OK Go!

Almond Dove Bar

That's what a certain ex-boyfriend's boyfriend calls the greatest filmmaker in Europe, perhaps the world, Pedro Almodóvar. Last night the maestro's latest, "Bad Education," opened commercially in New York, after a much-celebrated NY Film Festival appearance in September. This gem of a movie is a multi-layered story of frustrated love, child-abusing priests, avenging drag queens, and the vagaries of madrileño film-making. Mexican heartthrob Gael García Bernal (pictured left) is a revelation, if you will excuse that cliché, as both the aspiring actor who surfaces with an explosive script, and as that script's avenging heroine. I won't tell you more - just see it, ferchrissake.

Andres saw this two weeks ago in Argentina and, oddly, didn't like it as much, missing Almodóvar's stable of fiery actresses, though, for me, Bernal provides the feminine fire, and then some.

Before and after my South American trip, I watched the DVD of Bernal's earlier triumph in "Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too)," as the poorer of the two horny teen protagonists (pictured left). This movie is also essential viewing, for its incisive take on male teen sexuality, capturing the insecurity, jealousy, and even sexual ambigiuity underneath the bravado and banter. All this is framed by a grainy, realist travelogue through the racial and cultural contrasts of Mexico's landscape, and punctuated by forward- and backward-looking narrative breaks reminiscent of the French film "Amelie."


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Calcination Sensation

Proud to inform you that this morning I produced some museum-quality work : - ) My breakfast soy sausages actually require 1 1/2 minutes of microwaving, not 6 minutes like my lean cuisine dinners... : - ) My apartment now smells like the silver medal in the Olympic Incineration Competition. Not bad for 15 minutes awake, huh?

Check out Museum Of Burnt Food on-line, it's a hoot. At left: a free-standing hot apple cinder, circa-1989. Oh shoot, I should go photograph the cinders, for posting tomorrow. Done! The things I think of when I'm an hour late for work....

But I was kind of sick last night, it made sense to sleep it off, I'm feeling better today for my first weekend home since Halloween. Tonight, I'm seeing Bad Education (Mala Educación), the new Pedro Almodovar movie, with my friend Day. I'll be writing more later, stay tuned...

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I'm too busy to post (sad, but true), and I have a throbbing eye headache. But here's two cartoons:



















th th th th th that's all folks

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Chocolates In My Pockets

Work is raining on me from all sides, a literal mud slide. I'm having a Lucy-at-the-chocolate-factory kind of day (picture right).

Bang Bang: In Brazil we were actually driven around in cars with bulletproof windows, which were also un-openable. I think they're really exaggerating with the security. I do not consider Sao Paulo any more dangerous than NY was in the 1970s, maybe even less so. Equally idiotic: having investors driven from the bank to the hotel, three blocks away, requires cars to take a hour-long detour through bumper-to-bumper traffic! When I insisted on getting out and walking, the driver, a security man, initially refused. Our comprise was that he parked the car and personally walked me to the hotel. It felt like wearing a spacesuit to the beach...

Cartoon:

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Aar-ival

Yuck! Got home at 7am, happy but bleary-eyed, and noticed the rotting Halloween pumpkin on my kitchen table. In a moment of classic Aaron slapstick, I picked up the pumpkin by its handle as I went to throw it out. Imagine my vexation when its bottom half came loose and crash-landed all over my large pink Turkish rug. My curdled scream would have been more appropriate to, say, a shattered Ming vase or a chihuahua falling out of my tenth-story window....

My Mountian Of Mail included timely post-election-blues-themed issues of New York and Time Out (the latter addressed to Theodore HV Bear, btw). While New York offered five thought pieces on "How To Survive Four More Years," Time Out out-timed them with "We Shall Overcome: 43 Ways To Beat The Post-Election Blues." Will have to peruse thoroughly. Notice the smart movie quotient has risen... Awards season approacheth...

So now I must gather myself together and sally forth to work. Be it ever so humble....

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Phallic Playdough :-)

Almost home! Had a lovely weekend with Andres, today, just a few meetings and the 9pm flight, which lands me at JFK tomorrow at 6am.

Last night we saw the most ridiculous show, the Argentine version of "Puppetry Of The Penis," in which two actors literally spend an hour molding their members and scroti into animals, flowers, household objects, and famous buildings! Proximity and good views were ensured by the small theatre size and an overhead video screen (and also the generous proportions of the actor on the right). I won't further describe the equipment except to confirm that neither of the two look Jewish... Ample audience participation only heightened the silliness. If this show has any brilliance, it lies perhaps in completely de-eroticizing male genitalia and thus making for a risqué but ultimately non-threatening family outing...

Happily, the tickets only cost $10.

Earlier, we went to a great exposition in a huge public space in the charming Palermo neighborhood called "Buenos Aires Thinks 2004," a bit of a science fair on nutrition, digestion, and many other topics. The highlight was a multimedia exhibit called "Buenos Aires 2050," the result of citizens that dared to envision the future even as their country's economy crumbled.

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Argy Bargy

Hi again from Buenos Aires. Just woke up, it's 11am. The clouds and rain surfaced about 5 minutes after I typed the words 'it's very sunny here.' :-)

My hotel's in Puerto Madero, the big, beautiful riverfront area that Buenos Aires reclaimed and developed during its 1991-1994 'boom,' see picture left. Money well spent in a city which 'grew up with it's back to the river.' This Hilton is lovely, with a huge atrium inner court with all the floors facing it from all sides and glass elevators sliding up and down the nine floors. Facing water on both sides, it's all quite pleasant.

Last night I saw a great play with Andres, Breath Of Life, a translation of a David Hare play.
David Hare's play unfolds in a single set with only two characters, about a confrontation between a woman who's husband has left her and the mistress her husband had for 25 years, who he has also abandoned. excellent acting and dialogue. problem is, i misunderstood one word that threw me off for half the play. In the beginning the wife walks into the backyard of the mistress and says 'madeleine'. but i heard 'madre', so i thought it was a mother and daugther confrontation over the same man. this seemed believable since the mistress looked older. But as the play went on, the emotions and timeline didn't seem to match the mother'daughter, and i finally realized she was saying 'madeleine' instead of mother. I hope you found that interesting. I understand the British stage version featured Maggie Smith and Judi Dench (pictured above).

enough rambling, i'm off to have some breakfast and go meet Andres. wow, i'm back in New York tuesday morning...



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