Category: Manhattan

Weekend

Rain on Friday – this is getting a touch crazy, I think – this odd, wet and cool summer, as noticed by NY Times’ Sam Roberts.

I’m a little behind on this – but this a hilarious edition of “Pearls Before Swine” – the comic strip about Rat, Pig, Zebra, Goat, and the stoooopid crocodiles (intentionally misspelled in the style of the crocodiles’ dialect). Cartoonist Stephan Pastis makes his appearances in the (mis)adventures of the crew, and here, he walks in on their “Hands Across the Comics Page,” a desperate attempt to save the newspapers and comics pages – wherein Pig replies to Pastis’ contention that “papers aren’t going anywhere”: “Oh, good, ’cause if you’re wrong and the comics page goes away, you’re gonna have to be a lawyer again.”

This causes Pastis join in the holding hands and singing songs for the cause, ’cause he apparently doesn’t want to practice law again. Ha! The official Pearls Before Swine blog also appears to be funny too. Ah, ex-lawyers who go creative!

There’s also the running series in the Daily News about the comic/lawyer Alex Barnett, the latest being where Barnett talks about contract lawyer work still giving him stress even as he’s trying to move up in the career as a comic. I thought the juxtaposition of the photos of Barnett as a lawyer in front of 60 Centre v. him as a stand up comic was funny.

As noted previously, I’m not a big Paul Krugman reader. It’s not that I’m intimidated by his shiny pretty Nobel Prize in Economics; it’s that me and economics don’t quite get along. But, his latest columns are very clear in talking about health care/health insurance reform. A lot of these issues fly over my head, but Krugman makes some good points here on why free market isn’t the answer (link to the Krugman blog; I guess that’s why he’s a Noble Prize winner; he seems to know what he’s talking about anyway).

Plus, Krugman makes some good points that not enough of us understand health care/health insurance and how much the government is already involved in it. The topic isn’t easy, but are we willing and ready to get ourselves educated on it and make it better?


DiFara’s pizza is now $5 a slice; this better be the best pizza in Brooklyn, or else is it worth it? You could always do what Grimaldi does – sell by the pie, not by the slice. (Disclaimer: I still haven’t been to DiFara’s yet; it’d be cool to eat the pizza there).

Re: Obama’s hosting Henry Louis Gates and the policeman, Jim Crowley – “Sometimes a beer is just a beer” … Well, I thought this whole commentary on what beer will be drunk at the White House went too far, but Slate’s John Dickerson explained it better. Plus, I do think it’s a male thing, but anything that encourages dialog, I’ll applaud.

Plus, Gates – since he has a website and he is a writer – put in his own final comment, before he’ll get to work (and let Obama go back to the many other things on the plate).

Obama’s awarding Justice O’Connor the Medal of Freedom (and others, like Archbishop Tutu, the late Jack Kemp, the late Harvey Milk, and so on).

The passing of Corazon Aquino – see Time magazine and NY Times observances.

TGIF

Another AAIFF observation: I asked FC what he thought of “Fruit Fly,” which he saw at AAIFF on this past Sunday. He liked it, although he said it’s of the musical genre – people suddenly breaking into song. But – to me – that is the point of the genre! 😉 I hope I’ll see it soon; I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff.

As we get closer to the inevitable, as feared – the opening of the live-action G.I. Joe movie (“G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” – man, the titles for G.I. Joe has yet to really improve). The trailers for the G.I. Joe movie kind of highlight some odd things for me:

Christopher Eccleston – a.k.a., the Ninth Doctor – as Destro? What? For a moment there, I thought it was the Doctor trying to take over the world; I do fear that he is going to be typecasted – he might have to go back to doing independent films. Sienna Miller as the Baroness? She doesn’t have the requisite creepiness for me (perhaps because she has more callow youth to her than I would have expected of the Baroness).

What made the trailers least original for me – see one below – is how it seems vaguely similar to the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie trailers. You have the deep inspiring tones of the elder leader – General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) in a G.I. Joe trailer, versus Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) of Star Trek. You have the young leader-in-waiting (Channing Tatum as Duke in G.I. Joe; Chris Pine as Kirk in Star Trek – even having them both yell, “Go, Go, Go!!” — huh?). Even similar parachute scenes? Granted, the Big Reveal didn’t get shown in either trailer (Cobra Commander or Spock (Prime)), but still – they loom. G.I. Joe taking cues from Star Trek? Who’d a thunk it?…

I will say that I’m a bit perturbed that they didn’t use the old G.I. Joe theme song (maybe they will in the movie – I’m still not sure I want to see it) and that there was the ironic line reading of “Real American Hero” in the trailer — aww, come on!

Something that looks seriously cool (well, besides a good Star Trek trailer): the preview of AMC’s “The Prisoner,” coming in November, after being shown at the recent Comic-Con in San Diego. I have to say, kind of saddened with the recent passing of Patrick McGoohan – the original Number Six – but this will be fascinating. Ian McKellan as Number Two? Jim Caviezel as the new Number Six (but American — oh well). Ian McKellan – now that’s a casting coup; you need a good Number Two to go up against an intense Number Six (and Number Two is a character that was divvied up into different actors – probably to drive Number Six crazy – Leo McKern being the most memorable to me of the Number Twos – (1) because he later became Rumpole of the Bailey and (2) he was the last Number Two (I think)).

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Hey Seattle, you want your weather back? – I don’t want the 100 degrees that you’ve been having (sorry but we had that a couple of years ago, and that wasn’t fun), but I’ll take a sunny dry 90 over monsoons (even if it is not hot).

Helen Hong, comedian and television producer, brings to us speed matchmaking at a comedy show – a way for East Asians (and soon others) to enjoy a laugh and not be so shy. Speed-dating, speed networking, and now this?

John (H.) Doe is a Korean-American who lives in the Upper West Side. I’m amazed that people get all crazed that he goes by John Doe. (and I wonder to the fates of people named Roe; do they get the whole Roe v. Wade barb?).

A pad thai recipe in the Times.

Apparently, there’s a reason why we swing our arms when we walk.

Fear of 2012 – what it might mean, according to the Mayans (or Fox Mulder of X-Files).