Happy New Year 2006

We spent the weekend in Amagansett. Mostly so that Frisket did not claw me to death during the expected fireworks display.

We watched My Architect (IMDB, Amazon, Netflix) on my friend Jon's recommendation. Good movie, it felt a little bit long, but there's lots of ground to cover and it could easily have been longer. It tells the story of the American architect Louis Kahn and his son's efforts to learn about his father (the son, Nathanial, was born to one of Kahn's mistresses and only saw his father occasionally).

Last night we watched House of Flying Daggers (IMDB, Amazon, Netflix). Sad to say, what little Mandarin I'd learned in 2001 was useless for listening to the movie. I liked it, somewhat less than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I haven't seen Hero, which this movie is related to (not a sequel, not the same characters, but set in warrior-era China). There are a number of twists in the plot which become apparent late in the movie. Ziyi Zhang stars as the heroine (she is currently in Memoirs of a Geisha).

The drive out on Saturday and back today was remarkably easy, two hours each way.