Month: May 2006

Okay, spoiler alert.  So, just turn away or scroll down or whatnot, if you don’t want to see my comments.  But, it’s not like I’ll say anything.

The gang at “Alias” – what a series finale!  Goodbye to Sydney and Vaughn, and Dixon, and Marshall.  Have a good off-screen life.  You did good, Jack.  Even poor Tom.  And, Sloane – you deserved your fate. I still don’t think I quite understand the whole Rambaldi thing, or what had happened for much of the episode, but it was quite an episode.
A nice wrap-up of the past five years of “Alias” on MSNBC.

“24” – well, I tried to watch.  Channel-changing got a little crazy there – of course.  Jack Bauer – oh, you poor fool.  But, you saved the day.  But, you got into a messier situation.  Geez, man.  And, okay, after saving the world…  well, see you next January…

Strange weather of late: much rain last week, plus the hail of Friday (hail, thunderstorm, wind, sun, clouds… a little bit of everything).

FC’s performance yesterday: great job! 😉 In fact, everybody did a great job. The “show” gave some food for thought too.

Saw “Da Vinci Code” the movie. It wasn’t as bad as the professional critics make it seem like. I never thought the book was that great, so it’s not like the movie had a fantastic source to work from. But, it was a good popcorn movie. I’d recommend seeing it. Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou brought some more humanity to their characters than the book did (author Dan Brown’s strength is not character development, so far as I could tell), although I thought the bittersweet end was more bittersweet than the book; plus, I do wonder if Tom Hanks’ Prof. Robert Langdon could have been different as a young male character. Oh, and Sir Ian McKellen – good fun he was! Alfred Molina and Paul Bettany – well, they played characters you had to hate in the book, and the feeling was still the same for the movie. But, Molina gave some kindness to his character. Bettany – well, geez, you’re an albino hitman. You can’t really expand much more than that.

The series finale of the WB show “Charmed” – was a lovely ending for all the trials and tribulations that the three Charmed Sisters have been through. I still don’t quite buy the endings for Phoebe and Paige, but nice that Piper finally has her happy ending.

The tv networks have announced their schedules for next year (to get the advertisers’ attention). The new CW has decided not to renew “Everwood” but renew “Seventh Heaven” (even though WB promoted “Seventh Heaven”‘s last episode as a series finale? Morons!)

Hippies validated as they win Amazing Race 9 today. After losing their stuff twice by being last at non-elimination pitstops, they get it all together in the final round. Being able to speak Japanese enabled them to have fun performing the messenger task. They were neck and neck with the “frat boys” up to the last roadblock, where they had to order flags corresponding to their travel sequence, where the hippies were able to burst ahead. The other reason to be happy about the hippies is that they had good karma and treated the local people well, speaking in their native languages where possible. They were well-deserving.

P and I are going on the next leg of our journey together: Hong Kong. It’s her first time; it’s my 4th. We picked up a really cheap flight, probably because it’s typhoon season. A big one narrowly missed Hong Kong yesterday, slamming Fujian with 200 mph winds, but only ranking Signal 3 (the southwestern version of a N’oreaster – Katrina would be a 10) in Hong Kong itself. I’m also going to catch up with some friends, and see some of the more out of the way places. Of course, there will be plenty of blogging. The trip begins on May 25. Say “hi” if you happen to be in the vicinity.

The West Wing series finale.

Preceded by the first episode – which I skipped, since I didn’t want to get all teary over how stunningly good West Wing was in its heydey – the last episode clearly harkened back over the years of West Wing. It was very much of what was the idea of the show: the behind-the-scenes life of the White House. You don’t get to see President Santos’ inaugural speech (although it would have been nice; I still think it’s a shame that they didn’t actually spend a whole episode on Leo’s funeral, with eulogies and all).

Very brief Rob Lowe moments as Sam (who should have at least made a face appearance at Leo’s funeral).

No Toby (aww. At least President Bartlett pardoned him, even if at the very last minute).

No big last Josh moment (there should have been; the first episode was very Josh and Sam).

Some poignant C.J. stuff (considering how the show has often felt like the Adventures of C.J. – well…).

A touching moment between Bartlett and his aide, Charlie. Bartlett gives Charlie the Constitution, or at least a copy of it in booklet form that Bartlett’s own father gave him, since Charlie is planning on going to Georgetown for law school. My eyes got watery.

Echoes of Leo – C.J.’s giving Josh a Post-it note: WWLD – “What Would Leo Do?” to help Josh get through the challenge of being Chief of Staff – and they agree: it’s hard to stop thinking of that office as Leo’s.  Bartlett’s getting the napkin, the very napkin that Leo wrote on to convince him to make that push for president.

But, not even a little farewall scene from Josh and Sam, the Santos administration people, to the old Bartlett gang? Or has the passage of time made goodbyes irrelevant (goodbyes having been made when Josh left the Bartlett administration to run the Santos campaign, goodbyes made when Sam left so long ago).

Very nice to see Donna in awe of her office as the First Lady’s Chief of Staff; a huge step up from the cubicle she had as Josh’s assistant in the West Wing. Cute to see Donna and Josh sitting together at the inauguration.

And, the episode ends with life moving on.  There’s a country to run.

Series finales always make me feel sad.

Sorry for the non-blogging this week. It was the last week of finals. No, I didn’t actually have to take any. Yes, I had to proctor them. With a 8:30 am to 10 pm schedule, it really was grueling. I almost would have preferred to take 3 exams rather than to watch people suffer through 10.

Last Saturday was my godmother’s fundraising brunch for culinary scholarships. An extraordinary collection of chefs put together a fine feast – the hungry room barely made a dent in the buffet. See the spread yourself! I’m so glad that so many people have received her love over the years, and that they return that love to her.

Last Sunday was the CAPA Festival at Union Square. Our friend from Meniscus Zine was selling out for Mickey D’s at their huge blowup tent, complete with Asian Ronald. Koreans out in force with the best give-aways. And I won a ImaginAsian T-shirt!

NYU is having their 175th anniversary celebrations this week with alumni weekend. The alumni awards dinner was Friday. A couple of not-exactly-striking graduate TAs had a mini-flyer handout outside of the hotel, but were not really effective; they had thrown their remaining stack of flyers in the garbage when we left. One line acceptance speeches: Stateswoman Carol Bellamy (“learn to take the risk of failing”); the Tuskegee Airmen (“just ordinary people doing their best”); songwriter Carole Bayer Sager (“if you get caught between the Moon and New York City/the best that you can do/the best that you can do is fall in love”); real estate developers H. Dale Hemmerdinger (we can rebuild Camelot) and Daniel J. Brodsky (NYU is the family business) and mathematician Peter Lax (“they trust me as an expert in Hungarian literature”). NYU President John Sexton takes the pulpit as usual, and during the tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, he reveals that the number 42 in a circle that he has emblazoned on his academic gown is a tribute to Jackie Robinson, and not the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Just before I sleep on this late Tuesday/early Wednesday — I checked on the latest doings of the world of “Doonesbury.” What’s this – could it be? Has Alex Doonesbury finally picked her college?

Apparently, the other schools (was it really MIT?) had profs or students who couldn’t answer Alex’s hypo properly (something to do with unidentifiable wires and figuring out what to do with them when they’re in some boxes – I’m no techie). And, Walden, her safety school and her dad’s Alma Mater (the barely-accredited school that tries way too hard) has all but stalked Alex (their offer of freebies to bribe her to matriculate at the wonderful world of Walden: a free laptop – say what?). The May 10 edition suggests that a Cornell prof has been able to answer Alex’s hypo and Alex is getting excited about Cornell, even though she initially wasn’t keen on going all rural/suburban.

Is this for real? Is Alex Doonesbur Ivy-bound? Stay tuned…

Last night, the family and I went to the marathon baseball game at Shea stadium. Mets v. Braves; Mets’ leaving many people on base; us leaving just before the game finally ended. Crazy Mets. At least they were a fun bunch. Mets just won the game this Saturday afternoon. Yeah. Beat the Braves. Just go in there and not have the mindset that the Braves are still Met killers. One more game to go with the Braves.

The latest developments of the comic strip “Doonesbury” – Mike’s daughter, Alex, is visiting colleges to decide which one she’ll accept to matriculate. She’s staying over at the D.C. home of Joanie Caucus, her maternal grandmother, to consider Georgetown. In the May 4 edition, Alex explains to Joanie that wasn’t eager to attend RIT or RPI (aka Rensselaer) since it’s pretty suburban/rural, and she’d rather be in a big city (well, she was born and partly raised in NYC, after all). Alex says Harvard “seemed to have a little self esteem problem.” Grammy Joanie asks: “Too little?” Alex: “Too much. Who wants to start every day getting over yourself?” Hehehe. Funny, Alex.

The Doonesbury website links to this Cornell press release, since Cornell accepted Alex and Cornell would be so happy to have a Doonesbury character among its population. (sort of like how Boalt Hall was happy to have the very fictitious Joanie as a law student a generation ago). I just hope Alex doesn’t end up at the undergrad alma mater of her parents and her grammy; no need to be the next generation of Doonesbury at Walden (like she really wants to join Joanie’s son Jeff and his roommate Zipper at that barely-accredited school).

The teen writer who wrote “How Opal Mehta got Kissed…” – got into trouble for – what else? – plagiarism. Sigh. That’s pathetic. Intentional or not, plagiarism is a big No-no.

This week’s two-part “House” – wow. Omar Epps as Dr. Foreman – powerful. Give the man an Emmy. Back when he was on “ER” as the put upon medical student (the ultimately dead medical student, by the way), his current doctor is that much stronger-willed. But, Foreman still wants his mom while he’s badly sick, even though his mom is suffering from dementia. (possibly giving a personal explanation for why he’s a neurologist, other than the utter intellectual interest and challenging of complexting). House gets a bit more sensitive to treat Foreman, but that makes him too cautious. (and, by the way, yeah, it’s hard to kill a blind pigeon, House). At least his pet mouse, Steve McQueen, didn’t get sick.

Lovely spring.

No sleep til Brooklyn… really busy at work, getting there early and staying late. It’s been really crazy this week. It’s going to be really crazy for the next week.

Crazy Greenpoint Warehouses fire on Tuesday – probably arson. All of downtown smelled like barbecue through Wednesday and even through Thursday. The only good that came out of it was that it cut out the hay fever-causing pollen. Check out the play-by-play of the 10 alarm fire.

Check out my performance as a court clerk/stage manager on May 20 and get CLE credits – see http://www.napaba-ne.org.

On TV: what the hell is going on? On 24, POTUS is evil, on Amazing Race, the free love hippies are conniving (but get non-eliminated once again – I think they only thing they have left is their underwear), and on Lost, a whole bunch of people bite it.

Totally stressed out this week – this afternoon, I’ll be “gone fishing”. Hopefully, I’ll do “something brillant”.

The passing of economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

My bit of rant: well, okay, so I’m not a driver and therefore I probably lack a bit of sympathy for drivers confronted with the rise in gas prices. But, while watching the news, seeing the reporter talk to a guy putting gas into his SUV — well, that gets to me. I mean, if you’re so pissed with the rising gas prices, then why the heck are you driving an SUV?! Get yourself a more fuel-efficient car, that, in all likelihood, isn’t nearly as expensive than those idiotic SUV’s. End of rant.

On the Day Without Immigrants, where immigration law protests and boycotts are going on – well, I’m a bit of a sympathizer (even if I really still haven’t developed my sense of where I stand on the issues – I’m too wishy-washy for my own good); at the very least, I despise hatemongerers. So I really meant not to make any purchases (ok, truthfully, more because I spent enough this weekend, than because of actual sympathy for the protests), but really, I tried. But, my desire for junk food was too strong and I’m too weak and so I spent my bit of money (darn you, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish).

Oh well. Hope the protesters will forgive me. In honor of the continuing quest and hope that this country will one day find a better way to reform immigration law, I’ll link to Fahreed Zakaria’s column in Newsweek, where he explains how America really shouldn’t pursue Europe’s guest worker tactics, because those tactics fail to take into consideration incentives to convince immigrants that they can become a part of the society in which they work and live, as a reward for working and living. (I thought he made a lot of sense anyway).

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick comes up with a mock Supreme Court decision (re: whether Anna Nicole Smith loved her husband – “While the issue of whether Anna (aka Vickie Lynn Marshall) really loved her 89-year-old oil-baron husband, or if she was just some trashy gold digger was neither pleaded nor argued before this court, we have nevertheless reviewed the record below and herein find that Ms. Smith was indeed a complete and unrepentant opportunist. We further find as a matter of law that she never loved the guy.”), in honor of the real Supreme Court’s finding for Anna Nicole Smith in this twisted bankruptcy law/wills and estates law mix.

Prof. Tim Wu of Columbia Law discusses in Slate some concerns regarding possible controls of the Internet. Hmm. Sounds scary, and this isn’t an issue I was aware of at all.

An article on “House.” This week’s two episodes look quite good: Dr. Foreman’s life is at stake and Dr. House remains an ass. I like the episodes where they break out of their usual pattern of threatening someone else’s life; threatening the lives of one of their own (well, okay, character development stuff) can be powerful drama.