So, wait – ex-journalists are becoming lawyers? What are ex-lawyers doing? … Hmm, well, no one says that the current economy is making it easy for anyone.
Atlantic Antic on Atlantic Avenue, on Sunday, in Brooklyn. Not sure if I’ll make it, if I’m too lazy to get out of my end of Brooklyn.
Getting into watching “Community” – it still a show that needs work – the need to balance humor and heart is still hard to achieve – but I think I like it. It kind of feels like a non-musical “Glee,” only the women characters don’t feel stupid. In fact, none of the characters (except maybe Chevy Chase – but even that’s not clear) don’t feel stupid; they’re just trying to deal with community college and finding a future. I also like the diversity – everyone’s a little stupid, but not stupid, and get some joy out of something, even Abed, the eccentric Pakistani-American kid, and maybe not so much the Asian American instructor who teaches Spanish (actor Ken Jeong). Still wish the series didn’t conflict with “Fringe” though.
“Fringe” – one of those odd, yet fascinating episodes because it’s all about the characters (and less of EvilCharlie):
Walter realizes it’s time to live in a real apartment;
military veterans who become ticking time bombs and not even know it;
crazy colonel thinks he’s right that there’s a Big Threat Out There (and even if he is, he can’t even be specific enough to convince Broyles of anything);
Broyle’s is a tough but kind man, telling Peter and Olivia to look out for each other as they head to Iraq to speak with informants;
Olivia’s still trying to recover from the car crash and the horrifying trip to the Alternate Universe (aka “over there” or “other side”) – at a bowling alley;
Peter can speak Arabic because he was apparently involved in some kind of unspecified shenanigans in Iraq;
and Astrid… doesn’t want Walter to use fruit in the experiments. Umm, wasn’t Astrid supposed to be an FBI agent herself? Huh?
Been watching chunks of Ken Burns’ National Parks documentary. Especially enjoyed the parts about Teddy Roosevelt’s style of big government power – the style of a NY progressive Republican – to preserve nature and history. Ken Burns was using film-making to make some kind of political statement indeed.
Am I glad that I don’t live in NJ – I’d hate to watch that gubernatorial debate and actually have to decide to vote in that election. Ironically, the commercial for the third party candidate, Christopher Daggett, was funny for making fun (in a funny way, not necessarily the mudslinging way that is traditional for NJ) of both Jon Corzine (for being a former financier) and Chris Christie (umm, for being a large loud man). Being in the NYC tv market, we get way more NJ political ads than I’d want to stomach, but I doubt it’s easy for the NJ Voter to deal with.
This video below that Eyewitness News had has to be one of the stranger Only In New York type stories – someone’s cuddly furry dog is on the ledge. Fortunately, the dog finally went back inside, but very odd scene.
Sesame Street’s parody of “Mad Men” – to teach kids to understand emotions:
Vermeer at the Met:
Oh, and Justice Sotomayor throwing the first pitch at last Saturday’s Yankee game.
As a follow up to Primary Day, I voted on Runoff Day. As reported, Bill DeBlasio is the Democratic candidate for public advocate and John Liu is the Democratic candidate for comptroller. More importantly, for NYC history, Liu is on the path to becoming the first Asian American in citywide political position.
I did see “The Informant!” on Sunday — Matt Damon is terribly amusing, but it’s a weird feeling to realize that the way to portray corporate malfeasance and one man’s financial corruption is via comedy. Damon showed how his character was so average, yet clever, and mentally ill (probably). Scott Bakula as the good FBI agent was pretty cool. Steven Soderbergh (and producer George Clooney) had a whole bunch of people in the movie, even the Smothers Brothers.
Sam Yoon didn’t exactly get to go forward in the Boston mayoral race, but he seemed to have a decent showing. At least there’s progress f or APA candidates o the east coast.
Fall preview of the coming season of “How I Met Your Mother”…
That season premiere was pretty good. Except… Ted’s supposed to be an architecture instructor at Columbia. And, they did throw in some exterior shots of the Columbia campus. But, the scene where Ted is running through campus to get to the correct classroom clearly has Ted in a Californian campus (viewers on one of the bulletin boards on-line say it’s either UCLA, USC, and I kind of thought it looked a lot like Stanford). Plus, no, the buildings at Columbia are not named as “Building No. 5.” As a Columbia alumnus, I was a little disappointed about that. Otherwise, thought it was cool that “Barnman and Robin” will be in their version of a relationship.
The season premiere of “Fringe” was entertaining — although, I’m not all that pleased with what they did to Charlie, the FBI agent who was Olivia’s friend. It was a J.J. Abrams-redux thing, really, and I do wonder whether this will just about crush Olivia’s spirit – to harm her FBI friend like that.
And the boss, Broyles, with an unusual sort-of romance with the mysterious Nina Sharp? I kind of called that last season – they had some amusing chemistry vibes and I’m glad “Fringe” would touch on that.
I didn’t watch the season premiere of “Heroes.” Television Without Pity covers the storylines that “Heroes” dropped the ball on. Those reasons — well, the whole dropping the ball on Claude and Lindermann and the alternate universe of Plague — along with what they did to Nathan last season are why I can’t watch this show anymore. You have to respect your characters; you have to come to a proper resolution to your stories, or you just have a pretty show to watch, but not much of a show. Just saying, that’s all.
I don’t live in New York County, so I didn’t vote in the DA election across the river. Cyrus Vance, Jr., won; there will be a new DA in NY county, ending the Morganthau era. Funny, Vance doesn’t look like Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy… (never mind; silly joke).
At least three city councilmen have been ousted, including Alan Gerson of lower Manhattan (the district covering Chinatown) who lost to Margaret Chin. More Asians will be representing NYC in city council.
As I noted previously, in a vague way, there is an opening in the 2nd Circuit of the US Court of Appeals, and with Pres. Obama nominating Asian Americans for federal district court… well, at least we can hope around here in the NY area of what made happen for that next level: US Senator Schumer recommended Judge Denny Chin for the promotion. Considering the whole Bernie Madoff case and that Judge Chin has the experience – well, we’ll see!
I managed to watch most of the new episode of the new show “Glee” on FOX – entertaining, and seems to have potential. I do agree with Time’ James Poniewozik – the show seems to have humor and heart – and flaws. As much as I’m amused by Jane Lynch’s cheerleading squad coach character, I’m a little intimidated by her character (she’s quite a comedic actress; I’d hope for her character to be better than a one-dimensional broad caricature); and I do agree with Poniewozik – Jessalyn Gilsig’s character as the wife of Will, the Glee club faculty advisor – well, she was also way too one-dimensional (although, I think they were trying to move past that by the end of the episode – hard to tell) – and she’s an actress who deserves better than that (she made “Heroes” bearable to watch for me, and I watched “Boston Public” because of her time there). And, the OCD teacher (sorry, guidance counselor?) – well, she’s also a touch annoying.
But, I think Will and the Glee kids are sincere and hopeful (if not a little over their heads). We’ll see how this goes; I’ll give them a chance..
As Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker notes: it’s the return of “At the Movies” – with movie critics! A.O. Scott of NY Times and Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune – the new guys, since the two Bens were ousted (see here on my acknowledging the arrival of the two Bens). Not that there was anything wrong with Ben Mankiewicz (as Tucker noted), but Ben Lyons bore the brunt of the (bad) criticism of his movie criticism ability (he’s not quite like his dad, Jeffrey, apparently; I didn’t hate him, but I didn’t watch the show at all while the Bens were on, so…).
So, thankfully, A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips are At the Movies (considering that they’ve filled in for Ebert when it was the Ebert and Roeper show, they’ve shown they are able folks). I love that the embedded video that Tucker included in his blog, previewing the new show, is all about how Scott and Phillips are Serious Journalists and Longtime Film Critics (totally trying to make up for the whole Ben Lyons thing, no offense intended for the kid, but guess it’s time to find other things to do; I do miss Jeffrey Lyons though).
I watched it an episode this past weekend and it was pretty good, although I’m not sure of their “see it/rent it/skip it” rating (Ebert has the rights to the thumbs up/down thing, so it wasn’t as if they could use it). But, it is great to see Scott and Phillips talking serious (joy or hate) about movies.
I did see “The Time Traveler’s Wife” this weekend; could’ve been a better movie, but was ok. I’ve heard the book was better, but it’s an adaptation; it does what it can do.
Saw “Adam” last week – that was kind of sweet and sad; I think this one and “(500) Days of Summer” are the dark romantic movies of the summer – can’t really say anti-romantic, since they both suggest that it’s better to have loved than to have never loved at all, but they were both bittersweet movies.
US Open and Ramadan – a Pakistani tennis player who tries to be cosmopolitan, religious, and professional all at once.
Jason Bateman profile. He’s come a long way from the 1980’s child acting gigs. Plus, I loved how the article mentions his Valerie/Valerie’s Family/The Hogan Family days (the one tv series with three different titles (and two networks) – an average comedy that somehow managed to stay on the air for a decent run).
Space has a smell. That’s more than I would have figured, since smell involves someone’s brain, via the senses, to detect.
I can’t seem to find a link to an on-line version of the article, but Richard Huff of Daily News reported that Friday’s edition of Channel 11’s 10pm newscast was likely the first time in NYC metro area new that both anchors were Asians, with Arthur Chi’en filling in for Jim Watkins and sitting with Kaity Tong. They even acknowledged it during the news, just before the sports segment (and had otherwise made it just the usual Channel 11 news thing).
I’m confused with Barney and Robin, but that’s ok. Another season of “How I Met Your Mother” to enjoy!
A Power Ranger who wants to do Mixed Martial Arts. As they say in “Grey’s Anatomy”: Seriously? The ex-Green Ranger did a recent return to the Power Rangers show (umm, about a couple of years ago), as the adult version of his character, and he came off his age on the show – meaning, his 30’s. He isn’t a kid anymore, so he really ought to be careful.