I had the pleasure of seeing Avenue Q yesterday! It was really a fantastic performance. Completely original, and very funny. The show is performed by people who are walking around on stage, most of whom have puppets with them, and they act through their puppet. According to the playbill, several cast members worked for years on Sesame Street, so they are not amateur puppeteers! The highlight, however, happened after the show! The person who took me to the show happens to know Ann Sanders, who was one of the performers in the show, and has previously starred as Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. After the show, we went backstage and on stage with her to check it out. Turns out there is hardly any backstage at all! There is a hallway with lots of sticks lining the walls so they can put the puppets down when they need to be offstage, and that’s about it. Ann was super-nice and totally down-to-Earth.

I realized that I cannot remember the last book I read that featured a female protagonist, so I ordered “Pride and Prejudice” from Amazon.com. I recall that I read a couple in high school, but I don’t really remember them. It seems like most of the “great literature” I’ve heard of features a male protagonist. Anyone have any recommendations?

I finally finished this book. It is too big to conveniently carry around in my backpack (1.8″ thick), so I’ve only read it when I was at home and felt like reading it. I usually read every day on the bus, so I end up reading those books quicker than the ones I read at home. At 870 pages, it just might be the longest book I’ve ever read! Shameful, I know…

I had read the first four HP books before I had this blog, so for the sake of context, I very much enjoyed them all, with the exception of book 4 (the Goblet of Fire) which was good but not great. This book, book 5, is by far the best. I don’t think Harry would agree, though, because he is not enjoying himself very much during this book :-). However, as a reader, you get to see him go through some seriously trying situations and endure. Unlike the beginning of the series, this book is extremely dark. There is also a noteable increase in the sophistocation of the vocabulary. I had to go to the dictionary a few times to look up words I had never seen before, so I think it’s safe to say this is not just for kids. In fact, I think this book almost borders on something inappropriate for small children! You’ll see why when you read it.

Even though this was Harry’s most arduous year yet, I liked this book the best. 5/5 stars!

I wanted to share some inspiration with you all, in the hopes that you will take some similar actions…

The next time some little thing annoys you, ask yourself, “can I do something about this?” It’s easy to fall into the trap of accepting things that could probably be remedied without much trouble.

I have four polo “yarmouth” shirts that I have always liked, but they have always been very baggy on me. As I’m sure most of you know, I’m very tall and thin, so shirts never fit me very well. These are sized 16.5/36-37, which means the sleeves are long enough, but the shirt is really baggy around my chest and abdomen. I decided to look around for a cheap tailor who seemed trustworthy, so I could get them altered to fit better. I found this basement hole-in-the-wall place run by a guy who put his name on the store, so I figured he would be responsible and cheap. “Jimmy Lee” is the place, it’s on 77th between 2nd and 3rd. I got my money’s worth and then some! For $50, he took in the sides and some of the sleeves of each shirt, cleaned them, and pressed them. They now fit me perfectly, and they all look brand new! Even the one that I’ve owned for about 10 years!

I have a full-length mirror in my room. When I originally hung it up, I accidentally hung it a few inches too low, so it clips the top of my head when I stand up straight. I was looking in the mirror and decided I should hang it higher, so I did. It cost me nothing and it took 5 minutes.

So try it… next time some little thing annoys you, fix it! You’ll be glad you did.

This movie looked funny from the previews, and since it seemed like a nice controversial comedy, I had to see this movie. Saved stars Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Eva Amurri, and Macauley Culkin, who are students at a super-duper-relgious high school in the suburbs. Amurri’s and Culkin’s characters are not into the whole religious thing, but they have been forced to attend by their parents. Meanwhile, Mandy Moore plays a student who is very gung-ho about Jesus, while Malone’s character is innocently following her teachings. Things get a bit crazy and lessons are learned This is a great movie for the open-minded. It’s very rare that a major motion picture can get away with such a tremendous amount of fun-poking at the religious right, but it is never spiteful or mean, and so that’s probably why you can find it at Blockbuster.

Are you down with G.O.D.? Rent this on DVD! This is a very funny movie. 4/5 Jesus-Christ-Super-Stars!

I had found this book through one of my random adventures in Amazon.com’s user recommendations system. It sounded worthwhile, so I put it on my wishlist. I found out later that this was turned into a highly-acclaimed movie by Zhang Yimou and was highly recommended by one of my Chinese friends, so I bought it. I went into it with not a clue as to what it was about, and at first I found it difficult to get into because of its unusual pacing. Probably due to the translation effect, the prose was simple and swift, and much more subtle than I am used to reading. I think the reader must try a bit harder than usual to get into this book simply because the author is not directing you very forcefully. The book has two narrators, one is a person wandering the countryside, and the other is the main character Fugui (pronounced “foo-gway”). Fugui tells the story of his life to the other narrator and we get to experience several periods of China’s fascinating modern history while Fugui suffers trouble after trouble. Again, maybe this is how Chinese books are written, but I was surprised at how few words were used to convey major catastrophes. You’d think something like a family death would be labored over through at least a few paragraphs, but don’t expect that from this book.

All in all, this was a compelling read. It was always interesting, and at times very emotional. When is life not worth living anymore? Fugui lives for the sake of living, despite his hardships. This book had some happy moments, but they are few and far between. Just to compare, if you read my earlier review of Slaughterhouse Five, I want to point out that this is a good example of how a book can be great even though it is not a happy story. If you are depressed, perhaps this book will inspire you… or perhaps it will depress you even more? It’s hard to say. Either way, this was a brilliantly written novel. I give it 4/5 stars for its quality as a mini-epic.

I’d be surprised if anyone has even heard of this one… This is a full-length movie about the way our minds work. I happen to be pretty interested in neuroscience and pyschology and all of that stuff, so a lot of this movie was familiar to me. The format is very unusual for a movie. There was a main plot which was, at times, a bit surreal, but mostly it was not important or interesting. This is really an educational movie. The plot scenes are interspersed with short lectures by experts in related fields. I was really impressed by the high production value of this movie, considering it was a little-known educational movie. There are some great computer graphic effects and there are some funny scenes as well. Overall, this is a very thought-provoking movie, but I don’t know how many people would really enjoy it. Even I found it a bit too long. The message of the movie: don’t get caught up in your addiction to your own self-image. Think about that for a minute I give this 3/5 psycho-stars.

I am a huge Jackie Chan fan. According to the almighty IMDB, he has acted in 89 movies at this time. I have now seen 26 of them. Half a Loaf is from 1980, so this is a very old movie. This was made when Jackie was first becoming very popular as a mainstream actor in China, I believe. According to the video store clerk, this is when his comedic style became popular. This movie is basically one of those weird 70’s style kung-fu movies that is very hard to take seriously. It has the washed-out color, the bizarre sound effects, and the awkward dubbing (if you get the dubbed version) just as you’d expect. Unfortunately, this is one of those movies where Jackie starts out without any Kung-fu abilities. He learns throughout the movie, and by the end he is an unstoppable kung-fu maniac I don’t feel bad giving away this plot element, as the storyline is barely interesting at all. The character development is not entirely missing, and Jackie is an effective comedian in many scenes. However, if you want to see him kicking ass, this is not the movie to see. Even the final battle scene, which is impressive, is nothing compared to some of his other movies.

Overall, Half a Loaf is really not worth seeing unless you are a hardcore Chan-fan. Maybe it would be funny if you were stoned or something, but this movie is really not for a general audience. I would highly recommend Dragons Forever. I rate it as my favorite Jackie Chan movie ever, and I’ve seen quite a few. Also see Drunken Master for some dated but utterly amazing Chan action. If you liked that, absolutely see Drunken Master 2, which was made 16 years later, but is the direct sequel. Do yourself a favor and avoid the dubbed versions! You lose a lot of the authenticity, and besides… they don’t talk during the fight scenes! I give Half a Loaf of Kung-Fu 2 stars.