Happy Twenty Ten!

2010 is here! Yup, I agree that 2010 should be pronounced as twenty-ten. It turns out that the last ten years have been all wrong. People have mis-pronounced almost the entire decade as two thousand something. That’s how messy English is. In Chinese, it’s precisely called the year of two-zero-one-zero. There is no confusion or inconsistency there. Everybody thinks 2009 was a lousy year and so happy to see it’s gone. I don’t have anything particular against 2009, but I also like everything new and refreshing. I am looking forward to a fantastic new year. Motivated by the new year, I finally finished something that I have been procrastinating forever. For example, two of the six little legs of my marble flour board broke off from the bottom of the board. I finally glued them back on New Year’s Eve. I also threw out some of my shoes/clothes that I should have thrown long time ago. However, as I expected—I know myself so well—I didn’t finish many of the projects such as organizing my photos and movies, and backing up my computer files etc during the 10 day long holiday break. Oh well, there is always this brand new year to do all that, and much more. He he… On New Year’s Eve, a few friends got together and we cooked a few dishes at home, and drank a lot (wink wink). However, I was a good boy and didn’t waste myself. Our designer of the year created the 2010 logo on his refrigerator door. What a lovely start for the new year! On my way back home, when I walked by the Fire Station 41, the fire alarm in the building adjacent to the fire station went off. People were on the sidewalks, drinking and chatting. Couple of them open the front door of the fire station, but it seems nobody was there! One guy began to yell into the fire station: "Fire!" But, no response. I thought that was hilarious. You live next to a fire station, only find out that nobody responds to you even you scream "Fire" inside the fire station. When I woke up in the morning on New Year’s Day, I vividly remembered the dream I just had. I am on an airplane. The airplane suddenly begins to descend. I look out through the window, it is raining and I see streetlights moving along the side. Oh no! The airplane is making an emergency landing on the city street! Then the airplane comes to a complete stop. I roll down the window to check what’s going on. As long as I roll down the window, many latino’s begin to reach into the window to sell me something. Okay. That was the first dream I had in 2010, which is pretty weird. I will leave it to some professionals to interpret. New Year’s Day was misty, which was perfect because less people would drive out. How could I start the New Year any better than in the peaceful mountains in Marin Headlands? It was extremely quiet. All I could hear was my boots stepping on the dirt and birds jumping around along the side of the trail. The moist air was filled with scent from plants and trees, with a hint of the sea. I was disappearing, into the wildness. I made frequent stops and embraced the absolute silence. By the time I hiked over the hill, I began to hear the sound from the ocean and the deep humming from ship horn. The soothing sound sneaked underneath the fog and broke the silence I had on the other side of the hill. Then I saw the bus was leaving the bus stop at the bottom of the hill—about 10 minutes away from where I was. Now I would have to wait for another hour for my next bus. Fine! Hike more! I turned around and went to the other direction and see more cliffs. I snapped more pictures from the top. No matter how many times I go to Marin Headlands, not enough. Today I went there again. The experience is nothing short of feeling vigorous, even it was quite windy. I really enjoyed the holiday break. However, the reality is that tomorrow I will have to go back to work, like everybody else. I should go to bed now. I am ready for you, Twenty Ten! Police, Adjective Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu‘s second feature "Police, Adjective" (Poliţist, Adjectiv | Romania 2009 | in Romanian | 115 min.) is very different from his critically acclaimed feature debut "12:08 East of Bucharest." It is much quieter, slow paced, and observant. It requires plenty patience to allow the story to settle in and to allow the characters to develop. The film won the Un Certain Regard jury prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is selected as Romanian’s submission to compete for this year’s Oscar, although it might be a very long shot for this film to get nominated. The story is set in today’s post-Communist Romania. Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is a detective who is assigned to investigate a high school student who is a suspect for smoking pot with two other schoolmates. He follows the boy day after day like a CIA agent who is tracking down an international terrorist group. He files hand written reports with great details about his uneventful surveillance. Although he dutifully performs his police work and deals with the bureaucracy, Cristi has doubt whether it is the right thing to do to lock away the school kid for seven years simply because the kid shares a joint with his schoolmate. During the entire film, the sky is gloomy, the air is cold, and the environment surrounding Cristi is dull. They serve as a metaphor to Cristi’s boring, eventless, and depressing job as a law enforcement. Nothing is exciting at his job, or at home. There is no murder to solve, and no robbery to stop. Yet, everybody at the police station is extremely busy on something. His pursuit to the school kid appears to be endless. Many long takes in the film prolong this type of monotone sentiment as if Tsai Ming-liang were composing those scenes. However, in the end, the patience from the audience is rewarded with a hefty dividend. "Police, Adjective" opens on Friday, January 15, 2010 at Bay Area theaters.