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So… I forgot to mention a couple of things — let’s see, on July 4, besides seeing Wall-E, the siblings and I did get to check out the new Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It’s Ikea with a view of the New York Harbor. Nothing too spectacular, but fascinating in a Swedish-Brooklyn kind of way. We then took the NY Water Taxi, free thanks to Ikea, to Manhattan. This got us a nice view of the Waterfalls.

We then did shopping at the Strand annex on Fulton Street, which is sadly closing (aww shucks; check it out soon, by August). Soon, cheap book shopping in downtown Manhattan may be only found at Strand’s main store near 14th Street.

Frankly, we need more bookstores in Lower Manhattan, as the linked article notes: too many Duane Reades. (even though there’s now a Barnes and Noble in Tribeca on Warren Street, near West Street, it’s bit of trek; the apparently exciting aspects are Bed, Bath and Beyond next door, and that the new Whole Foods below both B&N and BB&B should be open by now).

With the loss of Strand’s annex (and I still miss Ruby’s on Chambers and this used bookstore that was on Nassau) — it’s a little less literary around where I work (well, can’t discount Borders off of Wall Street though; that Borders is cool, but not nearly as cool as the Columbus Circle one).

Otherwise this week was about anticipating this year’s Asian American International Film Festival. Asia Society hosted panels, in addition to the AAIFF films. I think FC will blog more on it. On Saturday, 7/12/08, which was when FC, P-, me and others watched and seemed to have positive responses to the fortune cookie documentary, The Killing of a Chinese Cookie (check out its official website). Quirky and entertaining, it pretty much covers much the same ground as Jennifer 8. Lee’s “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.” FC and I wondered if we saw Jennifer 8. Lee herself on the premises, but I don’t remember being very sure of that.

That afternoon, FC, P-, and I also checked out the “On Asian/American Aesthetics” panel, where playwrite David Henry Hwang, film director Wayne Wang, architect Billie Tsien, and fashion designer Mary Ping. A bit dry during certain points, I’m not entirely certain still on what is “Asian American aesthetics,” but it was fascinating to think that generational differences and the very meaning of “Asian American” make things no less complicated.

I also attended the panel on “China and the Environment” – a topic that makes me feel more depressed than not; the best we can hope for is that more people can become aware and demand more from their authorities; but “awareness” is different than “action.”

Well, no, I did not get to check out Jon Bon Jovi in Central Park on the night of July 12; and well, yeah, he may be a little on the generic side, but he makes people happy. We need more happy these days.

Plus, Billy Joel at Shea Stadium soon (fascinating article in the Times profiling how he’s been these days compared to what his past has been about), and the Major League Baseball All-Star Game Fan Fest at Javits Center (probably tons more fun than, say, the dreaded Bar Exam later this month at Javits), and the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium — well, do we really want to think about $5 gas?

Other stuff to note:

As probably known to fellow triscribers and readers, as well as friends and family, I am/was an X-File fan, and so I’m a tad nervous about the upcoming movie. NY Times has an article catching up with Chris Carter (the man behind X-Files), along with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as they reprise their roles. Oh, heaven help us: is it really the return of Mulder and Scully? Has it really been (gasp!) 10 years? Am I really going to watch this movie? … Sigh, I think I will, ’cause I’m a sucker…

Cool slide show on Slate: fascinating look at what Whistler’s influence made possible.

Last, but never least: Linda Greenhouse in the latest NY Times’ Week in Review, as she proceeds to retire from the NY Times. I liked her closing:

It has made a substantial difference during these last 21 years that Anthony Kennedy got the seat intended for Robert Bork. The invective aimed at Justice Kennedy from the right this year alone, for his majority opinions upholding the rights of the Guantánamo detainees and overturning the death penalty for child rapists — 5-to-4 decisions that would surely have found Judge Bork on the opposite side — is a measure of the lasting significance of what happened during that long-ago summer and fall.

It is also a reminder of something I learned observing the court and the country, and listening in on the vital dialogue between them. The court is in Americans’ collective hands. We shape it; it reflects us. At any given time, we may not have the Supreme Court we want. We may not have the court we need. But we have, most likely, the Supreme Court we deserve.

July 4th – watched “Wall-E” – great movie! Highly recommended. Leaves a lump in the throat about the fate of humanity – and the life of one little robot.

It also strongly reminded me about Asimov’s rules for/about robots. Ah, that Asimov.

TV on the 4th of July consisted of watching the fireworks and enjoying viewing on cable “1776,” the movie version of the musical (probably should be seen more as a play really, according to Wikipedia, considering how much lines are spoken rather than sang) of the Continental Congress and the grappling of how they agreed on independence.

And, yes, that’s right, that was William Daniels, the former Mr. Feeney of “Boy Meets World” and the voice of KITT of the original “Knight Rider,” as John Adams. Take that, Paul Giamatti! (who did John Adams in the HBO miniseries)… well, actually, if Paul Giamatti could sing, maybe he could try “1776” too.

A day after Venus Williams beat Serena Williams in Wimbledon, the Big News of today: Nadal beat Federer in Wimbledon.

Anyway, it’s soon that time of year – the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Voting continues until Jully 10 for starters; the game’s at Yankee Stadium, to enjoy before it goes away to history.

Recent reads; generally all good subway reads:

Following up on a previous post that previewed this, I finally got to read the book (and FC already read it): “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” by Jennifer 8. Lee – what a great read! Not just a look at Chinese American cuisine, but also about what it means to be American. Highly recommended read (plus the official blog is pretty awesome too).

About two weeks ago, I attended Jennifer 8. Lee’s presentation on the book at an APA alumni event sponsored by another Ivy League institution (not Alma Mater); nifty! She’s engaging, and the slideshow she presented supplemented the book in a really invigorating and entertaining way.

“Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President,” by Lincoln Chafee – a read I got from the library. Chafee wrote about his experience in Congress as a frustrated moderate Republican – illuminating and disillusioning; but I’ll take off points toward his book as a moderate manifesto; it’s kind of hard to motivate moderates to become active fighters when the very nature of moderation is not to fight. It was an easy read, but sad – sad as in the sympathy I felt for Chafee, but I felt frustrated with him for how he described his frustrating situation – he could have done more to stand up to the problems with the Bush administration and the weak Congress, but he was only a junior senator who was dealing with his own Democratic-dominated state. Also, while I’m not as hard on either of the parties as Chafee may be, but he has an interesting perspective.

“Death by Black Hole” by Neil deGrasse Tyson – terrific read!! A collection of the astrophysicist’s essays, it makes you appreciate science. He’s opinionated, in a traditional NYC manner (he is a native New Yorker, after all), and smart and writes persuasively. Highly recommended read. Barnes and Noble has the hard cover edition as a bargain (well, that may actually depend on the store, but it’s available).

Neil deGrasse Tyson has also been a nifty host on Nova Science Now. See, I have a theory that if kids and adults watch more of this stuff, we might have a more educated populace. In theory, of course; I’m not sure what is the status of education as it is.

Hmm… okay, as noted in the previous post, I have a crush on Juan Diego Florez. 😉 He has such a charm and a voice, and can act very well (at least of the comic operas that I’ve seen so far on Channel 13). YouTube has quite some stuff, notably the report on how he got to those high C’s in such an easy sounding way (it probably isn’t easy!; plus, I didn’t realize and was fascinated that Pavarotti was made famous by that same role):

Sometimes I think that the NY Times has some fascinating obituaries of fascinating people – these are not just accomplished people – they’re people who cared about what they did and who they were; consider the recent passing of Kermit Love, the costume designer for various ballets – and behind Big Bird.

The tips on how to see movies in a cheaper way. Umm, if the theaters are showing less matinees at matinee rates, then I’m not sure what would be the best of solutions…

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick on the significance of the US Supreme Court in this year’s presidential election – whether people get it or not.

Oh, my Lithwick and Slate host the annual Supreme Court overview.

Tom Brokaw as the interim moderator on “Meet the Press” – well, I watched most of his interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the discussion with Chuck Todd. Tom’s the fair choice – he won’t ruffle feathers too much, he’ll do the job, and all that. NY Times’ Alessandra Stanley has her write up on Tom’s “Meet the Press” appearance, and she concludes:

It’s hard to know whether NBC has bigger plans for Mr. Todd, who, like Mr. Russert in his early days as Washington bureau chief, is a political savant first, on-air personality second. But no single journalist in NBC’s large pool of talent seems ideally suited to replace Mr. Russert. If that is impossible, then it makes sense to recast the job and return to the early days when guests really did meet the press, answering to a panel of inquisitors who together did what Mr. Russert did alone.

I like Chuck Todd too, and would love to see PBS’ Gwen Ifill back on network tv (“Washington Week“‘s almost like “Meet the Press,” only without the grilling of politicians). but I kind of see Stanley’s point – maybe it is time for a return to a more truer “Meet the Press” by actually having the press back on the show again.

Other Sunday stuff — watched most of Channel 13/WNET’s airing of “SundayArts” – with the opera in French: “La Fille Du Regiment.” I’m hardly into opera, but the good stuff can be good for you. Singer Natalie Dessay was funny and has such a voice as Marie, the daughter of the regiment; and Juan Diego Florez has a fantastic voice and he’s somehow both hot and cute. 😉 (I thought he was great as Count Almaviva in the previous airing of “The Barber of Seville“).

Waterfalls in the city — I’m going to have to see them – do they meet the hype, or is it over-hyped? Hmm…

Stuff to note just before the July 4th holiday… Slate’s Jacob Weisberg on the cool stuff out there in books and the web on early American history.

This will have to do until the next posting…

A pretty Saturday – such nice weather in the city! Did some ambling and shopping in midtown, after a writers group meeting. How nice and relaxing!

Argh — Time’s critic, James Poniewozik, on the probability of another tv strike, only by the actors. Please, SAG, don’t take the tv actors into a strike; losing a huge chunk of the 2007-2008 season was bad enough! I don’t want any more crappy replacement tv!

Seriously, I wanted to throw up as my family’s tv was on FOX’s “So You Think You can Dance” – why they were watching it, I don’t even know. The fact that I preferred PBS’ airing of “Swan Lake” on “Great Performances” (while still not quite understanding what this ballet is about) – well, goes to show you that I must be a tv snob, since I so can’t stomach various elements of reality tv.

Thanks to my friend (you know who you are), BBC has this fascinating story about Chinese-South Africans – who could be considered “black,” since being categorized as “white” hadn’t helped and the apartheid era categorized them as “mixed” or “colored.” Kind of reminded me of how Chinese Americans and Asian Americans generally are in this weird position in American history of race relations.

The NY Times’ Mark “the Minimalist” Bittman on banana paletas – basically banana sorbet popsicles. In the on-line video, Bittman makes the popsicles with the sort-of assistance of the mini-Minimalist. Aww! A mini-Minimalist!

NY Times’ Jennifer 8. Lee on the translation of Chinese food, pre-Olympics. Translating is complicated stuff.

A Newsweek article on how night owls may become morning people. The hard part would be following the tips; I’m sooo not a morning person!

NY Times’ Alessandra Stanley on Michelle Obama’s guesting on “The View” on ABC; Stanley raised some interesting points on how Michelle Obama had a somehow be real, but not too real (she apparently emphasized her mom role – a no doubt real role – but less on her law career – a real part of herself, too). I haven’t watched “The View” in years, but I must admit – it’s tough to be a prospective First Lady (Spouse) these days, since it means doing what you might not want to do to either combat looking too real or too fake – and downplaying who you really are.

For Sunday’s anticipation: Masterpiece Mystery! is airing Inspector Lewis episodes! It’ll be interesting to see how Lewis proceeds as his own man, now that he’s no longer Inspector Morse’s sidekick. The pilot episode of Inspector Lewis from a year or two ago made Lewis into a widower in mourning. Considering he was the good family man to contrast confirmed bachelor/beer-swilling Morse, I thought it was sad that they made Lewis into such a loner – so it’d be nice to see a somehow happier Lewis (to some degree; losing his wife and Morse to the afterlife were blows to the man).

NY Times’ Ginia Bellafante reviews the Lewis episodes and she says they’re good – and she notes the class/power dynamics between Lewis and his partners. My quibble: Morse may have been the erudite one – but was he more of a higher class than Lewis? If I remember correctly, he was a university drop-out and his parents were working class – but he did listen to way much more opera than Lewis would have cared. Lewis’ new partner is much more a clear upper class type — well, young Sergeant Hathaway isn’t Morse, that’s for sure.

Interesting little story – the inspiration for Kermit the Frog (or the source of Kermit’s name anyway) – a childhood friend of Jim Henson, passes away.

Sunday: I thought the Tony Awards show was interesting, but not that much fun. The ending was kind of rushed (as usually the case with awards shows) and there were too many samplings from the Disney musicals (I could do without those, even though I do understand that they have them for the purposes of trying to entice people to come see Broadway fare). Whoopi Goldberg’s skits were a little silly, but were again probably to entice people to come see Broadway fare. Not enough on the plays – would have liked some samplings of those.

But, I really enjoyed the samplings from “Sunday in the Park With George” and “South Pacific” (the stars were quite hot…), and enjoyed the enthusiasm of the new stuff “In the Heights” and “Passing Strange.” I also thought the “Rent” reunion was also poignant.

NY Times’ Jennifer 8. Lee on this Williamsburg artist who uses Ikea cardboard boxes into sculpture — okay, so, this craze for the upcoming new Ikea’s starting to feel just a bit much – just a bit…! 😉

The sad and strange firing of NY Mets manager Willie Randolph. I’ll grant that firing Willie Randolph as Mets manager may have been warranted; but it was the way that it was done that was terrible. 3am EST in California, after the Mets won a game? Ridiculous! NY Times’ William Rhoden notes that as bizarre and humiliating as it was, it wasn’t a surprising firing and it’s a resolution and now time to play ball. Newsday’s Barbara Barker notes that, whether we like Willie Randolph or not, it was how the firing was done. I kind of wonder if firing someone’s like a band aid – it may be painful, but you just got to do it. Being indecisive about it doesn’t make anyone look good.

Big Bird!!! (or at least a fascinating video profile on how Carol Spinney’s been doing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch all these years and counting — watch the end, where Carol Spinney, rehearsing a Sesame Street scene, waves to the Associated Press camera and says in the Big Bird voice “Bye, bye, everybody. Don’t watch Barney…” LOL! .. oh, and the text version of the profile‘s also interesting, but the video’s priceless.

On a sadder note: the passing of Cyd Charisse, known for her dancing on the MGM movies. I always loved this quote of hers, on how her husband knew who she was dancing with in a filming: “‘If I was black and blue,’ she said, ‘it was Gene [Kelly]. And if it was Fred [Astaire], I didn’t have a scratch.’” Watch those dance moves she had with Gene Kelly – wow, that was stunning stuff (not knocking Astaire, but I love Kelly). How sad that they’re now all gone.