This trip was ten days but seemed like forever. So it feels extra nice to get home.

The flight back was relatively painless, or as painless as a 16 hour flight can be for a heavy smoker with a short attention span. I didn’t get tagged with any excess baggage charges and the food on board was slightly better than the food ten days ago on my HK/LA flight.

On the flight, aside from my Kindle, my MacBook is my prime source of entertainment now. Electric outlet by the seat and the power adapter for the MacBook is neither bulky nor heavy. I’d loaded it up with movies and TV shows and also about 60 gigs of music – why pull out my iPhone and run the battery down?

The one movie I watched turned out to be almost shockingly bad, especially considering the talent attached to it. Lucky You was directed by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys, 8 Mile). The script was cowritten by Hanson and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Insider, Ali, Munich, Benjamin Button). Starring Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore, the cast also included Robert Duvall, Robert Downey Jr., Debra Messing, Horatio Sanz, Madeleine Peyroux, Jean Smart and a bunch of professional poker players as themselves. Bana is not much of a screen presence and Barrymore’s talents are overwhelmed by her quirkiness (and in this case a poorly written character). The story has nowhere to go and takes its sweet time getting there.

I also watched 3 episodes from the current season of Mad Men, meaning I’m almost caught up to the season finale, which aired on Sunday. And the current episode of Californication – I’ve thought this season is something of a train wreck and yet I’m enjoying it, mostly due to a bravura performance from Kathleen Turner (and a hilarious cameo from Peter Fonda this week). I also tried to watch the Will Ferrell film Land of the Lost but gave up on it about a third of the way in. It was funny in bits and pieces but I just couldn’t bring myself to care enough about it to stick with it to the end.

In terms of books, I mostly read Clarence Clemons’ book, which is a very mixed bag. It’s not told in a straightforward manner, his co-writer is someone who primarily writes for TV (leaving the book filled with vapid cliches) and they admit up front that only some of the stuff in the book is true, the rest is tall tales. (Hustling pool with Fidel Castro and Hunter Thompson? Fishing with Norman Mailer?) But it does give some insight into who Clemons is and the surprise (to me anyway) is that he’s a far more complex and interesting person than I would have thought. You won’t find much here on how he developed his unique sound and there’s very little of the behind the scenes/in the studio kind of gossip. No outrageous road tales (he says he’s being careful because everyone in the band has kids and grandkids). But it’s a quick, breezy read and I recommend it to all Springsteen fans.

Overall, the trip was a mixed bag. As always, I didn’t get to see anywhere near the number of people I planned to see. Once I get there, I’m hit with the reality of my mother’s situation – 88 years old and lonely and with me only visiting once a year, I try not to run off on her too much even though being around her for more than 5 minutes at a time drives me up a freaking wall. This also meant that the lion’s share of the food I ate was from diners and deliveries, so not quite the gourmet paradise I was hoping for. Then again, in terms of shopping, I got everything I planned to get and a little bit more.

So now I’m home. Of course I’ve got a bit of jetlag (I slept tonight from 10:30 PM to 2:30 PM). Meanwhile my gf’s vacation was in the same time zone so she’s peacefully sound asleep right now.

Next couple of days will be spent getting ready for a BBQ party I’m hosting for my former staff on Saturday night. Then next week, will start making some changes (hopefully improvements!) to the blog. And of course looking forward to getting out and about and seeing friends after the long break.

Hongkie Town
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