Changing My Tune on Upsets

The Final Four is upon is, and we have a 4 seed, a 5 seed, another 5 seed and a 9 seed. This has been seen by many as a magical tournament, and in many ways it was. From seeing the second ever 16 over 1 (and this one in a close game). Seeing a 15 seed make the Sweet 16, and be it a team from my home town. Seeing some of the other crazy upsets, the runs by Creighton. The rise of Florida Atlantic, a truly worthy Final Four team, or the incredible dominance of UCONN and Miami at their best. This has been a fascinating tournament to cap a year bereft of blue bloods and great teams. 

Twelve years ago we had a similar situation, with 3-seed UCONN (eventual winner), 4-seed Kentucky, 8-seed Butler and 11-seed VCU in the Final Four - the first one without a Top-2 seed (this year obviously now the first without a Top-3 seed). I had a little bit of a meltdown that time, sensing that while it as was all fun and games watching top seeds go down (though ironically, not many top seeds were bounced the first weekend) it left us with crummy matchups. That revealed itself to be true when UCONN beat Butler 53-41 in probably the single worst big time college basketball game ever. It was pretty clear to me then that while March is about upsets, by the time the calendar turns to April, and you reach the Final Four, you want the top/better teams alive.

I'll say this with caution that I've since abandoned this stance. It might be that we haven't had the same level of dominant teams as I grew up with - biggest factor may be the one-and-dones have either had less success or more increasingly chosen the G-League path. It might be that I've come to realize as the years gone on that the quality of play between the 1-seeds and the 8-seeds really isn't that much - both are far worse and more annoying to watch than any NBA team. But really, what I think has happened is I've just gotten older, and part of that is connecting to the upsets more.

Watching Princeton beat Arizona was mesmerizing. Despite watching the game with a group of friends where one of them went to Purdue and is a die-hard Purdue fan, watching a 16-seed from a little school in northern New Jersey win was amazing. Watching Creighton and San Diego State, two mid-level seeds and frisky mid-majors fight for either's first shot at a Final Four was amazing, even if the way the game ended was a bit sour.

The actual basketball itself is always going to be messy, whether its top seeds or random mid majors. There's always going to be annoying slow and inane offense, and floor-slapping defense in lieu of actual great defense, and most glaringly some awful coaching decisions and the like. But that is what you sit through to get rewarded with some amazing human moments.

The fans of these schools, the bands playing away. The spotlight put on weird schools and weird places, adn random coaches toiling away at random places. All of it is what makes this tournament special, but as I grew older that aspect has started to connect with me more. Did I vociferously cheer for Kansas and Bill Self winning their second title last year? Sure I did. But I was also fully fine to see them tossed aside by Arkansas this year.

The central point of this realization was either the Creighton vs. San Diego State game, or maybe even more markedly the FAU vs. Kansas State game, where we saw a mid-major that is really better than its seeding (something akin to the 2010 Butler team that was stupidly a 5-seed despite being ranked in the Top-10 in the final poll) beat a team trying to make its first final four after a few near misses, this time with a new coach, a new look and some incredible players. My dad watched the game with me, and asked me when Markquis Nowell was going off in the Garden if Nowell would play in the pros. I tried to explain to him that no, this little 5'8" guy who was a three-star recruit wouild almost certainly not play in teh pros. But that makes it better - watching him swag his way through deep threes and great passes in teh sports' msot famous floor. That is the tournament.

This may all seem silly if we get treated to a UCONN v. Butler type final (ironically, maybe featuring UCONN once again!), but I truly think it is about aging, about buying into the stories of these boys attempting to do something on a stage they never will see again. It helps that I'm a good 10+ years older than them now, not compatriots as I was ten years back. I can enjoy the moments of success, of failures, of March madness that the tournament brings and brought in full force this time aroudn.

Re-Post: RTW Trip: Day 28-29 - Georgetown

This was the last day of the first part of my trip, a month and five countries (and two bouts of stomach issues), but on the next day we flew from Penang to Bangalore via Kuala Lumpur, settling down in Bangalore for the next two weeks. It's crazy that despite the trip being 105 days long total, in retrospect I did the first part of the trip way too slowly. Two days in Georgetown, Penang, was probably enough, maybe the only part of this first leg that was the right amount of time.

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Day 28-29 – A Very Different Georgetown

I’ve been to Georgetown many times. My sister went there for college. I went there to visit her (and help her move in and out her first two years). I went to Georgetown again, but this was a very different Georgetown. This Georgetown was very, very far away from the hill in Washington DC, but still quite fun. Batu Ferringghi (our last stop) was only 30 minutes away from the central part of Georgetown, the main city on Penang Island. Georgetown was an old Portuguese and then English colony in Malaysia, and it still holds those influences, especially the British Colonial architecture.

We reached our hotel around 12:00, the Bayview Georgetown, a famous old hotel in the area that is still undergoing renovations to make it more appealing to customers in the 21^st Century. The hotel is located near the old part of Georgetown, which contains most of the sites to see in the city, but also contains the poorer, older section of the city. Penang is also known for its great food, mostly Nyonya infused Malaysian Food, as well as its famous night market hawker centres. We decided to split our four main meals in Georgetown between two hawker centres and two Nyonya-style restaurants. For our first meal, we went to the New World Hawker Centre, located in central Georgetown. It was very reminiscent of the main Hawker Centres in Singapore, including the fact that it was only open during the day. The Hawker fare was mostly lunch style food (noodles, flat noodles, fried rice, roti canai – you know, lunch food). This was a little sad because we aren’t really into that style of food other than a few select dishes (Roti Canai, Chow Kuey Teow), but the food was still quite good. Also, like most Hawker Centres, the alcohol was relatively cheap.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit, as my Mom was quite tired (mostly after her morning walk on the beach at Batu Ferringghi), and the Georgetown heat was bearing down on us full-bore. After a couple hours, when the air was cooling and the temperature dropped a good 10 degrees, we headed back out for a little walking tour of Georgetown. We passed some sites close to the hotel that were good photo opportunities: the high court and parliament of Georgetown – a large building built in an almost Mediterranean style; The St. George’s Church, a small but beautiful white Anglican church, the Masjid Kapitan Keling, a large sprawling mosque, and the entrance to the Khong See, a hidden Chinese temple tucked inside a busy block of road. The walk there and back took a good hour and a half, and while we were both quite drained by the end of it (you can’t escape the humidity forever), it was quite a nice introduction to Georgetown’s history.

Our place for dinner was Mama’s Nyonya Café, a small mom-and-pop restaurant located more in the modern center of Georgetown. We easily got a cab there as there is a cab stand outside the hotel. The restaurant was hard to find as the cab driver didn’t really know where it was (something that happens far too often with cab drivers in Malaysia). I can’t blame the driver because the restaurant is hard to find, with a small sign outside is tiny place on the block. The restaurant itself was small, with just five tables, but filled with large families eating what looked to be delicious food. Their menu was very familiar to my Mom and myself, having seen similar dishes at Nyonya in NYC too many times to count. Wanting to go in a slightly different direction, we ordered Wild Boar Rendang, instead of beef. We also ordered Chicken Kopitam, another Nyonya staple, and Assam Fish. All three dishes had excellent curries at their base, with distinct flavors. I usually don’t like chicken, but the slightly lemongrass-infused chicken curry was my favorite dish of the night. The Wild Boar Rendang was a little tough (wild boar generally is), but the curry was as close to the Rendang we love so much back home. The portions weren’t big, but then the low prices made the price to portion size ratio more than acceptable.

When we left Mama Nyonya, a restaurant that my Mom researched and wanted to go to from the time we started planning our days in Penang, we had to find a cab back to the Bayview. This isn’t usually a difficult exercise, but in Penang, hailing a cab is a precarious idea, especially at night. There are cabs in Georgetown. I know because I have taken a ride in one of them. But in trying to find a cab to get us back to the hotel, I doubted my past experiences. There are just no cabs available at night in Georgetown, none. For a city that is one of the biggest in Malaysia (not to mention the island of Penang being the 2^nd biggest tourist destination), I find it baffling to see the abject lack of cabs in the city. We finally got one by walking to the main road, and accepting his inflated price to take us back (most cabs won’t go by meter), and we reached back to the hotel.

My Mom was quite tired, but since it was only about 10:00, I was definitely not, and decided to scout out our dinner spot for the next night, the Red Garden Hawker Center, located just two blocks away from the hotel. The Red Garden is unlike any Hawker Center I have been to. It shares similarities to the Long Beach Café in Batu Ferringghi, as it is a large expanse of tables inside four walls of stalls. However, this is a larger area, with a more decorative, party feel. The real difference, though, is it is really a trendy night spot at night, with a stage and live music each night. The whole experience was wonderful. My plan was to sit with a roti canai and a beer, but they didn’t have a roti canai stand. Instead, I got Octopus with Special Sauce from East Coast Seafood, a seafood stand that is a staple in any respected night Hawker Center. The music was good, the beer was good, the food was great. The whole package was excellent, a great way to spend a night in Georgetown. Most restaurants in Georgetown close early (Mama Nyonya closed at 10:00, on a Friday night), but the Red Garden closes well after midnight (when I left). It actually got more crowded as the night wore on. Just a fantastic setting.

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The next day in Penang marked many different occasions. Not only was it Palm Sunday, but it marked the 1-month anniversary of my trip beginning. Four weeks of travel, of continents and airlines, of passport stamps and languages, of cabs and meats, of ocean breezes and blistering heat. Finally, it marked the last day of true sightseeing until I leave for Jaipur in India on the 7^th of April. To commemorate all these different occasions, we arranged quite a hectic schedule of sites and meals to do on our last day. We had two times set in stone, mass at 6:00 and the tour of the Cheong Fat Tze palace at 11:00.

We had two different places to see before the tour of the Cheong Fat Tze palace. Both are walking distance from the hotel, but because we got started a little late (9:45), we first took a cab to the Khoo Kongsee, a Chinese temple off of the road that we walked through the previous evening. The Khoo Kongsee is one main building in the center of an open square. Because of the shortage of time, we didn’t take much time to really find out what the significance of the Khoo Kongsee was, but went into the main building. The temple is exquisitely ornate, with beautiful work on the columns and ceiling outside. The inside of the temple was pretty much the same. The cost of going there is pretty trivial, and it didn’t need much time to see all of it, but it really is a nice gem deep inside Old Georgetown.

The next stop was the Perikan Mansion, an old large house (or, I guess, mansion) built back in the early 1900’s, still designed and arranged in that old style. The building includes a jewelry museum that includes many other ornate, delicate pieces (crowns, clothing) that are as rich as the jewelry there. The mansion itself was decorated nicely, and gave a good glimpse into the deep Colonial English influence in style and architecture of Georgetown. The house is large, and we hurriedly did as much of it as we could in the limited time we had and after a nice sprint to the Cheong Fat Tze, we reached just as the tour was starting.

The Cheong Fat Tze Mansion is one of the more famous sites in Georgetown. Today, it is run as a guesthouse that anyone can stay at, but its previous life was the main mansion in Penang for Cheong Fat Tze, a Chinese born businessman named the “Rockefeller of the East” by the Rockefeller’s themselves. Because it is a running guesthouse, the only way to see it outside of staying there is to go for one of their two guided tours at 11:00 or 3:30. The tour group was quite large, and the tour guide was quite good. She spoke great English and was a really good guide, telling nice, humorous stories, keeping us really engaged during the entire one hour tour. The house was extremely well restored, as it was apparently bought in 1989 in tatters after it was abandoned by Cheong Fat Tze’s last son (he had 8 wives in 8 countries). Now the house is supposedly back to what it was during Cheong Fat Tze’s time (of course there is now running water and air conditioning). The main highlight of the house is a series of panels on the top floor built in an old Chinese style of cutting up colored bowls and using the shards to glue together beautiful depictions. When you realize what they are up close, it is quite stunning, as is most of the house in general.

After we finished the tour we headed back to the hotel, located conveniently across the street from the Cheong Fat Tze, we took a little siesta, escaping the overbearing Penang heat at its worst. We came back out near 1:30 to go for lunch to Ivy’s Nyonya Café, another small mom-and-pop Nyonya jointrated #2 on TripAdvisor in Penang. Their lunch menu comes in a set menu or a select series of small dishes or ‘side dishes’ (essentially smaller real dishes) of traditional Nyonya food. We ordered about four of these smaller dishes and they were all quite good. The Beef Rendang was extremely spicy which kind of ruined the otherwise tasty curry and meat. The fish and prawns were well made, as was the chicken kopitam, quickly becoming one of my favorite Nyonya dishes. After another long search for a cab, we finally got one and were on our way to our final spot, the final tourist destination of Part I of my trip, the Kok Lek Si Temple, at the base of Penang Hill.

The drive up to the base of the temple was reminiscent of the drive up to the base of Table Mountain. The view from the bottom was somewhat similar (though Cape Town is just more aesthetically perfect than Penang, or any other city). The temple itself is a large series of connected buildings slotted along the façade of the hill. The bottom parts of the temple grounds were just larger versions of the Khoo Kongsee temple. The real treat is what it at the top of the temple ground. Accessible by stairs or by ‘slanted elevator’ (a funicular), the top temple is houses a giant statue of some god inside a coliseum like building with tall columns. It is quite a spectacular building from afar, and almost as good from up close. Penang Hill houses many different sites (mostly nature related), and the Kek Lok Si temple is the only one we chose to see, and I think we chose the best one.

We reached back at the hotel rather and took a quick nap before leaving for mass. The mass itself was eventful mainly because of its length. With the inclusion of the Passion as the gospel for Palm Sunday, the mass is generally longer than a normal one, but despite this priest not saying a sermon, the mass still took an hour and a half. That really isn’t fair given the heat. At least by the time we escaped the clutches of that rambling mass it was dark and cooler. Penang gets quite nice after dark in terms of the weather. We headed back to the hotel for a quick shower and rest before we left for our final meal in Southeast Asia.

Because of my great experience the previous night and my Mom’s regret for not coming, we decided to go back to the Red Garden for dinner. We arrived around nine, and while the place was still full, it was noticeably less full than it was near midnight the night before. Now, at first I chalked that up to today being a Sunday versus yesterday being a Saturday, but as I soon figured out that the real reason was because the Red Garden is just a better spot the later it gets. The music gets better, the crowd gets better, the drink-to-food ratio gets higher. Anyway, we ordered House Special Clams and blackened mackerel. The mackerel was fried nicely, with a light BBQ sauce, but it didn’t hold a candle to the clams, which were excellent. I shared a bottle of Asahi with my Mom (and by bottle, I mean I had 4/5ths of it), and not before long the music started. It was everything the previous night was, but now with more food. After we finished that course, we went back to get more clams (they were that good), and I ordered lamb satay. Now, I was a little skeptical of the lam satay because such combinations always sound better coming out of your mouth than they taste coming in, but damn was that lamb satay excellent. The lamb by itself was extremely well cooked, so much so that I didn’t even want to put the peanut sauce by the end of it. The night ended with a smaller bottle of Tiger, and some regrets about not ordering another lamb satay. Lambs are so cute, but when I eat something like that, I could care less because it is so damn good.

Ranking the Best Winners that I've Seen, Pt. 2: #20 - 1

20.) Chicago (2002)

I thold you I like musicals. Chicago was interesting because of how just out there Baz Luhrman was. Unlike most musicals that just make the songs part of the dialogue and the scenes, the idea to make most of the songs their own weird, atlernate fantasy dimension set pieces, was just brilliant. The showmanship of all the songs, especially my favorite in Cell Block Tango, was all great. The story itself was probably a bit thin, but the production of it all was the closest I've ever seen to watching a stage musical on the big screen.

19.) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

I get it. I realize this is seen as an all time classic. I realize that Jodie Foster, and of course Anthony Hopkins were brilliant. But at the end of the day, I just don't get why this is seen as some unimpeachable classic of the medium. It's a wonderfully good, provoking movie, but there's just a lot of best picture winners that I like a lot more. 

18.) Parasite (2019)

I get it. I realize this was seen as a modern classic. But, and this might be seen as a hot take: I truly wonder if the exact same movie was made but featuring a poor American family weaseling their way into a rich American family, and it was in English - would it have won Best Picture? Maybe it does. The plot itself, the duality of who the parasite is?, the wittyness, was all excellent. I just think the English version of Parasite loses Best Picture to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is all - granted if Once Upon A Time won, it would rank lower on the list.

17.) Spotlight (2015)

I get that some people would've wanted Mad Max, a brilliantly entertaining action film, to win, but I just love that Spotlight did win. Of course its topical and a truly fully intentional view into the darkness of the Catholic Priest scandal, but more than that it was maybe one of the top to bottom best acted ensemble movies I've ever seen. It made being a journalist look fun, and more importantly, staggeringly important. Yes, a deep dive into investigative journalism was never going to be full of memorable scene-stealing moments, but Spotlight came about as close as you can get.

16.) Argo (2012)

At the moment I was a bit surprised that Argo won over Lincoln or 12 Years a Slave, but in retrospect it makes sense. Yes, there's a common cliche of Hollywood loving nothing better than a movie about making movies, but I want to credit Argo for being a really well written and acted movie - with a great deal of drama. Yes, they absolutely butchered reality to make that plot work, but it did work. Yes, they should've been more fair to the fact Argo was largely a Canada-run operation, but as a movie itself, it worked amazingly well. The cast was great, the performances were great - even small roles like Bryan Cranston and Kyle Chandler as random feds, were excellent. Well done all around.

15.) Unforgiven (1992)

I was surprised to learn when trawling Best Picture lists that Unforgiven beat out A Few Good Men, a far more memorable and lasting film, but when I did sit down and just watch Unforgiven, I totally get it. A western that turns its head on the cowboy hero, giving a deep introspective look at the darkness and soullessness of it all. Clint Eastwood was probably never more introspective and raw than this in his late career. Hackman and Freeman were excellent as well. It looked great, the acting better, and the movie was about as good as a I could have imagined.

14.) Moonlight (2016)

Of course, the movie almost didn't win, but Moonlight losing to La La Land would have been a disgrace - La La Land would've been probably in the 30s for me. The story is raw, the acting was phenomenal - especially underrated was the scenes with the younger versions of Chiron. Mahershala Ali was incredible. It was poignant, it was shining a light on so many untold stories all at once. Yes it was depressing and sad and dour, but the story necessitated it, and earned it 100%/

13) Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Some have already said that EEAAO being such an Oscars juggernaut will not age well. For me, I saw it on a plane having heard a bit about it, and loved it the second I watched it. I had a dream it could win Best Picture. I saw a decent amount of the nominees this year, and I was overjoyed when it one. It was the closest thing to many of the TV shows I've often ranked #1 on my yearly lists: it was just the best piece of movie-making, the most entertaining and thought provoking one of the past year. The comedy, the questions it asked, all of it combined to something incredible.

12.) The Departed (2006)

Yes, this was far from Scorsese's best movie. Yes, the rat at the end scurrying was on the nose. Yes, god knows what accent Nicholson was doing. But aside from Nicholson's accent, the movie, let's be honest, is phenomenal. Dicaprio and Damon were both outstanding. Wahlberg gave to me his best performance. Sheen was great. The plot was great (even if it was a remake of a foreign movie), with teh dueling rats trying to outfox each other. The plot device of the therapist worked. It all worked. Take away a few Scorsese trappings that outstayed their welcome (Gimme Shelter, again?) and this may have been higher up.

11.) No Country for Old Men (2007)

While probably being my 3rd favorite Coen Brothers movie (Fargo and Lebowski higher up for me), there is no doubt No Country for Old Men was a breathtaking movie. The exactness of the shot, the direction, the still imagery. The painstakingly brilliant methodical performance that was Anton Cigurh. I don't know if Brolin was ever better either. It was cool to see the Coens return to their Blood Simple type roots and just make the hell out of a thriller, but do it with such perfecting flair. In many ways, little about it was Coen-esque at all, other than it being spectacular.

10.) Titanic (1997) 

It's easy to make fun of Titanic, or more pointedly make fun of James Cameron for him being so damn full of himself, and certainly his attitude has not done him any favors. But Cameron promised the world a spectacle of never before seen proportions and by God did he deliver. Spectacle was Titanic and it was every bit of it. It helped that Dicaprio and Winslet had perfect chemistry and were captivating, but what I think is truly underrated about the movie was how great the scenes were from the iceberg hit to the end. It was a tremendous action/disaster movie that was worthy of oscars from that part itself. Yeah, maybe it didn't deserve all of the 14 or so oscars it got, but it is easily a landmark movie.

9.) On The Waterfront (1954)

This wasn't intentional, but the Top-9 are all from 1984 or earlier. Not to say movies these days aren't great, but anyway. On The Waterfront was Brando at his best with great performances all around. Brando though is the real draw, and he was incredibly engrossing in the movie. The plot itself was such a perfect little slice of life mob film, something that set the stage for so much - Mean Streets and to some degree Goodfellas being structured similarly - going for the small moments

8.) My Fair Lady (1964)

The music is great, Hepburn and Harrison were incredible together. If the only real knock against it is the singing was dubbed and not Hepburn, then you know you are absolutely grasping for straws. It is unreal that somehow that cost her a best actress nod. The plot itself is great even if the music was average, but the music is spectacular as well. Musicals were just better back in the day, from teh passion to the music itself, to the plot and how it weaves.

7.) West Wide Story (1961)

Speaking of which.... my highest rated musical is such because (1) the music itself is amazing, with maybe the best collection of songs of any musical and (2) the set direction and staging was basically as good as Chicago all thsoe years later. The choreography. The performances themselves. All of it was fantastic. West Side Story to me is the best musical (stage and film) the US ever produced and I'm glad it got a great view of it in even the 60s.

6.) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

To me, this is my version of The Silence of the Lambs - an old beloved psychological thriller that I am absolutely in love with. Nicholson was brilliant. Of course, I have a soft spot for DeVito's incredible character. The movie itself was well ploted, brilliantly directed and just captivating. It was an underrated funny movie, and underrated gloriously sad movie. It is just an underrated masterpiece over all.

5.) The Deer Hunter (1978)

I still think I would tab Apocalypse Now as the better war movie, but The Deer Hunter was the best war movie to not be about the war - it was about the people. The quick cut from the fun, joy and vibes of the wedding to them coming back to the steel town having endured hell was jarring and massively effective. The acting lineup is outrageous, with all of De Niro, Streep, Cazale, and most significantly, Walker putting up career type performances. Yes, you can criticize the film for their portrayal of the Vietnamese, but to me the movie isn't really as much about them. It's about four young bright-eyed kids getting beaten down the eventual death that is so poignant and lasting.

4.) Casablanca (1942)

I'll admit, I'm giving it a bit of extra credit for being a movie that came out in nineteen-forty-fucking-two, but Casablanca is eminently perfect. Bogart and Bergman were about as great a couple on screen as any ever, just captivating in every single scene. The plot itself is thin when you look at it from 2020 goggles. But really, let's just remember that a fully rewatchable masterpiece came out in a year that is closer to the end of the Civil War than it is to today. The setting, the incredible tone it sets from the start, all of it just jumps off the screen - as much today as it did 83 effing years ago.

3.) The Godfather, Pt. 2 (1974)

A masterpiece that if it was maybe 20 minutes shorter (making it similar to the original's run time) would likely be #2. Spoiler alert, the original is my #1. For part two, Pacino was just masterful, as were Cazale (just a phenomenal actor) and it gave a showcase for De Niro. Honestly, if anything I wish the De Niro / Young Vito scenes were longer and more plentiful. Yes, watching Pacino turn himself fully into a monster bit by agonizing bit is mesmerizing, but so was watching Vito turn into the don similarly bit by bit. There's nothing new to say about this, or the original. I already was told by basically the world these are two of the best movies ever, then watched part 2 for the first time I think in 2012, and somehow it beat my expectations.

2.) Amadeus (1984)

Period dramas became a bit of a thing in teh 80s. Most were forgettable. Amadeus, the fake story of contempt, jealousy, adoration and youth, was not. I remember the first time I encountered the movie was in a gift shop at Mozart's house in Vienna on our Orchestra tour. I was astounded to realize it won best picture. I watched it maybe a year or two later and got it instantly. The dynamism of Hucle and Abraham was just incredible. The competing dualities of so many of the pairs, from of course Mozart and Salieri, to Mozart and his Dad (and underrated storyline), to Mozart's wife and Mozart himself. All of it worked in front of resplendent sets, costumes, music, scenes. The movie just flies along from the opening beats of Mozart's music, to each guffawing laugh of Mozart himself, to every snide remark perfectly delivered by F. Murray Abraham. Just a perfect film.

1.) The Godfather (1972)

It's still the best single movie I've ever seen (quick aside - had Goodfellas rightfully beaten out Dances With Wolves and won best picture, it probably ranks #2 for me on this list). It sets it tone basically in that first line of "I believe in America" delivered in that stilted way in a dark room. Everything from that point on, including to me the best opening of any movie ever (the wedding that perfectly introduces every character with theri motivations, their beliefs, all in full display) and then proceeds to be as good throughout. The dynamics of the family worked perfectly, with one amazing performance after another. The Godfather set a level for film that honestly may never be topped.

Ranking the Best Winners that I've Seen, Pt 1: #37-21

37.) Crash (2005)

I've actually never seen any of the other nominees that year, but even I know this was an awful pick. Crash was the type of movie that the 14-year old me who saw it in theaters would've thought was deep, but was actually so damn surface level. I'm sure there are worse Best Picture winners that I've never seen, but out of the ones I have, there's a huge gap between this and the next.

36.) Ordinary People (1980)

I guess the acting was good, and the subject was a pointed look at a taboo subject (teen suicide) at the time, much like the best picture winner the year before was on divorce. But in reality, this movie just never really captured me, and the fact it won over Raging Bull is just a disgrace. This isn't the worst movie to beat out a Scorsese film for best picture. But this is the type of movie that the Oscars gave too much love to over the years.

35.) American Beauty (1999)

My view on this movie got a lot lower over time, and not only because this was Spacey the creep acting creepy. Anyway, this was another pointed look at a small issue, much like the Ordinary People of its day. At the end of the day, either The Green Mile or The Sixth Sense would've have been better chjoices (granted, if it was The Sixth Sense, I don't know how much higher it would've been).

34.) Forrest Gump (1994)

I think over the years the backlash against Forrest Gump has been largely either misplaced or mixed up. I think Tom Hanks very much deserved that Best Actor oscar for lifting up a paper thin, ridiculous movie and making it watchable. The plot, the silliness, the surfaceness, it was just slightly more viable than Crash was all those years later. But let's not drag Tom Hanks down.

33.) The Sound of Music (1965)

This is not an anti-musical pick - I have a bunch of the other musicals that have won best picture higher up the list. What I've come to realize after watching it a couple times is how little of the movie actually featured music and how overly drawn out the plot was of the actual story. It's wholly made up, and even worse than that really it was trying to tell a redemptive WWII story without focusing on any Jewish characters. The best songs are great, but everything else is overrated. Admittedly, I haven't seen any of the other movies from that year.

32.) The King's Speech (2010)

Fine story, fine acting, spotlighting a somehow undertold and not well known story about the Royals. All of that is true. Still a bit surprised this won best picture. From here on out, I would say these are all good movies, all worthy of watching, if not outright rewatchable, but still a bit shocked it won. Maybe it's because I've seen a bunch of the 2010 nominees, but I would've gone for Black Swan, The Fighter, The Social Network, Inception or Toy Story 3 over this one.

31.) An American in Paris (1951)

I love these types of movies, am a huge fan of Gene Kelly, and found myself totally engrossed in every bit of that 20-minute dance sequence to end it. Call this a protest drop of a few spots because I'm still retroactively annoyed the superior Gene Kelly flick, Singing in teh Rain, wasn't just not named best picture in 1952, but not even nominated. That's blasphemy.

30.) Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

At the time, I was excited that this movie won Best Picture. Over time, my emotions are more mixed as I don't know how to think about how they represent India, the slums, and everything else. What I do know is it was a well acted, stunningly well shot, and quite fun movie at the end of the day. The song, the dancing, the moments - it was a soft entry to many into Bollywood, and a worthy winner given the other candidates that year.

29.) The Sting (1973)

Was it a bit too silly? Yes. Was the big reveal a bit too choreographed? Maybe. But was it superbly well acted, well scripted and an incredibly good time? Yes, 100%. I have not yet seen American Graffiti, but The Sting deserves its place for pairing up Butch & Sundance one more time in a very different movie and still making it about as well made and entertaining as you would want.

28.) Gladiator (2000)

Was it a bit too over the top? Yes. Was it a bit too masculine? Maybe. But was it superbly well shot, acted and an incredibly good time? Yes, yes it was. Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix were on one in this film. Honestly, I think Traffic was better (I'm a Soderberg-stan in general) but even then Gladiator was a more than fine film achievement. Spectacle matters, as we'll get too in more serious detail in The Titanic section.

27.) Gigi (1958)

It was a small movie in terms of plot, but was just so sweetly made, and in a weird way really progressive for its time, with the titular Gigi fighting to be something more than a courtesan which all expected her to be. Not going to say its some #FemaleEmpowerment film, but it comes close for its day. I was somewhat surprised to learn it won all nine oscars it was  nominated for, but it was excellently made and looked stunning and had great music - for both it won most of its oscars.

26.) Platoon (1986)

I'm not a huge War Movie guy (admittedly, I have a war movie much higher up the list) but few movies actually showed the real, in the moment, front-lines cruelty of the Vietnam War with more raw honesty than Platoon. Yes, watching it in 2010s eyes it was a bit tough to look at Charlie Sheen as a dramatic actor, but he was good and the rest of the cast excellent. The direction and action was amazing. It was probably a bit too dour for my liking to be higher up, but it was an excellent movie.

25.) In the Heat of the Night (1967)

It's a beautiful bit of brilliance that both this and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? was nominated for best picture in the same year. Both feature Sidney Poitier cast as a black man in a white world, and had the movie lean 100% into that angle. It was risky, it was defiant, it was brilliant. The mystery storyline itself was a bit weak (though mystery plots in the 1960s were rarely all too deep), but the audacity of it all, and the brilliance of Poitier himself, makes it all work well.

24.) Rain Man (1988)

Oh yes, this was a great one. Honestly, after a couple watches, I think Tom Cruise is the better performance here. Was Dustin Hoffman did was very raw and portrayed with great intention, but in terms of the tougher role, us not absolutely despising the Cruise character is a testament to how effective at being smarmy and likeable he was in his co-leading man days (see A Few Good Men also). The plot is also better written and more intricate than I remembered after first viewing.

23.) Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

This is the highest ranking movie where I'm fully against it winning - in this case it should've been Apocalypse Now. Anyway, Kramer vs. Kramer itself is a testament to great acting, and man was it great. Sure, on its face just watching Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep act out a couple breaking apart, not through infidelity but just through natural separation, was worth the price of admission, but it really was. I don't know still if I've seen a better look at divorce than this one, and having it played out by two of the all time greats just make it all the better.

22.) The Apartment (1960)

It's amazing looking back just how many romantic comedies used to win best picture. I guess a much higher percentage of movies back in the day were in that camp, but anyway while I think The Apartment is a tad overrated, it's that it is truly excellent vs. incredible. Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine were both excellent, especially Lemmon is so perfectly playing the down-on-his-luck climber. The plot itself was quite risque for its time and definitely humorous. In the end, it is a fantastic movie that has become a bit of a touchstone as being one of the best old classic hollywood movies, which I jsut think is not true.

21.) Birdman (2015)

Sure, the big takeaway was the one-er of it all, but even outside of that, I thought this was just a very good movie with some excellent performances, from Keaton to Norton to the understated star of it all to me in Emma Stone. Even some of the lesser roles in the ensemble were just perfectly acted. Add in the direction, which probably is overrated but still commendable, and you get an excellent winner that I actually find a bit underrated historically by this point. To me, it is one of the better winners of the 2010s.

Deviling Up

I started this blog in October, 2009. That NHL season, the Devils were at the very tail end of a golden era, somehow got the #2 seed in the East, but lost meekly in five games to the Flyers. They did resurrect themselves, largely due to the growth of Zach Parise and the trade for Ilya Kovalchuk, and make a suprise Stanley Cup Finals run in 2012, losing to the Kings in 6 games. Parise left that summer in Free Agency, and Marty Brodeur followed him into retirement soon after, and the team was aimless. 

It's weird how little a factor the Devils have been in this blog and on my life the past 11 years. I got all into the 2012 run but even I knew that was largely the end of an era. The weirdness comes from the fact that the pre-blog portion of my life as a sports fan, they were arguably the greatest source of joy. They were my team that had a mini-dynasty, winning titles in 1995, 2000 and 2003 (the last two I remember, with me remembering 2003 in excruciating detail). They always made the playoffs. They had a true all-timer in net, and a few more HOFers sprinkled around. They were consistent contenders. And then it all went to nothing.

I remained a hockey fan - it being my 3rd favorite sport behind football and baseball, this despite the Devils really bringing me nothing. Much like my Astros from 2006-2010, the Devils went through years of being unintentionally bad from 2013-2017. They had a weird oasis in a desert year in 2018, led by Taylor Hall getting the MVP for dragging a wandering slob of a team to the last playoff spot. But then they started intentionally being bad - after being purchased by the same ownership group of the #Process 76ers. It worked. They drafted Nico Heischer #1 overall in 2017 and then Jack Hughes #1 in 2019. They drafted a bunch of other good players, and away we are.

When the Devils played last season, they were the best type of bad team. They lost a shit ton but largely because of unnaturally bad goaltending letting down what was good on-ice play. Injuries hurt as well, mainly to Jack Hughes who quietly had a breakout season when he was on the ice. They did little to really develop in the offseason other than hope & pray the goalies would regress upwards. After an 0-2 start, it didn't look good. The resulting 21-2 stretch thereafter was a sign the Devils are ready to be back in my life.

Watching Jack Hughes become the megastar that his draft hype portended has been great. Seeing Nice Hiescher finally have the team success to warrant love he sohuld've received years ago has been great. Seeing the weird Dougie Hamilton splurge two offseasons ago work has been amazing. Watching them load up to get Timo Meier, a potential rental, was even better - made even better-er by the fact they didn't give up all that much. The fact that last year's top-5 pick Luke Hughes is sitting there dominating at Michigan, ready to be slotted into the blueline is the even best part. The Devils are loaded.

You can call me a bandwagon fan, but I've been a Devils fan for my whole life. I went to games at the old Continental Airlines Arena, experiencing that long trudging walk from the parking lot to the stadium. I've been to the Rock a dozen or so times, loving that the Devils success finally paid off with a beautiful stadium (neighboring location very much excluded), but then lamenting that the team's fall from grace made the building far emptier and hollower than it sohuld be. I'm New Jersey through and through, and after the Nets left us, this is the one true team that New Jersey had. The one that paid the state back with three titles, and is on the run to doing so again.

It's odd that I've very much been through this experience before. A lot of my feelings for this Devils team are a cominbation of the 2015 and 2017 Astros - the final breakthrough after years in the wilderness. The parade of nobodies being slowly replaced by a wave of stars. The lingering doubts of if this is real (more a thing with the 2015 Astros). the worry that they would go all-in too quickly, but instead see them be reasonable with risks and extensions (that Jack Hughes contract is the successor to the old Nathan MacKinnon contract as the "best contract in the league"). The Devils have fulfilled everything.

They may not win the Cup this year, frankly that's very likely. But just like I was with the 2015 Astros, and then the 2017 team (cheating aside), what I really want is back in that race. To feel that moment when Tyrion tells Dany that "you're in the big game now!". The Devils are in that.

Playoff hockey is the greatest, most haunting, dizzying experience in sports, sharing a lot of the exact drama and tension of October baseball. For years I watched playoff hockey like I did October baseball from 2006-2014, loving it but hating that I wasn't invested. Certainly, the first time I felt that pit in my stomach, mostly in the 2017 playoffs when the Astros were stranding runners left and right in the ALCS, I wondered if it was worth it. But the second they pulled it off - and even the years they didn't - I too often remind myself that it certainly is.

I want back in that game. New Jersey wants back in it. They've patiently built a great team, and it has exploded in full force. They've rekindled my own joy for the team which will finally match my joy for the game. If anything, I want the Rangers in the first round, jsut to get all the emotions, all the angst, all the intrigue out of the way immediately. This is what being a hockey fan is all about, wading through the mess and bullshit, until you can finally be wowed by Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton and the rest. 

It may never pay back with a Cup, but that's fine. In this one case I've seen my team win Cups. I remember them well. They can keep me happy long into the night. I just want newer memories, newer iterations, of playoff hockey, of loud moments in The Rock, of that whole experience to start adding to my resume.

Re-Post: RTW Trip Day 11 - Dalat

**I often forget that I went to Vietnam at all in 2013. Granted, I fully remember the days of sitting in a dark hostel room affixed to my bed inbetween rapid trips to the bathroom. So was my time there. But then things brightened up, in the sunny hills of Dalat - probably the only place I went to on my trip that I will never return to. It was the rebirth of the trip, so here I give you a day in, around and through Dalat, on motorcycle no less**

Day 11 – A Return to Normalcy Among the Mountains

Getting healthy again is a strange feeling, one that is welcome, obviously, but still met with extreme caution. For hours, you aren’t sure if you are healthy yet. Any slight abnormal feeling in your stomach you put down to some relapse, some punishment for having the gall to think it was all over. That was the story for part of my day today, where I caught myself every now and then to search for reasons why I wasn’t healthy. In a way, it is hard to believe after what I had gone through the past two days that it was all gone, but apparently it was. My stomach is still not perfect. I doubt it will digest food normally until I return to the 1^st world in Australia in 8 weeks time. But as long as it doesn’t come out the front, or as long as I don’t have crippling pain, I should be fine.

Today was the tour I was most looking forward to during my time alone in Southeast Asia. Dalat is known as a little hamlet in the mountains, surrounded by lush farms, cascading hills and a great elevated breeze. All of these things are true, but Dalat also houses quite a few sites. The one issue with most of these is that they are not in the city itself, some as far as 30 KM, but most about 10 KM away. Therefore, it has become the popular tourist attraction to hire an “easy-rider” – essentially a motorcycle – to drive you around. They sell it is a tour, because the guide (assuming you book with one of these companies) knows English and tells some interesting facts through the tour, but it really is a driver. An affordable, unique driver, that gives you a real firsthand experience of just how beautiful the scenery and environment of Dalat is.

The tour started with the furthest location (which I think may have been done on purpose because a motorcycle ride through the mountains is a great way to wake someone up), the combination Linh Anh Pagoda and Elephant Falls. (Just one housecleaning item: you can arrange your own itinerary, but there are good standard ones you can work off of, and all the places I saw are pretty standard). The drive there was first through an extensive farm area. Unlike what I know farms to be, these were small, or at least the crops were separated into small areas, but they were all extremely organized. The farms themselves were below me as we went up, and it gave a birds-eye view of how well maintained they were. About half of them are covered by plastic greenhouses, that are mostly for the flower produce. All along the route there are hills in the distance. The further we got away from Dalat, the farms were replaced more and more by trees (ostensibly the same trees that were cut down to make way for the farms). Dalat is damp (but not humid) so everything is extremely green, and the people of the region take great pride in their natural beauty, and many of these smaller roads are lined with beautiful trees, but all of the roads have walls to prevent rockslides and other danger.

The Linh Anh Pagoda is high above a hill, and is quite regal as it is in a relatively clear part of the area. The pagoda has intricate artwork on the outside, but is not enough for it to become overwhelming (as some later ones were). The place has a very peaceful pond and walking area behind, where one of the more infamous attractions is tucked away, the large ‘Happy Buddha’ so called because of its smiling face. One road parallel to the Linh Anh Pagada is the entrance to the Elephant Falls (alternatively, you can take a flight of stairs down between them). There is an entrance fee for the Falls, but outside of the pagoda’s all these sights do, but they are all 40,000 VND (~2 dollars) or less. The top of the falls are visible from the top, but the real joy is the cascading path down. The path itself is both treacherous and easy. There are many rocks and ledges there that makes it dangerous (the lack of handrails makes it even more dangerous), but all along the rocks are steps that are easy to tell, giving me a nice guidepath of where to go. Sadly, the Falls were a little disappointing, because to get a good look at the falls in full, you have to be more adept at hiking and that type of outdoors stuff that somebody of my abilities. I was able to get very close to the Falls themselves, at an eye-to-eye level, and it was a good site, but the better site was so close but yet so far.

 

We left  Back for Dalat (the rest of the attractions were either in Dalat or on the other side). Overall, the ride back to Dalat was quicker than the ride there, but I think that was more of a factor of me being more comfortable with the idea that, yes, I was not sick anymore, and being more comfortable with the whole motorcycle experience. In isolation, the Linh Anh Pagoda and the Elephant Falls aren’t worth a 30 KM drive (60, in total), but it is considering what that drive entails. Numerous picture opportunities. Numerous breathtaking views. The scenery on that drive was better than all the others, and when I think about it as a 90-minute motorcycle ride through some stunning views with two nice stops along the way, well, it makes it a lot more appealing. The surroundings are a part of the Dalat experience, and they definitely had a tangible value and enhanced my takeaway from Dalat a lot.

Our next stop was ‘The Crazy House’, a favorite attraction inside the Dalat City Limits. The Crazy House is basically a complex maze of steps and pathways and bridges that combine from two houses and two large, hollow trees. The most amazing part of this (other than how confusing the endless pathways and forks are) was that the whole thing is made from concrete, even though from far and from near, it looks like wood. I had read about the Crazy House online in my research, and by description, is sounds like a kids attraction (Crazy House with Tons of Stairs Leading in Circles!!), but not only is it not a kids attraction, but I didn’t see one kid there and saw a bunch of couples and groups. Nice spot near Dalat.

The other two attractions in Dalat weren’t as good, for various reasons. First was the ‘Dragon’ Pagoda, named for the large stone dragon that winds its way around the side garden. The dragon is quite nice, but the Pagoda itself is small. It is supposedly the nicest in Dalat, and had I not seen the Linh Anh Pagoda, or the Pagoda still to come, I probably would have been more impressed. The other was the Dalat ‘Flower Park’. It is damn impressive from the very first site, a large arch about 25 feet high with ‘Welcome to the Flower Park’ written in flowers. The park is large but not too much so. It two lakes and paddle-boats to rent, a gazebo, a restaurant, multiple side exhibitions. My Mom (an ardent gardener) would have loved it, and I enjoyed it, but by now it was quite hot, and being back down in Dalat and with the Flower Park containing surprisingly little shade, I was ready to leave Dalat and head back to higher (and more interesting) ground.

We then left Dalat and headed for the Datanla Falls, which is probably the most mainstream attraction in the Dalat region. The Falls are situated a half km away from a large, expansive lake where a couple modern resorts are being built. Once again, I entered the Falls area with the Falls themselves on lower ground. When I got past the requisite shops/restaurants for a tourist destination of this ilk, I had a decision to make. Either walk down, or take the ‘roller coaster’, which is as it sounds. Of course, being against the prospect of walking back up once I was done, and I wasn’t passing up this opportunity after I realized that the roller coaster, much like the Crazy House, wasn’t a children’s ride. The coaster itself is a winding steel path down the hill to the base of the first waterfall. There are no serious drops, but it still gets to a decent speed. The interesting part of the coaster was that the cars are totally user-controlled. There is a lever that you push forward for the car to go faster, and you pull it back for it to brake. It took me a while to get the hang of how to operate it and get it to stop when I wanted it to get a few pictures off (there is enough distance between cars for there to be no worry of holding up the people behind). There are signs throughout telling you to brake, but to me, that was like telling a little kid to not do something. I was quite sad when I reached the bottom, but that was mostly because I realized the ride up was basically the same as the ride up any roller coaster in any theme park, a mechanized, slow, plodding ride up.

On the Roller Coaster down to the waterfall.

My brief sadness was just that when I saw the waterfalls (which is the reason I came here, I had to remind myself). The waterfalls are impressive, if common. You can climb the rocks right up to the water basin that the waterfalls falls into. The water then flows down a long ravine that finally reaches another waterfall. That waterfall is reachable by cable-car, but not during off-season (I could’ve walked there, but there was an extremely little chance of that happening). There are paths all around the waterfall area that lends themselves to great picture opportunities. Again, the falls are nice and worth seeing if you come to Dalat, but the real experience is the combination of the falls and that coaster to get there, for just 50,000 VND total (10,000 to enter the park, 40,000 to use the coaster there and back). I have to hand it to the Vietnamese. 15 km outside of a small hill-side town, they have a mini roller-coaster with user-operated cars. The fact that they had this was about as impressive as riding it.

The next, and final, stop, was the Linh Phuc Pagoda, which is actually a collection of Pagoda’s, at the end of a hill. I’ll start with the negatives about it. The site is tucked away in a small town that resembles many little villages in India (but still cleaner and less impoverished), and the decorations, artwork and sculptures may be a little too overwhelming. That said, they still are beautiful. They have the normal temple that had a large inside with three different altars (and far more people there for religious reasons than either of the other pagoda’s). The compound also had a tall Pagoda will bell inside, and two winding staircases up and down to the top, that offered a beautiful view of a relatively low area of this region. The final building houses their calling card, a 25-foot tall figure of a Goddess, made exclusively from flowers. It is quite a sight to see from afar, but even more impressive from up close. The ‘statue’ itself is located on the 2^nd floor of a building (but exposed to the open air), however the walk up is short and gives another nice view. There is also a nice Catholic Church located away in the distance. In the end, the Linh Phuc Pagoda is an interesting site, a good visit as it is relatively close to the City Center (12 km), and well worth a visit.

We reached the City Center for the final time, where I decided to play it safe for lunch, say goodbye to my guide, my escort and my motorcycle (or, more accurately, his motorcycle). I had a couple takeaways from my day upon the bike and seeing the sites. I would rate the entire experience as an absolute positive. Some of the scenery and views are just brilliant. The feeling of riding along winding highways above fields of crops and trees and hills with the wind whipping at you directly is unmatched (I guess for anyone who has more experience on a motorcycle that feeling would be a little less memorable). Plus, the sites themselves aren’t bad. Some would be a nuisance getting to if they had to be reached solely by drab roads through open desert, but they are reached through the opposite, which makes them better. I am definitely, definitely happy I did an ‘easy-rider’ tour, and it lived up to every expectation I had for the tour.

I got back to my hotel around 2:30 a little tired. Part of this was spending a lot of the day riding without anywhere to rest your back, which gets tiring after a while (I’m told it is less ‘painful’ for the driver, who is in a more natural position), and also due to me spending more time out than I had previously in about 5 days. Because of my relative tiredness, I decided to take it slow for the afternoon, watch some shows and go down and try to interact with the busy crowd at the hostel. I met a group of about five people visiting from England, and they knew a group of three visiting from Germany. The Brits were on Day 3 of 4 in Dalat, and they were impressed and curious as to the specifics of my trip. They then asked what my plans were for the night. I told them because of my stomach and since I was leaving tomorrow I wasn’t planning on going out after dinner, but I had no real plans. They were going to a place close by for dinner, and it happened to be one of the places already on my list (The Chocolate Café), so tagging along with them seemed like an easy offer to accept.

Dinner at the Chocolate Café was uneventful. It was my first meal of any substance in Vietnam, and my expectations of Veitnamese Cuisine wasn’t all to high to begin with, but the Chocolate Café did meet if not exceed them. The Chocolate Café serves both Vietnamese and Western food (including a large selection of mini pizzas). Two of the five Brits decided to be boring and get ‘Western’ food (which did end up looking quite good). The rest of us had Vietnamese food. We all shared a large plate of pepper-fried squid, which came with an excellent tangy sauce. The squid portions were large, they weren’t fried too deeply, and the taste was excellent. My main course was a clay-pot of Shrimp, served in a caramel curry. The curry didn’t really taste like caramel, but still tasted quite good. It was a sweet taste that was welcome as I was still a little unsure if my stomach could handle spicy foods. There were a lot of pieces of shrimp in that little pot; more evidence that the Vietnamese are not shy with their portions. The Chocolate Café had five tables that were being served when we were there, and all five had people that were not Vietnamese. I’m not sure what to take away from this, other than people from Dalat probably don’t eat out too much on random Wednesday’s. The food was excellent, the drink was fine (I had my first beer in four days), and after it ended, I retired back to the hotel while the Brits wished me Good Cheer and went on their merry way. It was a little sad to see them leave, as I would have joined them if I had, literally, the stomach for it, but it was a fun day, one that would be hard to replicated anywhere else that I have been or will go to.