Triscribe

Category: Brooklyn

  • Happy Easter at the End of March Madness

    Happy Easter 2013!

    A catching up with things kind of post.

    It’s that time of year when everybody plays with Peeps (umm, you are supposed to eat them, people!).

    For the voting for the ABA Journal and the annual Peeps diorama contest voting, see here.

    Washington Post had its Peeps contest.  The Atlantic has all kinds of ideas on what to do with Peeps – including infusing them with vodka (not for kids!). And other things to do with Peeps. from Buzzfeed.

    And, last but not least, a Slate “Explainer” rerun – oldie but a goodie: Peeps history, to the extent that it is at least an Easter explanation.

    We finally had weather this weekend that actually felt like spring. The colder than normal March apparently would be attributable to the groundhogs, who predicted an early spring. And, really, someone out there – a prosecutor no less – wanted to blame it on the groundhogs.

    I suppose this prosecutor thought he was being funny, but going with a death penalty on Phil is kind of… cruel. Just sue the groundhog for damages, punitive damages. But, oh, yeah, groundhogs don’t have deep pockets (any pockets) and you’d look silly demanding a sentence of hundreds of hours of community service or jail time from a groundhog.

    I never see the point of relying on a groundhog, when spring always starts on March 21, per science.  Warmer temperatures – that’s another story.

    Via FC on Facebook: so, our very own Asian American Bar Association of NY (and Newark Mayor Cory Booker) romantically brings a pair of lawyers together.  Awwww… (see here from AABANY).

    OMG. Ralph Macchio is 51? I didn’t catch the rebooted Karate Kid with Jackie Chang and Jaden Smith (umm, in China; arguably Kungfu Kid, but oh well), but I find the idea of a sequel where Macchio’s Daniel becomes the teacher to yet another Karate Kid be such a cool idea. The student becoming the teacher? Heh – a trope, but it’s a good trope. (h/t: Angry Asian Man‘s Facebook page).

    A weird little post from the Columbia Spectator, my Alma Mater’s school newspaper.  For a moment there, I was all “Geez, how did the Spec get James Franco?” and then I remembered, “Wait, didn’t he get a a degree at CU?” and oh, well, sure, press conference calls might as well invite everybody. Still: shall I watch that Oz movie, starring Franco? Are all movie CGI-ish now?….

    Pop culture and the law: yes, even with a Walking Dead reference, thanks to the folks of the Law and the Multiverse, who were talking to the folks at NPR, on “Zombies Can Get Away with Murder.” I kind of figured that Zombie Merle wouldn’t be legally responsible for his acts as a zombie (no brain activity=no culpability, right?), but living Merle… well, I suppose he still wouldn’t be held liable, since who’s the law who’ll call him out for being a nasty racist whatnot (Deputy Rick? The Governor? Andrea the soon-to-be-tortured lawyer?). I watch The Walking Dead so inconsistently, but zombie-pocalypse society has a lot of implications. (h/t Law and the Multiverse‘s Facebook fan page).

    According to Above the Law, Ch.J. Roberts goes to…Starbucks? Hmmm.

    And, it has been that time of year when men’s college basketball fans fill out diagrams – a.k.a. brackets – in hopes that 64 (or 68, if you count the play-in “Round 1”) – teams can come down to 4 then 2 then 1 NCAA champion. This year was as a strange as ever, but probably not that wacky (only one overtime game so far, and that was during the regional round).

    I had picked Michigan State, Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Syracuse as my Final Four, with Gonzaga v. Georgetown as my final two, and Gonzaga as champion. Who was I kidding? I didn’t pick Harvard to get past the (now called) Round 2, since I thought that was some wishful thinking, even if I was rooting for them (got to root for the Ivy League). Yet they had beat New Mexico. So weird! But so fun!

    Then this school called Florida Gulf Coast University beat Georgetown! Gasp. Just gasp. My brackets were obliterated. And, it got worse when Wichita State took down Gonzaga. Aargh.

    Notre Dame had this atrocious fluorescent/neon green (a.k.a. Shamrock Shake) – to me, possibly as penance for the scandal/weird brouhaha of its football player, Manti T’eo.

    Slate had this interesting article by Josh Levin on the Harvard thing.  Levin notes:

    For universities like Indiana, North Carolina, and even Butler, this kind of moral compromise makes a certain tortured sense: Basketball is as much a part as those schools’ identities as any academic subject. But Harvard doesn’t need hoops to win national prestige or rake in donations. Sure, an NCAA tournament win or two will make alums tweet a little more ferociously. But is vanity enough of a reason to lie down with an institution as flea-ridden as the NCAA? More than any other school, Harvard has the financial wherewithal and the exalted reputation to help change an immoral system or just site outside it. Instead, the school brought in a big-time coach to reel in big-time talent and win big-time games in the NCAA’s biggest event. Harvard isn’t doing anything particularly wrong. But they’re not doing anything right, either.

    Honestly, people don’t believe me when I say that the Ivy League was invented because of college sports. It ended up being that the schools of the Ivy League haven’t made much stride in years in Division 1 sports, but nothing says that they won’t end up going along with the NCAA system – as greedy and charismatic as it is, it is the system that we have. It’s a societal thing: ultimately, success in mainstream sports will get the mainstream alumni excited – it’s not something easily overcome.

    We all get so into it. Even President Obama, who showed up to watch the Syracuse v. Marquette regional final game.  Obama’s not even a Syracuse alumnus; that’d be Joe Biden, who went to the law school.

    And, Syracuse beat Marquette, as a last Big East hurrah.  And, I feel sad, since this is it for the Big East as we knew it. I guess I should have picked Syracuse and not Georgetown, but I had figure, what the heck and call it a year of the Jesuit (since the new Pope is a Jesuit) and give support to the future Big East, as the Catholic schools that loved basketball try to keep going as the other schools leave. Sure, it’s all about the money and cable money at that and it’s silly to “blame” Syracuse. But, it was a founding member of the Big East and then this is it? Come on, Syracuse: you don’t have to leave the Big East! Think of the children!

    (think of The Simpsons, when Mr. Skinner and Mrs. Krabapple were caught with their affair at school, and Mrs. Lovejoy, the minister’s wife, went all righteous about the c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n exposed to s-e-x, and Krusty the Clown remarking, “Sex Cauldron?” as a place that he thought had been closed and since he can’t quite spell).

    (and think of the US Supreme Court, as the oral arguments for California’s referendum against gay marriage seemed to be about the children. It’s always about the children, it seems).

    (and, seriously: who had Florida Gulf Coast State or Wichita State going as far as they each did? Wichita State in the Final Four?!)

    This post from NPR’s Monkey See pop culture blog got me thinking: maybe the way to determine the greatest sitcom of the past 30 years is like doing an NCAA bracket. But, the “standards” of what makes a sitcom better than another – that’s a tough one. I haven’t watched “The Simpsons” the last couple of seasons, even if I can still quote lines from the earlier seasons. There are complete arcs and/or seasons where I skipped “Cheers,” “Friends,” “Frasier,” or even “Cosby Show,” and I’m not a much of a “Seinfeld” (sure, I laugh when I see it, but it’s not my show, the way, say, the first seasons of “Community” or “How I Met Your Mother” totally grabbed me). And, there’s the longevity question: “Golden Girls” might hold up, but no one even shows reruns of “Night Court” anymore (and that show was just nuts towards the end of its run).

    And, Entertainment Weekly’s doing brackets for “Who’s the Greatest TV Couple of All Time?” Very crazy, since like with the question of greatest tv sitcom, what’s the standard of measurement? Longevity of love? Stability of love? The great storyline of love? Hmm! See here for Part 4 of the poll…

    Good luck at trying to use your DVRs and other ways to watch “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead” and everything else tonight.

    Last item, but hardly least: Brooklyn Academy of Music is doing a Miyazaki festival, 4/5/13 to 4/14/13.

    Yay! It’s spring indeed!

  • Presidents!

    “Talkin’ ’bout the red, white, and bluuuuetooth…” – this President’s Day Honda commercial is ridiculously funny, if only because I had no idea that George Washington had such a nice singing voice.

    Of course, this only makes me miss Christopher Columbus, Action Figure, all the more. (see the previous post on Christopher Columbus, Action Figure).

    Interesting info from the Morgan Library and Museum’s website on George Washington’s life mask and other Founding Father items.

    Check out this: photo slideshow over at Time.com, of colorized presidential photos.  There’s something very striking about seeing past Presidents’ photographs in color rather than in their black and white format. (or course, it’s like this mental trip of reminding oneself that color did exist before 1950). And, it’s really weird to see Teddy Roosevelt as the big game hunter (I know that’s what they did in those days and I’m not an animal rights activist, and TR was someone who tried to preserve nature, but that photo of him and his dead elephant was really sad to look at in color).

    This item is a cute but weird PSA: Big Bird and Michelle Obama appear to be mostly talking to each other, but Big Bird really just looks like he’s amusing himself in the background, randomly dancing behind Michelle Obama. Dance, bird, dance…

    Well, this was an interesting item on Yao Ming, on the Asia Society’s YouTube location.  Nice that he’s more than just a basketball player.

    Enjoy the Oscars weekend!

  • Presidents’ Day Week 2013

    Stuff to catch up.

    Because we here at triscribe are APA’s and lawyers, I note the following:

    This tidbit of news is so awesome, considering that I’m behind on the news: Brooklyn Law School’s 1st US S.Ct law clerk!  Congrats to Sparkle Sooknanan, BLS’10, who’s going to clerk for J. Sotomayor! (who really is awesome to keeping it hometown!). (h/t: Above the Law’s post on the subject of upcoming law clerks at the US Supreme Court).

    What a great story, even if a little bittersweet: Larry Kwong, Chinese-Canadian, was probably among the 1st person of color to be in the NHL, just a little before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in pro-baseball. Kwong only played one game for the NY Rangers, apparently similar to Wat Misaka, 1st Asian-American in the NBA (only 3 games for the Knicks). Not that APA’s have made it big in mainstream pro sports in North America, but hope springs eternal. I think the Rangers ought to honor the guy, if at least to encourage more positive karma for this season.

    An Asian Indian immigrant who gets inspired by the Lincoln movie to find out that Mississippi had neglected a clerical procedure to finalize ratification of the 13th amendment in the year 2013 (h/t: Angry Asian Man’s post). Brings new meaning to how we really don’t know the full consequences of the results of history for years. Plus, have attention to details; so-called clerical errors make you look really – and legally – stupid. But, hey, glad that Mississippi finally decided to make it out of the 19th century.

    In case you want the Above the Law version of Mississippi’s official ratification of the 13th Amendment…

    I have to catch up on many tv shows, as usual.  Suits, Justified, Elementary.  Of course, Community!  According to Entertainment Weekly, James Brolin is going to play the estranged dad of Community’s pseudo-lawyer, Jeff Winger.  Jeff might actually face his dad issues already, forget graduating from Greendale Community College? Hmm!

    Oh, I’m kind of impressed by the weirdness of The Americans on FX (it has Kerri Russell, the ex-Felicity!) – spies during the early 1980’s, when things still looked like the 1970’s and Ronald Reagan was eyed suspiciously.  I have to catch up on the craziness on Archer on FX (that episode where Justified’s Timothy Olyphant guest-starred and its disturbing ending… good gravy…).

    Last but not least: What? Nooo! Ken Tucker – I don’t always agree with him, but he can’t be leaving EW?!  His last blog post at the Entertainment Weekly website? Nooo. TV Gods, what are you doing? … But, ugh. It really is happening. Ken Tucker took a buyout from EW. But, he’s been there since it was before being on the radar!  And, what will happen next with tv reviews?  Time passes…

  • Lunar New Year!

    Happy Lunar New Year! Good luck and best wishes in the Year of the Snake! Gung Hei Fat Choi!

    (apologies for the bad spelling transliteration)

    An interesting item from NPR about how much money should the givers of red pockets give.  I always figured that this was about how traditional one would be about the red pocket stuff, and went along with “It’s the thought that counts” rather than how much money is involved.

    Then again, I’d like as much good luck as possible and I keep getting reminded about avoiding the number 4 business

    H/t from Angry Asian Man: The President’s Lunar New Year greetings.  Aww. No video this year from the President. But, a nice greeting anyway.

    Speaking of the President, the State of the Union address is coming.  Check out this interesting NPR item about the 1st State of the Union address.  Believe it or not, a lot of the traditions of the American presidency was because George Washington had to come up with them (being the 1st one does have that effect).

    And, because we at triscribe are Asian American and lawyers: h/t from Angry Asian Man that the movie, “Shanghai Calling,” is heading out beyond the Asian American indie film circuit. Go check it out. Plus: the actor Daniel Henney is really good looking.

  • A Brief February 2013 Review

    So… some quick blogging.

    The Super Bowl – wherein Baltimore Ravens beat San Francisco 49’ers, at the Superdome in New Orleans – the first post-Hurricane Katrina Super Bowl there. The weird power surge and leading to the late end of the Super Bowl. The not that interesting commercials.

    The delay of “Elementary,” which somehow got the post-Super Bowl slot, a strange thing for a 1st season show (with Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes in sexy and violent – of course!) and the not-so-hot ratings out of that.  Oh well.  It was a decent episode of “Elementary” (putting aside the excess violence, for this series anyway, and even an opening with strippers who were thieves dealing with a nude Holmes – it was the post-Super Bowl episode after all), but I had a feeling the ratings wouldn’t be there. The power outage delay didn’t help at all (forget not quite helping the 49ers). If I were a CBS executive (and I’m obviously not), I wouldn’t have put a 1st season show that was still finding its legs after the Super Bowl like that, but so that goes (the early estimates suggest that “Elementary” did worse than “Alias” did in its Post Super Bowl episode, and that was a penultimate episode of that season of “Alias”). Let’s see how this Thursday’s episode will go for Holmes, Watson, and Gregson (a lot of new episodes in a week; darn CBS).

    It’s so hard to predict how next year will be, when NY/NJ host the Super Bowl: we could either have one of those weird warm-ish spells (40 degrees, maybe) or the Canadian Arctic blasts (hide Staten Island Chuck). Who knows? If you pull off an entertaining cold half-time next year, NFL, I’d be impressed. Hell, bring back a marching band for all I care, so long as you don’t freeze someone’s lips and do complete lip synching stuff.

    Or at least we won’t have a blizzard at next year’s Super Bowl.

    Say… did you hear about the blizzard for this weekend?  What the Weather Channel is calling Winter Storm Nemo.  Puxatawney Phil and Staten Island Chuck, the groundhogs, should not be relied on for weather predictions!

    Oh – and “Community” is back!  The delayed October episode!  Oh, NBC…

    Justice Sotomayor’s still doing the book tour. I didn’t quite find her that interesting on the Colbert show (seriously, not everyone can handle Colbert’s brand of role play). But, she was really fascinating on the Charlie Rose show (clearly a show she watches, if she has time for something other than Law & Order, which I read somewhere was a show she liked, but everyone enjoyed that; then again, why would an ex-prosecutor like her watch stuff about the old job anyway, who knows?).

  • February 2013 and Time Passing

    Because this is triscribe and we are New Yorkers:

    The passing of Mayor Ed Koch. See here for the NY Times obituary. The news was a sad one to hear on 1010 WINS first thing in the morning, and the realization that the quintessential New Yorker – even if you disagreed with him – is no longer physically among us.  The mayor of our youth and the road to the New York City that we know now.  Koch would be remembered for his “How’m I doing?” and his legacy – while complicated (since history is never easy) – cannot be ignored.

    I’d read Koch’s movie reviews once in awhile; this NY Times item shared a couple of his hilarious reviews.  And, Koch’s curiously amusing and fascinating post-humus video interview with the NY Times, released after he died per his request, done in 2007 and how he wanted to be remembered.  He was Hizzoner.  (apologies to the NY Times, with its nice editorial and all, but I remembered reading about Koch in the hometown paper of the tabloidy Daily News).

    An interesting overview and clips from Metro Focus on Channel 13 on Koch.  I couldn’t help but like the photo of Koch in front of the city landscape – with the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in the background – the past and time passing.  Different times!

     

     

  • A Farewell to “Fringe”

    On Friday, 1/18/13, the series finale of “Fringe” – well, the airing of the last two episodes – definitely wrapped up the series.  But, the more I think about it, the more emotional I feel about the show – over both how much it left behind and its imperfections versus how much it did achieve and and that so much storytelling was pulled off with a warm affection for the characters that I had to respect and enjoy.

    And, really, I feel sad that “Fringe” is over. Man, what a bunch of five seasons! (well, 4 1/2, but at least FOX gave us a 13 episode farewell, even if it barely made sense to me).

    I leave to others to comment and review on the finale itself – whether it was that great or not.  I think my feelings on series finales are always going to come down to feeling sad and bittersweet.  I look to see if the showrunners can give their characters some fair resolution onscreen, and especially if they cared about their characters.  I stand by what I said about the series finale of “Lost” – I want some heart in the story, thanks.

    I do think that “Fringe” had a fair end, even if I wish it wasn’t over and I liked how Walter’s end – even if it meant a sad final redemption to give his family a better future than the mangled past he had given them – came to be meaningful (God damn time traveling and rebooting!).

    If you want more on the series finale or overviews of the series or the last season, I suggest the following:

    Over at Entertainment Weekly: I don’t always agree with Ken Tucker’s tv criticism (but he’d be the first to tell you that that’s the point of tv criticism), but he’s pretty on point about the Fringe series finale (you probably shouldn’t read this post unless you like spoilers).  And, Entertainment Weekly has Jeff “Doc” Jensen’s take on the series finale – wow. Powerful.  I was also moved by the post on “Fringe” over at the AV Club.  And, aww, even Slate gives “Fringe” a farewell. Sniff.

    So, while I won’t go into the series finale, here’s my overview blurb of (probably incoherent) thoughts on “Fringe.”  Pardon my rambling; this mostly makes sense if you’ve followed the show.  Or don’t mind the weirdness of what I’m saying.

    I had a lot of mixed feelings about the season 4 reboot, where the loss of Peter Bishop in time created and rebooted different Red and Blue universes than I became fond of in season 3.  While Season 4 was all very exciting, I couldn’t really quite like or fully accept it.  I kept wondering if there had been a way to save the pre-reboot multiverse, but it was not meant to be, apparently, and I couldn’t grasp the rebooted Blue (Amber?) universe and I missed the pre-reboot Blue Universe, even if was a crazy place that looked an awful lot like our crazy world.

    Rebooted Agent Olivia Dunham was – for me – not quite the same as pre-reboot Blue Olivia, the woman who dealt with her abusive stepfather, missed her late mom, had put up with her clueless sister and her cute niece, and figured out how to deal with weirdo cases and overcame having been a lab rat for mad scientists Walter Bishop and William Bell’s weird experiments.  Rebooted Olivia supposedly didn’t have old Olivia’s psychological baggage, yet was somehow the same Olivia, without ever having had Peter in her life?  Heck, no – I didn’t even feel that she quite had the same old toughness of the prior seasons.  It was hard to even imagine Olivia dealing with Walter without Peter (even if I didn’t quite buy Olivia and Peter’s romance for quite awhile).

    And, rebooted Nina of Season 4 completely confused me.  Whose side was she on, and her revised mother-daughter relationship with rebooted Olivia really confused me.  And, I was sorry that they dropped the strange romantic chemistry that Nina had with Broyles in the pre-reboot universe.

    And, honestly, we viewers never truly got to know Astrid.  When Astrid’s back story, or insight into it, got revealed, it was that of the rebooted Astrid, so was it really the “same” Astrid?  I don’t know…

    Charlie – all forms of him – never had a proper farewell.

    The Sam Weiss and the First People arc was more or less completed, but I wished it had been better fleshed out, considering what fascinating twists and turns that arc had with the multiverses – in terms of space and time.

    Lincoln Lee was another character who I wished we as viewers had gotten to know better.  The glimpse of pre-reboot Blue universe’s Lincoln Lee had a spark of cool geek bromance bonding with Peter (who really needed a friend of his own other than Olivia, Walter, and Astrid – and until the reboot, Peter was even developing a sort of friendship/alliance with Broyles; and as far as friendships – as the meaning of “friends” went, Olivia did have Charlie).  Pre-reboot Lincoln of the Red Universe was quite cool and great – the physical scarring and the sharp mind made him quite the character.  Rebooted Blue/Amber universe Lincoln of Season 4 was a bit more irritating, because he had the angst of losing his partner and being attracted to an Olivia who didn’t know she missed Peter and was grappling over how her rebooted life wasn’t quite her life.  I suppose it was nice that rebooted Blue/Amber Lincoln found a new life in the rebooted Red Universe, but that was at the expense of Rebooted Red-verse’s Lincoln.

    And, I never quite knew what the viewer was supposed to think or feel about William Bell.  Actor Leonard Nimoy’s appearances as William were terrific, but while he was clearly not like Walter – he was indeed a mad scientist who might very well not have felt guilt and might have been “Evil” – pre-reboot, William was trying to make amends in trying to stop the war between the multiverses and somehow save them all.  He even sacrificed himself so that Olivia could live (or so I thought).  But, then the end of season 4 and the beginning of season 5 made rebooted William really evil – or at least amoral to the point that relationships with Walter and Nina (one as friend and the other as friend/lover) could not save him?  I was/am confused!

    I also was sorry that the story of Elizabeth Bishop, Walter’s wife and Peter’s mother, in both Red and Blue universes (and the rebooted Red-verse), was left a little unresolved and mostly sad.  At least Red-verse Elizabeth had the consolation of knowing that Peter was alive somewhere.

    And, the mystery of the Observer known as September.  Got to credit actor Michael Cerveris for pulling off this challenging and subtle role of a time traveler becoming human.

    So, yes, things often left me confused, and yet the ride – the journey – was exhilarating.  Each season was a renewal of new stories, as crazy as it was and it was – even if a little irritating – strangely fun.  I cared about these characters and their adventures, and their adventures went somewhere and came to resolutions or solutions (or more questions, but reasonable questions, if the whole “where did the really evil shapeshifters come from?” can be said to be a reasonable question – for a show like this, yes, it is).

    If nothing else, “Fringe” is that great comic book/graphic novel where the play on narration is the fun itself.  There were the variations on relationships, alternate worlds, the twists of time – and calling back and looking forward.  Themes are played with too – protect your children, but let them go; love your parents, but be better than them – or at least recognize that you are all human; love/fear/beware/be aware/hate/trust/doubt the consequences of science; fate versus free will; nature versus nurture; the power of love and the destruction of hate; and have a some ethics during this thing called “life.”

    The last season of “Fringe” was often a lot like the last season of “Lost.”  Each episode often felt like set up to the last five minutes of each episode, which ultimately lead to the endgame of the series finale – that final sacrifice that we saw coming, even if we didn’t want it to happen.  A life’s journey comes to an end, even if we’re not sure how and hope it all works out.

    “Fringe” was thankfully not like “Heroes” – it went somewhere, and wasn’t afraid of pursuing stories and resolving them as possible and letting the characters push forward.  It was like “Lost” that way – and even got away with enjoying it all.  And, like another J.J. Abrams project, “Alias”: “Fringe” does come down to the unification of a family (and about what your parents would do for you, come to think of how both “Alias” and “Fringe” ended).  Friends and family – what nice things to see on tv!

    Ultimately, I credit the Fringe crew for their creativity and affection for their characters.  The scale of ambition was deep (even if the budget and FOX’s support didn’t go all the way).  Sigh.  We’ll always have the two universes, the shapeshifters, the Evil Charlie, the two Lincoln Lees, the two Olivias, the two Walters, the one Peter, Gene the Cow, rebooted timelines, etc., in DVDs or reruns.

    Links to my past thoughts and observations on the series “Fringe”:

    When it started, I was intrigued.

    While it was imperfect, I still enjoyed it.

    The complicated but ultimately loving father-son relationship between Walter and Peter Bishop got to me even in the early days of the show.

    The question of WHAT is Peter Bishop.

    I had “Fringe” on my 2008 list, by the end of the year.

    I was glad that, at least, “Fringe” was able to resolve its first arc; really, I admired how Olivia transitioned from the loss of first love of her life, Agent John Scott (even if we never knew what the heck was Scott involved in).  How many shows give a character a chance to say goodbye properly to someone they once loved?

    Of course there was the infamous episode where Agent Charlie Francis (in his original iteration in Season 1) dealt with the maggot infection as the Monster Of The Week (and wherein we learned that Charlie was happily married).  I think it’s funny that this becomes an inspiration to the bug-infected Red Universe Charlie (Charlie lives!), who later gets into that nice little romance with the bug scientist (awww).

    The development of the Red Universe (and many questions).

    The “Fringe” and Star Trek connection (here, and here, on that score).

    My reaction to the season 2 season premiere.  And, how I was dismayed with Evil Charlie during season 2’s start.  Season 2 also gave us Broyles’ back story (pre re-boot!).

    “Fringe” made it on my 2009 list.

    In 2010, I called Red Universe Charlie “Alternate Charlie” (Charlie lives!), and somehow, Olivia came back to Blue Universe, but with a sad sacrifice in the Red Universe (i.e., poor pre-reboot Red-verse Broyles).

    “Fringe” made it on my 2010 list, and sadly, neither Anna Torv nor John Noble were nominated for Emmies for their acting feats in playing so well Olivia and Walter and their alternate selves.

    By March 2011, I realized that the life arc of Peter was a mess.  I suppose it’s only fair that this season 5’s Peter arc pretty much reflect that he’s a guy who goes really far until/unless someone pulls him from the brink.

    By 2011, “Fringe” made Fridays fun, even if the themes of fathers messing with science for their sons and how friends who mess with science without thinking about consequences were themes that probably were beating us on the heads.

    Spring 2011 was where Walter, Peter, and Leonard Nimoy’s William Bell made that trippy trip into Olivia’s head and Broyles somehow ingested Walter’s LSD.

    As even this post notes, I really got into Ken Tucker’s posts on Entertainment Weekly about “Fringe.”

    The time traveling in “Fringe” gave me a headache.

    I noted my frustration with Season 4 and that (reboot) iteration of the main Fringe team.

    “Fringe” still made my list, even if I didn’t understand the reboot and Peter so did not fit in it.

    The dystopic sadness of this last season, and making my list in 2012.

  • A Review of Reading/Literary Highlights of 2012

    Happy New Year!  It’s 2013!

    As a follow up of the Reading/Literary Highlights of 2011, here are some analyses of my personal reading of 2012.

    I have Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery, a Christmas/birthday gift, actually, to be finished this week, but as I didn’t get to finish it in 2012, it shall have to be the first book of 2013.

    As usual, thank you, Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library for allowing me to borrow ebooks and regular books from you! (I made my year-end donations in time; hope you all did the same for your public library systems).

    So, as of 12/31/12, I read a total of 66 books.  This is less than the numbers since I’ve started keeping track of the books I’ve read since 2009 (excepting 2009 itself, since I started the list late in that year and couldn’t reconstruct what I was reading earlier).  I was hoping to read up to 75 books in 2012, but it just didn’t happen.

    In no particular order, regarding my personal reading/literary highlights:

    1. Breakdown: approximately 1/3 of the books read were in ebook format (18 or so); I have not given up the dead tree.  I’ll post the list shortly, but the further breakdowns might very well impact my 2013 reading (assuming that I do go forward with being more discerning about the 2013 reading with real intention, rather than continue with my haphazard selections): overwhelmingly fiction; 4 politics/law; 11 comics/graphic novels; 1 play; 21 mystery/thrillers, 2 writing/craft of writing; 2 poetry; 2 travel; 3 memoirs; 3 literary criticism; 13 romance novels; 2 philosophy; 2 literary fiction (i.e., not genre fiction).

    2. My change in jobs cut down my commute and that changed my reading habits.  I’ve been reading a lot more dead tree issues of magazines, including Sports Illustrated (I have it in the house; what else am I going to do?), which had some really well-written and illuminating articles, I shall say, to keep me informed even though I am a very casual sports fan.

    3. Odd pattern – it’s looking like November is when I write so much (because of NaNoWriMo), but not really read.  Or when I read, I don’t really write.  Odd!

    4. A graveyard of incomplete reading (skimmed or unfinished) such as a collection of Anton Chekov short stories, a bunch of romance novels, and a collection of Wallace Stevens poetry.

    5. Still reading a bunch of Batman compilations.

    6. No Star Trek reading at all, probably the first time in years, and certainly the first since I starting keeping my lists of books read.  This might need to be remedied in 2013.

    7. Rediscovered Colin Dexter and again enjoying reading Inspector Morse.

    8. Tackling political reads in a political year (Anne Kornblut, Gwen Ifill, and Jim Lehrer – putting aside whether he did great or not at the debate this past fall).

    9. That binge on romance novels this summer made me realize more than ever that the romance publishing industry (or Harlequin the company at least) ought to consider better editing, or at least made me appreciate little distractions from boring otherwise commutes (see the link below for my summer romance reading post).

    10. Spending more money and time at independent bookstores – like Strand, Mysterious Bookshop, or even Greenlight.  I especially had a kick out of the Strand events of seeing Billy Collins and Robert Pinsky, or seeing Ed Lin at Mysterious Bookshop (I have Ed Lin’s One Red Bastard; he signed it!; and I was going to read it in 2012, but obviously that didn’t happen; it shall be a 2013 read, I promise!).

    11. Goodbye to the independent bookstore Partners & Crime.  Ugh!  So sad.  (see here and here for past posts on the subject).

    12. I am getting more curious about reading more shorter fiction, but was not really actively pursuing that.  Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader: A Novella made more curious about the novella – and not to mention the value of reading.  Meanwhile, Junot Diaz (for Drown) and Elmore Leonard (for Fire in the Hole and Other Stories) had me appreciating the strength of voice in short stories and Agatha Christie’s short story collection made me appreciate plot.

    13. Brooklyn Book Festival!  (see link on my post about it below).

    14. Zadie Smith’s crackingly strong mind.

    15. Reading Kenji Yoshino reminded me of the ties between law and Shakespeare.  Did I read more Shakespeare in 2012?  No, but maybe I’ll do it in 2013.

    16. Reading some fun philosophy books (certain when it’s done with some humor or with some Batman perspective) reminded me on how I didn’t hate reading philosophy back in college.

    17. Finally tackled authors I’ve long thought to read and never quite did it before: Elmore Leonard and Sara Paretsky.

    18. Reading Pico Iyer and Eloisa James with their memoirs of life abroad and back again – to seize life in action and in words.

    19. More Lawrence Block and Rex Stout – clearly, mystery/thriller remains a genre that I enjoy.

    20. Justice Stephen Breyer’s Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution probably was the most serious thing on my list (putting aside the politics books and that lyrical depths of Pico Iyer’s book), so maybe I ought to read more weightier stuff in 2013?

    See here for the previous compilation of retrospective reading/literary posts. (or you could click for the reading or lit tags on my tumblr).  Other links to other 2012 posts on my reading/literary ventures since that compilation in spring 2012:

    Thoughts on reading Zadie Smith and Kenji Yoshino.

    Recent spring reading.

    A review of my summer 2012 reading.

    A specific post on my summer 2012 romance reading.

    My thoughts on the Brooklyn Book Festival 2012.

    Reading Eloisa James’ Paris in Love.

    Reading Lawrence Block’s A Drop of the Hard Stuff, ending it on Christmas 2012.

    The 2012 list will be up next.  Thank you for joining the ride and let’s see how 2013 will be!

    (cross-posted at sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com)

  • The Winding Down of 2012 or Some TV Highlights

    My personal TV Highlights of 2012, which isn’t really a best/worst list (or maybe it should be) and it doesn’t help that I’ve really cut back on tv viewing and don’t have Showtime and HBO (so, no Damian Lewis and Homeland or Boardwalk Empire).  And I’m not on the Breaking Bad bandwagon.  In no particular order:

    1. Sherlock/Elementary – I decided to combine the Holmesian stuff in one category.  I got a kick out of seeing Irene Adler on Sherlock and credit Elementary for bringing Jonny Lee Miller back on American tv.  Benedict Cumberbatch and Miller bring out different aspects of Sherlock, and while I like how Cumberbatch plays up the clever and anti-social Sherlock, Miller does a nice job on a tragic Sherlock, who won’t admit that he’s tragic.  Elementary‘s not perfect and not as crisp as Sherlock (having a longer season on American broadcast network does drag things out), but a good watch.

    2. Community – the season finale was just terrific (note that this is a show that I have raved on the blog previously).  If that had been a series finale, I could accept it and move on, but NBC’s giving me a sense of empty hope of when Community would be back.  Hopefully, we’ll get a triumphant final season soon (I say “final” since I don’t expect a renewal; NBC could surprise me, but who knows?).

    3. The summer Olympics 2012.  As I posted here about the Olympics, NBC continues to be an irritation about its coverage, since it has to make a great highlights show already, rather than a bloated half-ass one, but good stuff is still good.

    4. Presidential Debates 2012 – the crazy reality show that really affected reality.

    5. Fringe – what a weird year of the series, especially as we’re in the last season.  We’ll see how this ends.

    6. Suits – Is it a perfect show?  No, but I get a kick out of the characters and the dialogue, as improbable as the plots are.  This priceless line of dialogue this summer really had me guffawing, something along the lines where Harvey Specter (the basically nutty senior partner of the law firm) says: “There can only be one” at the funeral of the founding partner’s wife, and Jessica Pearson (managing partner) replies to him: “You’re quoting ‘The Highlander’ [at a funeral]?!”  That Jessica of all people even knew what Harvey was quoting was ridiculous to grasp.

    7. PBS’ Masterpiece – I’m still not on the Downton Abbey bandwagon (gasp!).  But, I’m still on board with Lewis (whatever the outcome of the show with its odd plots, Inspector Lewis, Sergeant Hathaway, and Dr. Hobson are such great characters),  and was kind of happy with the return of Morse (even if it was a young Morse).

    8. Justified – US Marshall Raylan Givens might shoot an awful lot, but he still gets around to asking lots of questions.

    9. Young Justice – yes, it’s a cartoon, but it’s an animated DC Comics that moved a lot more than I expected. Red Arrow’s sad trajectory (doing the drug storyline without the drugs!) and even Dick Grayson as Nightwing and a return of Tim Drake as Robin – seriously, not what I’d think DC Comics would finally pull off on the (small) screen.  So cool that Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker touched on Young Justice on his blog (at least somewhere on the mainstream covered it).  Definitely a different way to look at whole Young Justice/Teen Titans as one combination (without using the name “Teen Titans” or even “Titans”).

    10. Hurricane Sandy tv coverage – well, I didn’t lose electricity, so I probably overdosed on the coverage, especially to figure out whether I could travel or go to work or what.  NY1 did a great job.

    Honorable Mentions:

    The Walking Dead (I finally got around to watching it this 3rd season, and seeing how nutty it is, at least insofar as how they notched the violence and decreased the melodrama of the relationship of Deputy Rick Grimes and his family);

    Archer (ridiculous as ever);

    Nova Science Now (David Pogue as host isn’t quite Neil deGrasse Tyson, but still science on PBS continues well and alive);

    America Revealed (as noted previously on the blog, it was great for having Yul Kwon and, besides, it covered comprehensively and in a fascinating way a topic that Americans don’t think about: infrastructure of systems);

    The Legend of Korra (the continuing saga of the Avatar series – just amazing for a cartoon!);

    Doctor Who (linking to the BBC America site; I’m so behind, it’s not funny, but I caught some episodes and clips).

    I have also gotten behind on Parks and Recreation, but what a show.

    Oh, and Comedy Central’s just killing it with Key and Peele, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,  and The Colbert Report (that Maurice Sendak interview that Stephen Colbert had was just priceless, and so poignant after Sendak passed away this year).

    I’m probably forgetting other notable stuff of 2012, but I never promise to be comprehensive!

    The professional tv critics have their lists out there:

    David Bianculli has the rundown reflecting on the state of tv in 2012 on NPR’s Fresh Air and his list up on his website, TV Worth Watching.

    Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker in a video on his Top 10 (check your dead tree issue, too) and the rest of the 10 making his Top 20.

    Time’s James Poniewozik with his Best TV, and Best Episodes lists and other lists, along with his Worst of 2012.

    There are probably many other persons’ lists I’m missing; feel free to look for your own favorites and share accordingly.

  • Christmas Eve 2012

    Merry Christmas!  It’s that time wherein the folks at NORAD (that Cold War remnant) is on the lookout for Kris Kringle.

    Santa Claus traveling via wormholes makes a heck of a lot more sense, though… (Science of Santa, via NPR).

    If you’re reading this, you must have realized by now that the alleged Mayan Apocalypse, 12/21/12, did not happen (feel free to check out this interesting PBS NewsHour item on the subject), but hopefully it meant that people had an opportunity to think about the Mayans (and other doomsayers who really doomsaid and didn’t prognosticate correctly (like this item that I shared from FC on Facebook  – where the Economist discusses such doomsayers as… the prophet hen of Leeds, who thought the world was going to end in… 1806. Wonder what happened to her…).

    David Stuart is the foremost expert on the Mayans (at least that Nova or Nat’l Geographic episode years ago made it seem that way), so he ought to know and did know what the Mayans might have meant; so, feel free to check out what he said on NPR about what he’d do to celebrate the new baktun: “‘I’ll be here in Austin that night,’ he said, ‘and probably raise a glass of wine to the end of the baktun, and the beginning of a new one.’”

    What a nice way to think of the new cycle, whether it’s a multi-thousand year cycle like a baktun or a new year, and after all, remember that the Mayans were/are incredible people, until a lot of other bad other things happened. You know, have a teachable moment.

    From the ABA Journal:

    Just what we all need: a zombie law casebook. Hopefully answering such questions as “Are you legally responsible for destruction you cause because you have no brains/need brains/fighting those who want your brains?”; what about consequences arising from zombie apocalypse? Etc. Funny thing: I’m pretty sure most of “The Walking Dead” aren’t in the law (not talking about Rick or the Governor either, and yes, I have been watching “The Walking Dead” earlier this season).

    ABA Journal on a lawyer with a llama sanctuary.  Seriously, where do they find these stories?  And the headline: “Shama Llama Ding Dong: Attorney Establishes Llama Sanctuary” –  I don’t know whether that’s cute or sad, or a ridiculous of both.

    Meanwhile, we still have no hockey because of the NHL lockout, with no end in sight.  NY Rangers fans, as this nifty little post notes, should boo the hell out at NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, because the Rangers aren’t in pursuit of the Stanley Cup at this time of year and Bettman has no resolution to the lockout.

    NY Giants are so pathetic, as one wonders whether they should even make the playoffs, as this post asks.  The inconsistency is truly sad, and the recent consistent badness – sigh…  But, at least they’re not the Jets, with copious amounts of quarterback controversy.

    I never quite like a year’s in review in advance, since the year’s not over yet and then we’d miss such notable recent passings:

    The passing of Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist.

    The passing of US Senator  Daniel Inouye  (D. – Hawaii), 1st Japanese-American elected to both House & Senate, & World War II hero, an inspiration for all Americans and an Asian Pacific American pioneer.

    (h/t: Angry Asian Man’s Facebook page – I had no idea that Sen. Inouye was into punk rock or at least got involved because his kid was in that field of the music industry. Talk about supportive dad.)

    The passing of Judge Robert Bork.  Over at Slate, interesting commentary from Judge Richard Posner, in light of the passing of Robert Bork. (I don’t like how the Bork process got us where we are now with all kinds of Senate confirmations, but politics is a dirty business, and I’m surprised that Bork didn’t realize it at the time of his nomination, or so it seemed to me).

    The passing of actor Jack Klugman, formerly Oscar of TV’s “The Odd Couple” and the former Quincy of the tv show “Quincy,  M.E.”  (NY Times obit here).

    It has been more than a week after the terrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT (see here for the PBS NewsHour coverage – I have found the PBS NewsHour’s work to be the most responsible, after gnashing my teeth over the endless media speculation that came without substantiation during an ongoing investigation over this heart breaking situation), and I’m still getting my head wrapped around the issue of gun control versus the NRA’s non-approach to the issue (see here for the PBS NewsHour coverage on the NRA’s weirdness of last week).

    I have especially found these articles interesting on the subject, which I shared on Facebook:

    Slate’s Emily Bazelon writes persuasively on what will make us candid about the subject; she closes the article that we need social transformation/cultural shift – it’ll take a lot, but will it happen? I’m doubtful of that (I’ll try to keep hopeful about it), but I did like these paragraphs of Bazelon’s:

    We are saturated with 300 million guns but we are not truly a country of guns, because that would means we collectively understood and respected them. [….] In the United States, we’re divided, and we have no universal basic knowledge of weapons. We make it incredibly easy to buy the kind of weapons that shoot and shoot again instantly, but we don’t search people at the doors of schools or malls or movie theaters, and we don’t post armed guards in these places. We have the guns without the safety checks. We call that freedom. We invoke the current Supreme Court’s understanding of the Second Amendment right to bear arms. [….] The cost of this definition of freedom is too high: That’s the point advocates for gun control make, over and over again.

    Slate’s William Saletan is quite right, as he writes:

    I wish we could pass a magic law that would stop madmen from killing our children. We can’t. There will always be angry lunatics. There will always be knives and shotguns and gasoline. I don’t think banning guns will make the problem go away. We don’t need another all-or-nothing war between pro-gun and anti-gun ideologues. What we need is a frank, precise, constructive conversation about the problem of high-speed weapons. You don’t need rapid-fire weapons to hunt or defend your home. [….] And while it’s true that passing a law against them won’t eliminate them, that’s not an argument against legislation. It’s an argument for going beyond legislation. The community of gun sellers and enthusiasts must act collectively to track and control the technology of mass murder.

    The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates raises a good question: how eager are Americans being armed on their own person? And, then how far do we go? Hmmm.

    I wonder if we can find something reasonable – can we have sensible gun control, civil dialogue, and better mental health care (not to presume that mental health problems are the cause of mass shootings, but I would posit all factors get to be put on the table, simply to make for a better society); but then again, the Reasonable Person only existed in law school as this abstraction, so who am I kidding?

    When we have a year of the consequences of Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy and the tragedy at Sandy Hook (and gun violence is this epidemic that never stopped during the past several years, in all honesty), I’m really hoping that 2013 will be better.  When I’m hearing that Hurricane Sandy victims are giving to help the victims at Sandy Hook – and the idea of paying it forward – it’s kind of heartbreaking, but maybe there is hope amid all the madness.   Let’s hope that we would have a better year next year; I’m always reminded how much hope springs eternal.

    I’m also hoping for one more post before 2013. No guarantees of a “best of” list or a year in review, but we’ll see.