Month: February 2004

Admittedly, I am someone who may have watched too much tv – but, in the grand scheme of things, I really don’t watch that much, since I’m still fairly fussy about what I watch. I don’t watch “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette.” I don’t have cable, so I missed the entire run of “Sex and the City” (and even if I did have cable, I doubt I’d have watched the series). I’m barely on top of “Survivor,” and I’ve bypassed “The West Wing” for quite some time now and don’t even miss it.

sidenote – I managed to watch most of last week “The West Wing”, because the commercials made the episode tempting to watch and I wanted to see how the ex-VP was doing; turned out “The West Wing” introduced this item of interaction between C.J. and ex-VP Hoynes that was _never_ discussed during the first three seasons when I had almost religiously watched “The West Wing.” I mean, if you’re going to throw a wrench into continuity, shouldn’t it be done with some better credibility? Pretty please? (I’m being sarcastic; pardon my tone). The point is, I stopped watching because it’s not the same show for me. The characters and their lives are no longer familiar.

But, television at its best is like a good book or book series – the characters are compelling, they’ve a verisimilitude. Life’s stupidities get thrown at them and they either sink or swim; they learn from it or don’t. I’ve been watching Masterpiece Theatre’s “Forsyte Saga II” on PBS and it’s essentially British soapy stuff (okay, it’s based on the books written by a Nobel Prize writer, so it’s literary, not soapy), but it’s a good watch. Soames Forsyte (played by Damian Lewis) is still an emotional suppressed lawyer, who never quite got over losing his 1st wife, Irene (played by Gena McKee), to his cousin, Jolyon (played by Rupert Graves) during series I. In series II, it’s 1920, and their kids are making new trouble: Soames’ daughter, Fleur (by his second wife, Annette), and Jolyon and Irene’s son, Jon, are in love with each other, but don’t realize why their families won’t (and can’t) let them be together. Every character isn’t perfect – Jolyon, the guy who once ditched his first wife for a governess, turns into a hypocrite for forbidding his son from love; Soames is still a controlling maniac – who comes to realize that he can’t own his daughter anymore than he couldn’t own his wives – and that he probably was guilty of raping his first wife; and Irene realizes that she has to face life with courage, and not let Soames destroy her. The character of Jon felt weak, but was a kid and I felt like I couldn’t expect much from him and gave him credit for having his good intentions. Fleur was overpowering – she’s a spoiled brat, but then one feels pity for her. The sins of the Forsytes get repeated – but in a sadly, slightly different way.

Not to say the British tv is better crafted (and maybe it is, I don’t know; the accents may be classier and maybe that just makes it seem better), but “The Forsyte Saga” made me feel like tv can be engrossing stuff, a little way to get away from real life. I try not to belittle tv, since it’s something with so much potential and power – but has as much possibility to be – well – just junk.

So, I’m not too impressed by hearing people who go into the tv business saying it’s not what they care for anyway. Why go into the business then? Virginia Heffernan of the NY Times interviews David Chase, the maker of “The Sopranos,” and Chase reveals: “‘The function of an hour drama is to reassure the American people that it’s O.K. to go out and buy stuff. It’s all about flattering the audience, making them feel as if all the authority figures have our best interests at heart. Doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists: sure, they have their little foibles, some of them are grouchy, but by God, they care.’” It may not be what “The Sopranos” is about, but that’s how Chase views tv. Chase enjoyed working on “The Sopranos,” but states, “‘People like the show, and I’ve got a great group of actors, a great group of directors. But I don’t want to do any more TV. I’m tired of television. I’m tired of the form. I’ve always wanted to go into movies.’” So, really, tv was just his sideline, his way of getting his name out there? Anyway, the interview was plain bizarre; was Chase being facetious or serious?

Then there’s the article in the NY Times about Stephen King’s upcoming “Kingdom Hospital” on ABC.

Stephen King says, “‘I am not a series TV person,’ he said. ‘In series TV, it’s beginning, then middle, middle, middle. Like the kid says in “Stand by Me,” about television, “They keep on ‘Wagon Training.’” I just don’t watch series television. “E.R.” I have never watched. “Friends” I have never watched. I don’t say that with pride because that’s really my culture. “Seinfeld”? I’ve never seen an episode. It’s always the same people doing the same things.’”

I suppose there’s some relief in seeing King acknowledge how tv is a part of American culture, but, he’s also acknowledging something about tv – the boredom. And, maybe Chase is right – tv, especially network tv, is just where people hawk stuff. But, are these people – who say that they don’t watch tv – being snobs, or are they really that bored by watching the alleged “same things” and are that sick of the promotion aspect? And, if they don’t watch, how can they be so sure that it is the “same thing” over and over? And, really, isn’t the “same thing” what gives some tv viewers comfort? TV babysit kids because it is the “same thing” – no disruptive and scarring change to mar anyone, which can really be said about real life.

So it goes. Go watch the Academy awards; maybe there will be surprises. Maybe there will be “same thing.” Either way, it’s good tv.

I liked this NY Times article that critiques the architectural design of the Port Authority’s new PATH station at the World Trade Center site. It’s beautifully written and it makes a lot of sense. For a temporary site (well, temporary to the extent that it’ll be the station for the next four or five years), it is very beautiful – concrete, steel, and some art, and no ads. I’ve been at the new PATH station four times now (due to NJ CLE), and I’m amazed by how nicely done it is – parts of the underground was so familiar – if you pass by the side connecting to the R/W subway station (formerly the R/N station), you can almost remember the Warner Brothers store that was there and can try to recall the Borders down the other way. The designs for the permanent transportation hub (to give the sense of a bird in flight) is nice, but this current site is a good transition.

I am now husband and wife according to the laws of Malaysia. It’s pretty neato to be married by an uncle of mine :-).

It’s hot here boys and girls! We had a torrential downpour yesterday and it is still awfully hot and humid. Ipoh is hotter than Kuala Lumpur. Hanging out here in an internet cafe waiting to hook up with A J.

Hope you folks are doing well.

=YC

–> NY Times’ Quotations of the Day – demonstrating that there’s a little odd stuff going on in the current administration:

“As one who grew up on the receiving end of insensitive remarks, I should have chosen my words better.” – Rod Paige, U.S. Secretary of Education

“He said he considered the N.E.A. to be a terrorist organization.” – Susan Aspey, spokeswoman for Education Secretary Rod Paige.

Hmm. Perhaps the NEA (the national union representing teachers) is a little sensitive about being viewed as terrorists. Perhaps Secretary Paige indeed made a strange choice of words – after all, one can criticize a union (even voice one’s frustration with them) without going so far as saying that the union is tantamount to a terrorist organization. I mean, the analogy isn’t even exactly accurate – union is to terrorist organization as apple is to kiwi. Last I checked, some union isn’t exactly going around making extremist political statements and threatening to bodily harm people, even if their lack of cooperation (at worst) or continued challenging (at best) an administration won’t make immediate improvements in educating kids. Plus, if one would like to have mutual efforts to improve education, does it help build consensus if one were to refer to the other as a terrorist?

So, yeah, I think that Secretary Paige should have made better choice of words – but his background of having grown up in a segregated South isn’t what would make him know better than to make an “insensitive remark”; this is supposed to be common sense – one can’t go around accusing the other of something ridiculous _and_ inflammatory.

–> I was telling a law school classmate about this so I’ll note some of my view here on the blog too: David Brooks’ column on Samuel Huntington’s latest writing; Huntington’s book is apparently arguing about how Latinos cannot be fully assimilated Americans. See, I don’t always agree with Brooks, but I agree with him that Huntington was being narrow-minded, to put it kindly. Brooks quoted Huntington’s book and he concluded that Huntington’s views are the “real threat to the American creed.” I just thought that the Huntington quotations were too reminiscent of what has been historically said (and probably continues to be said) about Asian Americans’ being unable to be truly assimilated Americans (i.e., America’s “Yellow Peril” fears of the 19th Century onwards). I suppose this is how it works for certain scholars like Huntington – one must fit the “American” scheme, he says, but what does he do with people who are neither black nor white – he’d say they’re not “American”? Maybe Huntington needs to sharpen how he defines “American.”

–> Anyway, on less serious subjects: enough on the Yankees; I liked this cute article on how the new Mets’ infielder tag team (Kaz Matsui and Jose Reyes) are getting adjusted. Let’s hope they can play well when the season starts. Mets fans need serious uplift.

Last night’s “Super Millionaire” had a Korean-American attorney as the contestant – Todd Kim (or “Kimmer” to Regis Philbin) of the U.S. Dept. of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. An obvious attorney, he talked his way through all the questions, and used his all his lifelines to make it to $500,000 award. He even called his colleague at the DOJ as a lifeline to answer the question of “Who was Amelia Earheart’s navigator, during the flight in which she disappeared?”* Even harder – Todd had to answer the question, “The first condom commercial on TV aired in 1991 during what show?”* (his jokes were amusing: “I can’t believe $400,000 depends on a condom…” and a little “I don’t think my mother would want to know this…”) The Three Wise People lifeline seems like a cute idea – among yesterday’s troupe was Neil de Grasse Tyson, the director of the Rose Center for Earth and Space (aka the Hayden Planetarium).

Kudos to Mr. Kim for being almost a millionaire.

* check the comments for the answers.

Interesting stuff in today’s NY Times:

What does it take to be The Man – in the NBA, that is. Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, and Tim Duncan – can they be The Man? Duncan has the championship rings, so does O’Neal – and yet… Or, do they lack the “killer instinct” that it takes to be The Man?

What does it take to be The Woman? The NY Times’ Maureen Dowd comments on the revitalized Laura Bush and, once again, I wonder what we expect from the First Lady in the turn of the 21st century – fighting for her man, being her own woman, or what?

Continuing a running thread on the blog, I’ll note Tom Friedman’s column today about the outsourcing issue. Friedman highlights a question posed by Robert Reich (ex-secretary of the Dept. of Labor under Clinton): “‘The fundamental question we have to ask as a society is, what do we do about it?’” Friedman closes with his response: “Either way, managing this phenomenon will require a public policy response — something more serious than the Bush mantra of let the market sort it out, or the demagoguery of the Democratic candidates, who seem to want to make outsourcing equal to treason and punishable by hanging. Time to get real.”

The Arts section of the Times profiles actor Christopher Plummer – hmm. I know that he’s an amazing actor, but I’m one of those nuts who still sees him as Capt. von Trapp. Well, time to sing the “Sound of Music” farewell song and bid adieu…

Flying out of JFK in two weeks, being something of a travel freak, and having a nice evening with no obligations on my hands, I wanted to figure out the JFK AirTrain to see if it was practical and figure out any problems with logistics. The major question that I had was whether it was better to take the LIRR to Jamaica or the A Train to Howard Beach. So I decided to take it to Jamaica towards JFK, and the A Train departing from JFK. The tag point would be the schedule screens next to the news stand in front of the security checkpoint at Terminal 9, American Airline’s domestic terminal.

7:05 PM: bus from Downtown Brooklyn to the Flatbush LIRR station (aka Atlantic/Pacific).
7:10 PM: let off across the street on Flatbush after Atlantic Avenue. Big mistake: it’s virtually impossible to cross the street on the south west corner as traffic from those two thorughfares doesn’t stop for anyone. Note to self: get off at the previous stop.
7:18 PM: finally get into station, missed the train that had just left 3 minutes ago. Bought a $2.50 CityPass (a single one way weekend discount fare for travel within the City limits). The full off-peak fare is $6.50.
7:48 PM: next train to Jamaica leaves. This is not your parents’ LIRR train — new faux leather cushioned chairs similarin feel and color scheme to Amtrak’s Acela service. It has a real bathroom which is wheelchair accessible, meaning it’s bigger than my kitchen.
8:07 PM: train arrives on time at Jamaica. Elapsed time for this leg: 62 minutes (actual travel time had all connections been made: 25 minutes)

8:15 PM: tragedy strikes. The AirTrain is down — some sort of computer problem; the computers are being restarted. The bus just left, but another bus will show up in five minutes, at least that was the promise. A number of people go up the elevator only to be told to go back down the escalator.
8:32 PM: bus driver walks over — he was parked around the corner and no one told him he should be where we were standing. Other Chinese guy who was a Chairman Mao look-a-like was going my way — he was equally confused.
8:52 PM: Arrive at American Airlines Terminal 9. Kind of anti-climatic, but things were cooking in the arrivals area.
Total cost: $2.50 plus $1 tip to the bus driver (the bus was free because of the mishap) and 167 minutes (44 minutes of actual travel time). At full fare, this trip would have been $6.50 for the LIRR and $5 for the AirTrain.

As apparently someone managed to give a swift kick into the systems’ innards, I tried the internal loop to get to Terminal 4, the International terminal.
9:00 PM: walked over to the 8/9 AirTrain station. The internal loop train arrived. Pretty much identical to AirTrain Newark’s trains. They are actually not a monorail, but have regular size tracks and an electrified third rail. According to what I read, magnets in the bottom of the train push off against other magnets placed between the rails to propel the train, so there’s no real motor to speak of. The interiors are spacious and suitable for carrying a few pieces of luggage.
9:05 PM: We’re stuck at the station. After a woman fiddles with some hidden controls underneath the back window of the front car, we are finally able to leave the station.
9:10 PM: got to Terminal 4. Whole lot of Koreans waiting in front of the security checkpoint eating and just generally procrastinating before going through security. A Robert Palmer-esque phalanx of 5′-11″ Korean supermodels in flight attendant uniforms part the crowd as they march to the security checkpoint. Contemplate eating dinner, but the best thing on offer was a $6.34 Big Mac, so I pass on it.
9:30 PM: The outbound loop is back in operation, get on the wrong train towards Jamaica. I get off at the 8/9 stop and wait for a Howard Beach train.
9:45 PM: After 2 more Jamaica trains pass, the Howard Beach train arrives. Top speed on the train is something around 60 mph, as we were lapping cars on the Van Wyck at one point, but we eventually coasted to around 45 mph. Annoying conductor begins telling people not to lean on the doors, but there’s nowhere for people to go as it’s as crammed in as the 4 train in the morning. Must have been all of the people who got stuch when the system went down.
10:00 PM: Arrive at Station B, long term parking. The FlyerTalk bulletin board describes a technique where if you know how to exit the parking lot and get to the local streets, you can bypass the last stop and legally avoid paying the $5 fare.
10:15 PM: I walk following underneath the tracks, and end up at the last stop. However, it’s pretty dark, and I can’t find the cross-over to the other side of the street, so I give up and reenter AirTrain through Station A and pay the fare.

Total travel time for this leg: 30 minutes (10 minutes waiting for 3 trains, 15 minutes actual travel time plus 5 minutes walking between Station B and Station A).

Note to NYC natives with an unlimited Metrocard: it’s $5.00 to enter or leave the AirTrain, payable only with a debit MetroCard. Standard Unlimited Metrocard does not work. When leaving at Station A, there are two banks of hi-tech looking turnstiles: a right bank(more like straight ahead) and a left bank . If you take the left bank, your card will be debited $7 for both the AirTrain exit plus the subway entrance. If you take the right bank, you will be only charged $5 for the AirTrain exit. Then you can then turn left and enter the subway through regular turnstiles using your unlimited MetroCard and save $2.00.

10:18 PM: The A train arrives relatively quickly. Trip was quick and uneventful.
10:45 PM: A train arrives at Jay Street/Borough Hall station.
This leg: 27 minutes (30 minutes including waiting time). Total time: 75 minutes (44 minutes actual travel time, assuming 2 additional minutes had I taken the train between Stations B and A). $7 cost (could have been $5 had I not been snookered into not using the unlimited Metrocard, or $0 if I had found the long term parking shortcut).

The options are practically equal from Downtown Brooklyn except for the missed connections and the higher cost of the LIRR. As viewed on The Amazing Race, where connections are involved and all other things being equal, take the option that is more frequent and has the most opportunities for connections. Jamaica/LIRR may work out better going towards Penn Station, since trains show up practically every 5 minutes going in that direction, but there are 30 minute gaps in service going to and from Flatbush. There’s some questions about AirTrain’s overall reliability, but the staff is usually able to reboot the system or get alternate transport relatively quickly. However, while the trip itself is more comfortable and avoids traffic, it doesn’t get there faster than the previous train/bus combo, and it’s $5 more expensive.

Yesterday, I finished reading the medieval England book that I had mentioned previously in the blog. I enjoyed it, and had read the other book in the series back in January. Both books were good subway reading: “The Queen’s Man” and “Cruel as the Grave,” by Sharon Kay Penman (the books’ Amazon links refer to the paperback versions; the author’s official website looked nice, I think).

The series follows the adventures of 20-year old Justin de Quincey, the illegitimate son of the Bishop of Chester in England, in the years 1192 to 1193. In “The Queen’s Man,” Justin becomes (what else?) “The Queen’s Man,” serving the dowager queen of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine: Justin accidentally came across the murder of a loyalist of the queen. The loyalist had information on the capture of the queen’s son, the King Richard the Lionheart; Eleanor asks Justin to investigate the murder – was it to prevent the information from getting to the queen? Was it because the victim had a nutty family who contracted the murderer to do it; or because of something else entirely? Meanwhile, Justin becomes entangled in the craziness that is medieval England, with spies and other double agents. Who shall he trust? Prince John, Richard’s brother, also makes an appearance and hovers in the background; he is apparently the bane of his family, and has his issues about his family (probably a parallel to Justin’s issues with his father; neither man seems to get it that maybe their respective parent isn’t as horrible as they believe).

“Cruel as the Grave” takes place a month later; Justin’s settling nicely in London, and the Queen’s assigning him to get a message to John, who’s trying to keep himself inside Windsor Castle to make a point. Meanwhile, Justin is trying to solve who murdered a 15-year old girl, whose only crime was that she fell in love with someone outside her class – and would this be the reason for her murder?

As mysteries go, “Cruel as the Grave” was a stronger one than “The Queen’s Man” – although the case there was easy to solve (I thought), at least one gets to watch Justin be the detective. “The Queen’s Man” seemed more like an unfolding coincidence, even though there were plenty of suspects; Justin seems to have incidentally figured out the situation. But, both are good yarns, as one follows along Justin’s journeys. The characters come alive, and don’t feel anachronistic at all. And, the context feels right – Penman notes how the Saxons spoke English and the Normans spoke French (and thus the upper crust spoke French), and yet she doesn’t bog down on “thou” or “thee” or whatnot. Justin is also a sweet protagonist, even when he acts tough. Not perfect, he matures in each situation he gets himself into.

Penman clearly did her research and I like her style. Yeah, so she’s an ex-tax attorney, but she has an imagination that works nicely.

Other reading? Note the following:

NY Times article on the Chinatown vans was educational , so to speak.

NY Times on the impending odd NYS election; getting ready for Super Tuesday?

NY1 (the all-news tv cable station) has an interesting series on academia, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education.

‘American Idol’ Reject Idolized by Web (AP)

William Hung, a Real American Idol

OK, so he’s not that good of a singer, but he’s got moxie, and if he can show up Simon, more power to him!

Some articles or news of note:

ABA E-Journal’s latest humorous anecdotes about the legal profession.

While the post-mortem on the Dean campaign has been going on, writer Paul Gastris in his NY Times op-ed illustrates an obituary for the Wesley Clark campaign. I thought Clark had brought a certain edge to the 2004 campaign (“ooh, a general! Cool!”), but his inexperience proved to have been his undoing.

Bill Moyers is apparently leaving “Now” on PBS, after the election, to write a book on his experiences working for President Lyndon B. Johnson. Darn sad; Moyers made me appreciate a lot of stories that I wouldn’t have thought heard or thought about and he made me re-appreciate old fashioned liberalism with his respectful yet charged tone of voice. Hopefully PBS won’t turn away from “Now” (which won’t be the same without Moyers, although David Brancaccio as co-host has been nice watch, at least to help ease the burden on Moyers), but we’ll see how this goes.

NY Times’ report on the impending subway changes, effective 12:01 am, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2004. Pro: N-line will be on the Manhattan Bridge, ending an almost 20-year detour in the tunnels between Court St. Whitehall stations, and the B and D lines will be back in Brooklyn. Con: B will be on the old D-line and D will be on the old B-line. According to the article, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) recognizes that the old-time Brooklynites will be confused that the B will be on the old D-line and the D will be on the B-line, but claims that the short-term confusion will be fine (and, yeah, I’ve mentioned in a previous blog entry that I grew up back when the B was the B and the D was the D – and that was just less than five years ago). In fact, MTA allegedly has an explanation for why the planners couldn’t put the lines back together again in Brooklyn, the article notes:

“One of the most controversial aspects is the swapping of the old B and D lines, with their return to Brooklyn. Many residents remember growing up near the lines and will have to remember the switch.

“In the end, this was a decision based mostly on trying to simplify things, planners said. The B train in the Bronx currently runs only during the weekdays because of station rehabilitation work along the route and less demand. Planners decided that they wanted to connect this to the weekday-only line in Brooklyn. Planners conceded that they could have simply switched the designation in the Bronx, but they decided that would only confuse riders there.”

So, why is it that it is not worthwhile to confuse the riders of south Bronx, but okay to confuse the 4 million Brooklynites? Huh? (yeah, I don’t know how many people in the south Bronx take the B and D, so anyone may feel free to correct any of my misconceptions; but I still feel that the switch in Brooklyn is still an outrage). And, what about the immigrant populations of the Midwood/Brighton Beach lines (the old D line) and Bensonhurst (the old B line), forget the English-speaking population? I’d sit on the W subway (which substituted the B in Brooklyn the past three years or so), and I’d still hear Cantonese-Chinese speakers refer it as the (gasp!) B. Where’s the simplification in this?

I mean no offense to the MTA, really and my views are entirely my own and not representative of anyone else’s; I’ll quietly adjust to the N changes from where I am to get to work, but I’m just still baffled about why the switch on the B and D. End of rant.

In a previous blog, I discussed the virtues of the Travelocity commercial and the Gnome. Much to my amusement, it turned out that I one-upped the Slate.com “Ad Report,” as it too has recently commented on the Travelocity ad campaign. (well, I was wondering when Slate.com was going to get to the subject of the Gnome anyway). Slate.com “Ad Report” writer Seth Stevenson gave it a B-minus, because he figured that the Gnome can only go so far (umm, creatively, that is). Stevenson has a point, but in the meantime, I still think it’s a cute ad campaign. Oh, and he notes an explanation for why Travelocity gave Bill the Gnome a British accent (although I still prefer my “Full Monty” theory).

Ok, ok. Time to go…