Blog

Time’s People of the Year goes to the Global Givers: Bill & Melinda Gates and Bono for their work for the poorest countries (the Time website has it “Bono, Melinda and Bill Gates”, which kind of looks like Bono was adopted into the Microsoft family), and “Partners of the Year” to Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush for their tsunami and hurricane relief efforts.

Saw the Brooklyn Youth Chorus in their annual holiday performance. Someone at work had tickets that were shared with us. They were magnificient. Pictures on the flickr strip above.

Excellent Turkish food on Montegue Street: Kapadokya Turkish Cuisine, 142 Montague Street. Our old sushi favorite Nanatori on 162 Montague Street was great as usual. I guess I’ve officially became a regular there because I get recognized by the manager, and we always get seated in the window (business always picks up for her after we sit there).

Off to the boss’ holiday party tonight…

On Friday night, co-workers and I went to the Atlantic Chip Shop. Good stuff – I can’t believe how much fried food I could dare to eat! I somehow resisted the fried Twinkie.

I finished reading “The Rule of Four.” Check out the official website as well. Fascinating book, a DaVinci Code-meets-A-Separate Peace. The friendships of the characters, four seniors in their final semester at Princeton in 1999, grappled with their loosened-tightened bonds while one friend, Paul, is trying to finish his thesis on a mysterious Renaissance book – reminded me a lot of how the friendships in “A Separate Peace” were developed and torn apart and re-established and reflected. The mystery was very strange. I liked how the co-authors were themselves friends from college (one from Princeton, and the other from Harvard, who took on their dreams of being authors).

Christmas stuff in the works – shopping? Card-distributing? Um, yeah! I’m on it, really!

Such sad news: Actor John Spencer of “West Wing” – Leo, the prospective Democratic Vice President – passed away from a heart attack. He was a good watch and a great supporting actor who was able to balance out the rest of the cast.

Well, a NYC tradition – awaiting the MTA vs. the Union thing. As of the hour that I’m writing this, negotiations continue. Hope continues, as 1010 WINS News reports.

I couldn’t avoid watching Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice,” could I? Well, I watched most of it. I posit that The Donald could have picked both people (they’re certainly quite fine, as compared to past two finalists, where one was overwhelmingly better than the other).

This week’s Dr House was cra-azy. House helps a Munchausen patient (the kind of patient who deliberately makes herself ill to get attention). Dr. Foreman has no clue that he’s just like House?! But, he’s younger, so he may still be able to avoid the mistakes (in life) House has made. Dr. Chase may be finally on the road of personal redemption? And, man, can Dr. Cameron turn her internal bitch on! We need more Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard is still quite a looker, even as he’s no longer in his first youth).

Let’s hope for a reasonable commute in the morning. Pretty please!

Comments on previous posts:
1. Caught Narnia on Sunday. Very good, although P- asked, “Where’s Gandolf?” at the battle scene. Cute triple entendre on J.R.R Tolken’s influence on C.S. Lewis. (Some people have been having problems with Wikipedia — that comes with an enterprise that is so extravagant, but having access to such a compendium of knowledge is worth the growing pains that it has.)

2. Choya Umeshu – Japanese Plum infused liquor – Absolutely delicious! They had a sale at Astor Wine – we picked up a 750ml bottle of Dento grade for about $20. 100% worth it.

3. Deluge part 3: the handyman finally got wallboard to cover the hole after spending 2 months finding the hole where the upstairs tenants were having a waterpark experience, but one of the tenants had a sudden urge to reinact Singing in the Rain, and we ended up with another warm bucket worth of water in our bathroom. At 12:30 in the morning, P and I are having a shouting match with this Japanese chick in her twenties. Her argument basically went, “I took a shower, and you’re wet, but it’s not my problem. Take it up with the landlord.” P inspected her bathroom, and detected a cover-up — she found where it was leaking again, and it was damp, even though it looked like it was wiped up. This is going to be fun tomorrow with the landlord.

I was channel-changing on late Saturday morning, 12/10/05, and FOX apparently was showing a G.I. Joe cartoon. No, not the cartoon version of the 1980’s, but this new version in an anime style. I respect anime, but why is it that just about every cartoon these days have to be in that style? It works when it works, but it doesn’t work all the time. Really. See, I don’t care that the new G.I. Joe cartoon has new characters, but the old characters don’t seem at all the way I remembered of them. Duke is bulkier than ever (well, that’s anime for you, I guess – hunks are hunks). Scarlett looks like a red-headed, pale anime girl – which makes me feel real uncomfortable, since the old cartoon had her as an All-Irish-American Red Head Strong Woman (healthy looking ex-girl scout kind of Special Ops operative, who might have been a little well-endowed to attract the pre-pubescent male audience to pretty girls). And, they seemed to have lost the whole Duke-Scarlett chemistry (guess they don’t want to repeat the old Joe romances of yore? And, oh, yeah, the G.I. Joe movie, where Duke’s half-brother, Falcon – voiced by Don Johnson – learns to be a true Joe leader and where we get the whole backstory of the Cobra organization – quite a cartoon movie!). The old cartoon had a different animation, but it looked natural, rather than ultra-stylized as anime tends to do. Anyway, I didn’t keep watching the new G.I. Joe to see how the Cobra Commander and the rest of his troupe looked like. I mean, why mar my childhood memories, right?

Saw “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.” I was impressed by how the movie was very consistent with the book (then again, it’s been years since I read the book, but my impressions were still there). Funny, though, in watching one scene, I now see the Christian influence, but when I was a kid, I just thought it was a powerful thing (it still is, regardless of what inspired Lewis to write it). But, it’s a good movie. (oh, and nice website – which links to a interesting book summaries website – I really wish I could dig up the old collection we had – there was an explanation to the wardrobe after all!)…

Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy were kids in tough times, and it was poignant to see it brought so well to life. (see, C.S. Lewis was a little too casual about the war – The Blitz happened, so the children were sent away; well, he lived it, so I guess he took the stiff-upper-lip approach, I guess). The movie really brought a war alive, so to speak, and how it affected the home front (which was a target by the Germans bombing London) and it hit home to the early 21st century life (well, we are supposed to be living in the era of the war against terror) – seeing the civilians being targets like that? And, then the Pevensie kids had to get involved in Narnia’s war against the White Witch? Frightful stuff. Not Harry Potter and not Lord of the Rings, but the feelings of both were there – I think each franchise winds up influencing each other (texts and movies). Oh, and I got to love how the Professor’s part of Narnia wasn’t forgotten!

I saw one of these infomercials – Barry Williams, aka Greg Brady of the Brady Bunch, and some unknown lady promoting Time-Life music collection: The ’70’s – which is a compilation of the famous (one-hit-wonders or otherwise) songs of the era (“American Pie”; “You’re So Vain”; and other stuff, which I never – but should have – realized were 70’s music). Does anyone out there actually buy and own those Time-Life music collections? They actually seem pretty good, and, you know, “you can’t get them in stores…” 😉

106.7 Lite FM – non-stop Christmas music, as it has been since before Thanksgiving. My God. It could almost drive me crazy, but I like Christmas music (it’s the only time of year we listen to it anyway). I’ve been singing along with the whole Burl Ives “Have a holly, jolly Christmas” (probably the only chance I hear it outside of the animatronic Rudolph the red-nosed-reindeer special), the John Lennon Christmas song, and the Feliz Navidad song. Heck, I even tolerate listening to Celine Dion (well, actually, I can only stomach so much of her singing O Holy Night).

On more serious notes:

I read this article on Law.com, but was able to pull it up elsewhere (Law.com removed it already from its page) – the trial of a terrible murder attempt of a Asian-American lawyer in Seattle. Kevin Jung was shot by his opposing counsel, an attorney who failed to comply with court orders or meet deadlines, frustrating Jung. Jung now suffers from brain damage and lives at a nursing home. There wasn’t even a denial of the shooting by the defendant – but they’re arguing that he didn’t intend to kill. It appears to be incivility among lawyers (or at least incivility by one lawyer who couldn’t do his job and horribly took it on the lawyer who was doing his job) going to a tragic extreme. The defendant should get what he deserves.

In alphabetical order: the passing of Eugene McCarthy and Richard Pryor. The New York Times also has very extensive obituaries on these two figures. Strange coincidence, I guess.

I went with P- to her friend’s b-day party Thursday at Paprika, in the East Village. P and I didn’t really know many of the birthday girl’s friends that were at the table, they weren’t particularly interested in me — maybe they were, but no one could hear each other — and the ones that we did know were at the other end of a table for 20. That really left the food for entertainment.

With a name like Paprika, you’d be expecting Eastern European food, but it’s supposed to be rustic northern Italian cuisine. It’s probably not fair to judge a restaurant when they are hosting two 20 person birthday parties, but it pretty much felt like the 4 train at rush hour with dim lighting and a row of cocktail tables. The women on the bench were literally crawling over each other. The kitchen is not much bigger than mine, which is not saying much in my 550 square foot jr. one bedroom. I passed on the gnocchi this time because I knew based on what I saw was happening at the other birthday table that they had no chance of pulling it off without turning it into chewing gum.

I went instead with the hearty “Homemade Pappardelle with Braised Oxtail Ragu”. I’m sure if I got the dish when it was finished, it would have been fine and toothsome, but after being held while the other plates came out, it came out like a deconstructed ravioli, with a pile of cold, dry wonton skins hiding maybe 2 tablespoons of oxtail meat residue. Disappointing, but probably the reason why professional food reviewers go two or three times before writing their articles.

Some shots from the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor (you can also see them in the photo strip above also). We went during low season, so it wasn’t as crowded as would be normal, but because of the size of the facilities, there is a limited number of people that can go per day — something like 5,000 people. Last time I went there was no way I could get there early enough to get tickets (by the way, admission to USS Arizona is free — there’s no need to book a tour).

Mentally ill man is killed on jetway in Miami after claiming he had a bomb. Lots of guessing followed by conclusions of “sorry, but the right thing done” on the news programs tonight. The entire incident appeared to have taken only a minute from the man’s run off the plane and the air marshals’ pursuit and takedown. Apparently, the marshals were on high alert for a 50-year-old Egyptian claiming to be an Iowa university student that was inexplicably released even after his shoes tested positive for explosives. In any case, if I’m on a plane and some dude with a bag yells that he has a bomb, forget the marshals – given half a chance I and every other able-bodied passenger would pummel the guy like they did with sneaker-bomber Richard Reid.

Reading this month’s Wired magazine about rising oil prices, ads today have almost as many words as the articles that they accompany. During the dot com boom, ads had few if any words — the ideal would be a big picture coupled with 3 to 5 words. In Wired, a car maker ad on the inside cover has over 270 words. A major bank even has a whole board game for improving your credit. I don’t know if it’s an attempt to blend in with the content, people nowadays have increasing attention spans, products are just way more complicated to sell, or maybe marketeers are just shooting in the dark.

64 years ago, a day in infamy. The memorial’s not exactly in the greatest of conditions either.

“Nightline” – it really feels schizophrenic:

12/7/05 edition started with Cynthia McFadden covering the terror story (the air marshals shooting the unfortunate passenger, who turned out to be mentally unstable and not a terrorist).

And, then, Martin Bashir does a story on Narnia (the so-called debate about whether C.S. Lewis meant for the Narnia series to convert unsuspecting people to Christianity – umm, come on, I don’t think he was that kind of Christian; Lewis’ own stepson felt that Lewis was not trying to create a good Christian story but thinking that Christians should write good stories), which really could easily be its own episode entirely (Lewis was a complex man, as any man could be).

Indeed, it was jarring to go from Big News Story of the Day to the more human interest stuff so suddenly. A little segue would have helped, but there wasn’t enough time for it (they have to be done in 30 minutes, after all).

And, Bashir closed the night with a look at the Red Cross’ new logo – the Red Crystal, now that the Israeli sister organization and Palestinian sister organization recognize each other (a compromise logo, so that no one has to feel offended by the cross or the crescent or whatnot), creating one Red Something (sorry, Crystal, which looked more like a Diamond, really). That would have been a nice ending, but I felt so awkward about the different tone Bashir brought as compared to what McFadden had (she had an urgent tone, which got too chatty when she interviewed a plane passenger from today’s incident).

It’s just nuts. I want to like Nightline, but when you start the night with one person and end it with someone else – it’s just weird. I preferred it when Nightline used to stick with one voice – whether it was Chris Bury or Michelle Martin or John Donvan sitting in for Ted Koppell or just plain old Ted – it was one voice for the one half hour. Or, if you’re going to have multiple anchors, make them sit next to each other (as tradition would have it), or have the person who opened the night end it.