The Usual Suspects

When you hear that a movie has a surprise ending, you’re no doubt inclined to pay even more attention than usual to its plot. The movie The Usual Suspects is a meticulously scripted and faultlessly acted masterpiece that stands up to repeated viewings; even when you already know the true identity of Keyser Soze, you will still get a shiver when the surprise ending unfolds.

I still get a shiver when I think about the surprise I received last weekend.

To celebrate my birthday, M told me that we would be doing something special. It would be intense, I would have to wear formal attire, judges would be involved and to not ruin the surprise, I had to leave the house between 1-2PM because something would be delivered that needed assembly and if I would see what it was, it would give away the surprise. I was puzzled – how could an intense activity require formal clothing? And what needed to be assembled - a kite? A cooking device? Or a fishing rod? Surprising other people always gives me great pleasure but being on the receiving end felt different.

This plot had more twists than the Usual suspects and I still didn’t get it when I got back to the house and I saw one of my friends driving his car down the street. When I opened the door, eight of my best friends were there for a surprise wine tasting / dinner party. I couldn’t have asked for a better b-day and the fact that M organized all this for me, made me fell the luckiest guy in San Francisco.

Single White Female

"Single White Female" has Bridget Fonda placing an ad for a roommate in the classifieds, and winds up with mousy Jennifer Jason Leigh who not only turns out to be a stalker, she tries to take over Bridget's indentity.

A far fetched and unlikely story? Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction..

M has a friend who as of late is showing a more than normal interest in our relationship. Little things that put together, might fit a pattern only thought to be seen in movies: asking just the two of us over for dinner, buying a wedding book after having seen a similar one in M's house, suggesting to join us on our trip to Holland after finding out that we'd be going there in May to visit my family..

It might be a little far fetched. And I'm not at all interested in M's friend. But I'm sure that for some men, women fighting over a guy would be like a dream come true.

Bean

One of the most memorable scenes in "Bean", exemplifies how one little mis-step, innocent by itself, can lead to another and snowball into a really bad situation.

In the scene I'm referring to, Mr Bean steps back to admire Whistler's Mother, America's most valuable painting. He tuts disapprovingly as he spots dust on the frame and blows it away. Some of the dust ends up on his nose, causing him to sneeze all over the painting. He takes out his handkerchief to wipe the spittle off in panic and then looks back at the painting. There now is a big blue mark right across Mrs Whistler's face. He checks his handkerchief and finds wet ink all over it caused by a leaking pen in his pocket. He takes out his shirt, spits on it and tries to wipe the painting, causing the ink to spread right over Whistler's Mother's pure white collar, completely destroying the painting.

Soooo, last weekend my girl-friend found herself in a similar situation when she tried to get an additional Costco membership card for me they allow for 2 cards per household. While taking the required information, the sales associate asked how long she'd known me. M answered "6 months" (almost true) and to justify the case, she added "He moved in 1 week ago" (not true). The associate replied "Nice that you're getting him a card; he'd better do something special for you on Valentine's day" M aswered "Yes, he's going to cook me a suprise dinner", fogetting that since I supposedly moved in, I'd do the cooking at her place. So the associate continued "How are you getting changed for dinner as he is preparing the suprise dinner at your house?"

Sometimes a simple "Yes" is the best answer...

Me, you, and Everyone we know

'Me and You and Everyone We Know' is an original, poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating and contemporary world.

The movie contains many memorable scenes such as the demise of a poor goldfish accidentally left on the roof of a family car, leaving you feeling more sorry for a dollar store goldfish than you ever had before. Another story line follows two teenage girls trying to be grown ups by enticing a man into leaving lewd notes on his front window.

And those lewd notes bring me to yesterday: I was leading my team meeting and was showing our latest business results through a projector on a big screen. While presenting an 'intruiging' pie chart, all of a sudden a window pops-up on the big screen for all in the room to see with the text 'Hi Marcello, I miss you'. I hesitated, the five seconds that the window was visible felt like 5 minutes, and after the window disappeared I continued, pretending that nobody in the room had seen the message.

Since seeing the movie 'Divorce Italian style', my girl-friend sometimes refers to me as 'Marcello'...

Lesson learned: disable your email notifier when using your laptop for business presentations.

Meet the Fockers

'Meet the Fockers' is a sequel to the movie 'Meet the parents'. After convincing his fiancée's parents to allow them to marry, Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) now has to deal with what happens when her father Jack (Robert De Niro) meets his own family. The movie received less favorable reviews than 'Meet the parents' .

Last weekend it was my turn to meet a new family member of my girl-friend: her sister. And although I haven't met my girl-friends parents yet, after last weekend I have to admit that meeting family members other than the parents can indeed result in a less favorable experience.

I had to address a barrage of questions - my shoe size, how long my mother had been feeding me, my dad's occupation - just to name a few of them. Her sister also told me that she thought of herself as a snobby person and wanted to know if I agreed. And as I did, the stage was set for an interesting conversation.

But apparently I withstood the test better than previous boy-friends so there still is hope.. :)

Aviator

'Aviator' is the kind of spectacle that hasn't been seen much since the golden days of Hollywood. The movie plays like a sense memory with Technicolor skies, ravishing and silver planes and celebrated nightspots like the Coconut Grove with big-bands and showgirls.

But it is, first and foremost, the story of Howard Hughes (DiCaprio)...aviator, filmmaker, industrial pioneer and a man with many beautiful women in his life. He was the richest man in America in his day, but he took outrageous risks with his money, pushing his fortunes to the breaking point and beyond. As his fame and reputation grew, his personal demons did, too. He suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, was phobic about germs, and as his success grew, so did his paranoia.

Last night, another couple came over to my girl-friend's house for some wine and cheese. The guy had a really bad cold but after I mentioned that once in a while my girl-friend would get upset with something I say, he shook my hand to congratulate me with the fact that 'once in a while' was much better than he had to deal with with his girl-friend. After they left, the door hadn't closed yet, or my girl-friend was instructing me to wash my hands and take some flu medicine, assuming that I surely would get sick after touching his hands.

According to some sources, germs phobia can be triggered by myriad benign events like movies, TV, or perhaps seeing someone else experience trauma. So I maybe should refrain from showing the Aviator DVD to my girl-friend..

Dogma

Kevin Smith, a churchgoing Catholic, uses Dogma to explore a wide range of church-related issues. The film comes to a head at a church rededication in Red Hook, N.J., conducted by a cardinal who is interested in updating the way Catholicism markets itself in the modern world.

This Christmas Eve I attended a service in Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. And allthough the 'Our Father' prayer that we recited is still applicable today, I suggest that the Catholic church considers using these modernized guidelines for its followers to read and reflect upon:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's:
- Respect for Self
- Respect for other's
- Responsibility for all your actions
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Don't' let a little dispute injure a great relationship
6. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
7. Spend some time alone every day.
8. Open arms to change but don't let go of your values.
9. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
10. Live a good honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
11. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
12. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
13. Be gentle with the earth.
14. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
15. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds the need for each other.
16. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
17. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Beautiful Girls

In this entertaining drama, bar pianist Willie leaves New York City for Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, to attend a high school reunion. He's unsure about his job and whether or not to commit to Tracy and finds his working-class buddies in a similar funk. Tommy plows snow for a living and is caught in the crossfire between his lover and a passionate affair with his married ex-girlfriend. Paul has just been ditched by Nan for a butcher and is mad that the women in town don't match the pin-ups on his wall. It takes three women to get these confused men straight about love relationships.

Natalie Portman steals the movie as a wise-beyond-her-years 13 year old. Uma Thurman lets the boys know what women really want. And Rosie O'Donnell demolishes the unreality of the typical male view of female beauty. Populated with colorful characters, this comedy hits the spot with its wry observations on sexual politics.

So what comes it all down to? Women seek love, men seek respect. Women want relationships, men want sex and love, women want commitment, men freedom. So men are sometimes reticent about getting into a relationship. Eventually though, most guys want to settle down. I think I'm ready to settle down..

Divorce Italian Style

Other than an amusing comedy, Divorce Italian Style is one part decadent nobility and two parts Bluebeard the ladykiller. Marcello Mastroianni proves he's a master of clever characters in the role of a self-style smoothie who intends to get rid of his pest of a signora and live to romance the girl next door. Divorce is unthinkable in Catholic Italy, but for this hot-blooded Romeo, where there's a will there's a way.

In the movie, our Romero is parading his wife around town in her most sexy outfit. He is hoping that this will induce the interest of other men resulting in one of them having an affair with her.

Over the last couple of weekends, I attended some holiday parties with my girl-friend. She dressed up as well and received a lot of attention. This weekend we're planning to go to a Christmas service in a Catholic church in San Francisco. This time, I'll ask her to not dress up..

Winged Migration

Do those who consider themselves free, think much about birds? It may only be after time stuck in a classroom, an office, or a prison, that someone watches them seriously.

The documentary "Winged Migration" follows five years' worth of bird migrations around the world. European turtledoves, jungle macaws, booming sage grouses in Idaho, Vietnamese black-headed ibexes: these and several dozen other species are observed, following the curve of the globe in the search of food and warmth.

The last 2 weeks of November, my parents were visiting me here in the US. As my mom really likes birds, I started to watch them more consciously when we were visiting places such as Año Nuevo State Park and the Pinnacles National Monument.

As birds are the ultimate representation of freedom, does the fact that I'm noticing birds mean that my relationship is showing long-term potential?