So, it seems kinda bad there on paper. How bad is it? Next going to be the Chrysler building? Empire State? Citibank? Met Life?
What’s the mood there?
What I want to know is that since 9/11, how the hell could anyone penetrate our ‘defenses’?
Bush must go.
=YC
This past week’s “Doonesbury” and today’s edition (wherein B.D. continues his recovery (if there’s such a thing as “recovery”) in losing his leg) – has been great stuff. B.D.’s young daughter doesn’t quite understand what happened to her dad, the leg and helmet gone. Even B.D. wonders – geez, what did happen to the helmet? 😉
(my previous comments on the B.D. storyline)
I do think that Garry Trudeau has done a nice job showing how B.D.’s progress – or the fact that B.D. is still just trying to deal with it – like today’s instance, where the occupational therapist is running B.D. through a model kitchen to get used to living life again.
Therapist asks: “For example, what if your wife asks you to remove the trash can from under the counter? What’s your strategy?”
B.D.: “I say, ‘You do it. I lost a leg in Iraq.’”
Deadpanned Therapist: “No, I mean bio-mechanically.”
Ok, B.D. needs a little work here. But, he’ll get there.
I don’t like what’s happening to the “Annie” comic strip – and this has been going on the past four years now. Annie back in her 1970’s to 1990’s incarnation under comic strip artist Leonard Starr was fascinating. Starr didn’t have the libertarian/conservative/nationalist bent that Annie’s original creator Harold Gray had, but Starr knew how to craft characters and stories. Annie would wander the country trying to look for Daddy Warbucks; Warbucks would be obviously missing his daughter, but was caught up in protecting her or dealing with his multi-billion company; their poignancy was strikingly apparent.
During the final years of Starr’s work, Annie was trying to catch up on her education and recognizing that her dad has some seriously unresolved love affairs (Angela, who had her naternal feelings for Annie but had to get over her abusive husband, and that Russian spy, who saved Warbucks’ life from hypothermia using her… um… body warmth); Punjab, Warbucks’ sidekick/bodyguard/wise man, was passing the duties to his teenager nephew, Punjee – who was dealing with the burden of those duties (which meant sacrificing a love interest and a mainstream life); and even the Asp, the other bodyguard/wise man, had to deal with the fact that his niece, Stella Han, was a serious villain (putting aside that Han was the stereotyped Asian Dragon Woman, who was hardly attractive and had issues about her uncle). Stuff like that.
The new cartoonists (or at least the writer, a Daily News writer who has new cartoonists working with him every year) aren’t quite as good. Annie hasn’t been her vibrant self in so long – it’s this fake version of her (Annie was a tough but not stupid kid; these days, she’s just… I just don’t get it). Warbucks has been reduced to being a seriously absent dad who’s only goal is to serve the War Against Terrorism. In fact, the writers of the comic strip’s current incarnation are back in the political commentary mode (I mean, please, spare me the not-very-veiled political stance about the terrorism problems; villains say their lines like “We will not be able to hurt the Americans, no thanks to Warbucks. Curses!”). And, while it’s nice that Annie now has an ethnic female role model/guardian, Amelia Santiago (a Cuban-American pilot), I do miss Punjee and other characters. If the Asp and Punjab make any appearances these days, they’re Noble Minority Characters/Warriors, Serving The War Against Terrorism. There’s no mention of recurring characters like Huff, Warbucks’ gruff lookalike bodyguard, who was a softy to Annie underneath his gruff demeanor; Ezra Eon, the genius professor who still talked like a hick; Dermot, the cute young man (who Annie may or may not have had a crush on) who was too busy with the computer programming stuff to get a love life; etc. The absolute crime for a comic strip is to have average or even bad writing. The guys behind the current Annie should actually go back and read the past 20 years of Annie and figure it out. (and one of these days, I’ll write to the Daily News and tell them to do so). “Annie” is missing the richness she used to have.
I’ll stop now. Enjoy the work week.
This short article was posted on one of the Forumosa forums for discussion. Not sure what to say about it but offer it as an interesting juxaposition between the Asian American experience in the US and the Asian American experience in Taiwan.
You take the people from a AA forum like Model Minority who see the world with tunnel vision who are no better than the “ugly” Americans they like to blast away for their “plight”. Then, you have the author of
, who gets insulted by his treatment because the natives here can’t believe some one like him can exist. “Marginalization” is indeed color-blind :|.
Unfortunately for the author, his article devolves into a poorly sarcastic rant which takes away from the opportunity to do something with it. On the other hand, if I were in his shoes, what exactly would I say about it? I mean, our uniqueness, is something that can’t easily be explained or described. Being an ABC in Taiwan makes the world even stranger. At least the Angry Asian American[tm] has status in the US, whereas the status in Taiwan is lower. The one way to avoid that is to position yourself as a “meiguo huaqiao” and you gain immediate status. However, that’s not always easy if you don’t have someone “in front” of you to make the necessary introductions.
In the meantime, I have learned my lessons and come up with my own survival rules. Survival Rule No. 1 is: let people know you are a meiguo huaqiao! Survival Rule No. 2: don’t ever be mistaken for a Korean! Survival Rule No. 3: use English only! In order to come across as a meiguo huaqiao, it is necessary to speak English as much as possible even if it causes cognitive dissonance.
When I first came to Taiwan, my cousin here insisted that I follow these exact rules to enhance and perserve my “status” to the locals. Only in this way would I be able to successfully position myself for business opportunities. The minute I deviate from this formula, I would be “lowered” in the business person’s eyes.
Side note: Cool website for spelling
=YC
I mentioned “Dukes of Hazzard” in my Thurs. post; Yahoo has this AP article about the so-called Dukesfest, which celebrated 25 years of the Dukes of Hazzard. Apparently, the cast showed up, except for the actors who played Boss Hogg and Uncle Jesse (both passed away over the years); plus Tom Wopat and John Schneider (the ex- Bo and ex-Luke – the actual “Dukes of Hazzard” – who were reportedly not at this festival “because they were performing elsewhere,” according to the article).
Personally, I think that a true reunion or celebration of the show isn’t quite a celebration without the two stars themselves, and people should at least understand their feelings of not wanting to be more typecasted than they already are as the Dukes. (I read somewhere that Wopat and Schneider have resolved their feelings and actually are proud of their work as the Dukes, especially now that they’re in their middle age and appreciate that those days as the Dukes gave them an income and some fame – but it took years for them to get there – not to mention years of other good acting work; we ought to give them credit for that).
I say, celebrate your favorite shows, but not to extremes (that’s sort of how I feel about the Trekkies/Trekkers, and while I’m fannish about that the Star Trek franchise, I’d like to think that I’m even moderate about my fannishness (no, not a real word, probably, but it’ll do)).
Crazy news in NYC: “Escaped Tiger Ties Up Traffic In Queens.”
NY Times’ website has posted the first of a series of articles on the widening gap between the rural poor and urban rich of China. This first article is incredibly sad: the Times’ Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley report the story of an 18 year old, a grandson of poor Chinese farmers, who apparently committed suicide when he couldn’t afford $80 to pay for a college entrance exam – he is killed when stepping in front of an oncoming railroad train. Kahn and Yardley poignantly note:
If his gruesome death was shocking, the life of this peasant boy… is repeated a millionfold across the Chinese countryside. Peasants…were once the core constituency of the Communist Party. Now, they are being left behind in the money-centered, cutthroat society that has replaced socialist China.
China has the world’s fastest-growing economy but is one of its most unequal societies. The benefits of growth have been bestowed mainly on urban residents and government and party officials. [….]
For the Communist leaders whose main claim to legitimacy is creating prosperity, the skewed distribution of wealth has already begun to alienate the country’s 750 million peasants, historically a bellwether of stability.
The countryside simmers with unrest… The poor demand social, economic and political benefits that the Communist Party has been reluctant to deliver.
To its credit, the Chinese government invigorated the economy and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty over the past quarter century. Few would argue that Chinese lived better when officials still adhered to a rigid idea of socialist equality.
But in recent years, officials have devoted the nation’s wealth to building urban manufacturing and financial centers, often ignoring peasants. Farmers cannot own the land they work and are often left with nothing when the government seizes their fields for factories or malls. Many cannot afford basic services, like high school.
Not a new thought on my part, but: what irony – the Communists who profess on paper about equality of classes cannot maintain true equality of opportunity in trying to change the way they used to do things. Life is always complicated.
Travel section of the NY Times has this nice article on the doings of visiting NYC these days – in preparation for those visiting Republican conventioneers, I guess (do the Republican conventioneers read the NY Times? Well, I guess the article’s actually for anyone reading the section). (and, yeah, “conventioneer” likely isn’t a real word, but whatever). Times’ writer Randy Kennedy makes a nice point that NYC isn’t exactly conducive for conventions (i.e., the fact that Jacob Javits convention center is in the middle of nowhere on the West Side – at least some blocks away from hotels and subways – they really ought to have extended the crosstown subway over there or else build a decent hotel over there).
(yet another sidenote: Javits’ location makes it a suitable place for the NYS bar exam, I guess. Ah, I still recall how, not very long ago, I left it thinking that I really don’t want to be there to take another bar exam. Relief for not being there since… – must be the trauma).
Kennedy also notes the Staten Island Yankees and their stadium facing the Lower Manhattan skyline are great stuff. Sure, but being the hometown person, I prefer the Cyclones in Coney Island – although, Kennedy makes the excellent point that the Cyclones are usually sold out, so you take your minor league games where you can find them (I had no idea that the SI Yankees weren’t nearly as often sold out as the Cyclones. What does that say about them? [oh, apologies to any Staten Islanders out there – I mean no offense. No, really.]).
At least the ferry ride to SI is free and is a nice ride on a nice day. But, I do recommend going to a Cyclones game – at least, if you know someone who stood on a line at Keyspan Park all morning to get them.
So it goes. Now, don’t be surprised if you find me back later on Sunday; it’s like I can’t stop blogging (yeah, I really ought to get back to those other things that I do)…
This is hot topic here. People are starting to get into the thick of the action. I catch snippets of it on CNN Worldwide. Getting the European or HK flavor to American political coverage.
I regularly hangout with some guys on Friday and last night was no exception. We did a fair amount of Bush bashing and critiquing the DNC. On a Taiwan expat community forum, there’s a lot of hopes and fears attached to the DNC and Dems chances this year. A straw poll of the community has more than 85% people saying they’d vote for Kerry-Edwards. Most people think Bush is a boob.
Have a nice weekend all.
=YC
NY Times reported on the recent passing of Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize DNA person (who would have preferred to not have been typecasted as the DNA person).
Some final thoughts on the Democratic convention? Well, I’d like to read the upcoming Time magazine issue for any other comments (haven’t gotten to be on Time’s website to see what’s there). But, I do like to refer to Slate.com’s William Saletan blogging on the convention – good stuff. Loved that Saletan thought the same way I did about Kerry and the Hamster story from Alexandra Kerry – that really says something curious about the man (Saletan says its courage; I think it’s about life affirmation or good dad being too good), putting aside what we think about the politician (whether we should accept that story as gospel truth or political spin, I don’t know).
Slate.com’s Dana Stevens, the “surfer girl” (blogging on tv) – had this interesting take on Ted Koppel’s interview of Jon Stewart on “Nightline” the other night. She thought it was about Koppel resenting the erosion of Network News Idealism and that his picking on Stewart was curiously harsh. When I had watched this interview, I didn’t sense that Koppel was that mean-spirited toward Stewart (and yet Stewart tried so hard to be respectful to Koppel). And, even if he was, I kind of got the sense that he just felt confused why people tune in to Comedy Central and its satirical news so much (well, Ted, I personally don’t have cable, so I would tune in to you – sometimes – so don’t feel so bad).
Tavis Smiley on PBS had a great interview with Peter Jennings (or, at least, I thought it was great because I got to see that casual side of Jennings that doesn’t happen too much). Jennings, appeared just as bewildered as Koppel as to why the networks are so turned off by the conventions (he made a point on one of the World News that I managed to catch on Tuesday night that he liked conventions for being opportunities to observe politics at the ground level (my paraphrasing entirely; he said it in a nicer way). But, Jennings seemed hopeful that ABC still carried some weight with its experimental all-news cable and Internet venture for 2004 elections. Whether this works remains to be seen – I read some editorial (I forget where just now) that the news these days covers too much on the trivial by spending hours on trying to cover everything (including those media stories about the media – NY Daily News tv critic David Bianculli and others have referred to this as “journalistic incest” (his words in Thursday’s column, not mine).
Enjoy the weekend.
Wednesday night was John Edwards night in Boston. Thought that Elizabeth Edwards seemed authentic. She’s a bankruptcy lawyer, so it wasn’t like I’d expect her to be a hugely polished speaker, but she was fine. Edwards seemed lessy sparky than I have seen him in previous instances (I do wonder if I’m on a political news binge exhaustion), but he stayed nicely positive in his speech. His “One America” lines echoed (if not parroted) Barak Obama’s speech about “One America.”
If you want more commentary on Edwards’ speech, I do recommend Chris Suellentrop’s article on Slate.com – and I agree with Suellentrop’s assessment – Edwards had poignant moments in his speech (particularly about his family) and the whole positiveness was nice, but the speech was ultimately just okay – not spectacular, but “does the job,” as Suellentrop said.
I liked that ABC’s “Nightline” and PBS captured some coverage of the roll call. I liked how Tavis Smiley on PBS interviewed interesting people (last night, Smiley spoke with the mayor of Detroit, who just happened to be a youngish black man who is yet another ambitious youngish Democrat; the mayor highlighted the young as an electorate – who are not only interested in education and health care, but also becoming entrepenuers and looking for a brighter future). Heck, even Howard Dean seemed interesting on Smiley’s show, talking about stuff other than just about us Dems going to every state in the union and his usual refraining from screeching…
Thursday was The Real Kerry night. Ooh. (cannot comment on the other Thursday night speeches, which I missed; will have to catch up somehow). The stepsons Heinzes and the daughters Kerry were interesting. I liked how Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry told a few stories that humanized their father. Kerry saved the life of the Kerry pet hamster? Well, as Alexandra Kerry noted, her father apparently takes such life affirming things seriously.
And, Kerry himself stayed positive in his speech. If he seemed incredibly idealistic (to the point that I wondered if this was too much to swallow – I mean, I’d still like some more specifics on what he has in mind to be a good president), Kerry at least seemed confident and more enthused than I’ve seen him previously. The pundits seem to think that this is good for the Democrats. I don’t know (I’m not a pundit, not really anyway), but I liked that Kerry seems to be on a roll. He seemed genuine and, well, happy (all that smiling – good grief, did something from Edwards rubbed off on Kerry?). Whether the speech’s substance was that persuasive is another story.
It will be interesting to see the Republican Party response to all the positiveness that the Dems’ have pushed. Not looking forward to the possible congestion in NYC, but I don’t work in midtown, so it’d be regular work days. I’ll be sticking with PBS for wall-to-wall coverage, especially if the networks continue putting on these one-hour a night coverages that they’ve been doing…
(sidenote rant: if Al-Jazeera in the Middle East is showing 12 hours of the American party conventions, why are the American networks doing so much less? Well, yes, I know that they’re doing that because they’re trying to maintain the whole pursuit of ratings, but they’ve got to do better – the networks’ coverage of news events unites a nation – like they did with the Reagan state funeral – or at least gives us some cultural commonality that we can point to – or else they’re making self-fulfilling prophecies that Americans won’t watch the conventions by being the ones not showing the conventions, as Ted Koppel noted on “Nightline” last night; silly me actually expects the networks to not be businesses and be idealistic in pursuing journalism – then again, the conventions are scripted but then again – even the scripted stuff says something about us as a people…).
Ok, take a breath now. Rant over.
Is it already football season? Good grief, the Giants and the Jets are at it in their respective summer camps. Umm, baseball season isn’t over, last I checked. But, cute moment on the sports segment on the local news – Chad Pennington, the Jets quarterback, discussed what favorite item he brought with him to summer camp – his dvd’s of the 1st season of… Dukes of Hazzard? Funny, Chad. Very funny. 😉 (umm, then again, I’m the one who still sees Tom Wopat and John Schneider as Luke and Bo Duke)…
Summery weather in NYC. Enjoy…
If Day 1 was about Democratic Party past, then yesterday – Day 2 – was the bridge from the past to the future. Some commentary on my part, which may not mean very much:
Ted Kennedy started the night off; yeah, he’s the Democrat of the Democratic party, but he was kind of boring (confession: I actually slept through a huge chunk of the Kennedy speech; forgive me).
Howard Dean was interesting, until he started talking about John Kerry – that got boring. And, what’s the deal about naming every state in the union? (“And we’ll go to Utah, Arizona, and Texas…” – Dean avoided screaming though) – as if people don’t know the names of states (roll call at least used to be interesing – you get all those state nicknames and weird state pride – regrettably, we won’t have that on tv anymore).
Barack Obama, the state senator from Illinois who’s the candidate for US Senator from that state – he was really good to watch. ABC News had a profile of him, which was good (so did Time magazine). He’s an Ivy Leaguer; went to Harvard Law School; 1st black editor of law review; rejected big firms for civil rights work. Obama spoke about a united America, hope, and that’s it’s ok to be a liberal (or progressive or whatever term you want to use; it’s all ok, as long as you keep your perspective on that one America idea). Obama was, in a word, good. All the pundits said it was like we were watching the Democratic party’s future. The crowd in Boston was certainly jumping. But, I still felt one flaw: Obama got a little dull talking about Kerry. Just a little. Maybe it’s my fatigue of hearing over and over how Kerry went to the Vietnam War and will do everything to give us all health care and good stuff like that. Otherwise, I loved Obama’s background story, ambition, and vision.
Frankly, I’d prefer hearing about Kerry from people who knew/know Kerry and doing it with nuance. Bill Clinton did it great (paraphrase: “Pres. Bush, Vice Pres. Cheney and I – we didn’t go to war; Kerry did…”). The Time magazine coverage of how Kerry thinks and what his friends and enemies say about him – great. Listening to campaigning speakers drone on about how good Kerry is (without getting specific on what he’ll really do) – not so great.
I felt squeamish watching Ron Reagan; he was a good speaker – but he was there only for his topic of stem cell research. It felt too obvious that he and the Democratic Party were using each other, a point Reagan himself made in an interview on NBC.
I was looking forward to hearing Teresa Heinz Kerry – she was ok. Not spectacular, but ok. She’s not a professional speaker, but she had ideas, stories, and sense. Pundits would say she should have been more personal in talking about Kerry. But, I’d say there are just some things that should remain personal; Heinz Kerry tried to be balanced. Was she successful at that? Well, that remains to be seen. But, I like her comments that it doesn’t make sense that a woman who speaks her mind (right or wrong) is considered “opinionated” (or less polite words) whereas a man who speaks his mind isn’t slighted in a similar manner. She’s no Laura Bush, she’s no Hilary Clinton either. She’s just Teresa (the liberal Republican who became a Democratic not very long ago)…
Today’s Day 3 – umm. Well, it’s supposed to be John Edwards at the 10pm time slot. We’ll see how that goes.
NY1.com has a One-on-One interview with Councilman John Liu (dated July 26, 2004). Interesting stuff.
The news in NYC is still about getting people (the everyday folks anyway) ready to avoid midtown during the Republican convention; doesn’t that contradict the idea of using the convention as an economic boost? If it’s just the convention folks and the protesters, then what about the rest of us in NYC getting a chance at seeing what this is about? Oh well.
Back to tv…
Just wanted to drop a note. I’ve really enjoyed the recent writings the past couple of weeks. Sorry I haven’t been able to join in.
Thing have been quite busy with work. I’ve had to travel to Hsinchu, Taichung and just all around craziness with MIS support issues at local Taipei branches. Meanwhile, things have been heating up with setting up a local business here. Ramping up with the formalities and also doing a lot of business development Taiwanese style.
A lot of business is still done old-style in Taiwan. That means entertainment, food, drinking and lots of face to face discussions over tea or coffee. We usually meet at a “friendly” restaurant or eatery to discuss. What does “friendly” mean? It depends on whether one is affiliated with the KMT (Blue party), Kuomingtang Party, or the DDP (Green party), Democratic Progressive Party. So we’ll go to one of “their” places to chat. That doesn’t mean that Blue and Green members don’t do business together but there is a definitive line that isn’t crossed unless lots of money is involved. Nevertheless, there is a serious split in the country and it’s paralyzing the country.
As a result, my schedule is that I’ve got a day job and an evening job which makes for 16-18 hour days. It’s fun though, I’m really looking forward to the opportunities here and being more and more comfortable with life in Taiwan. This country is quite beautiful. Very lush and green. It is very tropical and many many things to do outdoors if one can take the heat and humidity. The people are quite friendly but underlying the friendliness is a strong pride in “Taiwanese-ness”. This has a lot of political implications which I won’t bore people with here but I can see the country down the road as Malaysia 15-20 years ago.
Anyways, keep on posting and bringing a bit of NYC to me out here :-). I feel more and more removed from the City which has never happened to me since I left in 1999. That doesn’t sound like a long time ago but it sure feels a long time :|.
Cheers,
=YC
Normally, I try not to get too political on Triscribe. (I’ll leave the political correspondence to SSW). I would like to think of myself (and I think most Americans would) as being both conservative and progressive (the “in” version of liberal). It’s not a contradiction — it’s a reflection of how the political parties have polarized themselves in such a way that the libertarian “middle class” of political actors are shrinking and are shut out (but are now part of that coveted 4% of the electorate that are swing votes).
Bill Clinton in defending the economic “middle class” made several really good points in his Monday speech. By even the yardstick of Republican values, W really has performed poorly. Fiscal conservative? Blown away the surplus and put us back 10 years. International isolationist? We just knocked over 2 countries, and managed to annoy a dozen others. Libertarianism? How about the Patriot Act and CAPPS II? I’m not yet convinced about Kerry, but he’s better at being a Democrat than Bush is at being a Republican.