charlie was kind of mean looking old thing, but a happy thing being scratched behind the ear, or just hanging out in the sun.

found out this weekend that my favorite neighborhood cat, Charlie, kicked his ninth bucket. he'd been absent for a few weeks now, so I'd suspected as much, but was able to confirm with my upstairs neighbor, the ostensible owner.

had a fine relaxing weekend otherwise. saw the new Harry Potter movie. I'll not bother with much of a review. It's fun, but ulimately not much without the books. An interesting phenomena of our days I think. Peter Jackson at least has done his best to change the story to fit the screen, keeping the essence. The Harry Potter movies are more like visualizations of the novel, rather than the story itself. Still it is well acted, and well conceived at least.

review beijing bicycle was in many ways a much more interesting movie storywise. the story of a country kid, newly arrived in beijing who gets a job as a bicycle messenger. everything is going well until the day he has the bike paid off. the bike gets stolen and ends up in the hands of a bored teen who buys it with stolen money. to get his job back, the country kid begins a stubborn oddessy to get his bike back, and falls afoul of the teen's gang. It's not an altogether pleasant story, a morality tale of the benefits of stubborness perhaps, although the benefits seem few and far between. It is also striking the gaps between rich and poor, where a simple bike is beyond the reach of many.