Too busy talking on the phone to worry about the photo of the day, so I photographed the phone.
Mother’s Day
Phoenix, Arizona, has typically taken a dim view of graffiti and has been quick to dispatch unseen workers who remove the tags before most people recognize they have shown up. Recently though, more and more graffiti is hanging on. Today, we saw this tag dedicated to Moms on Mother’s Day.
Dodge
My mother, Caroline, and I visited the impound yard where my mother’s crushed Lincoln was towed. My mom could not believe what she saw.
Near my mom’s car were a couple of old classics rotting under the sun and weather. One that caught my eye was this yellow 1929 Dodge Brothers car with its original wood-spoked wheels and a rumble seat. The grill logo caught both Caroline’s and my attention, as we hadn’t previously seen a Dodge logo with a Star of David.
Upon further research, it turns out that no one really knows why the logo was what it was back then. The two brothers went to their graves without anyone asking what it meant or what inspired it. Looking up the history of the Dodge logo I did learn that the Chevy logo was a bowtie copied from a hotel room wallpaper, although the wife of founder W.C. Durant denied his story and claimed he picked up the idea from a newspaper advertisement.
Movies
This evening, Caroline and I went to the Harkins Camelview Theatre to see the Korean film Oldboy.
We both enjoyed the movie, getting dragged into its twisted plot and creepiness. This was a movie you won’t see coming from America, and most Americans should probably avoid it as it would conflict with the majority of viewers’ sensibilities. Four out of five stars.
Last weekend, we were in Tempe to see the Bollywood movie Kaal, which was an absolute dud. Too bad as it was produced by Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar and starred Ajay Devgan, a favorite of ours, but the writing, the dialogue, and the acting were all third-rate. Boring.
Two weeks ago we went for Kung Fu Hustle from Stephen Chow. Stephen Chow is the Director/Actor who is definitely high on our list of favorites. From what we have seen from his previous efforts, such as Shaolin Soccer, God of Cookery, A Chinese Odyssey, and King of Beggars, it was a given that we would go see his newest release. Very interesting film, a sort of rock and roll spaghetti western opera of Shaolin Kung Fu meets Gangs of New York. I will probably watch it again when it is released on DVD.
Finally, a week before seeing Kung Fu Hustle, we watched Sin City. A gritty yet beautiful rendition of Frank Miller’s comic stories pulled together by Director Robert Rodrigues, whose films From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado, and El Mariachi were great breeding grounds for his work on this film. Not a great movie, probably won’t watch it again, but it was well worth the cost of entry for a good night of entertainment.
Cactus Flower
Spring is fading fast giving way to summer, but as the brief green of spring turns brown, the cactus continue their springtime show with a wonderful display of colors as they make their annual bloom.
Shock
“Your mother has been in a rollover accident and has been airlifted to the hospital.” This was the message I received at 11:00 this morning. Unbelievably, my mom was relatively unscathed, as was her dog Guido. No broken bones, no concussion, just some scraped-up hands from the broken glass. Looking at the car above, the puncture in the roof from the tree she rolled on, or the scene of the accident and how close she was to hitting a metal pole or going into a drainage ditch, my mom, sisters, great aunt, grandfather, and everyone else who loves my mom is lucky to have her around today.