triscribe’s FC and a crew of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) are at the NAPABA convention in Kansas City, land of the bbq. (pardon the abbreviations; we’re lawyers). FC noted on his Facebook – as did AABANY on the AABANY blog: Judge Denny Chin and AABANY’s historical trial re-enactments – including the newest one, “22 Lewd Chinese Women,” done at the NAPABA convention in Kansas City – got covered by NPR! (so law and bbq are perfect together). (also: I’m sorry to miss the fun, you guys). FC is quite prominent in the photo there.
Meanwhile, I’m plowing ahead with this year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) project. I didn’t plan ahead nearly as much as in previous years (work, work, work, trying not to think about work, work). This year, the aim is just to write fiction and to feel good about fiction, since I haven’t done very much fiction writing for awhile and my legal (work) writing (such as it is) is tiring me out. Writing in a genre that I usually don’t write – fantasy – has been a challenge. So far, I have a psychic and some fortune-telling, a prophecy that the world will end, a search for the “Elixir of Elysium” and an FBI special agent who’s sort of wondering why is he in this. Oh, and now there’s about to be a murder (since I seem to need a reminder that I’ve written murder mysteries and those can be more fun, in some ways). Hmmm.
I’m somewhat blogging about my NaNo project over at my tumblr.
In Brooklyn, we’ve apparently been very excited to see “Elementary” filming in the area. I liked that the show returned Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft. Also: they did the latest episode on Silver Blaze! This is all making me want to reread the classic Holmes stories.
Still hoping that “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD,” via the people of Joss Whedon, will keep going (ABC gave it a full season, so…). I think the latest episode was an improvement. I wanted to hug Agent Phil Coulson, the man who came back from the dead from “The Avengers” (yes, yes, big spoiler, but since so many of us saw “The Avengers” movie, get over it). I like Phil, and actor Clark Gregg has really pushed the angle with Phil’s toughness and professionalism and… yep, humanity, and not wanting to face the real trauma (like, oh, death and maybe not being afraid about that).
The hard part is building the relationships and getting to the humanity – the stuff that superhero stories don’t nearly get to cover enough (unless you count the countless times of “Let’s keep torturing Batman!”). Since Agents of SHIELD is about the people who are basically the support staff to the superheroes (with their own adventures besides just cleaning up after The Avengers), they should try to cover more, not just be X-File-like or Alias-like or Fringe-ish. Come on, Agents of SHIELD, keep at it! You can do it!
(bear in mind, Whedon’s tv shows have a slow go. “Buffy” moved quickly to establish the friendship of Buffy, Willow, and Xander, but high school and monsters kind of make that kind of thing happen).
To be airing on PBS: Hugh Jackman in “Oklahoma!” (link to the story coverage over on Entertainment Weekly’s website). I could have sworn that PBS had shown this years ago, but they’re showing it again as part of a fall arts festival this month (last night was “Company” with Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, etc.). “Great Performances” is the umbrella show airing the musicals.
I wish PBS would take more stuff out of ye olde archives – they’ve got tons of good stuff (oh, and it’s almost pledge time, so…)
Oh, and in sports: Boston Red Sox won the World Series, which we in New York City might just have to say “congrats.” The New York City Marathon 2013 was great – things are so much better without a hurricane. And the NY Giants have won two games so far. Yay. Columbia football has so far not yet won a game. Ugh.
On to the next thing…