Category: Brooklyn

Things move quickly in the last week. The beginning of the week, it was a sunny 80 degrees F, now its 50 and raining. My personal mood jumps quickly from vibrant to sad to indifferent. From wanting to stay put last weekend, tomorrow morning I’m jumping onto a Chinatown bus to get to Boston for the day — it’s for a bar association conference. Today I went to a conference about teleconferencing — why we didn’t teleconference, I don’t know. But we did find out about a teleconference about teleconferencing. Anyway, 5 hours before taking off.

I swear – Fox’s “House, M.D.” is a great show. Dr. House knows he’s hardly a good person. But, he knows he’s a good doctor because he’s right. He doesn’t do it because he likes people or because he wants to save lives – or maybe he does care. Hard to say. This week’s episode is one without Dr. Cameron – she admits she has feelings for House, but chooses to resign to avoid being hurt by him. He’s not only forced to fire a doctor, he has to quit, because Vogler, the hospital’s a mean ass. Vogler’s so mean, he threatens to fire everyone who bothers to support House – or else leave the hospital and taking his millions with him. Mean Vogler. Boo hiss. Good actor that Chi McBride to play Vogler so mean like that, and to go toe to toe with actor Hugh Laurie as House. Ooh. Crazy show.

And, check out the “House” article on MSNBC – it takes the argument that “House” is centered on the Great Man character (House), even when he isn’t in a scene. Well, I won’t disagree; there are times I wish the episodes would focus on the other characters (I do like the actor Robert Sean Leonard; Omar Epps is always a good watch…). But, still – it is called “House.”

“Jack and Bobby” on WB – is a good show. Hard to say if it’ll be cancelled; but, it’s been fun, in a teen-soapy kind of way. Jack’s ex girlfriend Missy tells Jack that she’s pregnant; is he the dad? Her Christian Coalition dad, the reverend, likes Jack for being a young man of integrity (putting aside that Jack’s left-wing professor mom is secular and a sinner). But, all that integrity can be pushed so far, when Missy’s someone who lacks integrity herself; but, she’s only a kid, so it’s that much sadder when her own dad throws her out.

Today, I finished reading the novella, “The Pleasure of My Company” by Steve Martin. Very good book. Sweet, funny, poignant, loving story about this neurotic/obsessive/compulsive/manic Daniel Pecan Cambridge, a lonely nutcase who goes on the road to recovery, somehow. If the comedian/actor/playwrite Steve Martin really wrote this book, I have to say that he’s amazingly good. Highly recommend it; great subway reading!

Employees who blog ought to be careful, reports Tom Zeller, Jr., of the NY Times:

As the practice of blogging has spread, employees like Mr. Kennedy are coming to the realization that corporations, which spend millions of dollars protecting their brands, are under no particular obligation to tolerate threats, real or perceived, from the activities of people who become identified with those brands, even if it is on their personal Web sites.

They are also learning that the law offers no special protections for blogging – certainly no more than for any other off-duty activity.

As Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group in Washington, put it, “What we found is there really is quite a bit of diversity in how employers are responding to blogging.”

A rising tide of employees have recently been reprimanded or let go for running afoul of their employers’ taste or temperament on personal blogs, including a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines who learned the hard way that the carrier frowns on cheeky photos while in uniform and a Google employee who mused on the company’s financial condition and was fired.

Some interpreted these actions as meaning that even in their living rooms, even in their private basement computer caves, employees are required to be at least a little bit worried about losing their jobs if they write or post the wrong thing on their personal Web logs.[….]

But Ms. Newitz and others have cautioned that employees must be careful not to confuse freedom of speech with a freedom from consequences that might follow from what they say. Indeed, the vast majority of states are considered “at will” states – meaning that employees can quit, and employers can fire them, at will – without evident reason (barring statutory exceptions like race or religion, where discrimination would have to be proved).

“There really are no laws that protect you,” Ms. Newitz said.

Martin H. Malin, a professor of law and director of the Institute for Law and the Workplace at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, said there were only a few exceptions.

“It depends on what the blog is,” he said, “what the content is, and whether there’s any contractual protection for the employee.” [….]

Most of the points are the kinds of common-sense items that employees would do well to remember, particularly if they plan on identifying themselves as employees in their blogs, or discussing office matters online: don’t post material that is obscene, defamatory, profane or libelous, and make sure that you indicate that the opinions expressed are your own.

The policy also encourages employee bloggers to use their real names, rather than attempting anonymity or writing under a pseudonym.

Bad idea, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Two weeks ago, the group published a tutorial on “how to blog safely,” which included tips on avoiding getting fired. Chief among its recommendations: Blog anonymously.

“Basically, we just want to caution people about how easy it is to find them online,” Ms. Newitz said, “and that they are not just talking to their friends on their blogs. They’re talking to everyone.”

But does that means that Mr. Kennedy, a short-timer, a product manager and by no means an executive at Technorati, carries the burden of representing the company into his personal blog?

Technorati’s vice president for engineering, Adam Hertz, responded: “It would be antithetical to our corporate values to force Niall to do anything in his blog. It’s his blog.”

Yet with the spread of the Internet and of blogging, Mr. Hertz said, it would be foolish for companies to not spend some time discussing the art of public communications with their employees, and even train and prepare lower-level staff for these kinds of public relations situations.

That said, Mr. Hertz stressed that the company had no interest in formalizing any complicated policies regarding an employee’s activities outside the office.

“I had a high school teacher,” he recalled, “who used to say ‘I have only two rules: Don’t roller-skate in the hallway and don’t be a damn fool.’ We really value a company where people can think for themselves.”

Very interesting stuff.

Law.com posts an article that the law schools are getting more serious about catering to the “US News and World Report” ratings, even if the deans personally don’t like doing that. Hmm. It’s bad enough that the undergraduate colleges get all worked up about those rankings, but the law schools getting into the game doesn’t make it better.

Such a beautiful spring day…

Yesterday, a friend and I tried another Brooklyn Restaurant Week’s selection, Caffe Buon Gusto on Montague St. Kind of odd that I went to law school in the area and had never been there, but it was nice – pricing wasn’t bad; pretty good eggplant parmagiana.

Today, I attended a brunch at Alma Mater Undergrad School, to welcome accepted students (those high school seniors have to decide where to go now that they know what schools accepted them). My first time attending as an alumnus. The event used to be known as Prospectives of Color Weekend, as part of the recruiting of minority students; now it’s Prospectives of Diversity. Well, ok; either way, it’s about getting the best students who would be best for Alma Mater. Well, ok, it was really about the free food. 😉 Whatever. I had a good time, and it was a beautiful day, warmer than yesterday.

I did plenty of walking yesterday and today, for exercise purposes (although, heaven’s knows if my pace of walking could dare be considered beneficial for cardiac reasons – I’m too slow).

I finished reading Barack Obama’s book, “Dreams from My Father.” Beautifully written. He’s quite a writer in making his memoirs come alive. He discloses upfront that he changed names of individuals to protect their privacy, furthermore comes up with composite characters to stand in for the real people (a lawyer’s thing to do is to disclose, I guess; Obama wasn’t Harvard Law Review president for nothing) – which kind of makes one wonder a bit about accuracy. But, accuracy wasn’t the purpose – the purpose was to give a sense of one man’s journey on the personal politics of race and ethnicity in America. Incredible stuff. I thought it was poignant to read Obama’s conveying his personal turmoil growing up with a white mother and black father; having a mostly absent father; spending a childhood in Indonesia (with post-colonial dilemmas) and a childhood in Hawaii (where the racial politics are unique); his early career in Chicago in the Reagan era; his coming to terms in visiting his father’s family in Kenya; and so on – all very interesting stuff, written before he became the U.S. Senator from Illinois.

Let’s see what’s next for the reading. Great weather to enjoy, otherwise. We ought to have some rain soon, to avoid brush fires in NJ (or so the local tv weathermen keep saying), but I’m not going to complain…

Oh, and about the most recent episode of “Enterprise” – let’s just say that having an episode about the Orion women (those Sexily Clad Green Women of Star Trek) was (for me, expectedly) dimwitted. Archer is back to his silly self (I don’t mean in a good way, either) – I mean, haven’t we learnt anything from the last time Archer acted weird from being under the influence of alien mind control? And, I like T’Pol and Trip, and I expect that I always will, no matter how poorly their characters are treated by the writers (the actors who play T’Pol and Trip should be given special awards for acting as well as they can despite the silly writing). Note to the Trek writers: congratulations on realizing these particular characters have great chemistry; can you please write a mature relationship for them, that actually fits in with their (usually) mature selves? Who am I kidding; Trek writers never do romantic relationships very well. It was a miracle that they made Deep Space Nine’s Worf and Jadzia get convincingly married to each other.

Eh. And, supposedly next week’s episode is about the Mirror Universe – that alternate universe where Kirk and crew in the Original Trek met their evil selves; “Deep Space Nine” took the Mirror Universe to an even darker and weirder level; it got to a point where I really didn’t want anymore Mirror Universe episodes; so why does “Enterprise” have to give us Mirror Universe episodes instead of something, say, fresh and different, as the previous Vulcan and Andorian episodes were (although I thought the Andorian episodes were a trifle weaker than they should have been). Eh…

Enjoy the latest work week…

My colleagues and I enjoyed Asian cuisine at Planet Thailand in Williamsburg Friday night. Good food – pad thai was good. Fried ice cream is always awesome. Curiously interesting locale – ex-warehouse, with Asian/weird art decor (a fountain at the front; a row boat at the ceiling; eh?). Funky neighborhood – very East Village for something in Brooklyn.

After all this eating, I must say that I’m glad I get paid next week and that I ought to exercise already…

Last night, my colleagues and I continued our Brooklyn Restaurant week sampling, trying out the The Soul Spot, a Caribbean/soul food restaurant, on Atlantic Ave. and Smith St. Good food for a little place. Pricing moderate. Mmm.

Tomorrow, we’ll be doing Planet Thailand in Williamsburg. This restaurant week thing has been fun.

Oh, and yeah, Tax Day tomorrow. Cue the Beatles: “Yeah, I’m the Tax Man. Yea-ah…”

Reflections:

–> I picked Illinois to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament; of course, that didn’t work out (U of North Carolina; oh well). Now, I’m trying to avoid making predictions about the Mets – if they can just break even after their losing streak, that’d be just great.

–> It took weeks, but I did it – I finished reading Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Quite epic. Left me thinking a lot.

Hmm. That was some “Alias” episode last night – see, last week, Jack entered a nuclear plant’s radioactive chamber to turn the thing off, so that he could save his daughter Sydney’s life. Sydney, though, doesn’t realize the risk he took, and Marshall (the lovable tech guy) desparately tries to tell Jack that he’s developing a mutation/potentially fatal cancer-like condition. Very bad. Meanwhile, Vaughn struggles to figure out if it’s worth it to go rogue on the CIA, while he’s blackmailed to believe that his CIA agent father is alive and a traitor. Meaty stuff. Liked the episode – it had the crazy “Alias” style of old.

TGIF tomorrow…

It’s Brooklyn Restaurant Week, 4/11/05 to 4/20/05! Three course meals for $19.55, at selected restaurants, in honor of the Dodgers. My colleagues and I checked out Dhaka, a new Indian restaurant on Atlantic Ave., and we enjoyed the selection/moderate pricing, such that we ended up getting outside the 19.55 special (well, that meant ordering soup, appetizer and main course, and I just wasn’t into soup tonight). But, anyway, the food was quite good and very filling. Highly recommended; the owners/maitre d’s were practically more than enthusiastic about asking us to recommend the place to our friends. (Yeah, can we have a retainer to do that? — 😉 — talk about networking) — no, really, very good food, and I’m not into Indian food.

Anyway, so my colleagues and I are plotting to try another restaurant. So fun. Here’s the detailed list on the selected restaurants, plus the NY Daily News’ comments on their favorite Brooklyn restaurants of the list.

Beautiful weather. It is spring indeed.

I got home Wednesday night, so this is a recap of the Wednesday that went on for 48 hours…. my jetlag is pretty much over already.

Wednesday morning part 1: Before checking out of the hotel, I bought a Japanese yukata, a night robe that was quite comfortable. We went to several 105 Yen stores (the equivilent to our 99 cent stores) in the Shinjuku area, including Don Quiote and US Mart. Then we went to the flagship store of Mitsukoshi at Nihonbashi. Nihonbashi is a bridge that is the Columbus Circle of Tokyo: all distances from Tokyo are measured from here.

Mitsukoshi is literally the Cathedral of Commerce. There is a circa 1930 Wurlitzer organ that they play daily at the opening and at other times including noon, when we attended. A 4 storey statute of the Goddess of Sincerity stands directly in front of the organ in the main atrium. Three floors of fabulous food sits below ground, while floors above include an operating 500 seat theatre where they give cultural performances, an art gallery that rivals any major modern art museum, and an outdoor rooftop square which contains three Shinto shrines.

We indecisively chose two items of the millions of Japanese foods in the food hall, and then made the mad dash back to the hotel and to the airport. We made a bad choice of connection between subways (just say that it was the equivilent of getting off at Grand Central and deciding to walk to Port Authority) and then had a hard time finding the right exit out of Shinjuku station (which is Grand Central, Penn Station and Port Authority all rolled into one). We had missed two trains to the airport in the lost time, and came close to a third waiting in the ticket office, but instead I managed to get the ticket dispensing machine to work and we got on board in time for the hour long train ride back to the airport. Going through security and customs was very efficient, and we made it with 20 minutes to spare.

I spent most of the time on the plane asleep, twisting and turning. The attendant was actually on our flight inbound, and she was like one of those theater matrons that are attentive in a zany manner. We made it back technically one hour before we left.

I’m missing blogging for two days, the last day in Kyoto, which I will be calling “the path to enlightenment”, and the day in Taiwan, which I haven’t figured out what to call yet. Mucho work these next few days….

Cookie Monster’s going healthy. I don’t think it’s entirely implausible; Cookie just eats too much cookies. Besides, I’m sure he’d love the Snackwell cookies and other healthy/ier stuff.

Dale Messick, the creator of the “Brenda Starr” comic strip, has passed away. Fascinating story about a woman cartoonist in an cartoonist age/industry predominantly male. Personally, I think Brenda Starr doesn’t have the edge she used to have with her adventures. These days, while she seems more credible as a journalist, she’s not as glamorous as she used to be. And, I liked the Brenda comics more when the angst was there – whenever Brenda’s torn between a man and the situation or love and work or whatever. A few years ago, she almost got her long missing daughter back (but then that storyline ended) – I thought it was interesting that Brenda’s aging (at least to an extent – she keeps moaning about her age and her daughter did become a snotty teenager). But, there’s too much odd satire (like this latest appearance of a talking head who seemed like Bill O’Reilly on FOX, or the appearance of the President). Plus, I think longtime Starr readers are just waiting for the return of the love of Brenda’s life, the mysterious Basil St. John (the incredibly handsome man with the eye patch). Oh well.

The current Doonesbury comic strip storyline is amusing yet curious. Mike Doonesbury’s daughter, Alex – a bright left-leaning teenager – is apparently thinking about joining the army. To clean up the President’s mess, get money for college, and travel. Hmm. Priceless moment – wherein Alex tell her pop and her stepmom that she’s thinking about joining the army; and Mike and Kim stare at her with their gaping mouths, and remain staring with their gaping mouths even though Alex has left the room. A Doonesbury moment indeed.

Friday, Friday, Friday…

Sadly – with Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw retired or no longer in the network nightly news business, it looks like Peter Jennings also has to take a leave. The Age of the Big Three News Anchors is truly ending. Best wishes to Peter in recovering from the lung cancer.

Prince Rainier of Monaco, widower of Grace Kelly, has passed away.

NY Daily News’ Frank Lombardi reports that Chinatown may be getting its own arch (much like Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Montreal (Montreal is one that I happen to know specifically – there are bunches of arches welcoming you to the – albeit small – multilingual Chinatown that is smack dab in the middle of downtown)). Anyway, Lombardi writes:

Boston’s Chinatown has one. And so do the Chinatown districts of Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco.

They all have distinctive arches, or gates, that serve as symbolic welcome mats for Chinatown visitors.

But New York’s Chinatown district – the biggest in the Western hemisphere – has long suffered from arch envy.

That could finally end soon with the help of a $250,000 budget allocation announced yesterday by City Council officials towards building a $1.5 million gateway to Manhattan’s historic Chinatown.

Delighted community leaders hailed the first infusion of public funds to help build what they hope will be “a lucky gate” for Chinatown – whose economy was hard hit by the 9/11 terror attacks – and for the city at large….

“After 150 years of making New York City the great city that it is, it’s about time that Chinese-Americans, who have contributed so much to the Big Apple, get their gate,” added Councilman John Liu (D-Queens), the city’s first Asian elected official.

Efforts to build an arch in Chinatown have been stymied for more than two decades.

The specific site for the arch hasn’t been finalized, but its architect, Tieh-Chi Ho, said the preferred location is across Park Row at Chatham Square.

“Our arch will be the biggest,” according to Ho, who is providing his services pro bono.

It will be 45 feet high, with an 80-foot span, and would take from 18 months to two years to erect after all required funding and city approvals are obtained, he said.

“I’d like to have started yesterday,” he joked.

Personally, the design drawing that the Daily News provided, as designed by the architect, looks weird. Maybe because I just think the arch as designed is too wide (maybe it needs to be taller to look more narrow – and to have space for buses and trucks to go through it); maybe because I think it’s rather weird to smack an arch right there in the Chatham Sq. area. I don’t know; I mean, Montreal’s arches are nice looking stuff (for pedestrians to walk under and use as nifty background for the taking of pictures), without looking gaudy. Can NYC Chinatown’s arch avoid looking gaudy yet be practical? Hmm.

Plus, Brooklyn’s having its own Restaurant Week, from 4/11/05 to 4/20/05 – three course meals for $19.55 (I think it’s in honor of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the pinnacle year of 1955). Here’s the list – check it out! (so goes my plug for the home boro).

George Ross, Donald Trump’s General Counsel and “The Apprentice” sidekick, made an appearance at Brooklyn College, his undergraduate alma mater. (I heard he’s also supposed to make an appearance at the Alma Mater Law School…).

Apparently, there’s a new Chinese tea cuisine restaurant in town, according to Cynthia Kilian in “Temptress with a Teapot”:

As feng shui goes, meeting China’s brightest culinary star in a lavatory doesn’t bode well. Yet that’s where tea alchemist Jin R introduced her self last week at Yumcha, the hotly anticipated haute Chinois restaurant that opens Monday.

For the West Village restaurant, the woman Time magazine recently dubbed China’s first celebrity chef has developed an exquisite variety of tea creations that combine sensual presentation with exotic ingredients….

“A really nice cup of beautiful tea, you will feel touched,” Jin says. “You show the soul, the spirit of the culture there. It is like looking at a painting.”

Jin believes the new China embraces everything different — new architecture, new art, Hollywood. And it’s nothing like our Chinatown.

“Chinatown — I couldn’t believe it!” the 33-year-old super-cook says. “It’s like China 80 years ago. I went there a couple of days ago and thought, ‘I have never seen this place in China.’ ”

A classically trained musician and artist, Jin opened her trend-setting Green T. House in Beijing eight years ago. When her first chef quit, she began concocting her own recipes, using tea in salads and sauces, crafting dishes in which “image is more important than anything.”

Typical of the breathtaking creations that earned her reputation is a dessert that uses dry ice to re-create the smoke and incense of a Buddhist temple. The glittering confection is served on a golden plate, with gold paper, a Buddha statue, gold lotus root, green-tea ice cream and two chocolates….

The tea art at Yumcha — which is Cantonese for “drinking tea” with dim sum — includes preparations such as “purple in date, ginger in black,” a rich amber brew sweet ened by honey dripped from a foot-long cinnamon wand.

Yumcha owner Quentin Danté is such a fan of Jin’s that he literally went halfway around the globe to enlist her help with the restaurant.

“She’s the polar opposite of me,” Danté says. “Jin is exhale, I’m inhale. Her life is tranquility, mine has been nothing but turmoil.”

If Yumcha lives up to its growing buzz, Jin and Danté have plans to bring New York a Green T. House, which would be more than just a fashionable spot to sip seductive brews.

Jin believes it would serve as a cultural embassy for the cutting edge of Chinese style. “China has changed a lot, but Westerners don’t know the new Chinese culture,” she says.

“China now, it’s very open, it’s very creative, it’s very refreshing,” she adds. “It’s about energy and creativity and spiritual attitude, and that’s what I want to share with the New York culture.”

Hmm. Modern China coming to NYC, to make NYC’s Chinatown flashier. Hmm. I think this Jin woman needs to become more familiar with NYC’s Chinatown (it only looks old since it has plenty of old-fashioned buildings; it’s vibrant enough; but I’m not familiar enough with Chinatown, so I ought to talk; but I thought it was silly she mentioned she’d never seen Chinatown in China; of course not – Chinatown’s a Chinese American invention; why would you want to find it in China?)….

So it goes. Can’t week for this week to end already.