Month: June 2005

Hmm, so Wednesday night, I finally watched the thing that tv people have been talking about: “Dancing With the Stars.” Eh, what’s the big deal? . These aren’t even real stars – more like B or C (dare I even say D) list stars. On the other hand, it’s been strange fun. John O’Hurley (a.k.a. J. Peterman of Seinfeld) is a real ham. Joey McIntyre, the ex-New Kid on the Block, is still cute (while Donnie Wahlberg and Mark (“Marky Mark”) Wahlberg are the Actors, Joey was always the cute one; I think he ought to be on tv more often – quirky dramedies would fit him – he was decent on “Boston Public” before that show went south; maybe he should show up on “House” as the latest patient with the mystery illness). (well, yeah, I was in the generation that thought the New Kids on the Block was The Boy Band).

ABC has the sense to pull the planned (and panned) reality series “Welcome to the Neighborhood.” As per the commercials, ABC was going to allow this cul-de-sac of white Christian middle class folks to pick their new neighbor – (a) the Asian family (unclear if it was an Asian-American family, or Asian family); (b) a family that identified itself as Wiccan; (c) an African-American family; (d) a family of punk people; or (e) a pair of male gay parents and their adopted children. ABC said whatever the families did would not run foul of the U.S. Fair Housing Act (the legislation prohibiting discriminiation in housing, on the basis of race, religion, national origin, etc. (with the exception of sexual orientation, but don’t worry, state and local laws get to cover that). But, the idea of the show offended the senses (yeah, watch the WASPS’s try to explain why they rejected the families (“They just don’t fit in…”) – no, really?).

Slate explores why, of the journalists being threatened with jail time for not revealing their sources, hasn’t the man, Robert Novak, who revealed the CIA agent’s identity going to jail…

Thanks folks for the comments. I’ve been a bit busy as you will see below. Skype or me and I’ll walk you through this.

I had jury duty on Wednesday at Supreme Court, Civil Division. This is your garden variety potpouri type of general jurisdiction court. After about 4 hours of hemming and hawing, I got picked for an auto accident case. It won’t actually start until next Thursday, when hopefully the case will settle out after 6 years.

We also got our raise letters today, which were on the high side for not-for-profit work, but measly against the private sector. I thought it was good, some others were jumping for joy, and others were not happy.

I bought the Chowhound’s Guide to the New York Tristate Area. Incredibly awesome – the website distilled into a book. The indices in the back of the book are vital, because the categories in the main section are as arbitrary as New York Press’ Best of New York issue.

For those trying to figure out where to go to write, here is the link.

The latest conversation on the US Supreme Court up on Slate – really interested. I liked Prof. Tim Wu’s analysis of the Ten Commandments and the Grokster cases – that you have Breyer and O’Connor concerned about our maintaining manners – extremes are bad.

The passing of Shelby Foote, the writer/commentator on Ken Burn’s “Civil War.”

The NY Times’ Sewell Chan on the latest plans to change the rules of conduct in the subways:

Hmm. Yeah, that’s pretty much what I do without the MTA telling me to do – I go in and out at the platform, not between cars (which really is scary – to me anyway). I understand the rules, but I don’t necessarily think you’d need them. Those posters of “Don’t be Stupid and Risk Dying” seem pretty strong enough (yeah, I actually do look at those posters in the subway).

Enjoy Wednesday, even if the humidity around here sucks…

New: Upgraded the blogging software to 1.5. There are some new things behind the scenes, and some neato templates, which I’ve changed to here. I’ll be working on changing the picture to something more mine, and get the location thing working again. Please point out anything seriously wrong.

Old: Interesting new book I saw at the Union Square Barnes and Noble called Hong Kong Apothecary: A Visual History of Chinese Medicine Packaging. It’s the first comprehensive look at Chinese medicine production that I’ve seen in English, and it is incredibly facinating. The meanings of the fancy mysterious boxes are revealed.

Today, I went into the city to help plan the annual Asian picnic. I spent most of the time in the East Village going up Broadway to Union Square. Meantime, the Gay Pride parade is going on Fifth Avenue, as well as a Billy Graham christian crusade in Flushing. Barely a sign any of it is going on with probably upwards of 100,000 people involved between the two events. New York is the only place this kind of thing could happen.

On the CD player: “Classic Yo-Yo” 0 compilation of Yo-Yo Ma’s best.

Glad to see that the NY Times still has the link up – its special Brooklyn section from last week. Tons of great stuff, plus an article about my neighborhood (I was reading it, thinking: “Good grief, that’s my subway station they’re talking about!”). Check this stuff out before the free links expire.

Plus, for this week’s City section, NY Times has an article about this one man’s quest to collect cofee cups (the stuff we get from the local delis, you know “It’s our pleasure to serve you” with the Greek blue design).

Hmm. I don’t always like the tone of NY Times’ columnist Frank Rich, but his take on the mess with PBS is interesting:

HERE’S the difference between this year’s battle over public broadcasting and the one that blew up in Newt Gingrich’s face a decade ago: this one isn’t really about the survival of public broadcasting. So don’t be distracted by any premature obituaries for Big Bird. Far from being an endangered species, he’s the ornithological equivalent of a red herring.

Let’s not forget that Laura Bush has made a fetish of glomming onto popular “Sesame Street” characters in photo-ops. Polls consistently attest to the popular support for public broadcasting, while Congress is in a race to the bottom with Michael Jackson. Big Bird will once again smite the politicians – as long as he isn’t caught consorting with lesbians.

That doesn’t mean the right’s new assault on public broadcasting is toothless, far from it. But this time the game is far more insidious and ingenious. The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers’ expense. If you liked the fake government news videos that ended up on local stations – or thrilled to the “journalism” of Armstrong Williams and other columnists who were covertly paid to promote administration policies – you’ll love the brave new world this crowd envisions for public TV and radio.

There’s only one obstacle standing in the way of the coup. Like Richard Nixon, another president who tried to subvert public broadcasting in his war to silence critical news media, our current president may be letting hubris get the best of him. His minions are giving any investigative reporters left in Washington a fresh incentive to follow the money.

[….]

As the public broadcasting debate plays out, there will be the usual talk about how to wean it from federal subsidy and the usual complaints (which I share) about the redundancy, commerciality and declining quality of some PBS programming in a cable universe. But once Big Bird, like that White House Thanksgiving turkey, is again ritualistically saved from the chopping block and the Senate restores more of the House’s budget cuts, the most crucial test of the damage will be what survives of public broadcasting’s irreplaceable journalistic offerings.

Will monitors start harassing Jim Lehrer’s “NewsHour,” which Mr. Tomlinson trashed at a March 2004 State Department conference as a “tired and slowed down” also-ran to Shepard Smith’s rat-a-tat-tat newscast at Fox News? Will “Frontline” still be taking on the tough investigations that network news no longer touches? Will the reportage on NPR be fearless or the victim of a subtle or not-so-subtle chilling effect instilled by Mr. Tomlinson and his powerful allies in high places?

Forget the pledge drive. What’s most likely to save the independent voice of public broadcasting from these thugs is a rising chorus of Deep Throats.

Hmm. So maybe I am wrong – maybe PBS could become a tool of propoganda. Uh. That doesn’t sound right at all.

Enjoy the rest of the hot sultry weekend.

PBS funding restored, but other concerns remain. The NY Times’ article by Lorne Manly on “Public Broadcasters’ Tightrope Over Funds” demonstrates the problem. The PBS managers are trying to do more outreach to get help and money, but that only gets more ire:

But the lobbying effort has been criticized. “What bothers me is they’re using my tax dollars to lobby the Congress to get more of my tax dollars,” said David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian research organization, and a guest on Mr. [Brian] Lehrer’s [WNYC/PBS radio] program on Monday.

Mr. Boaz, a regular listener to public radio, said he believed in the separation of news and state. “The government shouldn’t be putting its thumb on the scales in the marketplace of ideas,” he continued, adding that public broadcasters could withstand the loss of money that represents about 15 percent of their revenues.

Public broadcasting executives defended their outreach efforts, arguing that they are allowed, within certain restrictions, to broadcast spots that support federal financing. And with a vote looming in the House, they did not have the luxury of waiting until the cut becomes reality.

“If we did not tell our members and the funding quietly slipped by, they’d never forgive us,” said John Lawson, president and chief executive of the public television lobbying group.

In addition, they said they are merely laying out the facts for their viewers and listeners to digest. “We are asking them to express their opinions, whatever that may be, but not telling them what to think,” Ms. Walker said.

Placing these spots near news segments about the controversy can raise journalistic questions about blurring the line between news and promotion. Tim Eby, radio manager of WOSU and chairman of NPR’s board, said the station’s on-air people have made sure the spots don’t run during any locally produced segments about the controversy.

So, there’s the concern about the appearance of conflict of interest in PBS journalism (which is usually very solid, but when you’re trying to defend the very concept of PBS, PBS journalism looks like it’s on the defensive, when, just before Lehrer (Brian on radio or Jim on tv) interviews someone, there’s that Save PBS promotion on the air. I didn’t really agree with that libertarian guy referred above – I mean, really, the Constitution talks about separation between religion and state; a division between news and state is something else. It’s not like government funding for PBS makes PBS the government’s propaganda tool or that the government is endorsing a particular network (especially when the current administration is all but accusing PBS of having “liberal” bias). If anything, government funding of PBS (pretty minor stuff as it is, compared to, say, paying for military or Social Security) encourages and maintains free speech in the marketplace of ideas: so long as there is PBS, we don’t have to be the captive audience of the greedy (-ier?) network broadcasters and the cable networks.

But, the lobbying efforts do bother me as a viewer in one sense – I tend to turn to PBS as the commercial free tv. But, increasingly, it obviously isn’t, when you have to sit through “Thanks for our supporters and grant providers from Chipotle, Coca-Cola, and Sprint.” Not easy times for PBS.

And, continuing my topic here on tv stuff, I thought this Alessandra Stanley evaluation of the now-notorious Tom Cruise appearance on yesterday’s Today show is interesting. Yeah, so Cruise is looking a little unhinged, but is terribly honest. Stanley says it’s refreshing. She also makes a point – Cruise is making it obvious that the talk show host/interviewers aren’t exactly the smartest bunch – I mean, really, it’s just Matt Lauer asking silly questions. But, to me, is it that worth it to make Matt Lauer look really dim-witted and to kick dirt at the science of psychiatry (which helps people, even if someone like Cruise doesn’t think so)? I wasn’t planning on watching the Cruise/Speilberg “War of the Worlds” in the first place (not my kind of movie – looks too scary, and I never liked the concept of it in the first place – begging pardon to H.G. Wells). But, this publicity for Cruise – well, I just don’t know how much it helps him. He’s going to have to hope that the audience is able to separate Cruise the Actor from Cruise the Man and that the Man doesn’t end up driving away the Actor’s audience.

Oh, and my silly joke – since Katie Holmes (ex-Joey of “Dawson’s Creek”) can’t let go of Cruise, I do so very much wonder, when will old Dawson and Pacey rescue Joey from the strange older man? … 😉

Hot weekend.

Had dinner with my mom and P- tonight, and the topic of eminent domain came up. Of course the topic is dear to us because my apartment is directly affected. I kind of remember 10 years ago when the Chinese government swiped the land under Beijing McDonald’s to build a shopping mall, while America was awash with mergers and acquisitions. At the time, we never thought that what happened to McDonald’s could happen in a democratic society, and such robber barron “master of the universe” business deals could happen in a communist country.

What kind of week is it when the Chinese are involved in hostile takeovers, and the US validates government property grabs? Capitalist or Communist? Left or right?

Chinese Oil Giant in Takeover Bid for U.S. Corporation

It seems that China is undergoing the same sort of issues that the United States did as it moved out of its industrial revolution. I’m sure that there will soon be Chinese figures like Rockerfeller, Carnegie, and Morgan. In fact, the Chinese are being assisted by JP Morgan Chase, opposing another bid by Chevron, a descendant company of Rockerfeller’s Standard Oil. In another interestng tidbit, the takeover target, Unocal, financed the Brooklyn Dodgers’ move to California. What’s old is new again.

Christian Bale is the man.

Oh, yeah, and so are Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. They really lift any movie (and support The Man).

So, yeah, I liked the movie. 😉 God, I really am a geek wanna-be! (not that that’s a bad thing).

I think the identity killer of Bruce Wayne’s parents will always be a toss up, since I am aware that in one earlier incarnation of Batman, the killer was just a criminal (probably the earlier comic books of the 1940’s). In another (recall the Batman movie of 1989, with Michael Keaton as Bruce), the killer is the Joker himself – so we could wrap our heads around the idea of who created who – the criminals made Batman – a psycho justice-seeker, but Batman made the criminals – the psycho ones anyway. Christian Bale’s Batman movie does bring that into question (does Batman make the criminals go “theatrical” or did they make him go (more) nuts?).

Bale’s strong portrayal certainly didn’t ignore the question of just how many issues does Bruce have. While Keaton didn’t turn away from the Bruce as a psycho, I liked how the Bale movie emphasized Bruce’s path and his perennial Scarlet Pimpernel dilemma – yeah, so he’s a Kennedy-esque playboy, but he ain’t stupid (or, tries not to be in his Bruce persona). But he risks losing “Bruce” – whoever he may or could have been without his issues in the way (the “Fugitive” series/graphic novel played up the whole Bruce vs. the Batman dilemma). The Waynes had a legacy, and there’s the heir going around in Kevlar costume to beat up the bad guys. Umm, right. Hope you do find time in your Bruce life to fix up the elevated subways of Gotham, Bruce. I mean that in a nice way, of course.

The R’as Al Ghul storyline was definitely confusing in the movie. In the comics and the 1990’s cartoon, that character was seriously nuts. Henri Ducard existed too (in the comics, so far as I know – but I’m not too into the comics – really, I’m not!) – but the Bale movie has really made me confused there. (seriously, my Bat-knowledge is based on whatever I’ve picked up over the years or the cartoons – which are far more mature than you’d think and are highly recommended).

The Bale movie could have been more cheesier (well, aren’t all superhero movies just a little cheesy and campy? Isn’t that what we like about them?), but it was a superior movie all around. A little on the long side (like how much “Let’s torture Bruce” scenes can we stomach?).

I do miss the idea of Bruce having some more allies in the fight to save Gotham. Umm, sure, the Asst. DA who doesn’t walk around with her DA badge; the one good cop; and Bruce’s corporate right hand man. The comics and the cartoons did give Bruce his own personal doctor, and she was pretty inspirational as she also helped the inner city communities, tended to Bruce’s wounds and helped Alfred (someone has to help the poor guy watch Bruce do crazy stuff). What, do we really think that Alfred had to deal with Bruce’s “spelunking injuries” by himself? 😉 Well, Bruce is just beginning, so good help will have to come down the line.

Thumbs up for Batman Begins. If this jumpstart the franchise, I’m on it.

“Entertainment Weekly” had the new Superman/Lois Lane on its cover, as it presented its Must-see list. Hmm. Not sure if this will get that franchise going: personally, Clark Kent is that guy on Channel 11 in WB’s “Smallville.” But, WB didn’t want to break its tv contracts by deciding to have the actor Tom Welling be in a future big-screen movie, so they get an unknown to be the new new Clark. Heck, they even have a B-level star be Lois (even though “Smallville”‘s Lois is great). And, they want to hurry up with the new new Superman, because they’ve got their new Batman and they sat on their new new Superman project for ten years.

Hmm. Well, I can only handle one franchise at a time. Batman has the upper hand right now, and WB better not screw it up.

Got an autographed copy of “Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food” at A Cook’s Companion on Atlantic Avenue. I haven’t read the entire book, but it seems to be pretty complete – he even has my godmother’s spaghetti and meatballs recipe on page 170.

Batman Begins is really a superior movie to all of the others. There was one continuity error (or difference) about who exactly is the killer of Bruce Wayne’s parents versus the previous movies or the comics, but this explaination is much, much deeper. Definately some inspired casting choices. Recommended.

On the other hand, saw the trailer for the Dukes of Hazard movie — besides the question of why?what about the casting: Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke, Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg, or Willie Nelson as Uncle Jessie? Obviously, their careers are headed for a dead end, good buddy.