Author: Y C

Re: After First Month in Office, Schwarzenegger Continues to Surprise and Dance steps and missteps: Governor Displays Unique, Brash Style

When I visited NYC this past Thanksgiving holiday, a few friends joked with me about Governor “Ah-nold” and what a joke it was to have him be California’s newest governor via special elections. I admit yes, it’s rather bizarre and it could only happen in California, uniquely (and sometimes fondly known as) the land of fruits and nuts.

On the other hand, one had to have lived in California for a little while to appreciate why this could ever happen. Knowing this history, it’s not hard to understand that this was the only possible result due to a chaotic and broken political process. Viewing it from the lense of the common citizenry, this is nothing short of a citizen’s revolt against the political establishment. Both Republicans and Democrats fully participated in these elections — the outrage, the desire for change, or whatever was palpable. This was more a testimony against the California political establishment, not a right vs. left. Many conservatives voted against Arnold because he was too “left” for their tastes. Many Democrats/liberals voted for him because Gray Davis and his Latino side-kick Bustamente were just too Establishment and the California mess was blamed on the long-time politicos and needed someone new and not beholden to the usual constituencies was going to trump anything resembling a “professional politician”.

Arnold is a centrist and my prototypical Republican candidate. I can’t wait to vote Bush out of office.

=YC

This is a rare moment, for once I cared to see what the nominees are as a precursor to the Oscars which I find to be as numbing as novacaine.

I’m shocked that The Last Samurai didn’t garner a nomination for Best Picture, Drama. Looks like this movie is going to be shut out. It’s a crime. So is this some punishment for Tom Cruise by the Hollywood society over Nicole Kidman (still?). Conspiracy theorists where art thou.

=YC

Not a real big movie goer and having missed a number of big ones this year (like T3 and Matrix3), I’m definitely not missing Lord of the Rings. I saw The Last Samurai only because a couple of my friends wanted to go. I’m really glad I did, despite me not being a big fan of Tom Cruise.

I saw The Last Samurai twice. The second time, it was more powerful emotionally to me. I was able to appreciate the actor’s and character portrayals more and realized that was a big reason for its effect. Probably won’t get a lot of awards but definitely for me a big winner. The movie spoke to me and I wasn’t sure if it was due to my “Asian-ness” or because of the universal (maybe, maybe not) virtues of service and honor. My swedish friend saw it twice and was also completely taken in by the movie and the virtues the movie tried to depict through the movies characters.

Don’t know enough about Chinese history to say whether or not there have been any similar classes in China. Service, honor are also very Confucian type of virtues. Going to do some preliminary research into this but probably won’t turn up much. I think this movie is a Top 5 movie of all time for me.

=YC