Author: ssw15

On Monday, Memorial Day, I watched “X-Men III: The Last Stand.”  I mostly heard that it was good, “but…” and then there was that Slate review that puzzled me.   But, watching it and making my own opinion — well, it was a good movie.  More or less.  I mean, Wolverine and Storm got lots to do this time, and I liked Kelsey Grammar as Beast (fits very well with the Beast characterization of the X-Men cartoon on FOX in the 1990’s).  And, oh yeah, the appearance of Dark Phoenix.  But without the hokey alien storyline that the comics and the 1990’s cartoon had on the Dark Phoenix.  But a convincing version, covered by Professor Xavier’s psychobabble explanation of Phoenix.  But, the whole Jean Grey-Cyclops storyline…  Umm, well…  I won’t say more, lest I’ll spoil it.  But, after all the series and season finales on tv and after watching Mission Impossible III, I’m pretty much tapped so far as watching characters die.  Getting really tiresome.

At the least, Ian McKellan is a whole lot of fun.

Bad cold. Coughing and nose blowing, and blech.

The passing of Lloyd Bentsen. The most memorable line was Bentsen’s VP debate with Quayle in 1988: “Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy, and you’re no Jack Kennedy.” This Sunday’s Meet The Press showed a clip of Bentsen’s “showdown” with the NRA, where he was brandishing a (undoubtedly unloaded) machine gun and he’s noting that he knows weapons having served in World War II, but he was obviously not with the NRA because, well, such weapons kill… There’s likely not going to be another Lloyd Bentsen again.

A NY 1 story on a fortune cookie factory in Brooklyn.

NY 1 also covered various stuff on APA Heritage Month.

Saw “Mission Impossible III” on Sunday, despite the sniffles and the coughs. The sound system was loud enough to pretty much made it so that no one heard my coughs (and I barely heard others’ coughs or whatnot).

The blow-’em-ups were good enough. I don’t care for Tom Cruise, but I had to see it because it’s a J.J. (“I made ‘Felicity’/’Alias’/’Lost’”) Abrams movie. It had the hallmark Alias moves: the plot that makes no sense, but the wild ride of a journey; the tension of duty versus love; and the impossible is possible. And, of course, that trademark Mission Impossible gag, from the tv series: Your mission should you choose to accept it (as if Jim Phelps wouldn’t)… this message will self-destruct in five seconds…
Cruise was Cruise. Okay. Not so bad. His character Ethan Hunt has his witty moments. Billy Crudup – ooh: “Priceless” man of the Master Card ad pitch. Philip Seymour Hoffman – come on, it’s Philip Seymour Hoffman. Quite the villain. Laurence Fishburne. Is The Man. (of course. And, at least, none of that Matrix stuff). And Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Myers, and Maggie Q picking up the rear, with Michelle Monaghan as Cruise’s love interest.

Maggie Q threw in Cantonese (yeah! J.J. Abrams has this thing about China/Chinese dialects, at least he certainly did in Alias). Jonathan Rhys Myers was either playing an Irish-American or an Irish guy working with the Impossible Mission Force – his accent wasn’t making sense (well, he is Irish in real life; personally, it was nice to see him play a good guy after the – umm – scariness of his role in “Match Point.”). And, Keri Russell – she was cool. It would’ve been nice to have seen more of her.

It was a good movie. A solid B. Could’ve been a B-plus, if I didn’t feel that it was an obvious play on Alias (article on Slate) – I mean, really, the IMF team’s home base tech guy was a play on Alias’ own Marshall (but Benjy’s a Brit/naturalized American, so it’s funnier). I don’t feel that J.J. Abrams has a negative bias about China (as the article I linked above wonders), but he’s certainly has an interest, and he does the tricks of the trade very well (for a more positive look, here’s a Slate review on the movie.). Ethan Hunt’s no Sydney Bristow either.

Mind you, I didn’t like the first Mission Impossible movie (what they did to Jim Phelps was sacrilege) and skipped the 2nd movie. But, I liked the third movie. Good matinee movie.

Okay, spoiler alert.  So, just turn away or scroll down or whatnot, if you don’t want to see my comments.  But, it’s not like I’ll say anything.

The gang at “Alias” – what a series finale!  Goodbye to Sydney and Vaughn, and Dixon, and Marshall.  Have a good off-screen life.  You did good, Jack.  Even poor Tom.  And, Sloane – you deserved your fate. I still don’t think I quite understand the whole Rambaldi thing, or what had happened for much of the episode, but it was quite an episode.
A nice wrap-up of the past five years of “Alias” on MSNBC.

“24” – well, I tried to watch.  Channel-changing got a little crazy there – of course.  Jack Bauer – oh, you poor fool.  But, you saved the day.  But, you got into a messier situation.  Geez, man.  And, okay, after saving the world…  well, see you next January…

Strange weather of late: much rain last week, plus the hail of Friday (hail, thunderstorm, wind, sun, clouds… a little bit of everything).

FC’s performance yesterday: great job! 😉 In fact, everybody did a great job. The “show” gave some food for thought too.

Saw “Da Vinci Code” the movie. It wasn’t as bad as the professional critics make it seem like. I never thought the book was that great, so it’s not like the movie had a fantastic source to work from. But, it was a good popcorn movie. I’d recommend seeing it. Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou brought some more humanity to their characters than the book did (author Dan Brown’s strength is not character development, so far as I could tell), although I thought the bittersweet end was more bittersweet than the book; plus, I do wonder if Tom Hanks’ Prof. Robert Langdon could have been different as a young male character. Oh, and Sir Ian McKellen – good fun he was! Alfred Molina and Paul Bettany – well, they played characters you had to hate in the book, and the feeling was still the same for the movie. But, Molina gave some kindness to his character. Bettany – well, geez, you’re an albino hitman. You can’t really expand much more than that.

The series finale of the WB show “Charmed” – was a lovely ending for all the trials and tribulations that the three Charmed Sisters have been through. I still don’t quite buy the endings for Phoebe and Paige, but nice that Piper finally has her happy ending.

The tv networks have announced their schedules for next year (to get the advertisers’ attention). The new CW has decided not to renew “Everwood” but renew “Seventh Heaven” (even though WB promoted “Seventh Heaven”‘s last episode as a series finale? Morons!)

The West Wing series finale.

Preceded by the first episode – which I skipped, since I didn’t want to get all teary over how stunningly good West Wing was in its heydey – the last episode clearly harkened back over the years of West Wing. It was very much of what was the idea of the show: the behind-the-scenes life of the White House. You don’t get to see President Santos’ inaugural speech (although it would have been nice; I still think it’s a shame that they didn’t actually spend a whole episode on Leo’s funeral, with eulogies and all).

Very brief Rob Lowe moments as Sam (who should have at least made a face appearance at Leo’s funeral).

No Toby (aww. At least President Bartlett pardoned him, even if at the very last minute).

No big last Josh moment (there should have been; the first episode was very Josh and Sam).

Some poignant C.J. stuff (considering how the show has often felt like the Adventures of C.J. – well…).

A touching moment between Bartlett and his aide, Charlie. Bartlett gives Charlie the Constitution, or at least a copy of it in booklet form that Bartlett’s own father gave him, since Charlie is planning on going to Georgetown for law school. My eyes got watery.

Echoes of Leo – C.J.’s giving Josh a Post-it note: WWLD – “What Would Leo Do?” to help Josh get through the challenge of being Chief of Staff – and they agree: it’s hard to stop thinking of that office as Leo’s.  Bartlett’s getting the napkin, the very napkin that Leo wrote on to convince him to make that push for president.

But, not even a little farewall scene from Josh and Sam, the Santos administration people, to the old Bartlett gang? Or has the passage of time made goodbyes irrelevant (goodbyes having been made when Josh left the Bartlett administration to run the Santos campaign, goodbyes made when Sam left so long ago).

Very nice to see Donna in awe of her office as the First Lady’s Chief of Staff; a huge step up from the cubicle she had as Josh’s assistant in the West Wing. Cute to see Donna and Josh sitting together at the inauguration.

And, the episode ends with life moving on.  There’s a country to run.

Series finales always make me feel sad.

Just before I sleep on this late Tuesday/early Wednesday — I checked on the latest doings of the world of “Doonesbury.” What’s this – could it be? Has Alex Doonesbury finally picked her college?

Apparently, the other schools (was it really MIT?) had profs or students who couldn’t answer Alex’s hypo properly (something to do with unidentifiable wires and figuring out what to do with them when they’re in some boxes – I’m no techie). And, Walden, her safety school and her dad’s Alma Mater (the barely-accredited school that tries way too hard) has all but stalked Alex (their offer of freebies to bribe her to matriculate at the wonderful world of Walden: a free laptop – say what?). The May 10 edition suggests that a Cornell prof has been able to answer Alex’s hypo and Alex is getting excited about Cornell, even though she initially wasn’t keen on going all rural/suburban.

Is this for real? Is Alex Doonesbur Ivy-bound? Stay tuned…

Last night, the family and I went to the marathon baseball game at Shea stadium. Mets v. Braves; Mets’ leaving many people on base; us leaving just before the game finally ended. Crazy Mets. At least they were a fun bunch. Mets just won the game this Saturday afternoon. Yeah. Beat the Braves. Just go in there and not have the mindset that the Braves are still Met killers. One more game to go with the Braves.

The latest developments of the comic strip “Doonesbury” – Mike’s daughter, Alex, is visiting colleges to decide which one she’ll accept to matriculate. She’s staying over at the D.C. home of Joanie Caucus, her maternal grandmother, to consider Georgetown. In the May 4 edition, Alex explains to Joanie that wasn’t eager to attend RIT or RPI (aka Rensselaer) since it’s pretty suburban/rural, and she’d rather be in a big city (well, she was born and partly raised in NYC, after all). Alex says Harvard “seemed to have a little self esteem problem.” Grammy Joanie asks: “Too little?” Alex: “Too much. Who wants to start every day getting over yourself?” Hehehe. Funny, Alex.

The Doonesbury website links to this Cornell press release, since Cornell accepted Alex and Cornell would be so happy to have a Doonesbury character among its population. (sort of like how Boalt Hall was happy to have the very fictitious Joanie as a law student a generation ago). I just hope Alex doesn’t end up at the undergrad alma mater of her parents and her grammy; no need to be the next generation of Doonesbury at Walden (like she really wants to join Joanie’s son Jeff and his roommate Zipper at that barely-accredited school).

The teen writer who wrote “How Opal Mehta got Kissed…” – got into trouble for – what else? – plagiarism. Sigh. That’s pathetic. Intentional or not, plagiarism is a big No-no.

This week’s two-part “House” – wow. Omar Epps as Dr. Foreman – powerful. Give the man an Emmy. Back when he was on “ER” as the put upon medical student (the ultimately dead medical student, by the way), his current doctor is that much stronger-willed. But, Foreman still wants his mom while he’s badly sick, even though his mom is suffering from dementia. (possibly giving a personal explanation for why he’s a neurologist, other than the utter intellectual interest and challenging of complexting). House gets a bit more sensitive to treat Foreman, but that makes him too cautious. (and, by the way, yeah, it’s hard to kill a blind pigeon, House). At least his pet mouse, Steve McQueen, didn’t get sick.

Lovely spring.

The passing of economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

My bit of rant: well, okay, so I’m not a driver and therefore I probably lack a bit of sympathy for drivers confronted with the rise in gas prices. But, while watching the news, seeing the reporter talk to a guy putting gas into his SUV — well, that gets to me. I mean, if you’re so pissed with the rising gas prices, then why the heck are you driving an SUV?! Get yourself a more fuel-efficient car, that, in all likelihood, isn’t nearly as expensive than those idiotic SUV’s. End of rant.

On the Day Without Immigrants, where immigration law protests and boycotts are going on – well, I’m a bit of a sympathizer (even if I really still haven’t developed my sense of where I stand on the issues – I’m too wishy-washy for my own good); at the very least, I despise hatemongerers. So I really meant not to make any purchases (ok, truthfully, more because I spent enough this weekend, than because of actual sympathy for the protests), but really, I tried. But, my desire for junk food was too strong and I’m too weak and so I spent my bit of money (darn you, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish).

Oh well. Hope the protesters will forgive me. In honor of the continuing quest and hope that this country will one day find a better way to reform immigration law, I’ll link to Fahreed Zakaria’s column in Newsweek, where he explains how America really shouldn’t pursue Europe’s guest worker tactics, because those tactics fail to take into consideration incentives to convince immigrants that they can become a part of the society in which they work and live, as a reward for working and living. (I thought he made a lot of sense anyway).

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick comes up with a mock Supreme Court decision (re: whether Anna Nicole Smith loved her husband – “While the issue of whether Anna (aka Vickie Lynn Marshall) really loved her 89-year-old oil-baron husband, or if she was just some trashy gold digger was neither pleaded nor argued before this court, we have nevertheless reviewed the record below and herein find that Ms. Smith was indeed a complete and unrepentant opportunist. We further find as a matter of law that she never loved the guy.”), in honor of the real Supreme Court’s finding for Anna Nicole Smith in this twisted bankruptcy law/wills and estates law mix.

Prof. Tim Wu of Columbia Law discusses in Slate some concerns regarding possible controls of the Internet. Hmm. Sounds scary, and this isn’t an issue I was aware of at all.

An article on “House.” This week’s two episodes look quite good: Dr. Foreman’s life is at stake and Dr. House remains an ass. I like the episodes where they break out of their usual pattern of threatening someone else’s life; threatening the lives of one of their own (well, okay, character development stuff) can be powerful drama.

The passing of urban community activist, Jane Jacobs, most famous for the book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” NY Times has a lengthy and fascinating obituary of Jacobs. Jacobs is notable for articulating – if not changing – the way we think about urban development.
The passing of Newsday columnist Dennis Duggan: the NY Times obituary and, more importantly, the Newsday one. There’s the AP one that Newsday posted too.

Great read: “On Bullshit” by Harry G. Frankfurt. A Princeton professor of philosophy (emeritus), he explains insight on what is b.s., and what is the intention (if any) behind it. Very well written b.s., if I may say so, about b.s. Very slim read (bit over-priced for something so small; they ought to release like a collection of Prof. Frankfurt’s writings in one book – far more a bargain), and lots of stuff that flew over my head (Big Words and Philosophical Mumbo Jumbo; then again, I was a liberal arts undergrad, so not impossible to grasp anyway). May require another couple of re-reads (plus a dictionary) to truly appreciate. For some reason, I imagined the voice of Donald Sutherland as the narrator. Although, I doubt that Prof. Frankfurt actually sounds like Donald Sutherland. Or Keifer for that matter.

On Monday, more rain. Some pockets of sunshine. Slightly better than Sunday? Well, no, Sunday actually had more sun.

“West Wing” on Sunday – sooo great to see Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn again! Sam’s looking like his first several seasons self, rather than the Sam who left some years ago (who was gearing up to be a Congressman candidate himself). Looks like Sam went back to his corporate law firm roots during his off-screen years. How he went from Congress-bound to law firm – well, I don’t know, but I will have to re-watch the episode again to see what I missed. But, the Josh and Sam chemistry is still great and had a top-of-the-game feeling, between the great banter between the actors Bradley Whitford and Rob Lowe. Just great – it was vintage West Wing – or, as Sam put it, nostalgia…

Sam’s engaged to be married to a fellow lawyer (a woman whose identity is being speculated). I had always been fond of the chemistry that Sam had with Leo’s daughter Molly, but I guessed they both moved on (Molly being hardly eager to go with a guy who’s no less workaholic than her dad was; she’s not a lawyer; and that last episode had her with a husband who was decidedly not Sam). But, the idea of Sam being “Josh” to Josh’s “Leo”? Come on, Josh still has his problems coping with stress; I’m finding it hard to see him as the Santos administration Chief of Staff. He’s not Leo, for sure. And, man, will he ever learn, considering his continued lack of stress-coping skills? Should he really be allowed to go back to the White House for another administration?

What Josh really needs is to get further treatment from his shrink (having been played in Season 2 or 3 by actor Adam Arkin, being the only one who could get Josh on track instead of Josh’s usual “I’m really stressed out, and I’ll explode right NOW and take my anger out on you, Poor Fool”). Josh and the Blackberry thing – umm, boy is that a bit much.

And, what will Josh and Donna do with their relationship? Hmm. And, love how President Bartlett and President-elect Santos are working on something to get some traction in foreign affairs.

Previews suggest that Santos is looking to invite Vinick, the Republican candidate who lost the election, as the Vice President. Hmm. Nothing in the Constitution prevents that from happening, I must say! And, look at John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They were one and two in the election and became president and vice president (well, that was back when vice presidents weren’t fellow ticket candidates).

Really getting into “Gilmore Girls” on WB (the future CW). I watch it now and then, but thought it was interesting to watch how Rory’s Korean-American friend, Lane, had pulled off her bi-cultural wedding(s): a Buddhist ceremony to satisfy her conservative Buddhist Korean grandmother and a Christian ceremony to satisfy her conservative Christian Korean mother, an alcoholic-free/Korean cuisine reception to (again) satisfy her mother’s inclinations (and allowing Lane to get a whole heck of a lot of moola from generous and pleased non-alcohol inclined Korean relatives who promptly left with all the packaged Korean food), and a rock-n-roll wedding party for the entire town and her rocker friends (plus the Korean cousin who liked Avril Lavigne music – okay). Quite something.