Month: November 2005

John Kerry is elected… as jury foreman.

PBS this week:

Tuesday night – Nova had “Storm That Drowned A City” – to look at the science behind the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Fascinating viewing, but didn’t really tell us that much new – unless you were really curious to check out the computer graphics of how the storm surge undermined the levees.

Plus, Frontline had “The Storm” – the politics behind Hurricane Katrina. I highly recommend it – makes you feel all the outrage all over again. And, see the history of FEMA. It’ll be re-broadcast again at a local PBS station near you, so do watch.

Tonight, I’m catching the rest of the “In Search of Myths and Heroes” – British host Michael Wood takes a look at the history and historiography behind great myths – Queen of Sheba, King Arthur, Shangri-La, and Jason and the Argonauts. Really cool, as Wood visits different places – literature and history mixed together, the creation of myth and the layering of myth due to the course of history. His enthusiasm is infectious.

At some points, Wood’s journeys are caught up in the politics that keep 21st century traveling no better than that of years ago – ex., Wood had a bit of trouble looking for the ancient city that could have belonged to the Queen of Sheba in the Middle East; but he managed not to be totally turned away because people don’t hate Brits (imagine if he had been an Ugly American? Or maybe it was the vestiges of colonialism – the natives of the countries he visited probably wouldn’t bat an eyelid over a Brit traveling around and getting curious since they’ve seen that type for years). Cool stuff.

Don’t over eat on T-Day! Or is that my wishful thinking at this time of year?…

NJ Asst. US Attorney gets into trouble over his blog, since he never got permission, violating the US Attorney’s office policy to get permission before speaking to the media. Creepy. Be very careful when you’re on-line and you’re an attorney. Or, at least, don’t talk about work, like this guy talking about the federal judges…

I saw “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” on Saturday. Mike Newell, the director of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and other stuff, got to be the first British director with the HP franchise, and he made it feel very British indeed. I kept thinking that Prof. Dumbledore would burst out “There Will Always Be An England,” what with the cinematography capturing the British landscape. “Goblet of Fire” – Book 4 – is the path to real sad stuff, so of course Movie 4 is sad. But, good movie – tight; none of the annoying excesses of Book 4; and the cast did well, even when there was still not enough time to give everybody lines (Alan Rickman as Prof. Snape, amusingly pissed with the students; the cute Cedric Diggory character; and so on). I felt that actor Michael Gambon was settling nicely as Dumbledore – he’s a bigger guy and bigger presence. I felt the grandfatherly side of Dumbledore (but his agenda still puzzling as ever…). And, of course, poor poor Harry. How much can one put a kid through?

I also liked how the movie continues the portrayal of the previous books and movies of a diverse Britain – people of various colors and races coming together to learn and so on. Picking up on FC’s point on Asians in the HP movie: I never thought that Cho Chang (played by Katie Leung) was Scottish – so that’s an interesting twist. The Patil twins (who aren’t actually twins after all, but they were in the book, so maybe they’re fraternal twins as far as the movie’s concerned?) – well, their storyline was consistent with the book indeed – Harry and Ron didn’t treat them that well as their dates to the ball (well, geez, they’re only 14 and have no clue as to how to treat girls!).

Ted Koppel’s last night is Tuesday night on Nightline. Charlie Rose did a nice interview of him Monday night.

Monday night late night tv had George Clooney on David Letterman (funny and charming, as usual – Clooney, I mean, not Letterman); Wentworth Miller on Jay Leno (sigh – so cute and so intelligent – Miller, I mean, not Leno – Miller’s a Princeton alumnus, though… 😉 … ).

So it goes…

Busy birthday weekend…

Saturday, one of my friends passed the New York and New Jersey Bars. While there is a whole another part of the bar application that is required in New York, in New Jersey, once you pass the only thing left is to be sworn in. In one of those quaint but nice things in New Jersey, New Jersey attorneys have the authority to administer the oath to new attorneys, so Saturday night we went to Arthur’s Tavern in Hoboken to perform the deed and have some steaks, both of which went well.

Sunday for my actual birthday, P and I went to see the new Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire matinee at the local theater. Yes, it was $4 cheaper, but it seemed that there was only one projection guy running three rooms, because there were long delays between the pre-previews, the previews, and the actual show. Much swearing, but the movie finally got on track. Not spilling too many things from the movie, but it was good but dark, and at 2.5 hours, really butt-breaking. It was sort of something of a cross of an intermediate episode of Lord of the Rings with Judy Blume. A lot of horror perhaps more appropriate for October 31 than November, and a lot more adolescent angst perhaps more appropriate for a summer movie. There were several Asian actresses in this one, including the Indian double dates for Harry and Ron, and the unrequited I don’t-know-what scene between Harry and Cho Chang, played by Scottish-Chinese Katie Leung, which lasted all of 5 minutes. I guess I shouldn’t talk, because I have a strong Brooklyn accent and my relatives have strong Carribean accents, but wow, that Scottish brogue was really on. She pretty much looked like my cousin from Toronto, but with long hair. Good movie, but there is obviously more to come.

For dinner, P took me to Babbo, Mario Batali’s flagship restaurant near Washington Square Park. Some restaurants are just marketing — this place actually delivers. Here’s what we had:
1. Free: marinated herbal chickpea crustini – had a garlic-cumin flavor.
2. Babbo salumi antipasti plate – a variety of cured meats made by Mario’s father salami store Salumi in Seattle.
3. Gnocchi with stewed oxtail – amazing! Every cuisine has a archtypical benchmark dish to determine if the kitchen is any good: for Italian food, it’s gnocchi – a dumpling-style pasta. If not prepared carefully, it can either be library paste or rock hard. Prepared well, gnocchi are light, fluffy pillows of pasta flavor. The oxtail is ragu-ed into a stew, and the bones are removed, and then melded with properly prepared gnocchi, and then topped with, as Mario says on his show, “The King of All Cheeses”, grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
4. P had Grilled Lamb Chops with Eggplant and Lemon Yogurt; I had the Duck with persimmion and aged balsamic vinegar. Both were very well made.
5. For dessert, I had a saffron panecotta with cinnamon gelatti, and P had the assorted gelatti and sorbetto. P said that the flavor was very similar to what she had inItaly. They slipped a short candle and a Happy Birthday piped along the top of the plate.
We had a small caraffe (250 ml) of wine, a Montegradella Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2001. According to some websites that I saw, the Valpolicella wines are so underrated, that wineries usually print the appellation in very small print. This was an amazing red wine — it shifted as the courses went along. First it was strong and full bodied; then when we had the gnocchi, all of a sudden, it became spicy with wood notes; then for our main dish, it was fruity and palette cleansing.

Overall, we were very impressed, and a very nice birthday treat by P. Thanks!