Saturday, March 12, 2005
Slept in. Late lunch at home with Patrick: penne with creamy tomato sauce, bread and butter. More work on the book of poems. Added some Lodestar edits after reviews came back. Napped. Today was a severe disappointment caused by the weather service issuing an incorrect report. Today's chart on castrocam.net is actually quite reminiscent of my investment portfolio a couple of years ago. The daily highs for the last 5 days were: 65, 68, 71, 76, and 85. Today the high turned out to be 59 even though the forecast said 80. This evening Patrick and I went to the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Before the film, we ran in to Glenn and Bill who were in town celebrating a friend's birthday and chatted for a few minutes. We saw a Quentin Lee film called Ethan Mao: "A teenage hustler returns home to confront his homophobic family in this explosive thriller/melodrama that violently tears down the facade of suburban normalcy." This description from the Castro Theatre website is accurate except that "explosive" isn't the first word I'd choose to describe this film, and the latter part of the description makes it sound ordinary. "Not *another* film that violently tears down the facade of suburban normalcy." This film covers that topic, but from a gay perspective. It is poignant, occasionally very funny, and occasionally sentimental without ever stepping over the line into cheese, self-ridicule, or mawkishness. Although it's obvious Quentin Lee (who wrote, directed, and co-produced it) made significant efforts to give all the characters some depth, I still yearned for more. If you liked Better Luck Tomorrow, you'd probably like this film, too. While in line for the film, we met up with Galen, Tony A, and Stephen K, and we met Peter, Ryan, and Jason. Tony Q arrived late. We saw Yan and said hello, but he didn't join us. After the film, the director, two leads, and (I think) producer answered questions for the audience. A late meal at Thai Chef with Galen, Peter, Stephen K, Tony A, Tony Q, and Patrick. Thai Chef (415-551-CHEF, 4133 18th Street) opened on 18th between Castro and Collingwood about 45 days ago. The food is delicious, the prices are quite reasonable (most dishes under $10), the wait staff is pleasantly flirtatious, and the decor is harmonious. We hope Thai Chef steals away all of Nirvana's customers seeking better service. Our server was Ake. After dinner we walked to Lime to have drinks, but it was crowded and noisy. Patrick and Tony A and I left. We gave Tony A a ride home, then went home ourselves.