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Saw the movie “Van Helsing” yesterday. I know that the reviews in the media have been mixed about it, but I thought it was all right. Don’t go see it expecting an Oscar award type of movie – it’s most certainly not. But, it’s a good popcorn movie (and I was certainly munching a bunch of that – spare the butter flavoring, save some calories) and even better to see it at matinee pricing (avoid paying the full price – it’s not that good a movie).

Hugh Jackman as Gabriel van Helsing, hunter of demons on the side of Good (well, apparently having allied himself with the Catholic Church which allied itself with Buddhists, Muslims, and others to stop monsters). Demonstrating some gravitas and moral virtues and sadness in his character, Jackman saved the movie from becoming a silly computer graphic animation (the movie, made by the guys who gave us “The Mummy” franchise – do they realize that they can only so much rely on the graphics?). Plus, it’s funny saying the name, “Van Helsing” with a fake Eastern European accent (say it three fast, and you’ll see what I mean). Richard Roxburgh, playing Dracula, had his over-acting moments (if you had seen his playing Sherlock Holmes in the latest version of “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” on Masterpiece Theatre as I have, you’ll know what I mean), but it’s all about Jackman. Plus I think there was the most accurate portrayal of the Frankenstein monster (as in, true to the original book version by Mary Shelley). David Wenham, the guy who played Faramir in two parts of the “Lord of the Rings,” was almost unrecognizable in this movie – a very skilled actor, I’ll say, to do a totally different character well. Oh, and Kate Beckinsale co-stars. Curious ending – almost daring. I won’t give it away, really – you’ll all have to see it for yourselves. But, it’s all about Jackman. Do I really have to say it again?

Last year, the horse Funny Cide tried real hard to get the Triple Crown of horse racing, but was stopped by the Belmont stakes. That odd horse of 2004 – Smarty Jones – (again) came from behind yesterday to beat out the not-so-great pool for the Preakness – and, like Funny Cide last year, will try for the Triple Crown at Belmont. Hmm. Funny how this time of year makes me think that I like the horsies.

“The Practice” series finale tonight – salute to the firm of Donnell, Young, Frut, and Berluti for having tried real hard for the past several years to give us decent tv/non-reality stuff to watch.

Enjoy the nice weather in NYC today. I could have sworn we were in the middle of spring.

Music: GiTS:SAC Theme (MP3)
Rachael Yamagata (Artist Direct.com).

APA Half Hour: between 12:30 and 1 am, Conan O’Brian had Pun Yin, Donald Trump’s feng shui expert, and ballard singer Rachael Yamagata. Afterwards, cartoon King of the Hill featured Connie, Bobby’s Laoian girlfriend in “Aisle 8A“.

Saw a preview of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Fantastic CGI, great music by Yama Kano. The plot didn’t translate so well in English — I wish that they had played the Japanese soundtrack with subtitles.

Going to the 9th Avenue Food Fair — it’s today and tomorrow from 57th Steet down to the 30’s.

Wednesday’s “Angel” – crazy stuff indeed. I swear, Angel’s whole free will thing is amazingly impressive. That’s always been his theme, and he’ll stick to it, thank you very much.

“Frasier” – umm… okay. It was all right. I’m not a big “Frasier” fan, and haven’t watched it at all this season (any storylines I have followed have been entirely due to NBC’s commercials or from TV Guide), but the series finale was all right.

More APA stuff: check out NY1’s series of articles/news stories about APA’s in the five boroughs; it ain’t just your grandpa’s Chinatown anymore (well, certainly not my grandfather’s, to be more precise).

More series and season finales tomorrow, and the weekend. So it goes.

Since when is the best interest of the child not served by being separated from her natural parents? I’m curious to know what the Tennessee burden is in this case

Anyone point a law link to this to explain the judge’s reasoning? Couldn’t quite tell from the news article blurb.

=YC

APAs in the news: Head of Iraq Inquiry Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba reporting on Geneva Convention violations; NJ Superior Court Judge Randolph Subryan accused of sexual harrassment.; American Idol contestant Jasmine Trias continues on as LaToya is voted out.

Received honorary Filipino status today by going to a board meeting in a Kenneth Cole shirt P- got me. It looks like a baby-blue barong tagalog (unlike the picture, there’s a flap on my shirt that covers the buttons), except it’s done in easy to care for cotton, and not the itchy, have-to-dry-clean-every hour piña cloth .

Tiresome. Should have gotten more sleep this weekend (not like I did very much), so then today wouldn’t have felt so tired.

So… some comments on “The Last One” of “Friends,” because I’m assuming that enough people have seen it by now. If you don’t want to be spoiled by any spoiler, just close your eyes and scroll down.

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spoiler/spoiler/spoiler/open your eyes if you dare….
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As Chandler would say, could it have been any less predictable? But, all in all, a harmless, warm, fuzzy episode that gave a lot of closure. I’d quibble that Rachel, the one character with a lot of character growth in the past ten years (going from dentist’s-ex-runaway bride to fashion industry career girl) settles for the one guy who has pined for her all this time, but it’s a sitcom – we’re meant to be kept happy, and I suppose that there is nothing wrong with that. But, it was such a constructed sense of tension – it wasn’t as if Ross really was losing Rachel; they (momentarily) forget that they’ve a child together and it wasn’t as if they were having a permanent goodbye to each other as a result. And, where was Ross and Rachel’s child in this last episode? Or any mention of Ross’ other child? Kids get shafted in this series, I must say. (Monica and Chandler’s offspring had an appropriate amount of attention – considering that they’ve a hyper-responsible parent like Monica, maybe that’s unsurprising).

Even the foosball machine gets a goodbye – must they say goodbye to everything and anything? The cute thing: the new chick and duck. Aww, so cute.

Otherwise, good closure. Back to reruns to catch up on the last five years of “Friends” that I missed out on anyway…

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spoiler over.

And, what about “Survivor: All Stars”? Hmm. Jeff Probst’s arrival at Madison Square Garden from the helicopter – weird, silly scene (“So, you’re risking life and limb by standing on the side of the chopper, Probst?” My brother and I chortled if Mark Burnett, producer of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” got a hold of Trump’s helicopter just for Probst). Boston Rob – only a runner up. Hehe – wearing that Bosox cap must’ve been spread that Bosox karma. And, Amber? Ok; so she won. But, that… engagement? Well… I think I’ll leave my comments at that. For some reason, I just can’t quite think of something really remarkable considering to say. It was just one odd season finale, and I haven’t been particularly good about following the series this season.

A belated article to link, but appropriate in honor of Asian Heritage Month (in May, but as I’ve noted, my alma mater celebrates it in April to avoid conflict with final exams) – but I had mentioned this article to my sister the other day, and so I figured I’d mention it here: ever wonder where General Tso’s chicken comes from and where would one get the best kind (in the Morningside Heights area anyway)? Note what this undergraduate says, from my alma mater’s newspaper. I’m more of a sesame chicken person myself.

Slate.com has this not-that-regular feature on commenting on other web sites; in the latest edition, Bryan Curtis writes on athletes’ blogs. Personally, I had no idea that Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants had a blog on his website; I wouldn’t even think that athletes, like most celebrities, are very interesting in their blogs (well, maybe none of us are interesting; perhaps I should say that I fear that the athletes or celebrities are more interested in self-promotion in their blogs). Scrolling down, I find out that there’s this thing called “City ‘blog maps’”. Curiously interesting – a way to look for blogs on a website organized by… transit maps? Ok. There’s no way to see if these are interesting blogs, but curious to see how the Internet can organize itself “geographically.”

The end of “Frasier” on Thursday – set your VCR’s again, folks… Otherwise, enjoy the week.

Whew….I think…..

Actually, not much of one. It’s been go-go-go since February and I haven’t really had time to stop and take it all in. It’s been 11 days now in my new home Taipei but no time to reflect. I think I’ve just been throwing myself into the thick of things. Not that I’ve had much choice. It’s so much better to get everything situated as quickly as possible so that I can go on with a “normalized” life as much as possible.

So far, my schedule consists of waking up by 7am, getting to work by 9am, then leave work around 7pm or so, typical of my NYC lifestyle. Taipei is very much like that, very urban, hip (with a touch of old-world), fast and public transportation friendly. I’ve managed to get a Taipei Metro Card and away I go. Having my cousin (in chinese, she’s my Tang Jie-jie), has helped 1000%. Without her, I wouldn’t have found my nice rental room (yes, it’s about as big as a typical NYC studio) with completely new fixtures and floors. I even got a new fridge, TV, cable and DSL installed. I’m totally plug and play. The neighborhood is quite nice (Zhong He District Taipei). I live next to the Zhong He No4 Park which has a new library (not yet ready), police station, a couple of markets nearby, and lots of stores in a main blvd (called Zhong He Lu). The bus st0p is outside my door and the subway station ( map here) is one block from my apt. I get off the Yung-An Market (Yongan Shichang) subway stop on the NanShiChiao Yellow line. Zhong He Lu has a bookstore, a “Best Buy” type of store, lots of 7-11 types, coffee shops galore, movie theatre across the subway station. Naturally, lots of eats too — it will be a struggle to lay off the calories, but I manage to walk quite a bit every day to-from work so I think I will be successful.

I had a chance this weekend to take the Beitou-Nanshijiao line and stop at at Jiantan stop which is a huge night market area, near Taipei Sea World. So much good food there, it would take me a whole year to just sample it all. It’s gotten hotter here too so the summer dresses are out and the eye-candy is at overdose levels. I’m starting to be able to pick out the ABCs in the crowd vs. the locals. A quickie rule of thumb would be that the ABC/expats guys like myself tend to be a little heavier and taller than the rest. As for the women, I’d have to relate AJ’s observation when he approached a female on the street to ask for directions and he asked her in English. To her astonishment, he relates, it was elementary — she was chunky, makeup-less, and dressed-down vis-a-vis local gals who are almost uniformally always “well-put together” (so to speak).

Well, til next time….

=YC

Holding off on commenting on the “Friends” series finale, since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who taped it and haven’t watched it yet or else Tivo’d it. On one note though: the clip show that was on before the series finale was absolutely hilarious, showing all the Friends’ best (re: funniest) moments. I like a good clip show, and that was a pretty good one – couldn’t stop laughing.

The Iraqi prisoner abuse news: the whole thing disgusts me, it really does. Pictures say a thousand words, and these pictures about the prison guards – they certainly have more than words to interpret. One thought: I was watching a little bit of the PBS documentary on Asian Americans, “Searching for Asian America,” the other night and they had a segment on Gary Locke, the Chinese-American governor of Washington state. They made an interesting point: Locke is in a position of preserving our “face” as Asian Americans, particularly when “face” is a big deal for Asian Americans. And, then, I realize that I can’t help but correlate that idea of “face” with this situation with the prison in Iraq – the American face has something to deal with here.

There’s the sense in the op-eds that America’s enemies would do this kind of human rights violations – and certainly worse. But, the reality (to me, anyway) is that it isn’t exactly just about America’s enemies but about America itself – what about measuring up to our own moral/democratic standards? What do we stand for, and why is it so easy to cross that line of rendering others as “other”? Have we as a people crossed that line? There’s no question that this news development shouldn’t represent all American troops or all Americans – but it will be seen that way, because it’s our face that’s out there.

As a lawyer, I wonder what is next; what will be the remedies or the procedures? Where is the law in this? Is it in this context at all, in the midst of war? Anthony Lewis’ op-ed in the NY Times kind of hit it home for me.

These are just opinions on my part; I may be wrong; maybe things will work out. Maybe.

One stream of unconsciousness and life events:
It’s self evaluation time at work. I’m so beat from doing 3 shift-days followed by being with my parents or P- (or both) that I’d probably give myself a poor evaluation. P- had someone rear-end her while stopped at a light, but she and her sister’s car are both OK; the other driver, with a handicapped license, drove off before numbers could be exchanged. The end of Friends came, but I still have to watch the recording; like Seinfield, I never really got into it because I was going to law school at night and never was home for Must-See TV (The Official Soundtrack). My cousin’s graduating from law school, and I get to give her the diploma. June’s trip to Seattle seems like it will be unofficial. August/September’s trip to Malaysia is still being worked out. AJ’s grandmother passed away in the Phillipines. YC moved to Taiwan. My dad had another in his string of diabetic ulcer surgeries at Columbia/New York/Presbyterian/Cornell/ whatever-they-are-allied-with-nowadays Hospital. Joe, a friend from elementary school (who also went to my high school and college) hooked up with me to talk about real estate closings. He met up with some other people from there recently, including a girl that I had such the crush for in grade school. I wonder what she looks like now. My high school did their 35th annual musical, which was a production of Les Miserables (School Edition). I’ve seen the Broadway version 3 times, and I have to say my high school’s version was better than two of them — more earnest. It was standing room only for 6 performances.

Ones that defy explaination:

– RIAA suing downloaders for taking royalties from starving artists, then on the other hand holding on to royalties saying that they couldn’t find artists such as Dolly Parton, and David Bowie.
– NY Post editorial saying that people tortured by US contractors in Iraq are better off than those being tortured by Saddam.
– A news helicopter crash landing into one building, rolling over onto the roof of another building in Flatbush, and everyone walks away from it (thank God!)
– All of the Japanese Iron Chefs defeated by all of the American Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America (well, at least it was as rich and fast-paced as the original).
– All of the rain on the East Coast; non of the rain on the West Coast: fires there, floods here.

OK, that’s enough of the “One” liners. I guess I’ll have to watch Friends “The Last One” tonight.

Tonight is the night – the end of “Friends.”

Last night:

“Star Trek: Enterprise” – gosh, the last three episodes have been decent. Last night continues the trend – I dreaded the latest time paradox, and kind of knew what the end was (Capt. Archer and Crew had to change the future, and did so – their descendants won’t exist – and yet those descendants helped them…), but in execution, the episode was good. The writing felt tighter, the acting smoother, and even the direction had direction. I agreed with the review on the Trek Nation website – lot of emotional impact and parallels to past good Star Trek episodes and even this past season on “Enterprise.” Moral questions: “I have to do what I have to do, I have no choice…” and yet there is always a choice, Captains – even if it means wiping out your own existence (assuming that that’s what the character Lorian intended – who knows; his life was all messed up, if I accept the suggestion of the storyline) so that your ancestors have a shot at saving the future, or as Archer realizes every single time, trying to save the world is real hard.

“The O.C.” – now that’s a season finale for a 1st year show. Reflecting on what has happened during the past year, the characters’ growth (or maybe even lack of) and possibly even regression. The adults had their moments and the teens did their usual thing. Not a bad show, even with the crazy plot twist turns.

I watched “Angel” on tape delay (well, my taping of it anyway) – nicely funny episode. Angel and Spike vie for Buffy, but she’s not exactly around, as she’s busy roaming around Rome. So, Angel and Spike reminisce and scramble out of a weird situation to get a decapitated head back to Los Angeles. Okay. Very light-weight episode for something short of the series finale. Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, Wesley faces an emotional crisis when Illyria, the amoral demi-goddess, develops a shapeshifting/personality-shifting power – she becomes Fred, but so obviously isn’t Fred. It’s so strange and worrisome to know what can happen next to Team Angel.

Oh, and back to “Friends”… (they may be about to be gone, but at least the reruns are always going to be on Channel 11 in NYC in perpetuity…)