Electoral system and the united states

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I’ve noticed in my travels that when people are asked where they’re from, most will respond “Japan” or “France” or “Kenya” or such. The big exception, as usual, is Americans, who rarely say “America”; instead, it’s New York or Ohio or Tennessee. That is, their identity is tied up in their states. That makes perfect sense, of course, given the huge distances, both geographic and cultural, in a continent-size nation. No one says “Asia” or “Europe” or “Africa”, so Americans are in that sense in line with the norm.

It occurs to me, then, that all this talk of jettisoning the electoral college system for the popular vote is, regardless of last month’s results, missing the point. Continue reading →

Hamilton and Pence

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11/30/16

I’m a bit late to the Hamilton brouhaha after an out-of-town trip, but: These guys just don’t get it, do they? The actor who called out the vice president-elect seems to think he was being respectful. He is lecturing the new administration not on its actions — it’s not even in office yet — but on information presumably taken in his case from the NY Times and Facebook news posts. What are the chances that he’ll be fair in judging the administration once in office? This is why voters outside New York and California have just stopped listening. I’m sure I’ll see Hamilton eventually, but it’s telling that the creators and others in the show’s bubble don’t think the show itself is sufficient to convey the message. So tiresome.

Kung Fu

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Kung Fu

3/20/14 (Sun), New York

Kung Fu, a portrait of Bruce Lee’s rise to fame, was a guilty pleasure. Other than the wonderful M Butterfly, I’m not wild about the author David Henry Hwang, who is obsessed with the tired theme of second-generation Asians struggling to adapt to America. (Bruce Lee, though raised in Hong Kong, was born in San Francisco and tried for years to make a life in the US.) I wish he’d go find his identity and come back with other ideas. And the reviews were lukewarm, which wasn’t encouraging. Still, the idea of a kung fu musical seemed so obvious that it immediately grabbed my attention.  Continue reading →

Gravity

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Gravity

2/2/14 (Sun), Tokyo

A much-talked about film, already out for several weeks here, being hyped as a potential Oscar winner. I usually don’t take much notice of these disaster flicks, having been burned once too often. But I was interested in how they would build a film around spacewalking, where character interaction is obviously going to be limited, and I like Sandra Bullock.  Continue reading →

The Sound of Music (live TV)

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The Sound of Music (NBC live broadcast)

12/8/13 (Sun)

When I heard that NBC was going to broadcast a live version of The Sound of Music, I was immediately intrigued. There hasn’t been a live broadcast of a musical in my lifetime – the last time, coincidentally another R&H show, Cinderella, was in 1957 – and unlike the Met Live films, this one is made specifically for the screen. I was very curious as to how they were going to approach this given the daunting logistics. Continue reading →