A (very) few highlights from Cinequest 2010

The Cinequest Film Festival started last week and movie fans have another week to catch the shows. If I could take two weeks off work and afford a VIP pass, I would see as many films as I could. But as it is, I limited myself to two screenings today.

The first screening I went to was at the San Jose Repertory Theatre, "No Tomorrow," which had it's world premiere at Cinequest. One of the highlights of Cinequest is that some of the filmmakers show up to talk about the films. But in this case, the filmmaker was snowed in in New York and couldn't make it out. Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth made the film as something of a follow up to their 2002 film "Aging Out." In their original film, they followed Risa Bejarano as she ages out of the foster care system. The film shows her graduating from high school, heading off to college, but it includes the struggles she faced growing up and the struggles she continues to face as she starts her life on her own.

A year or so after the film was wrapped, Risa was brutally murdered in an alleyway in a bad neighborhood of Los Angeles. But instead of being another anonymous Jane Doe, the prosecutor soon realizes that the documentary can be used to help make his case of a life that was just beginning being cut short as he pursued the death penalty.

The filmmakers started the new project, "No Tomorrow," as a way to deal with their ambivalence about their original project being used as ammunition to sentence someone to death. The documentary is a well-painted portrait of the complications of the death penalty, and though the filmmakers state their opinion against it early on, they offer points of view from all sides. There is footage of the trial, interviews with the jurors, graphic images of Risa with 13 gunshot wounds at close range. The filmmakers ask a lot of hard questions about the death penalty, and they offer a lot of different points of views and perspectives on the complicated issue. Anyone interested can catch the film one more time, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the Camera 12 in San Jose.

For the second screening, I headed to Camera 3 for a shorts program called "The Darker Side of Growing Up." It had five films, and included a mix of serious pieces as well as lighter fare. As with all short film programs, there was also a mix of good pieces and some stuff that was just plain weird.

My favorite of the films was "Anna," by Danish director Runar Runarsson. The piece follows Anna, an adolescent girl who is having a rough go of it since her father left the family. She goes every day to her father's boat and drains out water to keep it from sinking. Her sidekick, a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy named Ole rides her around on her bike. The film shows the extreme vulnerability of preteens as Anna one second is cursing at her mother to leave her alone, and hours later, is climbing into bed with her for comfort. In one scene, Anna's mother shields her eyes from a sex scene on television and then begins to tickle her as the girl writhes in laughter. The film shows the delicate balance of a kid in turmoil who is trying to assert her independence, but still needs a strong parent.

The other film I liked was "Brother," directed by Mary Bing. The film follows Lucy who has to deal with an annoying a little brother. The film is short, but it made me laugh as the little brother does all kinds of things to annoy his big sister, even faking an episode of allergic reactions that sends Lucy guilty to her room to hide. The acting was that great, but the sibling rivalry was amusing.

The first film shown was "Ana's Playground," by director Eric D. Howell, which is supposed to be a commentary on children of war. The film has very little dialogue in it and it has quite a surprise ending. But it just didn't quite work for me in sending the message it was supposed to send. The young actress in it posted footage from the set on YouTube, for anyone who is interested.

The other films were both filmed in New Zealand, including "Patu Ihu" by Summer Agnew and "The Six Dollar Fifty Man" by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland. "Patu Ihu" follows a young boy's interaction with his uncle and older cousin's at a funeral, but it is quite short and just didn't have enough substance to really tell the poignant story it was trying to tell. In "The Six Dollar Fifty Man," a young boy who is somewhat bullied and ostracized by his peers finds redemption in an unlikely place - the principal's office.

Cinequest continues through March 6.

Resolution No. 16 set for March

I always joke with my coworkers that I don't do things if I am not good at them. And there is a little bit of truth to that. Singing karaoke - no thanks. Crossword puzzles - ditto. I stick with the things when I know I have the competitive edge.

So it's a bit out of character for me to be signing up for a 5K since I've never been much of a runner. The problem is not that I don't think I could finish a 5K at a slow pace - I work out quite a bit at the gym and walk a mile a day with the dog - but that I don't want to be the last person across the finish line. I know I will never be the first person across the finish line, but I'd like to end up somewhere in the middle of the group.

When I first started seriously thinking about a doing a 5K in January, I figured I'd do the Stinkin' Roses Run, which is during the summer. I figured it would give me plenty of time to start working up to a faster pace for the three-mile trek. I've been doing just that, using a program on the treadmill at the gym twice a week, and adding on one minute each workout. It's a program that goes 3.8 miles at the fastest pace, but is on an incline so I figured once I got on flat terrain I would be better conditioned to run at a faster pace.

But then someone my mom works with started talking about a Wildflower Walk in March. They have a group of people, most of who I know, signed up already. They talked my mom and I into registering for it. So now I have a month to prep.

Today at the gym I tried to see how long it would take me to run a mile at a faster, flat pace. I set the treadmill on a 5K run setting and it started out well. But soon the treadmill was kicking the speed up to 6.6 miles and I couldn't keep up. I slowed it down to 5.3, ran for about 10 minutes, then slowed down for a couple minutes and speed up again. I ran 1.5 miles in 21 minutes, which should be quite an accomplishment considering how out of shape I was a few months ago. But I am not sure it's enough for my competitive streak.

I'll just have to continue the training and see how it goes. And maybe I'll just plan to beat my time in the March run at the July one to fulfill my need to do everything well.

Note to self: Read recipes more carefully

So last Friday I wrote about making a butternut squash soup that was way too spicy to eat. In fact, over the weekend we cooked up a bunch more butternut squash and leeks, added in more chicken broth and the soup was still to spicy to eat.

Well, on Tuesday when I was designing the paper and placing my food column on the page, I took a closer look at the recipe I had followed. Now the recipe for the soup was broken down into three parts - one for the soup, one for the toasted spice rub, and one for candied walnuts (which we did not make.) If I had read the recipe more carefully, I would have realized that the soup recipe called for two teaspoons of the toasted spice rub and that the toasted spice rub recipe actually makes one cup to be used for multiple recipes. So think of the amount of pepper, red pepper flakes, chili powder, fennel and coriander seed and more that would be in two teaspoons of a mix versus an entire cup. It's no wonder that soup burned going down.

So I have once again renewed my vow to pay more attention to new recipes before I start making them so I don't skip any steps or use too much of an ingredient that could make it inedible. My discovery just gives me another excuse to make the soup again - minus the excess spice.

A close encounter of the celebrity kind

This weekend when my friends and I were wasting time at Santana Row, we popped into one of two yoga shops. We were wandering around just browsing at stuff when a woman started talking to my friend who was wearing a Pitzer-Pomona sweatshirt (we are all Sagehens and alumni of Pitzer College.) She talked about the new dormitories and facilities on campus, which are all environmentally friendly, and which the woman described as being like a spa.

One of my friends asked the woman if she went to the Claremont Colleges, and she laughed as she said no, she was just there with someone else she knew. They chatted a bit longer and then we wandered on to another part of the store. And as we did, my one of my friend's suddenly realized the woman was not just any random person out shopping at Santana Row, but Brandi Chastain, Olympic soccer player. I would never have recognized her on my own, but we googled her on my phone and verified that it was likely her.

My brushes with celebrities have been few and far between, but maybe that's because I've never been too star struck about most celebrities. After all, just because someone can act or sing or play an instrument, that doesn't mean they are nice or interesting or fun person.

But I have a friend from Indiana who came to Los Angeles for grad school and was always on the lookout for stars. We went shopping at the Grove and Beverly Hills on weekdays in hopes of seeing someone famous, and hit up clubs they were rumored to frequent. She had much more luck than I did since she once had a pedicure at a spa at the same time as Demi Moore and her daughters. She also had brunch at a restaurant with some other famous person, though I can't recall if it was Nick Nolte or Clint Eastwood.

The first time I came close to seeing a celebrity was when I went to see a late-night showing of "Kill Bill" with another friend and stopped to use the restroom before we went into the theater. I emerged to my friend spouting off about seeing Cigarette Smoking Man from "X-Files." I just cursed my small bladder.

But I got my own turn my second year in graduate school when I was assigned to cover a movie junket for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" for the Daily Trojan. I arrived early at some fancy Beverly Hills hotel where I sat around with a bunch of other journalists - college ones and professionals. I waited around for half a day for the PR people to let us know when it would be our turn and finally I got a message that I could go up to meet for one-on-one interviews with the actors and director. I headed to an elevator and none other than Jim Carrey walked in right behind me. I was quiet and tried not to act too awkward. He was quiet, too. And when we got off on the same floor, he was ushered into a room and I was approached by a PR person who told me they had cancelled the interviews for college press.

Instead they wanted the 40-plus people to gather in a room with all the actors - Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, Carrey, Mark Ruffalo - and writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry. Just a select few of us would have a chance to ask a question, and in the end I was not one of them. But it was still a pretty interesting experience, especially since "Eternal Sunshine" makes my list of great movies.

Now that I live back in the Bay Area, my brushes with celebrities are usually limited to the Cinequest film festival when I - and several hundred other people - have a chance to hear the Maverick Spirit Award winner talk about their filmmaking career. Next week, I'll be seeing Benjamin Bratt - albeit from a distance.

Breakfast at the Village Bistro

I met up with some college friends this weekend at Santana Row, a place that is a convenient point between the places we live. We originally planned to grab lunch, and I had a few places picked out to help along Resolution No. 2 (eat at five new restaurants.) But since my family had tickets to Cirque du Soleil later in the afternoon (4 p.m.) and my sister at work in Campbell, we decided to get together earlier in the day.

The problem with meeting at 10 a.m. is that there are slim pickins' at a shopping center at that time when it comes to eating. In fact, the only place that was open was The Village Bistro and Bar. We were not drawn in by the sandwich board sign outside that promised a Bloody Mary bar inside, but simple by the fact that it was open.

Now here is where I should probably confess that I am not a breakfast person. My sister and dad love breakfast - the bacon, the sausages, the eggs, the pancakes, the chorizo - if it's on an early morning menu they love it. They even love breakfast burritos for dinner or just plain breakfast for dinner.

But me, I only eat in the morning because when I go to the gym at 5:30 a.m., I'm kinda hungry by 7 a.m. Most days I eat a piece of wheat toast with jam, a hard-boiled egg white and a glass of fat-free milk. And I don't crave anymore than that.

Paired my underwhelming feeling about breakfast foods with my attempt to eat healthier this year, and I was kind of at a loss about what to order off the Village Bistro and Bar menu. There were plenty of items that looked good. A BLT breakfast sandwich, eggs benedict, french toast. But I went with a three-egg scramble with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and jack cheese, roasted potatoes and a buttermilk biscuit. The potatoes were delicious, coated in a red spice mix that was reminiscent of Season-all. The egg scramble was pretty standard, though, and I ate about half of it, and I skipped the biscuit altogether.

Next time I am craving breakfast, I think I will stick with OD's Kitchen, a little hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Gilroy that has the best homefries and pancakes I've ever eaten. It's the kinda place only locals know about and the family pick for Father's Day. And next time I go to Santana Row, I'll make sure to get there after the lunch hour so I can try Pluto's or the Counter, or one of the many other restaurants only open for lunch or dinner.

It's a bugs life at latest Cirque show

I've seen three Cirque du Soleil shows now, including the latest touring show "Ovo," which opened in San Jose at the Taylor Street Bridge on Friday. I can say each one has left me amazed.

There are few things I can expect from a Cirque du Soleil show, especially the touring shows, which are performed in the Grand Chapiteau, a kind of big top tent that offers good - and close - views from almost every angle. There will be some high-flying trapeze act that will nearly make me have a panic attack and that will cause me to look away and cringe from time to time. There will be a contortionist who will make me wonder at the amazing way a human body can move, given that I am barely flexible enough to touch my toes. And there will be a plot that isn't really clear until I read the synopsis of the show.

The latest show "Ovo" is about a thriving colony of bugs, though I can't really say what most of the bug costumes were, except for the grasshoppers and a spider. Oh yeah, and some random bug shows up with a big egg and falls in love with a rotund lady bug and that's kind of the storyline.

But somehow the creators of every Cirque show I've ever seen have made me forgive them for the lack of plot since it's really all about the awesome performances. My favorite pieces from the latest show are the same types of acts as my favorites from the past shows I've seen, "O" and "Kooza." I love watching trampoline acrobats, in this case the grasshoppers, and I like seeing contortionists, in this case a spider. The grasshoppers leapt around the stage, and up onto a rock wall stage piece.

The show didn't have quite the wow factor of "O," which has been showing at the Bellagio in Vegas for years, and which features a stage that opens up into a water tank, or "Kooza," which featured the wheel of death act. But the costumes were still spectacular, even if it was a bit hard to recognize what some of the bugs were supposed to be. The performers move in amazing ways that seem to defy the limits of human abilities. The music was perfectly matched with each act. It was worth the cost of admission for fans of past Cirque performances while it is in the Bay Area, where tickets are still available for some of the shows through March 21. Arrive early, though, since parking is hard to come by in the area near Taylor Street - and be patient when leaving since traffic jams are inevitable on the streets nearby.

Holy spicy butternut squash

I grew up Catholic and even though I haven't been to church since 1996, I still get little guilt pangs if I eat meat on Fridays during Lent. So most of the time I just try to come up with meatless options for the six weeks of Lent.

Most years we stick with a few standbys - grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese pizza with vegetable toppings, cheese tortellini with marinara sauce. But since Resolution No. 6 is to try some new ingredients this year, I decided to cook up some winter squashes that are hardy enough to be a main course.

I've eaten butternut squash before, but I've never made it at home. And I've never had spaghetti squash before. I visited Food Network's Web site and found piles of recipes for both. For the spaghetti squash, I had to cut it lengthwise down the middle, no easy task, and then cooked it in the oven with a bit of water to help steam it for an hour. After it is cooked, the flesh of the squash pulls away and is stringy like spaghetti. I sauteed the cooked squash on the stovetop with a bit of butter, herbs and parmesan cheese.

The butternut squash recipe incorporates the squash, apples, leeks and a whole pile of toasted spices. The veggies cooked up for while and then simmered with chicken broth and the spice mix. The mix included fennel seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, chili powder and cinnamon. But I didn't really measure out the spices so when I blended all the cooked ingredients into the smooth soup, it turned out to be a lot on the spicy side. With the amount of peppercorns and red pepper flakes int he mix, there was lots in every spoonful. It turned out to be a bit too spicy for me, but tomorrow I have plans to mix in some more leeks and squash to mellow it out a bit.

So spaghetti squash marks the final of the five ingredients (others were celery root, quinoa, swiss chard and hoisin sauce) I said I would use and it's only February. I think I'll continue to try out new ones as the year goes on, and I am especially looking forward to picking up new vegetables and items at the farmers market when it starts next summer.

Photos by Melissa Flores

The seeds are scraped out of roasted spaghetti squash.

The squash is sauteed with a little bit of butter and herbs.

'Her Fearful Symmetry' incorporates wacky characters, but less heart than Niffenegger's first

I read Audrey Niffenegger's first novel "The Time Traveler's Wife" well before it was made into a movie last summer. The story was so well-written and unique, I couldn't wait for Niffenegger to write another novel. Though the movie wasn't very good, the book was excellent as it followed a man who time travels against his will and the love of his life in a story that transcends time.

So I was pretty excited when I saw a book review a few months ago that Niffenegger had a new novel coming out. I added it to my wishlist and got it for Christmas. So I figured this could be book No. 2 for my resolution to read 10 books this year (resolution No. 1.) The book promised to have some of the same magic as her first novel and I expected it to be a little bit off the wall, too.

This latest story revolves around two sets of twins - the first set Elspeth and Edie are British and have not talked to each other for 20-some years. When Elspeth dies of cancer, she leaves her London flat, which happens to be next to Highgate Cemetery, to Edie's twin daughters Julia and Valentina. The original set of twins have some secret the girls are hoping to unlock in the flat.

The characters are rounded out with a cast of wacky characters. There is Elspeth's much younger lover - who turns out not to be quite as young as I at first suspected - who hangs out at the cemetery giving tours and working on his long overdue thesis. And there is Martin, an obsessive compulsive man who hasn't left his apartment in years. And there is Elspeth herself who still seems to be around even after death.

The book was well-written and mostly interesting, but the characters just didn't draw me in quite as much as the husband and wife in "The Time Traveler's Wife." It's worth a read for fans of Niffenegger's first work, but don't expect it to outshine the first book.

Romantic moments in the movies

Even though I've never been a big fan of Valentine's Day, I went to see the movie by the same name this weekend. It's an ensemble romantic comedy, which means there are a whole bunch of different people whose lives somehow intersect and it's the viewers job to figure out how they are all supposed to fit together. Some of the actors included Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Julia Roberts, Emma Roberts, Shirley McClaine, Hector Elizondo, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba and Jennifer Garner, among more. The movie is supposed to be all about love, from lifelong marriages, to best friends, to puppy love and everything in between. Some parts of it where more successful than others, but I will reserve more thoughts on the movie for next Friday's movie column, which will posted at the Pinnacle Web site after noon.

For now, here are other love stories that make my list of most romantic movies ever, from the classic to the obscure. Some of these movies aren't romantic, strictly speaking, but they all have a moment on screen that makes me want to fall in love so I can feel a little bit of that magic.

The Princess Bride
Westley (Cary Elwes) has it right in this movie when he always responds to Buttercup's (Robin Wright Penn) requests with "As you wish." He's got the perfect combination of good guy paired with bad boy attitude, when he becomes the dread Pirate Roberts. Plus he rescues her from having to marry a mean king. The movie is fun to watch, with a little hint of love thrown in for good measure.

Breakfast at Tiffany's
Audrey Hepburn is so lovely in every role she had, but she is especially charming as Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." From the beginning we are hoping for Paul 'Fred' Varjak (George Peppard) to win over the flighty socialite who seems to be more interested in money than love.

Say Anything
Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) is the king of big romantic gestures. The image of him standing outside Diane Court's (Ione Skye) window with a boombox playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" has been indelibly ingrained into the brains of many generations of women. We are all waiting for a big fancy gesture. Plus it's so cute when Diane's father asks Lloyd what his plans are for the future and he says he just wants to be with Diane.

Four Weddings and a Funeral
Hugh Grant is the perfect bumbling guy in romantic comedies, but he's never been quite as good as he was in "Four Weddings and a Funeral." This movie has plenty of great moments in it. I love that Charles (Hugh Grant) and Carrie (Andie MacDowell) are star-crossed lovers from the start - he's Britsh, she's American - but after all the missed opportunities they eventually end up together. It's like love that is meant to be can transcend time and continents. The most moving scene in the movie, however is the funeral scene. Matthew (John Hannah) reads a poem after his beloved Gareth (Simon Callow) dies. W. H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" is the perfect ode to a lost loved one.

Bridget Jones' Diary
This movie makes the list because Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) says he likes Bridget Jones ( just the way she is - all her crazy, zany quirks, her too much drinking and too much smoking, and all her curves. It takes a while for Bridge to realize Mark is the one for her and not playboy Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), but the journey is funny and endearing all at the same time.

Playing By Heart
This ensemble movie has a little bit of every kind of love - the young crazy 20-somethings, a happily married old couple, an unhappily married middle-aged couple and the cynical divorcee who is slow to trust. The cast includes powerhouses such as Angelina Jolie, Madeline Stowe, Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands. It's well-acted and touching.

My Sassy Girl
The Korean version of this movie, which is hard to find since it was never released in the United States, is one of my favorite movies period. But it is also one of the quirkiest romantic comedies I've ever seen. In it, Kyun-woo (Tae-hyun Cha) is a university student who is at a loss about what to do with his wife when fate intervenes. He is riding the subway home one night when a drunk girl (Gianna Jun) is mistaken for his girlfriend. for some reason he feels obligated to take care of her. Soon he finds himself on a rollercoaster ride as she drags him on some bizarre dates, always dictating what he will wear, say and drink. At first he just wants to get rid of her, but she begins to grow on him. He starts to understand her only after she suddenly disappears from his life.

Reality Bites
"Reality Bites" is another of my favorite movies and the relationship between main characters Lelaina (Winona Ryder) and Troy (Ethan Hawke) is the reason this film makes the list. Lelaina is the driven over achiever who finds her college success hasn't translated into success in the real life. Troy is her best buddy who has more potential than anyone, but chooses to spend his time in deadend jobs. The sexual tension between the two is palatable, and the whole movie, I rooted for them to get together. Troy is the consummate jerk who hurts Lelaina, but he redeems himself when he shows up on her doorstep and says he has "a world of regret" and declares his love.

Wings of Desire
In this foreign film by Wim Wender, an angel gives up his wings and internal life to be with the woman he loves. Enough said.

Casablanca
In this timeless classic, Richard Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) are former lovers who reunite unexpectedly in Casablanca. Blaine is an American ex-patriot who is cynical and bitter since Ilsa left him in Paris. The reunion gives Isla a chance to explain her reasons for leaving and they consider running off together, in this movie set against the backdrop of World War II. In the end, Richard loves Ilsa enough to let her go.

Love Actually
"Love Actually" is an ensemble love story in the same vein as "Playing By Heart" and "Valentine's Day," but this 2003 movie gets my vote for the best love story I've ever seen. It is packed with actors - Keira Knightley, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and more. Like "Playing by Heart," it has a lot of different scenarios of love and all the characters are somehow connected. It is heartbreaking, lovely and beautiful all at the same time and I see bits of my own life in so many of the stories.

One of my favorite storyline is that of Daniel (Neeson) as a man who has recently lost his wife who is adjusting to life as single dad to stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster.) Sam has his own puppy love crush and has the best line in the movie when his stepdad asks him what is wrong and he says he's in love. Daniel said he thought it would be something worse and Sam's response is "Worse than the total agony of being in love?" Truer words were never spoken, but Sam keeps the faith later on in the movie when he says, "Let's go get the shit kicked out of us by love."

It seems that even with all that agony, a lot of us are willing to get the shit kicked out of us again and again. At least, I know I am.

Friday night at a Tapas bar

I've been wanting to go to a tapas bar for ages, but just never managed to make it. But since resolution No. 2 is to try five new restaurants this year - and a new tapas bar opened in downtown Gilroy - it seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

Lizarran Tapas Selectas opened a few months ago in Gilroy's Old City Hall. It has a few things going for it - it is a really cool building and it seems like a perfect fit for the chic feel in the tapas restaurant. The restaurant is casual while being a little more upscale than most everything in town. Though it is a chain, only two locations exist in California - the rest are in Europe and Spain - so it still has a unique vibe about it. Plus the food was really good.

The menu has a lot of offerings, including a huge number of appetizers but there are also entrees on the menu for people who are looking for a full meal. My friend and I started out with the pinxtos, which are little mini appetizers that are displayed at the bar. They can be purchased individually for $1.75 each. It worked out well since my friend was able to have a salmon cream cheese roll since I don't eat fish and never order fish appetizers to share. There are an awful lot of fish options on the menu, but there were plenty of others things I was willing to try.

Instead of going with entrees, we chose to get a cheese and cured meat tray as well as a couple of the hot appetizers. We shared a plate of deep-fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce with aioli and some grilled asparagus. We ended up taking home at least half of the potatoes and the cheeses and meats. The restaurant seems like it would be a perfect place to go with a group for drinks and snacks. There is an extensive wine menu and a full bar. There is also an upstairs area in the City Hall building so it will be interesting to see how the staff make use of it.

The staff was also very attentive - and patient - with us as we took a long time to select what we wanted. The manager even stopped by to apologize when they didn't have the hard cider we ordered.

I hope the Lizarran fares better than the last few restaurants that made a go of it in the city hall building. I'll be sure to eat there again.

Serrano ham served with brie and olive tapanade.

Manchego cheese served with quince and mint.

Patatas brava de Madrid, or deep-fried potatoes served with a spicy tomato sauce and aoili.

Esperragas Verde a la plancha, or grilled asparagus with sea salt and olive oil.

Cured meat and cheese tray.

Pinxtos, such as these hard-boiled eggs served with tuna, are sold individual at the bar.

Photos by Melissa Flores

'District 9' - morality play or B-movie?

I watched the sci-fi movie "District 9" last weekend in an attempt to see as many of the movies nominated for best picture Oscars as possible before the Academy Awards in March. I knew it was out on DVD so it seemed like an easy movie to get out of the way.

When it first came out in movie theaters, "District 9" wasn't really hyped all that much. People thought it was just another sci-fi movie about aliens invading the earth. But then there was talk about how it was really a referendum on the Apartheid era in South Africa and inequality. Then it started getting nominated for awards and an Oscar nomination for a sci-fi film is rare.

The only person I know who saw it, a co-worker, said he turned the movie off in the first 10 minutes because he doesn't like fictional stories that get all high and mighty. I thought for sure I would disagree with him since I've been to South Africa and have seen the aftermath of Apartheid in person.

But about 10 minutes into the movie, I too, wanted to turn it off. Like another movie I've seen recently, "The Book of Eli," "District 9" also has a bit of a split personality. It starts out a bit like a mockumentary, with talking head interviews of people who knew Vikus Van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), though viewers don't know yet what has happened to Vikus.

The crux of the movie is that an alien spaceship has landed on earth, right in the middle of South Africa's capital Johannesburg. And it's just hovering there and not moving, so a team goes in and "rescues" the beings on the ship. These beings don't appear to be the intelligent creatures one would expect to invade the earth. They look like giant craw fish, are addicted to cat food and are generally unpleasant.

The aliens don't look nearly as cool as the ones in more high-tech movies, like "Avatar." And there is a bit of splatter blood giving the movie a low-budget feel.

The government huddles the aliens all in District 9, a sort of makeshift township that is outside the city limits. But 20 years later, the alien population has grown and they are venturing into town more often. The government hires a contractor to come in and move the aliens further from town - into a District 10.

Now for anyone who doesn't know about Apartheid, during that era the white conservative minority had control of the government - they decided who could live where, who could do what jobs, what language people could speak and how much education they could have. The color of one's skin determined the level of privilege a person had - and members of the same family could even be classified as different races based on skin color. In the 1970s, 60,000 people were removed forcibly from District 6 in Cape Town, most of them Cape Malay (or Muslim immigrants).

So it's pretty obvious where writer/director Neill Blomkamp was going with his movie.

Unfortunately for me, the story gets lost up in the action film and the conspiracy theories. Van de Merwe is a pawn of his corporation, which really wants the high tech weaponry that the aliens have - humans cant' use it because it requires the alien DNA to make it work. In his efforts to uncover alien weapons, and force the aliens out, Van de Merwe accidentally infects himself with some ink-like stuff that starts transforming him into an alien.

You'd think pretty quickly, he would start to be compassionate to the aliens, given he starts growing a prawn arm of his own. But it takes a really long time, and a lot of shoot outs before, Van de Merwe finally comes to the big conclusion that human or alien, we are all so much alike.

Though the thought behind the movie was well-meaning, I don't really understand how it got nominated for best picture.

People from other countries who want to know about Apartheid would be better served by watching the 2004 film "Forgiveness," which I saw while in South Africa and which unfortunately has never been released in the United States.

Tulips add a bit of color in winter - Resolution No. 18 complete

I've never been much of a green thumb - just ask anyone who knows me. I recently managed to kill off a lucky bamboo plant a friend gave me when I worked at San Jose State. I don't really want to think about what that says about my luck. Any other houseplants I've ever had haven't lasted very long.

My yard gets full sun in the summer, though the soil is not the best. Still the only things I've managed to grow well are tomatoes and basil, which seem to be very forgiving plants. As for flowers, every spring I attempt to plant some, from seeds or transplants. But I haven't been very successful. For the last two years I've planted lily and tulip bulbs and not one has come up.

In high school I read a book by Douglas Coupland, "Shampoo Planet." In it one of the main character plants tulips in the fall, leaves his girlfriend for a crazy fling with a French girl, and then realizes he really loves his girlfriend again right when the tulips begin to bloom in spring. The fictional gesture of love always stuck with me.

Though one of my resolutions (No. 18) this year is to have tulips or lilies in my yard, I realized that the bulbs actually needed to be planted in fall for spring blossoms. So when I saw some tulip plants at Home Depot, I thought it might be my only chance to get them. I bought the transplants a few weeks ago, with intentions of getting them in the ground that weekend. But then it rained all weekend. And then it was cold and muddy in the yard. And then I was kinda lazy. So three weeks later, though the flowers have already blossomed I planted them this weekend and hope to enjoy them by the front door as long as the blossoms last.

From the little bit I've read about tulips, I should be able to save these bulbs and replant them next year. So we'll see how that goes.

Photo by Melissa Flores

Tulips are placed in planters near my front door.

'(500) Days of Summer' offers a heartbreaking look at love

I wanted to see "(500) Days of Summer" when I first saw it advertised, but I put it off because I knew it wasn't a typical romantic comedy. In fact, a narrator at the very beginning of the movie says, "This is a story of boy meets girl...but this is not a love story."

*NOTE: There are some spoilers below.

Even with all that said, I still held out hope that the movie would have a happy ending. And in some ways, I guess it did even though it wasn't quite a typical Hollywood ending.

The movie really reminded me of a book I read years ago by Alain de Botton, called "On Love" (also marketed as "Essays on Love." I may not have ever made the connection except that the main characters in the movie happen to read a different book by de Botton. The book follows a relationship from the first glimpses to the miserable ending. And that's pretty much what "(500) Days of Summer" does as well.

In it Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) falls hard for Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) when she takes an assistant's job in the office where he works. He writes greeting cards, though he studied architecture. He is solely focused on Summer, but Summer tells him early on she's not looking for a serious relationship or a boyfriend.

The movie has an interesting format that allows viewers to see the stark contrast between a boy in love and a boy left empty after a break up. It starts in what turns out to be the middle of movie as Summer is telling Tom she doesn't think they should see each other anymore. And then it goes back to the first day he meets her. The movie moves back and forth between the time during their relationship and after the break up. There are also a few gimmicks in the movie that are supposed to help illustrate Tom's elation and despair, that I found to distract from the storyline.

Overall though, I thought it was well done and the lead actors were perfect in their roles.

Someone I know who saw the movie when it first came out said it was painful to watch, and at first, I thought he meant it was such a bad movie it was painful. But he meant it was painful to watch someone fall so madly in love just to have it unrequited. After watching the movie, I wondered if I have been more like Tom or more like Summer in my approach to relationships. Tom is completely open about his feelings, he falls fast and he sees only the good things about Summer. Summer is cautious with her feelings, and guarded. She seems scared of trusting someone enough to get hurt.

I think most people are probably a little bit like both Tom and Summer, depending on the situation. I have certainly felt strongly for people who clearly didn't feel the same for me - and in the middle of it every small gesture of kindness seemed like an unspoken declaration of love. Like one my best guy friends who used to hold my hand every time we went to clubs together because "it was crowded," but would stop speaking to me if I even broached the topic of how he felt about me. For a long time, the occasional hand-holding was enough. And then it wasn't and I moved on.

I've also been on the other side of things and it's hard to resist the lure of spending time with someone who thinks I'm great, even if my own feelings are a bit ambivalent. But unlike Summer in the movie, I don't think I've ever gotten quite so involved with someone when I knew the spark wasn't there. The last time someone confessed his feelings for me two years ago, I was interested in someone else and I told him I felt I owed it to myself to see how things panned out with the other guy. In the end, I lost his friendship and the other guy turned out to be ambivalent about me.

The most heart-breaking moment in the movie is when Tom realizes that after nearly two years of telling Tom she isn't interested in a relationship or having a boyfriend, he realizes she has gotten engaged to someone else. She tries to explain it to him, how she woke up one morning and she knew. Tom asks her what she knew, and she responds, "The thing I was never sure of with you."

I guess the thing that makes a relationship work is when both people end up on the sure side of things at the same time, and I hope someday I'll be there.

Seafood restaurants are not for me

When it comes to eating out, I have always been a creature of habit. I've eaten out a couple times since the New Year and I always end up at a chain restaurant I've been to a hundred times before - like Olive Garden or Famous Dave's.

Since adding eat at five new restaurants to my resolution list in January (Resolution No. 2), I've thought a few places I'd like to try, but haven't really made much of an effort.

This weekend when I was out and about with my cousin for some wedding favor shopping for her upcoming May nuptials, she suggested we stop at Rosy's at the Beach for lunch. The restaurant is in downtown Morgan Hill and I've heard good things about it so I agreed. But perhaps I should have realized that any restaurant that is in the landlocked Santa Clara Valley with the word "Beach" in the title probably has something to do with seafood.

As it turns out, almost everything on the menu had something to do with fish or shellfish, both of which I don't eat. I was a little worried since my experience at seafood restaurants has been that they don't really do very well with their non-fishy items. Blame it on Hawg's seafood, where I used to go with colleagues at San Jose State. There was one non-fish item on the menu and it was horrendous.

I settled on half a wedge salad and half a portabello mushroom sandwich. There is really no way to go wrong with a wedge salad since as long as the iceberg lettuce is crisp and the salad was good with its creamy balsamic vinaigrette. As for the sandwich, it was good, but it was certainly something I could have easily made at home.

The decor was nice and the restaurant had a locally-owned vibe to it, which I always like. It was crowded enough on a late Saturday afternoon. But it is probably best left to seafood lovers and not those like me who don't eat anything harvested from the water.

Oscar nods announced

For the first time ever, I saw the announcement of the nominations for the Academy Awards while it was happening - at 5:30 a.m. pst. It happened to be on while I was at the gym this morning, on CNN, and I couldn't keep from watching.

Lucky for me, they made the experience very visual so I didn't need the volume. The biggest surprise to me was the nomination of not five, but 10 movies for the best picture category. It seems a little bit like cheating for the Academy to include 10 movies instead of narrowing it down more. But at the same time, I guess the longer list gives an opportunity for more movies to claim an Oscar nod. After all, Disney Pixar's "Up" is nominated and animated movies rarely ever make make it into the best picture category. I have seen four of the nominated movies - "Up," "Up in the Air," "Avatar" and "The Blind Side." Three other of the movies are on my list of movies to see soon, "District 9," "Hurt Locker" and "An Education." The only one on the list I don't want to see is "Precious" since I've read some reviews that mention the graphic and disturbing content in it.

I thought "Invictus" would get a nod, especially since there were 10 pictures instead of 5. But it didn't get one, even though Morgan Freeman was nominated for a best actor and Matt Damon was nominated for best supporting actor for their performances in it.

With so many nominees in the category, it's hard to say what movie will win. Of the movies I've seen, my guess is "Avatar" for the groundbreaking technology or "Up in the Air" for its timely storyline about unemployment and the human connection.

As for the other categories, my votes are as follows:

Best actor - George Clooney, "Up in the Air." It was the best performance I've ever seen from Clooney.

Best actress - Helen Mirren, "The Last Station." She's just amazing in everything I've ever seen her in so I am sure she is great in this, though I haven't seen it yet.

Best supporting actress - I am torn between Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, but I think Farmiga gets the edge for her performance in "Up in the Air" for her monologue about what she wants in a man.

Best animated feature film - "Up" is the best cartoon I've seen in years. It made men I know cry when they saw it. Enough said.

Best art direction - It's got to go to "Avatar" which created a whole new world of cinema.

Best cinematography -This will probably also go to "Avatar" since it's shot amazingly.

Best directing - Though I am partial to Jason Reitman, of "Up in the Air," I think James Cameron will get the win for "Avatar."

Of course, we won't know the results until March. But for now, check out the other categories and nominations at the Oscar Web site.

One resolution complete

I have been making progress on some of my 19 resolutions all month, but I completed one for the first time yesterday when I hit the submit button on an application for a Knight Fellowship at Stanford. Resolution No. 10 is done.

I first heard about the Knight Fellowship nearly a year ago, when I read one of the daily job listing e-mails I still get from the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. I went there for graduate school. The fellowship sounded pretty awesome - 10 months off work to study, complete a project and get paid more than I make as a working journalist. When I first saw the listing, the application wasn't even available for months so I figured I had plenty of time to work on it.

In October, the application on Stanford's Web site, where the Fellowship is offered, became available. I downloaded the pages of instruction, with a goal to start working on those essays right away. But then life and the holidays and helping with my cousin's wedding planning got in the way. So when January rolled around and I realized the application deadline was a month away, I finally got to work. I selected my letter of recommendation writers, picked out three additional references and got to work on the three required essays. I had to write my "journalistic autobiography," a project and study plan and an essay about my managerial style. I also selected five stories that I deemed to be my best work and I was almost ready to finish it off.

The only hitch came when I tried to upload pdfs of the newspaper pages, and they turned out to be files that were much too large to uploaded. I finally compromised and uploaded word documents of the stories. I figure if I am lucky enough to get an in-person interview, that will be my chance to show the actual pages complete with photos and placement, as well as an opportunity to talk about my work.

I don't know what kind of shot I have since the current year's fellows all sound like geniuses in their project summaries and short autobiographies. But as my coworker continually told me throughout the process, if you don't at least try, you'll never know.

Even if I don't get this fellowship, it certainly offered an opportunity to reflect on why I became a journalist and why I stay a journalist. At the end of the day, I love most of what I do and I feel like I make a difference.