Still Life with Woodpecker - a book review

"The tears of the Princess, if placed end to end, would have circled Seattle like a moat.
The tears of the Princess, if dammed, would have provided refuge for the hunted whale and moorage for the Ship of Fools."

- Tom Robbins ( excerpt from Still Life with Woodpecker)


Still Life with Woodpecker is a love story that makes one feel the depth of despair of a woman in love.


 The tears of such a woman are the sacred tears -  they are endless like the ocean of her aching soul. When she cries, snows fall in avalanches from the mountains. When she sobs, rains pour over the city, filling earth with salt.  She cries gently but passionately, burying her head deep in the heart of the pillow, searching for the softness of her lover’s touch, reinventing images from the past, going over all the things that went wrong and all the terrible things she had to endure in the name of love.  Feeling forsaken, misunderstood, abandoned and deserted, she weeps a plea of justice.  But knowing that love is unfair and often unforgiving, she dwells in her misery, narrowing her eyebrows in pain and wishing she could call him and tell him how much it hurts and blame him for everything he did to her and make him repent. But her pride would not allow it.

 If you have ever felt such pain, you would know that her will to live is stronger than her grief.  You would know that her mind is more powerful and conniving than an army of angry ninjas.  Oh, but if you knew at least half of what she has survived, you would not stand in the way of her happiness. You would not hope falsely to posses her heart for, although she smiles brightly and her voice sounds chipper and sweet, her heart is shut tight, and she is determined to slay every man who dares to ask her for the kind of love she managed to survive.

Yet, a day will come when she will move on and meet the kind of man who will instill trust and comfort in her doubting head. And when such man will come, she will forget the one, who once has caused her so much pain.  With time, she would not even be able to remember his face and she will wonder why she was so in love with him and, without finding an answer, she will shrug her shoulders and curl up next to her new love and drift asleep peacefully.

"So Princess ... blew her nose. She sat her bare buttocks on the cot wires, careful not to snag anything. She thought for a while... Then she smiled. She turned to Gulietta. her voice was determined and gay.
    "Bring me A'ben Fizel," she said."

(c) - same as above

The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews

Andrews is a casual storyteller, who does not use big words or sophisticated imagery to carry his point across.  Yet messages contained in this half historical fiction, half motivational one-man journey carry words of wisdom that travel through time.

In a way, the message of the Traveler's Gift is similar to the message of Masahide:

"Barn's burnt down—
Now I can see the moon."

The moon in this book represents awakened awareness of a man, triggered by foreseeable, but nonetheless very sudden misfortune (like a burnt barn). By his simple, but moving story of a man in the face of a loss, Andrews is motivating its readers to awaken their minds and follow the principles they have been taught as children about awareness.

Although many will look down upon Andrew’s simple style, everyone can take away some value and motivation from this inspirational fiction.  

New York in June

I leave my stuffy smoking room at the Renaissance hotel (the only descent room available in New York under 600 bucks per night) and walk out onto the Times Square, which is already packed with tourists, and maneuver between numerous taxicabs towards Avenue of the Americas. 


The sun is beating through my sunglasses as I blindly make my way through the crowd of businessmen clad in smart black pinstriped suits talking or frantically typing on their phones.  A sea of stylish briefcases, designer purses, sunglasses, ties and shoes floods out surrounding architecture, mixing the air with the sweet smell of pastries, warm bus exhaust and loud taxi horns.  


Ah the Big Apple, clad in gray high scrapers  perversely covered with colorful billboards, flyers and giant advertisements, vast vestibules with strenuous security and metal detectors, gold leafed elevators, receptionists clad in a stylish dresses and matching Jimmy Choos, colorful art deco chairs,  attorneys, bankers, Oliver Peoples spectacles, cream colored business cards with raised lettering - all of this gives me a feeling of deja vu a la American Psycho.

To ward off boredom, I e-mail friends on my blackberry and make lunch plans with one of my transplanted New Yorker buddies.  Leaving skyscrapers behind, I track towards the Rockefeller Center, thinking about how much I miss walking in the big city.  I meet my friend among the group of tourists taking pictures of the fountains. Despite his protests, I make him sit on the bench in front of the fountains and snap my own picture.

We stop to look at the menus of two outdoorsy restaurants and decide to proceed downstairs to the hopping Rink Bar. We pick a small table under a shady umbrella right in front of the waterfall and order ice teas, vegetarian wrap and crab cakes. 


I watch New Yorkers as they eat their food. Other tourists look at me and mistake me for a native New Yorker. One woman even asks me where I bought my pinstriped suit. I tell her. She sighs "Oh!"

I breathe in the dry New York air and relax in a lounge chair, lulled by the sound of the waterfall. I cannot get enough of sitting outside and catching up with my friend and stay too long. I then run back to the Avenue of the Americas and walk into the deposition late, with my jacket slung across my shoulder and slight perspiration on my forehead. New York lawyers do not approve.  They raise their eyebrows. I smile and apologize. Then smile again.

Sitting at the long pinewood conference table, surrounded by stuffy lawyers rotating in thier comfy contemporary leather chairs, I start thinking about how much I enjoy visiting New York, taking in its grungy air, loud noise, old buildings, and stylish but smile-less people, and wonder if I could live here.

No, I could not. I am too spoiled by comfortable Houston living, cruising around in my air conditioned SUV right up to my air conditioned office building and house, being able to enroll my child in an affordable private school, swimming with her in my own private pool and relaxing in our huge backyard right in the heart of the city, just minutes away from work, shopping, restaurants, parents, friends. 

No, I definitely could not trade my lifestyle for busy New York. Yet, I love taking a small bite of the Big Apple without the inconvenience of actually living here.

Rome

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls

 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls does not suffer from lack of action.  This Cold War combat flick is packed with gunfire, car chases, fist and sword fighting with the evil Russian commies. Those evil Russians - they always make the best villains! 

The main villain is brilliantly played by Cate Blanchett, who has no trouble embodying the role of a cold blooded Soviet agent with a heavy Russian accent.  Her Russian was good, but her comrades' Russian was even better (I have no doubt they were played by the native speakers). 

Harrison Ford is still charming as Indi.  His character is older, but just as witty and intelligent as the younger Jones.  Ford never loses his cool or his fear of snakes.

My daughter and I give it two thumbs up, and she adds: "those Russians really like shooting".

Pink Martini - "Hey Eugene"

Pink Martini album "Hey Eugene" continues where "Hang on Little Tomato" left off, taking listeners back to the age of innocent romance and nostalgia. Pink Martini mixes upbeat jazz with romantic retro, sprinkled with Japanese and Russian, resulting in a compilation worthy of any musical connoisseur. 

Each song on the album is performed in a different fashion, ranging from sultry samba tunes to more somber classical elements.  The lead singer, China Forbes, never ceases to amaze with her dazzling vocal chords and ability to sing flawlessly in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and other languages. 


As with every other Pink Martini CD, I have my favorite song - the hypnotic Japanese-language track "Taya Tan."  

The Sex and the City - a film review

Although the film was not as tightly wound as the original TV series, it touched on more than just sex in the city.  Dealing with the many facets of love, the film exposed human emotions in a rather raw manner, showing that love is only peachy when you are Charlotte.

Charlotte is presented as the emblem of happiness throughout the film. In fact, she is so happy, she gets scared that something bad will happen to her because she witnesses too many bad things happening to her girlfriends. While starting on an upbeat note, the film dives deep into the mire of sadness and misery which Carrie, Samantha and Miranda have to face in a way that is entirely their own. Each of them deals with a set of trials and tribulations that is unique to her character and handles it in her own distinctive manner.

One of the themes explored by the film is a way in which women react to unexpected and unforeseen events. Deep shock is the common denominator, which leads all three to getting angry, hurt, and scared. They act out fast, without thinking straight, only to feel numb and dumb later.

The film also deals with selfishness and pride, which make the characters’ relationships fall apart in a most heart-wrenching way. Each woman has many redeeming qualities that outweigh her self-gratification scheme, yet each makes the man in her life suffer because of it. The catalyst to the happy ending is love, mingled with the ability to apologize and forgive. In the end, redemption rules the day and misery turns sweet (albeit in a slightly bitter way).

Despite the sad notes, this film was an enjoyable experience for an old fan like me. The intimate secrets of female bonding, fabulous fashion and grown-up sexuality are all there to make it fresh and entertaining.

I have chosen the following character quotes to sum it all up:

Samantha Jones: The good ones screw you, the bad ones screw you, and the rest don't know how to screw you.

Charlotte York: Because! Nobody gets everything they want!

Miranda Hobbes: The only two choices for women: witch and sexy kitten.

Carrie Bradshaw: It wasn't logic, it was love.

As always, I agree with Carrie - when it comes to love, logic and reason fail. And when it comes to reason and logic, love may not be enough. I would never marry anyone whom I loved madly because madly is psychotic and "in love" is temporary.