More BD Wong

This dude is everywhere (that's not respectable). In 1986 he had a bit role in The Karate Kid Part II as the Okinawan villiager who fobbily invites the Karate Kid and his lady friend to a dance. Man, what a depressing time to be an Asian American actor. It reminds me of the bit role Lucy Liu had in the X-Files as the fobby daughter of a Chinatown man who's part of an organ-gambling ring.

Why am I watching this movie? I must hate myself. Crass sequels to a shallow eighties hit...rock bottom.

Final Roll Call

In order of response:

1. Stanford - accepted
2. UM - accepted
3. Columbia - accepted
4. Berkeley - accepted
5. UCLA - waitlisted. WTF?
6. Harvard - waitlisted
7. NYU - accepted

Yay me! But damn, I can't get my ass into Harvard to save my life. It was the only school I didn't get into for undergrad, and it looks like the waiting list is as far as I'll ever get. I picture myself as a round-eyed orphan shivering in the show, gazing at the glowing fire of Harvard through a window.

Ah! Sunflower

Ah Sunflower! Weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeketh after that sweet golden clime
Where the travellers journey is done.

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:
Arise from their graves and aspire,
Where my Sunflower wishes to go.

- Blake, Songs of Experience

Current Audio

Be Your Own Pet: www.myspace.com/beyourownpetmusic

I sometimes wonder why boys are so much cooler than girls. Or to rephrase it more accurately: why to girls put so little effort into being cool, compared to boys? Boys are the ones who stake their identities on their great knowledge of music, movies, books, history, business, technology, etc. Most girls study these things much more casually, and waste zillions of hours mastering frivolous subjects like celebrity gossip, fashion, relationships, and - my personal favorite - talking smack. Even those girls who are unusually well-versed in the "cooler" subjects care somewhat about the frivolous ones. The result is that girls as a group are less cool than the boys. Take the coolest of the cool girls and she'll be only a little bit cooler than the average cool boy.

I'm developing a new theory as to why this is so: GIRLS ARE INHERENTLY COOLER THAN BOYS, AND DON'T HAVE TO TRY SO HARD. Witness this chick-fronted band, Be Your Own Pet. With a dude singer, I'd be kinda "eh" about them. Sure I love the garage sound, and they're fun and energetic and don't take themselves too seriously; but it's nothing mindblowing. My basic litmus test o' love for garage rock is, is it good dance music? and these guys would be just ok...

except they have a girl. Je ne sais quoi. There's something about that that is just cool. She doesn't have to be anything special. Maybe it's that girls are more fun than boys. That much I've observed before, and it's surprising when you try to reason why that's so, when they're not as cool.

Shark Attacks

I'm freaking myself out as I read about the history of shark attacks on the Pacific coast. Will I ever surf again? I was hoping, when I began studying this topic, to find out if there's a special shark season, and more importantly, when it might be over. Surfline directed me to a shark report newspage (http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm), and I thought, Jebus, that's a lot of encounters in just the last few weeks. But unfortunately for me, there's no indication that these encounters will be abating any time soon. Instead of reassurance, I filled myself with information about shark attacks - and I may never have the nerve to enter the water again. Of all the terrible ways to die, getting eaten by something ranks pretty high. I can't stand the thought of people retrieving only half a torso of me for my funeral...

They say that 2 out of 3 times, the shark will release a human after the initial attack. The theory is that humans are too poor in blubber to make a worthwhile meal. Still, that leaves me with a 1 in 3 chance that the shark will finish me off. It only needs to be hungry enough.

Quotes of the Day: 30 Rock

1.
"Didn't you tell me to live each week like it's shark week? And that nothing's impossible except for dinosaurs?"

2.
Ridicolos: "You are making a mockery of the Source Awards! Wait til I tell 2Pac about this."
[Awkward pause.]
Jack: "I didn't hear anything."

3.
Jack: "Do you know Arsenio?"
Tracy: "Hall, or Billingham?"
Jack: "You know someone named Arsenio Billingham?"
Tracy: "No."

Napster

I stopped hoping and searching for Napster replacements since about 2002(?), when there was all the legal crackdown, and the clones like LimeWire and Kazaa started fucking up our computers with all that spyware. I went back to buying cds the old-fashioned way (actually, I never really stopped doing that, because I believe in supporting the artists), and amazingly, most of America went legit too, as iTunes took over the largest mp3 provider. It didn't occur to me that there still thrived a small but tenacious movement of that old American dream of free music...until I checked out (via a link from Que-ni) a site called deezer.com. It's based in France and it's legality is contested...

which means a BOON for the little guy!

Anyways, it might be old hat for people who are more informed than me, but I thought it might be handy to know that the free music dream is still holding on by the skin of its teeth. Universal is revving up for a lawsuit soon, so now would be the time to take advantage of the resources.

www.deezer.com
www.imeem.com

All Play and No Work Makes Rex a Dull Boy

I've been so exhausted from all the partying that I lost the willpower and the brainpower to write my thoughtful reflections. Here's a stripped-down summary of the goings-on of this past week:

1. Got really sick of driving.

2. Drove to Vegas on Thursday morning, hit the pool at Paris, ate dinner, played the nickel poker slots, went to Tao, stood in line for 1.5 hours, finally got in, oohed and ahhed at the interior decorating, realized the DJ sucked and the men were fug, left after about 1.5 hours, made plans to got a strip club but never made it, passed out, woke up, hit the jacuzzis again, drove home, passed out. All told, made a 60% profit from gambling: $2 in, $3.20 out.

3. Ibid #1.

4. Saturday, reported for work, got paid my pittance for proctoring the test. It feels vaguely illegal: I get paid $8/hour for proctoring, which is a lot lower than the rate I signed on for as a teacher, and yet it's not an option for me to say that it's worth my time only to teach and NOT to proctor. In other words, they COERCED me into taking sub-minimum wage job.

5. Saturday night, partied with high school friends and UCLA law students. Ibid #1 and 3, especially because I had to drive to the airport earlier that day.

6. Some quality time with my beloved Law & Order. Wrote an email.

7. Tuesday, slammed my finger in a door. It's turning purple under the nail, which is frickin uncomfortable.

8. Tuesday night, first teaching lesson. It didn't go as well as I would have liked. For one thing, I just don't get the Kaplan system, with all their online signing-in resources and their required assignments and their shoddy methods, so I'm kind of up a shit creek when the students ask me for clarification.

9. Today: my shiny new NAVIGATOR arrived! I'm what the French would say is TRES excited.

More Celebrity Sightings!

Yesterday was dinner and drinks in West Hollywood. I was walking to my restaurant on Melrose Avenue when I spotted a horde of paparazzi - my first. I was about to take a picture of them taking a picture of the celeb, but vetoed the idea for fear of being a gawker. The celeb meanwhile ducked into a restaurant called Comme, I think. I asked the paparazzi who they were following, and they said...

KEANU REEVES.

Two hours later, I left the restaurant, and the paps were still outside waiting for him. Rough gig. We had this idea that the tall Asian guy with us should start running away, with is head covered, while the ladies run after him yelling, Keanu! Then the paps might follow us, all the way to the exclusive club Area, and we just might dupe them into letting us in.

A good idea maybe, but we never tried it out. Instead, we waited in line forever just like the Nobodies that we are. We thought we had a chance because it was a Tuesday night, but it was still pretty crowded and exclusive. We waited over an hour outside (granted, 45 minutes of that was before the club had opened; we were unfashionably early). Finally they let us in...with no cover, by the way!

SAM RONSON was spinning. Her girlfriend LINDSAY LOHAN was partying with her. Of all the tabloid queens I could have been clubbing with in Hollywood, Lohan would have been my first pick! It was way awesome. It also made me feel a little smug: apparently famous people don't have more fun than me. Except for the not-standing in line part, of course. Area was a nice space and everything, but I've definitely been funner parties with better crowds. Ronson was a pretty good DJ, though. A teeny tiny person, too.