Darjeeling Limited - A Movie Review

I wanted to write a very positive review of a movie I just saw with a couple of friends this past Friday night, Darjeeling Limited.

Darjeeling Limited is a Wes Anderson film. Wes Anderson is the quirky director behind the "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", and "The Royal Tennenbaums", among others. Darjeeling Limited is like many of Wes Anderson's other films in that it has beautiful art direction and quirky characters.

There really isn't a classic story behind this movie. The movie feels more like a journey, one that takes place on a train called, the Darjeeling Limited. Three brothers, Francis (played by Owen Wilson), Jack (Jason Schwartzmann) and Peter (Adrien Brody) are going on a spiritual journey through Northern India in the wake of their father's funeral. Each brother is tortured or emotionally maimed in one way or the other. Jack is trying to escape his former girlfriend (played by Natalie Portman) by flying to far-flung places of the earth. Francis, has just had a horrific accident that has destroyed his face. The accident itself is never portrayed in the film, however, the implication is that Francis has been suicidal since his Dad's death. Peter, is on this trip in order to escape his wife, who is 7 months pregnant. Although he thinks he loves her, he is clearly detached from his wife.

This film was enjoyable for its whimsy, its comedy, and its style. An example of the movie's whimsy is its unique structure. Before the film starts is a short 15 minute short called "Hotel Chevalier". This is the prequel to the main film, and sets up the background of one of the brothers.

The film was much funnier than Anderson's other films. Owen Wilson is especially funny as the oldest brother who micromanages his younger siblings every moment, from what food to order at each meal, to what to meditate about during prayers.

Finally, the fashion in this film was a feast for the eyes. If there is a single reason to watch this film, it would be for the fashion. The three brothers are completely outfitted in Marc Jacobs, the designer behind the Louis Vuitton fashion house. Striking a particularly stylish figure is Adrien Brody (see above) complete with gray suit, mod hairdo, and oh-so-courant big-eye sun glasses. The opening scene of the film is particularly striking with Adrien Brody running in slow-motion to catch the train, his suit flying behind him, and burdened with custom Louis Vuitton luggage, designed specifically for the film (see above). I am hardly a fan of LV luggage and purses, in fact I make a point of making fun of people who don the distinctive purse line. However, this animal print luggage, almost a main character in this film, was absolutely gorgeous.

Mina's Guide to Chicago

A couple of friends of mine are visiting Chicago for a weekend. As I grew up in Chicago, I promised to provide some insider details on what to experience while in the Windy City. Some of my suggestions here are favorites from my childhood and have been included here for nostalgic reasons.

The Museum of Science and Industry

If you are going to hit the Museum of Science of Industry in Hyde Park, then here are my favorite things to see while in the Museum:

1. Watch chicks hatching under hot lamps (always a favorite of little kids)
2. Go see an Omnimax (IMAX) film
3. Walk through the gigantic anatomical model of a heart
4. Walk inside a real German U-boat (Okay, I didn't actually remember this exhibit when I was a child, but now that I am older, and read the book Shadow Divers, a visit to this U-boat would be a must-see for the current-age Mina)

An interesting factoid: Mina actually worked as a tour-guide at this museum one summer.

If you're hungering for a bite to eat, hit my favorite restaurant in Hyde Park: Medici's on 57th street. This place is the coolest hang-out in the neighborhood. Here, you'll sit with gray-haired hippies, spoiled private school kids (like I was), and U. of Chicago students. The place is just covered with graffiti (including my own). Food of note: "garbage" pizza, eggs scrambled from espresso steam, and super strong mugs of coffee.

While you're in my childhood neighborhood, pay a visit to my favorite bookstore, 57th street Books. Here, you can find an eclectic book and magazine collection catering to the left-leaning Hyde Park residents.

A Stroll Down Michigan Avenue

A visit to Chicago is NOT complete without a stroll down Michigan Ave., in my opinion one of the most beautiful shopping streets in the world. Here are some must dos:

1. Stroll down Michigan Ave. at night, when the trees are all alit.
2. Shop at Sugar Magnolia on Oak Street, perpendicular to Michigan Ave. This little boutique has funky finds and designer jeans at discounts.
3. If you have a load of cash, visit Ultimo, also on Oak Street. Inside is a collection of famous designers such as Manolo Blahnik, Stella McCartney, Christian Dior, and more.
4. Banana Republic flagship store on Michigan Ave.
5. Nike Store on Michigan Ave - with a full size basketball court!
6. The giant Christmas Tree at Bloomingdales
7. If you're hungry after all that shopping, have a bite to eat at Tucci Benucchi at Bloomingdales, at the Food Court inside the Water Tower Place. If you have a load of cash, eat at Cafe Spiaggia (Michigan & Oak Street), which has a first class view of Michigan Ave.

Other Touristy Things Not to Miss

Take an Architectural Tour of Chicago. Chicago is famous for its architecture, not just for the world's second tallest building, the Sears Tower, but also because of great architecture dating from all periods, from the art deco, to the Prairie Style of Frank Lloyd Wright, to more recently with Frank Gehry's Pavilion at Millenium Park. Also, it didn't hurt that Chicago got obliterated by the Great Chicago Fire. This created a blank slate with which architects could work. Take either the walking tour or the river boat tour (left).

The Art Institute of Chicago houses one of the best art collections in the world. Some of the most iconic art pieces you will see here are Seurat's Sunday in the Park, and American Gothic (see below). I could dedicate several blogs to my favorite works of art in this Museum.

Addresses for Mentions above:

Museum of Science and Industry
Intersection of 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive

Medici's on 57th Street
1327 E 57th StChicago, IL 60637
Phone: (773) 667-7394

57th Street Books
1301 East 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
773-684-1300
(Fax)773-984-2804

Sugar Magnolia
34 E Oak St Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 944-0885

Ultimo
116 E. Oak St. Chicago, IL 60611
312-787-1171

Cafe Spiaggia
980 North Michigan Avenue, Level 2, Chicago, Illinois 60611

Art Institute
111 S Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 443-3600

Human-Walrus Interactions

Here are some pics from my recent visit to 6 Flags Marine World. Here, we encountered a huge walrus that interacted with us humans in an unprecedented way.

This walrus tapped on the glass with it's tusk, and waited for us humans to return the tap. The walrus and I played Simon for what seemed like 5 minutes. The kids at the exhibit just went wild over the walrus. And the walrus seemed to derive as much glee from our ebullient reaction.

It continually surprises me how human-like marine mammals are. We should never underestimate these creature's intelligence, or their sense of play.

Here also is a cute penguin that paced the edges of its exhibit, begging for its picture to be taken.

Picking a DrySuit

DUI TLSse
-nylon trilaminate material
-rear entry

Why buy a drysuit? For me, the answer has been long in coming. I've been diving in my 7 mm wetsuit in Northern California for 3 years and have stubbornly resisted getting one. First of all, drysuits are prohibitively expensive, running from $1500-2500. They are also baggy and create a lot of drag in the water. Feeling at one with the water is very important to me, and being encased in a drysuit would only separate me further from the water.

Why have I changed my mind? We were starting to do deeper and colder dives. I was tired of ending each dive shivering uncontrollably and near hypothermic. With a drysuit, if I wasn't exactly warm underwater, I at least could quickly warm up on the surface by staying dry. Also, pulling on or pulling off a tight wetsuit especially a 7 mm one is not a fun experience. A drysuit, would be far less strain to don, then a wetsuit. Finally, a nice drysuit seems to be something every long-term self-respecting diver should own.

After almost a year of on-and-off research, I've narrowed down my top choices:
-DUI (Diving Unlimited International), TLSse (see picture above)
-DUI CLXse
-Diving Concepts Pinnacle
-Pinnacle Evolution

DUI CLXse

-Cordura Blend exterior

-Rear entry

DUI TLSse

Walk up and down the Breakwater, and you will see the DUI TLSse (or TLS350) on almost every diver walking by. It costs about $1498 for the fully customized version, as advertised on the DUI website. In summary, this is a drysuit composed of a nylon-rubber-nylon trilaminate material. Trilaminate material, is just a three layer material that was invented for the military in defense against chemical and germ warfare. Usually rubber is the middle layer, providing a waterproof barrier. Because trilaminate material doesn't stretch, these types of drysuits tend to be baggy. The TLSse is less baggy than other trilaminate drysuits offered by DUI because it is a rear-entry (back zipper) drysuit, rather than self-donning (diagonal front zipper). The reason for why rear-entry drysuits are less baggy escapes me.

DUI CLXse

The DUI CLXse is the more hardy version of the TLSse. Like the TLSse, it is a trilaminate drysuit, except instead of having a nylon exterior, it uses a Cordura blend. It is slightly more expensive, running at $1798. (See below.) The Cordura blend makes this drysuit much more abrasion resistant than the TLSse, which is important if you're diving in rougher conditions, or just plain careless with their gear, as I am.

Diving Concepts Pinnacle

The Diving Concepts Pinnacle has cornered the market with the most experienced divers in the Monterey, CA. Instead of trilaminate material, it is composed of a single layer of compressed neoprene. This drysuit is perhaps the most durable of the bunch, and also the most streamlined. Being slightly stretchy, you can get away with using less fabric on this type of suit. The Diving Concepts stock sizes are cheaper than the cost of DUI stock suits. However, the customized Diving Concepts suits are much more expensive than the DUI customized suits, running at around $2000+.

Diving Concepts Pinnacle

Pinnacle Evolution

The Pinnacle Evolution was a front-runner because one of my local dive shops, Blue Water Aquatics, had a good offer on the Pinnacle Evolution. This drysuit also uses the durable Cordura blend trilaminate material. For $1800, the local dive shop was offering the suit at an attractive price, and was giving me the opportunity of patronizing a neighborhood small business that I wanted to support.

Pinnacle Evolution

-Cordura blend exterior

Final Choice - DUI CLXse

My final choice is the DUI CLXse, and it was based on the convergence of price, streamlinedness, durability, customizability, and warranty agreement.

People on Scubaboard rave about the prices for DUI suits offered by Divetank. I called, and found out that they were offering the CLXse, fully customized for fit and color, for $1400. This price also includes the undergarment, a drysuit hood, boots, and gloves. This price was truly unbeatable, by local dive shops and other internet sites.

Streamlinedness was also important to me. The drysuit had to be as conforming as possible in order for me to move easily through the water. Short of the Diving Concepts suit, this suit was as streamlined as any.

Knowing how much abuse I would inflict upon my gear, the durability of the drysuit was paramount. The CLXse was many times more abrasion resistant than the TLSse I was considering. Cordura blend is used on high end sporting equipment and I know first hand how durable this material can be.

Most important was the customization of the drysuit. All customized DUI drysuits are designed around 20 or so body measurements. Neither the Pinnacle, nor the Diving Concepts drysuits have near the sophistication around fit as DUI. Having looked at DUI, Diving Concepts, and Pinnacle's stock size measurements, I realized I would never fit into a stock size. Being Asian, I have wider calves, and shorter legs than most American women. Customization was my only option. At $1400, Divetank was offering an unbeatable deal around the fully customized CLXse suit.

There were various other factors that contributed to my final decision. The sales service around the Diving Concepts drysuits was non-existent. After several e-mails and phone calls, I was told to look up a local dive shop. In contrast, DUI is very well established with accommodating customer service. DUI's 7 year warranty far outlasted any other warranty offered by any other company. Also DUI, I was told, manufactures their drysuits with more care than other brands. The gluing on the interior of their trilaminate drysuits is hand done. The Pinnacle Evolution, by contrast uses machine gluing.

Annual "Diving Singles" Point Lobos Club Dive

Sunbeams shining through the kelp forest

On August 11th, Chuck Tribolet had his annual Diving Singles club dive at Point Lobos State Park. Chuck Tribolet is the "Diving Singles" club leader, the Bay Area Diving Yahoo Group moderator, and is well known in the Bay Area for his erudite Northern California scuba diving weather web site: Monterey Bay Sea Conditions at a Glance.

Today's dive was a treat. The Point Lobos State Park is well known as one of the best dives in Northern California. Only 15 dive teams are allowed per day and the park is protected from fishing, or scavenging of any sort. As a result, fish are plentiful and unafraid, and the colors here are vibrant.

Everyone gawked as our Mini Cooper convertible rolled into the Point Lobos parking lot. Almost every other vehicle besides ours was a "dive mobile" -- a truck or an SUV built to contain the plethora of equipment typical of temperate water diving. Our convertible top folded away to reveal both my and my fiance's dive equipment tightly packed into our backseat like a Tetris game.

While setting up for the dives, conversation touched upon the death of local diver and photographer, Kawika Chetron. We discussed how he was diving somewhere on the North Coast, and disappeared retrieving his anchor. The most likely hypotheses are either that he got swept to sea, or gotten eaten by a Great White Shark. There are normally several scuba related deaths in Northern California every year. But in Kawika's case, there was extra attention because: Kawika was young, extremely bright (Harvard and Stanford educated), and a talented photographer. See here for Kawika's favorite photos, which combined with his explanatory captions, are great meditations on diving in Northern California.

We did the first dive with two divers unfamiliar with Point Lobos. They seemed anxious to pair up with people who had dove Point Lobos before, so we agreed we would show them around. This dive was fraught with problems,which began as soon as we were dropped off at the mouth of Whaler's Cove. First off, Dive buddy #4 (I forget his name) had problems clearing his ears, so he cut his dive short and swam to shore. Dive Buddy #3 had a continual free-flowing regulator problem, and hence had a low air supply, which cut our dive short. Dive buddy #2, my fiance, had constant mask leaking issues, caused by his mask being set overly tight. He had to surface to calm his nerves and told me he nearly wanted to quit the dive. When we finally got our dive started, I made a bee-line to shore, with little time to enjoy the 50 foot visibility. I was nervous to get back to shore safely.

Below, Mina posing with a Ling Cod

Our second dive was much more enjoyable. We paired up with Dan, a diver we met on Dave M.'s boat. All photographs in this blog entry were taken by him. Starting at the mouth of Whaler's Cove, we did a slow and leisurely crawl back to the boat ramp. We saw a cormorant underwater (my second time). I also encountered some unusual cabezon behavior: I turned over an abalone shell to investigate, and a cabezon shot out from under a ledge to look at the shell as well. I never knew cabezons were so curious, given their usual behavior of perching on a rock. Below is a photograph of a cabezon taken on the dive.

Cabezon

Big Sur, and Interior Design

My diving friends must be wondering right now: "Why would you drive all the way down to Big Sur and NOT dive?" My reasons are the following: (1) To see the iconic McWay falls which I had never seen before (see below), (2) to hang out with friends, (3) and I don't have a drysuit. Either my wetsuit is starting to lose it's insulation, or I'm diving sites that are deeper and more exposed than before, but I am clearly getting tired of being cold.

It's time to get a drysuit, but right now, I am forcing myself into funnelling money into the house (see rest of blog).

Interior Decorating

On Sunday, we met our interior decorator for the first time. How did it come to be that we have an interior decorator? It happened within the last week or two -- a lot faster than you would expect:

I complained to one of my coworkers over lunch that my fiance and I can't agree on what colors to paint our interior walls. We want something non-traditional and vibrant, something that will match our red, Swedish fireplace, and modern, minimalist furnishing. My coworker mentioned that his girlfriend had just started an interior decorating business, that she was a color expert, and that she would give us discounted rates for an opportunity to use our home as part of her portfolio. Well, it has been 2-3 weeks of color gridlock (my fiance can't agree with my choices, and I don't trust myself), so we decided it was time to make a decision, and if it involved bringing a third party, then so be it.

Above, example of decor that we like

Calie impressed me from the get go. She felt no compunction with disagreeing with our ideas ("That's too traditional"). And she immediately had ideas we never had. For example, she thought that we should head away from mixing too many colors in the living room/dining room area because it would make our place seem smaller. Also, she thought we needed an extra floor lamp, and a seating area to utilize the empty corner in our living room.

She also impressed me as someone who has discerning taste, with a clear opinion on who makes the best color paints (Benjamin Moore). Now, I love color, but I don't think I can tell whether Benjamin Moore paints are superior over the ones on display at Home Depot. But plenty of interior design magazines extolled the Benjamin Moore color line, so maybe there is some truth to this...

Here is Calie Anderson's interior decorating web site: http://www.noheainteriors.com/

And here is a link to her blog, where she mentioned meeting us. Some interesting colors, and cool ideas for our house are in germination: http://nohealookbook.blogspot.com/

By the end of our initial meeting, we had gone over magazine clippings that we bookmarked, and agreed to set another date to go over her color proposals.