Author: F C

Recent pics: Rhode Island, Korean Costco, Apple Restaurant

Another wedding tomorrow…

Had major problems today with the network — spent mundo quality time with our new network admin dude in the upstairs server room. He had botched setting up a new switch stack, and I got called in.

Anyway, happy birthday to YC! My travel agent has lined up a ticket to Malaysia for $895 on Korean Air JFK->ICH->KUL departing 8/27, returning 9/3. Is that a good deal?

The South tried it, the Carolinas and Virginas achieved it, Hong Kong and Singapore manage to make it work. This New York Magazine article throws out the idea of New York City seceding on the basis of taxation equity, as well as making common sense for us downstaters.

From what it should divorce itself from is an open question. From the US entirely is out of the question. Definately from the state — upstate is really a totally different animal from downstate. A 51st state would be rather nice, but a territory like Puerto Rico would make equal sense for a city that is an international capitol.

On paper it seems like it would work. NYC has twice the Gross Domestic Product of Hong Kong and three times that of Singapore (it’s slightly less than Taiwan). It has more people than Switzerland. Our standing security forces — NYPD and FDNY — are larger and better equiped than many countries (we have tanks, water and air craft). Unlike pre-1997 Hong Kong, we get to keep our northern water reserves, because someone with foresight bought the land for the City.

The question of New York secession first came up in 1861, under circumstances that showed just this kind of ruthless pragmatism, when Mayor Fernando Wood hoped to preserve the right to trade with both the North and the South. Most other New York City secession proposals have focused on becoming a separate state. In 1788, Alexander Hamilton warned that the city’s secession was “inevitable” if the state failed to ratify the Constitution. In 1969, Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin ran on a mayoral platform arguing that the city, needing local control of its services and finances, should become the 51st state. The most inspired part of their proposal contended that the city had dibs on the name “New York.” The rest of the state, they suggested, should be renamed “Buffalo.”

That was really funny.
I’m still for a United States of America; New York City ought to be a discrete part of it.

We had Ron Reagan Jr. speak at the Democratic Convention. Now Democratic Senator Zell Miller (D-Ga) will speak at the Republican Convention. What the hell is going on?

And you know that Barack Obama? His speech got it right.

Still beat after driving 600 miles to and from Rhode Island with P–. This was for a regional convention meeting at Roger Williams Law School. We actually stayed at Johnson & Wales Inn, the student run hotel just over the border somewhere near the MA and CT borders.

The drive up was miserable. It rained, and if you know anything about Interstate 95 in the Northeast, it’s a really lousy road to drive in a rainstorm. Add 4 construction sites and a really bad 5 mile stretch of grooved pavement that looked like a phonograph record and sounded like a needle scratching across it, and you have the ingredients for a bad drive. We got to the hotel at 1:30 in the morning after missing the exit and making a few bad turns.

I have to say I was disappointed at the food. The inn food (we had 2 breakfasts) were pretty good — and they pulled off an excellent Eggs Benedict. The seafood was passable — the clam boil at the school was so-so, and Friday’s fish choices were good but not anything one couldn’t get in New York.

Mansions in Newport were impressive, though. All of the monied families of the late 19th and early 20th century all had luxorious “summer cottages” (“Marble House” cost $11 million in 1928 dollars) on small plots of land (the smallest at least 3 acres).

Coming back, we hit a lot of traffic, and got back 1 hour after we were supposed to, which was bad. After returning the car, we had pretty good sushi.

By the way, the Scion xB is underrated. It looks like a milk truck, but it handles a lot better. It’s roomy on the inside, has front bucket seats that recline almost completely flat for those power naps, and the driver is about 1 foot taller than regular cars. It also gets 35 MPH. The only complaint would be that it should have a few more cup holders.

There’s something completely disarming about The Polyphonic Spree. Best known for “Light and Day” from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the one part Beatles, one part Beach Boys, one part non-sectarian choir, one part refugees from a Hair hippy band kicked butt on Craig Kilborne tonight. Try out their Sgt. Pepper-ish flash game.

At the Asian American International Film Fest, “Bicycles & Radios” wins the shorts jury award. “Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tomorrow May Never Come)” and “Travellers and Magicians” tie for the audience award. I didn’t get a chance to see Travellers and Magicians, but the other two films were fantastic. Tomorrow May Never Come in India is like the Indian Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — in its home turf very popular but not considered to be the best example of Bollywood, but goes gangbusters overseas. Here, it is critically acclaimed, even though it perpetuates some Indian stereotypes of Chinese, Catholics and homosexuals. However, even with those factors and some bizarre warping of city geography (the main character managed to run from St. Luke’s Hospital to Queens to NYU Midtown to the Brooklyn Ferry!) it was absolutely faithful in its love affair with New York City. The idea of breaking out into a Bollywood dance number on the (real) Brooklyn Bridge, on top of the ruins of the Brooklyn Stores in the Empire State Park, or in a Queens neighborhood actually works. It takes the Broadway Musical Motion Picture into the 21st Century. Rent it from Netflix.

I’m off to Rhode Island tonight for another conference Wednesday night. Honestly, I’d rather not go on this trip — it’s going to be raining all the way there, and I have to drive on I-95 at night, and I’m not holding too much expectation in the published sessions. At least P– is going along with me.

We all know that Asians (at least the ones that I know) are obsessed about food. When thinking about food tv and Asians, what comes to mind is Iron Chef. A series about Chinese Restaurants are the best that could be hoped by me.

Greg Pak’s Asian American Film website is pushing “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle“, in which two underachieving Asian Americans have misaventures while pursuing a craving for the slider-style burgers. From the people that brought you “Dude, Where’s My Car”, I wouldn’t expect much, but the initial reviews on RottenTomatoes are strong. OK, it’s a Cheech and Chong stoner movie, but apparently it’s smart, and like Better Luck Tomorrow, theatergoer response will drive future investment in Asian American film. So, think about the crave the weekend of July 30th.

1421, The Year that China Discovered America?, the book about the Ming dynasty treasure ships that may have discovered the Americas decades before Columbus, is now a PBS documentary. Watch it Wednesday night at 9 ET on WNET 13, or at 3 PM ET August 1 on WLIW 21.

Doki-Doki, the short film from yesterday’s stalking entry is on the schedule in December.

Some people arrive at this blog for some really wierd reasons. First of all, thanks MSN search for entirely bloating our page hits by insisting on pulling all of our pages every morning. I’m not sure why they’re doing it.

The vast majority come by from a Yahoo search link. Get a load of these search terms: (these are actual search terms from this week)

Casey Cook Engineering Company Managers email
Teresa Heinz’s Daughter in Law Pics
Trudeau Bush Doonesburry 2004 Yale
Bathing Suit by Andrew MacKenzie at his men’s fashion collection for the Spring-Summer 2005
Feigal, Jennifer
Julie Chen Leslie Moonves engaged
Night Life Gothenberg Sweeden
NYS DOH fishing fluke limit
Russel Baker’s obituary skokie
britsh detective series’ and television
rachael yamagata mp3
latest philipino invention
john kerry royal bloodline
North Carolina, Tennesee divorce custody case
how tall is david boreanez
airtrain avoid paying

I don’t know what to make of this; I have no idea how the search algorithm came up with fishing fluke limit? I guess we are vaguely authorative about a lot of things?