxoi's latest LP and art, available for your download, which you will not regret.

Also: what should I do with this blog, now that I'm no longer in Prague? I could let it go to the graveyard like other variations on 'Prague Rock' blogs- there are a bunch that were obv. intended to document a specific time and haven't been updated since. I have lots more Prague pictures and stories I could retroactively post. Or I could keep posting and change the title. Anybody?

At Sea

I spent last night in Anděl (Angel), feeling a breeze pass through a room which shows Vyšehrad from one window and Prague castle from another. Listening to a thunderstorm, and waking up to a beacon. On the walk to the tram I took a picture of a building covered in script, including "I love change. I sail all the seas."

People keep asking me what I want to do when I get back to Seattle, and besides looking for a job, and having some lillet and lettuce at Presse, I just want to relax. I'm living life as usual until the last minute of having to leave (which is 10 a.m. tomorrow). That's what normally happens. I'm thinking of heading to the San Juans as soon as I can when I get back, for some true downtime. I'd love to rent a car and drive there, listening to music, and then sit on my favorite rock, and have a cod sandwich at the Brown Lantern. Mom, you in?



This pic was taken on my rock in Anacortes last July, when we were there for Shipwreck Day. Hopefully this July isn't so chilly and misty. Seattleites, you must attend this on the 19th: the whole town dumps its junk and antiques on the main drag. It's a trash-and-treasure trove, with an emphasis on nautical things you wish you could find a use for, like giant anchors and old steerage. It always makes me think of the wagon-wheel coffee table that causes so much distress in When Harry Met Sally.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel adrift. But in a good way. And the party never stops: my dear Annie has decided to spend the two days in NYC with me! Her flights in and out are almost exactly the same time as mine. I haven't seen Drinky Crow since last Christmas so this is a real treat. We will sleepily take the city by storm!

Kino

In my time at the Post, I've reviewed: 27 Dresses, Into the Wild, Iron Man, Sleuth, There Will Be Blood, Gone Baby Gone, Doomsday, In Bruges, Indiana Jones, Shutter, Vantage Point, What the Bleep, Kinoautomat, Speed Racer, What Happens in Vegas, 21, My Blueberry Nights, Sex and the City, Forgetting Sarah Marshall...

So it's been a really mixed bag. But today I'm pleased with my review for the terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad movie The Happening. It actually generated some response!

Says "Justin": Just saw that movie, and your review nailed my thoughts exactly.
Says "Peter": Thank You for saving me some money....

That doesn't look like much but believe me, it's validation! Are writers masochists? We accept breadcrumbs with such joy. But seriously, people usually don't take the time to respond to anything unless they have a complaint. At SW, I used to have a file of positive breadcrumbs (so to speak) that I'd saved, to look over when I felt particularly like I was working in a vacuum. So TWO responses, both in agreement, is really exciting. And that movie really is a piece of shit, ya'll. He's never going to beat The Sixth Sense.

The next movie I'm looking forward to is East of Eden at the outdoor cinema on Sunday. I saw it for the first time last year and it blew my mind. The quality of acting, the story...I was watching a lot of Tennessee Williams at the time too. I wish I had my notes on it. But OMG! Watch this video of James Dean and Paul Newman, via Nerve's excellent Screengrab blog. It's before the filming of Eden, when Newman was up for the role of Dean's character's brother. It takes a second for the sound to kick in. Wait for it, and try not to get too hot and bothered at your desk.

příští zastávka

next stop



I've been having a great few days with Aimee. On Monday I took her over my favorite bridge and to the Louvre for dinner. Tuesday, we drank some honey pepper vodka she brought from Ukraine, went to the charming restaurant Lekha Hlava (on Boršov, Prague's shortest street!) for her birthday dinner, and then gazed at the castle a little bit afterward. They were super nice to us at dinner, letting us sit in the star room and putting a candle on Aimee's dessert. And last night we saw a ballet at Narodni Divadlo, and were joined by a handsome man for a drink outside in Staromestska. We sat between Tyn and the astronomical clock at sunset, watching a football match on a huge screen. France vs. ?

I'll link to it when it goes online, but Lucie wrote a review of the ballet she recommended to me, the National Ballet's last of the season, Santa Says, Cut It/Carmen. I hate the title of the first piece, but L explained that Santa in this context means 'saint.' It was about freeing your sexuality, as L wrote, and was certainly erotic enough. It began with people dancing in rigid, robotic formations and then stripping down to corsets and booty shorts, and kind of discovering each other and different ways of moving. "Imagine if you were here on a first date," I said to Aimee. "I feel like I'm watching the kama sutra...oh, look at that one...well, I can't get my leg up that high, that's for sure..."

Which reminds me of one of my most awkward first dates ever: going to see the midnight showing of Shaft at the San Marco Theatre in Jacksonville. We were having some nachos and beer, all good, then suddenly there's a 10-minute bubble-bath scene, with Shaft running his hand all over his lady's soapy ass. It wouldn't bother me now, but when I was 20 it was just a little mortifying.

Anyway, Santa ended with a blank stage and two explosions (from the catwalk) of cross-shaped daggers which pierced it quite dramatically. We both burst out laughing--"It's not your grandmother's ballet," Aimee said. Carmen was great other than some of the costumes reminding me of Disney on Ice. I thought Carmen was a wonderful dancer. (The original Carmen, an opera singer named Galli-Marie, is in the photo above.) And her torero boyfriend's outfit was great. Ever since I saw Almodovar's Talk to Her I've wanted to do something subversive with a matador outfit...alas, that's what burlesque can be for! And every time I see a ballet it makes me want to take dance lessons- any kind- immediately, and get better at yoga.

I'm really glad I was able to squeeze some performance in for Aimee's visit...and tonight, it's back to culture at the beer garden!

Hellas

The Greek name for Greece!

I've always liked the motto "I do not regret the things I've done, only those which I didn't do" or "have yet to do," but there are some minor regrets about my weekend in Athens.

I do regret:

Not trying the baklava or ouzo
Not reaching the sea
Not sending postcards
Not accepting a cigarette from Andrew Weatherall...or telling him what an impact Screamadelica (which he produced) had on my life.

I do not regret:

Eating mostly street food, because it was cheap and delicious.

Turning around at the entrance to the Parthenon when a friend called to me to come to a cafe, and spend the afternoon with him instead.

Spending most of my time at the festival- the music was fantastic. My interest in dubstep grew further (through Kode9 and Headhunter), and I was really wow'ed by the more experimental/psychedelic stuff like what Kieran Hebden (of Four Tet) and Steve Reid are doing together, as well as Toronto's Holy Fuck who I think must be one of the best live bands right now. At their best, carrying on where the mighty Out Hud left off! But my best discovery was this dude Fantastikoi Hxoi ("Fantastic Sounds"), who restructures Greek music from various decades past into something new, psychedelic, danceable, wonderful. A French DJ called Pilooski played the most purely fun music of the whole weekend...inciting loads of ridiculous dancing.

More later, with pictures...

On je děvkař

She gets around

I've just researched all the musicians at Synch that I didn't know of before, and there are many I'm looking forward to. There'll be future soul a la SunTzu Sound, electro, French hip hop, acid house, City Centre Offices-style ambient, 8 bit, Holy Fuck, Yo La Tengo and my friend The Field, who I saw about 6,200 miles from here at this same time last year!

But about language. Almost as useless as the "Romance" section of my Czech phrasebook--"Neboj se, udělám to sama", anyone?--are some Greek phrases, minus the pronunciation, on Wikitravel:

"Authority"

I haven't done anything wrong.
Δεν έκανα τίποτα επιλήψιμο. (...)

It was a misunderstanding.
Ήταν μια παρεξήγηση. (...)

Where are you taking me?
Που με πηγαίνετε? (...)

Am I under arrest?
Συνελήφθην? (...)

Can I just pay a fine now?
Μπορώ απλά να πληρώσω ένα πρόστιμο? (...)

Even simple things..."toilet" is pronounced almost the same as it is here, but I could never tell by the spelling.

me: check this out
Where is the toilet?
Που είναι η τουαλέτα? (poo ΕΕ-ne ee too-ah-LEH-tah?)

Annie: oh my
it's greek to me!

Well Dino and Angello told me not to be scared, so I won't be! I'm off to H & M to buy some flip-flops and maybe a spangle or two so I can feign high glamour at my hotel. Ciao and have a beautiful weekend!

Seen on the Street

Praha, Florenc bus depot, confirming the career choice of TEFL teachers everywhere:



Bratislava, under the on-ramp to Novy Most, "mmm, the smell of Axe Body Spray is making me think funny thoughts about the desert landscape..."



Berlin, everywhere, Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria representing an ice cream company called, yes, Magnum:



When we were in Cesky Krumlov, I asked Lucie and her bf Martin what was up with the fascination and advertising for ice cream. Martin joked that in the communist days, people's only pleasures were sex and ice cream. They insisted I didn't take that to heart but I can't help it. Every time I see an old man with an ice cream cone near Wenceslas, I imagine that it's the sensual highlight of his day. And it's one you can enjoy in public!

Luxe calme et volupte

Is my next stop Paris? I didn't want to see it on this trip with such limited time- would rather spend a week or longer there, especially in Kiki's Montparnasse!

Because it's spring and I'm feeling romantic, here are some things that clutter my brain that have to do with France...Pink Martini's "Sympathique." I put some of the translation below because the video is cuter when you know it.



My room is a cage
The sun streams through the window,
the bellhops are at my door
like those little soldiers
who want to take me away.

I don't want to work,
I don't want to lunch
I only want to forget him
and then I smoke.

Long ago I knew the smell of love,
a million roses didn't smell as sweet.
Now a single flower in my way makes me sick.

I am not proud of this life
that wants to kill me.
It's magnificent to be sympatico
but I have never known this.

And my favorite part of my favorite poem, Baudelaire's L'invitation au voyage:

Vois sur ces canaux
Dormir ces vaisseaux
Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;
C'est pour assouvir
Ton moindre désir
Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.
— Les soleils couchants
Revêtent les champs,
Les canaux, la ville entière,
D'hyacinthe et d'or;
Le monde s'endort
Dans une chaude lumière.

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

See, down the canals,
the sleeping vessels,
Those nomads, their white sails furled:
Now, to accomplish
your every wish,
They come from the ends of the world.
The deep sunsets
surround the west,
The canals, the city, entire,
with blueviolet and gold;
And the Earth grows cold
In an incandescent fire.

There, everything’s order and beauty,
calm, voluptuousness and luxury.

The highly-underrated (IMHO) Stars album Nightsongs opens with a woman reciting this from "Les soleils," which is where I first heard it. Thank heaven for Google...sometimes I dream of/dread a Google brain chip (assuming our brains will someday be able to be online or otherwise wired)...It seems insidious and lazy, but I really don't think it'd be much different than being able to call up information at your fingertips on a screen as we do now. And as much as I use it, I still get information from actual humans and books. While ethically tricky, I would probably be most concerned that people turn it off while playing Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. I also wish that the Babel Fish were real. Ok, I'm being a nerd. Back to work.

Pomoc, NYC!

Help!

Anybody in NYC or Brooklyn with an extra bed for a weary traveler on the 24th & 25th? Just checking! I can provide dinner and drinks at Bonita- or elsewhere- for your trouble. :)

Little Sister

Europe has re-ignited my love for a lot of different kinds of music. Or, my desire to rediscover things and learn about older eras. The time-warp/everything-but-the-kitchen sink quality of what's popular was first annoying and is now really fun.

Right now my mind is on early rock and rockabilly...last weekend kids at that cabaret were dancing and having a blast to Roy Orbison, and yesterday in a cafe in Bratislava, I heard "Little Sister" and thought, that's it, I have to start listening to Elvis.

Bratislava was a dark Prague, a little sister in a way. It felt much more recently-communist, and featured lots of crumbling, graffiti-bombed buildings. I went with my writer friend Pat and we talked music nonstop while not at the festival or seeing the few sights in town: a "bland castle" (way to sell it, guidebook), the UFO-esque Novy Most and a communist-built housing community for nearly 200,000 towering blandly behind it. There was a charming Old Town, where we saw a particularly hilarious stag party clash with chanting football fans, and other random slices of life. Best of all, we stumbled onto a fish soup festival, where everyone was cooking from wood-burning cauldrons! The park smelled amazing. 100 Slovak crowns bought you four kinds of soup. There were teams, many singing and playing accordion, and the police team's soup was the best I tried.

Wilsonic Festival: I had no idea how foxy Christian Fennesz is. The man wore a leather jacket while creating mountain-sized feedback on his guitar and laptop...I got 100% lost in his 20 minutes of music. The sound was way off for Apparat, and his fellow singer was not very good, so I regret to report that that was disappointing. Skream played a ferocious set around 3 a.m. Hearing dubstep on a huge soundsystem is the only way to go. And the damn smoke machine actually felt appropriate, as everyone danced in a murky golden fog.

I had a dance partner for most of 2562's set- people were very friendly although nobody was speaking English. I kind of felt like I had crashed Slovakia's party that way. The surprise of Friday night was Montreal's Deadbeat, who absolutely killed it. I wasn't on assignment for once, and being a tourist I drank too much pivo, so you'll have to take the tourist's word that it was blissful music. We ran into him and complimented him later, and he was very gracious to my drunk ass in particular. Sheesh.

Saturday night was interesting as the line-up was heavy on locals, so I just wandered and soaked it all (and only a couple of beers) in. Czech hip hop guys Indy & Wich were excellent performers. Like listening to MC Solaar (who raps in French), it'd be nice to understand the lyrics, but the music and flow still sounds great. If I can figure out how to upload my little videos of them, I will. And I'd like to recommend MC Solaar's "Obsolète," which someone put on a mix for me in college...where are all those mixes people gave me?? God there was a long time in my life when every new friendship began with a mix trade, and certainly every new or might-be romance. Bring it back, sing it back to me...

**

Now that my most major assignments at the Post are done, I can talk about my big adventure!

As Ross gears up to attend #1 on this list- and I'm so jealous!!- I'll be heading to #3, Synch Festival, this weekend in Athens!!!! My grandmother went to Greece in her 80s I believe, and it was a very big deal. Because of that I always thought of the place as ancient, special, somewhat unreachable. I feel super lucky and amazed to get to go at this time in my life. I'll be working so if interested you can read my review for RA afterward. There's some downtime on Saturday and I look forward to exploring the Plaka and maybe a beach. I read that outdoor cinema is a big thing, and there's a few with views of the Acropolis. I probably won't get to that, but wow!!!

R.I.P. Yves

"To be beautiful, all a woman needs is a black pullover and a black skirt and to be arm in arm with a man she loves." – Yves Saint Laurent

One of my favorite fashion designers died this week. Here he is with Catherine Deneuve, who he so exquisitely dressed in Belle de Jour.

If I could afford just one tailored wardrobe of YSL and Chanel knock-off's, my fashion situation would be solved for at least five years. Maybe forever.

For now, I go in my jeans and T-shirt...sigh...on a bus to Bratislava and the Wilsonic music fest! I'm very excited to hear Noze, Fennesz, Skream and Apparat's new band. My Muxtape isn't done yet, but I threw up Apparat's "Arcadia" for you as well as Broker/Dealer's "Midnight" and Zero T's "Heartbreak Ridge," which are my jams of the moment.

Hezky víkend!

Football

The text reads: "Four long weeks of WORLD CUP FOOTBALL. From the 9th of June."

I'm envisioning some heated debate over this ad. Not over whether or not it's too risque, this being Europe, but I bet anything the women in the office made a case that no vibrator should have dust on it in the first place. Proper storage, people.

The other day, I got this text about calling up Euro updates on the phone. I'm loving that every citizen gets this automatically, LOL:

"Vse o deni na turnaji EURO 2008. Zpravodajstvi ve forme SMS- 2 az 4 zpravy denne. Pro aktivaci poslete ++EURO na 4616. Cena balicku 49 Kc. Vice chytejte.cz"

Using the logic of sentence structure to figure out "To activate send ++EURO to 4616" was also minorly thrilling.

From today's Czech newspapers:

EURO 2008 in Prague streets. Everybody who doesnt like soccer should leave Prague for some time, because you wont be able to avoid seeing it everywhere. Apart from the sports bar, there are going to be large screens installed on Václavské and Staroměstské squares where people can gather and support the Czech team. On Staroměstské square there is also going to be a rich cultural programme, bands like Žlutý pes or Divokej Bill will perform on stage there. The screen installed there is supposedly going to be the largest one in CR (size 7x5 m). It is not going to be used only for matches of Czech team, but for all matches so that tourist can come to watch and support their team as well. Fans watching on Václavské náměstí can take part in various soccer competitions and there is also going to be a soccer-school. Also on Anděl there is going to be a large screen and Prague 5 mayor Milan Jančík hopes that it will help drag young people to sports. (Lidové noviny, p. 6)

And here's a Nike commercial I saw at the screening for Indiana Jones, and thought was pretty cool. It puts you in the position of someone who just got signed to Arsenal. All I know about soccer is that Ronaldinho is in this clip, and that Ronaldo recently got busted with three tranny hookers. What a bad break. Anyway, if I were a player I'd want to be on a team called Arsenal. It has to be the most badass team name ever. Simple, swift and deadly!

Peachie for Obama

Some people have been looking at me cross-eyed for being excited to go back to the States, but this fall is going to be something else. Wouldn't miss it.

Via MSNBC at midnight:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, NBC News projected based on its tally of convention delegates.

By doing so, he shattered a barrier more than two centuries old to become the first black candidate ever nominated by a major political party for the nation’s highest office.

“After 54 hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end,” Obama told cheering supporters in a victory celebration in St. Paul, Minn., at the site of the convention that will nominate his Republican opponent in the fall, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

“Tonight, I can stand here before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for the president of the United States of America.”

Obama, 46, of Illinois, hailed his Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, for having “made history in this campaign, not just because she is a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she’s a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight.”

“Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton,” Obama said.

But after splitting the last two primaries of the election campaign with Obama, Clinton refused to give him the unalloyed victory he sought.

***

I was for Clinton at Caucus-time but have changed my tune since. Unfortunately our country has been revelead to still be blatantly and horribly sexist as a result of her campaign. And I still say Obama sounds too good to be true, but I'll take that over the alternative. Four years ago I was dying my hair on election night, as we despondently watched Kerry's defeat unfold. I remember watching the debates at the Vera Project (loving James' commentary) and trying super hard to muster the excitement for our leaden candidate. Obama's personality in comparison shines like a diamond. Now how about his policies...

***

I've amended this post because I don't want to get my hopes too high up. I will shut up for now! Here are two contrasting viewpoints, which I both agree with, from the Huffington Post on how Hillary has handled this news:

Con by Beverly Davis in Hillary: It Ain't Over Yet!

Pro by Erica Jong in Being Gracious in a Sexist World

Around Me

I've spent so much time in Mala Strana and Kampa recently...it's absolutely my favorite area of the city. I'm having a little trouble articulating how much I love Prague, which is why I sometimes talk about everything else on this blog. I'm starting to get sentimental though since I don't have much time left.

The weather's been phenomenal. In the upper 70s at least every day and night. No jacket necessary. Every afternoon around 4:30 the breeze picks up, the sky gets dark and it rains for a while. It feels quasi-tropical, oddly like Florida. I was even caught in a hailstorm on Sunday and the air on the pub deck I took refuge on was still warm. Last Saturday night, while I was waiting for a midnight cabaret, I was walking to meet Lucie, very slowly across Most Legii because of how the air felt. It was raining lightly and I stopped in the middle of the bridge to listen to the thunder. Sheet lightning above the castle competed with fireworks in the distance. A lot of people were alone and doing the same.

Before I'd turned down that road I had finally walked up to the creepy memorial to communist victims on Ujezd, and took this picture of it from behind:



A marker explains: "The memorial to the victims of communism is dedicated to all victims, not only those who were jailed or executed but also those whose lives were ruined by totalitarian despotism."

And here's something creepy I snapped above the door of A Studio Rubin:



Here are some of the many rosebushes (in red, white, orange, and pink) that have exploded in front of the flat:



And here are my spring shoes, the only nice thing I've bought myself in Prague, which are already getting ruined by the otherwise delightful weather:

Červen

I'm absolutely beat from Fringe Festival. I saw so many great performances and met loads of interesting people...will definitely be posting more about it in the next couple of days.

June, month of the summer solstice and my birth, the Countdown To Aimee (she'll be here in 14 days!) and the premiere of the Sex and the City movie! This + the new Wong-Kar Wai tomorrow = a fairly thrilling week in terms of film reviewing. I'm expecting to find major flaws with both but am still excited. WKW is my #1 favorite director. But the preview for My Blueberry Nights was troubling because:

1. Jude Law and Norah Jones as the main characters. Although, my opinion of Law was recently improved by the brilliant re-make of Sleuth.

2. Candy colors, but not from Christopher Doyle.

3. Natalie Portman, once again (from the looks of it), not being given enough to chew on.

4. The worst is hearing the dialogue...flat, sentimental, and pseudo-deep...and wondering if his movies have always been like that, and do I only enjoy the dialogue of In the Mood for Love and Happy Together because it comes to me through layers of translation? I've often wondered this about foreign films in general. I think I noticed it first with Amelie. Is the story really that charming, or does the element of lost-in-translation, the base exotic quality of it being foreign, and the novelty of reading subtitles add layers of charm that the script itself really doesn't deserve? It doesn't deter me from seeing films or feeling how I feel about them. I love plenty of ones that other people think are insufferably precious in any language. But my point is, if My Blueberry Nights were in Mandarin, would I like it better?

For now, I'll daydream about what song(s) WKW will use in the new movie--he has a signature of looping one or two over and over--and revisit another that features a waitress: 1996's ChungKing Express