Month: July 2004

NY Times reported on the recent passing of Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize DNA person (who would have preferred to not have been typecasted as the DNA person).

Some final thoughts on the Democratic convention? Well, I’d like to read the upcoming Time magazine issue for any other comments (haven’t gotten to be on Time’s website to see what’s there). But, I do like to refer to Slate.com’s William Saletan blogging on the convention – good stuff. Loved that Saletan thought the same way I did about Kerry and the Hamster story from Alexandra Kerry – that really says something curious about the man (Saletan says its courage; I think it’s about life affirmation or good dad being too good), putting aside what we think about the politician (whether we should accept that story as gospel truth or political spin, I don’t know).

Slate.com’s Dana Stevens, the “surfer girl” (blogging on tv) – had this interesting take on Ted Koppel’s interview of Jon Stewart on “Nightline” the other night. She thought it was about Koppel resenting the erosion of Network News Idealism and that his picking on Stewart was curiously harsh. When I had watched this interview, I didn’t sense that Koppel was that mean-spirited toward Stewart (and yet Stewart tried so hard to be respectful to Koppel). And, even if he was, I kind of got the sense that he just felt confused why people tune in to Comedy Central and its satirical news so much (well, Ted, I personally don’t have cable, so I would tune in to you – sometimes – so don’t feel so bad).

Tavis Smiley on PBS had a great interview with Peter Jennings (or, at least, I thought it was great because I got to see that casual side of Jennings that doesn’t happen too much). Jennings, appeared just as bewildered as Koppel as to why the networks are so turned off by the conventions (he made a point on one of the World News that I managed to catch on Tuesday night that he liked conventions for being opportunities to observe politics at the ground level (my paraphrasing entirely; he said it in a nicer way). But, Jennings seemed hopeful that ABC still carried some weight with its experimental all-news cable and Internet venture for 2004 elections. Whether this works remains to be seen – I read some editorial (I forget where just now) that the news these days covers too much on the trivial by spending hours on trying to cover everything (including those media stories about the media – NY Daily News tv critic David Bianculli and others have referred to this as “journalistic incest” (his words in Thursday’s column, not mine).

Enjoy the weekend.

Wednesday night was John Edwards night in Boston. Thought that Elizabeth Edwards seemed authentic. She’s a bankruptcy lawyer, so it wasn’t like I’d expect her to be a hugely polished speaker, but she was fine. Edwards seemed lessy sparky than I have seen him in previous instances (I do wonder if I’m on a political news binge exhaustion), but he stayed nicely positive in his speech. His “One America” lines echoed (if not parroted) Barak Obama’s speech about “One America.”

If you want more commentary on Edwards’ speech, I do recommend Chris Suellentrop’s article on Slate.com – and I agree with Suellentrop’s assessment – Edwards had poignant moments in his speech (particularly about his family) and the whole positiveness was nice, but the speech was ultimately just okay – not spectacular, but “does the job,” as Suellentrop said.

I liked that ABC’s “Nightline” and PBS captured some coverage of the roll call. I liked how Tavis Smiley on PBS interviewed interesting people (last night, Smiley spoke with the mayor of Detroit, who just happened to be a youngish black man who is yet another ambitious youngish Democrat; the mayor highlighted the young as an electorate – who are not only interested in education and health care, but also becoming entrepenuers and looking for a brighter future). Heck, even Howard Dean seemed interesting on Smiley’s show, talking about stuff other than just about us Dems going to every state in the union and his usual refraining from screeching…

Thursday was The Real Kerry night. Ooh. (cannot comment on the other Thursday night speeches, which I missed; will have to catch up somehow). The stepsons Heinzes and the daughters Kerry were interesting. I liked how Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry told a few stories that humanized their father. Kerry saved the life of the Kerry pet hamster? Well, as Alexandra Kerry noted, her father apparently takes such life affirming things seriously.

And, Kerry himself stayed positive in his speech. If he seemed incredibly idealistic (to the point that I wondered if this was too much to swallow – I mean, I’d still like some more specifics on what he has in mind to be a good president), Kerry at least seemed confident and more enthused than I’ve seen him previously. The pundits seem to think that this is good for the Democrats. I don’t know (I’m not a pundit, not really anyway), but I liked that Kerry seems to be on a roll. He seemed genuine and, well, happy (all that smiling – good grief, did something from Edwards rubbed off on Kerry?). Whether the speech’s substance was that persuasive is another story.

It will be interesting to see the Republican Party response to all the positiveness that the Dems’ have pushed. Not looking forward to the possible congestion in NYC, but I don’t work in midtown, so it’d be regular work days. I’ll be sticking with PBS for wall-to-wall coverage, especially if the networks continue putting on these one-hour a night coverages that they’ve been doing…

(sidenote rant: if Al-Jazeera in the Middle East is showing 12 hours of the American party conventions, why are the American networks doing so much less? Well, yes, I know that they’re doing that because they’re trying to maintain the whole pursuit of ratings, but they’ve got to do better – the networks’ coverage of news events unites a nation – like they did with the Reagan state funeral – or at least gives us some cultural commonality that we can point to – or else they’re making self-fulfilling prophecies that Americans won’t watch the conventions by being the ones not showing the conventions, as Ted Koppel noted on “Nightline” last night; silly me actually expects the networks to not be businesses and be idealistic in pursuing journalism – then again, the conventions are scripted but then again – even the scripted stuff says something about us as a people…).

Ok, take a breath now. Rant over.

Is it already football season? Good grief, the Giants and the Jets are at it in their respective summer camps. Umm, baseball season isn’t over, last I checked. But, cute moment on the sports segment on the local news – Chad Pennington, the Jets quarterback, discussed what favorite item he brought with him to summer camp – his dvd’s of the 1st season of… Dukes of Hazzard? Funny, Chad. Very funny. 😉 (umm, then again, I’m the one who still sees Tom Wopat and John Schneider as Luke and Bo Duke)…

Summery weather in NYC. Enjoy…

If Day 1 was about Democratic Party past, then yesterday – Day 2 – was the bridge from the past to the future. Some commentary on my part, which may not mean very much:

Ted Kennedy started the night off; yeah, he’s the Democrat of the Democratic party, but he was kind of boring (confession: I actually slept through a huge chunk of the Kennedy speech; forgive me).

Howard Dean was interesting, until he started talking about John Kerry – that got boring. And, what’s the deal about naming every state in the union? (“And we’ll go to Utah, Arizona, and Texas…” – Dean avoided screaming though) – as if people don’t know the names of states (roll call at least used to be interesing – you get all those state nicknames and weird state pride – regrettably, we won’t have that on tv anymore).

Barack Obama, the state senator from Illinois who’s the candidate for US Senator from that state – he was really good to watch. ABC News had a profile of him, which was good (so did Time magazine). He’s an Ivy Leaguer; went to Harvard Law School; 1st black editor of law review; rejected big firms for civil rights work. Obama spoke about a united America, hope, and that’s it’s ok to be a liberal (or progressive or whatever term you want to use; it’s all ok, as long as you keep your perspective on that one America idea). Obama was, in a word, good. All the pundits said it was like we were watching the Democratic party’s future. The crowd in Boston was certainly jumping. But, I still felt one flaw: Obama got a little dull talking about Kerry. Just a little. Maybe it’s my fatigue of hearing over and over how Kerry went to the Vietnam War and will do everything to give us all health care and good stuff like that. Otherwise, I loved Obama’s background story, ambition, and vision.

Frankly, I’d prefer hearing about Kerry from people who knew/know Kerry and doing it with nuance. Bill Clinton did it great (paraphrase: “Pres. Bush, Vice Pres. Cheney and I – we didn’t go to war; Kerry did…”). The Time magazine coverage of how Kerry thinks and what his friends and enemies say about him – great. Listening to campaigning speakers drone on about how good Kerry is (without getting specific on what he’ll really do) – not so great.

I felt squeamish watching Ron Reagan; he was a good speaker – but he was there only for his topic of stem cell research. It felt too obvious that he and the Democratic Party were using each other, a point Reagan himself made in an interview on NBC.

I was looking forward to hearing Teresa Heinz Kerry – she was ok. Not spectacular, but ok. She’s not a professional speaker, but she had ideas, stories, and sense. Pundits would say she should have been more personal in talking about Kerry. But, I’d say there are just some things that should remain personal; Heinz Kerry tried to be balanced. Was she successful at that? Well, that remains to be seen. But, I like her comments that it doesn’t make sense that a woman who speaks her mind (right or wrong) is considered “opinionated” (or less polite words) whereas a man who speaks his mind isn’t slighted in a similar manner. She’s no Laura Bush, she’s no Hilary Clinton either. She’s just Teresa (the liberal Republican who became a Democratic not very long ago)…

Today’s Day 3 – umm. Well, it’s supposed to be John Edwards at the 10pm time slot. We’ll see how that goes.

NY1.com has a One-on-One interview with Councilman John Liu (dated July 26, 2004). Interesting stuff.

The news in NYC is still about getting people (the everyday folks anyway) ready to avoid midtown during the Republican convention; doesn’t that contradict the idea of using the convention as an economic boost? If it’s just the convention folks and the protesters, then what about the rest of us in NYC getting a chance at seeing what this is about? Oh well.

Back to tv…

There’s something completely disarming about The Polyphonic Spree. Best known for “Light and Day” from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the one part Beatles, one part Beach Boys, one part non-sectarian choir, one part refugees from a Hair hippy band kicked butt on Craig Kilborne tonight. Try out their Sgt. Pepper-ish flash game.

At the Asian American International Film Fest, “Bicycles & Radios” wins the shorts jury award. “Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tomorrow May Never Come)” and “Travellers and Magicians” tie for the audience award. I didn’t get a chance to see Travellers and Magicians, but the other two films were fantastic. Tomorrow May Never Come in India is like the Indian Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — in its home turf very popular but not considered to be the best example of Bollywood, but goes gangbusters overseas. Here, it is critically acclaimed, even though it perpetuates some Indian stereotypes of Chinese, Catholics and homosexuals. However, even with those factors and some bizarre warping of city geography (the main character managed to run from St. Luke’s Hospital to Queens to NYU Midtown to the Brooklyn Ferry!) it was absolutely faithful in its love affair with New York City. The idea of breaking out into a Bollywood dance number on the (real) Brooklyn Bridge, on top of the ruins of the Brooklyn Stores in the Empire State Park, or in a Queens neighborhood actually works. It takes the Broadway Musical Motion Picture into the 21st Century. Rent it from Netflix.

I’m off to Rhode Island tonight for another conference Wednesday night. Honestly, I’d rather not go on this trip — it’s going to be raining all the way there, and I have to drive on I-95 at night, and I’m not holding too much expectation in the published sessions. At least P– is going along with me.

Watched the Democratic Party convention, day 1, mostly on PBS (thank you, Jim Lehrer, for giving more coverage than the networks to keep us non-cable-access-news-junkies informed), but I ultimately watched ABC for the 10pm to 11pm hour for the big Bill Clinton finish (pro: Lehrer showed the important speeches; con: Lehrer kept switching to the talking heads between speeches, so no glimpses of the weird entertainment moments at Boston’s Fleet Center; points to Peter Jennings for keeping things minimum, except for the weird moment when he made Caroline Kennedy make a comment – come on, Peter! Oh well).

Al Gore’s speech started off with odd, self-effacing/self-ridiculing jokes but became a well-done Al Gore speech, reminiscent of his better moments of yore (i.e., the reason why he had more popular votes in 2000).

Jimmy Carter was an interest speechmaker; he pulled some serious political punches for a guy known for his kindly Southern smile and peacemaking reputation.

The Reverend Alston, a crewmate of John Kerry from their Vietnam War tour of duty, made a rousing speech.

Hilary Clinton took more time than I’d like; but then you have outraged NY’ers demanding that she should have had more time. Personally, I’d say that one should take what one should/could get and don’t bother asking for more (because it isn’t quite about the Clinton Story; it’s about the John-and-John Show – stay on point, remember…).

Bill Clinton – ah, the shortest Bill Clinton speech in memory and very nicely done. Kerry might as well have Bill and Al campaign for him and that’ll rack in the popular votes (well, either that or polarize the country some more; take your pick or your poison).

July 26’s NY Times’ Jodi Wilgoren highlighted Kerry’s trip to the Red Sox-Yankees game of Sunday night and his visit to Ohio. I’d expect that Kerry would be a Bosox fan (I mean, what else?), but then there’s a damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t quality about it. (do you risk alienating Yankee fans electorate? (probably alienate the Yankee Republican even more). What about the Bosox fan Republican, who probably won’t like Kerry even if they have that one thing in common – liking the Bosox).

Wilgoren’s most interesting paragraph in the article was about Kerry’s visit to a Columbus, OH, neighborhood:

Perhaps the most poignant moment came when Abdul Rashid, 39, an African-American who was raised Muslim, spoke about the discrimination he has felt since Sept. 11. Mr. Kerry strode toward Mr. Rashid, who was sitting in the last row, shook his hand, and then scooped up his 6-month-old son, Hasim.

“I’m a Catholic,” Mr. Kerry said. “Hasim’s Muslim, and there are, I hope, Jews and other denominations here, and maybe people who are agnostic.” He added, “Here’s what I know: I’m running to be president of the United States of America, I’m running to be president of all of the American people, all of our citizens.”

Telling how his cross-country swing into the convention began at his birthplace outside of Denver and would wind up in his hometown, Boston, Mr. Kerry noted that eight American presidents were born in Ohio, more than in any other state.

“May I, today, find somebody to adopt me quickly?” he asked. “I want a bit of that pedigree.”

You know it’s the year 2004 when even bloggers are part of the official media corps at the Democratic convention, as this NY Times article highlighted. You’d have to be professional as possible, but may not necessarily have the same kind of funding as, say, the big networks do. Or, do what this 16-year old credentialed blogger did: asked his parents.

And, last but not least, a non-convention reference: a NY Times article on the upcoming “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” The Times film critic, A.O. Scott, notes some interesting thoughs about a movie that would, by all appearances, be just another stoner-dude-where’s-my-car kind of movie:

But what about that big report due on Monday? No problem: just dump it on the Korean guy in the far cubicle. Our [white guy] hero is free to pursue the carefree debauchery that is his birthright.

Except, of course, that the pale-skinned frat boy type is not the hero at all. He and his friend[…] are walk-on doofuses who pretty much walk out of the movie, leaving it in the hands of that unassuming Korean guy, Harold. He turns out to be the more uptight half of a classic buddy-movie pair — the wilder half is his roommate, a South Asian former pre-med named Kumar — intent on claiming their own share of carefree debauchery. In the process, they pretty much revolutionize the slacker-stoner-comedy genre.

Well, perhaps that’s a bit grandiose, given that what Harold and Kumar really want to do, after a few Friday night tokes, is satisfy a powerful case of the munchies, an urge that leads them deep into the wilds of New Jersey and lands them in all kinds of trouble. But the movie’s apparently simple shifts of racial and generational emphasis — replacing the traditional white (or, in recent variants, black) teenagers or undergraduates with Asian-Americans in their post-college years — at once upend the conventions of youth-oriented goofball comedy and revitalize them. “Harold and Kumar” is as delightfully stupid[…] but it is also one of the few recent comedies that persuasively, and intelligently, engage the social realities of contemporary multicultural America.

So, the geeks are just out for some debauched fun, and, yeah, APA’s are pressured (by their immigrant parents or by society or whatever) to be I-bankers and (medical) doctors, and yeah, there’s that thing called discrimination or prejudice or what-have-you, but:

The prejudice that Harold and Kumar encounter — expressed by a carload of extreme-sports headbangers and by doltish New Jersey law enforcement officers, among others — is more a matter of inconvenience, of moronic uncoolness, than oppression. And in fighting back against it, Harold and Kumar are motivated less by a sense of wounded pride or profound injustice than by a familiar individualist exasperation. They just want hamburgers (and sex, and decent weed and a good time) — which is to say they want what is theirs by birthright as young, affluent, reasonably good-looking American consumers. Though they are occasionally abused and insulted, they also carry with them assumptions of social privilege, intellectual capital and economic opportunity.

In other words, Harold and Kumar are just two guys. No more, no less. And, they won’t let the bad stuff (like, you know, the bad behavior of prejudiced people) get them down. They like their White Castle burgers, ’cause, you know, munchies and all that. Sure. So glad that APA’s have come all this way just to be… like anyone else. Okay. That’s fine – we all have the right to be “delightfully stupid.” (good grief, how often does such a phrase turn up in writings about these kinds of movies?)… 😉

All good. Stay tuned for Day 2 of the Democratic Convention. Me the News Junkie will continue merrily along… (nope, not that Harold-Kumar type of junkie either…)

A not-terribly exciting weekend. Spent most of it not awake or else still trying to throw stuff out (stuff dating back to the college or law school days or as recent as last week’s mail). In the process of changing offices at work, so cleaning out stuff is also happening at work. Came across copies of NY Law Journal that just piles up. There was an ad for this law firm, which had a picture of a cat and a blurb: “When you’re overseeing estate planning and/or nursing home arrangements for clients of advancing age who express concern for the fate of their pet cats, you should know that since 1982, thousands of people have entrusted the welfare of their cats to us.” All I could think was: “That’s a nice looking cat,” and “God, there’s a law firm out there looking out for kitty cats – aww…”

Speaking of cute furry animals, I was watching “Nature” on PBS tonight, and they were broadcasting the episode on pandas. Sooo cute!

I watched the documentary on “1421: The Year China Discovered America?” on PBS this week. It was intriguing to watch a documentary on Zheng He, the eunuch admiral who commanded the Chinese fleet under the Ming dynasty (successful in promoting the empire’s power, until the next Ming emperor demolished it and the jealous courties burned a bunch of records) and to see how the medieval world was more interconnected than we’d think (the fleet was at least on record for having made it as far as India and therefore able to trade with stuff from Europe and made southeast Asia appreciate/respect/fear the power of China). Gavin Menzies, a British retired naval officer, though, researched and stood by his theory that the Chinese found America, to support his answer to the question of who drew the maps that indicated land on the other side of the Atlantic, maps pre-dating the Portuguese whose work influenced Columbus. That part of the documentary veered toward scary – Menzies, among other things, swore by his interpretation of translations of medieval merchants’ writings and DNA research of Native Americans who had Asiatic genetic indicators (i.e., hints that they were descendents of shipwrecked Chinese sailors), and that he is on his way to collecting more “evidence.”

Some Problems, which the documentary was very good about showing: DNA “evidence” hasn’t exactly dated Asiatic genetic indicators to 500 years ago (if anything, they may just date back to when the first Native Americans crossed over to America from the Asia’s Siberian landbridge to Alaska); Menzies is not a scholar of medieval Portugeuse, so he’s relying on translations of written texts – not exactly able to read them first hand himself; and he even misreads the translations; and the archeological evidence isn’t there to verify anything either. Plus, he’s hardly an archeologist or even an expert of American, Chinese, and European histories. The documentarians were good about showing the historical and cultural aspects of the history and possibilities – and did a nice job of showing weaknesses in this one man’s theory.

For me, ultimately, whether or not the Chinese or the Vikings or whatever ancient group (for instance, one theory posits the ancient Welsh) made it to America, the legacy of Columbus remains, in ways that the others have not quite done: he made it possible for the Old World to be entrenched in the New World – for better or for worse – which is why 1492 remains a date to be remembered.

And, in other tv commentary: that Ken Jennings on “Jeopardy” is on summer hiatus; the new season will be in September, and he will be back to continue his winnings run. On Friday, he shattered the one-day winnings record, and he may or may not be bad for ratings (at least he’s getting people to talk about the show “Jeopardy” again).

Have a good week.

Recently watched “Bourne Identity” on video – decent, fun, action-packed, but poignant (character-wise) movie. Now I’m just looking forward to seeing the sequel, opening tomorrow, “Bourne Supremacy.” Doesn’t hurt that “Entertainment Weekly” makes the upcoming movie sound curiously interesting ((a) I’m too easily swayed when EW says something’s good and I can sense that it is too; and (b) apparently, Matt Damon as Bourne gets to use a rolled up magazine as a weapon – very cool).

Recently finished reading Sharon Kay Penman’s “Dragon’s Lair,” British medieval mystery. The young hero, the series’ protagonist, is developing nicely as a compelling character, although I still felt that the mystery’s plot was somewhat weak (wherein Justin, Queen Mother Eleanor’s man, has to figure out what happened to stolen chattel that was supposed to be ransom to rescue the kidnapped King Richard; murder and royal court soap opera make things complicated).

Recently finished reading J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” the second book in the series. I thought it was better than the first book – more development of the character of Harry. Whether I’m still on pace to read all five books of the series before the summer is over is debatable, but I’m inching toward book 3.

Visited StarTrek.com – wherein there is the announcement of the passing of Jerry Goldsmith, Hollywood composer. He is most known for the Star Trek theme from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” which later became the theme for “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The article notes that he also made the themes for “Star Trek: First Contact” and for “Star Trek: Voyager.” Could’ve sworn he also did “Deep Space Nine”‘s theme too. I’ll definitely agree that Goldsmith made great music – not only does the theme for Next Gen always send thrills in me, that “First Contact” soundtrack was stunning stuff.

StarTrek.com also provided updates on the upcoming Season 4 of “Enterprise” – I’m either encouraged by the news out of the rumor mill or else really scared that this is going to be a roller coaster quality type of season. Too soon to say.

Spent most of Thursday night watching a “Scrubs” marathon on NBC. Ah, so much fun. This show and “Arrested Development” on FOX are the two most watchable comedies of the current generation of network comedies currently on the air. Wish NBC showed more reruns of “Scrubs” (wished my VCR actually taped more of the episodes, but that’s another story) this summer and that NBC was actually consistent about the timeslot for “Scrubs” (that network so disrespects anything that isn’t a reality show or a show prefaced with the words “Law and Order”). I haven’t forgiven NBC’s entertainment division for cancelling “Boomtown,” and I’m not surprised that CBS has done much better in the ratings with consistent servings of reruns of its good shows. (“Amazing Race” is clearly good quality (even if I’m not watching it, I can tell); whereas when will CBS ever learn that “Big Brother” isn’t watchable???). And, I agree with the professional tv critics – so not fair that the Emmies did not nominate John McGinley of “Scrubs” for an acting nomination – he is so good as the aggressive but compassionate (to the patients anyway) Dr. Cox.

Fascinating article on MSNBC – geneaology and DNA testing may help people trace their ancestry back to Genghis Khan. Hmm, and that means what, exactly? That he was one busy conqueror, populating Eurasia??…

And, back to looking forward to Friday.