Category: Uncategorized

You know, I read that book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is about, in short, about how corn is taking over the world and most commercial meat is produced in a way that’s so grody that you start to seriously consider becoming vegetarian. So do my part, I started getting organic groceries delivered through Urban Organics. You know, less pesticide, better for our bodies, better for the earth. All part of my attempts to being a more enlightened individual in 2007.

It’s just that…there’s a lot of dirt in the lettuce. My salads are extra crunchy, so when I withdraw a rather large piece of sand from my teeth, it kind of doesn’t help my motivation.

I just finished Megan McCafferty’s most recent YA book in her series about her heroine Jessica Darling, a series I initially thought was god-awful, but b/c of the romantic cat and mouse ridiculousness and the burgeoning complexity and style of the writing, slowly got hooked. The most recent installment, which isn’t perfect but still is fun, shows the author’s growing concern that we’re all becoming more disconnected due to technology options, her stance on the Iraq War (she’s against it), and a more sophisticated take on love that concluded with an ending that blew me away. I can only HOPE to make someone feel like that with my writing. Anyway, if you’re in the mood to read something light and quick, check her out. Also, FYI, she’s the poor writer who was plagiarized by the Harvard freshwoman, who happens to be Indian-American.

Which brings me to my next topic—these days, I enjoy a story less, at least at first glance, when all the characters are white. I just do. When I saw the preview for “Reservation Road” starring Mark Ruffalo and Joaquin Phoenix, I leaned over to my friend Jesse and said “White people, they suffer so” and we giggled like evil Asian gnomes. It bothers me in particular when kid movies feature all-white casts like the earlier Harry Potters, like the latest Johnny Depp “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” b/c to me, it’s like a message that’s particularly unfair, that unless you are white, kids are not allowed to participate in magic and chocolate fantasy boo-yeahs.

But then, I remembered when I was a kid, I related to white people. Or rather, I didn’t think or see race. I enjoyed a good story regardless of the characters were Korean or not. (Probably more so if they weren’t, just one of the pleasant side effects of my upbringing.) Only after college and after working as an actress did I become enlightened to see things in colors, and that has been both a blessing and a curse (not a curse like I grow fangs in the moonlight, but you know what I mean). When I’m with the folks I’m close to, I don’t see race, I do not see color. But with strangers or at first glance, I can’t stop my brain from calculating, analyzing, and assessing. For instance, Owen Wilson played a character named “Oscar Choi” in “Armageddon” and he thought it was cool that they didn’t change the name, whereas I’m like, “Thanks jackass, you just robbed an Asian American man from a job.” (Apologies to Owen, due to his current sufferings.) So what can I say. I think race is a social, intellectual, and economic construct, and sometimes, those things lead to actions that tick me off. But race is not something you feel (or not something I feel), so when people volunteer Korean or Asian-related information or stories to me as something I might connect to, I bristle. (Most likely b/c where I grew up, Asian=foreign=discounted, and dude, I am not to be discounted. You will not find me on some 60%-off rack.) Or if someone were to suggest I have friends who are Asian b/c of that common factor, I tense. But then again, there must be some truth to it, but like so many things on my mind these days, my heart is divided, and so…I’ll probably keep talking about this topic.

Incidentally, there are no bacon-eating, New Jersey Koreans in Megan McCafferty’s work. What the.

Why is it that when you IMDB Scott Baio, there’s no mention of “Joanie Loves Chachi”? What, he was embarrassed? It wasn’t that big of a hit? I sure watched it.

These are the pressing questions of my life, people. Please, placate me.

Okay, I’m a liar, it is in his bio, but way, way, way below the other stuff. Okay, whatever, it’s in chronological order, but still, I didn’t think there were THAT many years between that show and “Charles in Charge.”

Do you remember this variety show from the late 70s or early 80s that featured a caucasian male American host with two very pretty lady cohorts from Japan called the Pink Ladies? I don’t think they really spoke English, but they were big in Japan, and wanting to capitalize on that, they made up this random show, where each episode ended with the bikini-clad Pink Ladies got the guy host dressed in a tux to go into a hot tub with them in the end.

Okay found a picture, thanks to Tony. And it was with an article entitled “Possibly the Worst Show in the History of Television.” Yea!

Nothing like the prospect of the sun burning out to put your petty office grievances into perspective. Saw Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” on Friday night, and I LOVED it. It had a lot of disconcerting neat visual and audio effects, and featured three of my favorite things about movies:

* anything sci-fi or that shows life in the future (this includes “The Jetsons”)
* anything that is even mildly existential
* anything that features Asians (not including porn) (This had three! Two from Asian and one from the U.S. Woo hoo!)

My friend Nancy says I have to give up and just accept that I’m Asian and into it. *sigh* My long identity as an atheist Jew is dissolving slowly….

Oh, man, it seems to me American business culture rewards the folks who can brag at meetings but don’t necessarily do the work behind the scenes, and as someone who has trouble with listing my individual achievements in an aggressive manner, I am staying in a positively mediocre corporate path. Folks who excel at kissing up and sound like a corporate borg in public succeed. I like doing a good job and working hard, but I don’t like participating in meetings, unless they are actually about getting work done. I mean, isn’t the path to happiness not through emphasizing our personal accomplishments but focusing on the bond we have with others? (I believe that, though have trouble focusing on that at times.)

Sure, I could dismiss this favoritism of excellent face time as a business flaw, except it probably happens in the arts too. I mean, don’t all documentary filmmakers hate Ken Burns b/c he hogs all the grant money up? What about Robert Wilson? Surely, he’s not the only one out there that likes to fill up a football-size exhibit full of random stuff and call it art, right?

So get ready, starting Monday, I’m going to be so freaking perky about work people won’t recognize me.

Oy, I lift weights and do cardio three times a week and do cardio on my “off” days, when what I really want to do is just watch TV, drink wine, and eat ice cream EVERY DAY. What if I just give up and wear a sack for the rest of my life, like these:

I can get them in like crushed blue velvet so my friends won’t be embarrassed by me. Someone else at work asked if I was expecting this morning. Ha ha ha ha.

I love when pop stars go to Korea and dress up. It’s pretty entertaining. I just wish I could post the picture of Britney Spears dressed in traditional Korean gear. That was rad.

And not to belabor the point, but did you know my mother was concerned in my dating days that the size of my cranium would be a turn-off to men? She saw it on “Friends.” Joey apparently rejected a girl on this basis. And I’m like, thanks, Ma, like I don’t have enough complexes.

No way! No way! NO WAY! Dude, he’s leaving the White House. I’m shocked. I mean, I wish this was like four years ago, but okay, I’ll take it.

And I notice he has as round a face and large a head as I do. My friend Jesse and I were bonding over the size of our noggins recently. He had mentioned it as a possible theater thesis focus when he gets to grad school this fall. As for me, I shared with him an anecdote my cousin Aimee loves to tell.

When I took tae kwon do the year after college (lived with my folks b/c I was in book publishing, which is like going on welfare), I had to get sparring gear and the only size that fit me was EXTRA LARGE, which felt so embarrassing and unfeminine, I just sucked it up and got the size LARGE helmut. MISTAKE. I mean, survived, but it was just a little too tight. Those were the days when a sparring match meant me physically cowering in the corner while I got whaled on by hyper 17-year-old boys. I had no mad skillz back then. Not like the ninja I am today. Ha ha ha ha ha.

As for Karl Rove, perhaps the size of his head fueled an insecurity that influenced one of the worst American presidencies ever? Who can say. He’s like the Darth Vader of the Republican Party. I’m so glad he’s outta there.