Month: May 2009

Memorial Day Monday

Hope you took a moment to observe the meaning of Memorial Day.

Saturday: saw “Angels and Demons” – nothing spectacular, but Tom Hanks as Prof. Robert Langdon is bearable; Stellan Sarsgaard handles himself well; and Ewan McGregor as a hot priest — mmm! Except for the twist that should have been foreseeable, McGregor was good old fashioned fun.

Sunday: re-watched the Star Trek movie. Still good fun.

Apparently, Slate’s John Dickerson might be a Star Trek fan. Or at least I liked how he ably analyzed the way Obama approaches “empathy” and further elaborated on the whole “Obama is Spock-like” theory.

Really great cover article by Time’s Nancy Gibbs and Michael Scherer about Michelle Obama. I liked these lines: “Maybe this is what women watching her covet: not the clothes or the glamour or the glory, but the fact that she seems to be having a blast, in a way Laura Bush and the rest never did. After working hard for 20 years, she gets to take a sabbatical, spend as much time as she wants with her kids, do as many high-impact public events as she chooses and, when it’s all over, have the rest of her life to write the next chapter.”

Slate presents an alternate universe, where Obama and Friends are on Facebook and posting stuff about those first 100 days. Very funny!

Time.com asking US Dept. of Energy Secretary Steven Chu questions on US energy policy priorities.

So… it was only last week that Time.com got on board with this story about how Big Law Firms are deferring the 1st year associates? The rest of us in the industry have known about this for awhile now. Frankly, the deferred ought to count themselves lucky – when I got out of law school, $60k for that first yr in a non-Big Firm job was good thing. Or maybe the mainstream population ought to start getting scared: if salaries for one industry is starting to drop (or be corrected by market forces), then I’m not sure what can happen to everyone else’s salaries.

Memorial Day Weekend

So, not only was Queen Elizabeth the one who received an iPod from Barack Obama (which made Obama the worst gift-giver as a Head of State, since… in all likelihood, from what I’ve read about the queen, she probably already had an iPod), she has also gotten herself a totally special Wii. Man, if Queen Elizabeth also has a Kindle, then she really is a 21st Century person.

Ok, May’s flying by so quickly and I have to do some APA coverage while it’s still APA Heritage Month. Some items for consideration:

So, in California, the election to re-fill former Congresswoman Solis’ seat (because Solis is now US Secretary of Labor) will be a Chu v. Chu election. Either way, there’s going to be an Asian-American congresswoman for that district. In fact, this is likely something of a soap opera kind of election, since Betty and Judy Chu are cousins-in-law – not close and pretty much starting their own family feud. Betty’s a lawyer/city councilperson, Judy was a psychologist/state legislator; Betty’s married to Judy’s cousin; Judy’s the Democrat, Betty’s the Republican; and… yadda, yadda, yadda.

As much as Chu v. Chu election seems like a fascinating political thing, I’m kind of glad I don’t live in California.

Congratulations to the Jih siblings for winning Amazing Race. A fascinating Q&A with these attractive Asian-Americans lawyers (which, understandably, we of Triscribe may find particularly interesting, since… hey, they’re one of us!).

Although, really, it is tad unfair that Victor Jih is a partner of a law firm, alumnus of Harvard Law, AND won Amazing Race. At least his sister Tammy is still only an associate.

Anoop Desai did not last long on “American Idol,” leading to his own Q&A with Entertainment Weekly – so I guess APA’s still haven’t quite made it all the way yet with “American Idol.” But, the winner is Kris Allen won; Adam Lambert is only a runner up (probably a better thing for him in the long run).

NY Times’ Alessandra Stanley reviews the finale of “American Idol” from the tv critic perspective, while Jon Caramanica provide the music critic analysis. Confession: I really haven’t followed much of the whole season, although I did kind of watched Adam’s cover of “Mad World.” (primarily because I was waiting for “Fringe” – but it was an excellent cover – he does have quite a voice).

NY1 covering APA Heritage topics (for a week) – with Lewis Dodley on Asian pop – seriously, Lewis Dodley? He’s been the stiff one in the local news media (even back when he was on Channel 13 – I always thought he was a bit waxy – very anchorman-like). Maybe Dodley likes music in real life or Asian culture; or maybe he was assigned to cover this; all in all, interesting stuff.

Last but not least: Pres. Obama selected the new US Attorneys for Southern District of NY (to you non-lawyers: jurisdiction of Bronx, Manhattan, and downstate upstate) and District of NJ. Bonus for APA Heritage Month: an Asian US Attorney for NY, Preet Bharara.

Best Trek Moments and Other Things

Time.com had an interesting “10 Best Star Trek Moments,” by John Cloud. I more or less agreed on his top 6, but quibbled on the rest (he counted the new Star Trek movie; really? It’s just too soon for me to do that!). Trekkies/Trekkers may debate for a million years over what is the “best” of Trek, while they might agree on some things. Really – at the risk of being a lawyer – I’d say it depends on how you define “best” – but I suppose it goes along the lines of (1) power acting and storytelling; (2) whether the Trek thing is the epitome of ST ideas and themes; (3) whether the Trek thing is memorable; (4) the extent of entertaining; and (5) whether there’s an extent of edification (not always, mind you).

My personal favorite ST moment will always be Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Best of Both Worlds,” Parts 1 and 2 – wherein Captain Picard and Crew deal with the Borg threat and Picard becomes Locutus. (what can I say; I grew up on TNG).

In no particular order, I’d say the following are the best of Star Trek, among the ST shows and movies:

(1) The Menagerie, Parts 1 and 2 (Star Trek (The Original Series): wherein Kirk and Crew find out what happened to a mission of the past Enterprise Captain, Captain Pike)

(2) The Trouble with Tribbles (TOS – wherein Kirk and Crew deal with the multiplying furry creatures)

(3) The City on the Edge of Forever (TOS – wherein Kirk, Spock, and McCoy time-travel and face the issues of friendship and love – while somehow trying not to destroy the space-time continuum)

(4) Journey to Babel (TOS – wherein Spock has to deal with his parents, while trying to be consistent with what he believes in regarding leadership, duty, and honor).

(5) Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (the penultimate Trek movie)

(6) Best of Both Worlds, Parts 1 and 2 (Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) – wherein Picard and Crew face off the Borg)

(7) Yesterday’s Enterprise (TNG – wherein Picard and Crew are affected by the time changes and the Picard’s priceless line – “Let’s make sure history never forgets the name: ‘Enterprise.'” The line works because it’s Patrick Stewart as Picard).

(8) The Inner Light (TNG – wherein Picard lives an entirely different life – more a Patrick Stewart vehicle than anything else, but powerful because of what it means to have a life, in the face of the extinction of your world)

(9) The Chain of Command, Parts 1 and 2 (TNG – wherein Picard and Crew deal with the Cardassians; Part 2 is key for having the horrific torture of Picard – torture is wrong, we learn – and this Slate article notes that this episode has quite a significant impact for that – as Julie Lapidos notes, “The Next Generation take is darker and more politically progressive: Torture is counterproductive for the interrogator and devastating—both physically and emotionally—for the subject. It makes one wonder it is still practiced.”).

(10) Star Trek: First Contact (TNG movie – wherein Picard and Crew face off the Borg from preventing Human-Vulcan first contact and the invention of warp speed travel).

(11) In the Pale Moonlight (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) – wherein Sisko struggles to not give up his ideals in the face of the war)

(12) Far Beyond the Stars (DS9 – wherein Sisko is in the place of Benny Russell, an African-American sci-fi writer of the 1950’s, who dreams of a better future called Star Trek)

(13) Year of Hell, Parts 1 and 2 (VOY – wherein Janeway and Crew face a year of adversity – and a time meddler tries to reconcile what he has been doing)

(14) The Forge/Awakening/Kir’Shara (Star Trek: Enterprise – the Vulcan arc trilogy)

(15) Star Trek VI (the latter half of the movie, anyway, where Kirk and the crew learn to overcome their biases about the Klingons).

Honorable mentions:
Trials and Tribble-ations (DS9 – wherein Sisko and Crew travel back in time and find themselves in the middle of Kirk’s tribble mess)

Timeless (Star Trek: Voyager (VOY) – wherein Janeway and Crew’s present and once future are impacted by Harry Kim’s time-meddling)

United (ST: Enterprise – wherein Archer helps lay the future of the Federation, ST’s way of bringing species together for a common cause)

At least, this is what I’d consider the best of Trek moments. Just my opinion.

The season finales of “Fringe” and “Lost” were entertaining, but mind-boggling. Most of “Fringe” wasn’t all that surprising, but the end was touching for me (it might have bothered some people, but the idea of an alternate universe can be bothersome). “Lost” … well, suffice it to say that I’d like to know who/what the heck is Richard Alpert, and how is he associated or fit in this so-called battle of good versus evil (or Hope vs. Futility, or whatever Jacob and his Opposition are supposed to represent).

The next posting is where I’ll actually have to talk about some APA related topics.