Closer

Have you ever seen someone eating orange by peeling the skin, let all the delicious orange flesh exposed, then, take a small bite and allow the juice splash all over the place? This is not the most elegant way to eat an orange but it happens everyday. Some people just like it this way (including me). I wouldn’t think this is disgusting but it would make one unsettle if this vision of someone eating orange and getting dirty is shown in a fine macro view. Watching the movie, “Closer”, gave me the same feeling. This movie is genuinely a classic that amazingly pulled a web of strangers into intimacy, confusion and betrayal relationship. It also brutally revealed the reality of insecurity one could be. Things like these are happening around us everyday and it is part of life. And now, this movie showed it all, in a fine macro fashion. It intensely provoked my thought from start to end.

"It's a lie, a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully, so the art gallery crowd can feel better about it.” Alice (Natalie Portman) commented that photograph hides reality by making something that isn’t beautiful appear beautiful and therefore spectator can feel good about themselves. This is more or less what the movie about. If you hate to confront the truth of life and hate to think, don’t watch this movie. Otherwise, this is a must see movie.

p/s: Also try the background music, “The Blower’s Daughter” by Damien Rice. It is a really good contemporary folk song.

Good enough!

At work, I was reading a technical publication and I found interesting last name of authors at the reference section. One of the authors has a last name “Goodenough” and another was “Livingstone.” I don’t mean to make fun of someone’s last name but I can’t imagine why one would use a last name, “Goodenough.” A coworker of mine told me that some people thought “good enough is perfect.” That would make sense if one thought that he/she is perfect. Of course there are a lot more last names that are funky and perhaps sounded awkward. For instance, EC has a classmate whose last name is “Peniston” (try to read as “Penis-ton”), my coworker has a friend whose last name is “Best”, and when I was still in Iowa, a guy lived next door has a last name “Gross” (I like to call him Mr. Gross). And, of course, you have met the “Fockers.” I always wonder how people came up with ideas for their last name. This is my guess: One day, a group of villagers decided to change their last name so that they can be more united. So, they gather all the villagers and meet at a bar downtown. They started to brainstorm about what is a good last name to have while having beer. There were at least one hundred and thirty names suggested and the leader of villagers wrote down all suggestion on a white board. While discussing, someone brought in a bottle of whiskey and everyone starts to drink whiskey instead of beer. One of the senior villagers lost his patience and said, “Good enough, let’s make a decision.” With respect, the drunken leader wrote down “Goodenough” and circled it. As you know, beer before liquor, you will never be sicker. All villagers passed out after they finished their whiskey. The next morning, everyone woke up and thought they have selected “Goodenough” as their last name. That’s how they got “Goodenough” as their last name.