Month: January 2007

Sooo, Mondays are that much more competitive in the wonderful world of tv, with Heroes up against 24.  Now, I’d like to be an actual 24 fan, only the violence gets a bit much for me.  Like who else will die; it gets a little crazy and seriously depressing.  Plus, the plot holes get a little annoying (am I really supposed to be believe these seemingly non-suicidal terrorists would let a-bombs go off?  At least be a few hundred miles away before letting the nuke blow up.  They have to be suicidal, yet one of these idiots helping the terrorists seems to think giving them a-bombs would help him and his girlfriend have lots of moola – is that all??).
Also, things are getting interesting on Heroes – actor Masi Oka is the real pleasure to watch.  Playing the time-space bender Hiro, he’s entertaining.  I like it most when they move past the near-stereotyping (“Asian nerd” stereotype can be a bit irritating to watch) – Hiro as the tragic hero – who likes his powers but is slowing maturing – has been fascinating.  Soon to be on Heroes: George Takei (Sulu of Star Trek) as Hiro’s dad; turns out that Takei can speak Japanese.

I find the actor Masi Oka to be intruiging too – he still has his day job for George Lucas’ special effects company and he managed to have dual-majored in math, comp sci, and minored in drama at Brown U (talk about being way smart).

Hiro has a cool interaction with Nathan, the superpowered congressman wanna-be played by Adrian Pasdar (once known for his FOX tv-fan-cult show Profit, where he played a most troubled character…) – ex., Hiro happily calling Nathan “Flying Man” (having been the one person so far who has seen Nathan fly) and Nathan hoping he’ll stop doing that; and Nathan’s rather amusing attempt to help Hiro improve his English (“Billian”/”No, ‘Villain’” – Nathan being rather patient).  The two might turn into the most amusing sci-fi/fantasy pals pairings – kind of like Star Trek The Next Generation’s Data and Geordi (only Nathan is that much more of a straight man to Hiro’s funny guy).  Heck, they might even rival Star Trek’s Worf’s funnier moments (the “I am not a Merry Man” line has got to be among Worf’s best).  That I’m noticing the dramatic sci-fi’s funny moments has to mean something positive!
Plus, Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohinder, the Indian genetics professor who’s the Professor X of the Heroes (ok, sorry – an X-Men reference on my part; Mohinder has no known powers at this time) – he’s quite a watch – good looking and I love his accent (okay, I like accents on good-looking and intelligent-seeming men).  Another cool Asian-American (he does the accent so well – yet he turns out to be Chicago-born and TX raised).  With Oka and Ramamurthy, I’m looking forward to seeing more diversity on tv!

Super Bowl hype time – well, I certainly find it great that you have two African-American head coaches – great stories – plus the whole Peyton Manning Saga – can he prove himself already?  (well, I’m pulling for the Colts – Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy have to do it already – momentum time!).

The passing of Rev. Robert Drinan – progressive priest, ex-congressman and ex-dean of Boston College Law School.  Fascinating reflection about Drinan on Newsweek’s website.

Weekend eating:
Friday at Becco: grilled veggie antipasti very nice. Three-way all-you-can-eat pasta hit-or-miss: taglitale with fresh tomato sauce not bad, linguine with white clam sauce – pasta on the very al dente side, pumpkin ravioli was the best.

Saturday: grazing through Chinatown: the unnamed dumpling place on Mosco Street around the corner from Transfiguration Church, random stuff from the Thai grocery on Mosco, Tasty Dumpling, 54 Mulberry Pl. Veggie shopping. A bakery that I forgot what it was called that had tasty but fugly dan tat.

Sunday: dim sum at Grand Harmony: above average – just staples ha gow and su mai were both a-wol. Then a side trip to Kings Plaza, where P wanted to try out the crepe place that I talked about last year, which turned out to have closed and been replaced with a Jackson Hewitt tax place. A number of other major stores were also decimated by this past Christmas season, including my childhood Waldenbooks (sigh), Banana Republic, and American Greetings, which has a 90% off sale until they close this week.

P- insisted that I blog about this one: we were in Macy’s and she was looking at watches. She pointed out one, saying “This is the travel watch, so you can see with time it is in different worlds“. I had to be a wise guy, and say “Oh, so you can tell the time in World of Warcraft, or find out when it is in Second Life”.

Reality show of the week: “Grease – the One that I Want” is a much nicer version of American Idol. All of the contestants have real talent – they get to sing non-60’s songs to show off their talents. I joined the stage crew when my high school did Grease, and boy I remember the songs and the fun times.

Parareality show of the week: Medium had a rocking episode Wednesday with “Better Off Dead”. It’s amazing how they manage to come up with new twists that keep this series fresh. I’m really looking forward to next week’s episode, where they turn everyone into dolls in a dollhouse.

Been a bit AWOL from blogging, as I had attended various NYS Bar Association events (hey, inexpensive CLE!) this past week and it wore me out, frankly.

Tv shows:

“Ugly Betty” – remains an intruiging tv show. Still don’t quite know what to make of the consipiracy storyline (I suppose having Rebecca Romaijn makes it that much more interesting to someone out there). But, I like how Betty and her boss Daniel are turning into good friends; not enough tv shows show how friendship is important.

“Grey’s Anatomy” – uh, the developments of the romantic relationships on this show is a bit batty. But, the one character I feel most for (besides Dr. Bailey, who is that much more mature than her bosses, the attendings who are nuts) is the Chief – who kind of made his own problems possible (by driving his wife nuts with his less-than-faithfulness and his inability to retire). Plus, Meredith Grey – the woman needs help getting over her emotional baggage, I still say.

Last but not least of noteworthiness:

Simon and Schuster announced the winners of the Strange New Worlds 10 contest, where new writers submitted short stories for the SNW 10. The webpage notes:

After receiving several thousands of entries and much deliberation, I’m pleased to announce the winners of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 10 contest:

STAR TREK
“The Smell of Dead Rose” — Gerri Leen —Grand Prize
“The Doomsday Gambit” — Rick Dickson
“Empty”–David DeLee

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
“Wired”–Aimee Ford Foster
“A Dish Served Cold”–Paul C Tseng
“The Very Model”–Muri McCage

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
“So a Horse Walks into A Bar”–Brian Seidman
“Signal to Noise”–Jim Johnson

STAR TREK: VOYAGER
“The Fate of Captain Ransom”–Rob Vagle
“A Taste of Spam”–Louis E. Doggett
“Adjustments”–Laura Ware
“The Day the Borg Came”–M.C. DeMarco

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE
“The Dream”–Robyn Sullivent Gries
“Universal Chord” Carolyn Winifred —Third Prize
“You are not in Space”–Edgar Governo

SPECULATIONS
“Time Line”–Jerry M. Wolfe
“Echoes” Randy Tatano —Second Prize
“Brigadoon”–Rigel Ailur
“Reborn”–Jeremy Yoder

Ten years ago Pocket Books offered Star Trek fans a unique opportunity. Long before the Internet, Star Trek fans had written their own stories, which they then shared among friends and family. Now, the fans were offered a chance to become a part of the Star Trek mythos. A contest sponsored by Pocket Books would publish and pay for the best stories submitted by non-professional writers. And over the course of a decade, hundreds of pounds of submissions poured in. Many of the writers who submitted to Strange New Worlds went on to become professional writers.

As of 2007, we will be discontinuing the publication of Strange New Worlds.

Pocket Books is proud to have sponsored the only contest of this kind ever offered to the readers of their books. And over the years with the co-operation of Paramount Pictures, and now CBS Consumer Products, Pocket Books has published ten volumes of short stories “by the fans for the fans.” We would like to thank everyone who ever submitted a story to Strange New Worlds, and everyone who worked behind-the-scenes to make it all happen.

The alternate list was posted on the website of the editor, Dean Wesley Smith; you may recognize a certain SSW on the list; Dean notes:

Okay, here I can talk a little about the alternates and the process. But first off, I want to say again, Congratulations!! to the folks in the book, and to all of you who made the alternate list (good enough to be in the book), and to everyone who sent me a story. You are all winners in my book.

This alternate list is the stories I found that were good enough to be in the book in all ways. All these authors should be very proud of making this list. Job well done.

Feel free to repost this list to other sites, but please note where this is from and take the entire post please. And please pardon my spelling.

19 stories in the book this year.
29 alternates. Some reasons for this will be explained later in this topic.

Alternates for SNW #10

Original Trek
A LOGICAL CONCLUSION by Mary Sweeney
DOUBLE DUTY by Aimee Ford Foster
RESURRECTION by Jim Lawson
RECONCILIATION by Jeremy Yoder
PROPERLY REVERED by Gerri Leen
FINAL CHAPTER by Randy Tatano
CHEATING DESTINY by Joseph D. Di Lella
IN THE NIGHT SKY by Mui McCage

Next Generation
A WRINKLE IN TIME by Rigel Ailur
RACING THE WAVE by Rigel Ailur
DOWN FOR THE COUNT by Paul C. Tseng
LIKE THEY USED TO by Paul C. Tseng
INNOCENCE ASPACE by Lorraine J. Anderson
SUICIDE NOTE by Geoff Towbridge

Deep Space Nine
SECOND GREAT TRIBBLE… by Laura Ware
TIL TIME DO US PART by Jeremy Yoder
LIVING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES by Gerri Leen
FEAR ITSELF by R. S. Belcher

Voyager
VOYAGER BECOMES HER by Stephanie Peaden
THE BOTTLE by Teresa Haugh
WORK IN PROGRESS by Sally S. Woo
TRIPLE EPILOGUE by L.E. Goggett
RETURNED by A. Rhea King
THE ZEN OF BOOTHBY by Muri McCage
PARTED FROM ME by Laura Ware
THE BOOK OF VOYAGER by M.C. DeMarco

Enterprise
DESTINY by Jim Lawson
MEMORABLE by Robyn Sullivent Gries
WHEN ETHICS FAIL by A. Rhea King

Speculations
(none)

The following stories were on my original table of contents but got bumped in the process back to the alternate list. I just thought the authors would want to know this.
INNOCENCE ASPACE by Lorraine J. Anderson
SUICIDE NOTE by Geoff Towbridge
FEAR ITSELF by R. S. Belcher
WHEN ETHICS FAIL by A. Rhea King.

Congratulations again, everyone. And thanks from a very grateful editor that so many wonderful stories were sent in.

Cheers
Dean

The stunning realization that I was incredibly close to seeing my short story published – well, it’s been amazing to think about. It reminded me to keep at it with my writing; there’s payoff one day!

Postscript: oops; I’m so ill-mannered; meant to also say: congratulations to all participants!

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately. ChinesePod’s Saturday Show had a segment about the use of the word “Oriental” vs “Asian“, the former acceptable in the UK, while rarely acceptable in the US, while the latter is preferred in the US, and in the UK only refers to South Asian Indians.

On the Daily Breakfast, Fr. Roderick describes his childhood taunting from other Dutch schoolchildren because his grandmother was Shanghainese, and his hair is black, not blonde. Now he wants to learn Chinese – possibly through Michigan State University’s Zon – think Berlitz meets Second Life, except in this massively multiuser game, you have to talk to everyone in Chinese just to get out of the virtual Beijing airport. My father has relatives in Suriname, which used to be called Dutch Guyana, and I think I have some distant cousins in the Netherlands (you need a scorecard to keep track of the extended relatives).

Finally finished reading Qiu Xialong’s “When Red is Black.” (in a past post, I linked to a Newsweek interview on the author). Now, I never read the Chief Inspector Chen of Shanghai series before, so this was interesting.

As a detective mystery – something of a disappointment – I really couldn’t find very much empathy for the murdered victim. She seemed a bit of a cypher – a professor who never gave up on the love she had for male prof during the Cultural Revolution – yet there’s doubt as to what was this love (they couldn’t have had an affair when the re-education camp would never have given them any privacy) and what personal gains may have been involved (did she use him?). The whole who-did-it was kind of weak – was it an inside job, done by the neighbors – but how likely, when none of the suspects had motives that worked?

But, as a novel – intruiging. Very strongly written, interesting style – very literary, even – and the vividness of the setting and the tension of living in a China that was/is in flux – more than made up for the weak mystery.
There were some odd errors – missing attributions (ex., placement of a paragraph would make a dialog look like someone else’s dialog, but it was really a continuation of, say, Inspector Chen’s observations – a simple “said Chen” would have clarified confusion) or slight grammatical errors or typos (Message to copy editor – hello, are you doing your job?). I’ve noticed too many books like that these days (not just in books by an author whose first language may not be English; read one or two of Anne Perry’s books and you’d wonder if the rush to print was a little too rushed). What’s with the publishing business? Take your time and edit properly!
Substantively speaking, Qiu’s book reminded me a lot of reading other literary detectives (guys who let their sidekicks do the legwork while they, say, quote poetry, drink booze (although Chen didn’t do that too much), flirt with women (intentionally or not), and think too much) – Qiu’s Chen was sort of like Colin Dexter’s Chief Inspector Morse or P.D. James’ Commander Dalgiesh (who, like Chen, is also a published poet) – which I have to say is my way of complimenting Qiu – he has an original spin on this kind of detective. Chen’s sort of bland, yes, but then again you kind of have to be a slightly repressed, career-driven, poetic minded person to deal with the “Communist” society in flux (plenty of ironies are portrayed, when you have characters who spout the party policies, but have their side businesses to get – say, food or something – on the table, since the government’s not doing that anymore).

The portrayal of Shanghai in the 1990’s seemed cool – certainly all the references to food would make foodies grin. (but, even if the setting is 1990’s, it felt an awful lot like the the early 2000’s – with the references to cell phones – but I’m hardly an expert on late 20th Century/early 21st century urban China).

Chen and his sidekick Yu have to deal with bureaucratic crap, corruption, and other stuff (balancing the needs of the family versus the needs of one’s self) – no differently than other detectives. I’ll see about reading their adventures again another time – maybe my mysteries reading is too oriented in America and Britain?
As the “Justice League” cartoon dvds were some of my Christmas presents and I’ve no life to speak of (or I’m procrastinating as usual – take your pick) – I’ve been watching a whole bunch of episodes this weekend so far. Thumbs up for this series – but then my geek side gets all happy seeing the superheroes do their thing.

The comic strip Funky Winkerbean has now stepped into a phase that probably only Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” is already familiar – removing a familiar character’s trademark headgear. Like Doonesbury’s B.D., Funky’s longtime high school band director character Harry Dingle has always worn his marching band cap – it got to a point that you figure the character has no eyes (the visor thing always covered it). Now, I’m hardly a longtime reader of the comic strip, but it was pretty obvious that this guy, being that his marching band is his life, probably never took his cap off. Big revelation this week: Harry’s slowly losing his hearing, so he agreed to give up being band director to be the school’s music supervisor – and he’s NOT wearing his cap. In fact, he was hard to recognize (without his scowl, seriously, he looks like some brand spanking new character). This is as shocking as B.D. having his helmet removed after 30 years with it on (ok, yeah, B.D. also lost half of a leg, but really – his helmet made him the much-too-angry Doonesbury character that he was for so long). Weird!

Weather: 25 degrees going up to 37, snow/sleet hitting the ground not sticking. I didn’t want to go out today for lunch, but Golden Crust has $1 Jamaican beef patties until the end of January, so we didn’t want to miss out.

Cellphones: I pay too much for phone service that I don’t use all of. Even with my mom on as a family plan, I have like a gizillion rollover minutes on Cingular. On the other hand my SMS plan gets occasionally maxed out and the occasional long distance call is killer. My plan is over in April; while the iPhone looks fantastic, I have to think that the Samsung BlackJack, the Cingular 8525 or something Windows Mobile will be more practical.

Incredibly painful 2 days of American Idol. Maybe it was the editing, but it seemed that most of the contestants thought it was a costume contest, not a talent show. The montage of 27 different butcherings of the Pussycat Dolls’ Don’t Cha was crazy.

Been watching more of the cable channel G4 especially because of their tech coverage (miss CNET TechTV), and seeing lots of the old and new video games. Some of the best music actually ended up in video games. I’m re-discovering Japanese singer Utada Hikaru. She has more talent in her pinkie than two cities full of Idol wanabes. She composes, sings, and is awesome on the piano. Why aren’t they signing her up? And yes, she’s a New Yorker and an alumnae of SSW’s school. There’s a touring concert series called “Video Games Live” that performs video game themes. Will have to find them when they get to this neck of the woods.

Kingdom Hearts PS2 finale (song composed by Utada)

Unplugged version

Video Games Live orchestra version

Video Games Live tribute to 8-bit games

Finally having winter this week in the northeast. Frigid, yes, but it’s winter, for gosh sake.  People got all atwitter over getting a dusting of snowflakes on Thursday.
Oh, and on Monday: I watched “The Queen.” Helen Mirren was great as Queen Elizabeth II. Heck, the whole cast was great: James Cromwell as a mean old Prince Philip; the guy playing Prime Minister Tony Blair didn’t come off as a caricature, and even Prince Charles came off as an okay guy. Anyway, highly recommended. Not a long movie, but it felt like such depth.  (unlike, say, other movies that run way too long as if the length makes up for the lack of quality).
If you wonder how our Senators and Congressmen live in D.C., the NY Times has this article which kind of ends any mystery to it: “Taking Power, Sharing Cereal,” on how roommates Senators Schumer and Durbin and Congressman Delahunt live in Congressman Miller’s Washington house (apparently, eating cereal is a big thing; cleaning isn’t; geez, sounds like an awful lot like how a lot of us lived in college, huh?):

Think MTV’s “Real World” with a slovenly cast of Democratic power brokers. While Washington may have more than its share of crash pads for policy-debating workaholics, few, if any, have sheltered a quorum as powerful as this one. About a quarter-mile southeast of the Capitol, the inelegantly decorated two-bedroom house has become an unlikely center of influence in Washington’s changing power grid. It is home to the second- and third-ranking senators in the new Democratic majority (Mr. Durbin, the majority whip, and Mr. Schumer, the vice chairman of the Democratic caucus) and the chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee (Mr. Miller).

Mr. Delahunt, a six-term congressman, is the least prominent of the four but perhaps the funniest. More to the point, he is the only one willing to sleep in the living room with a close-up view of Mr. Schumer slumbering a few feet away in his boxers.

Mr. Miller began taking in weary lawmakers in 1982, but this is the first time in 12 years that four members of a Democratic majority have lived here simultaneously. The four men were once host to a fund-raiser for Senator Barbara Boxer of California at their divey dwelling, raising $80,000. Given the prevailing attire in the place on many nights, guests were given pairs of custom-made “Barbara Boxer shorts.”

As a general rule, the abode is hardly fit for entertaining, or even for a health inspector. It is used for convenience: sleeping, ditching stuff, and fast-food consumption — the kinds of functions prized by vagabond politicians whose families are back in their home states and who generally spend only their working weekdays here.

“Everybody in the world says they’re going to do a television series based on us,” said Mr. Durbin, who was collapsed on the couch on a recent Monday night. Still in a tie, he sipped ice water from a massive Chicago Cubs cup while waiting for the Chinese food to arrive.

“But then they realize that the story of four middle-aged men, with no sex and violence, is not going to last two weeks,” he said. The prevailing topics of their discussions are grandchildren and Metamucil, he added.

“Hey, speak for yourself, Durbin,” Mr. Delahunt said, protesting the claim of no sex and violence.

“There is a lot of violence in here,” Mr. Schumer said.

In fact, the roommates have never resorted to violence, at least with one another. (Crickets are another story.) Their weapons are verbal, and often aimed at Mr. Schumer, who admits to a serious dereliction of roommate duties, like grocery shopping. He is also prone to a blatant disregard for conserving a most precious household resource, cereal.

“I love cereal,” Mr. Schumer said, digging into his second bowl of granola, going a long way toward depleting a box that Mr. Miller had just purchased. [….]

Thank goodness for my having multiple VCR’s – Thursday nights being near impossible with the irresistible tv – taped the musical Scrubs episode (with music by the Avenue Q people, playing on Gilbert and Sullivan and “Rent” and other styles) – cool! – and Smallville – the beginning of the Justice League – as Clark joins forces with Green Arrow, Flash (in his Impulse version), Cyborg, and Aquaman.  Green Arrow bestows Clark the codename of “Boy Scout” – which has been a nickname that I could have sworn, in the comics/cartoon versions, Batman/Bruce Wayne bestowed on Clark/Superman to needle Clark/Superman.  Have to catch up on Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy.  Arg, the networks just screw me up!

Brooklyn Museum: The lines were 1.5 hours to get into the Annie Leibovitz (show your Metrocard for 2 for 1 admission until 1/21). I really liked the photos that had the subjects either in action or in their environment. Did she have a good eye, or did just her notoriety attract the beautiful and the elite? I think she had her own doubts, because she would self-assign projects such as going to Sarajevo in the middle of the Balkan War or shoot landscapes in the American Midwest. She was the most sure of herself when photographing family. Check it out before it closes next week. At least they have an enclosed foyer filled with Rodin castings to wait in.

Franny’s – After enduring the crowds, we went to one of the upstart Brooklyn pizza contenders, Frannie’s. For those that know me, you can figure out the obvious attraction. Features: organic locally sourced ingredients, meats cured and made into sausage on premises, wood-burning brick oven, ultra thin crust. We ordered the Tomato and Buffalo Mozzarella with Anchovies and Chilies, and Tomato and Mozzarella with House-Made Sausage pizzas, which are individual dinner-plate sized (about equal to 2-3 regular slices). The desserts were not appealing (everything was too creamy), so we ordered the “Satsumas and Cara Caras with Hot Pepper and Bitetto Olive Salsa”, which our waitress had said that a number of people had ordered instead as a fruit plate. All very good, although you do pay for the organic ingredients – it’s about the same price as Grimaldi’s for a slightly smaller pie and twice as expensive as your neighborhood pizza. For straight-up quality though, I have to give a slight edge to Franny’s over Grimaldi’s. Tje crust is the best part – it has that perfect softness/crispiness that is so hard to achieve. The toppings, while seemingly skimpy, are rich and blend perfectly, and don’t end up all over your lap. Recommended.

A salute to Martin Luther King, Jr. The hope that the world can continue to improve continues.

The man who will not retire: Bill Moyers may be coming back to tv with yet another weekly show. God love him, I’m glad he’ll do it. If you have it in you, and the world needs your voice, why not get back out there?

Saturday: went shopping at Staten Island Mall. Not nearly as fun a place as it used to be, but it’ll do. Bought books at Borders (I could have sworn I wasn’t going to buy anything this month, after the spending for Christmas that I did), so to redeem holiday rewards dollars. Some interesting reading to look forward to doing and good bargains.

And, of course, tonight is the premiere of “24.” Hmm, should be interesting.

In my internet surfing, I was reminded that it’s the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 20?! Yikes. But, it’s true – 1987. I checked though – the actual anniversary’s not until September, as opposed to, say, how the later spinoffs premiered (Deep Space 9 and Voyager both aired as January premieres).

Sooner or later, Hollywood’s going to have to figure out whether You Tube is “friend or foe,” as this NY Times article suggests. There are pros and cons, no doubt – but big bucks are also involved…

Slate’s “Jurisprudence” on an analysis and slide show of Justice William Brennan’s views and notes. Cool stuff.

I know; I’m old-fashioned: while still trying to get rid of more clutter, I listened to some CD’s, my belated Xmas presents. “Jersey Boys” Broadway show album – awesome! Now, if only I’ll ever see the show… Snow Patrol (I know the “Chasing Cars” song is a bit ubiquitous these days, but the album “Eyes Open” is overall pretty good), and The Fray (yes, their song “How To Save a Life” is also all over the place – both Snow Patrol and The Fray have to thank “Grey’s Anatomy” for putting their songs on the commercials and soundtracks; but The Fray’s album is also overall pretty good).

Food eaten: homemade fried wontons – yum. (Good – delicious! Bad – my weakness for fried foods will likely do me in one day); Dunkin Donuts’ munchkins. I believe that munchkins make you happy. Bit into the sugar coated ones, thinking it’d be either a jelly or a creme; turns out to be creme. Happy little surprise. The world sucks, at least if you watch the news, but you got to take the little joys in life.