Triscribe

Author: ssw15

  • Happy 50 Anniversary to Star Trek!

    I’m not so crazy a fan that I own a Starfleet uniform, contrary to popular belief.  I do say that I’m a Trekkie (since I’m not so dedicated that I’m a Trekker, as I’m far more loose and whimsical about ST, and I believe that Trekkers are that much more committed than I am). I liked the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, a lot (and I’m not even a real Whovian by any stretch of the imagination), and I wish ST could have something as remarkably moving.  We shall see as the 50 anniversary year proceeds!

    Some links to my past blog posts over at triscribe regarding what I thought were some great ST moments; my thoughts on the leaders of ST (Kirk vs. Picard vs. Sisko vs. Janeway vs. Archer); and last, but hardly least, my thoughts on the future of ST (or ST and the future).

    I haven’t yet figured out how to write up a blog post on what I thought of the Justin Lin directed movie, “Star Trek Beyond,” but it’ll eventually come around.  Suffice to say, I liked the movie as it was okay, but it wasn’t the greatest thing (summer movies 2016 is pretty much summed up in that way).

    I had found this tribute video of ST over at YouTube some years ago, celebrating the 40th anniversary – the 50th anniversary is as good a time as any to watch it again. The music is based on the TNG episode, “The Inner Light,” and the whole thing is such a hopeful tearjerker.  (embedded below)  I think it holds up very well.

    (cross-posted at sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com)

  • Things and Stuff

    Now that the Olympics is over, some fun stuff, to distract from other things in life.

    Slate shared the item from Associated Press – the White House dogs Bo and Sunny have schedules, and Bo thinks he has a job of monitoring the plants of the White House grounds. Sure, why not?

    Awhile back, FC had shared with me, on Facebook, an adult Dora the Explorer parody; adult as in grown up, but still Dora (and probably “adult” in another sense). A ridiculously campy thing to share… trailer below.

    Todd Van Luling wrote on Huffington Post about how he had been looking for Carmen San Diego  for 20 years (or trying to figure out who was the actress who played her in one of the tv incarnations of her). (h/t Slate‘s Facebook page post), and finally interviewed her. Personally, I was bummed to read from the article that the actress who played the Chief, Lynne Thigpen, had passed away. Thigpen was such a memorable character actress.

    Slate posted this item of a short film, a la Pixar, about how Dust Bunnies are alive. Too cute.

    Last but, least, the ridiculously talented Joseph Gordon Levitt, playing the drums on a subway platform in Los Angeles. He’s told that he reminded someone of Pee Wee Herman, who did something like that on the old Pee Wee’s Playhouse tv show. That was a guffaw generating moment. (h/t Time Out Los Angeles’s post, via something I saw from Time Out NY).

     

  • Summer 2016

    Hey, extra-long post, as it has been awhile since I last posted.  I can’t believe how fast the summer is going.  I was dismayed by the weirdness, fear, and rage that the Republican convention presented this summer.  I was impressed by the sense of optimism of the Democratic convention.  Neither nominee are the greatest thing since sliced bread, but one is a delusional reality tv person, whose businesses aren’t impressive to me; and the other generates a lot of cynicism, but she works so hard.  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it best, at the Democratic convention: “Let’s elect a sane, competent person.”

    Perhaps my own political inclinations made it easy for me to think that the Democratic convention had better speakers (Michele Obama! (As Michelle said, “When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high.”); Joe Biden! Barack Obama! and, oh, yeah, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Bill Clinton (who put the focus on Hillary herself)). And, Hillary Clinton had a good speech. She’s not perfect (really, no one is), but better we try than to botch everything.

    What we really need is a Congress that will do its job (we still don’t have confirmation for a Supreme Court justice; sigh). You can disagree in politics, but to be obstructionist – that has to end already.  Well, we shall see what November brings.

    Meanwhile, I’ve been terribly distracted by the heat, humidity, and coverage of Olympics. Rio 2016 had every potential to be messy and has been a weirdo Olympics, but it never ceases to amaze me how I get caught up watching the coverage as a nice distraction from all the bad news of Brazil and the world in general.  Every time I’m pretty sure that we’re going to hell in a hand basket (however the phrase goes, as I’m sure that I’m mangling metaphors), the Olympics stuff gives some spark of hope and cheer.

    There’s an argument to be made that it’s a burden to put the costs of an Olympics on one city/country.  I thought that the Slate article proposing that Vancouver be a perpetual Olympics city is an interesting proposition.  Honestly, I didn’t realize that Vancouver financially recouped from their Winter Olympics within a few years. They did handle it well, despite the lack of snow problem. I do like the idea of doing the Olympics in a financially and environmentally responsible way, with a city that already has an infrastructure (rather than a city using the Olympics to rush urban (re)development). I especially like the idea of rotating among a few cities, so to avoid a burden on one city. (Vancouver being one of them ain’t a bad idea, if they want to do it again).

    Team USA Swimming and American women gymnastics have been terrific in their respective events.  Michael Phelps is amazing – would anyone beat that? Simone Manuel and her significance as a first African-American swimmer with a gold medal. I didn’t get to watch all the women’s gymnastics, but Simone Biles is so impressive; she’ll be carrying the flag for the Closing Ceremony.

    Jamaica’s Usain Bolt is incredible.

    The track and field Americans have also been a solid watch; I admired the women for their efforts. Allyson Felix as most decorated of the American women track and field athletes was impressive. And, Ashton Eaton as someone who won gold medal in consecutive Olympics in the decathlon! Btw, the Best Buy commercial that has him and his wife, Canadian heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton, was quite cute. (I think she also won a medal – bronze – in Rio).

    Matt Centrowitz’s winning the 1500 m was impressive; I love it when an American athlete does something great in something America usually doesn’t do well (not since 1908!).

    I always like watching the marathon; missed the women’s marathon last weekend, but caught the men’s marathon this morning.  Kudos to Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge for the gold; Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lelisa got silver; and American Galen Rupp got bronze. American Jared Ward got 6th.  American Meb Keflezighi got 33; he won silver way back in Athens 2004 and he has done so much for American marathoning, with the NYC Marathon and winning a Boston Marathon (after the Boston bombing).  I credit Meb a lot for what he has done.  He finished today, even if it wasn’t pretty to do it.

    For a whole host of reasons, I thought that the criticism of American gymnast Gabby Douglas was unfair (see here for a summary/analysis by Rebecca Schuman over at Slate). Internet trolls are pains for obvious reasons.

    And, the ongoing Ryan Lochte mess, in which he was allegedly mugged, but was in this drunken mess that everyone has an opinion about; well, sure, it was a distraction from a lot from other bad things out there. It has been all ridiculous, and annoying, but hopefully it’ll all work out? Well, that remains to be seen.  The clips from the interview Lochte had with NBC’s Matt Lauer in the aftermath was cringeworthy tv viewing.

    If you want more (maybe not?), here’s the Slate item that gave a pretty good overview (hilarious, even); all it was missing was the apology from the US Olympic committee about the mess. There’s even the whole question of how did Lochte go from hunk to oaf in two Olympics.

    Lessons from the Lochte mess (this assumes anyone’s going to learn any lessons from this): Never mess with the law, especially in a foreign country.  Drinking like a reckless buffoon when you’re in your 30s might not be a good idea; lying to your own mother or making a false police report are really not good ideas. Try not to embarrass your country. White privilege and the ugly American stereotype are not good to watch. So many lessons…

    It does get a bit much over how ridiculous things have been. (green water in the diving pool? Huh? Russians and the doping issue, all but tossing athletes from Olympic dreams?).  We had the quadrennial (or two to four years) complaint on how NBC’s coverage is uneven (to be diplomatic; they seemed to air less awards ceremonies on tv; more streaming than ever, I guess).

    I always feel sad for the participants who don’t win a medal; I know it’s about the journey and not the end, but one wonders a lot about why we do things that are so hard. (see here over at the NY Times for an article by David Segal on what happens to those countries that don’t medal – the frustration of a nation that invested money and getting barely a medal might be victorious anyway; agony of defeat/non-defeat indeed).

    But, then there’s the story of the refugee team. There are those moments when the athletes are enjoying themselves and cheering other nation’s athletes (maybe even their training partners, since their sport becomes a community in itself). There’s hope and bright spots mixed in with the weirdness (even when those moments get a bit more attention than they should, as Justin Peters observes over at Slate; they’re still moments).

    NPR’s The Torch has been doing good overviews of the Olympics. Enjoy what’s left of the Olympics and the summer of 2016.

     

     

     

  • Interesting Times

    It’s been a week since last week’s primaries, in which Hilary Clinton was essentially the presumptive Democratic nominee.  Last Tuesday night, on Facebook, I noted, “Eight years ago, I was so moved to see history made when Barack Obama was the presumptive nominee and I so appreciated Hilary Clinton took it as far as she did then. Now that Hilary Clinton is the presumptive nominee, it’s still something significant that we’re living in history: the first woman all the way!”

    (see here for that triscribe post from eight years ago).

    I really felt moved by taking a moment that history was made.  I refer you to check out this item at NPR – it has a good overview of women in pursuit of the American presidency.  I realized that this could even go back to when Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, to “remember the ladies.” It took awhile and we’re still not there yet (like with all the other “isms”); it’s good to be reminded of history (or even “herstory”).

    But, then comes the cold, unpleasant reality: this is a hard slog of a long, long campaign season that has made the process so exhausting and more cynical than ever and will continue to be so. In past triscribe posts, I followed the past presidential campaigns with interest, as history in the making.  But, this one has been really something – almost something else.  I credit Bernie Sanders for taking it as long and hard as he could, and reminding Hillary and others of issues that might otherwise be forgotten.  I really appreciated Bernie and Hillary for making the Democratic debates look like a show with adults.

    But, the Republicans… their presumptive nominee leaves so much to be desired, in my honest opinion.  I had to turn away from the headlines of the rhetoric from him and his supporters.

    Then, over the weekend, the news of the terrible assault at the gay nightclub in Orlando – I’ve almost become desensitized by the mass shooting events.  I’m all for thoughts and prayers, but I really wonder when we will do something effective?

    So, in the interest of trying to point to some reasoned analysis of how much that presumptive nominee for the Republicans and how he’s irrational and saying things that don’t make a lot of sense: see Slate’s William Saletan (pointing to the danger of what Trump says), Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick (pointing to the mockery of words from Trump), Slate’s Fred Kaplan (pointing to Trump’s lies and absurdities in his anti-terror speech), and Slate’s Jamelle Bouie (further pointing to the lies and absurdities of Trump’s speech). I went Slate-heavy there, but let’s be real; it outrages me that the presumptive Republican nominee – that Trump – can go this far and could become president, undermining even thoughts and prayers for Orlando, where terror and hate have combined to tragic proportions.

    Sunday night’s Tony Awards telecast was a strange relief, moving and enjoyable.  James Corden was a major fun host (not biting as Neil Patrick Harris, but with this odd sincerity and, hey, he already has his own Tony).  I liked the Gothamist’s overview of the Tony Awards, and also liked Glen Weldon’s post on the Tony Awards over at NPR.org.  And i guess I ought to end this post with words of hope and thoughts and prayers anyway.  The creative minds and talents of the Tony Awards at least said so.

    I found some words that will mean more to you than a list of names. When something bad happens we have three choices: we let it define us, we let it destroy us, or we let it strengthen us. Today in Orlando we had a hideous dose of reality, and I urge you Orlando to remain strong… We will be with you every step of the way.

    – Frank Langella, forgoing the usual thanks in his winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

    [….] When senseless acts of tragedy remind us/That nothing here is promised, not one day/This show is proof that history remembers/We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger/We rise and fall and light from dying embers/Remembrances that hope and love last longer/And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love/Cannot be killed or swept aside/I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story/Now fill the world with music, love and pride

    Thank you so much for this.

    — Lin-Manuel Miranda, accepting the Tony Award for the Best Score for Hamilton.

  • Farewell to May 2016…

    Farewell to May 2016, hello June 2016.  Times flies.  I guess I’m back from my latest hiatus from triscribe.  Life is funny, in a not very ha-ha kind of way, as I’ve been saying on Facebook, and I’ve been rather introspective – more than usual, if that’s possible – about what is the meaning of life, and why can’t life come with an instruction manual (as I noted on tumblr, to explain a lag in posts).

    I’ve also come to the conclusion that I should try to stay away from news headlines, as this has been one of the strangest presidential campaigns.

    Anyway, APA Heritage Month is about to close, but APA issues – American issues – don’t go away. See below for APIAVote’s latest PSA for this year’s presidential election (and fits for every election). As Angry Asian Man notes, listen to the Sulus! (and all the other folks who are getting out the vote). (h/t Angry Asian Man’s Facebook page post; Angry Asian Man log post).

     

    And between the #StarringJohnCho campaign and the #StarringConstanceWu campaign, I’m just hoping that we keep the dialog going past May about increasing APAs on screen.  I appreciate Amanda Hess’ article in the NY Times on APA actors and actresses’ expressing their concerns of continued invisibility/pursuit for visibility on screen.

    Oh, don’t forget behind the screen! I really hope that the Star Trek movie will be at least ok, if not good, if only so that director Justin Lin can keep his own reputation intact. I loved that this Wired article about Lin reminded me that he directed that infamous paintball episode on “Community” (which, if you haven’t seen it, you should; it’s hilarious). With Star Trek about to be a tv show again (well, a streaming one, anyway), Lin ought to get this almost 50 year old franchise going again. And, hey, he and John Cho reunited for the new Star Trek movie; so this has to be good for something!

    (disclaimer: I still haven’t seen Lin’s movie “Better Luck Tomorrow,” which has John Cho; go figure).

    (and as Angry Asian Man noted, at least with the new Star Trek movie, there’s a movie poster where you don’t have to Photoshop John Cho on it).

    Last, but not least, I note that I walked through the Brooklyn War Memorial over at Cadman Plaza Park on Sunday, the day before Memorial Day. I was really moved by the inscription:

    THIS MEMORIAL DEDICATED / TO THE HEROIC MEN AND WOMEN OF THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN / WHO FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1941-1945 / AND ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO SUFFERED AND DIED / MAY THEIR SACRIFICE INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS / AND LEAD TO UNIVERSAL PEACE.

    Food for thought, during our interesting times.  I wish the pursuit for peace was really happening… keep hope alive.

  • Farewell to Argle-Bargle, Jiggery Pokery, and all that

    The passing of Justice Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court, on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016.  Here’s the in-depth obituary in the NY Times, by Adam Liptak.

    Check out the link to NPR’s Nina Totenberg’s remembrance of J. Scalia.   I liked how Totenberg explained some questions of concern – the work of the US Supreme will still continue (that’s a given), but if there’s a 4-4 tie on some cases, there won’t be precedential value for some cases beyond the circuits of the cases’ origins.

    Slate’s Jordan Weissmann has some analysis on what might occur with some cases, including the affirmative action case (which is back at the US Supreme Court again).  (I’ll also link Weissmann’s article on how the phrases “jiggery-pokery” and “pure applesauce” became part of the mythos of Scalia).

    Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick on how J. Scalia captivated us, even when a whole lot of us may have vehemently disagreed with him.  There really won’t be a US S.Ct. justice like him anymore (probably, anyway).  Lithwick’s remembrance of Scalia is also worth a read.

    Personally, I wish we didn’t have to be so partisan right away about who will replace Scalia, since his passing was so sudden and shocking.

    But, of course, the debating went into high gear, with the Republicans already decrying the idea of any confirmation of a prospective nominee.  President Obama is still president, and he has a job to do – pick a nominee for the Court.  If the Senate won’t do its job… well, I guess it’s on them.

    See here in the NY Times by Carl Hulse and Mark Landler about how the battle lines are drawn.   And, as Lithwick noted, Obama has a lot of prospective nominees; it’s not like there isn’t a whole load of choices, even possibly moderate ones.

    The Republicans might very well hit new level of ludicrousness here.   We might want to revisit how this country handled, say, the failed nomination of Abe Fortas under the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, or the confirmed nomination of Anthony Kennedy under Ronald Reagan’s administration (under the final year of that administration, at that). But, we really haven’t had anything like this at all in modern history, at least nothing that might last a full year of a vacancy.

    (NPR has an overview on the time frames and nominations of yore).

    PBS NewsHour also has a nice review on how ugly this could get, without a hope of compromise (at least, nothing on the horizon, anyway).

    It’s easy for me to blame the Republicans, from the armchair quarterback position.  It’s not like I’m the one making appointments or confirming them.  I did a search of Scalia in past posts on the triscribe blog, and as I said here in the post on Jeffrey Toobin’s book, The Oath,  about how things could get messy (and that was my commentary about the nomination of Srikanth “Sri” Srinivasan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (later confirmed)): realistically and in a fair-minded way, I think it might even get hard to figure out who to blame in the long run (if, say, the President doesn’t pick a perfectly good candidate to make the Republicans look foolish here).

    But, maybe it’s not about blaming anyone; maybe it’s about making sure that things get done and we don’t get stupid?  Or is that wishful thinking on my part?

    At least there isn’t total ugliness: let’s remember that J. Scalia and J. Ginsburg had a warm friendship, despite the political and jurisprudential differences.  (I thought this article at vox.com by Dara Lind was interesting about that, in light of how uncivil our world is these days).  People are people and maybe we could look to our better angels and how we can be good to each other.

    Oh, well, on a ice cold Valentine’s Day, there is a lot of food for thought.  Stay warm!

  • Happy Lunar New Year and Post Super Bowl Edition

    Happy Lunar New Year! (a day late; but celebrations in China are still ongoing, and events in the city for almost the rest of the month, so whatever!).

    May the Year of the Monkey bring us all the luck and good fortune we need (and we need a lot of that).

    See here in Time Out New York for more Lunar New Year events.

    Gothamist’s Jen Chung on the 8 auspicious foods of the Lunar New Year (well, to Chinese people, anyway).

    How cool is that: over at Mashable, photos of Chinese New Year, Chinatown, NYC, circa 1960.  A lot of those old landmarks or restaurants are gone and 1960s fashion is what it is, but these photos might as well have been anytime since or before then. (h/t Angry Asian Man‘s Facebook page post).

    Speaking of Super Bowl:

    Super Bowl Sunday was this past Sunday, with the NFL going all out for Super Bowl 50 (going with the Arabic numerals, rather than the usual Roman numeral of “L”), and there were expectations for the game between Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers.  Kudos to Denver; quarterback Peyton Manning got his fairy tale ending (assuming he retires).

    I do think one day, quarterback Cam Newton and the Panthers will win a Super Bowl; they were simply great this past regular season and at that NFC Championship game, they scored ridiculously well.  But, as Denver showed, defense beats offense.

    I was rooting for Peyton and Denver, for sentimental reasons, but toward the last five minutes of the game, I kept wanting Cam and Carolina to make it competitive, even as the defense was putting the nail on the coffin.   I’m pretty convinced that the curse of Sports Illustrated lives (since Cam Newton got on the cover and people who get on the cover get cursed; the previous cover was Peyton and Tom Brady, and they couldn’t both lose at the AFC game).

    And, as usual, the disclaimer holds: I’m only a casual sports viewer.  It’s not like I understood a lot of what was going on.

    I was impressed to see all those past Super Bowl MVPs prior to the start of the game.

    I understood that the promotions/marketing was all about how this was the San Francisco Super Bowl, and it was at the home of 49’ers, but it was funny how they were actually miles away from Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and all the other San Fran landmarks. The Super Bowl of New York/New Jersey was at least a less vaguely odd situation; you could still see the NYC skyline from Meadowlands, after all.

    I thought the halftime show was colorful.  Coldplay had some audio problems, but I liked how Chris Martin, Beyonce, and Bruno Mars (with Mark Ronson in the background) looked like they had fun in the end.  Kids were brought out, because of course this stuff is all about the kids (insert sarcasm there).  Generally, I agreed with the initial Time Magazine reaction by Daniel D’Addario – it was a decently entertaining halftime show. Also, I generally don’t look for political messages from halftime show performances, and even if Beyonce had been making one, I didn’t think people should have been offended simply because Beyonce has a political opinion – and at least she didn’t let her point of view get in the way of her making a good show and promoting her own brand (and vice versa – she seemed to have made her point the way she wanted to make it; I giver her credit for that).

    It’s funny how with each passing year, I’m becoming more convinced than ever that the NFL and the broadcast networks should all apologize to Janet Jackson, because without her allegedly notorious contribution to that halftime show years ago, we wouldn’t have these halftime shows that are so doggedly determined to be campy, celebratory, and entertaining, at the risk of having so much nostalgia for certain bands and brands, and maybe being a tad boring. (plus, Jackson’s so-called nipplegate was also because of Justin Timberlake, yet she still gets blamed; sigh).

    The commercials generally disappointed me, not that I really watched for commercials (this year, I really didn’t; I missed most of the 1st quarter commercials and I really tried to pay attention to the game).  They were an odd mix, in my opinion.   The “puppy monkey baby” commercial for Mountain Dew disturbed me for (a) blatantly hitting all the cute points of a Super Bowl commercial; and (b) that puppy monkey baby chimera did not have the cute parts of a puppy, monkey, or baby. The chimera made me not want to drink Mountain Dew (which I don’t do anyway).

    I missed seeing the notorious Doritos commercial, and later saw it online – this is the one where the fetus ejected itself from the womb just for… Doritos.  It was disturbing – seriously, fetus: Doritos aren’t that good.  It’s not worth risking your life to eat something you can’t even eat yet.

    I say this because, as I get older, I find that I can’t eat Doritos endlessly like I used to do.  It gets unappetizing after awhile.

    But, the movie commercials were impressive.  Captain America! Jason Bourne!  The commercials made me want to see those two movies in particular (but, I was hoping to do so anyway, so clearly I’m just weak).

    And… Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck, who I’ve been deeming “Batfleck”) shilling for Turkish Airlines, to fly us viewers to Gotham City, which Wayne Enterprises has invested to rebuild; and Lex Luther (Jason Eisenberg) also shilling for Turkish Airlines, to fly us viewers to take us to Metropolis, which Luthor’s company has invested to rebuild since the General Zod disaster of “Man of Steel.”  Uh huh.  Geez, Bruce, Lex: did Gotham or Metropolis really need these ads?

    Needless to say, neither of those commercials has persuaded me of a genuine desire to watch “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” or fly Turkish Airlines.   I’d watch the movie mostly to see how Batfleck probably won’t match up with Christian Bale’s Dark Knight (at best, Batfleck will have to be his own man), or how Batman and Superman will really have to get over their testosterone rivalry before they realize they’re much better at being buds.  But, hey, corporate synergy!

    Speaking of corporate synergy: Ant-Man (with what sounded like the voice of actor Paul Rudd) and his stealing Bruce Banner’s last can of Coca Cola, and Bruce as Hulk going after Ant-Man – that commercial was a much better way to meld brands.

    The Toyota Prius commercials about the bank robbers who go on a police chase with their stolen Prius and the cops who use their own Prius to go after the bank robbers – hilarious.

    Helen Mirren, via Budweiser, telling us not to drink and drive because she said so – awesome.  Although, I’m convinced that she would drink better beer in real life.  And, the Bud Light commercial with Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer, along with the Ant-Man movie actors Paul Rudd and Michael Pena: Seth and Amy didn’t convince me of how a Bud Light Party could be an analog for a political party (that kind of party?  Come on!), but Paul Rudd and Michael Pena were hilarious. Hmm!

    The Audi commercial using David Bowie’s StarMan song (i.e., Commander Tom to Ground Control) was strangely moving to me.  I think it was the timing of it – since it came after the passing of David Bowie.

    Slate’s Seth  Stevenson did a nice rundown of the commercials over at Slate.  He was hilarious about puppy monkey baby (and I ditto the weirded out reaction), and about the Bud Light commercial (yeah, America apparently does like Paul Rudd a lot).

    Well, that’s what I’ll post for now.  Perhaps one of these days I won’t do a combined Lunar New Year and Super Bowl post…

  • Post-Snowmageddon 2016

    Some wrap up on the storm!  Last week this time, we were in the tail end of the blizzard.  There are various names for it – Snowpocalypse, Snowmaggedon, etc. I went with Snowmaggedon simply because it was a lot; I did not call it “Jonah” just because I was not giving in to the Weather Channel’s ridiculous naming conventions of winter storms (no, Weather Channel, these storms aren’t like hurricanes).

    Of course, because the blizzard happened on a Saturday, it wasn’t a snow day that disrupted the workday. And, I had predicted no snow accumulation at all, a few days before the storm; I was shocked that, by 11am Saturday, 1/23/16, the thing was a blizzard and was going to be less than two feet.  It wasn’t like I did math or anything, of course…

    Anyway, I generally thought that the city did a decent job – the travel ban more or less got people off the streets; the MTA didn’t totally go overboard, even though removing bus and removing subways from exterior lines were measures that left everybody but Manhattan (well, more or less) without travel anyway.  More specifically, however, on Facebook, I did gripe  about how the street corners/crosswalks were in awful shape by Sunday evening, 1/24/16, and questioned who was responsible for that, since clearly no one anything.

    On the Monday after the blizzard, 1/25/16, Gothamist had a good post on the problem at street corners/crosswalks. I agree that this is a yearly problem, but I ended up not e-mailing my city councilman about it, since the melting happened so fast by Tuesday, 1/26/16 (hitting more than 40 degrees, short of 50 degrees, Fahrenheit can do that easily).  NY Times says that the job of clearing snow to the corners belongs to the property owners adjacent to that sidewalk, but I think that enforcement – in the form of hefty fines – is clearly not happening. Someday we have to figure this out in a better way, if only to ensure public safety. Sigh.

    Also, the perennial question appeared to be who will the city leave behind/forget in the process of plowing.  Given that this was a historic blizzard, I was curious, and lo and behold, it looked like Queens, the biggest borough, made the stink about how their neighborhoods didn’t get plowed (Staten Island came awfully lose, when I was watching the news late that Sunday night). I’m not going to belittle how Queens got buried, but considering how every mayor since John Lindsay has tried so hard to save Queens from snow, I do wonder why we haven’t figured out how to do better by now with Queens.

    Bob Hardt over at NY1’s Inside City Hall’s blog, raised the point in his post about the plowing that, the city did a decent job and unfortunately, someone is going to be the last plowed, but the city ought to review and revise the plowing plan.

    Then, the NY TImes covered how the city had a new plowing plan and that it clearly didn’t do that great a job for Queens. Apparently, after the December 2010 – day after Christmas mess which stranded a lot of us in south Brooklyn and the rest of the outerboroughs – Sanitation modified the usual plowing of primary, secondary, and tertiary streets, and used a so-called two level process, critical and sector. I thought the NY Times article was interesting for explaining the process, but didn’t quite fully explain what happened.

    Frankly, I had no idea that Sanitation wasn’t doing their usual primary, secondary, and tertiary plowing during the blizzard. Then again, it sounds like a lot of finger pointing going on, so the city and the media might actually want to thoroughly investigate what happened and what might be a better system, so we don’t ended up leaving people buried and stranded again.

    My theory – which is hardly based on any real scientific research on my part, of course – is that we’ll have more weird, wacky storms with the climate instability.  We might want to learn to adapt somehow, but it sure is going to cost us…

    Anyway, if we’re lucky, we might not see more snow for awhile yet? And, the snow was a generally better distraction compared to a lot of other bad news in the world.

  • A Review of Reading/Literary Highlights 2015

    As a follow up to the 2014 analysis, here’s the analysis of 2015.  At a total of 43 books, the count in the year 2015 was the least I’ve read since I started keeping track of my reading since 2009, a year in which I had started my count late and so I couldn’t say what was the total that year).  The list for 2015 is this post.  The breakdowns for the 2015 reading are as follows:

    7 non-fiction; 34 fiction; 2 poetry; 14 ebooks; 1 history/literary criticism; 1 memoirs; 4 literary fiction books; 2 romance novels; 17 comics/graphic novels; 1 anthology; 5 mystery/suspense/thriller books; 2 in the category of meditation/psychology/medicine/self-help/lifestyle type books; 6 approximately children books (not counting the comics/graphic novels); and 1 career development book.

    I did a check, out of curiosity, to see the gender and/or racial/ethnic breakdowns of the authors.  About 6 were women writers/co-writers (not counting any in Manhattan Noir 2).  I was terrible with people of color as writers/co-writers; possibly two or three, not counting those behind the comics/graphic novels.  The reality is that I was haphazard with my reading; I’d have to be more conscious and active in deciding what I read and who I read, to have a more diverse reading.  Will I do that in 2016?  That remains to be seen; I haven’t made such a specific or concrete resolution.

    I tackled some heavier reading with Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book was for my book club meeting this year, actually).  Austen’s Mansfield Park was very much not my favorite; it took forever to read and wasn’t that much intriguing.  I couldn’t get into Woolf’s The Years; the idea of taking in the moment is always a good idea, but I couldn’t “get” it – it wasn’t about a story and that made it harder for me to swallow.

    I really binged for a period in reading ebooks for awhile there.  As usual, thanks to the public libraries, Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library, for much of the books and ebooks.  As usual, by November, I didn’t do reading because of NaNoWriMo.

    In 2015, I still didn’t finish Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass or Linda Greenhouse’s Becoming Justice Blackman.  I still didn’t get to reading Umberto Eco’s In the Name of the Rose or Shakespeare’s King Lear.  Due to work, I didn’t get to go to much book club meetings.  I read a lot of my issues of bar association magazines, since I was behind, but I’m behind on reading everything (forget watching television; my watching television in 2015 was also pathetic).  2015 was strangely disappointing, honestly.

    Books purchases were mostly from the independent bookstores (thanks, Strand; Housing Works; and McNally Jackson).  Online book purchases were still from Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

    Literary notable things in 2015: Brooklyn Book Festival!  MoCCA Arts Festival (comics and graphic novels galore).  And, I completed (well, for NaNoWriMo purposes “completed”) yet another NaNoWriMo project.  I had checked out the Ernest Hemingway exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum; very impressive.  The exhibit motivated me to read a Hemingway book, and I liked reading Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast at the end of the year.

    Hopefully I will have a better year of reading in 2016.

    (cross-posted at sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com)

  • Some TV Highlights of 2015

    A little belated, but here it is.   As usual, my personal TV Highlights of 2015 is not really a best/worst list and, as noted in previous years, it doesn’t help that I’ve really cut back on tv viewing (shocking, I know). I still don’t have Showtime, HBO, or Cinemax (so, no “Homeland,” “Game of Thrones,” or “The Knick”), and I have not pursued the streaming trend (so, still no “House of Cards,” “Orange is the New Black,” and also no “The Man in the High Castle,” “Marvel’s Daredevil,” or “Marvel’s Jessica Jones”).  But, I managed to catch some “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” via a friend.  So maybe I’m not totally hopeless?

    Yet, I’m not still on the “Downton Abbey” bandwagon (still shocking). Moreover, I’m behind on loads of stuff – missed “The Americans” or “Key and Peele”; blew off watching the last season of “Community” and “Justified”; and much other fascinating stuff that I couldn’t fit because of various reasons (primarily: life, or what passes for it, and 2015 was not a very good year for me, personally). And I didn’t even get to watch all the superhero shows out there on regular tv, forget the streaming stuff.

    Regarding other items that didn’t make my list: I watched some of the 2nd season of “Broadchurch” on BBC America, but not very consistently and it felt disappointing for me (or perhaps that was the point: that this kind of situation that Inspector Hardy and Sgt. Miller investigate can never be fully resolved?). I was also an inconsistent viewer of “The Walking Dead” and I could only take so much of suffering that the show portrays (or, specifically, how much more can poor Glenn, played by Steve Yuen, can take).

    The one episode return of BBC’s “Sherlock” aired on PBS on New Year’s Day 2016, so I’m not including it here. I might just have to do a separate blog post about it soon. Note that it re-airs on PBS (Channel 13/WNET in the NY Metro area) on Jan. 10, 2016, and on the PBS website.

    In no particular order:

    1. Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)

    The adventures of Finn the Human and Jake the Dog and all their friends – and the mini-series about Marceline the Vampire Queen – all of it weird, wacky, and heart-breaking. This is a kids show? (check out the AV Club‘s coverage of it; some deep analytical stuff).

    1. Elementary (CBS)

    Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson dealt with a tumultuous season back in the 1st half of 2015, and they came back in November 2015 at a weird base level of emotion: at least, with the arrival of Sherlock’s dad, Morland Holmes, I’m left wondering what the hell will happen (and why the writers still don’t push more from the other cast members of Aidan Quinn as Gregson and Jon Michael Hill as Bell).

    Moreover, did Sherlock and Moreland totally forgot about Mycroft? They act like he doesn’t exist, which bothers me, because as weird and meandering as his storyline was, I still thought that he and Sherlock had a story (as opposed to the terribly uncomfortable off-screen romance/affair that Mycroft had with Joan). Plus, Morland would turn into the candidate for close to worst dad if he managed to screw both his sons up like this. Anyway, John Noble as Morland Holmes has been intriguing – but it often felt like he’s channeling Walternate, Walter Bishop from the dark alternate universe of “Fringe,” who was a bad father for a large number of reasons.

    1. Dancing with the Stars (ABC)

    Fun watching the pros, who are turning into real stars, dancing. I can’t say that I cared for a lot of the “stars” (some of whom I still don’t know how they should be considered stars), but it’s still fun television. Val Chmerkovskiy still got my interest, I have to say…

    1. The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)

    Farewell to David Letterman in 2015.

    1. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)

    Welcome (to broadcast network late night tv) to Stephen Colbert. I’m not a Colbert fan to begin with, but he’s okay. Jon Batiste and the Stay Human band are loads of fun and talent.

    1. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart/Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)

    Farewell to Jon Stewart in 2015. Sniff. Welcome to Trevor Noah. Same show, new host, less righteousness (without Jon Stewart, I doubt righteousness can quite be there). But, Noah aims to make a laugh, and I laugh. I can’t hate or fault the show for that.

    1. The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Comedy Central)

    Larry Wilmore aims for the righteousness, with a laugh.  I like that Wilmore and the show have heart.

    1. Masterpiece (specifically: Grantchester, Wolf Hall, Downton Abbey, and Arthur and George) (PBS)

    Grantchester brought the return of actor Robson Green to PBS (he’s aged okay, but not quite as cute as his old Reckless days, when he was the philandering doctor), as the police inspector, interacting with the vicar played by James Norton. Norton’s clearly the handsome charmer this time, but the two had a good buddy/bromance vibe. Decent series.

    Wolf Hall – wow. Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell – subtle and watchable. And, Damian Lewis as Henry VIII – he seemed quite capable playing creepy as ever.

    I managed to catch Downton Abbey this past season, even if I’m not on the bandwagon.

    Arthur and George – a curious way to explore Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and life in turn of the century England. After more or less watching the series, I might make a better tackle at the original book (which I didn’t finish because I was lazy).

    1. Doctor Who (BBC/BBC America)

    Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor – he’s great. Strange season (mostly two-parters, leading to the emotionally tumultuous farewell to Clara Oswald, played by Jenna Coleman). But: Peter Capaldi!

    1. Better Call Saul (AMC)

    The fate of Saul Goodman – or how Jimmy McGill became Saul Goodman, the lawyer who intertwined with a certain chemistry teacher’s meth situation.

    1. Mad Men series finale (AMC)

    Farewell to Don Draper and associates. I never quite got on the Mad Men bandwagon, but that series finale was worthy viewing.

    1. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)

    Funny, weird, and kind of heartbreaking. I’m putting it as a highlight even though I didn’t watch all of it yet, simply because it was that something as television (I could see why no network aired it; it’s a weird sitcom).

    1. Galavant (ABC)

    Galavant is a medieval fairytale, musical comedy. I liked it and I’m glad that it’s back for this year!

    1. Agent Carter (ABC)

    An original Agent of SHIELD, Peggy Carter dealt with the post-World War II world – and she was a lot of fun to watch.

    1. NY Mets taking it to the World Series… even though we lost…

     

    Honorable mentions:

    The Wiz (NBC)

    The Late, Late Show with James Corden (CBS) (lots of watchable moments in 2015)

    The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) (lots of watchable moments in 2015)

    Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (still terrific from what I was able to watch on YouTube).

    I’ll Have What Phil’s Having (PBS) (Phil Rosenthal, most known for co-creating “Everyone Loves Raymond,” on eating adventurously).

    Nova (PBS) (especially the episodes for “Making of North America” (the continent not enough people really think of in so far as it came to be); and “Chasing Pluto” (the incredible photos from the space craft New Horizons, the science story of 2015!)).

    American Experience (PBS) (the episodes on Walt Disney were engrossing and fascinating).

    First Peoples (PBS) (fascinating look at the evolution of early homo sapiens, and how they became the aboriginal peoples on each continent).

    I’m probably forgetting other notable stuff of 2015, but I never promise to be comprehensive!