Month: May 2008

Saturday: Brooklyn Botanic Garden – cherry blossoms! A NYC Rite of Spring, (or “Sakura Matsuri,” sakura – cherry blossom, apparently).

The birthday of “spam” (which pisses Spam ™ just as much if not the rest of us; plus Spam has a creepy website – man, I liked Spam growing up, and it did save and feed the world during World War II and all that, but could you not use irritating music on your website?).

The Elder vs. The Young Upstart… Russert vs. Stephanopoulos. I’m kind of fascinated that George Stephanopoulos seems to be settling in as this Sunday morning guy. I like it best when he does politics, still unsure of what to make of him as a journalist. He was interesting as a pundit, maturing as a round table facilitator. Russert is… still Russert. He can be too prosecutorial, but that’s supposed to be part of the fun of watching him.

Stuff on Google vs. Stuff on Facebook. Can’t Google and Facebook just get along? Can you co-exist? … Why the heck not?

An overdue restoration project: cleaning up Atlas, Promotheus’ brother… the statue at Rockefeller Center, that is, not just in Greek mythology.

NY Times movie critic Manohla Dargis on the lack of women in substantial roles in the upcoming summer blockbusters. She closes with her observation: “In 2008, when a white woman and a black man are running for president and attracting unprecedented numbers of voters partly because they are giving a face to the wildly under-represented, you might think that Hollywood would get a clue. [beat] Nah.”

Profile of actor Adhir Kalyan, on the CW series, “Aliens in America.” Kalyan is an actor of South Asian descent – but, even more interesting, he grew up in South Africa, of the first post-apartheid generation. The article touches on being Asian in a place that’s not really Asia – being a minority – being an actor of color, and how you develop this thing called a career. Good stuff! Plus, “Aliens in America” is a funny and sweet series. Such a shame that it gets almost no attention because it’s on CW and not on a major network.

The APA Heritage Festival is on May 10, 2008, at the Dag Hammerskjold Plaza.

Oh, and don’t forget Mother’s Day, next Sunday!

Monday tv: “How I Met Your Mother” – Marshall as a slacker-unemployed lawyer – is that sad or what? Lily the kindergarten teacher saved a goat from slaughter (and her students are going to be vegetarian). Robin and Barney have consequences to deal with from their one-night stand, even if they’re in denial – this is going to be interesting! Ted, the 30-year old birthday boy, seemed to be ok with Robin having Done the Deed with Barney (since she got upfront with Ted and explained the extenuating circumstances).

But, Ted is not going to forgive Barney; the scene where they seem to be all but broken up as friends was heartbreaking. Actors Neil Patrick Harris (as Barney) and Josh Radnor (as Ted) were quite good at capturing their characters’ emotional turmoil.

Funny: Barney retaining Marshall to reveal the secret of sleeping with Robin and have it covered under attorney-client privilege and to find a loophole in Barney’s Bro Code, which states that a Bro may not sleep with a Bro’s ex. Marshall points out that this isn’t possible; Barney made it airtight and Ted’s too much of a saint to have been betrayed like this.

Barney’s going to pay Marshall out of a fund from his company which poses as money from a North Korean toy company. Eww. And, what’s with Barney’s company, which is apparently doing bad things to the water of Lisbon, Portugal, and may cause the US to go to war against… Portugal?

Time’s James Poniewozik theorizes that Barney works for the Dharma Initiative. (“Lost” reference, to go along with the no less crazy time shifting on “HIMYM”). I’d posit that Barney works for Credit Dauphine, the front for SD-6 of “Alias.” It only looks like an international investment bank; it’s actually an Eee-vil Megalomaniacal entity, that Secret Agent Sydney Bristow must defeat… umm, yeah, my own little J.J. Abrams reference! It’d be really creepy if Barney’s boss is Sloane (who was played with scariness by Ron Rifkin) or something…

Barney imagined that his Bro Code was originally drafted in the era of the Founding Fathers, with a Ben Franklin and George Washington scene that was bizarre.

Oh, and… Goat!

“House” was strange; Kal Penn’s Dr. Kutner saved the day though. Kind of. Plus, Dr. House and Amber (aka Dr. Cutthroat Bitch) engaged in a custody battle for Dr. Wilson. Wilson must be a masochist to have House as a best friend and Amber as a girlfriend (eww). Drs. Cameron and Chase made more substantive appearances than they had in months; it’d be kind of pathetic of Chase if he turns into House’s substitute Wilson. And, poor Foreman had to be the substitute House to the new team of Dr. “Thirteen,” Taub, and Kutner – but got no respect.

The Rockefeller descendants are insisting ExxonMobil be a better company. Fascinating look at how the heirs of John D. Rockefeller are such philanthropists and aiming to be good people, not just rich people. I just doubt that ExxonMobil will go along with that game plan.

Science Times in NY Times: a profile on scientist Francisco J. Ayala – a geneticist, promoter of evolution and ex-priest – who doesn’t see a conflict of religion and evolution. Interesting: evolution – science, more broadly – isn’t quite anti-religion? Certainly, you can’t be a geneticist and not accept evolution!

According to this NY Times article by Jane E. Brody, research indicates that exercise can save my life. Now, if only I’ll actually do exercise. Hmm.

In what the NY Times deemed to belong in the category of “Really?” – “what most people know about nose bleeds is wrong”. Okay, really – so tilting your head back doesn’t help a nosebleed – okay! But putting pressure to your nose works (well, that makes sense).

May a real tricorder (as wonderful as it was in the “Star Trek” universe) exist in the real world?

As it’s now the official Asian American Heritage Month, some stuff on some Asians/APA’s:

NY Daily News feature “Big Town, Big Dreams” with a fascinating profile on Mohammed Saleh, a Bangladeshi-American pharmacist who got his start in owning his own business thanks to friendship with a Jewish pharmacist. Saleh then gives back to his communities in NYC and in Bangladesh, and serves on the Nassau County Commission on Human Rights.

Norah Jones in a Wong Kar Wai movie, getting profiled on NY1 (she’s a daughter of Ravi Shankar).

NY1 also profiled Janice Min, editor-in-chief of US Weekly.