Month: February 2009

I’m a week late on this, but I started Super Bowl Sunday (February 1, 2009) in my traditional way, with a race in Golden Gate Park. I finished the 5K 10th overall with an 18:44, for 6:03 miles, if distances are accurate.

One of the two runners right behind me had a GPS on his watch, and said the course is actually 3.27 miles long, beyond the official 3.10. It felt a bit long, given the smooth downhill slope of the last two miles. I began the morning pretty beat after a long bike ride the day before, but ended a hard week with a good race. (Been resting/recovering most of this week.)

Not consistent courses, but here’s my history. Before looking at this, I was happier with my time!

• 2008: Raced on the bike at Early Bird Criterium instead.
• 2007: 18:37
• 2006: 18:28
• 2005: 18:58
• 2004: 18:34

Waltz with Bashir made for an eye-opening Tuesday night. One man’s animated (literally) attempt to reconstruct his role in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Waltz with Bashir uses comic book techniques to tell a tale of young men at a war and a massacre perpetrated during that invasion. What little I know of the Lebanon war comes from reading Robert Fisk, but the outline of events only frame the author’s personal recapturing of memories he’s buried deep in his head. The few breaks from animation are jarring, visually and emotionally. This is, truly, “based on actual events.”

I’m not running with Metacritic here, which measures 90 for “universal acclaim” — but it’s a very good film. Waltz with Bashir earned an Oscar nomination this year.

The trailers for Gran Torino menace, and the film darkens your spirit from time to time. A retired auto worker buries his wife, and then faces the changes in his neighborhood with the same coldness (at first) he shows his less-than-agreeable children.

But any gloom in Clint Eastwood’s new movie is lifted by simple moments and insights, and a touch of humor. The caricature of grumpy old man suits Eastwood here; he must have enjoyed substituting growling for dialogue as a blunt marker of his character’s dissatisfaction with his family, neighborhood, and life. When Eastwood’s character does speak, it’s blunt, unfiltered, and unambiguously racist. The slow thaw in his relations with Asian neighbors is foreseeable, but not rushed. You can almost imagine his transformation being real, and his later sacrifice is contextual, if still surprising.

The gloom and grit of suburban Detroit are, strikingly, always portrayed in sunny summer weather. Any decay is presented in bright sunshine. The contrast underlined the point, rather than hiding it.

Only 72 from Metacritic? Bahhhh…too low. I missed dinner beforehand, and didn’t even mind being hungry for this one.