Author: ssw15

I mentioned “Dukes of Hazzard” in my Thurs. post; Yahoo has this AP article about the so-called Dukesfest, which celebrated 25 years of the Dukes of Hazzard. Apparently, the cast showed up, except for the actors who played Boss Hogg and Uncle Jesse (both passed away over the years); plus Tom Wopat and John Schneider (the ex- Bo and ex-Luke – the actual “Dukes of Hazzard” – who were reportedly not at this festival “because they were performing elsewhere,” according to the article).

Personally, I think that a true reunion or celebration of the show isn’t quite a celebration without the two stars themselves, and people should at least understand their feelings of not wanting to be more typecasted than they already are as the Dukes. (I read somewhere that Wopat and Schneider have resolved their feelings and actually are proud of their work as the Dukes, especially now that they’re in their middle age and appreciate that those days as the Dukes gave them an income and some fame – but it took years for them to get there – not to mention years of other good acting work; we ought to give them credit for that).

I say, celebrate your favorite shows, but not to extremes (that’s sort of how I feel about the Trekkies/Trekkers, and while I’m fannish about that the Star Trek franchise, I’d like to think that I’m even moderate about my fannishness (no, not a real word, probably, but it’ll do)).

Crazy news in NYC: “Escaped Tiger Ties Up Traffic In Queens.”

Dragon boating time…

NY Times’ website has posted the first of a series of articles on the widening gap between the rural poor and urban rich of China. This first article is incredibly sad: the Times’ Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley report the story of an 18 year old, a grandson of poor Chinese farmers, who apparently committed suicide when he couldn’t afford $80 to pay for a college entrance exam – he is killed when stepping in front of an oncoming railroad train. Kahn and Yardley poignantly note:

If his gruesome death was shocking, the life of this peasant boy… is repeated a millionfold across the Chinese countryside. Peasants…were once the core constituency of the Communist Party. Now, they are being left behind in the money-centered, cutthroat society that has replaced socialist China.

China has the world’s fastest-growing economy but is one of its most unequal societies. The benefits of growth have been bestowed mainly on urban residents and government and party officials. [….]

For the Communist leaders whose main claim to legitimacy is creating prosperity, the skewed distribution of wealth has already begun to alienate the country’s 750 million peasants, historically a bellwether of stability.

The countryside simmers with unrest… The poor demand social, economic and political benefits that the Communist Party has been reluctant to deliver.

To its credit, the Chinese government invigorated the economy and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty over the past quarter century. Few would argue that Chinese lived better when officials still adhered to a rigid idea of socialist equality.

But in recent years, officials have devoted the nation’s wealth to building urban manufacturing and financial centers, often ignoring peasants. Farmers cannot own the land they work and are often left with nothing when the government seizes their fields for factories or malls. Many cannot afford basic services, like high school.

Not a new thought on my part, but: what irony – the Communists who profess on paper about equality of classes cannot maintain true equality of opportunity in trying to change the way they used to do things. Life is always complicated.

Travel section of the NY Times has this nice article on the doings of visiting NYC these days – in preparation for those visiting Republican conventioneers, I guess (do the Republican conventioneers read the NY Times? Well, I guess the article’s actually for anyone reading the section). (and, yeah, “conventioneer” likely isn’t a real word, but whatever). Times’ writer Randy Kennedy makes a nice point that NYC isn’t exactly conducive for conventions (i.e., the fact that Jacob Javits convention center is in the middle of nowhere on the West Side – at least some blocks away from hotels and subways – they really ought to have extended the crosstown subway over there or else build a decent hotel over there).

(yet another sidenote: Javits’ location makes it a suitable place for the NYS bar exam, I guess. Ah, I still recall how, not very long ago, I left it thinking that I really don’t want to be there to take another bar exam. Relief for not being there since… – must be the trauma).

Kennedy also notes the Staten Island Yankees and their stadium facing the Lower Manhattan skyline are great stuff. Sure, but being the hometown person, I prefer the Cyclones in Coney Island – although, Kennedy makes the excellent point that the Cyclones are usually sold out, so you take your minor league games where you can find them (I had no idea that the SI Yankees weren’t nearly as often sold out as the Cyclones. What does that say about them? [oh, apologies to any Staten Islanders out there – I mean no offense. No, really.]).

At least the ferry ride to SI is free and is a nice ride on a nice day. But, I do recommend going to a Cyclones game – at least, if you know someone who stood on a line at Keyspan Park all morning to get them.

So it goes. Now, don’t be surprised if you find me back later on Sunday; it’s like I can’t stop blogging (yeah, I really ought to get back to those other things that I do)…

NY Times reported on the recent passing of Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize DNA person (who would have preferred to not have been typecasted as the DNA person).

Some final thoughts on the Democratic convention? Well, I’d like to read the upcoming Time magazine issue for any other comments (haven’t gotten to be on Time’s website to see what’s there). But, I do like to refer to Slate.com’s William Saletan blogging on the convention – good stuff. Loved that Saletan thought the same way I did about Kerry and the Hamster story from Alexandra Kerry – that really says something curious about the man (Saletan says its courage; I think it’s about life affirmation or good dad being too good), putting aside what we think about the politician (whether we should accept that story as gospel truth or political spin, I don’t know).

Slate.com’s Dana Stevens, the “surfer girl” (blogging on tv) – had this interesting take on Ted Koppel’s interview of Jon Stewart on “Nightline” the other night. She thought it was about Koppel resenting the erosion of Network News Idealism and that his picking on Stewart was curiously harsh. When I had watched this interview, I didn’t sense that Koppel was that mean-spirited toward Stewart (and yet Stewart tried so hard to be respectful to Koppel). And, even if he was, I kind of got the sense that he just felt confused why people tune in to Comedy Central and its satirical news so much (well, Ted, I personally don’t have cable, so I would tune in to you – sometimes – so don’t feel so bad).

Tavis Smiley on PBS had a great interview with Peter Jennings (or, at least, I thought it was great because I got to see that casual side of Jennings that doesn’t happen too much). Jennings, appeared just as bewildered as Koppel as to why the networks are so turned off by the conventions (he made a point on one of the World News that I managed to catch on Tuesday night that he liked conventions for being opportunities to observe politics at the ground level (my paraphrasing entirely; he said it in a nicer way). But, Jennings seemed hopeful that ABC still carried some weight with its experimental all-news cable and Internet venture for 2004 elections. Whether this works remains to be seen – I read some editorial (I forget where just now) that the news these days covers too much on the trivial by spending hours on trying to cover everything (including those media stories about the media – NY Daily News tv critic David Bianculli and others have referred to this as “journalistic incest” (his words in Thursday’s column, not mine).

Enjoy the weekend.

Wednesday night was John Edwards night in Boston. Thought that Elizabeth Edwards seemed authentic. She’s a bankruptcy lawyer, so it wasn’t like I’d expect her to be a hugely polished speaker, but she was fine. Edwards seemed lessy sparky than I have seen him in previous instances (I do wonder if I’m on a political news binge exhaustion), but he stayed nicely positive in his speech. His “One America” lines echoed (if not parroted) Barak Obama’s speech about “One America.”

If you want more commentary on Edwards’ speech, I do recommend Chris Suellentrop’s article on Slate.com – and I agree with Suellentrop’s assessment – Edwards had poignant moments in his speech (particularly about his family) and the whole positiveness was nice, but the speech was ultimately just okay – not spectacular, but “does the job,” as Suellentrop said.

I liked that ABC’s “Nightline” and PBS captured some coverage of the roll call. I liked how Tavis Smiley on PBS interviewed interesting people (last night, Smiley spoke with the mayor of Detroit, who just happened to be a youngish black man who is yet another ambitious youngish Democrat; the mayor highlighted the young as an electorate – who are not only interested in education and health care, but also becoming entrepenuers and looking for a brighter future). Heck, even Howard Dean seemed interesting on Smiley’s show, talking about stuff other than just about us Dems going to every state in the union and his usual refraining from screeching…

Thursday was The Real Kerry night. Ooh. (cannot comment on the other Thursday night speeches, which I missed; will have to catch up somehow). The stepsons Heinzes and the daughters Kerry were interesting. I liked how Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry told a few stories that humanized their father. Kerry saved the life of the Kerry pet hamster? Well, as Alexandra Kerry noted, her father apparently takes such life affirming things seriously.

And, Kerry himself stayed positive in his speech. If he seemed incredibly idealistic (to the point that I wondered if this was too much to swallow – I mean, I’d still like some more specifics on what he has in mind to be a good president), Kerry at least seemed confident and more enthused than I’ve seen him previously. The pundits seem to think that this is good for the Democrats. I don’t know (I’m not a pundit, not really anyway), but I liked that Kerry seems to be on a roll. He seemed genuine and, well, happy (all that smiling – good grief, did something from Edwards rubbed off on Kerry?). Whether the speech’s substance was that persuasive is another story.

It will be interesting to see the Republican Party response to all the positiveness that the Dems’ have pushed. Not looking forward to the possible congestion in NYC, but I don’t work in midtown, so it’d be regular work days. I’ll be sticking with PBS for wall-to-wall coverage, especially if the networks continue putting on these one-hour a night coverages that they’ve been doing…

(sidenote rant: if Al-Jazeera in the Middle East is showing 12 hours of the American party conventions, why are the American networks doing so much less? Well, yes, I know that they’re doing that because they’re trying to maintain the whole pursuit of ratings, but they’ve got to do better – the networks’ coverage of news events unites a nation – like they did with the Reagan state funeral – or at least gives us some cultural commonality that we can point to – or else they’re making self-fulfilling prophecies that Americans won’t watch the conventions by being the ones not showing the conventions, as Ted Koppel noted on “Nightline” last night; silly me actually expects the networks to not be businesses and be idealistic in pursuing journalism – then again, the conventions are scripted but then again – even the scripted stuff says something about us as a people…).

Ok, take a breath now. Rant over.

Is it already football season? Good grief, the Giants and the Jets are at it in their respective summer camps. Umm, baseball season isn’t over, last I checked. But, cute moment on the sports segment on the local news – Chad Pennington, the Jets quarterback, discussed what favorite item he brought with him to summer camp – his dvd’s of the 1st season of… Dukes of Hazzard? Funny, Chad. Very funny. 😉 (umm, then again, I’m the one who still sees Tom Wopat and John Schneider as Luke and Bo Duke)…

Summery weather in NYC. Enjoy…