Category: Los Angeles – Orange County

Weekend!

A-Team and The Karate Kid!  Oh My God – it’s the return of the 1980’s, in a revised kind of way.

I got to see The A-Team movie; nothing perfect, but if you liked the old tv series, this was a fun.   Plot made no sense; but what was there was an origins story of how my generation’s favorite tv soldiers of fortune got together to be the gang that we know and love.

Oh, and putting aside the excessive CGI and explosions (yeah, I know – explosions in anything related to A-Team) – but the cast was pretty good – Liam Neeson! Bradley Cooper! And, the guys playing the B.A. and Murdoch roles!

See also: Steven James Snyder’s review on Time Magazine’s Techland; and even Richard Corliss’ review (Corliss being the official Time movie critic); review by EW’s Owen Glieberman; and Dana Stevens on Slate.  Roger Ebert really didn’t care for it – which I understand and empathize, but I seriously don’t go into watching the movie on the A-Team to hope that I’d get “Hurt Locker” (seriously – no.).

The Smurfs movie is in progress.   Actor Hank Azaria as Gargamel – there was a picture floating in one of the entertainment magazines catching him in the city in his Gargamel costume.  But, Neil Patrick Harris as Johan?  Oh My God!

Speaking of the 1980’s, the man behind “Voltron,” Peter Keefe, passed away.  The 1980’s as a decade keeps coming back.

World Cup time; Slate has a good explanation for why North Americans call the sport “soccer” while the rest of the world calls it “football.”

Pretty entertained by the US v. England World Cup game: ending on a 1-1 tie.  It seemed festive in South Africa, and even stateside (in the city, anyway).  Not sure how they took it in England, but oh well.

I do thank the Angry Asian Man blog for posting a very hot photo of the Japanese team – these fit men in suits – so hot.

Oh, a funny yet hot look at David Beckham’s reactions to the US v. England tie – the pictures were funny indeed (including a photoshopped look at the Obama White House laughing at Beckham.  Oops!).

What’s with soccer athletes looking so good?

Finished reading Bonnie Tsui‘s book “American Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods,” where she examines the contexts for the Chinatowns of San Francisco; NYC; Honolulu; Los Angeles; and Las Vegas.   Smooth read; especially fascinated about the Chinatowns I knew least (Honolulu and Las Vegas).  The rest could have been more original – but then again, the book might be more for an audience who need to be more aware about Chinatowns.

June Continues

World Science Festival in the city; some good stuff.

So, along with wacky service problems on weekends (shuttle bus, anyone?), MTA’s going to be issuing a new map (probably to reflect the end of some subway lines and other things). It’s supposed to look sleeker.  Hmm.  We’ll see how good it’ll be.

But, it’s a pain in the neck over the weekend, when subway lines aren’t going between Brooklyn and Manhattan and buses all clumped up.

Coming up, on 6/12/10: Save NYC Libraries.

Here’s a link to a trailer of the new “Hawaii Five-O,” coming this fall on CBS.  I’m getting more into the new Hawaii Five-O than I expected, based on the trailers alone, which look good. They seem to fit in this era of “Can we please have a more diverse tv cast” and “are we losing Miranda rights?” — plus, Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, even Scott Caan! (oh, and Alex O’Loughlin, who is in need of a… show that doesn’t get canceled; but, he’s no Jack Lord though as “Steve McGarrett” (and I never really watched the original Hawaii Five-O).

I posted the trailer on Facebook, and FC noted that there’s one continuity blooper – at 1:02, one of the cops is holding his badge upside down, and at 1:03 his badge is right side up.  Clearly, they’re still working on the show (well, tv is tv).

But, I’m not sure what does it mean if I’m not really into much fall tv as it is.  Hmm.

Via Angry Asian Man blog: by Jeff Yang, on the SF Gate, “The Book of Daniel,” profiling Daniel Dae Kim.  Good stuff to read.

Apparently, “Heroes” wants one more shot to say goodbye (from Time’s Techland, of the TVGuide.com posting). — seriously, no.  I gave up when they had unceremoniously killed off the Adrian Pasdar character Nathan.  I’m not getting on board just to see more mess and say goodbye.  “Lost” earned a goodbye, because they cared about their characters; “Heroes” did not, because they didn’t care about their characters (or stopped doing so).

On the other hand, I’ll still give “Heroes” credit for its diverse cast.  Sure.  But, it didn’t do more appropriate stuff with the characters.

Shakespeare in the City: check it out the list on WNYC and Wall Street Journal’s review on New York Classical Theatre’s scheduled “Richard III” at Central Park (yes, roving Shakespeare).

Lawyers as writers – Scott Turow was on Charlie Rose a couple  of weeks ago about his  newest book.  John Grisham was on NPR’s All Things Considered, about his own legal thriller for kids (seriously; I’m not entirely sure how it works either, but it sounded intriguing).  I’m impressed that these two pioneers in legal thrillers are still at it.

Linda Greenhouse on J. Souter’s commencement speech at Harvard and her observation that he hasn’t completely disappeared.  Good for him!

The passing of John Wooden, UCLA’s legendary men’s basketball coach.

See you later, Conan O’Brien, wherever you are.

“All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch: Please do not be cynical.  I hate cynicism.  For the record, it’s my least favorite quality.  It doesn’t lead anywhere.  Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.  But if you work really hard and you’re kind, I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”

– Conan O’Brien

I really enjoyed watching the graceful farewell by Conan O’Brien, for his last show last Friday.  Not a Will Ferrell fan, but I thought Conan joining Ferrell, Ben Harper, Beck (!), and others in a final jam session was his way of saying “see you around.”  That he gave his thanks to NBC for his career (despite the bitterness of the situation) was touching, as was his thanks to the fans.  Guests Steve Carrell and Tom Hanks were also cool.

Check out the highlights by Alan Sepinwall of the Star-Ledger; James Poniewozik in his Time Magazine blog “Tuned In”; Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune; and (but not least) Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly.  Tucker also noted (which I had seen and thought was sweet) on Jimmy Fallon’s tribute to Conan from Conan’s old Late Late night studio at 30 Rockefeller.

Part of me feels like NBC did what any corporation does these days – look out for the bottom line and not necessarily care about long-term or big picture ideas or human feelings.  Conan’s not perfect, but he at least made me think that NBC was trying to build for a future.  Not to say that Jay was great or bad or whatnot, but making the drastic decisions NBC made in ditching prime-time for him and then daring to bring him back to late night, in the middle of trying to keep Conan but ultimately losing him anyway (as Poniewozik noted, NBC pretty much spent millions of dollars and 17 years of training someone else’s future late night host) – it’s kind of schizophrenic to me.

Honestly, I don’t understand corporations.  And, thanks to the US Supreme Court, there’s an argument to be made that they’re almost like people now – just as nasty and insane (versus the argument to remind us that corporations should not be seen as the equivalent of people).

But, then what can we (as a culture, as corporate entities, as anything) do, when the latest generation doesn’t watch tv the way the previous ones do?  Conan’s long term prospects were not clear when the young weren’t watching him at the time slot that he thought was important to obtain.

Some great inside stuff by NY Times’ Bill Carter: on Conan’s last night and the settlement deal (which appears to prohibit him from talking or being a star on a show until September).

TV critic/commentator David Bianculli proposes that David Letterman invite Conan as a guest on the night Leno returns to the Tonight Show; maybe even as a silent guest or speaking via MadLibs (to comply with the settlement deal).   Possible comedy gold mine.  Or a very dramatic one.

Would Conan come back to NY, or continue trying to seek his fortune in California?

Not sure if I can agree with Conan’s statement about cynicism.  I’ve been wondering about the difference between cynicism, realism, pragmatism, and pessimism, and how things optimistic are kind of hard to find.  But, maybe if Conan says that amazing things can still happen, maybe there is a light out in the darkness after all.

Or maybe I’m just reading too much into things.  Oh well.