Category: Manhattan

Monday into Tuesday

Kudos:  US District Ct., North District of California – the trial court of the federal system – finally has an Asian American federal judge (the first in its 160 year history, according to the NAPABA press release); Judge Lucy Koh has been confirmed.  She will be the only current Korean American federal judge in the country and second in American history.

Considering northern California’s place in APA legal history, this news on Judge Koh is big and good stuff.  Amazing how Pres. Obama has increased the number of APA federal judges (and hopefully the Senate will stay productive).  See also the post on the subject on Angry Asian Man blog.

Also, from Angry Asian Man: an Indian American wins the National Spelling Bee.  He also points to this fascinating article on Slate on why have Indians done so well in the spelling bee: basically, they’re just really, really into it – community support can go a long way, that’s for sure.

A Chinese American family fighting in Surrogate’s Court: as the family of C.C. Wang argue over the artwork that he had collected; talk about the messiness of family feuds and property issues.

Okay, so I’m actually getting excited that the A-Team movie is coming (although ,I’m hoping it will be a fun movie and not completely crappy; I mean – come on, it’s the A-Team!).

Strangely, besides A-Team, more of my ’80’s youth is coming back, since: via Time Magazine’s Techland – news that Voltron will be back on tv (what?  seriously?) and someone really is doing a Thundercats movie (what?  seriously?).  (well, there is a CGI animation version.  Really.  And, it seemed that Keith and Princess Allura admitted their attraction to one another.  I think.).

Although, I’ve said it before: if they bring back My Little Pony and the Care Bears, or the Snorks – then it really is the end of the world, if not civilization.  (and I wonder if we’re pretty close to that as it is half the time, considering the political vitriol and Icelandic volcano and gushing oil leaks and financial jobless recovery/prolonged recession).

On the other hand, I am sort of in the hunt for the summer tv thing, sort of.  Over on David Bianculli’s TV Worth Watching, contributing critic Diane Holloway reminds people of the return of “Burn Notice” and “Mad Men,” and she seems to like “The Good Guys” (the one where Bradley Whitford – the ex-Josh of “West Wing” – has a ridiculous mustache and Colin Hanks is his partner in fighting crime).

I can’t get myself to watch “The Good Guys,” because… it’s Bradley Whitford with a ridiculous mustache.  I can be very superficial, I know.  Maybe I’ll watch it eventually, since I like the two actors (or their previous work on other stuff) and want them to have a shot at TV glory.

I think I’ll give “Lie to Me” another shot; Tim Roth is strong (at least he’s a Brit playing a Brit, as opposed to Hugh Laurie’s (still masterful) task as House; I can only put up so much of the (kind of weird and fascinating) trend of Brits/Australians playing Americans).  I watched a little of the repeated season finale of last season and a re-airing of the pilot episode.  The concept of the show is pretty nifty; the characters — well, I like to care about the characters.  I don’t think I’m there yet with “Lie to Me.”

And, I’d like to get another try of “Royal Pains” – the idea of the ex-Fonzie as dad to Dr. Hank is kind of … weird.  Otherwise, I would like to finally get on the bandwagon on “Burn Notice” and “Mad Men,” but I’m so not consistent with the cable tv offerings.  Someday.

Let’s see if this week can be a bit more positive; hope springs eternal.

June Continues

World Science Festival in the city; some good stuff.

So, along with wacky service problems on weekends (shuttle bus, anyone?), MTA’s going to be issuing a new map (probably to reflect the end of some subway lines and other things). It’s supposed to look sleeker.  Hmm.  We’ll see how good it’ll be.

But, it’s a pain in the neck over the weekend, when subway lines aren’t going between Brooklyn and Manhattan and buses all clumped up.

Coming up, on 6/12/10: Save NYC Libraries.

Here’s a link to a trailer of the new “Hawaii Five-O,” coming this fall on CBS.  I’m getting more into the new Hawaii Five-O than I expected, based on the trailers alone, which look good. They seem to fit in this era of “Can we please have a more diverse tv cast” and “are we losing Miranda rights?” — plus, Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, even Scott Caan! (oh, and Alex O’Loughlin, who is in need of a… show that doesn’t get canceled; but, he’s no Jack Lord though as “Steve McGarrett” (and I never really watched the original Hawaii Five-O).

I posted the trailer on Facebook, and FC noted that there’s one continuity blooper – at 1:02, one of the cops is holding his badge upside down, and at 1:03 his badge is right side up.  Clearly, they’re still working on the show (well, tv is tv).

But, I’m not sure what does it mean if I’m not really into much fall tv as it is.  Hmm.

Via Angry Asian Man blog: by Jeff Yang, on the SF Gate, “The Book of Daniel,” profiling Daniel Dae Kim.  Good stuff to read.

Apparently, “Heroes” wants one more shot to say goodbye (from Time’s Techland, of the TVGuide.com posting). — seriously, no.  I gave up when they had unceremoniously killed off the Adrian Pasdar character Nathan.  I’m not getting on board just to see more mess and say goodbye.  “Lost” earned a goodbye, because they cared about their characters; “Heroes” did not, because they didn’t care about their characters (or stopped doing so).

On the other hand, I’ll still give “Heroes” credit for its diverse cast.  Sure.  But, it didn’t do more appropriate stuff with the characters.

Shakespeare in the City: check it out the list on WNYC and Wall Street Journal’s review on New York Classical Theatre’s scheduled “Richard III” at Central Park (yes, roving Shakespeare).

Lawyers as writers – Scott Turow was on Charlie Rose a couple  of weeks ago about his  newest book.  John Grisham was on NPR’s All Things Considered, about his own legal thriller for kids (seriously; I’m not entirely sure how it works either, but it sounded intriguing).  I’m impressed that these two pioneers in legal thrillers are still at it.

Linda Greenhouse on J. Souter’s commencement speech at Harvard and her observation that he hasn’t completely disappeared.  Good for him!

The passing of John Wooden, UCLA’s legendary men’s basketball coach.

June 2010 Begins

Well, Memorial Day came and went.

FC, my sister, and I checked out the Vilcek Foundation‘s exhibit of “Lost” props and photos.  Mr. Cluck!  Dharma van!  Dharma beer!

My sister and I then checked out Asia Society’s museum (exhibits on “Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art” and “Inspired by India: Works by NYC Students“) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art“; “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity”; and “Tutankhamun’s Funeral“).

The end of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, but really for us at Triscribe, APA Heritage stuff is every day.  But, some items of interest:

Great stuff at the AABANY/SABANY/KALAGNY event: “Blazing a Trail in the Law.”

Angry Asian Man showed a clip of this funny and poignant comment from Ben Kingsley to the ladies of “The View,” about how he was with a terrible dinner guest – a German woman who (1) asked if he was Jewish, and (2) said it was “worse” when he said he was half-English and half-Indian.  His outrage was on point, although I wonder if this incident had occurred before he was on “Gandhi” or “Schindler’s List.”  (or maybe it did occur afterward!  What a terrible dinner party that must have been).

NY Times covering the Bon Chon v. Kyochon trend; fried chicken will never be the same, now is it?

Time’s Techland (the geek/nerd/etc. coverage) post by Evan Narcisse, on a Memorial Day special – honoring Asian/APA comic book heroes (the Atom; Jubilee; the ex-Batgirl Cassandra Cain – I had to smile over those, even though, yeah, I think Asian/APA comic book heroes have gotten a little shafted.  Just a little).

Last but not least to note: Qing Hong Wu is now an American citizen, thanks to Governor Paterson’s pardon; there are second chances and redemption is possible.

But, life – yeah, it’s complicated.