Month: June 2004

I just drove 108 miles in the last 12 hours. This may not seem like a big deal to anyone outside of NYC, but 1. this was between 7 PM and 7 AM this morning, and 2. the drive was completely within Brooklyn and Queens, and 3. New Yorkers hate to drive, especially between the stated time periods and especially if they don’t end up going anywhere.

Stop one: a fundraiser for a Korean civil rights group in Astoria. Met Councilman John Liu from Flushing (again — saw him at a dinner the night before also). His speech: if NYC is 10% Asian, and there are 51 members in the Council, there ought to be at least 5 Asian councilmembers, right? Right. His driven determination is what we as APAs need to do.

Stop two: P–‘s house, where I took a power nap. She also happens to live 15 minutes away from JFK.

Stop three: JFK terminal 4, a.k.a. “The Terminal” where Tom Hanks is stranded. I’m there to pick up my aunt. Unfortunately, she’s flying BWIA from Trinidad, which means that they are on island time, i.e. whenever. Scheduled for 10 PM, it was pushed back to 2 AM, and then to 3 AM. So, I’m the one that’s stranded, having to spend $2.99 for a bottle of Pepsi and $9 for parking that should have cost $1.50. Finally clearing customs at about 10 to 4, I drive like a madman to my parents’ place.

Stop four: P–‘s house, where she’s getting ready for a 7:30 am flight to Seattle. The sun’s been out for about an hour at this point.

Stop five: JFK Terminal 9. While my night vision sort of sucks, it’s compensated by the fact that there is virtually no one on the Belt Parkway at 3 in the morning. Now, it gets crowded and limos dart in and out while I get my 30 seconds at the curb.

Stop six: My apartment, where I’m writing this instead of packing for my trip to Seattle tonight. I’m staying out there, making a day trip to Vancouver (dragon boat races!), and returning Tuesday. We’ll have internet, so I’ll blog from there. See you on the other coast (and I get to christen a new location category!)

And no, I’m not driving — I’m going to take the AirTrain.

Following the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Europe, let’s not forget that WWII had a warfront in the Pacific side, and so the NY Times reports how, with less fanfare, Saipan of the Northern Mariana Islands honors the D-Days of the Pacific. The article notes;

[M]any Saipan veterans and their supporters gathered here on Tuesday said that just as in World War II, the American popular mind continued to relegate the Pacific theater to second-class status…. Jerry Facey, co-chairman of the Saipan’s 60th Anniversary Committee, said that during two years of organizing Tuesday’s events, he received a long series of “no’s” from Washington politicians and Pentagon brass who were invited to attend the ceremonies. Recalling the last big commemoration that he organized, he said: “It is just like the 50th, we were overshadowed by Normandy. We are so remote, people just forget.”

Recollecting the liberation of a region from Japanese occupation, and reflecting after 60 years of lives lost and lives changed:

On Sunday, a memorial was dedicated to the 933 indigenous people who died in the World War II battles and their aftermath.

On Tuesday, this new monument was at the end of the short parade, which saw some of the octogenarian veterans walking, others riding while standing in the backs of two balky World War II-era military trucks.

“It’s changed a lot, but we sure love it,” Hal Olsen, a Navy veteran from New Jersey, shouted down from one truck, referring to Saipan, and perhaps to the open-air thrill of riding in the back of a truck.

Hmm. Must be very nice there at this time of year, a nice one more chance for the veterans to enjoy paradise and recall how it was once not paradise.

The NY news cable channel NY1 is having “Brooklyn Week.” Such a nice coverage, especially the stuff on Brooklyn cuisine, (Brooklyn being a place of different restaurants and livelihoods).

Fascinating story on Simmie Knox, the artist who painted the official White House portraits of the Clintons – who just happens to be the first African-American commissioned to paint a presidential portrait.

Interesting article in Law.com – top-notched law professors being poached, traded, and signed like they’re professional athletes, and the law school deans or presidents who talk about this. Amusing.

Law.com also had this inspiring article about Vanita Gupta, a young Asian-American attorney, and the progress of her legal career.

And so there you go. Some stuff.

Hmm. Could it be – that the LA Lakers are going to say bye-bye to its winning ways? Could it be that the Detroit Pistons are the NBA champions? Hmm.

Linda Greenhouse of the NY Times puts in her two cents on the Pledge of Allegiance case. I like the way she highlights irony in the whole situation:

The competing opinions [between J. Stevens vs. the opinions of Ch. J. Rehnquist, J. O’Connor, and J. Thomas] on Monday were portraits in irony, some probably intentional and some, perhaps, not. Justice Stevens, one of the court’s most liberal members, offered a paean to judicial restraint in explaining why the court should not reach the merits of the case.

The “unelected, unrepresentative judiciary in our kind of government” should not reach out unnecessarily to decide cases, Justice Stevens said, quoting from an opinion written in 1983 by the conservative icon Robert H. Bork, then an appeals court judge. Justice Stevens is a consummate craftsman, and the sly reference was clearly intentional.

Greenhouse also notes:

In her opinion, Justice O’Connor called the pledge a permissible example of “ceremonial deism” rather than religious worship, similar, she said, to the words the Supreme Court’s marshal intones at the start of each session: “God save the United States and this honorable court.”

“Ceremonial deism”? Uh, ok. But, just because it’s ceremonial doesn’t mean it’s constitutional, is it? But, if we had struck down the “under God” of the Pledge, what would it mean for “God save the United States and this honorable court,” and “In God We Trust” – traditionally entrenched, if nothing else (“traditionally entrenched” makes more sense than “ceremonial deism”). Well, I’m not a justice of the Supreme Court.

I’m trying to figure out whether the Jackie Chan version of “Around the World in 80 Days” is worth it or not. Stephen Holden of the NY Times says it’s okay, but Reuters says it isn’t. I liked the David Niven version (1956). It felt more like the book (which I also liked), with Passepartout (even if he was played by a Mexican actor) the French valet doing quirky stuff and the Indian princess charming Niven’s Phileas Fogg. Indian princess, folks – an Asian woman presence (even if she was played by Shirley MacLaine, a white woman). Chan’s version foregoes bothering with actresses posing as Asian women; his Passepartout (yeah, Chan plays a faux French valet this time; will Passepartout ever be played by a Frenchman?) works for a Fogg whose love interest in a French woman (huh?). Oh, and California’s Governor Shwarzenegger makes a cameo appearance (which he did before becoming governor). If someone sees this movie, let me know how it went; hard to say if I’ll see it. (sidenote – a tv version with Pierce Brosnan as Fogg was especially good, if I can remember it).

Yahoo.com gives more for free storage. Ooooh. Awesome. See what happens when capitalist competition works? Yahoo felt threatened by Google’s Gmail, and thus gives the Yahoo’ers more. Yeah!

Pardon me as I go Yahoo…

While having a late lunch of fried chicken with my co-workers, there was a sudden commotion. Loud screeching of brakes… a crash… short popping sounds.. thunk. We all dashed to the balcony to see what had happened. A black car seemed to have hit the side of an SUV, causing it to veer left into a telephone booth. The SUV had done a 360, blowing out its wheels as it knocked over a woman standing on the traffic median. The entire NYPD school safety force happened to be around the corner, so the intersection was quickly swarmed by black vehicles. They didn’t seem to have that much experience in traffic control though. The woman was down for the count: someone who seemed to be a doctor was furiously checking vital signs, but not attempting to move. The other cops had swarmed to her. After five long minutes, a fire truck and ambulances showed up. Six or seven people were taken out in back boards, apparently in serious condition. I hope everything works out for the injured.

The news is out – the Supreme Court has ruled on the Pledge of Allegiance case. The NY Times has this posting up (Linda Greenhouse is probably hard at work on her article as I speak). I have not read the Court’s opinion yet, but the Court apparently essentially came down to this: “Eight justices agreed that Dr. Newdow, a nonpracticing lawyer who is also a physician, cannot qualify as a legal representative of his 10-year-old daughter, on whose behalf he filed suit.” Well, the Associated Press seems to indicate that this is a “technicality.” I thought that Slate.com’s Dahlia Lithwick had a most pertinent conclusion: that Newdow couldn’t win because of the standing problem – that he lacked legal custody of his daughter, which made the Court stuck with custodial issues rather than the substantive matter itself – and in so doing, may arguably be seen as a technicality.

Nonetheless, the Court understandably wouldn’t accept Newdow’s case as the appropriate case to answer the question of the constitutionality. You need standing after all, as my Con Law prof would say (and heavens knows, he spent half the term covering the concept of standing), and I think that this outcome was something that was easily expected. But, would laypeople understand that? First year law students can barely accept that, and I’d agree that this can be irritating of the Court. But, Newdow was a curious party all along (forget the standing problem, he’s something of an eccentric, being the lawyer-doctor). Anyway, the constitutionality question can be explored under better circumstances.

In today’s NY Times, Fascinating article on the history of slavery in America – how slaves lived during slavery, became free, and dealt with what freedom meant – and then they wrote about it in their own slave narratives, which have not been published until the 21st century. I liked how the article traced how a family passed their ancestor’s manuscript in each generation, and the article was nicely noted how the manuscript had the literary value – not just the historical power.

A curious NY Times’ article – NYC’s ex-mayor Ed Koch is in a commercial to get NY’ers to volunteer to facilitate the Republican convention. Quite an idea – the Democratic party town hosting the Republicans, and Koch is telling us to make nice with the GOP tourists. Uh, ok.

Strange weather – cloudiness with sun peaking out now and then. Partly sunny or partly cloudy – technically….

The perfect spring Saturday in NYC! The weather’s so wonderful – sunshine, not too warm, not brisk. Just right. Is Mother Nature holding global warming at bay today? Darn straight she is!

The news junkie that I am – am I amazed by how nostalgic the media has been about the Reagan era this week. They were such lovely times compared to our current state of terrorism, confusion, and polarized politics. Well, and just a thought to put out there: I recall the Ronald Reagan presidency as a warm and fuzzy time, as it was my warm and fuzzy childhood. With his passing, I can say that I can respect the man while withholding judgment on how I feel about his politics.

The passing of Ray Charles – wow, it’s so impressive how his music transcends any one genre.

I saw the latest Harry Potter movie today – it was okay. Pretty art filmy kind of way, compared to the two previous Potter movies. Actor Alan Rickman’s character was less annoying in the 2nd movie; actor Gary Oldman’s character still puzzles me; and actor Michael Gambon – well, he has a presence, but it’s not the same Prof. Dumbledore. Otherwise, I thought that the other characters were all right in the current movie (although that kid playing the Draco Malfoy character is clearly not a physically attractive adolescent – the teenage years never being easy, as they are). I haven’t read the books yet, so can’t say one way or another about accuracy. But, at least Movie 3 is making me want to read the books. Whether I can get to it remains to be seen. (I haven’t read Lord of the Rings yet either, but at least the movies were really great and one felt it so strongly).

The newspaper reviews for the Garfield movie (i.e., the one where Garfield the comic strip cat is computer animated but no one else is) is mostly negative, but Garfield still looks cute to me (more like a stuffed Garfield come to life and very kitty like, so I at least enjoy watching the trailer and commercials, even if I won’t watch the movie; Garfield’s certainly more easier to swallow than what Hollywood did to Scooby-Doo – ugh, cannot believe that Scooby got into two movies and he looks sillier than he ever did). Sort of amazed by how underwhelmed the critics are about it – I mean, at least demonstrate some sincerity about it (one critic made it seem like the vet Liz came out of nowhere – but Garfield followers would know that Liz has been in the comic strip for awhile) – one can pooh-pooh a less-than-average movie only so much. On the other hand, Slate.com has an interesting article noting that Garfield hasn’t really sold out because he has always sold-out anyway. Wow. Talk about putting down the fat cat. I thought that the analysis was really sharp toned stuff.

I can re-read this article and still think it curiously interesting: – YiLing Chen-Josephson did a comparison shopping for Slate.com to figure out which pens are best. I used to be very partial to Papermate pens, but when they’re about to run out of ink, they get all smudgy and ink gets on your fingers. So, I have no favorite pens for now, but Chen-Josephson has given me some thought on what I like about my writing implements.

The poem of the week, on Slate.com – “Holding Hands” by Michael McFee – is nice. I love the imagery and the lyricism.

Enjoy the weather, whereever you are….

Just saw this one — it pretty much encapsulates the Asian American experience in a single scene. It would be a great script for a short film.

http://www.minjungkim.com/archives/001623.html