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  • More TV Stuff 2014

    I caught the first episode of Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History” on Sunday night . I’m going to see if I’ll watch more. Initially, I was skeptical, since I know way more about the Roosevelts than the average American and I wondered what new element or way of storytelling would Burns bring to such a storied American dynasty. But, the first episode was fascinating in how it brought out how crazy Theodore Roosevelt was, with how he believed in concepts of masculinity and honor, and the idea of the warrior (to an extreme), and yet was a scientist and optimist, in overcoming his physical and mental issues (arguably, he was manic depressive, the way he had his emotional ups and downs, and how he used sheer force of will to climb out of personal tragedies and avoid facing internal darkness, and using might to fight for what he thought was right – although the wisdom of that… well, it was the late 19th/early 20th century, so…).

    As a side note, I have a theory that you have to be a little crazy to run for president and pursue ambition while in office.

    Burns appeared to be using the chronological frame to weave in Franklin and Eleanor, so that would be curious to watch as their further travails and triumphs unfold.

    I almost forgot that Dancing With the Stars has its first night on Monday night.  So far, a lot of surprisingly talented dancers than expected. Of course, I barely know who half these stars are, and the ones I do know… well, I wonder how they’ll pull off the dancing! Plus: I’m pretty sure that Alfonso Ribiero will be this season’s ringer! (I think we’re all expecting the Carlton Banks dance from his “Fresh Prince” days; but he was once the kid who did the Michael Jackson dancing in Pepsi commercials back in the 1980’s – yes, I’m that old to remember that).

    According to Entertainment Weekly, Amanda Pays will be on “The Flash” on CW – and she had played the love interest  in the old “The Flash” on CBS from the 1990 to 1991 season (ok, yes, I did watch that show for whatever episodes during its one season; my taste in tv was never something to brag about). It’s pretty cool, actually – Amanda Pays hasn’t been on tv in awhile (I actually vaguely remembered her X-Files appearance without checking the imdb page). They already got John Wesley Shipp (the ex-Flash), apparently playing the dad of the new Flash (who is Barry Allen; is anyone ever bringing poor Wally West back on tv? He hasn’t been in The Flash identity on tv since… say, the “Justice League” cartoon, I think? – no, wait, I forgot about “Young Justice,” which is such a mash up of Teen Titans and Young Justice so, yeah, “Young Justice” sounds appropriate to avoid the Teen Titan brand, and Wally was so normal in “Young Justice”)…

    So, is CW totally bringing back the cast from the old “The Flash” from CBS? Kind of generous of CW so far! And at least Shipp was has a CW/WB lineage, by having been Dawson’s dad on “Dawson’s Creek.”

    Strange how I’m so fascinated by news on “The Flash” when I’m so behind to watch its predecessor (and still ongoing) series, “Arrow.” But, CW and its predecessor WB has a track record with superhero shows (for better (i.e., “Smallville“) – and worse (I’m looking at you, “Birds of Prey” – which couldn’t last more than one season)).

    I’m hoping that “Gotham” on FOX will be good – but then again, that may be because Ben McKenzie is back on broadcast network tv (this time, playing young Detective James Gordon; fun fact: he did the voice work for young Bruce Wayne/Batman for the animated version of “Batman: Year One” (which I still haven’t watched)).

    I’m not even sure yet if I’ll give “Agents of SHIELD” another shot – but then again, if I’m going to support ABC’s diversity initiative, maybe I’ll give it another try.

    I’ve been in the hunt for a new tv franchise and I think I’ve found it in the latest run of Doctor Who, at least to the extent that I’ve been watching the episodes with the 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi. The 12th Doctor is Scottish, curmudgeonly, and – as usual – ridiculous as ever (the last part is one he has been for awhile, in his nuWho incarnations). I’m so glad that BBC America has been airing the episodes at a decent time slot so that I don’t have to resort to pirating or something, so for once I’m not egregiously behind Doctor Who (someday I’ll properly catch up on all the episodes of 10 and 11 that I inconsistently watched). I’m not going to say that the episodes are perfect (I don’t believe that there’s such a thing as the perfect tv show – don’t hate me for that), but they’ve been fun so far (to me, anyway). Time traveling tv has a way of irritating me, so I’ll give Doctor Who credit just for not irritating me too much (probably because Capaldi’s confident acting is keeping me distracted from plotholes, but then I’m not a nitpicky lunatic as some commentators are out there).

    I’m also probably biased in favor of Capaldi since he’s one of those British actors who keeps popping up (there’s the hysterical clip from his notorious role as Malcolm Tucker, the profane Scottish political adviser (who will bluntly remind you in properly profane language that he is Scottish) who was in “The Thick of It” and later the movie spin-off, “In the Loop“).  I really do have to watch more of his oeuvre – he has played a doctor before, strangely enough playing with Hugh Laurie (the other doctor of the practice) in “Fortysomething”  (and that show had Benedict Cumberbatch, the future Sherlock Holmes, as Hugh Laurie’s son… it’s like a who’s who with British acting, isn’t it?).

    And, years ago, I had seen Capaldi in “Chandler & Co.” – where he was the adviser to the Chandler sisters-in-law, a pair of rookie private investigators who might have been in over their heads, and Capaldi’s character had the strange romance thing with Chandler (the divorced sister-in-law, not the still-married one) – which had aired years ago on PBS’ Mystery. Fun stuff (well, to me it was, anyway). And, so, it’s kind of funny that BBC America has this feature that reflected on Capaldi’s roles – including the one from “Chandler & Co.”

    (I also totally didn’t realize that he had been on “Neverwhere“).

    This summer, I didn’t watch all that much of “The Musketeers” on BBC America, after the first episode. Granted, I was watching for Capaldi, who was playing the – at best – morally ambiguous and power hungry Cardinal Richelieu. Capaldi was fine, but the whole cast kept weirding me out by the way British actors were taking the Patrick Stewart’s mannerism of being French (a la Capt. Jean-Luc Picard)… oh, and D’Artagnan annoyed me in that first episode (he annoys me in his various incarnations anyway).

    This summer, I was also way into the (only four episodes?!) latest run of “Endeavour” on PBS Masterpiece, the prequel series to the “Inspector Morse” and “Inspector Lewis” shows. “Endeavour” still felt a lot like “boy, everyone wants to do a period piece in the 1960’s,” with a Morse meets Mad Men type of crossover, but with tighter mysteries than has been seen in either the Inspector Lewis or Inspector Morse franchises in a long time (both series had some odd plotholes that a truck could drive through, and I can’t even be sure if they could be blamed on PBS’ weird editing). Anyway, young Detective Constable Morse (I still can’t get myself to call him by his first name because the old Morse show made his first name the big secret for years) appeared to be getting some respect from his superior officers and solving bigger cases – and even getting into a serious romantic relationship, and then… cliffhanger. How do you end a four-episode run with a cliffhanger?! (ok, granted, longtime viewers already know what happened to Morse by, say, the 1980s, but it’s really sad how his 1960’s kind of sucked, and his track record of not quite making it with the ladies began so long ago).

    This fall PBS Masterpiece is bringing back Inspector Lewis (who was supposed to retire; guess he’s taking the same route Inspector Foyle did in not quite retiring). PBS Masterpiece has a really interesting fall 2014 schedule – or, at the least, I’m on the lookout for Inspector Lewis and the televised dramatization of PD James’ book “Death Comes to Pemberley.”

    Hmm. I have a lot to catch up on with the tv stuff, as usual, and gearing up for the upcoming stuff. But,  yeah, tv is awesome. Or something like that.

     

  • Filling in the Gap

    So, we had a hiatus for various reasons, between “A Weird Spring” and our entry of “The Revisit” for this year’s 72 Hour Shootout.  I figured I’d do a post on some pop culture stuff during that hiatus without hopefully being too overbearing about it.

    We got into how LeVar Burton got on Kickstarter to take Reading Rainbow to the next generation (umm, next level).   LeVar really surpassed the expectations with the raising of the money, so the next question for him is how to use it well. I noted over on my tumblr that I didn’t begrudge LeVar for not making Reading Rainbow a not-for-profit, since I doubt that there’s that much of a profit out of it anyway (unless you’re at the level of JK Rowling, I’m not sure how much of a cash cow would there be in trying to get kids to read and giving them book recommendations). (oh, and I’m referring to him as LeVar since I grew up on “Reading Rainbow” and I’m a Trekkie, so…).

    With the fall tv season of the 2014-2015 year coming, there are some shows to check out when they get aired. We triscribers are getting curious about how “Fresh Off The Boat” will be; I was thinking about how it’s kind of annoying that an Asian American sitcom comes to broadcast tv once every 20 years, like they’re the NY Rangers in a Stanley Cup final… (check out Randall Park’s commentary on how unfair it is to be the 2nd APA sitcom in 20 years, and hoping to break the bamboo ceiling already (h/t Angry Asian Man’s blog post).  As another sidenote: I am curious to see how ABC’s experiment in expanding diversity on broadcast network tv will work (hopefully!).

    Oh, yeah, the NY Rangers – they made it to the finals, but didn’t win, losing it to the LA Kings. One of those “damn it, they have to get something for Henrik Lundqvist someday!” moments. It was very cool about how NYC got into it, with people coming out to Bryant Park to watch a game.

    I really thought the USA got more into the World Cup because the World Cup was in our hemisphere, so we got to see a bunch of games and Team USA had a nice run. The spirit really was exciting. Otherwise, I still don’t understand soccer. (umm, “football,” to the rest of the world).

    During this summer, I caught an outdoor showing of “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” in Park Slope. Fun rock opera on Andrew Jackson’s rise to power. I liked it; more poignant than I thought (AJ’s wife’s misery – always sad; but that AJ’s ego was just right. Of course he thought he could save the country, putting aside how many people died or who stood in the way). The actor playing Jackson was better that I expected. There were some mic problems but not too bad. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the nat’l bank & tax issues, not that they were covered well at all (not musical worthy). The other old American legends got the “get your own musical” treatment (I don’t remember JQ Adams or Martin Van Buren as that bad in history). Almost made me want to go back to read up on that period again, with rock/pop music in the background.

    Of course, the Andrew Jackson musical is totally making me exciting for the upcoming “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Public Theater in January/February 2015 (with Miranda as Alexander Hamilton!). This was previously The Hamilton Mixtape project and was quite a thing when Miranda started it with a presentation at the White House. (see here for my previous post on that!).

    Ok, I know not everyone likes prosecutors, but I sure give US Attorney Preet Bharara a lot of credit for taking on a whole bunch of challenges. Good profile of him back in August  in the NY Times, by Ben Weiser and Ben Protess.

    This was a very selective notation of stuff, but it was nice that the summer had no heat wave and was generally pleasant, weather-wise. Current events are weird as ever; we still live in interesting times.

  • Taking a Pause to Remember and Reflect

    (reposting last year’s post, on this anniversary)

    As we have done previously:

    Try to remember the kind of September

    When life was slow and oh, so mellow.

    Try to remember the kind of September

    When grass was green and grain was yellow.

    -“Try to Remember,” from The Fantasticks.

    Another photo I had taken a couple of years ago (maybe last year or two ago?).

     

    (I took the photo above at the Brooklyn Promenade, a couple of years ago. That framed picture is still there, do check it out if you’re in the neighborhood. — ssw15).

  • Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2014!

    The moon wasn’t all that apparent on the night of 9/8/14, due to clouds, but close enough. There was even a gorgeous sunset, if you put yourself on the right spot. Anyway, it’s still that time of year for mooncake (over at Facebook, FC shared the link to the Wikipedia entry on mooncake).

    Not that I’m some traditional culture practitioner in any way, so it’s not like I still understand the Mid-Autumn Festival, and personally, I do kind of think of mooncake as the Chinese version of fruitcake – if it’s good, it’s good old-fashioned lardy good and delicious. If it’s not, it’s good old-fashioned lardy “ugh.” Nonetheless, it’s the time to go eat one (a piece of it, and if you’ve grown up on this stuff, you know what I mean).

    See here for FC’s take on mooncake in San Francisco; my take on mooncake in San Francisco; my fondness for cold mooncake. If you type in a search for mooncake, you might find other commentary we have here about it (although connected to other parts of the lives of us triscribers).

    Goodness, even Godiva’s getting in on the Mid Autumn Festival, with a chocolate gift box.

    Actually, I’m still in denial that it’s September.  The last couple of nights, the folks in downtown Manhattan have done the test runs of the Tower of Lights. It’s really a time to be thoughtful and more determined. Whatever that might be. Part of me feels anxious – like, I’m going to back to school, except, oh, yeah, no I’m not. But, it’s sort of energizing.

    I think I still owe a belated fill-in-about hiatus post, but … eventually.  Enjoy the moon!

     

  • Summer 2014 – Movie Edition

    Oh, my goodness.  How did the summer go by so quickly?  Apologies for the latest unintended hiatus.  I will eventually do a catch up post. Really.  An overall summary of what happened during the hiatus would be worth doing. I think…

    As FC noted, Team Triscribe did “The Revisit” as our latest entry in the 72 Hour Film Shootout (theme for this year was “The Color of My Hair,” as we all keep aiming and hoping for more Asian Pacific American representation in front of and behind the cameras).  We did a split Brooklyn-Tokyo thing. It was a pretty cool project, and we made the Top 35, as we learned at this year’s Asian American International Film Festival.

    At the film festival, I watched “Fred Ho’s Last Year” (documentary directed by Steven de Castro, a past officer of the Asian American Bar Association of NY (AABANY); Facebook fan page here) and “Awesome Asian Bad Guys” (official site; Facebook fan page here).  In different ways, both presentations made a lot of food for thought about what it meant to be an APA and how APA’s contribute to the performing arts, films, etc.  Fred Ho took a very serious path, facing death with cancer with as much force as possible.  Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco… are hardly civil rights activists, but they gave tribute to the actors and actresses who took the “die in 10 minutes” roles back in the 1970s and 1980s.  Plus, Angry Asian Man’s Phil Yu as producer, and even actors Aaron Takahashi and Randall Park — well, “Awesome Asian Bad Guys” was quite a thing to watch.

    The wide range of gravitas and good humor from this year’s Asian American International Film Festival was much appreciated (but wow, did the week’s events just flew by; I didn’t get to watch as much as I had wanted!).

    I finally watched “Guardians of the Galaxy” on Sunday.  Fun movie, even if not perfect; it hit all the right emotional points. Probably a whole bunch of comics references went over my head, since I’m not a big Marvel person, but it was fun.

    Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star Lord (if only in his own mind), con artist/thief/alien abductee, journeyed to find it in himself to save the galaxy.  Yep, he and the rest of the least likely bunch of people worked together to be the Guardians of the Galaxy (it’s not a spoiler, since it’s in the title).  Actor Chris Pratt has charisma (with good humor and cuteness, not to mention nice abs; yes, I noticed).  He’s more than that guy in “Parks and Recreation” on NBC or “Everwood” on the WB (yes, I’d go that far back).  Oh, and the rest of the cast was also priceless: Zoe Saldana as Gamora, honorable warrior/assassin; Rocket Raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper (raucous and emotional); Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel (“I am Groot” – definitely different than his past animated role in “Iron Giant” – but he sure does have a talent for voice work); and even Bautista (WWE wrestler) as Drax, the angry guy who comes from a people who don’t get metaphors.  I can see why this is becoming the “shouldn’t miss” movie of the summer.

    Well, there was also “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”  (that came out way earlier, back in April).  That was a grimmer movie, less on the humor (which was there), and way more deeper implications on national security and privacy issues, and impacting a certain tv series called “Agents of SHIELD” considering what happened to the agency SHIELD in the movie.

    On a very superficial note, I think actor Chris Evans has a better physique than Chris Pratt, but Evans has done more superhero action roles.  Amusingly, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” had its own “Everwood” alumnus, Emily VanCamp (most recently on “Revenge” on ABC).

    Oh, and Marvel also had “X-Men: Days of Future Past” – almost forgot about that.  It was entertaining.  Time-traveling annoys me, and this movie didn’t convince me about why any of us would want to time travel; but the movie at least fixed the craziness of “X-Men 3” a.k.a. “X-Men: The Last Stand” (which really did no favors for the character of Cyclops).  Actors James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were sweetly tragic as young Professor X and Magneto.  The introduction of the character Peter Maximoff, a.k.a., Quicksilver, with a nice joke for the knowledgeable audience about his parentage (i.e., a “Wait, aren’t you Magneto’s… oh….” moment for the viewers).   The bad future remained a scary place, with the unstoppable Sentinels.

    The one person who I thought really didn’t get to do more was actor Peter Dinklage, as the inventor of the Sentinels.  Oh, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine – mmmm. He still had that charisma. I later watched “X-Men: First Class” on tv to get myself caught up.  Overall, First Class and Days of Future Past made me really drool over the cuteness of McAvoy and the hotness of Fassbender; the chemistry between McAvoy and Fassbender almost matched up with the chemistry between Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as the older Prof. X and Magneto (notwithstanding that the younger actors do not quite remind me of the older ones).

    “22 Jump Street” was funny, but not nearly as riotously funny as “21 Jump Street.” Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum return as undercover cops Schmidt and Jenko, going to college, continuing to parody all undercover cop movies.  The plotting somehow still worked, and there was a moral that spring break might be dangerous to your health (for undercover cops and college students).

    I also saw “Lucy” this summer.  Scarlet Johannson was not Black Widow like she was in the Captain America/Iron Man/Avengers franchises (seriously, is she going to have her own vehicle as Black Widow?).  No, as Lucy, she was a student abroad, who got caught into becoming a drug mule for Korean mobsters in Taiwan, who were about to spread a drug that permits a drug user to access more brain power (before dying terribly).  Lucy got to access 100% of her brain due to the leakage of the drugs into her system.   Morgan Freeman was the wise scientist who tried to help her (which is turning into a role that he’s been typecasted into doing; he did the same kind of character in “Transcendence,” which I had also watched this spring or summer).  Meanwhile, the Korean mobsters are after her, and the French drug cop sticks around as Lucy’s reminder that she is once human.

    Directed by Luc Besson, “Lucy” tries to be everything at once, a meaningful deep soliloquy on humanity and evolution, a crime thriller, a sci-fi movie, and a caper, with lots of blood from the guns and whatever violence (yet strangely not quite an action film), and the hint of a romantic/sensual/sexual tension between Lucy and French drug cop guy – while not really doing well at any of those categories.  Watching the movie, I was generally entertained (even if it didn’t entirely made much sense). Visually arresting, but not exactly mind-blowingly excellent.

    I think “mind-blowingly excellent” remains to be truly seen among the movies of 2014, while things have been entertaining enough.  But, Summer 2014, please don’t go yet!

     

  • The Revisit

    We’ve been away for a few months for a lot of different reasons, but one of our projects is the movie below that we submitted to the 2014 Asian American Film Lab’s 72 Hour Film Shootout.  We were in the top 35 out of over 400 films submitted! Thanks to YK, Megan, SW, and Ben for their hard work shooting this in Tokyo!

    For Shootout veterans, there are some Easter eggs of previous years’ themes, so be out on the look-out.

    Please check it out and upvote our video below!

     

     

  • A Weird Spring

    It’s something I’ve learned over the years: spring is that time of year when weirdos and nuts come out of the wood works, or however that phrase goes.

    I suppose we should be grateful that the leaking through the media of a recording of a private conversation of the owner of the L.A. Clippers, Don Sterling, has us talking about race and gender issues.   The new NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has announced that Sterling would be getting a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine, and the NBA will try to force him to sell the Clippers, via a 3/4 vote of NBA ownership.  I won’t be surprised if there would be more actions in the form of lawsuits, since professional sports is all about contracts and money.  The unfolding issues are just fascinating for their potential depth and multiplicity.  There are all these complications of what goes on in the private and public spheres; what is the responsibility (if any) of a major corporate entity like the NBA, which has this huge egg on its face because of this scandal (in the middle of the 1st round of playoffs); what about what are we as sports fans/viewers/consumers supposed to do (do we really accept this blech from Sterling?); and, hey, it’s spring and it’s crazy…

    Anyway, I thought these two posts by Gene Demby over at NPR’s Code Switch blog are good synopses/analyses; definitely worth a read if you want to figure out the developments of this sports/beyond sports story.

    Basketball legend (and ex-New Yorker) Kareem Adbul-Jabbar is right on the money: “Let’s use this tawdry incident to remind ourselves of the old saying: ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.’ Instead of being content to punish Sterling and go back to sleep, we need to be inspired to vigilantly seek out, expose, and eliminate racism at its first signs.” I agree that the levels of misogyny and racism out of this mess are opportunities to learn and not just assume that some punishment and moment of shaming will solve everything (not really). Getting things out in the open and discussing them in a civil manner get us on the road of how to actually deal with the craziness and becoming vigilant.

    Which reminds me: I ought to read Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent from last week’s US S.Ct’s decision, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action et al., as she has been quoted for writing, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination.”  Hmm.  (see here on Gene Demby’s post on the Supreme Court’s difficulty on debating on racial discrimination, over at the NPR Code Switch blog).  I think that if the US Supreme Court justices are having a difficult time debating how we ought to talk about the big issues, if we ever knew how to talk about them – well, clearly, we all need to learn something and these topics are everywhere as it is.

    And, while also not related to the NBA situation, note this: “I’m convinced we won’t really learn how to deal with these issues until we learn how to talk about them. It’s time to break down the patterns; they’re only keeping us from really relating to each other on a subject that’s too important to get right.” – Eric Deggans, NPR critic, in discussing the reaction to his post on whether there would be more diversity on late night tv shows.

    I’m not even an NBA follower, although I suppose the Brooklyn Nets are trying to keep things interesting with their playoff games against the Toronto Raptors.  I’m still waiting to see if Barclay Center will ever be a real financial boon for the neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, downtown Brooklyn, Prospect Heights, and Park Slope (which are all fighting to claim the arena; yeah, okay.., you’d think we’d all try to work together to spread the wealth, since Barclay Center is smack in the middle of the intersection of those neighborhoods).

    At the least, we’re living in interesting times.

  • Spring 2014

    Well, pardon the latest unintended hiatus…

    One year after the Boston bombings at the Boston Marathon, it was great to see that Patriot Day of 4/21/14 was such great marathon day, with people taking back that finish line.  A big plus: Meb Keflezighi as the men’s champion! I remembered rooting for  Meb back when he was close to winning the gold at the Athens Olympics (still silver – no slouch), and it was great when he won the 2009 NYC Marathon, getting to be the first American in years at the time to have done that, and how he has kept alive elite American long distance running/marathoning. If anyone was going to try to pull it off to be the first American in 30 odd years to win the Boston Marathon, it’s terrific that Meb did it (since he did it before in NYC).

    See here for the post I had on Meb’s winning the NYC Marathon 2009.  I saw there that I had a link to the NY Times article on Meb’s 2009 victory – and how poignant that it still reverberates these years later – that a great American story of victory lifts an American event (if you can pardon my being patriotic about this).

    Meb is that great American story – an immigrant who keeps persisting, a lesson we can all learn. Boston Strong, indeed. (and kudos to Rita Jeptoo of Kenya for winning again and breaking a new women’s record at the Boston Marathon, and everyone who ran and supported the efforts!).

    NY Times’ art/architecture critic Michael Kimmelman on an idea (just an idea) of a modern streetcar through the waterfront of Brooklyn-Queens, making more mass transit. I like the idea (I’m someone who is not impressed by the lack of bus frequency, especially on weekend/weeknights), since this could be a great alternative. But again – just an idea…

    I’m not sure what to make of the US S.Ct’s decision, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action et al. – a plurality,  it surely is – upholding Michigan’s ban against affirmative action in public universities. I suppose I’d have to dive into reading the opinions therein, but I still find troubling Chief Justice Roberts’ belief that the way to deal with discrimination is not think/do it (well, I’m paraphrasing); it’s a nice idea, but it’s hard to get people to be colorblind when they’re not actually colorblind (or certainly not there yet).  The majority decided to defer to the Michigan voters, so, ok, democracy wins; but I don’t necessarily think that voters always do the right thing.

    Slate’s Emily Bazelon did a review of the decision, and comes to the conclusion that I couldn’t help having:

     

    I can’t read this without noting that in previous cases, Roberts has expressed his preference for color-blindness. This is where the conservatives on the court lose me. Good faith or no, it is at odds with reality to imagine that race no longer matters. I hope the states that ban affirmative action continue to enroll more low-income students as they also find ways to admit black and Hispanic applicants. But we still live in a world of race and class considerations. Not either/or.

    Emil Guillermo also breaks down the plurality, with the twist reflecting on the climate we are in concerning, say, campaign financing:
    But it’s likely that we will see future electoral battles over state and local propositions, now unfettered by campaign finance limits from special interests.  But will people of color be affirmed or will we see the tyranny of the majority? If it’s the latter, then this will be the 6-2 decision that cleared the way.
    (h/t AALDEF’s home of the Guillermo post).
    So, what’s next?  NY Times’ Tamar Lewin covers the question of how to tackle diversity.  The anti-affirmative action crowd seems to have race stuck in the brain, when there is a way to define diversity as more than race and when it is actually about getting as much people (critical mass, one would think) together, even listening to opinions that are really disagreeable. The article closes with a clincher for me:

    Kati Haycock, president of the liberal Education Trust, said she could not deny that most people who follow the Supreme Court believe the clock is running out on race-based admissions policies.

    “I just keep wishing that the people who spend so much time trying to end racial preferences in higher ed would work to end the racial differences in the education we provide K-12, which is why we need the racial preferences,” she said

    That’s a big issue: if primary and secondary education in this country weren’t of such varying qualities, college readiness and people’s jobs options would be a hell of a lot better. We could say that the American dream is there for us all, except for some reason, it isn’t.  If, say, NYC, weren’t so socially and demographically segregated (de facto, not de jure), maybe we wouldn’t wonder why discrimination (as a matter of social practice, forget as law) wouldn’t still be on our minds (at least for those of us who feel it’s still going on).  I’m rambling, but I feel kind of down about how diversity can still be a real thing (and I believe that it is a good thing, and that affirmative action as a remedy shouldn’t be gone yet).

    Meanwhile, Above the Law‘s Elie Mystal seems to be optimistic, citing three reasons why there is still hope for affirmative action: (1) “It’s up to the voters” (i.e., this case was about process, not the substantive policy itself); (2) “College Admissions Committees are smarter than voters” (i.e., they’re looking for students who actually want to be in their schools and make their schools great places – so the holistic approaches are still around, and admissions processes are way more complicated than we think – and it’s not just GPA’s and SAT’s or ACT’s – we’d hope); and (3) “Private Colleges are still awesome” (because this case only affects pubic institutions; a voting initiative isn’t necessarily going to tell a private school what to do).  Elie Mystal says it with a lot of sense, closing:

    Today’s decision was “bad” for supporters of affirmative action, but the program is going to continue in various forms.

    You know why? Because it works. Affirmative action has been wildly successful, both at giving minorities opportunities and for creating a better, more diverse learning environment. Schools aren’t going to easily give up something that works so well, even if the Court says that they can.

    Last but not least: the passing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but in some ways, because we still have his writings and the legacy that they have – well, he has become a little immortal, much like other great writers who have reached a pinnacle and have an impact. I liked listening to the NPR remembrance; in discussing Garcia Marquez’s work, it included actor Hector Elizondo’s reading an excerpt of a Garcia Marquez book.  It just sounded so good – good writing and a good voice actor. I read Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold earlier this spring – and while it wasn’t as much of magic realism, the (lack of) social justice and other questions made it quite a read.  I still have ways to go to read more of his work (One Hundred Days of Solitude is still on my perpetually long to read list), but I’m glad that I started an effort and maybe I should keep going with it.  It’s spring and it’s time for some renewal and re-energizing.

  • March Madness 2014 – Here we go!

    Well, I had meant to do a post on the Winter Olympics, reflecting on how nice that it wasn’t dangerous and how nice that Team USA’s Meryl Davis and Charlie White won gold in ice dancing and that Bob Costas managed to pull through back on the anchor desk coverage.  And, how nice was that closing ceremony, even though I will never understand why NBC insisted on using (exploiting) the Olympics to promote its not very good new sitcoms.

    But, then international realpolitick prevailed and kind of made my positive sentiment rather murky.  The Russia-Crimea-Ukraine situation is pretty mind-boggling, but the world is nuts, I think.

    I kept looking for other things to distract me.  PBS NewsHour’s Miles O’Brien (the real one, although I’m sure he gets enough attention from Star Trek fans, since the Trek universe has its own Miles O’Brien) had quite a situation in losing his arm due to complications from compartment syndrome after his arm got banged up by his equipment.  He talked about the experience on the NewsHour, and I was so moved and wished him the best of luck.  Maybe his being a science journalist can bring some perspective to the situation.

    Meanwhile, in time for the anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown of Japan, the NewsHour aired O’Brien’s three–part story on the status of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, with the meltdown’s consequences still ongoing,  Really fascinating exploration on the science and the policies, and I recommend watching the story.

    The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines, Flight 370, is just capturing our imagination, with the endless speculation.  When or if we get actual evidence is a real question, which might lead to some kind of answer, even if still unsatisfactory.

    Amid all the turmoil in the world, I look forward to March Madness as a nice distraction.  It feeds the economy to some extent (umm, all that junk food and cable tv and gambling, etc.).  We enter the delusion that scholar-athletes can bring a little glory, and maybe some money via the NCAA will get to flow to other, less high profile NCAA sports. At least, that’s what I keep hoping every year.

    Of course, every year, I keep thinking that I’ll pay more attention to the regular season and I’m too casual a fan to really watch much.  My Alma Mater undergrad school’s men’s basketball team actually did pretty well this season (certainly tons better than our football team this past season), playing competitively outside and inside the Ivy League, until Harvard blew us away in a blow out.  I’m impressed that Alma Mater got invited to play some post-season tournament (notwithstanding that I never heard of CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT)).  I’ve heard of the NIT, and I don’t know what to make of the CIT, but hopefully people get some fun out of this.

    Time.com has a good post on the five games to watch, among the 64 teams of the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball tournament.  I get the feeling that I’ll be too stuck at work to get to watch the games I’d like to watch.  Manhattan College has Louisville in (that’s what they call it these days) Round 2.  Hopefully Manhattan gets to be competitive.

    I’m also hoping that Harvard gets a real shot against Cincinnati; hope springs eternal that the Ivy League can show that it can play with everyone else.  Then again, I picked them this time in my brackets so… eh, who knows?  Of course, I haven’t even done my brackets yet and it’s not like I followed any regular season games.  I’m also wishful about the Big East, but that’s old-fashioned local home region talking there.  Ah well…

    I read this article in (dead tree edition) Sports Illustrated, about the Princetown v. Georgetown game, reputedly saving the NCAA.  Worthwhile read about that 1980’s era of college basketball and the personalities (the coaches, the players, the variety of issues/themes – race, class, the rise of Cinderella in the NCAA).

    Meanwhile, President Obama has made his picks for his men’s brackets.  I guess he wants a distraction like the rest of us.

    On with the rest of March.  Maybe we can some consistent spring temperatures already!

  • More Sochi Olympics 2014

    This stuff has been addictive, as usual.  And, perhaps less mind-blowing, because Winter Olympics isn’t nearly as activity-filled as Summer Olympics.

    But, really, who would have expected Bob Costas being away from the desk this long?  Meredith Vieira covered the desk on Friday and Saturday, giving Matt Lauer a break and reportedly becoming the 1st woman to do the prime-time slot for NBC.  (Mary Carillo, I believe, had hosted the late night coverage in the Olympics for NBC; they didn’t want to ask her to do prime time?).

    Lauer was on Sunday night; the journey of Costas’ eyes became a bit of Internet fodder.  Fortunately, Costas will be back Monday night – finally!

    I liked how this item from WBUR (Boston’s NPR) explained the difference between “Ladies’ Olympic sport” versus “Women Olympic Sport.” (which I found via NPR.org, I believe)  Really fascinating, how it turns out to be based on which international governing body governs which sport, and how the particular governing body wasn’t going to go change the name of the older sports to be “Women [whatever].”  Oh well.

    “I had the whole country behind me…but I come away with nothing to show them and give back to them to say ‘thank you for following me and believing in me.’”—Shani Davis on his performance during the Sochi Olympics. Well, I still say “thank you” for your career, Shani Davis, even if I am disappointed. I just felt bad for the entire Team USA speedskaters. That look on Shani Davis’ face is just so sad, and who knows if he can be back in 4 years? Who knows if it was really the speed suit factor or sports psychology? (ex., the saga of Dan Jansen‘s Olympic speedskating was always one of those “Olympics does things to an athlete’s brain” to me – external tragedies and then internal pressure are just combustible).

    Also – the Dutch are just doing ridiculously well in speedskating this time.

    I thought it was just me, but apparently skeleton actually is less dangerous than luge, to the extent that luge is faster.  According to the Slate article I linked there, by Justin Peters, there is some issue of physics (i.e., the skeleton, as head first, loses speed due to the helmet of the athlete) and engineering (i.e., those luges are no joke as equipment).

    People got really excited that US beat Russia in Men’s hockey on Saturday (see here and here).   I watched on Saturday night the highlights  and the rebroadcast of the overtime and shootout.  Not that I think that it reached “Miracle on Ice” level from 1980 (this wasn’t a medal contention game, after all, as thankfully even NPR remembered).  That the Russians’ goal got invalidated during the 3rd period was understandably  frustrating, but then neither team was winning during overtime, and then to take it to the shootout – well, that was just arresting television. T.J. Oshie’s winning shots made people happy. I mean, people were in bars at 7am to 10am (EST) to watch this game.

    Then, Sunday, Team USA won with Phil Kessel’s hat trick.  The Canadians are still in it, too.  (they are trying to win gold again, after all).  It’s like the NHL All-Star game with the excitement, only for a longer time period.

    Jamaica’s two-man bobsled team didn’t do very well at all, but the point is that they tried.

    Watching the Men’s individual Figure Skating was pretty brutal.  Sure, I saw the headlines and only caught the prime time edition on tv, but watching Jeremy Abbott fall early during his short program was still brutal.  But, the crowd gave support to get him up and go finish his program – that was Abbott courage right there, and an Olympic spirit: when you fall, you still get up, don’t give up, and finish anyway.

    The pressure was intense during the long program on Friday.  I liked that Abbott redeemed himself (even though he really wasn’t in medal contention).   Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan won gold (trivia: he was coached by Canada’s Brian Orser and he was of Sendai – the city affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011).  Patrick Chan of Canada won silver.  Denis Ten of Kazhakstan won bronze (trivia: according to NBC, Ten is of the Korean ethnic minority of Kazhakstan).  Sure, this made Yuzuru Hanyu the first Japanese man to win gold ice skating, and probably made Denis Ten the first person from Kazhakstan to win an Olympic medal in figure skating (and Chan yet another Canadian man to win Olympic silver) – but I thought it was interesting that the podium had an all-ethnic Asian podium there.

    And, thereafter, Chan is still dealing with the pressure of not getting gold for Canada (and nice of Orser to be pretty compassionate about it, since he had been in that position, notwithstanding that he was coaching the winning opponent).  Probably a good idea not to be too hasty about retiring while still processing what happened.

    I finally got to watch some live Olympics, watching ice dancing’s short program live during the daytime today.  Comprehensive and fun (if only because I wasn’t watching everyone fall down over their quads or axles etc.).  Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated so beautifully, practically in their top form again, but Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White were amazing; the long program on Monday will be a competitive one.  Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir are the it-commentators of ice skating, and they kept things nice and entertaining (I work during the day, so I couldn’t catch them for any live broadcast).

    On the other hand: Scott Hamilton’s enthusiasm is kind of hard to replace (this gag showed how his commentary can work just about anywhere).

    Also, the ice dancing short program was a fun opportunity to watch Maia and Alex Shibutani, a.k.a., “the Shib sibs” (per Deadspin), the second of three American ice dancer teams at the Olympics (h/t Angry Asian Man blog).  I thought that it was nice to see them, since Alex, at the least, was previously seen on tv being a cheerleader during the team event with Team USA (as seen in the photo/screencap via Deadspin).

    I don’t get curling, but it’s kind of mesmerizing to watch.

    Also, how come I haven’t discovered Deadspin before?  Their Olympic coverage is freaking hilarious, particularly the running gag about the mascot, deemed by Deadspin “The Nightmare Bear” (LOL).

    More Olympics to watch, while we can do it…