Blog

The passing of Christopher Reeve, actor who will be remembered for his work as Superman and lobbying for many political and public interest issues.

South Asian Hindus of Queens celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Lights, a month early – to take advantage of the nice weather.

Plus, on Slate.com – “Ad Report” presents a review of the latest Burger King ad: wherein Burger King (and I mean literally – a person in robes and wearing a plastic mask with a BK crown) serves a guy a BK breakfast in bed. I think the ad is strangely funny, in a camp sort of way, although I wouldn’t give it the high grade that Slate.com’s Seth Stevenson gave it.

Enjoying what’s left of the three day weekend.

Local UPN station had plugged in to the Yankees game on ESPN on Friday night, and delayed broadcasting “Star Trek: Enterprise” ‘s season premiere until Saturday night, so I ended up accidentally taping 45 minutes of the game Friday night. I did end up taping and watching the season premiere; umm, I cannot make an honest assessment until Part 2 of the season premiere airs this coming Friday. Part 1, to say the least, left me thinking, “What?” The Enterprise crew continues to cease to amaze me; digital filming of the episode made for a clear looking cinematic look; and poor time traveler Daniels… his fate is bizarre, as usual.

Saw “Garden State” on Saturday. Good movie – sad, darkly funny. Decent soundtrack. Moral of the movie – it’s ok to feel and to live and all that. Oh, and actress Natalie Portman can act (as opposed to how George Lucas’ Star Wars reduced her talent to pretty minimal stuff); actor/writer/director Zach Braff (whose day job involves playing that screwy doctor J.D. on NBC’s “Scrubs”) – pretty interesting talent he has – to write and direct and act (and I think even produce?)…

Yankees v. Bosox – argh. How much more of the running soap opera can we put up with these two teams?

Happy Columbus Day. Geez, I actually miss Toyota’s Christopher Columbus Action Figure. ’nuff said…

Pei dragged me to the doctor on Saturday. I had a low grade back pain, and there were some kind of unusual bumps on my back. Pei thought the worst. Anyway, 2 out of the 3 turned out to be knots in the muscle fiber caused by too much stress, so I was given some muscle relaxants to help straighten them out. The third one turned out to be a benign lipoma, which should it grow will have to be removed surgically. The muscle relaxant knocked me out for most of Sunday morning, but I stayed at Pei’s house just to be cautious. Not exactly the best way to spend an anniversary, but at least we’re together.

Things came together this weekend. My dad finally came home from the hospital on Friday, but he is still quite fragile. P– drove us back in the Zipcar (it’s a good thing that their cars come in different sizes). However, we had a hard time getting him up the brownstone steps.

Saturday, we raided the Stop and Shop for Bounty paper towels (it was $10 for 15 rolls). There was this old Chinese guy that really couldn’t get a clue on the price, and was arguing with the cashier. I ended up paying his 94 cents in tax just so I could go. Also there was this weird woman that was standing in line behind me. She stood just 2 inches from me and creeping me out, and I was holding the old guy’s place in line, so I wanted her to go ahead of me.

Me: Ma’am…. Ma’am….. Ma’am
Her: I’m not your mother, or your sister, or anything, you god damn…
Me: Do you want to go ahead of me?
Her: ?

She shuffles ahead of me.

That night, P– and I celebrated early our 1st anniversary at Essex, where we had first met at a brunch. It had occurred to me that we hadn’t gone back in a long time: we were not disappointed when we came to our senses. The cuisine was, appropriately for the Lower East Side, Jewish influenced Asian/Spanish food. Potato pancakes covered with lox were a great hit as a starter, and the entrees of wasabi salmon with string carrots and roasted duck breasts with mushroom risotto were both winners. P– also got us $10 off using her deal-a-meal deck (I forgot its real name).

Sunday night was Indian night: while I was helping to coach some law students in moot court, she pulled off succulent lamb tandori, curry chicken, and those fried crisp flat bread things made out of beans that I can’t remember the name of. Also there was spiced califlower — hotter than you would think, but delicious.

Of course P– reads this (she actually asked me when I was going to post tonight), and of course she has to know that I love her, especially because she puts up with me. How’s that for a shout-out?

Tuesday – The VP debate was odd tv viewing. Cheney was being all mean. Edwards was trying to be persuasive. Neither made much headway, in my opinion – a draw. I suppose trying to make it a roundtable made it look silly (I know that the Cheney group liked it that way, but it’s not good debating style for viewing).

The Yankees v. Twins game on Wednesday night – a neverending game; plus, I was expecting the Yankees to never say die. Ah well.

Thursday – I finished the book I read on Saturday – The Salmon of Doubt – the last book (sort of) by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Essentially a collection of his essays, drafts, speeches, and unpublished materials (including a half-done – obviously so – novel (or novella, to be more precise)) put together by his editor. Adams died in 2001, too soon and too young – and this book was a nice homage to his intellect, his humor, and his insight. The half-done novel was… weird. There was the sense that Adams really wasn’t sure of what to do with his ideas, and just wrote them out; his editor figured that this might as well be published, even if there was no real ending (seriously, no there wasn’t). Nonetheless, this book was decent subway reading. I will get to reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide soon enough – am looking forward to it…

More presidential debating this Friday, town hall style. (sure, let’s watch a bunch of intentionally-selected Average Joe Schmoes ask their (already approved) questions to the candidates)…. (umm, pardon me for letting a little cynicism ooze there)…. 😉

The Supreme Court reopens for business today. The major item on the docket is about sentencing guidelines this time around, but the major issue of import to me is about eminent domain. The decision may decide what happens to Brooklyn over the next 20 years. The media is interested as it had not been before in the Supreme Court, from who is going to retire, to where exactly is the highest court in the land (it’s not the velvet curtained courtroom – it’s the basketball court on the fourth floor). They even recapped how it ruled in the past that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit (for the purposes of an import duty).

I can’t resist blogging, can I?

NY Times’ columnist Thomas L. Friedman is back from sabbatical, with a clear theme in today’s column “Iraq: Politics or Policy?”: “We’re in trouble in Iraq. We have to immediately get the Democratic and Republican politics out of this policy and start honestly reassessing what is the maximum we can still achieve there and what every American is going to have to do to make it happen. If we do not, we’ll end up not only with a fractured Iraq, but with a fractured America, at war with itself and isolated from the world.” He reiterated this on “Face the Nation” on CBS this morning (I was channel-surfing and there he was, telling Bob Schaeffer the problem that the current administration has and how the Kerry camp isn’t all that much better; yep, Friedman’s back all right).

Seattle Mariners outfielder, Ichiro Suzuki, has broken a record for most hits within a season, and not only does it change the way Americans view Japanese players, Japanese people are apparently hoping Ichiro’s changing the way Americans view Japan as a nation and as a people. I don’t know if it we can makes such a conceptual leap, but at the least, baseball is a big thing to somewhere other than America.

You know the world has changed when dialing the 212 area code leads you to someone, who via cell phone, is in… Baghdad? Fascinating article by Ian Urbina on “Area Codes, Now Divorced From Their Areas.” Urbina notes:

In this era of mobile telecommunications, calls now connect people, not places. Cellular phones, changing governmental regulations and new Internet technology have torn area codes from geography, allowing people to have phone numbers with area codes distant from where they live. Though not new, the trend has kicked up a pitched debate among a colorful collection of technological pundits, telephone historians and Web preachers who specialize in the topic.

“For many people this will come as a deeply confusing development,” said James E. Katz, a sociologist and director of mobile communication studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. “You delocalize area codes, and it’s one less North Star and one less compass point that people have to help orient themselves in an increasingly complicated world.”

It is confusing – your number(s) identify you and follow you; yet these numbers were once identifying where you were, but now you’re really mobile. Um. Ok.

Have a nice Sunday.

Spent today at Alma Mater’s homecoming game against That School in Jersey, the rival that it is. (no link provided at this time – sorry). It’s not like I understand football very much (I can watch NFL or college ball on tv, but that’s because I’d be watching as a casual tv viewer and can tune out easily, and the commentators explain stuff), but I wasn’t surprised that the NJ team beat us – but such a narrow win in overtime (it helps that they’re (a) more patient, (b) have a better kicker, whereas Alma Mater did… ok (we need a better kicker)). It’s still a heartbreaker (they won by only one point), and more so since the school spirit was great and great turnout (likely due to Alma Mater’s big anniversary more than anything else). Oh well. Better luck next homecoming; or, at least, try better in next week’s game, Alma Mater.

(the subway ride… lord, going back and forth took as long as the games itself. Being in Brooklyn to head up to the tip of Manhattan ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially on the weekend schedule; have good reading material handy).

Slate.com had a good Bushism – straight from the presidential debate: “The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That’s why they’re fighting so vociferously.” When I had heard the president say this line, I concede being confused; “vociferously”? Mr. President, vociferous means “loud.” Sure, bombs are loud, but I think he meant more than that. I think. His debating style more to be desired; he stayed on point (“My opponent is inconsistent…”) but it got repetitive. Kerry kept it short and to the point – while not really simple. At point, I sympathized with Jim Lehrer for being confused over the two’s contrasting views on the issue of foreign policy with North Korea. I watched mostly the PBS coverage, but switched to ABC for the split screen look and the better coloring/lighting on the tv screen (the tv reception at home isn’t terrific). I’ll keep my commentary to that.

Law.com posted an interesting Associated Press article on Ch. J. Rehnquist, as his birthday is looming but not his retirement. Hmm.

Enjoy the weekend.

Bush and Kerry faced off last night in their first debate. I saw a recorded version from PBS. While it was the least in your face of the networks, the were also the least likely to break the rules of the debate. That meant not seeing some of the touted split screens. Actually, where practicable, the entire thing should be split screened, so that we see everything the audience sees. What is interesting is that both men received the same speech training at Yale. Kerry was going for JFK, while Bush was trying to be folksy like Reagan. The former was more effective. Both side made serious gaffs, but only Kerry was able to capitalize. Advantage Kerry. Tuesday for the VPs.

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Oh, that I have wings like a dove
For then I would fly away
Then I would be at rest
Oh, that I have wings like a dove
For then I would wander far
and wait in the wilderness
Then I would wait in the wilderness

Oh, that I have wings like a dove
For then I would fly away
Then I would be at rest
Oh, that I have wings like a dove
For then I would wander far
and wait in the wilderness
Then I would wander far
and wait in the wilderness
…

– “Wings Like a Dove” from Making Tracks

P- didn’t want to go to the Second Generation‘s Making Tracks reading on Tuesday. She was feeling kind of wierd, it was wet, she hadn’t eaten, and being in a APA themed reading group she didn’t really want to see yet another repressed Asian American story. I had seen three previous versions of this show dating back to 1998. The first iteration pretty much was just that, a series of vignettes of APA history a la “Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk”. The second version had more of a plot, somewhat of a hybrid of “Bye Bye Birdie” with “Sunday in the Park With George”, but it was something like those educational theater groups that you had in high school. This time around, it was more a cross between Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. P- still called it a “school play”, but I thought that it was substantially better than the last time.

Most of the original songs were retained, but this time around, Act I was much more top heavy, which I think is good. The moral of the musical was that as long as we remember those that come before us, they are still alive for us today. As the players were getting accustomed to the space and there was no amplification, it was a little weak in the beginning — sometimes it was a little hard to hear over the piano.

However, as they went on, it became much stronger. By the time they get to the closing number, Wings Like a Dove, they really hit their stride. I always liked this gospel-themed song based on Psalm 55:6-7. It seemed kind of unusually matched, because the other songs were either rock ballads or Broadway show stoppers, but it was perfectly placed. It shows that praying for rescue from suffering and longing for home are universal emotions. I could not stop my eyes from welling up when the whole ensemble burst into a cappella. Powerful.

Afterwards, we went to Korean food near St. Mark’s Place. It seemed appropriate, after all it was Chusuk, the Harvest Festival, aka Mooncake day. I forgot the name of the place that we went to, but it was connected to the East group of Japanese restaurants — I think that it was called West. The food was quite tasty, and really hit the spot after all of the rain.

Then P- got a call from her sister: one of her close friends passed away from cancer that morning. We both went home in the rain with tears in our eyes that night.