Once

When was your last visit to the movie theatre? What was the last movie you saw? If you can’t answer these questions, I think you are getting old and that is not because you can’t remember things clearly. It’s generally because you don’t go see movie at the theatre anymore. Or perhaps you have a choice to consume the beauty of the film by waiting for the DVDs, like I do. It’s very hard for me to find a decent movie to spend my time (and of course, money) and traditionally sit in a tiny seat surrounded by strangers most of who have annoying behaviors. Oh boy. I AM old!

So I had this weekday off and didn’t want to stay in my shack all day long. My friend and I browsed through the now-showing list and unbelievably couldn’t find a movie we wanted to see. I told her I was not interested in seeing Hollywood-type big budget movie. I’d rather spend my money on a low-budget film. According to her friends, she strongly recommended the independent film called Once.

Well, first of all, it was advertised as a love movie. As you all know, an Indies film’s director always has an interesting way of showing and directing love story; it’s more realistic with ordinary characters you could find in your life. The Guy who repairs vacuum cleaners during the day and turns himself to be a street musician at night simply meets the Girl on the street. The conversation of music knowledge leads to singing together and then recording the Guy’s song in the studio. The relationship develops through the beautiful melody. Neither of them, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, is an actor; actually they both are real musicians. However, the combination of storylines and music is just perfect. Went back home with love in the air, I was moved and touched by their performance.

This movie essentially answers the question: How often do you find the right person?

US Open 2007

It’s been a long and tiring week. US Open fans were staying up late watching their favorite tennis player showing off the spectacular shot-makings. You would see great defensive/offensive games that almost made your heart stop pumping. I was literally hiding behind my pillow watching these kinds of games. Also, you would see lots of players got lost during the game or sometimes got upset when they were making enforced errors.

One match worth mentioning is James Blake’s second-round match against Fabrice Santoro. According to the report, it was a long-awaited accomplishment for this Yonkers player to finally winning a five-set match. Blake mentioned that there used to be a monkey on his back, and now it’s gone because he got rid of the five-setter. Here’s the very good quote from his interview:

“I actually honestly said to myself at the beginning of that fifth set, I'm just not going to lose this match; I'm going to win this,” he later added. “Up until now, the whole five-set jinx, whatever, it had never really entered into my head. When I got in a fifth set, I was just focused on winning and doing what I had to do to get there, but this time I just said to myself, I'm not going let it happen this time.”

Been watching the match almost every night, in my opinion, besides beating your competitor, one-man sport—like golf or tennis—is the game of defeating yourself. No matter how great your competitor is, or how bad your nerve wrecked, all you could do is to staying calm, finding the way to overcome yourself by fighting your ass off. Regardless of the outcome, you already win the match and importantly you should be proud of yourself.