Why were there Nazis?

Excellent!

3D is cool

I finally got to see Avatar at the IMAX 3D theater in Taipei on Sunday.

Wow! ô.ô
My next must-see film: Alice in Wonderland. It opens on my birthday, so that must be a good sign.

Avatar insanity!

I went online this morning (Thursday Dec. 31) to try to book tickets at the IMAX 3-D showing of the movie Avatar in Taipei. I could see it locally at a non-IMAX theater, but that would be like going to a 5-star restaurant and ordering a hot dog.

Anyway, I was hoping to watch it sometime during this long 3-day weekend. There are six showings each day, so I figured 'no problem.' But, I forgot—this is Taiwan. At 9:00am this morning I tried to book a ticket, and everything was sold out except for the 10:20pm show on Sunday, where there were 58 seats available. However, by the time the movie lets out sometime around 1:00am, there'd be no trains back to Taoyuan. Damn :-(




Out of curiosity, I just checked again (10:30am), and now there are only 20 seats remaining for that showing.

In the U.S., shows would occasionally sell out when I was a child. Back then we didn't have the Internet, cable TV, etc., so I guess more people went to the cinema. But since I became an adult, I've never experienced a sold-out movie in the U.S., so this is a bit disheartening.

The ticket price for the IMAX 3-D version is US$13, which is expensive for here, and so I refuse to pay an additional US$30 for a taxi ride back home. Guess I'll just have to wait until next weekend.

Movies & More in Taipei

On Sunday (12/21) I went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still with Jim. While it had some cool special effects, the film was just OK in my opinion; I could have waited until the DVD was released and saved myself NT$300+. Anyway, had a nice visit with my friend, who still longs to go back to the US.

We had lunch at Burger King in the mall (only my second time eating at BK here), then wandered around the biggest Eslite store I've been in so far (large foreign language learning section). On our way to Starbucks we saw this guy performing an impressive dance with a large hoop. I don't know what this style is called, but here's a video I took:

Ring dance street performer Taipei Taiwan

Across The Universe

I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie today. It looks to be a sort of cross between Moulin Rouge (the musical aspect) and Forrest Gump (the historical aspect), set to Beatles music. I'm a sucker for musicals (last one I saw was Hairspray, which I loved) and cool visuals. Although I don't put too much stock in professional movie reviewers, I probably disagree the least often with Roger Ebert, and he gave the film 4 stars.

I had originally hoped to dress up in my Geisha Halloween costume and go out tonight, but there's not really too much happening tonight in Humboldt County, as least not much that's of interest to me. Yesterday my math teacher informed the class that we could earn 5 extra credit points if we show up to our test on Wednesday in costume. I haven't decided yet if I'm brave enough to show up at school dolled up in Japanese finery.

PS: I'm continuing with my Chinese studies. I don't sit at the computer and do the exercises each day, but I do practice listening and speaking each day while in the car. My ear is getting more attuned to differentiating between tones, so I'm excited to see some progress.