Category: San Francisco Bay Area

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.

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?