Movie Friday

I went to see a documentary this week. It was a good film entitled Who Killed the Electric Car? (I laugh as I write this because my boyfriend fell asleep about 10-15 minutes in. Hi everyone, my name is Mark and I am a nerd. I admit it.) Still it was a good flick and it's lessons are timely.

Apparently (unbeknownst to me), GM succeeded in developing a decent electric car a few years ago called the EV1. I remember as a kid the California mandate that automakers had to be selling a certain number of electric vehicles by now, but I didn't realize that the auto industry, along with others, managed to get the law changed and then destroy the majority of those cars. This film documents that story and it looks forward to emerging technologies.

As with any documentary film of this kind, the bad conservative agenda and politicians get vilified and the great green liberals get out spent and defeated by big business. From Michael Moore to Gorillas In the Mist to this film, documentary film makers tend to draw a very distinct line between black and white. Life is much grayer and murkier and there are no absolute truths. Thus far, electric and hybrid technology cars are more expensive to purchase and do not deliver the miracle mpg (miles per gallon) figures that are advertised. Until consumers make a conscious decision that we will spend more and consume less to save the resources that we have left, not much will change. I fervently hope that we see a shift in national and global energy policy in the next ten years. Otherwise, our children will inherit a planet with far more problems than the one in which we live now.

Have a great week all. Cuidate.

Growing up

So I moved into this great apartment, but I had one small problem. I have very little furniture. I had some stuff when I was living in Phoenix, but when I moved up here, I sold my couch and other larger items. When I was living on Castro Street, I had a place that was barely big enough for my clothes and my bed, much less anything bigger.

So on Tuesday, I hit the furniture stores SOMA and found some cool stuff. My new flat is a big open space type deal, so I need some bigger pieces. I found a very cool sectional at a decent price in a lighter brown color. I also found a leather chair that has a hidden recliner that's very interesting. Finally, I had seen a large Spanish style table several months ago, but I wasn't ready to seriously consider furniture yet. (I hadn't moved and didn't want to deal with details.) I came back to the store and it was still there and now heavily marked down because it's too big for most places in San Francisco! Score for me. It's a very unique piece and I'm really stoked about it. I'm looking forward to having many a dinner party on the table. It's very mission style meets Asian, big, solid, bulky. I like it. The only problem is, I'm not going to be able to move into a smaller place now because there will be NO room for this table anywhere.

Yesterday, I dragged the boy out because I wanted a second opinion. To his credit, he told me that I had impeccable taste and that he liked what I'd chosen. That's my smart man. Flattery gets you everywhere with me. So I put the nice dent in the credit cards and am signing up for some extra overtime today to pay for the splurge. It's funny, but I feel like I'm finally an adult. I have a job that's paying me a decent salary, I have good benefits, I have a wonderful boyfriend, and I want to get a dog. I could not have imagined this whole scenario even six months ago. It's all a little crazy, but I'm basking in the joy and trying to not to ask too many questions right now.

The boy and I ate at Firewood Cafe, then grabbed some coffee and had some nice one on one time. We then went to see Who Killed the Electric Car? I found it entertaining, the boy fell asleep 15 minutes in.

To put a cherry on top of the sundae, the heat wave broke here and the fog rolled in last night. It's probably 65 degrees in San Francisco today. It could not be more perfect weather right now.

Cuidate everybody.

Movie Friday

This week, I'd like to suggest one of my favorite films of all time Grosse Pointe Blank. The movie stars John Cusack and Minnie Driver and has a great supporting cast including Dan Aykroyd, Jeremy Piven, and Joan Cusack who gives one of the best performances of her career.

John Cusack plays Martin Blank, an assassin who's ten year high school reunion is rapidly approaching. He ends up having a job come up in the area and his secretary (Joan Cusack) is a big proponent of him going. Martin left his girlfriend Debbie waiting at home on prom night and has not seen her since, so he decides to stop by the reunion and tie up loose ends. We can all relate to going to our high school reunions and making that surface conversation with people we barely remember or recognize now. To Martin's credit whenever someone asks him what he's been doing for the past ten years, he always tells them the truth. They always give him some kind of retort like "Wow that's great..." or "How does that pay?" It's hysterical and completely believable. I had 60 of those conversations at my reunion. I also love Minnie Driver. Her ability to do different accents is nearly flawless. She's able to do a standard American accent in this film effortlessly and I admire her skill greatly. She's equally deft at comedic and dramatic acting which this performance showcases.

I can watch this film over and over and I never tire of it. The way the characters banter back and forth reminds me of how my friends and I interact and it's hard to duplicate that in a film without it seeming forced. It's a very funny film and definitely worth seeing if you missed it somehow.

Cuidate.

Day by the Bay

The weather is San Francisco has been hotter than usual (thank you global warming), but stunning. Yesterday, me, the boy, his roommate and his friend all hung out at Crissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge. We took over 130 pictures and had a lot of fun in the process. We had dinner at Pizzeria Delfina at 18th and Guerrero and then we called it an early night.

Here's some of the photos:

My boy and me. Isn't he hot?

My boy and a pit bull named Billie Holliday.

Our friends Gaby and Alex.

A Hollywood Kiss

Taking a ride near the bridge.

These pictures make me look disgustingly happy and I am. lol.

Cuidate everybody.

Movie Friday

This week, I am recommending a film that I happened to catch on an obscure movie channel that I cannot remember. I only saw the last 2/3 of the film, but it had me in hysterics.

The Last Supper has an all-star cast (Cameron Diaz, Jason Alexander, Ron Eldard, Courtney Vance, Bill Paxton, Nora Dunn and more) that would go on to a wide variety of roles in later years. It tells the story of a group of liberal college buddies that get together for dinner once a week and debate issues of the time. One week, an unexpected visitor to their group brings a different viewpoint to the table and ends up getting killed in the process. The friends then start to debate how the world would be changed if they took out some of their political and social opposites in an effort to rid the world of future hardships. They hatch a plan to have guests over to dinner each week and kill them. Each week, the mounds in the backyards grow and the tomato plants flourish.

A lot of reviews online said that you would only enjoy this film if you were a liberal. I'm not sure if this is true, but the movie struck me as being extremely funny and right on target. I'm not about to go out and kill conservative christians, but the idea that the world would be a better place with less of them has indeed crossed my mind once or twice. I'm quite confident that people on the other side feel the same way about us. In the end, the movie speaks to the need for all of us in the debate in a very dark and very very funny way.

Hope everyone has/had a great weekend. Cuidate.

The Days of Summer

My boyfriend anxiously reminded me this morning, "Uh...hello. You haven't blogged anything since last week!" Thanks for calling me out papi.

I've had the last couple of days off and spent them with my man. Things are going well and we are still enjoying each other's company. This, in itself, is a good sign. It seems that my more recent relationships expired after a week or so like an over ripe banana or something. This one is proving to keep me smiling, laughing, and feeling pretty damn good. We saw a couple of movies the last couple of nights. Superman Returns and The Devil Wears Prada. Superman was pretty good. I had read some mixed reviews and my boyfriend and I had mixed reviews on it as well. He fell asleep several times while I was entertained throughout. It didn't seem horribly long to me, but at the same point, they could have shortened it in parts. The flying scenes were great, especially in the beginning when he's learning to fly in the cornfields. (Warning, spoiler ahead.) I didn't get how he was able to get rid of the whole land mass if it was contained green kryptonite, but k ever. It was entertaining. The Devil Wears Prada was really really good. Both me and the man liked it a lot. I think you have to either be gay or a woman to like this film. Meryl Streep is amazing as always. She is, bar none, the best actress of our time. So versatile and poised, she takes this role to places that no other actress would have been able to reach. Anne Hathaway is cute, but how many times can she play the girl made over role? She had a good departure from her Princess Diaries days with Brokeback Mountain. This film took her right back where she started from. Overall the film is predictable, but very entertaining. A lot of fun for the gays and the fashionistas.

I have moved to the East Bay, but have not had time to fully settle in. I have furniture to buy and things to get set up. My friend Suzanne was my first guest this week and gave rave reviews of the space. I'm looking forward to getting some furniture in the place and making it feel more like home. It truly is an amazing space and I feel very fortunate to be here.

It was 100 degrees in Fremont the other day. Thankfully, I work inside. San Francisco was a bit breezy and cool, but sunny on Monday. Just the way I like it. A great day to chill in Dolores Park. Congratulations to Italy on a great victory over France. Viva Italia!

That's all for now. Cuidate.

Happy Birthday America

It is the Fourth of July, America's birthday.

I was thinking back to elementary school today. I remember having to learn all of those different patriotic songs - You're a Grand Old Flag, This Land is Your Land, America the Beautiful. Do they teach kids these songs anymore? I also remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance and raising the flag at school in sixth grade.

As a kid, I don't know that I gave much thought to living in the United States. I lived in a conservative republican household and thought Ronald Reagan was the best president the United States had ever seen. As an adult, I am a 32 year old gay American male living in San Francisco, California and I view a lot of the actions of our country and our government with shame. How is it that we can be the richest country in the world, but not even give one percent of our spending to help out less fortunate nations? I was always raised with the belief that to whom much is given, much is expected. It seems that our government does not agree. We have become the fat pigs at the trough as depicted in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. Even though this book was a parody of the Communist Revolution, I see a lot of parallels in our government policies today. In the last two major military campaigns that our government has launched (Gulf Wars 1 and 2 or, should we say, Bush Wars 1 and 2), what suffering have the American people endured? During World War II, the American people endured rationing of all vital supplies such as gasoline, sugar, rubber, nylon, you name it. They planted victory gardens and bought war bonds. What have we done? Very little in comparison. There's a part of me that feels that as long as Americans have our venti no whip nonfat ice white mochas, our ipods, and our cheaply produced Chinese electronic goods, we could care less about what's happening on the rest of the planet.

The average Chinese citizen makes $.08 / hour. That's up from $.04/hour several years ago and most economists feel this a huge improvement. Are they on crack? Where I live, you can barely survive on $15/hour.

Our government has also opened interment camps and created a network of secret prisons around the world where we transport men and women who have no official charges against them and no hope of ever seeing a fair trial. And this is our free and transparent society?

The Republicans have also started a divisive and pointless debate on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Is this what our free and fair society has come to? Pushing divisive issues to gain some kind of favor with a certain block of voters at the expensive of a word like marriage? Does anyone else think we have more important issues to be worrying about right now? I know, I know, it's all about defending the sanctity of the family and the sacred institution that marriage is. Puhleez..... (At this point, imagine me yawning and sighing in a very bored and irritated manner.)

Even though I'm bitching, I still have a great respect and admiration for what we have accomplished as a nation. We have a population of approximately 300 million people and states as diverse as Hawaii, Alaska, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Nevada, Louisiana, and on and on. The idea that our democracy would survive over 200 years is a testament to the founding fathers and their genius.

I sometimes toy with the idea of moving to another country. Some place that takes better care of its citizens and has a slower pace of life. In the end though, I am an American. Every time I examine the gold eagle on the front of my blue passport, this issue is brought home to me. I'm not completely ruling out the idea, especially if the political climate in this country continues its lumbering pace to the right. But for now, I'm a Yankee Doodle Boy. Happy 230th America.