the arrival of summer

I've been in California for a week now. I came back late last Friday night, spent the weekend with my friends, and started work on Monday so I haven't had a chance to get really settled until now. It already seems like I've been here for months. Nothing ever changes in Fremont, except for the occasional new restaurant or video rental store. I still remember the drama of the video/liquor store half a mile from my house struggling against the new Blockbuster around the corner. My brother and I miss that little place so much. For a store that sold beer as well as rented videos, it had some really good little-known movies. That's where we got "Oscar and Lucinda" for the first and only time. As indicated by numerous neon colored fliers around the store, it was "open until midnight--365 days a year!!" This personally attached me to it all the more; it was comforting and sad at the same time--on the one hand because we could come there late Christmas Eve to get un-Christmas-like movies like the Godfather, and on the other hand because, well, we could come there late Christmas Eve to get the Godfather. At that time my parents still had their store, and though my dad usually did come home by eight or so on Christmas Eve, the video/liquor store reminded me of his tired, workaholic ways. What I've been getting at is that when I think about changes in Fremont, that's what I think about--the closing down of a family run video/liquor store.

Speaking of deceptively inconsequential changes, Au Bon Pain doesn't sell the Thai chicken sandwich anymore!! That was practically the only thing there I was willing to shell out five dollars for. It's what I ate the first time I went there; it's what I ate that time Amy and I spent the day in the library, mealtimes included. Well, with this coupled with the fact that I'm not on the East Coast anymore, at least I won't be tempted by the convenience of buying expensive pseudo-Asian food at a pseudo-French cafe.

This also seems like ages ago, but the DC-NYC trip with my parents and Duy was wonderful. It was a strangely patriotic trip, for many reasons. I only say this is strange because I wouldn't consider myself very patriotic or the extreme opposite either. It's not even about America; I suppose it's more about the artificiality of grouping people into countries in the first place. Anyway, so many things have happened (most notably, I've grown older) since my first DC-NYC trip five years ago. I've always loved DC's Vietnam Memorial; it's so simple and touching. This time around, it was even more so because it was Memorial Weekend; the crowd of veterans, tourists and locals in tears was amazing. It made me wonder what incited my own response besides the natural sadness of lives lost. After all, it's a monument to something most of the people there lament but also something to which my family is indebted.

Then we went to the Arlington National Cemetary and saw the Eternal Flame for the first time. Down the steps from where Robert Kennedy lies, I saw Tom Hanks! I actually first looked at him not because I thought he was a celebrity but because he was dressed up in a nice suit. In sunglasses and outside the context of other celebrities, he looked so "normal" that it took me awhile to recognize him.

After DC we took road trips to Philadelphia and Atlantic City. Duy then went back to Boston and I went to New York City with my parents. I love that city so much. It reminds me a lot of Montmartre, obviously not because it looks anything like it, but both cities provoke a similar feeling. I remember I loved Montmartre because we visited the really elegant Sacre Coeur and the Place du Tertre with all the French artists painting outdoors, and then we walked just a couple of blocks to get to the red light district and Moulin Rouge. How many places exist where you can find things so completely different but so equally beautiful right next to each other?

NYC was also patriotic. The first time I visited it I went to top of the World Trade Center, and this time we saw Ground Zero. The thing that struck me most was that there weren't many elaborate memorials around the actual area; on the fences surrounding it there were names of people, pictures and things like that, but nothing substantial. This made the emptiness of the place all the more noticeable. Right afterwards, we went to the Statue of Liberty which I've never visited (I've only seen it from afar--from the top of the Twin Towers, actually), and I don't think it could have possibly been more poignant than at that certain time and in that certain context. I like to think I'm immune to these things but I'm such a sap, most of the time.

After that, I took the Chinatown bus back to Boston and then flew from Boston to home. The summer has started with some really good books and movies. On the way to and during DC, I finally read "The Da Vinci Code" (which Melkis got for me for my birthday). It lived up to its reputation as a page-turner, and I loved the descriptions of all the art and Paris. Honestly, I don't have anything new to say about it so I'll stop there. In NYC and on the way back to home, I read "Winesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson (which I gave to myself for my birthday). I've wanted to read it for a long time now but somehow I kept managing to put other books before it. I think the main reason I put it first this time is because the copy I found had a picture of Wyeth's "Christina's World" on the cover--the painting that Steph bought a poster of freshman year and the one we always argued about because she thought it was really depressing and I thought it didn't necessarily have to be. I think our different interpretations would apply to the book itself, which is now one of my all time favorite books. I'm also glad I read it at this particular time because I don't think it would have meant as much at another time. Bill Murray said that the conversation Bob and Charlotte have during the bed scene in "Lost in Translation" is the moment when the viewer realizes he likes the movie. I enjoyed "Winesburg, Ohio" from the beginning but I can pinpoint the exact line I was reading when I realized I loved the book: "Deep within her there was something that would not be cheated by fantasies and demanded some definite answer from life." Can anything better describe my own outlook right now? I think I was talking about this with Sarah--about how we admire and envy at the same time the ability of writers to articulate exactly what we're feeling and can't ourselves express. Also on the way home and then at home, I read "Flaubert's Parrot" by Julian Barnes, a book I bought because we were supposed to read it for 20th-century Fiction but then didn't. Yesterday I finished the "Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler (which Victoria got for me for my birthday). I'm going to sound like the book's back cover, but honestly, for anyone who's read all of Austen's books and is looking for something reminiscent but also entirely different, it's a good choice. Each chapter deals with a particular book club member and the Austen novel that the club is currently discussing, and it's fun to see how the plot of the Austen book replays itself, with new twists, in the lives of the characters.

Sarah and I have started our weekly movies. Our first was "Slaughter Rule," which I think Sarah chose because Ryan Gosling is in it. It has some good moments but overall a little inaccessible to both of us, although I think that might be the point. Anyway, I wanted to mention it because I wanted to say again that Ryan Gosling is the most beautiful, most talented, smartest young actor I've seen. Which is why we're going to see "The Notebook" despite that it's based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. I can't say enough about how much we love him, but I doubt anyone wants to hear it. So our second movie was "All About My Mother," which was amazing. It fulfilled the high expectations I had for "Talk to Her" which I didn't enjoy nearly as much. It's described as a "screwball drama." That it requires a new genre just goes to show how incredibly unique everything about it is--plot, character, writing, cinematography; everything was so good. Looking ahead--I don't usually look forward to any summer movies since, more often that not, they're not very good. But there are some this year I'm excited about--Ocean's Twelve, Before Sunset, and Bridget Jones's Diary 2 (although, I'm not sure, is that coming out this summer or later?).

I'll write about work next time, as this is long enough, and I also haven't started at City Lights yet so I'll wait for that to report on both jobs. For everyone who's reading this who's not in or near Fremont (most of you), I hope you're having a good time and I miss you.