"American Beauty (1999)"

Last night I watched the 1999 film, "American Beauty" on DVD. Possibly one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen, but it had moments of clever humor. It won 5 Oscars, not to mention 82 other wins and 66 nominations. Perhaps the reason it was such a hit was that you could really identify with at least one character in that movie...though you may deny it initially. I posted some memorable quotes from that movie in my "Favorite Quotes" sidebar, but the movie's epilogue merited a post all on its own.

Lester Burnham: [narrating] I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.

Chào ba, Sam (good bye)

On Sunday afternoon, we held a sending-forth party for our friend, Sam, as she is about to "set sail" for California. In this picture, left to right: Brian (our gracious host), PJ, Hemant, Nick, and Sue (Nick's wife).



Brian and his wife, Meghan, have a gorgeous home! It's true that every house in Kansas has a big backyard. While I didn't want to photograph the entire backyard for concern about their neighbors' privacy, I did manage to sneak a few shots of Brian's patio. Here we see something useful in the Mid-west:



Brian and Meghan's beautification project--different classes of grass, lilies, all sorts of stuff that wouldn't fit in frame. But to give you an idea of how large this place is, look at the distance between Sue and Nick here....



Who knew that some of us were experts at mixing drinks? Sam makes this tasty cocktail called Mojito which she almost made non-stop for the rest of the night. I wanted to taste it, so I asked her to mix me a half-strength cup with plenty of ice. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Webtender.com:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 oz Light rum
• Juice of 1 Lime (1 oz)
• 2 tsp Sugar
• 2-4 Mint sprigs
• Soda water

Mixing instructions:

Lightly muddle the mint and sugar with a splash of soda water in a mixing glass until the sugar dissolves and you smell the mint. Squeeze the lime into the glass, add rum and shake with ice. Strain over cracked ice in a highball glass. Top with soda water, garnish with mint sprig and serve.

Sam almost used Bacardi rum, which would have increased the potency. Good thing she went light this time...otherwise I probably would have passed it over. I did not get drunk or get buzzed. I was fine the whole night.



Anyhoo, this is the Mojito in its final form, served in a red plastic cup.




Hemant is a mixed drink aficionado as well! Last night he made a shot called the Manchurian Candidate. I was not brave enough to attempt this one. I set a limit of one drink, and so I waited for the mojito. This is the recipe for the Manchurian Candidate:

Ingredients:

• 1 shot Vodka
• 1 dash Soy sauce

Mixing instructions:

First pour vodka, then soy sauce, into the shot glass.

Here's a shot of me sneaking a slice of a rich chocolate brownie (10,000 Calories!):



One of the benefits of having a hi-fi stereo system is that your 70's disco music can be heard from outside. This one track had most of us dancing. Here I'm paying homage (brownie in hand) to Brian, "the dancing god"



Random photo of me taking stabs at the brownie:



It was about 10:00 PM when we went back inside. The others thought it would be fun to turn all the lights off and tell ghost stories, just like when we were kids. I came up with the idea of doing a round-robin story telling, where the story starts with one person and builds as it goes around the group. I kid you not: our first story started as follows,

PJ: "OK, so this one time,"

Hemant: "at band camp..."

We went around for about 15 minutes, turned on the lights, then sat on the kitchen floor and just talked.



Sam took off shortly thereafter, and then Hemant and I left at about 11:30 PM. Poor Brian and Meghan! Sorry for keeping you guys up!

That's the end. It's Monday morning, back to work!

Chào ba, Sam. Good luck out there in California.

Pablo Francisco at the Improv

Hey y'all!

Another romp with the IBMers last weekend. Been so busy that it's only now that I found time to blog.

I drove Hemant and Samantha to the Zona Rosa in Kansas City, MO. There was this awesome Indian restaurant that served more authentic Indian dishes (at least to me). Chicken vindaloo is definitely worth a first try, not for those with a sensitive tongue. Good thing no one was vegetarian.






Then we went to the improv at the Majestic Theatres, where we met up with Larissa, one of our new summer interns, and her boyfriend. This next shot was taken right after the show.



S, L, and L's boyfriend wanted to take some pictures with Pablo, to show off to their friends and family back home.






Everyone had a blast. We got a real kick out of the openers, Darryl Rhoades and the other guy (will edit in his name later) too.

For my complete KC Majestic Theatres Comedy Club album, click here:
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/pauljohnto/KC%20Improv/

I'm hungry again. Time for a cold treat. Leave comments for me! :-)

While I enjoy some food, check out these video clips of Pablo Francisco.

Appearance on the Tonight Show

On Mexican Music

Brothas write songs

And his feature set:

Little Tortilla Boy

As the story goes

Jor-El was born on the planet Krypton, many parsecs from our own solar system. Before Krypton was destroyed, Jor-El's parents laid him inside a space capsule and launched it into the far reaches of space...hoping that it would escape the planet's fiery death.

This baby was discovered in a crater, in the town of Smallville, Kansas, by Jonathan Kent. He and his wife took the child into their home and raised him as their own. They named him Clark.

The Kents were amazed by this boy's superhuman strength. As he got older and became more intelligent and mature, they told him the story of his arrival on Earth. And he began living his life as a protector of justice and destroyer of evildoers.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 80% Spider-Man 70% Green Lantern 65% The Flash 60% Hulk 60% Robin 58% Supergirl 58% Batman 45% Iron Man 45% Wonder Woman 28% Catwoman 25%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Going from LA to Kansas

People have asked me how far it is from California to Kansas. Here's a handy table for ya!

Driving distance: 1636 miles (MapQuest)

Mode of transit	Duration	Route	Cost	Fare
Driving	23 hr 38 min	Scenic route	It depends	One-way
Train	34 hr 41 min	Amtrak - Southwest Chief line (check availability)	$199	One-way
Air	3 hours	Non-stop via Midwest Airlines	$200-250	One-way

God Only Cries/Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

On Cinco de Mayo, we commemorate the battle at Pueblo that took place in 1862, where the Mexicans defeated the French occupation. It's not really the same as Mexico's Independence Day. Today, I heard so many new France jokes, just because it was Cinco de Mayo.

Today, my buddy Hemant and I went to a Mexican restaurant after work. It was called La Cocina del Puerco (the Pig's Kitchen) and featured a live band. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the wait was 1.5 hours. We were so hungry that we left and went to Cinzetti's. This restaurant is probably one of the most innovative I've seen. I ordered a sangria which is a mix of red wine, orange juice, and sugar. I put links to La Puerca and Cinzetti's. Here they are again:

http://www.lacocinadelpuerco.com/

http://www.cinzzettis.com/

---

I've been hearing this song a lot lately and thought of sharing it with you. It's Diamond Rio's latest single, "God Only Cries" that was just released in 2006.


On an icy road one night
A young man loses his life
They marked the shoulder with a cross
An' his family gathers round
On a piece of Hallowed ground
Their hearts are heavy with their loss
As the tears fall from their eyes
There's one who'll always sympathise.

God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are left to carry on
An' all the angels up in Heaven
They're not grieving because they're gone
There's a smile on their faces
'Cause they're in a better place than, mmm, baby, than, oh
God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are so far from home.

It still makes me sad
When I think of my Grand-dad
I miss him each and every day
But I know the time will come
When my own gradnson
Wonders why I went away
Maybe we're not meant to understand
Till we meet up in the Promised Land.

God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are left to carry on
And all the angels up in Heaven
They're not grieving because they're gone
There's a smile on their faces
'Cause they're in a better place than, oh, baby, than oh
God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are so far from home
Yeah, we're so far from home, Mmmm, Mmmm

My First Beer

Just a taste of Guinness. It's nasty! I dumped it out.

A tour of "my" apartment

Would you like to see what my apartment looks like?








(Are you having trouble with the tour? Click here.



*This isn't really my apartment. It's only a virtual tour of the floor plan.