Through a Glass Darkly

There's this Independent Theater here in DC, specializes in art house cinema sort of thing. So we decided to go yesterday, they were showing a few contemporary movies but also featuring Part I of Ingmar Bergman's "Trilogy of Faith," Through a Glass Darkly. Let me say, wow. This was the first film of his I've seen, and I have definitely been thinking about it all day.

Just as a brief synopsis, the film mercilessly plops us right into the rapidly disintegrating holiday weekend gathering of a broken family. There are only four members to the cast and family, the father, his children, Karin and Minus, and Karin's husband. Karin has schizophrenia and was just released from an asylum; Bergman gives us front row seats to this infinitely like-able and tragic girl's relapse into psychosis and her family's reaction and their own problems. He questions existence, beliefs, human-nature, faith or lack-of-faith,...all those things required for a decent "art house film" dealing with theological "stuff." The title is a reference to a Bible verse a from 1 Corinthians and the main theme of the film. The verse says: "For now we see through a glass, darkly," meaning clarity for some situations is obscured in life, like looking at something with a darkened mirror. In the case of the film I think Bergman is suggesting his/our understanding of God, what we know/believe/see, is obscured, seen through a glass, darkly. Pretty sure this movie is for people who like to think, cause you'll do a lot of it. Well, now I've got to get a hold of part's II and III.

Oh yeah, it's snowing here in DC, AGAIN!!!

Well, inspired by Bergman's medium, black and white that is, I've got two B&W photos for you. Both from Budapest, one of my absolute favorite cities.

Wait There's More

So turns out it's pretty bad news when after attempting to boot up your computer, a frighteningly technical looking blue screen appears stating: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME .

OM*@^FG is about what I thought after exhausting every little computer trick I knew to bypass the unknown source problem, which include pathetic attempts to start up in Safe Mode and a trip to the computer's BIOS set up menu, a special little settings menu that I have absolutely no clue what to do with.

What happened? The other night a storm in DC left a bit of city dark, apparently at the precise moment the power went out, my unlucky boss's personal computer was reading or writing a file and thus CORRUPTION!! At least that's the theory. So at this point I've spent a day and a half trying to fix this mess, which no I am not qualified to do...but somehow am in spite of my in-expertise; anyway, trying to fix it without having to wipe the hard drive...right my boss does not back up his files, ouch. No luck yet. I have a good feeling about tomorrow though.

Throughout this whole muddled up situation, I've had my computer with me while I work from his home attempting to fix everything. So today, I had a bit of downtime while trying to download a gigantic file holding the XP installation CD to boot up his computer from the CD. With the internet bogged down by the download, I was left with messing around with pictures. So I turned my attention toward my first PhotoMontage:

All the layers are cut-outs from pictures mostly taken in Eastern Europe. Bit trickier than I though it'd be, but I think I have successfully found a new activity to use "homework" time on.

All Lost in the Supermarket

Hey all. So, recently my new go-to meal has become Indian food. Let me tell you, I love this stuff. I've always been passively fond of it, but for some reason when selecting a dining choice it was never at the top of the list. But as there is this amazing, cheap take away place next to where I work, I eat Indian food like 3 times a week. So good. I'm beginning to think tofu has some sort of inferiority complex, always trying to prove itself as a delicious option, just as good as its meat friends. The tofu dishes at this place are seriously SO good, significantly better than the meat options. Mmmmm.

Anyway, in other news my boss just ran an op-ed piece in the Huffington Post, read it if any of the following apply:

1. you're interested in politics, health-care, Massachusetts, democrats blah blah blah
2. want to know what I spent pretty much all day Friday doing; researching, transcribing, editing, etc.
3. are really bored and don't have anything better to do

The link is http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-karabel/democratic-panic-and-the_b_433475.html.

Well you know I like to leave all with a picture, so here's one from the neighborhood. I call it 1204.

Now I'm off to the supermarket.

xx

Woohoo

Hey guys, guess what's here! That's right, the Coachella 2010 lineup is out. And let me tell you, looks like a pretty pretty good time. Don't trust me though, take a look:

City Scapes

If you've followed this blog for a bit, you know how much hometown pride I have. I love Los Angeles. It has been great being back for the past 2 weeks, and best part is I have another one left. Tonight my brother and I hiked through a bit of the Santa Monica mountains, a trail off famed Mulholland Drive. The area offers some spectacular views of both downtown and West LA as well as the ocean in the bottom two. Plus, added bonus, it was super clear today and warm, though we were out there at night, I was totally in a t-shirt. Take that DC.

The top picture shows downtown, the San Gabriel Valley in the background behind downtown (aka all those lights in the distance behind the tall buildings, my house is somewhere in the mass of lights in the upper left of the picture), parts of Hollywood (the first set of buildings, sort of in the foreground), like 10 freeways (the only one clearly visible is the 101 toward the bottom left, same 101 that goes up the coast to the Pacific Northwest, another of my favorite places), and about 5 million people.

The pictures below show the Santa Monica mountains (the ones we're hiking in), West LA (westwood aka UCLA, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, etc), and the Pacific in the background.

I really love this city.

I decided to add this last picture, pretty similar view to the very first one, just taken right after sunset. It's the view actually off Mulholland, the top one is off the peak we hiked up.