Triscribe

Author: ssw15

  • Stuff

    Hmm. Summer tv leaves much to be desired. Well, ok, “Doctor Who,” Series 3, on SciFi has been kind of entertaining. I keep missing “Eureka” – you’d think that now that I finally have cable, I’d actually watch the stuff I’ve been wanting to watch! “Burn Notice” seems entertaining, but I haven’t watched very consistently. “The Company” also looks intruiguing – perhaps I should watch the miniseries since I doubt I’ll be plunging into the rather thick book any time soon. “Mad Men” also seems interesting. “History Detectives” on PBS has been consistently good, except now they’re showing reruns from the previous summers.

    Otherwise, it’s been about watching reruns on cable – mucho “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (10th Anniversary, people!), and even “X-Files.” God, I need a life.

    NBC has a preview for the upcoming fall premiere of their new show: “Life.” (posting link to the YouTube presentation; not going to embed the whole video). Actor Damian Lewis stars as the cop who had been wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit (sentenced to … you guessed it… life) and then gets his life back. In the video, Lewis does some commentary about the role. Lewis does it in his character’s American accent, which sounds great and so… American. Which is weird, because he’s British. Hell, he played Soames Forsythe on PBS’ “The Forsythe Saga” – the quintessential repressed upper class Englishman. I envision ignorant American tv viewers becoming upset when they find out that he’s British, kind of how they did when they found out about Hugh “Dr. House” Laurie wasn’t really from New Jersey.

    Thumbs up, though, to NBC. I’m getting eager about this series. Just don’t mess it up, please.

    The New York Times’ Mark Bittman on making a pasta with shrimp ragu – based on his theory that a good way to have shrimp flavor is to make shrimp stock. It sounds lovely, and well, I’m a sucker for shrimp.

    NY Times’ John Tierney on the theory that maybe our reality is just another’s computer simulation. Boy, does that put a spin on God as a watchmaker, who makes the watch and then steps away to let the watch keep running… doesn’t it?

  • Week in Review

    Last Saturday – went to Brooklyn Museum, the last First Saturday until October. Warm day; museum’s air flow a bit lacking (the stairs were quite warm). The more I visit, the more I think I like the new entrance – it feels inviting and mixes the old and new well. The exhibits were curious and interesting, even if not quite my cup of tea (guess I’m just not a modernist or post-modernist?):

    The long-term installation of The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago – a look at women’s history – kind of intriguing, but a bit frustrating. The dinner placemats representing prominent women of history stressed the representation of the symbolic woman – the anatomy of woman – and less on person (which, to be honest, is what women’s history is about?): for example, Sojouner Truth’s placemat – a ceramic dish withe a commemoration of her past as an African-American slave – was unique; others seemed more about the woman than her work or her past – ex., Susan B. Anthony’s ceramic dish seemed too flowery for me.

    Global Feminism gave some food for thought – different perspectives on being woman and love and desire and so on.

    Magic in Ancient Egypt: Image, Word, and Reality – fascinating look on the ancient art of magic – what did the Egyptians believe it to be, and what kind of power it had. Loved the Decorative Arts Galleries and the period rooms – made me feel like having the dollhouses I always wanted and imagining what was it like to be a colonial resident or a Rockefeller who once had these rooms.

    Wednesday:

    Slept through the stormy early morning; didn’t think – “whoa, tornado in Bay Ridge?” which ain’t that far from my neck of the woods; and then had the joy of the insanity of the Commute from Hell. Sweltering in the subway, sardine in a can feeling, and then walking to work from the further afield subway station. How good is it that the F was the only subway working in Brooklyn, and such the mess as it is? At least I didn’t walk to work from the Brooklyn Bridge.

    Wednesday night: Finished reading “Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows,” the last Potter book by J.K. Rowling. Still trying to digest the conclusion. I thought it was a good ending; a great ending? Can’t say for certain. Saddened by the casualties. But, has it been worth it to read the journey of Harry Potter? Arguably: yes. What does it mean to be human; the power of being human – of loving, of having free will, and facing consequences of choice. Heroes aren’t perfect; villains are… well, if nothing else, hubris is always a bad thing – a frailty.

    Thursday night: The Soda Shop on Chambers Street near City Hall. Major thumbs up! Food great; dessert – mmm; ambiance wonderful.

  • Monday

    Handled one or two chores; visited various sites:

    New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex at Grand Central – Architects of the New York City Subway, Part II: Squire Vickers and the Subway’s Modern Age (on exhibit from July 30 through October 28, 2007) – cool stuff. Architect Squire Vickers worked as an architect of the subway stations was even part of the designing of the mosaics. The exhibit included some of his letters – charming stuff from the era of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The main museum in Brooklyn apparently has an exhibit on collages – I really would like to check that out soon.

    National Museum of the American Indian, NYC, at the Alexander Hamilton US Customs House (also home to the US Bankruptcy Court, SDNY). Interesting paintings exhibit, where modern art meets painters’ desire to be consistent or honor their ancestry; plus, liked the use of space in its renovated basement pavilion.

    Fraunces Tavern Museum – interesting stuff. Interesting exhibits on George Washington portraiture and the history of Fraunces Tavern.

    Federal Hall, on Wall Street (actually went inside this time, not just walked by; I work in the area as it is, and usually come up with excuses with why I don’t go inside – didn’t work as well this time). Interesting little exhibits on Alexander Hamilton and the Civil War riots (which occurred in the area).

    Will be back at the office on Wednesday — sigh…

    Some articles read –

    NY Times’ Charles McGrath on Metropolitan Musem of Art’s Philippe de Montebello. Basically, Mr. de Montebello is more than just the man in charge of the Met who has a plummy accent (just teasing!) – but the article is a fascinating profile – his aristocratic background, his intellect, and his love of art. Mr. de Montebello’s longevity and power makes him “the Sun King” of his institution – the institution is the man, perhaps?

    NY Times’ Caryn James on “Austen Powers: Making Jane Sexy” – as the movie “Becoming Jane” is coming out, the mystery of Jane Austen’s life (was she ever in love? why did she never marry?) continues.

  • Week in Review

    Asian American International Festival

    Taking a few days away from the office – much needed, frankly, considering the latest oh-great-what’s-else-is-next in the land of Dysfunction…

    Friday afternoon – spent at the Cloisters in Manhattan. Never been there before, so it was great. Too bad about the humidity, but it was worth it – the beauty of the museum and the art in it – medieval stuff, shipped to the New World for our enlightenment of what it was like several hundred years ago. Oh, and the view from Ft. Tryon Park – if it weren’t for the sight of the George Washington Bridge, I’d have forgotten that it was Manhattan. Well, the tip of Manhattan (the long train ride kind of made that obvious – but the A line’s pretty fast enough).

    Restaurant Week: Cafe Centro at Grand Central, on Friday night. Crab cake appetizer – (ordered extra, not on the Restaurant Week menu) – mmm. I had the ricotta and spinach raviolo appetizer – mmm. I had the Atlantic salmon, entree – eh, okay. Sampled a bit of my brother’s Roasted Long Island Duck breast – thumbs up. My sister had the surf and turf – quite a filet, really. Our youngest brother had the bass – meaty, for a fish. Dessert was wonderful – I had the red plum orange confit; two of us had the chocolate pot de creme (a really rich pudding); and one of us had the blueberry shortcake. Appetizer and dessert would make for a perfect summer meal, really.

    Finished reading “The Dante Club,” by Matthew Pearl. Hmm. It’s a good page-turner – strange murders occurring in 1865 Boston, in a city fatigued by the Civil War. Meanwhile, poet Henry Longfellow is working on his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, ending with the Inferno – and he and his Dante Club – including fellow poet James Lowell and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (the rather insufferable father of a future Supreme Court justice, who has his own guest-star turn in the book). The Dante Club realize that the murders are connected to their working on the Inferno – and they race to catch the murderer before things get worse. Author Matthew Pearl’s official website has some nifty features on the book. The verisimilitude of Boston – no surprise, as Mr. Pearl attended Harvard as an undergrad (and perhaps he included Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., since he himself is a graduate of Yale Law – and what self-respecting lawyer wouldn’t want to insert a member of the bar in a fictional work… mmm, okay, I’m not sure if Mr. Pearl is indeed practicing, but oh well).

    It ran longer than I would’ve expected, but it remained a page-turner – good suspense. As a mystery though – well, I guess the clues were laid out in a fair fashion, but when I as the reader was fingerpointing just about everyone as the murderer and then felt kind of weird about how it ended – how many chase scenes can you have? – well, let’s put it this way: thumbs up as a novel; thumbs okay as a mystery.

    Saw “The Simpsons Movie” on Saturday – long lines, yes – so missed a bit of the beginning. Consistent with any really good Simpsons episode, it balanced humor, angst (like how many times are we reminded that Marge has far more patience than most wives in putting up with Homer’s insanity? or how Bart has likely suffered a great deal with Homer as a pitiful father?), and heart-warming moments. But, was it a great movie? Well, not quite (depends on what’s your standard for “Great American Movie”). Like recent seasons of the Simpsons, aspects of the storyline really made you wonder what on earth were the Simpsons’ writers – umm – taking while writing the script and plotholes abound, as usual.

    And, viewers beware – it is a PG 13 movie, and you ought to be a tolerant Simpsons fan to really enjoy it (various moments make only great sense if you’ve seen much of the past 18 (!) years of the Simpsons; when I left the theater, one mom just didn’t get it – oh well, evidently, she hasn’t watched much Simpsons). I guess some hardcore Simpsonites may feel the movie wasn’t daring enough, but I thought it was good enough (this isn’t Family Guy or South Park, for heaven’s sake). Oh, and stay for the funny moments during and after the credits.

    Speaking of the Simpsons, I have yet to make pilgrimage to the 7-Eleven in Times Square as it temporarily transformed itself into the Simpsons’ Kwik-E Mart. This article profiles it for us, and observes that, yes, there are stereotypes (not every convenient store owner’s going to be like the Simpsons’ Apu; and, one day, the Simpsons will have a better portrayal of East Asians than the irritating Cookie Kwan (who, yes, is a tough cookie, but has the stereotypical accent).

    Some articles:

    “I Click, Therefore I Amazon,” by the Washington Post’s Stephen Hunter, notes that it is way too easy to buy stuff on-line, when there’s one-click shopping.

    The infamous 5-second rule of whether to eat food that fall to the floor isn’t valid (no really?) – since if your floor’s dirty, your food will be contaminated no matter what. Or, at least, it depends on your level of disgust and risk aversion.

    NY Times on the rise of the halal food vendors in NYC – as the hot dog is arguably being supplanted; the accompanying video is also an interesting glimpse on demographic and culinary changes in the city.

    Plus, a NY Times article on the Tokyo Sushi Academy in Queens – taught by a Korean. Jennifer Blevin writes on how the students have their own dreams of opening restaurants and how Kimura Kim, their teacher, pretty much runs the place:

    Mr. Kim, 55, is a bald man with a snippet of mustache and a keen, puckish manner. Born in South Korea, he studied sushi in Japan for four years before coming in 1990 to New York, where he apprenticed under a chef named Jae Sook Hwang. In 2004, he opened his school in Flushing, and hundreds of aspiring sushi makers and restaurateurs have taken his six-week, four-hour-a-day course. Tuition is about $1,000, he said.

    On Thursday, five students gathered around a long wooden counter at the school, on Union Street near Northern Boulevard, in a tiny office adorned with Chinese paper lanterns and leafy stalks of bamboo.

    First they practiced making decorative garnishes, carving delicate butterflies from carrot slices and forming exquisite rosebuds from tomato skin. Then Mr. Kim taught them to make an appetizer of broiled eel crowned with tufts of whipped avocado.

    Later he brought out hunks of coral-fleshed salmon and firm white tilapia — and reminded his students to stand up straight. “In bowling, golf and making sushi,” he announced gravely, “body posture is very important.”

    With each student holding a footlong knife at a 45-degree angle above the fish, the lesson proceeded. Don’t point it up too high. Place your thumb on the side. Place your index finger on the tip. Don’t push down, just use the natural strength of the knife. Be very gentle. Get ready to cut.

    “Ten slices!” Mr. Kim shouted, sounding like a drill sergeant ordering push-ups. [….]

    Apparently, no one flunks. After students lay slices of fish on rice balls, Mr. Kim studied the sushi platters.

    “How did I do?” asked Jae Hun Won, a 54-year-old man from Bergen County, N.J.

    “You did good,” said Mr. Kim. “But I say ‘good’ to everybody.”

  • Observations

    The passing of Lady Bird Johnson. The passing of an era, indeed.

    The passing of editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette. Sad and sudden. I remembered reading his cartoons when he was in Newsday and when I was a Newsday reader. I never quite knew what to make of his comic strip “Kudzu,” but there were hilarious moments in examining Southern life (the Rev. Will B. Dunn and his Holy Rollers team; Kudzu and his friends’ foibles in PC speech or just trying figure each other out, including Kudzu’s perpetual unrequited love and his weird parakeet…). Check out Marlette’s work. Time Magazine’s Joe Klein had a lovely tribute in the latest issue, and he followed up on it in his Time tag-team blog, Swampland.

  • Yet Another Week in July

    Friday the 13th – the bunch of us said goodbye after work to a departing colleague by going to Centrico in Tribeca. I had a variation of fried green tomato (tasty); wine (red Sauvignon Cabernet from Chile – some year that I don’t remember; only one glass, ’cause I’m cheap and I don’t drink all that much anyway); (plus I never said no to the guacamole and chips); and for dessert: mexican molten chocolate cake. The sangria kept coming for the crew. Thumbs up!

    Sunday the 15th – at the Cobble Hill movie theater, saw Harry Potter movie number 5 – Order of the Phoenix. Thumbs up. The path toward greater darkness moves onward for young Potter. Pros: The actor who plays Harry is definitely getting better as an actor; and got to love seeing solid British actors stay employed. The director did a good job cutting much of the unnecessary parts of the book and made a strong complimentary movie counterpart. Con: do not sit behind tall people in a movie theater. You’d think I’d figure that out by now!

    An article on ice cream in the city.

    Hmm. Been watching these Food Network shows. Man, do I need to do more walking; just watching food be made and described make me feel fat.

  • Post July4th Week

    Very hot in the city. Iced coffee time. Me bouncing due to more caffeine. OOps.

    NY Times reports a petition going on to get an express train on the F-subway line in Brooklyn – sign petition here www.petitiononline.com/bkln4fnv/petition-sign.html. I’ll get on the soapbox that MTA also ought to make a better W train, which is not a very useful line to that great an extent.

    NY Times’ Linda Greenhouse on “On the Wrong Side of 5 to 4, Liberals Talk About Tactics.” She notes:

    Exactly what that vision should encompass is now the question. It is easy enough to find consensus on a checklist that would include a robust reading of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights, including the notion that some rights are fundamental; a constitutional interpretation not tethered to a search for the framers’ original intent; invigorating the right to privacy to include personal privacy in the electronic age; restoring the shield of habeas corpus; and recapturing the government’s ability to intervene for the benefit of African-Americans and other minority groups without being constrained by the formal and ahistorical neutrality that liberals saw as the conceptual flaw in the chief justice’s opinion a little over a week ago invalidating two voluntary school integration plans.

    The challenge for those inspired by such an agenda goes beyond the question of where the votes would come from on the current court. The notion that profound social change can be accomplished through judicial action has taken a huge beating, and even liberals, watching the political currents of recent decades, have come to doubt the ability of courts to change the world. The tension is acute between the vision of the Constitution as an engine of social progress, on the one hand, and the fear that harnessing it through judicial action to serve that role is, on the other hand, simply counterproductive. [….]

    With a tide so long in the running, it is no wonder that some leading liberal scholars are looking to the far horizon. “The idea that one can regroup and come back at the court is not realistic for the foreseeable future,” Prof. Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard Law School said the other day.

    Two years ago, Professor Tribe suspended work on the third edition of his monumental treatise on constitutional law, declaring that the moment had passed for propounding a “Grand Unified Theory.” His current ambition, he says now, is to “teach to the future,” in ways that will challenge the current climate and “make a difference 20, 30 or 40 years from now.”

    Now there’s a plan.

    I found this NY Times’ article about librarians as pretty cool – this might very well be the “it” profession, in terms of their ability and duty of gathering and accessing info for the public and just plain old knowing lots of stuff. Then again, I may be kind of biased, since when I was a kid, I kind of wanted to be a librarian, since they got to be among books all day long and tell people to shut up.

    Harry Potter Returns in the Order of the Phoenix movie. OOh…

  • July 4, 2007

    Went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today to see the New Greek-Roman Galleries. Dizzyingly Awesome! You can be there all day to stare at the stuff.

    July 4th news item: Kobayashi loses to Joey Chestnut, a civil engineering student from CA. They ate 60+ dogs. Watching them on the big screen tv — well, made me nauseous. I like a hot dog as much as anyone else, but competitive eating is just gross.

    A NY Times article on those yummy kettle cooked potato chips – well, I do so love a chip! In the accompanying slide show, they had the Kettle Brand Chips as number one (well, weren’t they the ones who started the whole kettle cooked trend?), with the Cape Code chip and Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original (umm, yeah, I’ve been eating those too much lately… – can’t be a good sign, is it?).

    NY Times has San Francisco chef Daniel Patterson talking about making butter.

    Writer Neal Pollack on being a dad trying to get a hot dog for the kid – Costco was the answer, apparently, but he had to figure that out from his own dad’s advice.

    Dark chocolate can be good for you! You just can’t overeat it, though.

    A Slate article on the previous Transformers movie (cartoon, not live action), and the 1980s phenomenon that was The Transformers for those of us of a certain generation.

    The passing of opera singer/arts supporter Beverly Sills.

  • June into July

    Those Mars rovers just keep going and going… awesome!

    I reserve opinion on the Transformers movie, which actually got a positive review already in Reuters. All I can say for now is that I’d be really, really terrified if they wind up making a live action movie of G.I. Joe and My Little Pony and other 1980’s childhood nostalgia.

    Watched the series premiere of “Burn Notice” on USA, wherein Secret Agent Michael Westin (played by Jeffrey Donovan, who played a spooky angsty role on NBC’s “The Pretender” and was last starring on USA series as Crazy Cop/FBI Agent Dave Creegan in the American version of British cop series “Touching Evil”). Kind of agreed with NY Times’ Alessandra Stanley’s review – the premiere has its moments, but feels kind of light-weight tv. Or maybe I’ve been watching too much dark espionage/thriller stuff myself such that I’m desensitized…? Oh well. I’ll try watching a bit more to say more or not.

    Finished reading Brooklyn Noir, Volume 2. Solidly good read – Brooklyn in its eerie glory. Thumbs down on one of the stories (wherein this prostitute dies in a stream-of-thought style – grim and too stylized for me); otherwise, perfect subway reading.

    Soo, you have to get permission to take photos in the City. The regulation intends to pretty much not cover tourists and casual photographers (i.e., families taking pictures with the irritating kids), but the fact that such intent is not written into the reg kind of still makes the reg overbroad (on paper, anyway). Why don’t they just write in the exception? Is it that hard? No wonder I’m not a legislator or a policy person.

    The 10th Anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China.

    NY Times’ Linda Greenhouse summarizing the US Supreme Court’s 2006-2007 term    . Oh, well. I’m still trying to follow up on the commentaries on the Seattle and Louisville school districts cases, and debating whether I really want to read the decision (way too many pages, my lazy side feels; my political side feels too concerned though to avoid trying to do more reading).

    The passing of movie critic Joel Siegel.

  • Summer in the City

    Sunday: saw “Ocean’s Thirteen.” Nothing spectacular – the plot’s kind of “huh?” – Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Friends are back in Las Vegas to pull off a scheme to make up for Al Pacino’s character’s screwing their fellow cohort, Reuben (played rather amusingly by Elliot Gould). The movie’s still pretty slick to watch (I kind of liked “Ocean’s 12” and certainly enjoyed “Ocean’s 11” – haven’t seen the original “Ocean’s 11” with Frank Sinatra, but oh well). The guys are good-looking as ever – drool-worthy Mr. Clooney and Brad Pitt; Matt Damon and the rest funny to watch. At the very least, there’s something fun watching the guys having fun with each other. The womenfolk (well, Julia Roberts anyway) aren’t in the movie this time, with only Ellen Barkin taking up the Woman in the movie – she was ok, but it was more about watching the Guys, of course. I’d give the movie a B grade – a good watch.

    An icky NYC summer day this Tuesday.

    I suppose we could feel bad for Kobayashi, the Hot Dog Eating contestant whose jaw injury is preventing him from this year’s Nathan’s July 4th contest.

    This is a story that’s getting around: “Giants penguins may have roamed Peru.” The headline alone is kind of amusing – prehistoric Giant Penguins on the Earth. The imagery – big beaks waddling around, or swimming really really fast. Like, what? Saber-tooth tigers ate them? Or maybe they ate saber-tooth tigers and woolly-mammoths?

    MTA makes the (unsurprising) study that concludes that the A, 1,2,3,4,5 are fully crowded to capacity and no more subways and frequent rides can be put on the lines (insert sarcastic “yeah, we all love congested subway tunnels”), whereas the J, M, Z are barely used and are 99% on time. Um, what kind of genuises figured that out? Geez, now the next step is to figure out how to ease the crowded lines and make better use of the unused lines.

    “The Genius of P.G. Wodehouse,” a Newsweek web exclusive. Well, I’m certainly partial to the silliness of Bertie Wooster and the whole Jeeves to the rescue – at least actors Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry made Bertie and Jeeves fun. Wodehouse’s writing – it’s clever, but I kind of would have liked more heart.

    The Case of the DC ALJ Who Sued the Dry Cleaners is dismissed. Thank goodness. Now can we please restore some dignity to the profession, please?

    This story on how doctors who refuse to give treatment because it conflicts with their religion — well, it’s kind of disturbing to me. I won’t go into the legal implications (I’m hardly an expert), but the article depressed me. There’s more than just a hint of double standard to this – so, you might have a doctor who would refuse to prescribe birth control to a rape victim (!) or conduct an abortion because of religious reasons; but no problem (or have no similar moral qualms) on prescribing Viagra to a man (whose only real use for Viagra is well – you know…)? The disproportionate effect on women and their health just doesn’t feel right to me.