Thursday, December 28, 2006

Infernal Affairs vs. The Departed

I watched Infernal Affairs last night for the third time, but my first time watching it since I saw Scorcese's The Departed. I was surprised to see how many set-ups are actually ripped, uh, I mean, appropriated from Infernal Affairs. The Departed is ending up on quite a few top ten lists for the year, with very little mention of the original. Perhaps I am slightly biased, but Infernal Affairs is superior in so many ways.

Overall the story is much tighter and much more polished. Scorcese's version is like an unruly thug, demanding too much space and very little attention. The performances in The Departed are admittedly more overt, but does wearing a prosthetic penis really mean better acting?

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Tibet's Corner

Tibet's Corner is one of my favorite restaurants in the Twin Cities. Totally authentic Tibetan food right down to the salty milk tea.

From left to right: Lang-Sha Momo, Ting-Mo Bread, Sha-Tak and a little house salad in back. Yum!

Nestled in the heart of Uptown, I've often wondered how Tibet's Corner stayed in business. The area was once a young hipster mecca that would easily support this restaurant, but the hipsters have given over to suburbanites who come to eat, drink and shop in cookie-cutter establishments. As we were leaving today, my fears were right: the server told us they would be closing the first of the year. (The building housing Tibet's Corner and the UPS Store is being torn down to make way for a North Face store....) They are trying to find a place to re-open, but no luck yet. Check their website for info.

A New Year, A New Blog

As 2006 winds down into 2007, this seems like an appropriate time to start up my blog. Another year has past and I haven't fulfilled a resolution to get various websites up and running. However, this year I am committed to getting websites up for artist friends Eleanor and Nancy and then to get my own project up and running: a Twin Cities-centric film website. Eventually this blog will serve as a personal supplement to the film website. Until then, I will be keeping my film pondering here as well as ridiculously self-indulgent matters of my day-to-day life -- it is a blog after all.