get shorty

This article on the recent attacks on Chinese elderlies pisses me off.

Bayview police station Capt. Greg Suhr says the police are responding, including adding 32 officers to his station to make Muni safer. But he thinks the racial issue is clouding perceptions.

"We are seeing large kids or kids in large numbers taking advantage of people of smaller stature," Suhr said. "We have Hispanics in the neighborhood who are targeted fairly frequently."

So there is no hate crime, no racism. Those big black kids are only beating up and killing Chinese people because we are short. Too bad for us and those also-unfortunately-short Hispanics.

No wonder we can never solve these problems. We can't even call it what it is.

suddenly this summer

Suddenly this summer is upon us. At least the summer movie season, if not the weather. I started to make a list of the top ten summer movies I wanna see. Then after going over the schedule, sadly I can only come up with a list of...four. Yup, four, for the whole summer.

So, here are the top ten four summer movies I am most psyched about seeing:

4. Iron Man 2 I loved the first 75% of the first Iron Man. I hope this sequel is like that 75% (witty, charming, character-driven) instead of the last 25% (loud, empty, generic action).

3. Toy Story 3 Both Toy Story 1 and 2 were so fun and heartwarming, you gotta believe the filmmakers wouldn't bother unless they've got a gem - and the early buzz is quite good.

2. Cyrus Oh Marisa Tomei, how I love thee. And you totally charm the pants off me in the trailer. The Sundance buzz is off the chart on this one.

1. Inception Leo and Christopher Nolan make mysterious magic. I am a believer.

photo wednesday

The third car I've owned in my life is this:


Banksy in SF Chinatown:


My own Take-Your-Child-To-Work activity - shove them into the file cabinets. Other activities include photocopying your face and shredding confidential, incriminating documents - oh the fun:

sisters are doing it

There has been a lot of tension between blacks and Chinese in the Bay Area recently. I am not sure if it stems from that incident where a Chinese woman got into a fight with a black woman on Muni and a youtube video that captured it became the talk of town for a while. But a few weeks back, a 57-yr old Chinese woman was attacked and threw off the Third Street Muni platform by a bunch of black kids. And last week, a Chinese man died after he and his son were attacked by two black guys in Oakland.

These incidents really call into question your view towards the other race. Sometimes I worry that I am a racist, because I don't like Halle Berry, Denzel Washington (I know - that's like blasphemous), Samuel L. Jackson (except in Pulp Fiction), and Morgan Freeman (except in the Batman movies), Beyonce (single ladies, put a gag on it), everything to do with Precious (including Monique and the other younger fat one), and the big guy from this season's American Idol. I worry that I just dislike black people in general. Yes, I voted for Obama, but then that was the lesser of two evils, and as soon as he took office, I started to dislike his politics. I don't even like his wife, despite her affinity for J. Crew. And I really don't like Will Smith's son - the kid in The Karate Kid sequel; he seems like a cocky SOB. And yes, I would totally freak and pee in my pants if I were walking down a dark, deserted street, and a bunch of black guys came cruising down in their Cadillac blasting Public Enemy (more so than if a bunch of white guys came cruising down in their Honda Element blasting Jack Johnson). Yeah, I really question whether I am a bad person for the way I feel.

Then I thought, wait a minute, there are some black actresses I really, really like. In fact they are amongst my favorite actresses working these days, and I think they are totally hot. So, just like how some people defend themselves by saying some of their best friends are black, I am defending myself by presenting my top five black actresses:

5. Aisha Tyler - Thought she was hilarious on Talk Soup. Pretty and funny is a pretty potent combo.

4. Angela Bassett - Liked her ever since she played Tina Turner (whom I also like a lot - aha!!!). She just exudes class and integrity to me.

3. Thandie Newton - The exotic Brit. She's kinda mysterious and enigmatic.

2. Rosario Dawson - She strikes me as a tomboy type. You can totally have fun with her. Hot girl next door type. She could easily be my #1.

1. Zoe Saldano - She's in everything right now, and I don't mind at all. She's like a supermodel who can act and kills on the red carpet.


You don't have to tell me that this is a very superficial way of commenting on a serious, heavy topic. But it's what I know. I am not a scholar or an activist. I watch movies, and I think silly thoughts. It doesn't mean I don't care or feel anything. It's just my way to deal. Just want to put it out there.

burning up

Glee version of Burning Up:


The original here. Absolutely love this song. Love the line "Unlike the others, I'd do anything. I'm not the same; I have no shame" Awesomeness ensues.

hand on your heart

November 1, 2017

Dear xxx: Crazy that it's been a decade since we've last spoken. But I still remember that very last conversation and how cold you were. I could never bring myself to call again, and you never bothered either. I have repeatedly deconstructed and reconstructed those last few days and last few conversations in my head, but it has never made any sense to me. How did it all come crumbling down, as if it was built on nothing to begin with? I am married now. She is soundly asleep in the next room. A nice girl, kind and caring and way less enigmatic than you. But I have never gotten over you. And it pains me to suspect that I am not even a passing thought to you these days. That those years, those adventures, those hours of talking, those shared meals, those nights listening to music didn't mean a thing to you, that they weren't part of your history, that I am not part of your history. Well, you are mine. You are a shadow that I will always have to face in those quite moments. I still cannot listen to Jose Gonzalez's Hand On Your Heart without wanting to break down in tears. I imagine, give me another ten years, I won't feel any different. You were the one, always was. I knew it the very first time we met, quite cinematically actually, with me coming out of the rain and you saying, "It's wet out there, huh?" That was all it took for my life to change. So this letter is me sitting down and jotting down what I want you to know and knowing I will never send this. This is me trying feebly to get out my hurt, letting it out, releasing the demon. Of course, the demon goes when he wants to. He doesn't care how wide I swing the door open to shoo him out. I am trying to work it out though. I got enough resolve to fall for another girl and start a life with her. I can honestly say on the outside, you didn't completely ruin me for good. Anyways, if somehow these thoughts reach you, by magic, won't you send some thoughts my way, just to let me off the hook a little, to let me know I mattered too? I don't know what good that would do for me, but I think I need to know it.

mw

automatic booty applications

10. I Learned the Hard Way - Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (Now it hurts just to hear your name.)
9. Go Do - Jonsi (We should always know that we can do anything.)
8. Fembot - Robyn (I gotta a lotta automatic booty applications.)
7. None of Dem - Robyn (I'm so bored in this town. Take me away from here.)
6. Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem (Just cuz I am shallow doesn't mean I am heartless.)
5. Afraid of Everyone - The National (I try not to hurt anybody I like.)
4. The Worse It Gets - Penguin Prison (I can't think of anything, til the moment's already passed.)
3. Excuses - The Morning Benders (I taped my tongue to the southern tip of your body.)
2. Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National (I never married but Ohio don't remember me.)
1. I Can Change - LCD Soundsystem (I can change, I can change if you helps you fall in love.)

This year has already seen plenty of brilliant albums like Gorillaz, Broken Bells, Beach House, and Hot Chip. Now, from the preview tracks, I have amazing music coming in the next few months from Robyn, The National, and LCD Soundsystem. Yeah, 2010 may not have been a good year for earthquakes, but for music, it's epic.

sentimental fool

Things that get me all weirdly sentimental and choked up:

- Seeing a little kid with a big backpack walking to school by himself.
- Aragorn saying to the Hobbits, "You bow to no one."
- Grandparent out shopping or hanging out with little grandkid.
- Remembering my school days and my friends back then.
- The memory of that phone call that undid everything.
- Looking at old photos of my family.
- Nick Drake songs and that Pink Moon VW commercial.
- The Wonder Years and The O.C. finales.
- Haruki Murakami's writing.
- Watching Billy Elliot dance.
- The very last scene of every season of Amazing Race where they pose for group photo at final pit stop.
- Seeing how people live in extreme poverty (and I don't mean live in despair, but live with pride and courage and hope).
- A warm bottle of Vitasoy.

i can feel your power part 4

Check out this side by side comparison of the original Vogue and Sue Sylvester's Vogue.

Four more days, peeps.

i can feel your power part 3

Come on, this is heaven - Sue Sylvester doing Madonna doing Vogue. I am about to burst with all the excitement. The Power of Madonna is rumored to be the best episode of Glee ever. Ryan Murphy says it's his love letter to Madonna and the power she and her music had on him growing up as a gay young man:

i can feel your power part 2

congratulations, you suck

Tiger Woods Nike ad: F--- (I hate America sometimes. How can we be cheering on Tiger Woods at the Masters as if he is some kind of redeemed hero? The guy's an asshole who's now exploiting his father for his own public image. We should be ashamed. He should be ashamed.)

Clash of the Titans: C+ (As an epic, it doesn't even lick LOTR's toes, but it kept me entertained. And I like that demigod girl who guards over Perseus - Io. Funny though Sam Worthington plays the same character he played in Avatar, right down to riding the untamable beast.)

Zombieland: B- (It is not as good as Shaun of the Dead but I do like my zombie action comedies. And Emma Stone is cute.)

Trader Joe's frozen mango with sticky rice dessert: C- (Cannot come close to replicating the Thai dessert you get at restaurants, or better yet from street food stalls in Thailand. Mango is mushy and too sweet.)

Burmese Kitchen on Larkin Street near Golden Gate: B+ (Delicious lunch. I had the soup and salad special - which included a fish chowder and a tea leaf salad. Could have also chosen chicken curry noodle soup and a mint salad.)

Sightglass Coffee: B (I am not a coffee connoisseur, so I can't really tell the difference between coffee made by an $18,000 Slayer machine and any other coffee shop cup of joe.)

Glee cast appearance on Oprah: A (That episode is just pure fun. Those Glee kids, if you can call them kids, are having the time of their lives, and it's infectious. Extra bonus for bring on a real life glee club who performed Vogue, 1990 MTV Video Award version with Marie Antoinette styling and all.)

K-Swiss Classics Luxury Edition: B (Shoebuy.com actually carries these in x-wide size, so I bought a pair in size 10 and they actually fit. Holy crap. You know how hard it is for me to find x-wide shoes that don't look like Grandpa shoes. I got them in white. I might have to get an extra pair in black. My Holy Grail though - I want a pair of desert chukka boots, like the type they wear in JCrew catalogs, in x-wide.)

Aroma hot water kettle: A- (Works great and looks good. Bought it for the office so I can make hot water in my cubicle for tea and oatmeal. Boils water fast too.)

Phoenix Live in Sidney ep: B+ (Love free stuff. And over the past few months, I've gained a better appreciation of Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus.)

MGMT's Congratulations (the song): A (Beautiful ballad. I hear the new cd is rather inaccessible, but this title song is everything I can hope for.)

Hollywood Video customer service for online order: F (You suck. You owe me seven used dvds or $30. At the very least, you owe me a reply back for the three emails I sent you.)

i can feel your power

Sneak peek of The Power of Madonna, coming in a week and a half:

i once had a girl

“I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.”

The melancholy tune and sentiment of this classic Beatles song seems to have taken the life of Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), who is similarly uncertain as to how he should view his relationships. At heart, a quiet and serious young Tokyo college student in 1969, Watanabe, is deeply devoted to his first love, Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), a beautiful and introspective young woman. But their mutual passion is made by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Watanabe lives with the influence of death everywhere, while Naoko feels as if some integral part of her has been permanently lost. On the night of Naoko’s 20th birthday, they finally made love to each other. However, shortly thereafter Naoko decided to quit college and become a recluse. It is at that time Midori (Kiko Mizuhara) – a girl who is everything that Naoko is not: outgoing, vivacious, supremely self-confident – marches into Watanabe's life and he has to choose between his future and his past.

So they are making Norwegian Wood into a movie. It's opening in Japan in December 2010. I am curious but scared. It's like making Catcher In The Rye. The director is a French-Vietnamese guy (Tran Anh Hung, Scent of Green Papaya) whom I am not familiar with. Why didn't they have a Japanese director tackle this? But I shouldn't be a nationalist. If the guy's talented, it really doesn't matter.

Good signs: I like the movie stills I have seen so far. And Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead is doing the score. Check out this short behind-the-scene video.

The actor portraying one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, Toru Watanable, is Kenichi Matsuyama. Naoko is played by Rinki Kikuchi of Babel. And Midori is played by Kiko Mizuhara. I think I kinda see them in the roles.



Consider this my most anticipated film of 2010.

delirious

MGMT's Flash Delirium video is wacked.

devil's advocate

I was watching 20/20 episode about medical miracles.

I learned where the term Devil's Advocate came from. I actually use this term rather commonly at the office but never knew of its origin.

From wiki: During the canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith (Latin: promotor fidei), popularly known as the Devil's advocate (Latin: advocatus diaboli), is a canon lawyer appointed by Church authorities to argue against the canonization of the candidate. It is his or her job to take a skeptical view of the candidate's character, to look for holes in the evidence, to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent, etc. The Devil's advocate opposes God's advocate (Latin: advocatus dei; also known as the Promoter of the Cause), whose task is to make the argument in favor of canonization.

Interesting, right? Catholic traditions are fascinating. Other than the molesting altar boys part of course.

excuses and then some

Good to have the likes of The National, LCD Soundsystem, and Robyn in our midst. And I get a chance to discover Big Star with the passing of Alex Chilton. And The Morning Benders' Excuses is epic. I mean, seriously, listen to it and watch the linked youtube video. It just gives me chills.

10. Hurtful - Erik Hassle
9. Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National
8. Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem
7. Fembot - Robyn
6. Me and You - She & Him
5. I Feel Better - Hot Chip
4. September Gurls - Big Star
3. Vaporize - Broken Bells
2. The Worse It Gets - Penguin Prison
1. Excuses - The Morning Benders

your black muslim bakery story

The headline reads: Your Black Muslim Bakery Torture Trial Wraps Up.

The story starts with: "A member of the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery should be convicted of charges that he kidnapped a mother and daughter in East Oakland in 2007 and tortured the daughter so she would reveal..."

I swear the rest of the sentence would read: "...the bakery's secret recipe."

But alas, it's a more mundane story. The sentence goes on: "...the location of a drug dealer's cash, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday." So it's another drug dealer in Oakland story. Boring.

I am still however intrigued by what Your Black Muslim Bakery is though. And lo and behold, it turns out to actually be a bakery that was a front for much seedy activities. A bakery? How bad ass is that? I love it. It's way cooler than a typical massage parlor. On the other hand, I would have liked to believe that anybody who makes warm, delicious baked goods cannot be all bad.