Author Archives: nam95

The Best Part of Ithaca’s Farmers Market

Posted on by

The way the overcast daylight seemed to illuminate its crunchy, light brown shell still resonates in my mind.  While there is no “perfect falafel” unfortunately, not all falafels are created equal.  The particular one that graced my palate today was a fine specimen to behold, the type that gives rise to an internal struggle of emotions.  Inside raged the battle between quickly devouring the pure euphoria that is a fried chickpea ball and taking my sweet time so that I might prolong the already fleeting moments we had together.

The gyro stand I got my food from was conveniently situated at the end of the farmers market, next to several places suitable for sitting.  And for a place whose main attraction is all the things to purchase and browse, many people were sitting right on its perimeter, enjoying the food/things they had just bought, or doing nothing.  Like the part of a pie between the filling and crust that has just the right combination of gooeyness and hardness, the very outside of the perimeter was the best part of the farmers market.  There, people took a break from the overly crowded space of all the stands and had a chance to get to talk to their friends and enjoy what they had bought.  And a lot of people looked well past enjoying the food they had already devoured, but still looked happy to be sitting by Cayuga Lake in good company.  Once I was done making my own purchases, I wanted the event to be over because I realized I had assignments to do.  Spending an unnecessary 60 minutes of walking around was nice, though, because it was purely unnecessary and a break from a high pressured schedule.

Heads up, the Farmer’s market circulates different vendors depending on the season, so if you like falafel gyros get there ASAP.

Martial Arts Class or a Cult or a Bunch of Friends Hanging Out?

Posted on by

I remember sleeping over at a friend’s house when I was little, probably about 3rd grade or so.  The beauty of being that age is that your body has a natural alarm clock, and mine was set to 6 AM, so I got up, got my friend up, we had some breakfast, and went to explore outside.  We got to a park, and I vividly remember seeing this elderly couple doing these slow movements synchronized with each other on a tennis court.  Matthew, my friend, knew that these guys did this every morning, and so was less shocked.  This was the first time I remember seeing tai chi, but at that age I don’t think Matthew or I knew what it was.

The movie “The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West” documented a group of Tai Chi students that studied under Cheng Man Ching.  The documentary is filled with modern day commentaries from people who studied under him in the 70’s, mixed with older archived film of their actual classes.  Much of the time, the students talked about how great their teacher was at showing them the way one can manipulate another person’s body based on the other person’s movement, sort of similar to what I saw from the elderly couple.  What I found most interesting though is that Cheng Man Ching also spent time teaching his students how to fight with swords, how to write calligraphy, and even gave them prescriptions for Chinese medicine, which they could then take to a nearby apothecary.  In all the videos, everyone was wearing everyday American style clothes.  And given the broad range of things the tai chi teacher spent time on with his students, it sometimes seemed more like these guys were all hanging with each other.  I’ve never tried tai chi or sword fighting with actual swords, but watching these pupils and their teacher together, regardless of what they were doing, brought about what seemed like a certain familial quality to the screen.

Making Light of Situations

Posted on by

The feeling I got from “Dr. Strangelove” was similar to the one i got the first time I saw the episode of Spongebob Squarepants where Spongebob tries to explain to Plankton what fun is.  He creates a song based on the following acronym: F is friends who do stuff together, U is for you and me, N is for anywhere and anytime at all down here in the deep blue sea.  Plankton, feeling like he grasped the concept,  then tries to come up with his own version: F is for fire that burns down the whole town, U is for uranium bombs,
N is for no survivors when you… at which point Spongebob abruptly cuts him off.

Dr. Strangelove, from its first scene of two bombers harmoniously transferring gas, to its ending of peaceful music playing over a symphony of nuclear bomb explosions, is kind of like Plankton’s verse.  What I found particularly cool about Dr. Strangelove is its subject matter given when it was made.  There would have been much more tension related to nuclear bombs in the 1960’s than now.  Making a movie parodying a huge component of that tension, mutually assured destruction, seemed like a pretty gutsy thing to do.  I liked the different types of humor involved.  A lot of it seemed more on the subtle side, rooted in conversations that I would have found boring as a kid, but can appreciate a little better now.  There were many scenes that involved little more than conversation, usually between two people at a time.  However, there is still the iconic scene of  Major T. J. “King” Kong riding his bomb into the earth like a bull in a rodeo.  Of course there is the more serious issue of what to do regarding the building of nuclear weapons and I am no expert, but after watching a montage of what a chain of nuclear explosions would be like, it’s safe too say there are probably already too many nuclear bombs today.

Flash from the Past

Posted on by

Comedy has definitely changed in the past 84 years.  It is difficult to put something like Duck Soup in the same category as any of The Hangover’s or Superbad.  And that’s not to say it’s any better or any worse, but one noticeable difference between the weathered comedy I saw at Cornell Cinema and many of the newer comedies I’ve seen is tempo.  In one of the first scenes of Duck Soup, as soon as Groucho Marx makes his way on screen, he proceeds in a rapid fire of witticisms, many of which are direct insults.  It seemed like the main feature of the comedy was the comedy itself and that the movie’s plot had been built around that fact.  In contrast, I view a lot of modern funny movies as movies that have comedy built into them.  The funny things said and the funny actions performed go with the flow.  Groucho, and later Harpo and Chico, lead the movie with their antics.

Something comedy often does, true in the past and today, is make fun of controversy/ sensitive topics.  It did seem that Duck Soup had its fair share of comments/jokes directed at women.  I appreciate when humor occasionally borders along the edges of inappropriate to make a point.  For example, a comedian may make light of his own personal struggle with drug addiction.  He can still ultimately give the audience a new perspective on what it’s like to be addicted to drugs all the while making them laugh due to how the subject matter has been delivered.  I did not feel the Duck Soup jokes directed at gender, and some I believe at race, had reoriented my views or given me any additional insight.  I do not think they were maliciously placed necessarily, but are instead from a time where they might be viewed as commonplace and therefore viewed as acceptable.  I do think it’s important to still be able to make fun of serious situations, especially in a world that, as a general trend, is increasing its politically correctness.  But at the same time, there’s is a difference between something novel that may rub you the wrong way, and something hackneyed that seems more a cheap source of laughs, especially when it is viewed as offensive by a certain group of people.

Duck Soup did have its funny moments.  Even though some of the other humor used was classic gag humor commonly used in old cartoons, it still seems funny because of its innocence.  Some things simply don’t take a very deep level of thought and are able to evoke what seems like a more natural, unabashed laugh out of the audience.  All around, I recommend seeing the film as it can offer laughter, while still giving the viewer at least a small window through which to view 1933 in America.

Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke Were Married

Posted on by

I thought GATTACA was a good movie, but it had a really low energy to it.  Even during the more suspenseful parts of the movie that involved committing felonies and space travel, I didn’t really get that excited.  One of the major characteristics of the society in the movie is its pragmatism.  So while some parts were slow, it all seemed to add to this sort of business-oriented model of living.  In this world, job interviews consist of genome sequencing to analytically hire the most genetically favorable applicants.  By choosing the “best” applicant for a job, firms avoid follies and optimize efficiency in the workplace.  That’s sort of how the story-telling felt to me: straightforward and fairly unemotional, especially considering some of the subplots that were being told.

I do enjoy underdog stories, so it was nice to see the main character end up where he wanted to be.  Though as someone already pointed out, nothing major changed for the society.  This did seem anticlimactic as much of the movie was spent seeing how different businesses function and how individuals of different genetic castes live their lives.  At the same time though, it seemed more realistic and also more tragic to see just a small snapshot of this future world in the form of one person’s story.  The movie does investigate the world, but its main focus, the main character’s triumph, is small and personal.  The lead character’s own concern does not seem to be in line with the concern of the audience.  Instead of worrying about how to completely override the system, Ethan Hawke’s character simply wishes to cheat the system so that he may personally benefit.  In this way, his character is relatable.  His character already has to spend a great amount of time physically and mentally sharpening himself so that he might be accepted into a space program, so the audience can imagine what it would be like to start a full blown revolution.  Still, I wanted to see more of a hint of change for the world that was presented.

La Traviata

Posted on by

The Met Opera put together a more contemporary rendition of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata.”  The play is about a woman, Violetta, afflicted by illness who subsequently falls in love with a man, Alfredo.  While all the main characters have their own pressing issues that are addressed throughout the opera, I particularly like Violetta’s.  Violetta, selecting from many of her admirers, pays more attention to Alfredo for his looks.  She also discovers that he had been quietly admiring her for a year, during which time she did not know who he was.  Alfredo’s patience is enough to set him apart from the other men who, in a lustful stupor, frequently chase Violetta around and fall at her heels.

Despite some of Alfredo’s unique and desirable traits, I can’t help but think Violetta’s realization of her own mortality plays a major role in her choice to fall in love.  And it’s hard to blame her.  If you had a small time left to live, someone took romantic interest in you and you thought they were at least remotely attractive, I think it would be very easy to bow to the whims of romance without being too critical.    It makes me wonder if that weakens the relationship.  Alfredo had been meditating about this woman for a year, and while the two do have great passion for each other, Violetta does not have much time to deliberately weigh the pros and cons of falling so madly in love with her man.

The GRF who took us to see the opera mentioned that much of what the play is about is how a person chooses to live her life knowing that she will die, yet at the same time how that is the way everybody lives their lives everyday.  It’s definitely easy to forget your own limited amount of time living unless an illness abruptly reminds you of it.  There seems to be an optimal balance of living knowing you will die, while still thoughtfully considering the future.  The former is important so as to not waste away your days with little fruition, sort of how many of Violetta’s suitors actively chase her but never develop any other kind of relationship with her.  The latter is important so as to not rush into brash decisions laden with obstacles that may present themselves in the near or late future.  The tragedy for Violetta is that she doesn’t have much of a choice: her days are numbered from the beginning of the opera and she doesn’t have many left.

Two and a Half Hours of Runtime Divided for Five People

Posted on by

“Trestle at Pope Lick Creek” is a play with a cast of only five onstage members.  I don’t watch or read that many plays but those which I have read, like “Death of a Salesman” or “Hamlet” have had a much larger cast.  It was refreshing to see the same faces undergo many different scenarios.  While all five characters were quite different from each other, their long run time gave them all a chance to experience and express feelings from many corners of the emotional spectrum.  Overall I liked the acting.  The majority of the character’s reactions were intense throughout the play.  The story is set around the Great Depression Era and seeing consistently high energy acting sometimes made me feel like it was a bit much and like I was worn down.  That kind of allowed me to see and also feel the stress and conviction the characters had.  There were some more subtle expressions, and a lot of them I found humorous.  Other reoccurring gags seemed flat out strange, such as a prison guard constantly doing charade-type motions and asking a prisoner to guess what he was supposed to be acting out.  Even a more unconventional action like the one described contributed to the overall story.  The Depression brings with it uncertainty and instability for the characters, and they are forced to try to identify what kind of state financially and emotionally they are in, states that themselves change with every failed job opportunity or every missed action of affection.  The very ending, which I refuse to spoil, was weird and definitely made me think.

To Wear or Not to Wear

Posted on by

Last week, Flora Rose screened “They Call me Muslim.”  One of the main controversies the documentary investigated was the effect of France’s legislature that banned wearing the hijab in public schools.  One of the first things that came to my mind is what if the hijab, instead of being a piece of cloth draped around the  head, was a bowler hat.  Then, students in French public schools would be banned from wearing the bowler hat.  I realize that the two hats have their own histories and that the hijab often displays a level of piety in the Islamic religion, but I can’t help but view the physical construction of any article of clothing as being at least a little arbitrary.  This kind of makes the end purpose of the passed legislature also seem a little arbitrary.  The idea of a cloth being somehow wrapped around the head is also a fairly common one.  It makes me wonder if someone wearing a head covering similar to the hijab but for a different purpose, like a Spanish mantilla, would be affected by the law.  Or maybe there is someone who has no affiliation with Islam or any religion but looks outside one day and sees it’s windy and cold.  She looks through her house but can’t quickly find a hat more conventionally worn in France and needs to get to work on time.  So she grabs a scarf or other rectangular piece of cloth and wraps it around her head to keep her ears and face warm.  Is she not allowed to do that because it may look like a hijab?  If she is not allowed, how would federal enforcement even know whether or not it was for religious practice.  This hypothetical person has no affiliation with Islam, yet if she told law enforcement that, there’s not really a great way to prove whether she’s telling the truth or not.  I personally think wearing a hijab doesn’t directly affect others in a negative way and should therefore be allowed in public schools.  Even putting myself on the side of French legislation, though, I can’t think of a good way logistically to enforce the law without having to make some judgements about religious affiliation without substantial evidence.

Watching a Somewhat New Movie about an Old Playwright

Posted on by

“Shakespeare in Love” definitely felt like a 90’s movie.  Its visual quality and props were a little subpar to today’s standards, and it kind of added to the feeling of historical times.  William Shakespeare, a fledgling playwright, falls in mutual love with a rich woman by the name of Violet de Lesseps who is already arranged to marry Lord Wessex, a jerk, and move with him to the New World.  First seeing each other at a party hosted at the de Lesseps castle, the two bond through their love for poetry, as Violet is one of the few people already well versed in several of William’s works.  For several nights, Shakespeare manages to sneak his way into Violet’s room where the two enjoy their ripe fruit of intimacy.  While this showed both’s desire to be together despite being caught, it also allowed the two to wake up startled by the morning bell, which counts down the few days left before Violet is set to leave for the New World.  I liked how the imminent end of their relationship periodically presents itself throughout the movie, and how it both prevents and promotes romantic scenes.  While the couple can’t realistically expect their relationship to persevere, it makes imagining their future that much more tempting, as their dreams are the only place they can live their longterm desires.  These dreams find themselves untouched by time and by the less romantic aspects of reality, sealing the the couple’s passion for one another.

I was thinking on my way to lunch today, how much better it feels to be hungry and eating than to be full and satiated.  Throughout the movie, Violet and William are feverishly feeding their want for each other because they know they will not be able to in the future.  They are able to maximally enjoy each other at the tall peak of their love, at a height that has been set by their inability to be together later.  While relationships can and sometimes do flourish in the long run, there is a charm to being in love with someone when their presence still feels new to you.  For that reason, I don’t think their relationship is as tragic as it initially seems.

Super Bowl Sunday

Posted on by

I wanted the Patriots to win, but I also wanted to see a post-game interview where Bill Belichick’s team didn’t win the Super Bowl, mainly just to see his reaction.  Those are mutually exclusive events, so I opted more for the first outcome.  The game was filled with ups and downs, but mainly downs for the first two and a half quarters.  When the Patriots first scored a touchdown, I wasn’t exactly excited because 19 points still seemed like a long ways to go.  But then they scored again.  I was still doubtful, but then another touchdown came in.  It was getting to be crunch time in the fourth quarter, and by that point every play seemed to have me about out of my chair and clapping my hands.

I’m from Arizona, yet after definitively choosing my preferred team and seeing them comeback from such a large deficit, I felt like a Boston native, at least for a little while.  There’s some driving force behind “your” team winning a game, especially a championship that determines whether the team’s season will end in fruition or futility.

At the talk we had before the game, our conversation centered around advertisements and declining Super Bowl viewership.  A particular theory we came up with is that less people are watching because there are automatic score and play updates you can download on your cell phone.  After finishing the entire game, though, I thought of how much of a shame it would be to experience that win through text.  I guess I took a small slice of the victory from that team.  That slice seemed to blow up when I saw the excitement from the players, New England Natives, and anybody cheering on TV and around me in the Rose Dining Room.  For that night, this game with a binary outcome of win or lose put me in camaraderie with a bunch of other people whom I didn’t really know.  That seems to be the spirit of Super Bowl Sunday.