Some of you probably know that in addition to blogging a lot about insurance in my day job, I’ve also been doing short but extremely timely (i.e. I beat nearly everyone to the story) posts about tech over at TipDesk (which by the way, will be getting a new coat of black paint this coming weekend). TipDesk has been a great little adventure in short-form blogging, and I’ve certainly gained some good traction with it over the last ten months or so.

However, TipDesk is not really a place where I want to write long and thought out posts, and beyond that, the focus at TipDesk is all about tech news and updates, and my interests go far beyond that. So with this site, I’ll be writing more long-form stuff about big picture technology trends, about China and about crisis response. I’ll also throw in some random topics now and then, like rock climbing, chess, travel and maybe even fatherhood. Beyond that, I plan to use this site to publish some of short stories (I plan to put them all together into an Kindle book sometime soon) and to showcase some of my (very) amateur photography.

So yeah, basically this is going to be an old school “journal” of sorts, not some super topic-focused site (as I said, I’m already writing two of those kind of blogs already). I’m going to focus on writing well and from the heart, and hopefully some of you will get to know me a bit better in the process. Thanks for reading!

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One of the more interesting parts of the discussion was the question of whether Mainland Chinese MBA students (of which there were a good many in the room) would – and should – go back to China once they get their US degrees to be Internet entrepreneurs.

Eddie Chen – a class of ’04 Anderson graduate – did just that – kind of. He originally went back to China as an employee of AIG (he repeatedly said “it was fine when I was there!”) and then after awhile he said he couldn’t resist the temptation of the Internet any longer and started ICE with a few other partners.

When I said that running an Internet company in China is becoming increasingly difficult with all the self-policing going on, and that there are other, lower-profile, but highly profitable tech sectors to get into in China in addition to the Internet, Eddie said (paraphrasing), “well, I don’t have the skills to run a biotech company or anything, and the Internet is something I could do.” Of course, this is true for many Internet entrepreneurs around the world, not just in China. But Eddie started his company a few years ago, and as a gaming company, and I assume that it hasn’t been that difficult to stay out of the last six plus months of increasingly pain-in-the-ass self-censorship going on for more communications-focused web services. So the question I’ve been asking myself is: if I’m from Mainland China and just got my MBA from Anderson, would I jump on a plane at LAX right back to China to run an Internet startup?

Before I answer that, I think I’ll paraphrase what Bobby Chao said about how they invest in Internet startups in China (I’m paraphrasing so much because I was on the panel and didn’t have time to take notes). Bobby said, “We don’t care about censorship or any of that stuff. We focus on whether it is something completely new and on the commitment of the founders.” I regret not asking Bobby whether or not the last year or so has changed the first part of this investment strategy, but from his attitude, I doubt it. Regardless of the short-term impact, I suspect that as a long-term strategy this is completely correct (and hard to argue with a guy that put $13 million into Baidu that turned into $2 billion on the day search engine had its IPO).

We also had a bit of a discussion about whether Internet innovation was happening in China vis-a-vis Silicon Valley, and I have to agree with Eddie when he said, “there is business-model innovation” going on in China but that Silicon Valley still far outstrips anywhere in China in technological innovation. This of course led to a discussion about whether/how foreign Internet companies should enter and compete in China. Christine Lu, who is organizing rethink Shanghai in May, said from the audience, “you can’t out Chinese the Chinese” and this was generally agreed upon, especially when a multinational tries to just impose their will onto the China market, which almost never works. However, as I said on the panel, I think that there are plenty of Internet back-end technologies that can have success in China – it’s the web services and sites that can be easily cloned that have little chance of being successful in China.

So would I go back and set up shop in Zhongguancun or wherever and start throwing up a website? Well, yes and no. I’d go back, but personally I wouldn’t put up a website-based service, I’d focus on Android and possibly iPhone development (though Android probably has the better chance right now). Looking out into the crowd and watching the hands go up when we asked whether they’d go back, and regardless of the present challenges of running an Internet company in China, just as it is everywhere else (and quite possibly even more so) the Internet in China is still a huge opportunity for any entrepreneur, especially one that is a native speaker with a UCLA MBA. So to all those students there on Friday, thank you for listening for 90 minutes, and good luck not matter which side of the Pacific you end up on!

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Google today announced that they will take off the filters from Google.cn in a “what the hell? we might as well go out swinging with head held high” blog post. Whether you think it’s brilliant, courageous and/or desperate (I think it’s some of all, with the caveat that I also want a completely free and uncensored web for everyone, everywhere), it certainly marks another milestone in this ongoing clash between one of the world’s tech darlings and China.

Today’s announcement comes a few months after Google’s China chief Kai Fu Lee left the company (I’m venturing a guess that he knew all of this was coming and asked to not be put in the middle of it, and as he obviously wants a future in China, who can blame him). Since then, Google China has been without a clear captain, and rumors recently surfaced that employees had started looking for jobs elsewhere (and today’s announcement would seem to substantiate at least the idea that Google China employees have been prepared for the end). So personnel-wise, things have been in the works for a while now.

Google spent most of their announcement talking about hackers trying to get at human rights activist’s Gmail accounts and emails. There really isn’t anything I want to say about that other than hackers attack companies constantly and sometimes there are breaches and sometimes the hackers are (big surprise) working for foreign governments.

If Google decides to pick up and leave China (and although not out of the realm of possibility of them returning, doing so within say 3 years is probably next to impossible), the reason that they would leave is that they simply are putting too much into their efforts in the market, while denting their image worldwide (by censoring results) and are not getting back enough to justify it all. That’s the reason, plain and simple. And the real losers in this will be Chinese Internet users, who will lose a (not perfect) resource offered by a company that truly believes in the freedom and power of information. Don’t believe me? Google it… sorry, I mean Baidu it.

(Note: Upon re-reading and further reflection, I’ve edited this post since I first wrote it.)

From a personal standpoint, this was certainly China’s decade for me. I lived, got married and found a career in China this decade. I traveled to over 20 provinces, SARs and autonomous regions. I celebrated the new millennium with a few million other people in Shanghai, worked from home in Beijing during SARS, spent a week going to the Olympics, and even had a major role in a never-made-it-to-TV-because-the-plot-was-too-controversial-prime-time-soap-opera. Above all though, this was China’s decade for me because of the amazing friends that I made – all of which were helping to make China even more spectacular for me and others.

But that’s me. Other people (Chinese and expats) that have spent most or all of the last decade in China may or may not have the same feelings, or not. But I know that’s not what everyone wants to know – people want to know on a worldwide scale if this was China’s decade.

So how do we go about deciding this? I think that first of all, the real question should be when we say “China” what are we talking about? Its influence on world affairs? Its government? Its people? Its economy? Its environment? Its military? Its culture? I think we can pretty much rule out that China’s environment got better over the last 10 years (and that China is certainly not alone in this claim). As far as its military goes, they were not involved in any major conflicts, so I think that question is moot. So that leaves its influence on world affairs, government, people, economy and culture.

China certainly has become a more influential player in world politics over the last decade. From having the clout to get the Olympics in 2001 to the Six-Party Talks, to Africa’s best buddy, to a stabilizing voice in the economic crisis to the recent climate summit, China’s voice is increasingly heard above the din of most other nations. I wouldn’t say that its unprecedented, but certainly this was a major positive for a nation that spent so long on the world politics sidelines.

As far as China’s government goes over the last decade, what I will say is that they tried – tried to hold onto old ways while trying to cope and adjust to a new world order and population that they had nourished to change (and of course that pesky Internet didn’t help). Progress here has not been as swift as other parts of “China”, but there has been progress.

China’s people and culture. Wow, how do I even begin to access that? People have more money and property, more freedom, more access to information and more opportunity. They mainly went out and got this themselves. Not everything or everyone in China is pure and honest – big surprise there. Make no mistake, however, the Chinese people are making their country into their image, and if the answer I come to below is “yes”, half of it will be because of the Chinese people’s drive to make it happen. Which brings us to the final consideration: the economy.

There has never been anything like China’s economy over the last decade. It fired on all cylinders, didn’t miss a beat, hit all the marks – whatever superlative you can come up with for consistent spectacular performance, that’ll probably fit when trying to explain China’s economy over the last ten years. It reached into nearly all parts of Chinese life (for good and bad) and, yes, the Chinese people are better off because of the economy than they were in 1999.

So this was China’s decade, right? Well, if we are talking about economies and a people as a whole striving towards something, then I would say China wins the gold medal, in a sense. I say in a sense because I think that this decade was just the tip of the iceberg of what China will become, somewhat along the lines of what the United States did at the turn of the last century. Of course, I’m not the first person to point this out. But I think that China’s world reach hasn’t made itself felt everywhere yet (other than “Made in China”), unlike what I would consider to be the true namesake of this decade – the Internet. More than even China, the now ubiquitous Internet has changed our world (including China) in ways that cannot be undone. After all, my grandmother is on Facebook.

Image by the awesome Kris Krug

#10 Letters from Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood directed a war movie that is nearly entirely in Japanese that won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Let that soak in for a minute. Any director that could produce such a deeply felt and noble movie in their own language would be considered a great director – that Eastwood could wring such emotion out of his actors in a language he doesn’t even speak – it may be the best directing job of the decade.

#9 Memento

Better known now for Batman Begins & The Dark Knight, director Nolan (based on a story by his brother) started out the decade with his best film, which boasts one of the best screenplays of all time. Guy Pierce is very good, but Nolan (who also wrote the screenplay) is why you watch this movie.

#8 Ratatouille

When I saw this Pixar film in the theater, I remember my jaw literally dropping at some of the artistry in which Paris is displayed. Brad Bird was brought in to save this movie from another director, and the result was the best animated film of the decade.

#7 Old Boy

I really don’t know how to explain this movie. How director Chan-wook Park packed as much as he did into two hours I don’t know, but what an intense two hours it is. You will never look at an octopus the same way again, that’s for sure.

#6 Zodiac

I doubt that this nearly three hour epic made many people’s best of the decade lists, and that is a shame. David Fincher’s methodical narrative does almost nothing wrong – every character seems real, every detail is explained, and every shot in the movie feels like Fincher spent days perfecting it.

#5 Touching the Void

I’m a rock climber and I read this book about 15 years ago, so when I heard that they were finally going to make a movie out of it (and thankfully that Tom Cruise would not be playing Joe Simpson) I wondered if there was any way that they could possibly translate the drama of the book onto screen without it feeling cheesy. Director Kevin Macdonald (who a few years later directed the very good Last King of Scotland which is in my 5-star-but-didn’t-make-the-cut-list below) figured it out, making it a documentary starring Joe Simpson plus an actor double. The results of Joe Simpson returning to the mountain that nearly killed him made this the best documentary of the decade.

#4 There Will be Blood

From the moment the film starts to the very last scene, it is impossible to not be riveted to the screen. There is something elemental about this film, something that goes beyond “the American experience” to a much darker place – if I were to compare this to any other movie, I would probably say Apocalypse Now. Daniel Day-Lewis seems almost possessed in this movie (he is famous for never breaking character while filming – not sure I would have wanted to be alone with him off set), turning kind of an extended version performance of his other great role of the decade from Gangs of New York.

#3 Twilight Samurai

There is so much soul in this movie that it is a bit hard to believe that it was made in these (let’s face it) shallow times. Twilight Samurai is barely about samurai – it is about family above all else and how life continually conspires to try to tear us from the people that matter the most to us.

#2 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Version

The nearly 12 hours that it takes to watch the extended version of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy is certainly not something that everyone will do all in one sitting. If, however, you are able to sit through it, you will simply marvel at how Jackson was able to bring so much scope, action, acting and special effects together for 12 hours of movie making (that is six 2 hour movies, more than most directors ever make) so seamlessly. No trilogy has ever been so complete, epic or entertaining.

#1 Children of Men

Few movies that I’ve seen have been able to instill in me the feeling that I was watching the a reasonable rendition of the future unfold on screen, but Alfonso Cuarón’s masterpiece Children of Men is one. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want this future, and I honestly don’t think that our future will be so bleak. That said, the chaos that reigns in Cuarón’s England feels very real, and every character carries enough baggage to weigh down a tank (of which there are many in the film). Also, and this is without a doubt, Children of Men contains the best action sequence of any movie since perhaps Taxi Driver. In a decade when terror and the threat of terror caused wars and the fear of a new pandemic health event took hold, Children of Men – more than any other film of the decade – portrayed the mood and warned of the possible consequences if we don’t get out act together.

Best Director of the Decade

Clint Eastwood

Best Actor of the Decade

Tie: Daniel Day-Lewis & Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Actress of the Decade

Cate Blanchett

Great movies I saw this decade that didn’t make the cut

In no particular order: The Last King of Scotland, Mystic River, Wall-E, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, Amelie (very hard to leave off), Bourne Identity, No Country for Old Men, The Assissination of Jesse James, Good Night and Good Luck, Frost/Nixon, An Inconvenient Truth, Sideways, City of God, Catch Me if You Can, Little Miss Sunshine, Spiderman 2, Superman, Babel, Gone Baby Gone, Million Dollar Baby, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Juno, Into the Wild, Persepolis…

…and I am sure many more that I’ll add as I think of them (and please feel free to suggest)

Probably Great Movies That I Haven’t Seen That Might Have Made My Top 40 (and yes, I know, I know, I need to watch them already)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; King of Kong; Man on Wire; The Royal Tenenbaums; Before Sunset; The Lives of Others; Waltz with Bashir; Up; Let the Right One In; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Sexy Beast…again, suggestions welcome

The rest of the movies on my top 40 of the decade:

#11-20

#21-30

#31-40

#20 The Incredibles

Pixar’s first “people” movie was a great combo of the superhero and super-spy genres – the movie feels like Casino Royale meets Spiderman meets Toy Story. Funny throughout, The Incredibles was one of two nearly perfect animated movies that Brad Bird make this decade.

#19 Borat

“That’s a nice!” is perhaps the best movie line of the decade. As it stormed into theaters catching an unsuspecting American audience almost completely off-guard, Borat provided us with something that we haven’t had in a long time at the movies – a great comedic talent completely owning both the movie and the audience. I just hope that Borat’s prostitute sister appreciates how great a talent her brother is. (p.s. the extra scenes on the DVD are amazing as well – “What’s this?”)

#18 Gran Torino

For any other director, Gran Torino would be enough to put them on a list of the best directors of the decade, but for Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino solidifies one of the best runs of any director in any decade (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, Changling, and probably the upcoming Invictus are all spectacular films). What makes this one special, however, is that in addition to directing, Eastwood turns in the best performance of his career. If it hadn’t been for Sean Penn also turning in the best of his career in Milk the same year, I believe Eastwood would have finally won a best acting Oscar.

#17 The Aviator

Although I assume most people would probably say that The Departed was Scorsese’s best movie this decade, as I’ve already said, I consider Infernal Affairs a tic better than The Departed, and The Aviator well beyond both. The Aviator is a different kind of Scorsese movie – it almost has a Spielberg feel to it – but that also makes it one of his freshest films. DiCaprio (who certainly was the best actor of the decade that didn’t win any kind of major awards) and Blanchett as Kate Hepburn are very enjoyable to watch, the flight scenes are done with such skill that it makes you wonder what else Scorsese is capable of.

#16 Hustle & Flow

Without a doubt the coolest movie of the decade was Hustle & Flow. Cool as in Dr. Dre cool. It’s a movie that needs to be heard as much as seen, one that you need to watch with your DVD player hooked up to a surround system – turned up to full blast.

#15 Maria Full of Grace

With all due respect to City of God, I felt Maria Full of Grace was the best movie to come out of South America this decade (with The Motorcycle Diaries, my #30 movie, the second best). This movie felt so real without banging us over the head, with themes that are central to understanding the entire Western Hemisphere, while showcasing a great new acting talent in Catalina Sandino Moreno.

#14 Serenity

The best science fiction movie of the decade (though honestly, there wasn’t a ton of competition), Serenity is probably also the best TV to film adaptation ever (although The Brady Bunch Movie was pretty good too). Part western, part sci-fi epic, Joss Whedon’s Serenity fills lots of holes left from the TV series Firefly while standing firmly on its own merits.

#13 American Splendor

The most droll film of the decade was also Paul Giamatti’s best work – funny, sad, depressing and inspirational all at once. A technical marvel of a film as well, with great integration of the comic into the film. Also, American Splendor is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen that breaks the 4th Wall rule.

#12 Lost in Translation

Bill Murray is one funny dude. He’s also an underrated actor – at least he was until this role, one he should have won an Oscar for. Scarlet Johansson also launched her career with in this movie about what about how being in a place so foreign can help us find out new things about ourselves.

#11 United 93

The best film to date about 9/11, and probably the best simulated documentary ever made. Not for the faint of heart (I know people who simply won’t watch it), but an entirely compelling film.

The rest of the movies on the list:

#1-10

#21-30

#31-40

If Twitter is the new Walter Cronkite, Gov 2.0 is the new Camelot. As the optimism of JFK’s time brought the best and the brightest to Washington DC and Houston (for NASA), the Obama administration’s commitment to opening up government has attracted a large number of technologists to government for really the first time ever.

This is not to say that the tech community hasn’t always been more than willing to sell to government – we always have and always will, but two recent conferences have confirmed to me what others have been predicting would hopefully happen, that not only is the government encouraging innovation from the private sector (or as Anil Dash joked this week “or what everyone else calls the world”), but a growing number of tech stars are putting aside riches or the hope of riches to serve (at least temporarily). At both SuperNova in San Francisco this week and the Random Hacks of Kindness hackathon in Mountain View a few weeks ago – both a coast away from DC – I and other entrepreneurs got face-to-face time with a wide range of leaders in the federal government.

We didn’t have to go through red tape, get on anyone’s calendar, or for that matter have to fly to DC – they came to us. At the Random Hacks of Kindness, we had the Administrator of FEMA speak to 50 or so crisis mappers for over an hour. At one point, he was wringing his hands saying “we don’t even know the questions to ask”. When the head of FEMA comes to a hacker’s garage in Silicon Valley to plead to the tech community for help, how can we not respond?

At SuperNova last week, it was even more apparent how far this movement (and I use the word movement like I would the Civil Rights Movement, as I think it could be that far reaching and important) has come just in 10 months of this administration. There was Anil Dash (@anildash), first employee of Six Apart and the first head of the new ExpertLabs, up on stage telling companies to get their apps up on Apps.gov which “can reach 2 million Federal employees”. There was Andrew McLaughlin (@mcandrew), the Deputy CTO of the US who left his position as Google’s head of policy earlier this year lamenting that “all the stuff that I can do at a startup for free, I can’t get at the federal government with a $76 billion budget.”

There was Alec Ross (@alecjross), Senior Advisor for Innovation at the State Department – a position created by Hillary Clinton – sitting at the final keynote with Craig Newmark and Jimmy Wales talking together about the future as if this coupling with two of the largest innovators of a free and open Internet with a high level State Department official was the most natural thing in the world. There was Larry Strickland of NTIA saying that the administration was intent on laying fiber networks, and of course NASA was there, obviously very pleased that the rest of the federal government was finally waking up to the benefits of working with the tech community.

Which leads me to my point for this post. As more government data feeds become available and the government continues to become more open, I see two paths that geeks are going to have to face. The first is taking this data and access to build and sell (or give away) solutions that not only can government officials use, but also that will improve the lives of Americans. This first model is what has many companies and entrepreneurs foaming at the mouth.

However, there is a second model that I see, and that SuperNova especially confirmed for me, and that is that technologists will continue leave (or put off) their startup dreams, join the government itself, and build these solutions from the inside. Camelot wasn’t just about passion and expertise at the top, it was about filling positions at all levels of government with dedicated and innovative professionals that wanted to change the world for good, and my hope is that there will continue to be a tech brain drain into the government.

If there is, then I see the potential for this movement to change government for the next hundred years, possibly beyond even the changes the Internet has brought to business. My hope is that this government will continue to offer positions to the tech world, and that we’ll in turn heed the call to service. Here’s pinging the best and the brightest.

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#30 The Motorcycle Diaries

Probably the best road trip movie of the decade (sorry Little Miss Sunshine), The Motorcycle Diaries is a different kind of autobiography, one that gives great insight into how Che became Che, and was based on his book of the same name. The film has a great gritty feel to it while still using the vibrant colors of the South American continent.

#29 Volver

Pedro Almodóvar turns in a gripping although not too gripping film about family and loss in Volver. It is one of those films that catches you a little off guard and just seems so right for where it was made and is one of the best European films I saw this decade.

#28 Milk

Sean Penn turns in what is certainly his best performance (he was good in Dead Man Walking and Mystic River, but nothing like this). It takes about two minutes to forget that you are watching Sean Penn – after that you are watching Harvey Milk. An uplifting and still very relevant story and Gus Van Sant’s best movie in a long time.

#27 A History of Violence

There is a lot to “A History of Violence”. There are great and quick action scenes, solid acting, a great Middle America setting, and a tight script. This is a movie that – if you can stomach a few gory scenes – that can be watched over and over again.

#26 Fahrenheit 9/11

This remains the most entertaining documentary I’ve ever seen (and yes, it’s a documentary). Lots of people don’t like Michael Moore or his politics (lots of people like Jack-in-the-Box too, so no accounting for taste) but when it comes to making entertaining documentaries about the most important issues in America, he’s simply the best.

#25 Billy Elliot

A joy of a movie, with an amazing debut performance by Jamie Bell as the title character. The film really focusing on turning youthful anger into inspiration, and some of the dance scenes (along with the great soundtrack) are unforgettable, especially the Rocky-ish dancing up the streets.

#24 Tie – Batman Begins & The Dark Knight

It’s very hard for me to separate these two films. I think that overall, Batman Begins is the better movie, with a better overall cast effort, especially from Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. However, The Dark Knight has Heath Ledger, and his Joker is without a doubt the best superhero film villain ever. So they are a tie. Here’s hoping there is a third leg of the series and that it doesn’t take a Spiderman 3 tumble.

#23 House of Sand and Fog

This is one of the most underrated movies of the decade. Both Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly turn in devastating performances in what is a pretty depressing movie – but sometimes depressing can be really good too.

#22 Casino Royale

Not since From Russia With Love has James Bond kicked this much ass. Great reboot (again, this was the decade of the reboot) and while not flawless (the poker playing goes on too long and well, the sequel wasn’t all that special) Casino Royale had one of the best Bond Girls ever, and was one of the most entertaining movies of the decade.

#21 Infernal Affairs

Although I really like The Departed as well, the movie it was based on – Infernal Affairs – was just a tick better, if for no other reason than it has a better ending. Infernal Affairs is a great example of how life with cell phones changes everything (even crime dramas), especially in Asia.

The other movies on the list:

#1-10

#11-20

#31-40

This is the first of four posts on the Top 40 movies of the decade (2000-2009). I’ve only included the top 40 movies that I personally saw (either in the theater or on DVD) – I am sure that if I had seen every film that came out in the last 10 years that this list would be drastically different.

That said, I have seen well over 500 films from this decade. When making this list, I took into account the films that had the most impact on me, the ones that had the best acting, writing and directing, and the ones that I simply liked the most. Although the majority of films on this list are in English, a number of other languages are represented as well. I made an initial list of around 60 films with the initial intent of having simply a top 25 – however, I couldn’t bear to keep off other 15 films. Go to after the break for numbers 31-40:

#40 – Star Trek

The 2000’s may go down as the film decade of reboots, with a number of franchises getting a new and improved look this decade (and more than one of these making my list). Perhaps the most unlikely franchise to get a successful makeover, JJ Abram’s Star Trek – with numerous TV series and movies already – was a stunning success. The characters were fresh again, the action was crisp, the casting was near perfect, and above all, it was funny. The best time at the movies in 2009.

#39 – Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle had a great decade. In addition to getting the Best Picture Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, he directed the wonderful “Millions” and the highly underrated “Sunshine”. Slumdog Millionaire was a beautifully shot and acted movie, with a killer soundtrack and some very funny moments. It was the feel good version of “City of God”, and in my opinion, a better movie for it.

#38 – The Proposition

Brutal. There really isn’t any other way to describe the best western of the decade. Guy Pierce was haunting, Ray Winstone was amazing, and this Aussie film make other (good) westerns of recent years like “3.10 to Yuma” look tame in comparison.

#37 – Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2

Tarantino’s best movie since Jackie Brown showed him at his technical best, and made Uma Thurman the most kick-ass heroine in years. David Carradine (who will be missed) was near perfection, and the movie produced the only role that I have ever liked Lucy Liu in.

#36 – Pan’s Labyrinth

Weird and haunting, Pan’s Labyrinth makes me want “The Hobbit” (which Guillermo Del Toro will also direct) to come out tomorrow.

#35 – Night Watch

We don’t get to see a lot of Russian movies here in the US, and that is too bad, because I have a suspicion that there are a lot of great movies being made over there. “Night Watch” was one that did make it out, and it was a great snapshot of a changing and chaotic Russia – and of course vampires.

#34 – Spiderman

Sam Raimi made Spiderman into about as entertaining a movie as one could imagine. It was funny, vibrant, exciting and stayed true to the spirit of the comics. Many people seem to think that Spiderman 2 was the better movie, but I recently watched Spiderman again, and if for no other reason, the closing scene in the cemetery makes it one of the best comic book movies ever.

#33 – Venus

Somebody please try to explain to me how anyone can take the Oscars seriously when Peter O’Toole has never won one? His fire made Venus the best romance of the decade, if not one of the most unlikely. Let’s hope someone sees fit to give him one more role like this so he can grab one of those statues.

#32 – Waitress

This one even surprised me. I had forgotten this gem, but as I was going through movies I’ve seen, I saw it and remembered how much it affected my wife who watched it with me, and I have to say that it is an amazing movie. Of course it was also a tragic one, as its director was senselessly murdered after the movie was complete. Even so, this is an uplifting movie.

#31 – The Pianist

Another really brutal movie, but the subject matter dictated it. Roman Polanski (whatever you think about him as a person) showed why many consider him one of the great all-time directors, and Adrien Brody turned in a (probably) once-in-a-lifetime performance. Not a movie that is easy to sit through twice, but great nonetheless.

The rest of the list:

#1-10

#11-20

#21-30

First of all, lets face it, Obama is cool. Most likely the coolest president ever. He’s a rock-star, etc., etc. China’s citizenry is just as susceptible to coolness as every other citizenry in the world, and if for no other reason than his coolness and his personality, Obama will be very well received. Ok, enough scientific analysis.

Secondly, most world leaders (Japan is often a notable exception) are usually very well received in China, and the higher profile the country, generally the bigger the reception and discussion. I lived in three different cities in China, including in Beijing for five years, and I can certainly say that when a major country’s leader arrives – never mind the US president – the city is slightly transformed, and the coverage in the press and the talk in the street really in my experience dwarfs anything that happens in the US (that said, I’ve never lived in DC, maybe there are similarities). People genuinely want to hear what the leader says, and discussion is usually very positive towards how that country and China are going to improve relations. Of course, US-China relations are somewhat unique, but the same respect and spirit of cooperation is usually present when a US president visits.

Speaking of US presidents, as I mentioned in Part 1, probably the only nail that GW Bush Jr. will be able to hang his hat on in foreign relations for posterity is his administration’s work with China. In this one country, Obama actually has to live UP to the well-liked Bush’s reputation, instead of trying to piece together the shattered remnants as he’s had to do with other nations. That said, Bush’s stewardship of the US economy has really put China (and the world) in a bind, so even in China, Obama will have to sweep up a few shards.

I’m going to conclude this short post with the defining word on Obama: hope. Of all the things that could possibly endear Obama to the Chinese people, their shared hope for the future is probably it. China’s citizens are some of the most hopeful in the world. They see a bright future, and Obama’s defining attribute is his ability to inspire hope, so they should get along quite fine.

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