Blog

Saw “Cars” Sunday. Excellent movie – damn, Pixar’s amazing. The “cinematography” of Route 66 was stunning – it looked like the real thing. The cars were cute. Actor Owen Wilson as “Lightening McQueen” – funny and angsty and cute. Kind of like all the various characters Wilson has played. And, Bonnie Hunt – aww, her Sally the Porsche was a burnt-out attorney from Los Angeles and turned into a solo practitioner/motel operator in Radiator Springs, the town dying because of the interstate highway. And, Paul Newman as Doc Hudson, the mysterious old car/town doctor/town judge – cool, man. You wouldn’t know it was Paul Newman but for those blue eyes… 😉 Highly recommended movie, no matter how old you are!

An article on the Williamsburg Building.

Beautiful sunshine on Sunday.  I was at Grand Army Plaza, to see if the Brooklyn Public Library Central Library was open. Nope. In lieu of Sunday hours, they’ve increased weekday evening hours. I still would have liked Sunday hours.

And, an article on the traffic circle of Grand Army Plaza, a literal pedestrian death trap, if you asked me.  We can all wish, as the article acknowledged, that they’d improve it.  Some day.

I don’t have cable, and so I haven’t seen the trendy tv show “Entourage,” wherein tv viewers follow the adventures of a rising Hollywood hunk and his (what else?) entourage of old neighborhood pals/wannabe stars and his agent. The (apparently insane) agent is played by the talented Jeremy Piven, who’s being profiled in all the magazines these days. He’s in Time, Entertainment Weekly, and so on. He has this energy, charisma, and charm. I particularly got a kick out of this Associated Press interview, wherein Piven makes a reference to one of his old tv shows:

Q: Are you interested in writing or directing?

Piven: I’d love being part of the process more. I came into this late in the game, into “Entourage.” The last time I did TV I was a producer of my own show called “Cupid” on ABC. We shot for a season and it was just an amazing learning experience. Then I had to shift into another mode, which is just an actor for hire. I really want to contribute, so I try to pitch things whenever I can. All you can do is throw things out into the universe and hope that maybe, in the spirit of collaboration, they will at least be received in a good way.

Ohmigod. “Cupid” got a reference! It was an ABC cancelled show, only one season, where Piven played a man who claims to be Cupid and sets up these couples, but driving his cynical therapist (played by Paula Marshall) nuts because she distrusts his methods. Sort of a romantic version of X-Files, with Piven playing the Mulder Believer and Marshall the Scully Scientist. The chemistry between Marshall and Piven was cute, and Piven was amazing, playing quite a character (Cupid was nuts – people mistook him for the musician Dave Matthews – and this was when Piven really did resemble Dave Matthews; and maybe – just maybe – he really was Cupid!). I was so mad at ABC for cancelling it (this was back in the struggling for ratings days of ABC). In fact, I wrote ABC a letter. They sent me a post card saying “thanks” and that was it. So, it’s nice to see Piven’s tv career is going well (I believe his movie career was fine; never hurts to be a solid character actor). I just wish it wasn’t on cable…

Ok, anyway, so in the wonderful world of comics, “Doonesbury” did a little dig at the whole MIT-hacking the poll that has Alex Doonesbury’s storyline apparently resolving to send her to MIT this fall.  It’s not clear that Alex is all that happy that she’ll be going, but Trudeau gets to poke fun at MIT for hacking his on-line poll.

Classic Peanuts is running the storyline of how Charlie Brown got his sister, Sally the past two weeks.  Saturday’s edition has Snoopy dealing with a bird who has Woodstock’s attitude.  Woodstock’s precursor form?

In “Blondie,” one wonders if Dagwood will really pursue his dream to have his own sandwich shop, as the comic strip has him seriously considering it.  Kind of weird to imagine Dagwood not being kicked around anymore by Boss Dithers.  But, wouldn’t Dagwood be competing with  Blondie’s catering company?  Hmm.  Maybe he and Blondie should join forces in their own food company.  At least Dagwood would be out of the whole corporate cog stuff.

I’ve got the rest of the week off, but not for the reason I wanted. I was working graduation on Tuesday, and there were a gazillion kids there, and apparently I picked up an eye infection from that. The next day my left eye was killing me. My doctor told me that it was infectious, and that I had to stay home for the next two days. So now I’m pumped up with amoxicillin horse pills and eye drops. At least I’ll be able to catch up on jet lag sleep and when my eyesight gets better, work on my travel report conclusion.

So, Harvard Law is thinking of changing – just a bit – its pedagogical reliance on the Socratic method for a more problem-solving method? Hmm.

May/June reading: Shakespeare’ Julius Caesar. Very interesting read, since it’s been years since I last read it (way back in 9th grade English). With adult eyes and increased knowledge on both Shakespeare and Roman history, I came to really appreciate what was going on in the play:

– Brutus thinks he’s the hero, but he really isn’t, because he really believes his fight for the Ideal Roman Republic will succeed – and maybe that makes him naive.

– Who really is the Hero: Brutus and his conspirators (and while we know Brutus’ agenda, what exactly were the others getting, besides expressing their personal dislike of Caesar?) vs. the no less ambitious and probably less-democratically inclined Mark Antony and Octavius (soon to be Augustus) Caesar? History and Shakespeare notes that Antony and Octavius win (well, actually, just Octavius, since Antony didn’t win either), but we are meant to still feel bad for Brutus, I think.
– And fate (or Fate) really will do a number on you.

– And, boy, is that Mark Antony a sly politician. No wonder he’d lose, because he’s no smarter than Brutus. Octavius’ one weakness was his youth, but he’d overcome that, as History illustrates.
– Women really don’t come out looking so good in Julius Caesar: neither Caesar nor Brutus listened to or confided in their wives.
(Disclosure: I spent a semester studying Roman history in college; yep, that’s what being a history major at a major liberal arts school does to you – and, mind you, I chose to take that class and it proved quite interesting – those Romans were certainly something).

Monday night: NYC’s local WB channel broadcasted the series finale of “Everwood,” which I taped and will watch later, to at least bear witness to the end of a perfectly good WB show before the local WB becomes the local CW. Why CW chose to renew “Seventh Heaven” over “Everwood,” I can’t begin to fathom. No, actually, I can: “Seventh Heaven” is a long-running 10-year old show that has the pretense of Good Christian and Family Values (never minding the fact that Rev. Camden’s denomination was never clear beyond that the Camdens were some kind of Protestants, since they were pretty obviously not Catholic).

On the other hand, “Everwood” was a show that got pretty visceral over such realities as: life sometimes really, really suck; death really, really sucks; there are times when you hate your parents or your kids or both, and vice versa; love can drive you really, really crazy; and it’s hard to make the life and career balance; and when you’re talented, what do you do with that talent? Plus, “Everwood” had a diverse (well, sort of) world view: you got your Jews and your Christians; an older interracial married couple (who the writers broke up with the passing of Irv, leaving poor Edna a widow again); the married middle aged couple who dealt with the wife’s cancer bout (Dr. and Mrs. Abbott’s travails were very nicely portrayed); Ephram Brown’s travails of love, life and getting over having left NYC for Colorado due to his dad’s good/sometimes selfish intentions; etc.

Maybe CW was too afraid to keep such a show on. Who knows? Everwood, CO, will be missed.

Meanwhile, CW’s keeping UPN’s sitcoms of “Everyone Hates Chris” and “Girlfriends.” For one perspective, I’ll highlight that Slate has an interesting article analyzing the show “Girlfriends.” I sometimes watch the reruns (or at least I did when our local UPN aired them; now that they lost the UPN name and rights, they don’t air them anymore), and I find the sitcom funny. I can see how it transcends and confronts issues of race and class, and it’s a nicely done ensemble, but more importantly – well, it’s just funny. (Kelsey Grammar’s a producer, so he, being the ex-Frasier, ought to know what he’s doing). Plus, it’s funny watch the two attorneys: William, who so loves being an attorney at Big Firm, and Joan (played by Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of Diana Ross; well, during the course of the series, Joan leaves Big Firm, since she realizes that she hated being a lawyer – oh, well, nothing new there in the world of law practice and for lots of attorneys).

I was behind on my Time magazine reading, so I mention these here now:

Dragon Boat Racing is apparently turning into quite a business opportunity.

And, Time reports that yogurt may turn into the next best thing since pizza and coffee in the wonderful world of food business. Huh?

Sigh. I wish I had another weekend already. In fact, a three-day one would be nice…

Just got back in – we’re 2 hours early. The flight was relatively bumpy, and the food, while still better than any other airline, wasn’t quite as good. A really bizarre HK movie, McDull, the Alumni
was on, which seemed to be something like a Cantonese version of Monty Python. Ultraviolet and Pink Panther were really bad. The Discovery channel was the best overall.

As a rule, I bump into at least one person that I know on just about every trip. I didn’t know it was going to be P from the bar association, and that he was going to sit across the aisle from me on the plane back with his girlfriend.

Recovery, and some thoughts later today.