The wee small hours of Thursday night (or early Friday morning) — when, oh when, will I ever learn to go to bed early? Fortunately, Lunar New Year is upon us, so I can (again) renew those pesky resolutions. Try, try again, to change those bad, bad habits.
Wednesday night – yes, as FC noted, I was a panelist at the Law School Alma Mater’s Asian American Law Students panel on the profession and diversity. Felt weird – I mean, inviting me, who was probably the most recent graduate on that panel, as if I knew anything about diversity (ok, arguably, I may have known anything, considering where I work and the area of law I allegedly work in). And, inviting me must mean I’m getting old (which is really stupid of me to say, since the law students were likely my age anyway, but what the hey, I thought it was weird that I was sitting behind the panelists’ table for once, excluding the time I had moderated a program for my local bar association committee – really weird experience too, since I actually made a reference to actual law in that program too). I thought I rambled a bit much (I really am no public speaker; I fumbled when I spoke before an ALJ a few weeks ago, but that was a settlement conference, so no big deal). But, an enjoyable time. I really admire knowing that Law School Alma Mater has graduates of color who have done pretty well for themselves.
Now, I hope I can make the Law School Alumni dinner – but I checked my schedule and I might have a conflict. Man, I’d hate to miss a really good free dinner!
This week’s WB’s Beauty and the Geek 2 – Tyson, the East Asian contestant/Geek, got eliminated. Seemed like a sweet kid, a little introverted, but he gained a little more confidence. He’s quite articulate, I must also say. The Rubik’s Cube Record holder/Cal Tech senior Tyson will also be guest-starring in WB’s “Reba,” at least according to the commercials. Umm, ok, that show has its moments, but couldn’t you convince WB to let you guest on something geekier but slightly cooler, like “Smallville”? Anyway, the South Asian Geek/MIT grad, Ankur, remains on the show. So, Asian representation continues (and, hopefully, so will the whole undermining/emphasizing of stereotypes of beauties and geeks).
Speaking of “Smallville,” I only caught the tail end of Thursday night’s 100th episode of Smallville. I taped the entire episode to view at another time. At any rate, I couldn’t resist catching this episode, considering all the hype on who in Clark’s life was fated to pass away. You suspected all along who it would be, but kept hoping it isn’t… well, they did it. (No, I won’t do the big revelation, not yet anyway).
But, the choice made sense – every superhero-to-be has to have that key tragedy that pushes him/her to become a superhero. Batman had it, Spiderman had it. Traditional Superman mythology suggested only that Clark’s Kryptonian tragedy (i.e., that he was the sole survivor of the end of Krypton) was that impetus. But, I’ve been impressed by how “Smallville” takes a different tack on the mythology, showing how Clark’s Earth upbringing was the real influence to his being that great all-American hero, Superman (as previously suggested by Superman IV, the movie) and how Clark struggles with his alien origin versus his self-identification as a mere ordinary American kid. Then again, I’m a sucker for superhero stuff. I tolerated only so much of Smallville’s Alien of the Week stuff, preferring the series more once it took on the Road to the Once and Future Superman, Clark Kent. (well, it’s also about how Lex Luthor became a super villain too, by the way). The writing has a tendency of being a little odd, but not a bad show to watch.
(And, I enjoyed the episodes where Flash and Aquaman made their youthful appearances. I very much resented that the young Batman didn’t come through, but then again, with Batman Returns coming, it made sense that Batman didn’t make an appearance after all).
Will Clark overcome the tragedy? Hmm. More seriously, will WB renew “Smallville”?