Author: ssw15

And so it begins – it’s NCAA bracket time!

Next week: 3/24/08 to 3/31/08 – Brooklyn Restaurant Week.

The passing of Anthony Minghella, director of the movie “The English Patient” and other films.

The passing of Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer.

Harvard Law’s attempt to persuade law students to consider the public service/public interest practice of law seems to be pretty ambitious – a tuition waiver? Will it change anything, in terms of getting law students and new lawyers to think about more than Big Firms and stuff? Hmm!

Finished reading “Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction” by Eric Foner, with visual essays by Joshua Brown (commentary on the visual arts during that era) — powerful and well-written, it’s apparently a book that was a companion to a documentary. It covers a lot of ground about race relations and politics of the pre-Civil War, Civil War, and post-Civil War eras – and Foner also demonstrates the eras’ legacies to today’s politics (coincidentally, I finished reading just as the reactions are still evolving about Barack Obama’s speech on race). The pictures and the text about the horrific crimes of terror against black Americans during Reconstruction and the complexities of Reconstruction – it makes one think, emotionally and intellectually. Highly recommended book.

My one big regret from college was not having been able to take Foner’s class on the Reconstruction period (i think it was due to scheduling conflict) – not only is Foner amazing as a history professor (and quite a writer), but the period just leaves so much food for thought, because we’re still grappling with the implications. Not only did it affect black-white interaction, it affected everything else – how to define race; who has political power; immigration policy – who gets to be let into America, who gets to be “American” (not to mention telling Chinese people at that time that they were not welcome – and letting Asians and Latinos not fit in either the black-white paradigm).

And, following up on my referring to the Obama speech – I do recommend hearing/watching the whole speech. Soundbites do not do it justice – Obama’s raising a big topic that should be discussed, carefully, yes, but with the aim to resolve relations – almost in a mediation/conflict resolution kind of way, I’d like to think. It’s not easy, and there are lots of other things to deal with (economy, national security, gender relations, etc.), but we can’t ignore it either. Nuance is hard to accept for a lot of people (it didn’t help, say, John Kerry’s campaign), but maybe the American voter will take into consideration the totality of the circumstances, as we’d say in the area of law?

We are living in interesting times.

I’m hoping for the best for (and from) the soon-new governor of NYS – tomorrow’s not only St. Patrick’s Day, it’s also Governor-Designate David Paterson’s inauguration.

Yesterday was the Ides of March. I did think about Julius Caesar, ever so briefly, since he was the one who didn’t watch out on the Ides of March.

The NY Times on “Victorian Flatbush” – I have to say: there are beautiful houses in Brooklyn. I’d hate to see them overshadowed by the co-ops (which can’t possibly do that well when we’re about to be (already?) in a recession).

Changes in the neighborhood of the Gowanus – hmm, fears of gentrification in Brooklyn.

Interesting NY Times article on a black Jewish congregation in Chicago.

Getting excited about the HBO “John Adams” miniseries. Why network tv or PBS or the rest of cable tv didn’t get into this – well, not for me to say, but at least I’ve HBO temporarily, so I’ll check it out. Laura Linney as Abigail Adams (NY Times did an amusing little Q&A with Linney).

There’s also Time’s James Poniewozik’s review on the John Adam’s miniseries, discussing how some elements of American politics haven’t changed (hope vs. pragmatism – sound familiar?).

I never did quite finished reading David McCullough’s John Adams bio, on which the miniseries is based. I might still pull it off one of these days; the size of the book is quite something.

I’ve no article to link to an article about the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament (a.k.a. “March Madness”), but let me say this: Cornell v. Stanford as a round 1 game? This isn’t looking too good for the Ivy League champ; but so that goes. Anyway, get your brackets ready, folks!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The men of “Lost” – umm, yeah, they’re hot and all that!

Speaking of “Lost” – I watched most of the episode from this Thursday night, as it focused on Sun and Jin, the Korean couple. Poignant episode (and strong attempt at letting Daniel Dae Kim use more English; I still think that it’s the height of irony when an Asian American has to play a character who’s far from – well – American, as it has been for James Kyson Lee and Masi Oka on “Heroes.”)

We got “Entertainment Weekly” renewed – so prefer reading the dead wood version.

NY Times’ Melissa Clark on pockets/savory pies — mmm! Seems yummy.

NY Times’ “J. Marion Tierney” (a.k.a. John Tierney) writes on the phenomenon of bad names for kids (i.e., the Boy Named Sue dilemma). Well, wasn’t John Wayne’s real name “Marion”? Why do we get fixated on the whole masculinity/femininity of names? Or, why would anyone name a kid “Oswald”? … hmm.

Hmm. So, WB is going to break up “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” into two movies? If it works, why not? It’s going to try the patience of a lot of people though, considering the last movie won’t be released until 2010 (and I’m sure the kids of the cast will so want to move on with their lives by that point and praying that they won’t be typecasted).

A profile of Laura Joh Rowland, Asian American mystery writer.

Watched most of this week’s “Law & Order,” with Lara Flynn Boyle guest-starring as an irritating tv reporter who tried to be seductive with Exec. ADA Cutter (or at least explains to him how she’ll exploit sex and anything else to get the story). Hmm. Boyle didn’t exactly get the greatest lines, but she at least made her character a little interesting with the Rabid Reporter Aggressiveness. Oddly, her face was strangely bloated. I remembered how back in her “The Practice” days, she seemed too thin, but at least she had good acting; not quite sure what happened to her. Perhaps it’s because of illness (hope not) or poor plastic surgery (uh, well, that’s Hollywood for you; mature actresses just don’t get any breaks, do they?).

Anyway, plenty of good character moments – DA McCoy getting crusty and such; ADA Rubirosa teasing Cutter over the fatal attraction thing (although I think he was just stringing along Boyle’s reporter character); Cutter got quite sexy…; Detective Green teasing Detective Lupo for being the lonely bachelor who needs a dog; and yes, Lupo was sweet with his dog. Aww!

Plus the usual “what?” plots moments. “Law and Order” can be quite weird. I know that Dick Wolf and powers behind L&O don’t really want it to be about the characters, but I do prefer it that way – if your plots make no sense, all you got left are your characters anyway.

“American Idol” – doing the Beatles’ music this week. Some were good; others were so very much not good. In fact, I cringed. A lot. Last year, “American Idol” had the guest judges – the British ones in particular – who were helpful in coaching the competitors and guiding them to suitable songs. I know “American Idol” might be steering away from the guest judges this season, but the better guest judges would be good to make things better again (umm, okay, trying not to let “Hey Jude” get into my head now…). So, please, “American Idol,” I can’t cringe that much with the tv viewing.

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course “American Idol” is where one can cringe.

Last, but not least: what a moving article about Barack Obama’s mother, as her life abroad and her influence on him and others. Considering how I thought what a great read “Dreams from My Father” was, if Obama ever gets around to writing a book about his memories of his mother (or perhaps that may be too personal and too soon for him to do that, and the campaign and everything else in his life may not let him have time to do such a thing), I’d definitely want to read that book.

Day 1 – I was in shock and dismay regarding NYS politics, like everyone else, regarding the revelation of the political scandal of the year.

Day 2 – It’s not getting better either. People are talking about it everywhere.

It hadn’t been a great year for the Governor as it was, but this mess takes the cake. The sense of disappointment, and one word: hypocrisy.
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Okay, off the soap box.

Some okay stuff: NY Times puts up pieces of an interview its Albany bureau chief, Danny Hakim, had with Lt. Governor David Paterson on Jan. 29, 2008. Paterson, a lawyer, a (plus a fellow alumnus of undergrad Alma Mater), a Hofstra Law alumnus, is pretty inspirational stuff (even before he became lt. governor) as a person with a disability (and not just an African-American and a scion of a political family).

Speaking of Alma Mater – changes in financial aid have been announced. My question is that if you’re going to be so generous in giving grants, why bother raising tuition every year? Follow the money trail and wonder where’s the money going… money, money, money…

“Lost” – hi, “Losties” (apparently the term of art for Lost fans) – admittedly, I’m not a Lost fan, but as a casual viewer, this season has been powerful stuff. I must say, the Desmond episode – wherein we get a lot of answers to various “Lost” questions and a lot of emotions running. Desmond needs a constant, or else he’s going to die from his mental temporal trips. His love Penny manages to stick around for him! Aww! This could have been quite the Christmas episode. Plus, being in the British army is really tough (well, apparently, no worse than it is being in any army), but was Desmond AWOL when he went off to Oxford to find Faraday? And, how terribly convenient that present-Faraday suddenly remembers that he was in Oxford in 1996, available to help 1996 Desmond, who’s not quite helping present Sayid on the boat. Anyway, Sayid turned out to be decent help (his own episode was something straight out of the J.J. Abram’s “Alias” mythos – jeez, Sayid – your future’s not looking too great). But, as expected, time twists are serious mind-bogglers.

This past week’s episode – wherein Juliet has to decide who’s side she’s on already (but still Jack that she can’t chose, lest she endangers him – but Jack’s willing to take the risk – Jack, you’re crazy!) — well, I still don’t trust Juliet. And, Ben – he’s quite the villain, isn’t he? It says a lot about the actor that a viewer can hate Ben, not trust him, but kind of understand why he thinks he’s right. Indeed, Ben reminds me a lot of Sloan, from “Alias” – he’s Evil, he thinks he’s doing the Right Thing, but it’s really about his pursuit of his own agenda. Sloan ended up in Limbo (or Living Hell, if that satisfies anyone to be trapped underground forever) in the pursuit for immortality – will Ben’s fate be no less pleasant?? Hell, if Rambaldi, the Da Vinci-like being that caused the quest in “Alias” ends up popping up in “Lost” – I won’t be surprised.

Time’s James Poniewozik has some great posts about the Desmond episode and on the recent episode about Juliet (and her unsurprising past with Ben) – particularly interesting is Poniewozik’s comparison of the Juliet and Ben thing with Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” I’m beginning to think that the “Lost” writers’ asking ABC for a time limit for the series has helped them think of their endgame for the series and it’s making things that much more interesting. It’s starting to feel like a real point is possible and I might be willing to continue watching, not just follow plots that make any sense.

As opposed to, say, “Prison Break,” where I gave up a long time ago.

Oh, so many priceless lines from this past week’s episode of “Lost” – the idea that the Others had a resident therapist (Jack: “You people had therapists?” Juliet: “It’s very stressful being an Other, Jack.”); Ben’s leading Locke to the safe and the tape of the Red Sox game – and Ben’s saying: “I taped over the game.” Hehe. Kind of went along with the earlier episode this season, where Jack was shocked that the Red Sox won the World Series (since their plane crashed just before the Red Sox finally won).

If J.J. Abrams has been powerful as the man behind “Felicity,” “Alias,” “Lost” and now the soon new “Star Trek” movie/re-boot, what about Greg Berlanti? He’s got “Everwood,” and now “Brothers and Sisters,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Eli Stone” under the belt. Talk about talent.

NY Times’ A.O. Scott ought to be given an award for the funniest, laugh-out-loud movie review in his review of “10,000 B.C.” – at least for using the word “snuffleupagus” outside the usual Sesame Street context:

“Only time can teach us what is truth and what is legend.” This bit of fake-folk wisdom commences the voice-over narration of “10,000 BC,” and the more you think about it, the more preposterous it seems. If anything, time confuses the issue. But it’s best not to think too hard about anything in this sublimely dunderheaded excursion into human prehistory, directed by Roland Emmerich from a script he wrote with Harald Kloser, who also helped compose, using his better ear, the musical score.

Mr. Emmerich has made something of a specialty in staging — with maximal bombast and minimal coherence — end-of-the-world scenarios. (See “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” though not on the same day if you can help it.) In the context of his oeuvre “10,000 BC” might be thought of as a kind of prequel, an attempt to imagine human civilization not on the brink of its end, but somewhere near its beginning.

Yet even as the story begins, the old ways seem to be dying out, as the Yagahl, a tribe of snuffleupagus hunters who favor extensions in their hair and eschew contractions in their speech, prepare for their last hunt. In fulfillment of an old prophecy, raiders on horseback (“four-legged demons”) arrive to sack the Yagahl encampment and take a bunch of the tribespeople as slaves. Among them is the blue-eyed Evolet (Camilla Belle), whose beloved, D’Leh (Steven Strait), sets out with his mentor, Tic’Tic (Cliff Curtis), to rescue her.

And at its best — which may also be to say at its worst — “10,000 BC” feels like a throwback to an ancient, if not exactly prehistoric, style of filmmaking. The wooden acting, the bad dialogue, the extravagantly illogical special effects may well, in time, look pleasingly cheap and hokey, at which point the true entertainment value of the film will at last be realized.

Meanwhile back in the present, there is an awful lot of high-toned mumbo-jumbo to sit through. On his journey D’Leh (it’s pronounced “delay,” though most of the time he’s in a pretty big hurry) gathers a multicultural army to oppose the pyramid-building, slaveholding empire that has been bothering the more peaceful agrarian and hunter-gatherer tribes. These decadent priests seem like a curious hybrid of the Egyptians in “King of Egypt” and the Maya from “Apocalypto.” To reach them D’Leh travels overland from his home on the Siberian steppes through the jungles of Southeast Asia to the grasslands of Africa. But back then I guess it was all Gondwana, so the trip was easier. [….]

But the big, climactic fight, complete with an epic snuffleupagus rampage, is decent action-movie fun. And as a history lesson, “10,000 BC” has its value. It explains just how we came to be the tolerant, peace-loving farmers we are today, and why the pyramids were never finished.

Snuffleupagus!!! Snuffleupagus!!! 😀 Thank you, A.O. Scott! Thank you, very much!

Hmm, interesting article about this ex-lawyer, who went from corporate law to criminal defense (representing the criminally insane – good grief) and now owning a bar and penning a play with a title that I got to love – “Attorney for the Damned”! Aww, that’s a riot…

Jackie Chan honors his late parents in Australia, as they had spent several years there. Personally, I had no idea that Jackie Chan got his name “Jackie” from his time in Australia or that he spent a chunk of his life there (I’m so not up on the Asian celebrity beat). At the very least, I really didn’t think Chan has a connection to Australian politicians. Anyway, does all this make him an Australian-Chinese?

My brother got a copy of Jennifer 8. Lee’s “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” – I’ll be reading it hopefully sometime in the next week or two (assuming life doesn’t get in the way). Anyway, so here’s the NY Times Book Review of the NY Times reporter’s book.

I so would like my hour back. It’s too early…

February went by fast. This first week of March is going by too. Can’t believe we’re losing an hour to Daylight Savings by this weekend. Has spring almost sprung now?

Coming soon to the tv nearest you: March Madness – NCAA. Or more like April Antics, considering how late it’ll be this year. Honestly, Cornell’s men’s team is already in? I’ll salute a fellow Ivy League team and wish them the best of luck (Alma Mater didn’t do so hot, but better than in the past this season). But, really, are you really going past Round 1?

Saturday night: Peking Park for APA alumni group’s lunar new year dinner. Didn’t think I’d make it, but I did. Food was better than last year, strangely enough, and it’s the same place as last year’s.

Creator of “Family Ties” (and many other shows, including “Brooklyn Bridge” – which I mention because I liked it – and “Spin City” – during which I enjoyed the Michael J. Fox years), Gary David Goldberg, on who he thinks Alex P. Keaton would vote for (if Alex were real, and face it, he isn’t). As noted previously on triscribe, Michael J. Fox did have his own theory on what happened to his former alter ego, and I noted what I thought too (see the previous link). Considering that Goldberg believes that Alex would have ended up doing pro bono work for the Children’s Defense Fund… well, that’s a nice thought. Hard to believe, but nice anyway. Alex as a lawyer? Hmm!

Watched “New Amsterdam,” since I’m a sucker for shows about detectives who don’t die. The NY Times’ Ginia Bellafante (surprised that Bellafante gave away plot twists) and Newsday’s Diane Werts haven’t been too negative – NY Post’s Linda Stasi got glowing, really (her crush on Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, as “John Amsterdam,” got too much). I agree with David Bianculli – New York City is the best character – as seen in the glimpses of the past of John Amsterdam, the 400 year old cop who’s been in NYC since it was New Amsterdam (the title of the show isn’t just his name or that he’s going to be a new man in finally finding the love of his life, but it’s really about how “Old New York was once New Amsterdam…” as They Might Be Giants sang in their song, “Constantinople”).

The actor Coster-Waldau was a bit wooden in the first episode. From what I could tell of the second episode (aired on Thursday), he’s a bit better. Plus, it’s a bit creepy that the 400 year old guy was fathering children for such a long period of time, and so he’s going to bump into his descendants a bit more than I would have thought, but that actually makes the show a little funny. The cop stuff and the mysteries don’t seem that intriguing (John Amsterdam was once a Dutch soldier of New Amsterdam, a carpenter famed for classic antique desks that sell like hotcakes at Sotheby’s, and once a lawyer named John York. Yeah, okay…). The woman shown to be the possible love interest didn’t seem all that interesting to me. Amsterdam’s cop partner, played by actress Zuleikah Robinson, needs a personality – probably no fault of the actress, more because of the weak writing of her character. Amsterdam’s bar-owning sidekick, Omar, has more chemistry with him.

Amsterdam also seems too casual about tossing references to his being alive way too long. Does the NYPD know they’ve this really old-but-young looking guy on the force, or do they think he’s just crazy because he watched the Yankees play before they were even called the Yankees and actually mentioned it to one of the guys in the precinct, while in a debate over who was the Yankees’ best pitcher?

My advice: umm, Amsterdam – you might want to keep your secrets a little more secretive unless you want to end up in Bellevue or something.

The show as a mystery series – well, needs to be a bit more gripping. Then again, I speak as someone who found the episodes on “Angel” where Angel thinks about his 300 year past as good stuff (well, Angel was once an irritating Irish lad named Liam (and those flashbacks didn’t do that well, because the actor David Boreanaz couldn’t maintain the Irish accent too long), but otherwise had to deal with the whole redemption thing for about 100 years of misery…) — But, “New Amsterdam” as a show on modern romance – a romantic in a city where romance is hard? That’s persuasive to me.

There’s also that bit of controversy because the plot of “New Amsterdam” is apparently similar to Pete Hamill’s book “Forever.” I haven’t read Hamill’s book; nonetheless, I think the tv series is more inspired by series like “Angel” or “Highlander.” It shouldn’t detract from Hamill’s book – if anything, I think I now want to get a copy and read it, in hopes that Hamill did a better writing job than the tv writers did. (they clearly mean to do better, and maybe they will, but it felt like the at-the-time’s looming writers’ strike didn’t help them).

So, do I like “New Amsterdam”? I don’t know. But, as my history of tv watching goes, I’m a sucker for weird cop/hero shows, and shows that I have a fondness for have a sad way of just not lasting. FOX may or may not renew it (it has renewed its lame sitcoms, and it has kept its crappy reality games on the air), but I hope FOX keeps it going to keep us mildly entertained in Broadcast Network TV land.

Missed a good chunk of “Law and Order” the other night. What I can say of what I did watch of the episode? — Moira Kelly as the defendant played crazy very well. She’s aging naturally, which is good, really (I can’t take the too-obvious Botox actresses), but I almost couldn’t recognize her (she barely looks like her “The Cutting Edge” or “West Wing” roles). Plus, if Detective Lupo does end up getting his J.D. from our Alma Mater Law School, his watching how Exec. ADA Cutter acts in action might convince Lupo not to enter the field of prosecution. He got a little disgusted with how Cutter treated a teenaged witness; Cutter got all “well, stick to your lovely law books, ’cause practicing law ain’t that pretty.” Jack McCoy got his own hands a little dirty too, in helping Cutter nail the defendant’s expert witness on cross (McCoy getting a little personally vindictive, because he didn’t like it that the shrink – who has helped the DA’s office in the past – wasn’t helping them this time). ADA Connie Rubirosa ended up saving the day.

And, last but not least: Jack Mathews, most recently a Daily News movie critic and previously a Newsday movie critic, is moving on from the industry to head west and enjoying a different view. Beginning his last column with an anecdote of his first movie critic job in Detroit (how kids touring the newsroom were amazed that he was paid to watch movies), and Mathews closes:

When I began reviewing and seeing everything, I was warned by a veteran critic that for every movie that would inspire me, nine would drain my soul. I thought, “He just doesn’t like movies as much as I do.”

Some 6,000 screenings later, I’d say he had the ratio about right. But those exceptions – that “Pulp Fiction,” that “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that “No Country for Old Men” – kept my glass half-full and the passion alive.

That passion has been with me since I was younger than those kids in Detroit, and I get as excited by movies now as then. But as I return to civilian filmgoing, I will be counting on other critics to do for me what I’ve tried to do for you: cut through the hype and publicity and tell me which films are actually worth seeing.

On your own dime, you have to be selective.

I remembered reading Mathews’ reviews back when I read NY Newsday (when there was a NY Newsday), and then was pleased to see him in the Daily News (’cause I was reading the hometown newspaper again). Things change, I guess, and we have to move with the times. Still – reading movie reviews just won’t be the same. Best wishes, Mr. Mathews!

Oscars – I thought Jon Stewart did pretty well. The clip montages weren’t that good; they felt like leftovers from the writers’ strike contingency plan.

After seeing the singers/actors from “Once” sing their song, I really want to see their movie. Plus, I liked how Marketa Irglova was brought back on stage to give her speech. “Entertainment Weekly” reports that the move was due to Oscars’ show executive producer Gil Cates’ thinking she ought to get her say, with Jon Stewart’s doing the heavy lifting on-screen to escort her back on the stage. (Actually, I felt awkward that it seemed that most of the women who co-won their Oscars with men got cut off by the music too much on Sunday night, so it was nice that Marketa Irglova got to be the one woman who had a full say to the audience!).

Slate Video on the Amazing Resemblance of the 2008 Presidential Election to the last (fictitious) presidential election on “West Wing” (presuming that this would be a Barack Obama v. John McCain election) – the resemblance to the [Jimmy Smits] v. [Alan Alda] election is indeed eerie!

Frozen yogurt in the City – I’m so behind the trend!

Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman making Roasted Tomato Soup, with canned tomatoes! (plus guest star Mr. Tomato Face in the linked video).

NY Times’ David Dunlap on the “Heritage Trails” sign at the World Trade Center, still in present tense in referring to the site as it was on 9/10/01.

Plus, Dunlap on the 100th anniversary of the PATH – what a history that I never knew about.

NY Times’ Sewell Chan commenting on the amNY article on whether the NY accent is disappearing (by amNY managing editor Rolando Pujol). Well, I may not say “dem,” “dese,” and “dose” like I used to, but my Brooklynese hasn’t quite disappeared, try as I might to lose it. I do agree with Chan though – television may have an influence on homogenizing the accent – but I also think that education as a role too. Because of compulsory education, you’d think that kids would learn to speak in a certain manner. But, accents take a good ear to notice too sometimes, so who’s to say for sure if the NY accent really gone? Hmm…

Regarding that other NY thing – “Law and Order” this Wednesday:

The cops arrested two very yucky murder suspects – the white upper middle class meth addict/prostitute and her man, the Hispanic guy who thinks he’s a ladies’ man in having raped a girl. Detective Lupo resorted to trickery to make the arrest, which didn’t pass judicial (Constitutional) muster. On the law side, ADA Rubirosa may have used a little feminine charm to get the skeevy witness to cooperate; her bit of feminine charm may have gotten her unwanted attention from a creepy male juror; Exec. ADA Cutter manipulated the situation, which pissed off Rubirosa, but instead of going to the judge about creepy juror’s approaching her, she didn’t stop the case from going to verdict.

How much of a conscience does Cutter really have? (or, rather, how far would he go to get convictions, if it means risking the safety of your ADA?). The flirting between Cutter and Rubirosa was cute (well, Cutter is cute), but if he’s serious of more than just a crush on Rubirosa – well, he’s got some serious making up for the mess he made this time. (i.e., why on earth do you keep a creepy guy on your jury, just because you think your ADA’s attractiveness is going to win over said creepy juror?).

Plus, DA McCoy made a trip up to the Bronx to make a deal with the Bronx DA, who evidently doesn’t quite shared McCoy’s desire to get justice against rapist/murderers (at least, not without a deal). Man, is L&O alternate universe NYC weird; it feels like real NYC, but is so not real.

Last but not least – watching the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Tuesday night on Channel 13/WNET’s Great Performances — that was interesting stuff. I liked the touches of the national anthems, the “American in Paris” and the overture to “Candide” (with the tribute to Leonard Bernstein) – I have a fondness for Gershwin and Bernstein’s hits. I’m still kind of amazed that NY Times’ Anthony Tommasini watched the live streaming on-line broadcast (at 4am?!), but his review was a good read. Plus, he writes:

What the Philharmonic played was just as important as how it played. Here [conductor Lorin] Maazel’s tame choices represented missed opportunities. Presenting the “New World” Symphony made a point, of course. As Mr. Maazel explained, the piece, commissioned by the Philharmonic, was a Czech composer’s symphonic ode to America. And there were valid reasons to include Gershwin’s sassy, jazzy “American in Paris.” Someday, Mr. Maazel said, maybe someone will compose a piece called “Americans in Pyongyang.”

If only he had chosen to include even one short work by a living American composer, perhaps an Asian-American composer. Because the orchestra stuck to staples, the classical music art form came off as unthreatening. New music, by definition, is destabilizing. To have a composer taking part in the program would have been a reminder that the heritage is living, breathing and unpredictable.

Instead Mr. Maazel began with Wagner’s prelude to Act III of “Lohengrin.” Wagner’s career rather undermines the case for the humanizing powers of music. Here was a nasty man who somehow wrote sublime and stirring operas.

Still, the concert was historic. And the image of a major American orchestra as a sleek machine under the control of an imposing conductor was nicely countered by the second encore: the overture to Bernstein’s “Candide,” which, as Mr. Maazel explained, was played by the musicians without a conductor as a tribute to its beloved composer.

After the final encore, an arrangement of a wistful Korean folk song, “Arirang,” the audience stood, cheered and even waved farewell to the musicians. Many of the players visibly choked up, and waved back.

It’s a start.

NY Times’ Daniel J. Wakin’s articles on the concert and the rest of the Philharmonic’s (and the accompanying press’) time in Pyongyang have also been good reads. I’ve been impressed by the whole thing; kind of historic! Although the long term effects remain to be seen, we can hope that art can help thaw cold relations or start new relations between nations.

The reaction to the NBC presentations for this week hasn’t been too pleasant. Reuters’ reaction to the “Knight Rider” movie – “A painfully long car commercial.” Well, yeah, the pacing was not very good and I couldn’t quite care about the characters, but was it a commercial? Too many commercials cutting into the action of the movie, I thought. (and it doesn’t help that the commercials with KITT were slightly more entertaining than the movie). Plus, if the most amusing moment was seeing the characters at the “Las Vegas” casino (NBC synergy!) — it really doesn’t bode much for your movie-as-a-tv-pilot (being hokey worked for the old series; dare we say that we’re an age of welcoming hokey tv? I mean, beyond that in reality shows? I don’t know, sadly, and ratings aren’t revealing much).

David Bianculli says that NBC will soon be known as “Nothing But Crap,” considering its offering of Really Crappy Reality Shows (and the not-very-good Knight Rider movie). I can’t say that this level of crappiness wasn’t long in coming for NBC – sure, “The Office” and “30 Rock” made it better, but the strike derailed NBC’s progress. Too many Law & Orders (the aging original and the ridiculous amount of spinoffs), an aging ER, a pitiful Bionic Woman, and Heroes needing help, stat… well…

NBC still has to keep going with the rest of the year. But is a tv season a “season” as we know it anymore? NY Times announces NBC’s plans for “an endless season” – somehow comparable to FOX’s set up of early fall/late fall/spring releases of shows (which never really impressed me because I still don’t end up very impressed with FOX’s offerings anyway). Apparently, NBC wants to find a way to branch out to other media (Internet, mostly) and get stuff out ASAP:

After months of speculation, NBC confirmed on Tuesday that it would sidestep the annual star-studded “upfront” presentation for advertisers and hold a series of client meetings with media buyers instead.

Perhaps more important for television viewers, the network said it would embrace a year-round prime-time programming schedule, jettisoning the frequently criticized practice of saving most shows for the traditional September- to-May television season.

For several years, the broadcast networks have gradually replaced repeats during the summer and winter months with some new shows, mostly of the unscripted form. NBC’s announcement appears to be a more dramatic step in that direction. The network is already preparing several shows for the summer months, including a second season of “American Gladiators” and a broadcast version of the singing competition “Nashville Star.”

Get ready for “the endless season, ” said Gene DeWitt, chairman and chief executive at DeWitt Media in New York, when the broadcasters “launch programs when they’re ready and promote them when they’re ready. ”

“There are many more opportunities to introduce programs to viewers over the course of a year than over the course of a few weeks in September,” Mr. DeWitt said approvingly of the NBC plans.

The fourth quarter is often the most important of the year for many marketers like retailers and auto makers, Mr. DeWitt noted, but under the current system many of the broadcast shows they are offered from October through December are new and untried.

If more shows are brought out earlier in the calendar year, he said, “you’d have a track record of their performance.”

“We’d have more reliable rating information,” he added, “so we won’t be going into the fourth quarter blind.”

A 52-week broadcast schedule may make it more difficult to track the hits and flops, Mr. DeWitt said, but “it’s the way of the world today; things move faster and we all have to keep up.”

Perhaps you want to move faster; fine. But if you present crap to us, it’s still crap, no matter how quickly you get it on-line or on tv. Have we not learned from the writers’ strike? We (the viewers/purveyors of entertainment) need content – preferably quality content. Or, is that just me wanting something with some quality (even if it’s hokey/campy)?

Personally, I’m not very good at moving faster anyway.

Oh, and breaking NBC news: Jesse L. Martin may be leaving Law & Order! Say it ain’t so! But, I understand if he wants to move on; just don’t be a stranger!

What strikes me as creepy: “Mysterious creatures found in Antarctica.” Look, as long as these are not the aliens posited by “X-Files” or the “Stargate” tv series, I’m all okay – it’s just how evolution can create really weird stuff. Really. Nature is both beautiful, diverse, and plain weird.

Having seen “Michael Clayton” on Monday, I still prowling the web for the reviews (’cause, really: George Clooney’s The Man!) – interesting reading, considering what one may think what the movie’s really saying. Slate has the review of the DVD: Patrick Radden Keefe writes on the movie’s observations on the state of the legal profession [hyperlinks removed]:

Clayton features terse dialogue, a pair of professional killers, and one exploding Mercedes. But beneath the expertly deployed suspense lies something more interesting: an indictment of the mercenary universe of white-shoe law firms and a devastating—and unusually accurate—look at the demoralized lives of the lawyers who work for them. Granted, George Clooney’s Clayton is an improbable 17th-year associate [link from the article, which is a NY Observer article by David Lat – interesting article, I thought, when I had first read it]. But when he says, “I’m not a miracle worker; I’m a janitor,” he could be speaking for the whole profession. [….]

As Clayton, Clooney has the raccoon eyes and zombie mien of a lawyer sucked dry by the job. Look around next time you’re riding the subway, or waiting for your order at Starbucks, and you’ll spot the type. [….]

In Michael Clayton, as in real life, the firm doesn’t employ people so much as consume them, creating a culture in which personal or familial obligations always take second place to work. Like a disproportionate number of lawyers, Clayton is divorced, and in one touching, sadly recognizable scene, he drives his 10-year-old son, Henry, to school, completely lost in his own thoughts as Henry tries to engage him in conversation.

As Karen Crowder, U/North’s general counsel, Tilda Swinton plays the villain. But when we glimpse her alone—while she dresses for work or has a panic attack in a bathroom stall—we realize she’s just as lost as Clayton. “Who needs balance?” Crowder says, when an interviewer asks how she reconciles her demanding job with the rest of her life. “When you really enjoy what you do … there’s your balance.”

When, in a nod to thriller convention, Crowder starts calling in professional hits, it strains verisimilitude. But only just. Her fidelity to the job is absolute—she has nothing else, after all—and she offers a frightening specter of “zealous advocacy” taken to its logical extreme.

Crowder is so tightly wound that she raises an interesting question: Do the studies showing high rates of depression among lawyers tell us something about the profession or the people who go into it? Crowder is a neurotic and a perfectionist; in that respect, she’s the kind of lawyer you want on your team. (She will worry so that you don’t have to.) But if that’s the self-selecting type who migrates to the law, it seems unfair to ask them to be happy as well. “I fear that happiness isn’t in my line,” Benjamin Cardozo observed in 1933, blaming “the disposition that was given to me at birth.”

Whatever the explanation, Michael Clayton offers an only slightly exaggerated portrait of a profession undergoing a kind of slow-motion existential crisis. It does so at a time when in the real world, midlevel associates are dropping out in droves. [….]

Ultimately, Michael Clayton is a movie about redemption—but also about naiveté. As Michael tries to retrace the trail of incremental compromises back to his original decision to become a lawyer, to find the point where his profession and his principles diverged, you wonder why it has taken a manic breakdown and an exploding Mercedes to prompt such basic self-reflection. As Marty Bach, the firm’s unflappable founding partner, Sydney Pollack offers a much-needed counterpoint: a corporate lawyer who loves his life and his work. With his townhouse and his trophy wife, Bach is not lonely or alienated like Michael or Karen Crowder. Nor is he disillusioned about the work he does, if only because he had fewer illusions to begin with. [….]

“The case reeked from Day One,” Bach acknowledges impatiently. “Fifteen years in, I’ve got to tell you how we pay the rent?”

So — do we prefer entering the profession without illusions, or can we accept becoming disillusioned? Can we handle the compromises we make along the way of developing a career? And, surely, it’s not just the lawyers facing these dilemmas? Just my rhetorical questions.

This article in the past weekend’s Week in Review in the Times “The Charisma Mandate” – is it enough for a candidate to have charisma? There are pros and cons to just examining a candidate’s personality. I have to agree with this article’s quoting historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: the ideal candidate would have both charisma and experience/expertise. Kind of hard to find that in one person, but we can wish for that, right? Enter with our eyes wide open. Or, maybe risk being disillusioned. Not sure.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen for Time.com on “Does Obama have an Asian Problem?” Well, it would seem to be that Hilary Clinton has the majority of APA support; but then again, it’s not that monolithic – perhaps the APA vote has more swing to it, and AsianWeek endorsed Barack Obama on the Democratic ticket (and John McCain on the Republican ticket).

Sunday – tea at Sweet Melissa Patisserie‘s Park Slope location.

Sunday night – watched the latest Knight Rider movie. What possessed me to watch…? My explanation: sentimental 1980’s nostalgia and the temptation of seeing how bad it was. Mostly lame, as expected; some thoughts:

Lots of driving around (what else?), and pointless dialog as the daughter of the inventor of (new) KITT had to go rescue her kidnapped dad. Sarah is herself a scientist and a prof at Stanford, but apparently is reduced to being the Damsel in Distress; too bad because she had some personality.

Character actor Bruce Davison does the simple job as the Inventor of (new) KITT.

The (new) Knight Rider, Mike, is the long-lost-son of Michael Knight; Mike lacks the camp factor that Michael had. Mike’s mom had more personality. The Return of actor David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight… umm, not much could be said about it because he didn’t do much.

Val Kilmer as (new) KITT, replacing actor Will Arnett (because Arnett is contracted to do Ford or Chevy (or whatnot) commercials and they weren’t pleased that he wanted to be KITT) sounded bland (or irritated that the NBC folks weren’t paying him more; who knows?).

TV Guide’s Matt Roush’s review made sense about how not fun the Knight Rider movie was. As a pilot for a prospective series, it didn’t make me want to watch more. Sorry, NBC. Not unless you show me that you as a network care about telling a story and having some interesting characters.

Monday – watched “Michael Clayton,” starring George Clooney. Really strong movie. Clooney as Michael Clayton, a son of a NYC cop; a Fordham Law grad; a former Queens ADA; a former federal prosecutor – and he’s now stuck as a Special Counsel at a Big Firm, Kenner, Bach & Ledeen. As Special Counsel, he’s not a Partner (despite having been with the firm for way too long) and he’s not on any litigation stuff – nope, he’s The Fixer, The Bagman, The Janitor. It’s starting to drive him nuts; being with The Firm already took the mind of his colleague, the firm’s litigation partner, Arthur Edens, played by Tom Wilkinson. Edens is a manic depressive, and he went off his meds and made a scene (to put it mildly) during the deposition for a major case for the firm’s client, UNorth. UNorth makes agricultural products that caused health problems for the farmers that made the stuff.

Other stuff: Tilda Swinton plays Karen Crowder, UNorth’s General Counsel – who really crosses some legal ethics boundaries (umm, Karen, no one said that murder is involved in trying to force a settlement for a case. Really!). Firm Partner, Marty Bach, is played by Sydney Pollack – pretty convincing as the partner who has his inklings about how ugly things are but pressing on with business. Bach sends Clayton to clean up after Edens, but Crowder makes things difficult, as the Difficult Client. Lives are at stake. Can you keep a conscience in the middle of such ugliness? Hmm. Clooney as Clayton seemed a bit stilted in some of the reading of lines, but he did such a strong job as the burnt-out lawyer – the one whose life is pretty much falling apart, but somehow he keeps going.

What a movie. Kind of makes one think twice about joining a Big Firm. Manola Dargis in her NY Times review of “Michael Clayton” makes the point of how there were no real good guys in the movie, but Clooney… well, he embodied the closest thing to what was left of Good in the corrupt corporate world. Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman puts an even Good vs. Evil opinion of the movie. (although I still have a hard time believing that a corporation would get its hands dirty in retaining assassins, but hey, who knows? If you’re crazy enough to pay so much for Big Firm Lawyers, what’s to stop you from hiring other ugly sorts?).

Okay, so I’m behind on watching the current season of “Law & Order” (yep, Season 18, people!) – but managed to catch a scene or two. Cute little scene here on NBC.com – (a minute and a half in), where Executive ADA Cutter and Detective Lupo are bonding. Lupo’s apparently taking an evening law student — at the Alma Mater Law School! We got mentioned! High Five, people! A Law & Order character’s one of us! (ok, I wasn’t an evening student, but how often does the Alma Mater Law School get mentioned in pop culture items?).

As I previously noted, the ripped-from-the-headlines plots make the series almost laughable, but the characters – for a show that claims that it’s not about the characters – sorry, it IS about characters. What else would really make me care about a show – characters make the plot work. So, in a way, it has this season. Legal ethics, moral issues – characters being just a bit amusing. Man, is Season 18 turning out to be pretty interesting or what?

Time’s Lisa Takeuchi Cullen posts her observation how APA’s of the 18-25 age range don’t nearly vote as much as we’d like and she embedded an old and strangely campy video from the 2004 Presidential election to encourage APA’s to vote (you can tell it’s old because the video needs to update its collection of APA celebrities; no offense to Russell Wong and Ming Na, but neither of you are quite up on the A-List these days):

This more updated one is less hokey and straightforward:

I liked how the multicultural one has some of the stars from “Ugly Betty” – getting more diversity in our celebrities, are we?…