I don’t spend any amount of time in K-Town or Flushing, but I found this article really interesting. Or am I silly for thinking the Times may educate me on Korean-American culture in NYC?
I had a hoot reading this article: NY Times’ Sarah Lyall on Patrick Stewart, as he’s about to do MacBeth in NYC! He’s returning to his beloved Shakespeare, but has a warm spot in his heart for Capt. Picard and the Star Trek universe. Aww!
Also, I loved that the article included the photo of Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard from “Star Trek: First Contact,” in his Action Hero Mode – where you could tell he worked out to make sure we can appreciate Picard as not just a cerebral sort. Don’t forget – Stewart’s only two years older than Harrison Ford, who was still beating people up as an active US President in “Air Force One,” a year after Stewart in “First Contact” (umm, yeah, checked on imdb.com for that bit of trivia).
Plus, great slide show on Patrick Stewart’s theatrical roles.
Sarah Lyall also reports on What Does It Mean to Be British, as the Brits debate on whether to adopt a national motto and trying to figure out what they are and where do they fit in today’s world. It does take a bit of a debate to wonder what does it mean to be a nation at all these days, when there’s now a Scottish Parliament and the idea of a “Britain” was something that evolved during the course of history (I had taken this British history class back in college; yeah, apparently, things got way complicated, umm, pardon about being flippant there, but a serious analysis could take more than a semester).
NY Times’ Bill Carter writes on whether the writers’ strike will change the way tv series are made – will there be an end to presenting over-done pilots and may The Powers That Be allow series to develop and evolve in a coherent manner? Maybe the strike will give shows like “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Life” a real chance, since their 1st seasons were pretty much pushed to hiatus like this and they were on the ratings bubble (i.e., the edge of being renewed or canceled). Who knows?
Then again, the last serious writers’ strike resulted in some weird episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (written and filmed in a rush because they knew the then-writers’ strike was coming) and the time after the strike led to some of the best episodes – particularly the third and fourth seasons, where the characters evolved and, of course, where Captain Picard was assimilated into Borg and evolved into truly Awesome (or close to it anyway; he became nuts and Action Hero-y Awesome in the big screen movie “Star Trek: First Contact” – as I noted above).
Can’t believe that “Rent” will really close this summer. (great slide show on the Times, by the way).
Time’s Lev Grossman posts on the Time blog, “Nerd World” on the trailer and teaser trailer of the upcoming “Get Smart” movie (starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway as Agents 86 and 99). Oh, dear – the trailers were funny to me. I laughed out loud. I hope this means the movie’s good and that they didn’t just use the movie’s best moments for trailers. I might even watch it when it comes out this summer. Might!