Lost In Translation

Three Days Of The Condor

I  recently saw Steven Soderbergh’s film Out of Sight and while in the trunk of the car George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez talk about movies and refer to Three Days of the Condor and the relationship between Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. I remember seeing it, but I couldn’t remember it well. So I decided to revisit it and it was a charming thriller with a great supporting cast with the likes of Max Von Sydow and John Houseman.  It depicts the gritty 70s NYC well. I can’t help but wonder if there is more homage than the reference in the trunk-the end has a freeze frame-Out of Sight opens with a freeze frame. Soderbergh mentions that the bedroom scene was modeled on a scene from a Nicolas Roeg film, but I can see traces of love scene from this film there as well. I think this belongs with the other great NYC 70s classics like Dog Day Afternoon, The French Connection, Serpico, The Marathon Man, etc.

The Border Grill

I was happy to see a new culinary addition to he neighborhood, The Border Grill, which has well-made Tex-Mex, a good selection of American microbrew beers, and a large selection of tequilas.

So far I've tried the enchiladas (pictured above), burritos, and nachos (pictured below). Like I said reasonably priced and better than your average Japanese Mexican joint.

Ladies And Gentlemen The Bronx Is Burning!

There’s been a lot of talk about the nostalgia of the gritty New York of the 70s when it seemed the city was about to implode. If there was one point in which that was a distinct possibility it must have been the summer of 1977-when the serial killer Son of Sam haunted the city, a black out resulted in wide spread looting and debilitating arson fires. But it was also the search for leadership of the city as four mayoral candidates clashed for the liberal nomination for what was a bastion of liberality. But there was another drama in the clubhouse and the field of the New York Yankees George Steinbrenner had just bought the team and brought the combustive personalities of Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin together. Not to mention the rise and fall of disco and the birth of punk rock were also brewing in this record-breaking heat wave of the summer. Jonathan Mahler was able to weave all these stories together into a coherent narrative in his informative and entertaining book, Ladies and Gentlemen The Bronx Is Burning. It is another spot on recommendation from Nick Hornby via his now defunct “What I’m Reading” columns from The Believer magazine. Mahler uses the mayoral race and the Yankees march to the World Series as the main narratives that tie the story together-with interludes to some of the other significant historical and cultural events that took place that summer like the blackout, Son of Sam, disco, and punk rock. I'm not sure if it can be classified as only a sports book, but I think it has broad mainstream appeal. However, I must admit that I enjoyed the sports aspect of the book-as an avid baseball collector of that era I was very familiar with the principals discussed in the Yankees section. 

Truck Yatai

"Yatai" is Japanese for food stall and recently Meiji University has allowed a collective of mobile food stalls to set up shop on campus at lunch. Monday through Friday there are two different stalls everyday. Tuesday is my favorite day since they have the truck above , Meal Boxx, a Mexican food stall-they serve "tacos rice" and a fajita rice bowl. The truck next to them sells Thai food as well. Most dishes are around ¥500 (about $5). The food varieties range from Jamaican to Japanese favorites like Om-rice (an omelette filled with rice topped with ketchup!).

Out of Sight

I’ve been a fan of Stephen Soderbergh for many years now. But I was inspired to get a copy of his comeback hit based on Elmore Leonard’s novel, Out of Sight. I mainly got it for the extra features, which includes a dialogue with Soderbergh and Scott Frank, who adapted the screenplay. I think their conversation could be a seminar on film making as they explained the process for the script changes and directorial decisions for a majority of scenes. Some of their changes were very effectively, especially the flashbacks, which apparently weren’t in the book, and as Soderbergh points out one of the main scenes isn’t as effective at the beginning of the book, because we’re not invested in the character yet. It also has a great cast with George Clooney (Their first time collaboration), Jennifer Lopez, Steve Zahn, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Albert Brooks, Dennis Farina, etc…It’s difficult what to call this film. Is it a heist film? A romance? A comedy? It has elements of all of these and more. I thought the soundtrack was really effective as well. Soderbergh usually makes all the right decisions in terms of lighting, cinematography and pacing through editing. All in all a really entertaining and well-executed film that brought Sodenbergh and company a lot of well deserved clout and accolades.