Author: ssw15

Inter-disciplinary approach on environmentalism – now, more than ever, can different academicians work together?

“Literature for Soldiers” – interesting article in Newsweek on how the cadets at West Point read literature and the professor who teaches them lit. I’m not that surprised by the depth of their reading – these are bright young people; their education includes some humanities (not just military stuff); and sometimes, literature makes the military stuff no less raw anyway.

From this Christmas, interesting Daily News profile on June Mei, Mayor Bloomberg’s interpreter on his recent trip to China, by Kirsten Danis:

On Mayor Bloomberg’s recent China trip, one woman rarely strayed from his side: a Brooklyn-born interpreter with a knack for languages and a taste for Fox’s U-bet chocolate syrup.

June Mei grew up in Prospect Heights and spoke barely a word of her family’s native Cantonese until she was 8.

“I’m such a New Yorker that I never learned to drive,” she said in her Tribeca apartment after returning from Asia.

Yet she effortlessly spun Bloomberg’s English into Mandarin over the three-day trip – and she owes her skill to childhood asthma.

Mei, the daughter of an ethnic Chinese doctor and his wife who emigrated from Singapore, was gripped by such bad attacks that her mother moved her to a Florida apartment to wait out winters.

She didn’t attend classes in the South, and her mom worried she’d never get through Public School 9 at home.

So at age 8, Mei was sent to live with relatives in Hong Kong and suddenly had to learn Cantonese.

“The Chinese literature class was like I had dropped into a foreign planet,” said Mei, 60.

Mei graduated from high school in Hong Kong and returned home to study history in college and graduate school.

Along the way, she picked up Mandarin – while playing cards with Taiwanese grad students. [….]

And, an item on NJ – with Gov. Corzine away (holiday vacation, it seems; he does remind me a bit of Mayor Bloomberg…), St. Senator Richard Codey is (again) acting governor. Considering how often he has filled the role, as this NY Times article notes, he “really acts like like a governor.” The article amused me, since the very same thought occurred to me too, when Codey signed the bill requiring HIV testing of pregnant women in NJ. Nothing against Corzine (then again, I don’t live in Jersey, even if I’m admitted to their bar), but kind of weird to think that Codey does so much. Eventually, NJ is going to have to have a lieutenant governor, like other states, and not have to make things so… weird.

The concept of Good Riddance Day, wherein people gathered at Times Square to shred crap for the sake of good karma, seems lovely; but on the news, it looked a little… weird.

As the year ends, I may very do a year in review type of thing. We’ll see!

On Christmas: watched “Sweeney Todd” with the siblings at the Cobble Hill movie theater. Sondheim musical; the music was excellent; movie was otherwise eerie and creepy. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter turned out to be talented. Alan Rickman – thumbs up as the villain/victim. Timothy Spall, as eerie as ever as Rickman’s kind of sidekick (Spall – who plays Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies, and Rickman who’s Prof. Snape, plus Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange of the Potter movies)? — honestly, British actors get around). Sasha Baron Cohen (the ex-Borat/ex-Ali G) was quite good too. But, as the movie critics noted (including NY Times’ A.O. Scott), it is a bit bloody; beware to the squeamish…

Stuff I noticed in the Times from Christmas day:

NY Times’ Jennifer 8. Lee on NYC Chinatown’s Church of the Transfiguration.

In the op-ed of the NY Times, Prof. John Anthony McGuckin, of religious history at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia U., writes on St. Nicholas.

A Christmas poem by Patrick Muldoon: “Myrrh.”

A New York Times’ story on Christmas in Iraq, as observed by Christian Iraqis. I thought it was a poignant story, as Damien Cave writes:

The service began with traditional hymns. Some songs were sung in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. It was a reminder of the 2,000-year-old history of Iraq’s largest Christian group, the Chaldeans, an Eastern Rite church affiliated with Roman Catholicism.

Initially the sermon seemed equally traditional, beginning as many do with phrases like “This day is not like other days.”

Yet the priest, the Rev. Thaer al-Sheik, soon turned to more local themes. He talked about the psychological impact of violence, kidnapping and a lack of work. He condemned hate. He denounced revenge.

“We must practice being humane to each other,” he said. “Living as a Christian today is difficult.”

A few moments later he asked, “If the angel Gabriel comes today and says Jesus Christ is reborn, what do we do? Do we clap or sing?”

His parish, quiet and somber — with the drab faces of a funeral, not a Mass on Christmas Eve — took the question seriously. And responded.

“We ask him for forgiveness,” said a woman, her head covered by a black scarf. Her voice was just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Then another woman raised her voice. “We ask for peace,” she said.

Father Sheik looked disappointed. “We are always like beggars, asking God for this or that,” he said. “We shouldn’t be this way. First, we should thank God for giving us Jesus Christ. He would say, ‘I came to live among you. I want to teach you how to be compassionate. I want to teach you how to be more humane.’” [….]

But even Father Sheik could not resist asking God for a little help. He ended his sermon with a request that all Iraqis would love to see fulfilled.

“We call on God for equality, freedom — an end to war and an end to hunger,” he said. “We only demand from God peace for all of you.”

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.

This Sunday – watched Alvin and the Chipmunks the movie with the siblings, at the Cobble Hill theater. Aww. I did say that I thought it seemed cute, and, although I felt a little silly seeing it, it was cute. I mean, if you’re going to do a live-action movie, you might as well make the Chipmunks as chipmunk-looking as you can go with the CGI (as opposed to how it was done for a long time – a little cartoony and kind of scary to think that they were more kid-like than chipmunk; nonetheless, the official Chipmunk website looks cute). The movie came off well enough.

Jason Lee as Dave Seville, the Chipmunks’ dad/manager, pulled it off decently as the struggling songwriter and reluctant dad; nothing groundbreaking (clearly he did the movie to at least take his own kids to see something of his work; but oh well). “The Christmas Song” as entertaining as ever, and the meaning of Christmas… it is about family, isn’t it? Actor/Comedian David Cross as the vile Ian, music producer, was entertaining in that villain kind of way. Kind of eerie seeing actress Cameron Richardson as Dave Seville’s love interest, because she was the actress who played the scary patient on “House” last season (the pissed-off adrogynous model). But, altogether nice relaxing fun, and the Chipmunk music is as good as ever (ok, actually, I’m still dubious about “The Witch Doctor” song as hip-hop, but so it goes). The Chipmunks are still their amusing selves (Alvin as egotistical as ever; Theodore as sweet as ever; and Simon as the smart one). But, as Dave says, they’re just kids… (kids since 1958, but so it goes).

Sweet movie to take your kids or your inner kid. Just don’t come in expecting too much, or else you’ll start thinking “Why am I not watching the soon-to-be-Oscar-nominated movie in the next theater?”

A look at a Brooklyn landmark: NY Times on Fulton Mall.

City Council approved the plans for Alma Mater. Here’s hoping things will get better. Maybe.

Read one of Joseph J. Ellis’ books on the Founding Fathers in the past; interesting article here he wrote (in the Washington Post) about what would George Washington do about Iraq:

What would George Washington do about Iraq? An op-ed editor (not at The Washington Post, I should add) recently asked me to write an article answering that question, presumably because I had once written a biography of Washington and have just published another book on the founding generation. But, as I tried to explain, Washington would not be able to find Iraq on a map. Nor would he know about weapons of mass destruction, Islamic fundamentalism, Humvees, cellphones, CNN or Saddam Hussein.

The historically correct answer, then, is that Washington would not have a clue. It’s tempting to believe that the political wisdom of our Founding Fathers can travel across the centuries in a time capsule, land among us intact, then release its insights into our atmosphere — and as we breathed in that enriched air, our perspective on Iraq, global warming, immigration and the other hot-button issues of the day would be informed by what we might call “founders’ genius.” (Come to think of it, at least two Supreme Court justices who embrace the literal version of “original intent” believe that this is possible.) But there are no time capsules, except in science fiction. The gap between the founders’ time and ours is non-negotiable, and any direct linkage between them and now is intellectually problematic.

This conclusion is not just irrefutable; it’s also unacceptable to many of us, because it suggests that the past is an eternally lost world that has nothing to teach us. And if history has nothing to teach us, why in heaven’s name should we study it?

One answer, I suppose, is for the sheer satisfaction of understanding those who have preceded us on this earthly trail. In that sense, history, like virtue, really is its own reward. But that answer doesn’t really work for me. [….]

Suppose, then, that we rephrase the question. It is not “What would George Washington do about Iraq?” Rather, it is “How are your own views of Iraq affected by your study of Washington’s experience leading a rebellion against a British military occupation?” The answer on this score is pretty clear. Washington eventually realized — and it took him three years to have this epiphany — that the only way he could lose the Revolutionary War was to try to win it. The British army and navy could win all the major battles, and with a few exceptions they did; but they faced the intractable problem of trying to establish control over a vast continent whose population resented and resisted military occupation. As the old counterinsurgency mantra goes, Washington won by not losing, and the British lost by not winning. Our dilemma in Iraq is analogous to the British dilemma in North America — and is likely to yield the same outcome. [….]

What would Washington do? Well, he did speak of a prospective American empire, though he was thinking primarily of our eventual domination of the North American continent, not the globe. On a few occasions, he seemed to suggest that if we played our cards right in the 19th century, the United States might replace Britain as the dominant power in the 20th. That indeed happened. But would he have endorsed a hegemonic U.S. foreign policy based on military power? Probably not. But that’s my opinion, not necessarily Washington’s.

Queen Elizabeth II is going to go on YouTube to do her annual Christmas speech. I heard that she e-mails; should I be surprised that she’ll go on YouTube?

The planet Mars is extra red and shiny this Christmas. Ooh.

What does it say about my taste that I kind of think the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movie is kind of cute? The NY Times review seems to be the kindest review I could find: Andy Webster writes that it’s “a slick updating of the musical-cartoon franchise created by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. in 1958. Remodeled over the years on television and recordings, the ’munks have been given a digital coat of paint this time out, but the movie doesn’t skimp — lasso those nostalgic parents! — on the memories of old. [….] But, alas, its animated protagonists are egregiously eclipsed by the live-action characters. Despite its shout-outs to the holiday season, this is essentially airplane fodder, not a perennial. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the sequel.”

Umm… okay. I won’t wait for a sequel.

Speaking of remakes of my childhood, my brother and I were joking that, since the ubiquitous “they” are making a remake of The Knight Rider (oh, God, please!), why not make a remake of The A-Team? Instead of being framed Vietnam War vets, maybe the A-Team – Hannibal, Murdoch, Face, and B.A. – can be framed Iraq War vets. And, maybe Hannibal could cool it with the cigars (didn’t exactly help the actor George Peppard). But, just think: “If you need help, call the A-Team…” What a tv show that’d be – not quite original, but a decent sounding revision for the sad times that we’re living in – I mean, come on, they re-did BattleStar Galactica into something really quality, and, okay, so Bionic Woman hasn’t been nearly that successful (bionic Alias is what it has been), but the idea was kind of there.

But, lo and behold, Time Magazine reports that director John Singleton is dwelling on an A-Team movie! (okay, I read it in the actual magazine; can’t find an on-line version of this, but thanks to Google, I’m linking to a Rotten Tomatoes article on it instead, for those really curious). Well, I don’t really want A-Team as a movie, but if it happens to become remade as a tv series – well, I won’t say my idea is short of amusing. It could be brilliant!

Speaking of Time magazine… Time Magazine’s art critic Richard Lacayo on MoMA’s Seurat exhibit, on his Time blog: “the really superb show, “Georges Seurat: The Drawings”, organized by MoMA associate curator of drawings Jodi Hauptman. I can’t think of another 19th century French painter, not even Ingres, whose drawings were a more important part of his overall practice as an artist. Even if Seurat had never developed pointillism as a means to restabilize painting after the Impressionists, his drawings would have made him a major figure for the way they provided an early glimpse of a drawing as an all-over field of marks, a fine mesh of particulates where image and ground interpenetrate.” I’ll agree!

Now, I had read the book “P.S. I Love You,” and I noted that it was a nice book. Nothing spectacular, but a pretty good subway read. The commercials for the movie version… well, I like the idea of Scottish actor Gerard Butler as the husband, Gerry, since Gerard Butler is drool-worthy and I had trouble picturing Gerry when I had read the book (considering that Gerry died of a brain tumor… well, there is a difficulty in portraying him quite right, I guess). But, re-locating the story to America and having Hilary Swank as Holly? Umm, sorry, but I just have trouble with that. The early Reuters review on-line seems to say so too; Kirk Honeycutt writes that Butler and Swank didn’t exactly conjure the right chemistry and:

…Nothing here outside the realm of plausibility, but how exactly are these constant communications from the dead supposed to ease Holly’s transition to her new life? They serve, for dramatic purposes, to remind her of their courtship and marriage. Just once you’d like to see her get annoyed at these messages from a dead spouse who won’t go away. But then she has her disapproving Mom to do that.

It turns out Gerry’s parents weren’t too thrilled about the marriage, either. So why, you wonder, is an audience supposed to care about this couple?

Which echoes my trouble with the book (hence it’s only a good subway read and not, say, a fantastic must-read): is Gerry a loser for leaving these messages for his wife, yes, intending to help her, but really holding her back? Well, okay, the book was really about Holly, not Gerry, but she wouldn’t have pushed herself as much as she did without his post-humous letters to her. Plus, his parents couldn’t bother with Holly and vice versa – which bothered me a lot. That couldn’t happen in real life, could it? I think I forgave those weaknesses in the book, because it was Cecilia Ahern’s first novel, but it sounds even less forgiveable in a movie. Oh well.

I managed to finally watch one of the presidential debates – the last Democratic debate in Iowa (I tried to watch the Republican one; while Huckabee came off interesting, the GOP debate was, to me, unwatchable, so I turned off the tv). It was nice to see that the last debate was more or less positive, with the Democrats talking about their ideas and not ripping each other endlessly. They’re all qualified, as far as I’m concerned; the hard part is deciding who to vote for.

The NY Times article by Elizabeth Bumiller on Joe Biden was moving reading. The man has done a lot and been through a lot – tragedy (having lost his first wife and a child), illness (two strokes), and political travails (the first presidential campaign really didn’t go well). Senator Biden seems to realize that this is a last shot, and life has its turns, as Bumiller writes: “These days, life looks good. ‘I wouldn’t trade places with anybody right now, in or out of the race,’ Mr. Biden said. A short time later, he tempered his enthusiasm. ‘I’m almost superstitious saying this,’ he said. ‘Everything could change tomorrow.’”

Something to get us through the week – a long, hopefully fun post!

Last year, I watched the March of the Santas through Central Park. It wasn’t until later that I learned that this was Santacon, where lots and lots of people dress up in Santa suits or elves suits (plus, as I remembered it, one Hanukah Harry in blue) to drink, be merry, go carousing and stuff. From what I saw, yeah, okay, they might have been a bit tipsy and public urination’s not a nice thing to do in Central Park, but the masses of Santas were pretty much cool and merry (not harming kids or dogs or whatnot).

This YouTube video of Santacon 2006 in NYC pretty much shows the (excess drinking but otherwise merry) Santacon.

Although, according to the blog posting on the NY Times’ City Room, Sewell Chan managed to find a source who admitted that Santacon’s not exactly – umm… for the saintly side of St. Nick. Naughty!

Postings on YouTube of Santacon NYC 2007 will probably be up already. Hmm…

A NYC thing indeed: the story behind those mosaics in the East Village.

Trying to decide what charity to donate? NY Times has the article to help make sense of it in the food section this week!

NY Times’ Peter Meehan with a nicely written review of a noodle place on East Broadway. I’m not a noodle person, but his nicely written descriptions made me hungry.

NY Times’ Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman does truffles. Mmm! The accompanying video makes it look so easy (he says you can’t screw it up; although, I imagine that getting crappy chocolate and using skim milk instead of cream would make one a sucky truffle-maker), and in the column, he discusses various variations on the truffle.

The story of Scrabulous, the Facebook addiction application (umm, yeah, that’d be me too – too fun!).

And, in sports… the Rangers and the Knicks are roommates at MSG, but who are the real New Yorkers? (and, anyway, the Rangers are currently doing pretty well, unlike the Knicks: Go Rangers!! Heck, they take the subway to get around town!).

Thanks to FC and P for the birthday gift!

The big 3-0 was spent very low-key. Birthday gift to myself – a few days away from the office.

Have I actually cleaned anything up, done real reading, or gotten much (fiction) writing done? Not really. Got some art stuff out of the way. Relaxed. Spent a few hours with a friend.

Daily News’ feature “Big Town, Big Dreams” – profiling NYC immigrants who make big contributions – profiles Tisa Chang, founder of the Pan Asian Repertory Theater. I had watched a performance they had done, and sorry to have missed their just finished production of “The Joy Luck Club.”

The passing of 1010 WINS’ former financial commentator, Larry Wachtel, most known for his closing line, “Gather those rosebuds,” and his thick Brooklyn accent. I remembered thinking, “Man, got to love that accent,” and never quite understanding the whole rosebuds thing – but that’s the beauty of NYC indeed.

Ex-Dodgers’ owner, Walter O’Malley, has been accepted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Now, I know by rights, as a Brooklynite, I’m supposed to despise the O’Malleys for taking the Dodgers out of Brooklyn, but then again, I really can’t waste my energy on that, can I? He did make baseball history, whether you call him villain or not; it was not illegal; he was famous; Hall of Fame, right? Unlike, say, Pete Rose or even those tainted by the steroids scandal, O’Malley was the smart businessman (and an attorney). Love him or hate him, he’ll be at Cooperstown.

Law.com posts a profile (from the Fulton County Daily Report) of Sean Carter, legal humorist (whose past columns on the ABA E-Journal were some items I had linked in the past).

Watched Grey’s Anatomy last night – an actually decent episode. Meredith seems to finally get some things figured out; Chief Weber was the one person to be proud of her and say he was impressed – something she couldn’t get from her real parents; Christina railed at Bailey for making her help her with a white supremacist (guess Christina didn’t like being picked on as the Asian/Jewish person; as much as I wouldn’t like it either, she picked a bad time to rail at Bailey, whose marriage is crumbling and it wasn’t like Bailey wanted to treat the white supremacist either); Alex’s love life is messed up as usual; George and Izzy finally realize that they shouldn’t be together; and Lexie … well, seems to me that of the Grey (half) sisters, Lexie may be a fine doctor, but is she really going to cut it as a surgeon? I haven’t watched much of the season, but I feel like I really haven’t missed much, although it felt like real Grey’s Anatomy finally.

As noted in past posts, I’ve been all excited about the Seurat exhibit at MoMA. Went to MoMA tonight – saw the Georges Seurat exhibit. So cool! The on-line exhibit is also amazing. Highly recommended (but I’m biased, as I am a Seurat fan).

The Met re-opened its European galleries, and it sounds terrific, going by the review of NY Times critic Holland Cotter.

It’s not looking too good for the writers’ strike ending; we need a holiday miracle now!