Author: ssw15

It doesn’t feel like a shortened work week, and I’m apparently not the only one who noticed that feeling at work.

Do we really need another Police Academy movie? Apparently, it’s coming anyway, in a theater near you…

The cast of “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” are making the rounds this week on the tv talk shows to promote their movie. I particularly enjoyed seeing Will Ferrell on Charlie Rose last night; when Ferrell reminisced about the local anchormen of his childhood of the 1970’s , the thought struck me: have local anchormen really changed all that much since then? Are they just great targets or what? See, in NYC, the local news stations are becoming really diverse; there are (reality check time) still vastly more female Asian-American television reporters/anchors than male Asian Americans (at last check, two, I believe), and I’m rather curious that each station has a female African-American anchorperson (usually carefully balanced by a white male anchor). There’s also sometimes even the reverse; i.e., the white female anchor with the male African-American anchor. So, Balance is a Big Deal (pardon my sounding quaint, but I like that the news channels are trying to be diverse). Some time ago, when Channel 4 had the instance of an all male set (meteorologist, two anchors, and the sports guy (usually guy, no matter the race)), it got in the newspapers as something not seen in some 20 years.

Yet, despite the passing of local favorite male anchors (by way of mortality or retirement), you have the following:

–> Channel 2 (WCBS) promoting Ernie Anastos (although, Channel 2 is also heavily promoting the new hire of Roz Abrams, the long popular female African-American anchor who’s of a certain age – so, at least congratulate Channel 2 for not going entirely young on its anchors, despite letting go of the old favorite sports anchor Warner Wolf);

–> Channel 7 (WABC) promoting Bill Ritter (“Say hi to Bill when you see him hard at work!” – what a lame commercial, frankly – so not 21st century; and for the curious, he’s the white male paired at the desk with Liz Cho, who is bi-racial);

–> Channel 4 (WNBC), with the celebrated veteran Chuck Scarborough (white male anchor paired with Sue Simmons, an African-American female veteran – the two have been together on the same channel and timeslot for less than two decades).

Anyway, if you listen hard, the sonorous, deep baritone voices of the men (to best convey trust and confidence and all that) aren’t that much different than what Will Ferrell is satirizing. Of course, there may be one or two anchormen who find ways to express their (more than likely; hopefully?) interesting personalities (Jim Watkins on Channel 11 has the requisite Sonorous Deep Baritone, but his sarcasm has its moments). On the other hand, while it’s amusing to make fun of the local anchors, they’re nice to look forward to watching. I mean, it’s no coincidence that last year, when the Daily News made a poll, NY’ers said that they loved Chuck and Sue the best (it doesn’t hurt that those two have been on so long that it’s like watching an old married couple and they’re amusing for their quirkiness (usually Sue) or otherwise (Chuck and that way serious voice of his)). (Pardon me; I’m still a sucker for the local news personalities and making good-natured yet sarcastic fun at them, so the clips of “Anchorman” are just so hilarious to me – rival anchormen having fights with each other straight out of “West Side Story”? Hehehe).

Ooh – the first day of the John-and-John show (a.k.a., the Kerry-Edwards campaign). Loved how this Slate.com entry on the first day makes it easy to satirize the Democratic candidates. I’m still trying to accept how this will work, of course, but at least things are really cooking now in the political landscape. Time magazine’s portrayal of the young Kerry life was deep and sad and interesting. Nice read.

Ok, so Friday is tomorrow. All right already…

Anyway, so it has been back to work. Let’s see what’s in the newspaper…

Ever noticed the Asian musicians in the subway platform who play “The Godfather” theme? Ever guessed at their back stories? “Asian Music, Accompanied by the A Train” in the NY Times profiles a few; fascinating article about a group of immigrants who were accustomed to the grand halls and now trying to make a living underground amidst a time when the reverence for traditional music isn’t nearly what it used to be.

According to Michael Luo of thee NY Times in “Got the Time? At Grand Central, It Has Never Been That Simple,” Grand Central terminal has way too many clocks – and they’re not very consistent. But, soon, they will be. Maybe. At least, Metropolitan Transit Authority’s game plan.

And, so it’s a Kerry-Edwards campaign ticket. William Saletan of Slate.com makes a nice analysis for why Senator John Edwards is such a “wise” choice. Good read.

Looking forward to the shortened work week…

Some observations. Pardon the lengthiness.

Let’s Go Mets! Wow, a sweep of the Yankees this weekend. Crazy stuff – neither would quit. Go Mets…

Catching up on the NY Times reading:

Linda Greenhouse of the NY Times does a year-end round-up of the Supreme Court. She observes what I saw Dahlia Lithwick and Walter Dellinger in Slate.com observes: is it really a matter of the pragmatic justices vs. the doctrinal justices? Hmm. And, I’m not sure what to make of her observation that Chief Justice Rehnquist is no longer the center of influence (or less of an influence). Oh, then there’s Prof. Cass Sunstein’s view that by saying less, the Supreme Court is sort of doing more (“In controversial cases, some judges are minimalists. They say no more than necessary. When they are asked to resolve the largest issues of the day, they try to do so as narrowly as possible,” says Sunstein). Interesting.

Interesting article in the NY Times, “Asian-American Trendsetting on a Shoestring,” about two Los Angeles guys, Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura, and their ‘zine “Giant Robot.” NY Times’ writer Randy Kennedy notes:

Mr. Nakamura’s self-image in publishing, and even as a Japanese-American, has always been that of an outsider. His Japanese is not good. Mr. Wong, whose grandparents were born in China, speaks no Mandarin or Cantonese. They met while writing about punk bands for various zines, and when they started their own — named after a 1960’s Japanese television series about a boy who controls a giant robot with his wristwatch — they were seeking to please nobody but themselves.

They wrote about Hong Kong movies and celebrities like Chow Yun-Fat, John Woo and Jet Li years before they became popular in the United States, but they once declined an offer to interview Jackie Chan because he had become too mainstream. And they often angered Asian-American promoters who saw them as allies.

“Usually it was these really terrible P.R. companies saying, ‘If you really cared about Asians, you’d write about this Asian actress,'” Mr. Wong explained. “But we’re just not interested in mediocre Asian actors in mainstream movies.”

Mr. Nakamura described the magazine as “the punk-rock kids in the corner who didn’t get invited to the parties,” but more often it has seemed that the magazine is the one not inviting people to its party.

With their reflexive self-deprecation and finely tuned cultural antennas, both men are aware of the danger that the underground culture they write about is becoming more mainstream, in part because of their efforts. And they are wary of their own success: of being seen, God forbid, as somehow grown-up and too serious.

The audience may not necessarily be Asian or Asian-American; ultimately, it’s all about what’s cool or what’s not or whatever:

With a decade under their belts, he and Mr. Nakamura say they have not come across any formula for putting out a good magazine. Mr. Nakamura once explained their editorial process to an interviewer this way: They agree on what’s bad (he used a more colorful description) and leave that out, and they agree on what’s good and leave that in.

“That’s still pretty much it,” Mr. Wong said, adding that besides health insurance and a salary, he feels fortunate to have a job that serves as the perfect cover for his obsessions.

“It turns me from being a fan boy into being a journalist,” he said. “If it weren’t for this, I’d be a stalker. Or a creep. Or something.”

Okay. Good to know that there are outlets out there to help people from doing strange things and toward something productive. Sort of.

Brooklyn in the house: this NY Times notices that on the Fulton Mall (mall in the dictionary sense, that is, a space where one walks (not the post-WWII sense of an indoor place to buy stuff), there are amazing pieces of historical architecture – just look up and see the ornate cornices, atop of the beauty salons, delis, and so forth:

[L]ooming above, preservationists say, are the reminders of the area’s 19th- and 20th-century grandeur, brick and stone relics of a thriving shopping and theatrical district serving Brooklyn and Long Island.

“You have to look up, particularly here, it’s so dramatic,” Robert B. Tierney, chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said on a recent afternoon, pointing toward the Flemish-inspired gables, decorated in vibrant, multihued glazed terra cotta, atop a building on Livingston Street with a hair salon below.

Glad I’m not the only one who has noticed the beauty in the urban setting. Now, let me go back to enjoying the day off…