Tuesday, May 06, 2003

 
So, how was this Monday for you people? Mine was pretty good ... first we nearly overslept, Ritsu had a 10 AM meeting and I wanted to be at my favorite movie theater at 10.

So, after a 20 minute walk I arrived at the Ziegfeld, the most gorgeous movie theater I know. Huge auditorium which looks like an old old theater ... I had seen Moulin Rouge here, which was just perfect .. I also recall that my first movie I had ever seen in NY, Jurassic Park 2 happened to be there ... and then of course the 3 AM screening of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace back in 1999.

So. Today I went to watch X-Men 2: X-Men United and I really enjoyed the ride ... I did not enjoy the seating and the lack of nice snacks and drinks that home viewing would provide. But the movie was a nice step up from the first X-Men movie (which I had seen at the Ziegfeld too) .. it also feels very consistent, as if only a few months have passed since the last movie .. should make for a great double feature on DVD later ...

One word of warning, you kinda need to see the first to get into this one .. they totally skip any rush new character description and just expect you to know (which in return is actually great for pacing and further character enhancement) ... i think most characters benefited from that ... Storm is much much better, Wolverine gets a large chunk of the action (again), Bobby as Iceman is nicely developed from the 1st movie .. his brother (or pal?) Pyro, with the little time he has onscreen, gets more depth than Anakin Skywalker in 2 movies .. Mystique is more and better ... Magneto is great as ever! Maybe even a bit more. The new villain Stryker is dead on perfect.


Things that are somewhat less: Cyclops feels like a throw-away. Jean Gray .. naaa . well . dunno .. her last scene did not have the impact on me as it may should have had ... Rogue .. well .. she got lots in the first movie, so it was ok to underuse her .. Prof X disappoints me again .. in #1 he was knocked out half of the movie .. here he becomes a puppet ..

But my personal highlights were Nightcrawler and Deathstrike ... A runaway from a german circus, we do not know if he is good or evil .. but he is intriguing .. and how he does his thing looks awesome .. he has a great opening sequence ... Lady Deathstrike .. has no dialogue other than uh and argh while fighting ... but her fight with wolverine is just great .. why couldn't they put her in a bikini for that ??? ok .. minor quibble ..

Anyways .. a DVD i sure look forward to to buy ..

Then some shopping and going home .. Have I mentioned how DRY it is here (even though it was raining a bit) .. I bought a technical gizmo that tells me inside and outside temperature .. and the humidity .. only that this word does not apply here at this time ... in Fiji we have usually 75-80% ... here is was 33% when we came .. today it went down to 25% .. any idea what that does to your eyes, nose and skin??? wow .. living in extremes .. i wonder how 50%, the alleged "comfort zone" must feel .. and if it is a reality ...

for dinner (now we are in Nacken Food Blog mode again) we went for the second time to our favorite japanese place Tsuki and had great stuff like Monster Eel (first picture) and oversized piece of eel on rice .. that is like an Unagi Nigiri in XXXL ... then a 3 color tartar .. Tuna, Salman and some white fish chopped to pieces with sauce and different roes (3rd picture) .. then the Tuna Volcano Roll and then the rock shrimp roll, which was not as thrilling as I had hoped .. somewhat too mayonaissy ..





But we enjoyed it a lot, ahd tea and beer and a nice chat with the couple running the place .. they were very crowded and only one sushi chef tried to fill all the orders .. I overheard one phonecall, a customer wondering where his take-out sushi is ... happy and full we hopped on a bus to go back home ..
posted by Peter 4:57 PM