Triscribe

Category: San Francisco Bay Area

  • Monday into Tuesday

    Kudos:  US District Ct., North District of California – the trial court of the federal system – finally has an Asian American federal judge (the first in its 160 year history, according to the NAPABA press release); Judge Lucy Koh has been confirmed.  She will be the only current Korean American federal judge in the country and second in American history.

    Considering northern California’s place in APA legal history, this news on Judge Koh is big and good stuff.  Amazing how Pres. Obama has increased the number of APA federal judges (and hopefully the Senate will stay productive).  See also the post on the subject on Angry Asian Man blog.

    Also, from Angry Asian Man: an Indian American wins the National Spelling Bee.  He also points to this fascinating article on Slate on why have Indians done so well in the spelling bee: basically, they’re just really, really into it – community support can go a long way, that’s for sure.

    A Chinese American family fighting in Surrogate’s Court: as the family of C.C. Wang argue over the artwork that he had collected; talk about the messiness of family feuds and property issues.

    Okay, so I’m actually getting excited that the A-Team movie is coming (although ,I’m hoping it will be a fun movie and not completely crappy; I mean – come on, it’s the A-Team!).

    Strangely, besides A-Team, more of my ’80’s youth is coming back, since: via Time Magazine’s Techland – news that Voltron will be back on tv (what?  seriously?) and someone really is doing a Thundercats movie (what?  seriously?).  (well, there is a CGI animation version.  Really.  And, it seemed that Keith and Princess Allura admitted their attraction to one another.  I think.).

    Although, I’ve said it before: if they bring back My Little Pony and the Care Bears, or the Snorks – then it really is the end of the world, if not civilization.  (and I wonder if we’re pretty close to that as it is half the time, considering the political vitriol and Icelandic volcano and gushing oil leaks and financial jobless recovery/prolonged recession).

    On the other hand, I am sort of in the hunt for the summer tv thing, sort of.  Over on David Bianculli’s TV Worth Watching, contributing critic Diane Holloway reminds people of the return of “Burn Notice” and “Mad Men,” and she seems to like “The Good Guys” (the one where Bradley Whitford – the ex-Josh of “West Wing” – has a ridiculous mustache and Colin Hanks is his partner in fighting crime).

    I can’t get myself to watch “The Good Guys,” because… it’s Bradley Whitford with a ridiculous mustache.  I can be very superficial, I know.  Maybe I’ll watch it eventually, since I like the two actors (or their previous work on other stuff) and want them to have a shot at TV glory.

    I think I’ll give “Lie to Me” another shot; Tim Roth is strong (at least he’s a Brit playing a Brit, as opposed to Hugh Laurie’s (still masterful) task as House; I can only put up so much of the (kind of weird and fascinating) trend of Brits/Australians playing Americans).  I watched a little of the repeated season finale of last season and a re-airing of the pilot episode.  The concept of the show is pretty nifty; the characters — well, I like to care about the characters.  I don’t think I’m there yet with “Lie to Me.”

    And, I’d like to get another try of “Royal Pains” – the idea of the ex-Fonzie as dad to Dr. Hank is kind of … weird.  Otherwise, I would like to finally get on the bandwagon on “Burn Notice” and “Mad Men,” but I’m so not consistent with the cable tv offerings.  Someday.

    Let’s see if this week can be a bit more positive; hope springs eternal.

  • February 2010!

    I can’t believe it’s really February already.

    I’m becoming addicted to the chips from Food Should Taste Good (interesting review of the chips).

    Hat tip from Angry Asian Man: a cool profile on Grant Imahara from “Mythbusters” on Discovery Channel.

    Another hat tip from Angry Asian Man (and here too): Yet another one of those “What is it with Congress?”  – when the ABA unanimously approved a nominee for federal district court, and the judiciary committee approved, apparently the Senate Republicans opposed U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Chen’s nomination for an Article III Federal District Court judgeship for Northern District of California, only to get his name back for renomination. Can they please get this done already?

    Is this some kind of joke? Dante’s Inferno – as an EA video game? (nope, it’s for real).  Dante, the knight, who returns from the Crusades to find that Lucifer killed the beloved Beatrice and then goes on a rampage of vengeance? I’ve read “Inferno” three times and wouldn’t have expected Dante to be an action hero in this way; talk about dr…amatic license. Plus, what’s Virgil’s role? Is he the video game’s Gandalf or something? They’re even comparing it to “Dungeons and Dragons.” What?!

    Very cool stuff: a NY Times article on the capabilities of learning languages on-line, including how BBC’s website offers a way to learn foreign languages online for free.  I don’t see them offering Cantonese Chinese, but the French section seems pretty nifty and maybe I’ll try it to learn Spanish in a very rough way.

    Check out the NPR coverage on this great stuff from Baroness P.D. James – I doubt that I can write like her or comment on crime and justice, etc., with grim characters, but I really want to read her new book about the subject of detective fiction.  Sounds so good.

    Slate’s Daniel Gross with an interesting article about how the investment banks ought to make a choice; don’t go crying about how the gov’t’s so mean to you, when they’re bailing you out; and if you don’t want their help, then go bail yourself out.  He concludes:

    The public—as aggrieved owners, taxpayers, and savers—has every right to question the banks’ methods and practices. If they don’t want us poking around their businesses, they can shrink their balance sheets, replace government-subsidized debt with market-rate debt, stop relying on the Federal Reserve for funding, and get out of our index funds. As film mogul Samuel Goldwyn once said: “Include me out!”

    Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick with a solid point, as she compares the experiences of US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in his Citizen United dissent, and Justice Albie Sachs of South Africa’s Constitutional Court, in his memoirs: “Side by side, Sachs and Stevens reveal that this is an odd constitutional moment indeed in America, in which corporations are treated like living persons by judges who aspire to be machines.”

    The video of President Obama’s taking on the Republican representatives’ questions (which I accessed via the Time blog “Swampland”) was an hour of listening/watching; probably worth it, just to see the President in a roomful of Republican congressmen. I read somewhere that a commentator compared this to marital counseling; perhaps forcing the Dems and Republicans into a room to actually talk to each other and answer each other’s questions in …a civil manner might help (granted, this isn’t a Parliamentary system, but it can’t hurt).  Can we get things going to do stuff, as noted above about the judgeship confirmation?

  • Chilly October

    Amy Tan gets braised in San Francisco (rather than roasted).

    Mark Bittman with a bak choy with shittake and oyster sauce recipe. The video was also a good watch; seems simple. I’m not into mushrooms, but the oyster sauce – well, that’s brown sauce that’s good for something anyway.

    Fascinating story about Tom Dunn, a lawyer who turns to teaching kids, when he couldn’t continue his criminal defense work due to a health condition.

    There’s hope yet that we can save the earth with better thinking about our garbage – recycle and make less waste and so on. A huge “maybe” of course.

    Didn’t make it to Homecoming this year, but – despite the loss – I think hope still springs eternal for Alma Mater.

    Some NYC items:

    Living in Hudson Heights (which seems to be somewhere south of Inwood and north or west of Washington Heights).

    “When Love is a Schlep” – when singles in the city have to resort to relying on mass transit and the far distances of the outer boroughs (well, true, it isn’t that easy).

    Sports radio fans: Mike and the Mad Dog were actually back together (scroll down to Mike and the Mad Dog reunion to listen to it on wfan.com), on Friday, 10/16/09, at the Yankee Stadium playoff opener – however brief a reunion). Well, guess only the Yankees can do that: creating reunions for people’s enjoyment.

    I’m behind on “Law & Order” (insert teeth gnashing) – but here’s two of the three on the Law side to give us a peak on what goes on in the behind-the-scenes (Linus Roache in his real accent):

    Oh, I just adore the current NYS Lotto “Sweet Millions” ad campaign. The commercials (see below) are so adorable, and the posters of the furry animals are soooo swweeeet!

  • Post Labor Day

    “Even old New York was once New Amsterdam…” — we’re apparently celebrating the 400th anniversary of Hudson on the river, with the Dutch monarchy in town.

    The NY Times on bento boxes.

    The president making a speech on telling kids to work hard in school and all that stuff — honestly, it’s either going to bore the kids or inspire them; it’s only the beginning of the school year – and it’s hardly indoctrination of ideology.

    Meanwhile, Justice Sotomayor is formally taking her seat on the bench, plus the US Supreme Ct in general is about to face a difficult case with an all-star cast (Theodore Olson, Floyd Abrams, Seth Waxman, and even the new Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, in her first oral argument).

    Dare we begin to write in italics, to have a more legible America? Hmm…

    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.

  • Labor Day Weekend!

    I wish summer didn’t have to end.

    Catching up on reading: Time Magazine on one man’s attempt to stop the tide of suicides in Japan, not a great trend in the middle of a recession.

    Hat tip to Angry Asian Man for some great links, namely:

    John Cho, in style, Angry Asian Man notes. Not looking like Harold or (New)Sulu at all. Thumbs up!

    California gets some more Asian judges and Angry Asian Man profiles one of his readers, a law student at Howard Law, who is a founding member of their APALSA and he’s currently taking a class with Prof. Frank Wu (cool).

    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.


    People in NYC read while underground    . No kidding.

    More on the High Line.

    NY Times’ Alessandra Stanley on the anchorwoman trend.

    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!

    Last but not least; go vote in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services‘ contest on how to prevent flu. The rapping doctor is the New Yorker, as the Daily News reported.

  • Summertime

    My little web presence will be discontinued this fall, since Yahoo is ending geocities in October. Consider this your last opportunity to check it out! … certainly feel free in giving me ideas on options; I am in deliberation.

    Watched “(500) Days of Summer” – sweet, sad, funny; I recommend it. Yeah there are odd plot holes and you want to wonder how silly the characters can be – but it’s a human story. I liked it.


    Y.E. Yang beat Tiger Woods    .

    Just me getting on the soap box for a minute: Apparently, there are indeed rational ways to consider how we can reform health care in this country. You know, without screaming at foolhardy legislators (who are a lot braver than I realize; but the mediator in me would want to encourage people to… realize that screaming is counter-productive and not a problem-solving technique; can we hear each other out and read and learn, before we react like fools? This isn’t exactly an easy problem and I just don’t think status quo is supportable, if it’s the thing that will hurt us in the long run).

    NY Times’ Paul Krugman raises the question of how do we deal with an “unreasoning, unappeasable opposition”? — I’d suppose that realizing that they’re there is one step; the next is how to persuade the confused middle (I’m thinking that there has to be a lot of them; how many of us can say we understand health care/ health insurance or have read the bills on the issue?).

    NY Times’ Bob Herbert acknowledges the confusion (great, I’m not the only one noticing it).

    Very interesting item: President Obama has nominated three Asian-Americans to be judges in California’s federal district courts. (hat tip to Angry Asian Man, blog of which I’ve been getting into reading of late). Hmm… by the way, there is at least one vacant seat in 2nd Circuit, with Justice Sotomayor now on the US S.Ct…

    The thing that moved me about the passing of Eunice Kennedy Shriver is learning about the impact she made in the lives of those with disabilities, particularly with the Special Olympics, and getting us to be more aware – back when women were not necessarily expected to be the political ones, in the sense of running for office, and thus having other ways to be advocates for others. I thought there was something powerful in reading how one person with a disability left a note: “She taught us to stand tall.”

  • A Very Merry AAIFF Weekend in July

    Stand on the Soapbox time: I read this Michael Daly column in the (dead tree) Daily News newspaper. He made good points: NYC is not South Dakota, nor should we apologize for having some questions for people who carry concealed weapons (for instance – why is your weapon concealed? Are you up to something other than to defend yourself? And, even if you’re defending yourself, do you really want to leave yourself liable for other possible causes of action?…).

    As we’re past the half-way point of 2009, it’s good to note that apparently, year 2009 is good for something – especially for being the year to remember everything that happened in 1969 (what a year that was).

    Fascinating item: Thought this was a good read – even as California’s trying to deal with the budget problems, at least they take the opportunity to apologize for past racist laws against Chinese Americans. I kind of applaud that they’re acknowledging past wrongs, and that this can be a teachable moment than anything else (the article notes that too). We might not see the US Government apologize for the Exclusion Act, but you never know.

    It’s that time of year again – Asian American International Film Festival! I had really enjoyed it last year indeed. Plus, FC – who had participated in past 72 Hour Shootouts (see here for example) – invited me to help with writing the dialog for the latest entry – Team Triscribe’s own five minute film! Theme: Time’s Up. I think we did a great job – especially kudos to FC, YKC (they acted and wrote, and FC did much blood, sweat and stuff), and AS (who did a hilarious voiceover, I thought). We did not win, but – hey, cool! – two scenes of FC and YKC ended up in the 72 Hour Shootout trailer! (ok, I can’t find a link or an on-line version of the trailer, but we saw it on Friday, honest!).

    Saturday – I saw two movies at AAIFF – Karma Calling and You Don’t Know Jack. I’ll say more on another post; suffice to say for the time being: they were both excellent.

    Some great articles and pictures of the High Line, inspired me to check it out on Saturday, after I enjoyed the AAIFF movies. Here from NY Times – a great article on how the public reaction is going well so far; and this NY Times slide show by Bill Cunningham, on the fashion on the High Line (so true, so far as I could tell when I was walking along the High Line), and the video from Time magazine’s Richard Lacayo interviewing the architect Ricardo Scofidio – which was so great:

    I’ll see if I’ll post pictures. I took a lot of pictures, but I’m not quite sure how well they turned out (there was haze and humidity to some extent).

    More AAIFF on Sunday.

  • Observations

    Hip hop comes to China, via Chinese American expats and general American influence. Could it mean (political) expression? Hmm.

    Apparently, US Dept. of Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, is having a great time visiting China. Besides the job of reassuring people that the US economy isn’t totally imploding, he gets to use his Mandarin skills. Well, I’m guessing that he can still speak Chinese decently; he did spend a semester or two at Beijing University.

    I really have fell behind on this: the passing of Him Mark Lai, Chinese-American historian. Sad that both he and Ronald Takaki are no longer with us. See also Asian Week’s coverage on Lai and its continuing coverage on Takaki.

    Fascinating post by Hyphen, including a link to this video on Him Mark Lai on YouTube by the Chinese Historical Society of America:

  • Tuesday – Wednesday recap

    Stayed at the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf. I wish it had a minifridge, but otherwise it was comfortable and well situated. Valet parking was $38; kind of steep. Will keep it in mind for my next trip.

    Across the street is a Barnes & Noble – quiet, low traffic, high selection. Trader Joe’s and a Safeway make it really cheap to buy supplies.

    Took the Powell-Market cable car to Chinatown where we immediately went to the Golden Gate Bakery on Grant for moon cakes and egg custart tarts fresh out of the oven. I’ve had plenty of moon cakes in my life, but I’ve never had a fresh one – we get them all prepackaged in New York. The “dan tat” were huge – one inch deep custard and perfectly flaky crust. The line was out the door and down the street – it was really popular. We went to Ten Ren Tea to wash it down with tea.

    Down the street is the more touristy Eastern Bakery. They had good roast port buns, but they didn’t really have any line. The had this $400 100 yolk mooncake in the window, which no one seems to be interested in.

    Next door was the Wok Store, which had an extensive collection of seasoned woks. Pei was tempted to get one. Just outside we were chatting with two women and a baby about East/West coast stuff.

    We walked down Market Street to Yank Sing. Absolutely perfect dim sum at expense account prices. We ended up with 4 stamps in the “bonus zone” oun our ticket.

    We walked to the Embarcadero to Sur la Table and Ferry Market where we purchased a few ketchy items and a bit of wine. Then we took the F trolley car line to the Hard Rock Café to get P’s requisite pins, then walked down Fisherman’s Wharf to the Hotel.

    Our next excursion was to Trader Joe’s where we got lots of drinks and became jealous of what we don’t get in New York. Then we met up with my bro for dinner at Sushi on North Beach, where we got the omakase – lots of food. We treked to The Cannery, but most everything was closed. We abused our Muni passes by riding on all of the Cable cars – including the California line, which we had not ridden before. In the Financial district, we took the F line back to the hotel.

    The next day we loaded up on supplies at the Safeway, then drove back to Orange County. We only made a 20 minute pit stop to refuel and change drivers – highway gas was $3.02. We made it to the Costco in Laguna Negil, and bought cheap $2.52 gas there. We made it back to San Juan Capistrano at 7:30 and had a BBQ – ribs and steak — mmmm!

    Next ride to Las Vegas this afternoon!

  • 450 miles to Poke’

    Made our road trip from Orange County to San Francisco Tuesday. I was in charge of getting in and out of cities, and P handled driving the long wastelands between the north and south. At about the 100 mile mark, we stopped at Carl’s Jr. – I got the Buffalo Chicken sandwich, she got the $6 Angus Burger. Super bloat – they were huge! Good thing that we stopped – right afterwards was the smoke from the Day forest fire that was smoking since Labor Day. After about 100 more miles, we were able to get out of it. 400 miles later, made it to Costco to refuel (2.55 is a lot cheaper than 2.99 at the one place we passed on I-5). We’re staying at the Sheraton Fishermans Wharf – huge place, comfy king sized bed, wi-fi. Wished that they had a fridge, but otherwise it is a very comfortable place in a fantastic location. But $39 a day for parking – jeezus!

    Pacific Catch for dinner – we had Poke bowl and it was so awesome!!! Just think the best chirashi bowl, and multiply by 10. Absolutely recommended. Wandered around North Beach and got pasteries from Maria’s Bakery, then crashed watching a recording of Desparate Housewives.