news

I haven't posted for a while because I have literally been on another planet where they have a different version of the internet, but I wanted to throw this up because it's the first time I've ever been involved in a photograph next to a giant-sized check. (It is an award for a screenplay I'm co-adapting based on my play.)

last night at the Bicycle Club

At 11:55 I walked past our Dragon Room one last time and out onto the Pavilion floor and I saw between the Pai Gow tables three of the other corporation bankers each carrying three big racks of chips and walking towards where I just was. You going in, I asked? Yeah, one of them said. I said good luck and walked back towards the Freedom Court.

broadway debut

There were a lot of beautiful parts of my week in New York, but probably the most spectacular thing was getting to hear Ms. Katie Holmes live on stage in Miller's "All My Sons" delivering the line, "So, are you still haberdashing?"

near miss

This is a part-overheard, part-pieced-together dialogue between the 20something girl and boy that were sitting in the booth next to my booth at the In 'n Out, where I was eating on my own:

BOY: So you're a player huh?
GIRL: Yeah. I got lots of game.
BOY: Play-a.
GIRL: Do you ever wanna get married?
BOY: (mumbles some inaudible-to-me response)
GIRL: I bet I can get that guy to talk to me.

She maybe indicates me as I am acting like my fries are really interesting. We are in each other's eyelines.

BOY: Wha?
GIRL: When I just went up to get a soda this other guy started talking to me. Look:

She gets up and walks to the soda station, walks around the ketchup 'n napkins station, walks past my booth, sits down again. She's wearing a very cleavagey tank top, jean shorts, and is really pretty. I definitely have been half-looking at her through my entire burger.

GIRL: Didn't work. That guy's smart.
BOY: Wha?
GIRL: Maybe you're my husband. (inaudible) Maybe he'll be my sugar daddy.

Their shaved-head white dude friend arrives.

GIRL: Hey, we're trying to hook up with that guy over there. What should we do?
DUDE: (something inaudible)

And then they all leave.

It would be aces to have Daredevil-level superhuman hearing at these times, because I don't know how much of that I just made up. I'm sure they said 80% of those words. But I don't know if she was also half-looking at me, or talking about some other guy, or what.

And what do you say in that precious, dangerous situation anyway?

I like to think she really said I was smart for not making a move on a stranger at the In 'n Out. I am just smart enough, in that modern way, to keep completely to myself.

Aww. The Olympics are over.

This streak of sentimentality is really going to do me in one of these days.

(I feel I did not contribute much spiritually to my Tibetan friend's boycott/protest of the whole affair.)

haterhead

....is there ever a review of a radiohead concert that goes, "It kind of sucked. They played a bunch of songs I didn't know and they all sounded the same. I didn't understand why everyone was having such a great time. I think they are all in a cult or something. Afterwards I felt sort of sad."

I'm just saying. It's not like they ever, like, throw in a Prince cover or anything. And usually not free, either, those shows.

lullaby

One of my fondest earliest memories is going to sleep in the back room of my grandparents' house in Fresno while in the living room the adults played mah jongg until deep into the night. The recurring sea of clatter from the shuffling tiles imprinted a preference for falling asleep not in silence, but near comforting noise.

Similarly, I remember falling asleep in my cubicle in Taipei Hostel during the 1996 Olympics, listening to people in the common room watching the live broadcasts of the sports that Asians really care about -- badminton, table tennis, soccer.

Right now there is nothing I'd rather fall asleep to than the ping-pong match between the U.S. Chinese woman and the Korean Korean woman. I hope there is a room in the afterlife where this is always on TV.

the beizhing mystique

As we move forward towards a new global paradigm of intercultural cross-pollination and information exchange between the modern superpowers, the Olympic coverage has this to offer:

OMG! Did you know that the Chinese people eat weird things? And they have pandas there! Also, all their music involves gongs. And you gotta be kidding me with this food. I mean, scorpions. Come on.

10 excellent things said at 2008 ComicCon:

...by me as well as other people....

1) "Are you going to be here for a while? Can you watch our stuff while we dance? I totally trust you."
2) "Who invited the porn?"
3) At the "Starship Smackdown:" "The Babylon 5 White Star is a star, okay? White. Star. [versus a] Star Destroyer. I think that falls in the category of 'Duh.'"
4) A daughter to father: "Oh no, Daddy, don't get drawn in, you'll be looking at comic books for hours, don't get drawn in!"
5) "Hey do you guys have any free stuff? No? You guys are gay."
6) Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), singing at the hotel piano bar: "Like Jack Horner/On the corner/Don't go nowhere/What do I care?/Your kisses are worth waiting for.....believe me."
7) "There's no way a movie can do justice to what Watchmen was about." "What was Watchmen about?"
8) Again, at the "Starship Smackdown:" "The Axiom needed corporate sponsors to exist. The Ajax rocket [from Flash Gordon], not so." "Well, it needed one." "What?" "Ajax."
9) "That was the textbook definition of a smattering of applause."
10) "Man, I just want to read my comics. Go away."

don't go soft

That Dark Knight movie was pretty good, I guess, enh, y'know, whateves. Wouldn't Two-Face start to know what he flipped by the texture of the coin's burnt side on his arm? Anyway. As a fan of The Original "The Dark Knight" I was pleased with the part where Joker has the cop by the throat and the cop says, "It's my own damn fault..." which obviously is a reference to the part of the graphic novel where the caged Mutants grab their guard and he says:

"Murray....it's my own damn fault....don't go soft...."

...imploring Murray, his fellow cop, to shoot these punk Mutants, and probably him in the process. Good moment. I was disappointed that no one in the whole movie said "Batman don't shiv." Because for me that phrase kind of summed up the whole experience.

glow 08

You can't really tell, but this is two girls fighting with lightsabers next to the Santa Monica pier at 2 in the morning. And it's good that you can't tell, because I didn't ask to take their picture or anything. The "Glow" event turned out to be pretty great. I ran into Miguel, Luis, Susan, Taiho, Mark, and hecksa other fools who I would otherwise only see on Facebook. Thousands of people roaming the beach in the middle of night in Los Angeles....not a bad start.

168

So we had a big anniversary party for my folks last Sunday and my sister hooked it up with all The Food That Is Good To Eat. Here is the menu card, that is, my attempt at rendering The Food That Sounds Good To Eat:

** Sunday, January 29, 2008 **

Cucumber & Watercress Tea Sandwiches
Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches
Mah Family Potato Salad
Heirloom Tomato Mozzarella Salad
Arugula, Pear, & Goat Cheese Salad
Asian Noodle Salad with Shrimp
Carnitas Tostadas with Fresh Guacamole

Lemon Bars
Cherry Almond Bars
Chocolate Mozart Torte
Strawberry Tartlets
Berry Almond Shortcake

Sparkling Fruit Punch with Prosecco

I couldn't figure out how to sex up the Tea Sandwiches, but they were delectable. They should've been called the Ain't Nothing Wrong With Those Tea Sandwiches. My sister has a way of combining mild flavors with decadent ingredients to make food that you really could eat all day. I'm in the school that thinks all the Top Chef fine-dining culture is more a trick of marketing language than actual cookery. If I have to look at one more shellack-shined photo of some Asian-Fusion wok-tossed applewood-seared Napa Valley deconstruction of molecular gastronomy, my eyes will literally vomit. Happy Anniversary Folks!

it must be said i do love my dad

...he gave me a lesson on credit card debt management that may be the more useful piece of advice I've ever received, and which, up until my recent unsuccessful dalliances in real estate, I have dutifully and gratifyingly followed.