Category: Brooklyn

Ok, I’m going to have to make a second viewing of the season premiere of “Alias” (I taped it, of course, even though I was watching it). (plus, it’s crazy to put it on Wednesday night – not to say that I don’t prefer this time slot, but it’s up against a lately-more-interesting “West Wing” and I will feel really torn once “Jack and Bobby” is back on Wednesday nights at 9pm from its midseason hiatus – how will I choose between watching the presidential tv shows and the spy show? hmm)…

Anyway, it’s the usual crazy Secret Agent Sidney stuff (What in the world did her father do this time to earn her distrust and angst? — and once it’s revealed, one is left thinking, “Oh, Jack – there has to be more than this, as usual!”; Sloane is still evil, no matter what he does or says; and, with much echoes to the series’ season 1 premiere – like the scene where Jack Bristow saves his daughter Sidney, even though she doesn’t feel the love for him, just like in the series premiere – and some season 1 plot development again – since Sidney is essentially lying to her friend(s) about what she’s doing as far as the Profession is concerned)… Head spinning stuff.

Slate.com – cool slide essay on Isamu Noguchi.

I don’t know why NY Daily News didn’t have this article posted on their website, but I liked it – in Wednesday’s Daily News, Dick Weiss wrote a profile on University of Southern California’s offensive coordinator Norm Chow (USC Trojans won the Orange Bowl Tuesday night) – Head Coach Pete Carroll gave much of the credit to Chow, who apparently had some great plays and inspires quarterbacks. A Chinese-Hawaiian Mormon, he played college football and Canadian Football League; he’s a Brigham Young University Phd., and had been their college football team’s offensive coordinator (mentoring former NFL quarterback Steve Young back in the day). While Chow’s quoted to be interested in being a head coach someday (cool, an APA head coach, if it can happen), Chow’s proud to support the Trojan dynasty (can we call it a dynasty? I don’t know college football enough to say anything). Here’s the profile from USC.

According to Wednesday’s Daily News, Channel 9 (WWOR) will be the free tv station for Yankees games. The NYC area is now living in an age where Channel 11 (WPIX), the station that used to air Yankees games and Phil Rizzuto’s Holy Cow, is showing Mets games – and starting this upcoming baseball season, Channel 9, the ex-Mets station (36 years of the Mets’ era; plus those Kiner’s Korners, where Ralph Kiner interviewed people), will have the Yanks. It’s like Channel 11 and Channel 9 traded places (well, some five years after the fact anyway). And, there is something so wrong about this. (well, that’s just me, I guess).

Did I mention that I had finished reading “Sense and Sensibility” (Jane Austen) last week? Dry humor – funny; ending was a little odd to me; but all right read. I think I preferred “Pride and Prejudice” as far as a novel, although I really liked the humor of “Sense and Sensibility.”

Thursday’s coming…

More photos are here. We wrapped up our attendance of a Hakka Chinese conference at York University. We took my uncle there — he put one kid through there, and has another one presently, so it was kind of a back to school experience for him. That night we went to the Carribean Chinese Association’s New Year’s Eve Ball, which featured a live reggae band. The sight of 400 Carribean-Chinese, many of them middle-aged, dancing to sca and reggae was something amazing. The next day we went to the CN Tower, which was practically empty because of the holiday. Afterwards, we went through the downtown Chinatown, had Vietnamese sandwiches, and then made it back to Eaton Plaza, where we had Carribean ox-tail stew, rice and beans, roti, and whitefish. We quickly ran back to the house for our ride back to the airport. Having a few Canadian bucks left over, we bought some additional duty-free items. After a luggage fiasco (they announced the wrong baggage pickup area) we finally recovered everything and went home. I’m working on my annual recap message now….

The passing of Representative Robert Matsui (D-Ca.).

What is the glory age of NYC, if there was any? Interesting set of proposals by various famous NY’ers in the NY Times.

Virginia Heffernan of the NY Times comments on Regis Philbin as the Dick Clark substitute, and the work of other MC’s of the New Year’s Eve night. Personally, I thought Regis did ok, but sub par for him (and the on-the-street “reporters” helping him were annoying). I missed Dick Clark like anyone else, but at one point, the taped tributes to Dick Clark were annoying too and the music on the show seemed a little… well, dated (Earth, Wind, and Fire? Rod Stewart?). I caught a bit of the Carson Daly NBC New Year’s bash (thanks to my brother’s videotaping stuff or was it NBC’s considerate post-midnight Carson Daly broadcast? I forget now) – thought that Carson Daly was slightly better than Regis, in so far as he had better, more up-to-date musical acts (Heffernan thought he seemed desperate to make Rockefeller Center the Times Square New Year’s rival). (and, ok, so I’m not a big Rod Stewart fan; at least, not a Rod Stewart who’s singing 1950’s standards music – he just doesn’t have the voice for me).

Interesting NY Times article by Kate Arthur about the Zoloft commercials – the ads with the fuzzy blob that suffers from depression but then bounces happily when the chemical imbalance is corrected:

PEOPLE who suffer from panic, feelings of isolation or social phobias would be the first to admit that those conditions bring out their least adorable selves. Certainly they do not bring out the sort of images well suited to a chirpy 30-second advertisement. Facing these long odds, the antidepressant Zoloft’s campaign of four commercials – each featuring an animated blob that goes from shaky and isolated to healed and happy over the course of the advertisement – achieves the implausible. It makes the struggle for stability downright cute.

Two commercials are in regular rotation. In one, the simply drawn blob is in a dark cave. It sighs and groans, and its body, which consists entirely of a face, wears a downcast expression. “You know when the world seems like a sad and lonely place?” a narrator asks. This blob does, because it is suffering from depression. Led by an orange butterfly – is that you, Zoloft? – it emerges from the cave and joins two other blobs. Its mouth turns into a smile, and it bounces playfully after the butterfly.

The other commercial, geared to those with social anxiety disorder, takes the opposite approach. The blob is at a party, pink with embarrassment as it watches a conga line of other blobs. As Latin music plays, it sweats, hyperventilates and backs away from the dancing, party-hat-wearing revelers. There’s no butterfly here, but the Zoloft kicks in anyway: the blob begins socializing, de-pinks and bounces.

Zoloft’s blob advertisements began running in May 2001. They are directed and illustrated by Pat Smith, an animator whose résumé includes directing the former MTV cartoon show “Daria.” The popularity of the commercials can be measured not only in their longevity, but also in the volume of online commentary the blob has inspired. On one message board, participants discuss how sweet-looking the blob is and express a desire for a stuffed animal version.

Sweet-looking, medication-dependent blob. Umm, yeah, I’ve been uncomfortable by the commercials for those reasons.

And, so on and so forth. Have a good return to work-week…

Have a Happy New Year in 2005 everybody. (Now I get to spend the next couple of weeks writing 2004 by mistake and deleting “4” for “5”…)

Some preliminary resolutions (which may or may not happen) —
– updates to my website (still barebones, but at least has stuff on it)
– drink more water
– take vitamins
– exercise just a little more
– have better sleeping habits
– have more disciplined writing habits
– be a better person… (uh, yeah, right…)
Etc., etc.

Saw “Ocean’s Twelve” yesterday. Fun movie watching a cast have fun. George Clooney is fun. Matt Damon – fun. Brad Pitt is just beautiful (eye candy… umm, well, he does demonstrate some acting chops, but he’s still beautiful to look at). Plot holes are… holey. (“Ocean’s Eleven” probably had a better plot, but not as fun in feeling). Thumbs up anyway.

Oh, heck, one more Christmas card to send out, for fear of offending anyone. Thank goodness that there are 12 days of Christmas to cover me….

Tv/law related news: the passing of Jerry Orbach, the former Lenny Briscoe of NBC’s “Law and Order.” An actor whose talents also shone brightly in theater and film, he will be missed.

“Jeopardy” relies even more on gimmicks – they’re bringing back former five-day champions (champions under the previous five-day only rule) to be in a Super Tournament of Champions, to be pitted against Ken Jennings, the champion under the new unlimited rule. Crazy…

College students these days… so-called academic freedom/freedom of speech versus alleged discimination and so-called intimidation; so-called conservative students suing to avoid reading stuff that “offends” their values (umm, the point of a liberal arts education is to open the mind, to see if something actually is offensive), as opposed to so-called liberal students’ demanding to read more (i.e., reading stuff by others than the usual so-called Dead White Men). Ugh. Sometimes I’m almost glad my undergrad education has been long over; I don’t miss the perpetual protesting, frankly (whether from the conservative or the liberal side of campus).

While the human impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami remains unknown at this time, scientists are apparently speculating on the tsunami’s effect on the earth’s rotation – shortening a day by a fraction of a second. The future of the Maldives is in peril. And other stories. Putting aside – for just a second – the sadness for the homeless, missing, and dead, ultimately, this tragedy is still hard to grasp as it’s still unfolding. More to see and just wonder.

I’m taking some vacation time, before heading back to a short work week. Looking forward to this Dick Clarkless New Year’s…? Hmm.

Still trying to get holiday cards done. Hopefully shall be done before this Friday.

Christmas Eve movie – “Meet the Fockers” – funny movie; Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, and Barbra Streisand – are all cool actors – very believeable as their characters. Some may say that the original movie, “Meet the Parents,” was funnier (since the movie tortured actor Ben Stiller as Male Nurse Greg Focker), but “Meet the Fockers” was harmless fun.

One nice Christmas/Birthday gift (well, at least I count it as a birthday gift, since it meant cashing in on the Barnes and Noble card that I had received) : “Star Trek: Duty, Honor, Redemption” – basically, a one volume compilation of the movie novelizations of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” by Vonda N. McIntyre. These are absolutely wonderful Star Trek books, expanding on the movies with fan-beloved story threads that the films glossed over – how Lt. Saavik struggled as a half-Romulan/half-Vulcan person; how Drs. Carol and David Marcus’ Genesis project screwed up; and how McCoy and Spock dealt with having their conflicts more-or-less understood, since Spock needed McCoy to keep him “alive” and McCoy learned to understand Vulcans better. Oh, and Jim Kirk realized how much he loved a ship named Enterprise and how much he loved saving the universe. I can read this over and over. Highly recommended for big Trekkies/Trekkers.

It did occur to me – why the title of “Duty, Honor, Redemption”? Put together, the three movies (and the three novels) made a great epic, but whose epic? Kirk’s? The Enterprise? Spock’s? There’s the theme of life: birth, aging, and death; themes of love and friendship; theme of service and sacrifice. “Duty” – Kirk, the young cadets who died in the fight against the mad Khan, and, of course, Spock; “Honor” – well, Saavik and David certainly tried to face disaster with courage, while Kirk and the Klingons supposedly duked it out; “Redemption” – Kirk and Crew, branded as mutineers, become the Earth’s ultimate saviors by traveling back in time to get some whales. Well, the redemption part was a little shifty (who’s to say that Kirk wasn’t already redeemed by sacrificing his son and his career to save his best friend in Star Trek: III?), but I liked the series, I really do.

According to the NY Times, a Harvard Law School student’s blog about a fictitious big firm law partner is apparently very popular. What’s really scary is that the readers apparently know it’s fiction, but still empathize and react as if it’s real. Hmm.

The sad impact of the tsunami in South Asia is still something to be analyzed, but I really find it sad that something like this could have been avoided with an alert system and mass communications. Acts of God are still stuff to amaze us all, but just because tsunamis are rare in certain parts of Asia doesn’t necessarily excuse the need to be prepared – just in case. Sad that it takes a tragedy to make us realize that.

There’s something about post-Christmas shopping that I prefer over pre-Christmas shopping. Maybe it’s that feeling of “Let’s buy what we really want” or the amusement of watching half-empty, messed up shelves with leftover Christmas stuff, or seeing big sale signs. Who knows.

Everone in the P– household except for me is recovering from the flu. Apparently, last year’s flu shot that I received provided some protection. After my half-baked attempts to provide tea for everyone, P-‘s mom came over and whipped up dinner, a variety of chinese teas and soups, and steamed the place with vinegar to disinfect the house. P was still sick today, so she skipped out on Christmas dinner with my family, which was just as well.

A 9.0 earthquake near Sumatra, Indonesia (a place Americans only know as some place where Starbucks gets their coffee) set off a massive tsunami that wiped out 9 countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, killing upwards of 15,000 people. Malaysia was one of them, so there was consternation in figuring out if any relatives were involved, and apparently they were not. We had thought that it had hit the eastern coast, but actually it was the western one. It only goes to prove that maybe Americans are not that good at geography, but it’s not our fault if the locals can’t figure it out either. Everyone will be looking at this disaster as a dozen times worse than the summer hurricanes.

We had brunch at Chango on Sunday. OK, but we went crazy with the included mimosas and bloody marys. The mariachi were also good (the title is from a sappy song that they were singing).

It’s the first serious snowstorm in New York, with 1-3 inches expected. I’m headed to Toronto on Tuesday, so I hope that things clear up (the weather and P’s flu) by then. I’m also putting together my annual New Year’s message by tomorrow, in lieu of Christmas cards. I hope to have it done by tomorrow night.

Forgive me for doing this now, but in case I don’t say this on Christmas Day proper…

Merry Christmas, Everybody!!!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Christmas practices/specials…

FC: your photo of the pound cakes look so yummy. I swear that Christmas is cake and pie time like nothing else! (I cannot tell a lie: I’ve been eating nice cakes today…)

NY Times’ Ed Levine explains the concept of Mincemeat and mincemeat pies, in “Mincemeat (Whatever It Is) Is Still a Christmas Tradition” – well, a Christmas traditions for Brits and Brit ex-patriates in NYC. Fascinating to finally understand where the “mincemeat” in mincemeat came from:

According to the Oxford Companion to Food, the earliest mince pies, chewettes, were made with chopped meat or liver and hard-boiled egg, ginger and dried fruit. Brandy or red wine was added for flavor and to preserve the filling. The book also says: “By the 16th century ‘minced’ or ‘shred’ pies, as they were then known, had become a Christmas specialty, which they still are. The beef was sometimes partly or wholly replaced by suet (the solid white fat found around the kidneys of both cows and sheep) from the mid-17th century onwards, and meat had effectively disappeared from ‘mincemeat’ on both sides of the Atlantic in the 19th century.”

So, basically, mincemeat pies in a true sense are lard pies. Oh-kay – but Levine then adds:

Madge Rosenberg, an owner of Bakery Soutine, on West 70th Street, makes the pie. [….]

“We sort of worked backward,” she added. “We started with the traditional recipe and got rid of the stuff we didn’t like or need.

“The suet went, because many people don’t want added animal fat in their food, and so did the brandy, because we felt the other ingredients had so much flavor, we didn’t need the alcohol.”

Ms. Rosenberg’s pie is a revelation. The crust is light and flaky, just heavy enough to hold her filling, made with currants, yellow raisins, apples and walnuts.

But 20 pies does not a movement make. So I continued my search at the two bastions of British food in New York, the restaurant Tea & Sympathy and the British food purveyor Myers of Keswick. At Tea & Sympathy, where Nicky Perry, an owner, serves bangers and mash and bubbles and squeak to supermodels and expatriates, mince pie reigns supreme around holiday time. Ms. Perry doesn’t understand the aversion to it.

Americans “turn up their noses at the very mention of it, maybe because they think they’re still made with meat,” she said. “So I just end up giving them a taste, and they end up loving it.”

Personally, I’m thinking that Sara Lee version of mince pie that I ate back on Thanksgiving didn’t have the suet or the alcohol, so I’m just relieved to avoid the added calories and fat – although too bad about losing the – uh – interesting flavors.

Plus, a cool NY Times article by Brian Cazeneuve, “All Chocolate, No Oompa-Loompas,” on Jacques Torres, famed chocolatier, who’s opening a Manhattan location to go with his Brooklyn place:

He longed for a spot in Manhattan, he said, mindful of not only attracting more people but also giving them something worth seeing. He had seen his customers squeezed into his tight 400-square-foot storefront in Brooklyn, straining to peer through open doors into the 5,000-square-foot factory, as if peeking into the magician’s bag of tricks.

It has taken a while to get the magic in Manhattan just right. Mr. Torres found that expenses in his dream plan would have been nearly double his $1.5 million budget. The glass in the store cuts off at 11 feet in height, because Pierre Court, his designer, found that taller glass would need to be custom-made. The dream layout had included floor-to-ceiling glass. [….]

The interior has five tables; one will soon be reserved for children and have, in Mr. Torres’s words, “small rocking chairs fit for mini-butts.” By February he hopes to have five computer screens for customers to learn the process of making chocolate as they watch the evolution live behind the windows.

“I wanted to see my profession and not just my product,” said Mr. Torres, always giddy and caffeinated. “Everybody loves chocolate, but it’s such a mystery to them. How does this magic happen?”

On this day Mr. Torres was making chocolate with the tangy beans from Ecuador and the nutty beans from Ivory Coast. He put them in the roaster for half an hour.

“So the potion starts now,” he said. “Are you ready for the takeoff?” [….]

“Sharp, but not so smooth,” he said. “Oh, we can do better.” He encouraged and listened to each opinion of his staff members. When friends showed up a few minutes later, he gave them samples and asked for their thoughts, too.

“The signature needs less Ecuador,” he said [while experimenting on cacao beans for his latest confection]. “I need to wait a few minutes. Then I cool my taste buds and I taste some more.”

Later Mr. Torres offered yet another comparison for his product.

“You know, chocolate is like romance,” he said. “It makes your eyes close, your mouth water. It makes you playful. You feel it? You see what I mean?”

Yes, Jacques Torres. Absolutely. He’s not Willy Wonka, but a man with a cute French accent and great food skills and love of… chocolate – ain’t a bad combination… 😉 (yeah, I liked his tv shows…)

Anyhoo, here’s the link for the Yule Log, that beloved NYC tradition that will also be on tv on Christmas morning, 8am to 12pm on Channel 11, WPIX.

Let’s see if I dare to blog again tomorrow, the day before Christmas…

In preparation for my year-end message, I’ve finally got this new photo gallery software installed on the Triscribe site. This solves the problem I had last year with a gazillion crazy pictures with no comments (this year, it’s going to be around 3,000). You’re also welcome to upload photos that you may have also. You do have to create a free account to do so. Also, you can order your own prints through Shutterfly and a few other vendors without bugging me… It’s at http://www.triscribe.com/gallery – check it out.