Restored and re-released.

I went to the re-released and colorized version of Mughal-E-Azam (aka The Emperor of the Mughals, or The Great Mughal) with my mom earlier this year, a little before Mother’s Day.  She asked me to take her, and I was curious.  From what I’d read I got the sense that it was a movie of [...]

Beautiful bookstores.

I went to Skylight Books on Friday to hear Barbara Ehrenreich talk about her latest book Bait and Switch.  By the way, that bookstore is the shiznit.  I was standing off to one side of her podium, in the children’s section, because when I got there 15 minutes before her scheduled appearance, all the seats [...]

Streak in the sky

Clapping for Christ.

I went with someone to a gospel choir performance.  She’s considering auditioning for this choir, and I agreed to go because I enjoy live music, especially vocals.  At one point the choir asked the audience to "clap for Jesus!" and I complied. 
Until I noticed her glaring at me.  She stage whispered, "You’re clapping for [...]

Black bank?

Although Jay-Z said he hasn’t “spoken to anyone about doing a concert
event” to benefit Katrina victims, he says he wants to speak with Sean
“Diddy” Combs about starting a fund exclusively to help blacks in times
of crisis. “Just in case anything like this happens in the future, we
can do what the elder Bush and (former President [...]

Pretty petty.

There was a huge hubbub near work.  It was a local Harvest Moon Festival.  I remember noticing the festival almost by accident last year when I went into the office to finish up a few things one weekend. 
I also remember trying to convince a co-worker to go with me and being irritated by his [...]

Watching westerns.

Once Upon a time in the West played last night on the lawn of the Museum of the American West, as part of the ongoing exhibition Once Upon a time in Italy:  The Westerns of Sergio Leone.  I also made it to one of the other movies in the outdoor series a few weeks ago [...]

Presidential plans and promises.

I watched the President’s televised address from New Orleans.  The facade of the large historic structure (St. Louis Cathedral) behind him was intriguing.  For one thing, it was lit.  Is electricity working again in NO?  Actually, it looked like it was lit with floodlights and that lent a creepy effect to the backdrop of his [...]

Touring Tut’s stuff.

The gift shop had King Tut rag dolls, and miniature coffins of varying sizes.  I lifted the lid of one mini-coffin and saw a mini-mummy inside.  The mummy could be lifted out of its coffin, like a small inaction figure.  That seemed a strange souvenir.  It didn’t really strike me as odd at the time, [...]

Leonard’s LA library lecture.

I went to Chang’s talk entitled "The Terminator, John Updike, and Asian Americana."  I think he compared The Terminator and the author John Updike at one point because of their ability and tendency to keep going, plugging away at what they do, even when they are shot down.  And the Asian Americana…well, he talked about [...]