"You know what the White House motto is? Waging a Never-Ending Global War on Terrorism means never having to say you're sorry. Because there's no time. Because we need to make up more crazy shit."
Get Your War On is now on page 38. (Thanks a lot, GWB, Dick and Rummy!)
Maybe I'm showing my web age here, but I remember when Justin Hall wouldn't just tell you he had scabby bloody nipples but he'd also take photos and then proudly post them on their very own scabby bloody nipple page.
Ah, for the halcyon days of cat dick...
Friday night before last, I went and saw Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy* in Union Square, had a mediocre sushi dinner on 2nd Avenue and then got dumped over milkshakes on St Mark's. I think he (the dumper) was disappointed that I didn't do anything lame like burst into tears or beg him to reconsider but really, while he was going through his lame (but true) "it's not you, it's me" speech, all I could think was, I gave up a ride on a helicopter for this? I bet that bastard Kottke got a shitload of great shots.
And sure enough, a few days later Jason went and posted this:
Life lesson #65839: When you're invited on something like a helicopter ride, just frigging go.
Arrrghh.
*I pronounce it excellent and now want to see everything Will Ferrell has ever been in.
Okay, so we all agree that musicians that get it rock extra hard, but what about the ones that don't? Like, say, Chris Isaak:
I listen to iPods and stuff; it's a wonderful invention, but what I'm trying to reconcile in my head is that the money doesn't trickle down to the musicians, really.
"When I see some guy who's a computer whiz on TV a billionaire and, of course, he's wearing Levi's and tennis shoes saying he loves music, I'm going, Riiiight. You made a machine that's worthless unless you can steal somebody's music.' "
Isaak does not complain without offering a solution, however. And suffice to say those aforementioned high-tech executives might find his suggestion a bit alarming.
"I think if you're gonna go out and steal the music, you should really steal the machine, too," he says. "If you don't think it's wrong to steal people's ideas, what the hell go for it, baby. If you stole the machine, feel free to steal the music. Let's see how they feel about that at the computer factory."
Oh Chris, Chris, Chris, stop picking on Steve Jobs. If poor old drug-addled Courtney Love could do the math four years ago and figure out that record companies as a matter of business steal far more from musicians than their audiences ever will, what's your excuse for being so damn ignorant?
I've been really excited about Madison Square Park's new concession, the Shake Shack, since reading the eGullet reviews last month (thanks to NYC Eats for the pointer) and finally got to sample some of their food a few weeks ago. Seeing as their two specialties are the Chicago Hot Dog and St Louis-style Frozen Custards and I've never even been to either city*, I made sure to bring someone who'd lived in both places along to tell me how Danny Meyer's food measured up to the originals.
The line reportedly can get about 40 people long, but we visited on a Sunday afternoon and there were only about 10 or 15 people in line at any given time. You can't really see that there are two registers until you get near the front of the line, so you move up faster than you expect to. The menu is printed on a board to the right of the window, which makes it difficult to contemplate your choice while standing in line unless you're already sure what you want.
You get a number on your receipt so you can pick your food up around the corner; not always first come first served, but it runs smoothly enough. The manager worked the pickup window the entire time we were there, everyone else at the Shake Shack was a teenager.
I loved that the food came in these boxes! Much better than bags or flat trays, especially if you have to carry it one-handed to where you plan on eating. The cheese fries were okay, for $2.75 they should've been crispier and the portion a bit bigger but even if they had they still wouldn't have been anything to rave about.
Eric: "i was surprised to find a 'chicago hot dog' joint that actually lived up to the tradition. in the two years since i moved to new york from chicago, i've frequently found myself fiending for a chicago dog. not only are there none to be found in carts, stands, or restaraunts, the crucial ingredients aren't even available in grocery stores. shake shack has all the hard-to-find items: the all-beef hot dog (Vienna brand, imported from chicago!), the poppy seed bun, and the sport peppers. sport peppers are like mini-pepperoncinis, and make or break the chicago-ness of the chicago dog.
"along with those items comes a whole sampler from the garden - a cucumber wedge, pickle, onions, relish, mustard, celery salt, and tomato wedges. shake shack hit the target on every item. at $2.75 each, shake shack's chicago dog is a whole meal that you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in this city."
I'm not a big fan of mustard, pickles or peppers (let alone pickled ones) myself and could've happily done without them, but I really liked the Chicago Hot Dog although I don't know that I could finish one all by myself.
Eric: "their frozen custard, or 'concreation', is supposedly modeled after the Ted Drewes 'Concretes' famous throughout St. Louis. having lived in st. louis for a while as well, i'm afraid to say that shake shack's version does not live up to the original. ted drewes has a guarantee on their concretes - turn it upside down, and if the custard comes out, they'll refill your cup. if we had tried this with our vanilla strawberry concreation, innocent bystanders would have been slinging custard out of their flip-flops. nonetheless, it was a tasty treat, even if not as well-made as its predecessor."
Not ever having had frozen custard before, I thought the concrete was pretty good, definitely eggier and smoother than your average milkshake. It was clearly too melty though, but it was a hot day and the shack had just recently opened for business so I give them the benefit of the doubt. Next time I think I'm going to try their Black/White concrete, or just a plain custard for dessert.
The burgers are beef patties placed on buttered and toasted potato rolls; strangely enough tomato and lettuce don't come standard, they cost a bit extra. As Eric said, "the cheeseburger was, well, a cheeseburger. nothing to complain about, but nothing to rave about either." A cheeseburger is $3.45—for 50 cents more you can get the Shack Burger which is basically the cheeseburger plus tomato and lettuce plus the special shack sauce, which is supposed to be some sort of mayo and spices blend. Not that the cashier told us that while we were ordering, but hey, I was too damn hungry at the time to read the menu properly.
Dogs are more than welcome in the Shake Shack's seating area—they even have a special snack on their menu for your best friend called the Pooch-ini: frozen custard, peanut butter and a biscuit for $2.00. You won't be able to sunbathe on the Park's lawn with your dog afterwards though as it's only for those of the two-legged persuasion, but there is a dog run right beside the lawn.
To get to the Madison Square Park Shake Shack, take a subway line to 23rd St and then walk or take a bus to Madison Avenue if you're coming from the East side or Fifth Avenue from the West. The N/R drops you off right across the street from the Shake Shack, if you prefer to do most of your travelling underground.
*Feel sorry for me? Send me roundtrip tickets, I'd be more than happy to come visit.
As pointed out by largehearted boy, John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats has given the Internet Live Music Archive permission to host recordings of live Mountain Goats shows for people to freely download. Here's why:
I am totally in favor of tape trading, and file sharing never did anything wrong by me. People got into The Mountain Goats after downloading my stuff. The only people who are afraid of file sharing are the people whose albums are so dull presentation-wise that nobody cares about owning the actual finished product, and the people who have so little connection to their listeners that said listeners have no reason to care whether the artists they like are getting reimbursed for their efforts.
Doesn't that just rock the socks right off of your mp3 download loving self? I've never even heard a Mountain Goats song (clearly my favorite fan girl neighbor Kathryn has been slacking off) but you can bet I'll be buying a ticket to their next NYC show and likely purchasing a cd or two from their merch table.
I also have to point out that John Darnielle has a pretty neat site of his own writing, Last Plane to Jakarta. It's not a blog, but it does have its very own handy dandy RSS feed! Clearly he is far cooler than your average rock star.
[ via Hydragenic ]
The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz, while talking about the show's second season, said "we're going to slow down the storytelling some this year. There won't necessarily have to be a brawl at every black-tie affair."
What? No! Is he fucking kidding me? Next thing we know he'll be making Seth Cohen disavow his super cute nerd ways, kicking the indie pop rock and comic books aside and taking up hip hop and Maxim.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go lie down and have a good cry.
[ via Amy's Robot ]
I'm collecting the best written (not necessarily the ones I agree with, mind you) of the Philippine editorials about the troop pullout and de la Cruz's release, I'll be updating this post as I find them. If you have any to add, please feel free to email me or leave a comment. I'm also interested in good weblog entries, please pass your links on, I know they're out there.
Newspapers
All that the critics of the Philippine pullout from Iraq can bewail are either the "betrayal" of the Coalition of the Willing or the dire prospects of American or Australian vengeance on our country. But the vengeance that the critics of the country should fear comes from a possible one at the hands of their own citizens. Is it any surprise that an American administration that lost the popular vote, now talks of-get this-a "no-el" scenario for the United States, with a supposed terrorist bogey that threatens to disrupt the November elections?
In truth, the Philippine government has embraced its own people, something beyond the ken of leaders such as Howard and Bush, and even Blair, who are famously contemptuous of public opinion at home. This is what happens when terrorism is fought with totalitarian methods: It results in a totalitarian contempt for public opinion. The problem, as Blair, Bush and Howard may eventually find out, is that they suffer from the myopia of dictators while still being subject to being turned out of office by their own people.
The Philippines can at least say that it was willing, as the Spaniards were willing, to pay the price of democracy. Which is: to listen to the people; to obey the injunction that public office requires listening to the public; and living up to the higher considerations that are supposed to motivate democracies.
Conrado de Quiros (PDI):
There is one lesson we should particularly take to heart: It's time we buried "special relations" in a shallow and unmarked grave. The United States has its interests, we have our own, and ne'er the twain shall meet. Not in these days when we have more than a million workers in the Middle East. That is the official figure, but if an editor of a Saudi paper I talked to some years ago is to be believed, the actual number is probably twice that. We have no business jeopardizing their welfare by depicting some of their hosts as the bad guys in a Holy Crusade to end evil. Joining a war against one of their own in the name of freeing them from their cruel ways is playing Russian roulette with the OFWs' lives. The wonder is not that De la Cruz was kidnapped and threatened with beheading, the wonder is that they did not do it sooner.
More than that, we have no business jeopardizing the very future of this country. As it is, our OFWs are facing stiff competition from other countries that have made it a policy to upgrade their workers' skills while keeping their prices low. Our OFWs' dollar remittances are what keep this country afloat. It boggles the mind to think of what would happen to us if the Arab countries should take offense at our warmongering and start ticking off our workers. They certainly do not lack for provocation. I don't know why our government thinks it can be as reckless in foreign policy as it is in national policy. In national policy, you can always say, "Ay, mali" ["Oops, error"] and bank on the Filipino capacity for amnesia to "put the thing behind us." In foreign policy, there is the devil to pay. Heads will roll, literally. That is something De la Cruz's abduction should settle once and for all.
Raul Palabrica (PDI):
For giving in to the demand of the Iraqi kidnappers of Angelo de la Cruz instead of following the United States' no-negotiation policy with terrorists, the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has become a pariah in the US Department of State. The decision to pull out the Philippine humanitarian contingent from that embattled nation was described by the Department of State as a capitulation to terrorism that sends the wrong signal to terrorists all over the world.
The Washington Times, a newspaper that is known to mouth the line of whichever political party is in power in the United States, commented that "Manila's act of cowardice... proves to terrorists that kidnapping and executing innocent civilians can successfully pressure government to cave in to their demands."
(..) In accusing the Philippine government of weakness in dealing with De la Cruz's kidnappers, the United States has conveniently forgotten that it had violated several times its much-ballyhooed policy of not negotiating with or giving in to the demands of terrorists.
Teodoro C. Benigno (Philippine Star):
Events have proved beyond any doubt that war was not America’war, but George W. Bush’s "war of revenge" based on premises the US citizenry now rejects, and the US Senate en banc has exposed as a fraud.The doughty Senate now declares after a thorough inquiry the war on Iraq was based on lies, lies, and more lies. If that is so, our enrollment in that war was also a big mistake. And if it was a mistake, our government must rectify that mistake by pulling out. And so it has pulled out. So many other countries have pulled out like Spain, Nicaragua, Honduras. Thailand wants to pull out along with several others. And don’t believe the canard the Philippines will pay for that "betrayal". Betrayal, my Aunt Matilda’s foot!
In the swim of the great, the powerful, their clashes, their battles, the Philippines does not count at all, or not very much.
And yet, whatever its frustrations, America will still need the Philippines for its geo-political designs in Asia. Our sea lanes still remain strategic and indispensable for naval and commercial navigation. Our land area for US troop withdrawal, training,and maneuver cannot be replaced by Indonesia or Malaysia, which are Muslim countries. Washington urgently sought return for its combat troops to the Philippines more than three years ago for joint maneuvers close to China and along the South China Sea. And also to combat terrorism.
(...) So forget all that hot and pretentious hoosh America is going to punish us. In fact, all this sound and fury about Angelo de la Cruz will become forgotten three months from now. The trend in Iraq is towards evacuation by US and coalition trooops. And an eagerly awaited thankover of government by the Iraqis themselves. Get out before it becomes another Vietnam. Another Angola. And yes, Mr. US Ambassador, we do know how to distinguish our friends from our enemies.
Ana Marie Pamintuan (Philippine Star):
Our allies must surely know enough about Philippine politics and culture to understand why the President did what she did. But confidence in our country has been shaken in capitals that — let’s admit it — are among the biggest contributors to Philippine development efforts.
That confidence has to be regained, and lengthy explanations about the how and why of Manila’s response to the hostage crisis won’t be enough. We might have to wait for another crisis to come along – let’s hope not the same type – before we can prove that we have the national backbone to stand by our commitments. Jingoists trying to influence national policy can ship out to hermit states like North Korea.
No nation can stand alone – not even the world’s lone superpower, as it has seen in Iraq. Our country in particular cannot stand alone, having relied too long on foreigners for far too many things, from food and medical aid to crime laboratory equipment and military aircraft. We have a terrorist problem exacerbated by Islamic militants from Indonesia that we can’t deal with by ourselves. We have millions of Filipinos working abroad, many of them in conflict areas where they are open to all types of attacks.
Being part of the community of nations carries with it certain responsibilities. Those responsibilities we cannot abandon as easily as we ignore the responsibilities that come with freedoms we enjoy in our dysfunctional democracy.
Gerry N. Gonzaga (Manila Times):
She has apparently a bigger stake in saving Angelo’s life on ground that allowing him to die could spark a fuse to instability. In the long run, if her government is undermined by instability, she could not stick to her administration’s international commitment. She may not even last till the end of her six-year term if she is weakened by any disenchantment. There will be no international commitment to pursue if she is booted out of office. So in saving de la Cruz’s head, she may also be saving her own political skin.
If she survives this test, she can later mend fences with our allies, and she has six years to do that. Anyway, it’s not only the Philippines that had withdrawn troops from Iraq ahead of schedule. Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras have all pulled their troops out of Iraq. Some countries find it uneasy sending or keeping troops there after it was revealed that there are no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein had no link to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, the two justifications for the coalition’s occupation of Iraq. Under the circumstances, domestic concern weighs more for Mrs. Arroyo and a pullout is the best option.
Weblogs
Iggy (Bang and Blame):
E pakyu kang gaga ka. For the first time nga ang gobyerno namin, take note, NAMIN, ay umaksyon ayon sa interest ng bansa NAMIN, hindi ng bansa MO. Ang problema kasi sa mga ‘kanong tulad ni Michelle ay masyado nilang isinasapuso ang kantang “We Are The World”, meaning: Ang interes ng US ay interes ng lahat. Unang-una, lumundag ba sa tuwa ang mayoridad ng mga pinoy nang isabak kami ni GMA sa giyerang iyan? Hello. Ang dami na ngang problema ng Pilipinas pati ba naman giyera ng ibang bansa pro-problemahin pa namin. Bakit ba hindi nalang siya naging neutral noon, for the sake man lamang ng mga kapatid nating Muslim sa Mindanao. Kung umasta si GMA noon aakalaian mong 52nd state ng US ang Pilipinas, at parang mas may responsibilidad pa tayo sa kanila kaysa sa sarili nating mamamayan.
Samantalang, praning lang ba ako, o sadyang nagkakaisa ang American media organizations sa paggamit ng "after Manila gave in to kidnappers' demands" sa kanilang mga balita? Kadalasan, hindi binabanggit na ito rin ang demand ng mga mamamayang Pilipino.
It is sad that many Filipinos--including the media--cannot comprehend the pullout issue beyond the Angelo de la Cruz kidnapping. The Philippines’ support for the U.S. in its war against Iraq, and the subsequent pullout of the the humantiarian contingent, is not just about the kidnapping of one man. It is about all of us. It is about what we believe in and we stand for. It is about our sense of justice and humanity.
adobo (limp bwizit):
i have a crazy plan. i'll work as a hosto in japan and slaughter the first japanese to make sexual advances on me. i'll get caught and i'll be sentenced to death (is there death penalty in japan?) and i would invoke innocence, frame-up, discrimination, maltreatment, abuse and stuff. then people back here would hold vigils and they would be marching on the streets, calling for the president to make a diplomatic protest. TV networks would feature my life story and the story about a young lawyer who got disillusioned with the corrupt judicial system and lack of economic opportunities in his homeland so he instead chose to work in japan would melt everyone's heart. then that would make the call to cut ties with japan louder and then the stories about world war 2 and the unpaid comfort women and the abuses of the imperial army would be taken up.
then the government of japan, recognizing its world war 2 liabilities to the philippines and as an act of grace, would release me and send me home. then i'll be an instant celebrity here. i'll guest in every talk show, make a courtesy call to the president, and a movie about my life would be made. the government would then give me a post in the foreign service and that would likely be an appointment as a legal attache to a country where there are so many reported abuses of filipino workers.
i'll perform my job well and see to it that not a single abusive word is said about my countrymen. i'll do it so well that the government of the country to which i am assigned would get irritated by me and they would request the president to recall me or declare me a persona non grata. the president would then recall me and i'll go home and hold a press conference immediately after my arrival. i'll tell the filipino people : LOOK AT WHAT THIS GOVERNMENT DID TO ME. I MERELY TRIED TO PROTECT THE HONOR AND DIGNITY OF OUR BAGONG BAYANIS ABROAD AND I WAS PENALIZED FOR IT. JUST LOOK AT THE PRIORITY OF THIS GOVERNMENT - THEY PUT FOREIGN RELATIONS ABOVE THE HONOR AND DIGNITY OF OUR POOR DOMESTIC HELPERS AND CONSTRUCTION WORKERS - OUR BAGONG BAYANIS DON'T DESERVE THIS.
trust me, i'll get a senate seat after that. i'll probably break mar roxas' record.
I've been on tenterhooks since first reading about the abduction of Angelo de la Cruz and the threat of beheading, and hoped my government would do the right thing and that he would go free. Today, along with the rest of my countrymen, I celebrate his release.
I've been trying to write about how I feel about the situation for days and finally a question on MetaFilter triggered a response, I'm reposting both the question and most of what I wrote over there for you to read here:
Was it more important to keep those 51 troops there for one more month, to show [Filipino] support for a war they were persuaded to join under false pretences, than to save a human life?
For Filipinos, the answer is no.
What most of you fail to understand is that in a third world country like the Philippines, where unemployment is in double digits, the overseas worker is a hero unlike any other. Almost everyone has at least one person in the family who has given up everything to work a shitty job abroad so they can send almost all the money they make back home to send their siblings or their nieces and nephews to school, make sure their sick parents can have surgery, build a proper house so their loved ones don't have to sleep in ramshackle huts. We call them bagong bayanis, literally "our new heros", because they make enormous personal sacrifices for the sake of their families. New Yorkers have the firefighters and policemen of September 11th; we have our overseas workers. That's how much they mean to us.
The Arroyo administration made the decision to send troops to Iraq because of US pressure, despite the fact that most Filipinos were appalled by the invasion and didn't think our troops should be there. When the news first broke about Angelo de la Cruz being held hostage, the nation cried for him and for his family. The government sent troops into Iraq to make the US happy, because the Bush administration only gives handouts to countries that do exactly what they want them to do, and that was all well and good then because we really do need the financial support. But if de la Cruz had been killed, it would've been blood money—we all have family working abroad, he could've been anyone's cousin or uncle, son or father. That would not have been acceptable to any Filipino, even the few that supported the war. President Arroyo made the right decision, as the head of a sovereign nation, to put her people first.
The latest issue of generationrice has an interview with psychicpants.net spokesman Paolo Manalo, here's an excerpt:
What can you say about the Philippine society's take on art and writing?
There's really little or no support when it comes to the arts and writings [of Filipinos]. Many writers are under the impression that we have a non-reading public which I think isn't true. We have readers but they've been conditioned all these years to read things outside the sphere of Philippine literature. I'm sure they will read it when they chance upon something interesting. Look at [Filipino writer] Bob Ong. He's a bestseller. He has the support of a great readership.
He's being diplomatic though, of course, but the reason Filipinos don't read Philippine literature, in any language, is because most of it is incredibly boring. From my experience, even Filipino writers and teachers of literature don't really read each other for edification or pleasure, but to be polite, and sometimes not even then.* And the older writers and teachers of creative writing for the most part encourage the safest, least innovative (and therefore least threatening) of the younger writers, prizing accessibility over original thought. Do we really need more Jimmy Abads and Jing Hidalgos? I'm not convinced we even needed the originals.
If the recent success of Bob Ong's books, Manalo's poetry collection Jolography, Carlo Vergara's graphic novel Zsazsa Zaturnnah, Summit Media's line of books prove anything, it's what we all should've realized when Jessica Zafra first burst onto the literary scene over a decade ago—not only does the Filipino reader exist, but she has taste. If you put out more things worth her time, not only will she buy and read them but she'll recommend them to her friends, and they'll recommend them to their friends and pretty soon you'll finally have a sizable amount of people believing that Philippine literature isn't just the mindnumbing pap their professors forced them to read in college, because that won't be the truth anymore.
*See the second to the last paragraph of Marc Gaba's essay Period Piece.
Friend of a friend Quark Henares' second movie, the black comedy Keka, will be screened in New York twice this week as part of the Asian American International Film Festival:
Tuesday, July 20, 9:15 p.m.
@ The Imaginasian Theater
239 E 59th St (between 2nd and 3rd)
Thursday, July 22, 9:45 p.m.
@ The Asia Society
725 Park Avenue (70th St)
Jeffrey Jeturian's hilarious Tuhog is one of my all-time favorite Filipino films, his latest one, Bridal Shower, will also be screened twice:
Tuesday, July 20, 3:00 p.m.
@ The Imaginasian Theater
Thursday, July 22, 7:00 p.m.
@ The Asia Society
Crisaldo Pablo's Duda:
Wednesday, July 21, 9:15 PM
@ The Asia Society
Jon Red's Astigmatism:
Wednesday, July 21, 7:15 PM
@ The Asia Society
Lav Diaz' second movie Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino is in the AAIFF too, but it's nine hours long—almost twice as long as his first one, Batang Westside. I didn't watch that and I'm not going to watch this one either. Teynks but no teynks! Ebolusyon was supposed to close the 6th Makati Cinemanila International Film Festival this Tuesday but his computer crashed and he could only give it to them on VHS (???) so they'll be showing Ramona Diaz' Imelda instead.
Ladies, if you find yourself in South Carolina, you might want to check out Kissability for a whole new better you:
More and more women are taking advantage of permanent makeup. The only Board Certified Permanent Makeup professional in South Carolina, Nancy Ruth specializes in permanent makeup for women who want the most natural appearance possible.
This is Nancy Ruth:
As Roxette once put it, she's got the look!
[ via Everything Burns ]
From this SF Bay Guardian article about two area vegan eateries:
When Matthew Engelhart asks, "What are you grateful for today?" I'm taken aback and mutter something about being grateful for too much work to do. I should've been prepared for the question; I am sitting in Café Gratitude (2400 Harrison, S.F. 415-824-4652, www.withthecurrent.com), and this query from Engelhart or his wife, Terces Engelhart, routinely supplants "What would you like to order?" Employees and customers are well versed in positive Gratitude speak. Regular diners are accustomed to ordering the organic raw vegan fare by stating the affirmation-style names of dishes like "I am magical" (cremini mushrooms stuffed with walnut sunflower pate; $8) and "I am abounding" (apple, almond, and cinnamon crisp with nut crème; $6).
And David wonders why I think vegans are hippies.
Choire linked to this on Gawker a few days ago but most of you probably didn't know enough about Allegra Beck to know that you should be interested, so because I love you I am making sure you see this photo of Beck and her mom, Donatella Versace:
Also if you think Donatella and her perpetual deep tan are nasty, a tipster who'd worked with Jessica Simpson reported in a recent issue of Popbitch that she "has a wrinkly, leathery cleavage from too much tanning." Which I totally believe from all the episodes of Newlywed that I've seen. Just imagine what her skin'll look like when she's Donatella's age! Surely even George Hamilton would not approve?
Randy Kennedy has a great article in the New York Times today about Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura of Giant Robot, one of my favorite magazines. From Asian-American Trendsetting on a Shoestring:
They wrote about Hong Kong movies and celebrities like Chow Yun-Fat, John Woo and Jet Li years before they became popular in the United States, but they once declined an offer to interview Jackie Chan because he had become too mainstream. And they often angered Asian-American promoters who saw them as allies.
"Usually it was these really terrible P.R. companies saying, `If you really cared about Asians, you'd write about this Asian actress,' " Mr. Wong explained. "But we're just not interested in mediocre Asian actors in mainstream movies."
Amen to that! Lucy Liu in Kill Bill, yes; B.D. Wong as a cockroach in Joe's Apartment, hell no.
Also all you New York geeks, you will be pleased to know Wong and Nakamura "are also scouting sites for a third store in New York." I hope they find somewhere big and neat in the Village.
[ thanks, Kathryn! ]
I wasn't even halfway through the Dodgeball trailer before I decided I wasn't going to watch it, not even if I was up with insomnia and it was the only thing on besides infomercials.
And then out of curiousity I looked the cast credits up on IMDB and found out, to my amazement that not only is William Shatner in it but so is David Hasselhoff.
Shatner! Hasselhoff! Shatner! Hasselhoff! Shatner and Hasselhoff in the same movie! Now I'll definitely be setting my TiVo to grab it when it makes it to cable.
If only they had screen time together, then I'd buy a ticket to see it the theater for sure. Heck, I'd buy tickets for some of you reading this. Why is Hollywood afraid of putting Shatner and Hasselhoff in the same frame? Is it because they know Hasselhoff and Shatner would be so powerful together that they would make every other onscreen duo look like total strangers?
Tracy & Hepburn, Taylor & Burton, Bogart & Bacall, Grant & Kelly, Curtis & Lemmon, Gibson & Glover, Hanks & Ryan, Murphy & Hall, even Schwarzenegger & DeVito, all of those legendary screen couples put together could not hold a candle to the blazing wonder that would be Shatner & Hasselhoff.
Just showing some friends how easy it is to post stuff to your site with Flickr, especially photos of cute dogs. Two more of Jarvis from the same afternoon picnic in Central Park here: one with me and another with Kathryn. We used her camphone to take these photos, so thanks K.Yu!
