Responding to Steves' request for an opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed both parts of Kill Bill, but I don't think they are homages to Asian movies, rather, they just happen to have an Asian influence. Director Quentin Tarantino is a huge, huge fan of Japanese filmmaking and I wasn't surprised that he incorporated parts of that into this film. Saying that, Tarantino is no Kurosawa, the master of Japanese filmmaking. In fact, the Asian concept of filmmaking is a much different beast than its American counterpart, emphasizing a balance between dramatic storytelling and the vivid imagination. Hero, the Chinese film nominated for a Foreign Film Oscar last year, is by far superior to Kill Bill, but I won't officially say so until it comes out here in the fall. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tried to bring this Asian concept to the American way and while it was quality stuff, I found it boring compared to the purely Asian features I have grown accustomed to. Hopefully, Crouching Tiger is the exception. American filmmaking certainly needs better movies. A quick check at Rotten Tomatoes shows 14 of the top 16 films at the box office are rotten.

In other news, the editor of Details magazine has apologized for the Gay or Asian piece mentioned earlier. No word yet on whether the author will apologize

The Bush Administration is utterly confused by what's going on in the economy. They see consistent GDP growth. Inflation is minimal. The economy grew by 300,000 jobs last month. Yet, overall satisfaction with the economy is still low. Why? People are micro in a macro world. They care about what they see. And what's that? Gas prices are up. It's pushing 1.80 in the country and it's 2.15 at the Valero down the street from me. Those Vietnamese who own the Shell on the other side of me are changing 2.30. And that's not the only thing putting people down. It is businesses closing, which is really evident in Berkeley. Pretty soon, it might be a ghost town. The takeover and proposed re-opening of the Shattuck Hotel is dead. Huston's Shoes is closed. Eddie Bauer is closed. Gateway is closed. Bath and Body Works (right across from campus, no less) is closed. Tower Records is on the verge of closing. And the people hurt by this are the lowly consumer.

The VSA Culture Show happened on Saturday, and taking into account the expectations for the show, it was a mild success. It had its technical problems but the overall content of the show was very good. Props go out to all those involved.

During the show, there was a pitch to find the next Vietnamese Idol. Yowza, that might be bad. But it's better than Superstar USA. Its purpose is to find the next William Hung, and really, one is enough, thank you. (Though ZERO is preferred.) Superstar USA seeks to find the worst singers out there. Talented people are thrown out in the initial rounds, leaving only the untalented to compete and become a superstar. Cover your ears and tape up those windows, becoming an idol is here to stay.

Lastly, in other TV news, NBC has a new movie coming out called 10.5. Scientists have denounced the movie, called it woefully inaccurate. First of all, it seems impossible to have an earthquake of 10.5. The largest one in history was a 9.5 in Chile. Then in the movie, atomic bombs are used to try to fix the problem. I don't know, but common sense seems to tell me that bombs would make things worse, no? Reached for comment, the producers claimed they checked the Internet for some facts about earthquakes before proceeding. Now that makes me laugh.