Excellent film! “The King’s Speech” was full of warmth, witty conversations, humane interactions, a well-woven personal stories with the intersection of historical events. The storyline was simple enough about a royal personality overcoming his personal shortcoming, yet interestingly rich and intriguing. Even Colin Firth’s frequent stammering moments were charming. ^^ Ohhhh, I also loved the king’s speech therapist (Lionel Logue), starring Geoffrey Rush, a gem of the movie. His witty words were sparkling magic dust all over the movie.

It was also interesting to know from the conversations with the actors that Helena is a great granddaughter of a former British prime minister Herbert H. Asquith. She personally knew about the king’s stuttering, but didn’t know Lionel Logue’s role and presence behind the door. Another interesting note is that this was originally a play and the director Tom Hooper (half British and half Australian)’s mother incidentally discovered this script at a casual play reading gathering and convinced her son and Colin Firth to do the film. It was funny to hear: “How did you get involved with this movie? Your agent?” Colin Firth replied “No. Tom’s mom called me. And she called me again. haha”

The award season is fast approaching. Interestingly, the unusually large number of interesting movies this year based on real stories or characters, like “The King’s Speech” “127 Hours” “Conviction” “Secretariat” “Fair Game” “Social Network” all of which screenings I attended. Sometimes, real life stories are more interesting than any other fictional versions.

It’s like Juliette Lewis character’s monologue in “Conviction”, which was replicated based on the real conversation taped by Betty Anne Water at that time. The writer of this movie had another version of the conversation already written up, but she thew away her writing after listening to the tape, saying in amazement “You cannot make this shit up!” lol

Betty’s complexion was fair, her hands were soft and her smiles were bright, not showing any sign of the extraordinary ordeals and agonies she might have gone through for many years.

Strangely enough, at the screening of “Conviction,” I saw part of myself through the eyes of Betty Anne’s character, which was wonderfully performed by Hilary Swank.

Against all the odds and all those years… Without her strong ‘conviction’ and determination to save her brother, would it be even possible to go near where she has gone so far? Without the strong belief that she could prove her brother’s innocence and free him out of the wrongful conviction, would it have been possible to touch the line she was able to cross?

When I received a late night international phone call from my mom many years ago in the city, listening to her shaky and teary voice repeating “You should save your brother. You should save you brother…” What can I say? Against all the odds… Against all the adversaries… Had to rely on my conviction. The conviction that I can survive and I can fly the sky. And the destiny…

A very different story. But my own emotion still resonates through Hilary Swank’s eyes from the big screen.

If you haven’t seen this movie “Conviction,” go and see it. I might feel the same emotion I felt during the screening.

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(Added later)
Check out Juliette Lewis’ performance. Juliette Lewis character’s monologue in “Conviction” was replicated based on the real conversation taped by Betty Anne Water at that time. The writer of this movie had another version of the conversation already written up, but she thew away her writing after listening to the tape, saying in amazement “You cannot make this shit up!” lol

When I arrived at the screening totally intoxicated by the rainbow colors, the theater was full of many geeky techies. My intoxication smoothly transferred to the geeky mode. Thereon, I intoxicatingly enjoyed the geeky, nerdy energy that filled the entire screening. I was on top of rainbow the entire night~*

~RAINBOW~

Music of Precision and Perfection!!!

Did u notice? The studio camera peeking through the audience’ camera. Blended lines of UGC and professional shots.

It’s sooo late 2000s.

Reminds me of my old days, going to independent bands’ performances, hopping over underground cubs here in NYC.

Key Word here: SCANDINAVIA!

Many of these attractions are enticing and luring me to their decorated and aromatic dens on a daily basis while walking by, like the Sirens from Greek Mythology.

Despite these restaurants’ attractive group sing-alongs, I always feel like nothing is more delicious and satisfactory than cooking at home.

I grew up in an environment where my mom always cooked three meals a day starting from scratch everyday, always with fresh ingredients. My mom always used freshly squeezed homemade sesame oil from the best organic sesame available and she also made soy sauce and spicy pepper paste (so-called “gochujang”) herself, cooking without using sugar or any artificial ingredients. She even grew some fresh organic vegetables in the garden. And my grandmother always sent us boxes of juicy fruits harvested from her back-yard orchard every year. I still remember the sweet taste of all the apples, figs, pears, and persimmons around the harvest time each year.

Living and working busy in the city, surrounded by countless restaurants, is the kind of environment that pulls me back away from my childhood experience as farthest as possible. But there is one thing that keeps me on the ground and pushes me back to appetizing home cooking. It’s the farmers market that opens every week all over the city. My favorite usual destination is the Union Square Farmers Market which opens every Wednesday and Saturday, which encourages me to undertake more than 20 blocks of traveling northbound every Saturday. Since saving time is important to me, it has become my key strategy(?) to buy fresh ingredients at the Market as much as possible like mushrooms, apples, apple cider, fresh plain yogurt, vegetables, eggs, etc. and to cook a large amount of food during the weekend. I shamelessly admit that I don’t have many cooking skills and recipes, so I just cook a large amount of stew whatever I feel like making that weekend. If I have the cooked meal stored during the week, I always feel like very safe and sound, perhaps on cloud nine over the whole week, just by peeking inside my big refrigerator everyday.

I happened to know one New Yorker with a similar growing up experience of mine, whose name is Rocco Dispirito, a well known chef living in the city. I saw him at the 53rd New York Emmy Awards Gala earlier this year, who happened to take pictures and have interviews right next to my table. But frankly, I had no idea who he was at that time (sorry, Rocco~). Later I realized that he’s a famous chef who promotes healthy home cooking. I think it’s a real good thing to encourage people to do more home cooking and to have healthier lifestyle. I think I’m gonna say some good words to him when I see him next time, thanking him for his endeavors in promoting home cooking. Every human being really needs that kind of home cooking experience everyday like all moms would do for their kids~ ^^

Hope that you could explore locally grown fresh ingredients for your home cooking experiments this coming weekend…

(Photos, Copyright 2010 by Unjoo Na)

(Photos, Copyright 2010 by Unjoo Na)

Frankly, I’ve always felt that there are too many tourists and office buildings uptown spitting out too many white collars like lawyers and bankers into the street during the lunch time like “March of the Penguins.” Believe it or not, I was one of the penguins searching for food sharply around 12:00. ^^

So Downtown has always been my turf. But don’t get me wrong. There are many beautiful spaces I like in uptown and Uptown has its own unique mature attitude I enjoy. Especially, I like Bryant Park and Central Park vicinities.

Love. Love. Love to walk around…

(Photos, Copyright 2009-2010 by Unjoo Na)

(Photos. Copyrighted 2010 by Unjoo Na)

Karl Lagerfeld working in my neighborhood^^

Sky over LES

A Fantasy Wall at the Junction of Soho, LES and EV. Love it.

A Fantasy Wall 2

It was a divine day.

(Photos. Copyrighted 2010 by Unjoo Na)