Triscribe

Category: Manhattan

  • May Day

    FC’s photos (here’s one; just scroll down for more) from the Bahamas makes me want my own nice long vacation…

    “Fringe” is one nutty odd show.   Check out the recap of the latest episode from Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly. If the season finale ends on another cliffhanger – yeesh.  It’ll be a long summer, that’s for sure.

    Angry Asian Man posts a link to the video from Museum of the Chinese in America, Frank Wu’s lecture on the Vincent Chin case (I had attended the event; really great stuff).

    Well, I’ve really gotten into reading the Angry Asian Mag blog for awhile now; great stuff… Happy 10th Anniversary, Angry Asian Man!

    Last but not least: apparently, the NYS legislature is considering a bill on ending the madness of re-naming neighborhoods (considering that there are other things to work on, oh well…), and in a Daily News opinion piece, Suleiman Osman points out: “But the legislation raises a serious issue.  Ruling that BoCoCa is ‘fake’ is one thing.  But which names are ‘real’?”  He describes how the history of Brooklyn showed how arbitrary the naming of neighborhoods really is.

  • More Weekend

    Other items:

    The latest episode of “Fringe” – that was nuts. Basically, Walter, Peter, and a certain William Bell make a trip into Olivia’s brain – and with more than a touch of “Inception,” evidently, Olivia’s brain ain’t a pretty place.

    Oh, and Walter, Peter, and Bell as cartoon animated versions of themselves was funny, in a logical kind of way (and, really, can Leonard Nimoy ever not emote as a Spock-like person?).

    One of the priceless moments was Broyles in an acid-tripping state. As Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly notes in his recap of the episode:

    Comic relief was provided by Broyles, who, back in Walter’s lab with Astrid, accidentally consumed some LSD and spent the episode slack-jawed and giddy, tripping on the spirals in a licorice stick. Even here, however, there was a moment of grave seriousness. “I saw death,” Broyles told Astrid, “and it was me.” That is, Broyles must have seen a vision of his alt-universe, dead self.

    The actor playing Broyles, Lance Reddick, played haunted and funny brilliantly all at once. As normal Broyles, he really doesn’t smile enough and he doesn’t get to be in the mix that much with the Fringe team (as the stern leader, he can’t go on the LSD or the inter-dimensional traveling as often), but his moments brought a different perspective (and, weirdly enough, Astrid being the sane one was pretty poignant too).

    Got to catch up on “Community.” A separate post will probably be necessary.

    Oh, and who knew that Mary Wittenberg, head of the New York Road Runners, was a lawyer? Interesting profile of her on NY1.

  • Weekend – An American Idiot Friday

    Saw “American Idiot” on Friday night. Basically a Green Day opera. (see the review by NY Times’ Charles Isherwood).

    Johnny (played by Van Hughes) is a clueless young man in suburbia in the post 9/11 world. His friends, Will (played by Justin Guarini – yes, that Justin Guarini of American Idol fame) and Tunny (played by David Larsen), are supposed to join him in the city, where they either chase their dreams (as they hope) or continue their lethargic and meaningless lives (as it might actually turn out to be).

    Will, however, is stuck in suburbia, having gotten his girlfriend pregnant (and, staying behind doesn’t mean he’s actually being responsible, as Heather the girlfriend, played by Jenna De Waal, learns the hard way). Tunny couldn’t hack it in the city, and joins the army – and finds that Iraq ain’t what it was cracked up to be. And, Johnny – well, let’s just say that you can’t just go to the city without some real thought about you’re doing there.

    Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong is in the cast as St. Jimmy (see the Jan. 2011 commentary by NY Times’ Charles Isherwood on that). St. Jimmy is either an actual drug pusher, who’s destroying Johnny, or else he’s the figment in Johnny’s mind – Johnny’s own alter ego preventing him from pursuing a real life. Either way, Billie Joe had some pretty good sinister humor.

    I thought that Tunny’s story was powerfully poignant, even if it is the typical story of the military guy who got into something way over his head and then redeemed by (what else?) the power of love (but, if you think about it, that adventure in the army gave Tunny specifically something far more than what the dystopia of suburbia ever did). I’ll concede that I probably enjoyed Tunny’s story because the actor, David Larsen, was kind of cute, nicely portrayed his character’s sadness, and had such a great voice – and he had a nice chemistry with the Extraordinary Girl, played by Libby Winters, the army nurse who helps Tunny get some mojo back.

    Justin Guarini was pretty good (then again, as much derision that poor guy got in the after effects of season 1 of American Idol, I always thought that Broadway would have been more his thing than anything else in the mad world of pop music).

    Rebecca Naomi Jones as WhatsHerName (the girl who was Johnny’s lost love – lost because he couldn’t keep her and she wasn’t going to stick with him and his pointlessness) was terrific with her energy and tragedy. If anything, I kind of thought that the stories of the women got lost (and Extraordinary Girl was more a symbol than an actual character). The rest of the cast were quite talented (Joshua Henry as the guy who attracts Tunny into the army was ridiculously charismatic; maybe that was why Tunny ended up in the army), and I liked that the cast came in various shapes and sizes.

    The stories of the three guys might be thin (well, it is a musical – musicals do get thin on plot) and the musical was otherwise was a nice reminder that the Green Day album, “American Idiot” was a pretty good album (while trying to be a show, not a concert). And, the musical does make you wonder about this generation – my generation? – and whether it’ll actually do something good in this world.

    Go ahead and see if you catch “American Idiot” before it closes. Decently entertaining (even if it isn’t the greatest pop musical on Broadway, not with the way the women got lost as they did. The great pop musical might actually be… “The Book of Mormon,” at the moment, which I haven’t seen, but the hype seems pretty real…).

  • Is it Spring Yet?

    Supposedly, it’s spring.

    Thanks to the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness, my brackets are completely a mess. Pittsburgh’s out, as are much of the Big East. Me and my Big East sentiments. And, I didn’t pick Princeton, but I did kind of rooted for them (had to support the Ivy League); then again, who were we kidding? Cornell’s amazing run of last year couldn’t possibly be repeated.

    But, the Princeton kids seemed like a good bunch, playing in memory of their young fan, who had passed away due to cancer. Plus, before last year’s Cornell was that other amazing Ivy League upsetters – the Princeton team of 1995-1996, in the 1996 March Madness; a nice commemoration over at Time.com by Sean Gregory, who was a member of that team.

    Re: the APA legal community – Judge Edward Chen gets another go-around with the Senate confirmation hearings for a federal judgeship.

    YC linked to this on Facebook; I’m forwarding it along: perhaps the tv series “Outsourced” on NBC isn’t that offensive, as Geetika Tandon Lizardi suggests in an op-ed in the LA Times? I don’t know – when I catch a little of it, I find myself wishing it were more funny. I want so badly for talented Asians/Asian Americans to have a shot on mainstream tv, whether in writing, producing, or acting (Parvesh Cheena is seriously talented; I liked him in other roles), but then again, with sitcoms, sometimes it does take time and development. I guess NBC’s giving it a shot; what else can it possibly air, after all? (certainly something far worse).

    NASA’s Messenger has finally made it to Mercury.

    Thought this article on Newsweek.com about George H.W. Bush was fascinating to show how a different perspective might change the way we think about a president that was perceived to be “weak” (and who was far more strong and wise than we thought at the time).

  • The Actual Ides of March (or is it the day after?)

    From the NY Public Library Digital Gallery – a photo of a page of Julius Caesar – not sure if its from one of the early Folios, but it looks quite amazing.

    Slate posts Julius Caesar stuff from the Magnum Photos collection.

    Can’t believe how quickly March is going…

  • The Ides of March

    I’ve really had to take a break from the news this weekend. Just not good stuff. The news from Japan worsens arising from the earthquake and the resulting tsunami, aftershocks, and nuclear reactor crises. Then, locally, the tragic results of the horrifying casino bus crash at the Bronx/Westchester border.

    Granted, I have nothing personal at stake (thank God), but my thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected. And, honestly, where are the good news?

    So, I had to turn my attentions elsewhere. Currently reading: the satirical textbook, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) Teacher’s Edition: A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction.” Sick and funny. Humor makes things a little better. Sort of.

    Via Angry Asian Man, I found out about “fuck yeah asian/pacific islander history,” a photo blog of APA (API) history. Really fascinating stuff. A review of the APA photo album, so to speak.

    Relating to us as APA lawyers/people into APA legal history: a photo of Chinatown leaders taking a break while at court under subpoena, from the San Francisco Library. According to the blog post, in 1956, after a 1955 report from the US Consul in Hong Kong making an unsubstantiated claim that Chinese immigrants were all illegal sleeper agents/criminals:

    the US Attorney Lloyd Burke subpoenas 40 major Chinese American associations demanding a full accounting of income, membership and photographs within 24 hours. Chinatowns on both coasts are raided frequently and business are disrupted at a loss of $100,000 a week. A federal judge eventually rules in favor of the Chinese, calling the subpoena attack a “mass inquisition.”

    Poignant stuff: at least there was some justice. At least history says there has been some hope.

  • Marching On in March 2011

    Yeah, it’s still March.   But, not yet the NCAA brackets time.  We’re getting there…

    Hat tip from Roger Ebert’s Facebook fan page (yeah, I checked off that I’m a fan – his blog is great writing): the happiest man in America is Alvin Wong, a Chinese American Jew from Hawaii.  Why am I not surprised that the happiest man in America is in Hawaii?  Angry Asian Man also does his acknowledgment of Alvin Wong.

    Interesting blog post on MoCA’s blog – what is in a Chinese-American’s name and the more personal take on the 1882 Exclusion Act.

    Hat tip from AALDEF‘s Facebook page: the Washington Post editorial says that Prof. Goodwin Liu don’t have bad values to be a US appellate court judge.  This fear of his becoming a potential US Supreme Ct. nominee is making his current nomination for the 9th Circuit ridiculously more difficult than it has to be, I’d say…

    Hat tip from NAPABA‘s Facebook page: interesting post on The Huffington Post about the Goodwin Liu confirmation hearing, from Richard Painter, a former Chief Ethics lawyer of the George W. Bush White House.  Honestly, when even a George W. Bush administration ethics lawyer says that Prof. Liu is qualified to be a US appellate court judge, well, it goes to show how this craziness is.

    Yeah, I’m on Facebook way too much…

    The whole Borders in Chapter 11 bankruptcy saddens me, because the Wall Street Borders was pretty much my local Borders.  Plus, Wall Street Borders was essentially the successor to the World Trade Center Borders, so it feels really sad.  Yeah, the mega bookstores did harm to the mom-and-pop independent bookstores and so the e-book reader is the comeuppance of Borders – but I still feel depressed about any bookstore closing.  Time.com has an article on how Barnes and Noble might continue doing better in this climate.

    Over on “Law and the Multiverse,” the folks there analyze on the legal ethics of the She-Hulk.  I had no idea that She-Hulk is a lawyer.  Actually, of the comic book character world, I only knew that Daredevil is a lawyer.  Kind of awkward to think of the legal implications when you’ve a secret identity and have legal ethics to think about.

    Some TV commentary:

    “Fringe” on FOX – umm, I don’t know where the arc is heading for Peter “the ex-Pacey” Bishop.  Which Olivia or which universe will he choose?  Assassin (of – spoiler! – shape-shifters)/psycho Peter was a little over the top.  Peter “I hate my father-umm-which-father?” Bishop was also a little… well, the life of Peter isn’t easy.

    The episode where Peter’s and Olivia’s first meeting as youngsters was an interesting episode – not only for what it revealed about Peter, Olivia, and the two Walters, but also about Elizabeth Bishop, who I think is a missing piece of the puzzle, no matter which Elizabeth of which universe it is.

    Looking forward to the next episode, where the preview suggests that Walter thinks he can bring William “Belly” Bell back from the dead.  Yeah, right, Walter, you crazy troubled mad scientist.

    Of course, none of the foregoing commentary about “Fringe” makes any sense unless you’re a viewer of the show.  Or if you do not mind sci-fi tv shows that cover two universes, and/or you don’t mind feeling blown away with simultaneous confusion and amusement over a tv show.

    Will still catch up on “Community.”  I sorely need a laugh.

    Actually… I think we all need laughs.  The world is too crazy, as usual, what with all the anti-public sector sentiment, political revolutions, continued economic problems, and craziness over Charlie Sheen (sad vs. amusing; Ken Tucker over at Entertainment Weekly posts the contrasting reactions of Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Fallon – it is crazy out there, it really is).

  • Other Stuff

    Crazily enough: the Jets have beaten Indianapolis and New England and will be playing Pittsburgh next week.  Crazy!

    PBS posts the view of Brianna Lee, as her father, Edwin Lee, is sworn in as interim mayor of San Francisco, the first Asian-American in the position of mayor of SF.  Lee would be different than the previous mayor (and… he’s an APA lawyer!).

    Brooklyn Historical Society and the 1770 Map restoration.

    An interesting look at old Tavern on the Green, while it’s not in operation (or awaiting something to replace it, whatever that might be).

    I didn’t even realize it: the comic strip of Brenda Starr came to an end.  How sad.  She was a  pioneer woman journalist with the mysterious love interest in Basil St. John (the man with the eye patch) and funny friends and weird adventures.  They really don’t make comic strips like that anymore.  Then again, were there still readers of comic strips, much less readers of dead tree newspapers?

    And, oh yes, as this is triscribe and we’re APA’s and lawyers: let’s not forget the reaction to Yale Law Professor Amy Chua’s book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”   Wall Street Journal did an excerpt, which sent the APA bloggers into Red Alert.  Via San Francisco Chronicle, Jeff Yang gets further perspective from Amy Chua concerning that excerpt.   On Disgrasian.com, the point is that the book is a memoir, not a how-to – but, as Disagrasian notes: it’s not clear why Chua still had to take the perspective of Immigrant-1st Generation Parent to torture her kids to success – when maybe it wasn’t that necessary to take the hard line.

    Sure, I suppose reading the whole book gives a better sense of Chua’s view of parenting, but still: all that controversy with the book – I doubt that Chua will cry to the bank. (though: I kind of expected that a Yale Law prof would have better sense of responsibility about all the craziness that ensued. Just sayin’).

    And, because we’re APA lawyers: please note that Yul Kwon’s leaving the FCC (them’s the feds) to go back to tv (PBS, but still – tv!). He will likely not be shirtless on PBS. That’s ok. Sort of.

    Slate’s Farhad Manjoo points out why we don’t need to do two spaces between sentences anymore.  Sorry, but I was taught to use two spaces after a period when typing. Yes, it is an ingrained and arbitrary habit done over 20 years now. But, it’s not like I’m really wasting space. Plus, I find seeing space is easier on the eyes. But, that’s just me… 😛

    The new horoscope sign: Ophiuchus.   CNN notes that there’s more to this whole horoscope change than we think though.

    So it goes, I guess.  I’m not impressed by 2011 so far (besides the Jets making the universe all very weird).  Maybe 2011 will get better.  Eventually.

  • Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 2011

    Among the things we remember when we think of Martin Luther King, Jr., is the “I Have a Dream Speech,” as David Weigel of Slate notes.  The story behind the speech, in the Washington Post, by Clarence B. Jones, MLK’s lawyer and speechwriter.  Thanks to a hat tip from Swampland at Time.com, I also link to the Stanford collection of MLK materials.

    Thought that it was interesting that the NYC Bar posted this on their website: a reflection of Martin Luther King’s speech at the City Bar in 1965.  Institutions with long histories have really fascinating histories.  The City Bar notes:

    In his 1965 speech, Dr. King called on the moral and practical obligations of the legal profession to justice and the rule of law in America:

    “Standing before you in the House of this Association, whose very cornerstone is an abiding respect for the law, I am impelled to wonder who is better qualified to demand an end to this debilitating lawlessness, to better understand the mortal danger to the very fabric of our democracy when human rights are flaunted.”

    He reaffirmed that, despite violence and legal segregation, his faith in the law and lawyers as instruments of justice had not been shaken, continuing:

    “Your profession should be proud of its contributions. You should be aware, as indeed I am, that the road to freedom is now a highway because lawyers throughout the land, yesterday and today, have helped clear the obstructions, have helped eliminate roadblocks, by their selfless, courageous espousal of difficult and unpopular causes.”

    Finally, Dr. King expressed hope that America, even in the face of fierce opposition, would ultimately fulfill its promise as a country of legal equality, proclaiming that “I do not despair of the future.  We as Negroes will win our freedom all over our country because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is America’s destiny.”

    NY Times’ City Room blog, with a post by Sam Roberts, notes MLK’s relationship with NYC.

    PBS NewsHour’s Rundown blog has a nice list of MLK-related things.

    Slate posts a fascinating slide show of MLK-related images.

    Things to think about on this day.  It’s the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, when this country’s lack of civility and the revolution took another step to end slavery and make a better union.  Progress isn’t inevitable; but that doesn’t mean we give it up.  We need to figure that out.

  • Happy New Year, 2011!

    Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year 2011!

    Andrew Cuomo has been sworn in; we have a new governor in NYS, and he acknowledges that he has a lot to do and he has already started it.

    Lina Kulchinksy, lawyer-pastry chef-pretzel maker, branching out to a cart.

    The very dangerous and probably illegal but terribly exciting and exotic thing about touring NYC’s tunnels.

    On New Year’s Day, the NHL had to push the Winter Classic – the outdoor hockey game with Penguins v. Capitals – until the evening but still in the rain, since the temperature was too warm.  It’s possible that the tv ratings came off well for NBC and the NHL, but I kind of wondered if NBC got lucky, since the bowl games weren’t on that evening and it was otherwise a quiet tv prime time night.  The Capitals won, with the Penguins star Sidney Crosby getting dinged to the ice by the Capitals.

    I personally like watching the game since it’s kind of crazy to watch hockey be played outdoors, but to make it a new prime time tradition?  Hard to say.  The stunning effect of hockey outdoors in a baseball or football stadium just looks cooler during the daytime.  But, that’s my two cents on the subject.

    Also, the Daily News in the hockey section (can’t find a web version of this) posed the question of whether the NHL might consider having the NY Rangers host a future Winter Classic on New Year’s Day.  Apparently, Yankee Stadium might not be available for such a venture, since they now host a bowl (seriously?  Yes!: the Pinstripe Bowl with Syracuse v. Kansas!  And Syracuse won!).  I mean, that’s  too bad and all (Fenway did host a Winter Classic, but aren’t Bostonians bigger hockey fans than New Yorkers?).  Then again, apparently, the Daily News noted that it’d be even tougher to do a Meadowlands Winter Classic, since the Devils would want to be in on it and the national ratings for a Devils v. Rangers game wouldn’t be hot at all, even on New Year’s Day.  Oh well.  Wishful thinking!

    Movies that I saw during the holidays:

    Saw “The King’s Speech” at Cobble Hill.  Colin Firth really gets at the feelings and struggles of the stutterer Bertie, a.k.a. Prince Albert, the Duke of York and then George VI, and Geoffrey Rush was great at the speech therapist who had his own imperfections.  Helena Bonham Carter, as Elizabeth, Duchess of York (future Queen Mother to Queen Elizabeth II), was quite good; as Dana Stevens noted on Slate’s Culture Gabfest, Bonham Carter was acting as her old “Merchant Ivory self” rather than her recent career trend acting as crazy costumed woman – see “Alice in Wonderland,” “Sweeney Todd,” the Harry Potter movies, etc.).

    The craziness and the banality of the Royal Family really got through; Firth as Bertie, who struggled with the balance of duty and loyalty to his father and his brother and a lot of other baggage – and happiness with his wife and daughters.  Bertie was also admirable for his loyalty to his country – in the face of World War II, he didn’t have actual power, but had to be the face of one of the un-invaded countries in Europe to stand up to Nazi Germany.

    Is “The King’s Speech” the Best Picture for the Oscars?  I can’t really say, but it had a lot of stuff going for it, I thought, because Bertie was facing a modern world and the traditional trappings behind it.  There were the emotions, hopes, failings, and humanity in all involved.

    Saw “Tangled” at the Park Slope Pavilion.  Even if a little derivative in putting together stuff from “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid,” the movie was sweet and heart-warming, in a great old-fashioned Disney way.  Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi are pretty talented voices actors.  Who knew that Levi (Chuck from “Chuck”) had it in him?  And, it was nice that Rapunzel was no wallflower; she wanted to see the world – and was willing to help everyone else along the way (which it took some time for Flynn Rider to figure out too – talk about a protagonist who was willing to make a sacrifice to do the right thing).

    NY Times’ dance critic Alistair Macaulay makes some conclusions from his project of seeing way lots more Nutcrackers than most of us normal folk.

    Oh, and Time Out New York on what 2011 things to look forward to checking out.

    I hate that the holidays are winding up.  But, let’s see what’s next.