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I visited all four waterfalls, using the advice given on the official site, and took lots of pix. I selected just a handful to share here. I figured I should show each of the four waterfalls. The above and below pix were taken at the Brooklyn Promenade.

Olafur Eliasson did a spectacular job of paying tribute to the urban landscape of NYC and creating beauty and wonder for all to appreciate.

I am just posting a picture of the background info rather than typing or cutting and pasting. If you want to know more, I recommend the official site.

Here is the waterfall at Pier 35 in Manhattan taken from Brooklyn.

Here is a close-up of the waterfall at the Brooklyn Bridge taken in Brooklyn. A fellow PCA and I noted how we were both drawn to this one the most. It is certainly the most accessible and most vibrant.

You have to look closely to see the waterfall at Governor’s Island (next to the Statue of Liberty). The waterfall in the forefront is the one at the Brooklyn Piers. This picture was taken in Brooklyn.

This a shot taken from a boat at night of the waterfall at Governor’s Island.

I recommend all routes. I spent a fair amount of time walking around. This is the best way to get pictures if your camera is like mine, just a simple point and shoot. I loved the 30-minute Circle Line waterfalls cruise. Make sure you stand outside on the top deck if you can for the best views. But as we were constantly in motion, my pix were also on the blurry side. Still, I got some cool shots. Apparently you can try to get a free ticket for this but as they said it was “sold out” for the next three weeks, I just paid the very reasonable $10 ticket price. I barely heard the intro by Olafur Eliasson but you can just listen to the podcast on the site or read the artist’s statement there.

I must say, I greatly enjoyed the view from Piers 16 and 17 at South Street Seaport. I was impressed by the waterfalls by day, but when the sunset came and the waterfalls were lit from behind, I was completely taken by them.

It was quite overcast the couple of days I explored the waterfalls so I hope to have a chance to view them again when the sun is out more prominently. But I am pleased with my pix and with the viewing experience I had. I totally recommend bearing the crowds and subway to make your way to the viewing posts both in Brooklyn and Manhattan. You have a lot of time but if you get there now, you can compare your summer experience with your fall viewing later on down the line.

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Played Rock Band with some fellow PCAs and discovered my hidden talent in playing fake drums. I was even inspired to get Phase for my iPod. If you don’t know, Phase is by the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It takes any song you choose from you iTunes library and converts it into a Guitar Hero type structure to play on your iPod. So Phase is terribly engrossing especially when you play using songs from your iPod vs the songs that come with the game alone. But the thumb dexterity required could easily lead to some sort of repetitive stress issue if you don’t pace yourself.

Oh, I see that there is a handheld version of Guitar Hero that is similar to Phase.

Non-NYAFF Movies

Saw Get Smart and found it entertaining enough. Steve Carrell has that balance between broad and refined down to an art. I actually watched Evan Almighty (on cable, not in the theater) because of his appeal. It was okay.

My reaction to Wanted was, “The R-Rated movie is back.” As it was based on a graphic novel by the same name, Wanted, it had more of a cartoon-y quality to it. They used special effects judiciously sort of in that Shaolin Soccer way. It was very video-game-y too. So yea or nay? Well, it’s not deep but it has a summer action movie appeal although it is not shy on R-rated action. So not for little kids or the faint of heart even though it is not realistic violence. It is violent.

Hancock got terrible reviews. But I really wanted to see it. I didn’t hate it. In fact, I thought there were some really cool aspects to the story. It was completely watchable. It wasn’t as tight as Men in Black, a comparable Will Smith summer movie. Roger Ebert certainly enjoyed it.

NYAFF 08

The New York Asian Film Festival is put together by Subway Cinema. I’ve been actively attending this festival for three years now. It is 7 years old. I may have dabbled previously but it was really last year that I had this epiphany about how totally awesome this fest is every year. Subway Cinema works really hard to put together a festival full of Asian movies that we would probably not see otherwise but are worth taking a look if only to get a slice of life in another continent. They do a great job of scouring a range of current Asian cinema and selecting a little bit of everything (dramas, comedies, romances, action-adventures, documentaries, shorts) from a variety of countries so we can enjoy it (with subtitles and popcorn). I heard they might be taking it on the road. It certainly would have great support in other cities. You’d be remiss to not check it out if you are fortunate enough to live near a city hosting the NYAFF.

I was away playing drums in my Rock Band band for the first part of the fest, but I made it to a handful. Let me go in order.

Like a Dragon
Takeshi Miike made this movie based on a video game. It has elements of his trademark style – the foreign hitman (a fellow PCA pointed out a common Miike element is the foreigner) and the extreme lifestyle choices of certain individuals (as pointed out in the movie, something we don’t need to explain to impressionable young minds). The cartoon-y personalities and behavior, convoluted and multiple storylines as well as over the top fight scenes with some cool choreography, seem to stem directly from the video game. Still, I was interested until the end.

Sparrow

I love a short feature film. This one was 87 minutes. It was also a really great movie. In short, it is about a group of pickpockets, all male, who meet a mysterious woman who makes them re-evaluate their friendships. I had heard there was a similarity between Sparrow and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg which immediately peaked my interest. There was choreography but it wasn’t a musical by any means. There was zero singing and zero dancing. Johnny To seems to have something to say about the relationship between Hong Kong and China. Election and Election 2 were metaphors for this relationship and I think I saw one in Sparrow as well. Btw, it was introduced via phone by a Johnny To associate in HK.

MSFF Korean Short Films – Program 2

This was a program of 4 Korean shorts from the Mise-en-Scenes Short Film Festival. I typically don’t appreciate shorts from any country. I typically am unimpressed by Korean movies perhaps because I want to like them but they are usually too something and ineffectual like too sentimental, too violent, too sexual, too broad. This can be said of cinema from any and every country, but I want film makers with whom I have a cultural affinity to be more than okay. I want to be impressed. I want to be able to recommend a Korean movie whole-heartedly. So 3 out of 4 shorts were decent. The one that didn’t go anywhere still had interesting elements. That one was THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WIFE. The best one was A PUPPY, OUR FAMILY. The co-director Park Jae-Young was there for a Q&A.

Let me break the order and talkabout the Korean movies I saw while I’m in a groove here.

M

The director, Lee Myung-Se, was there to introduce and do a Q&A. I had heard it was a trippy movie. I was very impressed with it. It reminded me a lot of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. It is mysterious, visually intriguing and seems to jump back and forth in time. In the end, it was a Korean movie in that it was very sentimental. But I forgive it for that because of the originality of the movie. The director said when he was living in NYC a while back (2004?), he had a dream in which Alfred Hitchcock gave him a book entitled M. He woke up before he had a chance to read it. But it stayed in his head. He thought about setting it in NY but he ended up going back to Korea and making it there. Frankly, I think this made it much more interesting even though he used mostly sets. The Korean-ness added something to it while I think if he had made it in NY, it would’ve possibly detracted from it.

Public Enemy Returns

I know this isn’t a perfect movie but it really appealed to me. I liked the message that good guys are the good guys and the bad guys do bad things that deserve punishment. It vaguely reminded me of Lethal Weapon. It’s a cops v gangsters or more specifically cop against gangster movie. I found the storyline about teenaged boys being lured and recruited by the gangsters fascinating. Apparently, this is the 3rd movie in a series. One of the coolest things was knowing that Public Enemy Returns just opened in Korea on June 8 and has been #1 since it opened. I love the relevance of this festival. How else would I be able to see a movie that just opened in Korea without actually going to Korea? The same actor was in Cruel Winter Blues, perhaps in a more subtle role. But he did a good job in this one too. I would recommend it.

The Rebel

This movie really surprised me too. It was great. I highly recommend it. I admit I was a fan of 21 Jump Street but never would I have expected such a fascinating and athletic performance from Dustin Nguyen. All of the actors were great. The main ones displayed amazing prowess. They looked so chic and towering compared to everyone else except the French. Interesting. It is a period piece set in the 1920’s. It is worth seeing for the historical nature, the practically-non-stop, well-executed action scenes and the story. You will like it.

Okay, normally I would read through this and make corrections but I feel like I’ve been working on this forever and just want to publish it. So, please forgive the typos, etc. I will try to fix them later.

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