Category: Manhattan

Saturday: Alma Mater’s Asian Alumni Lunar Banquet at Peking Park Restaurant, midtown. Food was okay; company was interesting.

February/March reading:

Gideon’s Trumpet, by Anthony Lewis, on the US Supreme Court’s Gideon v. Wainwright, right to counsel in a criminal trial. Lewis was at his best towards the end, in detailing the results and the growing dilemmas of the 1960’s – almost editorial, even if he was trying to be observational. And, even though it was published in 1964, it felt timeless – and yet very contemporaneous – clearly the feeling of reading a primary source, or at least a book that did not know or could be certain what the next 40 years might bring.

Monster Careers: Networking, by Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com, and Doug Hardy, editor in chief of Monster – liked this book. Broke down what is networking at a very basic level.

And, the passing of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., historian. I’ll spare blog readers of my idea of linking just about everything written so far in observance of Schlesinger (great stuff, I might add – Schelsinger being a scholar but also a participant of history), but I’ll note that American historians – particularly the Schlesingers (father and son), the Beards (Charles and Mary), Richard Hofstadter – were who I read when I was taking AP American History in high school – such great stuff that later inspired me to become an American History major in college, and – maybe? – what made me care about what this country may mean. I may not have always agreed with their outlook, but their writing and learning from their work made me think. As for Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., we might be missing a certain type of historian/intellectual/political participant; we all still have much to learn.

Saturday: watched “Letters from Iwo Jima.” What a movie – Clint Eastwood’s quite a director. The movie, if nothing else, does quite well in showing how War Is Bad – and how one’s culture affects how one conducts a war. Actor Ken Watanabe – he is the man – as he plays a general caught in circumstances you’d wish he wasn’t in, as a character who had enjoyed his time in America and learning from American counterparts – but sadly fighting against them and misses his family. Tsuyoshi Ihara is a cutie – but more importantly strongly played Baron Nishi, a guy who also enjoyed his visit in the States as an Olympic athlete but also facing reality. The other soldiers prove to be quite human, ranging from the baker who just wants to go home and the young man who thought he had it in him to police others on their patriotism. Even the glimpses of the Americans at Iwo Jima were fascinating – this was no pretty battle for anyone. Check out the NY Times’ review by A.O. Scott – expansive view of it.

Speaking of how War Is Bad – the comic strip “Funky Winkerbean” kind of irritates me – a recent storyline took the comic strip back to Iraq, to follow up on Funky’s cousin, Wally (on his second tour in Iraq). Then, it looked like Wally was blown up by an IED and you’re left thinking: damn – you just knew something bad was going to happen, since Funky’s best friend’s wife survived breast cancer so someone else was going to have the bad luck. But, the next day, it turns out that Wally didn’t die/get injured – he was just playing a role-playing video game, and he “blew” up. Lousy – just lead on your readers why don’t you?!

Watching the Oscars as I write this – curiously interesting funny bits so far – but they’re dragging it out again – can’t you let the winners say a few words by cutting back on the skits? Hmm…

I was going up the elevator in the New York Hilton at a bar association dinner Thursday night, and I saw on the mini TV screen in the car the news of Anna Nicole Smith’s death. While most will be thinking about the parallels to Marilyn Monroe, others in the legal community will be thinking of the twisted bar exam question this has become (AP Wire article). Things still pending include the J. Howard Marshall II estate resulting from the ultimate May-December relationship. Both contestants to the estate, Marshall’s son and Anna Nicole, are no longer alive, leaving an unknown number of heirs of Marshall’s son, Anna Nicole’s long time lawyer and questionably married companion Howard K. Stern, a 5 month old daughter that have three possible dads, and a choice of Texas, California, Florida, or the Bahamas for residency.

Before becoming an oil tycoon, Marshall was an assistant dean of Yale Law School and apparently taught trusts and estates. I wonder if this was what he was thinking of?

Had dinner with my NYU circle of writer friends. One of them has a new book out, Your Career Is an Extreme Sport . She also writes for the WSJ – check it out.

I wanted to get the book SSW mentioned, A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, because that would be me. It wasn’t in Barnes & Noble yet, so for my winter reading I got What Every American Should Know About Europe. I really don’t know a whole lot about Europe, mostly because I took European History in high school with immersion Spanish. I was pretty good with American History, so I’m sort of OK past 1750 taking it from our point of view, but between the Dark Ages and the middle of the 18th century (or Siglio XVIII as it was called in Spanish), I never really had a good grasp of what was going on. Remedial history for me.

After that dinner, we went out to the nearby Irish pub for a pint, and like a numnut, I left my camera and bag at the Indian restaurant. Today I spent a lot of time on the phone with one guy from the restaurant whose English is pretty much limited to food, and who after 3 phone calls tells me to call at 9:30 pm, I guess when his son shows up. Turns out that they had the bag the whole time, just he couldn’t figure out what to do with it. I make a mad dash back into the city to claim it back. It’s all in one piece, thankfully (P- won’t have to kill me too much).

I was walking back through Times Square to get to the subway and I recall the Daily News mentioning that 1.25 million out-of-towners are here right now. It sure looks like it – check it out yourself:

Invariably I needed to make a pit stop, and thankfully Charmin toilet tissue has rented out a place on Times Square to use the facilities for the holidays. They managed to make relief into a amusement ride. This is actually deluxe – 20 WC closets, a dozen attendants that sanitize the rooms between every use, and of course four rolls of tissue in each room. Over 390,000 people have used the facilities, including 2,000 people from Puerto Rico (that’s a village right there) and apparently 2 North Koreans. This is what the inner sanctum looks like:

If you gotta go, you outta go here – they have to be the cleanest restrooms I’ve ever seen.

New Years’ is in swing – they’re moving in the barricades, the lights and the concrete blocks. If it doesn’t rain it will probably be pretty warm. Not a bad day to stay out for 6 hours.

As I’ve been posting irregularly – well, apologies in advance for the long post below.
Saturday: dentist in the morning; afternoon Xmas shopping. The new Borders at Penn Station/MSG (where McGraw-Hill’s place used to be) – cool. Plenty of variety of books, I must say (well, two floors of wide space should allow for that, you’d think; sometimes I feel that the Wall Street one is a little cramped).
Then, I went to Columbus Circle’s Time Warner building to further the goal of shopping. Walked a bit in Central Park – where upon I spy an only-in-NY thing: a parade of people dressed in Santa Claus suits or elf costumes, plus one Hanukkah Harry in blue (seriously – he was yelling out “Happy Hanukkah,” and his costume – a blue version of the Claus robe – had white letters stitched identifying him as “Hanukkah Harry”). I couldn’t get myself to ask them what was up. They didn’t show up on the local news (no, it wasn’t that important, I guess). If someone knows, just let me know, pretty please.
As we New Yorkers look forward to the swearing-in of Gov-Elect Spitzer on New Year’s Day, we can also look forward to having the first Asian-American female in the State Assembly: Ellen Young got profiled in the NY Times on 12/13/06 (along with the new assemblyman from Brighton Beach, Bklyn, who is a foreign-born from Russia). Jonathan P. Hicks writes:

“This is part of a trend that has been going on for some time,” said John H. Mollenkopf, the director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University Graduate Center. “And there will be more of this happening as time goes by.”

If voters and New York City residents paid little attention to the election of these two Assembly members, it might well be that they have become accustomed to ethnic firsts. In the last decade or so, the city has seen the election of its first Asian-American Council member, John C. Liu, who is also from Flushing. During that time, Queens elected its first Hispanic assemblyman and councilman, Manhattan elected its first Dominican assemblyman and councilman, and Brooklyn elected its first Jamaican-born councilwoman.

The new Assembly members won two of the most hotly contested Democratic primaries in New York City, and won by the narrowest of victories. [Alec] Brook-Krasny won his primary by about 140 votes, and Ms. Young won a three-candidate primary by fewer than 100 votes.

Ms. Young was an aide to Councilman Liu and has become known in Flushing as an advocate for immigrant issues, having organized programs to help immigrants fill out Census forms. She also has served as the president of the Chinese American Voters Association.

Her election reflects a political coming of age for Asian-Americans in Queens. After Mr. Liu’s election to the City Council in 2001, Jimmy Meng became the Assembly’s first Chinese-American member in 2004. But Mr. Meng decided not to run for re-election this year, citing health concerns.

Ms. Young said that since her election, she had been approached by a number of Asian-American women in her district who say they consider her election an important milestone. Slightly more than 50 percent of the 22nd Assembly District’s residents are Asian-American.

“There are quite a number of Asian woman who say that I have inspired them,” Ms. Young said. “And they are looking to me as something of a role model. I think it’s nice. But I tell them that I didn’t run because I’m an Asian-American, but that I have been dedicated to my community for 28 years.” [….]

As I understood it from NY1’s website, which linked to the NY Times’ article: “Inside Albany” – the show aired on local PBS stations to cover NYS government, is coming to an end. Darn shame. It was a good watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon flipping to Channel 13 and seeing what actually happens in Albany. And, these days, I don’t believe our local broadcast news does that in particular depth.

The passing of Peter Boyle, who played Frank Barone on “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

And, in today’s paper: the passing of a NY icon – the voice of the “It’s 10pm; do you know where your children are?” Tom Gregory of Channel 5 apparently had quite a broadcasting career than just his line, but still – memorable.

Interesting AP article posted on MSNBC – what explains the longevity of ER? “It’s the writing, stupid.” Well, we’d like to think so, don’t we? But, I’d like to think there’s almost an implied contract between certain tv shows and audiences – people develop a kind of suspension of belief to stay committed to a beloved show, no matter how it’s written or what new character they bring in to stay “fresh.” I mean, come on – why else did Bonanza lasted for as long as it did? Oh, well.

World’s first cloned cat has… kittens. Aww. Uh, and eerie.

The Rosie O’Donnell debacle on “The View” – wherein she imitated the Chinese language to ridicule the coverage on Danny DeVito’s conduct on “The View” thereby offending Asian-Americans – well, she apologized. I certainly cringed when I watched the clips on the news of O’Donnell’s so-called joke. Too many of us grew up with the nasty kids in the playground yelling “ching chong” and I was pissed that an adult like O’Donnell was putting it out there on mainstream tv; there were others ways to joke about the coverage on DeVito. NYC Council member John Liu had called for an apology; and apaprently O’Donnell apologized – but after her spokesperson released a statement along the lines of “well, sorry you didn’t find it funny and no offense was intended.” A group of minority journalists haven’t quite considered this matter as resolved. The San Francisco Chronicle appears to have the most comprehensive article on this, so far as I can tell.
And, last but not least: Time announces its Person of the Year. Over the last several weeks, they were polling readers and celebrities and even published some of the ideas; some two or so weeks ago, Dr. Andrew Weil suggested to Time that the American voter be the Person of the Year because the American voter was the one who brought change and got the (now tenuous) Democratic majority in the Senate – an idea I applauded (and – well, based on what Time printed, it was pretty obvious on whose side of the Congressional aisle Dr. Weil seemed to be!). Besides, otherwise 2006 didn’t strike me as that great a year. So… guess who’s POY this year? It’s… “YOU.” Eh? Time’s Lev Grossman explains:

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It’s not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it’s really a revolution.

And we are so ready for it. We’re ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos—those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms—than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.

And we didn’t just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.

America loves its solitary geniuses—its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses—but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We’re looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it’s just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I’m not going to watch Lost tonight. I’m going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I’m going to mash up 50 Cent’s vocals with Queen’s instrumentals? I’m going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

Yeah, that’s right. Blame it on YouTube. What is this world coming to, right?  Anyway, congratulations to you – uh, us – on being POY.

Friday we went to CAPA‘s variety show event at The Five Points. The best performers were the filipino alternative band Striving in Greater Hopes (SiGH) and comedian Eliot Chang.

Food menu:
Silk Road Cafe/The Five Points (satay, small sandwiches, soybeans)
N.Y. Noodletown (dry wonton mein with veggies, Singapore mei fun)

Other people’s videos here:
Misnomer(s) – Korean MC and her violin playing sister

SiGH – cover of Cranberries’ Zombie:
Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Last Thursday night – the bunch of us went to Max Brenner, between 13th and 14th Street on B’way in Manhattan – best known for chocolate. Mmm, chocolate. The food was pretty good – I had the three cheese sandwich as an entre – delicious and portions were good – leaving enough room in that special section of the stomach for dessert. Had the cheesecake – which came with Max Brenner’s little beaker of chocolate syrup – mmm. Prices were okay too. Thumbs up! Would love to go again.

Saturday – went to Brooklyn Museum for First Saturday freebie day/day to attract all the young to dance at the Museum and eat food while listening to concerts and lectures. Well, personally, got to enjoy more of the museum. The “Looking Back from Ground Zero” exhibit was moving – capturing what it was like before World Trade Center and after World Trade Center. Strangely, though, I miss the items of what it was like when there was the WTC. Especially found the Brooklyn Museum’s Luce Center and the Visible Storage exhibit really interesting – walking through the area to glimpse at how the museum keeps the stuff it has rarely shown – eerie and exciting and just seeing more amazing stuff.

Sunday – saw the movie “The Prestige” – Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as rival magicians in the late 19th Century/early 20th century. Kind of had the hint of Batman vs. Wolverine (or at least their dramatic alter egos anyway) having a go at each other. Interesting themes, and entertaining, but kind of disturbing too. (well, it is Christian Bale – I haven’t seen all his movies, but I get the feeling that he’s a guy who likes his work to have something disturbing).  What does it mean to be obsessed; what is love; what is the power of hate; and do you really know who you really are?  Plus Michael Caine (who’s always a nice watch) and David Bowie (yeah, that was a bit of a surprise there). A grade of B.  A good watch, odd plot, but not bad altogether.

Plus: The Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors 2006 – well, odd. Funny? Eh, it was okay. The last skit, wherein the town of Springfield went a little batty over Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds but couldn’t defeat aliens Kang and Kodos’ invasion… let’s just say Kang and Kodos have their comeuppance when they realize their attempt at liberating Earth and failing to be welcomed with open arms are just a little too reminiscent of, say, real life issues. Is is significant that this comes just before Election Day? Hmm…

We watched Bobby Flay’s Takedown last week on the Food Network, in which each week he has his own private Iron Chef-like dual with people with a particular expertise in a certain dish. He got his butt kicked by Tony Luke’s, who operates cheese steak restaurants in Philly and in New York. He won with his speciality cheese steak, “Steak Italian”, which is made with provolone cheese and sauteed broccoli rabe (aka “Chinese” broccoli). The broccoli rabe makes the sandwich much lighter than the traditional “wiz with”.

We had to try it out ourselves, so we went with P-‘s friends there on Friday through the rain. The service was slow (our steaks took a good 40 minutes to come out of the kitchen) but when they came out, it was as perfect as could be expected outside of Philly. Fresh, chewy Italian bread, paper-sliced tender steak, stir-fried broccoli rabe, all bound together with the cheese. P- got the chicken version, which was made with stir-fried chicken breast slices, which were succulent and perfectly cooked.

Just finished watching 5 Takes USA on the Travel Channel, which is basically a non-competitve version of Amazing Race. A group of 5 people from Asia are given $50 a day and a video camera, and they have to tour several American cities and give their reactions as non-Americans. Getting on the 5 takes team is the prize – there’s no million dollar pot at the end of this trip. Zack, the guy from outside Manilla, looks a heck of a lot like our friend AS. The footage is edited and shown the following week. They survived Los Vegas and the Grand Canyon, and are now in Alaska. They will be in New York Thanksgiving week, so that should really be a lot of fun for them. Recommended.

Slashdot reports NY Courts proposed rules considering attorney websites and blogs – or just about anything put into media or on the Internet – as regulated attorney advertising. The pertainent proposed rules, pushed by the NYS Bar Association, requires filing an entire copy of a website each time a change occurs on the site (i.e. each blog posting), and that the filing is public record. The City Bar and a gazillion other people put out strong objections to the proposed rule changes on First Amendment and stupidity grounds. While we’re not advertising anything (we’re not even using our real names), Triscribe could conceivably be covered by the proposed rules if we link to any law or lawyer sites. I don’t know.