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Archive for August 2007

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Sat 18 Aug 2007

Media appearances

Posted by Jimmy under Life, Transportation
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I’m in the newspaper! Of course, it has nothing to do with my day-to-day job. Instead, I was photographed talking to the photographer of the new Lincoln Highway book:

This complements my appearance in Bay Area Backroads on KRON 4 about road rallyes:

 

Thu 9 Aug 2007

A Month of Movies

Posted by Jimmy under Art and music, Life
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From July 4 to August 4, I watched four movies in the theater, which is probably more than the previous two years.

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Transformers. Better than I expected — the action and graphics were quite good (of course), and the acting wasn’t bad (maybe because my expectations were low). It’s done amazingly well at the box office, so you can be sure a sequel is in the works.

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Ratatouille. The best of the first three movies I saw. The storyline was well conceived and beautifully executed; it felt genuine, never hokey. I’m surprised it hasn’t as well at the box office as, say, Cars. And you can’t draw a rat cuter than Rémy.

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The Simpsons Movie. A must for Simpsons fans. The plot didn’t exactly have any surprises, but the Simpsons has always been about the small moments, and this movie delivered. I wished I hadn’t seen the trailers though: that took away jokes like President Schwarzenegger (“I was elected to lead, not read.”) Of course, I also went to the Kwik-E-Mart in Mountain View and took loads of photos.

The Bourne Ultimatum. I hadn’t seen the first two Bourne movies, so I got an assignment. The night before I watched it with two friends from high school, we watched The Bourne Identity. Then I borrowed The Bourne Supremacy and watched it the next morning, before finally seeing The Bourne Ultimatum that afternoon. 24 hours of Bourne! I enjoyed all three of the movies — very well crafted action thrillers. There are some great scenes, such as when Jason Bourne is trying to choreograph a journalist’s safe passage through a London train station.

But I must admit that I am an action movie wimp: I totally get sucked into movies; the deaths of characters, among other things, really affect me. So before seeing any of the movies, I read the plot summaries in Wikipedia. Therefore, I already knew which characters would die. But that allowed me to enjoy the movies more, because even though I knew roughly what would happen, I still had to watch the movie to find out how they happened.

In between, there was also a little bit of high culture: Shakespeare in the Park in Cupertino. The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival put on an excellent production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I particularly liked the modernistic staging — the angels were punks, and Lysander wore a Public Enemy T-shirt.

 

Mon 6 Aug 2007

Lincoln Highway Book Tour — San Francisco style

Posted by Jimmy under Life, Transportation
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[Cover of Lincoln Highway Book] After work today, I made my way up to Book Passage in San Francisco’s Ferry Building to catch the endpoint of the tour for the new book, The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate, by Michael Wallis and Michael Williamson. The Lincoln Highway was the first road across America, yet lately it has languished while Route 66 gets the glory.

However, just as Mr. Wallis’ 1992 book, Route 66: The Mother Road, helped revive national interest in that historic highway, I’m hopeful that the Michaels’ new book will spark new life in the “Father Road.” Already, it’s gotten huge press, from the New York Times to KCBS AM. They’re even going to be on The Colbert Report, and Bill O’Reilly has also expressed interest in interviewing them.

[LHA Logo]I asked the authors why they decided to write a book on the Lincoln Highway — hadn’t Wallis already covered similar ground with Route 66? Mr. Wallis said he was “tired of the Lincoln Highway being referred to in the past tense.” Mr. Williamson said that lots of people have traveled Route 66, and now they want something different. The Lincoln Highway provides that opportunity.

Being the webmaster of the Lincoln Highway Association gave me huge street cred: as I was getting my book signed, Michael Williamson turned to Michael Wallis and said, “He’s the real deal.”

[Lincoln Highway Book Tour] I’ve posted my photos of the book tour in my Flickr account, including my photo with the authors, when Michael Wallis told me I was “the safest man in San Francisco” at that time.

By the way, for dinner I went to Mistral Rotisserie Provençale in the Ferry Building and got a ¼ roast chicken with broccoli and potatoes for $7.75. Not super cheap, but well worth it.