Category: Brooklyn

Catchup blog:
Saw the off-Bway play Platanos & Collard Greens yesterday. One of my friends is in it from law school, and was a lot more complex than I expected. Recommended.

The teams were reshuffled into co-ed teams on the Apprentice after 4 successive losses by the boy’s team. The two companies were each given $1,000 to buy stuff to be sold at a flea market; the team with the most profit wins. Getting a heads-up on future sleezyness, $200 is “lost” (aka embezzled) by one of the teams and they lose.

I find out that YC’s ex lives directly above P–‘s apartment. Major world wide disbelief ensues. Everyone’s ok about this, though, I think.

Read The Passport, reading The Tipping Point. Titles of books nowadays tend to be physical nouns rather than verbs or gerunds. Why is that?

Mission impossible: I’m going to run to Chelsea Market, buy a dozen roses, and deliver them to P– before 10 am. Let’s see if this can happen.

I’m in the middle of reading a fascinating historical mystery (taking place in medieval England); I’ll probably blog about it later, when I’m done – but I think it’s funny that the author is a tax attorney in her other life. This other mystery series I’ve read (coincidentally also taking place in medieval Europe) is written by a Legal Aid attorney from Queens. Apparently, I’ve read somewhere that historical mysteries are particularly popular lawyer-novelists, for not only the historical context but also because they give the lawyer-authors (or mystery writers in general) a chance to write about eras before warrants and other items, which may or may not impede investigations. Leave it to lawyers to enjoy that.

NY’s Channel 11 (WPIX) news had an interesting story for its 2/12/04 broadcast – this corporate attorney who is taking a leave of absence from his firm and six-figure-salary to be a Lego Master Builder at Legoland in San Diego. His work is amazing (ex., a several thousand pieces Lego sculpture of Han Solo in carbonite, straight out of Star Wars Episode 5 or 6). It’s like a kid’s dream – and one man is doing it, figuring he’s young enough to do it (in his 30’s or so, it seems), and his girlfriend’s letting him do it, and he loves Legos (it surely doesn’t hurt that he doesn’t have a family to raise yet). The reporter asks soon-to-be-ex-corporate-lawyer what his plans were down the line, and the story closes with the reporter reporting that Lego guy hasn’t abandoned the law; Lego guy figures that maybe down the line he can go back to his firm with Lego as a client.

Talk about a rainmaking/networking opportunity; I don’t doubt that Lego would be an amazing client to have – with its global business probably making plenty of income or possible billable hours for transactional attorneys. (I grew up loving Legos like anyone else, so nice to see a lawyer trying to keep both his interests intact – but not like I’d make Legos my life).

Some interesting bits and pieces:

Sometimes, one wonders if cell phones are too prized, and if they are, what does that say about the person prizing the cell phone? Consider the recent news, wherein a teenager allegedly jumped into the subway tunnel to fetch a cell phone she had dropped, only to be subsequently crushed to death by an oncoming train. We seem to feel sorry for the family, but the reality is that perhaps people are getting too foolhardy? As the article noted, not too long ago, a man on the Metro North trains reached into the toilet for his cell phone, which accidentally fell in; and then his arm stuck, requiring the firefighters to bring in the jaws of life to get him out; and delaying Metro North for hours (people definitely loved that guy).

Nicholas D. Kristof has an interesting op-ed about improving education of the prospective workforce, highlighting the Asian example. He points out that the cheap, but well-educated workers of India; the Chinese population’s high GRE scores; etc. Innovations and higher standards in education in America may be due, but will Americans accept it? As much as I don’t want to wonder (since Kristof is knowledgeable of Asian issues, since he and his wife were the Times’ correspondents in Asia for awhile), sometimes such discussions about the Asian advances in educational standards make me feel squeemish, because they feel like a touch on the stereotype of Asians good at math and other academics.

Speaking of stereotypes, there’s the Alessandra Stanley review of the upcoming PBS documentary on the Medicis, Renaissance Italy’s rulers and promoters. She highlights that the documentary seems accurate, but makes odd references or descriptions, as if Lorenzo the Magnificent and the rest of the Medicis were comparable to the Sopranos. Apparently, the producers were aiming for a humorous style, not intending offense, but, again, I do wonder what stereotypes mean – Italians, after all, aren’t all mobsters and so not all powerful, political Italians aren’t “mafia” (I mean, these are the Medicis, the sponsors of artists and artisans and makers of popes; they made history, not to say that the mob don’t make history, but, come on – Renaissance Italy isn’t exactly comparable to prohibition era America with Al Capone et al; they didn’t even have an Eliot Ness or FBI). Not sure if I’ll end up watching the series, but it doesn’t sound too terrible.

Been listening to WCBS-fm on the radio, listening to the Beatles (well, intermittently; the real Beatles marathon’s not until tomorrow afternoon; otherwise, today, WCBS has been playing Beatles music every other song).

Good articles on history in today’s NY Times:

Winston Churchill’s love affair with America is getting exhibited at the Library of Congress. I especially liked that the article reflected on what has been my favorite nugget about Churchill – he’s half-American anyway, since his mother was Brooklyn’s own Jenny Jerome (one of those 19th century daughters of captains of industry sent to England to marry European aristocrats). Churchill’s a bigger-than-life figure who got out of the 19th century and helped made the 20th century political scenes.

Timely stuff for Black History Month – article on PBS’ documentary on Nat Turner, the slave rebellion leader of the ante-bellum period. I liked how the article captures the sense of how the study of history is often more about figuring out the perspectives we bring into studying different times and among different peoples, especially when dealing with a topic which has a paucity of information – no one knew who was Nat Turner was or how he looked like, but attached their own views about him. Certain scholars of certain periods would either see him as a proponent of revolution; others question his motives; and so on. How they viewed Nat Turner said a lot about what kind of people these historians were and how they fit their own times and places (the study of history of historians – historiography – is almost head-twisting). The Times article quoted the historian Scot French saying, “Your version of history can give us some insights into how you see yourself” – which sums it up best.

I haven’t blogged about a book in awhile, but there is something out there called the “50 Book challenge” – the goal: to read 50 books in 2004 and blog about them and earn the personal sense of goodwill and achievement (it would especially make you feel like you’re more than a couch potato and let’s you pat yourself on the back for still reading anything after putting up with law school and reading like a maniac during bar review). Any genre, so long as it’s a book (i.e., anthologies appear to be ok, since they’re short stories in a book collection). Hmm. My blogging about the genome book won’t count; I had actually started reading it in 2003 (and had owned it since 2001).

I just finished reading the usual cheesey paperback romance novel, and probably shouldn’t blog about it, so whatever comment I make shouldn’t count as “blogging about it” (yeah, you can tell that I’m a lawyer when I’m making up terms and conditions) (and, anyway, about the book – it was so cheesey, I can’t even recommend it, so I’m not giving the title and author away; the male character – a nice doctor – was nicely well-rounded but the female character – a woman scarred by her prior marriage to an adulterous doctor – was ridiculously stubborn to the point of losing credibility on me – and yes, the best romance novels have shreds of credibility – and there was a tiny political/philosophical element that I didn’t agree with and I spent more time flipping pages than actually reading each page. Hmm).

I’ll give Extra Credit to someone who blogs about a book with Asian-American relevance, of whatever genre (the book to be blogged need not be one of those serious socio-political tomes about the Asian-American condition; ex., there’s this fun-looking chick-lit read about an ABC female dealing with turn of the 21st century love in San Francisco; I forgot the title right now, but I read the first chapter in Borders; half tempted to put down the cash for it, since I doubt it’d be in the libraries for awhile; and I’ve found it’d be nice to see Asian-American women write something other than the Amy Tan heavy literary weight kind. Not that I don’t like Amy Tan, since I really liked “The Joy Luck Club” in its book and movie forms – but I just like a wide range of different writings).

Enough of my rambling (and let me apologize for it today). More Fab 4, More Fab 4. Can’t get enough of the Beatles.

Wow, the Beatles on the local news tonight, since we’re all celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival to America and being on the Ed Sullivan show, 40 years this weekend. I liked Channel 11 (WPIX)’s reflection, wherein the female reporters teased how they enjoyed Paul McCartney as little girls. The veteran Channel 11 reporter Marvin Scott yakked about how he was at JFK airport (Idlewild airport back then) to greet the Beatles. Ah, those innocent times – or, rather, the times when America was in recovery from losing the president and before the world became ever more cynical. Or, when a certain generation became inspired by something really fun. Take your pick on which way to view this era.

NY Times’ review of the Beatles was a nice read. I also liked the Slate.com’s analysis. Made one feel very positive that the Beatles came along. CNN’s take is pretty good too. Oh, heck, anything on the Beatles isn’t bad (the Beatles are well before my time, but it’s a little obvious that I like them like anyone else likes them).

And, where’s my Entertainment Weekly? I need my Entertainment Weekly fix! (EW has its own reflection on the Beatles that I shall have to look at).

Slate.com’s Michael Kinsley had an interesting take on the Democratic primaries. I don’t disagree with him; I’m rather amazed myself that my enthusiasm seems waning as it seems like a runaway campaign season – where’s the debating? Are we only going to get it from NH and Iowa now that the field’s all but wedded out? Everything seems so finite. Of course, “seems” is the operative word – anything can happen between now and November.

I should really quit the insomnia. Really…

It’s day 2 here and the weather hasn’t changed a bit. Cold, wet, and quite dreary. But thanks to A J, it doesn’t matter a whole lot. Working indoors and Hooters Taiwan, that solved everything.

The Hula hoops thing was pretty neat. I even won a couple of prizes and we drank enough for me to get some San Miguel beer glasses. Sorry, no pics, I guess I will need to get a digital camera (or maybe someone else can? *hint* *hint*). No trip to Taipei is complete with a trip to the Hooters place. Janet, our hostess was quite attentive. Apparently A J and her have some history which helped out with service.

Being the ABC in Taiwan has been interesting. Besides trying to think and communicate as best as I can manage in Mandarin, I seem to get pretty good service….from Hooter hostesses :-). I’m getting the full royal treatment, hanging out at some expat places like Mago’s, a cigar and scotch place. Interestingly, the place was full of young attractive women, very few men. The four of us were the only male only group. After all the drinking I lived through it. Not too bad considering the last time I drank that much was hmmm …. a bachelor party.

So after 48 hrs here, my observations of Taipei are:
1. It’s like any other large city in the US.
2. Combination of old town feel and western style metropolis. There are some places that remind of old-town Ipoh Malaysia. Then super modern buildings and skyscrapers with huge boulevards that look like Kuala Lumpur.
3. Being an expat can be a whole lot of fun here.
4. Really amazingly beautiful women.

I should be getting out of Taipei next week to places like Taichun and Kaioshung.

Til next posting….

=YC

So… tonight I’m taking YC to Hooters in Taipei. The reason is we might not have the time to go down south of Taiwan and see pole dance stripping at a funeral. Anyways, hooters is a misnomer because, after all, we are in asia. Its more like flatters… or butters… just not hooters… but it does have an interesting spectacle called the hula hoop show. Imagine 5-10 young girls doing a little pom pom routine and then a hula hoop routine. Hula hoops fly through the air. My buddy AP who is quite a tall Taiwanese Dude, one time got smacked in the head with a flying hula hoop. The best part about this sort of thing is that these women are all into ABC guys so 8 times out of 10 they’ll pass you your receipt and there’ll be a mobile phone number on it. Anyways, its all good fun and the Tiger Beer is Cheap because Singapore’s economy is hurtin’. One of my singaporean buddies might come along and bring his 21 year old russian girlfriend. Should be fun to see how that plays out.

Hey… this is just a thought … I think it’d be cool to have an A***** bikini contest…. cuz some asian chicks are hot….

Hey… when the fuck am I going to be honored at B** A**** ?

At a banquet at Tavern on the Green, I won election as one of nine directors of an Asian organization that I’m active with. It’s kind of wierd to being introduced by FOX 5’s Bob DeCastro to like 500 attorneys. Nice event, much better than previous ones that were basically Chinese wedding banquets. I designed the printed program, which looked really good, I had to say. Then afterwards, I had to run back to work to set up for a symposium. On the way back, I passed the new Time Warner headquarters at Columbus Circle. Holy cow, it’s huge! My friend Peter, who was heading back to Brooklyn with me, said it reminded him of Hong Kong’s version of Times Square. The symposium starts at 8 am this morning; writing this entry is probably what I shouldn’t be doing.