Screening room

Highly recommended: Tokyo Godfathers. I stumbled upon it last night while channel surfing, and since it just happened to be starting on Ovation TV, I stopped, thinking that I'd watch the first few minutes and keep going. Instead, I was captured by its amazing animation and its warm, sympathetic characters. I normally have a hard time sitting through a two-hour movie at home, but the plot moved quickly, and it had just the right amount of goofy Japanese schmaltz to make it heartwarming but not over the top. A wonderful, unexpected treat.

Too Much of a Bad Thing

NYT's Maureen Dowd:

My mom did not approve of men who cheated on their wives. She called them “long-tailed rats.”

During the 2000 race, she listened to news reports about John McCain confessing to dalliances that caused his first marriage to fall apart after he came back from his stint as a P.O.W. in Vietnam.

I figured, given her stringent moral standards, that her great affection for McCain would be dimmed.

“So,” I asked her, “what do you think of that?”

“A man who lives in a box for five years can do whatever he wants,” she replied matter-of-factly.

I was startled, but it brought home to me what a powerful get-out-of-jail-free card McCain had earned by not getting out of jail free. [MORE]

Fay vs. Orlando

Shot tonight, 6 p.m., from my front porch. It's been just like this for more than 24 hours now. It just won't stop raining. At about 48 seconds into the video, a gust whips up. The 'bush' to the left of the vid is actually a low tree that has been knocked over. It was being supported by ropes and stakes, so we expected it to fall over.

Eyesore update

A second slant-eyes pose, this time from an Argentinian sports team, as emerged.

But I'm actually kind of glad it did, because it started a lively discussion among Consumerist readers, who are a bit more mature than your average Yahoo and at least can post halfway intelligent responses (for the most part).

Many thought it was slightly offensive, but not to the extreme as blackface. A few didn't think so at all. An Argentinian even responded to say that it is not considered offensive in his country and described the action as "friendly and playful." He was quite nice and said that "if any Chinese friends out there find this offensive I apologize for my misunderstanding."

Finally, a commenter asked if there were any Asians out there who would say whether the photo(s) offended them, to which I and several others had the same response: Yes, it's offensive. Yes, we've seen it all before, including people saying to us, "ching, chong, ching, chong," as if that means something in Chinese.

However, aside from one, all the Asian commenters grew up in North America or Northern Europe. Have we become so overy sensitive that we can't take a joke? Or is the rest of the world so isolated from other cultures that they still find other types of people curious and amusing? The one Asian commenter not from the West said he lived in Seoul, and when he asked a friend whether the photo was offensive, his friend said no.

That doesn't change my personal feelings toward the photos, which is that if there were a question as to its taste, do something else. Just be polite.

The evil eye

As a kid, I was on the receiving end of this gesture countless times. And invariably, the kid performing the gesture had to recite the "Chinese, Japanese..." rhyme, perhaps making it a "cute" playground act.

I'm sure every Asian kid who grew up outside of Asia has had it done to him at some point in his life.

But adults -- pro athletes to whom people look up as role models -- making the grade-school gesture? Immature. Intolerant. Unnecessary. Disappointing.

I've tried to keep an open mind, see their side: Perhaps the culture in which they were raised might not expose them to offensive gestures. Or, am I overreacting, too sensitive? Becoming another annoying case of political correctness run amok?

No, I don't think so. It is an offensive gesture.

It's a gesture performed by millions of youngsters the world over for the purpose of teasing another. No, young kids don't know right from wrong yet. But they don't tease others like a teen boy who would tease a girl because he secretly likes her and is trying to keep her attention. Youngsters aren't that complicated yet. They tease because they either simply get a laugh or kick from mocking another, or they're angry, jealous or trying to assert dominance. For the most part, they eventually grow out of teasing altogether and don't find it amusing any more.

So back to the Spanish team.

"One of our sponsors asked us to pose with a 'wink' to our participation in Beijing, [so] we made an Oriental expression with our eyes," Spaniard Jose Calderon, who plays for the NBA's Toronto Raptors, said on his Web site. "We thought it was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as somewhat loving."

If the gesture were all in good fun and a gesture of respect, would they have willingly posed with spears for an Olympic Games held in Africa? Who knows. But I doubt the advertiser for whom the Spanish team posed ever would have approved of that. Why is it seemingly acceptible to tease Asians but not other minorities?

Not all on the Spanish team was comfortable with the pose. Pau Gasol, another NBA player, said, "Some of us didn’t feel comfortable doing it just because to me it was a little clownish for our part to be doing that. ... I think it is just a bad idea I guess to do that, but it was never intended to be offensive or racist against anybody. ... I didn’t find it very funny. I didn’t find it offensive, either. I guess some guys didn’t mind. To me I don’t want to be that way, I guess, to be doing that stuff."

So if at least one person in the group felt sheepish about the gesture, that should have been a red flag. I don't mean to be the P.C. Police. But if the team and advertiser wanted to pay respect to the Chinese, there were so many other ways to do it than a schoolyard taunt.

UPDATE: Good question posed by buddy Plan9B: How do Asians living in Spain feel about the ad?

Colmes bites back...

... after lengthy discussion about John Edwards' affair.

Debbie Downer moment

Ate at one of my favorite sushi places in town, Bikkuri, tonight. I hadn't eaten there in several weeks, and I'm sad to say it's not what it used to be. WAS: Part take-out, part counter-service sushi joint, with a limited number of two-tops at which you could eat after your food was prepared, that appealed to downtown hipsters on a budget. NOW: Full-service Japanese restaurant with a bigger kitchen, and the former kitchen preparing take-out meals only. Tonight, there weren't nearly as many people in there as there used to be. The prices on the menu also have gone up, and that combined with now having to tip yer wait staff is a double punch in the pocketbook.

I liked going there not only because it had pretty decent sushi for the price, but it was a charming little place that reminded me a little bit of Tokyo. I loved the atmosphere. It always seemed to bustle with skinny, hip urbanites, gay and straight. The Engrish signage and menu items made me smile. You ordered at the counter right by the front door, then loitered around, grabbed an always-recent copy of GQ, US Weekly, People or Entertainment Weekly from the stack of magazines they always had near the front door, or hoped to snag a coveted table while waiting for your food.

Now, it's just another generic Japanese restaurant. (Except for the residual Engrish, thank goodness.)

YES!

I love revivalist holy rollers/ravers! They're hilarious!!!

12-volt battery hack

An inside tour of the world's biggest supercollider

The comments on the original TED page (fearmongering, playing God, etc.) are just as entertaining...

Fast food In Beijing is a little different

If you're ever in Beijing, stick with McDonald's [shudder]....

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In loose style, McCain leads a camp divided

From NYT:

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain is so quick to pick up his gold-colored cellphone to solicit advice — from senators, campaign consultants, even the stray former deputy press secretary — that aides, concerned about his tendency to adopt the last opinion he has heard, have tried to cut back on the time he has to make calls.

Mr. McCain is known to sign off on big campaign decisions and then to march off his own reservation. Two weeks ago, he publicly disagreed with his own spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, after she used a line of attack against Senator Barack Obama that he had approved after careful strategizing within his campaign. Ms. Hazelbaker raced out of the Virginia campaign headquarters and refused to take Mr. McCain’s calls of apology, aides said, and a plan to have Republican members of Congress use the same critical line about Mr. Obama’s foreign trip fell apart. [MORE]

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at Comic-Con

While diligently shilling his wares at Comic-Con '08, Robert Smigel somehow found time to shoot a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

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Olbermann: Anthrax attacks an inside job?

Before Olbermann even came on the air yesterday, I said to my BF earlier in the day: "I don't think that anthrax suspect is dead. How convenient he 'dies.' Now the story comes to an end, and it will quietly go away." (Then he replied, "You aren't serious, are you?")

I still think the suspect is either not dead and is being hidden by our government, or he is dead but knew too much and was a security threat. I know I sound like a loon, but this story just feels wrong.

6 AUGUST UPDATE: Now the Feds say the suspect was "solely responsible." Nothing to see here, folks! Move along!