THREE STRIKES: TEN YEARS AND YOU'RE OUT
I'm pleased to be working with Lisa Scott of Street Level Video on her documentary, Under Three Strikes.
California passed a three-strikes law 10 years ago to keep habitual violent criminals off the streets. However, most of the people receiving a mandatory 25-years-to-life sentence committed non-violent third strikes, and some have never committed violent crimes. Supposedly a lot of legislators agree that the law should be amended, but few felt they could vote that way. So there will be an initiative on the November ballot to change the way third strikes are computed, and to spring some of the third-strikers sentenced under the old law. This movie will be used by activists in the runup to the election.
LOST IN TRANSLATION: APTLY NAMED
I admit I am impressed. Sofia Coppola gives us direct access to a relationship, without mediating it via plot. Think of the last romantic comedy you saw -- everything you know about the relationship you learned via plot. You know he secretly liked her because he wrecked his car while watching her. You know she needed more space because she blew him off at the New Year's party. You know he was hurt because he got drunk. Plot plot plot.
Coppola gives us a movie without plot, and here's the proof: if you re-edit the movie, leaving some scenes out and swapping the order of other scenes, you still have the exact same movie.
Unfortunately, there are reasons moviemakers do things the way they do. While it is impressive that Coppola can defy all the rules of screenwriting and come up with something quite watchable, what she comes up with is also quite pointless. Lost in Translation is cotton candy -- just as you feel it's time to apprehend it, it dissolves into nothing. The biggest question raised by this movie is, what was all the fuss about?
COOKING BOB'S WAY
<-------- Spaghetti Alla Paradiso --------->
Boil up some spaghetti al dente. As it boils, heat up some red sauce in a skillet. You can use something from a jar, or make your own with tomato sauce, oregeno, garlic and your favorite seasonings. TIP: If the tomato sauce tastes too acidic, a teaspoon of baking soda will take the edge off, while giving it an effervescent quality! When the spaghetti is ready, turn off the heat on the sauce. Then add a palmful of slivered almonds, and a palmful of crumbled feta. Finally, carefully drop about 5 semi-sweet chocolate chips into 5 different places. They will melt into a little puddle of chocolate. Don't stir, but carefully transfer a big spoonful of sauce onto each plate of spaghetti, taking care to keep the chocolate pools together.
THE INVENTION IDEA THAT WILL MAKE US BOTH RICH IF YOU IMPLEMENT IT: bathroom venetian blinds which can be opened on the top half only -- so you can enjoy some natural light, without being exhibitionistic.
MEMO TO SAN DIEGO SEAFOOD COMPANY (a $20 per entree restaurant on the bay): IF the San Diego Society of Colonoscopists again asks to use your banquet room (separated from the main dining room only by glass walls), and IF they again ask for audiovisual support, THEN you should demand veto power over the PowerPoint presentation; or at least set up the screen facing away from the non-colonoscopist portion of your clientele.
A BEE IN MY BONNET: I was biking up Villa on my way to take the Gold Line downtown, when something fell into one of the aerodynamic air holes on my bike helmet. I thought it was a leaf, until it started stinging me....
BIRDS ARE LOVABLE BUT THEY ARE NOT CUDDLY: For the second summer in a row, I am birdsitting a cockatiel for a week. This is a psychotic pet who has never recovered emotionally from a hawk attack a few years ago. In fact, she seems a bit more likely this year than last to go berserk and attack me. But then she'll suddenly stop in mid-peck, and start nibbling on my cuticles instead. Them cuticles is good eatin'. She likes my toe cuticles as much as my finger cuticles.
HE: Great minds think alike.
ME: So do stupid ones.
CONVERSATION-WITH-A-CRAZY-MAN-ON-THE-BUS OF THE MONTH: "I'm reading Revelation and I'm trying to get some understanding. When Death rides a pale horse out of Hades, does that mean Hay-DEES, like a lot of D's? Or is it Hade-EES, like a lot of E's?"
THIS, TOO, SHALL BE CRUSHED: When I'm washing the truck, I don't sweat the details like getting every dab of tar off or patching every ding in the paint. The reason? This vehicle doesn't need to last twenty years. In 2014, some teenager is not going to be reverently restoring this "classic". In 2014, this vehicle will have been crushed into a cube the size of dorm refrigerator.
FRIDAY 25 JUNE, DODGER STADIUM: The Bad News: The Angels scored early and often, drubbing the Dodgers 13-0 in what was undoubtedly the worst game of the year for a Dodger fan to attend. The Good News: as we walked across the parking lot to the gate, someone pick-pocketed our tickets and we didn't get in.
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