Justin Howe's Blog, page 58
November 25, 2011
It's a Grubby, Violent, Dangerous World, But It's the Only World They Know
That was the tagline for the film version of The Friends of Eddie Coyle. The book was tangentially in the news earlier this year with the arrest of fugitive gangster Whitey Bulger (who might be the basis for the character Peter Boyle plays in the movie). Anyway track it down. It's a great read. You'll be done with it in a weekend, if not an afternoon. And, yeah, check out the movie too.
What's fascinating to me is how almost all the conversations in the story adhere to one of two types.
Type...
November 24, 2011
Thanks. Thanks For Nothing.
Well, Thanksgiving came and went.
I'd been offline some of the day, so it wasn't until about 2PM that I realized what day it was. I did call my folks, but the early morning Skype session scheduled for today didn't work out (my bed's fault). Ah well, at least my cousin was there to be the surrogate-child to my folks. Besides, it's not like I won't be back to see them in January.
It still amazes me that I live in another country. I know. I know. It's not like it's very hard for USians to live...
November 22, 2011
November 18, 2011
Wu Xia Audience Round Up
Wu Xia was great. If it plays near you, go see it. And I say that even without having a clue what anyone was talking about the whole time. It looked like Shane meets Rashomon meets Sherlock Holmes meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and if you squint you can totally see how all that could work together. (Hero does something heroic, which makes cold emotionless detective curious how such a thing could be possible, which uncovers hero's buried past as villain, which leads to hero's villainous ...
November 17, 2011
Weekend Weekout
It's Friday. I'm pooped.
The week was only marginally crazy. Next week is the school festival and talent show. Considering the number of 4th graders walking around with nunchuks, I think it'll be pretty fun. There will also be song and dance numbers. On a side note, I'd completely lost track of the date and forgot all about Thanksgiving. Ah well, it's a shit holiday. Who likes the Pilgrims anyways? Pack of Quaker killing bastards.
The new Donnie Yen movie, Wu Xia, is playing in town. It looks...
November 16, 2011
Expat Blogs?
Anytime I spend too long reading expat blogs I normally end up wondering if there's a bunch of Korean expats in the States writing the same presumptive and condescending crap about America. I suspect there is.
Shit happens, but I'm not going to spend the time writing a diatribe only to realize weeks or months later it's based on my own shallow assumptions, the fact that I didn't have all the information, or simply the fact that being offended is the natural consequence of leaving my house...
November 13, 2011
Demolition Site
The city's doing a big urban renewal project near work. The plan's to extend a canal from downtown to the river and build an outdoor shopping area along it. It would make the neighborhood where I teach into an island separate from the rest of the city. Ideally the jobs it will create will be a step above the bar/coffee/song-room type common in the area, but for now it means I and my students walk through this every morning.
(Enjoy the blur from the wobbly cam.)
November 11, 2011
Demolition Site
The city's doing a big urban renewal project near work. The plan's to extend a canal from downtown to the river and build an outdoor shopping area along it. It would make the neighborhood where I teach into an island separate from the rest of the city. Ideally the jobs it will create will be a step above the bar/coffee/song-room type common in the area, but for now it means I and my students walk through this every morning.
