Year: 2009
-
Movie: Waltz with Bashir
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…
-
Movie: Gran Torino
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…
-
Book: The Appeal
Still reeling after stretching my brain, I wafted my way through John Grisham’s last-but-one, The Appeal. I suppose I’ve read a half-dozen or more of Grisham’s 22 books, with general satisfaction. The Appeal is a quick, reasonable read. The writing is clear and more than competent. But the ending bugged me. Grisham doesn’t write the…
-
Book: The Dip
I clicked on Seth Godin’s head long ago. Given all he’s shared online, I haven’t spent much time with his books. But The Dip was front and center at the library last weekend, and admirably small and brief, so it was an impulse read. With the goal of being the best in the world, with…
-
Book: Service Included
Phoebe Damrosch somehow found time while serving as a backserver and waiter at Per Se to write a book about the experience. Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter is her journal of the years during the opening of the top-notch Thomas Keller restaurant. It’s highly personal, and includes her growing relationship with a…
-
Book: The End of Time
After an endorsement from Neal Stephenson in Anathem, I pulled Julian Barbour’s The End of Time out of the San Francisco Public Library. Subtitled “The Next Revolution in our Understanding of the Universe,” this book made me work hard. Barbour tells you what he’s going to tell you, and then he tells you. He encourages…
-
Movie: Revolutionary Road
In the film Revolutionary Road, Kate Winslet ignores Leonardo DiCaprio’s errors, and nothing cuts colder. This snapshot of a 1950s couple’s failure to adapt their dreams to their actual life feels like a good play, with an emphasis on dialogue. Winslet stands out visually, though, as she goes beyond resentment into apathy. Ignoring someone freezes…
-
2008 Christmas Classic 5K
Official results weren’t posted until earlier this week, so I’m late posting this, too. In 2007, I jogged the Miracle Mile with the boy. This year, I got the entire family out for the mile race, and then I ran the Christmas Classic 5K on my own. The rain held off until the second mile…
-
2009 San Bruno Hill Climb
On New Year’s Day, I entered the San Bruno Hill Climb for the second time. With more prep in recent weeks, and a year of bicycle racing under my belt, I knocked almost two minutes off my time. Official results are in a PDF file. My time was 18:02.91 for the climb, putting me 72nd…
-
Movie: Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago stretched over two nights’ viewing. At three hours and twenty minutes, even the DVD had to be flipped over to watch the part after the intermission. Loved the scenery and the sweep, though a bit too sappy overall. Also, I’ve never seen such fresh, unlined faces among those supposedly enduring the ravages of…